FOREWORD: I, HashiriyaGDB, am submitting this Initial D facfic on behalf of Midnight Dorifuta, the author of this fanfic and a fellow user on the Initial D World Forums. The only things I've done to this is correct some (if not all) the typos.

All trademarks are owned by their respective owners.

Chapter 7: And a Damn Fine Driver, Too.
The Starion hugged the corner tightly as Akiyuki was once again up on the wheel, directing his green beast the best he could. Downshifting to second, he then flipped on the ALS switch, the car backfiring loudly, the rear wheels spinning just so slightly as he tapped the gas, swinging the car through the apex, dialing in a spec of countersteer as he eased back on the gas, shooting off the corner. His lips formed asmall grin at the 4G5B's response, the car launching with vigor off the tight hairpin. This was truly one of the torquiest four-cylinders ever.

"The response, even here, is great...", Akiyuki said to himself, easing off the gas just a slight bit on the straightaway.

"The course I suppose is a bit challenging in its own way, a constant series of tight corners with almost no pause inbetween..."

Indeed, there wasn't. Suzaki had but a second an da half to completely step on the gas, before he dove into another early-entry corner, feathering the throttle while remaining hard on the brakes. The approach worked well enough to have the car cruise right through it again, all four wheels chirping slightly but none sliding.

"But every corner is almos tidentical to the rest. If you could handle one right-hand corner on this course or one left-hand, you could handle them all... how is that challenging?"

Again, he'd lay off the gas and apply his early entry approach, easing off the corner, making full use of the road's width, and then pacing himself down the next straightaway. Again, it was a fairly short straight... not substantial enough to, say, pass a slower car or such.

"It's nothing I haven't dealed with in WRC before. Hairpin after hairpin. It's a ton of fun. The thing is, I've never done it at night before. It is pretty exciting, though, not having the extra all-around visibility and having to sharpen your senses down a one-way street like this..."

He watched ahead as the car in front of him, perhaps over-pressured by the Starion's close distance that he's kept the entire way down, brake a little later than it previously had, the brakes themselves seeming a bit dull in response compared to such.

"Heh... gotcha."

A small gap opened up, and Akiyuki strapped himself down as he followed with a late entry, clinging as tightly as he could to the inside railing, the Starion barely gaining beside it, Akiyuki unfazed by how close he was to the white sheetmetal of the car beside him.

-

Ryousuke had a fixated gaze on the screen of his laptop computer, observing what was displayed... however, for once, his fingers weren't relentlessly clattering away on the keyboard. Instead, he was in fact merely watching the video being displayed on-screen, his brother nearby as they both watched a Subaru Legacy rally car cruise to victory - not only for the race, but also the champtionship.

"I don't get it, Ryousuke... what's the point of watching this? You've already shown me rally footage not long ago.", Keisuke complained, figuring time could be better spent on the upkeep of his FD, or perhaps practicing on Akagi.

"Just keep watching, you'll be suprised who's behind the wheel...", replied Ryousuke... as the team cheered around the muddied up Legacy, champaigne bottles already being uncorked as the driver removed his helmet and climbed on the roof, throwing both arms up in the air in voctiry.

"N... no way!", gasped Keisuke, "Th... that's the Starion driver!?"

"Indeed it is...", continued Ryousuke, reclining back for a second, the team leader deep in thought.

"I wonder... I wonder if he has interest in Fujiwara, and what it just may be...", he continued to ponder.

"Perhaps he's throwing Fujiwara a bone?", Keisuke suggested, for once making a very valiant effort to back up his brother's theory. And Ryousuke at all didn't seem to mind.

"Perhaps,", he suggested with a bit of a shrug. "I wouldn't be suprised; if Suzaki does want Takumi as a driver, then Fujiwara will have something I can't offer to him - and you and I both, Keisuke, know what that is."

Keisuke's reply was only that of mere silence. Slumping back down on Ryousuke's comfortable couch, he closed his eyes, tilting his head up and relaxing a little. Indeed, if there was but one thing that Suzaki could pin Fujiwara for, it would be the one thing that was well beyond Project D. Perhaps, in fact, the one thing that would motivate Fujiwara to move on from the team - no matter how short or long that Suzaki would want from the present moment. Everything they learned together, Keisuke and Takumi, as drivers - the rain races, the special little maneuvers... hell, even the strokes of both good and bad luck... all of that would just be more steam for Suzaki's boiler.

-

Kyoichi Sudou stood at the top of Mt. Iroha, his eyes locked on the enterance of the one-way road that was, for what it was worth, the downhill course. Arms crossed, and a litcigarette held between his lips, he remained emotionless gazing at it. This was his own course, and almost nobody could even think of out-gunning him there. Nobody, of course, except for only two men that he could ever think of pulling that on their own, and that was, Ryousuke Takahashi and Takumi Fujiwara. But a cell phone call that he recieved just minutes prior to arriving on the mountaintop set Sudou ready to prove that no young punk is just going to pop out of the woodwork and destroy his title again. No chance in hell that would happen.

"Hello, this is Kyoichi speaking."

"Hey, Mr. Sudou. I heard you head a particularly fast racing team around these parts."

"Yes, that much is true. We're..."

"A group of cocky Lan-Evo drivers who think AWD is the only way, yes?"

"..."

"Come on, you know that would only come from an RWD fan like myself."

"What's your beef, kid? It's not often that some outsider comes up with an attitude like yours."

"What attitude? I'm not the driver who went around local towns and villages and cut other teams stickers in half then tacked them upside down on my spoiler. That's pretty disrespectful."

"What are you talking about? I've never commited such an act."

"...what about your friend Seiji Iwaki?"

"..."

"Look. I'm not trying to pull any Redsuns, Emperor or Project D bullshit, Mr. Sudou. All I'm asking for is a single downhill match, head-to-head, drag-race style start. To explore, not only the abilities of the quote-unquote Best of Iroha Hill but also the newfound capabilities of my own ride."

"...and just what kind of a ride do you own, Mr. RWD fan? An NSX? Something rediculous like that?"

"I'll be there in an hour.You can just see for yourself - unless you have too much pride to confront a new FR on your own turf."

And so that call led to him being there. A good 20 minutes later than the kid said he'd be here, but still, it was better late than never. In only a short bit of time, he would hear an engine approaching in the distance, turning his head and laying eyes on the car as it approached at a rather lazy pace - rolling slowly to a stop before the Emperor himself - and his black Evo III.

"Wait, but that's a... you're not kidding, right?" Kyoichi shook his head again, watching the black-clad driver step his way out of the three-door hatchback, in slight disbelief to anybody driving anything close to that coming up out of nowhere and challenging the likes of him. Kyoichi chuckled a small bit, throwing his cigarette to the ground and snuffing it out as the boy approached him.

"I've gotta admit, you've got balls for talking so big on the phone, but what's this - a mere Starion? You're not kidding, right?"

Akiyuki shrugged his shoulders as he turned back around to face the Starion, then looked Kyoichi back in the eye - the height difference between Kyoichi and himself; Akiyuki being a mere 5' 2 - looking quite amusing. But he showed no signs of being intimidated.

"The car's right here. Do I look like I'm kidding, Mr. Sudou? I'm not scared of you guys. If the subpar show put on by your MONSTOR buddy crashing himself is any indication of your skill level around here, then I've got every right in the world right now to feel cocky."

Kyoichi's amused face grew serious and disgusted fast listening to Akiyuki's words. "Hey, kid, now you're taking boasting a little too far. I don't mind someone claiming their car is the greatest, but I strongly disapprove of making things up."

"Who's making things up? See for yourself." And sure enough, as Akiyuki thumbed to the exit from the road leading uphill, a single lit headlight appeared, and as the car passed under a streetlight, soon the rest of it was revealed - a half-missing bumper, busted intercooler, and a fender scraping against the wheel, loudly. The wheel itself, misaligned, and the driver's side turn signal dangling from where the rest of the bumper once was - and the passenger's side fender caved in, the passenger's side scraped to holy hell, and even the rear bumper messed up.

"...!!!" Kyoichi made a move to Suzaki just as he laid a casual stare back onto Sudou, taking a step backwards.

"Before you start thinking illogically, Mr. Sudou, give my car a thorough inspection if you wish. There isn't a scratch on it. He wrecked himself."

Seiji Iwaki slowly climbed out of the cockpit of his wrecked Evo IV, his eyes down on the road before his team boss, having an overall disheartened expression on his face. No, there was no rage or anything in that look of his - no fight screaming at Suzaki for tapping his car or anything - just an empty sigh of heartache.

"..."

And then, in the quiet night air, was the loud whip-crack-like sound of a hand slapping a face, very hard. Seiji was on the verge of tears, not even able to meet eye to eye with Sudou. It needn't apply, anyways. Sudou was more than eager to belt out a verbal beating to go with the mark across his face, Suzaki watching with an amused expression on his face, a regular one-man audience.

"It's one thing to disgrace our team with a loss, but to wreck as well!?", Kyoichi snapped.

A slight pause went on, Kyoichi giving his teammate a chance to reply but getting nothing.

"Do you know how ugly it makes team Emperor for our number two driver to fk up the way you just did!? Imagine if there was a gallery watching, and this was more than a one-shot meet! Imagine if your teammates were here, Seiji! It would turn our entire team into some kind of lame joke excuse for a top-notch Lancer Evolution club! And the nature of the damage - what, did you understeer like an idiot braking into a corner too late?"

Seiji remained silent for another all but 3 seconds befor eslowly replying, shaking his head. "N... no, that wasn't how it happened."

Kyoichi fished out another cigarette, giving Seiji only a small amount of time to gather some half-decent composure.

"Well, if that wasn't what happened, then speak up. I'm all ears", he said, frustrated, now blowing out smoke.

"Well", Seiji started, "I went into the corner late and he did too, but my brakes weren't as responsive..."

"And...?", Kyoichi replied, not looking a devil's chance in hell amused.

"And, I took a wide line by mistake, and he took a narrow one. I tried to out-accelerate the RWD mid-corner but it understeered horrib-"

Seiji would be cut off by a pretty hard uppercut to the jaw, dealt by Kyoichi's tight, concrete-like fist.

"Go home, Seiji", Kyoichi said, watching him stumble to the ground, looking up at Sudou with fear. "Get out of my fking sight. That's the most amaetur mistake I've ever heard any of my teammates making, and to think it was made by my so-called #2, on our home course! Take your injured Evo and get it fixed up, and if you're lucky, return here next week to see if you're still on the team after this ugly chain of events. Just GO!"

Ashes flicked from the tip of Kyoichi's cigarette as he glared at Seiji, shocked and speechlessly scrambling into his Evolution's passenger compartment, before high-tailing it from the scene in a crazy rush. Which brought the two - Kyoichi Sudou and Akiyuki Suzaki - back to the present moment. He eyed the kid up and down, observing his somewhat feminine features, before his expression lightened - not to the point of chuckling, but looking a lot less scary than just moments prior.

"Just who the hell are you, anyways, kid? And what brings you to Mt. Iroha", he asked, canting his head to the left - just a tad.

"The name...", the Starion driver replied, "...is Akiyuki Suzaki, and my motive for being here is in sizing up hopefully some of the better drivers Fujiwara once competed against. that is all." Shrugging a small bit, Akiyuki would watch as Kyoichi tilted his head down a bit, before shaking it slightly.

"You got me there. That's totally nowhere close to what I was expecting. I would have been less suprised to hear you admit you were a 'privateer' hire for Ryousuke Takahashi, some big-star WRC driver out for home-turf blood."

Akiyuki chuckled a little, before narrowing his eyes a bit. "You've got half of that, right, my friend. I am - no, was a big WRC driver at one point in time. I brought Subaru their first victories at Monte Carlo and their first championship, in 1991, both in the same year. I also did it being the youngest driver there, at 16 years of age."

Kyoichi dropped his cigarette at that gesture; he knew that Suzaki couldn't be kidding around because thanks to the recent growth of a new technology called the World Wide Web, it would be more than easy enough to check up on the information.

"16!? They let you compete at that age?" Akiyuki nodded slightly in repliance.

"Yes... however, the reason I won the championship was because I had it locked up one rally before the final. Do you remember that big wreck in Finland, Kyoichi? The one they called 'the worst WRC accident since the days of Group B'?"

Kyoichi thought for a second, then shook his head.

"Very well. I'll tell you. I ended up losing a tire halfway through in the middle of a narrow high-speed section close to a 40-foot dropoff. I had successfully changed the tire, yes, but..."

Akiyuki's tone of voice turned a bit glum, as well as his facial expression..

"Right after I climbed back in the car, a competing Mitsubishi Galant hit a rock, at north of 150 kilometers per hour, according to the race officials, and was knocked off its path of travel. I don't remember that much. What I do remember is this, just as I started fastening my safety harness along with my co-driver, a horrid impact, sending us straight off the cliff and tumbling into the woods. I remember heat suddenly flaring up all around me, and having the need to get out badly, despite just having been thrown throughout the car 6 times and braking over 15 bones. I remember shaking my co-driver, telling him we needed to get out, and now, only to see a tree branch that penetrated through his head and out the back of the seat rest. My close friend, and perhaps the best pre-ATTESA Skyline fan and driver I knew, Jeremy Thomas Marquis, dead on the spot, never to be revived. I remember fighting an urge to try tofree him anyways, knowing it was useless, and then the scorching pain that came with some of the burning gas dumping into the cabin, and crawling out of the wreckage and passing out."

Akiyuki took a small sigh, before continuing.

"The next thing I know, Team Subaru won the driver's championship on the note of a badly injured driver and dead co-driver, me sitting in a hospital bed, taped and casted in more places than I would ever like to. Yes, Sudou - I had talent. But I also learned really quick how mortal the human being really is. It scared me out of racing. That, and another subject which I won't touch. And if you disbelieve me, you can look it up on the computer - if you aren't one of the lucky souls who have one, you can go to the library. My name and face, and the charred remains of my Legacy, are all in the 5-year-old headlines. Oh - and for the record, both the driver and co-driver of the Galant are also dead."

A long pause followed as the two drivers just looked at each other, Kyoichi deciding that the body language and tone of Suzaki's voice proved this all too true.

"That's... really deep shit for a young man for yourself to go through - even at this age. But at 16? It had to be a nightmare..."

"...It was. But I had my big sister, Kasumi to help me. We both pulled through our hardships."

Kyoichi nodded in sullen repliance. But then, he had to object to one thing.

"So if you got scared out of racing, then why are you back in it? Street racing, even?"

Akiyuki chuckled a small bit. "Well, to be honest, you're the first person I've challenged - your weak-spirited Evo IV friend aside - since I could remember. The only street quote-unquote racing I actually do is usually just for personal excitement. My only topic of interest is Fujiwara - having him seen him outgun a high-strung, practically race-ready FB was quite a feat, don't you agree? Don't you also agree that you probably thought that the 86 couldn't cut it?"

Kyoichi couldn't believe what was hearing - a kid this intelligent, at this age? He was a junior Ryousuke in his own right - perhaps even better than him.

"So do you want him as a driver than, Suzaki?"

Akiyuki shrugged a bit. "What happens tonight between my Mitubishi and yours will be a deciding factor, but who knows?"

Kyoichi glanced briefly at his Evo III before chuckling a good bit again, remembering the real matter at hand, and then proceeding to enter his car slowly. "Oh, yeah, right, that. So you've got talent, FR boy, but defeating Seiji and defeating myself are two different feats. I'm not an emotional driver who makes amaetur mistakes like that."

Akiyuki smiled, just a small bit. "I wouldn't expect an experienced pro like you to make a mistake, either. Forget the whole Lan-Evo corps. You're the Eeperor I want to challenge, Kyoichi Sudou. A one-time battle between just me and you!" Such wonderful irony, the words Suzaki spoke. Just a year ago, Sudou said the same thing to Ryousuke Takahashi... would it become his jinx?

As Akiyuki opened the door to his Starion back up and hopped in, you could see a bit of burning eagerness that wasn't there. The first real flames of excitement that hadn't fueled him since September, 1991. It was better now than never to make an important stand for not only himself, but also his car and what he believes in - and also for Kasumi.

A short drive later, and they were before the downhill starting line, the two cars nose-to-nose, windows rolled down. "On the third beep, we go", Kyoichi called to Suzaki, and rolled his windows back up. Both drivers revved their engines a little before the quick countdown began.

Beep!... Beep!... Beep!

On the third beep, both cars took off, and while Evo III leaped forward easily, the FR Starion plagued by wheelspin. It would only take a few minutes to decide whether Suzaki had something killer in store for the local champion or whether his race against the Evo IV was just a fluke.