You guys know the drill. I don't own Initial D, its characters or anything else pertaining to the anime/manga. Emerald Fusion is deliberately a knockoff of an Initial D: Arcade Stage group that I hang out with, and yes, those are the cars we drive in the game. :P (I know, we're pitiful). They know who they are, and they gave me permission to write this.
Summary: Iketani sees four mysterious cars drive past him on Akina late one night. They are the gaijin group Emerald Fusion and they're in town to face the competition. Are they really a challenge, though...?
Initial D Fusion Stage
by BoomChish (boomchish@2die4.com)
Vanney took in a deep breath of air as she walked to her car carrying one shopping bag full of assorted stuff, humming softly to herself. It was a beautiful Friday midday and she had promised to meet Denis at some restaurant in half an hour from her current time, which was five minutes to noon. As she walked across the semi-full parking lot, she noticed someone she recognized. Even though his back was turned to her, she recognized him.
Kenji was calmly making his way to his white 180SX after a brief trip to the local electronic store to preorder some equipment when all of a sudden, two hands clamped over his eyes and a cheery female voice chirped, "Guess who!"
He remained silent for a while, racking his brain for any girl who would pull off the 'guess who' move on him… and only one came to mind. "Uhh… Mogi-chan?"
"Who's Mogi-chan?" came the immediate response afterwards. Surprised by the response, Kenji grabbed both her hands and pulled them away from his eyes, then turned around to face the speaker… and was doubly surprised to see who it was.
"Oi… Vanney-chan… um… nice to see you again…" He wasn't sure on why Emerald Fusion's Evo driver was being extremely friendly towards him, but he decided not to dwell too much on it. "So… uh… what's up?"
"I was just doing a little shopping before I meet Denis at twelve twenty-five. I figure I deserve a break from all that scouting," she explained.
"Scouting?" Kenji repeated, scratching his head.
"Yeah… being the worst member of the team, it's my job to scout around and look for people worthy enough for Nayth, Simon or sometimes Denis to challenge…" Here, she sighed. "But I think I've already checked out all of Gunma… Are there any other teams in neighboring prefectures?"
He suddenly became apprehensive. "Um… well… there's one in particular out in Nikko, in Tochigi… but I wouldn't suggest going there… That's where you'll find the Irohazaka Emperors… an all-male all-LanEvo team… if you were to go there, you'd be an easy target for them."
"Well, I don't intend on challenging them or accepting any of their challenges… I'm just supposed to check out which teams are where and see if they're worthy enough of a challenge from one of the other Emerald Fusion members." She smiled, showing a row of even white teeth. "As I like to say; I'm just here for show… although I do have some racing skills…" She then tapped her chin thoughtfully. "So… the Irohazaka Emperors… at Mt. Irohazaka, hm? Interesting… I heard that that's where Kegon Falls can be found… supposedly it's a nice place… I think I'll stop by there later on today…"
Kenji looked as if he was about to have a heart attack. "Didn't you listen to me? Those Emperors aren't particularly polite towards women, least of all women who are road racers and who drive around in a LanEvo. You might be in serious danger if you go there!" he protested.
Vanney stared blankly at him before, unbelievably, starting to laugh. Kenji just stared back at her, dumbfounded until she playfully swatted him across the arm. "You know, you're kinda cute when you get all fussy like that." She giggled, causing him to blush, before she continued, "And besides, I've been dealing with impolite people all my life. I can take care of myself."
"Even an entire group of middle-aged chauvinistic men?" Kenji queried.
She smiled at him. "I've dealt with worse." She then checked her watch. "Hmm… I should probably get going… Denis is usually the tardy one, so I like being there early, if not on time. See ya!" And with that, she merely turned and walked away to her car. Kenji watched her go; as she pulled her car out of the parking lot, she waved goodbye, then disappeared down the road.
---
He'd wasted no time in going to the GS gas station where the other Speed Stars and Takumi worked to reveal this latest bit of news. Iketani was absolutely horrified when he'd heard of Vanney's intentions.
"She's going to confront Emperor by herself? And you didn't try any harder to dissuade her?!" he demanded in shock and slight fury. Kenji merely stared back worriedly at his friend.
"She was very determined to go and see for herself. What would you have wanted me to do, knock her out and drag her here?" he countered.
"Kenji has a point, Iketani-sempai," Takumi commented lazily. He then yawned. "Besides, I doubt she'd accept a challenge from Emperor anyway… She doesn't strike me as someone who gets involved in races with more experienced racers… seems to me like she takes care of the smaller fish and lets the boys take care of the bigger ones… I mean come on… each member of Emerald Fusion has raced at least once in the Gunma prefecture… their leader Nayth raced against Impact Blue and won, the guy in the Hachi-Roku Levin won against Keisuke-san, Vanney-chan's boyfriend won against Takeshi Nakazato and she took on Kenta Nakamura from the RedSuns. If you compare her opponent to the others, hers was much lesser skilled."
"So? At least she won," Itsuki pointed out matter-of-factly.
"That's just my point though… she won't mind accepting challengers from lesser skilled racers because she doesn't have much skill herself. But from Emperor, she'll most likely refuse… And even though they are chauvinistic and somewhat intimidating, they wouldn't coerce her into racing them. Even they have certain standards in dealing with people."
"I hope you're right, Takumi…" Iketani mused worriedly. Kenji didn't add anything else.
---
The sun was still in the sky when Vanney was walking to her car in the parking lot. It had been a long and stressing drive from the bottom of Mt. Irohazaka all the way to the top and now she was ready to go home and take a long shower. Of course she would have to go back down Irohazaka, but somehow, the downhill drive usually isn't as bad as the uphill drive. She was almost at her car when she heard a voice behind her.
"Hey you…"
Vanney stopped in her tracks and turned around. There was a man standing behind her with long dark hair slicked back into a ponytail. He appeared to be in his late twenties or early thirties. Nevertheless, these assumptions didn't assuage her at all, so she looked around a bit, before she faced the man and pointed to herself. "Uh… are you talking to me?"
He came up to stand before her. He was about a good seven or eight inches taller than she was, which didn't say much, since Vanney stood at five foot one. He pointed to her Evo VII without much ceremony. "That's your car, right?"
She stared at her car for a second, then nodded slowly. "Yeah… and?"
He merely stared back at her, his expression flat. "You're that girl driver from that new team in Gunma… Emerald Fusion, right?"
"Uh… yeah… and?"
He suddenly smirked. "You must be a pretty good racer if you drive an Evo…" he commented.
She stared back at him. "Uh… no… I just drive an Evo because I think they're cool, that's all…"
He made a face at her answer, but didn't reply right away. Vanney was starting to get nervous under his glare, so she'd been carefully distancing herself from him by taking small steps backwards. He didn't appear to notice.
"In any case… I'm Seiji Iwaki of the Irohazaka Emperors… and since you're here on our turf, I challenge you to a race on my home track. What do you say?"
"Wait, wait, wait… your home track is Irohazaka… that freakishly winding track full of hairpins back there is your home course? You can actually race on that?" she demanded, her voice swirling upwards. "I nearly crashed my car coming up that damn thing and you want me to race you down the mountain pass? Forget it! I'd like to live long enough to have children and grandchildren, you know. I do have a desire to live!"
Seiji scoffed and folded his arms across his chest. "So I take that as a no?"
"You damn right you can take that as a no. There ain't no way in hell I'm racing down that mountain pass!" she countered fiercely.
He chuckled. "So you're a chicken, huh?"
Vanney scowled. "You can shove me in a bucket, slap a KFC logo on it and sell me for twenty bucks, if that answers your question," she'd retorted snidely. That comment only served to confuse Seiji, for the smirk quickly vanished off his face and he scratched his head in confusion.
"What?"
She shook her head. "Never mind. It's a gaijin joke… just forget it."
He stared at her with a confused look. "But you're not gaijin…"
Vanney made a face. "Of course I'm not gaijin. Do I look gaijin to you?" she demanded harshly. "If you know about Emerald Fusion, then you must surely know that the rest of my teammates are all gaijin. So I've learned their slang and lingo."
He didn't comment for a while until he'd finally noticed the distance between them, which had suddenly tripled since he'd first accosted her. "Why are you all the way over there now?"
She didn't respond, she merely glared at him. He shook his head and sighed in frustration. "Now come on; there's no need to be that afraid. It's not like I'm going to eat you or anything like that."
Vanney's eyes went wide, then she made a face. "I was afraid you were going to say that!" and she took another step backwards. Seiji merely stared at her in confusion, not understanding why his words had such a weird effect on her until he mentally repeated them to himself over and over… then the message finally sank in. He had a disgusted look on his face, but that didn't stop Vanney from maintaining her distance from him.
"I didn't mean it that way!" he roared, his face turning red. At that, she finally snickered.
"I know. Just messin' with you." She smiled and winked before she turned away. "Anyhow, I'm out. I'll talk to my teammates; maybe one of them might be interested in coming here for a race. Not me though. I got other stuff to take care of." She only took one step towards her car, however, when she felt him grab her arm rather firmly.
"I'm not finished with you yet," he growled.
Vanney turned to face him and this time, her expression was a mix of amusement and false neutrality. "Oh dear… this scene is depressingly familiar… I do believe the last fellow who attempted to restrain me got a bruised jaw for his trouble."
"So what are you going to do? Punch me in the balls?" Seiji taunted.
She paused. "You know… that sounds like a great idea! Hold still," she instructed as she balled her free hand into a fist and drew it back. Seiji quickly let go of her like a hot potato.
"You're insane!" he declared as he took a step back. "It was only a joke!"
She smiled sweetly. "Why thank you. I do prefer being called insane than being called that word that rhymes with 'witch', actually. Insane suits me better." She then waved as she made her way to her car. "Maybe I'll see you some other time… perhaps when my teammates come to Irohazaka? Bye!" And with that, she simply backed her car into reverse and drove out of the parking lot. Seiji stood in place; completely dumbfounded until he'd finally realized that Emerald Fusion's Evo driver had outsmarted him.
"Smart-ass…" he muttered to himself. "She won't get away with this…"
---
"Another team in another prefecture, huh?" Nayth murmured as all four Emerald Fusion members sat around their round dining room table at the house where they were staying. Simon was drawing something on a scrap piece of paper and Denis was twirling a pen around his fingers while Vanney was lightly picking at a salad as she explained what she'd discovered.
"A team of LanEvo drivers in the Nikko area of Tochigi… that's the Irohazaka Emperors. Mind you, I only met one of their members. No clue as to whether he's the leader or not…"
"Did he look like he was the leader?" Nayth pressed on.
"No clue. All I know is that he was butt-ugly. Does that help?"
Denis frowned. "Vanney, you call a lot of people butt-ugly… you could mean anyone…"
"Is he good or not?" Simon queried as he looked up from his weird drawing of a cow (at least it looked like a cow) and set his pen down. Vanney merely shrugged.
"I don't know… but considering what Irohazaka looks like… he'd have to be good… that mountain pass is lethal… I nearly crashed my car coming up the second section… lots upon lots of quick consecutive hairpins…" She shuddered at the memory. "It's an insane mountain pass."
"I like insane mountain passes!" Simon answered, perking up. "Is it more insane than the one where I raced that Takahashi guy?"
"Even more so than that…" Vanney answered. "There must be something like over twenty hairpins and most of them are consecutive. You need good cornering skills on Irohazaka…"
"My cornering is pretty good… I can take on that moron," Denis answered, cracking his knuckles. Nayth regarded him with a serious look.
"Look, if this mountain pass is really as difficult as Vanney says, you'll need to be very careful… because whoever's mastered that track must be a formidable force anywhere else," he pointed out matter-of-factly. Simon nodded his head vigorously.
"It's not because I think that I'm indestructible on Irohazaka… I just want to take that guy on… for attempting to manhandle my girlfriend!" Denis exclaimed hotly. "No one manhandles my Vanney and gets away with it!"
Vanney coughed before she took a bite of her salad. "Denis… in technicality… if I were to wait for you to go out and avenge me for every time I've been manhandled, I'd have been molested several times… I did tell you about how I dealt with Shingo Shouji of the Myougi Night Kids, ne? And while it didn't quite have the same outcome for Seiji Iwaki of the Irohazaka Emperors, I did escape unscathed." She flitted her hand at him. "So I can take care of myself. But if you want to go and challenge him, by all means. I do believe I told him that I'd tell you guys about their team. He may be expecting a challenge from us," she answered before she took another bite of her salad.
Denis shook his fist at his girlfriend while Simon finished his drawing and set it aside. "In any case, he drives an Evo, no?[1] he asked Vanney.
"I didn't check… like, Kenji told me that all the guys in Emperor have LanEvos… so if he's a member of Emperor, we would have to assume that he has an Evo…"[2] she explained before eating more of her salad.
Denis snorted. "I'll beat him, Vanney… you just watch me…"
---
Yes, that's right… there's still more to come!
Outtakes:
[1] Simon: "Quand même… il conduit un Evo, n'est-ce-pas?"
[2] Vanney: "J'ai pas checké… genre Kenji m'a dit que tous les gars dans Emperor ont des LanEvos… alors si il est dans Emperor, on doit croire qu'il a un Evo…"
AN: Seeing as I'd played Arcade Stage before actually seeing the anime and reading the manga, I hadn't realized that Irohazaka had a separate uphill and downhill, so I'd initially made it out that Vanney drove the downhill in reverse, assuming it was the uphill. And then, I found out my mistake and had to go back to correct it. Because of that, the next chapter will be delayed a bit, seeing as there's a lot I have to change due to that one error. Also, I would like to add that the next chapter is pretty much where I'd left it hanging since July, so updates after that may be very slow, as I have to regain my train of thought and continue where I'd left off... O_o
Hopefully, my work place will give me more time off come the holidays so that I can work on this. I can only serve so much Krispy Kreme coffee and donuts before the smell starts to make me go into hallucinogenic episodes… (those donuts are murder, I tell you!)
Anyhow, that's that! Time to go to work now…
~BoomChish