The Razor's Edge.

Well I'm back with another instalment of my story, I hope everyone enjoys it.

This is what a researched, well-written battle should look like.

The automotive collective known as Emperor Prime, comprising of members of the veteran Emperor LanEvo corp. and their younger Evo Prime counterparts, were greeted rudely by another local racer. Such interruptions were not common during their team meetings... most of the locals had enough sense to steer clear of them. Not Kogashiwa though. Leading his fledgling team into the carpark he pulled to a halt with his customary locking of brakes.

'Boy that kid must go through some tires, driving like that' the team's leader Sodou Kyouichi thought to himself. He'd been hearing about this Five Fire Flame a lot lately, they'd be entrenched with the Night Kids from Myogi for a few weeks now but aside from that, they'd be courting several prominent independent racers... and one of their members Ohna Takuya had quite a reputation from Saitama. What were they coming up here for though? From all reports they'd taken to Happogahara as their home course and had suffered a dramatic lose at the hands of the Night Kids leader Nakazato Takeshi... there's no way they'd be coming to challenge Emperor Prime considering that three or four of their active members could obviously dissect them.

If not that, then what?

Goddamn nuisance no matter what!

By the looks of it Miyoko's time trial would have to wait.

There was another collective gurgle of engines and suddenly the panorama view of Mt Irohazaka seemed very crowded. A familiar black R32 led in a larger group of assorted cars... the Myogi Night Kids. In years gone by, during the Emperor invasion of Gunma, the LanEvo Corp had defeated Black Lightning and defaced the Night Kids team sticker. Seiji had sported his 'kill marks' for more than two years, only taking them down recently when he had formed a friendship with the same man he had defeated. Hopefully therefore the Night Kids weren't coming for revenge... racing or physical... as it was they outnumbered the Emperor members. A small knot of worry formed in the Emperor leader's throat. He had no idea what was going on. Luckily Kogashiwa stepped forward to clear up the mess. He showed his usual contempt for Seiji with a sneer, though admirably, Seiji barely blinked in return, his younger brother Jin was hardly as polite.

"Don't worry, we're not here to mess around with you guys tonight. Tonight we've got buisness with the Night Kids. One downhill race and we'll be out of your hair. Hell, we'll even let you watch!" Kyouichi smiled, that kid's got some guts; no one could dispute that, being so arrogant to the local team with only a girl and two guys at his back.

Takeshi had also exited his car and looked on intensely, awaiting the outcome of their interaction.

Kyouichi mulled the proposal over; it was well within his power to shut this race down, or at least delay it until after the time trail... it was easy to see Miyoko was getting impatient. Well, it would do her good to see the cornering speeds a non-4WD could pull off, she was starting to get a little arrogant in her treatment of racers with supposedly inferior drivetrains. Alright then... let's see how this Five Fire Flame has influenced young Kogashiwa.

"Alright then... Kogashiwa's SW20 vs. Nakazato's R32? Sounds like fun. Why not?" Kyouichi noted with some frustration that Miyoko's fists and jaw clenched upon hearing the pronouncement. He wasn't the only one to catch it either, Kogashiwa looked straight at her, stared as though she were about to burst into flame... because he doused her with petrol and lit it.

That was strange.

The tension flowed away as soon Takeshi started bellowing order to his teammates, right along with Kyouichi's eardrums.

'Interesting friends you have there Seiji, I think I'd rather train with Todou-san again for five years and have him getting on my case about every little detail than drive with this guy... Todou-san wouldn't eat your firstborn kids.' All thoughts aside, Nakazato's Night Kids were very effective. As Five Fire Flame only had a total of four members they couldn't really manage the race. Nakazato sent out Night Kids' members to most of the gallery spots to report back the progress of the race. Speaking of pride and courage, Nakazato sure had some himself, agreeing to a downhill race, on Irohazaka of all places, with a heavy GTR.

"Kyouichi-san... I think I'll be going now. If there's going to be a battle, before we even get to the time trails... yeah, I think I'll get out of here." Satake... well that was nothing new. Since Miyoko joined the team, he'd been taking any chance to leave team meets early. Tonight, he seemed extra nervous though... maybe he had a date. The Emperor leader looked his subordinate up and down with a glance. Yep, and maybe hell was about to freeze over. Well, it couldn't be helped, when all was said and done, his team members did have lives outside of racing, and Kyouichi had to acknowledge that.

"Yeah Satake, get out of here... we'll tell you how things went next time." He laughed as Satake nearly ran to his car. Maybe that date wasn't too far fetched an idea after all.

Standing in between a R32 GTR and an SW20 preparing to launch, most people would have been intimidated. Ohna Takuya carried himself with an ease born solely of familiarity. Raising one arm high he prompted an increase in both cars revving as they prepared to launch.

"5, 4, 3, 2, 1, GO!"

Kai launched hard, knowing he had no chance of getting ahead of the GTR, but needing to keep the gap between them to a minimum for his eventual counter attack. The GTR still surged ahead, putting meters of distance between them with incredible acceleration. In his cabin Kai gripped his steering wheel hard... the key to this battle was going to be multiple braking duels. Coming into the first hairpin as the GTR exited it, Kai machine-gun shifted into second, then, with left foot braking turned his car in and exited the hairpin. He looked up at the Skyline. Yes, he'd definitely closed some space, maybe ten or twenty meters! Nakazato was good, he braked hard, using the full potential of his ABS and shifted the weight of his car to minimize any understeer... the style of downhill cornering relied on his tires, but it was effective. Unfortunately, at the end of the day, there was no modification that could even a large difference in weight... not even 4WD. As the hairpins came more and more common and the straights slacked off in length, Kai had managed to destroy the lead and had begun tailgating Nakazato. Surprisingly, the pressure didn't phase the Night Kids leader, he maintained his pace and line, allowing the acceleration of the Skyline to distance them at corner exits and the width of the car to do his blocking for him. It would be impossible to squeeze any car inside or outside without hitting the guardrail. It was one of the difficulties of Irohazaka, most of the time the car the led into the hairpins would win unless it was severely underpowered in the final section. Kai was behind AND underpowered... so normally he'd have nearly no chance at winning this battle.

'When dad first told me told me about the Special Line Factor here on Irohazaka, I didn't understand. Sure, I knew that there was a great possibility for an pass on the leading car... but all I could see was the danger, to the car and to myself." He paused his internal dialogue to send the car with supreme neutrality, the hallmark of speed, through another hairpin, tailing the GTR closely. His eyes narrowed on the car ahead, upping the pressure with by holding onto the accelerator like a maniac, not pausing when the bumps in the road jostled him and his car about.

"Now I now the secret. The true nature of it. It's the finest razorblade technique on any mountain. Using it, with the right timing, acceleration... the line taking down to an art... a human racer could transcend everything around him... and for one split second, become a god." He shifted into fourth, holding the acceleration for a moment as he approached his line and counted off his braking and turn-in point.

"I can see the SW20, burning into my line from behind. He cut's close on entry, I'm fighting with understeer and weight while he is almost totally neutral. I pull away too quickly on exit to be overtaken there and the road is too narrow to cut inside me, so even if he's faster than me here, once we reach a high-speed section, I'll leave him behind. This battle is as good as won." Nakazato noted the distinctive sloped headlights of the MR2 slowly fade from his rear-view mirror as they accelerated out of another hairpin in second and then third. He paused as the headlights again caught up at braking. "So why does it feel like he's about to try something?"

Three people stood in the galleries overlooking one of the repeated hairpins of the Irohazaka pass, one talking on the phone, two standing silent side by side. The young witness talking on the phone relayed racing information to the summit.

"I can here the noise from the engines and tires. They can't be far off." The tone of their voice carried their excitement clearly and when the headlights of the racers suddenly appeared it reached a high screech. "Here! The GTR is leading, but the SW20 is charging in behind them, they're approaching the hairpin at incredible speeds! Here we go, it's down to a breaking duel! The GTR's moving outside, wow, it's really pumping the ABS hard! The SW20's staying inside, it's breaking's almost criminal! They're coming into the corner now!..."

From the summit of Mt Irohazaka Shouji Shingo heard squealing tires, screaming from a woman's throat and the sound of things... going wrong.

The sapphire SW20 dove into entry braking with an act of supreme courage and insanity, locking the rear wheels with the handbrake and swinging the tail round to the exit... before it even reached the corner!

Kogashiwa Kai was going to jump the corner!

"Go...?" Even as the words leapt out of Kai's mouth he knew something was wrong. He couldn't control the slide! Knowing he was doomed if he didn't try and stop the car. Turning with the spin and almost simultaneously using the foot and hand brakes to try something... ANYTHING to pull him up. He felt the car jostling and the wheels pumping up and down as the car skated down over the uneven earth. The GTR swung around the corner and narrowly missed the wildly sliding car, immediately stopping after the corner and leaping from his car to see the Toyota MR2 crumple into guardrail, sending glass and shrapnel spraying into the gallery as onlookers leapt out of the way.

Kogashiwa Kai looked around in a daze... he'd survived.

His head hit the steering wheel with a solid thud.

"Rina..."

Ouch. That's all I can say... ouch.