Chapter Three: Come on Jin, show your stuff!!!
On the top of Mount Ikaoia, the scream of the rotary could be heard as Jin pitched his FC3S into a drift as he entered another corner. The scream of the engine could only be drowned out by the screaming in Jin's mind telling him to go faster, push harder, to shave off seconds anyway he could. His team only had three days left until the battle with Firestorm Flash and he didn't feel any faster than when he started training. "Damn…what am I doing wrong?!!!" Jin yelled in his cockpit as the screeching of the rear tires could be heard as the car exited the corner. Jin almost slammed on the accelerator as he shifted up into third gear, then forth just before the next corner. Jin quickly started braking before a smooth heel-toe downshift that brought him through the turn. The rhythm of the course was starting to form in Jin's mind…
His thought process was interrupted by a flash of light hitting Jin in the eyes. The rotary driver squinted his eyes a bit as he noticed the flash of eye was coming from his rear-view mirror. Looking into the mirror, Jin saw headlights of another car coming up on him. "He's coming up fast…almost too fast…" Jin said quietly to himself as he leaned on the accelerator, the FC picking up speed just before it entered the corner. The upcoming corner was a long high-speed sweeper turn suddenly turned into a sharp hairpin that broke to the right. Jin shifted down to second starting his drift early, his pursuer doing the same as the driver followed close behind. Jin was able to look out his driver side window as the two cars started drifting. The young driver gripped the steering wheel hard as he looked back to see that a black Nissan S13 was the cause of this little chase. Jin could only think of one person that could be the driver of a black S-13 on this course. "No…it can't be…" Jin thought as the two cars continued to drift toward the upcoming hairpin. Jin quickly looked back to the road, seeing that he was almost running out of it. "Ahhh!!...!" In all of Jin's speculation, the hairpin coming up had almost caught him by surprise. Jin quickly turned the wheel to the right and with some quick counter-steering was able to pull the car around to a somewhat decent drift, but it was enough to make the corner. The S-13 behind him smoothly came through the corner and stayed right on Jin's tail as the two cars barreled down the mountain pass.
"It's gotta be him…" Jin said as he raced his FC down the straight-away. "Akira Firouma… leader of team Firestorm Flash… What is he doing on my course?" Jin said in almost arrogant defiance as the two cars started braking for the corner ahead. During the braking and where Jin started his entry into the corner, the black S-13 started to close the gap between the two cars, starting to come up on Jin's right rear side. "You won't embarrass me on my own mountain!!!" Jin roared as the young driver stomped on the accelerator, the rotary engine roaring up to 7000 rpm as the FC screamed down the pass. Jin tightly gripped the steering wheel as the two racers flew down the mountain pass. As they entered a tunnel, the black S-13 started to come up on Jin again. The lights from the tunnel waved over the two cars in flashes of red and black. Jin peered over to see that it was the man who led Firestorm Flash. "I knew it!" Jin said as Akira looked back over to Jin before tapping his brakes and sliding in behind the young racer tailing him again.
At the top of the mountain, Rina and Taihosi leaned up against the SW-20 as the waited to hear from Jin. They were both worried. They seen the S-13 barrel past the parking lot starting its downhill run moving at an almost unholy speed just minutes ago, but Jin had already started his run so they didn't want to distract him by calling him on his cell phone. "Do you think the S-13 caught up with Jin?" Taihosi asked Rina who was looking down the street with a look of tense anxiety on her face. She loved Jin, and didn't want to hear that anything bad had happened to him. "Come on Jin…" she said quietly, barely audible. She wanted him to be a great racer and make a fast time, but when the S-13 passed her, those thoughts left her and she just wanted him to make it down to the bottom safely…
"Damn it, he's still on my ass!!!" Jin screamed to himself as he shifted down to third as he exited another corner. The FC wobbled a bit as slight understeer was apparent. The tires screeched louder and louder, heating up as the car raced down the hill. Akira's S-13 however, seemed not to have any of the same mishaps that Jin was having. His cornering was smooth, his exit speed was fast and he stayed right on Jin's tail. "He's toying with me, copying me as we go. That bastard!!! He's not even trying at all!!!" Jin said as he looked in his rear view. Jin laid on the accelerator as the powered his car down the straight as fast as he could, panicking a bit as the S-13 stayed on his tail The taillights of the FC lit up again as Jin started breaking hard entering the corner. Jin's tires screeched and wailed as this time Jin was going way to fast to take the corner properly as he started to understeer going into the corner. Jin fought with the wheel as the car started to slide toward the guardrail that was separating the young racer from the hereafter. The FC's tires screamed in agony as Jin pulled over on the wheel, the FC sliding through the corner, missing the guardrail by less than a few inches. Akira put his foot into the gas and smoothly passed the red FC and continued to go down the straightaway. Looking up Jin saw to his horror the taillights of the S-13 in front of him, the black car slowly pulling away from him as they continued down the hill. "Damn it!!!" Jin said slamming on the steering wheel. Not only had Akira passed him, he had seen Jin's fastest run…and it wasn't good enough.
Jin's shoulders sagged as the S-13 continued to pull farther and farther ahead, its taillights taunting him as they rounded corner after corner till Jin could no longer see them. Feeling his eyes watering a bit, Jin slowly applied the brakes, slowing down to a more manageable speed as he continued the downhill. Moments later, as Jin started to pull up to the rest stop at the bottom of the hill, he saw flashing amber lights coming from a car sitting at the bottom of the downhill. Looking through his tears, Jin saw that it was Akira, standing outside of his S-13 looking up the road at Jin, as if to see the young racer's fear. Wiping the tears from his eyes as best he could, Jin turned on his warning lights and pulled in behind Akira. As he got out of his car, the older driver walked up to Jin and put a hand of the hood of the FC. "You call that racing?" Akira said quietly to Jin looking down at the FC's vented hood. "Your FC is a great machine. It shouldn't be wasted on a novice like you…" the experienced driver said as he looked up at Jin with a slight glare. "You waste my time…" Akira walked back to his S-13, peeling off leaving Jin starting a cloud of exhaust.
Jin had his fists clenched as he looked as the S-13 screaming up the street. How dare he call him a waste! But what could he say in response? He lost too the better driver. Jin felt to his knees and started to slightly weep again, tearing spattering in front of the FC. Suddenly Jin looked up with a livid expression. "TO HELL WITH YOU AKIRA!!!" Jin shouted down the road as if he could hear him. Jin screamed once more down the road before he turned back to his FC which was still idling. "I don't know how Akira Firouma...but three days from now… I am going to defeat you…" Jin said as he slid in behind the wheel of the FC pulling away from the rest area, heading back into the city.
The next day, Rina and Taihosi heard about Jin's encounter with Akira. The three of them were sitting in Ken's tuning shop while Jin was reading tuning articles about suspension tuning and proper tire management concerning his FC. New springs, new tires, something that might give him the edge in battle. Looking back on the battle last night, Jin understood that Akira passed him because Jin pushed his tires to hard making them unable to grip the road properly, hence the constant understeer. Jin continued to read through pages. "There must be something!" Jin said while he flipped through the pages. "But Jin, what makes you think you can pull something out in two days?" Taihosi asked as he looked at some magazines for himself. Looking up, Jin met his eyes with the eyes of his friend. "I've got too Taihosi. I've just got too, for the sake of the team. And for myself…" Jin trailed off as he continued reading.
Rina looked at Jin with a concerned look on her face. Ever since the battle the night before, Jin was looking more tense, more distressed. The urge to win was wearing on him and Rina could see it much more clearly than anyone else. Jin now was racing with defiance and he couldn't be in that state if he was going to clearly take a victory from Akira and the Firestorm Flash Team.
Rina was about to say something when Ken came into the room and snatched the magazine away from Jin. "Hey that's…!" Jin started to say before he was smacked on the head with the magazine. "You idiot, a poor workman blames his tools! Do you want to be like that?!" Ken said looking at Jin who a little confused at the emotional state of his old mentor. "What are you talking about Ken?" Jin said as Ken reached over toward Jin. Jin flinched again, thinking he was going to be hit with the magazine, only to hear the clinking of the keys to his FC that had been resting on the counter being taken up in Ken's hand. "Come on!!! Outside!!!" Ken said almost storming outside.
Jin looked at his friends with a puzzled look on his face as he headed out to his car to see that Ken was sitting in the driver's seat and the engine was running. Ken lowered the window and looked at Jin with more of a friendly smile. "Come on, get it ya stupid!"
Jin scrambled over to the passenger side of the FC and climbed in as Ken revved high and spun the tires screaming away from his shop. Rina and Taihosi ran out front and looked at each other. Who was going to run the shop?
End of Chapter 3. Yeah I know it's short again, but you have to wait to get genius!