DRIFT KINGS: SECOND STAGE
A/N: I'm back! Now that it's Christmas break, I actually have time again, so I figured I better write some more. So, while I'm still inspired by my M.O.V.E albums, let's do this thing!
P.S. Just so no one gets accidentally left out on a slightly crucial detail, Fumihiro drives an SW20 MR2.
DISCLAIMER: Same as always; I own nothing but my OC's
ACT 3; Lake Akina, 9:15 AM:
Misaki Yuu pulled the tall shifter down into neutral, pulled back the handbrake, and turned the key. The engine slowed from a roar and burbled into silence as Yuu undid his Takata four-point harness and slid out of the TRD bucket seat. He patted his AE85 lovingly on the roof. There was nothing like a good sleeper car, and this had to be the best Yuu had ever owned.
"Oi! Yuu-cha~n!"
Yuu flinched slightly at the diminutive suffix, then forced a smile and turned around. In the parking spaces adjacent to his white Levin coupe, the rest of his team's elite scouting group had arrived. Yuu's best three and himself had gone ahead of the rest of Team Hachi-Shokku to see if Gunma and the surrounding prefectures were worth their interest.
"So," Yuu said to the person who had called to him, "Find anything interesting?"
Riyosaki Miki leaned back against her red and black "panda" Levin, but before she could answer, Hiroshi Ketsure, Yuu's number-two man, entered the conversation.
"Miyu-chan and I passed a few here on Akina, a couple S-chassis Nissans and AE85 Levin; nothing all that impressive."
Miki pushed past Hiroshi, "Mou,Hiro-kun, Yuu-chan wasn't talking to you."
"My bad," Hiroshi said. He turned back to Yuu, "You were saying, Yuu-chan?"
Yuu shook his head at the other young man's jab, "Right, Miki, you find anything on Akagi?"
Miki shrugged, "Not really, a guy in an S14, and a random SW20 that didn't even try to race me."
"No sign of RX-7s?"
Miki smiled, somewhat evily, Yuu thought, "Takahashi-san wo sagashiteimasu ka? "
Yes, Yuu thought, I am looking for them, "Maybe. Did you see anything?"
The younger girl shook her head, "No, nothing."
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
A garage in Akagi (Sorry, Risa-chan, not that one just yet):
Matsumoto lowered the lift as Takahashi Ryousuke looked on. Since the end of Project D, Ryousuke had assumed he'd be able to move beyond street racing. He'd assumed wrong. A rather frantic call from the normally very collected Fumihiro had confirmed what Ryousuke had only heard rumors of: a team of AE86s that was slowly moving its way up Honshu, leaving nothing but broken teams in its wake.
Much as we had tried to do, Ryousuke thought, until we ran into an AE86…
The first he had heard of this was from some contacts he had picked up in Hakone. The NSX-driving team Sidewinder had recently been beaten by several people, supposedly driving nothing but AE86s. Recently, many other teams had followed in their wake, including Seven Star Leaf and the increasingly weak Northern Saitama Alliance. Purple Shadow had apparently re-appeared again to defend their mountain and had fought the team to a standstill, but that was a rather hollow victory to Ryousuke.
And with Keisuke so involved in his professional career, he can't risk losing it on a street race. Which leaves it to me and…
The sound of an engine and glare of lights on the garage door outside made Ryousuke and Matsumoto look up.
Matsumoto hit the button to open the heavy sliding door. As it rose, a pair of headlights came into view, framing a jet black carbon fiber hood. Behind the wheel sat a young man with dark brown hair lying long over his eyes. Matsumoto motioned the car forward and the sound of the race-bred Toyota engine echoed through the mostly empty shop.
Ryousuke smiled as the young man exited the car, "Takumi, I'm glad you could make it."
Fujiwara Takumi nodded, "Sure, it's no problem. What'd you want, Ryousuke-san?"
Ryousuke suddenly grew very serious, "Takumi, you may have heard about an all-AE86 team that has been moving through Kanto recently."
Takumi's eyes widened as all the pieces suddenly fell together in his mind. No wonder Itsuki had been more spastic than usual recently.
"My contacts believe that they'll move against Gunma in earnest within the next two or three days. Takumi…I want them to stop here. That's why I've called you here. As an AE86 driver yourself, you know all the strengths, as well as weaknesses of their vehicles. Also, I doubt they've had the privilege of going up against another AE86 driver as skilled as you are."
Takumi nodded, this all made sense to his developing strategic abilities.
"Keisuke won't be able to drive, due the risk of him being seen and removed from any pro events; therefore stopping this team falls to us."
Takumi was rather shocked by that, "Us? Two of us versus a full team?"
"No, I've been able to pull in a few favors. However, we'll have to bear the brunt of it. So, what do you say? Feel like getting back into racing?"
"Of course. Ever since D ended, I haven't really been sure of what to do with myself. It'll be nice to be able to forget everything and just drive again. What should I do?"
Ryousuke smiled, "Practice. I'll be in contact and let you know when they move. That's when we stop them."
Takumi nodded, "Alright, I'm in. Anou, is that all there was, Ryousuke –san?"
"I think so, why?"
"I need to meet Mika-san in about an hour."
A few minutes later, with Takumi off to meet the golfer, Ryousuke and Matsumoto returned to the car on the lift. The harsh lights of the shop reflected brightly off the sleek white paint.
"Keisuke's FD was one thing," Matsumoto said, "but I never imagined I'd be doing this."
Before them on the lift sat Ryousuke's FC, and, in several large cardboard boxes along the rear wall of the shop, a massive, and massively expensive, series of parts to turn it into a full-fledged racing machine.
Yes, if Ryousuke was going to defend Gunma, he was going to do it right.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
The next morning, downtown Shibukawa:
Drew O'Brien slowly rolled off his small mattress onto the floor, slapping madly at the alarm that dared to try to wake him up.
I wonder if there's some sort of medical condition of permanent jet lag, he thought as he drug himself down the stairs to the tiny room the Japanese had the sheer audacity to call a kitchen. There he found Danny already awake, gnawing idly on an increasingly small piece of bread as he thumbed through the day's newspaper.
"The ol' shinbun have anything good today?"
The younger O'Brien shook his head, "Not really. Or maybe. I can't read the kanji very well. I just like looking at the pictures."
Drew shook his head, "Spoken like a true multiculturalist. So what's on the agenda today?"
"Well, Andrew says he knows where Grant went after he left the team, so I thought we might go catch up with him."
"Sounds good," Drew agreed.
Suddenly, the two of them heard the sound of tuned engines outside. Danny peeked out the window.
"Oh, hey, that's Andrew and Kensuke now."
Drew sighed, "Does everyone start early in this freaking country?"
Twenty minutes later, with Drew having hurried through a shower and eaten a little of whatever was in the refrigerator, his Celica XX was following Kensuke's Celica GT-Four and Andrew's R33 Skyline GT-S out of town.
A few hours later, Drew began to recognize the changing scenery. He picked up his one of the small walkie-talkies the 3 cars had decided to carry.
"Hey, Andrew, no one ever told me Grant was in Irohazaka now."
It took a second for the reply, as the cars turned a corner and Andrew was forced to downshift, "Yep. I came here about five months ago and he was here."
"Still the Supra?"
"I don't know, but you can ask him soon. He's got a little parts shop on the outskirts of town here at the summit."
Before long, the three car convoy arrived at a small two-story building. A sign above the door read, "Parts: Japanese and European."
Andrew pulled into a space in the small parking lot and Drew and Kensuke pulled up alongside him. As they got out of their cars, Andrew gestured back toward the door, and the four men headed that way.
A quiet chime sounded as they entered the pristine showroom. Mufflers, aero bumpers, and wheels hung on the walls and the floors were covered in seats on display.
"Irasshaimase," a voice called. The four of them turned to the petite Japanese woman behind the register.
"Konnichi wa," Andrew said, "is Grant around back?"
She nodded, "Yes, out in the garage."
Andrew gave her a short bow and motioned for Drew and the others to follow him. They walked around the side of the building. Attached to the rear was a four-stall garage. Andrew walked up to a metal door in the side and pressed a button. They could hear the muted sound of a buzzer inside the garage and, in a few seconds, Grant opened the door without looking up from where he was wiping his hands on his coveralls.
"Ne, Yumi-chan, I'm a bit busy right n-"
He cut himself short as he looked up, "Guys! Wow, it's great to see you! Come on, come on."
He waved them into the garage, cautioning them regarding the many wheels and random parts scattered about.
"So," he said, turning to the group, "what brings you all out here?"
Drew smiled, "We were actually thinking about getting the team back together."
"Really? Why? I thought racing in Gunma had kind of died off."
"Yeah, but haven't you heard about Takahashi Keisuke?"
"What, the whole thing of him forming a pro team? Of course, I've heard."
"And you're seriously not interested? Not even a little?"
Grant shrugged, "Of course I'm interested, but what can I do. I do have a business to worry about now."
Danny grinned at him, "Yeah, speaking of that, who's the babe out front?"
Grant returned his smile, though much less lecherously, "My girlfriend Yumiko. Get near her and I beat you halfway to death with this…" Grant looked down at the work table beside him, "stack of Best Motoring DVDs."
Danny backed away, hands raised in surrender, "Okay, okay, don't want you t-"
"Moving on," Drew injected, "So, do you still have the Supra?"
Grant smiled proudly, "You bet. She's my demo car, though, so I don't drive her much anymore. Just the occasional grassroots touring car or drift series. No, I've got something new to drive now. Cost me quite a bit, but it was worth it. Come on, I'll show you."
The small group followed Grant back outside and around the large garage to another two-bay garage.
"The big garage is for shop customers," he explained, "This one has Yumi's Chaser on the left, and on the right…"
Grant pulled a key ring from his pocket and slid one into a small slot near the bottom of the door. As he turned it, the door rose; so did the eyebrows of all those assembled. Grant removed the key and stood back.
"I see you like it," he said, smiling.
Inside, in its natural deep blue, sat a 1994 Ford Escort RS Cosworth.
"One of the benefits of owning a business is being able to afford the nearly $35,000 I paid getting her here from England, but it was worth every penny."
"No kidding," was all Drew managed to get out.
Meanwhile, several hours away from that small shop in Nikko, another beast of a machine was being unveiled. Takahashi Ryousuke felt that old thrill returning as the turned the key and started the FC's Wankel rotary engine. He tapped the gas several times, spiking the new tachometer to almost 11,000 RPM. He watched the new RE Amemiya gauges as the boost rose and fell in synch with the revs. He pushed the shifter into first, feeling the sharp click of the new C's short shift kit.
The FC tore out of the shop bay and sped off to the top of Mount Akagi, hidden in fog several miles away.
Minutes later, Ryousuke was speeding down Akagi faster than even he had expected. The RE Amemiya Super G wide body kit, the massive Amemiya GT-Wing at the back, and the carbon fiber diffuser underneath created un-earthly amounts of grip, even with all his new power and on the downhill.
Yes, Ryousuke thought, I have indeed been gone far too long.
END
NEXT TIME: RYOUSUKE'S "NEW PROJECT D" OF SORTS PREPARES FOR THE AE86 INVASION AS DREW AND THE OTHERS ATTEMPT TO REJOIN GRANT TO THEIR RANKS. DON'T MISS IT!
