A Change of Pace, Part 2
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.
-----------------
"I'll do your stupid race. One lap, downhill. First one across the finish line wins." Keisuke's flat tone left no room for argument.
Katou snorted, and gave a self-satisfied half-smile. "Sure, whatever you want," he said. "Not that it matters. There's no way you can win."
Keisuke favored him with a frosty stare. "I don't race losing battles, only losing drivers. Get your car and let's get on with this."
Katou nodded, and walked off towards his car. As he went, the crowd of spectators parted before him. A few people called out to him from the galleries, and he waved or nodded to them.
"Keisuke-san, are you sure this is a good idea?" Kenta asked in a concerned tone of voice. "His S-14 has to out-power that Benz. You'll never be able to keep up with him, especially not in this rain."
"You're not one to talk there, Kenta," Keisuke pointed out. "Remember how your rain battle went?"
"How can I forget?" Kenta looked like he'd bitten into a lemon. His frequent comments in had made it clear that he had not forgotten his humiliating loss on Myougi last summer to Akina's Hachiroku. The parallels between that race and this one did not escape him. Both races involved rain, and both had an underpowered car facing a much higher powered opponent. He had been the driver of the higher horsepower car in his rain battle, and it clearly still rankled that he had lost.
Fumihiro looked at the two of them like a mother watching her two squabbling children. For a moment it seemed like he was going to scold them. But when he opened his mouth all he said was, "I know what you're saying, Keisuke. But that isn't your normal car. Are you sure you'll be all right?"
"Don't worry. I can handle it." Keisuke did not seem to share Fumihiro's concern. "This is my home course. There's no way I'm going to lose to some uppity snot on Akagi. Anyway, I'm going to go get lined up so we can get this joke over with. You'll take care of the rest, Fumihiro?"
Fumihiro nodded. "Don't worry, I'll take care of it."
Keisuke walked over to the Benz and got in, while Fumihiro threaded his way through the spectators gathering at the starting line. Kenta watched as the pair walked away, a worried look on his face. "Keisuke-san..." he said.
Minutes later, the two competitors were set at the starting line. Fumihiro directed them into position with a calm, competent air that showed he had performed this duty many times before. "Okay, okay." He waved one of the cars forward. "A little further. A little more -- okay, stop!" He gestured for the car to stop, then took a step back and looked to make sure the two cars were lined up evenly. Apparently satisfied, he nodded.
"Ready?" he asked the drivers. They both nodded. "Okay, start in five!" He held up his hand, palm forward with fingers spread.
Katou grinned. Holding the clutch in, he repeatedly revved his engine. His modified exhaust gave a low, powerful sound that vibrated the floorboards as the engine ran high, then dropped off. He shifted the car into first gear, then stared intently at Fumihiro.
Using his left foot to hold down the brake pedal, Keisuke carefully picked up the revs on his car. The engine first hummed, then whined in response. When the tach reached the level he wanted, he held it steady and turned his concentration back to Fumihiro's countdown.
"4... 3... 2... 1... Go!!" Fumihiro's hand swept down on the final count, flagging the start of the race. He stood motionless as Katou's Silvia S-14 flew past him, followed immediately by Keisuke's Benz. Once they passed, he turned and watched their progress as the Silvia pulled in front, the clear leader in the brief contest of speed heading to the first corner. First one car and then the other entered the first turn and disappeared from sight. For a moment Fumihiro stood motionless, oblivious to the rain, watching where the two cars had gone and listened as the sounds of tires squealing and engines screaming reflected noisily off the walls of the valley. Then he turned and headed back towards his car. Pulling out his cel phone, he punched up a number on the speed dial. "Hey, Ryousuke? Guess what your brother is up to."
----------------
The moment Fumihiro's hand dropped, Keisuke's foot flew off the brake. With the one force that was holding it back gone, the car surged forward. It wasn't exactly a speedy dash -- certainly nowhere near what his FD was capable of -- but it got the race rolling. As he mashed the accelerator to the floor, he briefly felt the rear tires start to lose traction and spin out on the rain-slick road. Modifying his acceleration to prevent traction loss, he cursed. This car didn't have the nice, sticky tires his FD did. Boring old long-life tires just didn't have the same grip that he was used to. He'd have to watch out for that. The thought drifted away into somewhere in his subconscious as he focused on the challenge of the road ahead of him. Carefully, he applied steady pressure to the gas, feeling for the point where the engine's power would start to surpass the tires' ability to hold the road.
Ahead of him, the Silvia took the lead as they headed toward the first corner. No great surprise there. Keisuke knew that the Benz wouldn't be able to compete in flat-out acceleration. If this were a track, he would have had no hope. But this was a mountain road. Not just any mountain road, oh no. This was a mountain road that he practiced on every day. The other guy might have more horsepower than him, but there was no way he would know how to drive this road better. Not against him.
By the time they hit the first corner the S-14 was a couple of car lengths ahead of Keisuke. He watched as the other car mis-judged how well his brakes and tires would slow him down in the rain and oversped slightly into the turn. Spray flew as the tires scrabbled desperately for traction. For a moment it seemed the car was going to lose its battle with inertia and slide out of control. Watching from behind, Keisuke could almost feel the Silvia's tires fighting for grip. But then gradually the tires regained their firm hold on the road, and the S-14 lumbered through the turn successfully, if not gracefully.
He didn't have long to consider the poor cornering performance of his opponent though, since a moment later he was entering the turn himself. From past experience he knew that the first downhill turn on Akagi started with a long, easy left which was followed almost immediately by a sharp jag to the left. Coming up to the entrance of the turn, Keisuke hit the brakes to slow down. Starting into the turn, he let up slightly as he coasted into the easy entrance of the turn. The car understeered in much more than he had anticipated, lumbering heavily toward the outside in a way that he had not anticipated, nor intended. Fighting to keep the car on the line he had envisioned through the turn, he realized that he had miscalculated the car's momentum and had to lose more speed before entering the next turn. Slamming on the brakes hard, he felt the ABS kick in. For a long moment he worried that even so, he wouldn't be able to lose enough speed to execute the sharp entrance on the next turn.
"Come on, c'mon, slow down already, you useless piece of crap," he muttered under his breath. He ignored the concrete wall looming steadily closer and focused on forcing the car along the line he wanted. After an agonizing moment the car slowed to a speed where he could navigate the turn. He cleared it safely. But he could tell that his miscalculation had cost him time. The car came out of the turn well off of where he usually would exit, and he could feel how badly his line had sucked. Not good. This Benz being the underpowered warthog that it was, he couldn't afford to lose time going through the corners. Tight cornering performance was his one ace in the hole.
He spared a glance down the road to check how far along his opponent was. The other guy hadn't done so well with that turn himself, but he was now taking full advantage of the brief, relatively straight section to use his car's superior horsepower. Keisuke ground his teeth in annoyance. This was going to be a little more difficult than he had thought.
-------------------------------------
The ring of a cel phone cut through the quiet murmur of the study group. Picking up his phone, Ryousuke excused himself from the group and stepped outside to answer it. Clicking on the phone, he said, "Hello?"
Fumihiro's voice greeted him. "Hey, Ryousuke? Guess what your brother is up to."
Ryousuke paused and thought for a moment before answering. There were only a limited number of reasons why Fumihiro would feel a need to call and report to him on what his brother was doing. Of those, only one possibility seemed likely, though it seemed to him to be reckless, even by Keisuke's standards.
"Keisuke challenged someone?" he asked.
"Close," Fumihiro replied. "Someone challenged him, and he accepted. A one-lap downhill time trial."
Downhill, Ryousuke noted. Good. That would minimize the difference in horsepower between the two cars. He had no doubt that no matter who had challenged Keisuke, they would have a car that could output more power than their family car. Which left just one critical variable. "Who challenged him?" he asked.
"Some guy on the Akagi Thunders. He drives a red S-14."
Ryousuke had always thought the Akagi Thunders was a particularly apt name for that team. They seemed to be more about creating noise and storm than about having any actual skill or talent. There was little to differentiate them from the dozens of other teams in the area that were named some variant of "Thunders". Off-hand, he didn't remember anything in particular about the S-14 driver on that team. Ryousuke made a mental note to check his database of race-related data for information on the driver. But since he had not previously taken special note of this individual, he thought it would be safe to say that the person in question was likely not a terribly good driver.
"I don't remember that particular driver," he told Fumihiro. "Though the skill level on the Thunders is generally very low. That alone should count greatly in Keisuke's favor."
Ryousuke could hear Fumihiro hesitate for a moment before asking, "Do you think Keisuke has a chance of winning this one? It's pouring rain up here right now, and the Benz isn't that impressive of a car. Certainly not against a Silvia."
Ryousuke smiled slightly. "After everyone's experiences against Fujiwara's Hachiroku, we should have all learned never to underestimate an underpowered car if the driver is skilled. I don't believe the car shall be the deciding factor in this race. Keisuke's familiarity with Akagi alone should compensate for the difference. No, the critical factor in this race will be whether Keisuke can learn to control the Benz as naturally as he controls his FD."
------------------------------------------
If someone could have asked him right then, Keisuke would have agreed with his older brother's analysis. Driving the Benz around town had been an exercise in frustration. But it was nothing compared to trying to race it full-speed down a treacherous, rain-slick slope. Coming up to a turn, he tried to guide the car along the line that he was used to taking -- only to find that once again, the car did not respond the way he expected. Cursing, he jerked the steering wheel over as hard as he dared in the wet. He gently accelerated to try and get the balance back to where he instinctively knew it needed to be. The engine responded slowly, too slowly, to his demands for more power. The automatic transmission hadn't shifted down while he was braking, and was still in too high a gear to be ready for instant acceleration. It was perfect if he wanted to save gas. It sucked when he wanted power. He floored the accelerator, trying to get the speed he needed. With a jolt, the transmission dropped down a gear. The car jerked forward as the engine's power was suddenly pushed to through the to the wheels. He growled deep in his throat as, fighting for control, he cleared the corner well off of his chosen line, yet again.
The one good thing he could say about the Benz was that the handling was better than he would have expected for a car that weighed several hundred kilos more than his FD, and accelerated like an enraged elephant. While he wouldn't exactly call the handling light and easy, it took only a minimum of effort to make fairly easy corrections with the steering. Between that and some deft accelerator work, he was starting to navigate the turns in a reasonably competent, if not terribly solid, manner. He was glad for all the careful accelerator work practice he had done since the race with that black FD. It was coming in real handy for him right now. Without that practice, he knew there would be no way he could control this car even to the level he was currently managing.
---------------------------------------
Fumihiro clicked off his phone. Glancing around, he was slightly surprised to find Kenta had walked up to him while he was on the phone with Ryousuke, and was now standing next to him, an open umbrella in one hand, talking on the cel phone held in the other hand. Fumihiro stuck his own phone back in his pocket, and waited while Kenta finished his conversation.
"Ok, thanks for the info," Kenta said. "Tell us if you hear anything else." A moment later he hung up the call, and turned to Fumihiro. He stood there, phone still in hand, with a worried expression on his face.
"That was the report from the overlook down below. They say that Keisuke-san is lagging behind. It sounds like the gap between them is getting bigger!" Kenta's tone was full of dismay. "I can't believe that guy is beating Keisuke-san. How can this happen?"
Fumihiro nodded thoughtfully. "Ryousuke predicted that the Silvia would lead through the beginning section. He said that the first, tightly winding section would be the hardest for Keisuke."
"That section? But, why?" Kenta asked, confused. "I've seen Keisuke drive that section millions of times before. He's insanely fast! I can only keep up with him when he lets me. With his amazing drifts, I think that's one of his best sections. Why would he start having problems with it now?"
"He may be fast in his FD," Fumihiro replied. "But he's not driving the FD. The differences between that Benz and his FD are like the difference between shit and chocolate. The only similarity really is that they are both FR's. Other than that?" Fumihiro shook his head. "Keisuke is gambling everything that he can do this race like Fujiwara. (Though you'll never catch him saying that.) That Silvia might be able to out-accelerate him, but he's banking on his skill and knowledge of the course to let him take the corners faster. But even Fujiwara only does it in a car that he drives every day and knows thoroughly."
The worry cleared from Kenta's face. "If Fujiwara can do it, then Keisuke-san can certainly do it!" Kenta declared confidently.
Fumihiro shook his head. "I don't know about that. Never underestimate how much being unfamiliar with a car can hamper a driver. Until Keisuke learns the limits of the Benz, he won't be able to fully use his knowledge of the course and his speed through turns to catch up to the other guy. Everything depends on how quickly he can change his normal habits."
"Keisuke-san can do it," Kenta repeated firmly. "Keisuke-san can do anything!"
--------------------------------------
Keisuke relaxed slightly as he slid out of the corner. That was the last tight corner for a while. It was also the first corner yet that he felt that he'd handled competently. Ok, so it was mostly because he had slowed down to speeds he would normally have considered pathetically pokey. It was annoying and frustrating, but at least he hadn't had to fight at the razor's edge for control the whole way through. And the way the car moved was finally starting to feel less unnatural, and more right. Maybe he couldn't drive the Benz with the same unconscious ease he drove his FD with. But it didn't feel quite so much like wearing clothes that were a size too small any more.
Now that they were clear of the initial steep downhill section, the turns wouldn't be as sharp. He'd be able to take them at higher average speeds, with less braking. Having to slow down and then pick up speed again had been killing him, the acceleration on the Benz was that bad. But for the upcoming series of S-turns, all he'd need would be a little care with the steering and some decent timing coasting then hitting the gas.
Or, at least it better. He needed to start making up time, badly. The tail lights of the other car had vanished somewhere a few turns back. If he had any chance of winning this race, he knew he needed get with the program and start driving this road smarter.
Rain splattered against the windshield harder than before as both the intensity of the downpour and the car's speed increased. The road ahead of him got steadily harder to see as the overworked windshield wipers gave him a shorter and shorter slice of time with a clear view of the road ahead. As each swipe of the wipers pushed the rain clear, he fixed the picture of the road ahead in his mind, noting down the points where he would need to start braking or turning, and his current distance relative to them.
Focusing on the road ahead, he slid through an easy right turn. He flew out of it exactly the way he had expected, and was already set up automatically for the left-hander directly after. The corners of his mouth lifted slightly in a self-satisfied smile. Yeah. That was more like it. The frustration and tension began to drift away, unimportant as he settled into a pattern of when to brake, to accelerate, to turn. His focus narrowed until all he knew was the rhythm of the road, the feel of the balance of the car, and the grip of the tires on the road.
So focused was he on the pure experience of just driving that the sudden red flash of brake lights coming on not far ahead surprised him. He hadn't even realized that he had caught up with the other car until the driver hit his brakes. Keisuke smiled. Catching up had been easier than he had expected. Now the race would really get started. If he could just get past that guy...
It only took a corner or two before he felt his satisfaction at having caught up to the Silvia turn to annoyed contempt. The moron ahead of him was driving like an idiot. Braking too early and too hard, taking a lame line through the turns-- it was forcing his own rhythm to be thrown off, having the twit so close in front of him. It was like having to take baby steps to avoid stepping on some slowpoke.
Judging from the guy's braking patterns, he'd probably mis-judged his braking timing too many times, or not compensated enough for how the rain would effect braking and steering. Now he was massively over-compensating by braking too early and slowing too much. No wonder it had been such a snap to catch up to him.
With a snarl, Keisuke braked harder than he had intended to entering a turn, forced to in order to avoid hitting the other car. He watched in disgust as the Silvia floundered slowly through yet another easy turn -- one which he personally would not have bothered braking on, not even in this car. This is pathetic, he thought. If I can just get in front of him, this would be all over.
Mentally reviewing the road ahead, Keisuke tried to come up with a plan that would let him pass the moron in front of him. One possibility occurred to him. It wasn't anything fancy, but it had a chance of working. He gave a mental shrug. It was worth a shot.
For the next several turns, Keisuke held back intentionally and waited for the situation he wanted. Carefully holding the accelerator just short of the point where he knew from experience the automatic transmission would shift, he watched as the incompetent Silvia lumbered into yet another turn. Without slowing, he entered just behind the Silvia -- but at a much higher average speed! His additional momentum shot him out of the turn faster than the slower car ahead of him, allowing him to pull up next to the leading car, all set up to take the outside for the next turn they were heading into.
---------------------------------------
Katou glanced nervously at the rearview mirror. The Benz was still hanging right there, right where it had latched onto his tail a couple of turns back. He still couldn't believe it was there. He thought for sure he'd had the race in the bag earlier, once the headlights had disappeared from his mirror. But now they were back, closer than ever before. How had he done that? He knew that spoiled rich boy was driving a dog of a car. That was why he had issued the challenge for this race -- because he knew that even the famous Takahashi Keisuke couldn't win in some slow old European luxury sedan that was built for just showing off how rich the owner was, not for speed. Katou wondered if maybe he had miscalculated? Maybe there was more to that Benz than met the eye? There had to be -- how else could this be happening otherwise?
He shook his head. No, I gotta focus on getting ahead again now, he thought. He'd pulled in front once, so he had to be able to do it again. He'd just gotten spooked and slowed down too much after he nearly slid off the road on a few corners. Obviously he'd just slacked too much and needed to get back to driving like this was a race, not a Sunday drive. Yeah, that's the ticket. Just a little faster through the next few turns, and that Benz's headlights would vanish from his rearview mirror. He'd make them vanish, with his faster car.
Coming up to the next turn, he stayed full on the accelerator. For a few nerve-wracking moments he thought he was about to lose it as the car started to sloosh farther to the outside of the turn than he had expected. He came out of the turn a lot closer to the side of the mountain than he had intended, but he was still in control -- and, more importantly -- in one piece.
He glanced in the rearview mirror again, and smiled at what he saw. The Benz's lights had backed off a little. See? Just speed up a little, and it'll all be fine, he thought. He accelerated into the next corner, and then the next with growing confidence.
Pulling out of yet another hair-raising turn he glanced in the mirror again -- and was shocked to see the headlights had disappeared completely! No, he thought. I can't have ditched him that fast, can I? Where else--?
Suddenly realizing what had happened, he looked over to his left. The sight that greeted him confirmed his worst fears. Somehow the Benz had managed to come from behind and was now sitting smack-dab by his side!
"Shit!" he shouted. He didn't know how that rich brat had managed it, but he recognized the position he was in now. There wasn't a racer on Akagi who didn't know the Takahashis' trick of pulling up next to a car on the first half of an S-curve in order to get ahead of them when the inside and outside flipped on the second half of the S. The little snot was trying to pass him.
"Hell if I'm gonna let you!" he shouted. He ground his teeth in irritation as he floored the accelerator in an attempt to use his superior horsepower to pull ahead.
------------------------------------------
Every nerve taut and screamingly alert, Keisuke dove into the first half of the S-turn. He wasn't sure what that idiot in the Silvia thought he was doing, but Keisuke knew for certain that the other car had oversped going into the corner. Splitting his attention between the road ahead, he half-watched, half-sensed what the other car was doing.
"There's no way he can make it," Keisuke muttered tensely under his breath. "Maybe he could pull it out if it was dry, but not in this rain!"
Because he was paying such attention to what the other car was doing, Keisuke noticed instantly the moment the other driver realized his mistake. The other car slowed its acceleration -- probably because the driver had taken his foot off the gas. Responding to some half-sensed thought of what was coming next, Keisuke slammed the accelerator to the floor.
For a frozen moment time seemed to slow. Keisuke watched out of the corner of his eye as the other car jerked hard to the left, changing its heading away from the guard rail -- and straight towards the Benz! The rearview mirror glowed red as the landscape behind was suddenly lit by the Silvia's brake lights. Then the moment was over as the automatic transmission obligingly dropped a gear. The tach needle jumped toward the redline as the power from the engine kicked through the drivetrain to the wheels. The Benz surged ahead, clearing out of the space it had been in mere fractions of a second before the Silvia spun through it. The bumpers of the two cars missed each other by barely a handspan's breadth.
Keisuke focused on keeping control, coming out of the second half of the turn with the guard rail looming a lot closer than originally planned. He brushed by the side of the road so close that his side mirror sheared leaves off the bushes overhanging the side of the road. Clearing the turn, he shot a glance at the rearview mirror. Keisuke realized that he didn't need to keep going. The Silvia had spun out completely, finally stopping when the car's front corner smashed into the guard rail. The race was over. He had won.
----------------------------------------------
Up on top of the mountain, the spectators waited in a eager silence for word on how the race was going. The palpable tension added to the hot closeness of the summer evening until the air itself seemed to wrap around the crowd like a smothering, wet blanket.
Suddenly, the silence was shattered by the ring of a cel phone. A moment later another one rang, and then another. Kenta jumped, as the cel phone he still held in his hand was one of those ringing.
"Hello," he answered. There was a brief paused, followed by an excited tirade of word. "What? He did? How? ... I see. Where? ... Ok, I got it. Thanks for the call!" He clicked off the phone, then turned to Fumihiro who was waiting near by.
"The Silvia driver spun out!" Kenta shouted, half for Fumihiro's benefit, half so that the other people standing near by could hear him. "Keisuke-san won!"
The crowd stirred as the news spread. Here and there, spontaneous cheers broke out.
Fumihiro relaxed visibly. A moment went by while it seemed that he was still trying to parse the news into something comprehensible. Then a big grin broke out across his face. "He really did it. I didn't know if he really could or not."
"I told you he could do it," Kenta responded. "Keisuke-san can do anything!"
------------------------------------------------
His brother was still awake when Keisuke arrived home several hours later. He wandered into Ryousuke's room and sat down on the bed.
"So, you heard?" he asked. He assumed he didn't need to state what he was talking about.
Ryousuke stopped what he was working on on his laptop, and swiveled his chair to face Keisuke. "Yes," he replied, confirming Keisuke's expectation. "Congratulations. So, how was it?"
Keisuke snorted. "It sucked. That Benz has some decent points. But it sucks overall as a performance car." He hesitated for a moment. "Still..."
Ryousuke waited patiently while his brother sorted out what exactly he was trying to say. He knew from long experience that sometimes it took Keisuke some time to articulate exactly what he was thinking.
"You know, Aniki," Keisuke finally said thoughtfully. "It sucked, but I think I learned some things from racing that Silvia. It felt like I was putting together a lot of pieces that I didn't entirely knew that I had. Racing a car that is so much faster than the one you are driving is hard. I knew that before, but I don't think before I ever really felt just how hard it actually is. It would make me mad every time he would pull away from me without any effort on every straightaway. I had to integrate a lot of the details that I'd been picking up from the last few Project D races just to keep up. And if it hadn't been raining, and if that Silvia driver hadn't been an idiot... I don't know if I have the experience to have won without that."
Ryousuke smiled. This was an unexpected benefit from Keisuke excursions this evening. He knew that there were certain lessons which were easier learned on a car with little horsepower. It was pleasing to see Keisuke pick up some of those lessons so quickly -- and on a race that Ryousuke himself had not planned, no less. This was a very positive development. "So, it sounds like you put your time off from D's races to good use tonight."
"Yeah, I guess. Anyway, I'm wiped, I think I'm going to head off to bed." Keisuke got up from the bed, and started to head out of the room. At the doorway he paused.
"I did learn one more thing from the race tonight. I think I do like walking better than driving the Benz!" And with those parting words, he walked out and shut the door behind him.
-- End
========================================================================
Author's notes:
I don't know Mercedes models from squid, and particularly not Japanese Mercedes models. Based on my research, it sounds like the Benz sitting in the Takahashi's garage is a 190E. As far as I can tell, there is not a diesel version of that model, so I changed it to a 300D, for the purposes of author's whim. If that is the worst mistake that I have made in this fic, then I shall rest content. The 300D appears to have had about 154 hp, which makes it very slightly faster than Takumi's Hachiroku at the beginning of the series. It does, however, weight a fair bit more, so I think it all more than balances out.
Continuity-wise, this takes place just after the race between Keisuke and Wataru on M-pass. In the series, there was a race that was cancelled due to rain right about this time.
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.
-----------------
"I'll do your stupid race. One lap, downhill. First one across the finish line wins." Keisuke's flat tone left no room for argument.
Katou snorted, and gave a self-satisfied half-smile. "Sure, whatever you want," he said. "Not that it matters. There's no way you can win."
Keisuke favored him with a frosty stare. "I don't race losing battles, only losing drivers. Get your car and let's get on with this."
Katou nodded, and walked off towards his car. As he went, the crowd of spectators parted before him. A few people called out to him from the galleries, and he waved or nodded to them.
"Keisuke-san, are you sure this is a good idea?" Kenta asked in a concerned tone of voice. "His S-14 has to out-power that Benz. You'll never be able to keep up with him, especially not in this rain."
"You're not one to talk there, Kenta," Keisuke pointed out. "Remember how your rain battle went?"
"How can I forget?" Kenta looked like he'd bitten into a lemon. His frequent comments in had made it clear that he had not forgotten his humiliating loss on Myougi last summer to Akina's Hachiroku. The parallels between that race and this one did not escape him. Both races involved rain, and both had an underpowered car facing a much higher powered opponent. He had been the driver of the higher horsepower car in his rain battle, and it clearly still rankled that he had lost.
Fumihiro looked at the two of them like a mother watching her two squabbling children. For a moment it seemed like he was going to scold them. But when he opened his mouth all he said was, "I know what you're saying, Keisuke. But that isn't your normal car. Are you sure you'll be all right?"
"Don't worry. I can handle it." Keisuke did not seem to share Fumihiro's concern. "This is my home course. There's no way I'm going to lose to some uppity snot on Akagi. Anyway, I'm going to go get lined up so we can get this joke over with. You'll take care of the rest, Fumihiro?"
Fumihiro nodded. "Don't worry, I'll take care of it."
Keisuke walked over to the Benz and got in, while Fumihiro threaded his way through the spectators gathering at the starting line. Kenta watched as the pair walked away, a worried look on his face. "Keisuke-san..." he said.
Minutes later, the two competitors were set at the starting line. Fumihiro directed them into position with a calm, competent air that showed he had performed this duty many times before. "Okay, okay." He waved one of the cars forward. "A little further. A little more -- okay, stop!" He gestured for the car to stop, then took a step back and looked to make sure the two cars were lined up evenly. Apparently satisfied, he nodded.
"Ready?" he asked the drivers. They both nodded. "Okay, start in five!" He held up his hand, palm forward with fingers spread.
Katou grinned. Holding the clutch in, he repeatedly revved his engine. His modified exhaust gave a low, powerful sound that vibrated the floorboards as the engine ran high, then dropped off. He shifted the car into first gear, then stared intently at Fumihiro.
Using his left foot to hold down the brake pedal, Keisuke carefully picked up the revs on his car. The engine first hummed, then whined in response. When the tach reached the level he wanted, he held it steady and turned his concentration back to Fumihiro's countdown.
"4... 3... 2... 1... Go!!" Fumihiro's hand swept down on the final count, flagging the start of the race. He stood motionless as Katou's Silvia S-14 flew past him, followed immediately by Keisuke's Benz. Once they passed, he turned and watched their progress as the Silvia pulled in front, the clear leader in the brief contest of speed heading to the first corner. First one car and then the other entered the first turn and disappeared from sight. For a moment Fumihiro stood motionless, oblivious to the rain, watching where the two cars had gone and listened as the sounds of tires squealing and engines screaming reflected noisily off the walls of the valley. Then he turned and headed back towards his car. Pulling out his cel phone, he punched up a number on the speed dial. "Hey, Ryousuke? Guess what your brother is up to."
----------------
The moment Fumihiro's hand dropped, Keisuke's foot flew off the brake. With the one force that was holding it back gone, the car surged forward. It wasn't exactly a speedy dash -- certainly nowhere near what his FD was capable of -- but it got the race rolling. As he mashed the accelerator to the floor, he briefly felt the rear tires start to lose traction and spin out on the rain-slick road. Modifying his acceleration to prevent traction loss, he cursed. This car didn't have the nice, sticky tires his FD did. Boring old long-life tires just didn't have the same grip that he was used to. He'd have to watch out for that. The thought drifted away into somewhere in his subconscious as he focused on the challenge of the road ahead of him. Carefully, he applied steady pressure to the gas, feeling for the point where the engine's power would start to surpass the tires' ability to hold the road.
Ahead of him, the Silvia took the lead as they headed toward the first corner. No great surprise there. Keisuke knew that the Benz wouldn't be able to compete in flat-out acceleration. If this were a track, he would have had no hope. But this was a mountain road. Not just any mountain road, oh no. This was a mountain road that he practiced on every day. The other guy might have more horsepower than him, but there was no way he would know how to drive this road better. Not against him.
By the time they hit the first corner the S-14 was a couple of car lengths ahead of Keisuke. He watched as the other car mis-judged how well his brakes and tires would slow him down in the rain and oversped slightly into the turn. Spray flew as the tires scrabbled desperately for traction. For a moment it seemed the car was going to lose its battle with inertia and slide out of control. Watching from behind, Keisuke could almost feel the Silvia's tires fighting for grip. But then gradually the tires regained their firm hold on the road, and the S-14 lumbered through the turn successfully, if not gracefully.
He didn't have long to consider the poor cornering performance of his opponent though, since a moment later he was entering the turn himself. From past experience he knew that the first downhill turn on Akagi started with a long, easy left which was followed almost immediately by a sharp jag to the left. Coming up to the entrance of the turn, Keisuke hit the brakes to slow down. Starting into the turn, he let up slightly as he coasted into the easy entrance of the turn. The car understeered in much more than he had anticipated, lumbering heavily toward the outside in a way that he had not anticipated, nor intended. Fighting to keep the car on the line he had envisioned through the turn, he realized that he had miscalculated the car's momentum and had to lose more speed before entering the next turn. Slamming on the brakes hard, he felt the ABS kick in. For a long moment he worried that even so, he wouldn't be able to lose enough speed to execute the sharp entrance on the next turn.
"Come on, c'mon, slow down already, you useless piece of crap," he muttered under his breath. He ignored the concrete wall looming steadily closer and focused on forcing the car along the line he wanted. After an agonizing moment the car slowed to a speed where he could navigate the turn. He cleared it safely. But he could tell that his miscalculation had cost him time. The car came out of the turn well off of where he usually would exit, and he could feel how badly his line had sucked. Not good. This Benz being the underpowered warthog that it was, he couldn't afford to lose time going through the corners. Tight cornering performance was his one ace in the hole.
He spared a glance down the road to check how far along his opponent was. The other guy hadn't done so well with that turn himself, but he was now taking full advantage of the brief, relatively straight section to use his car's superior horsepower. Keisuke ground his teeth in annoyance. This was going to be a little more difficult than he had thought.
-------------------------------------
The ring of a cel phone cut through the quiet murmur of the study group. Picking up his phone, Ryousuke excused himself from the group and stepped outside to answer it. Clicking on the phone, he said, "Hello?"
Fumihiro's voice greeted him. "Hey, Ryousuke? Guess what your brother is up to."
Ryousuke paused and thought for a moment before answering. There were only a limited number of reasons why Fumihiro would feel a need to call and report to him on what his brother was doing. Of those, only one possibility seemed likely, though it seemed to him to be reckless, even by Keisuke's standards.
"Keisuke challenged someone?" he asked.
"Close," Fumihiro replied. "Someone challenged him, and he accepted. A one-lap downhill time trial."
Downhill, Ryousuke noted. Good. That would minimize the difference in horsepower between the two cars. He had no doubt that no matter who had challenged Keisuke, they would have a car that could output more power than their family car. Which left just one critical variable. "Who challenged him?" he asked.
"Some guy on the Akagi Thunders. He drives a red S-14."
Ryousuke had always thought the Akagi Thunders was a particularly apt name for that team. They seemed to be more about creating noise and storm than about having any actual skill or talent. There was little to differentiate them from the dozens of other teams in the area that were named some variant of "Thunders". Off-hand, he didn't remember anything in particular about the S-14 driver on that team. Ryousuke made a mental note to check his database of race-related data for information on the driver. But since he had not previously taken special note of this individual, he thought it would be safe to say that the person in question was likely not a terribly good driver.
"I don't remember that particular driver," he told Fumihiro. "Though the skill level on the Thunders is generally very low. That alone should count greatly in Keisuke's favor."
Ryousuke could hear Fumihiro hesitate for a moment before asking, "Do you think Keisuke has a chance of winning this one? It's pouring rain up here right now, and the Benz isn't that impressive of a car. Certainly not against a Silvia."
Ryousuke smiled slightly. "After everyone's experiences against Fujiwara's Hachiroku, we should have all learned never to underestimate an underpowered car if the driver is skilled. I don't believe the car shall be the deciding factor in this race. Keisuke's familiarity with Akagi alone should compensate for the difference. No, the critical factor in this race will be whether Keisuke can learn to control the Benz as naturally as he controls his FD."
------------------------------------------
If someone could have asked him right then, Keisuke would have agreed with his older brother's analysis. Driving the Benz around town had been an exercise in frustration. But it was nothing compared to trying to race it full-speed down a treacherous, rain-slick slope. Coming up to a turn, he tried to guide the car along the line that he was used to taking -- only to find that once again, the car did not respond the way he expected. Cursing, he jerked the steering wheel over as hard as he dared in the wet. He gently accelerated to try and get the balance back to where he instinctively knew it needed to be. The engine responded slowly, too slowly, to his demands for more power. The automatic transmission hadn't shifted down while he was braking, and was still in too high a gear to be ready for instant acceleration. It was perfect if he wanted to save gas. It sucked when he wanted power. He floored the accelerator, trying to get the speed he needed. With a jolt, the transmission dropped down a gear. The car jerked forward as the engine's power was suddenly pushed to through the to the wheels. He growled deep in his throat as, fighting for control, he cleared the corner well off of his chosen line, yet again.
The one good thing he could say about the Benz was that the handling was better than he would have expected for a car that weighed several hundred kilos more than his FD, and accelerated like an enraged elephant. While he wouldn't exactly call the handling light and easy, it took only a minimum of effort to make fairly easy corrections with the steering. Between that and some deft accelerator work, he was starting to navigate the turns in a reasonably competent, if not terribly solid, manner. He was glad for all the careful accelerator work practice he had done since the race with that black FD. It was coming in real handy for him right now. Without that practice, he knew there would be no way he could control this car even to the level he was currently managing.
---------------------------------------
Fumihiro clicked off his phone. Glancing around, he was slightly surprised to find Kenta had walked up to him while he was on the phone with Ryousuke, and was now standing next to him, an open umbrella in one hand, talking on the cel phone held in the other hand. Fumihiro stuck his own phone back in his pocket, and waited while Kenta finished his conversation.
"Ok, thanks for the info," Kenta said. "Tell us if you hear anything else." A moment later he hung up the call, and turned to Fumihiro. He stood there, phone still in hand, with a worried expression on his face.
"That was the report from the overlook down below. They say that Keisuke-san is lagging behind. It sounds like the gap between them is getting bigger!" Kenta's tone was full of dismay. "I can't believe that guy is beating Keisuke-san. How can this happen?"
Fumihiro nodded thoughtfully. "Ryousuke predicted that the Silvia would lead through the beginning section. He said that the first, tightly winding section would be the hardest for Keisuke."
"That section? But, why?" Kenta asked, confused. "I've seen Keisuke drive that section millions of times before. He's insanely fast! I can only keep up with him when he lets me. With his amazing drifts, I think that's one of his best sections. Why would he start having problems with it now?"
"He may be fast in his FD," Fumihiro replied. "But he's not driving the FD. The differences between that Benz and his FD are like the difference between shit and chocolate. The only similarity really is that they are both FR's. Other than that?" Fumihiro shook his head. "Keisuke is gambling everything that he can do this race like Fujiwara. (Though you'll never catch him saying that.) That Silvia might be able to out-accelerate him, but he's banking on his skill and knowledge of the course to let him take the corners faster. But even Fujiwara only does it in a car that he drives every day and knows thoroughly."
The worry cleared from Kenta's face. "If Fujiwara can do it, then Keisuke-san can certainly do it!" Kenta declared confidently.
Fumihiro shook his head. "I don't know about that. Never underestimate how much being unfamiliar with a car can hamper a driver. Until Keisuke learns the limits of the Benz, he won't be able to fully use his knowledge of the course and his speed through turns to catch up to the other guy. Everything depends on how quickly he can change his normal habits."
"Keisuke-san can do it," Kenta repeated firmly. "Keisuke-san can do anything!"
--------------------------------------
Keisuke relaxed slightly as he slid out of the corner. That was the last tight corner for a while. It was also the first corner yet that he felt that he'd handled competently. Ok, so it was mostly because he had slowed down to speeds he would normally have considered pathetically pokey. It was annoying and frustrating, but at least he hadn't had to fight at the razor's edge for control the whole way through. And the way the car moved was finally starting to feel less unnatural, and more right. Maybe he couldn't drive the Benz with the same unconscious ease he drove his FD with. But it didn't feel quite so much like wearing clothes that were a size too small any more.
Now that they were clear of the initial steep downhill section, the turns wouldn't be as sharp. He'd be able to take them at higher average speeds, with less braking. Having to slow down and then pick up speed again had been killing him, the acceleration on the Benz was that bad. But for the upcoming series of S-turns, all he'd need would be a little care with the steering and some decent timing coasting then hitting the gas.
Or, at least it better. He needed to start making up time, badly. The tail lights of the other car had vanished somewhere a few turns back. If he had any chance of winning this race, he knew he needed get with the program and start driving this road smarter.
Rain splattered against the windshield harder than before as both the intensity of the downpour and the car's speed increased. The road ahead of him got steadily harder to see as the overworked windshield wipers gave him a shorter and shorter slice of time with a clear view of the road ahead. As each swipe of the wipers pushed the rain clear, he fixed the picture of the road ahead in his mind, noting down the points where he would need to start braking or turning, and his current distance relative to them.
Focusing on the road ahead, he slid through an easy right turn. He flew out of it exactly the way he had expected, and was already set up automatically for the left-hander directly after. The corners of his mouth lifted slightly in a self-satisfied smile. Yeah. That was more like it. The frustration and tension began to drift away, unimportant as he settled into a pattern of when to brake, to accelerate, to turn. His focus narrowed until all he knew was the rhythm of the road, the feel of the balance of the car, and the grip of the tires on the road.
So focused was he on the pure experience of just driving that the sudden red flash of brake lights coming on not far ahead surprised him. He hadn't even realized that he had caught up with the other car until the driver hit his brakes. Keisuke smiled. Catching up had been easier than he had expected. Now the race would really get started. If he could just get past that guy...
It only took a corner or two before he felt his satisfaction at having caught up to the Silvia turn to annoyed contempt. The moron ahead of him was driving like an idiot. Braking too early and too hard, taking a lame line through the turns-- it was forcing his own rhythm to be thrown off, having the twit so close in front of him. It was like having to take baby steps to avoid stepping on some slowpoke.
Judging from the guy's braking patterns, he'd probably mis-judged his braking timing too many times, or not compensated enough for how the rain would effect braking and steering. Now he was massively over-compensating by braking too early and slowing too much. No wonder it had been such a snap to catch up to him.
With a snarl, Keisuke braked harder than he had intended to entering a turn, forced to in order to avoid hitting the other car. He watched in disgust as the Silvia floundered slowly through yet another easy turn -- one which he personally would not have bothered braking on, not even in this car. This is pathetic, he thought. If I can just get in front of him, this would be all over.
Mentally reviewing the road ahead, Keisuke tried to come up with a plan that would let him pass the moron in front of him. One possibility occurred to him. It wasn't anything fancy, but it had a chance of working. He gave a mental shrug. It was worth a shot.
For the next several turns, Keisuke held back intentionally and waited for the situation he wanted. Carefully holding the accelerator just short of the point where he knew from experience the automatic transmission would shift, he watched as the incompetent Silvia lumbered into yet another turn. Without slowing, he entered just behind the Silvia -- but at a much higher average speed! His additional momentum shot him out of the turn faster than the slower car ahead of him, allowing him to pull up next to the leading car, all set up to take the outside for the next turn they were heading into.
---------------------------------------
Katou glanced nervously at the rearview mirror. The Benz was still hanging right there, right where it had latched onto his tail a couple of turns back. He still couldn't believe it was there. He thought for sure he'd had the race in the bag earlier, once the headlights had disappeared from his mirror. But now they were back, closer than ever before. How had he done that? He knew that spoiled rich boy was driving a dog of a car. That was why he had issued the challenge for this race -- because he knew that even the famous Takahashi Keisuke couldn't win in some slow old European luxury sedan that was built for just showing off how rich the owner was, not for speed. Katou wondered if maybe he had miscalculated? Maybe there was more to that Benz than met the eye? There had to be -- how else could this be happening otherwise?
He shook his head. No, I gotta focus on getting ahead again now, he thought. He'd pulled in front once, so he had to be able to do it again. He'd just gotten spooked and slowed down too much after he nearly slid off the road on a few corners. Obviously he'd just slacked too much and needed to get back to driving like this was a race, not a Sunday drive. Yeah, that's the ticket. Just a little faster through the next few turns, and that Benz's headlights would vanish from his rearview mirror. He'd make them vanish, with his faster car.
Coming up to the next turn, he stayed full on the accelerator. For a few nerve-wracking moments he thought he was about to lose it as the car started to sloosh farther to the outside of the turn than he had expected. He came out of the turn a lot closer to the side of the mountain than he had intended, but he was still in control -- and, more importantly -- in one piece.
He glanced in the rearview mirror again, and smiled at what he saw. The Benz's lights had backed off a little. See? Just speed up a little, and it'll all be fine, he thought. He accelerated into the next corner, and then the next with growing confidence.
Pulling out of yet another hair-raising turn he glanced in the mirror again -- and was shocked to see the headlights had disappeared completely! No, he thought. I can't have ditched him that fast, can I? Where else--?
Suddenly realizing what had happened, he looked over to his left. The sight that greeted him confirmed his worst fears. Somehow the Benz had managed to come from behind and was now sitting smack-dab by his side!
"Shit!" he shouted. He didn't know how that rich brat had managed it, but he recognized the position he was in now. There wasn't a racer on Akagi who didn't know the Takahashis' trick of pulling up next to a car on the first half of an S-curve in order to get ahead of them when the inside and outside flipped on the second half of the S. The little snot was trying to pass him.
"Hell if I'm gonna let you!" he shouted. He ground his teeth in irritation as he floored the accelerator in an attempt to use his superior horsepower to pull ahead.
------------------------------------------
Every nerve taut and screamingly alert, Keisuke dove into the first half of the S-turn. He wasn't sure what that idiot in the Silvia thought he was doing, but Keisuke knew for certain that the other car had oversped going into the corner. Splitting his attention between the road ahead, he half-watched, half-sensed what the other car was doing.
"There's no way he can make it," Keisuke muttered tensely under his breath. "Maybe he could pull it out if it was dry, but not in this rain!"
Because he was paying such attention to what the other car was doing, Keisuke noticed instantly the moment the other driver realized his mistake. The other car slowed its acceleration -- probably because the driver had taken his foot off the gas. Responding to some half-sensed thought of what was coming next, Keisuke slammed the accelerator to the floor.
For a frozen moment time seemed to slow. Keisuke watched out of the corner of his eye as the other car jerked hard to the left, changing its heading away from the guard rail -- and straight towards the Benz! The rearview mirror glowed red as the landscape behind was suddenly lit by the Silvia's brake lights. Then the moment was over as the automatic transmission obligingly dropped a gear. The tach needle jumped toward the redline as the power from the engine kicked through the drivetrain to the wheels. The Benz surged ahead, clearing out of the space it had been in mere fractions of a second before the Silvia spun through it. The bumpers of the two cars missed each other by barely a handspan's breadth.
Keisuke focused on keeping control, coming out of the second half of the turn with the guard rail looming a lot closer than originally planned. He brushed by the side of the road so close that his side mirror sheared leaves off the bushes overhanging the side of the road. Clearing the turn, he shot a glance at the rearview mirror. Keisuke realized that he didn't need to keep going. The Silvia had spun out completely, finally stopping when the car's front corner smashed into the guard rail. The race was over. He had won.
----------------------------------------------
Up on top of the mountain, the spectators waited in a eager silence for word on how the race was going. The palpable tension added to the hot closeness of the summer evening until the air itself seemed to wrap around the crowd like a smothering, wet blanket.
Suddenly, the silence was shattered by the ring of a cel phone. A moment later another one rang, and then another. Kenta jumped, as the cel phone he still held in his hand was one of those ringing.
"Hello," he answered. There was a brief paused, followed by an excited tirade of word. "What? He did? How? ... I see. Where? ... Ok, I got it. Thanks for the call!" He clicked off the phone, then turned to Fumihiro who was waiting near by.
"The Silvia driver spun out!" Kenta shouted, half for Fumihiro's benefit, half so that the other people standing near by could hear him. "Keisuke-san won!"
The crowd stirred as the news spread. Here and there, spontaneous cheers broke out.
Fumihiro relaxed visibly. A moment went by while it seemed that he was still trying to parse the news into something comprehensible. Then a big grin broke out across his face. "He really did it. I didn't know if he really could or not."
"I told you he could do it," Kenta responded. "Keisuke-san can do anything!"
------------------------------------------------
His brother was still awake when Keisuke arrived home several hours later. He wandered into Ryousuke's room and sat down on the bed.
"So, you heard?" he asked. He assumed he didn't need to state what he was talking about.
Ryousuke stopped what he was working on on his laptop, and swiveled his chair to face Keisuke. "Yes," he replied, confirming Keisuke's expectation. "Congratulations. So, how was it?"
Keisuke snorted. "It sucked. That Benz has some decent points. But it sucks overall as a performance car." He hesitated for a moment. "Still..."
Ryousuke waited patiently while his brother sorted out what exactly he was trying to say. He knew from long experience that sometimes it took Keisuke some time to articulate exactly what he was thinking.
"You know, Aniki," Keisuke finally said thoughtfully. "It sucked, but I think I learned some things from racing that Silvia. It felt like I was putting together a lot of pieces that I didn't entirely knew that I had. Racing a car that is so much faster than the one you are driving is hard. I knew that before, but I don't think before I ever really felt just how hard it actually is. It would make me mad every time he would pull away from me without any effort on every straightaway. I had to integrate a lot of the details that I'd been picking up from the last few Project D races just to keep up. And if it hadn't been raining, and if that Silvia driver hadn't been an idiot... I don't know if I have the experience to have won without that."
Ryousuke smiled. This was an unexpected benefit from Keisuke excursions this evening. He knew that there were certain lessons which were easier learned on a car with little horsepower. It was pleasing to see Keisuke pick up some of those lessons so quickly -- and on a race that Ryousuke himself had not planned, no less. This was a very positive development. "So, it sounds like you put your time off from D's races to good use tonight."
"Yeah, I guess. Anyway, I'm wiped, I think I'm going to head off to bed." Keisuke got up from the bed, and started to head out of the room. At the doorway he paused.
"I did learn one more thing from the race tonight. I think I do like walking better than driving the Benz!" And with those parting words, he walked out and shut the door behind him.
-- End
========================================================================
Author's notes:
I don't know Mercedes models from squid, and particularly not Japanese Mercedes models. Based on my research, it sounds like the Benz sitting in the Takahashi's garage is a 190E. As far as I can tell, there is not a diesel version of that model, so I changed it to a 300D, for the purposes of author's whim. If that is the worst mistake that I have made in this fic, then I shall rest content. The 300D appears to have had about 154 hp, which makes it very slightly faster than Takumi's Hachiroku at the beginning of the series. It does, however, weight a fair bit more, so I think it all more than balances out.
Continuity-wise, this takes place just after the race between Keisuke and Wataru on M-pass. In the series, there was a race that was cancelled due to rain right about this time.