Well, here is my first foray into Fan fiction. Hope someone out there likes it.
The weather was often fickle in Kōyō-chō, and Kyoichi Sudo knew this to be true. The rains were rather hard, and the sun was rather hot. Not an unpleasant place to live, but Kyoichi would take the sweet slopes of Irohazaka he called home any day over this quaint, little place. Seeing as rumors placed Project D out here, however, Kyoichi Sudo had rounded up his Street Racer Team, "The Emperors," and had set out to find glory on the mountain roads of Kōyō-chō.
However, the legendary racing team Project D was nowhere in sight, and Kyoichi had been mulling over this fact one humid night at a rest area. After his defeats via Project D's downhill specialist, Takumi Fujiwara, and their leader, Ryosuke Takahashi, Kyoichi had thrown all of his spare time into perfecting his technique. His Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution III was certainly a better car than the Takumi's Toyota Trueno or Ryosuke's Mazda RX-7 FC. His four-wheel drive ensured that he could take a corner faster than either of them, his turbo-charged engine pumped out nearly 400 horsepower, which he knew for a fact that neither Takumi nor Ryosuke had, and his misfire system made his turbo run smoother than a newborn's backside. What must have been lacking was his technique, which Kyoichi had trained extensively on. He now felt confident he could take on Project D, but he had felt this way before and still lost, so a little anxiety on his part was warranted.
But after a week in this idyllic town, Kyoichi was considering packing up: there had been no sighting of Project D, and the few racers that did show up, were summarily trounced by his second-in-command, Seiji Iwaki, a driver of the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IV. A good driver in his own right, Seiji was generally dependable, but he would never reach the skill the Kyoichi possessed. And tonight, Seiji was busy: some punk driving a black Nissan Skyline GT-R had shown up. The odd thing about this challenger was that instead of challenging Kyoichi, the leader, to a race, he had challenged Seiji instead. It wouldn't matter, though: Seiji would wipe the floor with this punk, and Kyoichi would retire for the night, and go home disappointed tomorrow.
About 15 minutes later, when Seiji had returened, however, he was following the GT-R, which could only mean one thing: Seiji had lost.
"That driver was able to defeat Seiji? Maybe I didn't come all the way out here for nothing" Kyoichi mulled to himself, as he watched Seiji exit his car, a furious and shamed expression on his face.
"You were beaten." It was more a statement then a question, but it heightened Seiji's shame even more. As he was about to retort, however, the door to the GT-R opened, and out steeped a man of about twenty, wearing a dark polo shirt and jeans. This sight was enough to make Seiji go slack jawed.
"You! How did YOU beat me!" Seiji roared at the man, who more or less ignored him. Not a fan of being ignored, Seiji was about to explode on the man when a pointed look from Kyoichi shut him up.
"Takeshi Nakazato… A surprise to see you around these parts. I would have thought you had given up racing, what with your level of skill being where it is." Kyoichi addressed the GT-R driver, smirking cockily: the last time he had seen Takeshi Nakazato race, Takeshi had crashed into the side of the mountain before the race had gotten to the half-way point, a rather pathetic showing.
Takeshi bristled with anger, and it showed in his reply. "I just utterly trashed Seiji, so now I'm hunting bigger and better prey: You, Kyoichi Sudo."
Seiji had again been about to run his mouth to Nakazato, when another look from Kyoichi drained all the fight from him.
"First things first though…" Takeshi said, turning around to address Seiji for the first time since he driven up the mountain and challenged him.
Seiji, understanding what Takeshi wanted, sighed, and removed the "Night Kids" decals on his car. They had originally belonged to Takeshi, but Seiji had beaten him, and seized them as a way of making Takeshi feel lower than he already did.
Reapplying the decal to its rightful place on the GT-R, Takeshi admired it, before turning to Kyoichi, a determined look on his face.
Kyoichi knew what Takeshi wanted, and without a further word, retreated to his black Lancer Evolution, powering up the monstrous vehicle.
Takeshi likewise entered his vehicle, and both the GT-R and the Lancer Evolution pulled alongside each other before coming to a dead stop.
Seiji walked between the two cars, his thoughts in a whirlwind: he knew Kyoichi was a damn good driver, but Takeshi's recent emergence had thrown his beliefs out the window. He honestly didn't know if Kyoichi could win.
Seiji pushed his thoughts to the back of his mind, and started the countdown. Unnoticed to the three, however, was a white Mazda RX-7 FC near the back of the rest stop that had pulled in sometime after Takeshi and Seiji had pulled up. The driver, an aspiring doctor, was also awaiting the countdown.
Right as Seiji's hand flew down, accompanied by the yell of "GO!" Takeshi and Kyoichi both hammered the accelerators, the tires from each car screeching like banshees as they tried to cope with the demands for power.
As Kyoichi and Takeshi roared away from the starting line, the man in the RX-7 waited. And five seconds after the two sped away from the starting line, the RX-7 roared to life, its rotary engine surprising Seiji, who had not seen it.
As the cars disappeared from his sight, Seiji noticed something particularly dangerous about the RX-7: It was driving without any headlights!
"Is that idiot trying to kill himself!" Seiji roared in amazement, observing as brake lights from the RX-7 disappeared from sight as it snaked around the first turn.
The four red lights of GT-R light up like fireworks as Takeshi worked the brake in anticipation of the corner ahead. The Lancer Evolution behind did likewise and both cars went around the corner at around 60 m.p.h. The RX-7 followed behind, only three seconds behind now, headlights still off.
As he was accelerated to meet the GT-R ahead of him, Kyoichi marveled at the jump of skill between the Takeshi of before and the Takeshi of today. Before, it was incredibly likely that Takeshi would have cracked under the pressure, and spun out.
Now, though, Takeshi was taking corners with incredible grace. He wasn't skidding like the heavy GT-R was prone to doing.
"He must have put that thing on a massive diet…" Kyoichi mumbled to himself as he kept his Lancer Evolution in line behind the GT-R. Faintly, he thought he heard a third engine behind him, and checked his rear-view mirror for a split second. Nothing.
Feeling foolish, Kyoichi continued on, knowing that the prime point to pass Takeshi would be coming up soon.
"Ah man… did Kaede really need groceries at this time of night?" a young lad wondered aloud as he walked home down one of the steepest mountains in Kōyō-chō.
This man's name was Rin Tsuchimi, and he had returned from getting groceries on the other side of town, as Kaede Fuyou, the girl he was currently living with, had run short of materials to cook with. Rin, being the upstanding person he was, had gone to retrieve said groceries.
"Gah… It's really cold out tonight…" Rin mumbled to himself as he pulled his shirt tighter around himself. "Thank god this road is almost always abandoned at this time of night…"
As soon as he had said this, he heard the roar of three car engines, and quickly turned around to see the blinding headlights of a GT-R.
Takeshi kept mostly silent as he exited another corner at breakneck speed, hit the gas pedal, and rocketed forward, the Lancer Evolution hot on his tail.
"He's going to try to pass me up here on this wide sweeping turn…" Takeshi thought to himself as he started to brake for said sweeping turn, cranking the steering wheel to the right. He knew Team Emperor's style, of not being overly aggressive, and pinpointing the perfect area to pass.
Takeshi also knew that the Lancer Evolution behind him would be able to take turn a bit faster then him, due to that damn misfire system.
"Let's see how he likes this!" Takeshi roared as he braked hard, the tires of the GT-R screeching as he slowed down, and took the inside route of the turn.
"Not going to make this easy for me, are you…" Kyoichi observed as the GT-R moved to the inside lane.
"Whatever. I'll pass on the outside then!" Kyoichi yelled as he braked hard, and then pumped the gas, bringing his car to around 70 M.P.H., moving to the outside.
What neither of these street racers had expected, though, was one Rin Tsuchimi walking down the mountain with a bag of groceries, and a wide eyed look of terror.
Time seemed to slow down for Takeshi as he saw a boy illuminated in the high beams of his GT-R. Eyes widening, Takeshi knew that on his current trajectory, he would soon splatter the boy onto the pavement.
Fortunately for Rin, Takeshi knew exactly what to do. With a cry of "URYAHH!" Takeshi downshifted, and then floored the gas pedal, smirking as the rear of his GT-R started to slide toward the guardrail, the tires unable to cope with the Takeshi's demand for power. The effectively both blocking Kyoichi from passing, and saving Rin's life at the same time. And with some subtle manipulation of both the steering wheel and the pedals, Takeshi maintained his 63m.p.h slide.
"Goddamnit!" Kyoichi yelled as the rear of the GT-R slid toward the outside bumper. Was Takeshi drifting, or was he spinning out? From what he knew, Takeshi's nerves were easier to rattle than a maraca. Could he have cracked under the pressure?
Kyoichi also considered where they were in the course, and realized that there were only three hairpin turns left after this sweeping curve. If this was indeed a drift, then Takeshi could simply block him on the hairpins, and ride the final straight to victory.
"Shit!" Kyoichi spouted as he pulled into a drift as well, pulling right alongside Takeshi. The only chance he had know was to floor it out of the drift, and hope his Lancer Evolution could overtake the GT-R.
Unfortunately for Takeshi, Kyoichi's misfire system in his Lancer Evolution allowed the Turbo to kick in a bit sooner than Takeshi's twin turbo GT-R.
Takeshi grit his teeth as he watched the Lancer Evolution take half-a-car's lead on his left side. Knowing that Kyoichi could pull off a drift to block him from taking the fastest line through the hairpin turns, Takeshi could place his hope on only one move.
The RX-7 speed out of the sweeping curve about two and a half seconds after the duo, watching silently from his race harness as the Lancer Evolution took a slight lead on the outside.
"What will you do now, Takeshi Nakazato…" the man wondered aloud to himself as he watched the Lancer Evolution block the GT-R with an incredible drift, shooting straight though the right turn. His eyes shot open, however, when he realized that the GT-R had seemingly taken the turn inhumanly sharply without a drift of some sort, and pulled ahead of the Lancer Evolution out of the turn.
"How did he-"the man's amazed wonderings were cut short as he rounded the turn, looking on the inside of the turn for some sort of clue. Indeed, he found a rain gutter, and came to the conclusion that the GT-R had dipped its wheels into the gutter, as a sort of turning aid.
"Although not as well done as our friend Fujiwara, you pulled off a gutter run… simply outstanding Takeshi." The man said as he exited the last of the three hairpin turns, a smile on his face.
As the GT-R pulled ahead of the Lance Evolution, Kyoichi was at a loss for words. He had no idea what the other man had done, but he had taken the corner at a faster speed than him, and had emerged as the leader.
Blocked by a drift on the second hairpin, Kyoichi could only pull alongside the GT-R as they entered the third hairpin, where Takeshi took the turn sharper than humanly possible.
Kyoichi looked somberly out of his windshield as the GT-R pulled of his Lancer Evolution out of the turn, and passed by the first set of houses, marking the end of the race. Kyoichi had lost.