Well, let's take stock of the situation, Kai's got a little seed of jealousy building inside him towards Miyoko and Evo Prime in general, there's a black GTR hunting through Tochigi, no one's seen or heard from Dysuke or Takuya in a while (so they're probably up to more mischief) and Mako's the unpleasant assignment to watch over a manic-depressive Sainz.

Another day, another dollar.

The New Kings of Happogahara.

"Oh, Rina-chan. Where's Kai?" As they often had in the three weeks since the Night Kids battle, Five Fire Flame met collectively on Happogahara to wile away their Friday night in a productive manner. You could never practice enough after all. The only problem was, they were not so collective at the moment.

"Kai's practicing at Irohazaka tonight, there were some things he wanted to check out alone." Again. Neither Takuya nor Dysuke said it, but they all heard it echo ominously between them. Kai had been a distant figure in the team since the arrival of Rina's cousin Mako, barely practicing with them at all and only participating superficially when he was there. The three remaining team members had each dealt with it in their own way. Dysuke lost his temper and complained, to Rina, to Takuya and to Ken-san, but made very little headway. So he buried himself in his Altezza and drove his tires to the belts. Rina tried to console Kai, as his girlfriend rather than his teammate, but even that had very little effect. It seemed Kai was too preoccupied for either. Takuya tried his best to stop a bad situation from turning worse, he kept the other two busy, on and off the road and he planned for the future.

Ohna Takuya had learned many interesting things in the past few weeks.

He did what he could, but most of the time it was too little to keep frayed nerves from getting the better of Rina and Dysuke. It didn't make it easier that they were barely talking to each other most of the time either. Maybe he should say something? But to who and about what? The details were so annoyingly hidden that even though a resolution screamed to be presented, it was beyond even Takuya's plots to grasp it. Hopefully the good news he had tonight would go a little way to restoring team faith.

"Well, I've made my inquiries and it's true, Evo Prime have pulled out of Happogahara and the course is now up for grabs." Inwardly he sighed when both his teammates looked up with interest, and something resembling hope in their eyes. Heartened, he forged ahead. "Of course, there are quite a few local racers here, but none of them have formed a team yet, and even so, I doubt that they'd be in our league." Again, he paused to watch the information be absorbed. "So, it begs the question; has Five Fire Flame found a home course of our own?" One, two, three…

They didn't disappoint. Holding hands and cheering like school-kids, their apparent quarrel forgotten for the moment, Nobutachi Dysuke and Satou Rina performed what Takuya could only assume to be the traditional dance of whatever magical leprechauns they'd made a habit of idolising as children. Dysuke turned to Takuya, a thumb pointing to his heart.

"Happogahara, home course of Five Fire Flame!"

Beside him, clapping excitedly, Rina added the obligatory, that sounds so cool, before hugging both of them and the tension within the three present members refrigerated to little more than room temperature. Well, that was good news, but real work had to be done.

"Okay, okay, I'm glad you guys like it, but now we get to the serious end of the deal. To truly claim this course as our home course, we have to beat the existing time attack records for the course as Evo Prime laid them down; and that will be no easy task. You see, there is no uphill and downhill here, in both directions the course has fairly regular changes in inclination. The course is tight and treacherous in the first and fourth stages, whereas the second and third are wide with many possible lines for attack. This course, while being amazing to drive on, immediately disadvantages all of us compared to the last home team. We don't have Lancer Evolutions that can thrive in any kind of environment. Rina, with it's small displacement naturally aspirated engine, your ZW30 has always been a strict downhiller until now. Dysuke, you've never worried about this kind of tight cornering before, you've always been able to rely on high-speed drift and the power of your Altezza. As for me, my EP82 will hate the uphill corners and I know it, off boost it's going to be very hard to keep up competitive speed and there is only one or two significant straights to open up the new Boost Scramble. The only one of us who has an ideal car for Happo is Kai, and well…" He's not here, is he?

Clearly goaded to have both Kai and his own driving weaknesses brought up in such a bald way, Dysuke fired back.

"So what are you saying Ohna, that it'd be better if we stayed off the course?"

Rina screwed her mouth to the side in what was quickly becoming the give away trait that she was either thinking or upset. Please be thinking, please be thinking, please be thinking. Takuya was about to open his mouth to retort when Rina answered for him, and answered his prayers.

"But if we learn and know what we lack, and what our cars lack, can't we then change it and adapt? It's like when you raced Shouji Shingo, you knew the difference between your cars, so you put on your special tires and got your boost scrambler… we could do the same couldn't we?" Every day Takuya found more and more reason to be impressed with that young woman, she had just taken the words right out of Takuya's mouth… and then, grinning, had motivated a somewhat sullen Dysuke, more effectively than a dozen inspirational speeches ever could have.

"Bet you I can learn faster than you can Dysuke-kun!" Responding immediately with feigned, but only barely, indignation, Dysuke mock ran for his car. Seeing this, Rina shrieked, as though each second might decide the winner in their private contest and made for her own car. "Oh no you don't!" And the with blasts of exhaust and tire smoke, they were gone, leaving Takuya to scratch his chin and wonder if they'd bother to think about warming their cars up. Oh well, at least they're happy, they're like kids in that way, they can be angry with each other one moment and completely infatuated the next.

The thought would have made Takuya quirk an eyebrow, infatuated was actually a perfected word for them, but something distracted him.

The roar of an RB26.

The battle cry of Nakazato Takeshi.

Emperor, Evo Prime, Emperor Prime, whatever you wanted to call them had finally left Irohazaka for the night and Kogashiwa Kai made the most of their absence. This was the night. He'd been practicing nearly ever day on Iro to get to this point. To get back to where he had been prior to his battle with Fujiwara, and now it was make or break. As he slowly eased his father's car to the starting line he glanced down at his stopwatch. He had been so close last night, less than a second off his best time, and tonight he wouldn't hold back. His father had told him that much earlier in the day.

"You can't expect to advance if you are unwilling to risk yourself Kai, your technique, your car, even your life. If you push yourself to the edge of the knife, push yourself until it cuts you, over and over again, eventually you build a callous and the knife becomes harmless. It is the same with racing, enduring all the dangers you encounter, you will be stronger for it… you know exactly what needs to be done, you better have the guts to do it if you want to get better."

"Okay, go!" Bringing the revs to six thousand RPM, Kogashiwa Kai released the clutch and quickly shifted through the gears on redline to speed down the initial straight of Nikko's most dangerous of passes: Irohazaka. Taking the tires to their absolute maximum purchase on the asphalt, Kai used his left foot on the brake to eliminate understeer, while his right foot continued to control the level of acceleration. Despite the fact that his engine was nearly stock, his downhill assault easily exceed that of much more powerful cars, it was obvious that tonight's run would meet his expectations.

"There is a certain line factor that comes in to effect on Irohazaka after you reach a certain amount of corners…"

"Are you crazy dad? There's no way I'll do that, I won't be responsible for the damage to the car!"

"Listen, by allowing your opponent to get ahead, and then overtake, it's like a K.O. win…"

He had used it on Fujiwara Takumi and he would use it again on anyone who thought to race him; the trump card of the Irohazaka downhill. Kogashiwa Kai would use it at the first place possible, the 33rd corner. Relying on honed instincts rather than his logical mind, because, let's face it, purposefully leaping off a cliff face was anything but logical, he turned the nose in early, angled the tail out and regained grip in the rear tires at precisely the right moment. It looked easy, frightfully easy, but if his timing was disrupted in any one part for less than a second, a complete totalling of his dad's car was the best-case scenario. But racing was in Kogashiwa's blood and the young man had cut his teeth on motorbikes and karts, he launched and landed true on turn 33, and again after that, and again twice more after that. Foot held to the floor he hit the first bridge, the second, finally the third and quickly lunged for his stopwatch.

Three seconds? Three seconds! He had just beaten his previous time by a sliver more than three whole seconds, not only did that smash his personal best but it probably put him in contention for the downhill record on Irohazaka even against Emperor…

Emperor Prime…

Ieyasu Miyoko…

A smile spread across Kogashiwa Kai's face, it was far more sinister than pleasant.

His father would have been proud.

Preoccupied Satou Mako sipped her coffee at the University café, waiting for her assigned subordinate. So much for a holiday then, listening to her uncle and watching the speed at which the young man made his exit, made it obvious that to her that this was going to absorb a great deal of her once free time. Although… although he was interesting. Here was someone, not a year older than her, who she'd seen outrun her on Usui with seeming ease, who was a apparent friend of Takahashi Ryousuke, and yet no one she had spoken to ever remembered seeing a foreign driver in a Celica during the reign of the White Comet. Then there were the tears, what had ever happened on Usui to make him so upset… and then to suddenly close over when Sayuki entered the conversation…

It was odd. He was odd.

Sure was good looking though.

Mako blushed, unused to finding a random man attractive, and at that moment, Nicolas Sainz, unaware that he was the cause of such an endearing response chose to sit down opposite her. He looked different. Exhausted. The lines on his face were incredibly prominent and under his eyes were large bruised bags. He had a five o-clock shadow and his hair was loose and dishevelled. He gently rubbed his temples as though he had a headache and placed his Coke on the table. Mako glanced at her watch as her cheeks returned to their normal shade.

"You're late."

Nicolas Sainz scowled.

Satou Rina lookedand saw the road around her suddenly illuminate. Quickly risking a glance in her rear-view mirror, shesaw somethingcoming up behind her, something big, black and powerful.

In the cabin of the GTR Nakazato Takeshi smiled and stepped down on the accelerator. The familiar thump of the twin turbo RB26 felt like a homecoming. Exiting this corner, the race would be on.

"Small fry."

Oh wow. Five Fire Flame are in deep trouble and their two best drivers aren't in the picture! That's a problem.

Oh, CelicaChick, the Zero Counter drift is a by-product of rally. Essentially it is a 4WD specific drift where there is no set counter-steering phase like an FR (who turn in and then hold a counter steer angle), it happens when inertia pulls the tail of the car out and the driver needs to spin all four wheels to control the under and oversteer of the car and keep the proper out-in-out line. The main difference besides the lack of counter steering to a normal drift is the speed at which it is done… it's fast, very fast, almost as fast as proper grip driving (because mainly, it is how rally drivers keep their cars going fast through corners when they can't keep it straight.).

The boost scramble is a part of certain electronic boost controllers, basically it is a button that allows a driver to push more boost through the turbo for a little while to give them a little more power and acceleration. It's something more commonly used on Wangan, or highway racing, in Japan for overtaking but some people have theorised a use for it on the mountain roads… Takuya was one of them!

Hope that explained it some.

Okay to my readers, you've a choice for the next chapter, battle or mischief from a surprise guest star… you're choice on which gets done first…

I'm evil I know.