Initial D: The Next Stage

Chapter 1

I finally got my first job. I was a gas station attendant at GS Gas Station.

Sure, it's nothing special. But at least it'll be sooner until I have the money to buy my first car, a Honda Civic.

My family had moved to Gunma Prefecture only recently. We lived in Tokyo for a while before we moved here to Shibukawa. There was a mountian nearby that supposedly had a race team. Akina SpeedStars, was it?

I had never shown much interest in street racing, but my dream car has always been the Nissan Skyline GT-R R34 V-Spec II Nür... I'd paint her dark orange and get a matte black hood. She'd be glorious. And I'd spend every minute with the car.

Today was a weekend, so I had the day off. My uncle wanted to show me something, he lived on Mt. Akagi.

My uncle had raced when he was younger. He drove an R34, but the question if he still had it or not bothered me.

When we arrived, I noticed three cars in the driveway. A 1983 Toyota Sprinter Trueno AE86, a 1997 Mazda RX-7 FD3S, and a Honda Civic SiR II EG6.

I knew who they all belonged to. My uncle was friends with these people. The driver of the Eight-Six was named Takumi Fujiwara, the driver of the FD was Keisuke Takahashi, and the driver of the EG6 was Shingo Shoji. They had all raced each other at one point, though Takumi was the only one to beat them all.

I got out of my dad's car as he drove off, leaving me with my uncle for the weekend. My uncle was waiting for me outside the house with Takumi, Keisuke, and Shingo. Takumi was the youngest of the four.

"Hey, Kudo." Said my uncle. "When you get all your stuff settled, I'd like to show you something."

"You bet he does..." Keisuke said, looking at me with a smile.

"Don't spoil it, Keisuke..." Takumi said.

I set my stuff down in my bedroom and went back to my uncle. "What is it that you wanted to show me?"

My uncle chuckled and motioned for me to follow him to his garage.

I already knew my uncle owned an R34. He took me for a ride in it one day and got me into liking the car.

"You know how I have an R34, right?" He asked.

"Yeah."

"Well..." He opened the garage. "I never told you that I had two."

Sitting next to my uncle's creame yellow R34 was a deep orange R34 with a matte black hood. It was exactly how I imagined it, maybe better.

"No way." I smiled. "You've had two of these this whole time?"

"Well, I'm only going to have one."

"What?"

"The orange one goes to you, Kudo."

I stared at him for a bit. "You're joking."

"Nope."

I walked around the car. The body seemed stock, not that I wanted to change it or anything. The paint had that same orange color you'd find an R35 in these days. Deep orange. Probably the best color for any GT-R to come in.

"So, do you like it?" Takumi asked.

"Like it? Why wouldn't I? This is my dream car, and everything is perfect about it!" I said.

"The car's completely stock. I left it that way so that you can do whatever you want with it." My uncle said.

"Later tonight we were going to go to the top of Akina for a quick race." Keisuke said.

"Itsuki and Iketani are going to be there, you should drive your car up there." Takumi said.

"Is it a race?" I asked.

"Yeah. I was going to race Fujiwara, and your uncle is going to race Shingo." Keisuke said.

Back when my uncle was younger, he raced on touges all the time. His skills with acceleration and control of his R34 earned him the name God Foot, and his friend the name God Hand. My uncle is the only person I know who's able to drift the R34. While I'm fascinated with the sport of drifting, I was more interested in the grip run.

"You can practice too, Kudo. If you'd like." Shingo said.

I nodded. "I'll go against my uncle in his R34, and me in mine."

It was a risky gamble. I'd never been in an actual Touge race and my car was stock, compared to my uncle's car where he had invested almost ¥3,500,000 in the thing.

"You sure you want to do that?" Takumi said.

"Hey, if the kid wants to go against me for his first race, let him."

I smiled at my new car. I couldn't wait to show Iketani and Itsuki.