Millennium D - Vol. 2: Meet Team Tōge!
A/N: Between Vol. 1 and 2, Takumi and Natsuki were doing... naughty things with each other. Hope that clears up the time inconsistency here.
4:30PM. August 4, 2000.
Takumi rested his head on Natsuki's lap on the couch as they relaxed together. Takumi smiled a little, at peace with himself and his surroundings. He didn't have tofu to deliver, nobody to race. It was just him and the girl he loved.
"Do you live here alone, Natsuki…?" Takumi wondered aloud, looking up at her. "Of course not, dummy…!", she replied after a giggle. "Me and my pals all live here! Think of it as a big, shared house." Takumi nodded, nuzzling against her soft, squishy thighs and against her hand. "I see… so who are they?", he asked. "Some of them are people from our old high school, you might know a few of them. But as for the others, we met them after we came to this college.", she explained, gently stroking his hair, which seemed to relax him very much. "Everybody gets their own rooms here. It's a big house, after all!" Takumi suddenly got an idea, remembering that he saw an empty room next to hers. "Wait… so… is there any space for me…? My dorm's really tiny." "Mhm, more than enough! Hmmm… you know, I'd love for you to live with us, but I'm gonna have to see what they think…"
"Wait!" Her eyes lit up, as she suddenly got an idea. "I should take you to meet the others! I'm sure they would be glad to see you!", she proclaimed excitedly, looking down at him with a little smile on her face. "Wait… they know me..?", Takumi asked, turning over again, looking back up at her. "Oh, Takumi… you're a legend around here. Tuner magazines here write magazines about the ghost of Akina all the time, and all the sightings… but nobody really knows what you look like, except for, well… the people who live here with me. I've told them all about you.", she explained to him.
"Oh, wow… so you didn't forget about me…?", he asked, dumbfounded. He did not expect anybody outside of Kanto to know about him, let alone here on the west coast of the United States. Natsuki held his body up, bringing his face closer to her own. "How could I ever forget about the most important person in my life…?", she asked him. Takumi didn't answer and blushed instead, all the memories flashing through his head. "Well, anyway, I think they'll all be happy to meet you! As I said, you're a legend over here too.", she picked up her little pink cellphone and started to text her friends. "Let's all have dinner together! Where do you wanna go?", Natsuki asked Takumi. "Hmmm… anywhere, really.", Takumi replied, a hint of energy finding itself into his voice, thanks to his now-regular sleep schedule.
A while later, Takumi was sitting in the passenger seat of Natsuki's Civic, on their way to a restaurant somewhere. All sorts of thoughts were running through his head as he stared out at the view. "What kind of people is she friends with?" "Are they going to be nice?" "What do they look like?" "What do they drive?" Noticing him beginning to space out, Natsuki decided to turn on the radio to put on some music. My Own Summer by Deftones was playing. Chino Moreno's dreamy vocals filled the interior of the little pink car. The trancelike song didn't snap Takumi out of his zone, but he seemed to take notice of it, slowly coming out of his thoughts. "Wow… this is a good song!", he said, looking towards Natsuki. "Is this rock music?", he asked, genuinely interested. He was instantly hooked to the song. "Nu-metal.", she replied with a smile on her face. "It's very popular here! Lots of bands like to experiment with their sound nowadays, I've heard.", she explained. "It's Deftones, by the way! They're sooooo popular." "Deftones… that's a cool name…", Takumi mused to himself. And out of nowhere came the breakdown; Chino Moreno switched from singing cleans to letting out powerful screams, followed suit by the rest of the band. Natsuki pressed down on the gas pedal, swiftly overtaking the other cars on the road. Takumi was surprised, gripping onto the handle. "Wow… this is so much heavier than eurobeat!", he exclaimed. "What other types of music are popular here?" "Hmmm…" Natsuki slowed down slightly, seeing a traffic camera and stopping in front of a stoplight. "Electro-trance… techno, hip-hop... lots of rock, too." Takumi nodded. "I know hip-hop and rock, but I've never heard the other three before.", he stated. "Wow, you guys sure love a lot of things…", Takumi continued. "Yep! California has a very vibrant music scene.", Natsuki replied, before humming and singing to the cleans. Her voice was angelic; it was high-pitched, and had a very impressive range, as she didn't have a problem singing along.
Before long, they arrived in front of a restaurant. The storefront had "SPEEDY PHO" written on it in huge red letters. Takumi's eyes were drawn to the parking lot. Parked in it were 8 very flashy, very heavily-modified tuner cars. They looked similar to the ones he saw and raced back home in Japan, with the exception of a BMW Z3 M, but there was something different about them - perhaps it was the massive, shiny rims they all had on, or maybe it was the ornate, colorful decals that were splashed over their sides and their hoods, complete with all sorts of sponsor stickers. Natsuki parked her Civic in between a blue Nissan Skyline and a silver Lexus SC400. The two of them got out; Natsuki headed straight for the entrance while Takumi proceeded to wander around the cars, staring at them. "C'mon, Takumi! Those are their cars!", said Natsuki, noticing what he was up to, returning to his side and hugging his arm. "You're gonna see them way more often if you're gonna stay with us~..." "Oh, really? Wow… these are some of the most well-built cars I've ever seen…", mused Takumi, following her inside of the restaurant.
As they entered, the smell of well-cooked beef wafted into Takumi's nostrils, while a waiter approached them. "Hello! Ah, hello miss! Your friends are waiting inside.", he said to them, greeting them with a warm smile on his face. They were led to a table in a corner of the restaurant, where the owners of the cars outside were waiting. They were all very fashionably-dressed and were speaking and laughing with each other, with colorful cans of sodas in their hands. They were all speaking in Japanese to each other, which was a pleasant surprise to Takumi; he wouldn't have to pull out his embarrassingly basic English skills to speak to them. "Hey guys!", she said to them after the pair arrived in front of the table. "Meet Takumi!" All of them unanimously stopped talking. Their eyes widened in amazement. It was the guy they kept hearing crazy stories about; the same guy who could smoke much faster cars in a barely-modified Toyota AE86. The white ghost of Akina. And finally, one of them spoke.
"Holy shit, dude! Nice to meet you!" The guy in the middle stood up, his chain necklace dangling as he reached over to give him a handshake. The others soon followed suit. They all said their greetings, very starstruck by his presence. Takumi simply just said hi back shyly, bowing to each of them, before sitting down. "The man, the myth, the legend!", one of the girls exclaimed. Takumi was smiling nervously; yes, he was feared by his rivals in Japan, but nobody had ever really treated him quite like this. Well, maybe just fake Takumi, perhaps.
Natsuki started to introduce Takumi to her friends once they all settled down. "Takumi, this is Tsugumi-chan. She owns the orange MX-5." "Nice to meet ya, Takumi! My cousins speak very highly of you!", said a girl that actually somehow really resembled Takumi, with almost exactly the same facial features. In fact, it seemed like the only differences were the clothes they were wearing, and the fact that she had longer hair. "Wait… cousins…?", wondered Takumi. "Mhm! Ryosuke! And.. Keisuke... that chicken-head... You raced with them, remember?", she replied, with stars in her eyes. "Oohhh..! Right.", he replied, as he was handed a menu by a passing waiter.
"This is Jake Hasegawa, he drives a silver SC400.", Natsuki continued, motioning to a very flashily-dressed boy with piercing blue eyes. "Yo! Heard you smoked a GT4 on a snowy uphill. That's so mega!", he exclaimed, doing little hand gestures as he spoke, before being quickly interrupted by Natsuki. "We, uhh.. Don't talk about that.", she reminded him with a giggle. "Oh, yeah, yeah, for sure. Sorry. But yeah! Totally stoked to meet you, dude!", he said, reaching out for a fist-bump. Takumi replied with a quiet "hello", but was confused about why he was pointing his fist out at him. "Oh, right! You gotta do this.", Natsuki said, holding his hand up, gently curling his fingers into a fist, and gently bumped it against Jake's fist. "Boom!" He smiled and sat back in his seat.
Natsuki turned to a girl sitting next to Jake. She looked a little sweaty; some drops traveled down her very toned arms, revealed by the tank top she wore. "This is Asuka Hoshino! I think your friend Keisuke raced her father when you were still in Japan. She drives a blue R33 GT-R." "'Sup? Heard you were the quickest guy in Kanto. Dad actually wanted to race downhill with ya.", she said, nodding to Takumi with a slight smile. "A-ah… pleasure to meet you, Asuka-san.", he replied, bowing to her.
"This is Naoko Naruse, she drives a black Mazda RX-7.", Natsuki said, motioning to a girl that was dressed in all-black clothing, complete with combat boots and silver chains of all kinds hanging off of them. Though she didn't wear too much makeup, she still stood out quite a lot among the rest. "Yo Takumi.", she uttered, managing a little grin and giggling. Takumi was surprised, having never seen anyone who dressed like this. He thought to himself, "All those chains must be extra weight for her while she's driving…"
And then, the guy next to Naoko. He had slightly tanned skin and a pendant necklace, his curly, shoulder-length pulled into a ponytail. He looked just about as well-built as Asuka. "This is Fujio Sato! He drives a BMW Z3 M Coupe.", Natsuki said. Takumi looked out the window at the flamboyantly-colored hatchback, feeling his eyes getting burnt by its insanely bright paintjob. "Ya like it? It's called Dakar Yellow. Total honor to meet you, dude.", he said in a breezy, relaxed voice, high-fiving Takumi. "Nice to meet you too. I've never seen many people tune a BMW, it's interesting.", he replied quietly, but with a hint of excitement in his voice. "BMWs are super popular here in America. Not many are done like this though.", Fujio replied.
Natsuki turned to a girl who was resting her arm on Fujio; she looked like she was the most mature out of all the people at the table. She was very attractive, too - she wore a simple shirt-and-jeans outfit, with her long, jet-black hair pulled into a ponytail. "This is Suzuka Tamura. She drives a millennium jade Infiniti G35.", she explained. Takumi raised his eyebrow, and asked, "What's a G35…?", turning over to the window at the side of the window to look at the futuristic-looking coupe. "They call it a Skyline back home in Japan…", Takumi heard her say; he could tell right away she had a great singing voice. "Although I prefer to think of it as the 300ZX's replacement.", she continued with a smile. Takumi smiled back and bowed.
Finally, Natsuki turned to two guys sitting together. Though they had similarly sharp facial features, they were dressed very differently. One had on a sports T-shirt and a pair of ripped jeans, while the other wore a polo shirt, khakis and wireframe glasses. "These are Koichi and Satoshi Oyama; they're twins.", Natsuki said, putting her arm around Takumi's. "Yo Takumi!" "Hey!", the pair said as they greeted him. "So, I'm Satoshi. I own that Eclipse over there.", the one in the jeans explained, pointing to a very well-built red coupe parked outside. "And I'm Koichi! That's my Impreza out there.", the one with the glasses continued, nodding at his own super-saloon parked outside. It looked different to the one his dad had - it had two extra doors and an entirely different, somewhat alien-like design language.
Once they were done introducing themselves to Takumi and broke the ice, their food came along; everyone got a big bowl of tasty pho noodles. As they dug into their food, they listened to Takumi's experiences in awe. Even though they read about his races countless times, not to mention all the stories Natsuki and Tsugumi would tell them, nobody gave better accounts than Takumi.
"So, uhh… What's racing like over here in America?", asked Takumi, after finishing his stories. "Oh, yeah, it's great fun!" Jake replied. "You'll love it over here! We do all sorts of stuff." "Y'know… drag racing, circuit racing, but we still do touge runs from time to time.", Naoko followed up, twirling some noodles around her chopsticks. As he listened, Takumi watched a pair of cars shoot past the restaurant at full speed. Startled, he asked, "O-on the streets…?" "Bingo!", replied Fujio. "Right here in the city. Sometimes we even have whole crews duking it out against one another in big races!", he continued with a big grin on his face. "Oh… wow.", Takumi replied dreamily, his eyes wide in amazement. He thought for a second, before exclaiming, "Wow! Seems like you guys have more room, too. The roads here are the widest I've ever seen." "Yeah, think of it as a big playground for us racers. We come out at night, meet up and race.", explained Asuka. "But how about the touges? Do you race there, too?", asked Takumi. As he mentioned this, he began to think about his AE86 back home. He missed it dearly; once he blew its engine, he sold it and never saw the car again, as the Speedstars took over the delivery driving for his father's tofu shop. "We mostly just go there to drift, screw around and stuff. Enjoy the scenery.", Satoshi described. "Nobody really races there… unless you've got a huge grudge with someone and you wanna settle it. It's REALLY dangerous.", Koichi continued.
Suzuka suddenly seemed to remember something, and suddenly declared, "Guys! We need to take Takumi to Race Wars." This was met by agreement with everyone else at the table, even a little bit of cheering. Except for Takumi, who was a little dumbfounded. "Race Wars? What's that?", he asked. Natsuki excitedly held his arm and explained, "Oh, Takumi-kun, you'll LOVE Race Wars! Basically, every racer in the city goes down to a circuit we have in the desert, meets up, and races against one another!" "Circuit racing? Wow… I'd love to try that! But.. thing is, I don't have a car.", admitted Takumi, rubbing the back of his head with an embarrassed smile on his face. "Why not import the Subaru over here?", suggested Tsugumi. "Hmmm…. I, er… I'd rather not…", said Takumi awkwardly. "Dad's still using it… plus, I wanna drive a new car over here." "Oh, well there's plenty of Corolla GTSs for sale over here!", explained Jake. "They're the closest we have to AE86s-" "No, nononono!" Takumi interrupted, holding his hands up. "No more 86s. Something different, maybe…"
As dinner went on with the others telling their stories to Takumi. As time went on, he gradually started to feel more relaxed as he spoke and laughed with them, feeling himself instantly getting hooked. He had found himself a new group of friends. He seemed to be enjoying himself; even though all these people had really fast-looking cars, and they all probably had the skills to back it up, he never felt so relaxed around other racers before - even around his own teammates in Project D; even though they enjoyed lots of success together, they hardly shared moments like this with each other. And for once, he was treated like a human being with a life and a personality, rather than an emotionless, unstoppable force like his rivals in Japan did.
"W-wait, guys, one more thing.", Takumi suddenly raised his finger. He looked a little nervous. "Can… uhh… can I move into your house?" The others didn't seem to mind, but they all turned to Jake, who seemed pretty comfortable with this himself. "Pretty please… we have a free rooooom…", pleaded Natsuki. "Hell yeah! It's gonna be so cool, having the white ghost of Akina living with us! We'll help you move your stuff. Oh, on one condition though!", Jake stated. Takumi drew a breath in, hoping it wasn't going to be something embarrassing. "Please come with us to meets and races and stuff?", he requested. "Oh!" exclaimed Takumi, letting out a sigh of relief and a chuckle. "For sure! I'd love to see what the culture is like around here.", he said, smiling. "That's a done deal then!", exclaimed Jake. He raised his can of soda up in the air, as the others followed suit. "To our new friend, Takumi! Kanpai!" They toasted with a cheer and finished their drinks off.
About an hour later, everyone was headed for Jake's house. Because they had the largest boots, Naoko and Fujio were tasked with carrying Takumi's things, while he was back in Natsuki's Civic, once again in the passenger's seat. They traveled in a straight line with their neons turned on, like a bizarre high-speed parade. The noises of their engines filled the air. Takumi, as usual, stared out the window, looking at the view, mesmerized by the sunset. Suddenly, something caught his eye. It was a tiny blue roadster. It looked quite futuristic, carrying a minimalist design. It had big, almost frog-like headlights. It even looked as if it was smiling back at him. As it passed them, Takumi turned his head to get a better view of the car. Rays of sunlight reflected off of its simple, yet elegant body lines, all the way to the rear. He knew right away that it was a very nimble, lightweight car. "What's up, Takumi-kun? See something you like?", asked Natsuki, her eyes on the road. "Wow… I just… saw a really beautiful car… Do you know what it is?", Takumi asked slowly, trying to take in what he just saw. "Oh, the blue one?" Natsuki asked. Takumi nodded. "Ooh, that's the new Toyota MR2 Spyder!" "MR2…", Takumi mused, recalling his intense battles with Kai Kogashiwa, who drove an older version of the same car. He swore it didn't look anything like this; for starters, it was relatively larger, and looked almost like a Ferrari with its popup headlights. The car he just saw reminded him more of a downsized, happier-looking Porsche Boxster.
Once they arrived back at the house, Takumi wandered around all of his new friends' cars. Upon closer inspection, they didn't look anything like the cars he raced against in Japan. Most of his rivals drove cars that had little to no exterior modifications, while these had some of the most eloquent body mods he had ever seen. For starters, they all had on massive, shouty body kits, complete with rims that were at least 18 inches in size. They were covered in sponsor stickers, but what really caught his eye were the decals that flowed down the bodywork of each of them. Once he was done snooping around the cars, something else caught his eye. Parked in the corner was a Mitsubishi Delica L300, something he never expected to see in America. Perhaps they went through the trouble of importing one. Compared to the other cars he saw, this one was more or less stock, still wearing the factory paintjob and the optional bull-bar. Maybe they used it for moving all those parts around to build the monsters that sat behind him.
"Enjoying yourself, Takumi-kun?", asked a voice from above. Takumi looked upwards to find Natsuki smiling down at him from an indoor balcony. "O-oh… hi Natsuki.", he awkwardly replied, giving her a wave and a smile. "These are some really cool cars… I just wanted to look at them a little more." "Thanks~! Wanna come upstairs? It's getting late."
A little while later, Takumi found himself back in Natsuki's room; his own room was halfway through being set up, but he didn't mind spending the night with his girlfriend. He looked around her room, finding that the walls were covered in posters taken out of tuner magazines. He thought to himself, "Wow… she really got really deep into cars…" And then, something caught his eye. It was a picture of another MR2 Spyder. Instead, this one was heavily modified; it was lowered to the ground, had big, shiny rims and a widebody kit. He began to drift into thoughts of driving a car just like that on a winding mountain road, hearing the healthy roar of its engine behind him. As he spaced out, his thoughts were interrupted once again by Natsuki's voice. "Taku-chan~...", she crooned, coming out of the bathroom…
CAR SPECS
Suzuka's Infiniti G35 Coupe
Chassis code: V35
Year: 2000
Color: Millennium Jade
Number plate: MIR 730
Class: grand tourer/sports car
Engine: VQ35DE 3.5-liter V6
Induction: HKS twin turbochargers
Horsepower: 530
Max RPM: 9,000
Weight: 1530KG
Body kit: Top Secret
Wheels: VOLK Racing GTC - gold, silver dish, 19in
Tires: Advan
Suspension: Nismo S-Tune
Audio system: Clarion
Decals: custom scratch stripes; body color fade-in
Satoshi's Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX
Chassis code: D39A
Year: 1999
Color: Mäkinen red
Number plate: SRF 010
Class: sport compact
Engine: 4G63T 2.0-liter inline-4
Induction: MINE'S turbocharger
Horsepower: 502
Max RPM: 9,000
Weight: 1,400KG
Body kit: JT Autostyle Evo 5
Wheels: Enkei WRC Tarmac EVO - 19in, white
Tires: Goodyear
Suspension: APR Racing
Audio system: Pioneer
Decals: custom scratch stripes; black and grey
Naoko's Mazda RX-7 Type R
Chassis code: FD - Series 1
Year: 1996
Color: Cadillac Stellar Black Metallic
Number plate: RTR 714
Class: sports car
Engine: 13B-REW 1.3-liter 2-rotor
Induction: HKS sequential turbochargers
Horsepower: 483
Max RPM: 10,000
Weight: 1,220KG
Body kit: ABFlug GTM
Wheels: O.Z Antares - silver, 20in
Tires: Advan
Suspension: RE Amemiya Quantum
Audio system: Bose
Decals: Flaming skull; grey and white
Fujio's BMW M Coupe
Chassis code: E36/8
Year: 2000
Color: Dakar Yellow
Number plate: BMZ 108
Class: sport compact/hatchback
Engine: S54B32 3.2 inline-6
Induction: Dinan Corp. Individual Throttle Bodies
Horsepower: 425
Max RPM: 10,000
Weight: 1,300KG
Body kit: Zeemax
Wheels: AC Schnitzer Type III Racing - 19in, silver
Tires: Michelin
Suspension: KW Racing
Audio system: Blaupunkt
Decals: dot fade shark; black
Tsugumi's Mazda MX-5
Chassis code: NB
Year: 1999
Color: Lava Orange
Number plate: RSE 112
Class: sport compact
Engine: BP-ZE
Induction: GReddy turbocharger
Horsepower: 290
Max RPM: 9,000
Weight: 950KG
Body kit: DuraFlex Wizdom
Wheels: RacingHart CP035 - 18in, silver
Tires: Bridgestone
Suspension: CUSCO
Audio system: Panasonic
Decals: custom eagle - body color fade-in
Koichi's Subaru Impreza WRX STi
Chassis code: GDA
Year: 2000
Color: liquid silver metallic
Number plate: EXR 704
Class: sport compact
Engine: EJ20 2.0-liter boxer-4
Induction: TOMEI twin turbochargers
Horsepower: 450
Max RPM: 8,500
Weight: 1,400
Body kit: Kaminari
Wheels: RAYS Gram Lights 57Pro - 19in, gold
Tires: Advan
Suspension: BLITZ
Audio system: Bosch
Decals: custom hexagon and WipEout text; black
Asuka's Nissan Skyline GT-R
Chassis code: BCNR33
Year: 1995
Color: Champion Blue
Number plate: KZH 629
Class: sports car
Engine: RB-X GT2 3.0-liter inline-6
Induction: Tomei twin turbochargers
Horsepower: 682
Max RPM: 9,000
Weight: 1,535KG
Body kit: ABFlug
Wheels: Work Meister S13P - 19in, chrome silver
Tires: Advan
Suspension: HKS HIPERMAX
Audio system: Sony
Decals: oriental tiger; silver
Jake's Lexus SC400
Chassis code: Z30
Year: 1995
Color: Lamborghini Grigio Antares
Number plate: SSS 102
Class: grand tourer
Engine: 1UZ-FE 4.0-liter V8 - TRD rebuild
Induction: TRD supercharger
Horsepower: 689
Max RPM: 8,800
Weight: 1,590KG
Body kit: BN Sports
Wheels: Advan RGIII - 20in, gold
Tires: Bridgestone
Suspension: HKS HIPERMAX
Audio system: Alpine
Decals: oriental dragon; black and gold
I do not own any property from Initial D, nor do I make any money from the writing of this story.
All characters and situations, created by Shuichi Shigeno, Rob Cohen, Gary Scott Thompson, Erik Bergquist and David Ayer are taken from Initial D (1995-2013) © Kodansha Ltd., The Fast And The Furious (2001) and Redline (early screenplay draft; 2000) © Universal City Studios LLC
This story is released under the GPL/CC BY: verbatim copying and distribution of this entire work are permitted worldwide, without royalty, in any medium, provided attribution is preserved.
