Programmed Lives – Final Stage
Chapter Thirty Three
Kyosuke, instead of asking Masato to explain himself, after having noticed that Izawa wasn't there with him and knowing that the two friends usually came to their gatherings together, the Golden Arrows' leader said:
'Masato, where's Izawa?'
'He...he went down the cliff,' Masato stuttered still sounding very shaken up.
'He WHAT?' Junya shouted while Seisuke, after exchanging a very quick glance with his older brother, started running towards his car.
'Let's go,' Kyosuke ordered to everyone else, including his own fiancée.
Not even five minutes later and following Masato's badly battered Vera, they got to one of the infamous sharp corners from Mt Akagi's steep downhill and there, everyone saw the unmistakable sign of a recently wrecked guardrail.
'Shit,' Seisuke muttered as he climbed out of his white RZ-1, carrying his trusty first aid kid with him then, not even bothering with waiting for his team mates to find a spot out of the road to leave their cars parked, he and his older brother rushed towards the edge of the road where the surrounding darkness prevented them from seeing anything else but two specks of light coming from somewhere further down.
'That's him,' Masato's shaky voice said, 'that's Izawa.'
'Holy crap,' Kizuna gasped, 'what are we going to do?' she asked to Kyosuke.
Ignoring her question, the twenty three year old man made his way back to his car, opened its trunk and got a length of rope out of it then, climbing back into the RZ-1, he turned its engine on manoeuvring it with its front facing the edge of the cliff.
Once there, Kyosuke got out of his car and went to crouch next to its front using the hook that was under the bumper to tie up one of the ends of the rope then, doing a very solid looking knot to it, he pulled the rope with all his strength to test if it could cope with his weight.
'Right,' he said once he was happy enough with that, 'I'm going down.'
'I'm coming with you,' Seisuke added.
'No,' Kyosuke said, 'you're staying here because you need to take care of Masato's wound.'
'Aniki, Izawa's probably injured too,' Seisuke argued.
'I know,' Kyosuke said, 'which is why you need to stay here: if you hurt yourself while you get down there, who's going to take care of him?'
Seisuke looked at his older brother and, knowing that he was perfectly right, he nodded.
'Fine, I'll stay here,' he said.
Before anyone else, namely Kizuna, could volunteer themselves to go with their leader, Kyosuke started his descent down the cliff using the rope, being careful to avoid any bushes or trees which he might have found along the way and feeling grateful that some of the guys had had the brilliant idea of using hand held electric torches so he didn't have to do that in complete darkness.
'What happened?' Junya asked to Masato as Seisuke was busy cleaning up his wound which, thankfully enough, wasn't anywhere as deep as it had first appeared.
'We were at our local café,' Masato started, 'you know, where Izawa and I always meet up before coming here…ouch…'
'Stay still,' Seisuke ordered him, glaring at Junya for distracting Masato.
'Sorry,' Junya said.
'Anyway,' Masato continued, trying to move as little as possible, 'we were about to get back into our cars when we've seen a pair of twin brothers walking towards us. One of them, pointing at our stickers, has asked me if we were members of the Golden Arrows for real…'
'Are there fake Golden Arrows?' Shinji asked sounding quite incredulous.
'Of course not, idiot,' Junya replied, 'so, what happened after that?' he asked to Masato.
'I've told him that we were the real thing,' Masato replied, 'then, they've told us that they wanted to see if we were as good as everyone says.'
'You didn't race them, did you?' Seisuke asked him.
'Of course not,' Masato replied, 'you know we wouldn't do that without your brother's permission.'
'Right,' Seisuke said then, fixing some gauze over the gash with surgical tape, he added, 'that should do for now. We should take you and Izawa to the hospital to have you both checked.'
'Speaking of whom,' Kei said talking to Kizuna, 'are you sure he doesn't need a hand?'
'I don't think so,' Kizuna replied looking down the cliff, seeing that Kyosuke was already helping Izawa out of his crashed car, 'it seems like Izawa's conscious,' she added sounding rather relieved.
'Are you sure?' Masato asked rushing to where she was.
'You can see it for yourself,' Kizuna replied pointing at the two figures which were now climbing up.
A few instants later, they all had confirmation of this fact when they saw a very bruised and shaken looking but perfectly awake Izawa being hoisted up by a couple of his team mates quickly followed by Kyosuke.
'We'll need to get one of our trucks,' he said as he brushed off a few leaves and bits of dirt which could be seen scattered all over his trousers, 'I'm sorry to say this Izawa,' he added, 'but I think that getting your car back to how it used to be is going to be pretty difficult.'
'Not to mention expensive, right?' Izawa asked him looking rather disconsolate.
'Yeah, I'm afraid so too,' Kyosuke replied putting his hand onto his team mate's right shoulder, 'I'm really sorry.'
'Those fucking bastards!' Izawa exclaimed making a visible effort not to burst into tears, 'if we ever catch them…'
'What happened?' Kyosuke asked looking from Izawa to Masato.
'I was just explaining that,' Masato replied, 'Izawa and I got challenged by two guys but, since we couldn't accept it without your approval, we turned them down.'
'That's right,' Izawa added while Seisuke checked that besides a few cuts and bruises, the younger man seemed to be okay.
'Then,' Masato continued, 'we climbed into our cars and we drove here like we always do.'
'I realised we were being followed when we got out of the motorway,' Izawa said, 'and I told Masato using the car's radio.'
'Yeah,' Masato said suddenly looking rather guilty, 'and I've told him to just ignore them.'
'Did you see which cars they were driving?' Kizuna asked all of a sudden.
'That's the worst bit,' Izawa replied with a scowl, 'they were two of those old Honda DC5s with registration plates from Gunma.'
Everyone felt even sorrier for the poor guy for the all knew that Izawa had become a huge fan of the Honda Integra Type-R, being the proud owner of one of those cars himself, the very same one which was now smashed up against a tree, somewhere down a cliff.
'What happened then?' Seisuke asked.
'We're not too sure,' Masato replied, 'we had just started driving up to the summit when, all of a sudden, we've seen the two Integra chasing after us. Then one of them has somehow managed to overtake us because…'
'…you were unprepared,' Kyosuke finished for him mercilessly.
'Yeah sorry,' Masato said looking at his team leader apologetically before continuing, 'then, the one which we had behind has started pushing us, forcing us to speed up.'
'That's right,' Izawa replied, 'that's the bastard who has made me lose control of my car.'
'That's when I crashed against the wall,' Masato added, 'although I think they've made me do that on purpose so that I was forced to stop.'
'What do you mean?' Kizuna asked.
'They wanted me to give you guys a message,' Masato said.
'The fucking bastards!' Izawa exclaimed, 'I had just gone down the cliff! I could have died for pity's sake!'
'What did they say?' Kyosuke asked while looking at Izawa understandingly.
'They said that they're after you two,' Masato replied pointing at the two Takahashi brothers.
'WHAT?' Seisuke exclaimed.
'They said they'll race against you no matter what,' Masato said.
'Aniki…'
'Okay,' Kyosuke said, 'I think I've heard enough and I also think it's due time you two get to the hospital.'
'Aniki, what are we…'
'Seisuke,' Kyosuke interrupted him, 'we're going to take them to our clinic in Takasaki. After that, I want all of you to head…'
'What the…' one of the guys said making everyone turn to see where he was looking at. There, they all saw the jade green V-86 belonging to Kojiro driving uphill.
'What is he doing in here?' Seisuke asked to his brother.
'No idea,' Kyosuke replied.
They all watched the Toyota driving past them only to park right in front of Kizuna's Nissan then, after turning his car's engine off, they saw as the eighteen year old climbed out of it, making his way down to the corner where the whole of the Golden Arrows were.
'What are you all doing in here?' a puzzled looking Kojiro asked glancing at Kyosuke.
'We could ask you the very same thing,' Seisuke asked him.
'Er…'
'Why don't you start telling us what you're doing in here?' Kyosuke suggested.
'Well, the thing is,' Kojiro replied using an atypically shy tone of voice, 'I just wanted to see if…well…'
'Kojiro, what is it?' Kizuna asked him sounding quite worried.
'Oh, I…I just wanted to ask you if I could become a member of your team,' the eighteen year old said speaking as quickly a he could.
'What?' Seisuke asked him sounding as surprised as everyone else was.
'You think it's a bad idea, don't you?' Kojiro said suddenly looking very insecure, 'I know I'm not a…'
'No, no,' Kizuna started, 'it's not that it's a bad idea.'
'It's the timing which is bad,' Kyosuke added.
'I thought so,' Kojiro said now appearing rather disappointed, 'Akito did say it wasn't going to be easy.'
'He did?' Seisuke asked.
'Yeah, well,' Kojiro replied, 'I do have to beat your older brother, don't I?'
'Where did you get that from?' Kyosuke asked him sounding almost amused by all of this.
'Akito told me,' Kojiro replied, his disappointment turning quickly into confusion as he saw that the two Takahashi brothers were laughing out loud then, seeing his expression, Seisuke hurried to say:
'We're not laughing at you.'
'We're not,' Kyosuke confirmed, 'it's just that the only member who has had to beat me to become a Golden Arrow it's Akito.'
'Really?' Kojiro asked.
'Yes, it's our secret,' Kyosuke replied glancing at the whole team, 'they all know that I had to tell Akito that because it was the only way I could get him to race me seriously.'
'Ah…I see…'
'In any case,' Seisuke said, 'if all you want is to become one of us, I don't know what the others think about this but, as far as I'm concerned, you're more than welcome to join us.'
'REALLY?' Kojiro repeated, only that this time he was shouting.
'Yes, why not?' Kyosuke said then, speaking to the rest of the guys, he added, 'is anyone against it?'
Seeing that no one opposed Kojiro's entry into the team, Kyosuke walked towards his car, opened the driver's side door and took a couple of the rectangular stickers he always kept in it then, walking back to where Kojiro was and offering them to the eighteen year old, he said:
'Welcome to the team, again.'
'What about Akito?' Kojiro asked without taking the stickers from him, 'shouldn't we wait until he's back?'
'Nah,' Seisuke said shaking his head.
'You're already his team mate, aren't you?' Kizuna added.
'Yeah, that's right,' Kojiro admitted.
'Then, I don't think he's going to have problems with you being in his other racing team,' Kizuna said.
'Now,' Kyosuke then said, 'I'm sorry that we can't keep the tradition of celebrating the new addition to the team as we should but, as you can see, we've had a bit of a situation in here,' he added pointing at the smashed up red Vera.
'What happened to it?' Kojiro asked.
'Izawa and I had a bit of a close encounter with a couple of Integra,' Masato replied sounding pretty fed up of having to explain the same thing for the third time that evening.
'I see,' Kojiro said, 'where's your car?' he then asked looking at Izawa.
'Down the cliff,' the older guy replied.
'Ouch,' Kojiro said with a concerned frown, 'and you didn't get hurt?' he asked seeing that the older guy looked almost unharmed.
'Not very much,' Izawa replied, 'I was lucky my seatbelt and the airbags worked perfectly.'
'Aniki,' Seisuke said, 'what are we going to do about that?'
'Seisuke,' Kyosuke said, 'like I was saying earlier, we're not going to be racing anyone who uses such dirty methods so, we'll take Izawa and Masato to the hospital, we'll cancel this training session and, tomorrow morning, we'll get one of our trucks to recover Izawa's car from down there.'
'But…'
'That's all we're going to do,' Kyosuke insisted, 'and if anyone sees any of the two Honda Izawa and Masato have described to us, they're to report it to me immediately, is that understood?'
'Yes,' Seisuke replied on behalf of everybody else.
'Good,' Kyosuke said.
'Is there anything I can do?' Kojiro asked still looking rather worried.
'Not really,' Kyosuke replied, 'Kojiro, don't worry about any of this, okay? We'll be meeting up again this Saturday.'
'Count me in,' Kojiro said firmly.
'Okay,' Kyosuke said smiling at him, 'now, you can put these on whenever you want,' he added finally giving the two Golden Arrows stickers to Kojiro.
'I'm going to do it right now!' the eighteen year old exclaimed happily as he started running towards his jade green V-86.
'Right,' Kyosuke said with a soft chuckle.
Finally and after waiting for a few more minutes until Kojiro had finished sticking the two decals on both sides of his Toyota, allowing him an extra second so he could admire the results, they all started driving down to the base, with Masato forced to leave his Vera parked safely away from the traffic for Seisuke had decided that, until they did a full check up at a hospital, his team mate was not fit to drive.
For this reason, Masato was now sitting on the passenger seat of Kyosuke's RZ-1 while Izawa was in that of Seisuke's with Kizuna's Nissan following the two brothers all the way to Takasaki were they would go to one of the three hospitals the Takahashi Arakawa Medical Group owned.
Meanwhile, Kojiro started driving towards Tashiro, the small and quiet town near the border with the Nagano prefecture where he and his grandfather lived, choosing the twisted and ancient road instead of taking the faster motorway, mainly because he really fancied a long drive.
The eighteen year old was so happy that he'd been admitted into the Golden Arrows so easily, and so worried about what was happening to them now, that he didn't even pay attention to the two identical cars which were parked near a gas station he bypassed on his way home. Because of this, it took him by complete surprise when, right after having left the village of Tsumagoi behind, he saw a couple of headlights on his rear view mirror.
'What is…'
He didn't even have the time to finish the sentence when he realised that, whoever it was, definitely didn't have friendly intentions so, steeling himself for the fight, Kojiro pressed the V-86's accelerator just enough to ensure that he went just a bit faster than the car he had behind.
Only that it wasn't just a car: they were two, and they were most certainly challenging him to a race.
'It's them,' Kojiro muttered to himself suddenly remembering what he had heard from the Golden Arrow getting a lot more worried.
He then made his Toyota pick up even more speed hoping that he could put as much distance between his brand new car and the other two. Kojiro was actually aiming to find somewhere to top so he could hide from them, buying himself the time he needed to warn Kyosuke.
Unfortunately, neither of the two Hondas appeared to have any intentions of giving him any such chance and, because of that, Kojiro saw himself forced to keep driving faster and faster until, right after passing by the village of Ozasa, a few kilometres away from Tashiro, the eighteen year old realised that he was going almost as fast as he'd gone while racing against Akito.
Then it happened: right as he was crossing the bridge which led to the road where he and his grandfather had their home, Kojiro's V-86 skidded over some sand which probably came from a dried up puddle and only his highly honed driving skills prevented him from crashing against one of the bridge's barriers.
'Fuck,' he whispered seeing that the front of the V-86 was just a hair away from the short wall.
Feeling pretty angry, the eighteen year old climbed out of his car as he saw the two Hondas stop just a few metres ahead of him and, for the first time, he saw that they were two heavily tuned black Honda Integra Type-Rs.
As if all of this hadn't already freaked the poor Kojiro out, seeing two identical looking men in their mid-twenties climbing out of the cars definitely did the trick.
'What do you want?' Kojiro asked them, using an unusually dry tone of voice.
'Tonight must be our lucky night,' one of the guys said with a smirk on his face.
'You're right,' the other one agreed, 'we've been trying to run into one of the Golden Arrows for weeks.'
'…and, in one night, we've found three of you,' the first one finished.
'What do you want from us?' the eighteen year old asked, feeling way too concerned to be proud of being able to call himself a Golden Arrow.
'Our name is Adachi Kano and Sano and we're from Tsumagoi,' one of the guys said.
'And we're going to defeat the Takahashi brothers even if it's the last thing we do,' the other added.
To be continued…