Act 12
Ryosuke is sitting in his room looking for any reports on the Dark Horizons.
"Hey bro, are we heading back to the Tohoku Region soon?" asked Keisuke as he opened Ryosuke's door.
"Yes. I need to see if the locals have heard anything about them. They seem to have disappeared. There is no reports of them leaving yet there are no signs of them still here."
"So what are you going to do?"
"I'm leaving a challenge. Something makes me think that Aki will accept it if we press the issue."
"But if you can't find them how are you going to issue it?"
"Come on Keisuke. If I issue a challenge, word manages to get around pretty fast."
*******
A few weeks later found Ryosuke walking around shops looking for a Christmas present for Keisuke. He passed by all the clothes shops for he never knew the right styles to get for his little brother; music was the same way. Next was an electronics shop. There was a new playstation game that Keisuke might like but knowing his brother's compulsive buying habits, he probably had it already. Ryosuke kept walking on, waiting for his eye to be caught by something. Passing by a bookstore he noticed a kid reading a magazine. The kid was obviously too young to drive but it looked like he had an interest in exotic cars. On the front of the magazine was a large picture showing the exact same car that Alex drove. He went into the store and looked for another copy. As he picked it up he saw other magazines featuring some of the other cars on the Dark Horizons team and one was about American racers. Buying them all he continued to search the mall for Keisuke's present.
After arriving home he took the magazines to his room and began to look over them. The articles on the cars, although in English, were fairly easy for him to understand. They gave a lot of statistics and measurements that he quickly entered into his computer.
//Judging from these stats, some of these cars are extremely powerful. I wonder if all the team has Aki's engine. Maybe only those with the lower powered cars have it so that they can keep up to the Diablo and Murcielago's speeds.// he thought.
Next he looked at the magazines on racers. Ryosuke wasn't expecting much, after all these magazines tended to focus on drivers and not coaches and trainers like Aki. He began to scan the articles when he came across a small editorial blurb on the Dark Horizons.
'The Dark Horizons is a joint venture of many car manufactures from around the world, such as Lamborghini, Ferrari, Mazda, Ford, Chrysler, Subaru and Mitsubishi, in an attempt to train some of the most promising drivers for entry into F1 racing. Former endeavors of this sort have never had any success due to lack of leadership or skill among the driver's selected. However, the first Dark Horizons, led under Aki Keiichi, the daughter of Japan's famous 'Drift King', had phenomenal success. All of the men and women who passed through her two years of tough training have become important members in driving, pit crews, or even as coaches on the F1 circuit. Rumor is that due to her success, Aki Keiichi has been given free reign by the manufactures to recruit and train a new team.
For those of you who do not know her, Aki Keiichi is a Japanese-Canadian who has spent her life near the track. Before she was eligible to drive she learned mechanics from her mother, Shannon Blake who is a pit mechanic for Dodge. Later Aki learned driving and began to race in the junior stock division [1] where she decimated the field. Lack of a challenge caused her to lose interest in racing professionally yet she remained in the racing scene as an engine designer and now as a trainer.
Honestly readers, when people talk about the best racer out there, the popular names always spring up, but I can assure you that they are totally outclassed by this woman. With Aki training new people for the high demands of F1 racing, you can be assured that things will be spiced up.'
Logging all the relevant information in his computer, Ryosuke took the magazines and headed over to Keisuke's room. He looked at his watch, 12:30 pm; Keisuke hopefully was getting up. He knocked on the door and got no answer. Ryosuke slowly opened the door and it stopped as it bumped against something. Pushing harder, Ryosuke shoved the door the rest of the way open, knocking over the pile of books and newspapers that had been in the way. He stood in the doorway, not really wanting to enter his brother's room. He saw Keisuke still asleep and sprawled out in his bed. Ryosuke yelled out Keisuke's name and saw him wake with a start.
"Bro! What the hell did you do that for?" Keisuke said back, "I was having a nice dream and I'm going back to it so you can talk to me in the morning." Keisuke stuck his head under the covers.
"Keisuke it's past noon," Ryosuke smiled and looked around the room as Keisuke reached for his clock. "I would have waken you up more nicely if I could find the path to your bed. I can't see how anyone can walk in here."
"I can and that's all that matters," replied Keisuke stretching. "Hey, what are you doing here? You never come to my room unless something's wrong."
Ryosuke tossed the magazines to Keisuke. "I just thought you might be interested."
*******
Contrary to popular belief, the Dark Horizons remained in Japan over the winter. Aki had managed to rent a snowplow that they used to clear Koto Pass. By blocking the highway entrance, the team remained undiscovered while they used the back road to reach the base. Aki had asked the kid at the gas station to keep their presence a secret so that when the Takahashis came by later that season, they could get no more information on the team. The team progressed even more rapidly with the removal of Rick, so much so that Aki decided on challenging the more difficult racers in Gunma beginning in the spring.
******
The coming of the spring thaw found the Dark Horizons in Chris' room discussing plans for the upcoming races. Aki spread a map over one of the beds.
"Here's the map for Gunma. We have seven major passes to worry about," said Aki.
"What are the colors for?" asked Vic indicating the colored marks on some of the passes.
"I marked them based on their difficulty, both the course and the team. Red is most dangerous, yellow is mildly, and green is for the easier teams. The colors in between indicate a mix."
"Why is Akina marked red? I remember you saying that the Speedstars weren't all that great," said Chris.
"Overall the team isn't but there is a driver on that mountain that could even give me some steep competition. I don't know if he has joined that team or not though. Oh well, we'll find out sooner or later. Well anyway there are two passes outside Gunma that we might want to try. One is in Saitoma, and has a Levin Hachi-Roku, and the other is in Irohazaka. Chris you might like racing them, it's a team called the Emperors and they only drive LanEvos."
"Rally?"
"I don't know. I think that pass is asphalt but you might be able to convince them to race you on dirt."
Chris smiled. It wasn't often he had an opportunity to race on dirt roads. His teammates all had street cars and Aki was at too high of a level for him to seriously think of beating her in a race. When he was living in Cairo, Chris shared a car among his friends and together they raced other such teams on the desert outside of the city. He was comfortable skidding on sand and gravel while Alex and the twins became nervous when the car drifted so easily. Chris focused back on what Aki was saying.
"- still want to remain away from Akagi for the time being."
Chris looked back at the map. "So how about we give them little time to prepare. We could hit these two passes in the same night if we're quick," he said pointing at Usui and Myougi.
Aki looked at Chris. "That's not a bad idea actually. It could work, especially if we give some false leads as to which one we'll be hitting. Let's check the passes tomorrow and see if this can be timed right."
"Sounds like a plan. So who is going?" asked Alex.
"Chris and I will go," Aki replied, "you guys can take the day off."
********
After reaching the Gunma area, Chris and Aki split up. Aki headed to Usui and Chris to Myougi. When Chris arrived he began to take pictures on a digital camera so that Aki could later load them into her computer. He drove up and down the pass getting the feel for it while he waited for the Night Kids to show. Sometime after diner he pulled out his camera once again and began to photograph the Night Kids as they approached the hill. Driving to the top he parked so that his team sticker was clearly visible and issued a challenge to the team.
Aki, on Usui was doing the same thing. She was running the course and trying to decide who might be able to race it. Going to the gas station she learned more about the Impact Blue.
//Rally style driving? Maybe I should get the twins to do that.//
Aki waited until nightfall and also issued her challenge.
*******
Kenta ran into the diner towards Ryosuke, Keisuke and Hiroshi, and got evil looks from the waiters. Ryosuke continued to sip at his coffee and calmly raised an eyebrow at Kenta's approach.
"Keisuke, Ryosuke! I just heard that someone challenged Nakazato."
"There's nothing surprising in that."
"But Keisuke, it was someone from the Dark Horizons."
That caught Ryosuke's attention.
"Well bro, I think it worked. They are coming into this area. I wonder why they didn't accept your challenge first."
Kenta began to tell all the information he knew about the upcoming race while Keisuke and Hiroshi listened intently.
//Why are they hitting Myougi first?// thought Ryosuke.
**********
The next day the Dark Horizons met in Aki's room.
"So how did it go?" asked the twins.
"Great. The Night Kids didn't believe me at first but after I mentioned their losing streak they seemed a lot more responsive to the idea."
Everyone laughed. Aki had told them about the Night Kids before.
"So here's the plan. While everyone thinks we are going to hit Myougi, we go to Usui first," said Aki.
"Huh?"
"We are going to do a double play. We hit Usui first and Myougi second after the galleries have thinned. I just need someone to stick around Myougi to watch for when people begin to leave."
"More importantly, other racers?" asked Alex with a knowing smile.
"Exactly. Chris I need you to go."
"Why me?"
"You're the only one that the Takahashis haven't seen yet, and the twins are racing Usui or one of them would go."
"Fine, but I want Alex to call me if anything good happens," he said smiling.
"Fine, if you want it that way. I want you guys to meet me at Usui tomorrow night. Until then, have fun."
******
[Friday night]
"Bro I told the others about tomorrow," Keisuke said sitting on Ryosuke's bed. "Hey what are you doing?"
Ryosuke had a map of Gunma on his computer screen.
"Keisuke, have you ever noticed how close Usui is to Myougi? It is possible to drive from one to the other in under an hour." Keisuke didn't grasp the suggestion. "If you don't see them at Myougi, come to Usui."
"But what about their race against the Night Kids?"
"They'll still have it, probably later in the night. She is very clever. Most people wouldn't think of this possibility," said Ryosuke admiringly.
//But I'm beginning to catch on to her game.//