Chapter Ten: Showtime

"Ryosuke!"

Keisuke didn't even bother knocking as he barged into his brother's room, a piece of paper in his hand.

"What the hell is this?! Are you out of your mind?"

Keisuke slammed the sheet of paper down in front of his brother, who now looked up at his rather angry younger brother.

"You are injured, Keisuke, you can't race with a sprained wrist."

"That's not to damn point and you know it! I'm not-"

Ryosuke cut him off, "we need to find someone else to do the uphill run, Keisuke. Trust me, I know what I'm doing."

The remainder of the week had passed by quickly since that night, Eric splitting his time between working on tuning the 86 to a point where both it and Takumi could handle the new engine, some freakish engine from the now-defunct Touring A class rally engines Toyota put out a year or so back, he couldn't remember exactly, and taking his newly revamped RX-7 for laps up and down Mt. Akina. Just being behind the wheel of it again gave him chills all over. He'd take it up during the day, just to get a feel for how it felt to not only drive a second new car in the span of two months, but for what exactly Bunta and Masashi did to his machine.

"It's much more responsive than it used to be, and the new pedals, steering wheel, transmission, and shifting paddles don't hurt either."

Eric raced down Akina, going faster than the posted speed limit but not really noticing. He slowed once he hit the main streets and made his way to the Green Shopping District, parking on the side of the Fujiwara Tofu Shop.

"Hello? Anyone here?"

Bunta came out of the back, cigarette hanging from in-between his lips.

"How's the car?"

"Oh man, it rides like a dream; it's even better than when I had it tuned. Now I know why they call you the Legendary Technician of Akina."

Bunta chuckled, taking a drag from his cigarette and exhaling.

"I haven't been called that in ages. I don't race 'em anymore, I just tune 'em."

"That's my line," Eric said, looking at Bunta for a second before speaking again, "mind if I ask you something?"

"Shoot."

"If someone came along who was good enough, talented enough and had the chops, would you take Akina's downhill one more time?"

Bunta took a long drag off his cigarette, holding the smoke for a second before exhaling through his nose.

"Bunta?"

"Yeah, I would. Just once more and only once more."

"So, it really never leaves you, huh?"

"Hmmm?"

"Once you race, it's in you forever, isn't it? Like some kind of inescapable destiny."

"Never really thought about destiny, but yeah, once you race, you never let it go completely."

Eric leaned against the wall of the shop and let it sink in.

"You going over to Akagi tonight for the time attack?"

"I've been thinking about it. I probably will, I guess."

"Takumi going with you?"

"Not sure really. After the 86 blowing, I'm not sure if he's ready to be around Kyoichi, much less team Emperor. I'll ask him when he gets in."

Bunta muttered an affirmative response and took another drag off his cigarette before walking back behind the counter.

"Feel free to kill some time watching television, Takumi should be home soon."

Eric did just that, taking some time to relax before tonight. A few hours later, Takumi walked in the door.

"Hey Takumi, how's it going?"

"I'm ok; the car is still giving me problems. Even with the bucket seats, improved suspension and transmission, I still can't get it under control. I just can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. I'm driving like I used to, but it's not working anymore. I've tried everything I know but the car still won't respond to me."

"Maybe it's time to try something you don't know."

Takumi thought about this while Eric stood up, grabbing his keys and wallet.

"I'm heading up to Akagi to watch the RedSuns battle with team Emperor, you coming with?"

"Nah, I really don't feel like being around any races right now."

"Fair enough, I'll tell the rest of the SpeedStars you said hi."

Eric grabbed his keys and headed out, hopping into his car and starting off towards Akagi.

The Lancer Evolution IV came to a stop just past the finish line on Akagi, Seiji Iwaki stepping out of the driver's side.

"That's gotta be the fastest run you've had this week."

Seiji smirked, "yeah, and I'm not even trying. In an hour, Keisuke Takahashi is gonna wish we never left Irohazaka."

"Don't overestimate Keisuke Takahashi; he's almost as tough as his brother."

Seiji turned around to see Kyoichi Sudoh.

"C'mon Kyoichi, he lost to the 86 that you beat, how good can he be?"

"Good enough to beat you if you don't keep your head on straight this time, remember what happened when you faced the 86?"

Seiji remembered all too well. Kyoichi had told him to use Simulation Three, wherein the Emperor member purposely trails the opponent to learn his tricks, then shoots past him and leaves them choking on the exhaust of the Lancer. Simulation Three is meant for only the toughest opponents and Seiji sorely misjudged the 86 and Takumi's abilities. Seiji lost and Kyoichi rode him for it.

"You don't have to keep reminding me. I'm not gonna screw this one up."

"You better not, or our whole plan for conquering Gunma is shot to hell, just like your rep will be."

Seiji tensed as Kyoichi walked past him and into his Lancer Evolution III and started off towards the starting line, Seiji following soon after.

Eric reached the bottom of Akagi around nine at night and already people had started to gather, including Itsuki, Kouichirou and Kenji.

"Hey, Eric!"

Eric looked over and saw the three main members of the SpeedStars walking over to him.

"Here for the big battle, huh?"

"Yep, I want to see the guy who smoked Takumi for myself."

"Speaking of Takumi," Itsuki said, looking around, "where is he?"

"He said to say hi, but he didn't want to come; still not really wanting to be around racing, y'know?"

They all nodded.

"I can't blame him," Kouichirou said, "not only losing, but blowing the engine on your car really sucks. How's work on the 86 coming?"

"Slowly, I think now its more Takumi that it is the 86, he just can't get a feel for the new engine."

They conversed for a while longer, more and more people showing up until they heard what sounded like a popping noise.

"What is that," Itsuki asked.

"Not sure Itsuki, maybe someone driving a clunker up here," Kenji said.

"Maybe someone had a blowout," Kouichirou suggested.

"It's a misfiring system. Most WRC cars have it to make up for their lack of speed in shifting in the lower gears, and the only WRC cars I know of that have misfiring systems are Lancers."

As if on cue, sets of headlights could be seen coming towards them fast. The front car was black in color, the second was white.

"They're here."

A whole line of Lancers pulled up and over to the side, the black one turning and lining up. The black one, an Evo III from what Eric could tell, had its driver side door open.

"That black one, the Evo III, is the one that beat Takumi. The guy is Kyoichi Sudoh, leader of team Emperor."

Eric nodded to Kouichirou as Kyoichi stepped out, blonde hair held in by a white bandana, brown eyes scanning around. The one driving the white Evo VI came out, looking around with a smoke in-between his lips.

"So where's my victim?"

Eric couldn't help but stare at Kyoichi. He was damn sure a good driver, he could tell that much. It was no surprise that he was the one to take Takumi out. Eric slowly glanced about before there came an audible gasp from the crowd and heads turned, Eric joining them.

"Keisuke can't make the uphill run!"

Sure enough, Keisuke and Ryosuke walked into view, Keisuke with his arm in a sling and a very dour look on his face. Seiji laughed, arms folded across his chest.

"Ha! Looks like the RedSuns have to forfeit even before they race!"

"No, we just need to find someone else to do the uphill run," Ryosuke spoke, looking around. His eyes stopped once they landed on an all too familiar black RX-7 and an all too familiar racer.

"Eric Shields, Japan was the last place I'd have expected to see you. I see you've got your RX-7 back."

Eric nodded.

"Yeah, can't take the credit for it though. What happened to Keisuke? I was looking forward to seeing him race the Evo."

"He sprained his wrist early yesterday. As you can see, the timing is horrible."

"No kidding, who's gonna do the run?"

There was a pause, the wind kicking up and ruffling both Eric and Ryosuke's hair.

"You."

Eric's eyes widened before letting out a long laugh.

"Me? I'm going to do the uphill run? Are you crazed? I don't race anymore. What part of that don't you understand?"

"Even after seeing the tape and the oil slick?"

Eric smirked, "so that was you who had the tape sent to me."

"I had a hand in it, yes."

"Why?"

"Because I'd hate to see talent like yours go to waste over a freak accident. In my years of racing there are only three people I've known who have the chops to beat me, one is my brother, the second is Takumi and the third…..you."

Ryosuke dipped his hand into his pocket and came out with a RedSuns sticker.

"Race with us and I can teach you things about your car and racing style you'd never even dream of."

Eric took the sticker and looked at it for a moment.

"You want me to ride with the RedSuns."

Ryosuke only stood there, staring at Eric.

Seiji spoke up enough so that both Ryosuke and Eric could hear.

"What? If the kid is too scared to race a real machine, let him stay there!"

Eric's mind was flooded with memories of his days as a racer.

"At least you lost to the best of them."

"C'mon! The kid doesn't even look old enough to have his license!"

"A street racer never forgets, just loses his edge."

"He couldn't hang with a real machine!"

"You ever think maybe it wasn't your fault?"

"Let's get this started!"

"It really was an oil slick, Eric."

"He couldn't possibly beat me," Seiji was leaning non-chalantly on the hood of Eric's car.

The next voice Eric heard was his father's.

"It's cool, son. You know I'd want a quarter-mile strip of road over here any day of the week, just take his ass down."

"With such an inferior machine," he patted the hood of Eric's RX as if to emphasize his point.

The next voice was his own.

"Showtime."

Eric slowly looked up at Seiji, who was practically hovering over him.

"What did you call my car?"

Seiji scoffed, "I called it inferior."

"That's what I thought you said."

Eric dipped into his pocket and fished out his crumpled racing gloves, putting them on finger by finger and strapping them onto his hand. He then lowered his arm, and slugged Seiji right in the jaw.

"Point of advice, never insult my machine."

Seiji held his chin as Eric walked over to the right rear wheel, peeling the back off the RedSuns sticker and slapping it on over the wheel, turning back to face Ryosuke and Seiji with a fire in his eyes that had been building up for two years.

"You want a driver for the uphill, Takahashi? You got one!"

Itsuki spoke up at this point, sounding about as confused as the rest of the SpeedStars looked.

"Eric, how do you know Ryosuke?"

Eric turned to face the three SpeedStars, his eyes bright with desire.

"I was that American who wrecked on this same course two years ago," he cast his gaze over at both Ryosuke and Seiji, "I've got a few fears to kill."

Eric turned to Seiji and pointed at him.

"You. Get the fuck in your fancy little Evo, I'm about to smoke you from here to Tokyo."

Ryosuke and Keisuke left right after Eric had climbed into his RX-7, leaving all of the SpeedStars mouths agape. Ryosuke stopped at turn 45, the most crucial corner on the mountain in the uphill. He climbed out, along with Keisuke, who took the sling off and tossed it onto the passenger seat, flexing his wrists and arms as he did so.

"I could have won even if I really was injured, Ryosuke, you know that."

"I know, Keisuke. You'll get your chance once this race is over. Eric doesn't represent Gunma. Once he beats Seiji, Seiji'll line up against you. But he needs to be tested before I can continue. I need to know if my suspicions are correct."

"You're really serious about wanting him to join you and me on Project D, huh?"

Ryosuke only stood there, silently staring out at the race course.

"All we can do now is wait."