"Hey, Conan, why so quiet?"
After Kondo walked away, Gustave noticed that Conan hadn't said a word since the hip-hop driver had approached them. This was completely out of character for the young detective, who usually couldn't resist interjecting his observations.
"Oh, I was just thinking about something."
Conan snapped out of his contemplation at Gustave's voice.
"Let me guess—you're wondering if there'll be any crimes tonight?"
Gustave ruffled Conan's hair with obvious amusement.
"Stop jinxing things!" Conan glared at him indignantly. "Is that really how you see me?"
"I was actually thinking about those two guys who are having the main event tonight."
Conan continued quickly, knowing that if he didn't take control of the conversation, Gustave would keep teasing him mercilessly.
"What about them?"
"Fujiwara and Saionji—I know who they really are."
"And that would be?"
"That Fujiwara guy? His full name is Takuya Fujiwara. He's the second son of the Fujiwara zaibatsu family. He's been studying in the United States for the past few years—I didn't expect him to be back in Japan."
"Saionji's full name is Hajime Saionji. His family background is even more impressive—they have connections spanning both political and business circles. He's also a second son."
"As for the people gathered around both of them, their families are all either wealthy or politically connected. This is basically a gathering of Japan's elite families."
"If these two maniacs actually race each other and something happens to either one, it'll cause a massive scandal. Someone high up in the Metropolitan Police Department will definitely lose their job over it."
Conan watched Takuya Fujiwara and Hajime Saionjichatting casually with their respective crews, genuine concern creeping into his voice.
"Look who's talking about jinxing things!" Gustave laughed. "You're the one suggesting that one of them might not survive the night!"
Internally, Gustave could only pray for the two racers who had unknowingly attracted the attention of the Grim Reaper of Elementary School Students. He hoped at least one of them would make it through the evening in one piece.
"Stop it! I'm not talking to you anymore!" Conan turned away with a huff.
Seeing the young detective's sulky reaction, Gustave decided to let the matter drop.
Time passed steadily, and soon it was approaching one o'clock. Kondo fired up his Porsche 911GT3 RS and honked twice at Gustave, signaling it was time.
Gustave started the Aston Martin and followed Kondo to the road leading out of Daikoku PA, where an official starter waited with a checkered flag.
Before Gustave and Kondo's race, two other matches had already taken place on the same route they would be running tonight.
As they lined up at the starting position, Kondo rolled down his window:
"Furansu-boy, I don't want anyone saying I had an unfair performance advantage tonight. I'll give you a fifteen-second head start!"
"Thanks, but I don't need any handicaps. I'm confident in my abilities."
Kondo was taken aback by Gustave's casual arrogance. He called out one final warning:
"Remember, if you lose control, scrub against the guardrail to slow down. Even if you end up crashing, at least don't take anyone else with you!"
"And try not to let that kid in your passenger seat get too scared tonight!"
With that, Kondo rolled up his window and stared straight ahead, ready to launch at a moment's notice.
"What's with that guy's attitude?" Gustave muttered.
"Conan, use that famous jinx of yours to curse him into a crash tonight. That way I can win without breaking a sweat!"
"You're the one with the bad luck charm!" Conan raised his fist threateningly, but Gustave just laughed at the mock menacing expression.
As the final countdown began, Gustave disabled the ESP system, released the handbrake, and applied both brake and accelerator simultaneously to build optimal launch RPM.
Drop!
The moment the starting flag fell, both the hip-hop driver's Porsche 911GT3 RS and Gustave's Aston Martin Vanquish Zagato launched forward with their front wheels lifting slightly, disappearing into the Tokyo night within seconds.
The performance gap between the vehicles was immediately apparent. Less than three seconds after launch, Gustave found himself trailing by a significant margin.
However, this wasn't a professional racetrack—this was the Metropolitan Expressway. Even at this late hour, plenty of traffic still moved along the highways. Most were ordinary family sedans, and as everyone knew, Japan favored small-displacement, naturally aspirated engines. This made these civilian vehicles into mobile obstacles for racers like Gustave and Kondo.
Within the first few hundred meters, Kondo had pulled so far ahead that Gustave couldn't even see his taillights.
"Ha! Think you can challenge me with a stock car?"
After checking his rearview mirror and seeing no sign of the Aston Martin, Kondo chuckled confidently and continued accelerating. He brought his speed up to over 200 kilometers per hour while deftly weaving between the slower traffic ahead.
This maneuver alone demonstrated that Kondo was genuinely skilled behind the wheel.
However, the hip-hop driver didn't relax after establishing his lead, maintaining total concentration on the road ahead.
Approaching the first major turn, Kondo suddenly spotted the distinctive silhouette of Gustave's Aston Martin in his rearview mirror.
"How is that possible?! How did that guy catch up so fast?!"
Kondo wanted to accelerate further, but the upcoming curve wouldn't allow it. Instead, he had to slow down significantly. His current speed of 278 kilometers per hour needed to drop to at least 150 to safely navigate the turn.
But as Kondo decelerated, he noticed that while Gustave was also slowing down, his rate of deceleration was much less aggressive.
"Is this guy insane?"
Under Kondo's disbelieving gaze, Gustave overtook him on the outside line at approximately 200 kilometers per hour.
"What the hell..."
Gustave was driving that completely unmodified car with rock-solid stability, taking the corner without even a hint of tire squeal or chassis flex. Kondo's confidence began to waver.
After exiting the turn, they entered a section that wasn't quite a straight but close to it.
Leveraging his cornering advantage, Gustave had pulled nearly 300 meters ahead of Kondo. But on this quasi-straight section, the Porsche's power advantage reasserted itself. Kondo kept accelerating until his speed exceeded 296 kilometers per hour. Gustave's Aston Martin, limited by its stock configuration, topped out around 280 kilometers per hour.
However, Kondo couldn't maintain speeds over 300 kilometers per hour for long. After all, they weren't the only vehicles on the highway.
Although Kondo took the lead during this section, he wasn't far enough ahead to feel secure. At the second major turn, Gustave once again overtook him through superior technique.
Entering the second straight, Kondo managed to pull about 100 meters ahead, but before he could extend that gap, they hit the third major curve, and his advantage evaporated instantly.
From the third turn onward, there were very few straight sections until the final stretch—the cross-harbor bridge leading back to Daikoku PA.
With the help of continuous cornering sections, Gustave left Kondo more than a kilometer behind. Even when they finally reached the cross-harbor bridge, where Kondo could unleash his modified 911GT3 RS's maximum speed of 371 kilometers per hour, he still lost to Gustave by approximately 50 meters.