Programmed Lives – Second Stage

Chapter Twenty Eight

Neither of them spoke in the entire journey from Shizuoka to Tokyo. Keisuke broke this silence only as they entered the city and as Takumi started slowing down:

'No, no, stay on the accelerator,' he said.

'What?' Takumi asked confused by the fact that surely his team mate could see the traffic ahead of them.

'Well, you've broken every single speed limit so far, why stop now?' Keisuke said making Takumi look at him.

Keisuke was a bit on the pale side and was grasping his seat with both hands.

'Are you ok?' Takumi asked rather pointlessly.

'What do you think?' Keisuke asked sarcastically, 'boy, you and your old man both drive like maniacs.'

'Right, because you take it so easy with your FD,' countered Takumi.

'That's different,' Keisuke defended himself, 'I only go fast when I race.'

Takumi interrupted him with a disbelieving snort.

'Alright, alright, now let's just go and rescue the damsel in distress, shall we?' Keisuke said knowing he'd lost this confrontation.

'In any case, making it to Tokyo in just over an hour is mental,' Keisuke added.

'It's only a hundred and seventy kilometres,' Takumi justified himself.

'I rest my case,' Keisuke said with a smirk.

They drove through several major streets until they got to the residential area where the singer lived.

'Nice neighbourhood,' Keisuke commented.

'Yeah, wait till you see the house,' Takumi said.

'We should park the car a bit before we arrive there,' Keisuke suggested.

'Why is that?'

'Because we don't want to be seen, do we?'

'Okay, I get it,' Takumi said and parked his 86 just a block away from where Mina-chan's house was. Both he and Keisuke left the car and then Keisuke started behaving oddly.

'What are you doing?' Takumi asked seeing that Keisuke was walking funny while staring at some point straight ahead of him.

'Looking for cameras, they're bound to have at least one pointing at the entrance's gate,' Keisuke said.

'What are you? Ethan Hunt?' Takumi asked sarcastically.

'Nope, I've just sneaked in and out my parents' house often enough,' Keisuke said shrugging.

'Ah, I see. You're scary sometimes, you know that?' Takumi said.

'Look who's talking…now, be quiet, I'm trying to concentrate here,' Keisuke said still staring at the gate.

Finally, after a short while which tested Takumi's patience to its limits, Keisuke said:

'Right, I've figured out how to get inside, follow me and don't make any noise. Remember is still broad daylight and people will be able to see us easily if we're not careful.'

Takumi gave up trying to understand his team mate and decided to obey every one of his orders, after all, Takumi realised that Keisuke probably knew what he was doing.

The two young men walked around the house's wall, leaving the main gate behind, and at a certain point, Keisuke looked both ways, checked once more for any hidden cameras and, bending his knees and pressing both of his hands against the wall, he said:

'Right, use my body to climb up the wall.'

'What?' Takumi said alarmed.

'Do it,' Keisuke said using the famous Takahashi commanding voice.

'Alright…' Takumi said and, using his team mate's knees, he placed one of his feet there, then pushing himself up, he put his feet on both of Keisuke's shoulders. That put him high enough for him to be able to grasp the top of the wall which, thankfully, didn't have any spiky wiring or other anti-theft devices. Again, that was a very peaceful area of Tokyo and, even the city itself was known for being safe enough.

Soon, he found himself on the top of the wall and, from there, he asked:

'Now, what do I do?'

'There's a small door next to the main gate. Go and open it for me so I can get inside too,' Keisuke said.

'Alright,' Takumi said and, jumping from the wall, he reached the ground, crushing a bed of flowers in the process. He then ran as fast as he could towards that small door which, thankfully, could easily be opened from the inside.

'Good job, now we've got to go to the house,' Keisuke said and, this time, he decided to just run towards the house's door, forgetting all about being as stealth as they had been up to then. Takumi still didn't understand anything so he continued following the self-proclaimed leader of this whole operation.

'Hey, you!' someone shouted from the door which opened up just as they had reached the flight of stairs that led to the villa's entrance.

Takumi looked up and saw the hateful face of that bastard of a manager. He felt his fists tense up, his body preparing itself for the fight even before his mind was aware of it.

Both Takumi and Keisuke reached the top of the stairs and Takumi was about to throw a punch at the guy when he saw that there were three other, much bigger guys behind him.

'Four against two, I've had worse,' he heard Keisuke say.

'Really?' the manager said, 'these guys here are professionally trained. I doubt a brat like you will cause them any damage,' the manger said laughing in a disgustingly arrogant manner.

'Where's Mina-chan?' Takumi asked him.

'Safe from you, thank goodness. You know that she actually thinks she's in love with you? Preposterous!' the manager said then, with a smirk, he said to the guys behind him, 'remove these two scumbags from this property.'

'Keisuke…' Takumi said looking at his team mate who looked oddly calm. This made one of the guys behind Sasaki frown.

'What did you call him?' the guy grunted talking to Takumi.

'Keisuke. That's his name: Takahashi Keisuke,' Takumi replied and the guy's eyes became as wide as two saucers.

'Oh my…' another of the guys said.

'Are you the Takahashi Keisuke from the North Kanto Bikers?' the first guy said and Takumi saw the manager looking from Takumi to Keisuke and from that to the guys behind him.

Keisuke nodded and then something weird happened: the three guys walked from behind the manager and joined both Keisuke and Takumi.

'I'm sorry but we can't possibly touch him,' the first guy said pointing at Keisuke with his thump.

'Why not?' Sasaki said alarmed.

'Because if we do, our Aniki will kill us: he's a great friend of Keisuke-san,' the third of the guys, the one that hadn't spoken up to now said.

Sasaki suddenly looked terrified.

'But I pay you! You've got to do what I say!'

'Nope, sorry. Money doesn't matter when it comes to our brotherhood,' the first guy said.

'Is there anything we can do for you Keisuke-san?' the second added and Takumi couldn't help but to be impressed with Keisuke: the guy had so many powerful friends.

'Yeah, remove this scumbag from this property,' Keisuke said smiling at Sasaki in a way that even Takumi got freaked out.

Two of the three guys grabbed Sasaki and started dragging him down the stairs.

'Wait!' Takumi said and they stopped, 'you stay away from Minami. If I see you anywhere near her, I'll beat you up so badly that your own mother won't be able to recognise you, got it?'

'I'm her manager,' Sasaki started.

'Consider yourself fired,' Keisuke said.

'You can't fire me!' Sasaki shouted.

'No, he can't but I can!' they suddenly heard a female voice saying from one of the house's windows.

'Minami!' Takumi exclaimed, 'I'm coming up to let you out.'

'Yeah, you do that while I take care of things here,' Keisuke said.

Takumi didn't need to be told twice. He ran inside the house and up the stairs checking every one of the doors he found on his way. He finally found a locked one and, pushing with all his might, managed to get it open.

'Takumi!' Mina-chan said running into his arms. She started crying against his chest and Takumi hugged her as tightly as possible against it.

Takumi realised that there was another woman in the room and, by the looks of her, she was an older version of Mina-chan, she was the singer's mother.

'Hi,' he said timidly.

'You must be the famous Fujiwara Takumi,' the woman said with a relieved smile that made the resemblance with her daughter even more obvious.

'Yeah,' Mina-chan said, with her voice broken because of the tears and refusing to let go of Takumi's arm.

'Well, young man, if you were looking for my acceptance to have you in my daughter's life, you've more than earned it. I'm happy she's dating you,' the woman said and Takumi's ears started to get oddly warm.

Takumi didn't know what to say to that, then looking at Mina-chan, he said:

'He didn't hurt you or your mum, did he?'

Mina-chan shook her head and her eyes started filling up with brand new tears.

'I can't believe I trusted him.'

'Hey, we all make mistakes,' he said passing his arm around her shoulders while walking her to the couch.

'I'm thinking of quitting. I can't cope with this anymore,' Mina-chan said miserably as she sat down next to Takumi.

'I think she should quit too,' her mother said startling Takumi, 'we don't need anymore money and I definitely don't want her to be this unhappy.'

Takumi looked at Mina-chan's mother and then he looked back at his girlfriend:

'I don't agree with that. Minami, you love music. Just because you've had a bad experience you shouldn't quit doing something you like. If you do, the only one who wins is Sasaki.'

'You think so?' Mina-chan said looking up, wiping some of the tears with her hands.

'He's right, you know,' Keisuke said having entered the room unnoticed.

'I don't know what to do,' Mina-chan said shaking her head and looking down at the floor.

'Why don't you just take a short break? Take some time off so you can think things through…' Takumi suggested and Mina-chan looked at him for a bit. Then she nodded.

'Yes, I'd like that.'

'Alright, now, two of the guys are escorting the bastard back to his Benz, I've asked them to stay here so they can take care of you two,' Keisuke said looking at the women in the room.

'That guy's driving a Benz?' Takumi asked.

'Yeah, what a horrible taste in cars,' Keisuke said and Takumi found himself agreeing wholeheartedly: he'd just been given one more reason to keep Benz cars on top of his black list.

'Oh, I just remembered! Aren't you supposed to race tomorrow?' Mina-chan asked.

'Yes, I am,' Takumi said.

'Go! What are you waiting for?' Mina-chan said getting up from the sofa, startling Takumi by her sudden change of mood. Again, Takumi was getting used to the singer's unpredictable personality.

'Er…are you sure you're going to be alright?' he asked her.

'Yes, er…Mum…' she said looking at her mother.

'Ah, yes, let's go downstairs, shall we?' she said taking Keisuke by his arm and walking out of the room.

Mina-chan hugged Takumi again and, tilting her head upwards, waited for Takumi to meet her halfway so they could kiss.

'Thanks for rescuing me. This is the most romantic thing anyone has ever done for me,' Mina-chan said. Takumi just smiled, 'what do you say if, after the race, we meet up here. My mum will probably need another weekend at the spa to recover from this ordeal.'

'Minami…' Takumi started.

'Shush…I'm going to carefully plan a very romantic evening so I can show you how grateful I am.'

Takumi felt his heart as it started beating faster than ever.

'Alright…' he said and Mina-chan smiled shyly.

'Now, go and win this race so we can celebrate the victory too,' Mina-chan said and Takumi decided then that he was definitely in love with her.

To be continued…