Programmed Lives – Second Stage

Chapter Thirteen

The atmosphere in the team had definitely seen better moments. Everyone stood there avoiding each other's eyes and not knowing what to do.

'I'll fix this,' finally Fujiwara-san said.

'Dad, you heard…'

'Shush, I said I'll fix it and I'll fix it,' he said interrupting Takumi.

'Fujiwara-san, with all due respect, how are you going to get a new exhaust, all the parts we need for it, assemble it and test it in less than two weeks?' Fumihiro asked not bothering to hide a rather blatant scepticism.

'I've got my sources. We should be back in just a few hours,' he just said.

Fumihiro was about to reply to that when Ryosuke interrupted him:

'As long as it's legal, do as you see fit Fujiwara-san.'

'Got it,' Takumi's dad said walking away from the group towards the truck.

'Matsumoto, go with him,' Ryosuke ordered.

'Me?' Matsumoto asked becoming positively terrified.

'Yes, now, we don't have time to waste, help Fujiwara-san load the car in the truck.'

Matsumoto looked first at Fumihiro then back at Ryosuke, only then he started following Fujiwara-san to the garage.

'What do we do?' Keisuke asked his brother.

'Well, I guess we have free time till the car's back so…'

'Ah! Free time!' Keisuke exclaimed happily.

'…so, we could review the data we have of our opponents,' Rysouke finished his sentence as if Keisuke hadn't interrupted him.

'Aniki…' Keisuke started then, seeing the serious expression on his brother's face, he said, 'alright, let's go…'

True to Fujiwara-san's word, a few hours later, Ryosuke heard the truck coming back.

'What? Already?' Fumihiro said his voice a mix of amazement and incredulity.

'That shitty old man,' Takumi said smiling in what was one of the rare moments where he actually felt proud of his father.

'Do I want to know what happened?' Fumihiro asked a very pale looking Matsumoto as he climbed off the truck and helped the other mechanics unload the FD3S.

'I can't even say where we went. That freaking maniac was driving the truck like if it were on freaking rails. I've never been any more scared in my life. I think I fainted at some point and by the time I woke up we had already arrived and then I was told to wait by the truck,' Matsumoto whispered.

'He didn't damage the car, did he? ' Fumihiro asked and started checking the car for any damage that, obviously enough, wasn't there.

'Sure, worry about the car...' Matsumoto complained walking away feeling slightly offended.

Fumihiro looked at his friend concernedly. Oh well, he'd have to worry about that later for at that moment all he cared about was seeing how the car performed with the new exhaust.

'Ryosuke, I'd like to take your brother and my son for a drive around the circuit,' Fujiwara-san said approaching both Takahashi brothers and Takumi.

'Of course, go ahead,' Ryosuke said.

'You, come with me,' he said pointing first at Takumi who, knowing better than to argue with his father, followed him to the car.

They were both sitting inside the car with it facing the straight of the small, local circuit they had rented for the training sessions, when Bunta said:

'You're probably worried about the public and how nervous you're going to be when the race starts, aren't you?'

Takumi considered denying this but then, he remembered he was talking to his father so he opted for a short nod instead.

'Right, now you'll see why you shouldn't worry about those things…'

They started the car and Bunta started doing what he did best: drive like there was no tomorrow.

'Tell me what you see,' Bunta said, his voice sounding as calm as ever.

'Not much, it's getting dark,' Takumi managed to say while hanging on for dear life onto his seat.

'Honestly son, if you were any slower you'd be going backwards,' Bunta said removing one hand from the wheel so he could smack his son's head.

'Hey that hurt!' Takumi complained while his father drifted all the way around one of the sharpest corners of the circuit.

'Look at the road and tell me what you see,' Bunta tried again.

'Er, the road?' he said and, this time Bunta removed both hands of the wheel and crossed them on his chest. This freaked Takumi out since they were doing over two hundred kilometres an hour.

'Just tell me: how thin is the road now?' Bunta said, talking to Takumi like if he were five years old and, worryingly enough, still refusing to put his hands back on the wheel.

'Ah, that, yeah, it looks very thin,' Takumi finally said and for that, he was rewarded by getting his father to grab the wheel once more.

'Right you are. With a road this thin and a car this fast, there is not much more you can worry about, is there?'

'No, not really,' Takumi said.

'Good, because there are only three things I want you to worry about: the road, your car and the one in front of you, the rest, forget it, it's not important.'

'But dad, there will be cars around me…'

'Son, if there are any cars around you five seconds after the start, you've already lost the race.'

Takumi didn't know what to say to that.

He simply limited himself to absorb as much as he could of his father's technique and, after that, when it was Keisuke's turn, he just watched the way his father managed to do everything he wanted with the car.

'What did he do?' Ryosuke asked his brother when Keisuke got off the car and Fujiwara-san had gone to smoke.

'I'll just say this Aniki: I prefer your lectures…'

Takumi smirked seeing how pale Keisuke was, even though Takumi had to give him credit because he hadn't fainted in his first ride ever with Bunta Fujiwara.

Ten days later, having obtained with no problems the scrutineers' approval regarding the car, they found themselves packing up so they could head to the Suzuka circuit where the inaugural race of the Super GT300 Championship would be held.

The first sunrays of dawn made all the team's vehicles, with their black, white, yellow and gold paintwork (their sponsor's logo's colour) shine in a way that made Ryosuke get very emotional: his dream was, at long last, on its way to become a reality.

'Hey boss, let's go…' Fumihiro said with a weird smile on his face. He had probably noticed the dreamy look on Ryosuke's face.

'Yes.'

'Well, good luck and be careful, alright?' Akiko said with little Kyosuke sleeping in her arms.

'Sure,' he said kissing his wife and then giving a quick peck on his son's head, 'I'll give you a call when we get there, alright?'

Akiko nodded.

Not far from where they were, Takumi saw Kyoko hugging Keisuke and wishing him good luck too. This made him realise that, once again, his girlfriend wasn't there for him.

'Wanna kiss too?' he heard his father say, his voice full of amusement.

'Oh, shut up!' Takumi said and with this, he walked towards the van where he was going to be travelling. Thankfully, that van was going to be driven by his father so he could just sleep or pretend he did so.

The driving arrangements seemed to please everyone, Fumihiro and Ryosuke travelled together in the motorhome, Tomiguchi drove one of the team's vans with one of the two junior mechanics while Matsumoto was left to drive the truck with the other one.

Kenta was ecstatic to find out that he was in charge of driving the van where Keisuke travelled. Unfortunately for him, the youngest of the Takahashi brothers decided to copy Takumi and slept all the way to Suzuka, only waking up when the general mess that reigned in the middle of the paddock made it impossible for him to continue sleeping.

'Wow!' he exclaimed seeing the hundreds of people that seemed to populate the area even though it was still quite early in the morning.

'I know, isn't it amazing! I've never been so excited in my life Keisuke-san,' Kenta said and Keisuke chuckled for his friend seemed to be bouncing on his seat out of sheer enthusiasm.

'Neither have I,' he said sincerely. He was only a bit sad that Kyoko was missing all of this but, after all, they could hardly leave Akiko cope on her own with everything back home so, his girlfriend had decided to stay behind and watch the race on TV instead.

When they arrived at the box they had been allocated, they started unloading all the material and getting everything organised for the afternoon when the first of the free practice sessions would begin.

'Hey Bunta!' someone shouted through the opening of the box, the one that faced the track.

They all turned round and, seeing the owner of the voice made everyone stop working, one of the junior mechanics actually dropping one of the toolboxes.

'Keiichi, thanks for the parts,' Bunta said approaching with complete nonchalance the Drift King, Keiichi Tsuchiya.

'No problem, were they alright?'

'Perfect, you'll see it this afternoon,' Bunta said.

'Hey, you're Ryosuke Takahashi, aren't you?' Keiichi asked looking at their Team Manager.

'Yes, that's me,' he said.

'It's a pity you've retired from active racing, I would have loved to see you on the track again…'

'Yes, well, I'm a father now so I can't be so reckless anymore,' Ryosuke said.

'Yeah, having kids changes your priorities in a way nothing else does,' Keiichi said and, judging by his tone of voice, he seemed to know what he was talking about.

'Nevertheless, both of my drivers are extremely capable and, I daresay, with a lot more potential than I ever had.'

'That's quite an statement there,' Keiichi said then, looking at Bunta, he said, 'but again, I know that one of them is Bunta's son and the other is your own brother so, I take you've got your reasons to say what you say.'

'I do,' Ryosuke said and then, he added, 'besides, we have an excellent team backing us up so I'm confident we can do well.'

'What can I say, I can't wait to see you guys in action,' Keiichi said.

Ryosuke was going to reply to that when a commotion outside distracted him and the rest of the team.

'What's happening?' Ryosuke asked.

'Oh, it must be that Mina-chan girl,' Keiichi said.

'Mina-chan? THE Mina-chan?' Matsumoto couldn't help but to ask.

'Who's Mina-chan?' Takumi asked.

'She's one of the best J-pop singers. She's won the Golden Disk this year,' Matsumoto explained.

'Yeah, and she's gorgeous,' one of the junior mechanics explained.

'Yes, that too,' Matsumoto agreed.

'Oh well, she's going to sing during the opening ceremony here at the circuit and, apparently, she's decided to roam around during these days and her fans are making a gigantic deal out of it, quite annoying really,' Keiichi said clearly thinking that a pop star didn't belong in a racing circuit.

The team enjoyed Keiichi's company till he was called by his manager and had to leave.

'Now, you two, go to the motorhome and get some rest while we finish getting things ready,' Ryosuke said talking to Takumi and Keisuke.

'Sure,' Keisuke said while Takumi simply nodded.

The two drivers entered the motorhome and Keisuke went straight to the room that had been assigned to him. He immediately fell asleep.

Takumi, however, laid on his bed for quite a bit before deciding that he was just too nervous to manage to get any sleep. On their way to the boxes, he had seen numerous very famous drivers and he had also seen many other celebrities. If he had ever felt any more out of place, Takumi couldn't remember it.

He just couldn't think he was worthy of all of that. Alright, he was a fair driver but the people here were serious about their racing. This all felt way too business-like for Takumi and he feared that he would not be up to the standard. Again, he couldn't remember any other time when he had felt any more insecure about himself.

'The road, think of the road,' he mumbled to himself as he exited the motorhome to go for a short walk around the area. Maybe that way he'd calm down enough to face the rest of the day.

He heard a stifled chuckle come from a dark corner near the motorhome and he walked there to investigate.

What he found there left him speechless: an incredibly beautiful girl was sitting down on the ground and, by the looks of it, she seemed to be hiding from someone.

'Hey, boy-who-talks-on-his-own, don't tell anyone you've seen me, alright?' she said.

'I don't even know who you are,' Takumi said with his usual monotone voice.

'Really?' she said and, for some reason, she seemed unable to believe so.

'Nope, sorry,' Takumi said.

'I'm Yoshimura Minami,' she said getting up and offering him her hand.

'Fujiwara Takumi,' he replied shaking it briefly and releasing it just as quickly.

Then, she did something as strange as it was shocking: getting on her tiptoes, she put her hands on his shoulders and went up to kiss him full on his mouth.

To be continued…