A Change of Pace
By Sandpanther
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Disclaimer: This is a work of fanfiction. The characters and situations are copyrighted by Shuuichi Shigeno, and Kondansha Inc. No infringement is intended. The original characters are my own invention. Please do not redistribute this fanfiction without permission.
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"Hello? ... Yeah, what's up? ... Oh, so what's wrong? ... Oh. ... Uh-huh... So, what do you have to do to fix it? ... Oh. How long is that going to take? About a week? You're kidding, right? ... Hunh. ... Well, do what you have to do. ... Yeah, I'll talk to him about it. ... I dunno, but it's gotta get done, so just go for it. ... Right. Well, call me if anything comes up. ... Yeah, bye."
Keisuke clicked off the phone and sighed. That was the call that he had been waiting for, but it wasn't the answer he had been hoping for. He hadn't thought too much about it when the "Fill Coolant" light had come on a few days ago. Checking the reservoir, the levels had been a little low. So he'd topped them off and didn't think anything more of it. The boost pressure being a little off had worried him more, but he had figured it would get taken care of during the normal set-up for the next Project D race. Yeah, right. When that damn "Fill Coolant" light had come back on two days later, he knew he had to get it looked at immediately. With a Project D race running just about every weekend, there was no way he was going to let it go and risk having something go wrong with the car at a bad time. He had taken it in to his mechanics immediately. The news after they had inspected it was not good. He shook his head. Returning his cell phone to his pocket, he wandered down the hall to his brother's room.
His brother was seated in front of his laptop, concentrating intently. Hearing Keisuke enter, Ryousuke broke off from what he was doing and turned around.
"So, they found out what is wrong with the car," Keisuke stated without preamble. He walked over to the bed and flopped onto it, frustration and annoyance clearly showing on his scowling face.
"And?" Ryousuke asked. "What is it?"
"The O-rings are cracked. They're going to have to pull the engine apart and replace them."
"Hmm." Ryousuke half-turned back to his computer, and began to open windows on it. Over his shoulder, Keisuke could see one window that showed a schematic of a rotary engine, and he recognized the homepage for an RX-7 enthusiasts board in another window. Other, text-filled windows followed. Ryousuke skimmed the information displayed in several of the windows then said, "There have been some complaints that those O-rings are prone to break down and leak fairly easily on the FD model."
"Yeah, but Aniki, my car's not that old. Why is it having a problem already?" Keisuke complained.
Ryousuke glanced back over his shoulder before returning his attention to his technical data. "You have to admit that you drive it rather hard." He scrolled through one of the windows on his computer, and paused to read something there. After a moment he nodded briefly, as if what he read had confirmed what he was already thinking.
"Since your car is a newer model, there isn't a large body of practical information on it yet. But all reports indicate that the main cause of the seals cracking is thermal breakdown. Going forward, we may want to see what we can do to try and reduce the engine operating temperature." He paused for a moment, lost in thought. "How long did they say that the repairs would take?"
Keisuke sighed. "About a week. They said they're pretty busy right now, but they'll fit it in when they can. So... what do we do about D's race this week?"
"That should not be a problem. I had just received e-mail from the other team asking to cancel this week's race. The rain is supposed to continue tomorrow and through the weekend, so there would be no point." Outside, rain poured down unrelentingly in one of the many summer storms that occurred at this time of year. If it followed normal patterns, there wouldn't be a significant break for several days. "So," Ryousuke continued, "we have a little over a week, possibly more depending on the weather."
Keisuke heaved a sigh of relief. He couldn't race without a car, but... Canceling out of a race due to mechanical problems would not reflect well on the team. He didn't want to be the one responsible for causing that kind of a black mark on the team's record. The rain left an excuse for them to push the race off with no loss of face.
"In the mean time, how were you planning on getting around? I am fairly busy with schoolwork at the moment, but I can arrange to be available for rides, should you need it."
Keisuke shook his head. "Since Dad's gone at that conference for the week, I figured I'd borrow the Benz." He wrinkled his nose in disgust at the thought. He hated to drive the Benz. A gutless four-door automatic diesel sedan really was not his style. Still, a ride was a ride, and it beat having to walk in the rain.
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Driving around town the next day, Keisuke was seriously considering revising his earlier opinion on how much this beat walking. He drove the Benz so rarely that he always forgot just how much he disliked it. The diesel engine smelled bad and sounded worse. But the annoyance and lack of cool it generated was far from his largest gripe with the car. The height of German luxury engineering, the car was designed to do as much as possible to isolate the driver from the mundane, technical details of driving and make it so that the driver was more someone who road along as a passive observer, rather than an active participant. To someone who was used to being able to precisely control every aspect of the vehicle, having the car's set-up minimize all the feedback from driving was infuriating, rather like constantly having someone jogging your elbow.
The automatic transmission never could make up its mind. Every time he found a speed that he was comfortable at, it would inevitably be at a point in between the optimal gear ratio. Accelerate slightly, and *bump* it would shift up. If he lifted his foot from the gas even in the slightest and *thunk*, back down it would go. Try to get it to accelerate too quickly and it would drop down a gear and nearly red line while sounding like the engine was about to throw a rod. And compared to his FD, the car was heavy and unwieldy. It made him feel more like he was trying to direct a toboggan down the street. And most annoying of all... well, fundamentally, it just wasn't his car. Nothing could ever quite compare to his FD, and his casual ease and familiarity driving it.
The light ahead of him changed to red, and as he reacted to stop, his left foot instinctively moved to put in a clutch that wasn't there. Half the time when he did that, he accidentally hit the brake pedal instead of the non-existent clutch. This was one of those times. The car abruptly jerked to a stop. Keisuke swore under his breath, and glanced in the rearview mirror to make sure that the car behind him was not about to rear end him. It looked like he was safe -- this time. This was just one more aspect of the car that did not endear itself to him. After a minute the light changed again, and he continued off down the road.
He was driving along only half paying attention to the road ahead when suddenly a car pulled out of a driveway. Reacting without thinking, Keisuke slammed on the brakes -- once again, with both feet. This was getting old, he decided. In a fit of exasperation, he suddenly decided that he was tired of hitting the brake with both feet. If that left foot was so keen on doing something, then it could just control the brake all by its lonesome, rather than having it sit impatiently and do nothing while the right foot did all the work. At least this would give the left foot something to do other than twitch uselessly. And it would give him some small something to distract him as he herded this behemoth down the road.
Several errands and several hours later Keisuke's left-foot braking technique had improved, but his temper had degraded noticeably. The bad mood had started about two minutes after he pulled the Benz out of the garage, and after that the day had just gone from bad to worse. Already prone to irritability, nothing seemed to go particularly right for him today. It was probably more that he was already feeling grumpy, but every little thing seemed to just get under his skin. And while having the car meant that he didn't have to walk everywhere, he did have to walk in the wet going between the car and the stores, so he was damp, and his shoes were soaked. Over time, the irritation that had started brewing from driving a car he hated had grown until he was genuinely grouchy. At least the pouring rain of the night before had inexplicably mellowed into drizzle, broken by scattered, though occasionally heavy, showers. He figured that it probably wouldn't last, and was just waiting for just the right moment to open up and start pouring again -- probably when it would be most annoying to him.
Finally finished with the last of the errands that had to get done, he breathed a small sigh of relief and headed back to where he had parked the car. Getting in, he sat staring at the steering wheel, wondering what to do next. Glancing at the car's clock he was a little surprised to see that it was nearly eight o'clock. He had planned on being done a lot earlier but, well, it just hadn't worked out that way. Up until yesterday, he'd thought that he was going to be busy practicing for another race, so he had no other plans for the evening. He could just head home...? No, his brother had mentioned this morning that he was going to take advantage of the sudden free time to work late at school and get a little ahead. There wouldn't be anything particularly interesting to do at home other than listening to Tsugumi nagging him to clean up his room. Heading straight home didn't really appeal right now anyway. He needed to do something more active to work off the aggravation of the day. He thought about calling someone and seeing if they were up for hanging out or something. Wait, no. It was a Friday night, so they would probably all be heading up the mountain by now, if they weren't there already.
Hmm, up the mountain...
He ran there almost every weekday night, but since he was usually off on excursions with Project D on the weekends it had been months since he'd last been on Akagi on a Friday night when everyone would be there. While he certainly wasn't going to be up for any races tonight, he could at least head up and hang out with folks, check out the scene, and maybe decompress a little. Yeah, that could work.
Plan formed, Keisuke started up the car and headed off toward Akagi.
-----------------------
By the time Keisuke arrived, there were a fair number of cars parked in the lot where everyone traditionally gathered. If the weather was good he would have expected to see a lot more people hanging out. But even despite the rain there were still representatives from the various teams that ran on Akagi, along with a few die-hard spectators determined enough to brave the periodic downpours to try and catch some action. Considering that the rain continued to pour at random intervals and drizzle almost constantly the rest of the time, it was surprising to see so many people out in the wet.
Pulling into the parking lot, he immediately spotted Kenta in a group off to one side, gesturing emphatically as he talked to Fumihiro. He broke off when Keisuke pulled up, and both of them came over to greet him.
"That's a change of pace for you, Keisuke," Fumihiro teased, nodding at the car.
"Keisuke-san! Where's your FD?" Kenta asked, worry in his voice. "Did something happen to it?"
Keisuke shrugged. "'S in the shop for some work." He didn't really feel like getting into the details with Kenta. Kenta had potential to be a good driver and generally wasn't a bad guy to hang out with, but after the day he had just had, Keisuke wasn't sure how much he could stand of Kenta's puppy dog-ish enthusiasm. He tried to change the subject with, "So, has anything exciting been happening? Who all is here tonight?"
Distracted, Kenta launched into an energetic summary of who of interest was there and what all was going on.
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Keisuke's arrival in an unfamiliar car had not been noticed by just his friends. Across the parking lot a tall, wiry individual wearing thin, wire frame glasses gestured toward the Benz.
"Katou-san, look! Isn't that Takahashi Keisuke? I almost didn't recognize him, driving that."
Standing next to him, Katou looked over to where his friend was pointing, and snorted contemptuously. "Check that out. Rich boy Takahashi Keisuke's trying out some new wheels. Who does he think he's impressing with that Krautmobile?" Contempt dripped from his every word.
"Do you think he got rid of his FD? I can't imagine why he would, not a nice car like that!"
"And replace it with that? Did you hear the racket it made coming up? That thing's a diesel. I bet it's even an automatic. How lame can you get? Nah, he probably crashed his car out on one of those fancy Project D races he's always out on and it's in the shop getting the dents banged out of it. He's just driving around in daddy's car until he gets his all prettied up. I can't believe he'd show his face here, though. Not with something like that." Katou glowered at the Benz for a moment, then switched his disapproving gaze over to Keisuke. His disdain melted as a thoughtful look crossed his face.
"I bet without his FD, he ain't such hot stuff," he said, tentatively. "I bet I could take him, now."
His friend looked worried. "Take him? You don't -- you don't mean race him, do you? He's Takahashi Keisuke!" His tone underlined the name, emphasizing it as if that alone explained everything.
Katou seemed not to have heard him. Fully gripped by the idea, he got more and more excited the more he talked. "Yeah, spoiled little rich boy. His winning all the time is all about the car daddy's money bought him, and all the gas and tires he's wasted. Without that car, he ain't got nothing. Now's my chance to show that poofta for the spoiled wus he really is." He paused, a determined light glowing in his eyes. "I'm going to go show up that nancy-boy up once and for all!" he declared.
"Katou-san, I don't think that's such a good idea..." His voice trailed off as Katou marched toward Keisuke and the Benz.
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At first no one noticed the glowering young man with the severe buzz cut. But the conversation halted once Katou planted himself directly in front of Keisuke.
Keisuke regarded the newcomer with annoyance. "Yeah, what do you want?" he said.
"Takahashi Keisuke, I challenge you to a race," Katou declared, in a loud voice. Around them, all conversation died off as the spectators turned their attention to this new and rather interesting development.
Keisuke favored Katou with a disdainful look. "No. You aren't worth wasting my time on, small fry." He turned away from Katou, and started to return to his previous conversation.
Katou turned red and lowered his head until his neck vanished into his shoulders. "What's the matter? You gone chicken or something? You go off and do all that Project D stuff and you think you're too good to race folks from your own prefecture?"
Kenta could not stay silent in the face of this affront to his hero. "How dare you speak to Keisuke-san like that! Don't you know who you're talking to? He's Project D's ace, he can't be bothered with small-timers like you. Besides, any moron could see that he doesn't have his car with him here tonight!"
Keisuke cut him off. "If you really want to get beaten that badly, then name another time and place. Everyone around here knows I don't race on Akagi," he replied coldly.
Katou wasn't about to let it go. "Some other place? What's wrong with here? Too little of a challenge for you, even with that?" He pointed a contemptuous finger at the Benz. He raised his voice slightly. "You're not fooling me. I think you're scared. I think you just don't want everyone to find out that without your expensive rich-boy car, you ain't nothing but a poser who couldn't outrace a tour bus!"
Keisuke went very, very still. The crowd on the mountain all held their breath waiting to see what his response would be. The rain chose that moment to start up again, falling gently on the motionless scene.
A moment later Keisuke's eyes narrowed. "Fine," he snapped. "I'll do your stupid race."
-- End Part 1
By Sandpanther
-----------------
Disclaimer: This is a work of fanfiction. The characters and situations are copyrighted by Shuuichi Shigeno, and Kondansha Inc. No infringement is intended. The original characters are my own invention. Please do not redistribute this fanfiction without permission.
-----------------
"Hello? ... Yeah, what's up? ... Oh, so what's wrong? ... Oh. ... Uh-huh... So, what do you have to do to fix it? ... Oh. How long is that going to take? About a week? You're kidding, right? ... Hunh. ... Well, do what you have to do. ... Yeah, I'll talk to him about it. ... I dunno, but it's gotta get done, so just go for it. ... Right. Well, call me if anything comes up. ... Yeah, bye."
Keisuke clicked off the phone and sighed. That was the call that he had been waiting for, but it wasn't the answer he had been hoping for. He hadn't thought too much about it when the "Fill Coolant" light had come on a few days ago. Checking the reservoir, the levels had been a little low. So he'd topped them off and didn't think anything more of it. The boost pressure being a little off had worried him more, but he had figured it would get taken care of during the normal set-up for the next Project D race. Yeah, right. When that damn "Fill Coolant" light had come back on two days later, he knew he had to get it looked at immediately. With a Project D race running just about every weekend, there was no way he was going to let it go and risk having something go wrong with the car at a bad time. He had taken it in to his mechanics immediately. The news after they had inspected it was not good. He shook his head. Returning his cell phone to his pocket, he wandered down the hall to his brother's room.
His brother was seated in front of his laptop, concentrating intently. Hearing Keisuke enter, Ryousuke broke off from what he was doing and turned around.
"So, they found out what is wrong with the car," Keisuke stated without preamble. He walked over to the bed and flopped onto it, frustration and annoyance clearly showing on his scowling face.
"And?" Ryousuke asked. "What is it?"
"The O-rings are cracked. They're going to have to pull the engine apart and replace them."
"Hmm." Ryousuke half-turned back to his computer, and began to open windows on it. Over his shoulder, Keisuke could see one window that showed a schematic of a rotary engine, and he recognized the homepage for an RX-7 enthusiasts board in another window. Other, text-filled windows followed. Ryousuke skimmed the information displayed in several of the windows then said, "There have been some complaints that those O-rings are prone to break down and leak fairly easily on the FD model."
"Yeah, but Aniki, my car's not that old. Why is it having a problem already?" Keisuke complained.
Ryousuke glanced back over his shoulder before returning his attention to his technical data. "You have to admit that you drive it rather hard." He scrolled through one of the windows on his computer, and paused to read something there. After a moment he nodded briefly, as if what he read had confirmed what he was already thinking.
"Since your car is a newer model, there isn't a large body of practical information on it yet. But all reports indicate that the main cause of the seals cracking is thermal breakdown. Going forward, we may want to see what we can do to try and reduce the engine operating temperature." He paused for a moment, lost in thought. "How long did they say that the repairs would take?"
Keisuke sighed. "About a week. They said they're pretty busy right now, but they'll fit it in when they can. So... what do we do about D's race this week?"
"That should not be a problem. I had just received e-mail from the other team asking to cancel this week's race. The rain is supposed to continue tomorrow and through the weekend, so there would be no point." Outside, rain poured down unrelentingly in one of the many summer storms that occurred at this time of year. If it followed normal patterns, there wouldn't be a significant break for several days. "So," Ryousuke continued, "we have a little over a week, possibly more depending on the weather."
Keisuke heaved a sigh of relief. He couldn't race without a car, but... Canceling out of a race due to mechanical problems would not reflect well on the team. He didn't want to be the one responsible for causing that kind of a black mark on the team's record. The rain left an excuse for them to push the race off with no loss of face.
"In the mean time, how were you planning on getting around? I am fairly busy with schoolwork at the moment, but I can arrange to be available for rides, should you need it."
Keisuke shook his head. "Since Dad's gone at that conference for the week, I figured I'd borrow the Benz." He wrinkled his nose in disgust at the thought. He hated to drive the Benz. A gutless four-door automatic diesel sedan really was not his style. Still, a ride was a ride, and it beat having to walk in the rain.
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Driving around town the next day, Keisuke was seriously considering revising his earlier opinion on how much this beat walking. He drove the Benz so rarely that he always forgot just how much he disliked it. The diesel engine smelled bad and sounded worse. But the annoyance and lack of cool it generated was far from his largest gripe with the car. The height of German luxury engineering, the car was designed to do as much as possible to isolate the driver from the mundane, technical details of driving and make it so that the driver was more someone who road along as a passive observer, rather than an active participant. To someone who was used to being able to precisely control every aspect of the vehicle, having the car's set-up minimize all the feedback from driving was infuriating, rather like constantly having someone jogging your elbow.
The automatic transmission never could make up its mind. Every time he found a speed that he was comfortable at, it would inevitably be at a point in between the optimal gear ratio. Accelerate slightly, and *bump* it would shift up. If he lifted his foot from the gas even in the slightest and *thunk*, back down it would go. Try to get it to accelerate too quickly and it would drop down a gear and nearly red line while sounding like the engine was about to throw a rod. And compared to his FD, the car was heavy and unwieldy. It made him feel more like he was trying to direct a toboggan down the street. And most annoying of all... well, fundamentally, it just wasn't his car. Nothing could ever quite compare to his FD, and his casual ease and familiarity driving it.
The light ahead of him changed to red, and as he reacted to stop, his left foot instinctively moved to put in a clutch that wasn't there. Half the time when he did that, he accidentally hit the brake pedal instead of the non-existent clutch. This was one of those times. The car abruptly jerked to a stop. Keisuke swore under his breath, and glanced in the rearview mirror to make sure that the car behind him was not about to rear end him. It looked like he was safe -- this time. This was just one more aspect of the car that did not endear itself to him. After a minute the light changed again, and he continued off down the road.
He was driving along only half paying attention to the road ahead when suddenly a car pulled out of a driveway. Reacting without thinking, Keisuke slammed on the brakes -- once again, with both feet. This was getting old, he decided. In a fit of exasperation, he suddenly decided that he was tired of hitting the brake with both feet. If that left foot was so keen on doing something, then it could just control the brake all by its lonesome, rather than having it sit impatiently and do nothing while the right foot did all the work. At least this would give the left foot something to do other than twitch uselessly. And it would give him some small something to distract him as he herded this behemoth down the road.
Several errands and several hours later Keisuke's left-foot braking technique had improved, but his temper had degraded noticeably. The bad mood had started about two minutes after he pulled the Benz out of the garage, and after that the day had just gone from bad to worse. Already prone to irritability, nothing seemed to go particularly right for him today. It was probably more that he was already feeling grumpy, but every little thing seemed to just get under his skin. And while having the car meant that he didn't have to walk everywhere, he did have to walk in the wet going between the car and the stores, so he was damp, and his shoes were soaked. Over time, the irritation that had started brewing from driving a car he hated had grown until he was genuinely grouchy. At least the pouring rain of the night before had inexplicably mellowed into drizzle, broken by scattered, though occasionally heavy, showers. He figured that it probably wouldn't last, and was just waiting for just the right moment to open up and start pouring again -- probably when it would be most annoying to him.
Finally finished with the last of the errands that had to get done, he breathed a small sigh of relief and headed back to where he had parked the car. Getting in, he sat staring at the steering wheel, wondering what to do next. Glancing at the car's clock he was a little surprised to see that it was nearly eight o'clock. He had planned on being done a lot earlier but, well, it just hadn't worked out that way. Up until yesterday, he'd thought that he was going to be busy practicing for another race, so he had no other plans for the evening. He could just head home...? No, his brother had mentioned this morning that he was going to take advantage of the sudden free time to work late at school and get a little ahead. There wouldn't be anything particularly interesting to do at home other than listening to Tsugumi nagging him to clean up his room. Heading straight home didn't really appeal right now anyway. He needed to do something more active to work off the aggravation of the day. He thought about calling someone and seeing if they were up for hanging out or something. Wait, no. It was a Friday night, so they would probably all be heading up the mountain by now, if they weren't there already.
Hmm, up the mountain...
He ran there almost every weekday night, but since he was usually off on excursions with Project D on the weekends it had been months since he'd last been on Akagi on a Friday night when everyone would be there. While he certainly wasn't going to be up for any races tonight, he could at least head up and hang out with folks, check out the scene, and maybe decompress a little. Yeah, that could work.
Plan formed, Keisuke started up the car and headed off toward Akagi.
-----------------------
By the time Keisuke arrived, there were a fair number of cars parked in the lot where everyone traditionally gathered. If the weather was good he would have expected to see a lot more people hanging out. But even despite the rain there were still representatives from the various teams that ran on Akagi, along with a few die-hard spectators determined enough to brave the periodic downpours to try and catch some action. Considering that the rain continued to pour at random intervals and drizzle almost constantly the rest of the time, it was surprising to see so many people out in the wet.
Pulling into the parking lot, he immediately spotted Kenta in a group off to one side, gesturing emphatically as he talked to Fumihiro. He broke off when Keisuke pulled up, and both of them came over to greet him.
"That's a change of pace for you, Keisuke," Fumihiro teased, nodding at the car.
"Keisuke-san! Where's your FD?" Kenta asked, worry in his voice. "Did something happen to it?"
Keisuke shrugged. "'S in the shop for some work." He didn't really feel like getting into the details with Kenta. Kenta had potential to be a good driver and generally wasn't a bad guy to hang out with, but after the day he had just had, Keisuke wasn't sure how much he could stand of Kenta's puppy dog-ish enthusiasm. He tried to change the subject with, "So, has anything exciting been happening? Who all is here tonight?"
Distracted, Kenta launched into an energetic summary of who of interest was there and what all was going on.
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Keisuke's arrival in an unfamiliar car had not been noticed by just his friends. Across the parking lot a tall, wiry individual wearing thin, wire frame glasses gestured toward the Benz.
"Katou-san, look! Isn't that Takahashi Keisuke? I almost didn't recognize him, driving that."
Standing next to him, Katou looked over to where his friend was pointing, and snorted contemptuously. "Check that out. Rich boy Takahashi Keisuke's trying out some new wheels. Who does he think he's impressing with that Krautmobile?" Contempt dripped from his every word.
"Do you think he got rid of his FD? I can't imagine why he would, not a nice car like that!"
"And replace it with that? Did you hear the racket it made coming up? That thing's a diesel. I bet it's even an automatic. How lame can you get? Nah, he probably crashed his car out on one of those fancy Project D races he's always out on and it's in the shop getting the dents banged out of it. He's just driving around in daddy's car until he gets his all prettied up. I can't believe he'd show his face here, though. Not with something like that." Katou glowered at the Benz for a moment, then switched his disapproving gaze over to Keisuke. His disdain melted as a thoughtful look crossed his face.
"I bet without his FD, he ain't such hot stuff," he said, tentatively. "I bet I could take him, now."
His friend looked worried. "Take him? You don't -- you don't mean race him, do you? He's Takahashi Keisuke!" His tone underlined the name, emphasizing it as if that alone explained everything.
Katou seemed not to have heard him. Fully gripped by the idea, he got more and more excited the more he talked. "Yeah, spoiled little rich boy. His winning all the time is all about the car daddy's money bought him, and all the gas and tires he's wasted. Without that car, he ain't got nothing. Now's my chance to show that poofta for the spoiled wus he really is." He paused, a determined light glowing in his eyes. "I'm going to go show up that nancy-boy up once and for all!" he declared.
"Katou-san, I don't think that's such a good idea..." His voice trailed off as Katou marched toward Keisuke and the Benz.
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At first no one noticed the glowering young man with the severe buzz cut. But the conversation halted once Katou planted himself directly in front of Keisuke.
Keisuke regarded the newcomer with annoyance. "Yeah, what do you want?" he said.
"Takahashi Keisuke, I challenge you to a race," Katou declared, in a loud voice. Around them, all conversation died off as the spectators turned their attention to this new and rather interesting development.
Keisuke favored Katou with a disdainful look. "No. You aren't worth wasting my time on, small fry." He turned away from Katou, and started to return to his previous conversation.
Katou turned red and lowered his head until his neck vanished into his shoulders. "What's the matter? You gone chicken or something? You go off and do all that Project D stuff and you think you're too good to race folks from your own prefecture?"
Kenta could not stay silent in the face of this affront to his hero. "How dare you speak to Keisuke-san like that! Don't you know who you're talking to? He's Project D's ace, he can't be bothered with small-timers like you. Besides, any moron could see that he doesn't have his car with him here tonight!"
Keisuke cut him off. "If you really want to get beaten that badly, then name another time and place. Everyone around here knows I don't race on Akagi," he replied coldly.
Katou wasn't about to let it go. "Some other place? What's wrong with here? Too little of a challenge for you, even with that?" He pointed a contemptuous finger at the Benz. He raised his voice slightly. "You're not fooling me. I think you're scared. I think you just don't want everyone to find out that without your expensive rich-boy car, you ain't nothing but a poser who couldn't outrace a tour bus!"
Keisuke went very, very still. The crowd on the mountain all held their breath waiting to see what his response would be. The rain chose that moment to start up again, falling gently on the motionless scene.
A moment later Keisuke's eyes narrowed. "Fine," he snapped. "I'll do your stupid race."
-- End Part 1