Part one, The date:
Sweeper had checked out the house Chang had provided and it was perfect, Koji had read his true tastes like an open book and with the knowledge Chang had gathered on him from all their encounters it was clear that Sweeper would need to change a few things if he didn't like to be read like an open book by his enemies.
But even though the house was impressive, Sweeper was only waiting for someone special that night.
He sat down on the couch for a while and seconds felt like hours but when he heard tire squelling and a loud Honda engine he knew that the wait was over.
Quickly snatching the jacket and running out the door to see a woman behind the wheel of a yellow NSX.
"I told you I was coming over to pick you up didn't I?" Sakura said with smile.
Sweeper's response was simple, he opened the passenger door and got into the car.
After Sweeper had closed the door and buckled up in the bucket seat, Sakura slammed on the gas and quickly got the car up to speed down the street.
"So what kind of food do you like? Chinese? classic Japanese? European? Mexican?" Sakura asked Sweeper as she dived through and intersection at a high speed.
"Whatever you prefer really, I usually tended to stick to military rations you know, that's what I eat most of the year weather it is russian or american. Although the russian tastes crap you still got to eat it. HEY Sakura, do you mind taking it a little more slowly!" Sweeper screamed out as Sakura dodged a car at a high speed.
"I thought you didn't mind a little crazy driving?" Sakura asked.
"There is a difference between race speeds and COMMUTING speeds!" Sweeper replied.
"Ok then, I will take it a little easier then." Sakura said and let off the gas and slowed down.
"But back onto the subject, I am sorry but I do not know where to get military rations if that's what you prefer." Sakura said.
"It is not like I prefer them, I don't know much about other types of dishes, aw well since I cannot get a certain black Skyline out of my head let's go with mexican food tonight." Sweeper said with a smile.
Sakura replied with a laughter as she knew Sweeper were talking of Carlos.
The two rivals that had a hard time forgetting each other, weather it was race or friendship based.
"That is not a problem at all, I know of just the right place for that tonight." Sakura said.
Sweeper and Sakura didn't say a whole lot on the trip to mexican restaurant, but Sakura had been preparing a whole batch of questions for her new love.
After all there was quite a few things that Chang would not tell her no matter how much she asked and in the end he had said: "If you really want to know, ask him yourself".
Sakura quickly got a table for the two and they sat down, the waiter didn't use a lot of time to show up and ask what the two wanted to drink as she handed the two their dining chart's.
"I am driving so give me some mineral water, a cola or something like that for a drink" Sakura said.
"Well I stay off the alcohol of... umm personal reasons, I'll take the same." Sweeper replied.
The waiter went to fetch the drinks while Sweeper and Sakura were digging into the menu to see what they would want.
"No alcohol for personal reasons? Care to tell me?" Sakura asked.
"Well it is nothing really, it is a rule that I have been living by since I got into my current type of career. And it is a rule that has made a lot of employers surprised but at the same time happy. Because they know that I am reliable and do not skip them out for a bottle when I feel like it." Sweeper replied without looking up from the chart.
"What is all of this? This is so cryptic it might as well have been high level maths!" Sweeper said pointing at a few things on the menu.
"Don't tell me you have NEVER heard words like Taco, and Nachos before?" Sakura asked with a shocked look.
"Of course not, those are not common military issue you know, they PROBABLY do not come in tin cans!" Sweeper replied with a smile.
Sakura started laughing as it was clear that when it came to cooking Sweeper tended to stick to things on tin cans.
"What is so funny with that?" Sweeper asked.
"If we ever are to have a child, I am going to feel sorry for it. Raised on army rations the moment it gets off the bottle, man I know for sure that I am not going to let you do the cooking as green as you are in that field!" Sakura said while partly laughing.
"Heh! It got its traits you know, can be stored for years with no problems at all." Sweeper said and smiled while blinking his left eye.
The talk of army rations was interrupted as the waiter delivered the drinks and it was time to take the order.
"Have you decided on what you want Sweeper?" Sakura asked.
"Like I said, this menu is cryptic to me." Sweeper said folding his chart together.
"Allright then, then I believe this will be right for you." Sakura said to Sweeper before turning to the waiter "Give me the Nr 5 nacho's and 2 of the big Taco meals you have listed as nr 3." Sakura gave the order and the waiter did her notes and walked away.
"Nachos, what in gods name is that?" Sweeper asked.
"You will see, it is pretty tasty you know." Sakura said with a smile.
"I got a few questions for you while we wait for this meal to arrive, do you mind answering them?" Sakura asked Sweeper.
"This an interview and not a date? Heh, of course I will answer them unless you are asking for classified information." Sweeper replied with a smile.
"I have allways wondered what your real name is, your parents never named you Sweeper now did they?" Sakura asked.
"Aw damn, I knew that you would ask that question, yes my parents never gave me that name. It came with the territory after 3 years on the battlefield I was known to allways do a clean table when it came to enemies. And in the buisness the nickname is what people remember mostly and not your real name, so to keep my reputation and to keep assassins from making out my real name and address I tend to stick to the nickname. However just for you I suppose I can tell you my name, it is John Hellman although I have several others that I have used as aliases up through the years." Sweeper replied.
"So it is John eh? And you stick to your nickname for friends as well?" Sakura asked.
"Yeah and keep that tone low, I don't want a lot of people to know it. And yes I tend to keep it a little secret for friends as well, if my enemies were to catch them they wouldn't know it and that makes them less attractive targets for them." Sweeper hushed down on Sakura.
"Ok, McClintock also told me you had earned that commander title as well? Where did that come from?" Sakura was really on the offensive.
"That commander part... Well it is a joke that goes around, I never earned the title officially it is just something a few people in the buisness calls me and I don't really want to elaborate more on that now." Sweeper said and stopped as he remembered things.
"Why did you leave America in the first place back then and move to a lower class country like Turkey?" Sakura tried to press on a bit.
"Well after I was done with the US Army I really had no other buisness to turn to rather than what I allready knew. And that was fighting with a firearm on a battlefield carrying out orders and making the shots count. So I decided to get into the mercenary buisness which is quite lucrative if you are good enough. The main market was and still is in Turkey so that is where the biggest concentration of mercenaries are. I moved over there, settled in and have been there ever since." Sweeper said with a smile.
"What about the racing career of yours? Where did that start?" Jane asked.
"THAT is a really long story that will take quite a few hours maybe even days to tell. But the short version is that it started at the end of my army career with an M1A1 Abrams and it has moved on to a RX-7. Longer version involves that there was some downtime between jobs in the turkish mercenary market so to keep myself occupied I picked up racing, I purchased a Pontiac Trans Am as that was the only great car I knew of back then. I raced it on the streets and on a few race events but it was really clear that mr understeer was bugging me, I ended up gaining a lot of valuable car knowledge and purchased a Porsche 911, it was an ok car to drive at first but I had problems keeping up with others, in one race I ended up overspeeding into a corner and slamming into a stone wall and that was the end for that Porsche. I then went back to the Trans Am again that had recieved a lot of upgrades and had gotten slightly better in corners, but it was pretty awful to drive and racing wasn't so much fun. I drove that car in the first round of the World Cup and before I met Carlos.
I then heard a lot of praise for japanese cars and I went out and purchased a Nissan Skyline R34 GT-R Vspec in Bayside blue, it was better than the Trans Am but it wasn't what I was looking for so I ended up selling it to McClintock who was driving a R31 GTS-R at that time and he had a lot of interrest in imports from Japan.
That was when I ran into Jane after that sale, she told me to try the rotary route and I shelled out for a used model of the Mazda RX-7 Type RS from 1998, a series 8 RX-7 and that day changed my life forever since the first drive in that car. The 7 turned when I wanted it to, it took corners beutifully and it was a car I could drive seriously with no issues. And I am still sticking to that car even now as you know." When Sweeper was done with the story the Nacho's had arrived on the table.
"Interresting story." Sakura said and grabbed a Nacho and noted that Sweeper was observing her.
"So this is Nacho's? Looks fairly tasty." Sweeper said and gribbed a piece from the plate.
Sakura watched Sweeper put in the Nachos and she was tense if it was something he would like.
Even though Sweeper didn't say anything, the act of taking more from the plate and the increased speed as well as the facial expression clearly told the tale on it's own.
You didn't have be an expert to see that he liked the taste of it.
"This sure beats army rations by far... A lot of taste in these." Sweeper barely got out of his mouth before he put more Nachos in there.
Sakura replied with a slight laughter, seems like Koji had been correct when he sometime in the past had said: "The perfect man for you would be somebody just as crazy as you."
Even though Koji was done with the whole acting in front of ladies thing he still knew a few things about it.
And the friendly relationship that had been developed within Team Venom made it possible for Koji to share his knowledge on relationships with the rest of the crew.
Team Venom had indeed been a few great years, but it hadn't allways been good times, the worst was the R33 GT-R race where the driver died.
That would be a day Sakura or any of the team would never forget, only the ex member Sinjo would forget it.
The Nacho's disappeared quickly and it didn't take long before the Taco's arrived on the table and Sweeper was clearly puzzled at the shells.
He watched Sakura pick it up from the plate and squished so it collapsed on the bottom centre and then she started eating it.
Sweeper followed suit shortly afterwards and it was still very tasty.
"I think I'll do the cooking, or else all I can expect is army rations on tin cans when I get home from work or some take out." Sakura said with a smile.
"Or a mess at the kitchen that would probably involve the police and the fire department..." Sweeper continiued the joke and both of them bursted out in laughter.
The newly brought together couple finished their meals and headed home to spend the rest of the evening together.
It was a splendid evening for the both of them, and perhaps the perfect woman for Sweeper in the end?
That is a question that will have to be unanswered for now.
Part two, the others:
Project S had ended after the race on Akina and Project S came out on the top like Project D.
But unlike Project D, Project S had never betted on being a permanent racing team, the trucks and drivers were never friends of the drivers or organizers like Project D so any chances of putting Project S back together after disbandment wasn't very likely.
They had come, they had proven themselves and now it was all ready for the marketers to take over.
Keiichi went back to his tuning garage like Jane did and the times that came prooved to be booming for them.
A lot of people wanted the same parts that those who put themselves on par with Project D used.
However some parts never went public like Sweeper's 4WD system, it was too unique to be sold out, however the early 4WD differentials were being sold by Jane.
Not nearly the same performance but it gave the FD drivers that wanted 4WD an ok system to an ok price.
Jane profitted greatly on the rotary market, after all her shop had specialized themselves on rotary parts and she was recognized for her special parts for rotary engines.
Strenghtened rotor housings and things like that was what Jane knew the best, pushing as much power as possible out of a rotary engine, that was Jane's speciality.
Carlos on the other hand had to return home since the World Cup had now become increasingly popular compared to before and with all the newcomers and the tougher competion in the GT-Unlimited class it was time to think new and more power.
But his plan was clear and it was time to revise the RB26 route, time to go the reinforced route and get bigger turbines.
When the World Cup gets tough, it gets more dangerous and the next season would be for the true unlimited machines to show themselves, for the upcoming season with the passes NOBODY would bring their high powered cars.
Because in some situations the power you had used on the street and on the tracks were not suited for the Touge.
Wide gearing, lots of torque and the increased tire wear were all factors that would put high powered machines last, the key to winning was having the proper amount of correct engine power and knowing the cars balance point.
Sweeper had been crazy to do the high powered route against Keisuke once, it would work against drivers of that calibre but if you were to face crazy people like Carlos or others with the correct configuration then you would be in deep trouble.
Carlos and Sweeper knew this and that's and for them Project S had allowed them to test run their machines and fine tune their mountain pass configurations.
One new rule to the World Cup on the Touge was added after the season had been proposed, the classes would disappear for the passes.
Due to the detuning that was a clear thing between all the racers that semmed to meet at a somewhat similar power level.
McClintock headed home with his new tuning information and was preparing for the upcoming World Cup season with the mountain passes, it was time for him to start frequenting his own local mountain pass and figure out the final tuning for the suspension.
For Chang it was a busy time ahead as well, he was going to reunite the Team Venom again and were preparing his own expedition to finish what he had started two years ago.
Project S had had taught him that the R33 guy's accident wasn't his fault and Chang had finally gotten back his love for the passes the again and now it was time to meet up with the team for racing again.
After all he had laid plans for taking back the title as "Tokyo's fastest" again, and that plan was pretty wet from rain...
The End!
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Final author notes: This is it, I don't know how many of you have been reading this story but now it is finally complete and in record time as well.
I suppose the boredom in Spain gave me a lot of time and inspiration to write this story to the end, and from the Epilouge I am sure some of you can see some new ideas for stories that is coming up.
I would especially like to thank SouthSideSlider, Outlaw02, Nismodrifter Rossriders, and a few more that my memory fails me on.
And finally a big thanks to all of you out there who took time to read this 26 chapter long story that is probably going to be longest on the record for a long time.
I could finalize this by rambling a little which I think I will do, looking back at when this was born and how stupid it sounded at first I must say it really tuned out well.
But that is not the main part that I am looking back at, it is the time I have invested in this project, time and research.
However the research is basically something I did not for the story but to stir my own curiosity for how the physics in cars works and stuff like that, and to think that I was one of those that hated physics in school? UNBELIEVABLE!
Even though I have ALMOST spent half a year to 1/4 of a year on this, that doesn't mean that I am planning on quitting all of this, I am going to manufacture a few more, weather I will match Project S's 26 chapters is a totally different story.
Contrary to other authors here, I do not ask for reviews on my stories, if you want you can leave one but for this story I have never really bothered with them so to speak, and I doubt I will be putting the "Please R&R" tag in my chapters anytime soon.
As a summary I might add that for ID music knowers I am currently listening to Wain L, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, the same song that is played during the first race between Takumi and Sudou Kyoichi.
I feel it is a suiting song when it comes to wrapping up this story, and like they said in the movie "Mr and Mrs Smith" when you are at the end, you start thinking about the beginning.
Again, THANKS EVERYONE.