Chapter 5: The Time Has Come
"Hey, Ryousuke-son long time no see. I'll take it you got my message, what's up?"
Ryousuke made his way to Kyo, while trying to avoid tripping over any of the spare parts scattered around Kyo's garage. Kyo was an engineer and knew almost as much about cars Ryousuke, a decent racer but nowhere near the level of Project D. While bright, he wasn't exactly the most organized of all people. He and Ryousuke were old friends but they had never gotten around to dropping the honorific forms of each others names.
"Kyo-son good to see you. What are you working on this time… you've got to be kidding me is that a Toyota Tercel? Your not seriously going to race in that are you?"
"Hey come on, Ryousuke-son. You know me better than that, first of all you know I'm not much of a racer. And second it just so happens that I just swapped the puny stock 3e-e engine for a 4e-fte engine from a Toyota Starlet. I've got the engine running at about 200 horses at the wheels." Kyo smirked and waited for Ryousuke's response.
"You always did like to build sleepers didn't you? Your current setup on that EL43 chassis should give you a power to weight ratio of approximately 0.1 considering that, that the 94 Tercel weights approximately 2,000 lbs. Not bad for a piston based 1.3 Liter engine." Ryousuke chuckled.
"Well I'm sorry not of all us blessed with a 13B turbo." Kyo laughed, while at the same time knowing he could never really win an argument against Ryousuke.
"Well anyways, getting to the point of this little get together. I'm working for Mitsubishi these days as you know, and recently I came across a series of orders by Sodo Kyouichi. I supervise one of the stores he frequents. Normally I wouldn't think much of it, hell the EMPERORS have a bunch of EVO's. Of course they're going to need some parts every now and then." Kyo took deep breath "I know its none my business and I don't know every part they ordered. But curiosity got the best of me, so being an engineer I began to cross-reference what I did know with a couple of databases I have and found that…"
"Kyo-son I make a point, about learning as much as I can about my opponents. But I think your crossing the line this time, what they order and build is none of my business." Ryousuke starred coldly and started to get up.
"Ryousuke-son, please hear me out. I couldn't really find out what they have that way, the combinations of the parts are theoretically endless."
"Then why did you waste my time by telling me you knew what we were up against?"
"Calm down, let me make some tea. And I'll explain myself."
"Alright Kyo-son, I trust your judgment. But I will only say this once, cheating and spying have no place in D."
Kyo nodded and started making some tea. He hoped the tea would help calm Ryousuke. Ryousuke-son was always cool and calm but like all humans at times, he could get furious.
"Ryousuke-son, I have no intention of spying for Project D." He poured the tea "You know I would never do anything to cheat." Kyo sighed, and continued.
"Look, like I said right now I'm working for Mitsubishi and it just so happens that I supervise one of the shops in the Tochigi Prefecture. Anyways, yes I did have suspicions of what the EMPERORS were building but it was a hunch at best. At least that what I thought until I ran into their second top driver. It was late, about three in the morning. I had just finished doing inventory at the shop and was looking for some food, so I went to a Family's restaurant. I just happened to see that despicable Seiji who just so happened to be driving what appeared to be…"
Fast-forward to the next night
"Fujiwara tonight, you have 3 aces. You need to use all three to have a chance of winning. The first you will not recognize, the second ace is unique to Tochigi, and third ace is the is the same one you have in Akina. You know how your opponent drives, your biggest challenge tonight will be beating his car. But if you use all three aces you will create an upset. Remember the first way you beat him is the way which he least expects to be beaten."
"Hai, Ryousuke-son!" Takumi nodded although he had no idea what the hell Ryousuke was talking about. Oh well that the way his advice usually was.
Fujimoro walked past the galleries over to the starting line to prepare for the count down. Takumi walked over to his car and brought around to where Seiji was waiting with his.
"Alright clear the way, Ready! 5,4,3,2,1...GO!"
The Instant Fujimoro dropped his hand the Hachi-Roku and the Completely Carbon Fiber EVO VI launched.
Takumi was shocked he had seen LAN EVOs launch before, but never as quickly or as violently as the one he had just seen. At that very moment the insecurities that he had been feeling in regards to AWD cars vs. FR cars began to surface.
"No way that's too fast, how will I keep up? Can I keep up…am I…going to lose?"
Author's note:
Hey everyone thank you for the great reviews. Hey GTSilverShadow thanks for the suggestions and corrections, I blame the spelling mistakes on bad translations in the anime hehe. I know MazdaSpeed isn't a real magazine but come one this is fiction. Besides my favorite tuner mag. is Sport Compact Car. Hey CelicaChick I was hoping you would appreciate the tribute to Ryousuke in ch. 4. Juan and Seiferx8 this story is far from over. I want to thank everyone for their input it's always really helpful.
Well, the first race has started so you might want to ask yourself if it's the beginning of the end.