Chapter 6

"Fading Autumn"

As Takumi looked all through out Akina, he finally decided to stop at the gas station, ironically, he didn't ask his friends first.

As he parked at the gas station… "Natsuki?"

She looked like her… but as he took little steps towards her…

Slap!

"Ouch! Why did you do that?" Takumi was confused why someone she just met would, out of nowhere, slap him.

"Keichiro! You forgot we were supposed to meet today!" The angry girl exclaimed.

"Are you nuts? My name's not Keichiro!" Takumi replied in a fluster.

A black limousine approached the gas station and the girl said, "Darn! They found me!"

A man exited the car and looked… like Takumi!

She looked at Takumi and looked away blushing and murmured to herself, "That idiot! Not only did he bring my manager but he also made me look like a fool! Grr!"

In embarrassment, she bowed and apologized and ran towards the limousine pushed Keichiro inside and the limousine just drove away.

Takumi was still left clueless and confused.

"Who was that?" Someone asked from behind.

"Oh. Hi Iketani! It's you. I don't know why, but that girl slapped me with absolutely no reason!" He replied to Iketani.

"Hi guys. I couldn't stop to overhear about that girl… The Japan Grand Tennis Championships just ended, right?"

"I'm not fond of tennis, Kenji." Iketani replied.

He just chuckled and said, "Well… That girl must have taken her stress out on you, she's Kilara Azotome, won second place in the tourney."

"If she won second place, why would she be stressed about it?" Takumi replied.

"No one knows. Anyway, Takumi, why did you come back to Akina?" Iketani asked.

"Oh. Project D is taking a break and I don't know what the others were doing. And of course, I wanted to drop by and check on you guys." Takumi said.

"By the way, have you seen Itsuki? We never saw him ever since of his dilemma with Kazumi." Iketani asked.

"No. But I'm sure he's okay. By the way, have you seen Natsuki?" Takumi said.

"We saw her entering a WRX STI with a sticker with 'YM Speed' on it, then we never saw the car again." Kenji said.

Takumi kept silent…

"Oh, thanks. I just… remembered… I need to do some deliveries… Thanks, guys!" Takumi said while entering his 86.

"Sure, anytime, Takumi." Iketani said while waving goodbye then the Trueno drove off.

"What's his problem?" Kenji seemed curious.

"It's about Natsuki, I guess. He's worrying that what happened when she was about to get kidnapped may happen again." Iketani seemed to be right.

"How did you know that?" Kenji asked.

"Experiences." He said with a smile on his face.

"Don't tell me…" Kenji seemed to know what the 'experiences' where.

"Yup. I'm seeing her again…"

Ring!

"Hello. Mako here."

"Hi, Mako. It's me Sayuki."

"Oh, hi!"

"So… how was your date?"

"It was so fun! He is so adorable!"

"Sounds good! I didn't think he didn't have the guts to even ask you out! Tell me more!"

"Just wait a little, Sayuki. I'm heading home anyway. By the way, did you find our opponents for tomorrow?"

"Unfortunately, no. Sorry…"

"It's ok. Well, see you later Sayuki!"

"Sure! Tell me about your date later! Bye!"

"Ok. Bye!"

Beep.

She looked at the bouquet of roses by her and looked at the wonderful sunset and remembered him as the autumn leaves fell gently on the road.

"I definitely can't tune my car to above 600 in a week or so. Perhaps we should borrow one instead." Ryosuke asked Yamamoto.

"Maybe. You can use one of our project cars in the garage, come here and take a look." Yamamoto replied.

The three entered the garage and Yamamoto introduced his self-esteemed cars. "You've got the ER33 Skyline, we removed the excessive grip and tuned it to a drifting machine. Here's another drifter, the MR2. Both cars are still around 450 and believe me, son, you can't tune a car so fast in a week… Unless, of course, you have the funds."

"I think I can somehow arrange that. But, can you tune rotaries?" Ryosuke asked.

"Not my forte, kid. I have a friend though that's got the Midas hand with rotaries." Yamamoto said.

"I know that guy. He's Uncle Ota, right?" Fuhimiro said.

"Right. He may be willing to tune your car. Just tell him what you're planning to do." Yamamoto said.

"That's good. It's not my car though."

"Hey, Nobuhiko. Did you find them?" Sakamoto asked.

Nobuhiko was silent looking out at the mountain view.

Sakamoto snapped his fingers saying, "Hey, you ok?"

"Yeah. I am. And no, I didn't find them." Nobuhiko finally replied.

"Well, in other news, I saw a pretty chic racing down the mountains." Sakamoto said.

"Was she driving a blue Sil80?" Nobuhiko asked.

"Umm… I think so…" Sakamoto replied.

He grinned and said, "That's her."

"What! That's so stupid of me! Well, no matter. We're just a call away and we could start tonight."

"Akiyama hasn't practiced yet."

"Where is he anyway?"

"Hey… Kazumi…"

"What is it, bro?"

Wataru asked, "Do you remember that guy from Akina?"

She was silent but decided to reply honestly, "Itsuki…"

It hit her with a striking pierce.

"Oh, by the way. When is your boyfriend coming here? I just fixed up his car."

"Speaking of cars, don't you have a race today? You have to practice…"

"I thought of a different way to train myself instead of normally running the course. Anyway, feel free to go anywhere. Just call. I'll be back at maybe… 4 am or so."

"Sure, bro. Good luck and take care."

And with that, the second race will start.

Project Drift.

These words were written on the back mirror of the MR2 project car.

"I've never driven a car like this in a while." Ryosuke said as he ran the new belt line at a looming 280 km/h.

Vroom!

He looked at his rear view mirror and saw a challenge. It was a white Lancer Evolution VI. He looked at the list Yamamoto prepared and he read:

Third Tier

MakiKamiya, Evo VI.

The white car flashed his lights and seemed to want a race. A certain location in the navigation map seemed to call him,

C1.

End of Chapter 6.

Happy Holidays to you all!