Ch6: SPITFIRE

Kaiya stared out her window lying on her bed with her arms crossed as she waited for night to fall. As a clock ticked on her wall, her door opened up and her mother, Miyuki Shiraki, followed from behind. Kaiya tilted her head ever so slightly down to her, then returned to her original viewpoint to ignore her.

“Your father left for his business trip,” said Miyuki, “Aren’t you gonna say bye to him?”

“Already did,” Kaiya replied coldly. 

“Hey, don’t be like that, he does a lot already,” Miyuki scorned.

“Does this mean you’re coming with me?” Kaiya replied, sitting up from her bed. 

Miyuki just sighed, defeated. She had done everything needed around the house, there’d be no reason to stay at home.

“Where exactly do you want to take me,” she asked, “one of your meets?”

“I just have a feeling I might see something this time,” Kaiya insisted, “You always told me about your racing days, why don’t you show me a little about it?”

“Because I’m not part of that stuff anymore,” Miyuki groaned, “It’s not my place to get into those activities anymore. I’m a mom, Kaiya.”

She looked out of Kaiya’s window to spot a pink Toyota Supra. Her daughter’s car.

“I didn’t think it would matter that much… but now you’ve wasted so much time on this… childish thing.”

Turning to look at Kaiya, upset at the comment she made, Miyuki pressed Kaiya.

“You could be doing something much better with your time, like studying.”

“Are you kidding me?” Kaiya said through gritted teeth, “You used to have a fire in your heart. What about that white car you’ve always been chasing?!”

“It’s been gone for years now,” Miyuki reasoned.

She walked to the door, ready to close it.

“They’re just old stories, there’s nothing else to it.”

Miyuki banged the door shut and Kaiya stood in the middle of her room looking down at the floor.

At the first hairpin of Haruna pass stood Kaiya Shiraki, arms crossed and determined to see for herself the car she had been chasing in her mind. A white car, the same model as hers.

“There they are!” a spectator shouted.

“And the Supra is still holding a firm lead!” another exclaimed.

The atmosphere shifted from a calm silence and murmurs to explosive cheers and screaming as if the Supra’s commanding presence demanded the crowd’s applause. Sure enough, the Supra lunged ahead as the Silvia tried desperately to take the outside lane coming in blazing-hot into the first hairpin out of the five that lay before them. Rina lifted off the gas and swiftly kicked the brakes while twisting the steering wheel as the A80 angled 45 degrees into the turn. Both cars go flying into the curve, as Akira’s Silvia lagged behind from a misjudged calculation, due in part to the pressure the Supra put onto him.

They clear the left-hand hairpin similarly as Kaiya thinks to herself.

Hmm…. that car is quick, but it swung the rear out with so little force.

“Did you see that?!” a young spectator stammered, relaying information to his posse, “That drift was stupid quick for a heavy car!”

Kaiya, overhearing his words, thought to herself again.

‘Drifting’... Is that what they call it now, she contemplated, it looks too simple to mean anything.

As Kaiya stared out towards the direction she last saw the two cars before they disappeared, leaving only the distant echoes of the exhaust notes, she found herself smiling at what she bore witness to.

That’s the car, though. The same ones from Mom’s stories. 

“Whoever’s driving that A80 is nothing like I’ve ever seen before,” the same viewer commented, “He’s good!”

She’ll never see the power of a Shiraki hit her when I make my move. Keep pulling confident tricks, but I won’t be shaken.

The ecstatic viewers made haste as they all ran to chase the cars on foot, as Kaiya turned around and began to make her way out of the small crowd that gathered for the showdown.

Coming out of the fourth hairpin, Akira’s S15 was wearing down from the constant chase; even beginning to struggle to meet the nose of the A80 with more uphill struggles against wheelspin, the grip of his tires losing consistent strength. 

Damn, he grunted, I’ve never had to run this long for most races here!

Sweat poured down his neck as he panted for breaths, beginning to quiver from exhaustion.

I can’t keep up at the rate I’m going, but I gotta lay off the throttle.

He gnashed his teeth as if he were frustrated–deep down an anxiety and looming pressure built, influencing more mistakes as his driving became more reckless. 

But even though I’m panicking here, Akira thought, this is the best rush I’ve ever gotten from another racer–I just wanna keep moving!!

The Silvia and Supra came out of the fifth hairpin at cannonball speeds, taking the left corner after at a suicidal pace, where the road straightened for a short stretch through a gentle push in the right. Coming up was a sharp left, Rina’s Supra slowing down coming into the turn, Akira noticing almost immediately. In a desperate, if not practically instinctive maneuver, he wasted no time on this window to capitalize on the opportunity as he moved up on his opponent’s car and breached the corner from the inside, taking the lead.

“There it is,” he exclaimed, “the finish is coming up soon just past this hairpin!”

He downshifts into a lower gear, gaining a higher rev unbeknownst to him that nearly caused the A80 to overtake him from behind–but on the slightest hint of luck, Rina didn’t seize the moment. 

Rina took a deep breath, waiting for the second to send her car into a swing.

One second…

Two…

At the speed of the wind, she pressed down on the brake, kicking the clutch as she downshifted, gently veering the steering wheel. The Supra nearly circled the Silvia from the outside–which just barely started engaging into the corner with a grip-turn from the inside lane, a near-sideways braking drift executed from the Supra slingshot the Toyota into first once again while all Akira could do was watch his opponent pass on by. Akira stared at the Supra slowly gaining more distance as it full-throttled down the straight road, eyes wide open from the sight he had just beheld. 

It wasn’t long for Akira to snap out of the trance his rival put him into, but nonetheless the presence of the A80 changed subliminally. With no time to waste as the A80 began to fade into the dark of the night accompanied by the glimpses of the taillights trailing behind, Akira slammed onto the gas pedal once again, the wheelspin increasingly becoming stronger in force as though an active force of nature forbid him from pressing. 

Further down the straightaway stood Ayako who had snuck into the crowd at the Shibukawa parking lot and later scaled up the mountain a few kilometers just northwest of the parking area. She had been anticipating to see what her friend was up to at the mountains. As she stood alone in silence, the crickets rehearsed a musical rhapsody within earshot and the cool breeze of Haruna Pass filled the air. 

She sighed to herself as she began to think. 

What are you up to this time… Rina?

Suddenly, it was interrupted by the oncoming unforgettable screams of the 2JZ-GTE and an unknown roar of an SR20DET. 

Why did you decide to return now?

Flashes of headlight hues from yellow to blue sparked in the night silhouette and the moment Ayako blinked they were already just a fair way distanced from her position. 

Another clutch kick and feint drift engaged, and both cars were taking the same line of approach in tandem with one another, Ayako gasping in shock and utter disbelief as the Silvia and Supra aggressively dominated the long right-hand curvature of the mountain formation.

After seven years… Ayako thought, desperately trying to keep her grasp on the reality established before her eyes, I never wanted to believe it would rise again…!

The A80 and S15 alike dashed out of the corner unscathed, a monstrous cloud of dust piling up as the taillights left a mirage, slowly fading along with the settling smoke.

By now, Rina and Akira were approaching the designated finish line set on the road as they followed down a long left curve that bent by a small margin, just ahead came a medium right, the crowd having grown since then cheering alongside both cars speeding side by side, the A80 on the left lane and the S15 on the right. 

Up next came Road 33, a left corner built with only steel gates to the offhanded left lane behind a side path for pedestrians, protecting cars from flying into the ditch. Spectators went ballistic and constantly commented on the potential outcome of the race, some saying the Supra should have lost it a long time ago for its weight, or the Silvia for its supposedly superior engine structure.

“They’re coming!” one of them screamed. Speak of the Devil.

The Supra had lost its lead and was sitting pretty right on the tail of the S15, both cars bolting on the outside for a superior line. 

“What’s the Supra going to do?! It’s just holding back behind Akira!!”

“The Silvia might have the advantage here! If he enters the corner right, it’s over for that A80!”

To everyone’s disbelief, the A80 shifted to the inside lane as it came down to the final few meters before both cars had to act.

“Too slow!” Akira exclaimed, stealing the lane from Rina.

All is according to plan.

Rina smiled as she feinted to the opposite side going full throttle, one final swing of the tail at an absolute velocity when the Supra swiftly passed the Silvia from the outside lane.

“What the–?!” Akira exclaimed, completely taken aback by the maneuver.

With no choice but to slow down, Akira let off the pedal, Rina overcoming the outside and intruding into the inner lane. She completely blocked him from pulling away, as the S15 was forced to bide by her ground rules. Unbeknownst to him, the S15 inched closer and closer to the curbs of the sidewalk, his front left tire barely clearing the turn while the front bumper felt a sudden jolt as specks of debris and hot metal shot from between the two objects.

Akira felt the shunt of G Forces as he slowly let go from a stern press on the gas, realizing the race could not go on without irrationally pushing his car to absolute limitations. As the Supra pulled away, he took a few seconds to process his defeat. 

“Amazing…” he whispered.

A full stop later midway into a right curved-straight, he stepped out of the Silvia,  catching a fresh breath of the night air. He closed his eyes for a short time, opening them up once again towards the stars.

“... Just incredible.”

He circled to the front of the car to inspect the bumper dent. Almost rejuvenated, he looked at Silvia–not with sorrow or anger–but with a smile.

“That was a great run,” he said, “sorry I pushed you so much.”

Wiping sweat from his forehead, Akira exhaled before sitting down, back against the bumper.

This car is great, he thought, I hope I ran it like you wanted to, Dad.

Akira ran this race with all he could, Takeshi thought, but whoever was behind that Supra is on another level… there’s no denying that.

“Did you hear?!” Yuna exclaimed, “That Supra put the beat down on the Silvia!”

Turning to Yuna, he smiled.

“Yeah,” he replied, “that’s one heck of a driver.”

Next to him stood Akiko, who only nodded as she too grinned. Takeshi paced himself to the driver’s seat of his S14, opened the door, and stuck his foot inside. 

“Do you want me to take you to Akira, Ms. Haruyama?” he asked.

Akiko turned to Takeshi, at first she was more than willing to go down and talk to him after the race, but she thought again and replied.

“I’m in no rush,” she said, “I’ll give him time to think.”

She turned and stepped away from the S14, the car coming to life as it purred.

Thank you, Umebayashi, she thought.

While in absolute silence, Akira began to space out until the familiar sound of his opponent’s supra came close. He stood up, wondering what the driver was coming back for. The car stopped just ahead of the Silvia. The driver’s door clicked and slowly opened. One foot after the other, the driver stepped out from behind the cover of the interior. 

“You’ve gotten taller,” said Rina.