Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Initial D Fan Fiction ❯ Initial D: Anything Goes Drift Racing ❯ The Man From Akina ( Chapter 6 )

Initial D: Mt Furinken. Anything Goes Drift Racing.

Chapter 6: The Man From Akina.

It was Saturday night and Furinken Mountain was crowded as always with eager people waiting to see the next two racers battle it out down the narrow windy mountain road in dangerously fast, completely tricked out cars designed with just one thing in mind, to perform the perfect drift. And as always the short stretch of straight road so near the top of the mountain known to the racers as the Launch Strip and it's accompanying lay-by were packed with these shiny metallic monsters while their owners chatted about techniques and new accessories and their recent favourite item of conversation the newest racer on the mountain, a young man with incredible talent at such a young age and the new Prodigy of Mt Furinken, Ranma Soatome.

There was however a new car sitting among the regulars tonight parked a little back and out of the way as if trying not to be noticed, it was a white RX7 FC style, the only distinguishing mark, to anyone used to sing a drift setup car, was a red and yellow sticker just behind the rear seat windows with a racing team name. Red Suns. The car's owner too was trying not to be noticed too much among the crowd despite the gaggle of girls that had seemed to magically form as he'd appeared and were now following him round whispering and giggling endlessly behind him.

They were of little concern however as Ryosuke Takahashi was far more interested in hearing about this new young racer and his exceptional abilities. Standing on the edge of a conversation he listened carefully to the description of the Kuno Ranma race and the following races he'd won against challengers from the other good teams of the mountain. Ryosuke frowned to himself, could it be he'd found another one like Him? Him of course referred to Takumi Fujiwara the driver of the famed AE86 of Akina. Ryosuke leaned into the conversation for a second,

"Where can I find this Ranma Soatome?" There was a moments silence as the rest of the group looked at each other, they weren't the best on the mountain but they could sense a powerful racer and they smelled a challenge in the air.

"He's with Edy's team, they usually arrive right at the last minute when one of them is racing." One of the group finally replied. This sounded familiar to Ryosuke but he put that aside for a moment.

"Who's racing tonight?" There was a strange hint of hope in his voice as he said this, could he have the luck to whiteness this young man race first hand a chance to gather important data so soon.

"He is, Soatome. Tatchi over their, by the blue S14 challenged him. It's not really a contest though cos Tatchi's not very good," The others laughed at this, "But since this guy showed up everyone's wanted a crack at him. If you can still see him by halfway then you at least got some skill." Ryosuke made a non committal kind of noise and then made to move off before another thought crossed his mind, he turned back to the other racers.

"He is the best racer here then?" The racers shook their heads.

"No, there are at least two who could beat him, one is Mitzuki Hayai over there he races in the pro am leagues and the other is Edy."

"You mean Ranma's Teams leader?"

"Yeah." Ryosuke nodded thoughtfully then opened his mouth to say something else but was cut off by the sound of load highly tuned engines.

"Oh yeah, here it goes." One of the racers shouted over enthusiastically before heading for the rail to watch the arrival. Even without seeing the cars Ryosuke knew they were powerful, more powerful than the 86 with its new engine and even his RX7 when fully tuned but this only heightened his curiosity to use so much power effectively they had to be really good. So he pushed through the crowed to the crash barrier to watch as the four car parade pulled up.

A sleek sexy dark blue NSX lead driven by someone who Ryosuke was startled to see bore a striking resemblance to himself, the second car a dark red 80's style supra it's driver the typical non descript drift racer though he could sense he was no drift kiddie, the third car a white FTO surprised him more that it was driven by a girl and more so one who made his heart skip a beat. He composed himself, the strange mountain air was obviously getting to him, even so he found it hard to move his eyes on to the last car as noticeable as it was, low, streamlined and florescent lime green the S15 of Ranma Soatome who stepped from his now stationary car and approached the man pointed out as Tatchi. He's even younger than Fujiwara, the older Takahashi brother thought to himself.

Meanwhile the launch strip had been cleared and the green S15 and the blue S14 were lined up. Even though he'd never seen them race Ryosuke could already tell who would win, the S15 had the powerful aura of a true racer almost demonic, a monster of the mountain. Sakura acting as race official stood in the centre of the road arms raised and then dropped downwards and the race started. Even by the first corner the S15 had a clear lead and it was obvious the driver wasn't messing around he just wanted to get the race over, he was like Tak, he couldn't turn down a challenge but anyone who couldn't cut it just bored him.

He listened carefully as the screech of tyres and brakes filled the night air and he went over the course in his mind following the S15's progress using the squeals to judge the times. He certainly was very fast and if there were two even faster racers, Ryosuke smiled to himself. A truly great challenge people who actually stood a good chance of defeating the Project D racing team.

Later when the racers had gone and the course was clear he ran the course himself collecting the data and judging the difficulty before giving it one serious run to test his own speed but he could tell that if he or any member of Project D raced straight off against Ranma he would loose. This was going to strategy and careful thinking. Ryosuke felt a chill run down his spine, he hadn't felt this alive since he'd first raced Takumi Fujiwara on the Akina downhill. It wasn't a matter of winning or loosing but proving to yourself that you are who you are and can be nothing more or nothing less, this was going to be fun.