Programmed Lives - First Stage

Chapter Ten

Keisuke saw Akiko getting out of her car and waking towards his as he climbed out of the FD.

'ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?' she shouted angrily.

'Maybe,' he replied lightening up a cigarette with as much indifference as he could muster.

'You could have made me fall down that cliff!' she cried pointing at a precipice that was indeed mere metres away from the guardrail.

'Oh, really?' he said with a clearly feigned concern leaving her too stunned for words. Then, getting serious, he said, 'I was under the impression that you didn't want to be near neither me nor Aniki even if your life depended on it.'

Akiko swallowed hard trying to come up with something to say.

'So, do you care to explain to me what you were doing just now with my him?' he asked instead, using a rather menacing tone of voice.

She considered her answer for a few moments before replying:

'I think you should ask that to your brother.'

'Why is that?' Keisuke asked still trying to keep up an intimidating front.

'Because it was he who asked me out,' she said.

'I don't think so,' Keisuke said shaking his head.

'Like I said: ask him,' she insisted getting even more annoyed at him.

'I know he feels responsible for what's happened to you but, come on, asking you out is just absurd. Why would he want to go out with someone like you?' he asked in a rather depreciative manner.

This made Akiko lose her temper:

'Look, I don't know. Maybe he is crazy. It seems to run in the family.'

This was Keisuke's turn to remain speechless so she carried on:

'I can't explain the reasons behind your brother's actions. If you want any such information, you should go and talk to him. Now, I'm going to go back to my car so I can go home. Ah, and don't you dare following me or going anywhere near my car ever again, understood?'

Keisuke refused to say anything.

'If you do, I'll get a restraining order against you,' Akiko said then turned round and walked back to her car.

Seeing her leave just pissed him off even more. He kicked the guardrail while swearing viciously. Then, seeing how very pointless that was, he decided to drive back home, breaking every single one of the speed limits he found along the way.

As soon as he reached the Takahashi's residence, Keisuke parked his car and walked straight up to his room. He had just closed the door when he heard someone knocking on it.

'Keisuke, can I come in?'

It had to be one of the first times when his brother actually asked to be let in his room. Usually it was the other way round.

'Keisuke?' Ryosuke insisted.

'Sure, come in…' he finally said.

Ryosuke entered the room and, after making a visible effort to ignore the gigantic chaos that reigned in his younger brother's room, he said:

'I'd like to tell you that I've decided to start seeing Akiko. The reasons are for me and Akiko to know but I wanted to tell you so you wouldn't feel betrayed when you eventually found out.'

'Well Aniki, that's too bad, because I already knew,' Keisuke said. This visibly startled Ryosuke.

'When did you find out?'

'I've seen you two today driving down Mt Akagi,' Keisuke replied, his voice still showing traces of hurt in it.

'Ah, well. I just wanted you to know that tomorrow I won't be driving with you to the meeting at Ibaraki because I have to pick her up first.'

'You're bringing her to the meeting?' Keisuke asked so shocked he even forgot that he was supposed to be angry at Ryosuke.

'Yes, I'm picking her up at seven. I'm sure you'll be able to find the way to Ibaraki by yourself,' Ryosuke said with a tone that indicated he considered this conversation finished.

'Aniki…' he started but interrupted himself when Ryosuke raised his hand.

'Look, I know you don't understand what's happening right now. All I ask of you is to give me your full support. If you can't do that, just let me be, alright?'

'Aniki, I just want to know why,'' Keisuke insisted.

'One day, you'll understand everything, trust me.'

With this he left Keisuke's room leaving his younger brother in a very confused state.

'Shit, I hate it when he treats me like a baby!' he said to no one in particular.

The next day, at around seven-ish, Keisuke got into his FD and, for the first time since Project D had started, he drove to the team's meeting at the bottom of Mt Akagi by himself.

'Where's Ryosuke-san?' Takumi asked the minute Keisuke had joined the group.

'He's coming with his new girlfriend,' Keisuke said, filling his voice with contempt.

'His what?' Takumi exclaimed and Keisuke couldn't help but to smile at the younger man's reaction.

'Yeah, don't ask me to explain it to you because I don't understand it myself,' Keisuke said.

'I didn't even know he had time for girls,' Takumi commented.

'Well, this one was home-delivered,' Keisuke said confusing the poor Takumi even more. The AE86 driver was going to say something when he saw Ryosuke's white FC followed by an unknown vehicle.

'That's her,' Keisuke whispered into Takumi's ear. The young man had only understood one thing, whoever this girl was, Keisuke didn't approve of her at all.

Takumi observed the car parking next to Ryosuke's FC and saw a rather short girl getting out of it. Except for having a really nice long hair, there wasn't any other feature that made her special. Takumi was very surprised to see that someone like her could even attract Ryosuke's attention. The fact that Keisuke didn't approve of her made everything even less comprehensible.

Turning his attention back to the car, he saw that it was a Mazda MX-5. Maybe their fondness for Mazda cars was what they had in common? Takumi asked himself.

He couldn't answer to his own question because Ryosuke and this unknown girl started walking towards them.

As always, Ryosuke's arrival made everyone stop doing whatever they were doing so they could greet their leader properly.

'Guys, I'd like you to meet my friend Arakawa Akiko. She'll be watching our training session tonight so I hope you make her feel welcome.'

Everyone, with the exception of Keisuke, said hello to Akiko and the girl bowed her head in a very elegant and delicate manner. Not that Takumi was an expert, but he could tell that this girl was from a really good family. He then realised that the both the girl and Ryosuke were coming their way.

'Akiko-chan, you already know my brother Keisuke. This is Fujiwara Takumi, the other one of the Double Aces,' Ryosuke said once they reached the spot where the drivers of Project D were.

'I'm pleased to meet you, Arakawa-san,' Takumi said as politely as he could. This earned him a glare from Keisuke to whom Akiko only offered a curt nod.

'I'm pleased to meet you too,' Akiko smiling.

'Akiko, now I need to give my full attention to the team, will you be alright here by yourself?' Ryosuke asked making Keisuke feel very jealous of how much his older brother seemed to worry about her wellbeing.

'Sure, don't worry about me. I'll just try to stay out of the way,' she said smiling at him.

'Alright then. Fujiwara, Keisuke, come with me now,' Ryosuke said, his voice back to his usual, business-like self.

Akiko looked at the three men joining the rest of the crew. She also saw the huge amount of respect everybody seemed to have for Ryosuke. They all listened to every single word he said, some of them even taking notes.

From what she could hear, Project D had just had a race very complicated race somewhere in Kanagawa and, even though the team had won both battles, Ryosuke had not been entirely happy with the results. For this reason he had decided that before they would move on, both Keisuke and Takumi would need to re-run the same route until he'd be satisfied with their times.

After his speech, he issued orders for every one of them and then, taking his laptop out of the bag, he checked some data there and then he went to inspect something in the rear bumper of his FC.

'Arakawa-san, are you having fun?' someone asked, getting Akiko out of her reverie.

'This is my first time in this sort of thing so, I feel a bit out of place…' she replied. The man who had spoken to her had just been talking to Ryosuke.

'I'm Fumihiro,'

'Ah, you're Ryosuke-san's right-hand man, aren't you?' she said.

'Yes. You know me?' he asked sounding a bit surprised.

'Ryosuke-san's told me all about his team. He seems to be particularly fond of you,' she informed him.

'Oh Arakawa-san, you're too kind,' Fumihiro said.

'Please, call me Akiko, everyone does,' she said.

'Alright, so Akiko-chan, have you known Ryosuke for a long time?' he asked. Something told Akiko that Fumihiro wasn't just fishing for information to feed the team's gossip. Akiko also felt that he could be trusted.

'I've known him since we were children but I've been abroad for a long time and we just met again a few days ago,' she explained.

'Ah, I see,' he said then, as he seemed to want to say something else, but Ryosuke called him to his side, 'must go, the boss is calling!'

With this, Akiko was, once more, left by herself. That peace, however, lasted for a very short time for, unfortunately for her, she saw Keisuke walking towards her.

'What do you want?' she asked him a bit more aggressively than she intended.

'Wow, aren't we feisty!' he said smirking then, smirk gone, he added, 'I was just curious.'

'About what?' she asked.

'Why haven't you told Aniki about our meeting?'

Akiko looked up at Keisuke's eyes before replying.

'Two reasons. One: what happened yesterday, and the time before that, is just between me and you. Two: I've never been one to tell tales, I'm not going to start now.'

'So you aren't one of these girls who run to daddy when things get nasty,' Keisuke asked getting a dry laugh from Akiko.

'Believe me, with a father like mine, nothing you could do to me could be considered nasty,' she replied with such honesty that it made Keisuke regret having said that.

He looked at her for a moment, then, shaking his head, left her alone once more.

Akiko looked at him was he was leaving. She felt sorry for the guy, after all, and even though she was an only child, she could understand why Keisuke felt towards her the way he did.

Akiko turned her attention towards Ryosuke and observed him for a while. She had realised immediately how very charismatic he was. He had something that made people feel attracted to him. Geez, even she felt attracted to him.

This thought startled and worried her. There was no way she could afford to have this kind of feelings towards him. After all, Keisuke was right: apart from her father's money, she didn't believe she had what it took to make a man like Ryosuke happy.

What puzzled more than anything was the fact that he seemed to actually enjoy being with her.

That's because you're something new for him, once the novelty wears off, he'll get tired of you, a nasty voice said inside her head and that thought made her feel very upset.

Akiko tried to shake off that feeling when she hear her mobile phone ringing in her handbag.

'Hey James!' she answered in English.

'How are you babe?' the man at the other end said.

'Oh I'm not too bad, you know…' she said.

'Well, you'll be happier when you learn what I'm about to tell you…' James said.

'What is it?' she asked full of curiosity.

'Guess who's coming over to see you?'

'What? No way! When?' she exclaimed happily. She was so engulfed in the conversation that she had stopped paying attention to what surrounded her.

'Next week. Are you going to be free to see me?' James asked.

'Of course silly! I have so much I need to talk to you about,' she said with the sweetest tone of voice, the only she reserved only for those she really cared for.

'Alright then, I'll email you the flight details, okay?'

'Sure. I really can't wait to see you James!' she said.

'Me neither babe, me neither. Bye for now,' he said and with this, James ended the conversation.

Putting her phone in back in her bag, Akiko felt a presence near her:

'Who is James?' Ryosuke asked her speaking in perfect English.

To be continued…