Programmed Lives – Fifth Stage

Chapter Twenty Three

A week later, Akito was circling the last of the answers of an absurdly difficult grammar test when he heard the teacher's voice announcing that the time was up. Akito, like the rest of his classmates, got up to hand in the paper and as he placed it onto the teacher's desk the old woman looked at him offering him a kind smile:

'Fujiwara, I'm happy to see you've managed to answer every one of the questions.'

'Er…' Akito started not really knowing if his teacher was paying him a compliment or she was simply making fun of him in front of the whole class.

'Considering all the absences you've done this year I think you've done pretty well during the exams,' the teacher explained making things a lot clearer to the eighteen year old.

'Thank you,' Akito said giving her a curt nod. He then went back to his desk and picked up his school bag to leave, for the last time ever, his classroom. School, at long last, was finally over.

Five minutes later, he walked out of the building and towards the car park so he could get into his beloved V-86 when he noticed a couple of boys reading some magazine. The two of them saw Akito, did a double take and then they started whispering to each other furiously.

Akito shook his head as he climbed into his car for, every time more, he was slowly getting used to being recognised. After all, he was becoming quite famous, especially amongst the people who actively followed motorsports.

Starting his car's engine, he drove out of the school's car park and onto the road so he could go to the Takahashi's where, he hoped, he would be able to spend some time alone with his girlfriend.

'Hey man,' Seisuke said opening the door for him, 'you're okay?' he added looking incomprehensibly worried.

'Y-yes,' Akito stammered, 'shouldn't I be?' he asked frowning at his friend who, for some strange reason and for the first time ever, seemed as though as he was reluctant to say whatever he had in his mind.

'Er…' Seisuke started, 'I think you better come in.'

Akito followed the younger of the two Takahashi brothers inside the house feeling more confused than ever and in the huge living room the two families shared, he saw Kyosuke and Ryoko sitting there. Akito had the distinct impression that the two of them had just been talking about him for, the minute he stepped into the room, they both looked at him sporting equally guilty expressions.

'Hey, what's up?' Akito asked as he sat down next to his girlfriend.

'Er…' the girl started, 'you…'

'Guys,' Kyosuke said, interrupting his cousin, 'I've already told you: it's probably a whole bunch of rubbish.'

'Hello?' Akito said now getting rather annoyed, 'can anyone tell me what's going on?'

'Er…' Ryoko started again, 'I take you haven't seen this, have you?' she added handing him a magazine which, by the looks of its cover, it was the same the two boys from his school had been reading. Akito took the magazine in his hands being careful to keep it in the page Ryoko had opened for him.

There, written in huge letters, Akito saw something that made him widen his eyes as far as they could go:

'GP2 DRIVER FUJIWARA AKITO'S ADOPTIVE MOTHER AND HER PAST AS ENJO KOSAI'

It took him just a few minutes to scan the whole article and to realise that the journalist had not mentioned a single thing of what he'd said during the interview. Instead of that, the guy had written almost exclusively about his adoptive mother's past as a paid-date girl citing some 'reliable source' whose identity had been concealed in order to preserve the source's privacy.

The article went on with the dramatic circumstances in which Akito's biological mother, famous pop singer Minami Yoshimura, had died and how this tragedy had made her husband, genius driver Fujiwara Takumi, retire from professional racing. By the time Akito finished reading the article he started feeling quite sick.

'This is just bullshit,' Seisuke said snatching the magazine out of Akito's hands and throwing it angrily on the floor.

'Akito…' Ryoko started placing her hand on Akito's knee. He then looked at her for an instant, got up from the sofa and said:

'Excuse me…'

'Akito, where are going?' Kyosuke asked, getting up too.

'Home,' Akito replied as he walked out of the room.

Then, all three Takahashi looked at one another and, without exchanging a single word, they all got up and followed the eighteen year old out of their house.

'Hold on,' Ryoko said as she climbed into the V-86's passenger's seat.

'What are you…' Akito started

'We're coming with you,' Ryoko interrupted him as she fastened her seatbelt, indicating with her tone of voice that he didn't have any say in the matter.

Nodding once, he started the Toyota's engine and drove out of the Takahashi's lane with both RZ-1s going after him and, not even twenty minutes after leaving the Takahashi residence, Akito, Kyosuke and Seisuke parked their cars outside the Fujiwara's home and, as they walked towards the entrance, they saw a very distraught Natsuki stepping out of the house.

'Mum,' Akito said, 'what's wrong?'

Natsuki looked at him and frowning, she looked as though as she was about to burst into tears.

'Mum?' Akito repeated, raising the tone of his voice.

'Akito,' he then heard Takumi said as he, too, was leaving the house.

'Dad, what's going on?' Akito asked.

'We're going to get your sister at the ice rink,' Takumi explained, 'you stay here and wait for us: we need to talk…'

'Mum, Dad, does this have anything to do with the article?' Akito asked no longer hiding the anxiety he was feeling.

'Akito,' Takumi said, 'stay home, we'll talk about this later.'

With that, both Takumi and Natsuki climbed into the latter's light yellow Nissan Micra then, Takumi turned the car's engine on and drove off leaving Akito and the three Takahashi behind.

'Aki…' Ryoko started.

'Let's go inside,' the young man said and, without waiting for anyone, he started walking towards the still open front door. The two brothers exchanged a worried look with their cousin before following their friend into the house's living room.

The four of them sat in complete silence for a few minutes until, probably getting tired of the awkwardness of the situation, Kyosuke said:

'Your father probably wants to discuss with you guys what you're going to do against that bastard of a journalist…'

'No,' Akito said shaking his head, 'I think that what's written in the article is all true…'

'WHAT?' Seisuke exclaimed, 'You can't poss…'

'Guys,' Akito insisted, 'I think I know my parents well enough and the way Mum looked earlier on…well…'

'But…' Ryoko started.

'You know what upsets me the most?' Akito asked looking at her.

'No,' she replied shaking her head briefly.

'Why did the journalist have to mention that she's only my adoptive mother?' he asked and all three Takahashi looked taken aback by this entirely unexpected question, 'I mean,' Akito continued, 'I know she's not my biological mother but…I just…'

'Baby…' Ryoko said, taking Akito's right hand in both of hers, he looked at her and she was shocked to see the amount of pain in her boyfriend's eyes.

'All these years,' Akito explained, 'it's been very easy for all four of us to pretend that she was my real mother, mainly because not many people knew that she's not. Now the whole nation knows and…I don't know…'

'Hey,' Kyosuke said, 'I don't know you but, as far as I'm concerned, she's your mother, she's always been there for you, hasn't she?'

'Yes and that's the whole point,' Akito replied, 'even if my biological mother was my father's first wife, I've always considered Natsuki as my mother and it pisses me off to see how she's treated as if she were some sort of second-class parent just because she adopted me rather than giving birth to me…'

Ryoko kept staring at her boyfriend amazed to see how the young man didn't seem to be concerned in the slightest about his mother's dubious past. If she had always thought that Akito was a really special person, she had just received a very tangible confirmation of this fact.

'I think I'm going to make some tea,' Ryoko announced releasing Akito's hand and getting up from the sofa.

'Okay,' Akito said looking up at her.

'Green, no sugar, right?' Ryoko asked giving him a small smile.

'Yes please,' Akito replied without returning the smile.

'I'll have…' Seisuke started.

'Black tea, one sugar,' Ryoko interrupted then, looking at Kyosuke, she added, 'and for you just a glass of water…'

Without waiting for their answers, she walked out of the room making her way into the Fujiwara's kitchen which, by now, the girl knew almost as well as the kitchen in the Takahashi residence.

'She knows us too well,' Seisuke commented making the other two young men nod to that and Akito was going to add something when they heard the front door open and the rest of Akito's family coming into the house. An instant later, the three of them saw Akito's parents entering the room followed by Akito's almost ten year old sister. The girl's very serious expression made Akito worried.

'Hey,' he started but Haruko walked past him and sat down on the huge pillow the little girl always used to sit in front of the TV.

'We'll just go,' Kyosuke said as he and Seisuke motioned to get up.

'No,' Takumi said, 'you can stay.'

Both brothers sat back down next to Akito as Takumi and his wife did the same on the two armchairs. Ryoko entered the room at that precise moment carrying a tray with three cups of tea and a glass of water.

'Oh,' she gasped and, leaving the tray on the table, she said 'I'll go and make some more tea.'

She then hurried back out of the room.

'Mum, Dad,' Akito started, getting up from the sofa and turning round so he could be face to face with both his parents, 'I don't care about what Mum did when she was younger.'

'Son,' Takumi started, 'I…'

'Dad,' Akito interrupted him, raising his tone of voice just a tiny bit, 'I really don't care about that and, I don't think Haruko does either, do you?' he asked looking at his sister who started shaking her head promptly, 'see?' he continued.

'But…' Natsuki started.

'Mum, I seriously don't care,' Akito insisted, 'I just…' he said but then he interrupted himself seeing his mother's eyes getting alarmingly shiny, 'Mum…'

Not caring about the fact that his two best friends where there, Akito crouched next to his mother and, hugging her, he said:

'Mum, please…'

'Akito, Haruko,' Takumi said, 'are you two sure you don't mind?'

'No,' both siblings replied at the same time then, Akito pulled himself away from his mother, got back up and said, 'besides, right now we've got a much bigger problem: they're going to flip over this at the school and let's not speak about how Tanaka-san is going to react to this news.'

'I've already spoken to your team manager,' Takumi said, 'he's got his press officer writing a press release denying the contents of the whole article as we speak.'

'Okay, then we only have the problem with your job,' Akito said talking to his mother.

'They already knew about this and she had to speak before the school's committee,' Takumi explained making Akito frown.

'What did they say?' he asked.

'They voted for your mother to carry on working as usual,' Takumi replied, 'however, this was before the article was published and now, I don't know if they'll be so willing to ignore the scandal.'

'Like I said,' Akito commented, 'the only problem we have is Mum's job.'

'No,' Takumi said, 'that problem is your mother and mine's and we'll take care of it. You, on the other hand, have to worry about this coming weekend's race.'

'I forgot about that,' Akito said for he had actually managed to forget about the GP2 race that would be held in Suzuka in less than a week's time.

'Lucky you,' Ryoko commented sarcastically as she stood leaning against the living room's doorframe.

By the time the day of the race finally arrived, Akito had been running away from journalists and people who were just curious to ask him all sorts of questions for so long that, as he sat inside the PIAA-Tanaka's team motorhome, getting ready for the race he'd be starting in fourth position in the grid, he freaked out when he heard someone knocking on the door.

'It's us,' he heard Kyosuke say.

'Come in,' Akito replied feeling relieved to see his two best friends entering the motorhome.

'Hello there,' Seisuke said taking a seat next to Akito's black and white helmet.

'How are you doing?' Kyosuke asked deciding to remain standing up.

'Not too well, I'm so grateful you guys are here with me,' Akito commented in all honesty.

'Yeah, well,' Kyosuke said, 'we wouldn't have missed your first home race in any case but, with all that's been happening recently and since Ryoko couldn't come herself, we thought you'd need the extra support.'

'I do,' Akito admitted for, even if he didn't want to admit it in front of his parents, he was quite scared about the way the press was reacting to the whole thing: not even the PIAA-Tanaka's highly experienced press officer had been able to convince the journalists about the falsity of the article and the poor woman had been rushed off her feet trying to keep them away from their number one driver.

The result had been that Akito had had to literally hide during the whole time he wasn't inside his car for he found it rather disturbing the way they kept asking him about his biological mother. One of them had even had the guts to ask him if he listened to Mina-chan's old CD's. Akito had never felt any more disgusted in his whole life.

'Hey,' Takumi said entering the motorhome, 'are you ready?'

'Almost,' Akito replied as, taking his helmet and his gloves, he checked he had everything he needed.

'Put your helmet on,' Takumi advised.

'Yeah,' Kyosuke said, 'that's a good idea.'

Takumi held Akito's helmet while his son put on the fireproof balaclava and ensured that the whole suit was sealed properly then, taking his helmet back from Takumi, he put it on.

'Let me see,' Takumi said checking that the straps were properly tied up, 'okay,' he said, 'now we only need this,' he added as he took Akito's HANS device.

'You don't want me to put that on too, do you?' Akito asked with his voice sounding muffled because of the helmet.

'No, don't be silly. Now, let's go,' Takumi said and, they had only managed to make it half way to Akito's team's boxes when the eighteen year old stopped and said:

'Shoot, I left my phone in the motorhome!'

'So?' Takumi asked.

'Ryoko,' Akito replied, 'you know I always call her before the race.'

'Alright, I'll go and get it,' Takumi said but, just as he was about to go back on his footsteps, they saw three journalists making their way towards Akito, 'on second thoughts,' Takumi added, 'let's just get you to the boxes.'

Akito agreed with that for he really didn't want to see anymore journalists if he could help it but, even so, he still felt rather uneasy about not being able to speak to his girlfriend before he climbed into his car.

'She'll understand,' Kyosuke told him probably reading the worried expression in Akito's eyes and, as usual, nailing the younger man's thoughts with pinpoint precision.

'Yeah,' Akito said trying to nod even if it was difficult to do so with his helmet on.

Finally, they arrived at the boxes where, thankfully enough, the team's mechanics had already finished getting the car ready so, the minute Akito stepped into the garage, he went straight into the car.

'How's he doing?' Tanaka-san, the team's manager, asked Takumi.

'He's alright,' Takumi replied.

'Good. This is a very important race and I'd like to get a good result,' Tanaka-san explained, 'Fujiwara-san, you know our main sponsor's a Japanese company and they'd like to see your son back on the podium.'

'I know,' Takumi said.

Half an hour later, and as semaphore turned green, all twenty six cars took off with Akito holding steadily on to his four place as he cleared the first of the tight corners the Suzuka circuit was famous for.

'This is great!' Seisuke exclaimed enthusiastically, 'we should watch Akito's races from the circuit more often.'

'Yeah, we should,' Kyosuke agreed while thinking of poor Ryoko who right now was watching the race in their house with the rest of the Takahashi family.

'Guys, come here,' Takumi said talking to Ryosuke's sons and pointing at a screen from which they could all watch Akito's progressions, together with several figures representing the car's current speed, gear and a diagram with the brake/throttle ratio.

Ten laps later, and with Akito already in third position, he was driving along one of the circuit's main straights going as fast as his car's engine could go when the car in front of him seemed to lose a part of its front wing.

This would have probably meant nothing to Akito, had he been fully concentrated on the race but, being as he was not, the eighteen year old failed to dodge the piece of debris which laid in the middle of the track and, as he drove over it, he punctured one of his rear tyres.

What Takumi, Kyosuke and Seisuke saw next would remain engraved into their minds for the rest of their lives as they watched Akito's car lifting off the tarmac, crashing back down and capsizing several times until, after what seemed like an eternity, what little was left of the car came to a stop crashing one last time against the circuit's outer wall.

Takumi felt that his heart stopped when he saw that his son didn't even try to get out of the semi-destroyed cockpit. Instead, Akito sat inside it looking completely inert.

To be continued…