Ch5: Don’t Back Down

“W-what are you doing here,” Akira stuttered, “How’d you find me?”

“You can’t hide anything from your mom,” Akiko said. “How have you been?”

Embarrassed, Akira turned his head away, but his eyes could not escape the grasp of his mother’s warm stare. 

“Fine…” he blushed, “What’s your deal?”

“I’m sorry I hid the truth,” Akiko began. “I didn’t try to understand how much this would resonate with you.”

Akira groaned in frustration, scratching his head and staring down at the ground. He looked back up at his mother. 

“Argh, it doesn’t matter!” he said, raising his voice. Rina stared at the two from the driver’s seat, engine turned off, hearing every infliction in their voices. Her hand rests on the car door from inside, ready to swing open at any time. 

“I don’t care what you have to say to stop me,” Akira shouted, “I’m gonna drive this Silvia how it was meant to–even if you’re too stupid to understand that!”

Just as Rina hunched forward, hand on the handle with an audible click coming from the right door, Akiko’s arm swung back towards her direction, palm exposed and fingers spread, stopping Rina before she could intervene. Akiko paused before lowering her arm gently.

“I’m not gonna stop you, Akira,” she said, “There’s more to our history you don’t know.”

Akira’s torso jolted backward, surprised upon hearing the response he hadn’t expected, not from the person who was so vocally against him building the Silvia.

“The driver of this Supra behind me is a Faction Legend,” Akiko announced, “My husband and I used to race when they did.” 

Looking around, Akiko had caught everyone’s attention. She continued to press on.

“One-of-a-kind racers,” she said, “People from before your time who raced the very roads you think you can take on.”

She made a smile on her face as she turned to Akira, “I don’t care if you choose to race them or not. I just want you to be safe if you do.”

Takeshi stole a glance at the cosmetics of this A80 before noticing the hexagonal wheel covers, marked by kanji read as “Dream,” the icon of one in many Faction Legend cars.

“Be careful, okay?”

She walked away from Akira towards the Supra. Still shocked, Akira and Takeshi looked at each other in confusion about the situation. Akiko got into the car again, Rina was also confused by her friend’s decision.

“You aren’t stopping him?” Rina asked.

“No, there’s no point in trying to,” Akiko sighed.

She closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them back directed at her son.

“There’s no way he quits the opportunity I’ve set up for him,” Akiko explained, “Did you see how his friend reacted?”

Akiko’s eyes shifted to Takeshi, who was starstruck. She could see the two of them discussing the terms of the race. Akira nodded to Takeshi, before turning to get into his Silvia.

“Besides, I hardened him up a bit for you now,” she smiled. Akiko took notice and opened the door, walking to the front of the starting line, the S15 backing up and lining up with its foe.

Yuna crossed her arms in amusement.

“I guess we’re the ones watching tonight after all,” she smirked, “This is an opportunity only a few people will get to see today.”

In the A80, Rina thought to herself as she watched her friend from her view, waiting for the confirmation both drivers were ready to go. She could hear the SR20DET revving, the car warm from a practice round, while the Supra remained silent. 

Okay… she sighed, You can do this.

The turn of a key ignited the 2JZ, awakening the Supra from a short nap. A small purr, followed by a low grumble. She pressed down on the gas pedal, warming the engine up as it too began to rev, bouncing between 1500 and 6000 revolutions. Akiko waved her hand up to the sky, holding the position to count off the two machines raring to go.

“Five seconds to start!” she called out.

The mountains fell silent, all eyes on the Silvia and Supra. Akira and Rina kept their attention on Akiko’s hand in the sky, unbroken focus on it until it swung down.

“Go!”

The S15 and A80 skidded off the starting line, the roaring of an SR20 and a 2JZ harmonizing in echoes. Rina’s experience gave her the edge of a quicker launch while Akira spent more time spinning the rear wheels, taking off a fraction of a second after his tires could gain a grip on the asphalt, the slingshot of a stronger torque setup putting him ahead of Rina. 

They were off into the darkness of the mountains, cheering of an ecstatic crowd following from behind. The straightaway gave Akira an advantageous gap as he began to pull away from the reach of the A80. 

Looking behind him through his rearview mirror, the A80 was slowly falling behind. He merely grunted in stern acknowledgment, followed by a perfect shift into the next gear, widening the space between both cars. Coming up on the first corner, a smooth left-hand turn, he let off the gas pedal and kicked down a gear, throwing the weight of the car in a snaking motion as he pressed down on his brakes. The first corner is cleared as it passes by a few crowd members cheering at the Silvia. The Supra rapidly approached the same corner as it unnaturally sped up into the turn, Rina engaging the turn through a lighting quick downshift and clutch kick, barely missing the inside wall while coming alarmingly close to the outside lane on the exit.

“D-did you see that just now,” a spectator stuttered, “the Supra blew by like the turn was nothing!”

“More like it weighs nothing,” another shouted, “how did it engage so seamlessly like it was a featherweight?!”

Both cars were barreling down the hill at the rate they were going, headlights once again flashing in Akira’s mirrors. Having noticed, Akira pressed down on the pedal harder as he bolted through the apex of a soft right turn, following the rapidly approaching right hairpin. He braked a tad too early and held the inside lane, realizing the gap he had just shortened by his mistake. But just then, a continuous flash of orange light peered out from the corner of Akira’s view in his right wing mirror, as he turned his head to see something completely out of nowhere.

What the Hell?! Is that her turn signal?!

Rina had closed the gap by a car width, further exploiting this advantage and swiping from the outside to the inner lane, as Akira’s car could not reasonably compensate for his error and eased to the opposite lane. 

He exclaimed, “What kind of tactic is telegraphing your next move to the opponent?!” 

Meanwhile, Rina thought to herself.

I signaled that a bit too late. Any later, and he might have not known to swerve outside. 

She sighed, Akiko would have been mad if anything happened to her little boy…

By now, the two were coming up on a chicane that motioned from left to right, followed by an aggressive left hairpin corner. Coming out of the corner, Rina began to overthink, letting entirely go off the steering wheel into the hairpin curve.

Frightened, Rina began to curse herself.

Oh God! I could have hurt him!

In an attempt to shake herself out of her own fabricated scare, she continuously slapped her cheeks with the palms of her hands.

Get a grip, Umebayashi! You’re doing this for your friend!

With smacks to her face fueled by great determination, she finally talked herself out of her own complex.

 That’s right! It’s time to get to it, she affirmed herself, for Akiko!!

By sheer miracle, the Supra had not collided with the guardrails as it continued to accelerate at blistering speeds, quicker than what was on display at the starting line. The Silvia fell behind for a brief moment before the advantageous horsepower output caught Akira up nearly instantaneously. The two dashed through a sharp right-hander down the straight to come after, another right-hand turn which hid an upcoming right hairpin. Both cars engaged the brakes in synchronous motion, the S15 slowing just a tad bit later to narrow the distance between the two, as they took the corner. The Silvia braked too late, costing him a larger pull-away by the Supra which smoothly took the outer lane drift. Pressing onto the accelerator, Akira attempted to take advantage of this but failed and slid out to the left, tailing even further behind the A80. 

Grinding his teeth, Akira relentlessly jerked his right arm to the left, fighting the weight of his S15 to reposition himself. The tail end swung to the right as the two cars crossed lanes to the right, following a left-hand hairpin curve. On the exit, both vehicles were nearly redlining the speedometer until the road straightened out and Rina upshifted, making a grand push ahead while in pole position. 

Despite the A80’s attempt to hold the lead, the speed of the Silvia managed to give Akira the lead once more, cheers from the crowd on the side erupted, with no room to calm down from the adrenaline rush. The second Sector-designee called in on Takeshi’s phone, barely containing their excitement.

“I can hear both of them! They’re coming up to the skating rink–”

Before he could finish his sentence, he noticed rapid glints of light seeping through the forest as the Supra emerged from the darkness, its beams hugged the guardrails as it continued to bolt to the checkpoint, glued to the rear of the S15. 

“The Supra is keeping up with a blistering top speed!” The designee screamed, “Akira’s Silvia can’t shake it!!”

Takeshi meanwhile is shocked and at a loss of words, unable to utter a single word as Akiko watched him from a distance where the Counter Steer team stood in shock, some members so shaken up they couldn’t stand still. Akiko just continued to stand with no reaction. 

The endless praise of the crowd followed for a long stretch of road leading into a gentle curve to the left, masking a shunt-left corner anyone blind to the roads would fall victim to. At the bottom of the soft-hander, the dangerous curvature reared its teeth as Akira took the corner from the middle of both oncoming and incoming lanes, still unaccustomed to the severity of the corner. His braking, while harsh, saved him from a nasty collision as he cleared the corner all the same as Rina would, a feint maneuver from right to left, attacking the turn at a near-sideways angle, the momentum nearly shoved the A80 into the rails. 

“What the Hell is up with this guy?!” he exclaimed, “Does this driver have a deathwish or something?”

The corners eased up after the previous, a sequence of a medium left followed by a snaking left to right to left, with a generously wide left curve. As the two doubled down on the right hairpin to come after, Akira thought to himself again about the nature of this driver he never saw the face of.

This is what my mom raced against back then…? It’s so quick for a fat-glorified muscle car!

The two cars approached a semi-high-speed straight with blemishing curves left and right, but the road widened at the entrance window, leaving grand room for small mistakes in the lines racers took. 

He’s really trying his best to keep up, Rina thought to herself, The Silvia definitely has the horsepower to get by,

On cue, the S15 inched close to the A80, just barely able to get ahead by the nose. 

… just like that, Rina continued, but he didn’t know where to brake on this course… how much practice did he get?

With the both of them coming up to a sharp hairpin left, Rina buzzed by with zero issue, the S15 on the other hand suffering from a lack of racing line optimization as she initially observed. 

Following these soft turns is the consecutive set of hairpins, she thought, after that comes a gentle curve… and then the outlier hairpin, just slightly bent out of the traditional shape. I hope Akira will be ready for it.

The Supra and Silvia, locked in fierce battle, bulleted out of a medium left, darting to the soft right which beyond it hid the five consecutive hairpins.