WANGAN -ZQQ LIMITER-

Displacement: 999. The reason a small girl like me chose this bike is one thing. Light and fast. Lightness is justice. As if drawn by something, I throw my leg over—still in my skirt—and slip out into the night city.

Destination: the bayshore. It should be the dead of night, yet somehow it glows white, an endless straight. The instant I finish crossing the bridge, the world flings open all at once.

First gear, 120. Second, 180. Third, 220. Fourth, 260, limiter. …No way, this easy? The scenery turns into a ribbon of light and streams away behind me. My left foot kicks up into fifth on its own. 299. Wait—don't tell me there's even a sixth left.

The digital meter stays frozen at 299, won't budge an inch. Only the speed keeps inching upward. Scary. Really scary. And yet my right hand won't roll off the throttle.

Then a truck cut in. Full brake. —No good, I can't stop in time. The rear wheel lifts, the bike folds like it's snapping, and I'm flung out toward its shadow. A white flash swallows everything—

—and I gasp awake. The soft morning light has only just begun to slip into the room. A dream. And yet my heart is still pinned at 299, won't stop pounding.

…That was a definite must-not-ride. I'm serious, so I reflect on it properly. But my fingertips were still, just a little, searching for sixth gear.