Programmed Lives - First Stage

Chapter Six

Finally! Keisuke thought seeing Akiko climbing into her 10AE. He had been rather surprised to see her choice of car. Oh well, if nothing else, at least she had good taste when it came to cars.

Keisuke was really upset with his brother. So, his super plan involved becoming friends with this girl? He had witnessed their overfriendly exchange by her car. Whatever next? A candle-lit dinner? Honestly, sometimes his elder brother could be so clueless… Thank goodness Keisuke had already decided he would take care of the situation himself.

For this reason, seeing his brother's FC leaving their house, Keisuke he had followed Ryosuke up to the coffee shop and, for this very same reason, he started his FD's engine to follow Akiko's Mazda.

Watching out for both the incoming traffic and for Ryosuke's FC (not a smart move getting caught by him now) he kept himself within a reasonable distance from Akiko's car. He didn't think Akiko had ever seen his car before but, just in case, he preferred to be cautious.

After just a few minutes, Akiko took a right hand turn and Keisuke followed suit. Seeing her destination he couldn't help himself but to smirk. The library. If this girl was any more of a nerd he'd give his FD up to Kenta.

Not wanting to waste time, he accelerated a bit so as to see where Akiko parked her car and, just as swiftly, he positioned his car on the right side of hers, effectively cutting her off as she climbed out of her Mazda.

Keisuke saw with an almost perverse pleasure that he had scared the hell out of her.

Without stopping the engine, Keisuke turned the hazard lights on and climbed out of the FD quickly enough as to not give her the chance of running away.

'Keisuke-san! You scared me!' Akiko exclaimed, clearly trying to catch her breath.

'I know,' he said and then, grabbing her left arm rather roughly, he pushed her against the side of her own car.

'What are…' she started.

'No, no, I'm doing the talking here. I just want you to listen, understood?' Keisuke said interrupting her.

With her eyes full of fear, she managed a short nod.

He hated himself for doing this, it was totally not his style scaring girls like that. Especially when the girl in question was so damned small, Keisuke knew that he could cause her quite a lot of pain with next to no effort. Thankfully for her, Keisuke wasn't one to go around hitting women. He just wanted to scare her and, so far, he had done a fabulous job.

'Good. Now, I've just seen you sharing a cosy coffee with my brother. What were you doing? Discussing wedding details?'

She shook her head no. Then Keisuke saw something snap in her for she snatched her arm off his grasp and then, trying to stand as tall as possible, failing miserably, she said with a very firm voice:

'No, we were actually doing the opposite. Your brother has just given me his complete assurance that he's going to take care of breaking off the engagement because, just so you know, neither of us is happy with this arrangement.'

'Oh, why is that? You think he's not good enough for you?' Keisuke asked rather viciously. He found himself to be very much astonished because he hadn't expected her to be able to stand up to him.

'No I…' she started still managing to keep a rather firm tone of voice.

'Of course not, because he is, in fact, way too good for you. He'd never be happy with such a, how should I put it? Plain-looking, nerdy little girl such as you,' Keisuke said and, again, was surprised to see that she seemed to remain completely undisturbed by his highly offensive words.

'If you're finished, do you think I could please go on to the library now?' Akiko said keeping her head up and her eyes firmly set on his.

'Sure, be my guest. Just as long as you stay away from my brother,' Keisuke said stepping away from her so as to let her pass. He had to give her credit for being able to keep her composure while facing him in his foulest state. Not very many people were able to do so and Keisuke found it almost admirable that this girl could.

Taking the chance given, Akiko walked past Keisuke and directed herself towards the library's entrance. After a few steps, she stopped, turned round and said:

'Just so you know, I wouldn't go anywhere near your brother nor you even if my life depended on it.'

Then she walked away from him going a wee bit faster than necessary, not giving him the chance for him to reply. Keisuke just shook his head. Well, at least he could now breathe easy. Even though this plain rejection of hers hurt a bit, he didn't give it a second thought. Keisuke was just comforted by the thought that his brother would remain with him. Even if it was just for a while longer, Keisuke still needed his brother's protection and guidance if he was ever to become a professional driver.

As he got back into his car, Keisuke realised just how very tired he was. He hadn't slept in almost twenty four hours and, unless he got back home and into his bed quickly, he would get to a point where he wouldn't even be able to drive safely.

While he drove back to Takasaki he thought of the previous night. Kyoko really was a nice girl. Keisuke couldn't remember being with a girl who made him feel so much at ease with himself. Maybe it was the fact that she also drove, and extremely well at that, an FD. Or the fact that, even though it was obvious she had feelings for him, she didn't quite worship him the way some of his previous girlfriends had done. In short, he enjoyed being with her.

It was true, he hadn't had a proper girlfriend since high school. The ones after that, during his gangster days, were more trophies than girlfriends. None of them had managed to make him feel what he supposed he had to feel in order to want to attach himself to a woman for the rest of his life.

Kyoko, however, was dangerously close to making him feel that way. Unfortunately for her, and for him, if he wanted to be honest, she couldn't have come into his life at a worst moment.

He really needed to focus on his racing career. Time had proven him more than once that if he even dreamed of taking things easy, Takumi Fujiwara would get ahead of him and beat him once again. That was something that, ever since that battle in Mt Akina, he had promised himself it would never happen.

He had a target, a target he shared with his brother: together, with Takumi's help, they would become the best street racing team in Japan. Then, he would start his career as a professional racer.

Only after that he would start thinking of having any romantic aspirations. A part of Keisuke secretly hoped that Kyoko would wait for that moment, although Keisuke was reluctant to admit that to himself, let alone anyone else.

'Oh enough of this nonsense!' he said aloud to no one in particular, 'Great, now I'm even talking to myself. Geez, I really need some sleep.'

He accelerated making his car go way over the speed limit. It was alright, he had already reached the part of the road that led home and he knew it like the back of his hand.

He had just parked his car next to the FC when he saw his older brother walk into the garage.

'At last!' that's all Ryosuke said as greeting to his younger brother.

Keisuke winced noticing the extremely worried look which could be seen on his brother's face.

'Aniki, I…' Keisuke started but he stopped speaking when Ryosuke put his right hand on Keisuke's left shoulder.

'It's okay. I'm just glad to see you're alright,' Ryosuke said, concern clearly imprinted in his voice.

'Why wouldn't I be?' Keisuke said puzzled.

'I don't know. I thought that…well, just forget it. I've just spoken to Akiko-chan. Things didn't go quite as I had planned but it'll be okay. I have already devised a plan B so, don't worry anymore about this. Now, I want you to focus for tonight.'

'Tonight?' Keisuke asked while, motioned by Ryosuke, both Takahashi brothers started walking back into the house.

'Yes. Remember we had to meet to discuss our future plans? I've re-scheduled it for tonight. I've already told everyone. So, now go, have a shower and get some sleep, okay?'

'Sure,' Keisuke said almost cheerfully. His brother was once again acting more like his usual self and they had a meeting tonight for the next race. Things were back to normal and Keisuke couldn't feel any happier.

He went back to the mess he called his room and, without not even bothering to undress, he threw himself onto his bed and fell asleep. His last coherent thought was that he'd have a shower whenever he woke up.

Meanwhile, Ryosuke walked back to his room, left the FC's key on his desk and, as he walked to his father's studio, Ryosuke prepared himself for the speech he'd have to give to him.

Ryosuke swallowed once and knocked on the door of his father's studio twice. He opened the door after hearing his father's deep voice telling him to come in.

'Ryosuke, it's you,' he simply stated after having very briefly lift his eyes from some papers he was reading.

'Yes, father, it's me. I wonder if I could speak to you?'

'Sure, take a seat,' Ryosuke's father said motioning a hand to point one of the two chairs positioned in front of his desk.

'Is your brother back home yet?' his father asked suddenly just as Ryosuke was sitting down.

'Yes, he is, he's gone to sleep for a bit though,' Ryosuke replied.

'Oh well, I really don't know what's going to become of him,' Doctor Takahashi said shaking his head making Ryosuke feel rather annoyed.

'So, what do you want to speak to me about?' Ryosuke's father said both preventing him from saying anything to defend his brother and reminding him of the reason why he was there in the first place.

'Father, I've just spoken to Doctor Arakawa's daughter…'

'When?' his father's sharp tone startled Ryosuke.

'This morning. She called me because she wanted to speak to me and we've met briefly in Maebashi,' Ryosuke really hated his father for making him feel like a five year old. A word from him was enough to make Ryosuke explain himself to the smallest detail.

'She called you?' Sousuke asked in a tone of voice that implied nothing but disapproval.

'Yes, well, the thing is, Akiko-chan's got other plans, apparently she wants to go and work for a charity organisation in Africa but, the most important thing is that she really doesn't want to marry me and well, I have my pride father, I'm not going to marry someone who clearly doesn't want to marry me.'

'Ryosuke, son, you make it sound like you or Akiko-chan have got a choice in the matter. Don't you remember what I said yesterday?'

'Yes I do, father. If it's the license that's worrying you, I remembered this morning that there is someone I know from university whose father is a member of the parliament. I'm sure I could get him to speed up the process to grant us that license…'

'Really? What makes you think I don't have my own contacts? You do realise that it wasn't the license the only thing I was aiming for, don't you?' Ryosuke's father asked lifting both of his greying eyebrows.

'Well, I…' Ryosuke said but stopped after his father made a gesture with his hand.

'Unfortunately, I don't think the problem is the license here. You said Akiko-chan is planning on going to Africa?'

'Yes, she is,' Ryosuke said not really liking the way this conversation was going.

'Now, that's not what Arakawa had told me,' Doctor Takahashi commented more to himself than to Ryosuke.

'I…'

'Don't worry son, it seems to me like Arakawa's got an even bigger problem with his daughter than I have with your younger brother.'

This time Ryosuke didn't even bother to say anything. He sensed that it was better to let his father do the talking.

'In this case, I don't think I'd like you to marry this girl,' he finally sentenced after giving it a bit of a thought.

'You don't?' Ryosuke asked not hiding his surprise.

'Of course not. I don't think this family can cope with more than one troublemaker,' his father replied, 'I thought that Akiko-chan had been brought up a lot better than that. It's a good thing we've found out before the wedding…'

Ryosuke thought that this judgement was way too harsh but, for his own sake, he decided to remain quiet.

'Oh well. Ryosuke, leave it to me. You just concentrate on your studies.'

With this he returned his attention back to his papers signalling to Ryosuke that the conversation was over.

As Ryosuke got back to his room he couldn't feel but to think that, albeit the situation seemed to have been solved rather nicely, some indefinite sensation filled him with anxiety.

Pushing that feeling to the back of his mind, he turned his laptop on to start working on the data for Project D's next challenge.

To be continued…