Chapter Nine: The Long Road Back

Eric left the motel after sleeping in late, really late. He drove up and down Mt. Akina to kill some time until Takumi got out of school and off of work.

"The rhythm on this road is pretty easy to get a hang of. Someone who knows these roads like the back of their hand would easily be able to dust off an outsider."

While Eric made his way to the Fujiwara Tofu Shop, Takumi listlessly meandered through his school day.

"Hey, Takumi!"

Takumi turned around just in time to see Itsuki running up to him in the hallway.

"Hi Itsuki."

"Jeez, you could at least wait up!"

"Sorry Itsuki."

"So…..ummm…how're ya doing? Y'know, after the…uhhh…."

"I'm getting by."

"Really? That's good. We were all afraid you'd be more spacey than usual."

"Mmmm."

"Hey Takumi, listen. It's ok that you lost, really. It's no big deal. We just wanted to know what made you go up there to race in the first place, even after you said you'd stay away from Akagi."

"I had my reasons, Itsuki."

"It must've been one hell of a good one to go up against Kyoichi Sudoh. I'm mean really Takumi, why'd you do it?"

"Honestly Itsuki? I don't know. It was a stupid move on my part."

Takumi let out a long sigh before he continued to speak.

"God, what was I thinking? I should have known better than to go up against Kyoichi."

"Hey, Takumi, it's ok, really. We could care less about the loss. Hell, even Keisuke came by and said that the race was invalid in the RedSuns eyes."

"It's not the loss that bothers me, Itsuki. The fact that I blew the engine on the 86 though, I'm just sick about that."

"Wow," Itsuki thought, "he cares more about his car than he does the loss."

They had gotten out into the afternoon sun at this point when Itsuki perked up again.

"Oh, by the way, there was this guy who came by the Esso station last night asking about you."

Takumi stopped and turned to Itsuki.

"Was he American?"

"Yeah, actually, he was. So you two do know each other. Not surprised, considering he showed up in an 86 just like yours. Guess your taste in cars rubbed off on him."

"He was driving a what?"

"He was driving an 86, looked a lot like yours. What, you didn't hear me the first time?"

Takumi pondered this for a moment.

"Hey. Hey Takumi, don't tell me you spaced out on me again."

Takumi blinked and turned to Itsuki.

"Huh? Oh, sorry Itsuki."

Itsuki only sighed.

"Jeez, you think you could go at least ten minutes without spacing out. Anyway, we gotta get to work!"

"Right."

Itsuki darted off campus while Takumi kept a leisurely pace, even after Natsuki Mogi approached him.

"Takumi please, I need to talk to you!"

Takumi kept on walking as if he didn't even know she was right next to him.

"Takumi, please! I didn't mean for you to find out!"

"Too late for that."

"I stopped seeing him for you, Takumi!"

"Just step off, Natsuki. I've got to get to work."

Takumi made his way down the front stairs of the school, leaving Natsuki at the top on the verge of tears.

Ryosuke was in the middle of typing up another analysis when his brother knocked, waiting a second to see if he heard any objection. Upon hearing none, he entered his brother's room.

"Hey Ryosuke, we just got word from our guys over in Happogahara that-"

"I know, Keisuke. He arrived yesterday. He should have the package once he gets to Akina today. It's already been dropped off."

"You sure this is what he needs to see?"

"Absolutely. I refuse to see talent like his wasted because of his own

unfounded fears."

"You thinking of having him join-"

"It certainly is a possibility. We'll have to wait and see how he responds."

Eric arrived at the Tofu Shop around three in the afternoon, parking his 86 next to Takumi's 86. He got out and walked in the front, noticing no one around.

"Hello? Anyone here?"

"Hold on a second."

A man in his early forties stepped out from behind the cloth that hung behind the counter, dividing the house section from the shop section. He was wearing a white collared shirt, blue jeans and a pair of house sandals.

"Can I help you?"

Eric stammered for a minute, trying to regain his capacity to speak.

"My God, this guy gives off an incredible aura! If this is Takumi's father, and he did teach him how to drive, its no wonder Takumi's aura is as powerful as it is."

"Sir?"

Eric blinked and shook his head.

"Sorry. My name is Eric Shields; I met Takumi Fujiwara at the racing tournament held over in America. He called me a few days ago concerning his 86. He said he needed someone to help him tune it."

At this point the man went into the front pocket on his shirt and fished out a cigarette and a lighter, putting the smoke to his lips and lighting it while taking a nice, long drag. He let it out through both his nose and mouth before he spoke.

"Takumi had mentioned something about meeting an American who knew how to work on an 86. He called you here all the way from the United States just to help him out?"

"Call it compassion for a fellow F/R driver. Besides, I know what he's going through."

"Hmmmm?"

Eric tilted his head to the side a bit.

"How's my RX-7 working for you?"

The penny dropped and the man understood what Eric was talking about, taking another long drag off his cigarette and exhaling.

"So, that was your RX-7 I picked up a few years ago?"

"Yeah, that was mine."

"And now you drive an 86?"

"Yup."

The man took another pull from the cig, exhaling slowly.

"Name's Bunta Fujiwara."

"Nice to finally meet you, Mr. Fuji-"

Bunta cut him off with a motion of his hand.

"Just Bunta. Mr. Fujiwara makes me feel like an old man, and nobody calls me that unless I'm working."

"Alright then, Bunta."

"So, why'd you get an 86?"

"It used to be respected among the hardcore street racers when it came out. Although, with Takumi winning with it like he did, its reputation as a monster on the downhill seemed to be coming back."

"You race with it?"

"I haven't raced since the crash. And even if I did, my RX-7 was not just a part of me, it WAS me; I could never race with anything else. When I crashed it, a part of me went with it. All my instincts, all my desire to race went with it when I realized how close I came to dying in some hospital bed thousands of miles from home. When it slipped and crashed, I slipped and crashed. I won't race until I can fix myself; figure out what I did wrong. Even then, I'm not sure I could make myself stare death in the face again. Once was enough for me."

Bunta puffed on his cigarette.

"By the way, this came for you today. Someone dropped it off, didn't say who they were, only that you'd be here."

Bunta walked over to a shelf where a thick envelope was placed. He tossed the envelope over to Eric, who caught it and flipped it over, reading the label.

"To Eric Shields…..Fujiwara Tofu Shop…..no return address. What's going on?"

Bunta shrugged as made his way to the garage area.

"Beats the hell out of me. I need to go out for a bit, feel free to use the television. I should be back by the time Takumi gets back from work."

Eric heard Bunta close a car door, the engine that turned over sounding nothing like an 86. Before long, the sounds of the car faded out as it drove off to wherever Bunta planned on going. Eric turned the envelope over in his hands and tore the top off, tipping it upside down.

"What the hell?"

A small black VHS tape had fallen into his hand. Upon further examination, he noticed the label on the front with nothing but a date: April 15th, 1994.

"April 15th? 1994? Why would anyone send me something two years old?"

Eric thought it over for a moment before it hit him.

"The race between Ryosuke and myself?"

Consumed by curiosity, Eric looked over at the television with the VCR up top.

"Well, he did say I could use the T.V."

Eric sat down in front of the machine and popped in the VHS cassette. There was a few seconds of static before the screen came to life with a shot from what looked like the outside of a car. After a second, he realized it was Ryosuke's car, as Eric could just make out the left front end of his RX-7. The picture jumped right as the sound of both engines roared to life, the picture now moving, giving Eric a crystal clear view of the road in front of Ryosuke. The picture moved with the car, drift for drift, grip for grip; Eric was sure it was mounted to the passenger side of Ryosuke's FC. About three minutes in, the video suddenly stopped. The visual was blurred by the speed and by the fact that Ryosuke had just started to turn, and Eric was sure he could see the nose of his RX-7 just to the side.

"What's the deal?"

Eric got up, about to eject the tape when the visuals started to clear up, eliminating the speed blur and once again giving Eric a clean view of the road. A small box appeared down by the front of Eric's wheel, pulling the picture with it.

"My god."

As the picture froze yet again, in the center of the screen now was a black slick on the road, no more than an inch in diameter. The screen returned to normal, only now moving at half speed. The black stain ran directly underneath Eric's left-side wheels. The picture then began moving at full speed, accompanied by the sounds of a wrecking car.

"Son of a bitch. There really was an oil slick on the road. All this time, I thought it was me."

Eric sat back, letting what he just saw sink in before muttering.

"Even if I'd known, it's not like I've got a car to race with. It would take years to get the 86 to where I want it."

Eric sighed as the fleeting thought passed.

"It was nice while it lasted."

Bunta pulled up to a lone car repair shop somewhere on the outskirts of Akina. He parked the car and climbed out, walking over to the only garage with a light on.

"Hey, Masashi, you here?"

A younger man stood up from the other side of a tarp, his face grease-stained with his hair back in a ponytail that stuck out the back of his hat. He smiled and stroked his goatee as he walked over to Bunta, the two of them lighting up cigarettes as he reached him.

"Hey Bunta, what brings you out here? Thought you weren't going to be out this way for a week or two more?"

Bunta took a drag off his cigarette and exhaled slowly.

"I wasn't, but I had to bump the timetable up a bit. Is it ready to go?"

Masashi sucked in a breath and coughed on the cigarette smoke.

"You mean now? You need it now?"

Bunta nodded, "Yup."

"Well, yeah, it's ready to go," Masashi said, tossing Bunta a pair of keys.

"You think he's ready Bunta? I mean from what I heard, it really messed him up."

"He's ready."

"Alright, if you say so."

Masashi threw off the tarp and Bunta climbed into the car that was under it before he spoke again.

"What about your car, Bunta?"

Bunta rolled the window down, taking a drag from his cigarette.

"It's not quite where I want it yet. The suspension needs to be tweaked, and the ride height needs to drop 6 centimeters. I need you to get a few parts for me, here's the list."

Bunta handed Masashi a list of parts.

"Only the best, huh? I'll have them for you by the end of the week."

Bunta nodded and muttered an affirmative before he pulled out of Masashi's garage, making his way back to the tofu shop.

Eric had fallen asleep on the floor when the sound of footsteps awoke him. He woke with a start and immediately sat up, taking a moment to register the unfamiliar surroundings. He looked up, bleary-eyed, at Takumi, Itsuki and Kouichirou. He rubbed his eyes before yawning.

"Hey Takumi, how's it going?"

Takumi raised his eyebrows slightly, but soon returned to normal.

"Better than you it seems."

Eric now stood, running a hand through his hair in an attempt to fix it. Takumi looked around for a moment.

"Where'd my old man go?"

"I'm not sure exactly. He just said he might be back by the time you got home."

The three of them sat down, Takumi shrugging it off.

"He's always being cryptic or going off and not telling me anything. He's probably off tuning his car."

Itsuki spoke up at the point, "He already got a new car? Wow, what's he driving?"

Takumi thought for a moment.

"I don't know, he never told me."

Kouichirou smirked, "Yeah, that sounds like your dad alright."

Kouichirou turned to Eric, motioning outside with his head.

"That's your 86 out front, right?"

Eric nodded, "It's nowhere near the level of Takumi's 86. I haven't even cracked open the hood on it yet."

The conversation then slowly turned to the technical aspects of the 86 and many other cars. After about an hour of this, Kouichirou switched the subject.

"Man, Eric. I'm surprised, from what I've heard most Americans think street racing is all about muscle and horsepower, not drifting and tuning."

Eric nodded, "Most do have that mentality, I don't. I don't know why, but just pressing the gas pedal as hard as you can never really did it for me; I always wanted more."

"You also know way more about cars than most Americans do."

"I study up on the things I love."

Itsuki jumped up made a salute towards Eric.

"I say we make Eric the Akina Speed Stars unofficial mechanic!"

Kouichirou chuckled at Itsuki's actions.

"Yeah, sure. Hey, I think I might have a sticker in my car, let me go see."

"I'll come," Eric said, "I want to take a look at your S13."

They all got up, including Takumi, and headed out to the car. Kouichirou opened the passenger side door and popped the glove box, removing a sticker from it.

"Think of it as a souvenir. It'd be pretty cool to have a member of the Speed Stars in the States though."

"Yeah," Itsuki spoke, "then we'd be the International Akina Speed Stars."

They all got a good laugh out of that when the sound of a car made them turn towards the end of the street.

"Listen to that engine, that sounds even better than a Skyline," Kouichirou said, Eric stepping in front of him.

"It sounds like a rotary engine. Highly tuned, possibly one of the newer Savannah RX-7 model rotaries."

As the car approached, Eric could make out what looked like a custom paint job on the hood. He thought it looked kind of like a bird, but he couldn't tell.

"So it's not the Takahashi brothers. Then who could be driving a rotary?"

The car finally came to a stop right next to them. The engine turned off and Bunta stepped out of the car. Eric didn't notice Bunta or the keys he held; his gaze was still fixed on the black car. He moved to inspect it, now able to see that the bird was actually a stylized phoenix, with gold flames low on the sides. He looked inside, noticing the rally seats, racing harness, indiglo gauges and racing pedals. Everything else was still the same, the color, the spoiler, both front and back, mirrors, headlights, muffler, everything else was the same.

Eric looked up incredulously at Bunta.

"Here," Bunta said and tossed Eric the keys to his RX-7, "the engine and suspension are right out of an FC, highly tuned for street racing, and the racing harness, rally seats and racing pedals should make it easier for you when racing. The indiglo gauges Masashi added, along with the custom paint job, hope you like it. Just don't wreck it this time. And watch the turns; this isn't a standard tune job on an RX-7, lines can change."

By this time, Kouichirou, Itsuki and even Takumi had come over to check out his RX-7, admiring the paint job and the interior. Meanwhile, Eric just stood there, gripping the keys hard while a lone tear slid down his cheek, staring right at Bunta.

"Thanks."