Programmed Lives – Fifth Stage

Chapter Nineteen

As the two cars stopped and parked at the summit's parking area, Seisuke started walking towards Misa's car with Kyosuke and Akito following him, just in case. Then, the three young men saw Kizuna and Ryoko climbing out of the Z33 at the same time as Misa was getting out of her V37. Both couples waited to see what Seisuke would say next.

'Misa,' the now twenty one year old started, deciding that it was due time he got things straight with the girl.

'Before you start with your senseless gibberish,' the girl interrupted him, using an extremely indifferent tone of voice, 'I'd like you to know that I'm not here because of you.'

'You're not?' Seisuke asked incredulously.

Misa laughed dryly.

'Takahashi,' she said as she glared at him and Seisuke noticed that she had called him by his surname, probably on purpose, 'contrary to what you believe, the world doesn't orbit around you.'

'I don't believe it does,' Seisuke countered glaring back at her.

'Good,' Misa said crossing her arms on her chest, looking at him defiantly, 'because it certainly doesn't.'

Then they remained silent, glaring at each other. To everyone who was watching the two of them, it seemed as though as they were sending electric shockwaves to one another.

'Er…' Kizuna started, forcing them to break eye contact.

'I'm going to get ready for the race,' Misa said turning round so she could climb back into her car, locking herself inside it making Seisuke smirk at her: did she think he'd try to get in the car with her or what?

'Kizuna, what is she doing here?' Kyosuke whispered stepping closer to his girlfriend.

'I'm sorry, she called me as I was leaving the house telling me she had found out I was back and that she wanted a re-match,' Kizuna explained, keeping a tone as low as her boyfriend's.

'But…'

'Honey,' Kizuna said, still whispering, 'I've tried as hard as I could to convince her not to come here, you know, with Seisuke being here and all, but she said she didn't care.'

Kyosuke stole a quick glance at his brother and Seisuke's hard face told him that he was a lot more bothered by the whole thing than he tried to appear.

'So,' Kyosuke said, speaking with a normal tone of voice, 'you girls are going to race each other again?'

'Yep,' Kizuna said and, realising that Misa was still waiting for the race to start, she turned to Seisuke and asked, 'you don't mind, do you?'

'Why would I? I don't care what she does,' the younger brother replied angrily as he walked away from them.

'Wow,' Akito said looking at Kyosuke.

'There it goes all our efforts to make him have a happy birthday,' Kyosuke commented bitterly.

'What's going on?' they then heard Kazuo Takikawa asking, making them wonder when had the guy got there and if he'd witnessed the whole episode.

'The girls are going to race before we do,' Kyosuke replied, 'I hope you don't mind.'

'Nope, that's alright,' Kazuo said.

'Yeah,' Taro agreed as he walked towards them, 'it's always a great show seeing two girls race each other.'

'Especially if said girls are as good looking as those two,' Kazuo commented making all of them look at the much older man as if he were some sort of pervert.

'He's not here tonight either,' Akito commented to his girlfriend as they made their way to the side of the road from where they'd see the start of the first downhill race.

'Who?' Ryoko asked.

'Shinji,' Akito replied, 'he hasn't come to any of our practice sessions since Junya left…'

'I know, I heard Kyosuke say something about that,' Ryoko said.

'I can't help thinking that this is all my fault,' Akito continued.

'It's not,' Akito heard Kyosuke say, startling him since he hadn't noticed he was standing right next to him.

'But…'

'Let's just watch the race,' Kyosuke said.

'Where's Seisuke?' Akito asked.

'In his car, he's locked himself in it,' Kyosuke explained pointing towards the white RZ-1 with his head.

'I'll go and talk to him,' Ryoko said and, before neither Kyosuke nor Akito could do anything to prevent it, she made her way to her cousin's car.

Meanwhile, Taro stood in front of the two cars as the two girls readied themselves for the race and, after the go, both cars took off at their usual staggering speed.

The minute they started climbing the short uphill section which led to the downhill one, Kizuna realised that something in Misa's driving style had dramatically changed since they'd last raced and, whereas before she was just a really fast driver, now she seemed a whole lot more aggressive.

'Not good,' Kizuna muttered to herself.

Not wanting to have such a visibly pissed off opponent in front of her car, Kizuna decided to push it as much as she could so, as they entered the first corner, her car was already heading the race and, again, she noticed how extremely well her car was performing and knowing that this improvement was due to all the attention Kyosuke had dedicated to the Z33 during her absence, Kizuna made herself a mental note to thank him for it later.

The difference in the car's attitude became even more obvious as they started descending the course's downhill and, with immense pleasure, Kizuna noticed the huge amount of grip her front tyres had meaning that Kyosuke had probably replaced them too…

'Great,' Kizuna said smiling and, with that, she depressed the accelerator pedal even more.

The half-American girl delighted herself as they reached one of the wider corners and, moving her feet over the pedals, almost as if it were the steps of some sort of dance, she made the car drift from the entry of the turn all the way to its exit.

She was having so much fun that she had to keep herself from laughing.

How much she'd missed this: the speed, the drifting, her car, the adrenaline rush that racing at her limit always made her feel. It was the best sensation in the world and Kizuna simply couldn't see herself doing anything else.

Then, seeing a couple of headlights on her rear view mirror made her go back into reality in a very abrupt manner.

'Shit,' the girl muttered focusing back on the race, trying her best to correct her mistake.

It was too late though, by the time Kizuna started trying to increase the gap between both cars, Misa's V37 was already kissing the Z33's rear bumper making Kizuna realise yet another thing: if to her this race was merely a way to have fun, for Misa this race was as serious as a heart attack.

Kizuna felt herself get all tense in her bucket seat and, as she took a very deep breath, she decided to start taking things seriously as well.

They then drove with both cars' bumpers stuck onto each other during several corners and not even the fact that Kizuna's car was a lot lighter than Misa's helped her widen the gap on the contrary, it seemed that the V37's heaviness was helping Misa. Also, seeing the way the other girl kept pushing her made Kizuna feel increasingly worried: the smallest mistake would cost them very dearly.

Just as they were reaching the final section of the course when Kizuna entered a high speed right turn, she saw Misa do something very weird: she decelerated for just a brief second then, she changed her line and made her car veer towards the right with the very clear intention of crossing her line with the one Kizuna was trying to follow.

The half-American girl felt her eyes widen in shock as she saw that Misa was determined to make her car go through the impossibly small space and, as Kizuna was trying to decide what to do, she felt as the left corner of Misa's front bumper collided against the driver's door of the Nissan 350Z.

This made both cars slide out of control and, only Kizuna's cold-headed nature made it possible for the girl to prevent her car from crashing against the wall on the left side of the road. Unfortunately for Misa, her nerves weren't quite as stable as Kizuna's so she did crash the right side of her V37 against the guardrail.

'Misa!' Kizuna exclaimed as she got out of her car running towards the other girl's, 'Misa,' she repeated as she tried to open the passenger's door only to find it locked. Taking a look inside the car, she saw that Misa was covering her face with both hands and, judging by the way her shoulders were trembling, Kizuna guessed that she was probably crying.

'MISA!' she shouted, hoping the girl would hear her through the car's window. She did for, a few instants later, Misa removed the hands from her face and, pressing a button, made the window slide downwards.

'I'm sorry,' Misa said with a very shaky voice.

'It's okay' Kizuna started, 'did you hurt yourself?'

'Nope,' Misa said as she tried to wipe her tears with her hands, 'you know where to find me, so please send me the bill…'

'What are you talking about?' Kizuna asked frowning at the younger girl.

'I want to pay for the damage I've done to your car,' Misa explained.

'Don't be silly, I can fix it myself,' Kizuna said, 'can you go back up to the summit?'

'No,' Misa replied, 'I think I'll just go home.'

'But…'

'I'm sorry, I really can't face anyone right now,' Misa replied looking as miserable as she sounded, making Kizuna guess that by 'anyone' the girl had probably meant Seisuke. Kizuna then saw as Misa turned her car's engine back on and, before she could do anything to stop her, Misa just drove off.

Walking back to her car, Kizuna crouched next to the driver's door and realised that there was an ugly looking dent on it which was covered with a smudge of red paint.

'Oh well,' Kizuna said and with a sigh, she got up and climbed back into the car and, just as she was beginning to do a three point turn manoeuvre so she could start going uphill, she saw three cars driving downhill as fast as they could.

As they got closer, Kizuna realised that two of the three cars were the Takahashi brothers' RZ-1s and, seeing that, she pulled towards the side of the road and stopped her car once again. Following the two Mazdas she saw a black Nissan R36 she'd seen parked up on the summit's car park.

She climbed out of her car as the three cars came to a stop, parking one after the other on the opposite side of the road from where she'd left her Z33.

'Kizuna!' Kyosuke exclaimed worriedly as, getting out of his car, he rushed towards his girlfriend's.

'I'm okay,' Kizuna said.

'But we heard you shouting Misa's name,' Kyosuke started, frowning at her, 'and then you didn't reply when I asked you what was going on…'

'I'm sorry,' Kizuna said, 'we had a little accident: Misa crashed her car against mine and then she crashed again against the guardrail.'

'What?' they heard Seisuke say and, as they both looked at him, he appeared as though as the word had come out of his mouth without his permission.

'She's alright but she was a bit shaken up so she decided to drive all the way down so she could go home,' Kizuna explained refraining herself from smirking seeing the way Seisuke was trying to pretend, failing miserably, that he wasn't at all concerned about the girl's wellbeing.

'Er…' he started, 'well, since I'm obviously not needed here, I'll head back up.'

With that, he climbed back into his RZ-1, turned it round and started driving uphill.

'Are you sure you're okay?' Kyosuke asked her as they watched the back of Seisuke's car disappearing around a corner.

'Yes,' Kizuna said reassuringly, 'you shouldn't have come all the way here.'

'Hey, I was worried about you and, besides, we were already driving downhill anyway,' Kyosuke replied.

'That's right, you're going to race him uphill, aren't you?' she added pointing at the black R36.

'Yep, and I should get going, Takikawa's been waiting for a while…'

'Okay, make me proud,' Kizuna said smiling.

'I will,' Kyosuke said grinning back at her.

'And don't worry about Seisuke,' she added as he made his way back to his yellow RZ-1, 'I'll talk to him.'

'Don't bother,' Kyosuke said, his smile gone, 'Ryoko's already tried and I think she's made things worse.'

'Wow,' the girl gasped and, as the two of them walked back to their rides, Kizuna thought that if Ryoko, who was famous for her amazing powers of persuasion, had not managed to convince Seisuke to be a bit more reasonable, there was no hope in hell she could.

Meanwhile, Kyosuke drove the short distance that remained to reach the bottom of the course with the black Nissan tailing him. There the two of them found quite a few people: some officials from the Myogi Devils and four of the Golden Arrows who, seeing their leader's car, walked towards the yellow RZ-1.

'Kyosuke-san,' Masato said, 'what happened to Kizuna?'

'Yeah, we saw that V37 all scratched and…' Kei commented.

'Kizuna's okay,' Kyosuke reassured them without getting out of his car, 'Misa crashed against her car but they're both fine.'

'What?' several of the Arrows exclaimed.

'I'm telling you that Kizuna's alright,' Kyosuke insisted, 'just forget about it, okay?'

'Yeah, okay,' Masato said but, as the younger guy walked away from the RZ-1, Kyosuke heard him mumble, 'poor Z33...'

The older of the Takahashi brothers smiled to himself for he knew that quite a few of the guys worshiped Kizuna's old car for the girl had beaten them with it during their practice sessions quite a few times.

'So, shall we?' Kazuo said standing next to his black Nissan.

'Sure,' Kyosuke said and, since he had remained strapped onto his seat, he just made a three point turn so his RZ-1 would face the uphill lining it up with the R36. Then, and as this was their home turf, one of the Myogi Devils appointed himself to be the countdown man.

At the go both cars took off going considerably faster than it was really necessary. Kyosuke had already predicted that for this race and, unlike that time when they had raced four years ago, Kazuo would probably try to get his Nissan in front of Kyosuke's Mazda.

Unfortunately for him, Kyosuke had also tuned his car with the intention of increasing its power as much as possible so, by the time they got to the first turn's entry, Kyosuke's RZ-1 was already half a car ahead of the R36.

Clearing the corner before the Nissan was a piece of cake and, to Kyosuke's immense pleasure, he saw that Kazuo was keeping his word to make this race a clean one so, not having to worry about any dirty tricks coming from him, Kyosuke focused all his attention on the road ahead of him.

There was yet another thing that was different about this race: Kyosuke was completely calm.

His four years of street racing experience gave him a sense of tranquillity which allowed Kyosuke to look at the whole thing in such analytic way that even his father would have been proud of him. That was a huge difference from that first race, against that same R36 when Kyosuke had been so scared and drenched in sweat that he barely remembered how to drive.

This time the twenty two year old was driving at his best and, because of this, the whole race ended up resolving itself fairly quickly: by the time Kyosuke had driven half of the course, he realised that he had lost sight of the black Nissan.

As he made it to the summit, and with the R36 still nowhere to be seen, Kyosuke started thinking that maybe this whole rematch race hadn't been very fair on the poor Kazuo who, being almost thirty years old, the man wasn't probably as fit as he used to be back in his professional racer days.

'Kyosuke, where's Takikawa?' Akito asked him as the Golden Arrow's leader climbed out of his car.

'I think he's on his way,' Kyosuke replied maintaining a neutral tone of voice.

'Aniki, what did you do to him?' Seisuke said and Kyosuke was happy to see that his little brother was at least smirking.

'Nothing, I swear,' he replied as he also saw the worried look Kizuna was giving him.

Finally, a few minutes later, they saw the Nissan's headlights and, a few more instants later, they saw Kazuo stop his car next to Kyosuke's.

'Okay, this was a bit too much for me,' Kazuo said climbing out of his car and Kyosuke felt quite guilty seeing how exhausted the poor man looked.

'You're okay?' Seisuke asked him.

'Yeah,' Kazuo replied, 'I should have challenged your brother a long time ago thought, I'm afraid I might be getting too old for this kind of races.'

'That's rubbish,' Kyosuke said, 'I'm very grateful you came all the way here to race me tonight.'

'You've always been too polite for your own good,' Kazuo said then, looking around himself, he said, 'I'm going to miss all of this once I retire.'

'Then don't,' Kyosuke countered.

'We all have to think of retiring, even the best drivers do, sooner or later,' Kazuo commented then, climbing back into his car, he shut the door and, rolling the window down, he added, 'I'll see you around, or not.'

With that, he turned his car's engine back on and giving them a quick wave with his hand, he just drove away.

'What a guy,' Kyosuke said shaking his head.

'Aniki, what do we do now?' Seisuke asked.

'We could go home,' Kizuna suggested.

'What?' they all heard Akito exclaim, 'hey, what about my race?' he asked.

Then, and just as Taro was going to offer himself as opponent, they all heard a very familiar sounding voice coming from someone in the crowd of people standing nearby.

'I'll race you.'

'Junya!' Kyosuke exclaimed seeing his long time friend and former team mate walking towards them followed by a very embarrassed looking Shinji.

'I only have one condition,' Junya said, ignoring Kyosuke's greeting as he stared at Akito.

'What is that?' the eighteen year old asked.

'If I win,' Junya replied, 'you're out of the team and I get my stickers back.'

'WHAT?' Seisuke shouted, 'YOU'RE…'

'Fine,' Akito said.

'Sounds reasonable enough,' Kyosuke agreed after exchanging a quick look with Akito.

'Okay,' Junya said, 'I'll go and get my car.'

To be continued…