Programmed Lives – Second Stage

Chapter Eighteen

Kenta came back with the ice and, after applying it for a while, he helped Keisuke by rubbing on some anti-inflammatory ointment and, very carefully, putting the bandage back on.

'How does it feel?' Kenta asked as Keisuke tested his now booted foot.

'Okay. It doesn't hurt anymore,' Keisuke said.

'I…'

'Kenta, thanks for this but, I'm serious, don't tell anyone, alright?' Keisuke said and, this time, he used an almost pleading tone of voice rather than an intimidating one.

Kenta nodded.

'Let's go then,' Keisuke said and Kenta followed him out of the motorhome.

By the time they got to the box, they were confronted by Ryosuke.

'Where have you been?' he asked Keisuke.

'The bathroom,' Keisuke said hoping his highly intuitive brother wouldn't realise he was lying. Ryosuke looked at him for a short while then, shaking his head, he said:

'Alright. We need to call Fujiwara back, are you ready?'

'Of course Aniki but, weren't we going to wait to the twenty fifth lap?'

'Change of plans, look,' Ryosuke said pointing at the monitor where Keisuke saw Takumi looking like he had serious trouble to keep the black Honda behind him.

'What happened to the RG-1?' Keisuke asked.

'The NA-1 pushed him out of the track, now it's in fifteenth place,' Ryosuke explained.

'Yeah, and it's targeting Takumi now,' Fumihiro added.

A few minutes later, Takumi got back to the box and, after a quick pit stop, Keisuke climbed into the car and, having even less time than Takumi to get used to the sensations he felt onboard the FD, he drove all the way down the pit lane and incorporated himself to the track where, luckily enough, there wasn't any incoming car.

'Right, we're down to seventh place, don't worry about it Keisuke, none of the cars from our category which are in front of you have made any stops yet. Just drive as you normally do,' Ryosuke said and Keisuke found it kind of reassuring to hear his brother's voice.

'We aren't doing any more pit stops, are we?' Keisuke asked, using one of the last few moments of peace he would have.

'Yes, we'll need to do a quick refill a few laps before the end of the race. This means that you should save yourself for the last few laps you'll be driving.'

'Understood,' Keisuke said.

Soon enough, and before he had the chance to enjoy being behind the wheel of a racing car in an official race, Keisuke discovered just how very hard it was to, not only keep up with the cars in front of him, but to defend one's position from the ones he had behind.

This was possibly the hardest dogfight he had ever been involved in and, he finally understood the point of having endless training sessions. Compared to what was happening now, they were a joy.

The small portion of Keisuke's brain that wasn't focused on the race wondered whether Takumi had felt the same adrenaline rush that was keeping Keisuke sharper than he had ever been.

There was one thing he understood: he loved this. He definitely loved racing.

Everything was running according to Ryosuke's plans, Keisuke was just taking it easy, maintaining his position watching as the cars in front of his went into their boxes for the pit stop.

He never quite made it to the head of the race because the faster GT500 cars kept overtaking him. This frustrated Keisuke considerably but, either Ryosuke or Fumihiro kept warning him whenever one of these cars came anywhere near him.

The important bit was not to let any of the GT300 cars get ahead of him.

With a pang, he realised that, after all, winning this race was not an impossible dream. He could do it. They could do it. He just needed to hang on for a while longer and, when the time came, build up a gap long enough for the team to do their final pit stop.

Keisuke was beginning to feel incredibly good about this when, suddenly, the back of one of the cars in front of him started wobbling in a very alarming way then, something seemed to give up in that car: one of the rear tyres had exploded causing the car to go completely out of control.

It took him every one of his best abilities to avoid a frontal collision and, as he was twisting his foot to press both the accelerator and the break, he felt a piercing pain in his ankle.

'Shit!' he breathed.

Fighting against the pain, he managed to dodge the spinning car and get back on track. Unfortunately, as he used his foot to press the accelerator, he realised that it was too painful to keep on going.

'Shit,' he repeated, this time loud enough for Ryosuke and Fumihiro to hear him.

'Keisuke, you're alright?' Ryosuke's concerned voice said.

'Yeah, did you see that?' Keisuke said, hoping his voice didn't betray the pain he was in.

'We're just watching the footage. That was way too close,' Fumihiro confirmed.

'You're alright?' Ryosuke asked again.

'Yeah, don't worry…' Keisuke said and, he knew right then that his older brother wasn't buying it but, they had just gone over half the race's distance and there were still many more laps left.

'What's wrong with him?' Fumihiro asked Ryosuke back at the box.

'I don't know, but something's not right: he's lying to me and he never does that,' Ryosuke replied, his voice filled with concern.

Kenta, having overheard the exchange, started feeling torn about keeping Keisuke's secret. He definitely didn't want to betray his mentor but, he was terrified that something could happen to him: after all, even he could tell that Keisuke-san shouldn't have been driving but it was too early for Takumi to get back behind the wheel and to do another pit stop. He'd have to cope with the pain. Kenta didn't know how but he was sure Keisuke would find a way.

Ten laps later, and with his foot's soreness having become almost unbearable, Keisuke received instructions from his box telling him to push it for five more laps before returning for the last pit stop.

Deciding to try his best to ignore the pain, he started driving in a nearly suicidal fashion, even overtaking cars that weren't in his same category. He didn't care. All he wanted was for the five laps to be over so he could climb out of the car. At this point, he was racing against the pain, and the faster he went, the sooner he could get something to relieve the pain.

By the time he started his final lap around the circuit, and he wasn't sure whether it was a good thing or not, his foot was beginning to get numb because of the pain. That didn't help any when he had to get out of the car.

'What's wrong with you?' Ryosuke asked him as the mechanics were doing the pit stop while Takumi got inside the car.

'Nothing,' Keisuke lied uselessly for, judging by Ryosuke's facial expression, his older brother didn't believe him.

'Come with me,' Ryosuke ordered and Keisuke, no longer bothering with hiding his limp, followed him all the way to the garage's back door.

Once outside it, at the paddock area, Ryosuke asked him:

'Why didn't you tell me about your foot?'

'It's nothing…' Keisuke said.

'It's not nothing,' Ryosuke almost barked, 'you are hurt. You could have crashed the car…'

'And of course, that's the only thing you care about!' Keisuke exclaimed.

Ryosuke looked at his brother with a mix of shock and sorrow.

'You really think so?' Ryosuke asked.

'No…I…' Keisuke stammered.

'Good, because even though I must be impartial, Keisuke you, before being anything else, are my brother. I will always care for you more than I care for anyone else in this team.'

Keisuke couldn't remember the last time Ryosuke had verbally expressed his feelings for him this openly and, seeing this rare display of brotherly affection, made him feel even worse.

'Go to the motorhome and put some ice on your ankle. I'll take a look at it later,' Ryosuke said, his voice being back at his usual business-like tone of voice.

'Shit,' he said to himself as soon as Ryosuke had gone back inside their garage, he had just done what he hated and feared the most: making Aniki upset.

Fifteen minutes later, and with his foot now propped up by a couple of cushions, Keisuke was resting his tired body on his bed.

That's how, an extremely happy Kenta found him:

'Keisuke-san! Come on, you've gotta come with me!'

'What? Why?' Keisuke said, realising he had been about to fall asleep.

'We've won! I don't know how we've done it but we've won!'

'Impossible! I'm sure the gap I built up wasn't enough to keep the lead,' Keisuke said.

'I know that Keisuke-san but Fujiwara's last ten turns around the circuit were just like a series of qualifying laps! It was amazing! At some point, his father had to tell him to stop overtaking the cars he found on his way because he was already in front of our category and kept overtaking everyone he found!' Kenta kept talking at a machinegun speed.

'That crazy stupid bastard,' Keisuke said smiling happily. He should have known that Takumi would pull yet another one of his miracles. This one though, was the best one so far: winning their maiden race was even beyond of what Keisuke could ever expect from Takumi.

'Keisuke-san, you need to go up the podium with Fujiwara,' Kenta said.

The entire staff from the Kirin Takahashi Racing Team had just gone berserk and soon, both Kenta and Keisuke let themselves be involved in the celebrations. By the time Takumi arrived with the car, things had definitely gone out of control. Even the usually serious executives Kirin had sent to watch the race were now clasping each other's shoulders and laughing out loud.

'Well done son!' Bunta said as tired looking but very happy Takumi got out of the car.

'You can say that Bunta!' Keiichi Tsuchiya shouted from the pit lane, 'You, your son and the Takahashi brothers are certainly something. Did you know that you're one of the very few teams that have ever won the first race they entered?'

Ryosuke's composed and cold expression was faltering dangerously as he joined the two legendary street racers. He felt amazingly good.

The celebrations lasted for quite a while and, after going through the podium ceremony, press conference and photo session, the team gathered outside the motorhome while Ryosuke tended Keisuke's injured ankle.

'Takumi, there's some guy looking for you,' Matsumoto said.

'Ah yeah, I forgot,' Takumi said then, talking to Iketani and Itsuki, he said, 'sorry guys, I have to go for a bit, I'll be back soon.'

'Ah, right, okay,' Iketani said, Itsuki being way too busy admiring everything that surrounded him. Takumi smiled to himself: his best friend seemed to be spending the best day of his life.

If Takumi wanted to be honest to himself, he was also incredibly pleased of this victory. Not only it put them ahead in the championship but it was a huge confidence boost for both him and the team. They couldn't have started better.

Thinking about what he was about to face removed the smile from his face. Following some guy, who had identified himself as a member of Mina-chan's staff, he arrived at one of the private lounges from where the VIP's watched the race.

Mina-can was there, alone, waiting for him. She had changed and, unfortunately, she was no longer wearing that incredibly sexy dress she had been wearing during her performance. She was now wearing a black miniskirt and a white Dolce and Gabbana T-shirt.

'Hey! Congratulations! I've seen your team won the race!' she said getting up and, seeing the smile on her beautiful face made it even more difficult for Takumi to say what he had to say.

'Yeah…look, I'm sorry but I can't go out with you,' he said the minute they were left on their own.

'Why?' she asked, her smile quickly fading off her face.

'I should have told you yesterday: I have a girlfriend,' he said and, even to himself, his words sounded incredibly stupid.

Mina-chan snorted.

'You could have come up with a much better excuse than that,' she said bitterly.

'No, it's the truth,' Takumi defended himself.

'Look, if you don't want to go out with me, just say it. I'm used to being rejected all the time anyway.'

'You are?' he asked refusing to believe anyone in their right mind would ever reject someone like her. Hell, had it not been for Mika, he would have definitely loved to date someone as beautiful as her.

'You'd be surprised how difficult it is for a girl like me to find someone brave enough to date me,' she said sitting back down looking miserable.

Takumi stood there, not knowing what to say.

'I'm sorry,' he said, deciding that was the best he could do.

'You really have a girlfriend, don't you?' Mina-chan asked looking back up at him.

'Yeah, I do.'

'Been together for long?' she asked.

'Almost two years,' he replied.

'Wow, lucky her, my longest relationship ever lasted just over two months,' she commented.

'Look I've got to go now,' Takumi said feeling increasingly uncomfortable.

'Sure. Well, I really like you so, if you ever change your mind, let me know,' she said and Takumi realised that, unbelievably enough, she was serious about it. Now he definitely didn't know what to say.

With a quick wave of his hand, he left her there with the thought that he had just made a very grave mistake nagging at him.

To be continued…