It was my general manager's birthday on Monday, which is actually when I'd finished this chapter, but I decided to wait until the next chapter was also finished, so that I could fire two chapters off at the same time. Happy (Belated) Birthday Kelcey! May you have many more!

… and may you never find that big pile of rotten doughnuts (and other random things) I left in your backyard! (whistles innocently)

Follow The Leader

by BoomChish

Chapter Fourteen

Speedy Speed Boy

It came sooner than I'd expected, if you're curious. It was impromptu and caught us all by surprise during one of our practices. It was issued out to the whole Evo Prime team, and was issued out by none other than…

That guy in the S14 K who'd defeated me on Irohazaka all those months ago while I was still an Emperor. (What? You were maybe expecting Kyouichi and Emperor? Or Project D? Give me a break!) He'd showed up unexpectedly and announced to us at large that he wanted to test out our skills as a new team in the area. Naturally, Jin had opted for this challenge, but for two reasons; the first being that he wanted to prove his skill, as Alex and Miyoko had done, and the second was that he'd wanted to avenge me for the humiliation I'd endured at the hands of Hirotsugu Okuma. (That, apparently, was his name)

Of course he'd remembered me, and he seemed very sure of his skills, though he showed a bit more deference to my dear brother than to me, mostly because they were actually friends from school, though I did not learn this until later.

"So after you'd left Emperor, you'd gone and formed your own team, I see? Well, I suppose your brother will be more of a challenge than you were, but all the same… we'll see," he'd said nonchalantly before Jin had yelled at him to get ready for the race and to stop bothering me. When the signal was given and both drivers sped off the starting line, Miyoko had shook her head. "He's all talk and little substance. I've no doubt that Jin could decimate him."

"He decimated me on what used to be my home course of Irohazaka, so I wouldn't be so sure," I answered sourly.

Miyoko regarded me with interest. "You have little faith in us all," she murmured, not even phrasing it as a question, but as a statement. I narrowed my eyes at her, but said nothing. I knew that we'd been lucky the past two races against Todo Racing School, but I doubted that our luck would run any longer. It would only be a matter of time before we'd lost.

Interestingly enough, Miyoko had been true to her word and she'd invited her cousin Kenji to join us this particular practice. He'd even brought a teammate with him, who invariably turned out to be the loudmouthed friend of Fujiwara, the one who drove the Toyota AE85 Levin SR, somewhat similar in appearance to Fujiwara's Hachi-Roku, but lacking a lot of the internal potential. He'd introduced himself as Itsuki Takeuchi, though he didn't seem all that friendly with me, which was understandable, considering how I'd treated him the first time I'd met him. Kenji also explained that he'd invited the Speed Stars' team leader and his best friend, someone he called Iketani Kouichirou, but he'd opted not to make an appearance due to personal reasons. When I'd asked both Kenji and Itsuki about it, they'd cast a sideways glance towards Miyoko, who in turn cast me a glacial stare, so I dropped the subject.

More light was shed on the subject a few seconds later when Sayuki (who'd made an appearance with Mako) had sauntered up to the Speed Stars pair and addressed Kenji rather flippantly: "So where's your team leader? How come he didn't show up tonight?" Without even waiting for Kenji's response (which probably wouldn't have come anyway, since he looked quite startled by her presence, as did Itsuki), she added, "Or is it that he hasn't quite gotten over what happened two years ago?"

"Sayuki-chan," Miyoko interceded somewhat calmly, "now is not the time, nor the place."

"But I don't understand… What happened two years ago?" Alex demanded, quite interested. I nodded in agreement with him, though I said nothing.

"Nothing happened two years ago which has any coherence to the events happening tonight," Miyoko cut in sharply, her green eyes piercing everyone as she looked around at all of us. "Now drop it."

By now, I was more than familiar with that tone of voice; she used it quite often whenever she was approaching her boiling point. And as much as I was burning with curiosity inside, especially seeing as Mako had appeared behind Sayuki and seemed somewhat distressed at the topic of conversation, I knew better than to push Miyoko past the limits of her temper. Sayuki cast one spiteful look at Kenji, then at Miyoko, before she simply strolled away with Mako at her heels. When they were out of earshot (and out of view, as it happens), Kenji let out a sigh of relief and smiled gratefully at Miyoko. "Thanks. I didn't think I could handle it if she'd kept pressuring me to give a reasonable explanation of why Iketani didn't want to show up tonight."

She shrugged indifferently. "That's what family members do; they look out for each other. Although maybe you should persuade Iketani-kun to get over it, hmm? Two years is kind of long to brood over something as inconsequential as that."

"True, but hey, you'd have to know him better to understand why," he countered.

"I suppose that's true…" she answered, nodding in agreement.

"Too long to brood over what?" I demanded, somewhat impatiently. Whatever it was, it involved the Speed Stars leader, and Impact Blue in some way, considering the way Sayuki was quick to fence Kenji in like that. I didn't get my answer though, because Miyoko shot me her deadliest stare yet and raised one fist to let me show that I was either to drop the subject or have her fist come smashing into my body somewhere. Whether it be my face, my gut or down where the sun don't shine, I had no clue, but I wasn't about to test that out.

Alex, on the other hand, decided to change the subject. He looked over at Itsuki with curious eyes. "So… you're the best friend of the legendary Fujiwara Takumi, are you not?"

He perked up. "Yeah, he and I have been best friends for a long time, certainly before either of us began road racing. I knew so much more than he did when I first became interested, that I was so sure that I'd definitely be in a league far above him. But I had no idea that he'd been practicing nearly five years before, when he was still thirteen years old."

That caught my attention. "Since he was thirteen?" I choked out as my blood ran cold. No wonder he's such a monster on the road. "I had no idea that he had that much practice under his belt… It's no wonder I lost against him…"

"Oh, I know. I doubt anyone expected him to be that skilled, Iwaki-san. But Takumi's dad, Bunta… he's a strange one… He made Takumi deliver tofu to the Akina lake resort every day for those five years between the ages of thirteen and eighteen. Takumi still had to deliver the tofu every night when he began road racing, but on some nights, Bunta would relieve him of his duties."

"Delivering tofu?" Alex queried somewhat in surprise.

"Fujiwara Tofu Shop…" I murmured, remembering the sticker that graced the driver's side door of Fujiwara's Hachi-Roku. "I see… what time did he make these deliveries?"

"Early in the morning… something like four AM, if I recall correctly," Kenji explained.

My eyebrows shot up. "No wonder he's never been caught driving without a license when he was underage. Almost no one goes either way on Mt. Akina - or most other mountain passes for that matter - at that ungodly hour. Well, I know I wouldn't," I added lamely.

"Given the work I do, I wouldn't," Miyoko chimed in.

I had other questions though. First, I addressed Miyoko, "You said before that Fujiwara had had installed in his Hachi-Roku a TRD AE101, which is a Group-A racing engine." When she nodded, I turned to face both Kenji and Itsuki. "It that's indeed a racing engine, then how did Fujiwara get his hands on it? Assuming neither of the Takahashis were involved."

"No, I remember seeing that engine not long after he'd had it installed. Turns out Takumi's father had gotten it somewhere, and then got it installed after the old one blew out. While he had the engine installed, the tachometer hadn't been changed, so Takumi took his car to Iketani and asked him to help him install a new tachometer."

Miyoko was now pensive. "So it was his father who got the engine… but his father's just the owner of a tofu shop…" She looked up at Itsuki and tilted her head to one side. Just then, my walkie-talkie went off. I grabbed it and spoke in it, just in time to hear someone shout, "Jin just passed the finish line and he's nearly fifty meters ahead of the S14! He did it!"

"Well, that's good to hear," I spoke happily, knowing deep down that the main driving force behind Jin's determination tonight was his desire to avenge my loss back on Irohazaka. That's my brother for you… anyone messes with me, and he'd jump in, his fists raised and ready to go down fighting. That's why I love him so much, even though I just wish he'd gain a little more finesse in flirting. His constant feeble attempts with flirting with the Impact Blue ladies just wasn't working too well… and he just looked darned ridiculous as well.

As Alex, Miyoko and I waited for Jin to show up with Hirotsugu, we were suddenly graced by Daiki's presence, late as it may be. He pulled up next to us, and got out, smiling broadly. "Seiji, you'll never guess what! I spoke to my friend Tomo about you guys and now he's eager to try out Evo Prime for size. He says it doesn't matter if you lose or win, it's all for fun. He says he'll be here next week. What do you say?"

My jaw dropped in surprise. So did everyone else's around me. Daiki's friend Tomoyuki Tachi was a genuine rally racer, and a former graduate of Todo Racing School. Fujiwara had gone against him once on Happo, and merely won because of a squirrel that ran across the road, distracting Tomo. If it hadn't been for that, the infamous Hachi-Roku would have tasted bitter defeat on Happogahara.

Even if Alex had been capable of defeating Daiki and Miyoko had been able to defeat Sakai, Tomo was nothing like either of them. He definitely had tons of skill on his side. None of us stood a ghost of a chance, even if we tried.

"Well…" I began hesitantly, "I don't know if they're skilled enough to…"

"I want to race him!" Miyoko cut in, her eyes shining.

"No, I want to race him!" Alex protested, his face screwing up in an odd pout.

I was jolted out of my hesitance as I stared at my non blood-related team members. They seemed to be fighting over something extremely silly, and they went about it like children too, bickering back and forth. "But I want to race him! I stand a better chance of winning!" Miyoko whined.

"The only reason why you won against Sakai is because it rained and his Integra is horrible in it!"

"The only reason you defeated Daiki was because of that guy who dropped his cell phone on the road!" she shot back. Daiki, Kenji and Itsuki looked like they was trying hard not to laugh at the whole scene, so I cut in between both of them and tried to put a cease to the squabbling.

"Stop it, both of you! You're both old enough not to fight like a bunch of little children! And furthermore, what's the point of all the bickering? You didn't even stop to think whether Jin or I might like to race him," I pointed out, my gaze stern.

"Race who?" Jin queried as he stepped up to us, followed closely by a subdued Hirotsugu. We all turned to face him, and he had a reserved look on his face. Seeing the look on my face as I looked at my little brother, he shrugged. "Passed him after a hairpin and he never caught up. So what's all this about a race, and whether I'd like to race him or not?"

It was Kenji who decided to speak. "Ninomiya here just told us that his friend Tomoyuki Tachi challenged your team to a race, even though it's just for fun. Alex and Miyo-chan were bickering over who would get to race him, and your brother interceded, telling them that they should also consider you."

Jin inclined his head slightly. "Well… when's the race?"

"Tomo said next week, here at Happo," Daiki explained.

He looked around hesitantly before he said, "No, no, that's all right. If Alex and or Miyo want to take him on, they can. But not me; I've got other things to do next week."

"Like what?" I queried, staring at my brother.

"Oh… nothing…" he spoke warily.

I narrowed my eyes at him, but he chose not to say anything more. Miyoko and Alex merely looked over at him, then stared at me. Alex was the one who asked me a question: "So… Seiji… do you really want to race Tomo next week?"

"Eh?" The question caught me off guard, until I'd realized what he'd said and just shook my head. "I just said that, because your argument with Miyoko seemed awfully centralized between the both of you, when the challenge had been issued out to Evo Prime and not anyone specific. Besides, if I can't even beat Hirotsugu here when Jin could, I wouldn't stand even the slightest of chances against Tomoyuki… unless some really strange circumstance occurred… like he dropped dead of a congenital heart failure seconds before our race or something equally impossible and ridiculous like that."

"Not much chance of that happening," Daiki confirmed.

"As I thought. And, since Jin already said he'd rather not race… I guess it is really between just you two…" I answered somewhat subdued. Both Miyoko and Alex perked up, then faced each other. "Just keep it civil and clean!" I warned.

"What are you, their father?" Itsuki demanded, a bit sharply, then quickly apologized when both of them shot him a scathing glance. I couldn't help but laugh at that.

"Sometimes I am, Takeuchi, sometimes I am. But I don't mind. I've gotten used to it. One of the perks I get as the leader of Evo Prime. Emperor wasn't really as out-there, when I think about it."

"I can see that…" he answered, somewhat cautiously.

"Okay, we'll settle this with Rock, Paper, Scissors!" Alex declared, ignoring everything else. Miyoko nodded vigorously, then they simply went off at it, cursing as they kept coming up with draws. Itsuki, in the meantime, looked over at Kenji and raised his eyebrows. "Your cousin Miyoko is weird."

"Well, considering her upbringing, I don't really blame her. Even though her mother, my aunt, never really kept in touch with her after the divorce, my mother still contacted her from time to time, and introduced me to her. Miyo-chan's never really had a normal childhood, so she sometimes has a tendency to slip and act rather childish, odd as it may be for a twenty-one year old."

"But her being the Ieyasu heir, no one's really going to chastise her for it," Itsuki countered, then cast me a sideways glance. "Except for Seiji, of course."

I shrugged. "Well, when you live with your teammates, Miyoko included, you tend to be privy to a lot of strange behaviours. And being the oldest, I may as well be the one to rein in their high spirits at the appropriate moments, because if not, things could just get extremely awkward."

"Such as?" Itsuki inquired. Before I could answer, we were cut off by an exclamation of joy, along with an extremely loud and unmitigated string of profanity in English. Miyoko was doing a little dance, chanting to herself, "Oh yeah, I wooon! I wooon!" while Alex looked rather disgruntled, muttering, "Stupid me… why'd I pick rock?"

"Such as that?" I answered hopefully, gesturing towards Miyoko and Alex. Itsuki and Kenji snickered, but did their best to contain themselves, especially when Alex glared at them with his piercing blue eyes. Kenji shook his head, while smiling broadly.

"Seriously… how do you deal with them?"

"Well… I just… do…" I answered haplessly, with a smile on my face.

Yes, this chapter is a bit short, even though there's a race in it. As you can probably guess, even though Hirotsugu was the little sneak that cost Seiji his position in Emperor, that's pretty much his vital role in this story. Hence why when Jin steps up to avenge his aniki, he succeeds with little effort.

As obvious as I thought it may be, I decided that if Kenji and Itsuki were to show their faces at an Evo Prime meeting/practice/race/whatever, I figured that Sayuki would probably bring them up to scratch on the whole Iketani and Mako conflict. Yes, it's been more than two years since they've 'broken things off' and while Mako did come to grips with herself during Extra Stage. I decided to play on the fact that, even though she's for the most part over the whole thing, there's still a shadow of the pain she felt when Iketani was a no-show. Especially since, in this instance, Iketani was, yet again, a no-show, and obviously because of her. Obviously, Miyoko being Kenji's cousin, she knows about the whole thing already, but naturally, Seiji and the rest are in the dark, so they're rather inquisitive about it.

And Jin seems to be acting a wee bit odd…

-BoomChish