Programmed Lives – Fifth Stage

Chapter Twenty Two

It was the last Friday of winter and as usual, the Takahashi brothers' and Akito were the first to arrive at the car park in Mt. Akagi where the Golden Arrows usually gathered. The eighteen year old couldn't wait to get back into his car so he could practice a little bit of mountain racing…

'How's our superstar today?' Seisuke joked as he patted his friend's shoulder.

'I wish you stopped me calling that,' Akito complained.

'How did the interview go?' Kyosuke asked his younger friend.

'Argh,' Akito grunted, 'don't even talk about it! I mean, I don't usually like journalists but this one really got on my nerves.'

'Hey, you should be used to this by now,' Seisuke said, 'with all the journalists that you guys have around during the races.'

'No, no,' Akito started, shaking his head, 'at the circuit I have the team's press officer who takes care of most of them.'

'Anyway,' Kyosuke said, 'it's a pity you're going to school tomorrow.'

'Why?' Akito asked feeling confused at the sudden change of topic.

'Because we've got passes to go and see an exhibition some D1 drivers are doing at Motegi,' Seisuke replied.

'WHAT? Akito exclaimed, 'why didn't you tell me before? I could have made up something so I could go!'

'Sorry,' Kyosuke started, 'we just didn't think your parents would allow you to skip any more lessons.'

'Screw that!' Akito said, 'I want to go!'

'You could always try and convince your parents,' Kyosuke suggested.

'Yeah, it's not too late and we do have an extra pass,' Seisuke said.

'I'd love to but, like you said: Mum will never let me miss any more schooldays,' Akito confirmed sounding pretty miserable, 'school sucks so much! I can't wait to finish it.'

'Another two weeks and it'll be over,' Kyosuke pointed out.

Akito was about to reply to that when they saw the first couple of cars from their other team mates driving towards them and soon, the whole team was complete. Well, not quite, there were three cars missing: Junya's, Shinji's and...

'Where's Kizuna?' Seisuke asked his brother once he'd finished telling his team about the goals he expected from them during that practice session.

'She's busy,' Kyosuke replied with a very non-committal tone of voice.

'Too busy to show up to one of our practices?' Seisuke asked raising his eyebrows in surprise.

'Yeah,' Kyosuke replied and, to Akito, he still sounded as though as he was hiding something from everyone, Akito also saw that Seisuke had noticed that something was wrong too for, frowning at his older brother, he said:

'Aniki, you better keep your eyes wide open.'

'Seisuke,' he started, 'not all women are like Kaori. I hope you know that.'

'I wouldn't be so sure,' Seisuke replied sounding rather bitter, 'I'm just trying…'

'I know what you're trying to do but don't worry,' Kyosuke said, 'I know Kizuna and she would never do that to me.'

Seisuke looked at his brother for a second before lowering his gaze to the ground.

'That's what I used to think of Kaori,' he almost whispered still sounding a bit upset.

'Seisuke…'

'Aniki, it's none of my business so I'll just trust that you know what you're doing,' he said then, he turned round and following the rest of the guys, he climbed into his white RZ-1 and started its engine.

'Akito,' Kyosuke said noticing the worried look the younger man had on his face, 'don't worry: I know exactly where Kizuna is but I couldn't tell Seisuke.'

'Where is she?' Akito asked.

'With Misa,' Kyosuke replied, 'Kizuna's been helping her fix up her car.'

Then, before Akito could say anything to that, Kyosuke turned round too and made his way back to his Mazda, leaving Akito standing there. He only realised that everyone had started driving without him a couple of minutes later.

'Dammit,' he said as he ran towards his V-86 which, by the way, was working better than ever thanks to his father's intervention. The young man had felt so embarrassed at being caught mistreating his ride so badly that he'd vowed to himself to, from then on, take much better care of his car.

A few hours later, Akito got back home thinking that everyone from his family would be sleeping but, to his immense surprise, he found his mother wide awake, watching some random TV show.

'Mum, what are you doing up?' he asked as he stood under the doorway.

'I couldn't sleep,' she replied and, for some reason, she didn't seem to be too willing to look at him.

'Are you alright?' Akito asked.

'Yeah, I am,' Natsuki said, still keeping her eyes glued to the TV screen.

'You know,' Akito said, 'now that I think of it, you've been a bit edgy this whole week, is something the matter?'

'No,' Natsuki replied, finally looking at him while shaking her head vigorously, 'of course not.'

Akito frowned at her for a bit then, remembering his conversation with the Takahashi brothers, he decided to test his luck.

'Er…' he started, 'Mum, you know what D1 is, right?'

Natsuki looked confused for a bit then, nodding, she said:

'Yes, I do, it's some sort of professional drifter's league, isn't it?'

'Yep,' Akito replied then, swallowing, he said, 'the thing is, Kyosuke and Seisuke have tickets for an exhibition some D1 racers are doing at Motegi and…'

'When is it?' Natsuki asked.

'Er…'Akito hesitated, 'tomorrow morning.'

'Ah,' Natsuki said and Akito felt quite surprised for he was expecting something more like a rotund negative coming from her, 'at what time?' she asked shocking Akito even more.

'Er…it starts at eleven but Kyosuke and Seisuke are leaving at nine so they get there with plenty of time.'

'Ah,' Natsuki repeated and again, Akito had definitely not predicted that kind of reaction either.

'Er…' Akito said biting his lower lip for a second, 'do you think I could, you know…'

'You want to go?' Natsuki asked all of a sudden.

'I'd love to Mum but, I've got school tomorrow,' Akito felt himself forced to point out.

'Oh, that's alright,' the woman said, 'it's not like if you'd miss all that much, after all, it's the last day of regular school before the exams and you've already missed quite a few days anyway.'

Akito decided to remain as still as possible thinking that, if he even moved an inch, his mother would realise that what she was saying made no sense whatsoever.

'I'll tell your teacher that you had one of your racing engagements,' she added, 'which, technically speaking, it's not so far from the truth, is it?'

The eighteen year old allowed himself to shake his head albeit very slowly.

'Okay, now, go to bed,' Natsuki said, 'it's nearly one o'clock in the morning.'

Akito turned round and, walking with his automatic pilot on, he made it all the way to his room still feeling so confused about the whole thing that, only when he emptied his pockets and placed his mobile phone on his desk, he realised that his mother had just given him permission to skip school and go to the D1 exhibition with the Takahashi brothers.

He then rushed to make a quick phone call, before his two best friends would go to sleep.

The next day, as he woke up an hour earlier than he usually did to go to school, he had a quick shower and went downstairs to get some breakfast before he would leave to go to the Takahashi's.

'Guess what, Oniichan,' Haruko said as she too was up awfully early that morning.

'What?' Akito asked as he buttered himself a piece of toast.

'I'm going to the go-kart circuit with Grandpa!'

'What about school?' he asked his sister.

'Mum said it's okay if I miss it today because we've already done our exams and we're just doing club activities during the weekends,' the almost ten year old girl replied.

'Ah, okay,' Akito said and, had it not been because he was too happy about going to a professional drifting show, he would have got a little more than suspicious about their mother's unusually carefree attitude. In any case, and as he climbed into his car, he pushed that thought to the back of his mind and started focusing on the fabulous techniques he would see that day.

'I still can't believe your mum allowed you to come with us,' Kyosuke said as Akito followed the two brothers towards one of the circuit's entrances.

'Neither can I,' Akito said then, smiling happily, he added, 'it's what my father always says: never argue with any woman because you rarely win the argument.'

'That's too true,' Kyosuke agreed smiling back and the two of them laughed seeing Seisuke's not-quite-so-sure expression.

'You two are too sad,' Seisuke said as he quickened his pace and Akito was going to say something to that when Kyosuke put his hand on the younger man's arm and, whispering, he said:

'Forget it.'

Akito obeyed, mainly because as soon as they took their seats at the main grandstand, he became so absorbed by everything he was seeing that he didn't pay anymore attention to the younger of the Takahashi brothers. Especially after the first cars started coming out of the pit lane and onto the track.

'I should think you'd be used to all of this,' Kyosuke commented seeing Akito's awed face.

'Nah,' Akito replied, 'when I'm racing in the GP2, I never get to see things from the public's perspective: this is great!'

Kyosuke laughed softly and, shaking his head, he said:

'You're so weird.'

'Wow!' Akito exclaimed, 'that's not too bad, is it?' he added pointing at one of the cars, an old Mazda RX-7 FD series, which was drifting its way around one of the circuit's hairpins.

'Dad and Uncle Keisuke can do that with their eyes closed,' Seisuke commented, seemingly unimpressed by the whole thing.

'That's true,' Kyosuke said, 'and let's not talk about what YOUR father could do with his AE86 down there.'

'Or my grandfather,' Akito added and all three of them grinned at one another suddenly wondering if, instead of going to Motegi, it wouldn't have been better to ask the four older men to do a private exhibition for them. Then, as quickly as it had appeared, Seisuke's smile vanished as it was replaced by a deep frown.

'Are you stalking me or what?' he said as he got up from his seat.

Both Akito and Kyosuke looked towards where Seisuke was staring to find Misa walking down the stairs with a couple of cans of Coke, looking as though as she was heading their way.

Misa glared at him and, pointing at a group of people who was sitting nearby, she said:

'Not that it's any of your business but, I'm here with some friends.'

'Yeah, right,' Seisuke said sounding utterly incredulous.

'You're just so full of yourself,' Misa spat and, shaking her long mane off her shoulder, she just walked away from Seisuke making her way to where her friends were sitting down. There, she sat next to some guy who looked a bit older than her and, giving him one of the cans, he smiled at her as she started chatting with him.

'Er…' Akito started as he tried to get Seisuke's attention to focus on him.

'I'm going to get a drink,' Seisuke said and, without asking them whether they wanted anything, he climbed the stairs, taking two steps at a time as though as he couldn't wait to put as much distance between him and the girl as possible.

'Great,' Akito muttered as he sat back down next to Kyosuke.

'I should have imagined she'd be here,' the older guy almost whispered, 'after all, Motegi's only a short drive from Tochigi City and, Misa's a racer so…'

'Hey, it's not your fault,' Akito said, keeping the same low tone of voice, 'what's with Seisuke, anyway? I mean, he said he doesn't want to go out with her so…'

'It is true,' Kyosuke started, 'he doesn't want to date her but that doesn't mean that Seisuke doesn't like her. In fact, he's very attracted to her and that's why he gets so mad at her every time he sees her.'

Akito looked at Kyosuke clearly not having understood a single word of the entire explanation.

'Just forget it,' Kyosuke said then, after chuckling, he added, 'you know, sometimes I think it's a miracle you managed to get a girlfriend at all…'

Akito couldn't debate that for it was true: if it hadn't been because of Ryoko's audacity, he doubted he'd have ever been able to gather enough courage to ask her out.

Meanwhile, back at Shibukawa, Natsuki stood in front of the door of the school's main meeting room, feeling even more anxious than when she saw Akito onboard his GP2 car.

'You'll be fine, just tell them what we've agreed on,' Takumi whispered to his wife as he squeezed her hand in his before letting it go.

She looked at him one last time nodded once and knocked on the door. After getting told to come in, she opened it and stepped into the room leaving Takumi outside.

'Fujiwara-sensei,' the school's old but kind looking headmaster said, gesturing with his hand so she would sit down on a chair placed before the table behind which the ten members of the school's committee were.

'Good morning,' she said, bowing her head briefly before taking a seat.

'It has come to our attention,' the old man said, 'that you kept something about your past hidden from us…'

Natsuki swallowed as she felt her palms get very moist with sweat, the intense anxiety she felt only allowed for her to give a quick nod.

'I see…'

'Fujita-sama,' she started, 'I was only…'

'Do not try to justify that by saying you were young!' Ran Hoshino said with a very harsh tone of voice.

'Hoshino-san,' Fujita said, 'why don't we let Fujiwara-sensei explain to us her version of the facts?'

'After all, that's why she's here,' Imamura-sama, one of the school's most important patrons, said.

'Thank you,' Natsuki said bowing her head once again then, taking another deep breath, she started again:

'When I met Papa…'

'Who?' Hoshino-san asked, interrupting her yet again, probably hoping to confuse Natsuki.

'That's how the man I used to date asked me to call him,' Natsuki explained feeling so embarrassed that she had to fight to stop herself from crying.

'Go ahead,' Imamura-sama said, a deep frown appearing on his refined looking face.

'Well, I was seventeen when I met Papa and he asked me to go and help him pick up a present for his daughter. He said that his girl was my same age and he hoped to get a good present if I gave him some advice.'

Hoshino's highly disapproving snort interrupted her once more but Natsuki, refusing to let the woman's more than annoying attitude to disturb her, she carried on:

'He then said that I was very kind and that he wanted to offer me a meal to repay me for the favour I had done to him. During that first meal he got my phone number and, from there, he started calling me asking me to go to several places with him.'

'And you didn't think all of this was wrong?' Hoshino asked her.

'No,' Natsuki replied honestly, 'I never believed that it was wrong because Papa told me that he was lonely and I liked being with him because, unlike the boys from my age, he talked about very interesting things.'

'Well,' Imamura-sama said, 'I can perfectly see how a middle aged man may have caused some impression on such a young girl.'

'But he paid you to go out with you!' Hoshino exclaimed accusingly.

'Yes,' Natsuki said, 'in a way, he did. He offered me money so I could get myself the things I wanted to buy but, again, he told me that it was just a way for him to express his gratitude for the company I offered him and I believed him.'

'How very convenient,' Hoshino said sarcastically.

'Hoshino-san,' Imamura-sama said, 'I think I've heard enough and, if you excuse me, I don't seriously think this is such a severe matter to require my presence here.'

'Imamura-sama!' Hoshino exclaimed, 'this woman...'

'This woman,' Imamura-sama said, 'was young and very impressionable. It's understandable that she would believe everything this person, who was much older than her, would tell her. Fujiwara-sensei clearly realises that she made a mistake and, in my opinion, there's nothing that prevents her from continuing the excellent job she's done up to now.'

'We're not going to fire her?' Hoshino asked sounding utterly incredulous.

'Well,' Imamura-sama said, 'that's not my decision: it's Fujita-sama's but, as far as I'm concerned, Fujiwara-sensei's a very competent and highly qualified teacher and it'd be a pity to have to do without her.'

'I agree,' Fujita-sama said.

'Me too,' another committee member said and, soon, everyone of the members agreed with the headmaster. Everyone except Hoshino who, looking livid with rage, said:

'Alright, I accept the majority's vote but, I'd like to leave it in written that I disagree with the decision.'

'It will be recorded,' Fujita-sama said pointing at the committee's secretary who was busy writing the meeting's minutes with a laptop.

Five minutes later, an extremely relieved Natsuki let Takumi drive her back home while, at the school's car park, Ran Hoshino was busy talking on the phone to her husband.

'Dear, can you believe this? That Fujiwara-sensei was nothing short of a prostitute when she was at school and they're still going to allow her to carry on teaching here…' the woman said and, she was so engulfed in her own conversation that she failed to notice that someone was eavesdropping on her.

This person got a phone out of his pocket and dialled a number on it:

'Hey, it's me, I hope you haven't sent that article to the editor yet,' he said then, after a short pause, he added, 'great, because I've got us quite a scoop on Fujiwara Akito's family.'

To be continued…