Programmed Lives – Fifth Stage

Chapter Fifteen

Feeling the sudden impact made Akito feel extremely grateful that his father had insisted on fitting both front seats with four point racing harnesses and that the shock hadn't been strong enough to activate the airbags. He was also thankful that, knowing that Ryoko was safe enough, he didn't have to check on her because, right now, Akito needed all of his concentration in order to avoid crashing the car against the guardrail which ran on both sides of the dual-carriage road.

'Akito?' he then heard Kyosuke's very concerned voice say through the radio.

'We're alright, I think,' Akito replied as he pressed the accelerator even more, trying his best to control the car while putting as much distance between the V-86 and the dark coloured car he still had behind him.

'Who in the hell is…'

'I think I know,' Akito said, 'it's the guy from the party.'

'What?' Kyosuke exclaimed, 'the freaking bastard...'

'I think I have an idea,' Akito said allowing himself a small smile, 'Kyosuke, do you remember what you did to me when you and Seisuke first met me at the karting track?'

'Er…yeah, why?'

'Let's do it to him,' Akito proposed.

'Akito, he'll crash against your car,' Kyosuke said.

'Don't worry, he won't, I don't think he's as crazy as that,' Akito said more to convince himself of that fact than anything else.

'He's going too fast,' Ryoko pointed out and Akito, hearing his girlfriend's frightened voice, made him get even madder at the bastard.

'Kyosuke?' Akito insisted.

'Fine, let's do it,' Kyosuke finally conceded.

'What are you going to do?' Ryoko asked, still sounding pretty scared.

'You trust me, right?' Akito asked.

'You know I do,' Ryoko replied.

'Alright then, hold on tight baby,' Akito said and, seeing Kyosuke flashing his headlights at him, he braked so his V-86 would slow down quite dramatically, flinching when he heard the bastard's car crashing again against his rear bumper, 'crap,' Akito muttered.

He then looked at his rear view mirror and saw what he had hoped he would see: Kyosuke had glued the front of his RZ-1 to the rear of the other car making it impossible for it to go anywhere.

'Right,' Akito said as he braked a bit more, slowing down to a speed which allowed him to make his next move: drifting across the road, he stopped his Toyota with the driver's side facing the nose of the other car, a Honda, then, Akito prayed for all that was holy that the bastard's reflexes would be quick enough to allow him to stop his car would ram, yet again, into the V-86.

Akito heard Ryoko's gasp as he saw that the Honda had indeed stopped before hitting him but, as he looked down from his window, he saw that the front bumper was just a hair away from his door.

'Phew,' Akito sighed, feeling a huge wave of relief washing over him. He then undid his seatbelt and, asked Ryoko to do the same so both of them could get out of the car using her side's door.

By the time they both joined Kyosuke outside their cars, they saw two guys getting out of the dark green Honda.

'Are you nuts?' the guy who indeed was the one from the party shouted at Akito as he climbed out of his car.

'No, I'm merely curious,' Kyosuke said signalling to Akito so the younger man would allow him to handle the situation.

'Who is talking to you?' the guy said sneeringly.

'I'm talking to you,' Kyosuke said, still keeping an admirably calm tone of voice, 'you should just listen to me…'

'Why would I do that?' the guy asked and Akito had the satisfaction to see that Kyosuke's calmness was having a very unnerving effect on the bastard.

'Because if you don't, me and my friend here will beat the crap out of you two and then we'll call the police and tell them what you've done to my friend's car…'

'HA!' the other guy laughed dryly, 'do you even know who you're talking to?'

'Do you?' Ryoko suddenly asked and both Akito and Kyosuke noticed that the girl had the hard look on her beautiful face which warned everybody who knew her to stay away from her.

The two guys clearly didn't know that for they looked at her with equally amused expressions on their faces.

'What are you going to do baby?' the bastard said sarcastically, 'cry on us?'

Ryoko looked at them and said:

'Do you know who the North Kanto Bikers are?'

They obviously did for they frowned and the bastard's friend replied:

'Of course we do, they're a dangerous bunch of gangsters who've been in activity for over thirty years, why?'

Then, Akito and Kyosuke had to repress a chuckle seeing Ryoko's very sweet looking smile.

'Oh, nothing,' she said with as much nonchalance as possible, 'it's just that my father is their honorary leader.'

'WHAT?' the bastard shouted.

'And, of course,' Ryoko continued still keeping a very casual tone of voice, 'if he heard that you've laid a finger on me or my boyfriend, or my cousin, well, I really don't know what they would do to you.'

Seeing their horrified expressions made Akito and Kyosuke unable to contain their mirth for any longer and, at the same time, they started laughing quite loudly.

'Get the hell out of here,' Akito said, fighting to keep a straight face and, apparently, Ryoko's words had scared both of them enough for them to climb back into the car and, after manoeuvring very carefully so as not to go anywhere near either the V-86 nor the RZ-1, they drove away as fast as the Honda could go.

'Well, Ryoko,' Kyosuke started, sounding very impressed, 'I never knew you had that in you.'

Ryoko just shrugged and said:

'I've just done what Dad told me to do in case I found myself in this kind of situation.'

'You've got to love your old man,' Akito commented and, for the first time, he actually felt good about the power his girlfriend's father seemed to have, even when he wasn't there.

'Well, I wasn't sure it would work, but, in any case, I'm glad it did,' Ryoko said then, shivering quite visibly, she added, 'can we go home now? It's rather cold tonight!'

Both young men looked at each other and, seeing Ryoko go back to her usual spoilt little girl self so quickly, made them shake their heads as they smiled at her then, without bothering to check the damage done to the back of his car, Akito climbed back into it so they could, at long last, go back home.

The morning after, Akito woke up a lot earlier than Ryoko and, going down the stairs, he found her father eating breakfast all by himself.

'Good morning,' Akito said, 'and Happy New Year.'

'What did you do to your car?' Keisuke asked so suddenly that Akito stopped right where he was and, clearing his throat, he said:

'Someone crashed against it.'

'Obviously,' Keisuke said, 'was my daughter inside when it happened?'

Akito looked at him raking his brain trying to find a good enough excuse when, behind him, he felt a very reassuring presence.

'It happened because I distracted him and he braked too soon,' Ryoko replied so boldly that her father made a face which clearly said that he wished he'd minded his own business.

'Hey, you're all up already?' Kyoko said entering the kitchen.

'Happy New Year Mum!' Ryoko said kissing her mother on the cheek.

'Hey,' Keisuke complained, 'don't I get a New Year's kiss too?'

Then, both mother and daughter walked towards him and, placing themselves at either side of him, they kissed each of his cheeks.

'Now, that's better,' Keisuke said smiling happily.

The smile promptly disappeared as he saw Ryoko getting on her tiptoes and, kissing Akito full on his mouth, she said:

'Happy New Year.'

Akito rushed to eat his breakfast as quickly as possible so he could get out of Keisuke's presence then, he put on a coat and walked out of the house to check the V-86's rear bumper.

'It doesn't look that bad,' Kyosuke said walking towards him with a steamy cup of coffee in his hand.

'No, it doesn't,' Akito agreed.

'You'll still need to replace the bumper,' Kyosuke added.

'I know, and I also know the perfect place to do that,' Akito said.

Half an hour later, Akito was back in his car, driving it towards Shibukawa with Ryoko following him in her little Mazda convertible to the garage the three ex-Lonely Drivers had opened way before Akito had even been born.

'Hey!' Iketani said seeing them getting out of their cars, 'Happy New Year!'

'Same to you Iketani-san,' Akito said, 'it's so cool you're open today…'

'Son, we never close!' Iketani exclaimed then, smiling at both him and Ryoko, he said, 'what brings you two here?'

'Er…'

'Oh gosh,' Iketani said, his smile quickly disappearing from his face, 'I don't know why but I think I've already lived through something like this.'

'Well, the thing is…'

'Okay, what have you done to your car?' Iketani asked and for all answer, Akito led him towards the back of his V-86 just as Hikaru, Iketani-san's thirteen year old son, was walking towards them.

'Akito-san!' the boy screamed seeing his idol there.

'Hey Hikaru, how are you?'

'I'm great,' he replied then, seeing Ryoko there, he blushed furiously before stammering, 'h-hi…'

'Hello Hikaru-kun,' Ryoko said smiling at the boy so sweetly that he got even redder on his face.

'Ehem,' Iketani said as he crouched next to the dented rear bumper, 'let's get this fixed, shall we?'

'How long is it going to take?' Akito asked.

'Not much,' the man replied, 'thankfully, your father ordered a few parts, just in case you did something to the car.'

'WHAT?' Akito asked feeling his eyes widen with shock, 'that crazy…'

'Hey, don't you dare to speak like that about your father in front of me,' Iketani said reprovingly.

'Sorry,' Akito apologised.

'Anyway, you should have it ready for lunchtime,' Iketani said, 'come just before then because I have to go back home or my wife will kill me.'

'Alright,' Akito said, 'Iketani-san, I really want to pay for this…'

'Yeah,' Iketani said, 'and I really want a helicopter but that's not going to happen anytime soon so, let's forget about both, alright?'

Akito shook his head and, realising that he wasn't going to win this time either, he said:

'Okay, I'll be back before lunchtime.'

Iketani nodded at that before turning round to go back inside his workshop, probably to retrieve the part and the tools he needed to start working on the V-86.

'Akito-san,' Hikaru said just as the eighteen year old was about to start walking towards his girlfriend's car.

'Yes?' Akito asked.

'I've just started driving proper cars at the Centre,' he explained, 'but I'd love to have you watch me so you can tell me what you think.'

'Alright, consider it done,' Akito said making the young teenager so happy that he remembered the other teenager's face, the one who'd asked him for his autograph. This made him recall the whole incident and he felt as his brow creased into a frown.

'Are you alright?' Hikaru asked.

'Yeah,' Akito said shaking his head, 'I'll see you later.'

'Sure,' Hikaru said and, with this, Akito and Ryoko made their way towards the red Mazda and climbed into it with Ryoko getting behind the wheel.

'Ryoko,' he started as they were on their way to the centre where they were supposed to meet with Kyosuke.

'Uh-huh?' the girl said as she changed a gear, with Akito noticing how very smooth her driving was.

'I don't think we should push it quite so much with your dad, I mean, it's awfully good of…'

'Akito,' the girl started, 'he has to get used to it.'

'But…'

'Shush, you're making me lose my concentration,' she complained and, even though Akito knew that this was just an excuse so he would drop it, he took the hint and remained silent throughout the entire trip.

'Oh wow!' Akito heard Ryoko exclaim as she parked her car next to a car with a foreign number plate.

'What's wrong?' Akito asked but, seeing the way Ryoko was smiling, he convinced himself that, whatever it was, it wasn't bad.

'Fumihiro-san's here!' Ryoko said literally jumping out of her car running away from it, forgetting all about her boyfriend and about locking the car in the process.

Akito went after her thinking that, since the centre was a private property, leaving the convertible unlocked was probably not that dangerous.

'Fumihiro-san!' he heard Ryoko shout as she saw one of her uncle's oldest friends walking out of the main building with a mobile phone in his hand.

'Hey sweetie!' the old man said smiling at the girl as she hung herself from his neck, giving him an almost bear like hug.

'What are you doing in here?' she asked as soon as she released Fumihiro.

'Oh, I'm just a New Year's surprise from your old man,' he replied.

'Dad?'

'Yeah, he's got us involved in a project of his so, we're now here to help him set up a new facility for the Centre.'

'Us?' Ryoko asked.

'Yeah, Kenta and I,' Fumihiro explained, 'we've quit our jobs in Prodrive so we could help your father here.'

'Kenta is here too?' Ryoko asked and, seeing Fumihiro nod to that, she added, 'great! I haven't seen him in ages either.

Then, Ryoko started running again, this time towards the Centre's main building.

'Hello there, you've grown quite a lot since I last saw you,' Fumihiro said noticing, probably for the first time, that Akito was there too.

'Well, the last time you saw me I was only fourteen,' Akito replied.

'Yeah, that's right,' Fumihiro said, then, he asked, 'so, how's your father?'

'He's alright,' Akito replied and, thankfully, was saved from anymore questions by the arrival of Keisuke, Kyosuke and Ryoko who was already making fun of the poor Kenta.

Meanwhile, in the city of Tochigi, situated in the homonymous prefecture, Seisuke woke up to find himself staring at a ceiling which definitely wasn't the one from his bedroom in his family's house.

He turned his face slowly towards his left hand side to see the beautiful face of a sleeping Misa and, all the sudden, his brain started remembering everything that had happened the previous night, beginning with his very bold move when he'd kissed her claiming his 'prize' for being the fastest drifter of the night and ending with the girl's not so subtle invitation to spend the night with her.

Moving with the maximum care possible, he started freeing his arm from under the girl's head and, once this was done, he passed his hands over his face, trying to remove the last traces of sleep from it.

He blew out rather noisily, scaring himself in the process because, for some reason, he really didn't want to wake Misa up and, after he was sure that she was still sleeping, moving even more carefully, he sat on the bed and started looking around the room, trying to find his clothes so he could get dressed.

Then, as he finally got up from the bed, he noticed something on it that made him panic.

'Holy mother of God,' Seisuke mouthed without actually saying the words out loud: what he'd just seen had scared him so much that, within five minutes, he was already dressed, out of the house and on his way back to his white RZ-1.

Once he was back in the relative safety of his car, Seisuke grasped the steering wheel with both hands and, putting his head on top of them, he felt himself shake rather violently.

'Fuck,' he whispered, 'what have I done?'

To be continued…