I'm finally back from my hiatus!
I know that some of the characters in this fic may seem OoC, but it was necessary in order to create a humour fic.
This takes place sometime during Project D's tenure.
Enjoy!
(P.S. Profane language will be used, which is why this fic has a T rating)
Visiting Hours
At three o'clock in the morning
A puff of smoke escaped Bunta's lips as he tossed the used cigarette into an ashtray.
He watched with mild disinterest as the light emanating from the screen on his ageing television set flickered.
Somehow, the tofu shop seemed a lot emptier without his son, who was staying the night at one of the spare rooms in his team's headquarters -which he imagined was some tiny shed filled to the brim with tools (and tents for the occasion)-.
When he made the tofu deliveries in the past, he would usually set his alarm to three-thirty in the morning, giving himself thirty minutes to prepare the tofu.
However, last night, he made a split second decision to set his alarm clock to two-thirty in the morning, exactly one hour earlier than his usual waking hour, planning on finishing the preparations by three. Any sane person would ask, "Why would you wake up one hour earlier just to watch the news and reread the newspaper? It's not like you'll make the deliveries any earlier than four o'clock..."
Of course, Bunta Fujiwara isn't exactly the conventional image of your average middle-aged father of one. After all, strange men have strange compulsions.
This was just one of them.
He sipped on his coffee as he switched focus to the commentator on television.
"...in other news, it seems that Project D has finally conquered Saitama, setting course records for most of the roads they have raced on. They have completely dominated the best racers from the region, and from the looks of things, they aren't happy about it."
Bunta raised an eyebrow as the screen cut to an interview of this nerdy-looking guy who apparently drove an Altezza.
He had certainly heard rumours regarding how Project D "took the Kanto region by storm" in the past.
What he hadn't expected was for the team to be mentioned on television.
Perhaps I've underestimated how well-known the Project is and how far it will progress...He mused.
He had also seen how much Takumi had improved since joining said tem (though he had a long way to go before he could reach Bunta's level, from what he could tell when he...encountered him whilst driving the Impreza).
For the first time, he entertained the notion of watching Project D's next race, surprising Takumi with his appearance and meeting all the prominent members in the process. He was even considering offering his assistance, as he also wanted to help with the Project (after all, his son was part of it).
Nah.
To be honest, he couldn't really care less for social interaction.
Luckily, an alternative immediately sprung to mind.
After switching off the lights, Bunta walked towards the storage room, stretching as he neared its entry, suddenly rather glad Takumi had notified him on where exactly the Project D headquarters were located.
As it seemed, he had work to do.
The tofu deliveries could wait.
Six hours later…
"WHAT THE FUCK?!" A familiar voice yelled in shock and disbelief.
Out of all the ways he could've been woken, Takumi did not expect to be roused from his sleep by a...human alarm.
Takumi groaned as he buried his face into his pillow, fully intent on returning to his peaceful slumber.
However, as it seemed, he would never get the chance.
Suddenly, he was dragged out of his (well, Project D's) bed, his back impacting the floor in a harsh manner. He immediately opened his eyes, his expression already set into a slight glare, ready to level it at the perpetrator.
"What the hell Keisuke!" Takumi yelled, his glare darkening as his vision finally beginning to focus since he woke.
However, Keisuke's intimidating glare eclipsed his, rinsing the glare off his face.
The seemingly infuriated man pointed towards the hidden (from where Takumi was lying, at least) area beyond the open door. "See for yourself. After all, you were the one who must've been behind all this." Keisuke said coldly.
Rubbing his eyes, Takumi got up from his position on the floor, walking towards the vague direction of the door to discover what the source of Keisuke's ire was.
As he stopped rubbing his eyes, he froze, his eyes widening and his jaw-dropping in complete shock and disbelief at the sight in front of him.
The visage of a "Fujiwara Tofu Shop" sticker infested garage stared back at him.
The stickers completely covered the walls, covering all of the previous stickers and decals that were stuck to the wall.
Additionally, if memory serves, then both of Project D's cars and Ryosuke's FC should have been off the jacks, as their tunes (both suspension and engine) had been finalized. However, whilst the Eight-Six seemed to be untouched (though somehow, it did seem to sit slightly lower, with the camber slightly more pronounced, though it may just be his imagination), the front of the FD was lifted up with two jack stands, the removed front wheels sitting beside the car. The same could be said about the FC, though it applied to the rear as opposed to the front.
Moreover, he did not recall plastering Fujiwara Tofu Shop stickers on both RX-7s.
As he stood there, completely dumbfounded and confused, his mind vaguely processing Ryosuke's short declaration of, "He seems to be free from suspicion."
"...what...how…" Takumi spluttered, completely bewildered.
Ryosuke was quick to respond, "Someone was able to break into the garage last night, and was able to wipe the security tapes. Surprisingly, despite the large amounts of vandalizing that has occurred, and besides from what your car may contain, I have taken note of our inventory, and nothing seems to be taken or stolen, bizarrely enough. Did you happen to store any personal belongings in your car?"
Ryosuke's words were most likely supposed to be comforting (to some degree). However, it did nothing to reassure Takumi, as his eyes suddenly widened as he ran towards his Eight-Six, wanting to make sure nothing important was taken from his beloved car.
He fumbled with his keys, finding the right key within milliseconds, and jamming said key in the door lock, his eyes widening in slight apprehension and fear.
As the door opened, he immediately dived towards the glovebox, hoping all of Mogi's gifts were still there.
It was childish of him, that much he knew.
But considering the fact that he had just woken up and the slight possibility that the instigator might've been a massive Takumi Fujiwara fan and stolen some of his valuables, he thought he could probably be excused.
As he opened his glove box, he noticed that all of his belongings were still there. However, he stiffened as he noticed a sticky note stuck to one of the small boxes within his glovebox. Slowly, he tore the sticky note off the box, and read the text present on the note, his eyes beginning to narrow and gritting his teeth as he realized the infuriating reason which clearly explained why all of this occurred.
For once, Ryosuke was completely stumped at the situation presented to him. He could think of many possible scenarios, but as he thought of each, they seemed to become more and more farfetched as he attempted to think of the possible reasoning which may explain his...predicament.
While he would say that his frustration and suspicion was unmatched, he knew for a fact that Keisuke was twice as frustrated as he was.
He briefly wondered what was taking Takumi so long in his car. Perhaps his belongings had truly been taken and is simply taking time to process that fact.
However, Keisuke did not seem to share his views and stormed over to the Eight-Six, and obviously still suspected the nineteen-year-old. As he approached the Eight-Six, Keisuke seemed to snatch something from Takumi's hands (wait, was that a note? Ryosuke wasn't sure, as the Eight-Six's open door obscured his vision). Slowly, from what Ryosuke could tell, his younger brother's eyes widened in shock, seeming to be completely gobsmacked.
"Uh...bro...you're gonna want to see this…"
With narrowed eyes, Ryosuke walked towards his brother, taking the sticky note from his frozen hands.
He read the note silently:
Son, after hearing about that Project D team of yours on the news, I decided to pay you guys a quick visit. I randomly decided to help out with the adjustments on the Eight-Six, the FD and the FC.
I finalised the changes on both the FD and the Eight-Six. I got bored when I was tuning the FD, so I just left the wheels to the side. I got started on the tune of the FC, but I couldn't be bothered to finish as I suddenly decided I needed some alcohol in my system.
Sorry.
For the first time, Ryosuke was contemplating on decapitating someone. This urge only increased when he read the final few lines of the text:
Sincerely,
Bunta Fujiwara, Takumi's father (Takumi, I know for a fact you'll show this note to the rest of the team, so I took the liberty of adding this caption in to explain to them about who exactly did this)
Ryosuke opened his mouth, intent on voicing his doubt regarding who actually did the honours.
However, as it seemed Takumi had already predicted this question and provided him with a suitable answer.
"I know my dad's fucking handwriting, Ryosuke," Takumi growled, his clenched fists shaking in fury and anger, "to be honest, I'm not too surprised my old man would pull something like this. THAT FUCKING BASTARD!" He roared.
Ryosuke raised his eyebrows slightly. He had never seen this side of Takumi before. However, it did provide him with a valuable tidbit of information: Takumi did not think of his father in a positive light and held a level of animosity towards him.
The only scenario Ryosuke could think of that may rouse Takumi's anger and rage to such an extent is if he was utterly annihilated in a race, left in the dust by his opponent. And taunted by his opponent in some degree.
However, he didn't know much about the home life of the Fujiwaras (Takumi was tight-lipped, especially in the past few weeks, when it came to those topics), so perhaps his father truly was as irritating and infuriating as Takumi's anger proved him to be.
"If this is all caused by your old man, why don't we both pay him a visit." Keisuke said, barely restraining his anger.
"No. My damn old man probably already predicted this and left Gunma for a 'short vacation'." Takumi responded, his tone mirroring Keisuke's anger.
"For fuck's sake…"
One week later…
To Ryosuke, at least, whilst the debacle instigated by Takumi's father was irritating and frustrating (they discovered that what they thought were 'Fujiwara Tofu Shop' stickers was actually painted signs), it did turn out to be (somewhat) beneficial, despite Ryosuke's hesitance to admit. Somehow, despite the fact that Ryosuke believed that he had perfected the general tune (as further tuning would depend on the course they were racing on) of his aces' cars, Bunta Fujiwara's tune had somehow cut several seconds off their best time on their home courses.
Because of this, despite having to deal with Keisuke's newfound hatred (which lead to twenty-minute rants) of Takumi's father, he was truly glad for the man's intrusion as, without it, their chances at winning against the Purple Shadow would've been lowered to nil.
Despite past experiences, he truly was interested in learning from the elder Fujiwara, but judging from what Takumi said a couple days after the incident, the man would somehow find a way to manipulate and change Ryosuke in such a way that he would boost the rate at which Takumi was learning, instead of assisting him in improving at the fastest possible rate.
What a pity.
If you dislike certain parts of this fic, plz type out a short review, and it would be much appreciated.
I'm still a relatively mediocre writer in general, and since this hasn't been Beta'd, there is bound to be some errors or inconsistencies, whether it be in regards to the plot or simple grammatical errors. If you have time, I can only plead for you to take your time in order to carefully critique the errors present within this fanfic.
Mach1av3ll1an out!