CHAPTER ONE: Going Home.
Four fully custom engines roared in eagerness for the upcoming race. The first three were your normal roadsters and Japanese custom muscle cars but the last was an old ford but fully custom with about 600 horses of Detroit muscle under the hood. It was jet black with tinted windows and the intake was protruding out of the hood. The competitors all had their windows down to either show their cockiness or their respect for their opponents.
The ford however had all the windows up and was quiet all except the droning of the engine, which sounded like a tiger getting ready to pounce on it's prey. After all the spectators, which consisted mostly of teens, placed their bets, a man held up a gun with blanks in it.
He looked back and forth between the cars. "Everyone ready?" he said above the engines. The drivers gave thumbs up but the man in the ford just revved the engine.
"IF you haven't placed your bets, the options are..." he walked in front of each car as he called out the names.
"First, Joe McMasters...Second, Kai Hykubi...Third, Shane Roberts... and finally, since he never gave his real name, Shadow Black." Even through the tinted windows of the old ford people could see Shadow working on stuff inside. The starter walked back to his spot next to the road where two women wearing very little clung to him and held the gun up once more. "Driver's ready? Three...two...one…"
BANG!
He squeezed the trigger and the first three cars peeled off the line but Shadow stayed put for a second.
Then, without warning, the growling American muscle car roared forward with so much power that it forced the front up into the air. The only thing that kept the vehicle front flipping was the wheelie bar that snapped the beast back onto the ground and tearing forward in a cloud of rubber smoke. He wasn't very far behind but even so, he closed distance quickly, passing the three opponents and crossing the finish barely a second later. The spectators and Shadow's opponents could only stare in awe as he came to a screeching halt and drove back slowly to the line.
The shock wore off a bit later and the crowd cheered and the racers went to try and find their girlfriends, which were most likely waiting to see the identity of the winning racer. The car stopped in the middle of the street and the black door opened. A man stepped out. He wore black jeans with black leather boots. He had a black leather jacket on which had the Japanese symbol of darkness on the back, under that was a white t-shirt .
He also wore a pair of sunglasses, which he slipped off, revealing hazel brown eyes under unruly brown hair. His eyes, which at once had been bright and so full of life, now had dulled and held an air off sadness within. The man named Shadow looked around at the awed crowd of teens until spotting the starter.
"Hey, Gonzalez. What were my odds?" He asked. Gonzalez just smirked.
"Just like all times Tai, very doubting these kids.
" The Mexican held out a handful of bills to Tai.
"Here are your winnings." Tai quickly thumbed through the cash finding a couple thousand in his hand.
"I got to give it to these boys and girls, they may not be the brightest bunch but they got some pretty penny on them." Tai let a cocky smile work it's way onto his face as he talked.
"We'll, I hear that you're going back home to Japan." Gonzalez said but was distracted as one of the girls hanging on him butted in.
"Hey baby, me and Jean are going to go to the street party at Chico's, you going to come?" She said with puppy dog eyes. Gonzalez turned to her.
"Yea, Stephanie, I'll be there in a little while, just got to talk to my friend first." Stephanie lifted an eyebrow at Tai before turning around and walking over to the car where Jean was already waiting. Gonzalez turned around to face Tai once more.
"Well, I guess I got to run, have a nice flight home Kamiya. Umm... Are you going to compete in the Odaiba Sprint races?" Tai nodded.
"Yeah, I'm going to have my car shipped up there by another flight before I leave." They shook hands and Tai got ready to turn around and head to his car but the watch guy started running around yelling
"Cops!" Tai turned back to face Gonzalez. I guess this game is going to end with a bang." He said grinning. Gonzalez turned around when he got to his car replying,
"I guess so, get the Heck out of here before your caught. I'll see you at Odaiba." The Mexican opened the door to his very hot Honda civic and tore out of there in a cloud of smoke. Tai sprinted to his Ford and jumped in. After quickly putting his seatbelt on, he placed the key into the ignition and turned, making the beast like car roar to life. Outside, the sound of sirens could be heard and Squad cars appeared everywhere.
"I guess this calls for the appropriate adrenaline rush music." Tai exclaimed to himself.
He pulled out the case of CDs and put a Linkin Park CD in and setting it on Faint. The music roared and the beast flew forth evading a cop car by inches and burning rubber down the street. Tai kept looking in the rear view to keep tabs on his pursuit. They were still following but loosing ground terribly and they were out of sight within a few minutes.
The brown-eyed young man breathed a short sigh of relief and slowed the car down. He looked around and saw that he had made his way into the old neighborhood just at the edge of the highway. Taking advantage of the dark community, Tai slowed the car to a stop between two old houses.
Not turning off the engine, he got out of the car and went to the rear end with a new license plate. After he removed the old one, he threw it into an open trashcan and got back into the car .
He pushed down on the gas and the car drove out of the neighborhood and onto the highway toward the Los Angeles International Airport.
Tai was waiting in a seat for his flight to arrive. He checked his wallet to see if he had enough extra money and checked his bag to make sure he had everything he needed. His whole life was in that duffle bag including some pictures of family and his various cars; He was interrupted by the announcements over the speakers.
"International Flight 710 to Tokyo Japan now boarding." said the woman.
Tai closed his bag and started walking to the loading area, he gave the stewardess his ticket and he walked down the hall and into the jet, taking one last breath of American grounds.
Tai was on board and he looked for a seat, only one was open which he went over to it and placed his bag in the overhead rack before sitting down. He reached into his pocket and looked at the card he got from the people from the cargo jet that was taking his car up to Japan.
#398 he thought and tried to print that number into his head. The girl next to him once again interrupted his thoughts.
"Hey, would you by any chance have a cell phone on you?" she asked.
"Yea, hold on for just one second." Tai replied and reached over to his cell phone in his coat pocket.
"Thanks." she said when he dug the cellular phone out of his pocket and turned to give it to the girl, then he say her face.
"Mi...Mimi?" Tai asked his eyes bulging. Mimi looked up at him.
"Tai? Is that you?" she asked her eyes also wide. Tai straightened out first and said," Long time no see. How have you been?" Mimi smiled at him.
"Good, I've been working as a model and I'm going home to see my mom and dad. How about you? What are you doing for a living?" she asked. Tai kind of sunk and said,
"Well, I just got out of college with a degree in computers and programming." Mimi sensed that Tai wasn't telling everything. "Tai, that's not all, what else is there?" she asked concerned
Tai sighed deeply and started telling Mimi about the past few years participating in Illegal Street racing events with his custom ford muscle car . He told her about the amounts of money won and about the times when his college had threatened to expel him. He told her also about his countless nights in jail for reckless driving.
When he finished, Mimi no longer looked happy for him, nor did she look mad. She could think about every cause he would have for living such a reckless life but she knew the reason. His reason for having his contempt for his life, That reason happened just a few years ago, back home.Back where both of them thought they had the best reasons for living, yet, those reasons betrayed them both.
Mimi started to say something but she noticed that Tai had fallen asleep. 'Poor Guy', she thought, 'He has such a tough time. Especially since that time with...Sora.' Shrugging off the thoughts, the pink haired young woman used Tai's cell phone to call ahead to her parents who were probably going to be awake for the morning.
Sora came up to Tai before he left on his bike to meet up with Matt.
"Hey Tai!" she said rather happily. Tai looked up from putting the key in the ignition.
"Hey Sora, why are you so happy?" he asked with a smile. Sora started blushing crimson, 'Just like her beautiful eyes.' Tai thought.
"Well, it's just that well..." she started. Tai just smacked her across the head playfully.
"Sorry, anyhow...Matt asked me if I would like to go steady with him. Isn't that great?" Sora looked like she had beaten a hundred Malomyotismon's by herself but Tai held like all those digimon had fallen on his heart and Sora was standing right on top of it all like she was trying to squash it to nothingness. Tai's grin wavered and fell, just as his heart was stomped on a million times.
"I... I'm really happy for you Sora, I really am." Tai said on the verge of tears.
"Would you like me to take you to Matt's rehearsal, I was heading that why anyhow." Tai offered.
Sora nodded and Tai started the bike motioning for her to get on. Sora swung her leg over the back seat of the Kawasaki and wrapping her arms around his waist and hugging onto him tightly. Tai's heart raced with her touch, which was light as a feather but shook off the feelings.
He had to keep telling himself that Matt had gotten there first and told her his feelings for her. As Tai pushed the bike one with the gas, he let a solitary tear make its way down his cheek. He heard Sora start to say something. He strained to hear her but it sounded like she was saying his name.
"Tai...Tai...Tai...Tai..…"
"Tai...TAI!" Tai woke up slightly but got a slap across the face waking him up instantly with stinging pain.
"I'm up I'm up I'm up!" He yelled and looked around.
"I'm sorry Tai, you wouldn't wake up." Mimi stated.
"It's alright Mimi, I've felt worse things." he replied. Mimi smiled and said, "Well we are almost there and here's your cell phone back."
Tai thanked her and put his cell phone back in his coat pocket. The brunette looked out the window next to them and saw the familiar sites of Tokyo.
"Home." Tai whispered to himself.
"What?" Mimi asked him.
Tai turned to her with a small smile on his face. "I'm home . I...haven't realized how homesick I was."
Mimi smiled at him, "Well, welcome back Tai."
They both turned to look out the window at the passing buildings below them.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, This is your captain speaking, we are about to land at Tokyo International Airport. Please set seats and trays in their upright positions and buckle your restraints."
The people on the jet did as the pilot asked and got ready for the touch down.
Tai stepped off at the docking area and asked the stewardess where the cargo unloading was. The stewardess told him to go to the door at the far end of the hall and present his card to the unloading superintendent.
"Thanks" Tai said and turned around to see Mimi just and inch from his face.
"AAAHHHHH! MIMI! WHAT WAS THAT ABOUT!" he yelled, breathing hard.
"I just wanted to say bye, I have to catch a cab and get home ," she said waving bye then turned to leave.
"Hey, Mimi." Tai said. The pink haired girl turned around.
"Hmmm?" Tai scratched his head.
"Well, I've got to run over to the cargo unloading to get my car , then I was wondering if you would like me to drive you home ," he said. Mimi smiled and nodded, "I would love to see your car and thanks." Tai smiled,
"No problem." He led the way to the unloading and gave his card to the man at the gate. The older, grisly looking man gave Tai back the card and said something to a worker who ran up into the cargo jet.
"So your the owner of that car . That's a real beauty, it must've been a very expensive baby," the old man said. Tai turned and looked at the jet as his car was being lowered down on the lift.
"Yeah, It cost close to half a mill to customize it. Everything has been reworked and it's become a real beast." Mimi had just noticed the car as it touched down on the concrete.
"Tai...that's your car?" she stuttered. Tai looked at her and pushed her chin up, closing her gaping mouth.
"Yeah, that's my baby. 600 horses under the hood and fully customized as I said before."
Mimi looked at him in disbelief, "And how exactly did you pay for it?" Tai signed the board that the man held out to him and started walking to the car with Mimi.
"Mostly from my winnings during race circuits and street betting. Some parts were gifts and some were from friends with very good connections." Mimi looked at him like he was crazy.
"You must be rich then." she rationalized. Tai shook his head, "No, All the money I have left is about two thousand dollars, but that's all I need and it's all I want." Mimi nodded and decided to marvel at the work on Tai's car .
"It's beautiful," she stated. Tai opened his door and motioned for Mimi to step in as well. They both got in and Mimi started marveling at the interior. 100 leather seats, plenty of elbowroom. But what got most of her attention was how modern it looked. It had digital radio and there was even a computer system set up on the dash. From what it looked like, it looked like it could fold into the dashboard.
Tai started up the engine bringing the car once again to life and he pulled off the loading ramp and towards the gate where the guard was waiting.
"Son, can I see your driver's license and cargo card." he asked and Tai gave him his cargo pass. "Mimi could you open the dash compartment and give me the license please." Tai asked.
Mimi nodded and opened the compartment, grabbed the license, and handed it to Tai who gave it to the guard. "Taichi J. Kamiya." the guard said to himself and entered the license number and the information from the card, then he gave both back to Tai.
"Okay, you can go. Have a nice day," the guard said.
"You too." Tai replied and pulled out of the gate and onto the road home.
"Mimi, I'm going to stop at the gas station real quick to get a coffee and gas. Do you want anything?" he asked. Receiving no answer, he turned around.
"Mim..." she was fast asleep.
The 22-year-old brunette smiled and turned back to the road. 'Poor girl, she must have had a long night.' He thought and pulled into the next gas station he saw. It was only a few hours until home would be in sight.
Author Notes: Thanks for reading hope you liked it.
From now on I will put a disclaimer at the end if there are any new animes or games or whatever that appear.
For those of you that are wondering, this WILL be a Taiora, maybe a few hints of Michi and other things but WILL end up a Taiora. Another piece of news, I am going to try and add other series to this so just a heads up.
If you have any suggestions tell me in a review!