Programmed Lives – Final Stage
Chapter Nine
Hearing Hiroki utter those simple four letters seemed to be the trigger for Akito to release all the anger and frustration the had accumulated ever since that disastrous race in Italy and, before he realised what he was doing for he was guided by some primal instinct which had completely silenced any voice of reason which may have stopped him, he rushed towards Hiroki grabbing him by his neck with his two hands and pushing him against the room's lockers.
'WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER?' Akito screamed as he increased the pressure on Hiroki's neck.
'Ak…Akito…' Hiroki struggled to say trembling with fear for he had never seen Akito get this angry before. Not even that time when, the year before, he'd crashed against the younger man on purpose.
'TELL ME OR I SWEAR I'LL KILL YOU!' Akito carried on shouting with such a crazed tone of voice that Hiroki realised that his team mate had gone so out of control that he could actually deliver that threat.
'I…kissed…her,' Hiroki whispered hoarsely and, just as he started seeing little black spots due to the lack of proper oxygenation, he felt as Akito finally let go of him.
Unfortunately for Hiroki, Akito only released his throat in order to punch him on his jaw with such violence that the twenty year old literally flew onto the cold, tiled floor of the changing room.
Then, even before Hiroki had the time to get up, Akito threw himself onto him punching him again and again and again.
'YOU FUCKING SON OF A BITCH!' Akito yelled as he kept hitting Hiroki not really caring where.
At long last, realising that unless he did something to defend himself Akito would end up killing him for real, Hiroki tried to push Akito off his chest. However and instead of achieving the result he was expecting, Akito only got even angrier and they ended up rolling onto each others' backs with Hiroki trying to get away as Akito just pulled him back into the fight.
'Shit!' Hiroki thought he heard someone exclaim but, not hearing anything else, he convinced himself that he had just imagined it when, suddenly, he felt that someone was finally lifting Akito off his chest and looking up he saw that at least half of the team was there and, judging by their expressions of complete horror, Hiroki realised that he probably looked pretty bad.
'LET GO OF ME!' Akito roared as he struggled to free himself from Keisuke, Takumi and Kyosuke's grasp.
'Let's get him out of here!' Fumihiro shouted at someone in the room and soon Hiroki felt himself being lifted off the floor as he was dragged out of the room by both Fumihiro and Kenta with the help of one of the junior mechanics.
'AKITO, STOP IT!' Kyosuke screamed as the nineteen year old still fought with the three men to release himself.
'I'M NOT DONE WITH HIM YET!' Akito bellowed clearly ignoring him.
'Calm down!' Takumi exclaimed at his son but, seeing that his son was in a state of complete hysteria, he raised his hand and, for the first time in his life, Takumi slapped his son across his face.
That seemed to work wonders for the three older men felt as Akito's body went limp then the young man allowed himself to hang off the other three men.
'Akito…' Keisuke started but interrupted himself seeing the enormous amount of hurt in the young man's eyes.
'He kissed her,' Akito said with such a croaky voice that it didn't even sound like his at all.
'What did you say?' Takumi asked him trying to use what he believed it was a soothing tone of voice.
'That fucking bastard kissed Ryoko!' Akito exclaimed and that made all three men release him so brusquely that he collapsed onto his knees.
'What?' they heard Keisuke shouting and for a brief second Takumi and Kyosuke exchanged a panicked look fearing what would happen if they had to deal with Keisuke's hysteria too.
'He swore that he wasn't interested in her,' Akito whispered talking more to himself than to anyone else, 'that fucking cheating bastard!' he then exclaimed beginning to feel all the anger coming back to him.
'You two,' Keisuke said talking to his nephew and to Takumi, 'stay here with him, I'll go and talk to Hiroki.'
'Er…' Takumi started, 'isn't it better if I go?'
'No,' Keisuke replied, 'Ryoko's my daughter.'
'Uncle Keisuke,' Kyosuke said, 'that's precisely the reason why you shouldn't go.'
'What do you think I'm going to do?' Keisuke asked and seeing the looks both men were giving to him made him say, 'I'm not going to beat the crap out of him: Akito here has already done a fabulous job at it.'
'Alright then, what are you going to do?' Takumi asked his former best enemy.
'It's obvious, isn't it?' Keisuke asked back, 'I'm going to fire him,' he added answering to his own question and, with that, he left the room while Kyosuke tried to get Akito up from the floor.
'Geez Akito, you looked pretty freaky just now,' he said, 'remind me never to piss you off quite so badly.'
'That's going to hurt for a couple of days,' Takumi commented, sitting by his son's side pointing at his already swollen right hand and sounding as though as he was talking through his own experience.
Akito looked first at his father then at his best friend and finally at Kizuna who was standing there apparently too scared to say or do anything at all.
'I'm sorry,' he said to her, 'I…'
He stopped talking seeing Kizuna shaking her head in a very understanding manner.
'It's okay,' she said, 'I'll go and get some ice for your hand.'
Meanwhile Kenta and Fumihiro had taken Hiroki to the centre's small infirmary with the latter doing his best to medicate the bruises the young man had all over his face when Keisuke stepped into the room.
'I know what you've done to my daughter,' Keisuke said with such a surreally calm tone of voice that it gave the goose bumps to both Fumihiro and Kenta.
'I'b dorry,' Hiroki said as he pressed some gauze onto his bloodied nose which, by the looks of it, was probably broken.
'No you're not,' Keisuke countered, still sounding weirdly cool and collected, 'but you will be.'
'Vat do you bean?' Hiroki asked.
'Fumihiro will take you to one of my family's hospitals so they can fix you up,' Keisuke replied, 'after that I don't want to see you ever again anywhere near this centre nor anywhere near my daughter, is that clear?'
'Ab I out ob the teab?' Hiroki asked actually sounding surprised.
'I see you catch on quickly,' Keisuke replied sarcastically then, finally dropping his poise, he added, 'count yourself lucky it was Akito who's done this to you. If it had been me…'
He didn't even need to finish the sentence to get his message across in an extremely clear fashion.
'Kenta,' Keisuke said talking to his lifelong friend and former protégé, 'come with me, we've got less than ten days to find us a new driver.'
An hour later and seeing as the practice session was definitely cancelled, Akito was on Kyosuke's RZ-1 for the first time in a really long while as the two of them drove back to the Takahashi residence.
'Akito, just for the record, I don't think this is a great idea,' Kyosuke commented as he slowed down to drive up his home's long lane.
'I want to speak to her,' Akito insisted, 'I would have driven myself but…'
'Yeah,' Kyosuke said, 'you've pretty much smashed your poor hand up.'
'Don't even make me think of it,' Akito complained as he tried to move his fingers inside the provisional bandage his father had covered it with, 'ouch!'
'Don't move it, idiot,' Kyosuke ordered him.
'I think I've got something broken,' Akito complained.
'Nah,' Kyosuke said, 'the only thing that's broken is Hiroki's nose.'
'Really?' Akito asked incredulously.
'Duh,' Kyosuke replied almost sarcastically, 'you've beaten the crap out of him Akito!'
'He deserved it,' Akito countered angrily, 'I would have done a lot worse if you hadn't stopped me.'
'We know,' Kyosuke assured him getting very serious, 'you were like a wild beast back there: I've never been any more scared of you in my whole life.'
'I'm sorry,' Akito said.
Kyosuke didn't say anything to that as he drove his car into the family's garage and pulling the handbrake up, he stopped the engine, unfastened his seatbelt and climbed out of the car while Akito did the same.
'What are you two doing in here?' Seisuke asked entering the garage carrying a huge, sealed box in his arms for he'd been busy packing up to move out for quite a few days already then, noticing Akito's bandaged hand made him leave the box onto the floor and rush towards his friend, 'what have you done to it?' he asked sounding very worried.
'He's beaten Hiroki up,' Kyosuke replied.
'What has he done this time?' Seisuke asked frowning at his older brother.
'He's kissed Ryoko,' Kyosuke replied.
'Shit,' Seisuke said, 'I've always thought that Hiroki had some sort of psychotic death wish but this confirms my theory,' he added while looking from Akito to his older brother and back to Akito.
'Can you two stop saying his name?' he exclaimed, 'just hearing it makes me mad all over again.'
'Alright,' Kyosuke said to him then, looking at his younger brother, he whispered, 'believe me, you don't want to see him really angry.'
Seisuke just shook his head no as Akito just bypassed the two of them on his way to the already open door which interconnected the garage with the main house.
'Where are you going?' the future doctor asked.
'To speak to Ryoko,' Akito replied and with this he walked up the short flight of stairs.
'Oh shit,' Seisuke said, 'I smell trouble.'
'Me and you both, little brother,' Kyosuke agreed.
By the time both men made it into their house's living room they found that their best friend had already walked into it.
'What's happened to you?' they heard their Aunt Kyoko ask him seeing Akito's bandaged right hand.
The nineteen year old just ignored his future mother in law as he walked determinedly towards where his girlfriend was sitting then, crouching next to her, he took her right hand with his left one and using a very neutral tone of voice, he said:
'Ryoko, what happened last night?'
Kyoko gasped while her daughter seemed as though as she couldn't bring herself to say anything.
'Ryoko…' he insisted.
'What have you done to your hand?' the girl was finally able to ask.
'Please, answer my question first,' Akito said.
'Akito…'
'You already know what happened, don't you?' Kyoko asked the young man and, seeing him nod to that, made Ryoko's eyes widen in shock.
'Baby, I…'
'Ryoko,' Akito said, 'I don't blame you for what happened. I knew it would…'
'YOU KNEW?' Ryoko exclaimed getting up so suddenly that he fell backwards onto the floor putting both of his hands behind him to cushion the fall, hurting his right hand all over again in the process.
'Ouch,' he complained.
'YOU KNEW AND YOU DIDN'T TELL ME?' Ryoko shrieked at him.
'Boys, let's leave them alone,' Kyoko muttered as she got up from the sofa, pushing both Kyosuke and Seisuke out of the room.
Yet again Akito didn't pay any attention to her as he got back up, nursing his hand and doing his best to ignore the pain as he focused on his increasingly angry girlfriend.
'Ryoko, I…'
'Now I get it!' the girl exclaimed, 'I now get why you didn't want me around for the races.'
'Yes, but…'
'You asked me to trust you!' Ryoko shouted, 'is this how you trust me?'
'Ryoko,' Akito finally said, 'I trust you: I always have!'
'Then, if you knew that Hiroki's in love with me, why didn't you tell me?' she asked him sounding more upset than ever.
'I don't know!' he exclaimed back, 'I don't know why I didn't tell you…I…'
'Don't you think I would have known how to deal with him?'
'Would you?' Akito asked now sounding pretty surprised.
'Of course I would!' Ryoko replied, 'I became a freaking expert at rejecting guys while I waited for you to ask me out!'
She was right and Akito had never felt any more stupid in his whole life.
'If you had told me,' the girl continued, 'I would have had some sort of warning and I would have prepared the speech I always used to push them away. Instead, Hiroki caught me totally by surprise when…'
'…when he kissed you,' Akito finished for her using a very gloomy tone of voice.
'Yes,' Ryoko confirmed and her frown got a notch deeper, 'but I didn't kiss him back! I swear, Akito: I love you!'
'I know,' Akito said, 'and so do I.'
'Then you should have told me,' Ryoko insisted.
'I know,' Akito repeated, 'it's just that…'
'Akito,' the girl said now taking his uninjured hand in hers, 'please tell me you didn't even think it possible that I could ever like Hiroki.'
Akito looked at her for a while before he shook his head once.
'Of course not,' he said and hearing that made the girl let out a sigh of relief, 'you should have told me about the kiss though,' he added.
'I couldn't tell you!' Ryoko said, 'it would have destroyed the team.'
'Too late for that,' Akito muttered miserably.
'What have you done?' Ryoko asked again.
'I've beaten the crap out of Hiroki and your father has fired him from the team,' Akito replied.
Releasing his hand Ryoko went to the sofa and sat down putting her hands on her face and her elbows onto her knees.
'So it was useless,' he heard her whisper.
'What was?' Akito asked.
'Lying to you,' she replied removing the hands from her face, 'you have no idea of the effort it took me to make everything up.'
'I'm kind of relieved to hear that,' Akito said very honestly, 'I'd hate to think that you would find lying to me easy.'
Ryoko looked at him for a bit before saying:
'I've got an idea: let's not keep anything from each other ever again.'
'That sounds like a very good plan,' Akito said.
Ryoko got back up and they sealed their new deal with a kiss.
'I take it's safe for us to come back in?' they heard Kyoko ask using her kindest tone of voice.
'Yeah,' Akito said hoping that he didn't look anywhere near as flustered as he felt.
Then, as soon as her cousins, mother and boyfriend were all sitting down on the living room's two huge couches, Ryoko said:
'What's going to happen to the team?'
'I have no idea,' Akito replied.
'I guess we'll have to get a new driver,' Kyosuke added.
'Can we do that? I mean changing drivers once the season's started,' Ryoko asked looking at everyone in the room.
'Of course we can,' Kyosuke replied, 'don't you remember that Akito got replaced in his team last year?'
'Yes I do,' Ryoko said stealing a glance at her boyfriend for she knew he was rather sensitive about that particular subject, 'but that was because he had injured himself,' she added.
'Sweetie,' Kyoko said, 'the problem is not going to be replacing Hiroki: the problem's going to be finding someone suitable to do so with and arrange for him to get a federation license with such a short notice.'
'That's right,' Seisuke said, 'are you sure you can get a decent enough driver before the next race?' he asked dubiously.
'To be honest,' Akito replied, 'I really don't care who we replace Hiroki with as long as he stays as far away as possible from us.'
'I agree,' Ryoko said.
'That could prove tricky,' Seisuke said, 'especially with him being in the same street racing team as Misa.'
'Crap!' Akito exclaimed, 'I forgot about that.'
'Lucky you,' Seisuke commented sarcastically.
'Boys,' Kyoko said pointing at her daughter with her head for Ryoko was beginning to look pretty miserable for, she was after all the one who'd caused all of this mess, albeit doing so involuntarily.
'Akito,' the girl said to her boyfriend, 'will I get to go to your races again?'
The young racer looked at her for a short while before nodding once as he prayed for all that was holy that the Takawara Racing Team would indeed have more races to look forward to.
To be continued…