…When I was a kid, I was pretty good at stuff. I was fast. I was clever. The other kids wanted to be around me. I was special.

[That’s Kenichi’s son for you.]

When I got older, the other kids started catching up. Suddenly, the things I was good at, I just became average at. It’s like everyone else moved forward, and I was stuck in place.

[He remembers it clearly; that first race where he was overtaken, the other children losing interest in him, his desperate attempts to stay relevant.]

…That’s when I realised, I wasn’t special at all.