Chapter 7
"Twists and turns"
"I wonder how she is…" That single lingering thought brought her to Natsuki's place, where she's always alone, every time she goes home.
"Thanks for the date, Takumi! I loved it!"
"Ah, don't mention it; it's like just hanging out with the guys, well except the others, of course."
"Darn, I forgot my key!"
"Do you even really forget it?"
"What do you think? I'm not that stupid!"
"Yeah, you aren't that stupid. You remembered to put it under the mat."
"Shut up and stop teasing, I have it."
Takumi slowly flipped over the mat and took the key and unlocked the door, leading inside… and inside Natuski as well.
"Your friend's out on the highway tonight." Yamamoto bluntly said.
"Yeah, Ryosuke's out tonight. Why?" He seemed curious.
Out of the ordinary, he said, "Get some tea ready."
"Huh?" Fuhimiro suddenly became confused.
"Today's Friday the 13th." He replied with a grin.
"You're not superstitious."
The veteran tuner quickly brought the point, "Today's when the Blackbird strikes hardest. Nobody has beaten him on this day, his day. Not even the Z and R."
"Okay, listen up. They'll be racing in one car on both races, and they'll be together in both races. Wataru's first, Sakamoto's second. Sudden death, stay sharp." Nobuhiko explained.
"Great, let's saddle up fast and go! I still have agendas!" Sakamoto arrogantly said.
"Come here." Nobuhiko commanded.
Sakamoto approached opened his door and listened to the 'wisdom' Nobuhiko may give.
"I've been watching Wataru; he's stepping up as our top gun." Nobuhiko seemed to taunt Sakamoto.
"So?"
"Be serious!" Nobuhiko exclaimed then continued, "If one of you doesn't keep up with each other, we'll fall apart. Have you even thought of a strategy?"
"Yeah, the light weight play and shadow for an emergency." He replied calmly despite the tension.
He left this lingering thought, "Good. Remember the rain."
"…"
"Poor Itsuki, I wonder where he is."
"Well, Kenji, he's probably still moping, after all, he put so much faith on her."
"Nah, you know that idiot. Gets hit by a truck, he'll laugh it off in seconds."
Kenji and Iketani giggled at the joke then suddenly, a black Mercedes stopped over, probably for gas.
A rather statuesque man exited the car and you'll be surprised when he said,
"Hi, guys!" The man greeted.
While Iketani was tending the Mercedes, Kenji looked left, right, back and said "Who? Me?"
The guy laughed in a strange yet familiar way, "Heh hehe heh hehe"
With that Kenji realized it was…"
"The 'lesser' Kamiya brother, third tier. Let's end this quick." Ryosuke thought confidently.
As they neared one of the most difficult places in C1, Ryosuke was confused when he saw the white Evo suddenly back out.
He suddenly felt an intense chill and a racing heartbeat, since in a second; the legend appeared in his rear view mirror.
Ryosuke fought back by turning up his pace, and preparing for the upcoming chicane.
The driver seemed to be impressed, by Ryosuke's courage, and confident in his 'futility', he expressed these in a grin. The newcomer stood his ground, rather irregular of him maybe since of an aura of fear shrouded the track.
The raven-colored car roared pacing up the pressure.
All this is happening in a matter of seconds.
Both cars ran the chicane in an inertia drift, letting their cars weight and movement do the speed reduction. They shifted down at the exit and Ryosuke still kept lead but lost about two meters of precious advantage.
The result was apparent.
Wataru opened his window and greeted the duo, "I'm Wataru Akiyama, and may the best man win."
"It looks like we have a chauvinist opponent here. Anyway, I'm the navigator for this race, Sayuki and the driver for this race is Mako." Sayuki did all of the talking.
"Don't get me wrong, 'man' is collective. Good luck, anyway." Wataru cleverly replied.
Sayuki ended the conversation, "You too."
They shut their windows and restarted their ignitions.
"Three"
"Two"
"One"
"GO!"
"ITSUKI? IS THAT YOU?" Kenji was absolutely surprised, who wouldn't be? It was absolutely out of the ordinary, beyond that; it was like the world turned upside down!
He had his hair cut shorter and fixed it neatly. He probably got a facial, since all the zits left on his face were gone. He wore a navy blue coat and a white polo under it, and khaki pants and suede shoes. It was a transition from the simple guy-next-door look to a metrosex socialite look.
"HehEhe! Of course, it's me! You couldn't tell it' me because of the threads!"
Iketani probably overheard it and just kept his jaw wide open in awe.
If that wasn't enough to surprise you, the driver of the car exited. It was Kilara, The guy who slapped Takumi in a misunderstanding.
She wore a sleekred dress, showing enough skin and cleavage to make any man drool. Even in this, she kept her good level of poise.
Strange things wouldn't stop happening, the surprises were too head-turning for him to handle, so he just fainted!
The next chicane was approaching, quite sharper and dangerous than the last one.
Ryosuke knew what to do; he needed to gain more advantage, with him in one piece.
His opponent knew what to do, possibly better.
He ran the first part of the chicane the same way he did the last one.
As the tension dropped, the opposing car roared, louder that the last one. You could probably tell that he was probably pacing in the last corner.
Ryosuke flinched; he failed to concentrate on the corner, he felt the burning black flame from the raven car. He let the throttle go just to atone for the mistake.
Panic ran through his fear-stiff hands as he saw the blackPorsche 3.8RSblurring away from his view.
A mid-wall was approaching. Ryosuke did his best to maintain his concentration.
The fear hadn't totally worn off yet, he drove too close to the wall and had his left side mirror torn off.
The next corner was dangerous. It was a chicane with a mid-wall. You'd either bump the side of the road, go without a scratch or be in a perilous, high-speed accident. Either way, he lost it, it was a fact. The blackRS had 50m advantage and gaining.
He had to continue.
Wataru ran way up his par at an early part of the race. He was pressuring the two, 'informing' them of his speed by slightly bopping the car. However, the deep blue Sil80 kept blocking the way in the consecutive twist and turns of Usui.
In the next corner, Wataru was shocked to be greeted by about 10m disadvantage. After a few corners, they'll be approaching the most advantageous part of the course for the Sil80; he needed to overtake in the next 'few corners'.
The fate would probably be…
It's now…
Or never…
End of Chapter 7
Note:
Hi! I'm sorry for the long hiatus but here it is, at last!
Thanks for the people in the forums for the good tips and explanations as well as faithful readers (especially Arisa) and the people who have found the time to read my fic.
Thank you also to Wiseman's criticisms, I now corrected some aspects of the fic such as using the manga Blackbird (Porsche) rather than the arcade one and confusing Eiji Kamiya for Maki Kamiya.
To Wiseman, if you may recall, since his RX7 is not tuned for highway races, he temporarily.borrowed a project car from YM Speed. As for the souped-up rotaries... you guess...
Thanks again!