Chapter 7: A New Classmate

-BGM: Dave Rodgers – Beat Of The Rising Sun-

The RX7 throws itself into a drift, and it's 50:50 weight distribution helped to balance the car when it drifts. It enters the hairpin more easily then the black car, being smaller and lower. Saniro maintains the angle, making sure that he counter steers the steering properly, knowing that a well-balanced car could be thrown off balance with a slight deviation of the angle. The RX7's nose almost touches the guardrail inside the apex, with Saniro taking the closest possible line. Participating in the autocrosses, which requires very precise handling, refines his skill in manoeuvring around small corners and hairpins. The mismatched wheels helped in lightening up the rear end, as the Advans are lighter than the BBSes. He cleared the hairpin, and prepares himself for the next one.

The black car is not about to give up that easily though. It also drifts though the hairpin, but with lesser angle compared to the RX7. This causes Saniro to suspect that this car is not an FR class car, guessing that it could be a front-driven vehicle or a 4WD. He does not pay much attention to the black car, knowing that concentrating too much on it could be disastrous, as he brakes again. Flames spit out from the Trust exhaust again. The front brake discs turns red, as he throws the RX7 into another drift with the same manoeuvre as before, only the opposite direction. The tail of the RX7 almost touches the guardrail before it was brought back to control. Saniro was thankful that the upgraded discs, taken from a RX7 Spirit R, helped.

The raindrops continue to fall on the road and the 2 cars racing. There was no traffic around Hakone at this time. The road becomes very wet, and it is starting to get really dangerous. Thankfully Hakone was not as complex compared to the other mountain passes, due to the fact that the amount of corners and turns are fewer than a typical mountain pass. The black car is still following right behind.

"That the heck is exactly that!" Saniro screamed as he wonders how the black car still managed to catch up to him.

After clearing a left turn, which both cars take easily, a sequence of turns comes up. The left-right-left turn is taken with ease, but the rain is making it hard for the RX7, as a rear-driven car will be at a severe disadvantage in the rain. Saniro goes a gear up, as the Greddy blow-off-valve lets out excess gases from the turbo plumbing. Saniro and the black car approach a hairpin, and he brakes hard and goes a gear down. He turns the steering hard into the turn, but as he does so, the RX7 begins to lose grip in the rear greatly. He tires hard to control the car, but it was already too late by then. The RX7 fishtailed, and the black car narrowly misses the RX7. As the black car passed him, Saniro was in for a surprise.

"What in the world is that!"

The black car was a sedan, with minimal badges. The front resembled that of a 90' Mitsubishi Galant, and so does the body. But the front badge bears a multi-pointed stars with a crescent below, in front of a triangular blue background. He could not see clearly how this car was modified due to the rain, but being able to catch up with him so quickly, it must be turbocharged. The rear end does not give any indication to anything, with only the words 'Perdana' on the centre and a 'V6' on one side. Saniro gasped in horror.

"That is a…Proton!" Saniro becomes very shocked at that.

Protons are cars made in Malaysia. Initially they're based on certain Mitsubishi models, mainly the Mirage, but that changed with the Waja, a 4-door sedan that is designed primarily in Malaysia. There was a few models, being the Wira sedan equivalent of the early 90's Mirage, the Satria hatchback equivalent of the Mirage hatchback, the Waja the late 90's Lancer, and among a few others. The Perdana was the flagship, equivalent to the Mitsubishi Galant Eterna (which it was based on) and the Honda Accord. All of the models are naturally aspirated, with the most powerful being the Satria Gti and the Perdana V6. The Satria uses a normally aspirated version of Mitsubishi's 4G93 engine, putting out about 140ps to the front wheels through a 5-speed manual. The Perdana V6 displaces about 150ps to the front wheels through a 4-speed automatic transmission from the normally aspirated 6A12 engine. It was adequate for cruising around, although most enthusiasts swap the engines for more powerful ones from Mitsubishi, since they are almost completely the same underneath, save for the fact that the 4WD systems from turbo Lancers cannot be transferred over, since the Mirage platform is a front-wheel only, thus having no space for the rear. Cutting out the floorpan to fit in one from a 4WD Lancer is a no-no under Malaysian laws. It was a different story for the Perdana, as the 4WD system from the early 90's Galants is a bolt on to the rear section, simply because there was space for it. What a nice touch by the engineers.

The Perdana misses the RX7 by an inch. It speed off, with the car releasing blow-off-valve noises that sound like a whistle.

-BGM fades-

"You sick cunt! Don't let me see you again!" Saniro screamed inside the RX7, as the Perdana already disappeared by then.

Saniro could hardly believe it. A 4-door sedan that is not rear-wheel drive overtook him. Plus it was a car he has never seen in his entire life. For him, Protons are no more than renamed Mitsubishis, though he has never actually seen one, although he has heard of it from somewhere, and seen some Mitsubishis having front ends of Protons.

The RX7 stood still on the road, motionless. Saniro decides to turn back, and moved off in the opposite direction, knowing it was no use to try to find the black car.

--------------------

The black Proton Perdana parks itself on the roadside as night has fallen. A black figure got out of the car, and goes to the front of the car. He opens up the engine hood, to reveal a turbocharged engine with these words 'MITSUBISHI' and 'DOHC 16 VALVE'. A hand phone rings and the black figure proceeds to take it up.

"Yo, dude, how was the 4G63 of the Evo III doing in your Perdana?" the voice is heard on the receiver saying.

"Well, it works better than it was back in Malaysia. The weather here does help a lot. Already surprised an RX7 earlier in the day," the figure answers.

"Good to hear that. So, when are you starting school? It's not good to lag behind in studies you know?" the voice continued.

"Well, soon. Already sorted out accommodation now, guess I'll has to do boarding school, sort of."

"I see. Good that you get to grips with the nihongo before going there. Chat with you next time. Until then, selamat tinggal." The voice says, as the line is cut.

"Hmmm. It will be sure to be interesting here," the figure speaks to himself, as he closes the bonnet of the car, and walks back to inside the car, before driving it off to the exhaust making echoes.

--------------------

"What? Saniro got whipped by an unknown car 2 days ago in Hakone?" Kyo remarked.

"Yup, it's true. He told me it was a black Proton Perdana V6," Shun, who is driving Kyo's Skyline, replied.

"Proton Perdana, what is that?" Kyo become surprised, since he has never heard of a company by the name Proton in his entire life.

"Well, short to say, it's a retagged Mitsubishi Eterna, made in Malaysia. Heard from him it was turbocharged," Shun says. "Well, it's best to remain low for now, since no one knows exactly anything about the car." "Plus my Chaser is not done yet."

As the chat on, a sound of a turbocharged car is heard from behind. It was the black 4-door sedan. The car passed Kyo's Skyline. They look at the car and see the 'Perdana' and 'V6' badge. They gasped in horror, as they have never expected that car to appear in Mahora in the first place.

"That's the car!" Shun remarked. "Kyo, be prepared for some chase."

"Erm…what the…" Kyo could not finish as Shun pushes the lever down to go down to a lower gear.

As they close in to the Perdana, the traffic light at the crossroad ahead turned to yellow. The black Perdana goes faster, and passed through the crossroad just in time before the lights turn red. The slower Skyline could not catch up, and Shun has no choice but to stop the Skyline as the traffic lights has already turn red.

"Crap, lose him," Shun says, disappointed at the fact.

"That thing was sure bloody fast," Kyo remarked.

They drive on to the academy grounds, where they head to the car park for cars belonging to students and teachers. As they turn in, they were surprised to see that the same car is there. After Shun parked the Skyline, they both take their things and got out of the car, and proceed to check out the Perdana, since they has literally never seen one in their entire life too. They looked on, and noticed it could be something that no one will dare to mess with. The lowered body has the silver 18-inch Advan RG 6-spokes wearing Dunlops, and hidden behind those are 4-pot brakes from a Mitsubishi GTO on the front and 2-pot ones from the same car at the rear. Shun was a bit surprised, because to his knowledge from a friend he made in the automotive forums, Protons use 4 lugs, and this Perdana has converted to 5 lugs. They have a hard time determining whether the car is really turbocharged or what as Saniro said, but Kyo spotted the extremely well hidden intercooler beneath the front bumper, which could be hardly seen, since it looks nothing more than a stock Perdana V6 to Shun. The exhaust shocked Shun, as he has never expected to see a HKS Hi-Power tip back there. They are left speechless, and decide to head to class before they are late. Shun begin to has a strange feeling about all this, as he have seen it somewhere before.

"Oh…my…God," Shun says to Kyo, who is surprised at Shun's expression.

"What's with the car?" Kyo asks his shocked friend.

"Nothing. Come on, we'll be late."

--------------------

Lessons begin in their homeroom teacher's subject, and their teacher, Daitokouji-sensei, makes an announcement.

"Class, we are having a new student here. His name is Ko Choo Tin, from Malaysia," he says, as he brings in a tall male teenager. The class applauded, except for 3 persons.

"WHAT!" Saniro, Shun and Kyo gasped in horror at the mention of 'Malaysia'. But for Shun, the name sounds familiar.

"Akimoto Shun, Watanabe Kyochirou, Yamamoto Saniro, what is that all about?" "By the way, he just moved in here to Japan from his home in Malaysia weeks ago. From today onwards, he will be a student of class 2-B, taking seat #16, taking over Yashirou Manaken who has left us last week to move to USA. Hopefully all of you can give him co-operation in helping him to suit to this new environment."

"Hi class, nice to meet all of you. Hope I has a good time here," the new student, sporting medium length black hair that is side parted and having a darker skin tone, speaks with a soft tone. "And I do hope I can learn a lot from you guys."

"Oh, you can sit on the seat there, Choo Tin," the teacher says as he points to the empty chair next to Shun.

He proceeds to take his bag and sits next to Shun. Shun feel a bit of fear inside him, as he could not believe that this could be the guy that actually defeated Saniro the other day. He then introduces himself,

"Erm, Ko Choo Tin, my name is Akimoto Shun. Nice to meet you around here," Shun says to Choo Tin.

"Oh, nice to meet you too, Shun-sama. You can call me KCT anyway, since I'm more comfortable with people calling me that," the student replied.

"No, Choo Tin-san sounds more appropriate." "No wait, do I think I has heard of you from somewhere before."

"Erm, what do you mean?" Choo Tin was surprised at that.

"Well, do you go to those Internet forums and such?" Shun asked.

"Let's see…I do hang out at the forums back in Malaysia. Has not been checking on that since I moved here." "Wanted to meet this guy that goes by the nickname frturbo here, who drives a Toyota Chaser now. What's you nickname there? I do hang out at the forums too! Wait, do you just mention frturbo?"

"Me? kct…yours?" Choo Tin replied.

"kct…it's you! I'm that frturbo!" Shun replied, as he was taken by surprise.

"What? It's a surprise to see you here!" "What a small world this is."

"So, that Perdana is the car you're talking about in the forums back then heh?" Shun asked the new student, who is actually someone he knew on the Internet.

They chatted on for almost the whole period, with Saniro and Kyo wondering what happened.

--------------------

This chapter is the 2nd part of the FD3S RX7 vs. the unknown black car, which is revealed to be a Malaysian-made Proton Perdana V6, a retagged Mitsubishi Eterna E54A. Except that the entire running gear including the 4WD system uses one from a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution III GSR.

Something will happen between the new student and a girl.

The BGM is to add to the atmosphere of the story, which will be using mostly Eurobeat music.