Day two of the Inter-high may be grinding it out at 1800 meters (almost 6000 feet) high in the mountains, but Teshima is a boob even at sea level – can’t blame oxygen deprivation for this one.  Therefore it’s no surprise that we see yet another shocking abdication of leadership from him, when he declines to forbid Aoyagi from going back to try and rescue Kaburagi.  Given that he hasn’t really been a leader at any point since he took over the Sohoku team, it would hardly be logical to expect anything different now.

It’s true, Aoyagi is hardly the most valuable member of the Sohoku Six himself.  Nevertheless as a team already weakened and facing two demonstrably more stable ones, every able body is crucial.  Kaburagi should have been left for dead, but Teshima wasn’t going to say no to Aoyagi, obviously.  But let’s be absolutely clear about one thing – the only reason Aoyagi’s rescue mission didn’t end in a complete disaster was because of an event TeshimAoyagi couldn’t possibly have known about.

It really grates on me when Teshima says stuff like “No one noticed Kaburagi wasn’t well”.  Really – being passed out on the ground and hooked up to an IV in the team tent wasn’t a clue?  Koga noticed, of course – in addition to being a better rider than Teshima or Aoyagi, he’s also an actual leader who understands how to manage people and race strategy.  It’s only because he remains behind on the course rather than stay with the team car – sensing something apocalyptic might happen with Kaburagi – that Kaburagi didn’t abandon the race altogether and make Aoyagi’s rescue mission a pointless suicide mission.

Kaburagi certainly reveals all his charms when he does finally link up with Aoyagi, after the peloton has roared past them.  Given that Kaburagi is both an airhead and an asshole, it can be hard to tell which he’s being at any given time – and his insistence that it was actually Aoyagi who fell off the pace and needed help could be attributed to either.  More than anything, I suppose, Kaburagi needs to deceive himself this way in order to stay motivated, and his denial-fest does manage to help pull he and the vice-captain back up the peloton.  But that’s only the first (and easiest) part of a harrowing comeback, and by the time the two Sohoku riders have latched back on to the peloton the top teams (like Kyoto Fushimi) have already broken away.

There’s one positive in all this – for Aoyagi and Kaburagi there’s no point in leaving anything left in the tank.  Every risk can and must be taken to try and get as close to their lead four riders as possible – even if they destroy themselves in the effort, the team is no worse off than if they’re impossibly far behind at the start of the third day anyway.  To this end, Aoyagi pulls out his trump card – and it’s a surprising one.  this latest message from Orange Beena-sama appears to suggest the use of “Koi no Hime Hime Pettanko” as a magic spell to climb back to the front.  If nothing else, Aoyagi was clearly paying attention in last year’s race…

Kabutomake:

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