Well, aren't I going fast again with the updates? Here's Chapter Four, all lined up and ready to go.
I won't bother with the disclaimer this time. If you've read this far, then you've read my disclaimer.
Follow The Leader
by BoomChish
Chapter Four
Don't Stand So Close
As the days and weeks flew by, I'd wondered indeed what I had gotten myself into. It was extremely difficult to train these guys (well, guys and girl) how to become road racers. First off, Alex was afraid of sharp hairpins. He would literally drop down to first and brake until he'd be running at twenty miles per hour… sometimes less. I'd keep drilling into him how important it was to learn how to trust his car, but he just wasn't progressing well. He'd later told me how when he was a little boy, he and his dad had been in a car accident and his dad had been gravely injured. He'd survived, but the experience was still fresh in Alex's mind. I respected that and told him that I understood his fear, but if he wanted to become a good road racer, he'd have to overcome it eventually. But I reassured him that I'd let him take it one step at a time, in consideration for his past experience.
Jin was the exact opposite of Alex. He'd go too fast into the corners, often hitting the wall and damaging his car, or spinning out of control. Miyoko let him have it whenever he'd have to get his Evo repaired. I think the mechanics that Miyoko had employed were happy with Jin's behaviour. More crashes meant more work… and more work for Ieyasu-chan equaled more money for them, especially since she'd insist that the repairs be done as soon as possible. Understandably, Miyoko didn't seem too happy with having to pay for the accidents all the time. In my case, I warned him about the evils of being too trustworthy of his car, namely the idea that because you're so in tune with your car, you're virtually indestructible. Well, no one's indestructible, not even the best drivers. It came to the point where I had to wonder whether Jin was trying too hard to be exactly like me. And if he was… then holy crap, I've gotta slow down and take things one by one.
And then there was Miyoko. At least I didn't have too many problems with her, skill-wise. Out of the three of them, she was coming along fine. She'd even upgraded to drifting without the hand brake in low gears. My only problem with her was her constant defiance towards me. She always had to have the last word, even if I was one hundred percent in the right. (Which, ironically enough, is very rare for me) For example, I tried to teach her the benefits of using her right foot for both accelerating and braking, but she insisted upon arguing with me that left foot braking was the superior skill.
"Look, the reason why I'm saying right foot braking is better is simply because once you master that, you can move up to the heel-toe technique, in which your left foot is solely used for the clutch and you quickly alternate between brake and gas with your right when taking on certain turns. Makes you go faster in the corners," I'd say to her.
"If you're over-reliant on your right foot for most of the work while driving, your foot will eventually become exhausted and your acceleration and braking will be impeded," she'd argue. A weak sally, but she wouldn't back down.
"That's why racing is more than just about who's got the best car and who's got the most skill. It's also about endurance. If you have more endurance, you last longer and have more power to outwit and outrun your opponent."
Oh, I almost forgot… Don't ever get so embroiled in an argument with Miyoko that you get the urge to whack her across the head. It only makes her even more angry with you and it tests out her extremely fast reflexes. One moment, you could be screaming at her with your hand raising itself against your will to hit her… the next moment, you'll be bent double, clutching your nuts and moaning in pain, because she laid a swift low hook to the family jewels.
Alex and Jin seemed to find my confrontations with Miyoko wildly amusing and would try their best to be discreetly present at each one. I say discreetly, because the one time they were visibly present, and Miyoko got angry at them as well for laughing at our argument, then stormed out of the room, slamming every door within her reach along the way.
:"My God, she's like on PMS twenty-four seven," I muttered as soon as she was out of earshot.
Jin shook his head as he and Alex came out of their hiding place. "I hate to be blunt with you, aniki, but it only seems to be around you." He then chuckled. "What exactly do you keep doing to make her so angry at you all the time?"
"I don't do anything to make her angry at me!" I retorted furiously. "I just tell her how things are and she just gets angry at me very fast." It was my turn to shake my head, then I faced both my brother and Alex. "Okay guys, seriously… how do you guys get along with her so well?"
Alex shrugged. "It's no secret, Seiji. Girls like Miyoko don't like being dominated and shot down all the time. From time to time, you have to let her win. It makes her feel important." Makes her feel important, my ass. She's the daughter of Hiroji Ieyasu. How more important can she be?
He made a sweeping gesture at the house. "Ever wonder why Miyoko doesn't have any female housemates? Has it ever crossed your mind that aside from her, there are only guys here? Even Sparky's male, and he's just a dog." He waited for my response, and when it didn't come, he continued, "It's because girls hate Miyoko. They think she's a veritable bitch."
"Well, gee, that goes without saying," I answered snidely.
"Be nice, aniki. She has some redeeming qualities," my brother chastised before he continued on, "You've never met old man Hiroji, so you don't understand. If you think Miyoko's a bitch, then Hiroji is the self-proclaimed overlord of bitchiness." He then sat down on the couch, and Alex and I followed, whereupon we also sat down.
Jin continued his story; "Imagine having to grow up with a father who, no matter what you achieved, always told you that you were an idiot and wouldn't stop putting you down. Furthermore, imagine how you'd feel if you were the eldest child and even though you were the overachiever and your younger sibling was the underachiever, your father would always favor your younger sibling."
"Your point being? Otousan did that to me with you and Shizuka when we were younger," I'd responded. Jin scoffed at that.
"You were never an overachiever in school, aniki. Face it; your grades were average at best."
"Shut up," I growled. Alex merely chuckled at our exchange and continued the story.
"Anyway, not only that, but Miyoko's parents got divorced when she was about five and her younger sister Yumiko was two and a half, and her father remarried. Her stepmother got pregnant a year later and gave birth to a son, Hyousuke. There's a rumor within her father's company that Miyoko will only be heir presumptive during the time of Hyousuke's minority. That when her stepbrother turns twenty-one, Miyoko will be stripped of her birthright, regardless of all the work and effort she's put into training herself to become head of the company." He waited for that information to sink through before he went on; "How would you feel if, after all the work you'd put into becoming suitable for the responsibility of running a highly important company, it was all stripped away from you all because you're a female? That's the one thing that Miyoko stresses about every day and that's why she's easy to anger."
Wow… that was a lot to take in at once. "See, if I'd known this beforehand, I'd be less critical of her and her behaviour," I answered smugly.
"All you had to do was ask, aniki. We would've been glad to tell, and I'm sure Miyoko wouldn't mind telling you the story herself… though she does have the tendency to cry whenever she mentions her mother or her sister. She hasn't seen them in ages and no matter how often she tries to contact them, there's no answer."
"Wait… why not?" I demanded.
"When her parents got divorced, the stipulation of the agreement was that her mother would get Yumiko and her father would get Miyoko. It's no secret that her mother absolutely detests Hiroji now, and it's a fair guess that Yumiko shares her mother's sentiment. And since Miyoko went with Hiroji… you can figure out the rest yourself," Alex explained.
The more they explained to me the story of Miyoko's life, the guiltier I felt at getting angry at her for her brash nature. Even I'd be a complete ass if I'd lived under those circumstances. After all, Jin and I may not have been always smiling and skipping across country meadows hand in hand when we were younger, but we still got along, despite our arguments.
I let out a sigh. "Hey, thanks for telling me all of this. I think… I think I'm gonna go and apologize to her now."
Jin raised his eyebrows. "Really? Wow, that's more than you used to do with me, aniki! I remember when we used to get into fights, you'd never apologize and I'd usually end up apologizing just because I didn't want otousan to get mad at me!"
I shook my head and laughed. "Oh, shut up, Jin."
As I cautiously approached Miyoko's room, I'd wondered whether my idea to apologize to her was a smart one. For all I know, she could still be angry with me. But I had to try. Her bedroom door was slightly ajar, so I knocked on the door and heard a faint, "Come in."
I pushed open the door and stepped inside. "Hey Miyoko? I-" I stopped as I saw the two huge suitcases open on her bed, both filled with clothes. Miyoko turned around to look at me and I blurted out, "You're not leaving just because we got into an argument, are you? Because if you are, I'm really sorry. Jin and Alex told me the whole story about you and your father, and-" Her silence made me stop.
She stared at me for one solemn moment before she started to laugh. But it was a sad laugh. "No, no. Seiji, it's all right. I'm not leaving because I'm angry with you. If I was that angry with you, I'd tell you to pack your things, since this is my house." She laughed that sad laugh again. "No, I got a phone call from my father. He wants me to go to Tokyo for two weeks for some sort of business conference. I have to be there at the latest tomorrow night, so I'm going to leave tomorrow morning at dawn. If I drive fast, I should get there in no time." She snapped the lid shut on one of her suitcases.
"Business conference?" I queried as I made a face.
Miyoko shrugged. "Who knows? All I know is that when Hiroji Ieyasu summons you, it'd be best to come running as soon as possible if you want to stay in his good graces. And me being his eldest daughter, I'm no exception to that rule." She let out a sigh. "I guess I'm going to fall two weeks behind in my training, huh?"
I inclined my head. "Not really." Her eyebrows shot up at that. "To be honest, you're far ahead of both Alex and Jin, skill-wise. Granted, we haven't been seeing things eye to eye lately, but you're coming along nicely when it comes to learning about drift techniques and racing. Maybe by the time you get back, Alex and Jin will have caught up to you, but the way I see it, that's wishful thinking. Alex needs to get over his fear of sharp corners and Jin needs to stop playing bumper cars on the road."
She stared at me before she started to chuckle. This one, however, was a genuine chuckle of amusement. "This is a first - you're berating Alex and Jin's shortcomings to me. I'd have thought it's usually the other way around."
"Well, granted, we've been in massive conflict most of the time, but hey… I say it as I see it. And considering our constant bickering, you do too." Seeing her hesitance, I walked over to her and put an arm around her. "Hey… You have a good time in Tokyo, okay? The boys and I will be waiting for you to return." When she nodded, I turned to leave. Before I got to the door, I heard her say my name, so I turned around one more time.
"I'm sorry for being such a bitch to you. I'll try harder next time. To be nice, I mean."
I knew she was being sincere this time, but I laughed nevertheless. "Don't apologize. It's not your fault. After all," here, I pointed to myself and smiled broadly, "I'm Seiji Iwaki. Everything is my fault." With that, I walked out of her room, closing the door behind me, but I wasn't fast enough and I heard her burst into gales of laughter.
Well… at least we're getting somewhere… She's not really so bad if you give her a chance.
---
So… they're finally coming to an agreement on things. Well, well, well…
Yes, this chapter seems to be sappier than the others, mainly because I decided to focus on Miyoko's background, so that we could have more insight into why she's a spoiled bitch. Considering her father never really acknowledges her no matter how hard she achieves, you sort of get the idea that all he does is shove a house, a nice car and limitless credit cards in her face, and calls himself a doting parent. In short, Miyoko has all the money in the world (well, her world anyway) at her fingertips, but she doesn't really have someone who cares about her, save for Alex and Jin and now Seiji. The one parent she loves and misses wants nothing to do with her, as does her only full blood sibling. That's a lot to make someone very angry at nearly everything.
The irony of the " always smiling and skipping across country meadows hand in hand" allusion is that they're in Japan and there aren't many country meadows there, to my knowledge. It would have been more suitable for Alex to make such an allusion, since he's an American and in America, there is more country meadows filled with buttercups and sunflowers and little happy bunnies and pretty little butterflies (man am I ever going off topic here), but I just wanted to make it funnier so I let Seiji make the allusion instead.
You'll notice that I've mentioned that Seiji and Jin have a sister, Shizuka. Her role as of now is merely to serve as a filler, but whether I may bring her character into full swing is still questionable. I put her there because there's a six-year age difference between Seiji and Jin, so if it were only the two of them in the Iwaki family, it would beg the question of why is there such a huge age gap between both boys. Shizuka is ideally smack in between both of them; three years younger than Seiji and three years older than Jin, so that would place her at twenty-six. But like I said, I may not actually ever use her as a physical character in the story, so her role is extremely minimal.
-BoomChish