Chapter 52
On the Saturday that fell one week before the championship race at Fuji, Gavin and Reiko were with the Akina Street Kings for a night of practice in the mountains. While most of the seven full members of the team were down on the mountain Shou and Matsuda sat at the summit with the only two Mazda driving people in the team.
"Shou, I want to take the next downhill challenge that comes up," Gavin said out of nowhere shocking not only his leader but his wife as well.
"And what makes you think I'll allow that? Reiko's last race was nothing but a practice run on steroids," Shou replied with an even tone.
"I don't expect you to, unless that challenge comes from the Akagi Blue Fire team, Tatsuo more specifically," the buzz cut blonde replied honestly.
"When did he get bold enough to challenge you?" Reiko asked voicing the same question as Shou and Matsuda.
"He hasn't, yet, but he did talk about it when we were out testing Nika's S30Z on Sunday."
"When did Nika-san get an S30Z?" Matsuda asked breaking the subject.
"She doesn't have it yet, it's still in Tatsuo's possession, Gavin, Tatsuo and Mikio have been restoring it all season long. It's looking like he'll be giving it to her as a championship gift," Reiko replied sounding a little giddy at the idea.
"When will you restore a car for Reiko-chan, Gavin?" Shou asked teasingly.
"As soon as she stops wanting monster cars like the 1970 Charger Daytona and the 71 Corvette with the 454 engine," Gavin replied without flinching at the elbow Reiko put into his side.
"They're only monsters if you don't know how to drive them," his wife said pouting a bit at her husband's teasing.
"I rest my case, I have driven a 70 Charger remember? I still call it a monster," the buzz cut blonde replied seriously, "It's not that I don't trust you to drive them properly Reiko, I wouldn't trust either of them with you."
"Aww, that's so sweet," Matsuda said with a teasing tone earning himself a glare from not only Reiko but Shou and Gavin as well, "Geez, there's no sense of humor around here anymore," he added looking a little taken aback.
"So no restoration gift for Reiko unless it's something a little more local huh?" Shou asked not taking his eyes off Matsuda.
"Only if it's something with a rotary engine," Reiko replied instead.
"Oh that's right, you always were a rotary driver before the NSX," Matsuda said sounding a little more genuine than before, "That must have been a rough transition for you, from an FMR to an MR and not a rotary at that I mean."
"It wasn't that hard actually, we trained in an AW11 for almost a year before we moved up to the NSX, that made it a lot easier to figure things out," Gavin said with a chuckle, "Though I'll admit it was a little rough to go from a four hundred plus horsepower FD to a two hundred horsepower AW11 in my case."
"Didn't go fast enough for you right?" Shou asked with a slight chuckle.
Gavin simply shook his head before telling his mountain racing team leader that he and Reiko should probably get going for the night. As the pair made their way down the pass they noticed everyone moving to get out of their way as they drifted through whatever lane they needed to get by in. They had fun showing off a few parallel drifts and other fancy tricks before they made it to the base and continued home.
Meanwhile over at Akagi, it wasn't just Nika trying to pry the identity of the car Tatsuo had sitting in the bay at the school. The leader of the Blue Fires was almost to the point of throwing him in front of a moving car to get the answer out of him when Nika finally gave up and decided to make a few runs of her own down the mountain.
"So what is it really?" one of the female team members asked once Nika was gone, "I promise I'll keep it to myself Tatsuo-san," she added seeing his incredulous look.
"It's an S30Z, did a little research and found out it's what they dubbed a Z432 since it's powered by the old S20 Skyline engine," Tatsuo whispered with an excited note to his quiet tone.
Seeing his teammate's shocked face made him chuckle quietly as she backed a few steps away from him once he was done speaking.
"How did you find something like that?" she asked still sounding a little shocked at his find, "Weren't there only like four hundred of those made or something?"
"Pure chance honestly, it was a rusted beast when I saw it at a cruise in just before the season started," the black haired man answered with a smile, "I've had my moments of doubt concerning it, but it is done and just in time for the championship."
"So what will you do? Give her the keys on the podium?"
"I don't really know yet. If I could I'd take it to Fuji with us and drive it to the championship ceremony, but since I can't do that I'll probably just wait till we get back to the school after it."
"Why can't you take it to Fuji with you?"
"No room in the car haulers and Nika would notice an S30Z following the team all the way to the circuit if someone drove it down for me, even more so if I drove it down."
"And what will you do next season?"
"I don't know, we've got time to deal with that though," Tatsuo replied as he got up and climbed into his SE3P and made a few runs of his own before he and Nika headed home for the rest of the night.
Over in Usui the Sparks team was just wrapping up their own practice for the night and were all gathered at the base of the pass just to hang out for a few minutes before heading their separate ways.
"So Mikio-san, where are you going next season?" the leader of the team, a man with bright red hair and a lime green S13, asked leaning against his car.
"I've signed up with a GT300 team based pretty close to Motegi so Izumi will be able to keep her classes without having to change schools at least," the bleach blonde man replied calmly, "Hopefully I'll be able to stay with that team since Izumi wants to work at the Takahashi School."
"You'd give up racing for her wouldn't you?" the only GT-R driver in the team, the driver of the R34 from the now disbanded 3R3 team, asked sounding genuinely curious.
"I would give up racing to teach high school if she told me to," Mikio replied with a serious tone, "But I bet she'd hate herself for it, she knows what racing means to me," he added with a smile.
"Would she leave her job for you?"
"I'd like to hope she'd never have to," the blonde replied before looking at his watch, "I have to run, Izumi's asked that I be home before two this time," he added with a chuckle before jumping into his Lan-Evo VI and driving off.
Mikio took the long way home that night trying to clear his mind of the disturbing thought that he may one day have to ask Izumi to leave her classes and friends behind should he sign with a team further away from home. He'd always known that it was a possibility, but he also knew Izumi would want to spend the entirety of three days just saying good bye to her sisters and the thought of making her do that hurt, and it would be worse for him because of the promise they'd both made with Kitamura to be there when he needed them.
"What's wrong Mikio?" Izumi asked when he walked in the door, noticing almost immediately that he was looking a little out of sorts.
"Izumi, would you move to the other end of the country if I had to sign with another racing team?" he asked sounding a little more sad than curious to know.
"Of course I would, I'm your wife and your biggest cheerleader," Izumi said with a cheery tone, "Why would you even ask that?"
"I'd never thought about it before now, I know I'd go to hell and back for you, but I never thought once to ask you if you'd be willing to do the same for me," the blonde said taking his wife's hand in his, "I know that leaving your sisters would be nearly impossible for them to cope with."
"My sisters may be young, but they understand that if you go somewhere far away from here, I have to go with you, and I went through hell for you once already so don't doubt that I would do it again," the auburn haired woman said with a more serious tone as she freed her hands from Mikio's and hugged him around the neck.
Mikio couldn't help the small chuckle he let slip as he hugged his wife, remembering the hell he'd put her through before she left him. He also remembered everything she did to get back with him, going to Irohazaka to talk to Satoshi, showing up at the school to talk to him and meeting him at Irohazaka when he raced the Momiji Lightning leader. It wasn't too long after that they went to bed for what was left of the night, since Mikio wanted to take a stint in the FD the next day.
When the first students of Ryosuke's school arrived at the circuit everyone could tell something was different about Mikio and Izumi; they were both all smiles and Mikio had his arm around his wife. The blonde even volunteered for first runs in the FD and managed to set off the chain that came with someone setting any new record.
"They're on their game today," Keisuke said with a lopsided grin.
"I wonder what brought this on. It's been since just before the season started that this happened on true race settings," Nobuhiko said with a similar smile.
"Could be the fact that the season is about to end and we're in a good place to take the championship without much of a fight," Wataru said as the NSX and FD flew across the starting line right in front of them.
"I doubt it, this started with Mikio-kun, not one of the primary drivers, not to mention that he's been sitting out more often than not the last few days," Ryosuke said with a short glance at Izumi, "Something must have come up to put him in a good mood."
"There won't be any kind of telling unless someone asks," Kyoko added still writing down everything Mikio said about the FD's current settings.
Everyone went back to their own jobs, none wanting to pry into their tester's private affairs for no reason other than their own curiosity. Eventually the day was called and Ryosuke gave the whole team the next day off to give them a chance to recuperate from a week straight of hard training.
Later that night at Nika and Tatsuo's house the couple had just sat down to a dinner that Tatsuo cooked for them when his phone rang in his pocket.
"Hello?" he asked once he'd fished the device from his pocket.
"Is this Tatsuo Sasaki?" the voice at the other end of the call asked politely.
"Yes it is, who am I speaking with?" the black haired man asked in reply, his confused appearance making Nika look a little worried.
"I'm a team manager in the Super GT series, I'd like to talk to you about a race seat," the voice replied.
"Alright, I'm listening,"
"Well, we understand that you've yet to decide on who you may sign with next season, all we're asking at this point is that you meet with us and listen to the offer we've prepared, you won't be asked to sign anything when we do meet."
"Who is 'us' and 'we'?"
"The team owner and the other driver we've already signed as well as myself will be at the meeting."
"I'm sure we can come and at least listen to the offer."
"There's a restaurant just outside Maebashi, I'll send the address through text message for you. Would eight o'clock tomorrow night work for you?"
Tatsuo pulled the phone away from his ear momentarily to check with Nika about the time; she nodded that they were free since they had the day off. Tatsuo finalized everything with the man on the other end of the phone and closed the call before Nika's curiosity finally got the best of her.
"So who was that?" the brown haired woman asked taking a bite of her dinner.
"A team with an offer for me, it's a GT300 seat and they want me to at least hear out their offer," her husband replied calmly.
"I thought we had decided to take that GT500 offer that has us racing on the same team," Nika said with a confused look.
"I've been having some second thoughts about that actually," Tatsuo said with an honest tone, "Something about the idea of racing against Gavin scares me, plus they said I wouldn't be asked to sign anything, probably won't even have a contract drawn up without some kind of test."
"You're scared of racing Gavin? Why?"
"I don't know honestly; I know that when Reiko raced against him in the team's NSX that I've never seen him fight harder trying to win. Something about the fact that he was at the mercy of every disadvantage in the book and still kept up with her, and actually managed a pass or two, makes me wonder just how hard he's really pushing during some of the races this season."
"Not to mention that day before the season started when Keisuke-san told him to race you seriously, he was the only one not completely worn out," Nika added not realizing that her husband hadn't forgotten about the small bruise to his ego for not being able to reclose the gap on Gavin once that started.
"You know that Reiko and I met him while he was tutoring at our school right?" Tatsuo asked trying to get away from his somewhat irrational fear of Gavin.
"Yeah, she told me that he tutored her during the last half of your senior year, but she didn't say much more than that," the brown haired woman said sounding a little confused at the sudden change of topic.
"Well we officially met him at the school, but it turns out he was one of our first opponents in Mt. Akagi as well," Tatsuo said with a chuckle, "Leading us both by the nose, teaching us how to drive without ever getting out from behind the wheel of that FD for nearly two months and we had no idea it was him. That's why Reiko's driving style is so similar to his in the mountains."
"But during the Todo Juku race he said that Reiko was the better driver right?"
"He's said that since the day she managed to pass him in Akina. He passed her right back using the FD's power and a large dose of crazy, but she got by him using one of his own tricks and that's what makes her the better driver in his mind."
"But on the school's circuit she seems to be slower than he is."
"That's his crazy thing, he's brave enough to push close to the limit in any car, even if he's never driven it before."
"What about you? What have you driven in your years?"
"Rotary powered machines for the most part, two SE3Ps and the team's FD, you know I drove a 2000GT for a couple weeks, and that's pretty much it beyond that project Nissan at the school and your Z33," Tatsuo answered with a chuckle.
With that the conversation turned more towards what would happen if they won the championship, what offers for the next season they already had and what new ones would come. The next day was easy to just rest through until they were getting ready to go to the restaurant and meet with this new team who had an offer for Tatsuo. They spent the short ride to the restaurant talking about different things, most having nothing to do with racing in any way, shape or form.
When they arrived the valet took Tatsuo's RX-8 to a parking spot while the hostess led the pair to a table where three men waited for them as well as a young woman who looked to be about seventeen. The introductions only started after the hostess had left.
"Tatsuo Sasaki, I'd like you to meet my team's owner," the man in the middle of the group said gesturing towards the oldest man at the table, "The other driver of the team," He added gesturing to the young man next to him, "And my daughter," he said with a wide smile as he placed a hand on the young woman's shoulder.
"It's nice to meet all of you," Tatsuo said with a polite bow towards the whole table.
"I told her who I'd be meeting and she talked me into letting her come to meet your wife," the team manager said with a chuckle when his daughter's face turned beet red, "She's a pretty big fan of you and your sister in-law Sasaki-chan."
"Well I'm glad I have a fan at the table, she and I can talk about shopping while you gentlemen talk business," Nika said with a kind tone, looking more at the young lady than at her father, making the girl blush even more.
Tatsuo and the three other men quickly went to business while the manager's daughter and Nika had a rather pleasant conversation about different things once the younger woman got over her initial nerves. They ate dinner while they talked and they actually had a really generous offer and a chance for Tatsuo to drive an SE3P in the next season and really show off what he knew about the cars.
The team also offered Nika a position on the team as a test driver so she could keep her FIA license and step in where needed, which shocked both Tatsuo and Nika since they thought the offer was strictly about Tatsuo.
"The offer will stand until two weeks before the start of next season, if someone takes up the position before then we'll let you know," the team manager said as he and his daughter waited with Nika and Tatsuo for their cars.
"We'll drop by after Fuji to see your training grounds, maybe take a spin if you've got the cars by then," Tatsuo said with a chuckle.
"Just give me a call so we have someone there to let you in, you have my direct line," the manager replied with a chuckle of his own.
Tatsuo's RX-8 pulled up and the manager's daughter immediately left his side to look closer at all the little details like the two side scoops in front of the front wheels, the small fins on the rear bumper and the two vents pointed towards the windscreen at the top of the hood.
"Who designed this? It looks ready for a Super GT race," the young lady said still looking over the car.
"I did actually," Tatsuo said trying to keep the smug look off his face when the manager looked at him with wide eyed shock, "I finally got it put on when I crashed it about two years ago."
"You did a pretty good job, how does it drive?" the daughter asked still keeping her eyes on the car.
"It's a pretty fair handler on the circuit, but it was designed for the mountain pass so it does a lot better there," Tatsuo admitted cautiously.
"I think if you'd changed the angle on the spoiler by a degree or two you'd get better down force on the circuit without losing speed on the mountain pass," the young lady said shocking Tatsuo and Nika both with her knowledge.
"She grew up in the team's garage, she knows more about racing aerodynamics than our newest lead mechanic does," the manager said with a chuckle.
"I can see why, I bet she'd stand in the wind tunnel testing different angles if she could," Nika said while the young girl continued to inspect the RX-8.
"She does that when her schooling allows, but I think she has more fun with cars than I ever did," the manager admitted with a small smile, "I just hope maybe one day she'll have the chance to use all the knowledge she's gained."
"Hey, she can always work for you when she's old enough," Tatsuo said not taking his eyes off the young lady. It was pretty easy to tell he was getting a little unnerved by the fact she was taking so long with his car.
"Sweetheart, stop scrutinizing Sasaki-kun's car, we're holding up the valet line," the manager said taking mercy on the younger man, "We'll see you after Fuji I guess," he added shaking Tatsuo's hand before leaving with his daughter.
"That was uncomfortable," Tatsuo said as they climbed into the car, "I don't think she was wrong, but to be told how to set my own car by a seventeen year old is a little weird."
"Oh she didn't mean any harm, it's not like she started going into the suspension without feeling how it drove first," Nika replied as they drove out of the restaurant.
"What do you want to bet she could see the airflow over the car even though it wasn't in the wind tunnel?" the black haired man asked with an impressed tone.
"You're probably right, just like you can see the line someone will take two corners away or even adapt your style to the settings of a car like in Motegi, and Reiko can mimic nearly anyone's style," his wife said with the same tone.
"What do you mean Reiko can mimic someone's style?"
"She does it all the time during a race; whoever she's behind she starts driving like them if she's behind them for more than a lap. You never noticed that?"
"Not really, but then again the only time I'm usually close enough to see her is when we're on the practice track and she doesn't have anyone to mimic. What about you and Gavin? What talents do you have?"
"Gavin's insane, you already said that," Nika said with a giggle, "But me, I don't know, I never thought I had one specific thing that stood me apart from other drivers."
"Well, you're crazy too, taking a 350Z downhill in Myogi or Akagi is pretty nuts," Tatsuo said placing his shifting hand on his wife's, "Plus on the circuit I've noticed that you've got an extreme sense of your braking, always yanking your foot off in the perfect spot."
"That's not that impressive Tatsuo," the brown haired woman said with a somewhat cold tone.
"Well what about the way you made yourself adapt to the FD by driving Kyoko-san's FD and Gavin's FD?"
"That took me almost a month of using their cars to do. You, Reiko, Gavin and even Mikio did it faster than me and none of you had to use someone else's car."
"Nika, you're really not helping my case here," Tatsuo said trying to lift his wife's spirit, "Alright, you were the first of us to set a record on the full course layout."
"I was?" the brown haired woman asked sounding like she didn't remember that.
"You did. The day after I set that speed record in the last three corners you set the first full lap record that was worth anything," her husband replied with a smile, "Everyone was chasing you that day."
"Well it's not a talent, but it's enough for now," Nika replied with a giggle.
They spent the rest of the ride home in silence going straight to bed since the next day was the day before they left for Fuji. When everyone got to the school the truck that hauled everything for the motor home was already gone along with the car hauler for the NSX since someone from the team needed to be there to get the new spare and that truck had pretty much stayed packed since the race in Autopolis, only taking off the wrecked NSX before locking it back up. The practice started after the remaining trucks were packed and sent on their way to Fuji. It was a shortened practice since they would all need their rest for the weekend to come but Ryosuke asked them to meet him in the conference room before they left.
"Alright, this is the last race of the season, so when we get to Fuji I want everyone to be at their best. We don't need a win tomorrow with how well we've done this season, but that doesn't mean I don't expect you to try for it," Ryosuke said with a calm tone while staring at his drivers, "That said, I'm very impressed with all five of you and would be glad to send any recommendations to whatever team you should choose to sign with in the future."
A few minutes later the whole team was walking back out to the parking lot to go their separate ways when Keisuke caught up to Mikio just before they got to the school's main entrance.
"Mikio-kun, I've been meaning to ask what happened with that GT300 team I recommended you to," the spiky blonde haired man said stopping everyone.
"I've already signed a contract, it's not valid till three weeks after the current season ends, but I've got a seat next year thanks to you and Tatsuo-san," Mikio replied with an excited tone with a hint of confusion in it, "Didn't they call and tell you?"
"No, I guess they expected you to tell me yourself," Keisuke said with a chuckle before making his way out of the building.
"What did I have to do with you getting that seat Mikio?" Tatsuo asked not having any idea what the bleach blonde man was talking about.
"You gave up your seat for Sugo and Suzuka for the scout to see me drive in a race didn't you?" Mikio asked sounding completely confused now.
"I gave up my seat because my arm hurt too much to drive for those two races," the black haired man replied spotting Ryosuke's disapproving look right after he said it, "I went to the doctor after Sugo because my arm still hurt, and with Suzuka so close at hand I knew I wouldn't be ready for it."
"Why didn't you tell me about this?" Ryosuke asked calmly, "And what did the doctor say?"
"I didn't say anything at first because I just thought it was just all that rain we got around then that was making it hurt. The doctor said that it was only a minor fissure near one of the screws; if I just took it easy for a couple weeks it would be fine in time for the next race," Tatsuo said rubbing his right forearm a little.
"Has it bothered you since then at all?" the brown haired doctor asked still not seeming very upset by the whole thing.
"No Sir, I had a doctor's appointment about a week ago and everything has healed up since then," Tatsuo replied with a little more confidence in his tone.
"If any of you have a medical problem you're supposed to tell me about it since I'm the team's physician," Ryosuke said addressing all of the drivers.
"We understand Ryosuke-san, if we ever have any we will," Gavin said on behalf of his teammates.
The next day the team met up at the school rather early in the morning for such a short drive. Ryosuke used the extra time to give the drivers one last physical before they left for Fuji International Speedway for the last race weekend of the season.
