ACT 2 – 2000RPM 'The Divine Unit Generals'
Later
that afternoon as Kanae dropped off her nephew at her brother's
house, her Sileighty parked next to a titanium gray Mazda RX-7 Spirit
R Type A. This belonged to Kanae's sister in law, Reiko – a woman
who often races along route C4 and H3, but barely on F5, as
restricted by Fao. Kanae noticed Reiko's body kit had changed from
her old Mazdaspeed R Spec to a wide body RE Amemiya style.
The
sticker over the rear over fender was a bunch of Chinese characters,
and the bottom, labeling 'Bu Xia De'.
Kanae took Roni to
go see his mother, at a medium sized home, which sat on top of a
small hill surrounded by other neighboring houses, surrounding one
dead end.
"Sorry about that," apologized Kanae. "I lost
track of time."
"Its ok," said Reiko. "Happens to me too.
Sometimes, you seem too fast for the world that you think everything
else is going slower, heheh…"
Roni walked over to his
mother. Reiko was a 28 year old Korean woman, who had light brown
hair which only reached down her neck. She was dressed in office-like
attire, a white shirt, a dark blouse, a coat, and some expensive
label shoes. Reiko, like her husband, was also once a race driver,
but after her husband retired, she too have been swaying off from the
racing world since she has a child to take care of. But unlike Fao,
Reiko is not retired.
"Would you like me to get you something?"
offered Reiko.
"Oh, thanks, but I gotta get going," explained
Kanae. "Sorry again."
"Nah, don't mention it. It's
fine," consoled Reiko, "By the way…" she paused, looking to
see if Roni was still walking about. She went up closer to Kanae and
spoke rather softly, in the idea of Roni being unable to hear
anything.
"You heard about the tournament right? I'll be
joining too. Let's have a good one," whispered Reiko.
"Um…"
Kanae murmured, "I thought you don't race at F5?"
"Well,
I'm sure Fao won't mind, just once," said Reiko. "Oh, and
other drivers from other sectors are likely to participate as
well."
"Wait a sec…" Kanae stuck a thought. "You
don't usually join these things at random… Why now? There must be
something else on the side you're in on…?"
"To be honest
with you…" Reiko gave a blank stare. She moved her eyes onto her
car. The look on her face was rather serious, yet did not escape
enthusiasm. "There's this team that hardly anybody knows about. I
don't think they're new, since the rumors have been going on for
a long time now… You know what I'm talking about, right?"
"The
'ghost team'? Surely you're not saying that you've found out
any leads to who they are?"
"No, I haven't," explained
Reiko. "But if this tournament is big enough, then maybe one might
start showing up."
"So basically this whole tournament is one
big bait to lure them out?" asked Kanae.
"To put it simply,
that's right, in a way," confessed Reiko. "But aside from that,
I'd like to have as much fun as possible too."
"Well…
that's all I ever cared about anyway," commented Kanae.
"Who
knows, we might end up racing each other. Maybe a new fastest in F5
will be crowned, haha."
"Possibly… I've never raced you on
F5," said Kanae, in her typical innocent tone.
"Oh, by the
way, invited an old friend to come join too," explained
Reiko.
"Hmm…?"
"Fukada Kumiko might be joining the
tournament as well,"
"The Neon Serpent of D1? Should be
interesting. F5 is the only course in which she hasn't set any
unbeatable records," remembered Kanae. "I've never raced her
before either."
"Neither have I," said Reiko. "But she's
a real nice person."
"One day, I'll probably go down to D1
and see what its like," suggested Kanae.
"I haven't been
there much myself," said Reiko. "Who knows, maybe we might be
able to set records there too."
"You
look tired, Kanae. Are you okay?" wondered Reiko.
"Oh, its
nothing. I'm usually like this," explained Kanae. "Anyway, I
gotta get going. Have a nice day."
"You too. See ya. Take care
of yourself, Kanae,"
Kanae walked over to her car, waved goodbye to her nephew and sister in law, and sat inside. The Sileighty slowly backed out of the driveway. By the time Kanae left her brother's house, it was around the afternoon, and since she had the rest of the day off, she had nothing else to do.
The legendary Fukada Kumiko… Her name even reaches remote areas… such as F5. She must be incredible…
The Sileighty rolled by around the block, cruising past the village, on its way to the town area. The place seemed pretty empty as usual. Kanae stopped at the first intersection and kicked back.
So tired…
The
lights were on red…
A second later, a car high-beamed its lights
flashing onto Kanae's car, then moved its way right next to her.
High-beaming me? Is he trying to… ?
She
looked over to her right. It was an orange Eclipse GSX. It had Volk
rims, a GT wing. The car was also complete with a body kit and carbon
fibre hood. Its engine started to growl at Kanae, in a rather
provocative manner.
The intent was clear.
As the lights turn
green…
Zzzzzzmmm…….
The two cars sped off from the lights. The Eclipse had monstrous acceleration. It shot straight ahead of the Sileighty, as Kanae held her ground and somehow kept up.
Fast!
Kanae clutched in, geared up,
release, then full throttle. The Sileighty did not seem to close in
any further on the Eclipse, though it was still very close.
Kanae
attempted to push harder…
It was getting dangerous, even though
the traffic was rather mild.
The cars were side by side, after a
few corners, another intersection was in sight. The lights were
yellow.
Neither of the cars slowed down.
The cars were
almost closing in, much traffic lie ahead.
This is insane!
Kanae finally slowed down her pace getting ready to stop
at the lights as she could still cover much distance at the speed she
was going.
But the other car did not slow down. It sped up even
greater, and in a split second, ran passed the lights just right
before they turned red…
In an instant, traffic filled the
road.
The Eclipse was gone…
On top of a parking lot building, a brief gathering was held on the top level. There were around a dozen cars, such as 180SX's, Supra's, and S15 Silvia's. Among the others, were five rather, distinctive ones, which parked at a certain position, away from the others. The five cars were like a pack of wolves that looked on over the herds of their sheep. The five cars were a metallic Impreza S202, a black Lancer Evolution III GSR, as well as another Lancer, which was a red Evolution VII RS. The other two was a yellow Efini RX-7 FD3S A Spec and finally, a dark burgundy colored 3000GT GTO VR-4 Turbo.
These were the elite
drivers of a special racing division of Zui Hou R – the Shireishou
D Unit.
The unit consists of;
Shireishou N / General Of The North Garage (car: CE9A) – Represents the Theorem of Rationality
Shireishou S / General Of The South Garage (car: CT9A) – Represents the Theorem of Strength & Aggression
Shireishou E / General Of The East Garage (car: GDB) – Represents the Theorem of Experience
Shireishou W / General Of The West Garage (car: FD3S) – Represents the Theorem of Talented Gift
Shireishou X / General Of The Central Garage (car: NA2) – Represents the Theorem of Unlimited Potential
The true identities of those drivers are unknown, other than the supervisor, the demoted Fukada Kumiko, who is not counted as a general of the divine unit.
"Listen up," Kumiko began. She stood next to her car, arms crossed, and hair blowing gently through the wind. As usual, she was wearing another dress, as if she was at the Grammy's or something. "Zui Hou R is going to establish its next dominant strike… at the upcoming Bu Xia De Street Tournament. We will finally expose our name and engrave our existence, into the records… into the light… and into the hearts of all the other damn road racers who risk their very lives on this most dangerous of games…"
"Wow, nice speech, Master Ku,"
teased W.
"Our mission objective is to use the tournament as a
medium to establish our dominance, but also introduce our racing
dynasty," elaborated E. "It has to be a flawless effort. One loss
will consider the project a failure."
"Yes," followed up Kumiko. "Operation: Zheng Fu. We're gonna win this tournament."
"Basically, we just go in there, and beat
every competitor, right?" asked W.
"Exactly." said
E.
"Master Ku, you should participate too," suggested
E.
"Maybe I will. Who else is coming with me?" asked
Kumiko.
W stepped forward, and looked up to Kumiko. "I'll
go with you, Master Ku."
"How about we split rounds?"
suggested S. "Since the first race is at F5, some of us should
participate at the other races during the other rounds."
"Sounds
good," approved Kumiko. "By the way…" she paused.
Kumiko
walked over slowly, and gazed at the streets from the top, watching,
and listening as the traffic strolled past.
"X might be joining us too…" ended Kumiko.
The ever so tense Koda's was at its usual bustling pace, although that was nothing to stop one man, who sat at the bar silently, as usual. Spoke to nobody, as usual. Flicking through pages of car magazines, as usual. The somber Fu Huo had his own presence about him. He leaned on the table, with his arm holding his forehead, as if copping a migraine. He took a sip of his drink, then flicked a page.
Maybe I should set down my rear stabilizers a bit. With the rear less stable than the front, I wonder what will happen?
He
flicked another page.
I've always set the brake controller
weaker on the rear, but stronger on the front. Perhaps I should try
the other way around? I'd better ask 'her'.
A woman sat on the bar stool next to Fu Huo. He sat there, ignoring the woman, probably not realizing anything. After a moment, the woman gave him a soft little kiss on the cheek.
What's going on? Who the hell…?
Fu Huo turned around to look at the
woman he was ignoring. Oh, its just Minako.
Fu touched his
cheek, a blunt look on his face, his voice was straight and
emotionless.
"What was that for?" he asked
Minako.
"Nothing," Minako leaned over to him again, and gave
him another kiss on the cheek. "I just like kissing you. Is there
anything wrong?"
What's with her all of a sudden? I thought we've sorted this out already?
Minako did
nothing but smile at him. That same old cutesy sort of smile she uses
to annoy Fu Huo.
"Aren't you supposed to be working?" asked
Fu.
"I've just finished," explained Minako.
"Well…
you should find something worth spending your time on."
"I
have," Minako gave him another kiss. "See?"
Whatever
"You don't look too busy yourself," commented
Minako. "Why don't we go do something?"
"What do you wanna
do now?" Fu asked, turning to his car mag and continued flicking
through pages.
"Let's go out," suggested Minako. "We
haven't gone out in ages."
"That's cause we've already
been everywhere," Fu took a sip of his drink.
"Oh come on,"
Minako continued to nag him. "Let's go out, just you and me.
We'll just go as friends,"
"Sorry, but I'm racing
tonight," excused Fu. "I've challenged Ohjay for a highway
battle tonight."
"You can't be serious, Fu" said Minako.
"You're lucky you're already able to drive fast. But battling,
especially on a highway is pushing it."
"I can manage,"
explained Fu. "Even though my arm is still a little sore, I can
still shift and steer. My legs are fine."
"You're not gonna
listen, are you?" Minako protested. "Why?"
Unexpectedly, Fu
turned to Minako, and looked at her square in the eye. Oddly, there
was a little strike of sincerity glowing from his face, which peered
directly at Minako.
"I'm sorry," he muttered.
For
some reason, Minako was unable to say a word. In a short moment, Fu
gave her a brief smile, then turned around again to look at his car
magazines.
