Well, hello everyone, remember me?

Sorry I haven't updated in a fair while, my computer's been on the frizzt, I've been busy preparing for Uni and my ball and chain (the GT4 is giving me grief)

But here we go with two new chapters...

Hope I get some reviews out of this one, especially considering that they both have battles in them.

Yellow Thunder over Usui.

Shouji Shingo and Nakazato Takeshi quietly sipped their coffee as their friends tried to gather their composure. They'd already kept the Night Kids members waiting a good half hour. Takeshi had held his peace with trademark stoicism but Shingo, ever brutally blunt, wanted the excuse, and he wanted it now.

"Forget we were alive did we?"

One of the young women rolled her eyes and picked up her cup of tea. The other responded in her place, though looking out the window instead of toward the Myogi racers.

"We had a battle on Usui."

Her companion took the startled gasps of the Night Kids as an indication to recount the battle.

"We met him on Usui, he's a friend of Takahashi Ryousuke's…" she put in, allowing some of the White Comet's acclaim to rub off onto their opponent. "Takahashi-san told us that he'd be waiting somewhere on Usui. We nearly ran him over…"

Not wanting to give away the more intimate details of their confrontation, the first woman, half of Usui's famed Impact Blue, put over the top of her partner.

"He was amazing, we thought that he was just another guy who looked down on girls racing, but he was the fastest opponent I've ever raced, even faster than Fujiwara Takumi…"

The Celica's brakelights lit up for the barest of seconds, quickly adjusting the weight displacement of the car for the up coming corner, which it took with a strong grip style. Moving with confidence of a strong routine, Satou Mako set up a small angle drift, closing some of the distance between the Celica and her Sil-Eighty. At the exit however the GT4 easily distanced them, showing none of the disadvantages a powerful turbo engine normally showed on the Usui course. Sayuki called instruction for the following right-left-right combination and Mako prepared for the necessary movements she would have to put her Nissan through. From her co-driver seat Sayuki had to admit that the Celica driver, although he was a gaijin and not a local Usui racer, was incredibly fast. Incredibly fast. Even with Mako in the best shape of her life, faster than she had been by far then when she had raced the Akina 86, she was finding it difficult to corner at the same speed as the GT4, let alone match his speed at the exits. It was making strange explosion like backfires under deceleration, flames licking out of the exhaust regularly, something that niggled at Sayuki. It was… it was definitely something important. With another combination of corners coming in fast she was forced to ignore the train of thought in favour of navigating for Mako. The corners were tight, normally that would have given the lighter Sil-Eighty an advantage, but still the yellow GT4 held it's own, even improved upon it. Mako had said upon returning to the Nissan's cabin that she was worried the young man might do himself an injury, that she would try not to pressure him but unless Mako unleashed everything she had, Impact Blue would be dealt a humiliating defeat on their own home course. Turning to Mako, Sayuki prepared to push Impact Blue into full flight.

"Mako, you can't let this guy get away. Forget not pressuring him, you're going to have to go all out here. Make him eat his words for saying that the fastest of Usui couldn't keep up!" Though Mako was less concerned about Nicolas's words than Sayuki, he hadn't meant to insult them at all, he sounded, well, disappointed, in her battle state of mind, she responded with a tight jaw. The next three corners she slowly chipped away at the Celica's lead until she exited nose to tail with him. The GT4's driver must have been surprised by this, or curious, because at the exit he only distanced himself a car length or two and then simply maintained that lead. The next corner he took hard, faster than he had previously done, but Mako equalled his speed… this was shaping up to be an amazing dogfight.

"So he won?" Shingo's incredulous voice tore through Sayuki's recollection. Mako gave a quite nod in confirmation, shocking the two Myogi drivers. Though they were indeed women, Mako and Sayuki were arguably faster than either of the Night Kids aces. Any person who could defeat them could conquer the Gunma with little trouble. Really, unless one of the ex-Project D members took an interest in racing him, he had already beaten the best in the prefecture, and severely rattled her closest rivals.

"Do you think he'll be coming to Myogi?" As leader of the Night Kids team Nakazato Takeshi would be the first wall of defence against the new invader. Although the Night Kids had been doing well lately, the return of their team sticker from Iwaki Seiji and Shingo's acquisition of another EG6 after his ill-fated battle with the same one-time Emperor driver, healing a festering wound in their confidence, Nakazato's stomach burned at the thought of another very likely loss on his home course. Pipping up again from her interest in whatever was going on outside the restaurant, Satou Mako regarded the GTR driver.

"I doubt it actually, I don't think he was on Usui to race, and I doubt he'd bother coming to Myogi. He didn't strike me as the street racer type, he was… more polished than that."

As Sayuki had predicted the battle grew in intensity, the two cars almost touching through corners now. Every time Impact Blue thought they had equalled the Celica's speed, he increased it. Every time Sayuki thought they might be completely outrun, Mako increased her speed in retaliation. There was only going to be one place to settle this battle; C-121. Knowing the pitfall of the corner to be it's exit, Sayuki conceived of a counter-attack strategy. Most people unfamiliar with Usui wouldn't realise that the high-speed corner's wide entry led straight into a very narrow exit. To avoid striking the guardrail they would have to throw on their brakes and slow the car to a near halt to stave off the cornering inertia. It was something that the pair had seen occur dozens of times, regardless of the car's model, power or drivetrain, C-121 caught nearly everyone new to the area. This danger in C-121 opened up the inside of the corner, an opening that Impact Blue, as one of only two people in the scene who could drift the entire corner properly, could walk through to overtake, a win in anyone's mind on Usui.

"Alright Mako it's time! C-121 is coming up and we're going to overtake on the inside. Let's show him why we're the fastest on Usui!" Gritting her teeth Mako increased her pressure on the throttle and set the Sil-Eighty up for the overtake.

As predicted the GT4 torpedoed into corner, taking the only visual cues available to determine speed and line. Any moment now and the opening would be presented. There! Right as the line and the guardrail started toward each other!

"Now!"

Reacting to the signal, Mako dived in, wary of the rear of the Celica as she did so. Watching the rear of the GT4 her eyes widened and she immediately and quickly slowed the Nissan.

"He's going to crash!" She shrieked at her co-driver.

Quickly looking at the car Sayuki realised that the driver hadn't even tried to brake as his car was pulled towards the guardrail, when he hit it was going to be bad!

"Brake, quickly, pull us up!" Despite the angry words that had been flung before the impromptu battle there was no way in hell the pair were going to allow someone to die slowly and alone on their mountain.

They had no idea who they were dealing with. In his own mind, Nicolas Sainz was already dead.

As the Sil-Eighty pulled abruptly to a halt Impact Blue saw what they expected to be the final flight of this yellow Celica. How surprised they were when, in a completely fearless fashion the GT4 driver didn't even tap the brakes. Somehow he managed to suddenly break traction in the rear tires and change the angle of the car. As they watched in amazement he controlled this action and buried the throttle to spin all four of the Celica's tires but maintain enough traction tighten up his line mid-corner and turn what had been hard grip into…

"Zero Counter!"

Impact Blue didn't catch up to him after that.

"Man, Myogi's boring!" Knowing that he had little time to acclimatise himself to the away course, Takuya had skipped university with Dysuke in tow to recce the home of the Night Kids and Shouji Shingo. There were long straights and high-speed corners, a noticeable change in inclination between up and downhill stages. Interesting. Unlike most of the courses in Tochigi, Myogi was mostly high-speed with a furious cornering rhythm. It was also suited much more to grip racing rather than the more popular drift.

Which was the source of Takuya's current headache.

"What's the point of having a team here? There's got to be better places around than this?" Takuya's eyebrow rose, despite his increasing ability at driving touge, Dysuke stilled showed a remarkable naiveté when it came to other places and teams. No wonder the Night Kids team leader drove a GTR if this was his home course, it might not be pretty, but with power and muscle on Myogi it would be damn fast. Even Shouji's B16A engine was a class-leader in power, his EG6 overpowering Takuya's EP82 on downhill runs. Unless…

"Dysuke were you still planning on going Optimum Line this afternoon for your new bonnet?" Startled at the change of topic, Dysuke nodded rather drearily.

"Yeah, I thought that since we have that battle tomorrow night I might as well look my best to represent the team." He answered, a wave of his hand indicating the new team stickers Rina had designed for them, a trio of stylised Fs that glinted red, bronze and gold like a real fire. Dysuke had placed one sticker on each of his rear windows, Takuya's were placed on his front windscreen, on the bottom of the passenger side. 'So people know who is about to overtake them' he had said. Truth be told, there was a lot of tension building over this battle. Unlike some other teams in the area, Five Fire Flame had devoted themselves to the ideal of improving and winning, especially on their opponent's home course since they were bereft of one themselves, and the battle against Myogi's Night Kids would be their first real race since forming. It would determine whether the other teams saw them as a joke, a nuisance at best, or if they would earn the skills and name to rival and exceed them. For now that responsibility rested on Takuya's shoulders. Hopefully he had the right plan for the right time and place.

"Okay, let's get going. I've got the course in my head and I need to talk to someone quickly about my turbo tuning for tomorrow night." Dysuke perked up immediately; if Takuya was changing his settings then he had a good idea how to win this battle! At almost a run he launched himself towards his parked car, thinking of carbon fibre contrasting with white like a child thinks about eating chocolate after he finishes school.

Sitting alone in his dark corner of existence, a young man pondered the previous night's events with somewhat drugged affection. Beside him an empty scotch bottle sat unused, inconsequential. Even in a state graciously described as drunk, his mind worked over the nearly flawless drift of Usui's blue Sil-80. He didn't remember the skill levels of the touge racers being so high. For an instant, only an instant, they had exposed a weakness in a one-time WRC driver. They? She.

Confident drift, even crossing the centre-line unaffected, with minimal counter-steer. Challenging entry speeds. Fast, skilled braking and down shifting.

Beautiful.

At that point Sainz had no idea whether he meant the driving or the driver.

The thought held his mind longer than most.

Before he fell asleep with his face in his arms.