Programmed Lives – Fifth Stage
Chapter Twelve
Following Kyosuke out of the house, both Akito and Seisuke ran towards their cars. Ryoko then climbed into the passenger seat of her boyfriend's V-86, without even pausing to discuss whether she should take her own car: the girl understood that the occasion definitely didn't call for any kind of negotiations.
'Let's hope we make it on time,' Akito heard the Golden Arrows' leader through the radio channel.
'Aniki, just drive as fast as you can, we'll keep up with you,' Seisuke assured his older brother.
Then, all three cars got on the motorway, heading west towards the border with the Nagano prefecture where the National Route number eigtheen ran through the pass which connected touristy town of Karuizawa with the rest of the province.
'Akito, why are we rushing so much?' Ryoko asked when they had covered half of the distance to the Usui pass.
'We need to stop Junya,' Akito replied, surprised that he had to explain something so obvious to his girlfriend.
'I know that,' she said, 'but, won't the pass be covered by snow?'
'Probably,' Akito replied.
'Well, then they've probably closed it to all traffic, haven't they?' Ryoko said making Akito snort.
'Since when does that stop anyone from racing?' they heard Seisuke say reminding the couple that the radio was still on.
'I see…' Ryoko said, then, she seemed to think about something and she added, 'I wonder what made Junya want to race in that kind of conditions.'
'You and me both, Ryoko,' Akito said as he noticed that Kyosuke was accelerating even more. The young man had never seen the oldest of the Takahashi brothers drive like that in a non-race situation before.
By the time they made it all the way to the bottom of Mt Usui's Pass, they saw Shinji's silver Accord Coupe parked near a very familiar looking dark blue Mitsubishi X-3.
'What's Nakazato doing in here?' Seisuke asked.
'No idea,' Akito replied.
'We'll soon find out,' Kyosuke added as he stopped his RZ-1 next to the Mitsubishi with Seisuke and Akito lining up their cars next to each other at the other side of the X-3.
'Hey,' Taro said to Kyosuke as the Golden Arrows leader climbed out of his car. The guy had a very serious expression on his face.
'Where is he?' Kyosuke asked, deciding to skip any unneeded pleasantries.
'You're too late,' Taro said, 'they just took off…'
'I'm sorry Kyosuke-san,' Shinji apologised as he walked towards his team's leader, 'I tried to stop him but…'
'It's alright Shinji, this is not your fault,' Seisuke said patting the younger man on his shoulder.
'No, you're right,' Taro said speaking to Seisuke, 'it's his,' he added pointing at Akito who, after locking up his car, was walking towards his friends followed by Ryoko.
'What?' Akito exclaimed having overheard the conversation, 'I wasn't even here!' he complained.
'Precisely,' Taro said puzzling the poor Akito even more.
'Alright,' Kyosuke said looking like he was beginning to lose his patience, 'what happened exactly?'
Shinji looked at Taro before replying:
'We came here to practice and a couple of guys, seeing our stickers, stopped us as we were starting our run and they asked us if Akito was going to join us because they heard from that guy from Tochigi that Akito is with us.'
'Suetsugu?' Kyosuke asked and Shinji nodded.
'Yeah,' he continued, 'the thing is, Junya-san got pissed off because one of them said that, since he's a professional racer, Akito was the only one of us worth their time.'
'What?' Seisuke exclaimed earning himself a glare from his older brother.
'Carry on,' Kyosuke ordered.
'Well, Junya-san felt very insulted by that and started fighting with the guy who said that then, the other insulted us again by saying that Junya-san had to resort to his fists because he wasn't good enough to prove them wrong with his driving.'
'At that point,' Taro said, 'Shimano challenged them to race him uphill.'
'He's racing both of them?' Akito asked with his eyes wide with a mix of shock and admiration.
'Yep,' Taro replied.
'And what were you doing in here?' Kyosuke asked Taro.
'I too came to Mt Usui to get some training on the snow,' he replied, 'the stupid city council has had the fantastic idea of removing all the snow from Mt Myogi's Pass,' he added sarcastically.
'Ah, I see,' Kyosuke said, 'you could have gone over to Mt Akagi though, there's plenty of snow in there.'
'Or Mt Akina,' Akito added.
'Nah, there are too many cars on those passes lately, I thought Mt Usui's would be quieter,' Taro explained, 'obviously, I was wrong.'
'What do we do now?' Shinji asked bringing everyone's attention back to the problem that had got all of them together in the first place.
'We can't do much, really, can we?' Seisuke replied looking at his brother who shook his head in agreement.
'We could try to follow them,' Akito suggested.
'No,' Kyosuke said, 'we can't interrupt them now, we'll just have to wait till they finish.'
They all remained quiet until Ryoko broke the silence:
'It's snowing again…'
'You should get back into the car or you'll catch a cold,' Seisuke said.
'Hey, I'm an ice-skater, do you think a bit of snow will make me sick?' she asked giving him an amused look.
Seisuke didn't even bother replying to that which was lucky for, thanks to the silence, they heard something coming from the radio in Shinji's car.
'Shinji, come up: I need help,' they heard Junya's voice say. They didn't know whether the radio signal wasn't strong enough in this very mountainous region of the prefecture but, in their opinion, Junya's voice had sounded alarmingly shaky.
'Aniki, I'm going up there, you better stay here, in case those two head back down,' Seisuke said as he got inside his white RZ-1.
'I'm going up too,' Akito said and, turning to Ryoko, he said, 'please, stay with your cousin.'
Ryoko nodded and then Akito ran towards his car and climbed into it just in time to start its engine so that he could follow Seisuke's Mazda.
'He's got an amazing control of his car,' Taro commented as he observed the way Akito's V-86 cleared the first of the many corners of the pass. Everyone silently agreed with him.
Meanwhile, the object of their thoughts was trying his best to keep up with Seisuke's aggressive driving style, feeling lucky that he had re-adjusted all the settings of the car so it would be easier to handle on the snowy conditions most of Gunma's roads were in.
Akito damned Junya for his stupidity at the same time he admired the difficulty of Mt Usui's course with its extremely narrow lanes and the very menacing wall which delimited the road on the inside. What freaked a driver the most was the cliff which ran along the outside of the road, only a few centimetres away from the rusty guardrail which, in Akito's opinion, didn't look very much capable of doing its job properly.
As they entered the north side of the pass, the layer of snow became a lot thicker and, since the pass had indeed been closed to regular traffic, the only tyre marks present were those from the three cars which had just climbed the uphill.
The rest of the road was covered with virgin snow on which, not even the V-86's brand new set of winter tyres didn't seem to have any grip on at all and, because of the intense effort Akito was making so that his car would stay on the road, the young man felt as small pearls of sweat started forming on his forehead.
They had just cleared the infamous C-121 turn when Akito heard Seisuke's voice over the radio say:
'Oh shit…'
Akito was about to ask him what was wrong now when he saw them:
Two white Subaru WRXs were parked next to Junya's S18 which had crashed against the road's outer guardrail.
Seeing that made Akito's heart skip a couple of beats. He then stopped his car just behind Seisuke's RZ-1 and, climbing out of the V-86, he joined the youngest of the Takahashi brothers in a sprint to reach their team mate's car.
As they got closer, Akito realised how very unfair this whole battle had been: the two Subaru were the newest model the Japanese car maker had manufactured for the WRC. Not only that but also, and unlike Junya's Nissan, the WRX had a 4WD transmission and its two point five litre engine produced some two hundred and fifty hp making it a lot more powerful than Junya's Nissan.
'Junya!' Seisuke exclaimed seeing that the twenty four year old didn't even try to get out of his crashed car.
'Oh, look who's here,' one of the Subaru drivers sneered. He was a guy around Kyosuke's age and was now looking at Akito in a way which made it obvious he had recognised the young racer.
'You could have helped him!' Akito exclaimed angrily.
'Hey,' the other guy said, 'he didn't want us to go anywhere near his car…'
Glaring at both of them, Akito made his way to the driver's side of Junya's Nissan where Seisuke was already helping their team mate get out of his car.
'Are you alright?' Akito asked.
Junya seemed to ignore him and, speaking to Seisuke with a very shaky voice, he said:
'I've messed up our winning streak.'
'Hey, don't worry about that,' Seisuke said, 'let's get you out of here…'
'No,' Junya said, 'I'm okay…'
'Are you sure?' Akito asked.
'I think the engine's still alright,' Junya said still talking to Seisuke, this time, Akito couldn't help but to notice the way the older man seemed to completely ignore him.
This made Akito take a couple of steps away from the S18.
'So,' one of the two Subaru drivers, the one who'd spoken to him first, said, 'you've finally come up to finish his job…'
'What?' Akito asked still feeling quite upset about Junya's cold attitude.
'That's your ride there, isn't it?' the guy said pointing at Akito's Toyota.
'Yeah, but…'
'I'm Nanishi Hajime,' the guy said, 'I must say that you look a lot younger in person but I won't do you any favours because of that…'
'What do you want?' Akito asked beginning to get seriously pissed off.
'I want to race you,' Hajime said.
'No,' Akito said.
'No?' Hajime asked raising his eyebrows in surprise, 'you're turning down a challenge?'
Akito was going to reply to that when he saw Seisuke walking towards them.
'Akito, let's go,' he said, 'Junya says he should be able to make it back to Maebashi with his car.'
'Okay,' Akito nodded and, as he turned round to walk back to his car, he felt as Hajime shoved him so roughly that Akito had to make an effort not to fall flat on his face.
'HEY!' Hajime shouted, 'DON'T TURN YOUR BACK ON ME, YOU BASTARD!'
'I'm not here to race, and even less to pick up a fight,' Akito said turning round so he could face the Subaru's driver.
'I'm afraid but it's too late for that,' Hajime said and, without any further warning, he threw a punch at Akito, making him fall sideways onto the snow.
'What the…' Seisuke said running back to where Akito was, 'What in the fuck do you think you're doing?' he exclaimed as he crouched to help Akito get back up.
'Seisuke, it's alright,' Akito said wiping the blood off from his split lip, 'if he wanted a race, he's got one.'
'Akito…' Seisuke started, not liking at all the icy tone his younger friend's voice had acquired.
'You,' Akito shouted pointing at Hajime, 'let's race.'
'Akito,' Seisuke insisted, 'you can't race against him.'
'No, that's right,' Akito said smiling in a way which completely freaked Seisuke out, 'I'm racing the two of them.'
'WHAT?' Seisuke shouted, 'ARE YOU NUTS?'
'You should know the answer to that question by now,' he said, 'just make sure you and Junya get back down safely.'
Seisuke was going to protest when he saw Akito walking away from them and, as he climbed into his V-86, the young man shouted:
'We'll go uphill, if you catch up with me, you win.'
Both Hajime and his friend nodded to that and, seeing how little he could do to prevent the whole thing from happening, Seisuke ran back to his car so he could inform his brother and, just as he was closing his RZ-1's door, he saw Akito's Toyota driving off with the two Subaru going after him.
'Fuck,' Seisuke whispered talking to no one in particular.
Meanwhile, Akito's determination was fuelled by the intense anger the young man felt. The pain on his lower lip just made him feel even more resolute to keep increasing the gap which separated him from the two Subaru.
Forcing himself to treat the car's pedals as carefully as his father had taught him to while driving the old Trueno on the snow, he managed to push his V-86 even harder than usual and soon, he found himself drifting through the very tight corners of the Usui course with almost as much ease as he did when driving up Mt. Akina.
With only a quarter of the distance left to the summit, Akito realised that he could no longer see any of the two Subaru on his rear view mirror but, knowing better than to slow down, this made him drive even faster.
Soon after that, he reached the spot where the barrier which closed the access to the pass was. He then stopped, made a three point turn manoeuvre and, as he started driving back downhill, he saw the two WRXs driving towards him.
He didn't stop to say that he'd won the race. Instead of that, Akito just went past them and kept driving, listening to some gut feeling which told him that things weren't going to be quite so easy.
As usual, his racer's instincts served him right for he soon saw as the two Subaru turned round and, judging by the speed in which both started attacking the downhill, neither of them seemed to consider the matter as settled.
'Alright,' Akito said talking to himself.
'Akito?' he heard Kyosuke's voice through the radio.
'We've made it to the top but those two don't want to quit just yet,' Akito explained as he entered yet another corner, 'I'll be down in a few minutes…'
He heard Kyosuke's soft laughter and that made him smile for a brief second then he focused his attention back on the road where, using the path that the three sets of tyres had cleared while going uphill, he managed to get some much needed traction so he could try to keep some resemblance of control of his car over an increasingly slippery road.
Even so, Akito felt at least a couple of times as the rear bumper of his poor V-86 grazed the guardrail and he was grateful when he realised that they were approaching the C-121 for this meant that they were just over half way through the bottom of the pass.
Akito didn't know whether it had been because he'd been focusing so much on the road, entirely disregarding his rear view mirror but, stealing a glance at it, he had the immense displeasure of seeing the headlights of one of the Subaru.
'Shit,' Akito muttered under his breath as he saw how incredibly close the car was.
It all happened in the fraction of a second Akito used to put his hand onto the shifter to select a lower gear so he could clear what was considered the most dangerous turn of the whole course. The Subaru, after catching up with the Toyota, made it straight for the V-86's rear bumper and the push made Akito lose control of his vehicle for a precious few instants.
Then, the element which had helped his father so many times, the one which allowed for many drivers to win their races, made it possible for Akito to get away from this race in one piece too:
Sheer good luck.
That's what it was, Akito thought as, by some bizarre miracle, he felt that the steering wheel responded to his commands and, as he avoided hitting the guardrail by a hair, he saw that Hajime's WRX, probably driven mainly by inertia, crashed against the guardrail where Hajime had tried to make Akito crash his V- 86 in the first place.
Akito, going against his best judgement, stopped the car and, getting out of it, he ran towards the Subaru.
'Hey, are you alright?' Akito asked as he saw Hajime climbing out of his car while his friend stopped the other Subaru right next to them.
'Yeah,' Hajime replied looking at the smashed front of his WRX, 'just go, you've won.'
'No, I haven't,' Akito said shaking his head, 'although, next time you want a race, talk to our leader first.'
'I will, this doesn't end here,' Hajime said then, Akito remembered that he was supposed to be angry at him and, with a tone of voice as cold as the current temperature, he said:
'It probably doesn't but, right now, we're even: you've made my team mate crash, now you've crashed your car too.'
Akito then walked back to his car and, climbing into it, he drove all the way down to the base where, a very anxious looking group of people were waiting for him.
'Have Junya and Shinji gone back home?' Akito asked seeing that neither of the two men were there.
'Yeah,' Kyosuke replied and something in the older guy's expression told him that something else was wrong.
'What's up?' Akito asked and he saw as Kyosuke took a deep, calming breath.
'Junya has just quit the team: he says that as long as you're in it, he no longer wants to be in the Golden Arrows.'
To be continued…