Programmed Lives – Final Stage

Chapter Thirty Four

The minute he got home, instead of rushing into the house to try and find his grandfather so he could tell him about having made a member of the Golden Arrows, Kojiro stayed in the garage where, among other vehicles, his grandfather kept his jade green S15 and an AE86 quite similar to the one Akito's father owned.

Pulling his mobile phone out of one of the front pockets of his trousers, Kojiro dialled Kyosuke's phone number, wondering if the older guy would still be at the hospital with Masato and Izawa.

'Hello?' Kyosuke replied.

'Hi,' Kojiro said, 'am I bothering you?'

'Of course not,' Kyosuke replied, 'Seisuke and I are just waiting for the doctors to finish checking Masato and Izawa up.'

'Right,' Kojiro said, 'listen, I've just met with the drivers of the two DC5s.'

'You've what?' Kyosuke exclaimed, 'did they do anything to you?'

'Well,' Kojiro said, trying his best to laugh it off, 'they almost sent me and my new car for a swim.'

'Oh crap,' Kyosuke said, 'you're alright though, aren't you?'

'Yes,' Kojiro replied, 'however, those two told me that they are called Adachi Kano and Sano, they are from Tsumagoi. They've also given me their details so you can contact them to accept their challenge.'

Things went so quiet at the other end that, for a few instants, Kojiro thought that Kyosuke had hanged up on him.

'Kyosuke?' he asked, just in case.

'I'm here,' Kyosuke assured him.

'What are you…' Kojiro started.

'Like I said earlier,' Kyosuke interrupted him, 'don't worry about anything. Just send me their number and Seisuke and I will take care of those two.'

'Are you going to race them?' Kojiro asked him.

'I don't know yet,' Kyosuke replied, 'but don't worry, okay?' he insisted.

After reassuring him that he wasn't going to worry, mainly because Kojiro knew that Kyosuke was more than capable of taking care of this kind of things, the eighteen year old pressed the button to finish the call, spending a few more instants sending Kyosuke a short email with the Adachi's phone number before turning round towards the garage's door where he saw his grandfather there, leaning against the doorframe.

'What's going on?' Keiichi asked.

'Grandpa,' Kojiro said smiling happily pointing at the stickers his V-86 now had, 'I've just been made a member of the Golden Arrows.'

'Have you really?' Keiichi asked and, for some strange reason, the old man didn't actually look too impressed by any of this.

'Yes,' Kojiro replied hesitantly, 'Kyosuke admitted me into the team fairly easily and…'

'I've heard of those Adachi kids you were talking about,' Keiichi said, still not sounding very happy, 'they're a nasty piece of work.'

'I know that but…'

'Listen, Kojiro,' Keiichi said putting a hand on his grandson's shoulder, 'I really don't want you to be involved in any kind of battle.'

'What?' Kojiro asked looking at his grandfather with a consternated frown, 'are you telling me that you don't want me to do any street racing?' he added.

'If that's going to get you in trouble, no, I don't.'

'Grandpa!' Kojiro exclaimed, 'what did you get me the V-86 for then?'

'I got it so you could have fun practicing your driving with it,' Keiichi replied, 'not so you could get involved with people like the Adachi kids who I know are trying to replace the Takahashi brothers and the Golden Arrows as the fastest racers in Gunma.'

'Grandpa, Akito is the fastest racer in Gunma,' Kojiro said, 'even Kyosuke and Seisuke say so.'

'That's probably right,' Keiichi conceded, 'however, the Golden Arrows' founders were Kyosuke and Seisuke.'

'Okay, that's right too but…'

'Kojiro,' Keiichi interrupted him again, 'do you remember what happened to me back in my first years of professional racing?'

'Er…'

'I got my FIA license suspended because they found out about my illegal street racing activities,' Keiichi explained, 'I just don't want the same thing to happen to you, okay?'

Kojiro looked at his grandfather for a short while before nodding.

'Alright,' he said, 'I'll try to stay out of trouble but, Grandpa, you've got to please allow me handle this my way, okay?'

It was then Keiichi's turn to stare at his grandson for a bit before nodding too.

'I've always trusted your good judgement,' the old man said, 'you've always been a lot more mature than your actual age so, I'll trust you with this too.'

'Thank you,' Kojiro said smiling at his grandfather.

'By the way,' Keiichi said, 'Isabelle's left a message in the answering machine. It's in French so I couldn't understand a word of what she was saying…'

The old man didn't even finish the sentence for the eighteen year old started running into the house making Keiichi shake his head while he thought that, whereas for everything else Kojiro was indeed a very mature person, when it came to Isabelle, he was nothing but a teenager.

Smiling at that, Keiichi followed his grandson out of the garage and into the house, not before taking a look at his S15 and his AE86, wishing he still was an adolescent so he could drive around like a madman, just as he used to do.

Meanwhile, back in Takasaki and after having left their team mates at the hospital where, just in case, they would stay overnight, Kyosuke and Seisuke stood next to their RZ-1s in the clinic's car park discussing what to do about the Adachi guys or, rather, with Seisuke trying to convince his older brother to get in touch with those bastards the sooner the better.

'It's not so easy…'

'Aniki!' Seisuke exclaimed, 'they've destroyed Izawa's car, they made Masato crash his against a wall and now they've almost made Kojiro crash too.'

'I know,' Kyosuke protested, 'how do you think I feel about that?' he asked.

'Aniki…'

'Look,' Kyosuke interrupted him, 'if we hadn't given Kojiro our stickers, he wouldn't even have got involved in all of this and I cannot even think of what would have happened if Izawa or Masato had got badly hurt.'

'Aniki,' Seisuke said, 'all I'm saying is that we should give them a call, see what they want.'

'Seisuke, it's fairly clear what they want,' Kyosuke pointed out.

'Alright,' Seisuke said beginning to lose his patience, 'let's just call them, okay?'

'Seisuke…'

'Please,' Seisuke insisted then, shaking his head and obviously giving up, Kyosuke took his phone out of the pocket of his jacket and searched for the number Kojiro had sent him. Then, without exchanging a further word with his younger brother, he dialled the number then he put the phone to his ear.

'Hello?' someone replied.

'This is Takahashi Kyosuke,' the twenty three year old said.

'Oh-ho!' the other guy exclaimed with fake happiness, 'at long last! I see that that shortass who drives the V-86 has passed on the message…'

'That 'shortass',' Kyosuke said, keeping an admirably calm tone of voice, 'is one of the best racers in the GP2 grid.'

'Hang on,' the guy said, 'that shortass we've spoken to wasn't Fujiwara,' the guy asked sounding really angry all of a sudden.

'What?' Kyosuke asked, 'of course that wasn't him, the guy you spoke to is Tsuchiya Kojiro.'

'What?' the guy exclaimed, 'are you telling me that you've got two GP2 racers in your team?'

'Yes, now we do.'

'Oh this makes it all even better,' the guy sneered.

'What do you mean?' Kyosuke asked.

'We're trying to found our own team but it seems like the best racers from Gunma have already been taken by your team,' the guy explained.

'That's right,' Kyosuke replied proudly.

'Well,' the guy said sounding even happier now, 'that's the deal: my brother and I race against you two and when we beat you, you will have to ask Fujiwara and Tsuchiya to join us.'

'What?' Kyosuke exclaimed, 'you're nuts!'

'That's the deal, take it or leave it,' the guy insisted.

'What makes you think I can ask them to join your team?' Kyosuke asked and, at this point, Seisuke opened his eyes as wide as they could go he then started making some frantic gestures as he tried to get his older brother's attention.

'I'm sure you'll find a way,' the guy said, 'in any case, that's not my problem. I've heard that you rarely race at your home course so, I take we'll be racing at ours.'

'Where is that?' Kyosuke asked, noticing that he was getting quite pissed off at the guy's arrogance.

'Mt Usui,' the guy replied.

'What?' Kyosuke said, 'that's the Nagano Alliance's home course.'

'It won't be for much longer if we beat you there,' he countered.

'Fine,' Kyosuke said and, before he had too much time to think about it, he added, 'let's see...we're free the first Saturday of August so we could meet up then at around nine pm.'

'Great,' the guy said, 'we'll be there.'

Kyosuke finished the call staring at his phone for a few seconds before he could bring himself to look at his younger brother because, for some reason, he felt rather mortified at the fact that he had just agreed to a deal which he should have pondered a lot more carefully.

'What was that with Akito and Kojiro?' Seisuke asked, making Kyosuke look at him.

'They said that if we lose the race, we'll have to convince them to join the Adachi's team,' Kyosuke replied.

'Really?' Seisuke asked, raising his eyebrows in surprise, 'and you accepted that?'

'Well, I never told him we were going to.'

'I'm so proud of you,' Seisuke said sounding serious.

'Seisuke, I never said we were going to race. I thought we could...'

'Aniki,' Seisuke said, dismissing what his older brother was trying to say, 'for once in your life, you've been spontaneous.'

'What? I can be spontaneous.'

'You are most certainly not,' Seisuke contradicted him, 'Aniki, no offence or anything, but when it comes to taking things into consideration, you're almost as bad as Dad: you two never ever do anything without thinking things through forever.'

'Seisuke I…'

'Honestly,' he interrupted his older brother, 'I'm really happy you've finally shown to me that you too can make decisions based on how you feel.'

'Hey,' Kyosuke protested, 'I can make decisions like that: take Kizuna, for instance.'

'Right,' Seisuke cut him off, 'don't even bring Kizuna into this for it'll just help me rest my case.'

'Whatever makes you sleep better at night,' Kyosuke said feeling rather annoyed for he realised that his younger brother was right.

'Aniki, you want to race them and you know it,' Seisuke insisted.

Kyosuke stared at his brother for a while before, letting out a frustrated sigh and shaking his head in defeat, he finally surrendered and said:

'Alright, we'll have to work on your car if you really want us to race those two.'

'We?' Seisuke asked.

'Of course,' Kyosuke replied, 'do you think I'll let you do all the work on your RZ-1 by yourself?'

'Well…to be honest, I was kind of counting on your help…'

'You better,' Kyosuke said, 'because, no offence or anything, but Akito's right: your car does look like it desperately needs a good overhaul.'

Four days after that, on a beautiful Monday morning, Akito and Ryoko got out of the taxi which had brought them from Narita back to their house in Tokyo and, after paying the driver, Akito took the two heaviest suitcases all the way up the stairs leaving Ryoko in charge of opening the door.

'Wait here,' Akito said to her as he brought all their travel bags inside the house, leaving them on the huge, marble-floored hall then, walking back out to the luxurious front porch, he took his wife into his arms.

'What are you doing?' Ryoko asked sounding half amused half confused.

'Hey,' Akito replied, 'this is the first time we enter our house after getting married, I want to do it properly.'

'Alright,' Ryoko said as she snuggled herself against Akito's left shoulder, keeping her arms firmly around his neck.

Ignoring the bags, he kicked the heavy front door closed and walked all the long way to their living room, observing how extremely beautiful the house now looked, after having been repainted and with all the floors cleaned and the furniture polished. They really had a very nice house.

Putting Ryoko down onto the cream coloured couch, Akito smiled and said:

'Welcome home, Mrs Fujiwara.'

'Oh gosh,' Ryoko complained, 'you just made me feel like I'm forty or something!'

'Sorry,' Akito said biting his lower lip guiltily then, smiling again, he said, 'I wish I didn't have to go to the training session.'

'Why?' Ryoko asked him frowning concernedly.

'Oh, can't you guess?' Akito asked her as he crouched next to her, taking her hand in his.

'Akito!' Ryoko protested but laughing softly as she did so, 'don't tell me you want to do it again?'

'Er…no?'

Ryoko shook her head but then, seeing his puppy-like eyes, she said:

'I'm not feeling all that great right now, it's probably the jetlag and the over fourteen hours we've spent travelling but, after I get some sleep and I take a shower…we'll see, okay?'

'Alright,' Akito said smiling again.

'That said,' Ryoko continued, 'are you sure you're alright to go to practice? Aren't you tired too?'

'Nope,' Akito replied, 'I slept like a baby in the plane, didn't I?'

'That's right,' Ryoko said, 'I forgot you can sleep almost anywhere…'

'I'm lucky,' Akito said, 'in more than one way. Now, unfortunately, I really need to go.'

'Okay, be careful and say hi from me to everyone, alright?'

'I will,' Akito replied, 'you rest and take it easy for today.'

'I do have to unpack our bags,' Ryoko pointed out.

'Do that only if you feel like it,' Akito replied, 'if not, I'll do it when I get back.'

Ryoko just nodded at that before Akito gave her a peck on her lips. He then got back up as Ryoko took the remote of their new TV so she could try to catch on the national news.

'I love you,' Akito said as he stepped out of the room.

'Me too,' Ryoko replied.

An hour later, Akito parked his panda coloured V-86 at the Takahashi Motorsports Centre feeling very happy that he was back home in Japan although the thought that, only three days later, he had to get back into a plane to go to Singapore for the following round of the GP2 season almost made him feel like crying.

Walking towards the main building, he saw his father walking out of it, carrying a can of coffee in his hand.

'Hey Dad,' Akito said.

'Hey son,' Takumi said, 'I didn't think you'd be coming here today.'

'Why not?' Akito asked, 'we've got the next race this weekend, haven't we?'

'Yes but…'

'Dad,' Akito said, 'I've got plenty of time to be with Ryoko.'

'I wasn't referring to that,' Takumi said, 'but now that you mention it, spend with her as much time as you can for you never know.'

'Dad,' Akito repeated, getting very serious, 'I know what you're trying to say but, the way things have gone with me and Ryoko, to be honest, I think that it's she who should worry the most.'

Takumi looked at his son and, in spite of the seriousness of the conversation; he couldn't help but to smile at Akito.

'That's probably right,' Takumi agreed, 'just in case, try to take better care of yourself too, okay?'

'I can't make any promises,' Akito said smiling cheekily then, sobering up, he added, 'don't worry Dad, I'm a married man now so I have to be a lot more careful about what I do: no more crazy stuff from me from now on.'

Takumi stared at Akito with an incredulous expression on his face but, for the sake of not arguing with his son, he just nodded and said:

'Let's go, I think most of the team is already there.'

'Alright,' Akito said.

'Hey!' Akito heard Kizuna exclaim as he and his father walked into the small building where the Takawara Racing Team's had their headquarters.

'Akito, long time no see!' Kenta said.

'How was Barcelona?' Fumihiro asked him.

'It was great,' Akito replied, 'there's a mountain road there called L'Arrabassada or something like that which is truly amazing. I wanted to try going downhill but Ryoko didn't want me to do that with our rented car…'

'Yeah, it's never a good idea going against the wife's wishes, is it?' Seisuke asked as he and his older brother walked into the garage too.

'Hey guys!' Akito exclaimed hurrying towards his best friends to exchange a quick one armed hug with both of them.

'Hey,' Kyosuke said, 'careful there or we'll think you've missed us.'

'I've missed you all, to be honest,' Akito said, 'both Ryoko and I had a great time in Barcelona but we couldn't wait to get back to Japan.'

'You sound as bad as your grandfather,' Takumi muttered.

'So,' Akito said ignoring his old man, 'did anything exciting happen while we were gone?'

'How long have you got?' Seisuke asked him with a smirk on his face.

To be continued…