I apologize profusely for the lack of updates. Between spiked hours at Krispy Kreme, lack of sleep and too many recent acquisitions of old 70s-80s cartoons on DVD (JEM is truly outrageous! Truly truly truly outrageous!), I've had my time occupied. But here's Chapter Ten! It's a long one too, but I didn't feel like cutting it up into parts.

Anyway, here it is!

Follow The Leader

by BoomChish

Chapter Ten

Streets of Fire

Days passed and the accident faded into the middle recesses of my mind. The reason why I say the middle recesses of my mind and not the darkest recesses is because Shingo and Takeshi took to showing up to some of our practices and just watching our progress. Miyoko recovered quickly, and even she started being friendly towards the Night Kids boys. Shingo's arm was taking its sweet time to heal though, and I think he wasn't too happy about that, though Miyoko never shoved it down his throat.

One night on Happo, all three of them came to me and reported their times to me, whereupon I double-checked it with their previous times and nodded at the changes. Jin managed to take off six whole seconds off his previous record, while Alex managed to get five seconds off his previous time. (it was too bad that his previous time was a second and a half slower than Jin's previous time) As for Miyoko, she was roughly around the same skill level, merely clearing her previous record by several milliseconds. A part of me wondered whether she was deliberately attempting to halt her progress or whether she was really stuck.

Well, for one thing, she certainly took to acting weird whenever I was around. Like I could walk through the living room to get to the kitchen and she'd be sitting down on the couch reading a book; and the moment she'd see me, she'd immediately snap her book shut and acknowledge my presence. I didn't want to have to go out of the way to tell her that she was making me wary with her new behaviour, but it did disconcert me enough to try avoiding her path at home on certain occasions.

I wish I could say that all went well for Evo Prime right about then, but it was around that period where we'd been issued our first challenge. All the way from Todo Racing School on Enna, no less. As it turns out, it was all because Alex went for a joyride one day with some of his soccer pals (he plays soccer on the Nasu university team) and they went through Enna, catching the attention of the Todo students present. Of course, Alex couldn't resist showing off what he'd learned to his soccer buddies and had the unfortunate luck of doing so in front of the Todo boys. During one of our many practices, some random spectator came up to us and handed me an envelope. When we got home, I'd opened it and it'd simply said,

For the one in the yellow Evo VII,

Next Saturday,

10:00 PM at Happogahara

Be there

-Daiki Ninomiya

Todo Racing School-

I'd showed it to Alex and he read it briefly, then read it carefully. "What the hell kinda name is 'Daiki' anyway?" he snorted. "Sounds a lot like -"

"Oh, grow up, Alex," Miyoko cut him off, rolling her eyes at him. "If you think about it, your name is weird here in Japan, considering it's American."

"Yeah, yeah… I was only kidding anyway," he'd answered defensively. He then peered at the letter again. "Todo Racing School, eh? Say Seiji… were you there when Project D went against Todo Racing School on Enna?"

I looked up at him. "Nope. Though I'd heard about it. In fact, if I remember correctly, Daiki Ninomiya drives a Honda Civic Type R, or better known as the EK9." I thought for a bit after that. "Although when Fujiwara went up against Tomoyuki Tachi, one of Todo's graduates, he - Tachi, I mean - drove an EK9 as well… Kyouichi had told me a few things about it… I'm trying to remember…"

All three of them leaned in closer to hear what I had to say next.

"Let's see now… Well, all I can seem to recall is that the EK9 has a high performance engine that produces 185PS at 8200rpm. That and the rigidity of the body has been increased from previous Civic models and the weight has been reduced. There was more that he'd told me, but I can't seem to recall it. Oh well…" I shrugged.

Jin looked pensive. "Sounds more powerful than your average Civic…" He looked over at Alex. "Looks like you've got your work cut out for you."

Alex put down the note and stretched his arms high above his head. Sparky lay nestled at his feet, his head resting on his front paws lazily. "Well, not like I'm worried. I'm sure I can beat him!"

I made a face. "The students at Todo aren't people to take lightly, Alex. If you recall me saying, Kyouichi graduated from Todo a long time ago, as did Tomoyuki Tachi, who's now a rally racer. The racers that seem to come out of there are all highly skilled. Remember, I never went pro; I'm just an amateur. So the stuff I'd taught you isn't really professional material. You're going to have to compensate for that with something else. I can only teach you as much as I'd learned myself and beyond that, you'll have to develop your own personal style of driving."

"We all knew that," he answered snidely.

Miyoko was staring at the screen of her laptop. "Well… from what I can see about Enna…" here, she turned around the laptop so that we could all see the screen, "it's basically a lot of straightaways and sharp hairpins in a staircase formation. Something like Akina in Gunma, but more straights and no consecutive hairpins."

Jin peered at it. "Wow… not like Happo in the slightest… Think you can do it, Alex?"

Alex cracked his knuckles. "Well, we shall see, won't we?"

I looked at Miyoko. "You've been to Akina?"

She had a bored look on her face. "We-ell… yeah… It was a long time ago though… I was barely eighteen and I'd just gotten my license. A classmate of mine suggested we go to Lake Akina to view the resort. Back then, I wouldn't dare tackle the corners at the speeds I do now, so it took me something like fifteen minutes to get to the top of the mountain and fifteen minutes to get back down. But I still remember parts of it." She then shrugged.

"I see…"

Alex then stood up. "Well, I guess I've gotta get practicing if I want to beat this Daiki guy on Happo. Hey, after all, Happo is our track. I've got the advantage here!"

Miyoko looked over at him. "I don't know about that… After all, Happogahara's been there before we came along, so he may have gone for a ride on it before. We don't know for sure that he's never been there, Alex, so it's not good to make that assumption."

"I know that. I merely said that since we practice so often on Happo, I've got the advantage here!"

She leaned back in her seat and shrugged. "Forget I said anything."

"In that case, I should start practicing first thing tomorrow evening. Can't let this guy stomp me, or else we'll be considered a laughingstock among the Tochigi road racing scene."

Jin looked at Alex with a grim look on his face. "That's all good and fine, but don't the soccer finals end this weekend? I thought that the weeknights during the week prior, you'd have to practice with the team, no? Especially since it's our university's team against Hakuoh University."

Alex's face fell in dismay. "Shit! I totally forgot about that! Now what am I gonna do?"

It was my turn to stand up. "Hey, you know prime time for driving is early in the mornings, like two to three AM. No one's up at that time, so Happo should be literally deserted. Sure, it may be stupendously late and you'll be dead tired the next day at school, but it'd help." My voice took on a serious tone. "Of course, if you don't want to burn yourself out like that, then maybe one of us could race in your stead, using your Evo."

He looked affronted. "And have you steal away my chance of defeating someone from Todo Racing School and acquiring glory? I think not!" he exclaimed haughtily. All of us just stared at him in shock and surprise, even Sparky, who'd merely been dozing at his feet. There was an uncomfortable silence that went on for several minutes until Alex looked around at all of us and said, somewhat hesitantly, "Um… yeah…"

"Dude… where did that come from?" Jin finally demanded.

"I seriously don't know…" He then scratched his head. "I guess I'm just excited about the race, y'know? I mean, it's the first challenge that's been issued out to Evo Prime and this could make or break us. So much is riding on this race."

"Yeah, so you better not lose!" Miyoko admonished, with a smile on her face.

"Oh don't worry, Miyo. I'll do my very best!" he exclaimed, grinning broadly.

I merely sat there and smiled along with the rest of them, although inside, I was shaking my head. He was no more ready than I was to take on Kyouichi at that given moment. And I knew that if he practiced his driving after his soccer practices, he'd only be more exhausted. Also, there was the fact that the race against Ninomiya was going to be after his tournament that same night. It didn't take a brainiac to figure out that he'd be completely burnt out after the tournament, regardless of whether his team won or lost.

The odds were stacked too much against his favor…

I tried one last time to dissuade him, "Alex… won't you be tired after the tournament? Are you sure it's a wise idea to take on Daiki that same night? I don't think it'd be good for you to take him on." Seeing the look on his face, I continued quickly, "It's not that I don't think you're skilled enough. It's just that when racing an opponent on a highly technical course like Happogahara, you wits need to be sharper than a knife. Especially since your opponent is from Todo Racing School. The last thing I'd want to see is you falling asleep behind the wheel while racing and have you run nose first into a guardrail. And you've all seen what happens when you lose control and get all touchy-feely with the guardrails." With that, I deliberately glanced in Miyoko's direction. It wasn't meant with any malice, but she understood my point and her encouraging smile vanished.

"Yeah, smashing into a guardrail isn't fun, Alex. I speak from experience, so trust me on this one," Miyoko added, a morose look on her face. She didn't like being reminded about that.

He made a face. "That goes without saying… But seriously, I know I can do this! C'mon guys."

I let out a heavy sigh. "Well… if you really think you can do this, then go ahead. I guess I won't stop you…" Jin was looking at me funnily and Miyoko had a frown plastered on her face. Alex, on the other hand, was grinning broadly. He clapped his hands together, catching our attention.

"In any case, I'm off! Gotta go to bed, so that I'll be well rested for tomorrow's practices! Good night!" And with that, Alex fairly bounced out of the room. Sparky got up the instant Alex left and followed his master obediently. The rest of us merely exchanged glances after he left.

"Aniki, do you really think that it's a bad idea for Alex to race after his tournament?" Jin asked hesitantly the moment Alex was out of earshot.

"I don't think it's a bad idea, I know it's a bad idea. He's obviously going to go all out during the soccer tournament, so he's going to be exhausted after that. Then afterwards, he's going to go from that to Happo for the race against Daiki. He won't be functioning at one hundred percent. And that's what I'm worried about." I wrinkled my nose and stared at both Jin and Miyoko.

"Hm… Well, if Alex doesn't go and party with the rest of his teammates - assuming they win the tournament - he should be okay. If their team loses, then that theory falls flat in the water," Jin mused.

Miyoko had an evil grin on her face. "How about… When he goes and parties with his soccer buddies, I swap cars with him without his noticing and I race Daiki instead?" Her eyes were glittering as she said it. I frowned and shook my head almost immediately afterwards.

"I don't think so. He's the one who attracted Daiki's attention, so he wants to race him. Granted, he doesn't know specifically which one of us drives the yellow Evo - well, except me, since they know mine's the Evo IV and it's white - but still… it wouldn't be fair to Alex if we took his place without his permission. Especially since he's so determined to prove his skills and make us known in Tochigi."

"I know… I'm just really worried that he might screw up and then our chances of being known as a skilled team will go flying out the window," she spoke quietly.

I stood up and stretched my arms high above my head. "Well, to be honest, it doesn't matter if we lose to one of Todo Racing School's students. One loss won't destroy our credibility. Especially since it's our first loss. We don't even have a win/loss record yet. If in the case of a loss, all we have to do is simply go back when we're ready and rechallenge them. It's not like what happened with Emperor and myself. I'd lost one too many times and nearly destroyed Emperor's credibility in the street racing scene, which is why Kyouichi got rid of me. After all, I was Emperor's second-best driver; I should've had more success in defeating my rivals."

"But aniki…" Jin started to protest, but I held up one hand to stop him.

"Heh… You kids are just too young to understand, I guess. When you've lost as many times as I have, you understand that losing isn't the end of the world. Hell, Fujiwara even lost against Kyouichi and he still got back on his feet and went back to racing. And I did the same when I left Emperor and joined up with you guys." I was smiling amidst my brief monologue, but Miyoko and Jin were both staring at me in an odd way. I didn't know whether it was good or bad.

"Did he just call us kids?" Miyoko demanded indignantly, her gaze directed at my little brother. She had a smile on her face, which I did not like in the slightest.

Jin stared back at her. "I believe he did!" he answered just as sarcastically. If this is a joke…

"Let's get him!" she cried out and both of them sprang to their feet.

Shit. I turned and ran towards the stairs, but the both of them caught up to me and clotheslined me down onto the carpeted steps. I turned around and faced both of them, who were grinning broadly.

I addressed Miyoko first; "You've been getting tips from Jin on how to chase me down and beat the crap out of me, haven't you?"

"Yep!" she exclaimed happily, a huge smile on her face. "And it's fun!"

I then turned to my brother. "The last thing I need is you encouraging her to tackle me to the ground, Jin. It's bad enough you do it, now I have to worry about her doing it!"

"But aniki, I'd have thought that you'd like having Miyoko Ieyasu tackle you to the ground in a playful manner. God knows millions of other guys would fight over the honor of her wrestling with them and you speak as if it's the greatest indignity in the world!" he protested.

She let out an exclamation of shock and punched him hard in the arm. "Jin! That's so gross!" He yelped and recoiled from her. Just then, Alex appeared at the top of the staircase, clad in nothing but boxer shorts and a ringer tee. He looked sleepy.

"What the hell is going on out here? Can't a guy get some sleep?"

Miyoko waved a hand at him in dismissal. "Nothing to see here. Go back to bed!" she chirped.

He stared at us with a confused look on his face before he shook his head and went back into his room, muttering, "I live in a house full of schizos…"

"Hey! You wanted to live in this house, so live with it!" Miyoko called out after him as she moved aside to let me and Jin rise from our downed positions.

An odd way to end the evening indeed…

---

The morning of Alex's soccer tournament against Hakuoh University was clear and sunny. The tournament was to be held at the soccer field on the local university campus. Spectators filled the bleachers from top to bottom and some even settled on picnic mats on the grass. All in all, it was a huge turnout.

Even though I wasn't really the sporty type, I figured I may as well go and give Alex some support, especially since Miyoko and Jin wanted to attend and cheer him on. Since I had the choice of either joining them or staying home and twiddling my thumbs, I chose to join them. As both teams came out onto the field, Miyoko excitedly pointed out which team was their university's and which one was the visiting team. I glanced over at the university team and Alex stood out like a sore thumb on the field. Jin explained to me that Alex was the forward player on the right, and was often the one who acted as a distraction for the opposing team while near the goal, he'd pass it to some smaller unsuspecting player on his team, who'd score the goal.

And indeed, he was right. By the end of the first half, their team was ahead by three goals. In addition to that, they had superb defense. The instant the ball would end up on their side of the field, there would be one of their teammates rushing forward to intercept it, as well as two other teammates covering the player who had possession of the ball. It was brightly done.

When the game ended, the crowd went into an uproar of cheers. The score was 2-5, with their university leading over Hakuoh U. Miyoko and Jin were proudly cheering with the rest of the spectators, and I joined in, even though I wasn't much of a sport enthusiast.

At least one victory was achieved today. But I had to admit, my mind was far more focused on the other victory that I hoped Alex could achieve tonight…

The victory against Daiki Ninomiya and Todo Racing School.

As the three of us made our way back to the university parking lot to our respective calls, my cell phone started to ring. I quickly answered it and heard Alex's bright enthusiastic voice.

"Hey Seiji, I'll be out as soon as I can. I'm just gonna chill with the guys a bit, then head on home and take a shower before I'll meet you guys at Happo, okay?"

I smiled a little. "Hey, knock yourself out, kid. Just don't be late, okay?" As soon as the words left my mouth, I felt like snorting at myself. God knows Kyouichi often scolded me for being late for practices, so now having me tell my teammates not to be tardy was a tad ironic. While we were at home for a brief respite, Jin kept going on about how he'd never be able to pull off what Alex and his teammates did that day, even though he'd tried for the soccer team himself (and was sadly rejected). But most of what he said didn't even register; though it was not intentional.

My thoughts kept wandering back to the race that was set to occur in six hours. Even when Alex returned home for his shower, my fears weren't assuaged. Especially when, almost immediately afterwards, he merely collapsed on his bed and promptly fell asleep. The responsibility to wake him up became mine as I checked the hall clock and saw that it was nearly nine-fifteen. That was the easy part; all I had to do was walk in and simply punch him in the shoulder with a gruff, "Hey, wake up. You have to be ready at Happo in less than an hour."

He literally sprang to his feet with a shocked, "Holy crap, why didn't you wake me up sooner?!" Immediately hustling me out of his room, he slammed the door shut with a muffled exclamation over how he needed close to half an hour to get ready. Miyoko heard the slam and came upstairs to see what was going on. I briefly exclaimed the situation to her, whereupon she snorted. "And I thought us women were supposed to be the ones who take forever to get changed."

"What exactly did you mean by 'us women', Miyoko?" I demanded, my eyes narrowing.

She held up her hands in defense. "I wasn't referring to you, Seiji. When I said 'us women', I meant me and the rest of the female population in the world." She shook her head. "Either way, you've been quiet for most of the evening… You're worried about the race tonight, aren't you?"

I shrugged. "Does it show?"

She inclined her head. "Yeah… Well, I'm worried too… 'Cause, I mean… if Alex loses… does that mean that other racers won't consider us a challenge and just think of us as a joke?"

"I told you this before, Miyoko… If Alex loses, it's no big deal. We can still recover from it. In any case, it's way too premature to think in that direction. The race hasn't even begun yet. We still don't know the outcome."

"And we probably never will, if Alex doesn't get that butt of his out here this instant!" she exclaimed, raising her voice, presumably so that he could hear us. At that instant, his door opened and he emerged, pulling on a blue shirt.

"Damn, you two are impatient!" he muttered as he pulled his head through the neckline of his shirt. Then he smiled his infectious smile. "Let's go!"

---

The galleys were packed the moment we arrived. News must've traveled extremely fast then. I couldn't catch all of the familiar faces, but there were a couple. The Night Kids had decided to show up, even though they'd come a long way from Gunma. They were accompanied by two striking young ladies, both of whom I had no idea who they were, but these two merely stayed off to the side for now. Both Shingo and Takeshi stepped up to greet us the instant we'd pulled over at the starting line of the outbound course and emerged from our cars.

"I can't believe that you guys are actually going ahead with this battle against Todo Racing School. Aren't they one of the best teams here in Tochigi?" Shingo demanded.

"Better than Emperor," I answered succinctly. "After all, their leader, Todo-san was the one who taught Kyouichi most of what he knows. So it's fair to say that these people are at least at his skill level, if not higher."

"And why didn't you tell us earlier?" Alex demanded, his face turning several shades whiter. "It's bad enough I'm scared to death having to race this Daiki guy and now you pop out with this?"

I gave him a sidelong glance. "I have faith in your abilities, Alex. Just do your best. And for God's sake, calm down. The last thing we need is you having a heart attack while driving. You'll do fine."

Alex merely pursed his lips. At that instant, there was a roar of unfamiliar engines and a yellow Civic Type R came into view. Following closely behind was a white Honda Integra Type R. I watched them carefully as the Integra pulled off to the side, while the Civic merely took its position at the starting line next to Alex's Evo VII. There was an ominous silence as the driver of the Civic, Daiki Ninomiya, emerged from his vehicle.

As far as looks went, he didn't look intimidating - his hair was black and fell like a wet mop molding to his head and he had a small goatee not unlike Alex's. He was of average height and he seemed a bit on the thin side. His partner, the one who drove the Integra, was a bit taller, but bore a mop of reddish hair and bright freckles across his face, in addition with on hell of an eerie smile. But if there's one thing I'd learned after messing with Fujiwara, it's that looks can be deceiving.

If they were indeed Todo students, then they had to have skills.

"So… you're the one with the yellow Evo VII who passed us on our home course, huh." It wasn't a question, it was a statement, and it was directed at Alex. He merely stood his ground and nodded mutely. When he didn't respond, they exchanged glances before Daiki spoke again.

"It was you, right? Because I'm not one to go picking on the wrong prey now…"

Alex shook his head. "No, no… It definitely was me… In any case… how's this gonna go down?"

Daiki stared at Alex in silence before he spoke again, "I take it this is your first official race then? We'll do this the classic touge style. There will be a leader and a chaser. The leader's job is to outrun the chaser, and the chaser's job is to keep within five meters of the leader. If the leader manages to outrun the chaser, he wins. If the chaser manages to keep up, they will switch positions until a winner is declared. Sounds good enough for you?"

He had a look of confusion on his face, so I decided to step in and make it clearer; "Look, basically you two aren't going to race neck and neck. You'll both start off at a relative pace with one in front of the other. The one in front will give off a signal - usually by flashing his lights - then you'll accelerate and the race will begin. The person in front has to lose the person in back in order to win. The person in back has to keep up with the person in front so that at the end of the course, they can switch positions and the person in back ends up in front and has to outrun the person in back. Makes sense?"

"Yeah… sort of… Technically, it should mean that the leader has the opportunity to win, right?" Alex queried, looking at me, his eyes inquisitive.

"Well, yeah… most of the time, since classic touge battles usually take place on extremely narrow mountain passes where there's virtually no room for multiple cars side by side. But since on Happo, there are some places where the road widens, it's possible for the chaser to overtake the leader. If the chaser manages to overtake the leader before the designated finish line, it's the chaser who wins."

"So… I should choose the position of leader, right?" Alex queried, looking at me with hopeful eyes. My lips tightened, for I knew he was going to ask me this question.

"Well, you're the one who will be racing. Which position do you think is better?" I reasoned with him. He scratched his head, then shrugged and looked over at Jin and Miyoko.

"Leader," Jin assured him. "It's the best chance you have of outrunning him!"

Miyoko merely frowned, then walked over to me and whispered something in my ear so that the others couldn't hear her. But as I heard her words, my eyebrows shot up, for she'd been thinking exactly what I'd been thinking:

"Wouldn't it be better for Alex to take the position of chaser, since he can watch Daiki's moves along the way and pass him at the optimum opportunity? Since Daiki's a student at Todo Racing School, he's obviously better than Alex, and if he took the position of chaser, he'd notice Alex's weak points all too easily, wouldn't he?"

I smiled grimly, then I whispered back to her, "Well, I'm glad you're thinking along the same lines as I am." Her face brightened at that, then she immediately marched over to Alex, grabbed him by the wrist and dragged him off to the side away from the rest of us. They watched in curiosity (thankfully, the creepy redhead stopped smiling so eerily), and Jin came to stand next to me. "What was that all about, aniki?"

"I guess we'll just have to wait and see."

Eventually, Alex returned to his position facing Daiki and Miyoko merely stood off to the side next to Jin and me. We all watched as Alex faced Daiki straight in the eye, then said, "I'll take the position of chaser, if that's all right with you."

Daiki's eyes never wavered, as did his partner. "It's fine with me."

"What?" Jin blurted out. "Chaser? Alex, are you nuts?"

He shot Jin a cold look. "Trust me on this, Jin." Then he got into his car and started the engine, as Daiki did the same. Then, Daiki started off at a reasonable pace and Alex took off after him. Right before the bend started, Daiki flashed his lights and both cars took off and disappeared down the road.

Jin looked like he was having an apoplexy. "I can't believe Alex took the position of chaser! He's so going to lose this one!" he complained.

"Not quite," one of the girls who'd accompanied Shingo and Takeshi spoke as she stepped closer. She had long blond hair and as far as I could tell, a well-defined figure. The brown-haired girl followed her closely, but didn't say a word. I thought she was pretty as well, if a bit shy. Jin raised his eyebrows at her, then his anger quickly evaporated.

"Now why would a pretty young thing such as yourself say that?" he asked sweetly. The blonde's expression turned dour.

"Knock off the sweet stuff, boy. I said that because your fellow teammate merely wanted to see how his opponent raced; and you can't really do that through your rearview mirror, can you? Not if you're busy focusing on the road ahead. Now, if your opponent is occupying that space in the road ahead, it gets much easier, doesn't it?"

"That's what I'd said!" Miyoko agreed, nodding vigorously. Shingo looked at both his friends, then at us, then he stepped forward.

"Forgive me for not doing this sooner. I'd like you all to meet my friends, Sayuki and Mako. They're the Impact Blue combination from Gunma and they're the best racers on Usui. Mako, Sayuki, I'd like you to meet Miyoko Ieyasu and Seiji and Jin Iwaki of Evo Prime."

I took a step forward. "Usui, you said? By any chance, did someone from Emperor pass by your area sometime nearly two years ago? Some blond guy in an Evo IV?"

The blonde, Sayuki, sniffed derisively. "Yeah, I remember him. Such an arrogant bastard too. He kept saying how girls couldn't be good racers at all. Well, we showed him. Didn't we, Mako?" The brunette, Mako, nodded in agreement.

My look turned pensive. "That's odd… Satake said that there wasn't anyone worth racing on Usui… I guess you must've crushed his pride so badly that he didn't want to even tell Kyouichi that he'd lost to you two."

It was Sayuki's turn to peer at me. "Wait a minute… You… You used to be a member of Emperor?"

I inclined my head. "Yeah. I used to be the second-best driver of Emperor. If Satake hadn't kept things quiet about you two, I think I'd have come to Usui to take you two on. Somehow, I'm glad he didn't."

"Wait a minute…" This time, it was Mako who spoke. "If you're… Then you were the one who…" She looked over at Takeshi as her words trailed off.

The one who defeated him. That was what she wanted to say. And I could see the look of humiliation on Takeshi's face. Almost as if it were beckoning to me, I looked over at my beloved Evo IV, which still had the upside-down stickers on the back wing. If I had taken them off before, I'd have never found out that it was Shingo who'd harmed Miyoko. But now…

I let out a heavy sigh as I walked past all of them and went over to my car. The team stickers of all the teams I'd defeated while in Emperor were still there. As if in a daze, I started to peel all of them off, bunching them up into a ball and I threw them aside. They had no reason to be on my wing anymore. They were victories in the name of Emperor. And I wanted to close that chapter of my racing career. For good.

"Aniki! What are you doing?" Jin cried out in alarm as he ran over to me. Miyoko stood frozen to her spot, but she stared at me in shock and confusion. But I knew what I was doing.

I stopped at the Night Kids sticker, leaving that one for last. I knew this wasn't really much of a means to repair what I'd done, but I had to try…

I carefully peeled off both pieces, then I walked over to where Takeshi was standing. "Hey… um… I don't know if this will suffice to make up for what I did to you and your team two years ago, but…" here, I held out the pieces of his team sticker, "You can have this back. I'm sorry."

Both Shingo and Takeshi looked stunned as the GT-R driver merely stared at the pieces of his sticker, then at me, then slowly reached out and took them from my hands. He had difficulty finding his voice. He finally managed to choke out a strangled, "T-thank you…"

Shingo was the first to blurt out, "But why? You'd beaten us fair and square and it was a part of the stipulation when you'd raced him. Why?"

I shook my head. "It was a victory done for Emperor. I'm no longer a part of Emperor. I don't want the mistakes I made in that team to affect my goals with Evo Prime. That's why."

They were both nonplussed by my words. Sayuki merely exchanged glances with her partner and nodded, then said, "That was very nobly said."

I then bowed to them. "Thank you."

Miyoko finally stepped forward. "Just a simple question, if I may?" Both girls looked at her. "Shingo said that you two are the best racers on Usui. Do you race together or do you have separate cars?"

Mako inclined her head. "We race together. I drive and Sayuki navigates. That way, it becomes easier for me to concentrate solely on the road and she basically just points out the sharpness of the upcoming turns and whether there are any incoming cars."

I opened my mouth to say something, but was interrupted by my walkie-talkie going off. I pulled it off my belt and answered it. "Yeah?"

"This is the second checkpoint. Ninomiya's still in the lead, but Alex is right behind him. So far, any attempts that Alex has made to pass him have failed."

"Okay. I'm not too worried though. There's still a lot of track left. And even if he doesn't manage to pass, if he stays close to his tail, then they'll just switch positions at the finish line and come back here." As I put away my walkie-talkie, Miyoko looked over at me, a frown creasing her face.

"He's not doing so good, is he?"

"Whatever gave you that idea? From what they told me, he's doing fine so far. So what if he hasn't passed Daiki? He can still recover in the second round, if he manages to stay on his tail. I'd only be worried if he lets him get away."

Miyoko merely made a face, but nodded at my comment. She then looked over at the ladies from Usui again. "So you two race in the same car? What car do you drive?"

Mako pointed to a blue car that was off to the side. "That's our car right there." I looked over and peered at it. To my surprise, it was a rare Nissan SilEighty. It was a car purely designed for road racing purposes. The Nissan 180SX was considered a superior FR drifting car in its day, but the flip-up lights proved to be too costly to repair constantly when drifters would get into accidents. Hence why they decided to make a hybrid between the Nissan 180SX and the Nissan S13, using the front light structure of the S13 on the back structure of a 180SX to form the SilEighty.

"A Nissan SilEighty, I see? Now that would have been interesting to race against," I commented politely. Mako had a questioning look on her face while Sayuki merely poked at me.

"Well, if your former teammate hadn't turned chicken and actually told you, maybe you would have. Either way, maybe one of these days, we'll extend a challenge to you and your team. Not now, but sometime in the future." A broad smile and a wink accompanied her words.

Jin stood next to me and smiled at them. "Well, that would certainly be something very interesting to see, no? It's always interesting to see two lovely ladies beating the boys at their own game, since it's so rare."

Sayuki merely scoffed at him. "Jeez, you try too hard."

"What did I say?" he demanded plaintively, almost on the verge of whining. I was about to shoot a smart remark back at him, but Miyoko marched over to him and yanked on his long hair, causing him to yelp out loud and jump back in surprise.

"So you don't think I'm a lovely lady now, do you?" she growled.

"What? No! No, of course I think you are, Miyo! It's just that… well… I see you every day… and so… it's like…"

"It's like you're an idiot, Jin. Plain and simple," I cut in, laughing. Jin merely made a face, while Miyoko pouted and glared daggers at him. Takeshi and Shingo had moved closer to view all the commotion.

"Seiji, how do you deal with… with team members like them?" Takeshi queried, causing Jin and Miyoko to both glare at him. He sidled off to one side, but kept his gaze leveled at me. Sayuki and Mako also seemed interested to know my answer, so I merely shrugged and tried to stop laughing.

"Well… since Jin is my younger brother, I'm used to his crazy antics. And since Miyoko and Alex are Jin's friends and classmates, one can draw upon the conclusions that they all think alike in one way or another. So basically, I'm just dealing with three very strange younger siblings."

"Aniki!" Jin cried out in shock and embarrassment before he quickly punched me in the side. I grunted and stepped aside to avoid any other onslaught. Miyoko, on the other hand, remained silent and didn't move from her position. I quickly noticed her lack of reaction and was about to comment on it when my walkie-talkie went off again.

Everyone remained quiet as I answered it. "What's up this time?"

"This is the finish line. They're coming… we'll soon be able to…" There was an abrupt silence, then I heard their engines roaring through the walkie-talkie. Suddenly, there was an loud outburst, "Oh my God, you won't believe this! Alex is in the lead! He managed to pass Ninomiya! How, I have no clue, but he did it! He won! He won!"

Miyoko cheered and clapped her hands together. "I knew he'd do it if he took the position of chaser!" she exclaimed. Jin let out a sigh of relief and I was merely stunned as I slowly lowered the walkie-talkie in shock. It was then that I'd remembered the other guy from Todo Racing School… the redhead in the Integra. He was nowhere to be seen. He'd probably driven off while we were distracted.

But something wasn't right… Why didn't someone report in when Alex passed Daiki? Wasn't there someone watching from that position? Or was it one of those remote corners of Happo where no one would expect to see anything important?

Either way, it just wasn't right… To be honest, I wasn't expecting Alex to win in the first round. Considering Daiki's experience, I would've expected the best Alex could do in the first round was keep up with the EK9 and get a feel for his techniques and then use them to his advantage in the second round.

What exactly happened?

---

Yeah, it's a long one, like I said. There's a lot of superfluous crap in there too, but… Yeah… sweatdrop Anyhow…

I tried to further emphasize the closeness the members of Evo Prime tend to have by letting Miyoko and Jin tackle Seiji in the house when he refers to them as kids. It shows that over the weeks, Miyoko has finally managed to mellow out over the idea of Seiji being the leader. It also shows that she respects him more like an older brother (something she lacks, her being the eldest of Ieyasu's children) and that she's not afraid or shy to treat him like an older brother.

As you can probably guess, I did some research on the Civic Type R before I wrote this chapter. I figured why not let Seiji seem smarter than usual for once and make him remember the specs of a car other than a LanEvo. And the EK9 seems like a perfect choice. Though no matter how powerful a Civic is, I wouldn't be caught dead driving one. In my area, nearly everyone and their mom owns a Civic. No originality at all.

Speaking of remembering cars other than the Evos, there's also the first appearance of Impact Blue in the story. Considering Shingo and Takeshi are now supporters of Evo Prime after their brief confrontation, I figured it wouldn't be half bad to bring in Mako and Sayuki to give a bit more diversity to the characters, considering nearly all of the important ones aside from Miyoko are male up until now. I'm not sure on whether they'll actually race or not, but I've still a long way to go, so anything's possible.

I had a long discussion with my brother over this fanfic and he gave me a lot of ideas on what to do and what to add. He was very much in agreement with GT4SilverShadow's idea (thank you, by the way ) of having Seiji remove his stickers from his wing, which I had him do. My brother also suggested that I make Seiji return the cut Night Kids sticker to Takeshi, even though it's in pieces. In a way, it serves as a means for Seiji to make amends for some of the stuff he did in Emperor, when he was all cocky and careless of others. He obviously won't be able to be rid of all of it, but whatever little he can eliminate, it's good enough for him to move on as leader of Evo Prime. I also got an amazing idea from my brother on how to end this fic, buuuuuuuuuut… well, I'm not there yet, so I can't say anything about it here just yet!

Who else saw Greece's victory over Portugal?

BoomChish