Chapter 4
As the sun came up over Mt. Myogi four cars sat in the summit parking lot in a close circle, their headlights illuminating the small area and the four people that were standing near or leaning on the cars.
"I can't believe how much faster you've gotten in just a month Reiko, I just wish I could get this beast to act like your SE3P," a long brown haired young woman asked as she patted the hood of a pearl blue Z33, "You even managed to beat that Cosmo lap time from our first day at this school last week, by nearly two seconds at that."
"Nika, you're just as fast, you just need a little more practice time is all," Reiko, a tall long black haired young woman, responded politely before she sat down in front of her harvest gold SE3P, "That's why we're at Myogi tonight."
"And don't forget that any one of us would help you out if you asked," Gavin, the buzz cut blonde with dog tags around his neck, said in a kind tone as he leaned on the carbon fiber hood of his toreador red FD, "Which reminds me, Tatsuo did you get to mention this little get together to Taniguchi?"
"I mentioned it, but you know him, he found a way to make a friendly invite sound like a bad thing for him so he didn't come," Tatsuo, a tall black haired man, responded as he sat in front of an Aztec gold SE3P, "Gavin, even you have to admit though, he is getting a bit faster without much help."
"True enough, but he could be less of a jerk about things," Gavin responded with a slightly agitated tone.
"Why don't we go to Irohazaka? From what I hear Fujiwara-sensei and Takahashi-sensei haven't even seen him drive in a mountain yet, at least then we can see how he does on a home course," Nika suggested with an interested tone.
"Maybe next time he starts bragging about having a challenge, but it's getting early and we all have to be at class in about 4 hours," Gavin said with a slight chuckle as he checked his watch, "If we aren't in Irohazaka next week we can meet on Akina."
The group split up and headed in different directions as the sun's light began to fill the sky overhead with purples and blues.
As Gavin, Tatsuo and Reiko watched their classmate's Z33 fly through the last corner of its first lap of the day they spoke to each other about where small improvements would be immediate and where some larger ones could be made.
"What is Ms. Mahara doing?" a voice came from behind the three students.
"She decided to make an attempt at the Cosmo's lap time before regular classes Fujiwara-sensei," Gavin replied showing his teacher the stop watch over his shoulder so he wouldn't miss anything.
"Alright then," Takumi replied as he walked away.
"I seem to be left out again," a stocky blonde young man said as he approached the guardrail to the course.
"Only in the fact that you haven't beaten Fujiwara-sensei's time, Nika-chan just managed to," Gavin replied showing the slightly older man the stop watch.
"You were invited to Myogi last night Mikio-san and every mountain training session we've had since we started here, but you refused any help," Tatsuo said calmly as his sister waved Nika in off the track.
"Well something was off with the car, I should have it nailed down for my next race though," Mikio said with a confident smirk, "Some poser is coming out to Irohazaka this Saturday to face me."
"Well even though you hate hearing it from us, good luck," Nika said from behind the stocky blonde, her Z33 idling just behind her.
As the week progressed Mikio made several attempts to meet the Cosmo's time, but he seemed to get further and further away from it before he gave up for a while and sat grumbling as the other students got closer and closer to Takumi's Honda lap time, both of which were still very clearly written on the white board in pit lane. The other students noticed but didn't offer any assistance since they knew the stocky blonde would just turn them away or blame his car.
Saturday came around and Mikio was waiting for his opponent at the top of the Nikko-Irohazaka pass while unknown to him his classmates were making their way down to a point during the hairpins where they could watch the race.
"We can watch from here, we won't be able to see a whole lot, but it should definitely be enough to see who's going to win," Gavin said as he and the rest of the students arrived at one of the last hairpins on the course.
"Okay I get why we're here, but why couldn't we have parked at the bottom?" Reiko asked sitting on the outside of the guardrail.
"Because if Taniguchi's ego is what I think it is he'll call foul play in a public place if he loses," the buzz cut blonde responded with a serious tone as he looked around, "I'm going to go find someone with a radio, should be back before the race starts."
As Gavin walked off Reiko, Tatsuo and Nika began discussing how to get Mikio to listen to any of them, eventually settling on he would have to lose a race on his home course and from the rumors they'd heard going around the mountain, this would be that race.
"Race starts in five minutes, it'll take at least another five for the racers to get this far into the course based solely on length and the fact it's nearly all hairpins," Gavin said jumping back over the guardrail and stumbling slightly as his feet hit the ground.
"You get the radio you went looking for?" Tatsuo said with a slight chuckle.
Gavin grinned and held the radio up with the proper frequency tuned in on its small screen.
"Don't know that the guy I took it from knows I took it from him, but he had three more so I don't think he'll miss just one," the buzz cut blonde said with chuckle.
Reiko and Nika looked sorely disappointed and extremely surprised at their supposedly military classmate as Tatsuo just laughed with him.
A few minutes later, reports from each hairpin began ringing through the radio in Gavin's hand, the red Lan-Evo III led the race through most of the first hairpins even though it seemed his challenger, a black GC8, was chewing his bumper to toy with him a bit. Around the thirty-first hairpin Mikio was passed by his opponent who used a line that allowed him to fly through the air and cut a good sized chunk out of the corner.
"Using a widely known maneuver like that is good for taking the lead, but it may have been too early," Tatsuo said under his breath as the reports of the race continued.
"What do you mean by that?" Gavin asked with a serious tone.
"Mikio could recover from the shock and start using it against his opponent, even in such a large machine it is possible to slide the car enough to make the proper landing point," the tall black haired man responded as he leaned on the guardrail.
The sounds of two engines made their way to the group's ears accompanied by the occasional sounds of metal scrapping the pavement, Gavin reported the corner, and as Tatsuo had predicted, Mikio had picked up the GC8's trick and was using it to keep close to them, but not close enough to pass using it.
"Okay so in a high pressure situation he can think, now we just need to figure out how to make that work at school," Tatsuo said with a hint of amazement in his tone.
After the Lan-Evo and its challenger left the sight of the group they began trekking up the mountain talking about ways to come down the mountain after the race. When they arrived back at the summit parking area they knew that Mikio had lost, but he made it a close race and that both racers were on their way back up.
As the two cars pulled into the area cheers erupted from the crowd even a few from supposed Emperors team members that Gavin had spoken to when the group of classmates arrived.
"I want a rematch, no way could you win against me without cheating," Mikio yelled as he climbed from his car, "Not on this course!"
"Take your loss and learn from it bud, no need to get mean just cause you lost," the challenger responded in a calm tone.
"NO! You aren't leaving here till you admit you cheated," the stocky bleach blonde said as he stepped too close to the challenger.
Before anyone could react the GC8's driver pulled back a fist and landed a hard right jab to Mikio's jaw. The sudden impact and the force of the punch caused Mikio to fall on flat on his back. Gavin jumped between the challenger and Mikio before the larger man could do anymore damage.
"Time to cool off okay big guy, you've landed your punch," the buzz cut blonde said with a calm tone and a relaxed stance showing he didn't want to fight.
The challenger and his team left with a simple nod, a few door slams and screaming tires as three cars flew down the pass.
"That was sound advice he gave you about learning from your losses, should listen to others more, might learn something," Gavin said without turning around to face Mikio who was still on the ground.
The stocky blonde jumped up from the ground and simply walked to his car and drove off with no acknowledgment of Gavin's words or any of his classmates. The next day in Nobuhiko's classroom Nika noticed Mikio was staring out the window several times during the lecture, even had to jab him in the leg with a pen to get the stocky blonde's attention.
Over the next month Mikio managed to get closer to the Cosmo's lap time using some of the advice he'd heard flying around the school but still refused any direct help. He managed to hold his lines better, even if it was a bad line choice he managed, he got a better handle on braking at the right times and some throttle control.
Even with all his small improvements he remained closed off to his classmates, of which Gavin and Reiko had come within two seconds of being able to race one of the staff members just before Mikio had taken the track for the day.
"If we don't tell him he just matched the time for the Cosmo do you think he'd keep trying as hard as he has been this past month?" Takumi asked as he and the staff watched the Baja red Lan-Evo III make its third lap of the day.
"He knows, he's gotten a little over confident and he's falling off the pace already," Keisuke responded showing Takumi his stopwatch.
On the other end of pit lane Mikio's classmates were keeping their own times as the Lan-Evo made its third and final lap of the day. The stocky blonde was confident he was at least on pace with the Cosmo since he was pushing as hard as he thought possible. As he came out of the final corner the rear tires slipped a small amount but it was enough for the young man to know he'd blown the lap before he even saw the times himself.
"Well you got cocky as usual, but you got the time in your second lap so now all you need to do is keep your confidence in check and you'll keep shaving your times down," Gavin said with a chuckle and slapping the stocky bleach blonde man on the back as he climbed from the car, "In all seriousness though, try not to think about your times, concentrate on your lines and you'll be golden."
"Well how about you just race me in the mountains and we'll see what you know?" Mikio replied in an angered tone, "You all think you're better than me just cause it took me longer, so prove to me what you think is true."
"Mr. Taniguchi if you lay out a challenge here it can be answered here, no need to take it into the mountains," Keisuke said with a disapproving tone.
"Gavin, don't take this challenge, you know it's not right," Reiko pleaded as she grabbed the buzz cut blonde's arm.
"I won't hold back Taniguchi, but since you issued the challenge I'll let you pick the mountain," Gavin said calmly ignoring Reiko's pleas.
"Akagi's downhill, just you and me this Saturday," Mikio said trying to stare down the buzz cut blonde.
Gavin simply nodded and walked away with Reiko and Tatsuo close behind him both trying to talk him out of racing Mikio.
"You know damn good and well you can't win against him so why challenge him?" Nika asked with an angered tone, walking away before Mikio could reply at all.
A few hours later Takumi, Keisuke, Kyoko and Wataru were standing in the main building lobby as they watched a heavily modified FC pull into the lot. A tall brown haired man stepped out of the vehicle wearing a white suit with a blue shirt and white tie.
"What did you call me for Keisuke?" the man asked in a deep voice as he came through the school's door.
"Aniki, we have a problem, one of the students challenged another, we did try to stop it, but it seems they'll be racing in Akagi this Saturday," Keisuke answered as Ryosuke stopped in front of him.
"We used to do that Keisuke, what's so wrong with having a little mountain battle once in a while?" Ryosuke asked with a small chuckle.
"We aren't worried about the mountain battle, except for those two nimrods in the Lan-Evos all of our opponents played fair, I don't think the challenger will be playing fair this time," the spiky bleach blonde responded.
"We just want you to be close by if at all possible should someone need medical attention, we have a med bag here but it's not enough if someone goes off a cliff," Takumi said with some confidence in his tone.
After a few minutes of talking things over Ryosuke agreed to have a medical team on standby as best as possible as long as the staff mediated the race. As the week dragged on Mikio continued to get just a bit faster, he was meeting the Cosmo's time with each lap, but not moving any closer to the Honda's time.
'Damn, I should be getting faster,' Mikio thought as he pushed through his last lap of the day, 'It's the day before my challenge with Reynolds and I'm still no faster on this track.'
"Gavin, you know Mikio is no match for you, why do you insist on going through with this crap challenge out of him?" Nika asked as the pair watched the Lan-Evo III making its way around the course one last time at a slow pace.
"To show him just what he needs to be shown," the buzz cut blonde said while he absent mindedly played with his dog tags.
"And what exactly is that?" the brown haired woman asked impatiently yanking the buzz cut blonde's sleeve so he'd face her.
"That I'm better at this than he is and he needs to stop calling honest racers cheaters because he sucks at it," Gavin replied with a cold tone pulling his arm away from the young woman, "Much as I may seem like an ass right now, it's what he needs, big guy needs to lose that cocky side of his and actually learn something."
"Fine, but if you get killed don't blame him, that twin turbo 20B engine under your hood isn't exactly a downhill kinda car," Nika said sounding concerned, "It's like my Z33, better for the uphill, which reminds me, just how did you get that engine?"
"Believe it or not I found it in a guy's garage, I don't know how or where he got it, but he was an idiot and I managed to buy it for less than it's worth," the buzz cut blonde said once again returning his gaze to the Lan-Evo still slowly making its way around the track.
Saturday soon rolled around and Gavin found himself alone at the top of Mt. Akagi waiting on everyone else to show up as he stared off into the stars while laid out across the carbon fiber hood of his FD.
'Why does everyone seem so concerned about this race? Takahashi-sensei agreed to follow us to declare fair race or not, I'm just in it for the fun of racing and to teach that idiot Taniguchi a small lesson,' the buzz cut blonde thought as he rested his head on his hands, 'Wonder why Reiko was so worried about me in this race, thought she still hated me.'
The sound of three rotary engines approaching brought the young man out of his thoughts but he remained in his place on the hood of his car as he turned his head to watch two SE3Ps and a yellow mica FD pull into the parking area with a Z33 and his opponent for the evening close behind.
"Alright, you two understand the basic unspoken rules of street racing, no intentional bumps and all that, now the rule of this school is that you give your absolute best and who ever crosses the finish line first wins, none of this cat and mouse stuff and no calling foul play at the end, that will be my job," Keisuke said once everyone had parked and gathered around him, "Now we're doing this side by side start, Ms. Mahara has volunteered to start for us, Fujiwara-sensei is somewhere on the course and a medical team waits at the bottom to be called should anything go wrong. So do we all understand the rules?"
Gavin gave a nod as did Mikio before both men simply walked away from each other and headed for their cars. Once the cars were lined up Gavin stepped out of his car before Nika could start counting, Tatsuo and Reiko shrugged when their brown haired classmate looked to them for answers as Mikio also stepped from his car.
"Gavin Reynolds, FD loner," the buzz cut blonde said sticking a hand out.
"Mikio Taniguchi, Irohazaka Emperors," the stocky blonde said politely said shaking his opponent's outstretched hand.
Keisuke lined up behind the two cars in his FD and saw the traditional racer's introduction he had become familiar with during his time as a driver for Project D and he couldn't help but smile at the memories of Project D and the RedSuns. He came back to reality as he heard the countdown start.
"FIVE, FOUR, THREE, TWO, ONE...GO!" Nika shouted before both cars flew by on either side of her.
Keisuke took off shortly after Nika was clear of the road and easily caught his students before the second major corner of the course.
Gavin had easily taken the lead from the start line and was clearly the better driver on the short straight right before the first corner. Mikio did everything he could to keep up, but his Lan-Evo just didn't have the power to manage.
At the first corner Gavin swung the FD into a full drift allowing Mikio to catch up enough to stay close enough through the second straight. Through the first set of winding corners Gavin managed a small gap coming into the long straight.
'Taniguchi, you're about to get left behind,' Gavin thought before drifting around the hairpin before the long straight, 'And I know just what you'll say too, so good bye.'
As Gavin concentrated on the road ahead of him and increased his pace once again, Mikio tried to catch him with everything he'd been practicing but it didn't seem to be working as he cleared the hairpin leading to the multiple s-curves.
'Why, why can't I catch him? He's got so much power but it seems like half of it never existed the way he just keeps going,' Mikio thought as he pushed the accelerator a little closer to the floor as the FD continued to open the gap, 'I won't give up, not yet.'
As Mikio's Lan-Evo III came around the next hairpin he spotted one tail light of the FD as it cleared the corner ahead of him. He ignored the headlights shining in his mirror and pressed the accelerator all the way down before slamming the brakes, allowing the tail to slide out and flooring the accelerator yet again to maintain the drift around the hairpin.
'This kid has two sides, the jack ass and the actual racer, but both are sloppy,' Keisuke thought watching the Lan-Evo in front of him before noticing the FD was completely out of his sight, 'Mr. Reynolds seems to have left us behind.'
Takumi heard the rotary engine approaching his post and he got his radio ready to tell Keisuke the checkpoint times. As the red FD blasted by him Takumi noticed he didn't hear any engine noise but the rotary driving away from him.
"Keisuke is everything alright? The FD just passed by and I don't hear you," Takumi said into the radio just before hearing the distinct combination of a rotary engine and a four cylinder engine approaching.
"We're fine, didn't realize we were that far behind, but fine," Keisuke replied once he got to a safe spot to do so, "We're just clearing the third straight."
Gavin was pushing hard, he could tell his back tires were nearly shredded and he knew he should stop, but he wasn't about to. The buzz cut blonde reached to the dog tags around his neck and wrapped his hand around them momentarily before placing his hand back on the wheel and drifting into the next hairpin corner at nearly full throttle.
Mikio was just one hairpin behind the buzz cut blonde but he couldn't see or hear his engine anymore. As he continued to run hard trying to catch the FD the stocky blonde could tell his tires still had some grip left in them and pushed just a little harder as he entered the straight with Keisuke close behind him.
'Alright last hairpin set, let's put a true end to this,' Gavin thought as he watched the hairpins grow closer.
The red FD slid through the hairpins with ease as he slammed foot to floor each time he entered or came out of one. Once he cleared the last hairpin the buzz cut blonde floored the throttle and kept his foot down till just after he crossed the line.
"The red FD crossed the finish line, now we're waiting on the other two, we can hear them but we can't see them yet," A voice said through the radios in Keisuke and Takumi's cars.
A few long moments later Keisuke and Mikio came into the lower parking area, and Keisuke announced the winner once everyone was at the bottom. Gavin simply sat on his hood as he had at the summit as Takumi and Keisuke left with the medical team.
"So how did you get so far ahead?" Mikio asked in a condescending tone, "What are you really running under that hood?"
"Saw that coming," Tatsuo said under his breath after letting out an agitated breath.
"I got as far ahead as I did by being the better driver Taniguchi and you know that this FD is a twin turbo 20B rotary, there's nothing else to it," the buzz cut blonde replied with an agitated tone, "You call me a cheater and I'll lay you out faster than your last opponent."
"I happen to believe you did cheat, no way in hell you got that far ahead without something helping you out," the stocky bleach blonde said in the same tone.
Just like at Irohazaka before anyone could react, Gavin had reached up with his right hand, curled it into a fist and hooked upwards into Mikio's jaw causing the heavier young man's feet to momentarily leave the ground before his whole body came down with a thud.
"Gavin, did you kill him?" Tatsuo asked taking a step up next to his classmate.
"Nah, just knocked him out, somebody keep an eye on him and make sure he does wake up, I'm out of here," Gavin said shaking his hand a couple times before walking to his car and driving off leaving a trail of smoke from the tires behind him.
Everyone was on time for their class on Monday except for Mikio who showed up twenty minutes late and looking as though he hadn't slept in some time with an added bruise to his jaw from where Gavin had hit him.
"Mr. Taniguchi, is there a legitimate reason why you are late? You were supposed to be first on the course today," Takumi asked disrupting his talking with the students about what happened after the school staff had left on Saturday night.
The stocky blonde stood silently for a time with no reaction to any form of attention getting his classmates used; he just stared off towards the garage area.
"Come on Taniguchi, spit it out big guy," Gavin said with a hint of left over anger in his tone.
"I came in today to find out just when the last time any of you lost was, because I can't stand being talked down at, I can't take knowing that everyone here see's me as a mark of what NOT to do," Mikio half yelled at his classmates.
"I lost a challenge just before Fujiwara-sensei recruited me," Gavin replied first, "Hell I was practicing to get better when he chased me down in a 4AGZE powered AW11. I felt like I had lost all over again."
"I haven't raced in a true challenge in nearly a year, Reiko is the number one driver in our pair," Tatsuo said with a slight chuckle, "She's just plain faster than I am, and I know it too, which is why I use her as my marker."
"Well I guess that leaves me to explain things about the last loss our team suffered," Reiko said fiddling with her black curly hair nervously, "I lost my last race to Gavin two months before Fujiwara-sensei and Takahashi-sensei came to Akagi to recruit for the class, kinda hate to say it but I wanted to kill him when I saw him again."
"Well I lost about two weeks ago, to Reiko," Nika said with a nervous chuckle, "I felt so stupid for even trying to race her after it was over with, but I took what I saw and am using it to get faster, so it wasn't all bad."
"Mr. Taniguchi, everyone loses, it's what we do to learn from the loss and how we get back into feeling comfortable with new things that makes us as drivers grow. Taking advice and putting it to practice is the best way to grow," Takumi said with a calm tone as the rest of the students nodded in agreement.
"I'm sorry to inform you that I'm not what you're looking for and I will be dropping out of the school," Mikio said with a low bow before turning around and leaving before a response could be given.
Takumi broke the resulting silence after processing the information for a moment.
"Alright… Let's get back to it, you'll be driving the trainer cars today so don't expect too much and since Mikio-kun has left you'll be driving two at a time against one another," Takumi said before pointing to Gavin and Reiko, "You two will go first and remember you wreck my cars you're going to pay for them."