Programmed Lives – Fifth Stage
Chapter Two
The silence that followed Akiko's announcement was surreal: Keisuke, as usual, didn't really know what to say but, again, he'd never been good at handling this kind of situations. Kyoko, on the other hand, was too distressed to be able to think straight.
Seeing her sister in law looking so upset made Akiko get up from the sofa and, walking towards Kyoko, she knelt next to her and placed her hand on top of Kyoko's.
'Sweetie…' Akiko said.
Kyoko looked at her sister in law realising that her eyes were beginning to fill with tears then, as she started crying, she dropped onto her knees and hugged Akiko as tightly as possible.
'Kyoko,' Akiko whispered as she caressed Kyoko's back, trying her best to soothe her, 'It'll be alright, you'll see.'
The younger woman pulled herself apart from Akiko and looked at her with an expression somewhere in between sad and stunned then, between sobs, she said:
'It should be me the one reassuring you, not the other way round!'
'I know,' Akiko said with a soft laugh, 'what can I do? I'm a doctor.'
As Keisuke observed the scene he was shocked to see, yet again, another proof of how extremely strong his sister in law seemed to be.
'You're going to fight it, aren't you?' Keisuke asked Akiko.
She looked at her husband and Ryosuke said:
'This is precisely the reason why we needed to tell you about it.'
'Yes,' Akiko added while both she and Kyoko got up from the floor, 'I'm lucky because we caught it at the initial stage and this should make things easier.'
'This afternoon was her first chemo session,' Ryosuke explained, 'the side effects of which shouldn't be too bad since it's been designed on her genetic profile.'
'However, and as you can see,' Akiko added pointing at her tired looking face, 'I will look a bit worn out for a while.'
'What we need from you is your cooperation to keep a sense of normality in the house,' Ryosuke said looking even more serious than usual.
'Also, as the therapy goes on, I may need to stay some nights at the hospital.'
'Akiko, Aniki,' Keisuke started, 'it's not like if you have to ask: you know we'll do anything you need us to do.'
'Yes, we know,' Ryosuke said nodding once.
'And we thank you for it,' Akiko added smiling at both Keisuke and Kyoko gratefully.
'Akiko, are you sure you don't want the kids to know? I mean,' Kyoko asked.
'Absolutely not,' Akiko replied looking resolute, 'I don't want to get them worried.'
'But, Akiko…'
'Kyoko, please, I'd like you guys to let me handle this my way, okay?' Akiko said pleadingly.
'Of course,' Kyoko replied.
'Thanks,' Akiko said, 'now, let's watch TV, okay? I really need something to distract me.'
'We could watch Discovery Channel, there's always something good on,' Ryosuke suggested.
'Yeah, lets watch that,' Akiko said as she walked back to the sofa where she sat down next to her husband, leaning her head against his shoulder as he passed an arm around her shoulders.
Keisuke turned the TV back on and, as he selected his older brother's favourite channel, he exchanged a very worried look with his wife.
Back on Mt Akagi, the two younger Takahashi brothers were currently discussing whether or not accept the challenge.
'Guys, let me do it,' Akito said.
'I don't know if we should race this guy,' Kyosuke commented.
'Why not?' Seisuke asked.
'You just don't show up and challenge people randomly,' Kyosuke pointed out.
'I don't care, I need to get some experience.'
'Okay, but keep your eyes open, alright?' Kyosuke said.
'Ha!' Seisuke laughed sarcastically, 'Aniki, it's Akito who you're talking to.'
'Yeah, that's right,' Kyosuke said with a lopsided smile.
'Seisuke,' Kaori said walking towards the three young men, pointing an accusatory finger at her boyfriend, 'you said that there would be no racing tonight.'
'Hey, I'm not going to be the one racing,' Seisuke defended himself, 'Akito is.'
'Hey! Are you going to race or what?' Mamoru shouted from inside his Subaru.
'Yes, I'll race you,' Akito said walking towards them, ignoring the way Ryoko was looking at him.
'You've got to be kidding me!' the guy said then, looking at Kyosuke, he added, 'this kid is a member of the Golden Arrows?'
Seisuke and Kyosuke stifled a chuckle then, the youngest of the Takahashi brothers said:
'I wouldn't say that, if I were you.'
'Come on,' the guy said as he and his friend got closer, 'I don't think he's old enough to have his driving license.'
Kyosuke looked at him and, instead of bragging about Akito's professional driver status, he merely said:
'You're almost right: he just got his license and he needs the practice.'
The guy seemed to think about it for a while then, he said:
'Alright, I'll do him a favour and I'll teach him a thing or two about street racing.'
Akito looked at him raising his eyebrows and was about to protest when Kyosuke replied:
'Yeah, we'll be really grateful if you can do us this favour.'
'Aniki?' Seisuke asked looking confused then, seeing the way his older brother was smiling, he decided to remain quiet. Akito just turned round and walked back to his car with Kyosuke and Seisuke following him.
'This is going to be so much fun,' Kyosuke whispered so only his brother and Akito could hear him.
'This guy must be really clueless if he hasn't recognised you,' Seisuke commented, keeping an equally low tone of voice.
'I don't care, I'm just going to race him as I usually do,' Akito said as he got into his car.
'Be careful,' he heard Ryoko say making him look at her and nod. He then turned the engine on and went to place his V-86 at the left side of the black GR.
'I'll do the countdown,' Kizuna offered as she walked in front of the two cars and, as she shouted 'go', Mamoru's Subaru and Akito's Toyota dashed just a few centimetres away from her.
'Wow,' she said as she saw the weird line the GR was taking.
'What does he think he's doing?' Seisuke laughed, not caring about the fact that the guy's friend was standing nearby.
They all saw as Akito, very prudently, decided to take the lead of the race. This way, Kyosuke thought, he would get all the way to the mountain's base in no time.
'Let's get into the cars, so we can talk to Akito by radio,' Seisuke suggested.
'Where am I supposed to sit?' Ryoko asked.
'You're with us,' Kyosuke replied.
With all three of them sitting inside the yellow Mazda, Kyosuke turned the radio on and said:
'Akito, do you copy?'
'Yeah,' they heard him reply and Kyosuke smiled listening to his friend's seemingly carefree tone of voice.
'Okay, we'll be online, just in case, okay?'
'Kyosuke, you were right, he's horrible,' Akito said, 'I'm just driving as fast as I can because I really don't trust his driving and I don't want his car anywhere near mine.'
'Where is he?' they then heard Seisuke ask.
'I don't know, I can't see him anymore but I can hear him,' Akito replied.
The young man checked his rear view mirror again, just to see that the black Subaru had completely disappeared making Akito feel really confused.
He then remembered something his father had once told him about the anxiety one tended to feel when one was unable to see the opponent. His father was right and Akito started feeling very uneasy about the whole situation for, in GP2, it was virtually impossible to be completely alone since one could almost always see the other cars either in front or behind.
Now, Akito found himself undecided about whether he should just carry on driving fast or if, maybe, it would be a better idea to slow down and see what was happening with the Subaru.
'Screw this,' he said aloud.
'What's up?' Kyosuke asked.
'I can't even hear him now,' Akito said, 'I'm getting really worried.'
'Akito, just carry on driving, I'm going to go down,' Kyosuke said.
'Okay,' Akito replied feeling much better already.
A few minutes later, and as Akito was reaching the bottom of the pass, he heard Kyosuke swearing over the radio.
'Seisuke, get down here,' Akito heard the Golden Arrows leader say.
'What's wrong?' Seisuke asked.
'The freaking nutter's crashed his car, he's not looking too good.'
Akito slammed his V-86's brakes and, turning his car around, he started driving uphill going even faster than he'd gone while going downhill.
'Kyosuke, what's wrong with him?' he asked then, not hearing an answer, he repeated, 'Kyosuke?'
Still no answer.
This made Akito floor the accelerator and, probably beating Mt Akagi's uphill speed record soon enough, he found the yellow RZ-1 as the white one was joining it.
Akito left his V-86 right in the middle of the road and, climbing out of it, he ran to where the Subaru was.
'Shit,' Akito muttered seeing that the car had crashed frontally against one of the walls this pass had, the Subaru had clearly missed a turn and it had kept driving straight on and into the wall.
Meanwhile, Seisuke and Kyosuke were helping Mamoru to get rid of his seatbelt, while Kaori went to get the first aid kit Seisuke always kept in his car.
'Hey, where does it hurt?' the future doctor asked as they had Mamoru propped up against his own car.
'Who in the heck are you?' Mamoru whimpered instead pointing at Akito, 'you were so freaking fast that I ended up pushing it too much.'
'I'm sorry,' Akito said frowning worriedly.
'You're not a newbie, are you?' Mamoru said, still ignoring Seisuke's attempts at trying to find out what was wrong with him.
'Nope,' Akito replied, 'I'm a GP2 driver.'
'Wow,' Mamoru gasped looking shocked.
'Hey, you want me to check you up or not?' Seisuke asked getting annoyed.
'What are you, a freaking doctor?' Mamoru asked.
'Almost, I'm in my third year of medical school,' Seisuke replied making Mamoru do a double take.
'I told you,' Mamoru's friend said startling everyone for no one had even noticed him getting there, 'we should have stayed away from the Golden Arrows.'
'How come you seemed so confident earlier on?' Kyosuke asked Mamoru.
'I've been training myself very hard because I really wanted to race you guys,' he replied.
'He wants to become one of you,' his friend added making Mamoru glare at him.
'Ah, I see,' Kyosuke said and, smiling at Mamoru, he said, 'I'm sorry to say this but we're not looking to increase our numbers anymore,' then, seeing how upset the guy looked, he added, 'but keep training yourself, you never know.'
'Yeah, a spot may become available in the future,' Seisuke added.
'Thanks for saying this,' Mamoru said, 'but I now know I'll never be good enough, you guys have professional racers in your team.'
'Hey, I'm the only one,' Akito hurried to say.
'Yeah, but if the rest are half as fast as you are, I'm toast,' Mamoru said looking even more miserable.
'Thanks for racing against him,' Mamoru's friend said, 'don't worry about my friend or his car, I'll take care of everything.'
'What, I…' Seisuke started.
'He's right, sorry for the trouble,' Mamoru said as his friend took Seisuke's place next to him.
Kyosuke, seeing that they were no longer needed nor wanted, he nodded and, speaking to his brother and to his best friend, he ordered:
'Okay guys, let's go.'
Very reluctantly, both Seisuke and Akito started walking towards their cars with their respective girlfriends following them.
'Don't give up racing, okay?' Kyosuke added talking to Mamoru and before heading back to his car too then, as he and Kizuna climbed into it, the young woman bent towards Kyosuke and said:
'You're such a great guy.'
She then took his face between her hands and kissed him full on his mouth.
'I can live with that,' Kyosuke said smiling in a very smug way making Kizuna laugh softly.
Half an hour later, and after dropping Ryoko at the Takahashi's, Akito drove all the way back home where he found yet another Subaru parked outside his house.
This time though, it was a very old, but excellently kept Subaru Impreza GC8, which meant that Akito's favourite person in the world, after his father and his girlfriend, of course, was paying them a visit.
'Hey Grandpa, I didn't know you'd be home tonight,' he said as he entered the Fujiwara's living room noticing that his sister wasn't there. Probably in bed, Akito thought.
'If you were home more often you'd probably know these things,' Natsuki said admonishingly.
'Er…' Akito started.
'Are you alright, son?' Takumi asked.
'Not really,' Akito replied honestly.
'What's wrong?' Natsuki asked.
'Er…I don't know how to say this…'
'Did you do anything to the car?' Takumi asked.
'Of course not!' Akito exclaimed.
'Then what's wrong?' Bunta asked.
'Er…' Akito started again, biting his lower lip, 'I…kind of made someone else crash,' he added as fast as he could.
'WHAT?' Natsuki exclaimed.
'It was an accident,' he pointed out rather uselessly, 'he was trying to keep up with me.'
Then, they all got startled when Bunta started laughing.
'This is not funny,' Natsuki said to her father in law.
Ignoring her, the old man got up from the sofa and, putting both of his hands on top of Akito's shoulders, he said:
'I couldn't be any prouder of you.'
To be continued…