Programmed Lives – Second Stage

Chapter Seventeen

Trying to ignore Keisuke's words, Takumi walked towards where his girlfriend and his father were.

'Hey,' he said as Mika hugged him shyly.

'Surprise!' she said smiling.

'Yeah,' Takumi managed to say trying to sound as enthusiastic as possible. The truth of the matter was that he was actually happy to see her there, 'I thought you were training for the Tokyo tournament.'

'Yeah, I was. I am actually, the thing is since yesterday it rained so much, they had to cancel today's training session and I called your dad to see if he could get me a pass so I could come here this morning. He did and, here I am. So, you like my surprise?' Mika asked.

'Yeah, I do,' Takumi replied.

'Unfortunately, I have to go back this afternoon but I hope to see at least the start of the race,' she added.

'You won't be here at the end of it?' Takumi asked while Keisuke tried to convert a chuckle into a fit of coughing.

'No, I'm sorry,' Mika said biting her lower lip, 'but I really wanted to see you before the race so I could give you my support.'

'Thanks, I really appreciate this.'

'Don't mention it. Now, your dad and I need to go back to the entrance to get your other surprise.'

'Another surprise?' Takumi asked.

'Yeah, you'll see,' Takumi's dad said intervening for the first time in the conversation. Then, both he and Mika walked away from them.

'Your lucky star is working loads of overtime,' Keisuke said once she was gone. Takumi just glared at him and Keisuke added, 'look, do whatever you want but…'

'Keisuke, please, drop it. I'll tell Mina-chan about Mika, okay?'

'Alright, don't let this distract you from the race though,' Keisuke warned him and, before Takumi could reply, he walked away from an increasingly pissed off Takumi.

Deciding that his energies would be better invested on getting some breakfast, he walked back to the motorhome so he could get something to eat from its kitchenette and, by the time he finished buttering some pieces of toasted bread, he saw several people entering the motorhome.

'HEY! Takumi!' Itsuki screamed loudly making Takumi turn round to see him standing next to Mika, his father and Iketani-sempai.

'Hey guys!' he said and, this time, he was really pleased to see his two oldest friends there.

'You like this surprise too?' Mika said smiling and that made Takumi feel even worse about what had happened the previous day.

'Yeah,' he said trying to return the smile then, speaking to Iketani and Itsuki, he said, 'wanna go for a walk around the paddock?'

'Sure!' Itsuki said.

'Takumi, you can't go. We've got a briefing to attend, remember?' Bunta said.

'Ah, yeah, sorry guys…'

'It's okay, we'll just go ourselves,' Iketani said.

After spending a few minutes with the two guys and his girlfriend, Takumi walked with his father towards the team's garage were everyone was waiting for Ryosuke to come back from the Team Manager's meeting.

The rest of the morning went by extremely quickly for Takumi and, except for the few minutes he was allowed to spend with Mika, he barely had time for anything other than focusing on the upcoming race.

About half an hour before the race was due to start, Takumi and Keisuke were standing outside their box at the pit lane's side when they saw the public sitting at the grandstands suddenly get up and starting to clap.

'What's going on?' Keisuke asked.

His reply came in the form of the circuit's speakers announcing that Mina-chan's show was about to start.

'Takumi! It's Mina-chan!' Mika said rushing him to the other side of the pit lane so they could see the singer from the wall.

'You know her?' Takumi asked.

'I know of her, of course: she's great!' Mika said and Keisuke, who had joined them together with the rest of the team, gave a knowing look at Takumi who, for the second time that day, glared at his team mate.

Takumi then looked back at the podium where Mina-chan would be performing and saw the girl, dressed with an extremely tiny dress and wearing considerably more make up than on the previous evening, stepping onto the podium where the winner of the race would stand at the end of it.

The music started almost immediately and soon Mina-chan's powerful voice filled the whole place. Takumi realised just how charismatic she was when he saw the public singing along to her song.

Then it hit him: there was absolutely no way a girl like that could ever be seriously interested in him. He looked at his girlfriend, who was currently dancing and clapping her hands at the rhythm of the music and decided that the right thing to do was to tell Mina-chan that he already had a girlfriend and that he wasn't interested in cheating on her.

'She's so talented!' Mika said when the show was over.

'And so beautiful,' Itsuki added, obviously daydreaming about the singer.

'What happened to the whole I'm a lonely driver philosophy?' Takumi asked his friend.

'I am a lonely driver, but I still can appreciate when a girl is beautiful and man, that one is just gorgeous! I'd give anything to go out with her.'

'Keep on dreaming Itsuki, a girl like that wouldn't even think of looking at any one of us,' Iketani said and Takumi nearly chocked himself hearing that.

'You're alright?' Mika asked him.

'Yeah, I've got to go now,' Takumi said, deciding he had had enough of the way Keisuke kept looking at him.

'Sure. Let's meet up after the tournament okay?' Mika asked.

'Okay,' Takumi replied and, after receiving a good luck kiss from Mika, Takumi walked back to the garage so he could prepare himself for the race.

Twenty minutes later, Takumi found himself strapped to the bucket seat of his car, with Ryosuke and Bunta standing next to the car's window.

'Takumi, just drive the way you usually do. We're second on the grid in the GT300 category which means that if we manage to overtake the pole holder and keep that position we'll have won the race. Remember that this race can go on for almost two hours so don't get impatient. We'll swap drivers half way through, unless you feel too tired to keep up. Understood?' Ryosuke said.

'Stay focused,' Bunta added.

'Got it,' Takumi said and, with this, he drove out of the garage, cruised along the pit lane and joined the queue of cars that were on their way to the starting grid.

It was rather useless to tell himself to remain calm but, oddly enough, he wasn't so much nervous as he was anxious to start racing. He supposed that the adrenaline rush he was feeling was preventing him from being aware of any fear or any other negative sensation. The only thing he wanted was to be able to floor the accelerator pedal and drive as fast as he could.

That was the only thing his brain allowed him to register. The rest was just pushed to the back of his mind and Takumi was glad of this fact for it meant that he could do just what his dad had told him: focus every bit of his being on the race.

When he arrived at the starting grid, he saw that Matsumoto and Fumihiro were there waiting for him.

'Does everything feel alright?' Matsumoto asked.

Takumi nodded.

'Good. We're going to go back to the pit lane's wall. Should you need to tell us anything, use the radio, ok?'

'Sure,' Takumi said not even bothering with looking at his chief engineer.

'Right. Now, do what you do best: drive as fast as hell.'

'I will,' Takumi said allowing himself a quick glance at Matsumoto.

Five minutes later, with the grid clear of mechanics and other support staff, Takumi and the rest of the drivers focused their attention on the semaphore hanging above them.

Takumi didn't even have the time to compare the feeling he had now to the one he had before one of his countless battles when the semaphore's light went from red to green. Then, every one of his neurons became way too busy accelerating and controlling the car at the same time than keeping an eye on the pole holder, a bright orange Toyota Supra, and the rest of the cars behind them.

The adrenaline rush he had felt earlier was nothing compared to the one he was feeling now.

Trying his best to remember what Ryosuke had told him, he kept himself glued to the Toyota's tail all the way to the first corner. However, the blue Nissan Z32 he had behind had pretty much the same idea so Takumi found himself sandwiched between the two cars.

He definitely didn't like that, also because he knew that the Nissan belonged to the GT300 category too so he could not let it overtake him.

On top of that, as they negotiated first one corner, then the next and then one of the circuit's short straights, Takumi realised that the cars that followed immediately behind the Nissan had no intention whatsoever to let them lead the race for much longer.

Soon, the Nissan started making a move to pass him.

Keep your eyes on the car in front of you, Takumi reminded himself of his father's words and, doing so, he tried his best to forget about all of his Mazda's mirrors.

That microsecond of distraction cost Takumi dearly for, by the time he focused back on the Toyota, he saw that the car was several meters away from him leaving enough room for the Z32 to pass him and get in between his Mazda and the Toyota.

'Shit', he said loudly forgetting about the helmet's fitted mike that connected to the team's radio.

'Don't worry,' came Ryosuke's reply, talking to him with his most reassuring tone, 'take it easy…'

He tried and, by the fourth lap, with his car still firmly in second place but with the Nissan still tailing him, Takumi was sweating like he had never sweated before in his life.

Then, as they started the fifth lap, a white Lamborghini RG-1 appeared from nowhere. Taking a quick look at his rear mirror, he realised that the Nissan was no longer there.

'What?' he heard himself whisper.

'The Nissan's spun out,' Fumihiro said supplying Takumi with an answer, 'be careful with that RG-1.'

Takumi's response to that was to literally floor the accelerator pedal.

'No, let him pass,' Ryosuke said.

'What?'

'Do it,' Ryosuke ordered.

Takumi, fighting against his highly competitive instincts, obeyed and let the RG-1 pass.

'Now watch out and be ready to avoid them,' Ryosuke said, being as cryptic as ever.

Not even half a lap later, Takumi understood the message very clearly: the RG-1, for no apparent reason, tried to crash against the bright orange Supra and the result was not pretty:

The Toyota, closing the RG-1's line, made its driver skid the tyres for a fraction of a second too long and, by the time the RG-1 tried to regain its line, Takumi had already dodged and passed him.

'That driver's a hothead, be careful with him,' Ryosuke said.

'Got it,' Takumi breathed through the mike. Even talking was becoming challenging, especially after seeing the car that followed the RG-1: the black NA-1.

Fantastic, Takumi thought sarcastically, now I have two hotheads instead of just one.

'Ryosuke-san…' he said.

'I know, I've seen him, don't worry about it though, with a bit of your luck, they'll neutralise each other.'

'Okay,' he said, 'by the way, the car's feeling great.'

'Good,' Ryosuke said.

While this was happening at the track, Kenta saw Keisuke sneaking out of the box, clearly believing no one had noticed his departure.

Not wanting him to get in trouble with Ryosuke, Kenta decided to follow him, just to see where he was going.

He saw the youngest of the Takahashi brothers entering the team's motorhome. Kenta debated with himself whether ignore the whole issue or not but, finally, his curiosity got the best of him and decided to enter the motorhome too.

What he found there was a rather disturbing sight.

'Keisuke-san,' he whispered and the spiky haired young man looked up, his eyes widening in horror.

'What the fuck are you doing here?' Keisuke shouted.

'But, Keisuke-san, you're hurt,' Kenta said, almost sobbing.

'It's nothing,' Keisuke shouted again but, seeing Kenta's terrified expression, made him change his tone of voice, 'look, it's just my ankle. I thought it was properly healed but yesterday, during the qualifying session, I felt something crack...'

'Will you be able to race like that?' Kenta said doubtfully, 'shouldn't you tell Ryosuke-san?'

'Kenta, tell Aniki or anyone else about this and I'll kill you,' Keisuke said and, judging by his dangerous tone of voice, Kenta decided to believe that thread.

'I'll go and get you some more ice,' Kenta finally said and, as he was heading out, he added, 'I'll tell the guys you've gone to the bathroom.'

'Yeah, do that,' Keisuke said as he finished removing the rudimentary bandage he had put on himself.

To be continued…