Chapter Text
It was the transitioning of spring to summer in the year of 1997 in Japan.
Street racing was bigger than ever, with the underground car culture growing bigger everyday with seemingly no end.
Drivers that loved driving fast and fast cars raced against each other and even forming up teams - on highways of Yokohama, on the streets of Tokyo; but many’s favourite was the mountain passes - touge - they were called.
Japan’s car industry thrived with brilliant sports cars built by mainstream manufacturers every single year - Honda, Toyota, Mazda, Mitsubishi, and Subaru were the common ones you’d see on the road.
Midoriya Izuku stepped out of his family’s Toyota AE86 and locked the car before heading for the door to his small little two-storey shophouse.
It was his father’s - Midoriya Hisashi’s - car before he had an accident on the mountains one day because of a drunk driver and passed on.
The car had been totaled then, but the Midoriya family had gotten it fixed regardless because they knew how much the car meant to the late Hisashi - it was the car that he had bought for the new family business when Izuku turned five. He was a racer then, but due to the need to settle down, he needed to buy a more practical car and was forced to stop using his two-seater Toyota 2000GT he had since the age of 20.
And to Hisashi’s joy - Toyota had released a fun new sports car that is incredibly suitable for the job with its hatchback design - the AE86, and it became the Midoriya family car since its release in 1983.
Of course he’d gotten the Trueno model, as it reminded Hisashi of his old 2000GT with the usage of pop-up headlights.
But sadly, he died before even reaching the age of 40 - leaving behind a broken-hearted Inko, and a Izuku that was only 14 years old who had started driving the car because Hisashi was bored one day and decided to teach him basic car controls.
Since then, Hisashi decided it’ll be good for his son to begin delivering tofu to the hotel sometimes - taking turns to do the job - and Izuku, being the good child that he is that wanted to help out with anything; had agreed, and started driving in the roads of Haruna with a three-quarters filled water cup to gauge liquid movement in the car as he drove along.
It was difficult to drive without spilling the water at first, and he had ruined a piece of tofu or two in the beginning, but as time went on; he slowly begun to get the hang of it.
Waking up early usually meant that he started to sleep less and felt tired more easily since.
However, right this moment; Midoriya Izuku was feeling very excited and buzzed from adrenaline.
Why?
Because he had just beaten his childhood friend - who he hadn't seen for a long while - by chance, on the roads of Mount Haruna after unloading his car.
A yellow A-Spec Mazda FD3S charged up the roads of Mount Haruna - and if anyone knew about street racing and saw the sight - they would immediately associate the very car with its driver: Bakugou Katsuki - the number-two driver of the fastest racing team in Gunma: Akagi’s RedSuns.
Now, usually; Bakugou Katsuki was the one who took on challenges for a race to prove anybody that thought his driving skills were subpar absolutely wrong, but this time: he was the one challenging another to a battle.
To a seemingly unknown driver of a Toyota - and a surprising model at that: an AE86 - Sprinter Trueno; a car that is… underpowered, and old. Sure, the car might have been built to be fun to drive and good for drifting; but the car was nowhere near a contender for a race against Mazda’s rotary rocket that dominated the sports car market - an FD3S.
Specifically, an FD3S tuned specifically for street racing, with twin turbochargers and special reinforcements to allow the car to output 350 horsepowers.
And he - Bakugou Katsuki - had been beaten by a mere AE86 which he easily outran on the straights with power - by his own judgement; the car had no more than 150 horsepower and was no good in a slugfest.
However, he had completely lost.
Feeling familiar anger well up in the pit of his stomach as he approached another corner, he stomped his right foot onto the brake pedal and clutch kicked with his left as he downshifted with a perfectly executed heel-and-toe.
Steering into the right-hand bend and feeling the rear tyres lose their grip, he stepped on the gas gently to allow the car to slip at just the right angle to drift through the corner smoothly.
The Trueno just appeared all of a sudden in the middle of the night - or rather; early in the morning at… 4? 5? And it seemed none of the local drivers knew who it was when the car was mentioned at a local gas station manned by mostly hopeless car junkies.
He had been on a practice lap that time; it was his third time driving through the course; and suddenly, fast incoming headlights appeared in his rear-view mirror.
He could immediately tell that it was a model of car designed with pop-up headlights with how square-ish the light source was; but in the dark of the night - he could not tell the exact model of the car.
… until he slowed down for a S-turn corner he hadn’t quite gotten the hang of; and the other car overtook him instantly without braking for the initial gentle right-hand turn.
Initially, Katsuki thought that the other driver was suicidal and had no care for his own safety as the car started to drift due to excess speed while turning the gentle right corner.
Then his headlights properly illuminated the car now ahead of him: It was a Toyota. Not an MR2, not a Chaser; no, the car in question was a 14 year old AE86 - a Sprinter Trueno.
And all of a sudden, the car ahead of him swung its tail around and drifted flawlessly through the next tight left hairpin bend at an incomprehensible speed - then Katsuki realised then, that the initial right-turn drift was a set-up for the next corner - shifting the weight from the left side of the car to the right by letting off the gas and turning the wheel to swing the car around.
And because he had been so shocked by the sight; he lost control of his car as he braked a little too late for the hairpin left - spinning to a stop and stalling the engine.
Whoever was the driver - had to know the road like the back of their hands.
Later that day after going home frustrated and slept angrily; he went around everywhere to try to locate 3-door Truenos near Mount Haruna.
His sources had been able to mark down 5 owners of white-and-black AE86s in Shibukawa City so far.
Which run was he on now? He had lost count - and the fuel gauge needle indicated that he had less than an eighth of a tank left as he drove the car to the peak of the mountain; completing another round.
He’ll have to call it a day and fill up the tank - but in order to do that, he had to turn around and drive downhill.
So that’s what he did, sending his yellow RX-7 charging down the roads of Mount Haruna, with the almost empty fuel tank leaving the car to feel lighter and more energetic.
He had to find this white two-tone, panda Trueno and beat the shit out of its driver in the downhill of Haruna - where he lost - with an indisputable victory.