Programmed Lives – Final Stage

Chapter Twenty Four

Standing right at the edge of the building, Akito tried with all his might not to look down for he knew that they were fairly high up and he really didn't want to become anymore aware of that fact than he already was so, for this reason, he kept his gaze fixed onto Hiroki's face hoping that, sometime very soon, he would see the sign which would indicate that his ex-team mate had finally realised how very stupid this whole situation was.

'Come on Hiroki,' Akito said as he extended his hand towards him, 'let's get back down, okay?'

As soon as he finished asking the question, the nineteen year old noticed how extremely quiet everything around seemed to be as they all waited for Hiroki to reply to Akito's question then, just as the latter was about to open his mouth to speak again, he saw that Hiroki nodded once.

'Alright,' he said.

Akito was never sure of what happened next but, as he let out a relieved sigh and he went to lift his foot off the ground so that he could start walking back to where his father was, he felt a sudden and intense wave of dizziness which made him sway backwards.

'Akito!' Hiroki exclaimed.

Only his ex-team mate's extremely fast reflexes saved Akito from a certain death for, throwing himself flat onto the ground, Hiroki managed to grasp Akito's arm just as the younger man realised that he no longer had any ground supporting his weight.

'Hiroki,' Akito whispered urgently becoming acutely aware of the fact that he was now hanging off the six storey building with nothing but Hiroki's hand preventing him from hitting the ground in a surely fatal way. For an eternally long instant, Akito really thought that his ex-team mate would let go of his hand and that made freak out so badly that he started seeing the most significant episodes of his life flashing in front of his eyes.

'Hold on!' Hiroki shouted at him as he tried to pull him back up.

Looking up at him, Akito allowed himself to hope that maybe, just maybe, he had been wrong about Hiroki and that, again maybe, the twenty year old didn't want him dead after all.

'Please don't…'

Akito never finished his plea for he felt that a few of the freshly done stitches from his wound had ripped open and he soon noticed the sticky, warm liquid which was his blood beginning to ooze out of it then, before he could start freaking out about that too, he realised that he was finally being pulled back up onto the building's roof.

'Son!' he heard his father's strained voice say, 'are you okay?'

'No...' Akito whispered weakly from his lying position then, helped by two pairs of reasonably strong arms, he found himself sitting onto the wheelchair as his father pushed him towards the door which led to the inside of the building.

'Fujiwara…' Tohru started as they all waited for the elevator to come back up.

'Suetsugu,' Takumi interrupted him pointing at a very distressed looking Hiroki, 'take care of your son while I take care of mine.'

A few minutes later, Akito was back under the bright lights of the operating theatre only that, this time, the doctors had a much harder job at stopping the haemorrhage since the previously clean cut was now very badly torn which meant that it would now leave a pretty ugly looking scar. By the time Akito woke up from the anaesthesia for the second time that day, it was already dark outside and, unlike the first time, Akito found only his father there.

'Hey,' he whispered trying to get his old man's attention.

'Akito,' Takumi said getting up from his chair to stand next to his son.

'Where's Ryoko?' Akito asked.

'She's in the room next door,' Takumi explained, 'she kind of had a nervous break down and…'

'What?' Akito tried to exclaim.

'Relax,' Takumi ordered.

'What happened?' Akito asked, this time using just a whisper.

'Son,' Takumi said, 'she and everyone else saw you hanging off the roof and she really thought you were going to die. You can imagine the rest.'

'Shit,' Akito muttered.

'They had to give her some sedatives so she would calm down enough to allow her to sleep,' Takumi continued, 'but she should wake up in a few hours.'

'She knows I'm okay, doesn't she?' Akito asked.

'Are you?' Takumi asked back.

'Kind of,' Akito replied then, biting his lower lip, he said, 'I'm not going to be able to go to Macao, am I?'

Takumi looked at his son for a short while before shaking his head.

'Son,' he said, 'I don't think you're going to be fit to drive your own car for at least a couple of weeks, let alone the GP2 one.'

'Brilliant,' Akito commented sarcastically, 'what are we going to do?' he then asked.

'We aren't going to do anything,' Takumi replied, 'Keisuke and I will have to find another driver.'

'Dad,' Akito interrupted him, 'could you do me a favour?' he asked.

'Sure,' Takumi said.

'If he's still around, I'd like to have a word with Hiroki.'

Meanwhile, Keisuke was still speaking to a couple of the circuit's police officers while the rest of the team worked to finish off the packing up of their stuff as soon as they could doing their best to avoid the horde of journalists which was still around.

'What a day,' Kyosuke commented to Kizuna as they cleaned their tools so they could put them back where they belonged.

'Yeah,' Kizuna agreed, 'I'm worried about Ryoko,' she added.

'Me too,' Kyosuke said.

'It's got to be horrible seeing the man you love getting so close to dying twice in the same day,' Kizuna commented, 'no wonder she reacted the way she did.'

'It was a good thing your brother was there,' Kenta said, joining in the couple's conversation.

'Yes,' Kyosuke agreed, 'if it hadn't been for Seisuke, I don't know what would have happened to Ryoko.'

'Where's he?' Kizuna asked looking around herself to see if she managed to spot her fiancé's younger brother.

'He's upstairs with Misa,' Kyosuke replied, 'she's also taken the whole thing pretty badly.'

'Can you blame her?' Kizuna asked.

'Not really,' Kyosuke replied, 'she's been defending Hiroki all this time and now this happens.'

'What's going to happen to Akito?' Kizuna asked looking at Kenta.

'I don't know,' the forty odd year old man replied, 'we'll have to see what the doctors say.'

'What a gigantic mess,' Kyosuke said and both his fiancée and Kenta nodded their agreement as they re-started their work. Then, a few minutes later, the all heard Keisuke step into the garage and say:

'Are we almost done in here?'

'Yes,' Kyosuke replied, 'we're just collecting the last few bits and pieces.'

'Great,' Keisuke said, 'the sooner we get back home the better.'

'Uncle Keisuke, what did the police say?' Kyosuke asked.

'Nothing really,' Keisuke replied, 'even though Kojiro and Hiroki gave them quite a detailed description of the two brutes it's still going to be pretty difficult to find them.'

'Do you really think that the Kobita Team is behind this?' Kenta asked.

'I don't only think so,' Keisuke replied while glancing at his former protégé, 'I am absolutely sure of it,' he then added looking at everyone there.

'Where's Hiroki?' Kizuna asked.

'Takumi asked me to send him over to the clinic,' Keisuke replied, 'apparently Akito wants to speak to him.'

'Akito's awake?' Kyosuke asked raising his eyebrows in surprise.

'He just woke up,' Keisuke replied nodding at his nephew.

'What about your daughter?' Kenta asked.

'Ryoko's still sleeping,' Keisuke replied, 'and I'm not going to wake her up until I'll think she's had enough rest.'

Back at the clinic, Akito tried to sit up on his bed but, seeing how extremely painful his wound still was, he decided to settle for just asking his father to put an extra pillow under his head.

'Are you sure about this?' Takumi asked his son as he did so.

'I am,' Akito replied.

'Alright then,' Takumi said, 'I'll go and get him,' he added and, with this, Akito saw as his father walked out of the room to come back a few instants later followed by a very subdued looking Hiroki.

'Dad, can you leave us alone?' Akito asked to his father who, if possible, started looking even more worried than he already did, 'please,' he insisted.

'Alright,' Takumi agreed then, looking at Hiroki and using a warning tone of voice, he added, 'only for a few minutes and try not to upset him any more than you already have, got it?'

'Yes, sir,' Hiroki replied nodding nervously.

Takumi took a long look at the twenty year old before deciding it was safe to leave him with his son then, he turned round and left the room closing the door behind him and, at long last, Akito finally found himself face to face with his number one enemy.

'Before you say anything,' Hiroki said, 'I'd like to thank you for what you did for me up there.'

Akito's lower jaw gaped as he stared at Hiroki unable to believe his ears. Had the doctors given him too much anaesthetic and had that somehow disturbed his senses?

Seeing Akito's confused expression seemed to make Hiroki chuckle.

'What's so funny?' Akito asked sounding a tad on the dry side.

'Sorry,' Hiroki said, 'I just…'

'Forget it,' Akito interrupted him, shaking his head as he did so, 'I called you because I wanted to speak to you.'

'Listen I…'

'Hiroki,' Akito interrupted him again, 'I really don't have the patience nor the energy to start this conversation more than once so, if you can please just listen to what I have to say I'll be very grateful.'

Hiroki looked at him for a bit before nodding.

'Okay,' he said, 'but before you go ahead, let me explain to you the reasons why I…'

'You don't need to explain that to me,' Akito said, 'whatever pushed you to the edge, quite literally, it's got nothing to do with me.'

'You're wrong,' Hiroki contradicted him, 'it's all because of you.'

'Great,' Akito tried to exclaim, hurting himself in the process, 'so it's my fault, isn't it?' he added with a much lower tone of voice wincing visibly as he spoke.

'It hurts, doesn't it?' Hiroki asked.

'Oh no, it's a joy: you should try getting stabbed every now and then,' Akito replied sarcastically, 'of course it hurts you idiot!' he then hissed.

'I'm glad it does,' Hiroki said making Akito stare at him eye-widen, once more feeling incredulous hearing his ex-team mate's highly offensive words but before he had the time to reply, Hiroki added, 'now you can begin to understand how I feel.'

'Hiroki…'

'Do you have any idea what it's like having to compete with someone like you?' Hiroki asked.

'What are you talking about?' Akito asked back.

'You've got everything I don't: a family with a great reputation and fantastic connections within the racing industry, you've got the Takahashi backing you up all the way and you have so much freaking money that you could even sponsor the team all by yourself.'

'Hiroki…'

'And on top of that, you've got the most beautiful girl I've ever seen for a girlfriend.'

'Hiroki,' Akito repeated this time using a warning tone of voice.

'When you asked me to join your team,' Hiroki said ignoring Akito's warning, 'I thought that I had somehow won the lottery.'

'You surely fooled us,' Akito said.

'What do you mean?' Hiroki asked.

'Your attitude sucked,' Akito replied honestly, 'you really don't have a clue of what it is to be a part of a team, do you?'

'You didn't help me any,' Hiroki said and before Akito could say anything, he added, 'you all made me feel like an outsider.'

'What?'

'And then,' Hiroki continued, 'Hashimoto showed up and he started telling me that that wasn't the way to go.'

'Hiroki,' Akito said, 'I know where you want to end up and I don't…'

'What is it?' Hiroki asked sounding a tad on the aggressive side, 'don't you want to hear how stupid I was when someone sweet talked me into becoming a cheater?'

'No, I don't,' Akito replied then, noticing that he was beginning to feel quite weak all over again, he added, 'honestly Hiroki, I just can't have this conversation right now.'

His very feeble tone of voice seemed to do the trick for Hiroki seemed to finally realise that Akito was doing a huge effort to just remain awake.

'Shit,' he muttered, 'see what I mean?'

'No, Hiroki, I don't,' Akito replied tiredly.

'You always manage to make me feel like I'm a worthless piece of crap,' Hiroki said.

'That's just stupid,' Akito countered and before his ex-team mate could say anything to that, he elaborated his statement by saying, 'look, I think that for some reason you've always made the same mistake when it comes to both life and racing.'

'What do you mean?'

'Do you know the reason why I don't have the same problems you do?' Akito asked then, seeing Hiroki shaking his head, he added, 'because I've never relied on what other people think of me in order to feel good about myself.'

'What?'

'Sure,' Akito continued, 'I like receiving praise every now and then but, you couldn't believe the amount of criticism I get too.'

'Criticism, you?' Hiroki asked with a large dose of disbelief.

'Take racing, for instance,' Akito replied, 'you'd be surprised if you heard what my father thinks about my driving not to mention the couple of times I've overheard him discussing with my grandfather about the things I still need to improve.'

'Really?'

'Also,' Akito added, 'working for your girlfriend's father can sometimes be a living nightmare, not to mention the fact that Ryoko is…'

He interrupted himself realising that he really didn't want to discuss anything which even remotely concerned Ryoko with Hiroki.

'Let's just say,' Akito re-started, 'that I have plenty of people around me who are much better than I am in many different aspects of life but, that doesn't make me feel angry at them, it just makes me think that I have to work harder in order to get better.'

'But…'

'Hiroki, you're the worst mistake I've made in my life,' Akito said with brutal honesty, 'I really thought you had what it took to become a real racer.'

'I am a real racer!' Hiroki complained.

'No you're not,' Akito countered, 'a real racer knows his limits and works constantly to overcome these limits so he can keep pushing them further and further from him. You, in the other hand, have just given up that battle to start fighting a useless war against me.'

'Akito…'

'What's even worse,' Akito continued, 'is that you almost made me play the game following your rules, which is the reason why I called you.'

'You've completely lost me now,' Hiroki said.

'I realised that the only way I'm going to get you out of the way is by keeping you as close as possible,' Akito replied.

'What do you mean?' Hiroki asked now sounding utterly confused.

'I've heard that you've probably lost your race seat,' Akito replied.

'I've probably have, yes,' Hiroki agreed miserably.

'Well, that's a coincidence,' Akito said, 'because I seriously doubt I'll be able to make it for the next race,' he added.

'What are you saying?' Hiroki asked.

'I'm making you an offer,' Akito replied, 'you get back into the team and race in my place until I get better.'

'What?' Hiroki exclaimed.

'I haven't finished,' Akito interrupted him, 'like I said, you get back into the team and race in my place until I get better with only two conditions.'

'Two conditions?' Hiroki asked.

'Yes,' Akito replied, 'the first one is that when I'll get back in the team you stay on as a tester until you find yourself another race seat.'

'That sounds reasonable,' Hiroki said.

'The other one,' Akito continued, 'is that you make sure Kojiro wins his first race in Macao.'

To be continued…