Programmed Lives – Fifth Stage
Chapter Three
The morning after something very rare happened in the Takahashi residence: the whole family sat down together to eat their breakfast.
'This is really nice,' Kyoko said as she buttered her toast.
'Yes,' Akiko agreed, 'I wish we did this more often,' she continued and Kyoko had to refrain herself from glancing at her sister in law, just in case the kids noticed the concerned look on her face.
'Well, now that we're all here,' Kyosuke started, 'I think it's a very good time for me to tell you something.'
'Don't tell me,' Keisuke said teasingly, 'you're getting married.'
Kyosuke's startled expression made everyone at the table burst out laughing.
'No,' he said after his family had recovered, 'I think it's a bit too soon for me and Kizuna to do that, however, what I need to tell you has to do with her.'
'He wants to go to…'
'Seisuke!' Kyosuke exclaimed.
'Argh, enough of this non-sense, just tell them already,' Ryoko said.
At this point, all four adults were looking at Kyosuke very keenly.
'Okay, well, Kizuna and I have been offered the chance to go to the US and do an apprenticeship programme with an Indy Racing League team,' Kyosuke said very quickly, then looking at his brother and his cousin, he added, 'there, happy?'
'You're going where?' Kyoko asked looking first at her nephew then at Akiko, this time not bothering to hide her worry.
'The US,' Kyosuke repeated biting his lower lip, 'if you guys don't mind, that is.'
'No,' Akiko said all the sudden, 'of course we don't mind!'
'Akiko,' Keisuke started.
'I'm very happy for you!,' Akiko continued ignoring her brother in law, 'it's an excellent opportunity.'
Ryosuke looked at his wife for a few instants before nodding.
'I agree with your mother Kyosuke, I think you need to take this chance.'
'Really?' Kyosuke asked looking at both of his parents, 'can I go?'
'Absolutely yes,' Akiko said looking very resolute.
'Akiko…' Kyoko started, doing her best to support her husband. Akiko threw a quick glance at Kyoko which conveyed a clear enough message. For this reason, the younger woman decided to drop it while silently asking Keisuke to do the same.
'When are you due to leave?' Ryosuke asked his son.
'The fourth of December,' Kyosuke replied, 'I know it's a bit of a short notice.'
'No, it's okay, we've got over two weeks to prepare everything,' Akiko said.
'Are you sure it's fine that Kizuna and I go together to the US?' Kyosuke asked, just to be certain that his parents had understood the concept.
'Sweetheart,' Akiko started, 'even though you're old enough to look after yourself, we're even happier knowing that Kizuna will be there to take care of you too.'
'Well, we'll stay with her family,' Kyosuke commented.
'Even better,' Ryosuke said.
'See? I told you they'd understand too, didn't I?' Seisuke asked.
'Great, this way I get to visit you in the US!' Ryoko exclaimed happily.
'Young lady,' Kyoko said, 'no one said anything about YOU going to the US.'
'But Mum…'
'No buts, besides, you've got the ice skating championship in two months time,' Kyoko said.
Ryoko looked at her mum and, pouting, started attacking her cereals.
Kyosuke and Seisuke left shortly after to go to their lectures with Seisuke dropping Ryoko at her school and, with Ryosuke having taken his wife to the hospital so she could get yet another session of chemo, Keisuke and Kyoko were left alone in the house as they finished getting ready to go to the Motorsports Centre they managed.
'I can't believe Akiko's not going to say anything to Kyosuke,' Kyoko started.
Keisuke looked at his wife and, sighing, he said:
'I guess she doesn't want to ruin it for him, after all, it is a very good chance for Kyosuke to learn a lot about racing engineering.'
'I know that too, it's just that…'
'Kyoko, we do need to let them handle this the way they see fit,' Keisuke said and, the way he looked made Kyoko realise that he was as torn about this as she was.
'What if he finds out?'
'He'll go ballistic and will want to stay and this will upset Akiko a lot,' Keisuke said, 'which is why we have to keep it to ourselves as she and Aniki have asked us to do.'
'Darling…'
'Come on, get your bag, we've got to go or we'll be late,' Keisuke said making it clear that he didn't want to discuss the subject anymore.
Ten days later, during the last Saturday Kyosuke would spend in Japan that year, he and his brother prepared themselves for the race against the Tochigi Thunders, the team which had challenged the Golden Arrows.
'Hey, about time you two finished getting ready,' Akito said getting up from the sofa seeing his two best friends entering the Takahashi's living room.
'Yeah, we've been waiting forever,' Ryoko complained.
'Then they say we are slow,' Kizuna said looking at Ryoko who nodded her agreement.
'Don't we have to wait for Kaori?' Kyosuke asked to his brother.
'Nope,' Seisuke replied with an odd tone of voice, 'she's busy tonight so she can't come.'
'Ah, that's too bad,' Kizuna commented, 'I would have loved to see her before we're off.'
'Oh well, you'll see her when you get back,' Seisuke said.
After all sixteen members of the Golden Arrows had gathered at their usual meeting point, they drove for almost an hour then, altogether, they started climbing Momiji Lane's uphill, observing how, despite the cold temperature, there were quite a few people there.
'We've got a lot of public,' Akito commented over the radio.
'We are the Golden Arrows,' Masato replied.
'Yeah, that's right, we're famous!' Eiji agreed.
'We're famous because we're good,' Junya said.
'Guys, cut the chatter,' Kyosuke admonished his two team mates, 'we're here to show our skills not to brag about them.'
Everyone went quiet after that but Akito could swear he'd heard a noise coming from the radio speaker that had sounded a lot like Seisuke's voice saying 'spoilsport'.
'You're not going to be racing tonight, are you?' Ryoko asked.
'No,' Akito replied, 'tonight's the last time Kyosuke and Kizuna are with us before they go to the US so it's going to be them racing.'
'Great! I love it when Kizuna races,' Ryoko said.
'Me too, she's brilliant.'
'If only I drove as well as she does,' Ryoko commented sounding wishful.
'Hey, you're a great driver too!' Akito said, 'you almost beat Haruko the other day with the karts.'
Ryoko looked at Akito across the car and said:
'Akito, your sister is nine.'
'Yeah, but she's been driving karts for a lot longer than you have,' Akito pointed out.
'That's right,' Ryoko said already feeling better and making Akito smile at her.
'Anyway, er…' Akito started, 'have you thought about, you know…'
Ryoko turned a delicate shade of pink before nodding.
'We could organise something nice and romantic for Christmas,' she suggested making Akito want to scream at her that he couldn't possibly wait for so long then, calming down, Akito realised that he'd been waiting for three whole years so, three more weeks didn't sound that bad.
Finally they made it up to the top of the mountain pass where they saw a whole bunch of cars and even more people who started pointing at the two RZ-1s which lead the caravan formed by the sixteen members of the Golden Arrows.
'You're the leader, aren't you?' a guy said walking towards Kyosuke's yellow sports car as he was climbing out of it.
'Yes, I'm Takahashi Kyosuke.'
'I'm Kosugi Jiro, and I'll be racing you tonight,' the guy said.
'What's your ride?' Kyosuke asked and Jiro pointed at a mica Honda Civic Si Coupe GM5.
'It's the Mugen version,' Jiro explained.
'It makes nearly two hundred horsepower, doesn't it?' Kyosuke asked.
'The standard version does, this one is tuned to give a lot more than that,' Jiro said proudly.
'Very impressive,' Kyosuke admitted.
'Not as much as yours,' Jiro said looking at Kyosuke's RZ-1, 'that's a beautifully modified machine.'
Kyosuke just nodded to that, then Kizuna asked:
'Who am I going to race against?'
'Me,' a girl almost as tall as Kizuna said, 'my name's Shimazaki Misa.'
'I'm Kizuna Ethridge,' she said offering her hand to Misa.
'She's very cute,' Seisuke whispered to Akito and the eighteen year old silently agreed: although Misa was definitely not his kind of girl, her long dark hair with light brown highlights and great body made it obvious to Akito why Seisuke would consider her cute.
'This is going to be so hot, having those two babes racing each other,' Masato said, keeping a tone low enough so neither Kyosuke nor Kizuna could hear him. Both Akito and Seisuke nodded their agreement to that statement.
As the leaders of their respective teams, Jiro and Kyosuke decided to let the girls race first.
'Just do your stuff,' Kyosuke said bending towards Kizuna's window after the girl had climbed into her dark grey Nissan Z33.
'Don't worry, I'll make you proud,' she replied giving him a kiss. She then turned on the engine and drove her Nissan towards Misa's car, also a Nissan only hers was a red 2012 V37 Coupe.
'Nice car,' Misa said seeing Kizuna's ride.
'Thanks,' Kyosuke's girlfriend replied, 'it was my father's.'
'Mine was my brother's…'
'Let's race fair and square, okay?' Kizuna asked and Misa nodded.
After both Jiro and Kyosuke had checked with their designated officials, Jiro signalled to one of his friends to start the countdown.
'Wow, they're fast,' Shinji commented seeing the two cars dashing passed him.
'Fast and beautiful, dangerous combination,' Jiro said then, glancing at Kyosuke, he said, 'no offence…'
'None taken, I know my girlfriend,' Kyosuke replied with a proud looking smile.
Meanwhile, Kizuna had allowed Misa to take the lead of the race so she could observe her opponent's driving style and, after a few turns, the girl had already decided the strategy she needed to adopt for this race.
Misa was as fast a driver as she was but, unlike Kizuna, Misa seemed to have a bit of a problem exiting the corners: she went too wide, leaving quite a lot of space open. However, risking it now during the slowest section of the course would be useless because the V37 was a lot wider than Kizuna's roadster and, therefore, Misa would easily block any of Kizuna's attacks.
She would have to wait until they got to the sector of the course where the corners were faster, this way Kizuna's much more powerful car would have the advantage.
Patience, that was the key to this race, Kizuna thought.
She would be really sad to leave her beloved car tucked inside the Takahashi's garage for a whole three months but, she knew, it would be plain stupid to ship it all the way to South Carolina for such a short period of time.
Besides, she would have all of her uncle's cars to play with while she would be there.
Shaking her head briefly, she decided to focus back on the race, realising that if her mind had started wandering and she was still very much able to keep up with the other Nissan, it could mean only one thing:
She was going to win this race.
At long last, the two girls got to the lidless gutters' sector where, Kizuna knew, the faster, wider corners would make it easier for her to get her 350Z to overtake Misa's V37.
'It's now or never,' Kizuna said aloud as she saw the red Nissan entering a left hand side turn, leaving, as Kizuna had half hoped half expected, a lot of space in the inside, probably trying to avoid the lidless gutter.
Kizuna didn't even need to use the technique she knew Akito's father was so famous for, she just needed to drive insanely close to the very edge of the road, just switching a bit of extra weight on the right side tyres so the rear left one would just graze the tarmac.
The rest, was just a piece of cake: her roadster, being much smaller than the coupe, made it almost trouble-free through the space Misa had left her and, just giving a bit more gas, Kizuna managed to pass her.
She, of course, maintained that position all the way downhill crossing the finish line a full five seconds before Misa.
'You're fantastic,' Misa said as soon as both of them had stopped their cars.
'You're not bad either,' Kizuna offered, 'who taught you to drive?'
'My brother,' she replied, 'you?'
'My uncle,' Kizuna said smiling.
'I'd like to race you again soon,' Misa said returning the smile.
'Yeah, I'd like that too,' Kizuna started, 'unfortunately, I'm going to the US in two days' time but, I'll be back in March.'
'Let's race then,' Misa proposed.
'Deal,' Kizuna said and both girls shook their hands sealing their agreement.
Meanwhile, and as Kyosuke and the rest were celebrating Kizuna's latest victory, the oldest of the Takahashi brothers felt someone tapping his shoulder.
'Sorry to bother you,' a guy, looking to be around Akito's same age, said, 'you're from Gunma, aren't you?'
'Yeah,' Kyosuke replied.
'Do you happen to know Fujiwara Takumi's son?' the guy asked.
'I do,' Kyosuke said, 'why?'
'I'd like you to give him a message,' the teenager replied.
'You can give it to him yourself,' Kyosuke said, then, pointing at Akito who was currently talking to Seisuke, he added, 'that's him over there.'
The guy's eyes went wide with shock then, the startled expression turned into a happy one and, without exchanging a further word with Kyosuke, he walked towards where Akito was. Kyosuke decided to follow him for he was curious to see what would happen next.
'Hey, you're Fujiwara Takumi's son?'
'Yes,' Akito replied.
'Great! I can't believe I've found you!' the guy exclaimed cheerfully.
'Who are you?' Akito asked getting slightly freaked out.
'My name's Suetsugu Hiroki. My father raced against yours once and he hasn't stopped talking about him ever since.'
'What does this have anything to do with me?' Akito asked.
'I want you to race against me,' Hiroki said so boldly that he managed to leave even Seisuke speechless.
To be continued…