**Thoughts are in italic*
CHAPTER 1: AN IMPOSSIBLE SURPRISE
Keisuke, as usual, was training at Mt. Akagi. Even though Project. D has successfully conquered the Kanto region of Japan and Ryosuke has gone to the medical school, Keisuke never forgets that he still needs to beat Fujiwara Takumi, Project. D’s downhill ace. This time, the battleground, is here…
Fumihiro, along with Kenta, was supervising Keisuke’s work. A familiar roar of a rotary engine was heard by them. They knew Keisuke’s coming back.
“My FD’s performance has improved a lot since two years ago. Time sure flies, doesn’t it?” said the young Takahashi brother.
“It sure does. Your footwork is getting better every day too, Keisuke-san! There’s no way you could lose to Takumi now.” said Nakamura Kenta, the third seat of Akagi RedSuns.
“Did you guys hear a rotary engine’s sound?” said the confused Fumihiro.
“What? Aniki said he needs to write some medical reports and won’t be coming to see me practice.” said Keisuke.
Just when they were wondering who could it be, a heavily modified blue RX-7 InfiniThree, otherwise known as a FC3S, showed up.
“Just as I expected, it’s not Aniki.”
A tall, skinny young teenager with red hair, wearing a very plain T-shirt with a pair of black slacks, stepped out of his car.
“Excuse me, is Takahashi Keisuke around?” said the young man.
“I am Takahashi Keisuke and what do you want from me?”
“So, you are the famous Fastest Fireball in Kanto, eh? I just wanna have a battle with you, here in Mt. Akagi.”
“Sorry, but we don’t race in …”
The redhead continued his sentence as if he knew what the blond was about to say.
“… Your own home course? Ya I know, but that was RedSun’s policy, wasn’t it? And if I recall, the RedSuns have disbanded to form Project. D, am I right?”
“How did you…… know?” Keisuke was kinda shocked to hear that.
“Well, let’s just say your brother is not the only one who can find all the information he needs through the Internet.” The redhead said with a smile.
“Fine, you got me. What are the conditions?”
“A lead-chase style rule down Akagi. I think you are familiar with that.”
“Yes. Fumihiro!” Keisuke shouted.
“I got it. Would you want to lead or chase in the first round?” Fumihiro asked the skinny kid.
“I would want to lead, and there won’t be a second round.” The stranger said it loud enough to be heard by the FD driver.
When Keisuke heard that, he whispered to himself. “What a punk… talking like this is his home course. I’ll show you what a Project. D’s ace can do!”
Go! Yon! San! Ni! Ichi! GO!!!
Nothing really special happened in the first half of the course. Keisuke followed the FC closely and waited to make a move.
“There won’t be a second round? Your arrogance will be your downfall. I swear I’m gonna defeat you in the first round!” said the angered Keisuke in his mind, picking up his pace.
“Looks like my plan worked perfectly.” the redhead thought after looking at his rear view mirror with a smile.
“A few more corners and we will reach the 4 consecutive hairpins. Keep following me, Takahashi Keisuke.” the guy added.
The FC driver braked, shifted down the gear to 3 and gripped through a corner. A very typical cornering.
“You are not so special after all. Compared to the racers in Kanagawa area, you are nothing to them.” “3 more hairpins to the finish line. And you said there won’t be a second round.” Keisuke thought.
Suddenly, the brake lights of the FC lit.
“What the……?!” Keisuke stepped on the brakes immediately to prevent him from crashing into the driver in front. The FC kept accelerating, pulling away from the yellow FD.
“Damn! It’s a feint! In a middle of a corner!” Keisuke hit the gas as hard as possible, even though it’s already at the pedal’s limit.
“Out of all the Project. D’s battles, I find the battle between Sakai and him very amusing. Feint braking…… one of the most used tactics in circuits, and one of the most effective. Sakai used the trick too early in his battle, that’s why he lost.” explained the redhead.
“No no no no no! He’s pulling away! Come on FD, please do this for me!”
The FD was trying his very best for his beloved owner. When they cleared the hairpin, the blue FC has disappeared.
“NO!!!” Keisuke screamed at the top of his lungs.
After Keisuke passed the finish line, he saw the guy waiting for him.
“Why did you wait for me? You already won, why wait for the loser?” said the depressed Keisuke.
“Because I have something really important to tell you. Don’t worry, I won’t tell anybody of our battle. I just wanna have some fun with you.”
“Something important?”
“Yes. Your father was divorced right? Well, he married another woman soon after.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“I was their by-product.”
“You……….”
“Yes, Takahashi Keisuke. I am Takahashi Rensuke, your half-brother…”
CHAPTER 2: CATCHING UP
"You're kidding, right? I'm not quite convinced. Prove it to me." The skeptical Keisuke said.
"Your father is a doctor named Takahashi Ishikawa. He is 38 this year. Your mother is Keiko Sakura, she's a 34-year-old housewife. They have been married for 15 years." Rensuke said with so much confidence like he knew them for a very long time.
"So, your mother...... Is she treating my father well?"
"They are happy with each other, let's just leave it at that."
"Why didn't our father tell me and my brother about this?"
"That, I have no idea. You'll have to ask him yourself."
"Why did you show up now? Why didn't you tell us earlier?" Keisuke had so many questions he knew he had to ask them.
"I wasn't keen to meet you at first. When father told me about you and Ryosuke, you guys were battling the 246ers. Before showing up, I wanted to see whether you guys could beat the Kanagawa area. After all, all sorts of professional racers gathered there. I wanted to see how good Kanto's Rotary Brothers were."
"Hmmm, I never thought we had a half-brother."
"Two actually. Sorry, I should've told you I have another little brother. His name is Takahashi Zansuke."
"Two?! Just how many secrets are the old man hiding from us?!" Keisuke was so mad with his father for not telling Ryosuke and him about all of these.
"It's getting late. I better be going now. Let's catch up some other time. Know any nearby restaurants where we can do so?" said Rensuke after looking at his phone.
"How about Jonny's? It's not far from here." answered Keisuke.
"Great. Then it's settled. Meet me there at noon this Saturday, how's that? I might bring my brother along."
"Sounds good to me. I'll tell Aniki the details."
"Alright, be seeing you, Kanto's Fastest Fireball."
On the day of the meeting, a white FC, a yellow FD, a blue FC and a black FD, all heavily modified, parked next to each other at the Jonny's. Many people thought there was some kind of racer gathering.
"Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Takahashi Ryosuke." said the oldest Takahashi among them.
"And I am Takahashi Zansuke. Nice to meet you." An average 18-year-old kid said.
"Oh my, you're young. You sure remind me of Shinji and Takumi." said Keisuke.
"We were trained very young. We also formed our own team, *C.o.R.E* and conquered the Chubu region, just like you guys conquered Kanto." The redhead Rensuke said.
"*C.o.R.E*?" Ryosuke asked.
"*Cars of Rotary Engine*" The Chubu's Takahashi Brothers said together.
"You guys lived in Chubu? Where exactly?" Ryosuke asked again.
"Nagano." said Rensuke.
"Home course?" Keisuke couldn't contain himself.
"Mt. Mizuo." answered Rensuke to his half-brother's question.
"Hey Aniki. Why don't we take a spin down their home course?" Keisuke asked excitedly.
"I don't see why not? You don't mind right, Rensuke?"
"Not even a little bit. I'm so honored. The famous Takahashi Brothers want to take a look at our home course!" The blue FC driver smiled.
Zansuke just stared at them the whole time without saying anything. He was just the kind of guy who didn't talk much.
CHAPTER 3: RYOSUKE'S COMEBACK
The 4 rotary cars sprinted through the highway heading to Nozawaonsen, Nagano. By the time they reached Mt. Mizuo it was already 8 at night.
"Finally, I seriously can't wait." thought Keisuke with excitement.
"Hmmm? There're a couple of guys up there." Rensuke thought.
As they approached the peak, they saw two men standing side by side, talking and laughing with each other.
"Sorry, but who are you guys?" Rensuke questioned the two men.
"Oh, don't mind us. Hehehehehe......" said one of the man who wears a black Nike cap and Nike sneakers. The other guy was looking at the car beside him. It was a red Ferrari 458 Italia.
"Hmmph, don't think you can defeat me in a race with one of those." thought Rensuke who despised Ferraris and their drivers.
"Alright, feel free to use our home course. You have my permission." said Rensuke to the Takahashis with a smile. Zansuke nodded afterwards.
"Ha, as if we ever needed that." said Keisuke. "Let's go, Aniki."
The Takahashi Brothers stepped into their respective rotaries and took off.
"One of the things I like about this course is we can see them very clearly from here, wherever they are." Rensuke explained to his brother.
"It's just the difficulty of this mountain attracted me though." replied Zansuke.
"Hehehe, I think we should go too, or we won't be able to catch them."
"Relax, with this car, no one can beat us."
They went into the red Ferrari right after they finished talking.
"Hmm?" thought Rensuke.
"I think they want to raise a challenge to our brothers." Zansuke speculated.
"Hmmph, no matter how hard they try, they can never beat Gunma's Takahashi Brothers. Furthermore, this is a touge. They just dug their own grave." said Rensuke.
"This is one unique course." Ryosuke thought.
"Interesting... this course is very similar to Sadamine. The road isn't really flat, so throttle control is crucial." thought Keisuke.
Suddenly, a flash of headlights appeared in their rear view mirror.
"Is that Rensuke? No... the car is slightly reddish in color. The Ferrari we saw earlier, perhaps?" Keisuke thought.
The Italia driver flashed his headlights a few times.
"Maybe I'll let Aniki do the battling. He hasn't raced for a while now." Keisuke slowed down and let the 458 pass him.
"He slowed down." said the guy wearing glasses.
"Hahahahaha! He is probably scared of us." said the Nike man.
"So Keisuke wanted me to battle them? Fine then, it's been a long time since I last raced." the white FC3S driver thought.
*Flashback*
"Man, highway battles are too easy! I want a real challenge!" said the Nike guy.
"You know, how about we have some fun at the touge near our usual meeting place?" his best friend said.
"That touge? I heard there's a local team there that conquered the Chubu region. If we defeat them, we will be famous! Girls will also swarm around us!" the Nike guy laughed sinisterly.
"If I'm not wrong, the team was *C.o.R.E.*"
"What a lame name! I'll save them some face by defeating them!"
*End of flashback*
"Come on, *C.o.R.E.*! Is that all you got? You can do better than that!"
"Another weak racer behind the wheel. Well, at least he's better than the Porsche driver. The road now is too narrow for you to pass me. I'll see how much pressure you'll put on your wheels."
"Damn, is he mocking me? He runs so slow! Whenever I wanted to pass him, the road narrowed down. This is frustrating!" complained the 458 driver.
*Meanwhile on the peak*
"Sooner or later, the Ferrari's gonna get into an accident." the redhead said.
"How can you tell?" asked Zansuke.
"He was so eager to pass brother. Whenever the road widened, he accelerated. But when the road narrowed again, he braked. Hard."
"Another newbie, eh?"
"Duh!"
"I appreciated your offer Keisuke, but they really are nothing." Ryosuke said in his mind.
"I sensed that Aniki was complaining. I'm not surprised though. Even I'm disappointed." thought the blonde.
"I feel there's no need to prolong this race anymore. Guess I'll do an all-out sprint."
Ryosuke finally sped up and made his move.
"He finally made a move. Let's go!" said the Ferrari's navigator.
"About time!" the driver exclaimed.
The Ferrari followed the FC closely, but when a corner appeared he stepped on the brakes as hard as he could.
"Damn! This is boring! Why do touges have so many corners?"
After he cleared the corner, he no longer saw the FC's taillights.
"Darn it! I refuse to believe my Ferrari can't catch up to his crappy car!"
Just as he accelerated, another corner came up. He didn't brake, in fact he just let off the gas.
"F*** the brakes!"
As a result, the Italia drifted off the line they wanted because of the gripless tires. And so they crashed into the wall.
"Aarrgghh!!!" the both of them screamed.
"I guess I'll go back." Ryosuke thought.
On his way back, he saw the Ferrari in bad condition and Keisuke's FD. Ryosuke got out of his FC and hurried towards them.
"Are you guys alright? Injured?" asked Ryosuke.
The two man shook their heads and looked down on the ground, ashamed of what they did.
"Your car is wrecked. I can help you repair it." Ryosuke asked them.
"It's ok, you don't have to. It's my fault and I'll fix this. Incidentally, are you the leader of *C.o.R.E.*?" the 458 driver brought up a question to Ryosuke.
"No, I'm not. Do you remember the man we talked to earlier? He is."
"I see.........."
"Please, at least let me call a tow truck for you."
"Thank you..."
*Meanwhile on the peak*
"Do you find this scene strangely familiar?" Zansuke asked his brother.
"As a matter of fact, I do remember. The crash was similar to Shoji Shingo's from the NightKids."
"Oh, right."
"We should get back to the top, Keisuke."
"Sure thing, Aniki."
The Takahashi Brothers went into their cars and drove to the peak.
"Rensuke, I think we should go back to Gunma now." Keisuke said.
"Ok, sure thing."
"Wait!"
The three looked at Zansuke.
"Ryosuke, if it's alright with you, I would want to battle with you, here."
"And why's that?"
"I want to see how I fare against the leader of Project. D."
"Fine. What's the date and time? It has to be a weekend though."
"Next Saturday, 9pm. Before then, you are welcome to practice on our home course to your heart's content."
"Thank you, see you then." Ryosuke said.
"Bye."
The two pairs of Takahashi Brothers bid each other farewell.
CHAPTER 4: ZANSUKE VS RYOSUKE (PART 1)
It was a fine night at Mt. Mizuo. Both parties were totally prepared for the battle tonight. Galleries flooded the mountain. They have heard. Akagi's White Comet versus Mizuo's Dark Knight.
"Oh my god! I can't wait for the battle!" screamed a Ryosuke's fangirl.
"Tell me about it! Ryosuke has not raced for a while now. I wonder how he will fare against the locals?" replied her friend.
"So Ryosuke's gonna race huh?" said a man with black curly hair wearing a black jacket.
"Looks that way. He is in for a tough fight. In terms of fame and skill, *C.o.R.E.* is pretty much equal to Project.D if not more, or so I heard." replied a man that looked like a monk.
*At the peak...*
"Matsumoto, is the car ready?" The eldest Takahashi Brother asked.
"Everything's fine, Ryosuke-san." Fujiwara Takumi's mechanic replied.
"You sure you want to do this, brother? Ryosuke is the leader of Project.D, the team that conquered Kanto." Rensuke questioned his little brother's abilities.
"Don't worry. Since when did I lose?" Zansuke smiled.
"Alright then. Do as you wished."
The 18-year-old kid approached the leader of Project.D.
"We'll start from here side by side and the finish line will be at the Fireweed Garden." Zansuke told Ryosuke.
"Understood." Ryosuke nodded.
"Are the racers ready? The countdown is about to start." Fumihiro yelled loud enough.
"I will do whatever it takes to win." Zansuke thought.
5... 4... 3... 2... 1... GO!!!
The black FD let the white FC took the lead even though it was only one round. They came to the first hairpin; braked, shifted down the gear to 3, cleared the corner.
"Let's see if our brother has the skills." Rensuke's little brother thought.
"Since this is an uphill course, horsepower is one of the winning factors of a battle. My FD should have more power than his FC's. But I wouldn't count on that too much. A great driver can even out the power difference
greatly." Zansuke said to himself.
"I wonder, should I get serious for him?" Ryosuke thought.
"The showdown would only begin after we passed the 2nd section." Zansuke speculated.***(See below)
"Are you gonna use that, brother?" Rensuke said to himself.
They have reached the 3rd section.
"Time to show Ryosuke-san what I'm made of!" Zansuke said.
Right before the last hairpin in 3rd section, Zansuke closed his headlights.
Coincidentally, Ryosuke looked at his rear view mirror to see if his opponent was following him.
"Hmm? He's gone? He was just right behind me. Wait...... Could it be?"
A few seconds later, Zansuke opened his headlights back on and now he is side by side with the FC and accelerating.
"How did he...?"
*Flashback*
"I've mastered it." Zansuke said to his aniki.
"Mastered what?" Rensuke asked.
"Fujiwara Takumi's blind attack..." Zansuke said.
"Oh I see.......... You WHAT?!" His brother was shocked.
"Since my whole FD is black and the environment is pretty dark here, Fujiwara Takumi's blind attack would definitely gives me an edge in this battle." Zansuke explained.
"I got the point, but when did you...?" Rensuke asked him again.
"Oh come on brother, you do know we went to look at Project.D's Kanagawa races, right? I picked it up then." The kid said.
"Well, true. Who would've thought huh?" Rensuke was impressed by his brother.
Zansuke smiled.
"Yes, I've passed him. I wonder how's our brother reacting?" Zansuke thought.
"Did he come up with that on his own? Or he just copied Fujiwara's technique?" Ryosuke was baffled.
"Either way, he's not one to be trifled with. I guess I should go all out."
*So, do you guys like the story so far? Ya I know, it's kinda cheesy right? Feedbacks and comments are very much welcomed.*
And it's one of those old school cars introduced in Initial D. Love at first sight you could say 
and I don't want people to stop reading my fanfic, ya know? 
