Whee… now where do I start? Ah yes… I've read numerous Initial D fanfics both here and offsite and many of them feature either our sleepy-eyed tofu boy, or one of the Takahashi kyoudai (or around original characters who interact with the aforementioned boys). Less frequently are stories about our beloved lady team, Impact Blue, or lesser important racers, like the Night Kids, the Speed Stars or Kyouichi of Emperor. But if there's one thing that I've noticed, there aren't any stories around that focus on Seiji, the other semi-important driver in Emperor.
Why not?
I mean, sure, Seiji is portrayed as an ass in both the manga and anime, but in other stories where other crude characters go OOC, they make them out to be nicer than they really are. So why not give Seiji that much credit? He's an ass to other racers, but what about to other people aside from his teammates? I doubt he'd survive long in any society if he was an ass to everyone, right? So what follows is my homage to the one man in Initial D who's very misunderstood… the one the only Iwaki Seiji.
(one person is heard slowly clapping in the background) Oh, you people are mean! =(
Disclaimer: Initial D and its characters are the respective copyrights of Shigeno-san and Kodansha. Alex, Jin and Miyoko are my own creations, as well as Miyoko's family, but the little historical part about the Edo period is true, so I do not claim credit for that either. (Hey, it doesn't hurt to throw in some history in there!)
Follow The Leader
by BoomChish
PROLOGUE
I didn't know what else to say as Kyouichi raised his right hand high and brought it down in a fierce slap across my face, causing my whole head to snap to one side. I cringed at the impact of his hand striking my face. It hurt a lot… but not as much as his words were when they followed right after…
"You're a disgrace to Emperor, you know that, Seiji? You're good for nothing; you can't even keep up with some of the mediocre road racers in the area. We're supposed to be the best of the best in this area and instead, we seem like a bunch of losers, all because you can't seem to use your brain properly when racing against them!" They probably wouldn't have stabbed me so hard if Kyouichi had been yelling at me, but he wasn't… he was unbelievably cold and calm when he said them. That hurt even more.
I kept my mouth shut. I knew that my feeble excuses wouldn't save my ass this time. It was bad enough that I'd lost to Fujiwara Takumi all those months ago on Akina, when Kyouichi had wanted to take over Gunma in a month. But then, of course, that little twerp was a monster behind the wheel of his Toyota Trueno Hachi-Roku. I didn't stand a chance. It was rather embarrassing when I was completely dominated by Takahashi Keisuke of the Akagi RedSuns on Akagi, especially since Kyouichi and Keisuke's aniki, Ryousuke have been rivals for some time. And it was downright humiliating to lose to some no name kid from our area known as Kogashiwa Kai. After all, being an Emperor of Irohazaka, I should have been able to destroy him on my home course, but I just couldn't. But I knew that this time, I would not be saved.
My opponent this time was some fresh-faced kid from our area who drove a Nissan Silvia S14 K Aero. Kyouichi had told me that he was a pushover, someone even I should be able to beat. But as soon as the kid passed me in the second section, I knew this kid had some skill under his belt. From where, I have no clue, but I was completely dominated. And Kyouichi was pissed when I arrived at the bottom of the downhill course. He hid his anger well, but I'd have preferred it if he'd raged in my face. But the fact that he was ice cold was enough to warn me that I'd really done it this time. I was screwed.
And it came. "Someone like you shouldn't even be in Emperor in the first place, let alone the second-best driver of this team. There are many others here who have a better potential than you do, mainly because they all have functional brains, something that you don't. Your sticker," Here, he held out his hand to me, his face impassive. With a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach, I walked over to my beloved car, my Evo IV, and peeled off the Emperor sticker that graced my back windshield. I handed it over to him and he took it from me. He then pulled out his Xacto blade and cut it in half, the same way we used to do with other teams' stickers when we'd defeat them. Most of them still graced my back wing. I watched, stunned and in silence, as Kyouichi took both sides of my sticker and stuck them together, then tossed it on the ground and stepped on it with absolute disgust.
"Get the hell out of here," he spoke, as he turned around, his back facing me. It was the worst day of my life. Feeling like an absolute loser, I simply got into my Evo, started the engine and drove off. I knew that my time with Emperor was over. That my time as a road racer was over…
My name is Iwaki Seiji. I am officially retiring from the road-racing scene…
Chapter One
Back On The Rocks
I was sick and tired of living in my apartment by myself. Not only was the rent ridiculously high, with the utility costs and whatnot, it was a pretty shitty apartment to begin with. I only decided to rent a place there because it was cheap and affordable, compared to other places that were for rent. And since no one ever visits me anyway, I figured no one would really give a crap about how it looked. But after living there for five years, I wanted out.
I went apartment hunting for a long while, but I eventually had to give up because either the rent was too high, the place sucked ass or the landlord (or landlady) was just an ass. And after living with a crappy landlord for five years in a shitty apartment with high rent, I didn't want to jump back onto that bandwagon. No siree, I wouldn't even dream of it.
Fortunately, my younger brother Jin offered me an alternative; he'd been living with some friends of his from university in a house, and one of them had recently moved out to go live in Europe, so there was a room available for me. The house was owned by one of his fellow classmates and friends and from what he told me, they didn't mind if I moved in. All I had to do was pitch in for the bills, groceries and whatever other fees that incurred concerning the house and its maintenance. Figuring that I had nothing to lose and hey, living in a house sounds a hell of a lot better than living in a shitty apartment, I agreed and Jin suggested that I come over to visit his fellow housemates first before I made a final decision.
As I drove on, following the directions I was given by my brother, I started to think about him. I hadn't seen the sonofabitch in years and it would be certainly interesting, if not enjoyable, to be living under the same roof with him again. Jinzaburo Iwaki, who, at twenty-three, is six years younger than I am. As far as appearances go, we share the same hair length (long, black and straight, except mine is constantly ponytailed, while he prefers to wear it loose like some carefree Romeo), same height, same build and same eye color. Except he's still got the freshness of youth on his face, so he's goddamn irresistible to all the young ladies. I, on the other hand, look ten years older than I really am, so instead of ladies flocking me, they're more apt to run away from me. Ah, the ironies of life…
After about ten minutes of driving, I finally found the street where the house was located. As I drove down the street slowly, checking out the house numbers, the first thought that ran through my head was, This can't be right… this is like… the high-class area of Nikko… now way could Jin and his friends afford to stay here while they're studying full-time in university… Piqued by my interest, (and the possible notion that Jin played a prank on me, as he often did when we were younger) I drove on.
I eventually found the house and parked in front of it. The address I had written down matched the address on the house… except… The house was huge. It was modern in style, so it couldn't have been there long… and it was certainly bigger than the house that my family grew up in. But that wasn't the most disconcerting part…
There was a four-car driveway in front of the house… and there were three (yes, count them, three) Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VIIs parked in the driveway. One was clear blue, one was cherry red and the last one was canary yellow. They contrasted each other so garishly, like a child's erratic coloring of a drawing. Now I was even more interested to see my brother and his supposedly strange housemates.
I walked up the path and rang the doorbell. A barking noise from within the house ensued, deep, furious and persistent. I chanced a look at the living room window and saw a black muzzle poking out from behind the drapes, barking at me. Well, they have a dog. I guess I could live with that. After all, I like dogs.
The front door opened and I found myself face to face with a complete stranger. He had short blond hair in a layered fashion, somewhat like Tidus from Final Fantasy X, clear blue eyes, a tiny goatee on his chin and… pale skin. To be blunt… he was a foreigner. Crap… he did play a joke on me… That sonofabitch…I'm gonna kill him…
"Ah, you must be Seiji. Jin's older brother, right?" he spoke.
He spoke perfect Japanese, down to the accent. If not for his looks, he could pass for a native.
I blinked. He knew my name? "Yeah."
The man bowed slightly, then smiled broadly. "Hi, I'm Alex Stanford. I'm one of Jin's friends and his classmate from university." I must've looked confused, because he chuckled and said, "I moved here from America two years ago. But I've been studying Japanese culture since I was young, which is why I've perfected the language. You can't detect an accent, can you?"
I shook my head. "Not at all. Absolutely flawless."
"Sweet." He grinned and stepped aside. "Come on in. Your brother will be happy to see you."
I stepped inside the house and Alex closed the door behind us. The barking increased and a huge black Labrador retriever ran up to me and jumped up at me, trying to lick my face. I let the dog rest his front paws on my chest as I affectionately ruffled his head.
"That's Sparky, my dog. He's about three years old. When I moved here, I just couldn't leave him behind, so I brought him along. He's a very friendly dog, though he does get noisy at times," Alex explained.
I chuckled. "Not a problem. I used to have a dog when I was younger. I can handle it."
Out of the blue, I heard my brother's familiar cheery voice; "Aniki! You made it!"
I looked up at the staircase and saw Jin running down to greet me with a hearty smack on the shoulder and a hug. I hugged him back; after all, I hadn't seen him for nearly eight years. He hadn't changed much, I had to admit. He'd merely toned up just enough to have that all-around sex appeal that women couldn't resist. The sex appeal I'd lost the moment I hit twenty-five. Just my luck, huh?
Jin was speaking, "So, I see you met Alex and Sparky, huh? Cool. Miyoko's busy at the moment, but she'll be out soon to say hello."
"Miyoko?" I repeated. So they had a female housemate too?
Jin nodded. "Yeah. In fact, she owns this house. It was given to her as a present from her dad for graduating from high school with top honors. Bet you've even heard of her family, aniki."
I shrugged. "Depends… What's her family name?"
"She's Miyoko Ieyasu, the daughter of Hiroji Ieyasu," Alex supplied helpfully. At the mention of that name, my eyes went wide and my jaw dropped. Hiroji Ieyasu was the sole owner of Ieyasu Incorporated, one of Japan's largest electronics manufacturers. It was also rumored that their family was descended directly from Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder of the Tokugawa dynasty of shoguns during the Edo period, but those rumors were unfounded. Either way, the information was a lot of absorb. My little brother was living in a house… with the daughter of Hiroji Ieyasu… and he never told our parents? Damn, they'd completely flip if they found out.
Jin was watching me with open amusement. "I can see we caught you off guard. In any case, Miyoko's a nice girl. She's younger than both Alex and myself by two years, and she's fairly easygoing and fun to be around, albeit a bit direct in her manner. I met her in my sophomore year in university in one of my study groups. She's taking advanced classes, which is how we landed in the same study group."
"And you enchanted her with your irresistible charms and she allowed you and your friends to stay in her house with her?" I queried.
Alex laughed aloud at that. "Not exactly, considering who Miyoko is and how often she's dealt with drooling, hollow-brained suitors, but if it were any other woman, I'd have to agree." Seeing my look on my face, he continued, "Actually, back then, we were living in one of the dormitories on campus when Jin met Miyoko. What piqued her interest in him - well, the both of us, actually - is that all three of us drive Evo VIIs. I know it sounds like a retarded, shallow idea, but that's the truth. We started to exchange information on modifications and whatnot and finally, one day, she invited the both of us to come live with her. Surely you've seen the three Evos outside, right?"
So the cars did belong to them. "Can I take a guess… the bright yellow one is Miyoko's, right?"
It was Jin's turn to laugh out loud. "Everyone says that when they see our cars together for the first time. But no. Actually, aniki, the yellow Evo belongs to Alex. The red one is Miyoko's and the blue one is mine. It's also kind of ironic that with the three of our cars together, we have the three primary colors."
I looked over at Alex with a questioning look. "Why yellow?"
He shrugged then smiled. "I like the color, that's all…"
"So… are you guys street racers, or something like that?"
"Oh, dear God, no! We wish, though," Jin spoke wistfully. "It's just that we need practice… lots of it… and the closest mountain pass here is Irohazaka, but that's Emperor territory… and no way do we wanna practice on their turf… They'd decimate us in a heartbeat…"
---
Yeah, I think I'd stop it just about there. Don't worry, more will come soon!
A/N: For simplicity's sake, I figured that one way to bring out the better personality in Seiji would be to throw him in various situations with a sibling, preferably a younger sibling. So I gave him a younger brother. (A younger sister would have been too awkward for Seiji, seeing as he'd have to deal with her boyfriends and stuff that older brothers despise taking care of) Jin's physical description was deliberate; I made him to be the handsomer, younger version of Seiji who makes all women stare when he walks by. Makes you think about the possibility that Seiji was some handsome sonofabitch when he was younger, but lost it after a while when he stopped taking care of his physical appearance.
I made a comparison between Alex and Tidus, because that's the best way I could explain his hairdo. Maybe Seiji has played FFX, maybe he just saw some posters. But that's the best example I could give, so that you could get a pretty good idea of what I meant his hairdo to look like.
You'll notice that Seiji has not met Miyoko yet. (will something happen between them? Probably not… but who knows? Dun dun dunnn!) Anyhow, putting all jest aside, I'll give you a little inside spoiler on what I intend for Miyoko to be. Since she's the daughter of a rich entrepreneur, she's meant to be a spoiled little rich princess. And as it is often the case with spoiled brats, they're not afraid to say their mind. She's the one character who'll make Seiji act the way he does in the manga and anime, all because her attitude will clash with his. How she will do that, you'll just have to wait and see!
-BoomChish
