Golden Arrows

Chapter One

Despite being in the middle of the morning rush hour, neither of the two train rides it took Kizuna to get from Narita Airport to Maebashi were unbearable and the girl was impressed enough by the efficiency of the Japanese Railway System to start thinking that she could, after all, survive living in Japan without having her own means of transportation.

Not that she had many other options, the girl thought while she got off the train at Maebashi lugging the two heavy suitcases she had with her the best way she could. While her many part time jobs had made sure she had plenty of money to get by, there was no way she could afford buying a car.

Leaving the station, she quickly found a taxi.

'Where to?' the driver asked her.

'Maebashi Institute of Technology,' Kizuna replied feeling, once again, grateful that her mother had insisted that she was as fluent in Japanese as she was in English. She did wonder if her accent sounded weird to the driver but since the taxi started moving without any problems, she guessed that it was alright.

The ride was a short one and, very soon, they arrived at the college entrance from which she saw the set of buildings which housed the classrooms, laboratories and administration offices. She also saw a smaller redbrick building with a large sign announcing that it was the college's library. Kizuna made a mental note to visit it as soon as possible.

While on her way to the Admission Offices, she noticed that the campus was almost devoid of students. It was to be expected, after all, they were in between semesters and most people were probably home enjoying the holidays before the start of the new academic year. At the reception desk, she found a chubby middle aged woman who was so bored that she smiled happily when she saw Kizuna there.

'Hello there,' the lady said.

'Hi,' Kizuna said timidly, 'I'm a new student,' she added producing the admittance form they had sent her along with the letter, 'I know I'm a little early but…'

'No worries dear,' the woman said still smiling at her. She took the form and, taking a quick look at her name, she busied herself with her computer. Within just a few minutes, she produced a full welcome kit: a brand new ID complete with the photo Kizuna had sent along with her initial application, a copy of the student book which contained the college regulations and, what was more important, the key to her room at the dorms, 'the building isn't far,' the lady explained.

'I know,' Kizuna said, 'I printed out a map of the campus, just in case.'

'Well done,' the lady praised, 'now, if you need anything else, just let us know, okay?'

'Thank you,' Kizuna replied bowing her head slightly.

'No problems,' the woman said, 'and welcome to the Maebashi Institute of Technology.'

Kizuna smiled and, taking all the documents she'd just been given, she pocketed the key to her room. Shortly after that she was again lugging her suitcases on her way to the building where the dorms for the female students were. It wasn't a big place: if the figures on the website were accurate, there were only fifty rooms in it and, right now, there wasn't a single student in sight.

All the better, she thought, this way she'd have time to get used to the place.

Thankfully, her room was in the ground floor and finding it was a very simple matter. She was also pleased to see that it was a single room and that it looked like most of the furniture there was fairly new making it look like the sort of accommodation one could expect from a posh hotel.

She even had bedside lamp which matched the one hanging from the ceiling, the window also had a nice view of the campus and its greenery but the best part was the desk: it was large enough to make her laptop look ridiculously small and there was an empty bookcase so that she could have all her books in display.

Kizuna sat down on the chair in front of it finding it quite comfortable and, for a while, she just sat there, taking her time to become familiar with the room where she would spend the next four years. Then, remembering that she had quite a few things on top of her to-do list, she got back up.

Grabbing her backpack, she made sure she had her ID with her as well as they room's key and, locking the door behind her, she walked down the corridor towards the payphone she'd seen when coming in. Dialling her home's number, she waited until her mother picked up the phone:

'Hello?'

'Hi mum, you weren't sleeping, were you?' Kizuna asked trying to calculate the time difference.

'No, no,' her mother replied, 'it's only nine pm,' she explained then, taking a long breath, she said all in one go, 'tell me, did you have a good flight? How's Japan? And the dorm? And…'

'Mum,' Kizuna laughed softly, 'I'm fine, the flight was as good as it can be and Japan is great. The room at the dorm is perfect too. How are you?'

'I'm fine,' Salina replied more calmly, 'feeling a little lonely,' she confessed, 'but I'll be fine, so don't worry about me, okay?'

'Likewise,' Kizuna replied, 'I'm very happy to be here so please, don't worry about me either, okay?'

'I can't do that, honey,' Salina said, 'I'm your mother.'

Kizuna shook her head and said:

'Listen mum, I have to go now but I'll call you at least once a week, I promise.'

'Okay,' Salina replied, 'take care of yourself and make sure you eat properly, okay?'

'Of course,' Kizuna promised, 'say hi to Uncle Josh from me.'

'I will,' Salina said, 'I love you.'

'Me too,' Kizuna said. Then, slowly, she replaced the receiver and, taking a couple of steadying breaths, she decided that she was ready to start her new life in Maebashi. To begin with, she needed to see if she could get a mobile phone and was lucky enough to see a DoCoMo shop just outside the campus where she bought one of the cheapest sets making sure it was enabled to make intercontinental calls.

With that out of the way, she put her hand into her pocket and pulled out the piece of paper her uncle had given her as her going-away present. She stared at it for a few moments while standing in the middle of the street. She bit her lower lip and checked the time: it was nearly midday.

'Alright,' she muttered.

She returned to her room and, after putting her new phone to charge its battery she went out again and started walking back towards the station, trying to pay attention to the map she had as well as taking note of useful places she saw along the way such as the post office and a convenience store.

There, she bought herself a sandwich and was about to start eating it while she walked when she remembered that it was bad manners to do so in Japan. For this reason, she put it back in its plastic container and decided that she would eat it as soon as she could.

Once at the station, she checked a map they had on display to see exactly how far from Maebashi was the city of Shibukawa and, to Kizuna's surprise, she saw it was so close that there was a local bus service connecting both cities' stations.

Checking she had enough coins to pay for the fare, she walked towards the bus stop and, while she waited for it, she ate the sandwich as quickly as possible finishing it just as the bus arrived. She got onboard and, finding an empty seat, she started wondering about what she'd find at that address.

The ride to Shibukawa wasn't long enough for her to come up with an answer to that question and, very soon, the speaker announced that they had arrived at the Shibukawa railway station. Kizuna followed all three commuters who also got off at that stop and then she walked inside the train station hoping to find a city map in there.

'Excuse me,' she heard a man ask her.

'Yes?' Kizuna replied.

'Are you lost?' he asked.

Kizuna was about to freak out and leave when she realised that the man was wearing a uniform from the Japanese Railways and, as such, offering her assistance was merely part of his job. Because of this, she pulled the crumpled piece of paper and, showing it to him, she said:

'I need to go to this address; do you know where it is?'

'Ah, it's not far from here,' the man replied smiling at her, 'if you can wait a second, I'll draw you a map.'

'Oh,' she gasped, 'that's awfully nice of you, thank you.'

'You're welcome,' the man said.

Less than five minutes later, she had a very useful little map drawn on the back of the piece of paper where she had the address written and thanks to that finding the place was a piece of cake. The mysterious address revealed itself to be nothing but an ordinary looking old house which, at least, had the correct nametag:

SUZUKI

Kizuna debated with herself whether she could just show up at some stranger's house. She thought of how she would feel if she found some weird half-Japanese girl at her doorstep saying that she was there because her American uncle had told her to do so and realising just how bizarre that was, she turned round to leave.

'Who are you?' an old man asked her.

She'd been so absorbed in her own thoughts she hadn't even noticed his presence.

'Er…'

'What were you doing standing in front of my house?'

'Ah..'

'What's your name?'

The girl braced herself for the worst when she said:

'I'm Kizuna Ethridge.'

'Kizuna what?' the old man asked her. That made her realise that she had to get used to pronounce her English surname the Japanese way or people would never understand it. Because of this, she repeated:

'I'm Kizuna Ethridge.'

'Ethridge?' the old man asked almost as if he was talking to himself. He then frowned a little and Kizuna saw that he was deep in thought then, all of a sudden, his face lit in realisation and said, 'oh…I see! It's you!'

'Excuse me,' Kizuna ventured, 'are you Suzuki Masashi-san?'

'Yes,' the old man replied, 'that's me. Your uncle called me a couple of days ago telling me you'd come.'

'My uncle did?' Kizuna asked feeling her eyebrows shooting up in astonishment.

'Yes, yes, he speaks funny Japanese,' Suzuki-san commented with a smile, 'but come in, it's still cold today, you wouldn't think it's March already.'

'No,' Kizuna smiled, 'it's a lot colder than where I come from.'

'That's right,' Suzuki-san, 'you're from South California, right?'

'No,' the girl replied shaking her head once, 'I'm from South Carolina, it's an entirely different state.'

'Ah,' Suzuki-san, 'it all sounds the same to me.'

'Fair enough,' Kizuna replied.

She then followed the old man inside his house thinking that for some reason and after the awkward introduction time was over, she really liked this old man. He had to be well into his seventies yet the agile way in which he climbed the stairs on his way to the front door was worthy of admiration.

'Stay here, I won't be a tick,' he told her leaving her standing on the reception area.

Before she had the time to reply, he walked into his house and, just a few seconds later, he was back, carrying what looked like a metallic rectangular box with him. He handed it to her immediately and, shoving his feet back inside his shoes, he said:

'Come with me.'

Not even dreaming to argue with him, she practically jogged behind the old man and, soon enough she found herself walking around the house's perimeter and when they got to the back yard, she saw a huge barn-like construction built where the back yard was supposed to be. It had an open entrance from which she could see what had to be one of the largest collection of tools she had seen in her life.

'Wha…'

'I'll need a hand with this,' the old man announced.

Putting the small box inside one of her coat's pockets, she followed him inside and, once there, she saw something else which made her jaw fall open. Her brain hadn't even had the time to register what was happening when, from underneath a dusty sheet, she saw a dark grey Nissan 350Z.

'Oh my…'

'You like it?' Suzuki-san asked her.

'What…'

'It's yours,' the old man said.

'It's what?' Kizuna finally managed to ask.

'It's yours,' Suzuki-san repeated, 'well, in reality it was your father's. He bought it here a long time ago. Your uncle Josh had it shipped over a few weeks ago and asked me if I could keep it in my garage until you came to pick it up.'

'But…'

'It needs some work,' the old man continued, 'but nothing major, from what I saw when they brought it in, it just needs new tyres and we could do a good check up just to make sure everything's right but, for the rest, you could very well take it home with you right now.'

'Wait a minute,' Kizuna breathed.

She leant against a nearby column and, taking a few much needed calming breaths, she tried to start making sense of what was going on in there. Kizuna kept staring at the car as though as she half expected it to vanish and, when that didn't happen, she frowned in worry because, unless she was horribly mistaken, everything was real.

'Hey kiddo,' the Suzuki-san said, 'are you alright?'

'Eh?'

'You look kind of pale,' the old man observed.

'I…' Kizuna started then, pulling herself away from the column, she sighed and said, 'Suzuki-san, please I beg you to be honest with me: you're not joking, right? I mean, this isn't some sort of prank because I know my uncle Josh and…'

'I don't know your uncle Josh,' Suzuki-san replied with an affectionate smile, 'but I knew your father all the way back when he was still a half-baked racer trying to get your mother to take him seriously. He used to come to my repairs shop all the time to get his car fixed until he learned to do it himself.'

'I see…'

'There's a letter from him in that box I just gave you,' he informed her.

Kizuna took the metallic box back out of her pocket and, opening it, she saw that it contained two things: one a yellowing envelope with her name written on it and, on top of it, the key to the 350Z. With trembling hands, she pocketed it and, very carefully, she removed the letter from inside the box.

'I'll leave you to it,' Suzuki-san said, 'I've got to make a phone call anyway.'

The girl just nodded and, with a nearly religious reverence, she opened the envelope her father had sealed over fifteen years before. Kizuna found two sheets of paper inside it, one of them was an official looking document in Japanese; the other was a letter handwritten in English:

Dear Kizu,

If you're reading this, it means that I was right when I felt like I needed to write this to you in case I wasn't there to tell you in person. I'm very sorry about it because, right now, there's nothing I want more than to see you become the beautiful and strong woman I know one day you'll be.

Since I know that one day you'll want to move back to Japan and that you'll probably want to have your own car, I'll make sure you can find this one here with Suzuki-san. His mechanics skills are legendary and he's told me he'll be happy to help you make this Nissan the kind of car you'll want to drive.

The only thing we ask in exchange is for you to remember this: cars can be a lot of fun but they are very dangerous if you don't treat them with the respect they deserve so, never drive beyond your own abilities because knowing your limits it's also the fastest way to keep on improving. That's all the advice I can give you, the rest, it's best if you figure it out yourself.

I'll always love you,

Dad.

Kizuna realised she was crying when Suzuki-san came back but the old man was quick enough to pretend that nothing was wrong, giving the girl the time she needed to wipe the tears from her face and try to get some resemblance of composure.

'Come here,' the old man said.

She complied and, following him to the back of the enormous garage, she saw a trolley with four new tyres, a couple of cans of oil and several parts. This all seemed to have just arrived because, next to it, she saw the discarded boxes from a well known American shipping company.

'So,' she muttered, 'that's what Uncle Josh meant.'

'Regarding what?' Suzuki-san asked.

'He told me he had the "right contacts" in the shipping industry,' she replied.

'Oh,' the old man said, 'that's for sure. Shipping the car alone would cost a small fortune but he also had all of these things shipped over here even though it would have been cheaper to just buy them locally.'

'He said this was my going-to-college present,' Kizuna explained with a smile.

'That's one heck of a present,' Suzuki-san observed.

'I agree,' Kizuna said.

She still could not believe that her uncle would go through such pains in order to make sure she had her own ride even here in Japan. She could believe even less that the car had actually been her father's and, on top of it, it was a Japanese model so even the steering wheel was in the right side.

'So kiddo,' Suzuki-san said taking her out of her reverie, 'are you too tired from the trip to start working on your car? Your uncle said you're not bad when it comes to fixing stuff so, I'd really like to see if that's true.'

'Well…' she hesitated.

'Don't worry,' the old man said, 'I might be old but I can still help you a fair bit.'

'That'd be…,' she hesitated again then, smiling at Suzuki-san, she nodded once and said, 'I'm all hands and ears, please tell me what you need me to do and I'll be happy to do it.'

The old man smiled approvingly and, before she knew it, the two of them removed their jackets so that they could start working on the sixteen year old car. By the time the old man decided that they were done for the day, Kizuna had nearly forgotten that she was in Japan and, even more importantly, what she was there for.

'We'll continue tomorrow,' he said, 'if you're free, that is.'

'I am,' she hurried to reply, 'what time do you want me to be here?'

'Not before ten,' Suzuki-san replied, 'I like sleeping in.'

'Okay,' Kizuna accepted, 'I'll be here at eleven.'

'Good girl,' Suzuki-san said.

It took them nearly three full days of continued work before the old man was happy enough to let her get behind the wheel and, during said time, she was simply enthralled by the sheer amount of stuff he knew, not only about cars and racing but, he also gave her quite a good insight of what living in Gunma was like.

'I've lived here my whole life,' the man commented, 'and, personally, there isn't any other place I'd rather live in. Most of my friends live in this city and my wife's tomb is at the local cemetery so, I couldn't leave even if I wanted to.'

'I'm sorry to hear about that,' Kizuna said frowning a little.

'Oh,' Suzuki-san said, 'don't worry about it, it happened a while ago.'

Kizuna remained quiet unsure of what to say next when Suzuki-san shook his head once before he looked at her and, the smile returning to his heavily lined face, he pointed at the newly restored Nissan and said:

'So, you want to go for a drive?'

'Can I?' Kizuna asked a little stupidly.

'Well,' he replied, 'it's your car: you can do pretty much whatever you want with it.'

'I guess you're right,' she said then, she asked, 'is there any good road around Maebashi? I'd like to take it there tonight so I can get some practice, you see, I've never driven a car with the steering on the right side.'

'If you want a road,' he replied, 'you must go to the Route 62 as it goes around Mt Akagi.'

'Route 62?' she asked.

'Yes,' he confirmed, 'you will need to continue along Route 257 roughly half way through it to keep climbing up the mountain but you can't miss it. If you went there now, it'll be packed with tourists who want to visit the crater…'

'Crater?' Kizuna asked.

'Of course,' Suzuki-san said, 'Mt Akagi is a volcano; didn't you know that?'

'No, I didn't,' Kizuna replied honestly.

'Anyway,' the old man continued, 'if you want some peace and quiet to do some proper driving, wait until nine or ten in the evening. Anytime after that and it's pretty much guaranteed that you'll have the road to yourself.'

'Suzuki-san,' she said, 'you seem to know a whole lot about this kind of things…'

The man limited himself to give her the most cryptic smile ever.

'Alright,' she carried on, 'I'll probably park the car at the campus tonight, if that's okay with you.'

'Hey,' he said, 'you don't need to ask me permission, it is your car, do whatever you want.'

'Okay,' she smiled, 'thank you for everything Suzuki-san. I…I couldn't have done this without you.'

'You're welcome,' he said, 'and feel free to drop by whenever you want, it's been good having someone young to chat with and not those two nutters I always have to hang out with. Wait until I tell them about it, they'll be so jealous, especially that Yuuichi.'

'Alright,' she said with a benevolent smile, 'I better go now.'

'Okay,' he agreed, 'remember: keep at the left side of the road at all times, okay?'

'Yes,' Kizuna said. She then climbed behind the steering wheel of her Nissan and taking a deep breath, she turned the key in the ignition, for just a few moments, she just sat there enjoying the purr of the finely tuned engine. Kizuna had to give it to Suzuki-san: the man knew how to make a car sound as good as a Stradivarius.

Later on that night, she drove the 350Z up Route 62 for the first time ever. Because of that, she took her time to see what the road was like: taking each corner carefully and making sure she remembered to stay on the left while fighting the instinct which wanted her to get onto the right lane.

From there, as Suzuki-san said, she took the deviation to the Route 257 where she saw that the road became a lot curvier and steeper. Kizuna smiled seeing this and, deciding to push it a little, she pressed the accelerator noticing with immense pleasure that her Nissan, while old, was still powerful enough.

'This is fantastic,' she said to herself.

Not giving herself time to get emotional thinking about her father, she drove all the distance to what she saw was the summit and, once there, she turned round so that she could drive the car downhill. That revealed itself to be such a beautifully challenging experience that she kept on repeating the process until, two hours later, her arms and legs were too tired to carry on.

It was time for a break.

The girl stopped the car by some vending machines at the bottom of the pass and while she was busy selecting something to drink, she first heard then saw two sports cars obviously racing each other. She didn't have the time to see which model they were but she recognised the symbol at the back of one of them: they were two Mazda; one white and one yellow.

The former was tailing the latter and the two were driving up the pass with such mastery that it made Kizuna forget all about her thirst. For a few too short seconds, her attention was focused exclusively on the two cars and, as soon as they disappeared around a wide right-hander, the girl felt like she needed to know who the two drivers were and, if at all possible, meet up with them.

To be continued…