Disclaimer: The characters of Initial D and You're Under Arrest belong to their respective owners. This goes the same for Mitsubishi, Honda, Nissan, Toyota, and Lotus.

SKY HIGH

BY: OUTLAW-2

Akina Mountain; home of a team called Akina Speedstars. They were a level of their own, considering how inferior it was compared to their counterparts; like Akagi Redsuns for example. Of course, a saviour in a form of Takumi Fujiwara, and a Toyota Trueno AE86, reluctantly saved the team, with a little help from someone. Bunta Fujiwara, Takumi's father, was his name and the one responsible getting Takumi his first step into street racing. As one race after another occurred, Akina Speedstars's fame grew, to a point where Ryosuke Takahashi, the leader of Akagi Redsuns, invited Takumi. Yes, Takumi Fujiwara was chosen to be part of Ryosuke's new team; Project D. Agreeing to it. Takumi and his panda paint hachi-roku was 'on loan' to the new team from the Speedstars. Iketani Kouchirou, the leader of Akina Speedstars, came into thinking that they would be all right without Takumi around. However, they were wrong.

PROLOGUE: THE BLACK MITSUBISHI…

It was two hours past midnight. Akina Mountain seemed peaceful, especially when one views the scenery it possessed. However, the calm, soothing silence was shattered when a roar from an inline-4 engine echoed throughout the mountain, followed by a faint whine of a turbocharger from a vehicle trailing behind. Emerging from the corner first was a lime-green Nissan Silvia S13 that had an engine displacement of 1800cc. Recovering from a powerslide, the coupe's rear edged outwards without the driver knowing. Even though he had swapped for fresh tyres a week ago, the wear and tear had the rear tyres balding faster than the front ones. He counter-steered once again, and depressed the brake pedal. The Nissan did stabilised, at the cost of speed. Dissatisfied, he pulled up at the side of the road and tossed the stopwatch onto the dashboard from his shirt pocket with his rather sweaty hands. The coupe's hazard lights lit up moments later. He merged from the S13K and observed the rear tyres. While doing so, his fellow member in a turbocharged Toyota Levin came into view.

"I hate to admit, but Itsuki sure is all over the road. I'm pretty amused that he had crashed only once, and that's that," the driver of the Silvia thought.

However, there was something amiss; it was as if the Levin was coming straight for him. Taking no chances, he dashed for the barriers and jumped over it. Unfortunately, the Toyota came to a halt almost two metres away from the Nissan. Itsuki got out from the white coupe, and was surprised to see the driver of the Nissan hiding behind the metal barriers.

"Iketani, what are you doing behind there?" asked Itsuki with an amused look.

"Hiding. Who knows, you unexpectedly came towards me in the Levin at high speed!" Iketani stated out the obvious. "You were all over the place at the corners."

"Harsh reality does hurt sometimes," Itsuki winced at the Speedstars leader's comment.

The duo hung around at that specific section of the mountain course; the straightaway after the first corner of the five hairpins. They then recall what had occurred. Shortly after Takumi 'left' Akina Speedstars, Shingo, member of Night Kids dropped by, and had requested for a rematch. Of course, Iketani would turn it down, until Itsuki's big mouth voiced out to Kenji, who was nearby, about how he improved slightly with the heel and toe technique. Obviously, what Itsuki meant to say was that he did managed to execute the move, but being all over the road. That was when Shingo sparked off, proving to Akina Speedstars that he could defeat them in a heartbeat. Before Iketani could reason with the short-fused Night Kids member, Shingo had gotten into his red Honda Civic EG6 hatchback and sped off.

There was nothing they could do except for one thing; more practice. For the past two weeks, Iketani and Itsuki had been practicing till late at night. Kenji was unable to join in, and the only reason he came up with was 'personal reasons'. That had the two lonely drivers feeling overly suspicious about the driver of the white 180SX, Kenji. However, that was not the problem. The one they should worry was the Akina downhill battle against Shingo coming Sunday, which was in five days' time.

Iketani and Itsuki let out a sigh in unison. Nothing was going well for them. As the duo dragged their leg back to their respective coupes, the sound of an engine was heard. They paused to listen. Tyres squealed uncontrollably. The faintest whine of the turbocharger was barely heard. The sounds became louder by the second. Iketani and Itsuki looked at the road uphill. Tyres squealed madly, this time with the source making its appearance. From the way it behaved, the black coupe oversteered unexpectedly; it was a front engine, rear wheel drive. Iketani took a closer look at the brand badge; Mitsubishi. He gasped. Was there another known driver who drives a black Mitsubishi other than Kyouichi Sudou from Emperor? Iketani was sure there was no such other driver.

As the Mitsubishi counter-steered, unexpectedly, the coupe's tyres gripped. Iketani and Itsuki shut their eyes, not wanting to see the coupe crash into the outside barriers. But, it never came. They cracked their eyes open, and saw the rear wheel drive coupe come to a spinning halt. However, it did not end there. Smoke began emitting from the seams of the hood. Not a good sign for the car. The owner of the Mitsubishi got out of the black coupe, and popped open the hood.

"Just as I thought. There's something wrong with the radiator. Is it a leak?" he muttered.

From afar, Iketani and Itsuki pondered what was going on. Curiousity overcame them as the duo went up to the Mitsubishi, thinking they could help the driver in one way or another. Both of them caught a glimpse of the car's model. A Mitsubishi Starion. Not only that, it was the GSR-VR model, meaning it had a wider body than the other Starion makes. Iketani went up to the driver and asked whether he required assistance. That was when Iketani took a good look at the owner of the black Starion.

He had a rather lanky build, and stood about 170 centimetres tall. He sported short black hair, which was trimmed at the sides. He wore a grey T-shirt that had the picture of an outline of a Mitsubishi Sapporo, and grey denim straight-cut jeans. He turned to look at Iketani after explaining the coupe's problem, and introduced himself.

"I apologise for not introducing first. My name is Ukyo Masakata. You can call me Ukyo," he said in a friendly tone. "And, well, I have been trying to drive fast down Akina Mountain, but I can't seem to handle the corner very well. All I can do is grip around them."

"I see. I assume you were trying to drift around the corners?" asked Iketani while potato face Itsuki was beginning to grope the Mitsubishi Starion.

Ukyo let out a heavy sigh, "Yes. Guess I'm not good at it. Why did I bother? Especially when I actually knew this 200BHP Starion had a problem with the radiator."

… … …