Programmed Lives - First Stage
Chapter Nine
For the second day in a row, Ryosuke found himself parking his FC at the Arakawa Hospital's car park. Even though he had made it with over fifteen minutes to spare, Akiko was already there waiting for him by her car. She had probably just finished the morning shift.
Ryosuke couldn't remember being this much nervous before. Not even during that first date with that girl in his first year of junior high when he had barely known anything about women.
He got off his car and walked towards her noticing that she seemed to be even more anxious than he did.
'Hi,' she said with a short wave of her hand.
'Hi,' he said feeling even more awkward.
A tense silence followed and they stared at each other. Then she did something that shocked him: she chuckled.
'What's so funny?' he asked feeling utterly confused.
'Nothing, is just that, here we are, in our first 'pretended' date, behaving as though as we were two teenagers in their first date ever.'
'Yes, you're right. It's rather silly, isn't it?' he said this time being his turn to laugh softly.
'Alright then, if we are to survive this with some dignity left, I propose we try to be more like our usual selves. What do you think?' she asked smiling.
'I agree,' he said finally allowing himself to breathe easy. Ryosuke decided that he had to try his best to enjoy the date, after all, it had all been his idea.
Just as he had decided the previous night, if during the next ten days they hadn't managed to feel the spark, at least they would have bought themselves some extra time to find an alternative solution to the problem.
Lost in his own thoughts, Ryosuke had not noticed that Akiko was waiting for him to get into her car. As they had agreed the previous day, Ryosuke climbed onto the driver's seat or at least tried for he knocked both of his knees against the steering wheel in a rather painful manner.
'Ooops, sorry, I think you should push the seat backwards. It's set for my height,' Akiko said and Ryosuke noticed she was making an effort not to laugh. Looking at himself he understood why: he was all cramped with his knees crushed between the wheel and his chest. He did look rather ridiculous so he couldn't help but laugh at himself while he felt with his hands under the seat trying to find the lever that would allow him to position the seat a lot further away from the wheel.
'Okay, that's much better,' he said once he found the right setting.
'Definitely. So, where are you taking me?' Akiko said while Ryosuke started the car's engine.
'There is a nice restaurant by the mountainside, I used to go there with my parents and I think you'll like it,' he explained. It had taken only a few seconds to assess that the car hadn't had any modification done to it. It felt odd driving a car that had not been tuned in any way. Just in case, he decided to be careful, after all he was driving an unknown car and it wasn't a good idea to push it more than the strictly necessary.
He incorporated himself to the incoming traffic and was surprised to see that the car's manoeuvrability was actually rather good.
'What do you think?' he heard Akiko ask.
'I like it. It feels a bit weird driving a smaller car.'
'Underpowered, you mean…' she said.
'No, that's not it, this car is rather powerful, if I'm not mistaken the 10AE does 0-100km in 8.4 seconds, a tenth of a second faster than the one point eight litre production engine, that's due to the tighter gear ratios. If driven properly, this is one hell of a sports car,' he explained.
He heard her gasp audibly.
'What?' he asked, wondering if he had said anything that had offended her.
'You know all of that by heart?' she asked not hiding her admiration and making him feel hot on his cheeks all over again.
'Er, yes. I'm sorry. I probably sound…'
'No, no. It's great! Seriously, like I said, I love cars but, I will never be able to store so much information about them in my head…'
'Ah, well, cars are, shall we say, my top interest at the moment,' he explained and, for the first time ever, he felt extremely proud of his extensive knowledge of the automotive field.
'I see. What will you do with that passion when you'll start working at the clinic?' she asked regretting it almost instantly for she saw that she had touched a sensitive fibre.
'I guess I'll have to quit the whole thing…' he said, his voice badly concealing the bitterness he felt.
'Why is that?' she asked.
'Why? Well, I've got to work very hard if I'm to take over the hospital. I can't possibly handle both things, can I? After all I have my duties as I'm the first born,' he said.
She didn't say anything for a bit, limiting herself to stare out of the car's window.
'This is so unfair,' she said after a while.
'What is?' he asked even though he already knew the answer.
'Our situation: you clearly love racing but you will not be allowed to pursue that aspect of your life because you need to take care of your family's hospital. I wanted to do so much more with my life but right now, the best I can do is to make a male heir and condemn him to take over my family's clinics. Sometimes I wonder what my life would have been like if my brother had actually been born.'
Ryosuke found his feelings on the subject to mirror hers. He had also considered many times what his life would have been like if Keisuke had been the older brother. Tsugumi would probably say that this was yet another thing they had in common…
'I'm sorry. Let's just not talk about this kind of things. Tell me more about your racing team,' she said.
He did, they spent the whole meal talking about Project D and about Keisuke's and Takumi's aspirations to become professional racers. Ryosuke also asked her to tell him about her time in England. When she did, she made him laugh explaining to him about all the mischief she had been up to while at boarding school.
Ryosuke really had trouble believing that a sweet looking girl such as Akiko would go around the whole building changing the time in all the school's clocks to skip a math's test that no-one wanted to do or escaping at night time to go to the town nearby.
They got to the end of the meal surprisingly quickly:
'Time flies when you have fun, huh?' she said almost jokingly while they made their way back to her car.
'It's been great, it's rare for me to feel so at ease with anybody,' he confessed agreeing with her.
'Er…thank you, I guess,' she said biting her lower lip and making them feel that the awkwardness was returning dangerously fast.
'How about that drive? Feeling up for it?' he asked.
'Sure, as long as you don't drive quite as fast as your Double Aces,' she said smiling again.
'Oh don't worry, I'll take it easy. Just want to see what this car can really do,' he said pointing at the blue 10AE.
'Okay, but try not to dent it, it is a limited edition,' she said warningly.
'Hey! Do you know who you're talking to?' he said with mock arrogance.
'I'm saying this because I think I know EXACTLY who I'm talking to,' she said laughing.
He laughed with her too as he climbed back into the car.
As soon as they were ready, he drove all the way to the bottom of the Mt Akagi course. Double checking for any incoming traffic, thankfully none at that time in the late afternoon, Ryosuke started driving uphill, doing his best to drift the car using just a single lane.
'Not bad, not bad,' muttered to himself, then added, 'I think I can do better though.'
He felt highly amused hearing a barely repressed gasp coming from the passenger's seat. It was odd, it had been a really long time since he had felt the need to show off to anyone. Something made him want to impress her.
They were coming up to one of the sharpest corners on the Mt Akagi course and, just as Ryosuke prepared himself to drift, he saw Akiko grabbing her seat with both hands.
'If it gets too much tell me, okay?' he said without removing his eyes from the road.
'Are you crazy? I love this! I didn't know my car could do any such things!' she exclaimed happily.
'Is that so? Well, time to get serious then,' he said and, just as he said that, he did a four wheel inertia drift that would have put to shame even the ones Takumi did.
'Wow!' was all she could manage to say causing Ryosuke's smile to widen even more.
They finally got all the way uphill and, turning round, Ryosuke got them back to the bottom of the mountain in no time, drifting almost all the way down.
'I am very, very impressed with my car,' she said once they had arrived back at the hospital's car park. They were currently standing by the vehicle and she was looking at it as if it were the first time she had seen it.
'Thanks,' Ryosuke said with mock hurt imprinted in his voice.
'Oh, I'm very impressed with you too, believe me, is just that I didn't honestly think my car was this good. I guess you were right, it's all down to the way you drive it.'
'So, what do we do tomorrow?' he asked without having actually thought it through.
She looked at him for a second and he saw her smile disappear.
'Look Ryosuke, it's been lots of fun today and I thank you for it but, you don't really need to do this.'
'I know I don't need to, I just want to do it.'
That was the plain truth. He had liked being with her and, something told him that Tsugumi's advice had been spot on. Besides, he wanted to see where this would lead them.
'Alright then. Let's meet up tomorrow after I finish work.'
'I've got a better idea. Tomorrow night I've organised a meeting with my team. Would you like to come to see what we do? Then, after that, I can show you some driving techniques.'
'Are you sure?' she asked, still looking uncertain.
'Absolutely. Shall I pick you up at your place at around seven?' he asked.
'Sure, why not,' she finally conceded.
'Great. Take care driving back home, alright?' he said.
'Of course. Thanks for today,' she said as she climbed into her car and started repositioning the seat so she wouldn't be so far away from the wheel.
'You're welcome,' he replied as she started the engine. She waved at him as she drove away. Ryosuke was still smiling when he walked back to his FC.
Meanwhile, unbeknownst to both Ryosuke and Akiko, someone had witnessed the entire exchange. Keisuke had thought it had been destiny which had wanted for him to have parked at a hidden spot in the Akagi course. From there he had had the immense displeasure of seeing his brother driving, first uphill, then downhill, that girl's car with, even worse, said girl sitting next to him looking like she was having the time of her life.
Keisuke waited patiently until his brother's FC had left the car park to start following Akiko's 10AE which could still be seen at the distance.
So, Keisuke found himself for the second time following Akiko and, after making sure his brother had not seen him, he started speeding to get closer to the blue Mazda.
Predictably enough, Keisuke caught up with her just as she had taken a left hand turn to get to a much less crowded road. This road seemed to lead up to an upper class residential area for Keisuke could see a number of houses that looked more or less like the one where the Takahashi family lived.
The road itself was rather narrow but full of bends and it went slightly uphill. Perfect for the Project D's uphill specialist.
After following her through a few corners, and seeing that she didn't appear to have seen him, Keisuke decided that he would announce himself.
Hitting hard on the accelerator within just a corner, he managed to get the front bumper of his FD a hair away from the rear one of her Mazda and, pressing the accelerator just a little bit more, he literally pushed her car making its rear spin off to the side of the road.
This got him exactly what he wanted: she had to stop the car by pressing hard on the brakes.
The little Mazda stopped just a few centimetres away from the guardrail.
To be continued…
