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.
THIS CHAPTER IS A SIDE STORY AND IS NOT RELATED TO THE MAIN STORY.
Chapter X-02: Old Love
It's another one of those days where I just can't clear my memories of him out of my mind. Trhoughout all the morning classes, I've more often than not found myself staring off into the distance or not paying attention to my lesson. Fortunately, my grades aren't suffering to the point this could get me kicked out of Tokyo U, but... I can't deny that I miss him.
"Oh... ah, hey, Natsuki-chan!", a voice called, cheerily, from behind me. It was Saori, another freshlady here like me. She is quite engrossed into the anime trend that seems to be buzzing about the school, always raving on about the newest series... usually those of the bishojot-type, including magical girls and such. Although she has to wear particularly thick-rimmed Coke-bottle glasses and is a little on the lazy side, she's still a cool friend of mine, and helps keep my stress level down at critical times... such as today, as a matter of fact.
"Hi Saori-chan! Uh, aaah! Wha, WHOA! Uso! You got HER autograph!?" It was the autograph of the lead female singer in the popular pop band, Move. Known to her fans as Yuri. "I can't believe you got Yuri's autograph!"
Her loyalty was incredible. She missed out on the Tokyo Bay Music Festival for that autograph alone, since Move wasn't playing.
"Hai, hai, Natsuki! It was too cool to meet Yuri. She looks better in real life than she does in her videos. It's amazing!" Saori giggled with the utmost delight, even posing a little... she had every reason to. The next thing I know, the bell was ringing, and we were going our seperate ways.
The next class was chem, something I really didn't want to be in but it was better than computer tech, which completely loses me. And today's assignment was a written quiz. Not in any way, shape, or form, close to fun. It was just sheer torture on me as I struggled to put pencil to paper, digging into my fadey memory - remember how I said how it isn't fun? Well, that means it's boring... which means I don't pay much attention, and that makes me want to cry - and writing up whatever I could. After an eternity and fourty-five years (actually an hour and 15 minutes), I had about 95 of it done but the test was over.
Crap. Came up short again, though this time, I was very close! But still, written assignments just killed me. Regardless, I handed the test to the teacher before leaving class again, prancing along the hallways of Tokyo U. Some of the weight of thinking of him again was off my shoulders, because the vigorous trying-not-to-get-an-F-in-Chem thought process ruled out any other thought - including him.
"Oi, Mogi-chan, gonna just walk past me?" The voice was light and cheery, and of course I knew he was joking. The laugh he let loff further verified that. "Or were you daydreaming again, Natsuki-san?"
Meet Shiro Fukuyama. He's one of my few guy friends at Tokyo U. And while he does have a woman, he knows where to draw the lines, and shows no romantic interest in me, which is a relief... not just to me, but to his girlfriend, as well. The whole idea of being polygomous was definately erased from my brain the day he said that line to me. 'Have fun with your boyfriend in the Benz'. Even today, I still have nightmares of that dreadful day that changed my life.
"Eh-heh, hai, Shiro-san! gomen!" Shiro laughed a bit, patting my shoulder. "No need to apologize", he said, "The best apology is not doing it again, don't forget. But all joking aside... are you alright, Natsuki? I saw you earlier today and you seemed really down, what happened?"
I couldn't contain a small blush. Even though he was just a friend, he was unnaturally caring of me. "Nn, nothing really, I was just thinking of my ex again..."
A slightly cold voice cut between us, causing my mood to quickly snap from cheery to truly offended.
"So, is the drama over, or what, Shiro? She's okay. Now let's move on." Before I could even come out of the slight funk the crudeness of that threw me into, Shiro did it for me. "HIROKI! That's awful rude! Natsuki's a good friend of mine! How dare you!" The boy sure did look like a jerk, although not the usual cocky type, more of the not-give-a-damn type.
Slightly dull eyes and an emotionless stare at Shiro were different from the tank-top shirt he was wearing and the spikey black hair, and shorts, which suggested a rowdy, smartassed attitude, and soemone who picks fights for no good reason. But no, he was just... very bored. And that cause my second, speechless reaction.
"...Sorry." He looked me in the eye, lightly hinting sincerity in his tone of voice, before glancing back to Shiro. "But honestly, we're going to miss a street race tonight, Shiro. If you'd rather hang out with your female friend, I'll blow the coup on my own. Doesn't mean a thing to me."
Shiro sighed a little, shaking his head before eyeing me as if to say, 'don't let it get to you, he's always like this', before looking back at Hiroki, glaring a little. "Hey, give us a minute, man! Break-ups are never easy!"
"I wouldn't know.", he nonchalantly replied. His attitude wasn't as bad as some of the people, but it did grind me to the bone a little just for the fact he was brutally honest, and cut-throat. Still. I didn't want to be as low as him.
"I... I'm sorry for bringing up Fujiwara, Hiroki", I said, barly over my breath. And then, he reacted in a way that I wasn't expecting. He cocked an eyebrow, showing just slight interest. "Fujiwara? ...sounds like a pizza delivery boy." Something inside told me to shrug it off, but I couldn't. "Well, actually, he does deliver tofu..."
I glanced again at Shiro, and he gave me a look that told me to shut up, and now. But I couldn't. I walked into this, and this Hiroki guy was all over it. "Tofu? He probably drives a dorky little Civic or a newer car like a City and it's banged up here in Tokyo, is that right...?"
"Well", I said, refusing to listen to my better sense, "Actually, he is all the way in Gunma, in the town of Akina, and his cas is a Trueno. But he calls it a 'hachi-roku', I believe."
My fists clenched as I saw him close his eyes and laugh lightly, biting his lip, befor ehis eyes locked onto Shiro, than me. "Shrio, you and your gal friend are the best friends I've ever met. I know exactly who you two are talking about." His sly, cunning grin seemed to spell nothing but trouble, and all I could do was stare back, with watery, enraged eyes. What was he going to do to my Takumi!? And god, I'm such a-
"Now that I know the name and location of at least one Project.D ace, I can see the driver personally. I'm going to call Michelle... It'll be an easy uphill/downhill sweep with our cars." ...wait, wait wait wait wait wait! He's interested in racing Takumi. And Project D? Is that... is that the team he was talking about joining? I breathed a slight sigh of relief. Okay, so he didn't have a grudge against my boyfriend... it was just this racing thing. But still, it made me feel uneasy. Just how big was Takumi, now? I want to see Takumi so bad. See him one more time.
"Well, I'll be on my way then", he said, waving before throwing his knacksack over one shoulder and walking off, Shiro letting out a small, slightly angry, groan.
"God damn it, Hiroki... you spend two weeks here trying to earn your Master's, and already you're hunting down street racers!?"
I decided I would act like I didn't hear it, for Shiro's sake, and looked to him. "Well, anyways, I'll be off! Don't worry, Shiro-san... he doesn't bother me that much!" I did a pretty decent job faking a smile before strolling off back to my dorm... but the moment I closed the door, and locked it, I slid down against the door to the floor, staring ahead at a small Trueno plushie that I made for myself to remind me of Takumi.
'Takumi-kun...', I thought to myself... 'Just what have you been doing?'