There was truly nothing like Free Play Fridays at Round One Arcade in Slateport. Starting at 10 PM and going until sunrise, most non-ticket games were set to Free Play. The bracelets needed to partake in the event weren't cheap, but for hardcore gamers and those who just wanted to relax an entire night away losing track of time, it was perfect. Josh was glad it was on Fridays, too; with a weekend to fix it, he was a-okay with wrecking his sleep schedule.

There was also nothing like sitting in the chair of SHOVELWARE STUDIOS' latest resurrection of Josh's favorite racing franchise abandoned by its original creators well over a decade ago. The entire cockpit rotated as the players turned their steering wheels, their handles shaking every time they pressed the big, green, flashing BOOST button in their center. Futuristic race courses floated kilometers above their home planets' surfaces, their turns flying past the players at dizzying speeds. Speeds that Josh was more than familiar with from the day he rode the emerald serpent with Eva Morales .

RANK OUT WARNING would flash on SHIGURE URUHA 's screen as the next lap of the race began; if he didn't get in the top twenty by the end of the lap, he would not be allowed to continue in the Grand Prix. Josh, on the other hand, had just a couple of AI racers in front of him. Taking his left hand off the wheel long enough to boost, he felt the wheel shake, and imagined himself being pushed against the back of his seat. "They don't call me the Master of Faster for nothing!" he quipped back. If Shigure paid attention to Hoenn's political leaders at all, that title would have instantly allowed him to pin his fellow gamer's identity.

He was racing against Mauville City's Gym Leader.

Mauville did have a Round One location, but it didn't have Free Play Fridays. With how fast his Pokémon were, Slateport was not a long ride from his home town to begin with. Taking a glance at the rankings as he crossed the line to the race's final lap, Josh noticed SHIGURE URUHA was catching up, now in the top fifteen and in no danger of ranking out. The silence coming from him was an indicator of pure concentration.

It was concentration that Josh mirrored, his hands steady on the wheel as he reached for the large, green button with his thumb. His yellow, purple, and blue machine's thrusters engaged, the number-243 vehicle barreled through the curves. The machine's grip was just slippy enough that he could even make turns at such high speeds by crossing his drifting and turning controls in a power slide, shifting the physical cockpit inside the cabinet at an odd angle.

All that practice on the home version was paying off!

Once the race had concluded, SHIGURE URUHA would be able to see Josh's avatar among the top finishers; while he could not catch the leader despite spamming the Boost button as rapidly as the game would let him, he was happy with his finish. "I do! It's my favorite racing game of all time. There's a home version I used to play pretty religiously before my Gym Leader duties made me busy."

The young man offered Shigure a handshake as he stepped out of the cockpit. "Gym Leader Josh Devlin, Master of Faster and proprietor of Mauville Racing Grounds," he introduced himself. "You're not bad at the game yourself; as fun as it is, it can be really unforgiving," he chuckled. "What do you usually play when you come here? I love their rhythm games."