Initial D - Destructive Drive Train

Some of my writing,
I'm in the process of chapter 12 at the current moment.
If you'd like to read more, let me know and I'll gladly post it as soon as conveniently possible for me.



Destructive Drive Train

Prologue

After the almost thirteen hour long flight, Hiroki’s neck was rather sore and the twenty year old could not wait to get out of the plane so he could stretch out properly before he would meet up with his father so that the two of them could drive back to their home in Tochigi’s capital city.

‘Hey, come on, you’re not that tired, are you?’ he heard Kyosuke ask and that made him look to his left where the older guy was sitting sandwiched between Hiroki, who was sitting at the aisle seat and Kizuna, who was at the window one.

‘Yeah, I am, why?’ Hiroki replied as he stifled the umpteenth yawn.

‘Because we still have to go through the press conference,’ Kyosuke replied smirking at the younger man.

‘What? Again? Didn’t we have one at the end of the race?’ Hiroki asked raising his eyebrows in surprise.

‘Yes, we did,’ Kyosuke replied smirking even more, ‘this one is for the national press, for the journalists who couldn’t go to Barcelona.’

‘Do I really need to go? I’m dying to get back home so I can get some sleep,’ Hiroki begged.

‘Nope, sorry,’ Kyosuke said, ‘they want the whole team to be there for the pictures…’

‘Great: pictures,’ Hiroki complained, ‘that’s exactly what I need after thirteen hours of insomnia,’ he added sounding rather miserable.

‘I know what you mean,’ Kyosuke said and that made Hiroki realise that, from the whole team, they were the only two who were still awake for the rest of the guys were all sleeping rather soundly, including Akito who had Ryoko leaning her head on his left shoulder.

‘He’s so lucky,’ Hiroki commented pointing at Akito with his thumb.

‘He is,’ Kyosuke agreed, ‘but again, I think he can sleep almost everywhere as long as it’s warm enough…’

‘I’ll take your word for it,’ Hiroki replied and as he was about to say something else they heard as the flight attendants started waking everyone up so they would fasten their seatbelts and prepared themselves for landing.

Fifteen minutes later at nearly eight o’clock pm, the JAL flight from Barcelona touched down at Narita International Airport and they barely had the time to get their bags when an airport officer ushered them towards one of the small lounges at the Arrival’s terminal. There they saw a long table placed in front of a horde of journalists ready to start firing their questions at them:

‘Fujiwara-san,’ one of them shouted shoving his microphone towards Takumi Fujiwara, ‘do you think your team will be able to keep such great results up throughout the whole season?’

‘Er…’ Takumi started.

‘It’s too early to ask us that,’ Keisuke replied instead, ‘we still have seventeen races to go…’

‘It looks like your number one driver has completely recovered from the accident which saw him retiring from the previous season,’ another journalist fired at them.

‘Yes, he’s very much back in shape,’ Keisuke replied.

‘What did you think of the performance of the PIAA-Tanaka Team’s new driver?’ a reporter from the back of the room asked looking straight at Akito.

‘He’s very fast,’ Akito replied, ‘so we’re not going to underestimate him.’

The whole press conference was over in just under half an hour, time during which no one asked Hiroki a single question making the twenty year old as though as if he had just wasted twenty minutes of his life.

‘It’s okay,’ he heard his father say as the two of them drove back to Tochigi’s capital city.

‘What?’ Hiroki asked feeling rather confused.

‘The press conference,’ Tohru replied for he had witnessed how the reporters had ignored his son in a very blatant manner.

‘What about it?’ Hiroki asked making his father look at him with an equally puzzled expression.

‘Well,’ Tohru started, ‘the journalists…well…they seemed…’

‘Dad,’ Hiroki interrupted, ‘I know that they pay loads more attention to Akito than they do to me but I don’t mind.’

‘It won’t always be this way,’ Tohru assured his son.

‘Oh, I hope it will be,’ Hiroki replied and seeing his father’s bewildered expression made him add, ‘I’d hate to have the all the journalists focus on me the way they do to Akito. I honestly don’t know how he can stand it…’

‘It can’t be too easy,’ Tohru agreed, ‘in any case, I’m glad to see you two are friends now.’

‘What?’ Hiroki asked, going back to being confused, ‘I’m not his friend. I can’t be…’

‘Son, I know that before anything else he’s your best enemy and all…’

‘No Dad,’ Hiroki said, ‘that’s not it.’

‘What is it then?’

‘Nothing,’ Hiroki replied, ‘you wouldn’t understand…’

‘Hiroki…’ Tohru insisted.

‘Dad, please, just leave it, okay?’ Hiroki said then, hoping that his father would take the hint he rested his head on the car’s headrest and closed his eyes.

Unfortunately, that simple action made him revive the intense angst of the moment when, not too long ago, he had realised something that he knew it could mean the destruction of the Takawara Racing Team.

Startled by this Hiroki re-opened his eyes and as he looked through the window, he let out a tired sigh and renewed once more his firm resolution to keep it a secret from everyone. Because there was no way on earth anyone could ever find out that he, Hiroki Suetsugu, had fallen head over heels in love with Ryoko Takahashi.

I want to tell you that I absolutely adore Initial D, and consequently, I've subscribed to this thread. I'm looking forward to more of your work!

Chapter One

A few days after the Takawara Racing Team’s highly successful debut race, fifteen cars could be seen parked near the summit of the Mt Akagi pass with all of their drivers gathered outside them enjoying the slightly less cold evenings that the month of March had brought with it.

‘Hey,’ Masato whispered tilting his head towards Seisuke, ‘where’s Kizuna?’

‘No idea,’ Seisuke replied shrugging his shoulders, ‘Aniki didn’t even answer when I asked him about her.’

Masato looked at Seisuke as though as he wanted to say something but Izawa interrupted him shouting as he spoke to the whole group.

‘Guys, have any of you heard anything about that Kanto Kaisers team?’

‘The what?’ Masato asked him.

‘I’ve heard of them,’ Junya said, ‘they’re a bunch of ex-pro racers who have got together and are challenging all the teams from our region, aren’t they?’

‘Yeah, they’ve already beaten quite a few teams from the Chiba prefecture,’ Izawa replied, ‘I’ve heard they’ll be moving to Tochigi next…’

‘What?’ Seisuke almost screamed.

‘Hasn’t your girlfriend mentioned anything about it?’ Junya asked him.

‘No, I guess she hasn’t heard anything yet either,’ Seisuke replied then, looking at his older brother he added, ‘Aniki, what are we going to do?’

‘Nothing,’ Kyosuke replied seeming very resolute.

‘What do you mean, ‘nothing’?’ Akito asked.

‘I mean just that,’ Kyosuke replied, ‘we won’t worry about it until the time comes.’

‘Aniki, shouldn’t we plan some sort of strategy for when we’ll be challenged?’ Seisuke asked looking both confused and astounded.

‘No,’ Kyosuke replied shocking Seisuke even more, ‘planning that far ahead it’s useless.’

‘Wha…’

‘Seisuke, I said we’re not going to worry about it, okay?’ Kyosuke said interrupting his younger brother.

‘S-sure…’

‘Good, now, let’s all go and get some practice, after all, that’s the whole point of us being here.’

With that, he climbed into his yellow RZ-1 and without waiting to see if anyone followed him suit, he turned his car’s engine on and took off heading down the Mt Akagi pass.

‘Phew,’ Akito said tilting his head to the right watching the rear of the Mazda as it disappeared around a corner.

‘Geez, what is the heck is wrong with him?’ Junya asked to Seisuke.

‘I don’t know, I’ll try to talk to him later but I don’t think it’ll be of any help,’ Seisuke said shaking his head miserably as he, too, climbed into his white RZ-1, a slightly newer version of that of his brother.

‘Oh well, let’s go then,’ Akito said copying his best friend and getting behind the wheel of his beloved V-86.

‘You know,’ Masato said as he observed the two cars driving off, ‘if you ask me, Kyosuke and Kizuna have had some sort of argument…’

‘Give it to me,’ Izawa said talking to Junya.

‘Give you what?’ Junya asked his team mate confusedly.

‘The Captain Obvious badge,’ Izawa replied, ‘Masato here has more than earned it…’

This provoked a fit of laughter to some of the Golden Arrows while the rest just climbed into their rides as they followed their three best drivers down the hill.

A couple of hours later, Akito followed Kyosuke and Seisuke to their house in Maebashi where he would spend a short while with Ryoko before he would go to his own place.

‘Aniki,’ he heard Seisuke ask the minute all three cars were parked in front of the Takahashi’s massive garage gates.

‘Seisuke, not now…’

‘Aniki, please, what’s wrong?’ Seisuke insisted nonetheless.

Kyosuke looked at both his younger brother and Akito and lowering his head, he sighed and said:

‘I can’t tell you now, just give me some time, okay?’

Seisuke looked at Akito and seeing the younger man’s nod made him realise that, for once, they really needed to stay out of it.

‘Okay,’ Seisuke said, ‘but if you need to talk, you know we’re here, don’t you?’

‘Of course,’ Kyosuke said then, as he locked his RZ-1’s doors he added, ‘thanks guys,’ he then walked inside the house most likely heading straight into his room.

‘Don’t worry about him,’ Akito said putting a hand on Seisuke’s shoulder, ‘we’ll find out what’s worrying him sooner or later.’

‘Yeah, I think so too,’ Seisuke agreed, ‘oh well, I better go and call Misa, I’m curious to see if she’s heard about those Kanto Kings.’

‘Kaisers,’ Akito corrected him, ‘they’re called the Kanto Kaisers…’

‘Whatever,’ Seisuke said going back to his cheerful self, ‘it’s a very silly name.’

‘Yeah, it is,’ Akito agreed and, with this, the two young men finally entered the Takahashi residence chuckling.

‘Someone’s happy,’ they both heard Ryoko say as she rushed to the house’s entrance to go and hug her boyfriend.

‘I am happy to see you,’ Akito said returning the hug. He then smirked as he saw Seisuke making a mock disgusted face at him as he bypassed the couple on his way to the living room.

‘Guess what?’ Ryoko asked, clearly oblivious to the whole exchange.

‘What?’ Akito replied separating from her just enough so they could look at each other in the eye.

‘I’ve got myself a part time job,’ she announced making Akito raise his eyebrows in surprise.

‘A part time job? I didn’t know you needed one…’

‘Well, I don’t really need one,’ Ryoko replied, ‘but this is a very special one: I’m going to be teaching young kids to ice skate!’

‘Ryoko…,’ Akito said looking at his girlfriend worriedly.

‘Hey,’ she started, ‘it’s not like I miss it or anything. You know that I’m busy enough with university, your races and helping Mum with the centre but they needed someone very badly and I couldn’t resist…’

‘Hey,’ Akito said, ‘you don’t need to explain yourself with me. If you’re happy then I’m happy too, okay?’

‘Really?’ Ryoko asked.

‘Yes,’ Akito said, ‘besides, I’ve been worried that you didn’t have any proper hobby of your own…’

‘Oh but I do have a hobby,’ Ryoko countered, ‘I’m your number one fan, remember?’

Akito laughed softly before hugging her again and, using his softest tone of voice, he said:

‘I know that…’

‘Good evening,’ they then heard Ryoko’s father deep voice as Keisuke walked towards them.

The girl looked at her boyfriend proudly as he, in the maximum expression of defiance possible, refused to let go of her hand even in the presence of the man who used to terrify the life out of him.

‘Hi,’ Akito said.

‘Aren’t you two going to come in?’ Keisuke asked him looking at the two held hands with a smirk on his ageing but still very handsome face.

‘Sure,’ Akito replied and with that he took his shoes off and he and Ryoko followed Keisuke into the living room where they found Seisuke already watching TV with his aunt Kyoko. The other Takahashi couple was probably at one of the hospitals the family ran.

‘Hello Akito,’ Kyoko said as Akito and Ryoko took a seat at the couch, ‘we’ve seen your sister at the centre today.’

‘She’s very fast,’ Keisuke added as he too took a seat.

‘I know,’ Akito said proudly, ‘she’s actually faster than I was at her age.’

‘It’s a pity though,’ Keisuke continued clearly talking without thinking first.

‘What is?’ Akito asked noticing the glare Kyoko had given to her husband.

‘Er…’

‘Nothing, don’t worry,’ Kyoko replied.

‘I’m sorry but that didn’t look like nothing,’ Akito insisted now getting slightly concerned, ‘is there anything wrong with my sister?’

‘Hasn’t your father told you?’ Keisuke asked looking definitely shocked.

‘I haven’t seen him today,’ Akito replied, ‘Keisuke-san, what’s wrong?’

‘Well,’ Keisuke said choosing to ignore his wife’s silent protests, ‘it seems as though as we won’t be able to enter Haruko into the next karting championship…’

‘Why not?’ Akito asked almost angrily.

‘Er…’ Keisuke started.

‘Your sister’s had some sort of problem with her sponsor,’ Kyoko said instead of her husband and judging by the way she sounded, she was quite upset by the whole issue.

‘What happened to the car rental company which was going to sponsor her?’ Akito asked.

‘They…well…they’ve preferred to sponsor another racer,’ Keisuke replied.

‘A boy,’ Kyoko added.

‘What?’ Ryoko asked voicing the very question Akito was about to ask, ‘Mum, please tell me they’re not sponsoring him because he is a BOY…’

‘Yes sweetie,’ Kyoko said no longer bothering to hide the fact that she was very angry about this, ‘it seems like they think this boy will have a much surer future in motorsports.’

‘What are those people playing at? It’s the twenty first century for crying out loud!’ Akito exclaimed, ‘and she’s good, extremely good, even Grandpa says so.’

‘Is there anything we can do?’ Seisuke asked intervening in the conversation for the first time.

‘Keisuke-san,’ Akito said, ignoring Seisuke’s question, ‘do you think I could help her in any way?’

‘I don’t know,’ Keisuke replied, ‘we’ve told your father that we can sponsor her instead but he insisted that he’s going to solve this by himself.’

Akito looked at him for a while then, all of a sudden, an idea started forming into his head so, when half an hour later he parked his V-86 next to his father’s venerably old Trueno and he walked into his home Akito hoped that his old man would still be up and about.

‘Hey Dad,’ Akito said finding Takumi in the Fujiwara’s living room watching a movie on TV.

‘Akito,’ Takumi started, ‘you’re home early. I didn’t expect you to come back until after midnight…’

‘I know, I needed to talk to you,’ Akito said taking a chair and placing it in front of the couch where his father was sitting so he could face his old man.

‘Okay,’ Takumi said turning the TV off, ‘what’s up?’

‘I’ve heard about Haruko’s problems with the sponsor,’ Akito started, lowering his voice to bring it just above a whisper.

‘Did Keisuke tell you?’ Takumi asked frowning.

‘He didn’t mean to,’ Akito replied, ‘but it’s a good think he has,’ he added, ‘besides, he said that you wanted to solve this your own way and that’s what we’re going to do.’

‘What do you mean?’ Takumi asked.

‘I mean that we’re not going to let the Takahashi’s help us with this too,’ Akito said.

‘Akito…’

‘Dad,’ Akito interrupted him, ‘I know that you guys didn’t want to accept my real mum’s money for the GP-2 team but, I guess you won’t give me a hard time if I try to help my sister with it, will you?’

‘Akito…’

‘Please Dad,’ Akito interrupted him again, ‘I really want to help her.’

‘It’s just that…’

‘Dad,’ Akito said, ‘sooner or later I will need to start spending that money and I can’t think of any better use for it than to sponsor Haruko. She really is better than I am and you know it.’

‘I do,’ Takumi admitted finally surrendering, ‘she’s great.’

‘I’d love to see her become whatever she wants,’ Akito said, ‘imagine if she aims for the F1 too, we could have the very first Japanese female racer ever!’

‘And two Fujiwaras racing for the title,’ Takumi added.

‘Ah no,’ Akito said, ‘by the time Haruko makes it to F1 I’m hoping to have retired already,’ Akito said.

‘Are you afraid of a fair fight against your sister?’ Takumi asked clearly making fun of his son.

‘Terrified,’ Akito replied keeping a very straight face.

‘Seriously?’ Takumi asked disbelievingly.

‘Yeah,’ Akito replied, ‘who wouldn’t be afraid of her? She’s as crazy as Grandpa!’

‘You’ve got a fair point there,’ Takumi said smiling at his son.

‘Uh-huh,’ Akito nodded then, looking at his father straight in the eye, he added, ‘there’s one more thing though…’

‘What is it?’

‘I really don’t want Haruko to know where the money’s coming from. You can tell Mum but not Haruko, okay?’

‘Sure,’ Takumi said for he understood how his little girl might feel if she found out that she was still racing because of her older brother’s money.

The next day the two of them took Haruko to the centre where they saw a very familiar looking Nissan parking next to Takumi’s 86.

‘I can’t believe it’s still running,’ Iketani commented looking at the old Toyota.

‘Hey,’ Takumi complained, ‘don’t say that, it’ll hurt its feelings…’

Iketani chuckled as his fourteen year old son climbed out of the Nissan.

‘I see you’ve finally decided to take my offer up,’ Takumi commented still talking to his old work colleague.

‘Yeah,’ Iketani replied, ‘Hikaru’s been nagging at me to let him have a go with the Veras so…’

‘Great,’ Takumi said, ‘come with me then,’ he added looking at the boy who, as usual, looked awed seeing the legendary Takumi Fujiwara.

‘Dad,’ Akito said, ‘Haruko and I will go to the team’s base, okay?’

‘Sure,’ Takumi replied as he, Iketani and his son started walking to where the Toyota Veras were parked.

‘What’s wrong?’ Akito asked to his unusually quiet little sister.

‘Nothing,’ she replied a tad too quickly to be convincing.

‘Okay,’ Akito said and he stole a glance at Haruko realising that the almost eleven year old girl was still looking at Hikaru as the boy followed the two older men to a different sector of the centre. Akito was about to tease her about that when his mobile phone started ringing.

‘Hello?’ he said answering it.

‘Hello, are you Fujiwara Akito?’ the voice of a strange man asked.

‘Yes, who is there?’

‘My name’s not too important at the moment,’ the stranger said, ‘you just need to know that I have a very good offer for you.’

‘I’m sorry but if…’

‘How would you like to swap to another team in GP-2?’ the man asked all of a sudden.

‘Excuse me?’ Akito managed to ask.

‘We know of a team that is extremely interested in hiring you and we could arrange for you to meet with one of its representatives.’

‘No,’ Akito finally said, ‘I’m very happy where I am and besides, if I were after a change you’ll need to speak to my father who happens to be my manager too.’

‘Ah, I see,’ the man said.

‘Now, I’m sorry but I’m going to hang up,’ Akito said and, with this, he pressed the button to finish the highly disturbing conversation.

‘Onii-chan?’ he then heard Haruko ask, ‘is everything alright?’

‘Yeah,’ Akito said trying to shake off the uneasiness the phone call had made him feel, ‘don’t worry about anything. Instead, what’s going on with Hikaru-kun?’ he asked as he grinned at her.

‘Ah…eh…’ Haruko stuttered as she got as red as a pepperoni.

Chapter Two

The following Saturday evening and as he had agreed with his younger brother, Kyosuke met with Akito and Ryoko so they could drive to the mountain pass of Momiji Lane where they would join him and Misa because, sometime before eight, the Kanto Kaisers would arrive for a short practice session before two of them would race two of the Tochigi Thunders.

‘She’s not coming tonight either, is she?’ Akito commented as Ryoko climbed into the passenger seat of her boyfriend’s V-86.

‘No, I don’t think so,’ Ryoko replied while she fastened the four point racing seatbelt the car came equipped with.

Akito looked over the steering wheel and observed his long time friend as he climbed into his five year old RZ-1, watching him while looking for any signs which would tell him whether the oldest of the Takahashi brothers was angry or in any other way upset but, as usual, Kyosuke’s features were trained to betray absolutely no emotion.

‘Ryoko,’ Akito said as he turned the V-86’s engine on, ‘you don’t think they’ve…you know…’

‘I hope not,’ Ryoko replied shaking her head vigorously sending some strands of her long fringe flying everywhere.

‘Then what’s wrong with Kizuna?’ Akito asked inserting the first gear and releasing the handbrake so he could follow Kyosuke’s car.

‘I don’t know,’ Ryoko replied, ‘the only think I know is that something’s happened between the two and I think it all started right after the win you guys took in Barcelona.’

‘Really?’ Akito asked sounding surprised, ‘I didn’t notice anything strange.’

Ryoko let out a sarcastic chuckle before saying:

‘You guys can be so clueless sometimes…’

‘Hey,’ Akito complained, ‘that’s not fair!’

‘Akito,’ Ryoko started, using the almost patronising tone she always used when trying to explain something particularly complicated to her boyfriend, ‘Kizuna wasn’t even at the celebration dinner, remember?’

‘Er…’ Akito said frowning as he tried to bring back that memory, ‘you’re right!’ he finally exclaimed, ‘why wasn’t she there?’ he then asked.

‘I don’t know,’ Ryoko replied a tad on the exasperated side, ‘if I knew, I would probably know the reason why she hasn’t been showing up recently…’

‘Yeah, that’s right too,’ Akito admitted.

‘But I’ll tell you something,’ Ryoko said, ‘whatever it is, it’s got Kyosuke very worried because he’s been even quieter than usual.’

‘I know,’ Akito agreed, ‘even I have noticed that.’

‘I think I’ll give Kizuna a call,’ Ryoko announced as she went to pull her phone out of her tiny handbag.

‘No,’ Akito said, ‘I don’t think that’s such a good idea.’

‘You don’t?’ Ryoko asked.

‘No,’ Akito replied, ‘don’t ask me why but withKyosuke I’ve always had the impression that we need to let him solve his problems on his own.’

‘Yeah,’ Ryoko said, ‘I think so too…’

‘Oh well,’ Akito said, ‘if you really want to help anybody I think you should help me.’

‘What do you mean?’ Ryoko asked worriedly and then Akito used the following ten minutes to explain to her about the weird phone call he’d received a few days before and the fact that he hadn’t managed to get rid of the uneasy feeling that kept nagging at him.

‘Uh-oh,’ Ryoko said as he finished the explanation.

‘Is that a good ‘uh-oh’ or a bad one?’ Akito asked.

‘A bad one,’ Ryoko replied, ‘I once heard that a rival team did something like that to my father to distract him.’

‘Distract him from what?’ Akito asked.

‘From racing,’ Ryoko replied, ‘they hoped that by telling him that they were interested in getting him to join this very important rallying team it would make him lose his focus. Dad was lucky that Tsuchiya-san knew about this kind of tactics and he warned him about it all.’

‘Why would anybody want to do that to me?’ Akito asked.

‘Duh!’ Ryoko replied, ‘Akito, our team has just won the first race we’ve ever entered, don’t you think the other teams have a very good reason to be pretty freaked out?’

Akito looked at her briefly before returning his attention to the motorway.

‘I don’t know,’ Akito finally said, ‘I know we’re good,’ he added, ‘but I think our victory has a lot to do with the fact that we could count on the surprise factor. The next race is going to be a lot tougher.’

‘All the more reason to stay focused then,’ Ryoko concluded and Akito only nodded to that as he made himself a mental note to discuss the phone call with his father and grandfather to see what the two older men thought of the whole incident.

An hour after leaving Maebashi they arrived at the summit of the Momiji Lane’s course where they saw Seisuke’s RZ-1 already parked next to Misa’s G35 with Seisuke listening to something Kosugi was explaining to the Thunders while Misa was busy talking to an upset looking Hiroki.

‘Hey,’ Akito said to Seisuke as he and Ryoko climbed out of the car.

‘You’re late!’ Seisuke complained, ‘those guys will be here any time now.’

‘You said eight o’clock,’ Kyosuke pointed out sounding a tad on the dry side, ‘it’s five to eight.’

‘O-okay,’ Seisuke half stuttered then, noticing that Kizuna wasn’t there he exchanged a quick look with his older brother who silently asked him to forget about the whole thing, at least temporarily.

‘What’s wrong with you?’ Akito asked as he walked towards his GP-2 team mate.

‘My car’s at the garage right now,’ Hiroki said angrily, ‘if I had known those guys were coming today…’

‘Hey,’ Ryoko said, ‘don’t worry about it. You guys have enough good drivers to represent you, haven’t you?’

‘Yes, of course,’ Hiroki replied, ‘it’s just that…’

‘I know,’ Ryoko said as she patted Hiroki’s left arm, ‘you probably feel quite frustrated, don’t you?’

‘Y-yes, t-that’s exactly how I feel,’ he replied, hesitating so slightly that only Misa seemed to realise that something was out of place in the way Hiroki was behaving.

‘Are you going to race then?’ Akito asked Misa looking as though as he hadn’t noticed anything weird.

‘Yes, I can’t wait!’ Misa replied.

‘Well, I certainly can,’ Seisuke said as he and his brother joined the three of them with Kosugi.

‘Seisuke please,’ Misa started, using a pleading tone of voice, ‘let’s not start again, okay?’

‘Hey,’ Seisuke said putting both of his hands up, ‘I’ve already said you’re free to do whatever you want.’

‘Thanks,’ Misa said as she took one of her boyfriend’s hands and squeezed it in one of hers.

‘They’re here,’ Kosugi suddenly announced and then everyone there looked as they saw a group formed by four cars entering the small car park which was already quite full with the rides of a few of the Tochigi Thunders and the rest of the cars which were there.

‘That’s it?’ Hiroki asked, ‘only four of them?’

‘Hey,’ Kyosuke said, ‘when our father was running his Project D they only had two drivers and they still managed to beat everyone they raced.’

‘That’s right,’ Akito agreed, ‘it’s not the numbers which make a team big.’

‘Well said kid,’ one of the four drivers said as he climbed out of his ride: a very highly tuned version of a 2013 Mitsubishi X-2. The car itself was painted in such a bright yellow that it almost hurt one’s eyes.

‘So,’ another one said as he closed the door of his dark purple Subaru WRX, ‘where’s that GP-2 driver?’

‘I’m here,’ Hiroki replied just a micro second before Akito who chose to remain quiet realising that, for once, he wasn’t the only GP-2 racer present.

‘Good,’ that second guy said as the other two joined the first ones, ‘I can’t wait to race you.’

‘Unfortunately you will have to wait,’ Misa said, ‘his ride is undergoing an upgrade and I’ll be racing instead of him.’

The guy glanced back at his team mates, all of them looking to be in their late twenties and uttering a chuckle, he looked again at Misa smiling in a very patronising manner as he said:

‘Are you old enough to have your driving license sweetheart?’

‘I’m actually twenty one years old and I've had my license since I was eighteen,’ Misa replied refusing to let his offensive tone of voice to get the best out of her.

‘Oh,’ the guy said, ‘in that case, and since you’re such a pretty girl maybe we could…’

‘Thanks for the compliment but no thanks,’ Misa said interrupting the guy before Seisuke would literally explode, ‘I don’t think my boyfriend here would appreciate that,’ she added pointing at the youngest of the Takahashi brothers.

‘Ah,’ the guy said looking at positively fuming Seisuke, ‘sorry about that mate.’

‘Let’s just race, okay?’ Kosugi said.

‘Yes, that sounds good,’ the guy who’d spoken first agreed, ‘my name’s Fujimoto Shinobu and this is my friend Daichiro, we’ll be the ones racing tonight.’

‘I’m Kosugi Jiro,’ the Tochigi Thunders’ leader said, ‘you’ve got the pass for the next two hours. Let’s start the race at ten, okay?’

‘Sure,’ Fujimoto said and, with that, he and Daichiro got back into their cars and after starting their engines, all four cars started driving down Momiji Lane.

‘Misa…’ Seisuke started.

‘Please Sei…’

‘No,’ he interrupted her, ‘all I want to say is that you should be extra careful tonight, okay?’

‘I will be, don’t worry,’ she added.

‘Kosugi,’ Kyosuke said, ‘do you mind if we use the other sector of the pass for a bit?’

‘No, of course not,’ Kosugi replied, ‘we could take our cars for a spin to warm them up.’

‘Great,’ Kyosuke said then, looking at Akito, he added, ‘you're coming?’

‘Er…’ he hesitated as he glanced at Ryoko.

‘Go,’ the girl said, ‘I’ll stay here with Hiroki.’

Misa noticed yet again as Hiroki’s face lit up for just an instant before the twenty year old could get his expression back to its neutral usual self. This time she made herself a mental note to discuss this with Seisuke to see what her boyfriend thought about her suspicions.

Two hours later Kyosuke joined Kosugi at the bottom of the pass to see the start of the uphill race which would see the Tochigi Thunders’ Honda Civic Sedan Si MUGEN battling against the Kanto Kaisers’ Mitsubishi X-2.

‘Everything’s ready up here,’ Kosugi heard Misa say over the radio installed in his Honda for the girl was at the summit with Hiroki and Ryoko.

‘Same here,’ another of the Thunders said reporting from the mid-point of the course.

‘Seisuke and Akito are in position, too,’ Kyosuke confirmed since he had agreed with both Kosugi and Fujimoto that the two younger men would serve as neutral officials to this race so they were on stand by at two different points of the course.

‘We’re ready when you are,’ Kosugi said to Fujimoto.

‘Let’s start then,’ the Kanto Kaisers’ leader said climbing into his Mitsubishi.

‘I’ll do the countdown,’ Kyosuke added as he placed himself in front of the two cars then, seeing Kosugi getting behind the wheel of his Honda he shouted, ‘Five, four, three, two, one: GO!’

He then watched in surprise as the Mitsubishi was quickly left behind by the Honda but then, observing the X-2 more carefully Kyosuke noticed that Fujimoto wasn’t even trying to push it.

‘Shit,’ Kyosuke muttered as he ran towards his RZ-1 so he could talk to his younger brother and to Akito, ‘Seisuke,’ he added as he closed the door of his Mazda, ‘watch carefully what goes on in your sector…’

‘What’s wrong Aniki?’ Seisuke asked.

‘I don’t know yet,’ Kyosuke replied, ‘but these guys are as smart as we thought.’

‘That's bad,’ Seisuke said.

‘Yeah,’ Kyosuke confirmed.

‘And Misa’s going to be racing one of them next,’ Seisuke added miserably.

‘Holy crap,’ they then heard Akito say.

‘What’s up?’ Kyosuke asked him.

‘They’ve just passed in front of my V-86 and the Mitsubishi’s closing the gap so quickly that Kosugi will have him on his rear bumper before they get to the next corner.’

‘I knew it,’ Kyosuke said, ‘Kosugi’s fallen into his trap. It’s just like Dad used to do with his opponents…’

‘What do you mean?’ Akito asked.

‘Our father,’ Seisuke explained, ‘used to let his rivals take the lead at the beginning of the race to make them feel a false sense of security then they got overconfident and that made it very easy for Dad to beat the crap out of them.’

‘That didn’t work with my father though,’ Akito commented and that provoked a twin chuckle coming from both of the Takahashi brothers.

‘Normal tactics didn’t work with your old man,’ Seisuke countered.

‘Nothing worked with him,’ Kyosuke added making Akito smile proudly for he knew that his two best friends were right.

Unfortunately for Kosugi, Fujimoto’s tactics worked wonders and by the time Kosugi recovered from the shock of being overtaken at his own home course it was too late and he was still feeling hot with shame as he crossed the finish line a full five seconds after the Kanto Kaisers’ leader.

‘Aniki, I’m heading up,’ Seisuke said as they all received the news of the first time Kosugi had been beaten at his home turf since the race against Kyosuke.

‘Me too,’ Akito added and instead of following them to the mountain top the Golden Arrows’ leader decided to stay behind so he could have a few minutes all to himself to do some much needed thinking.

Ten minutes later Seisuke and Akito parked their cars next to Kosugi’s Honda as they saw the Tochigi Thunders’ leader walking towards Fujimoto.

‘Thanks for racing fairly,’ Kosugi said and everyone there could not help but to admire the sense of dignity the twenty four year old was displaying.

‘It was fun,’ Fujimoto said, ‘you put up quite a good fight.’

‘Oh, please,’ Kosugi said, ‘there’s no need to be so polite: you have beaten me fair and square and you have also shown me quite a few great techniques.’

‘Well, tarmac rallying was my specialty when I raced professionally,’ Fujimoto admitted.

‘Why did you retire?’ Kosugi asked hoping this wasn’t a much too personal question.

‘I injured myself and all I can do now is race for just a short while,’ Fujimoto replied shrugging his shoulders clearly refusing to be any more specific.

‘I see,’ Kosugi said, ‘I’m sorry about that.’

Fujimoto shrugged his shoulders once more before he walked back to his three friends then, as agreed, Daichiro made his way to his dark purple Subaru to start the downhill race.

‘Misa,’ Kosugi started before Seisuke could even speak to her, ‘don’t let your guard down, these guys are excellent and I’d bet my car that this Daichiro guy has memorised the course as well as his friend Fujimoto.’

‘Okay, I’ll keep that in mind,’ Misa said then turning to Seisuke, she added, ‘and I’ll be very careful.’

Seisuke nodded to her as he bent down to kiss her softly on her lips.

‘I’ll be at the usual frequency,’ Seisuke said.

With that Misa made her way to the G35 and climbing into it, Seisuke saw her as she strapped herself onto her seat, started the car’s engine and made it roll forward to line it up with the Subaru.

Akito felt Ryoko squeezing his hand in hers as they stood behind the guardrail next to Kosugi and Hiroki with Fujimoto and his other two friends staying confidently by their cars inside the small car park while Seisuke had already locked himself inside his white RZ-1.

One of the Thunders acted as the countdown man and, at the go, both red and dark purple cars took off leaving everyone astounded with the speed at which both cars were travelling.

‘She’s already ahead!’ Ryoko exclaimed as she watched her friend drive around the first corner.

‘Not good,’ Akito commented to Kosugi, ‘he’s let her take the lead too.’

‘Yeah,’ Kosugi said concernedly, ‘that’s exactly what Fujimoto’s done to me…’

‘Do they really think the same tactic will work twice?’ Hiroki asked but what none of them knew was that Daichiro had no intentions whatsoever of following the same strategy and Misa realised that pretty soon.

‘Seisuke this is really weird’ she said to her boyfriend as she entered one of the first corners of the lidless gutter’s section, ‘he’s staying behind me and doesn’t seem to have any intentions of overtaking me…’

‘Misa, stay focused,’ Seisuke said as he started feeling even more uneasy than usual.

Misa didn’t even bother to reply for she knew that already however, when she least expected it and as she was putting her car’s tyres awfully close to the gutter's edge, she saw as the Subaru, which up to now had kept itself within a reasonable distance, started accelerating all of a sudden.

‘Oh gosh…’ Seisuke heard Misa half whisper.

‘Misa?’ he asked and then everything happened too quickly for him to figure out what was going on. All he heard was Misa’s strained voice screaming and before he even realised that he was doing so consciously, Seisuke turned the car’s engine on and started driving downhill as fast as the rotary engine could go.

‘MISA!’ he cried as he took the car through a high speed corner and not hearing her reply made him press the accelerator even further down.

Seisuke had only driven this desperately once before: the day Akito had crashed his GP-2 car.