Author's Note:

I've finally updated. Hooray! *throws confetti* Well, my writer's conscience kinda haunted me for not finishing this one.

Actually, this was already half-done but I did not have the energy to finish this since, well, this lacked feedback. Oh well, that's quite understandable. This is not a great story anyway.

Now, enough blabbering! I give you, the conclusion of this three-part story!

Happy reading everyone!

True Heart of A Racer

PART 3

A familiar Panda Trueno car parked its way outside the Fujiwara Tofu Shop. Two familiar figures climbed out the car as soon as the engine died down. The youngest climbed the stairs that led to the shop but stopped on his tracks when he heard his father calling him. He just simply turned his head over his shoulder.

"You don't look all that sleepy now, kid." Bunta teased. "Are you sure you still want to go to sleep? I doubt that you'll have some."

Takumi groaned before he replied, "I'm going to go get some more sleep, Oyaji. I still need it badly." He proceeded to enter the shop.

Bunta chuckled to that. He took out a cigarette and lit it up. "I still insist that you cannot have some sleep this time, kid. You'll be thinking of what had happened earlier all day. Or on second thought, for a very long time."

XXXTRUE HEART OF A RACERXXX

Bunta Fujiwara was just peacefully reading his morning paper at the dining table and was lighting his cigarette when Takumi climbed sleepily down the stairs. This had been supported by yawning widely and rubbing his eyes that had a shadow under it in result of lost of sleep.

"Oyaji, is breakfast ready?" Takumi asked as he approached the dining table.

Bunta looked up from his paper to Takumi and glanced at the clock.

6:30 a.m

He looked back at his son who just sat at the cushion in front of the Japanese style dining table.

"You're very early today, kid, don't you think?"

Takumi nodded. "I just couldn't sleep well after we went back from the deliveries. Maybe because my sleep was disturb. I'm quite starving already."

Bunta smirked. 'Like what I have expected. He's mind is stuck to it no matter how much excuses he makes. I can sense it,' he thought. He ruffled his son's already messy hair. "Whatever you say, kid." He stood up. "Wait here. I made your favorite breakfast today."

Other kids would have sprung up and shouted in excitement after they would hear it but this kid was not the same as them. He just nodded to that without interest and made a very wide yawn once again which made his father chuckle before he headed to the kitchen.

Takumi scratched his head and just like what his father had suspected, he thought about the incident earlier as he went back to bed until now. He still can't get over with everything especially with the ski drift.

Who would have thought that that crazy old man had great skills when it comes to driving in mountains?

He still could not believe everything he had witnessed. He guessed his father was right about him thinking of the incident earlier for maybe a long time. He did not understand why he can't take his mind off of it. Maybe it was because he had experienced something that he had not yet experienced ever before, or maybe he still cannot believe that his crazy father could do such amazing techniques in a mountain, or maybe none of the above that he had not realized yet.

He came back to his senses when his father came back and placed the Little Fujiwara's breakfast in front of him.

He clasped his hands together and exclaimed quite boredly, "Thank you for the food!" and started digging in his breakfast. He just decided that maybe he would figure it out someday since he still could understand a lot of things for he was still just a kid and for now, he just wanted to feed his empty stomach.

Eight years later…

Loud banging onto the door can be heard inside the room of a youth who was still sleeping soundly.

"Hey! Takumi, wake up!"

A figure moved from under the sheets and slowly sat up on his bed while rubbing his eyes off of sleep. Loud banging from the door continued which was irritating the teenager big time. 'Would you now knock it off?' he thought.

"I'm already awake!" he replied in a louder tone than he had intended. He set aside the covers and swung his feet off the bed. He put on his slippers and stood up. He headed for the door and opened it to see his father with an early cigarette in his mouth.

"Get changed quickly," his father commanded, "You woke up a bit later than usual."

Takumi scratched the back of his head absent-mindedly. "Well, I kinda not heard my alarm clock ringing. I was so tired yesterday that my body unconsciously turned off the alarm clock."

Bunta exhaled some smoke before replying, "Well then, that means you have to drive the car a bit faster this time than usual."

"Will that not let the tofu be smashed?" Takumi asked dumbly.

"Not until you spill the water from the cup," Bunta simply answered. "Now, get changed already or you'll be late." Bunta faced his back at Takumi and descended the stairs.

Takumi scratched his head once more and said to himself, "Does he know how hard it is to drive without letting the water spill out from the cup?" He sighed. "I guess I would be having a hard time delivering today," He, then, closed back the door to get changed.

XXXTRUE HEART OF A RACERXXX

Takumi went out of the shop just in time to see his father lighted another cigarette.

"I'm ready to go," he said.

Bunta nodded and tossed the keys to his son. Takumi caught it and walked for the car. He opened the driver's side of the door and climbed in. He placed the keys in the ignition and turned on the engine.

His father crouched to level with the car's window and said, "You'll only have quarter an hour to deliver the tofu all the way to the hotel on the peak of Akina."

Takumi's eyes widened in disbelief. "What?" he blurted out. "But Oyaji, you know that it takes me an hour to deliver the tofu since I'm being very careful not to smash it. If this is the case, why don't you deliver them yourself this time? I might not make it on time."

Bunta simply smirked to that. "You can make it if just push the car a little harder and try not to spill the water inside. Then, you don't have to worry anything about the tofu. That's simple enough isn't it?"

"For you maybe," he mumbled.

Bunta chuckled. He passed the cup filled with more than a quarter of water inside to Takumi, who took it and examined it meticulously.

"And you have added water this time. Are you really making fun of me?" he accused and supported it by glaring at his father who chuckled once more.

"Run along now or your time will run down to forty," his father said, obviously playing with the poor teenager.

Takumi mumbled something like "crazy old man" before he closed the window and headed off.

Bunta followed the car with his eyes while he inhaled smoke from the stick and exhaled it again. 'I know that this will be another challenge for you since you're not that comfortable with driving yet especially controlling the weight of the car in order not to smash the tofu. You've only started driving less than two months but as I can see, you've improved sooner than I had expected.'

He closed his eyes and smiled to himself amusingly. 'You're getting faster each week without you noticing it.' He looked out the distance. 'I know you make out that delivering tofu is something that you do forcefully and you are not very much happy doing it since it interrupts your sleep early in the morning whereas other people still get to sleep very soundly but you cannot hide this fact: not everything that you do right now is to your dislike.

'I'm fully aware, even though you do not admit it, you do love to drive that car up and down in Mount Akina and you're truly happy whenever you discover something new in your driving. You're saying that you're finding ways on how to drive the mountain in the shortest time possible so that you can get back to sleep as soon as possible. But all of these are excuses and you haven't noticed it yet but there will come a time that you'll finally realize why you're doing all these things without anyone telling you to do it. The true heart of a racer in you will bloom before anyone get to realize it.' He smiled once more, quite satisfied of himself, 'Well, that means the very first time we went to the pass and showed him half of my skills still struck him until now.' He gave himself a good stretch before entering back the shop.

XXXTRUE HEART OF A RACERXXX

Takumi counter steered frantically after clearing the fourth hairpin corner since the water inside almost spilled over the boundaries that the cup provided that time. He sighed in complete relief as the water did not spilled which only meant that the tofu were not smashed or damaged in any way.

The teen decided to push the accelerator a bit upon entering the last of the five consecutive uphill hairpin corner, for he thought that he has to drive faster because had used up a lot of time upon entering the four hairpins very slowly, which was the biggest mistake: he steered hard but the car would not completely comply with him, the rear tires skid causing the car to turn at 180 degrees but it did not stopped there, the car was not yet finished for it continued to turn, trying to attempt a 360 degree turn and quickly heading toward the guardrail which freaked every single cell within the teenager.

Thanks to the reflexes that he had earned for less than two months, he literally kicked the brakes and at the same time, pulled up the hand brake and made the car halt abruptly just a few centimeters away from the guardrail and the engine stalled.

Takumi's legs shook violently; his whole body trembled in fear. He stayed like this for a while which was like an eternity before he had recovered again. He glanced at the cup of water in panic then to the matted floor directly below the cup. He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply and released it after a few moments, completely relieved that after the car had spun out of control luckily, no water spilled and once again meant no smashed tofu. It's not that he does not entirely care about his own safety but the safety of the tofu was much important to him this time.

Then it struck him, what was that he had done a while ago? Was that the one that his father had let him see ages ago? Sure, it was not as perfect and précised, especially controlled like what his father had done but it was somehow similar. He then remembered that he still had to do the deliveries. He turned on the engine and accelerated through the corners.

XXXTRUE HEART OF A RACERXXX

He climbed back in the car with a sigh. He just finished handing over the deliveries and he was just right in time.

"Stupid old man," he muttered, crediting all the blame to his father. He obviously did this on purpose! Let me enumerate:

First, even though the old man knew he was not able to wake up, he did not bother to do it for another half an hour.

Second, he demanded him to drive the car faster since he was already behind schedule. He swore he saw a dangerous glint in his father's eyes which meant the whole thing was done on purpose so he could rush him and the old man quite enjoyed seeing his son to be in an anxious state.

Third, the water in the cup was more than usual which just made Takumi confirm his earlier suspicions.

That old man just wanted to see me suffer for his own amusement!

He almost had a heart attack when he lost control with the car at the fifth hairpin. Not only he had worried about his life, he had that stupid tofu to add to his burdens.

Oh well. No one/Nothing was harmed. Yet.

He yawned and he realized he was still quite sleepy. He turned the key in the ignition and the engine roared to life once again. He pulled down the hand brake and turned to gear.

With the current worries gone, all he cared about was to get back on his warm and cozy bed.

XXXTRUE HEART OF A RACERXXX

He was approaching a corner. He wanted to try the inertia drift that his father showed to him before. The cup of water was still there and he wanted to experiment on doing it without letting the water spill. The tofu had already been delivered and he had nothing to worry about in case he failed in his first try.

He took a deep breath. Well, here it goes.

He stepped on the gas further, letting the car go faster. Before he entered the corner, he pressed the brakes and turned to lower gear. Then, he steered to the corner's direction. And as he entered the corner, he counter-steered and he let the car enter the corner by its inertia.

It was a beautiful sight. The tires screeched as the car was drifting smoothly. It was obvious that the one driving it was in complete control. The car exited the corner with no problem.

He looked back at the cup. It looked like no water spilled. A small smile played on his lips in accomplishment.

He was actually quite enjoying it than he thought.

Another bold thought crossed his mind. Why didn't he try the ski drift that his father did before, too? If that crazy old man can do it, he can too. Besides, he had cleared a corner clean with an inertia drift. Anyone would have failed in their first try but not him. The blood that was flowing in his veins was of a true racer. He had the talent for this. A gift from Heaven.

He really wanted to try it but he stopped himself. Who was he fooling? No matter how gifted he was, he was still a beginner no matter what angle you look at. That ski drift that that old man showed was an advanced technique. There's no way he can pull it off without wrecking the car into pieces or worse, ending up falling off the cliff.

Next time, he promised himself. He will practice and when he gets better and ready to do the trick, he will rub it on that arrogant and crazy old man's face.

Before he realized it, his true heart for racing had finally started blooming within him.

FIN

Author's Note:

Thank you reading!

Yes! I've finally finished this after an eternity! This is my second completed Initial D story. I know this is short but I feel so accomplished! Thank you for being a part of this fic!

Now, may I ask you to please review! I really want to know your thoughts, reaction and feedback for this story. I don't mind if it is either praise or constructive criticism. I just want to know how the story was. ^^ Thank you in advance!

And about that inertia drift that I've just described there, I have no idea if it was right. I don't know how to execute one. I just made it all up. *wink wink* Well, if anyone out there knows how, you can PM me so I can correct it. ^^

October 29, 2012