Programmed Lives – Second Stage

Chapter Seven

The whole team was gathered around the new car. It had just been delivered that morning and something about it made everyone feel like this one was a truly special machine.

'Aniki, I think I'm in love,' Keisuke said without taking his eyes off the latest racing evolution of the FD3S.

Ryosuke laughed softly then, after clearing his throat, he said:

'May I have your attention? I have several things to tell you.'

Everyone, even Keisuke, stopped gaping at the car and directed their gaze towards their leader.

'Alright, first of all, I'm happy to announce that, finally, we have a sponsor. You know, some of you better than others,' he added looking at Matsumoto with a smirk, 'the alcoholic beverages maker Kirin. I've just signed an agreement with them to sponsor us for the next championship.'

Ryosuke allowed a short time for the team to celebrate the news then he reassumed his speech:

'The second thing is that, having secured enough funds, we're now officially a team which will take part in the next Super GT300 championship. I received a parcel yesterday with the stickers we need to put on the car and the number the federation has assigned us.'

Ryosuke looked at Takumi Fujiwara before saying:

'You all know that I wanted the paintwork of the car to be white, black and yellow to mix the colours of Takumi's AE86 and Keisuke's FD. Well, Takumi, you're going to like the number the federation has given us.'

Fumihiro passed him a large envelope and from it, Ryosuke extracted a white rectangle with the logos of both the Japanese Automobile Federation and the GT300 championship. In the middle of it and in italics, one could read the number 86.

'What do you think?' Ryosuke asked Takumi who, clearly in awe, managed to smile and nod.

'I like it,' he said.

'I thought you would. So, now that we have the car and both of our…'

The very loud noise of a truck's engine interrupted his speech making everyone turn around to see the source of the commotion.

'What the…' Keisuke said seeing that the truck was following the Takahashi's family MPV. Driving the van was Akiko Takahashi and next to her, Keisuke saw his girlfriend Kyoko.

The truck parked just in the middle of the small track's car park and the van stopped just a couple of meters from where the team was.

'Hello everybody,' Kyoko said getting out of the van while Akiko, who had done the same, was getting her almost four months old baby out of his carrier.

'Akiko, what's that?' Ryosuke asked his wife pointing at the truck.

'It's the Arakawa Group's contribution to the Takahashi Racing Team,' she said.

'A truck?' Keisuke asked looking confused.

'No silly, this isn't just a truck,' Kyoko said smiling happily.

'Let me explain,' Akiko said, 'I've seen that you guys always sleep in your cars or drive back home at stupid times at night risking an accident every time you do. I commented this to my father and he said it wasn't good for you so he decided to invest on the health of this team's members by buying this motorhome.'

'A motorhome? You've bought us a motorhome?' Keisuke asked dumbfounded.

'The Arakawa Group has,' Akiko said nodding.

'Ten berths and complete with every available optional,' Kyoko explained.

'You knew about this?' Keisuke asked his girlfriend.

'Oh yes, she acted as our advisor,' Akiko replied.

'This is amazing,' Ryosuke said and, judging by the comments from the rest of the team, everyone agreed with their leader.

'There is a catch though. We've only hired the driver to deliver it here. Can any of you drive a truck? If not you'll have to recruit a driver,' Akiko asked.

'Matsumoto and I can,' Tomiguchi said, he was the former personal mechanic for Keisuke's FD, now part of the technical staff.

'Alright then, I'll go and tell the driver he can leave,' Akiko said then, turning round, she said to Kyoko, 'give them the other surprise, will you please?'

'Sure,' she said and, walking back to the van, the girl went to the trunk and got out of it several bags. Taking two of them, she left the rest by the car.

'This one is yours,' she said to Takumi after having checked its contents, 'and this one, my love, is yours,' she said to Keisuke, 'the rest of you can go and get the rest yourselves: all bags should have a nametag, look for your name on it,' she explained.

'Wow…that's…' Takumi said taking out of the bag his brand new, black, white and yellow, racing suit which had a 'T. Fujiwara' embroidered on its belt and Kirin's logo written on the chest. On the back, one could read 'Takahashi Racing' in streamlined italic black characters.

'What do you think?' Kyoko asked both of the Takahashi brothers.

'They're even better than I imagined,' Ryosuke said admiring the suit his brother had in his arms.

'Nice, really nice,' Bunta Fujiwara said, examining his son's suit, 'hey, where's mine?' he asked half-jokingly.

'For you, Ryosuke and Fumihiro, we have this,' Akiko said handing her husband a bigger bag.

Ryosuke took from it three parcels containing two pieces of clothing each: a white shirt with Takahashi Racing on the back and Kirin embroidered on the top right side of the shirt's front. On the left side, there was a pocket with his name embroidered on the top edge of it. The other piece of clothing was a black, white and yellow jacket which copied the design of the racing suits.

He handed the two parcels to Bunta Fujiwara and to Fumihiro, then proceeded to try the jacket on.

'What do you think?' Ryosuke asked his wife.

'I like it,' she said giving him a peck on his cheek, then she whispered, 'and I'll tell you tonight just how much I like it.'

Smiling, Ryosuke bit his lower lip and said, 'that's a promise Doctor Takahashi.'

Akiko just laughed.

Half an hour later, Kyoko took a picture of the whole team clad in their new clothes with the FD3S, complete with its new stickers, in front of them.

After that, and following Ryosuke's orders, the mechanics got back to their working overalls while Takumi and Keisuke took it in turns to try out the new car.

'I like it so much,' Keisuke said smiling while getting out of the FD.

Takumi climbed into it so he too could do his run.

'Can I try it later?' Kenta asked eagerly.

'Not today Kenta,' Ryosuke said, 'it's important we let our drivers get used to it quickly. The championship starts next month and we have already wasted too much time.'

Kenta did his best to hide his disappointment.

'Wow Aniki! Look at that!' Keisuke exclaimed pointing at a certain point of the circuit where Takumi was tackling a corner.

'Now he's doing it as he should!' Ryosuke said nodding with satisfaction.

'It seems that all the training with my FD paid off.'

'What? Keisuke-san, did you lend him your car?' Kenta asked looking at Keisuke with his eyes wide with surprise.

'Yes, I had broken my ankle, remember?' Keisuke explained then, he turned round to face Fumihiro who was timing Takumi, 'how is he doing?'

'Great. He's just cut off a tenth of a second from your first sector's best time,' Fumihiro replied with a smile.

'Shit, bloody punk! I'll teach him a lesson when he gives the car back to me,' Keisuke said and, the way he looked like, Ryosuke knew that his two drivers were back at being what they were: each other's best enemies.

'What do you think?' Ryosuke asked Takumi as soon as he had got out of the car.

'It handles a bit differently than Keisuke's FD.'

'That's the aerodynamic bodywork. Keisuke's FD is configured for street driving. This one is purely built for circuit racing. It's bound to feel different that way but, tell me, what do you think of the engine?'

'I think we understand each other,' Takumi said using the over simplistic language he always used when talking about cars.

'I'm glad to hear that,' Ryosuke said.

'Well, it seems like Keisuke and the engine understand each other better than you,' Bunta said.

'What?' Takumi asked.

'He's just knocked a full second off your best lap time,' Fumihiro explained.

Takumi looked at first disappointed then, getting all his determination back, he said:

'I'll show him in the next run…'

Everyone laughed at that and Takumi was left feeling all confused.

They ended the training session in extremely high spirits. Both of their drivers kept beating each other's records and, at the end, they even managed to set a whole new record for that circuit, one that, Ryosuke was told, had stood unbeaten for over five years.

'Bloody hell! We've got a DVD player in here!' Keisuke said busy exploring their new motorhome.

'I'm going to see the bedroom,' Takumi said doing the same.

'So you like it then?' Akiko asked from the door that gave access to the motorhome.

'Oh yes. Thanks sis, this is great!' Keisuke said happily.

'I'm glad you do,' she replied.

'I take things with your father are much better these days,' Ryosuke asked joining her.

'Yes, they are. I think he's even considering that a woman can actually make a good doctor,' she joked, 'no, seriously, he's being great.'

'So, soon you'll be going back to work then,' Ryosuke asked.

'Not yet. I need to wait for Kyosuke to be old enough to go to the kindergarten first.'

'We could hire a babysitter you know,' Ryosuke said, knowing that his wife was actually quite eager to reassume her work at the hospital.

'No, you know what I think about having hired help at home,' she said shaking her head.

'Alright, it's up to you,' he said then, talking to his brother and Takumi, he said:

'You two, get out of there so we can lock it up.'

'We're leaving already?' Keisuke asked getting out of the motorhome followed by Takumi.

'Yes, everybody listen:' he said to the team who had just finished packing up for the day, 'I'd like to celebrate the re-birth of our team so everyone who can come is invited to dinner at our home.'

This provoked much rejoicing from the team except from one of them.

Kenta walked up to his boss and said:

'I can't make it. I'm sorry.'

'Ah, it's alright. See you tomorrow morning, eight o'clock sharp, okay?' Ryosuke said.

'Sure,' he said and, not even greeting Keisuke, he walked up to where his S14 was parked, climbed in and drove away.

'Where's he going?' Keisuke asked.

'He said he couldn't make it for dinner and left,' Ryosuke said.

'Ah, the little bugger finally has got himself a girlfriend!' Keisuke said laughing.

'Probably,' Ryosuke said then he added, 'let's go.'

That night at the Takahashi residence the whole team indulged themselves with the great food that Akiko and Kyoko prepared for them.

To the delight of many of the members of the team, being sponsored by Kirin meant that the company had sent them quite a few boxes of free beer which were now stored in the garage.

'Guys, easy with the drinking, we've got work to do tomorrow,' Ryosuke reminded them.

'I'm not sure they've heard you baby,' Akiko said joining her husband.

'Oh well, they'll have to deal with the hangover then,' he said shrugging.

Predictably enough, the next day some of the mechanics were nursing a gigantic headache. Ryosuke was absolutely inflexible when it came to delaying the start of the training session so, just before eight o'clock, the different team members started showing up.

Ryosuke was getting his laptop out of the bag when he saw Fumihiro running towards where he and Keisuke were.

'Ryosuke, you're not going to believe this,' Fumihiro said looking extremely anxious.

'What's up?' Ryosuke asked apprehensively for Fumihiro rarely panicked without a very good reason.

'The car Ryosuke, our new car is gone.'

To be continued…