Chapter 11: The First Race
AN: Another long chapter but not as long as the other one. And another thing, there might be a few things in here that's confusing to you, and I need to go over it again, but I know you guys have been wanting me to upload the next chapter so.I'll fix it up later okay? And comments and concerns are appreciated.
"Well, I'm here. Let's get started," Utena said seriously.
"Yeah. Let's get going. I want to get this over with," Keisuke said with confidence that did not reach his soul.
"All right," Touga agreed and the two racers got into their cars. He nodded to Teiya who stepped up between the two cars. She waited until Keisuke turned on the ignition of his car before raising her hands. She looked at each of the drivers who both nodded to her. Teiya looked at Touga who stood behind the two cars and he nodded to her, a certain gleam in his eye as he put his hands in his pockets. With a swish of her hands, the two cars burst from the line and raced down the stretch, both equal in speed, being the same model of RX-7 with rotary 2 rotary engines.
Teiya let up on the gas pedal ever so slightly, allowing Keisuke to get ahead of her. As soon as the yellow FD passed her, she sped up and pulled up close to the rear of the yellow FD.
Ryosuke, who always watched his younger brother's races, followed them in his FC3S, followed by Touga, Miki, Julius, Seiya, Taiki, and Yaten. Touga drove his own car and Miki rode with Julius. The three brothers rode in Seiya's red Civic.
Meanwhile, Utena was getting relaxed as she followed Keisuke, whom she was truly sorry to say, wasn't up to the same level of drift skill as herself. She followed him comfortably down the long stretch. As they neared the first turn, Utena decided just to stay back for the first half of the race and give Keisuke some time to get into his racing tempo. 'I think I can pass him in the hairpins. I'll just study his mistakes and disabilities before I make my move,' Utena decided. 'Let's see if he got better from his last race, after all, I wasn't watching it.'
She watched carefully as Keisuke pulled his car into a perfect high-speed drift. She sped up and pulled into a clean drift right next to it, so close in fact, that Utena could reach out and touch the side of the yellow FD without reaching far. As she pulled out of the turn after Keisuke, she said to herself, "He's reaching his line perfectly. Let's see if he can stay focused under some pressure."
Utena leaned down harder on the gas pedal and pulled out to the left side of the other FD, going for the inside of the turn. She didn't intend to pass him, so she didn't go at her FD's full speed. Just to see what he would do, she sped up the tiniest bit and watched as he sped up too. She half-watched the road as she kept an eye on her opponent's car, and as they slid into the next turn, Utena was even closer, next to the other FD. Halfway through the turn, Keisuke turned and looked her. He narrowed his eyes and turned abruptly back to the road. He powered through and Utena followed. After that turn, on the long straightaway, the yellow FD sped up leaving a gap between the two cars.
Utena just kept at the same speed, never putting more pressure or relieving pressure off the gas pedal. She only shifted gears, her foot never straying to the brake pedal. She glanced in the rearview mirror and saw the pack of cars that were closely following the battle. "Narrowing her eyes, she eased more pressure onto the accelerator.
Meanwhile, in the white FC3S, Ryosuke was studying the battle. "There's something really familiar about it." Ryosuke thought hard. He watched as the silver FD followed his brother's yellow FD into the next turn, following a little distance behind, always leaving the same length in the gap, never getting closer or farther. The silver car copied the yellow car's moves as they powered through the corner.
"Oh!" Ryosuke finally got it. "She's copying my technique from when I raced against Yaten a few months ago! But why? Is she trying to tell us something?" Suddenly, at the marker that signaled the halfway point of the mountain, Ryosuke saw the silver FD speed up to an almost impossible speed for an ordinary FD. It pulled up alongside Keisuke's FD and as they went through the next turn, never slowing down. Any other racer would have thought they would hit, but not Ryosuke. He knew there was still at least 4 centimeters between those twin cars. Then, Ryosuke watched in amazement, as the silver FD sped up even more and pulled ahead of Keisuke.
"There's gotta be something under that hood. Something that only she knows about!" Ryosuke exclaimed in the quietness of his own car. "I can't dissect that driver. She seems like she knows things, things about us.That's it! That's what that technique has been hinting at! She's been watching us race for whole time she's been in Japan! And she's hinting that she knows our strengths and weaknesses. She knows what we'll do and when we'll do it. She knows when I'll make a move in a battle, and when Keisuke will make his move too! That's why she waited until the middle of the downhill! She knows Keisuke liked powering through the inner corners and making the other driver nervous by pulling through even faster at the bottom of the hill. And I think she knows that Keisuke get extremely tense and angered when he's not out in front. Keisuke always tries to go fast on the corners, but he doesn't have as much skill as her. She knew what he was going to do and interfered with it!" Ryosuke's eyes widened. "That means she has a big shot at winning all of her races! She will win!"
***Meanwhile.***
'Damn!' Keisuke thought. 'I got passed!' He watched helpless as the silver FD pulled ahead of him and settled into the lead. 'But I'm gassing it! How can she get so much power from her FD? That's no regular FD! She must have juiced it up with a high-performance engine or something! Damn! I'm gonna lose! My technique's screwed! I can't catch up to her, so I can't ride on her bumper to cut some of the wind out. I'm gonna be even farther behind if I don't figure out something! And quick!' Keisuke clutched the steering wheel, his temper quickly rising. 'That bitch! She can't beat me that easily!'
"Damn! Fine, I'll just try to catch up to her using the corners," Keisuke said to himself, trying to calm himself down. Beads of sweat were forming along his brow as he concentrated on pulling through the corners with a perfect line, hoping to gain a few feet on the silver FD before the next straightaway. "Maybe she'll start to relax once she's far enough ahead, like me, and not notice that I'm catching up to her."
Utena glanced in the rearview mirror as she pulled through the next sharp turn. Suddenly, as she looked at the road again, she saw a headlight beam on the road coming around the next turn. 'It's a car! I hope Keisuke sees it.'
Utena concentrated on her own driving and took her mind off the other FD as she steered her own fast moving FD to the left side of the road. She slid the car into a drift at the start of the right turn as the oncoming car came around the bend. Holding her breath, Utena settled the steering wheel and cleared the side of the passing car, just barely scraping through. Exiting the turn, she turned the steering wheel back and let out her breath. She was relieved that she had made it through. After all, she didn't have nerves of steel, even though she did tend to go a little too fast when racing her motorcycle or driving her cars (that's right people, plural. CAR-S. Not CAR. Moving on.).
***
"Whoa! She did a drift in the outside lane without crossing the center line! That's supposed to be an extremely hard maneuver!" Ryosuke exclaimed in amazement at what he had witnessed. "I only got that down a few weeks ago!" Ryosuke studied the silver FD as it disappeared around the next corner, "That girl is amazing. She has natural talent. I wonder what her role in all this is, besides the being the one who has the potential to win, the Revolutionary Driver."
***
"That girl is absolutely amazing," Touga stated in the quietness of his car. He smirked as he watched Utena's car disappear behind the guardrail along the next turn. "It won't be long before." He trailed off.
***
"Da-yum!" Miki stretched out his exclamation as he watched in disbelief as the car and its driver just barely missed getting smashed to pieces. "Julius! You're sister's insane! She could have hit that other car and found herself wrapped around a tree!"
Julius sighed. "Yeah, I know, but for some reason, I feel like she knows what she's doing, even though I don't want to believe it. I felt like this that time I went after Utena when she was riding her motorcycle. I think she can handle it. And I think she really is the Revolutionary Driver."
"You're okay with her racing?!" Miki asked, shocked that Utena's overprotective older brother would allow her to partake in such a dangerous sport. "If Utena were my sister, I'd never let her!"
"It wouldn't matter if I gave her permission or not, she'd do it anyway, whether or not I let her. After all, since she is the Revolutionary Driver, my word wouldn't stop her, it's her destiny to race, even though I know how dumb it sounds," Julius said.
Miki frowned. "But still, I thought you cared about Utena! How can you just let her do that so easily?!"
"Miki, just relax, your feelings are starting to show," Julius almost laughed at the almost-hysterical Miki, whom, Julius had figured out, cared a lot more about his younger sister, even more than he had said before.
Miki shut his mouth. He looked ahead and saw that only Touga and the back of Ryosuke's FC was in sight as it rounded the turn. The two racing cars had disappeared from view. He watched the road for a few silent minutes before turning back to his best friend and blurting out, "Okay, so I love her! Is that such a crime?!" he almost shouted, his voice filled with emotion.
"Whoa, Miki. Calm down. I wasn't saying you couldn't." Julius was surprised at how much strong emotion her heard in Miki's voice. "But I have to ask you, how can you love her that strongly when you've only talked to her for a few times?"
"That's the thing I don't get," Miki lowered his voice. "It's like we made a connection the first time we met, or something like that. She isn't like my former girl-friend. She actually listened to what I had to say and.I don't know, she.expressed her own feelings about some issues. I guess she's my type of girl, but that's not just it," Miki let out a haggard breath and ran a hand through his hair. "It's like she's a part of me and I feel like I can't live without her."
"I had this dream the other night that we were dancing in this castle, or something, and I-I.I can't explain how I felt. I-" Miki let out a big sigh. He rubbed his tired eyes. "I'll tell you about it later. I just need some time to think this over."
Julius nodded. As he sped up to catch up with Touga, he began thinking about Miki and Utena. He smiled secretly after some time. 'They do seem to get along fine, and they seem to have a connection that even I don't have with my own sister.' He glanced over at Miki, who was staring out the window, deep in thought, before returning his eyes to the road before him and pressing down harder on the gas. 'Well just have to see what happens. But Miki is wrong about one thing, I'm scared for Utena. I don't want to lose her.'
Julius said to Miki, to fill the silence, "With Keisuke being the second to the last best racer on the council, Utena will be making her way to the top soon. And that means we'll both have to race her soon."
Hearing no reply, he glanced quickly over to his passenger and saw that Miki had not budged. Julius sighed, 'Miki better make the move soon or he's going to be feeling even worse. And I hope Utena encourages him, which I think she probably will. I think she feels the same about him, although I'm not quite sure."
***
Utena pulled around the next corner and wiped the sweat off her face as she accelerated. She glanced in the rearview mirror for the other FD, but Keisuke was far behind, and all because of her crazy, on-lane drift. Utena breathed in deeply and she felt comfortable and relaxed once more. She applied more pressure on to the gas pedal and the FD whipped past the ½-way marker. 'He should be losing his cool in a few minutes.'
"Damnit!" Keisuke yelled in the yellow FD. He had just rounded another corner, but the silver FD was still out of sight. "Either she's pulling away from me or she's keeping at about the same speed as me," Keisuke muttered. His knuckles were turning white from his tight grip on the sweaty steering wheel. He glanced at the speedometer and cursed. "I need more power! I should have installed a new engine before this race!"
Keisuke shot through a corner, barely pulling through and just inches from the guardrail. As he turned the corner, his eyes saw an amazing sight. The end of his silver opponent was just sliding out of sight in the next corner! "Yes! I made it! But.how'd I get so close, so quickly."
'She can't have driven slower just to give me a handicap. Could it be? I've gotten faster on the corners?!' Keisuke couldn't believe it. "Wait a minute, what happened on those other corners? I don't remember what I did.Maybe I was driving.what was it that Ryosuke called it? Consciousness Drifting? Something like that. I must have been doing that. My mind was on other things while my body was executing the moves!'
***
Speeding towards the next turn, Utena looked in the rearview and saw the yellow FD just exiting the turn and barreling down the short straightaway after her. He was quickly closing the distance as Utena steeped down harder, jumping her car forward even faster. "Impressive Takahashi, I underestimated you. Look's like you won't be eliminated from the races that easily. Let's battle now." Utena smiled.
Utena understood that Keisuke had learned a lot during this battle, lessons which would improve his racing career if he finally decided to go in to it. She was glad that Keisuke had finally managed to use his temper to his advantage, although unknowingly. He had "channeled" his anger into his skills and had let his consciousness drive as he thought, probably, the worst of her. Utena gave a soft laugh. She flashed her hazard lights twice and sped up.
AN: Another long chapter but not as long as the other one. And another thing, there might be a few things in here that's confusing to you, and I need to go over it again, but I know you guys have been wanting me to upload the next chapter so.I'll fix it up later okay? And comments and concerns are appreciated.
"Well, I'm here. Let's get started," Utena said seriously.
"Yeah. Let's get going. I want to get this over with," Keisuke said with confidence that did not reach his soul.
"All right," Touga agreed and the two racers got into their cars. He nodded to Teiya who stepped up between the two cars. She waited until Keisuke turned on the ignition of his car before raising her hands. She looked at each of the drivers who both nodded to her. Teiya looked at Touga who stood behind the two cars and he nodded to her, a certain gleam in his eye as he put his hands in his pockets. With a swish of her hands, the two cars burst from the line and raced down the stretch, both equal in speed, being the same model of RX-7 with rotary 2 rotary engines.
Teiya let up on the gas pedal ever so slightly, allowing Keisuke to get ahead of her. As soon as the yellow FD passed her, she sped up and pulled up close to the rear of the yellow FD.
Ryosuke, who always watched his younger brother's races, followed them in his FC3S, followed by Touga, Miki, Julius, Seiya, Taiki, and Yaten. Touga drove his own car and Miki rode with Julius. The three brothers rode in Seiya's red Civic.
Meanwhile, Utena was getting relaxed as she followed Keisuke, whom she was truly sorry to say, wasn't up to the same level of drift skill as herself. She followed him comfortably down the long stretch. As they neared the first turn, Utena decided just to stay back for the first half of the race and give Keisuke some time to get into his racing tempo. 'I think I can pass him in the hairpins. I'll just study his mistakes and disabilities before I make my move,' Utena decided. 'Let's see if he got better from his last race, after all, I wasn't watching it.'
She watched carefully as Keisuke pulled his car into a perfect high-speed drift. She sped up and pulled into a clean drift right next to it, so close in fact, that Utena could reach out and touch the side of the yellow FD without reaching far. As she pulled out of the turn after Keisuke, she said to herself, "He's reaching his line perfectly. Let's see if he can stay focused under some pressure."
Utena leaned down harder on the gas pedal and pulled out to the left side of the other FD, going for the inside of the turn. She didn't intend to pass him, so she didn't go at her FD's full speed. Just to see what he would do, she sped up the tiniest bit and watched as he sped up too. She half-watched the road as she kept an eye on her opponent's car, and as they slid into the next turn, Utena was even closer, next to the other FD. Halfway through the turn, Keisuke turned and looked her. He narrowed his eyes and turned abruptly back to the road. He powered through and Utena followed. After that turn, on the long straightaway, the yellow FD sped up leaving a gap between the two cars.
Utena just kept at the same speed, never putting more pressure or relieving pressure off the gas pedal. She only shifted gears, her foot never straying to the brake pedal. She glanced in the rearview mirror and saw the pack of cars that were closely following the battle. "Narrowing her eyes, she eased more pressure onto the accelerator.
Meanwhile, in the white FC3S, Ryosuke was studying the battle. "There's something really familiar about it." Ryosuke thought hard. He watched as the silver FD followed his brother's yellow FD into the next turn, following a little distance behind, always leaving the same length in the gap, never getting closer or farther. The silver car copied the yellow car's moves as they powered through the corner.
"Oh!" Ryosuke finally got it. "She's copying my technique from when I raced against Yaten a few months ago! But why? Is she trying to tell us something?" Suddenly, at the marker that signaled the halfway point of the mountain, Ryosuke saw the silver FD speed up to an almost impossible speed for an ordinary FD. It pulled up alongside Keisuke's FD and as they went through the next turn, never slowing down. Any other racer would have thought they would hit, but not Ryosuke. He knew there was still at least 4 centimeters between those twin cars. Then, Ryosuke watched in amazement, as the silver FD sped up even more and pulled ahead of Keisuke.
"There's gotta be something under that hood. Something that only she knows about!" Ryosuke exclaimed in the quietness of his own car. "I can't dissect that driver. She seems like she knows things, things about us.That's it! That's what that technique has been hinting at! She's been watching us race for whole time she's been in Japan! And she's hinting that she knows our strengths and weaknesses. She knows what we'll do and when we'll do it. She knows when I'll make a move in a battle, and when Keisuke will make his move too! That's why she waited until the middle of the downhill! She knows Keisuke liked powering through the inner corners and making the other driver nervous by pulling through even faster at the bottom of the hill. And I think she knows that Keisuke get extremely tense and angered when he's not out in front. Keisuke always tries to go fast on the corners, but he doesn't have as much skill as her. She knew what he was going to do and interfered with it!" Ryosuke's eyes widened. "That means she has a big shot at winning all of her races! She will win!"
***Meanwhile.***
'Damn!' Keisuke thought. 'I got passed!' He watched helpless as the silver FD pulled ahead of him and settled into the lead. 'But I'm gassing it! How can she get so much power from her FD? That's no regular FD! She must have juiced it up with a high-performance engine or something! Damn! I'm gonna lose! My technique's screwed! I can't catch up to her, so I can't ride on her bumper to cut some of the wind out. I'm gonna be even farther behind if I don't figure out something! And quick!' Keisuke clutched the steering wheel, his temper quickly rising. 'That bitch! She can't beat me that easily!'
"Damn! Fine, I'll just try to catch up to her using the corners," Keisuke said to himself, trying to calm himself down. Beads of sweat were forming along his brow as he concentrated on pulling through the corners with a perfect line, hoping to gain a few feet on the silver FD before the next straightaway. "Maybe she'll start to relax once she's far enough ahead, like me, and not notice that I'm catching up to her."
Utena glanced in the rearview mirror as she pulled through the next sharp turn. Suddenly, as she looked at the road again, she saw a headlight beam on the road coming around the next turn. 'It's a car! I hope Keisuke sees it.'
Utena concentrated on her own driving and took her mind off the other FD as she steered her own fast moving FD to the left side of the road. She slid the car into a drift at the start of the right turn as the oncoming car came around the bend. Holding her breath, Utena settled the steering wheel and cleared the side of the passing car, just barely scraping through. Exiting the turn, she turned the steering wheel back and let out her breath. She was relieved that she had made it through. After all, she didn't have nerves of steel, even though she did tend to go a little too fast when racing her motorcycle or driving her cars (that's right people, plural. CAR-S. Not CAR. Moving on.).
***
"Whoa! She did a drift in the outside lane without crossing the center line! That's supposed to be an extremely hard maneuver!" Ryosuke exclaimed in amazement at what he had witnessed. "I only got that down a few weeks ago!" Ryosuke studied the silver FD as it disappeared around the next corner, "That girl is amazing. She has natural talent. I wonder what her role in all this is, besides the being the one who has the potential to win, the Revolutionary Driver."
***
"That girl is absolutely amazing," Touga stated in the quietness of his car. He smirked as he watched Utena's car disappear behind the guardrail along the next turn. "It won't be long before." He trailed off.
***
"Da-yum!" Miki stretched out his exclamation as he watched in disbelief as the car and its driver just barely missed getting smashed to pieces. "Julius! You're sister's insane! She could have hit that other car and found herself wrapped around a tree!"
Julius sighed. "Yeah, I know, but for some reason, I feel like she knows what she's doing, even though I don't want to believe it. I felt like this that time I went after Utena when she was riding her motorcycle. I think she can handle it. And I think she really is the Revolutionary Driver."
"You're okay with her racing?!" Miki asked, shocked that Utena's overprotective older brother would allow her to partake in such a dangerous sport. "If Utena were my sister, I'd never let her!"
"It wouldn't matter if I gave her permission or not, she'd do it anyway, whether or not I let her. After all, since she is the Revolutionary Driver, my word wouldn't stop her, it's her destiny to race, even though I know how dumb it sounds," Julius said.
Miki frowned. "But still, I thought you cared about Utena! How can you just let her do that so easily?!"
"Miki, just relax, your feelings are starting to show," Julius almost laughed at the almost-hysterical Miki, whom, Julius had figured out, cared a lot more about his younger sister, even more than he had said before.
Miki shut his mouth. He looked ahead and saw that only Touga and the back of Ryosuke's FC was in sight as it rounded the turn. The two racing cars had disappeared from view. He watched the road for a few silent minutes before turning back to his best friend and blurting out, "Okay, so I love her! Is that such a crime?!" he almost shouted, his voice filled with emotion.
"Whoa, Miki. Calm down. I wasn't saying you couldn't." Julius was surprised at how much strong emotion her heard in Miki's voice. "But I have to ask you, how can you love her that strongly when you've only talked to her for a few times?"
"That's the thing I don't get," Miki lowered his voice. "It's like we made a connection the first time we met, or something like that. She isn't like my former girl-friend. She actually listened to what I had to say and.I don't know, she.expressed her own feelings about some issues. I guess she's my type of girl, but that's not just it," Miki let out a haggard breath and ran a hand through his hair. "It's like she's a part of me and I feel like I can't live without her."
"I had this dream the other night that we were dancing in this castle, or something, and I-I.I can't explain how I felt. I-" Miki let out a big sigh. He rubbed his tired eyes. "I'll tell you about it later. I just need some time to think this over."
Julius nodded. As he sped up to catch up with Touga, he began thinking about Miki and Utena. He smiled secretly after some time. 'They do seem to get along fine, and they seem to have a connection that even I don't have with my own sister.' He glanced over at Miki, who was staring out the window, deep in thought, before returning his eyes to the road before him and pressing down harder on the gas. 'Well just have to see what happens. But Miki is wrong about one thing, I'm scared for Utena. I don't want to lose her.'
Julius said to Miki, to fill the silence, "With Keisuke being the second to the last best racer on the council, Utena will be making her way to the top soon. And that means we'll both have to race her soon."
Hearing no reply, he glanced quickly over to his passenger and saw that Miki had not budged. Julius sighed, 'Miki better make the move soon or he's going to be feeling even worse. And I hope Utena encourages him, which I think she probably will. I think she feels the same about him, although I'm not quite sure."
***
Utena pulled around the next corner and wiped the sweat off her face as she accelerated. She glanced in the rearview mirror for the other FD, but Keisuke was far behind, and all because of her crazy, on-lane drift. Utena breathed in deeply and she felt comfortable and relaxed once more. She applied more pressure on to the gas pedal and the FD whipped past the ½-way marker. 'He should be losing his cool in a few minutes.'
"Damnit!" Keisuke yelled in the yellow FD. He had just rounded another corner, but the silver FD was still out of sight. "Either she's pulling away from me or she's keeping at about the same speed as me," Keisuke muttered. His knuckles were turning white from his tight grip on the sweaty steering wheel. He glanced at the speedometer and cursed. "I need more power! I should have installed a new engine before this race!"
Keisuke shot through a corner, barely pulling through and just inches from the guardrail. As he turned the corner, his eyes saw an amazing sight. The end of his silver opponent was just sliding out of sight in the next corner! "Yes! I made it! But.how'd I get so close, so quickly."
'She can't have driven slower just to give me a handicap. Could it be? I've gotten faster on the corners?!' Keisuke couldn't believe it. "Wait a minute, what happened on those other corners? I don't remember what I did.Maybe I was driving.what was it that Ryosuke called it? Consciousness Drifting? Something like that. I must have been doing that. My mind was on other things while my body was executing the moves!'
***
Speeding towards the next turn, Utena looked in the rearview and saw the yellow FD just exiting the turn and barreling down the short straightaway after her. He was quickly closing the distance as Utena steeped down harder, jumping her car forward even faster. "Impressive Takahashi, I underestimated you. Look's like you won't be eliminated from the races that easily. Let's battle now." Utena smiled.
Utena understood that Keisuke had learned a lot during this battle, lessons which would improve his racing career if he finally decided to go in to it. She was glad that Keisuke had finally managed to use his temper to his advantage, although unknowingly. He had "channeled" his anger into his skills and had let his consciousness drive as he thought, probably, the worst of her. Utena gave a soft laugh. She flashed her hazard lights twice and sped up.