Programmed Lives – Third Stage
Chapter Twenty
Father and son entered the Fujiwara Tofu Shop to find Bunta there serving two customers. Seeing that, Takumi and Akito decided to wait for him in the living room so they could tell him what had just happened back at the karting school.
'So, you'll be racing the AE86 on a track?' Bunta asked his son after he had explained to him the terms of his bet with Keisuke.
'Yes, do you think the car can cope with that?' Takumi asked.
'Son, that car can cope with anything, the question here is: can you?' Bunta replied.
'What do you mean?'
'I mean that I'll take care of the car so it's ready, meanwhile, I want you to prepare yourself both physically and psychologically for the race,' Bunta said in what looked more like an order.
'It's just a race,' Takumi said.
'Son, you haven't raced anyone in over five and a half years and, except in Mt Akina, and you can drive that with your eyes closed and your hand taped to the wheel, you haven't driven anywhere else. You should get yourself ready for the challenge properly.'
'Dad, do you realise that if I win, I'll have to help Keisuke with his project?' Takumi said suspecting that maybe his father hadn't understood his explanation very well.
'Yeah, and if you lose you'll never forgive yourself,' Bunta said and Takumi knew instantly that it was true: he really wanted to win!
'Alright, fair enough. Will you need a hand with the car?' Takumi said and the way Bunta looked at him was a good enough answer, 'fine, alright,' Takumi mumbled.
'I can't wait to see you race, Dad,' Akito said excitedly making Takumi even more determined to do his best.
The following Wednesday, and since Bunta had taken the AE86 for a spin, meaning he was doing everything in his power to make the car run even faster and more smoothly, Takumi and his son drove to the Shibukawa Elementary School in the GC8.
There he found a whole lot of other kids with their parents waiting for the teachers and the principal of the school to join them so they could start the meeting. With a pang, Takumi realised that Akito was the only kid in the entire room with only one parent there, the rest of them all had both parents with them. Takumi was hoping Akito wouldn't notice that difference too much when he saw the teachers coming into the meeting room, Mogi Natsuki, of course, was among them.
She saw him and Takumi was going to wave at her but then, seeing she wasn't doing the same, made him think that maybe it wasn't appropriate to let everyone else know that they were acquainted so, Takumi decided to wait till the end of the meeting to go and speak to her.
If Takumi had paid any attention to the meeting, he would have heard a boring list of things that were allowed, things that weren't, the name and subject of every one of the teachers and the whole programme of festivals and events organised by the school.
Instead, Takumi was busy trying to come up with a way to ask Natsuki if she was still interested in going for that lunch with him for, in the past few days he'd decided to give to their non-relationship another chance.
With a bit of luck, they would find out that they had changed too much and they would realise that any relationship they might have wanted to start was doomed to failure. This way Takumi could go to his father, and everyone else who kept trying to pry into his private affairs, and tell them that they were wrong. In any case, he no longer hated Natsuki in any way so maybe they would have fun.
Takumi barely noticed that the principal had left the room after greeting all the new students and their parents and, as he followed the mass of people outside the room, he noticed that Natsuki was walking away from them, probably back to the teachers' room.
'Akito, wait here for me. Please, do not move, do you understand?' Takumi asked his son.
'Sure,' Akito said.
Then Takumi ran towards Natsuki hoping no one would spot him as he did so.
'Mogi, wait…'
'What is it?' she asked looking around herself as if trying to see if there was any of her colleagues or worse, parents anywhere nearby.
'Er…' Takumi started, suddenly feeling a lot less brave than earlier, 'that lunch thing, are you still interested?'
Natsuki opened her eyes as wide as they went and, after recovering from the surprise, she nodded slowly.
'Ah, okay, are you free this Sunday?'
'Yes,' she said with a tiny voice.
'Alright, I'll pick you up at, er…the bottom of the stairs that lead to the temple?' Takumi suggested since he didn't know where Natsuki's apartment was.
'Fine, let's make it at noon?' Natsuki said obviously trying to contain her extreme happiness making Takumi frown.
'Yeah, twelve sounds good. See you there.'
With that, Takumi left her there noticing the way she bobbed happily back to the teachers' room. Women were definitely weird creatures, Takumi thought as he walked back to his son who, for once, had done what he had been told.
'You asked her out?' Akito asked his father the minute Takumi reached him.
'That's none of your business,' Takumi said.
'You did. Cool!' Akito exclaimed happily making Takumi shake his head. Bloody kid!
Saturday evening arrived a lot faster than he'd believed possible and, just after dinner, he and his father found themselves driving with both the AE86 and the GC8 all the way to the Takahashi Motorsports Centre.
He was shocked to see that his father wanted to go and watch him race but, again, Bunta had told him that he was only coming so if he crashed the Toyota, they would still have the Subaru to go back home.
Crash the AE86! As if, Takumi thought to himself.
'Are you nervous?' Akito said from the passenger seat.
'Nope,' Takumi said and he was being honest for he really wasn't nervous at all. He was very excited, and eager to start the race but not nervous nor afraid.
He'd done a good job preparing himself for this race, Takumi thought as he remembered the running sessions to build up his stamina and the time he'd spent driving up and down Mt. Akina trying to get back in his head the illusion that he was racing his father's GC8.
When they arrived there, he found a surprise that he didn't really know if it was a pleasant one or not: there, sitting at the small grandstand placed next to the circuit's straight, he found all three former Lonely Drivers plus the women who had made them a bit less lonely.
Also, the whole Takahashi family was there, including little Ryoko, to Akito's immense delight.
'I'm going to say hi to Kyosuke and Seisuke,' Akito said as he ran to where the two boys were with their cousin.
'Hi there,' Keisuke said coming towards Takumi and Bunta.
'Hi,' Takumi said then he noticed that Keisuke looked at Bunta and, after frowning, he bowed very deeply in front of the old man and said, with his most serious voice:
'Fujiwara-san, please accept my apologies for what I said to you the last time we spoke.'
Bunta looked at him and, for a second, the old man looked slightly embarrassed.
'It's okay, it's okay,' Bunta said making Keisuke stand back up.
'I…I don't know why I…'
'Hey, I said it's okay, didn't I?' Bunta said beginning to get annoyed.
'Yes, sorry,' Keisuke said and was saved by the arrival of Ryosuke, his wife Akiko and Keisuke's wife Kyoko.
'Hello Fujiwara-san,' Ryosuke said bowing a bit while Bunta just nodded at him.
'Er…I'll go and say hi to the guys,' Takumi said walking towards the grandstand.
'This whole asking Akito to join the karting school thing,' Bunta said speaking to Ryosuke, 'was all a strategy to get my son back into the racing world, wasn't it?'
Ryosuke looked at the old man sheepishly while Keisuke was just shocked seeing, once again, that there was absolutely no way to fool Fujiwara Bunta.
'Yes,' Ryosuke finally admitted.
'Impressive, very impressive,' Bunta said making Ryosuke almost blush at the old man's compliment, 'I suspected something like that, that's why I pushed Takumi into accepting.'
'Really? I'd have thought that you, of all people, wanted him to stay away from racing,' Ryosuke said.
'Nah, he's too miserable without his races…unfortunately, he's also too stubborn to accept whatever he's told so I had to let him realise by himself that missed the racing,'
'Yeah, that's what I thought too,' Ryosuke said.
'I've always said you're a smart kid,' Bunta said and Keisuke had to repress a chuckle seeing his older brother's expression of utter disbelief.
At five minutes to ten, Takumi found himself behind the wheel of the panda AE86 with Keisuke Takahashi's yellow FD lined up with him at the start line of the circuit.
He couldn't believe that, after so many years, about twelve if he wasn't mistaken, he'd find himself racing Keisuke all over again.
For the occasion, they had Ryosuke Takahashi himself standing in front of them, prepared to do the countdown.
Takumi revved the AE86's engine as he prepared himself for the start. He inserted the first gear and, just as he saw Ryosuke giving them the 'go' sign, he floored the accelerator pedal, hoping the car would manage to keep up with the FD at least until the first corner.
Since the race would last a whole ten laps, it didn't matter if Takumi was overtaken at the first corner, he could more than make up for it later or, at least, he hoped so. Just in case, he'd try his best to remain ahead after clearing that first corner.
Predictably enough, the FD's superior horse power meant that, at the end of the straight, Keisuke was actually ahead of him but Takumi, using his best drifting technique, managed to cut Keisuke's access to the corner forcing him to brake. Hardly fair but again, Keisuke was used to this and more from all his years as a professional racer.
With the Toyota ahead of him in the series of corners, Keisuke couldn't do anything else but to follow Takumi, waiting for the straighter section of the circuit where his car could easily manage a speed a lot higher than what the AE86 could produce.
'Geez, he's persistent!' Takumi said to himself as he saw Keisuke's latest attempt at trying to overtake him.
Not knowing the track at all was quite the handicap for Takumi but, again, he hadn't wanted to take up the chance Keisuke had offered him to let him train on the circuit during the week previous to the race.
It's alright, Bunta had said to him, a corner is a corner and a straight is a straight. You drive always the same way no matter where you drive.
This was true. He just needed to focus on the bit of the track he was driving on, forgetting about the rest.
Gosh this felt good, Takumi thought as he started feeling the old exhilarating sensation as his adrenaline levels climbing up while he pushed himself beyond his limits.
They raced like that for over half of the race, with the AE86 being chased and pushed by the FD until, maybe because Takumi was beginning to get tired or, just because he'd got distracted at the wrong moment, Keisuke managed to pass him at the end of the straight, just where his car's more powerful engine could make the difference.
'Crap!' Takumi shouted seeing the FD pulling dangerously fast away from him. This made him press the accelerator even more and, looking closely at the edges of the track, he saw that he could use the kerbs to his own advantage.
'What in the hell is he doing?' Iketani asked from the grandstand as he saw Takumi driving over one of the kerbs.
'I don't know,' Itsuki said.
'He's using the kerbs as though as they were the gutters from Mt. Akina,' Mako explained to the two men.
'What? But they're sticking out, not inwards,' Itsuki said.
'Yeah, but unless I'm very much mistaken, he can use them more or less the same way…he's just hooking the tyre in a different way,' Mako said while keeping her eyes glued to the two cars racing each other on the track.
'He's nuts,' Kenji sentenced.
'Yeah, he is, but he's just every bit as brilliant as I remembered,' Sayuki said, talking to her husband.
'Oh, I hope Fujiwara-san is right about Ryosuke-san,' Itsuki said and, seeing everyone's inquisitive looks, he elaborated, 'Takumi's old man thinks that the Takahashi are trying to get Takumi back into racing.'
'That'd be great,' Iketani said.
'Yes it would,' Mariko agreed.
'Oh my gosh, look at that!' Mako said and all six of them saw as Takumi's car, literally jumping off a kerb, managed to get so close to the FD's bumper that it almost hit it.
'Good, Takumi is at it once again,' Itsuki said smiling.
Meanwhile, down at the track, Bunta observed his son's evolutions as the two cars started their last lap.
'The last lap,' he said talking to himself.
'Yeah,' Ryosuke said nonetheless.
'Ryosuke, don't tell Keisuke I've said this but, I really hope Takumi wins,' Kyoko said making her daughter frown.
'Why do you want Daddy to lose?' little Ryoko asked.
'Because if he does, he'll be racing Akito's dad again and that would make Daddy very happy,' Kyoko explained crouching next to the little girl.
'Ah, I see,' Ryoko said.
Kyoko was going to say something else but then, they all saw Takumi as he tried the first and last of his attacks.
'Gosh, he's…' Ryosuke said and, he hadn't even finished the sentence when he saw the impossible happening right before his eyes:
As the two cars approached the last corner before the finish line, Takumi managed to literally stick the side of his car to Keisuke's FD, so close that the rear view mirrors actually grazed and, just as they were exiting the corner, and using the little acceleration power he had left, Takumi separated his car from the FD managing to cross the finish line with his car a full twenty centimetres ahead of Keisuke's.
'My god…he's won,' Kenji said.
'He's beaten Keisuke again,' Iketani said.
Itsuki no longer had the strength to speak so he just limited himself to follow his friends and wife down to where the Takahashi and the Fujiwara were.
'And you're rusty?' Keisuke exclaimed while he climbed out of his FD, 'if you're rusty then I'm a freaking mummy!' he shouted at Takumi as he too got out of his car.
'Yeah, well, I was lucky,' Takumi said and that earned him a smack on the back of his head by Bunta.
'That wasn't luck. That was all skill,' Ryosuke said, 'which is precisely what we need for our project.'
To be continued…