Chapter 12: Meet some old buddies of mine

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Later that night it was off to Chang's nightclub, this night Chang had promised something special for Sweeper, Carlos and McClintock.
This time they had gotten a very large table, Sweeper looked around but there was nothing new, so he turned towards Chang again.

"I don't see anything special here, what was it you promised us?" Sweeper asked.

"They must be running late tonight, I thought you would like to meet them." Chang replied.

"Meet who? Who are you talking about?" Sweeper asked.

"I doubt you have met them before, well I invited all of them, EXCEPT one person, which I am sure you already know of Sweeper." Chang replied.

Just then they heard a familiar engine sounds, they came from the 3179cc Honda engine, an engine that came equipped in the Honda NSX.
The NSX' found a parking spot and the engines died down, shortly after 3 persons came through the door.

"Hey, over here!" Chang shouted out while waving at them.

The 3 persons got down by the table and Chang talked briefly with them on Japanese.
One of them didn't look Japanese but he understood and spoke the language fairly well.

"Meet some old buddies of mine; this is Koji Tashiro, Sam Walker and finally Sakura Tanaka. They are or perhaps were members of my NSX team that we ran back then." Chang said with some pride in his voice.

"That's not entirely correct, we never disbanded the team officially, we just stopped racing together after that incident. We went on our own business after that." Koji said.

"I didn't know of any female NSX drivers." Carlos said while looking at Sakura.

"Don't get any ideas there mister!" Sakura replied with a sharp voice.

"Oh and before I forget, may I introduce you guys to my friends here. This is Carlos, better known as "Speedy Gonzales" or Brazil's fastest." Chang said while pointing at Carlos.

"This is McClintock, he is pretty fast too. His first name is actually Bain, but he prefers going by just McClintock so please call him that." Chang pointed at McClintock.

"This is probably a guy that is most known for his reckless driving and will to conquer titles. This man is perhaps a guy you can call a rotary specialist. He goes by the call sign of Sweeper; don't ask me why he prefers that over his real name, but that is him though." Carlos pointed at Sweeper.

"Let's not go over the top on reckless driving part there. There may be someone here that may beat me in that area!" Sweeper turned towards Carlos.

Carlos responded with a loud laughter, the rest of the table quickly followed suit.

"Finally Team Venom is gathered again, though we are now just 4 and not 5." Chang said.

"What happened to the fifth member?" McClintock asked.

"Seriously you need to pay more attention McClintock, anyways; the fifth member was Sinjo. He was responsible for the death of a racer on a mountain pass. That was the incident that made Chang retire from mountain pass racing." Sweeper said.

"That night will forever be carved into my mind." Sakura said while looking down on the table.

"Yeah it was awful, I came to the site after the crash and it sure wasn't a pretty sight." Sam said with his American accent.

"If there is one guy in the world that is truly evil it is Sinjo. He was actually smiling, even after he got the message of the R33 driver's death. I swear if I ever see that bastard again, I will run him off a cliff!" Koji said with anger in his voice.

"How did Sinjo get involved in the R33's crash? I mean, what did he do?" McClintock asked.

"Sinjo is an evil man with a love for brake sabotage." Koji replied.

"To be more specific, he has a lot of these remote controlled valves. He installs the valve onto the brake lines when the car is unwatched, so that during the race, all he has to do is press a button on a remote and it is bye, bye brakes. After the crash he removes the valve and makes it look like an ordinary incident of reckless driving. Clever way to get away with murder and that man has no regret for what he does either." Chang finished with some regret in his voice.

"Didn't Chang hint that you Sweeper ran into this Sinjo guy as well?" Carlos asked.

"Yes I ran into him, and it costed me FD repairs as well." Sweeper started.

"What did he do?" Koji asked.

"Well his usual brake sabotage, luckily I noticed it early because I accidentally touched the brake pedal on a straight and it felt rather soft. Depressing it I noticed the brakes were really out of order. I managed to dump a lot speed in other methods though, actively engine braking and using the handbrake so I managed to minimize the crash damage, however it still costed me a new front rotor housing, hood, front bumper, headlights and front fenders with accessories." Sweeper said.

"When did this happen? Why didn't you tell me?" Carlos got all fired up.

"It is history; I didn't really think it was necessary to tell you such things." Sweeper replied.

"If you had I would have put some of my boys on him and given him a lesson he wouldn't be likely to forget!" Carlos sputtered out.

"I could have done that myself if I wanted to, but anyways what is Sinjo doing these days?" Sweeper asked.

"I heard he was operating in the mountain passes near Tokyo, The pass near Kenji doesn't have any racers, and most do the Wangan in town rather than the pass anyways. So only the rejects like Sinjo heads over there. Last thing I heard was that Sinjo had joined forces with some guy called Norio Takeshi. Takeshi should be a perfect match for Sinjo though." Chang said.

"Norio Takeshi, I know of him, he loves tail tapping other cars when racing. Last thing I heard was that he had gotten a carbon fibre mod to his white Supra, but he has a metal front bumper, since he doesn't want the carbon fibre shattering every time he tail taps an opponent." Sam said while describing the tail tapping with hand movements.

"The funny part about those guys is their team's name. They are known as the unknown team since they change their name so often that nobody keeps track of it. I bet that not even Norio or Sinjo knows what their teams name is. They have to do it to get racers to race, most local people know about the pass around Kenji's place and they know it is a dangerous place if you are a racer. They shy it like it carried the plague. Can't say I blame them, after all those two are really a pain in the butt to cope with, and the rest of their team mates are of the same class, racers that cannot be successful in either mountain pass racing or on the Wangan. Racer's that are despised or looked down upon due to nasty tactics used or if they have been thrown out of other teams." Sakura spoke softly.

"Well enough about Sinjo, let's change topic, what kind of cars do you guys drive?" Sam asked.

"I and McClintock both drive R34 GT-R's; I drive a Vspec 2 while he drives a regular Vspec. I have 2 engines that I use for different types of races." Carlos said.

"What kind of modifications have you done? If you have done any that is." Sam asked.

"It sure isn't stock for both us! My current engine that I use for the passes is a Mine's response config, around 600 HP or with some boost increases. My other engine is what I use for the streets. Total RB26DETT remake, 1500 horsepower, nothing is stock, not even the block is stock anymore, it have been remade in much more solid material to be reliable, costly but effective when it comes to claiming victory on the streets." Carlos spoke up with pride.

"My R34 runs a single turbo, actually the same turbo that Sweeper installed in the car when he owned it. I just changed some other parts, will change the rest of the machine as I plan to up the power for the streets though. To counter the lag from the turbo I rely on nitrous oxide, a very effective weapon on the Touge." McClintock spoke up.

"Single turbo eh? Sounds just like my NSX that." Sam said with great interest.

"You can talk about the single turbo afterwards, now I want to hear what the specialist has under the hood!" Sakura said annoyingly at Sam.

"Well, I run a two engine config like Carlos, both engines are 4 rotor ones. A 4 rotor NA with Peripheral Ports for the passes pushes out around 600 horses as well, but less torque than Carlos. My other engine is a 1200 HP monstrous 4 rotor engine, also peripheral ported, however it carries a turbo charger instead of being NA, twin turbos actually. I have done lots of modifications to that engine as well, one is the ports since it is not all PP like the 4 rotor NA, I like to call it variable port control, but it is actually very simple in design." Sweeper said while making hand motions describing rotary engines and how they work.

The 7 people kept talking of cars the rest of the evening; however in Akagi action was brewing.
The doorbell at the Takahashi residence rang and Keisuke went to open.
Outside he saw a familiar car and girl, it was Kyoko.

"Didn't I tell you to stay away from me?" Keisuke asked.

"That's not why I came…" Kyoko said lightly.

"No matter what it is, just leave." Keisuke replied with slight anger in his voice.

"I got to tell you something, it is about the blue FD." Kyoko said.

Keisuke froze in his tracks, the images of losing to the blue FD was still burned into his memory, the moments of him showing up the first time and drifting so close to him and the time when he passed him.
Things Keisuke wished never had happened, but at least it was another FD that beaten him and not some GT-R.

"Hey Keisuke, what are you hanging around in the door for?" Ryosuke came barging down the stairs, a quick peak through the door and Ryosuke noticed what was going on.

"Hey Keisuke, don't leave the woman out in the cold, invite her in." Ryosuke said to Keisuke.

"Yes Aniki." Keisuke opened the door and Kyoko entered.

As soon as Kyoko had taken off her Jacket and hung it up, Ryosuke gestured her to the coach.

"Want anything to drink?" Ryosuke asked.

"A glass of water would be nice." Kyoko replied, Ryosuke waved at Keisuke to go and fetch the glass of water.

Keisuke was clearly annoyed but he still did it.

"The blue FD driver wanted me to tell you that your mistakes have finally caught up with you Keisuke." Kyoko said.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Keisuke asked as he put the glass of water in front of Kyoko.

"They say that it was a blue FD that beat both you and Todou School. Do you know of any blue FD guys Keisuke?" Ryosuke asked.

"Only one that would give me a message like that and that is the only guy that has ever beaten me in a race, Sweeper!" Keisuke said annoyed.

"Ah that guy, the World Cup driver. If he is involved in these races I begin to wonder what they are up to. Certainly I would like to know more about the guys he races with, so far they have copied every race we have done up to now, crushing our times and opponents and a lot quicker than we did as well." Ryosuke said.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Keisuke asked.

"I can only make these cards rhyme one way, which is that the Project S team is coming for us, even their name is a rip-off from ours for some reason. You better get ready for another tough battle Keisuke, the toughest you will ever get. It is ok if it is just Sweeper on that team; it is really bad if they have filled it with World Cup professionals, if they have, then we are in deep trouble if they really are targeting us."

"My mistakes have caught up to me? Did he hint at the phone call I had with him?" Keisuke asked Kyoko.

"Yes he mentioned that as well. I am sorry, but this is what I came to tell you. I will be leaving now." Kyoko finished drinking up the glass of water and headed for the exit.

Keisuke followed her while Ryosuke kept pondering.
After Keisuke had sent her out the door, Keisuke went back to Ryosuke.

"Is it bad Aniki?" Keisuke asked.

"We need to know more, we need to find out where their next battle will be. And we need to head over there and get a look at who these guys really are." Ryosuke said.

"I'll check with some of the guys in the area, I will give you a call as soon as I know something." Keisuke said and grabbed his car keys.

"Ok Keisuke, I will call Fujiwara and inform him of what is going down." Ryosuke said and went for the phone.

Keisuke went out the door and started up his FD and drove off.

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Authors notes: You may see the "..." after each chapter when selecting, that is because I have to shorten the title slightly to fit within the limit amount of characters. The title will be pasted on the beginning of those documents, so you can get the full title without me having to change everything.