Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Initial D Fan Fiction ❯ Initial D: Anything Goes Drift Racing ❯ Season 2: Chapter 9: Ranma vs Keisuke. ( Chapter 18 )

Initial D: Mt Furinken. Anything Goes Drift Racing.

Season 2: Chapter 9: Ranma vs Keisuke.

"…GO!" Kenta shouted dropping his arms to his sides and starting his stopwatch as he did.

The RX7 and NSX left the line and Ranma felt the wheels spin a little and he realised his mistake. The long air drift and repeated hard cornering for the hairpins had severely warn his tyres even though they were extra strong compound Neji had given him. His car was still faster off the mark and he took the lead going into the narrow straight up to the five hairpins but he could feel the tyres already loosing some traction and he knew it would quickly get worse. He should have raced uphill first, why had Edy said to do the downhill first, by the eight hairpins they would be almost bald for sure.

And then they were into the first hairpin, Ranma felt the car start sliding more easily than usual and he growled with frustration, to avoid spinning he had to hold back on the gas, he was loosing speed on the corners to avoid seriously over steering and spinning out but on the plus side it looked like Keisuke wasn't closing yet. Ranma was surprised by this, he knew he'd lost some speed over his usual corner speed and he'd expected the RX7 to make full use of it but he was staying behind, close but not passing. Ranma wondered if he was just slower or if he had a plan.

In his RX7 Keisuke went over Ryosuke's advice, `his tyres will be badly warn but if you make your move to early he could recover, you saw what happened to Takumi, he can't use whatever technique he used uphill though, so the best plan would be to hold back till the 270 degree corner then make your move. His tyres will be very warn by then and with all his extra horsepower he'll have to be careful going round that steep incline, pass him then and he won't be able to pass you on the straight, and with tyres that warn he'll be slow as hell through the last hairpins to avoid crashing.'

So Keisuke tailed Ranma through the five hairpins though he was still driving practically at his limit, he was impressed how the kid could control the car on such tyres though by the exit of the midpoint hairpin Keisuke realised he could have passed the NSX and had he not remembered his impatience costing him his first race with Takumi he would have passed the NSX but as Ryosuke always said, a badly timed attack can give the opponent time to recover even from a severe shock.

Then the two cars were coming out of the S curves and Ranma prepared for the long upward spiral feeling of the big corner ahead and for once he would have to hold back and even as he climbed below his normal limit he could feel the car sliding across the road as the tyres failed to find proper grip and the yellow FD was passing him on the inside and then into the straight the FD was in front and Ranma felt his stomach lurch. How could he win this now? As the two cars rocketed up the straight nose to tail Ranma once again wondered why Edy had told him to race downhill first when it would so damage his tyres, had he maybe underestimated the Project D racers? His mind flashed back over his previous races for some clue as to how he could still win.

Then suddenly it was there a glimmer of hope like sun shining of a diamond in the distant promising riches for those who could reach it, so Ranma reached for the idea. Racing Mitzuki when he'd first learnt the technique, he'd had crappy tyres on the car and they'd worn very quickly meaning the rest of the race he'd felt the traction slip so easily, Mitzuki too had lost traction easily but he'd used it, so Ranma had copied him in the hairpins, by using the easy loss of traction to start the drifts much much earlier. So he could do the same here, if he judged it right with the wide road of the first and second corners he could enter at normal speed but maintain much higher speed through the corners and the exit. Ranma knew what to do now and as they approached the first of the eight hairpins he let Keisuke pull away slightly and then began his attack.

In his rear view Keisuke watched the NSX drop back a little as they approached the hairpin. He'd won the race, there was no way the NSX could keep up with his skill now. And they were at the corner and though it. He looked in his rear view for the NSX and it was gone. His hart missed a beat. He looked out of the window on the outside line and was greeted with the sight of the NSX drifting passed at incredible speed and already it was spinning almost at the corner and the NSX was now across the road right in front of the RX7 and Keisuke could only watch the out of control NSX and wait for the crash but instead the NSX continued to turn as they entered the corner but the rear wheels were spinning in a high gear, there was some traction and for an instant Keisuke could actually seen in through the front windscreen of the NSX and see the strain and the determination on the young drivers face and then the car was gone, round the corner and Keisuke followed only to see the NSX had spun in the opposite direction and watch it disappear round the next hairpin missing the guard rail front and back by mere millimetres.

Keisuke sighed, he'd lost and he knew it. Ryosuke had been wrong the attack had still been too early, he should have waited till the last possible moment the last two lane hairpin to overtake. `What incredible techniques that kid has.' He thought.

Meanwhile Ranma wrestled with the car, holding it to the road at the very limits of physics using every sense he had to keep that ultra fine balance and then the car was on the straight and across the finish. Ranma pulled the car into the car park and stepped from the vehicle to look at his wheels, only the last scraps of rubber were left and he knew he'd be going nowhere till he put new tyres on, the current ones were destroyed completely. He sighed contentedly, he had won and now he knew why Edy had told him to do the downhill first, the air drift wasn't just designed for the long 270 degree corner, it was designed to win on the eight hairpins to. To destroy the grip enough to allow consecutive inertia drifts for eight hairpins, amazing.

"Ranma Soatome, you have beaten us completely." Ranma jumped, he'd been completely absorbed in his thoughts he hadn't seen the two Takahashi brothers approach. He looked at Ryosuke and suddenly felt almost ashamed he'd won.

"Well they were both pretty close races, if it hadn't been for my technique I probably would have lost." Ryosuke looked past Ranma at the wheels of his car.

"Yes I want to ask you about that, I believed I knew of every technique but I can't imagine how you drifted that long corner or beat Keisuke through the hairpins. Can you tell me."

"Certainly, it's a special technique called the air drift and it was designed just for this course by several people who used to race here. It works by shredding the tyres on purpose to trap air under the wheels and let the car slide across it. It means you loose almost no speed as you drift and with control can perform much longer drifts and by the end of a lot of drifting the tyres loose so much grip you can initiate drifts long before you enter the corner and then shift up gears to regain some grip at the rear to push you round the corner."

"What an incredible and frightening skill you posses. Well racing is about skills and you defeated us with yours on this course. Maybe when we return to race on the main course we will be able to win and maybe sometime you could show me that air drift." Ryosuke held out his hand to Ranma, he shook it.

"Sure, I look forward to another race against you guys, you're really good, the best challenge I've head yet."

"You too. Keep practicing kid." Keisuke said shaking Ranma's hand too. Ranma noticed the 86 driver had appeared too with Neji who it appeared had brought a spare set of tyres of the NSX.

"Edy said you would be needing these, I tell you this guy is fast, there was no way I could keep up." He said pointing to Takumi. "So did you win?" Ranma and the others laughed.

"Yeah. I won." Ranma replied shaking Tak's hand now. Neji face faulted.

"You did, wow. I guess I've gotten real slow. You are getting dangerously good Ran man." Ranma shrugged then turned to the members of Project D.

"So, I'll see you again sometime and we can have a rematch on the main course."

"Definitely" Ryosuke said smiling. "See you around and if you're ever in Akina or Akage look us up, we can have a race on our home courses."

"Will do." Ranma watched the three young men return to their cars and head down the mountain. Neji patted him on the back.

"Like I said, you are getting dangerously fast now, I'd like to see how you'd fair against Mitzuki and Edy now." Ranma nodded.

"Well I guess Mitzuki's my next target and Edy, well if he ever returns to Mt Furinken then I guess well just have to see if student can surpass the master."

"Indeed, now enough with the Starwars guff and help me jack the NSX up so we can get these wheels on else you girl is gonna tear this entire mountain down."

"Ah yes, Akane. I think she's nervous, our parents have been sneaking about and she thinks there organising our wedding again."

"Your wedding, don't you think it's a bit early for that."

"You've never met our parents have you? Whatever they're planning it's probably bad news for me and her. Well once these are on, I'll take her for dinner somewhere, that'll calm her down and anyway I feel like celebrating tonight."

During the race Ranma had remembered how he had nearly lost Akane and how that incident had brought them together and now he knew he really loved her more than anything else, a love he'd never expected but now he couldn't do without and she had told him she felt the same. So there was something Ranma needed to ask her but had been to nervous but now high on his victory and the memory of how they realised their love almost when it was too late, he found the courage he needed and he wanted to do it before that courage left him. So once the wheels were on he sped down the mountain to meet her determined to make the most important decision he'd made yet.