Programmed Lives – Second Stage

Chapter Twenty

Takumi drove all the way from the shopping centre to Mika's house with the automatic pilot he used to drive up Mt Akina's uphill whenever he did the deliveries for his father.

He felt so numb that he barely noticed Mika getting out of the car, much less when she said that she'd keep in touch. As if he cared…

He was sick and tired of women, they didn't make any sense and he really didn't have the energy to try and understand them.

'To hell with them,' he said feeling almost as upset as when he had found out about Natsuki's extracurricular activities.

Seeing how pissed off he was, he decided to go to Mt Akina to give vent to his frustration before he could do anything stupid that would end up with him blowing the 86's engine up. Also, if he remembered correctly, the gang should be there and he desperately needed Itsuki and his almost phenomenal abilities when it came to cheering Takumi up.

As he drove up to the top of Mt Akina, he decided that the car was way too quiet for his liking, so he turned on the radio not even bothering to check which station was selected.

'…like we promised, we have in our studio, for tonight's only, one of the best singers of the moment: Yoshimura Minami-san, Mina-chan to all of us…'

Takumi swore. Of all nights, he had to hear her on the radio tonight?

He was about to turn the radio off when, probably some masochistic instinct, made him listen to the interview:

'So, how are things these days Mina-chan?' the guy from the radio asked after Mina-chan had greeted the listeners.

'The new album's selling well and the tour's preparations are going just as expected so, I'm happy,' she said.

'There were some rumours about you and Nakazawa-san…'

'Oh not that again!' she complained, 'I've already stated that Nakazawa-san and I are friends. It just happened that we met to do one commercial together and everyone started thinking we were dating. It was rather annoying really. Especially because he's already seeing someone else.'

'Ah really? Who?' the guy said getting absurdly happy.

'As if I'm going to tell you that,' she laughed.

'Mina-chan, are you telling us that there is no one special in your life now? Can we hope that you're still free?' he said and, at that point Takumi was about to turn the radio off for the guy was beginning to seriously get on his nerves.

'As it happens, there is one person I like,' Mina-chan said making Takumi stop his hand as it went to press the radio's button to turn it off, 'I recently met this guy: he's really nice and very cute.'

'Ah, and?' the radio speaker asked with fervent curiosity.

'I asked him out but he told me that he's got a girlfriend. I guess I'm really unlucky with guys,' Mina-chan said, trying her best to laugh it off.

'What? No way I can believe that! What kind of idiot would say no to you?' the interviewer said and, at this, Takumi decided he had heard enough and turned the radio off.

He had just been called an idiot, live and on a national radio station. It couldn't get much worse than that, he thought bitterly as he arrived at the point where the Akina Speed Stars usually parked their rides.

There were only two: Itsuki's AE85 and Kenji's RS13. Iketani's S13 was nowhere to be seen.

'Hey! I thought you were going out with Mika?' Kenji said as Takumi got out of his car.

'Yeah, well…change of plans,' he said not yet ready to admit that he no longer had a girlfriend.

'Ah good!' Itsuki said, as usual unable to see that Takumi looked a bit sadder than normal.

'Yeah, where is Iketani-sempai?' Takumi asked and he almost laughed at the extremely offended-looking faces of Kenji and Itsuki.

'That traitor! Don't even say his name in front of me…' Kenji said making Takumi feel confused.

'What has he done?' he asked and it seemed to Takumi that Itsuki and Kenji were making an effort not to explode. Finally, Itsuki spat:

'He's gone out with Mako-chan! Can you believe it?'

'What? How did that happen?' Takumi asked lifting his eyebrows in disbelief. The last thing he knew of the whole Iketani-Mako affair was that he hadn't made it on time for their first date and things had just cooled off ever since.

'Well, the traitor ran into her someplace near Usui and, the cheek of him, he told her if she wanted to go for a meal with him,' Kenji explained hitting his chest with his fist as if trying to make it physically evident how very hurt he was.

'That's good for them, isn't it?' Takumi asked and the twin glares he got made it clear that both his friends utterly disagreed with him.

'Anyway, let's not waste any more breath talking about that traitor,' Kenji said, 'that race, Takumi, we were so proud of you! I can't believe you guys won your first ever professional race.'

'I can, I've always known that Takumi was special,' Itsuki said getting a look from Takumi that expressed his scepticism at that last remark.

'That's why you kept calling me 'spaced out boy'?' Takumi asked and, the small smile that was beginning to form on his lips made him realise that his decision to go and see his best friend had been spot on.

'Let's go for a drive,' Itsuki said changing topic once more.

'For old times' sake!' Kenji exclaimed.

'Yeah, I'd like that,' Takumi said and then the three of them climbed into their rides. They agreed to follow Takumi or, rather, try to keep up with him as they drove downhill.

Takumi, not wanting to lose them, just cruised down taking it so easy that he even had time to see the bits of the guardrail that needed to be replaced. Including the one where, ages ago, Iketani-sempai had crashed his S13.

By the time the three of them had made it all the way down to their hometown, Takumi had made his mind up about his love life or lack of thereof: from then on, he would just focus on his racing career. After all, and since Mika had chosen golf over him, he would too concentrate all his energies on getting faster and faster.

The pain and sorrow his broken heart caused would, with time, fade away. It had been the same when Natsuki had broken his heart so Takumi knew that he would survive this time too. Or at least, he hoped. One thing was sure: he would never allow any woman to mess with him anymore.

The weekend after, the Takahashi's were enjoying a meal altogether at their house.

'This is nice, having all the family together,' Akiko commented looking over the table at her husband, Keisuke and his girlfriend Kyoko.

'I know,' Ryosuke said taking the hand Akiko had on the table.

'We should do this more often,' Keisuke said and a happy sounding gurgle came from the head of the table where Kyosuke was sitting on his highchair.

'I think Kyo-chan agrees with you,' Kyoko said smiling fondly at her de-facto nephew.

'This reminds me, my father would like us and your parents to go for dinner at his house,' Akiko said talking to Ryosuke.

'Is he strong enough for that?'

'Yes, he's feeling much better these days. He's been out of bed for the entire day in this last week,' she commented.

'Oh, is he going to go back to work?' Kyoko asked.

'No, I don't think so. To be honest, I think he's enjoying this break more than he wants to admit, I don't think we're going to be seeing him back at heading the Arakawa Group anytime soon,' Akiko replied.

'I'm sorry to hear that,' Keisuke said.

'Your father is doing an excellent job at replacing him so we're not missing him too much,' Akiko said with her usual, almost brutal honesty.

'I hope he doesn't make you deal with more than what you can cope with,' Ryosuke said.

'No, he's great. We're getting along remarkably well. We have more or less the same points of view regarding the way a hospital should be run,' Akiko said making both Ryosuke and Keisuke look a bit freaked out, 'don't worry, I'm not going to become your dad's best buddy…' Akiko added laughing softly.

'Now, that's a relief…' Keisuke said making everyone laugh.

'Ah, and James sends his regards to you all,' Akiko commented.

'You finally got word from him?' Ryosuke asked.

'Yes, he's been trying to find someway to get in touch but, you know, in the middle of the Amazonian forest is not so easy getting to an Internet Point.'

'He's in the Amazonian forest?' Keisuke asked.

'Yeah, he got sent there by Oxfam to help one of the Amazonian tribes,' Akiko explained.

'That sounds kind of dangerous though,' Kyoko said.

'It is. He's been unable to communicate with anyone for ages. I've been worried sick about him,' Akiko said frowning.

'He's okay, isn't he?' Ryosuke asked.

'Yes, thank goodness,' Akiko said, 'I'm kind of jealous that he's doing so much stuff down there though.'

Ryosuke looked at her with concern.

'Oh, don't worry. I have my own mission here,' she said looking first at Kyo-chan and then back at him. She smiled at him tenderly and they spent a few instants just looking at each other.

'Should we get the dessert?' Kyoko said making Akiko remove her gaze from her husband's face to look at her.

'Yes, come and give me a hand,' she said and both women got up from the table to go to the kitchen.

'Hey, Aniki,' Keisuke said whispering in a really weird way.

'What?' Ryosuke said.

'You and Akiko seem to be quite happy,' he commented, still whispering.

'We are,' Ryosuke said not really knowing what the point of this conversation, if any, was.

Keisuke spent a few seconds quiet then he said:

'You haven't had any second thoughts after marrying her?'

'What?' Ryosuke said getting worried about Keisuke's highly unusual behaviour.

'Don't get me wrong, it's just that I…well, I just want to…oh, forget it,' Keisuke said.

Ryouske observed his flustered younger brother for a moment before saying:

'No. I haven't had second thoughts after marrying Akiko. I think marrying her was the best decision I've made in my whole life. Granted, if I could have chosen, I wouldn't have got married so soon but now, seeing how things have turned out to be, I wouldn't change a single thing about how my life is. Why are you asking?'

'Oh…I…' Keisuke said then, looking over to the door, as if making sure no one could hear them, he whispered, 'do you think it's too early for me to marry Kyoko?'

Ryosuke was startled by this question but he kept his cool and composed mask.

'If you have to ask me this question maybe it is,' he said.

'Ah,' Keisuke said.

'But again, I'm not the best person to ask. I never had the chance to consider such things so I don't have a first hand experience on it. I guess that you should seek the answer to that question within yourself…'

Keisuke looked at his brother for a short while then he said, keeping his tone of voice very low:

'I've had had this idea: if we win the championship, I'll propose to her.'

Ryosuke lifted his eyebrows and said:

'Keisuke, you know how unlikely that is? Not to mention the fact that you're injured.'

'You said that with the right support my ankle will be fine and, we've already won a race,' Keisuke insisted.

'Yes, but that doesn't mean we're going to win the championship. I hope you realise that us winning that race has just made it even more difficult for us to carry on winning,' Ryosuke said.

'Why is that?' Keisuke asked.

'Well, for starters, all the teams are going to be targeting us, the competition is going to be so fierce that it'll be a miracle if we get any more points in this championship,' Ryosuke replied.

'A miracle you say,' Keisuke said.

'Yes,' Ryosuke nodded.

'Then I better go shopping for an engagement ring,' Keisuke said and Ryosuke's confused face made him add, 'Aniki, we have Takumi Fujiwara with us. If there is anyone who can perform miracles, that's him…'

'You've got a point there Keisuke,' Ryosuke said.

'Like I said, I better go shopping…'

'Shopping? What for?' Kyoko said coming into the room with Akiko carrying a tray with the desserts.

'Ah, I need a new pair of boots,' Keisuke said and Ryosuke had to stifle a chuckle.

'Amazing recovery,' a smirking Ryosuke mouthed to his younger brother when Kyoko was looking away.

To be continued…