Programmed Lives – Third Stage

Chapter Nineteen

Thursday evening, all three Fujiwara were enjoying the food Bunta had brought from one of his visits to his good friend Daichi, the owner of a nearby sushi restaurant, when all of a sudden and without anything that may have provoked the question, Akito stopped eating and getting unusually serious, he said:

'Dad, can I ask you something?'

'Sure you can, what's up?' Takumi said while trying to decide which piece of sushi to eat next, finally deciding for a tasty looking piece of salmon.

'Why don't I have a mother?'

That made Takumi drop his sushi while Bunta chocked himself with the beer he'd been drinking. Takumi looked at his father wide eyed and hoping that the old man would come to the rescue.

'Er…Akito…' Takumi started seeing that his father had decided, very conveniently, to let him handle the whole thing on his own, 'you know your mother is…'

'Oh, I know Mum is dead, it's just that Soichiro-kun said…'

'Who's Soichiro?' Takumi asked.

'One of the boys from the karting school,' Akito explained before continuing, 'so, Soichiro-kun's Mum diversed, no, er…'

'Divorced?' Takumi supplied.

'Yeah, his Mum divorced his Dad a few years ago but his father's got a new wife so Soichiro-kun now has a new Mum. This has made me wonder why is it that that you didn't get a new wife when Mum died.'

Takumi and Bunta were so shocked hearing this that it took Takumi several minutes to be able to come up with a coherent reply to what his son had just said.

'Akito, wouldn't you mind if I got a new wife?' he finally managed to ask.

'Why would I mind?' Akito asked clearly unable to see his father's point.

'Well, it's just that, I would think that, maybe…I don't know…' Takumi said.

'What your father wants to ask you is if you wouldn't mind if someone took your mother's place,' Bunta said finally deciding to help his son out.

Akito looked at both adults and, shaking his head, he said:

'I've never known my Mum so, how can I mind if someone else does her job?'

Bunta just nodded to the completely flawless reasoning his grandson had just presented them with. Takumi couldn't even bring himself to say nor do anything else than stare at his son, wondering how in the hell had this kid of his got so smart. It had to be in Minami's genes, because he surely was not quite as sharp as that.

'Why don't you go out again with that girl you knew from high school?' Akito suddenly asked.

'What? How in the heck did you…'

'I heard Aunt Mariko talk about it with Uncle Itsuki,' Akito said and Takumi made himself a mental note to ask his best friend to watch what he and his wife talked about in front of the kid.

'Are you talking about that Natsuki girl? Wasn't she in Tokyo?' Bunta asked his son.

'Yes, she was, she's just moved back here,' Takumi explained then, getting slightly desperate, he said, 'why don't we talk about something else?'

'Is she still single?' Bunta said ignoring his son in the most absolute way possible.

'Yes Dad, she is but, enough with this…'

'You know Akito,' Bunta continued now talking to his grandson, 'I don't think it'd be such a bad idea if your dad went out with Natsuki again, from what I remember, she was very pretty.'

'Yeah, she looks nice,' Akito replied nodding in an almost adult way.

'Hey! You two: I said enough with this!' Takumi exclaimed now getting seriously pissed off.

Akito and Bunta looked at him, then at each other and, as though as they had decided to do so together, they let out a chuckle making Takumi get up and say:

'I'm going to my room.'

'What about the sushi I brought?' Bunta said still looking indecently amused.

'I'm not hungry anymore,' Takumi said and, as he left the room, he heard his father say:

'Great, more for us, eh, Akito?'

'Yep!' the kid exclaimed happily.

It was rather scary how well those two got along, Takumi thought as he laid down on his bed covering his forehead with his hand.

A few hours later, he got up realising that he had fallen asleep on top of his bed and with all of his clothes on. Leaving his room, he went downstairs and into the shop to see his father already preparing the tofu for the morning delivery.

'Hey, you're finally up,' Bunta said seeing his son entering his working area.

'Yeah, why didn't you wake me up so I could get Akito to bed?'

'You were sleeping so soundly that Akito and I decided to let you sleep. We had the bath together and I got him to bed myself,' Bunta said.

'Ah, well, thanks.'

'Don't mention it,' Bunta said while he cut up a large portion of tofu.

'Do you need a hand?' Takumi asked.

'Nope, thanks. Just get the boxes ready,' Bunta said and, as Takumi went to do that, he heard his father say, 'Akito's right you know?'

'About what?' Takumi asked and, seeing that his father stopped doing what he was doing made Takumi stop too.

'Look, I'm not going to tell you what to do with your life. I've never done it, I'm not going to start now but, maybe you should consider if you can be happier than now.'

'Is this about Mogi Natsuki again?' Takumi said frowning at his father.

'Son, for most of us, finding a woman to share our lives with is hard enough, to find another one after losing that first one, it's nothing short of a miracle.'

'You didn't try to find another woman after Mum died,' Takumi said.

'That's because I couldn't find another woman as special as she was,' Bunta said shocking Takumi with this sudden, atypical burst of honesty.

'Dad…'

'Look, I don't know what happened between Natsuki-chan and you but I could tell that she really loved you and, now she's back, right when neither of you have anyone special in your lives.'

'So? It doesn't mean that…'

'Son, why don't you ask her out, find out if you two still have something going on.'

'Dad…'

'Just think about it, alright?' Bunta said, 'Besides, you even have your son's approval and that's the hardest thing to get.'

'Okay, I'll think about it,' Takumi said hoping his father would stop being so interfering. Would people ever stop trying to decide what was better for him? Takumi thought bitterly as he took the boxes out to get them washed.

The next day, as he'd done every afternoon ever since Akito had joined the karting school, Takumi found himself driving to Maebashi to go and pick his son up from the three hour long karting session.

As usual, he parked the AE86 and started walking towards the small kart circuit then, as he got near it, he saw a circle of children with two of them in the middle of it, clearly engaged in a fight. Looking closely and with dismay, he realised that one of the kids who were fighting was his own son Akito. This made him run towards the group of children getting ready to stop the fight.

'AKITO!' he shouted as he got there.

The boy, hearing his father's angry voice stopped fighting.

'What in the heck are you doing?' Takumi said grabbing his kid's arm while he crouched next to him so he could be at eye level.

'I…he started it!' his son said pointing angrily at the other kid, a boy who looked much older than Akito.

'It's true,' Kyosuke said coming closer to both father and son followed by his younger brother, 'he's been teasing Akito during the whole afternoon.'

'Where's your aunt?' Takumi asked Ryosuke's oldest son.

'She left us in charge to finish tidying up and as soon as we were left alone, he started pushing and insulting Akito.'

The kid in question looked at Takumi defiantly and, without an ounce of respect, he said:

'You're his father?'

'Yes, I am,' Takumi said getting up.

'Ha! You don't look all that great,' the kid said making both Takahashi brothers join Akito to get in between the kid and Takumi as though as they were defending him. Takumi could not feel any more ridiculous having three children shielding him from another one.

'Look, I don't know who you are…'

'He's Iwaki Makoto,' Seisuke supplied.

'Are you related to Iwaki Seiji?' Takumi asked recognising the surname almost instantly.

'Yeah, he's my Dad, and I told your son that my Dad can beat you whenever he wants,' the kid said and now Takumi recognised in that kid his father's reckless arrogance.

'Yeah, in your dreams!' Akito exclaimed before Takumi could say anything.

'I've already told you: Akito's father beat the pants off your dad when they were younger,' Kyosuke said talking to this Makoto kid rather disdainfully.

'Yeah, so did our Uncle Keisuke,' Seisuke added.

'What's going on in here?' they all heard Keisuke himself ask making Takumi turn round to see his former team mate walking towards them.

'Er…' Takumi started but Kyosuke was faster than him and the kid proceeded to explain everything to his uncle.

'Is that so?' Keisuke asked hearing his nephew's account of the whole incident, 'Makoto-kun, do you know that your father wouldn't be happy if you issued challenges in his place?'

Makoto seemed to have lost his ability to speak in front of Keisuke and Takumi realised the huge amount of charisma the man seemed to have with the students.

'You're not so brave now, are you?' Akito said with his own courage fuelled by the presence of both his father and Keisuke.

'I…'

'I think you should all finish tidying up so you can go home,' Keisuke suggested and, predictably, every single one of the kids there obeyed instantly. Only Akito and the two Takahashi brothers stayed there with the two adults.

'Sorry, I wasn't happy to accept him in the school but Iwaki asked me to teach him as a favour,' Keisuke explained.

'It's alright,' Takumi said.

'You know, this has given me an idea,' Keisuke said all of the sudden.

'What?' Takumi was almost afraid of asking.

'Well, there hasn't been a good challenge in here for quite a while…'

'No,' Takumi instantly said.

'Hey, I still haven't said anything,' Keisuke said putting his hands up while smiling in a way that didn't make Takumi feel any better.

'Keisuke, I know you well enough to know that you're up to something,' Takumi said.

'Just hear me out, okay?' Keisuke asked.

'Alright, what is it?' Takumi said, finally giving in, knowing he really had no alternative.

'Alright, I know that if I asked you to help me with a project that had anything to do with racing, you'd probably say no, am I right?' Keisuke started.

'Yes, you are right,' Takumi said liking this whole thing less and less the more Keisuke spoke.

'So, imagine that I made this bet with you…'

'Keisuke, I'm not racing,' Takumi said just before Keisuke could continue, 'I'm too rusty for that anyway.'

'Hey, let me finish,' Keisuke protested.

'Yeah Dad, let him finish,' Akito said and Takumi realised that all three kids were listening intently to the whole conversation.

'Alright, go on.'

'Okay, you say you're rusty but I don't think so. So, I'll make this bet with you: we race, if I win, then I'll accept that you're indeed rusty and you'll be free to do whatever you want. However, if you win, then you'll have to help me with this project of mine.'

'This doesn't make any sense: I can easily let you win so I'm free to do what I want,' Takumi said.

'I don't think so,' Keisuke said shaking his head.

'Why not?'

'Takumi, I think I know you well enough to know that you couldn't do that.'

'And why is that?' Takumi asked with a smirk.

'Because you're too much like me: your competitive nature would kick in and wouldn't allow you to let me win.'

Takumi's smirk disappeared as he damned Keisuke for knowing him so well.

'So, what do you say?' Keisuke insisted.

Takumi looked at him and then at the three boys who stared at the two adults expectantly.

'Dad, I'd love to see you race,' Akito said pleadingly.

That did it for Takumi who, finding himself without any other options, was forced to say:

'Alright, let's race.'

'Yeepie!' Akito said and was joined in the cheering by the two older boys who were extremely happy to see their uncle back in action.

'Okay, how does this sound: my old FD, your AE86, here, next Saturday at ten pm. This way you have a whole week to prepare your car,' Keisuke suggested.

'Alright,' Takumi said completely unaware that he had just fallen into a very carefully prepared trap.

To be continued...