Ch1: Conquest

Rina lay in bed as the direct sunlight of an early morning continued to press on the back of her grey hair. Still, she chooses to sleep the bright morning away, drool running off the edge of her cheek that is pressed on as she remains dormant on her side. She slowly opens her eyes to the tune of birds singing their musical rhapsody, greeting the rest of the residents of a rural Gunma neighborhood. 

“What time is it,” Rina asked herself, as she slowly lifted her torso from the warm bed.

To the left of her, a traditional clock read approximately seven hours and fifty minutes; forty minutes before school starts.

Without hesitation, Rina shot up and scrambled to dress for the day. As she struggled to clothe herself, she started to call for her daughter, hoping that she was also aware of the severity of the situation.

“Yuuki, get up!” Rina cried, “We’ll be late if you’re still asleep any second longer!”

As much as her voice boomed inside the household, no one responded. Rina was just about finished dressing herself in a black scoop neck dress shirt and uniform with a blue pencil skirt. 

She’ll figure it out, Rina thought to herself. 

She bolted out the door towards the kitchen downstairs with heels in her hands. 

As Rina came around the corner of the set of stairs connected to the kitchen on her right, the right sat Yuuki in the living room, her pastel pink hair shining in the light of sunrays illuminating the room. She had already prepared herself lunch and her school necessities. With toast in her hand and mouth, she was casually watching a show on the television on the couch. 

“Good morning,” said Yuuki. 

“Oh thank God you’re awake,” Rina sighed to then beckon her daughter. “So you did hear.”

“Hear what?”

“Nevermind. We have to get going or you’re going to be late.” 

Yuuki got up from her seat.

“You know, if I had my own car I wouldn’t have to worry about waking you up,” She remarked. 

“I’ll think about it,” Rina replied. “Let’s go.”

Yuuki turned off the television and packed her lightweight bag. The two leave through the front door and on their right the garage’s door begins to shift upwards, unveiling a gleaming white sports car coupe from behind. There stood a typical stock white right-hand-drive 1995 Toyota Supra, equipped with six-spoke rims, the center disc on each wheel blocked by a hexagonal protection cover, the front of it badged with kanji read as ‘Yume.’ With no further delay, the two were out of the garage and quickly left the neighborhood. The sun continued to shine bright on the faces of the residents of Gunma as the Supra continued its journey to the empty mountain roads to come. 

On a long stretch of road, Rina and Yuuki were hurrying to their destination. They would soon pass two buildings and a water tower just on the left of them, marking the peak of the mountain and the point where the pathway drops in elevation. This was Mt. Haruna, a part of the Eastern Honshu area nearly a thousand meters high that stretched almost ten kilometers long. The drive would take nearly half an hour at the pace they were going currently, and time was not on their side.

An idea came to Rina’s mind: go faster. 

“Okay… We’re out of options, hon,” she said. “I’m going to have to move a bit quicker, are you buckled in?”

Yuuki had anticipated that this would be how her day would go. With a deep sigh and a smile, she spoke to her mother.

“Yes,” replied Yuuki. “I am. I’m ready.”

A gentle yet swift press of the accelerator brings the automobile to life and a faint growl echoes from the engine bay. The tachometer continues to rise from the lower digits. Four… five… six… thousand revolutions per minute. The Supra is far above the speed limits mandated in the mountain pass, and the driver is unphased by the uproar she is influencing in the raw power of Japanese muscle. Just ahead was an easy right turn followed by a sharp hairpin-shaped right turn, and yet there was no sign of slowing from Rina. As the first right is cleared, the next one is only half a kilometer away. With immediate action, the Supra slows and jerks sideways, the corner is passed through with more speed than the first. 

“Are you okay hon?” Rina asked. While her performance showed no imperfections, she wanted to affirm that her child was comfortable with the risky actions she was displaying.

“You can go faster, right? Then I’m perfectly fine.”

“Let me know if it’s too much, okay?” 

“You always say that Mom!” said Yuuki, with a bit more annoyance in her voice. This certainly wasn’t her first time experiencing her mother’s style of driving. 

Yuuki looks to the side where the dashboard is, getting a glimpse of the speedometer, which read above one-hundred-fifty kilometers per hour, just about more than triple the limit. 

Yeah, this is still okay. Yuuki thought to herself. 

The Supra continues to speed off on the hill’s paved roads, unknowingly being watched by two cars just out of its line of sight. The first car sported a yellowish bronze paint job, the hood equipped with a standard carbon fiber fitment, and a Nismo-branded front bumper–the Nissan Silvia S15 Spec R. The second vehicle; in a bright red finish, with aero seemingly inspired by existing manufacturers, yet it was an unnamable kit. Another Nissan Silvia, the S14; a K’s Aero variant. The two drivers of these battle machines continued to converse with each other. The first to speak had black jeans and a fittingly black t-shirt to accompany his grey sneakers. His red hair shined in the sun.

“So this is the Supra you saw before?” he asked with doubt in his mind. “You’re sure of it?”

The person next to him had blue hair and a maroon long-sleeved top with both sleeves rolled up. His bottom attire consisted of beige cargo shorts, with respectively white sneakers. 

“Could you ever mistaken that precise of a drift with that kind of speed?” he retorted. “How many locals have you seen hold their own in battle?”

“Alright, I getcha, Takeshi.” replied the red-haired boy. “So this is our next opponent, then?”

“Yeah, I’m sure you get my excitement too, Akira.” 

“It looks fast on its own. Kind of matches the description of that Faction Legend monster machine you brought up.”

“That drifting is like an art. That’s rare to see here.” Takeshi remarked. “But we have places to be, don’t we?”

“Sure,” Akira chuckled and took to the driver's seat of the bronze Silvia. “Let’s take it from the top if that’s cool with you.”

“It’s your call,” said Takeshi. “This is gonna be your night, not mine.”

The following afternoon, inside a white office building, many workers were busy with programming and developing software for the future of technology. The clicks of keyboards and mouse shifting accompany the chatter among everyone in the room as their CEO paces around the room inspecting and assigning work to her employees. Rina is busy typing up a status report on her current findings concerning the recent code issues from her row of peers in the back of all other rows. As a superior, she holds her folk in high regard and does as much as possible to provide resources and assistance.

Rina checks the clock built into her computer to see if she has a window to have a break–it is 11:45 pm, break began fifteen minutes ago. Just as she was about to leave her desk for one hour of relief, she noticed the CEO approaching her. 

“Is your report coming along well?” the CEO asked. 

“Some of our units are struggling,” Rina replied. “I will ask if they need any resources after my break, Haruyama.”

“You don’t have to be that formal, Umebayashi.” the superior mocked.

Before Rina was her supervisor, she wore a white unbuttoned dress shirt with a loose tie wrapped around her neck. Her natural blonde complimented the dyed purple at the bottom half of her hair, a color that additionally fit her lavender pencil skirt and muted smoke purple tank top. 

“Alright, Akiko, any plans after work?” Rina asked. 

“I’ll be here all night practically.” Akiko sighed. “I haven’t gotten a word from Hirata about my car for a while, but she said she’ll drive it over to here when it’s finished.” 

Rina asked, “Well, at least you have your son to keep you company right?”

But to her dismay, Akiko’s head drooped down in shame, causing Rina to jump back at the response or lack thereof. 

“No…” Akiko muttered. “We got into a fight and he left mad at me.”

“W-what happened?”

“I caught him with my husband’s plans for the Silvia…” Akiko responded, but her words were quickly drowned by sobbing. “I waited for him thinking he would come back that night, but he didn’t. All while my car was with Ayako–he didn’t even take his phone with him, just the darned Silvia!” 

A panicking Akiko begins to shake Rina by her shoulders.

“He was probably out there racing cars! I can’t live with the idea he’s out there doing something dangerous like that! My little bouncing baby boy has been possessed by our demons!”

“H-hey! Hold on just a minute,” urged a dizzy Rina. “Does that mean he knows about our history? I thought we would keep it from the kids until death!”

“Oh come on, you don’t even do a good job hiding it yourself!” cried Akiko. “Honestly, how you get away with it baffles me to this day, Umebayashi.”

“Look, if we know anyone who has seen a tuned-up car, it’s gotta be Ayako,” said Rina. “I can ask her after work if that’s okay with you. It was C-West body parts on Jei’s build?”

“Yes,” Akiko replied. “Pastel-blue finish, remember?”

Rina nodded. “Don’t worry, Akiko. We’ll find him and then he’ll be back home with you, alright?”

“Thank you,” said Akiko, sighing a deep breath of relief. She stood straight, readjusting herself after the emotional turmoil. “I don’t know what I’d do without my little boy, it eats at me a lot.”

“You and me both. I remember how tough it was on my heart raising Yuuki,” Rina began, holding her hand over her heart as though the mere recollection was going to give her a stroke. “Especially the time Yuuki was in kindergarten when the school called about her having a fever…”

“I think you needed the support more than Yuuki did,” Akiko remarked. “She had to comfort you in hindsight.”

Rina without further delay picked up a small purple handbag from underneath her desk, inside of it was the Supra’s key. She took the key out of the bag and rested it on her shoulder.

“Would you like to join me on a drive downtown? I was going to drive to the market to buy some things, but I wouldn’t mind stopping by a restaurant nearby.”

“I would like that, thanks. How about the udon shop a few blocks east?” Akiko proposed. “My treat, since you’ll be the one driving.” 

“That sounds nice,” Rina responded. 

The two parents were off to have lunch with all said and done, as they left the room and stepped into another, occupied by many of Rina’s co-workers. Just on the side of the wall to the left was an elevator shaft. Rina and Akiko walked toward the elevator door, as they continued their conversation amongst the mingling employees blocking out the ability for their exchange to be overheard. 

“I wanted to ask, Akiko,” said Rina, as they were approaching the elevator door leading to the bottom floor of the building. The door opened as Rina pressed a button indicating to go down from the highest floor, and the two stepped in as she began once more.

“Why did you keep the plans for Jei’s Spec II Silvia?” She asked.

Looking towards Rina, Akiko smiled at her co-worker. 

“It’s something to remember him by,” Akiko said. “You know it as well as I do, that’s all we can ever ask for from people we love.”