Racing Genius
Disclaimer: I do not own.
Warnings: Nothing.
Authors Note: Do NOT attempt any of the 'stunts' you read of in here. They are all performed by professionals. If you were to attempt such a thing, you'd wind up in major pain, and your car would look like a crushed beer can. xD
A year ago, a young man by the name of Takumi Fujiwara made legend when he defeated Ryosuke Takahashi on that fateful night on Mt. Akina's downhill. After Takumi defeated Ryosuke, he was invited to join Project D, which was run by Ryosuke Takahashi, who saw immense promise in the young Takumi. Takumi joined, and together with Ryosuke and Keisuke (Ryosuke Takahashi's younger brother) they started on their journey to defeat all the street racers in Japan and earn themselves the title of 'the best'. They did that. And they became legends of the street racing world. As they were branding their name into the street racing world, star had begun to shine in the sky at night. A star...called Risa.
"Come on! Pllleeease! I promise I won't scratch it! You promised, remember?" Said a young, pretty 14 year old girl. The person she was pleading with looked up from the magazine he was reading. "Tch. You're too young! You don't even have your driver's license yet. No way, Risa." He said, and went back to reading. "But that's not fair! Come on, Akito!" Said Risa, as she stomped her foot into the ground in anger. Akito, Risa's brother, looked up again. "I'm never gonna hear the end of it if you don't get your way, am I"? He said, with a sigh. Risa grinned like the Cheshire cat. "Oh, you know me so well, big brother." She said, and handed out her hands. "Gimme the keys. I'll be five minutes. Just five. You can time me, if you want." She said, brightly. "Like hell I'm gonna let you go by yourself. I'm coming with you." Akito said, and stood up. He put his magazine on his desk. "Well, come on." He said, and let himself out of his room, with his sister following at his heels. Just then, their father poked his head out of the kitchen. "Where are you going? It's nearly 10 at night." He said. "Out to get some groceries." Akito said, lying. "Okay. Well, be back soon. You need to be at work soon, and your sister needs to be at school early tomorrow." The dad said, and then disappeared back into the kitchen. Both Akito and Risa let themselves out of the house, and to where Akito had parked his car, an RX7. "Keys, please." Risa said, grinning. "Are you kidding? Dad can probably see us! Wait until we're at Mt. Hukosei, at least no one will be out there this time of night." Akito grumbled, and got into the driver's seat while Risa sulked but sat in the passenger seat nonetheless. Both of them put their seatbelts on, and Akito started the engine, and reversed out of the driveway, and together they drove to Mt. Hukosei, which was Akito's home turf, and a place where he currently reigned supreme as the best downhill racer.
At the top of Mt. Hukosei, Risa breathed in the fresh, crisp night air. "I really love it up here. It's like we're at the top of the universe." She said, and fumbled when Akito tossed her the keys and sat in the passenger seat. When she didn't say anything, he shouted, "Do you wanna drive it or not?" Not wasting another second, Risa almost practically dove into the driver's seat, put on her seatbelt and started the engine. Slowly, she reversed and then she made her way to the beginning of the downhill. "Not a bad reverse. Now, take it easy. The downhill gets really hairy, even when you're doing about 60. Don't go over 60. Got it?" Akito said, and Risa smiled. "Yeah, yeah. I got it." She said, and began the slow drive down Mt. Hukosei.
They had been going at a snail's pace for a while now, and Risa was slowly getting bored. This was nothing like how her brother drove. She knew. She had been a passenger many times when he's attacked the downhill at full speed. Through every drift, every turn. She had been there. And she had been watching everything that her brother had done behind the wheel since she was 9 years old. She noted the slight wear on the road, right by the corner to the right. This was it. This was where it was time to put what she had observed to good use. "Hey, bro?" She said. "Hn? What's up?" Akito said, and looked at her, not exactly liking the look of absolute determination on her face. It wasn't something a 14 year old girl looked like. It was the look of a street racer. "You know how you drift?" She asked, and gripped the wheel tighter. "Uh...yeah." He said, getting a horrible feeling in the pit of his gut. "Do you think...that I could do it too? Drift, they way you drift?" Risa said, and Akito began to panic. "Maybe. When you've got your license. Not a moment before. Risa...Risa!" Akito shouted, and Risa grinned. "No time like the present, right?" She said, and paced her foot firmly on the accelerator and Akito felt a slight push in his chest as the RK7 started to kick up speed. "Time to haul ass!" Risa shouted, and slammed her foot on the accelerator even more, bringing up more speed. 'Oh no...no, she's going too fast. The first tricky corner is coming up!' Akito thought, and he felt like being sick when he saw the first corner come into view.
"Risa! Stop! You'll kill us, both!" Akito shouted, and bit his lip, when Risa came roaring up to the left corner. 'Omigod Omigod Omigod. We're gonna die'. Akito thought, and as Risa screeched around the corner, at breakneck speed, something utterly and absolutely unimaginable happened. The car...it drifted around the corner. 'What? The car drifted?' Akito thought, and came back into focus when he realized he wasn't dead. He watched as Risa came to yet another corner. And the car drifted again. Akito looked at his sister's face. Risa was concentrating on the race, the road, the car...and nothing else. And it was then that Akito realized. That it wasn't the car. It was the driver. Risa was drifting. And...And she's good. And then Akito started watching everything she was doing. The way she braked, the way she steered, the way she handled the clutch...and he realized...she was him. Or rather, she was driving like him. Exactly like him. 'She couldn't have...could she? No way, there's no way in hell that someone can pick up this kind of driving skillage with just watching someone! Or...could they?' He thought, and sat in the passenger seat, entranced, as he watched his little sister drift through every corner, every hairpin, until they came to the bottom of Mt. Hukosei.
Risa pulled up to the side of the road and turned off the engine and faced Akito, who was staring at her like she had grown another head. "What's wrong?" She said, with a smile. "How...Did You...With The Car...And The Drifting...!" Akito said, stammering, not being able to say what he wanted to say. "Oh, that...I've seen you do it loads of times before." Risa replied, and took off her seatbelt and got out of the car. Akito did the same. "Now I know why you love it so much. Seeing everything go by you in a blur...it's exhilarating." She said, and with a contented sigh, she leaned against the side of the car. "You mean to say that you learn all that simply by watching what I did?" Akito asked, incredulously. "Yeah..." Risa said, and scratched her head. "But...I bet a lot of people can do it!" She said, smiling. "Um...No, Risa. They can't." Akito said, and looked at her. "Hm? They can't? Why not? I don't get it." Risa said, biting her lip in confusion. Akito shook his head and laughed. "Oh my god. To think that my 14 year old sister is a racing genius. The guys aren't gonna believe this one." He said, chuckling. 'A racing genius? Me? No way.' Risa thought and stormed to the passenger side of the car and got in. She wound down the window. "Now that you've made fun of me, can we go home now?" She said, and wound the window back up and she sat in car in gloomy silence. "But...I wasn't...Oh, whatever." Akito chuckled, got into the driver's seat, and closed the door. He started up the engine and drove away.
TBC.
A/N: I dunno about you, but I liked the original English dub of the anime. The one by funimation is really lacking. I usually like funimation, but they ruined Initial D's dubbing, in my opinion. I also liked the English songs, not the disco Japanese music that is in the new one.