Disclaimer: I don't own Initial D, Shigeno-sensei and the Kodansha Publishing Company do.

Programmed Lives – Fourth Stage

Prologue

Shibukawa – December 2020

They were late, as usual, making Akito think for the umpteenth time this year that he really could not wait to get his driving license. Three more years, he thought disconsolately. Three more years and he'd turn eighteen and then, oh baby, then he'd be, at long last, an independent man: he would have a car to call his own.

'Akito!' he heard his father shout from the living room, 'Kyosuke and Seisuke are here.'

'About bloody time,' he muttered to himself as he raced downstairs where he found his two best friends waiting for him at the house's entrance.

'Hey!' Kyosuke said waving at him.

'Let's go!' Akito replied.

'Yeah, hello to you too,' Seisuke said sarcastically.

'Boys, don't bring him home too late,' Natsuki said.

'Don't worry Natsuki-san, he'll be back right on time,' Kyosuke said with his most responsible sounding voice.

'And drive carefully,' Natsuki added as the three teenagers were leaving the house.

Takumi noticed with a smirk the fact that none of them even tried to reassure his wife. He, of course, understood that poor Natsuki was asking for an impossible thing. Two Takahashi and a Fujiwara in a sports car meant only one thing: speed, very high speed.

Thankfully, Takumi also knew that Kyosuke had been driving ever since he'd learned how to walk and his car, a yellow brand new Mazda RZ-1 SF3Z, had been thoroughly checked by a highly competent team of mechanics: Ryosuke, Fumihiro and Matsumoto.

He looked through the window at the yellow car as it left their lane and he couldn't help but to admire its design: inspired on the last generation of the SE3P, it was a lot more streamlined than its predecessor and had an aggressive looking set of headlights which made it look like a panther. A very wild panther, considering its engine could produce up to two hundred and fifty-five hp and went from naught to one hundred kilometres an hour in just under six seconds. Those were the figures for the non-tuned version of course; Kyosuke's car probably was a lot more powerful than that.

'Don't worry, they'll be fine,' Takumi said seeing his wife's concerned frown.

'I know, it's just that…'

'He's growing up very fast, isn't he?' Takumi said, finishing the sentence for her. It was true, Akito had grown a lot since the last spring and was now almost as tall as his father, having left Natsuki behind a long time before.

'I just hope Haruko doesn't grow up quite as fast as that,' Natsuki said looking at their six year old daughter who was busy watching some cartoon on TV. Takumi just passed his arm around her small shoulders and, walking together, they sat down with the little girl.

Meanwhile, Kyosuke was having fun testing the limits of his new car.

'I'm so jealous,' Akito commented busy admiring the interior of Kyosuke's pride and joy.

'I'm so uncomfortable,' Seisuke said, speaking from the very cramped back seat of the car.

'Hey, don't complain. At least this car has four seats, not like Uncle Keisuke's FD which only has two,' Kyosuke said referring to one of the Takahashi family's treasures, the other one, of course, being his father's FC. One day, Kyosuke hoped he'd be allowed to drive one of the two vehicles.

'You call these things seats?' Seisuke said injecting a large dose of disbelief in his tone of voice.

'Honestly Seisuke, I can't wait till you get your driving license so you get your own car,' Kyosuke said.

'It's me who can't wait!' Seisuke exclaimed.

'Well, you only have what, three more months or less?' Akito said, 'Imagine how I feel knowing that I still have another three years to go.'

'Shit, that's true,' Seisuke said, 'alright Akito, you win: your life sucks more than mine.'

'Thanks,' Akito said smiling sarcastically.

'Er…Akito, by the way…how are things with Ryoko?' Kyosuke said and Akito started feeling rather hot.

'What do you mean?' he managed to ask, feigning as much indifference as possible.

'You mean to tell us that you've progressed zero with her?' Seisuke asked sounding startled.

'Look, guys, I've said this before, I…I just don't…'

Both Kyosuke and Seisuke sighed heavily before the elder brother said:

'Akito, if you don't hurry up to ask her out, someone will steal her away from you.'

'Yeah, she gets asked out by all sorts of guys at least once a week,' Seisuke said.

'Even after we've spread the rumour that any guy who goes out with her will get the crap beaten out of him by her father,' Kyosuke added.

'That's not a rumour, that's true,' Akito said, 'which is one of the reasons why I don't know if it's such a good idea.'

'You're scared of Uncle Keisuke?' Kyosuke said incredulously.

'Who isn't?' Akito asked back.

'Our mother, for instance,' Seisuke replied.

'Yeah, but she's a very brave woman,' Akito, who had a great deal of respect for his best friends' mother, said.

'Anyway, nice try but you're not distracting us from our point: ask Ryoko out. It'll be Christmas in two weeks time and she'd love to spend that day with you,' Kyosuke said.

'Do you really think so?' Akito said sounding rather dubious.

'Aniki, leave it, he's totally clueless,' Seisuke said.

'Yeah, let's hurry up and get to the track soon, at least behind the wheel he doesn't act like a total moron,' Kyosuke said as he pressed the accelerator a bit further down so his Mazda would pick up even more speed.

To be continued…