The referenced album title of Part 54.1 was Return of the Space Cowboy by Jamiroquai.

[FTA|s3_13.2: Part 53.2] Challenge: Response
Nikko, Tochigi, Japan.

Day 23.

12:59:44

"It... It's gone! My..."

"...?"

"...My car... my ES53... it's gone!"

Immediately, all of Nakajima's friends clambered to the fence, looking out at the blank car space where a cyan and grey compact car should have been.

However, the high-schooler's outburst wasn't due to the shock of the missing car.

"...damn it... did he take it again!?"

"Huh?" One of the other girls asked. "Who took it?"

"Oh... my dad."

"Huuuh!? How do you know he took it?"

Nakajima simply pointed to another car, next to the blank spot. It was a silver two-door, four seat, mid-engined sports car.

"That's my dad's car."

Yamutsu was a Japanese car manufacturer that specialised in many different models. A larger, high-riding 5-door SUV in the XU-1, a sports utility in the Iseo, a hardened, mid-engined sports car in the Swan-3, and the compact that was Nakajima's car, the Tempest.

However, that was not all. There was one more car that was produced by the company. It was two-door, mid-engined, and very sporty, like the Swan-3, yet it was more luxurious. It contained the 366hp, 3.2L V6 Turbo that resided in the Iseo, and retained four full seats. As described by the company, it was a "family supercar".

Called the 3200R, it was Yamutsu's top of the line model... and the older Nakajima owned one.

Which was the exact car sitting beside the space where the other Yamutsu should have been.

A phone emerged from the bag of the Tempest's owner, who begun to call the one who borrowed it.

"Dad, hi, how are you?"

"I'm fine, and yourself?"

"...you took my car."

"I... it's not like you need it right now."

"Yeah, but... I need it for Saturday. Like, really, really need!"

"I know you do. But Saturday is Saturday, this is today, and right now, you're in school. I'll bring it back before you're done today."

"I... fine."

------------
Day 24.

10:09:48

"Dad, I've called my friends over... c-can I... um... can I get you to help me too?"

The father looked down at his offspring in surprise.

"No matter what, I will always love you, I will always be proud of you. And you can get my help with anything, so... why the timidness?"

"Ah, sorry. I thought that... maybe... you wouldn't want to help. I... I want to tune the Tempest."

The older man just smiled.

"Who said I wanted nothing to do with that? Come on, you know me more than anyone, I love cars."

"...you're right, dad. So anyway, my friends know what I want, so I can tell you now--"

"No turbo?"

"I-- Yeah, no turbo."

The small teenager had been very adamant in the past about the intense will to not have a turbo installed into the Tempest GTA, wanting to keep the responsiveness that was more important with a very lightweight car, such as the limited edition compact.

"Really, anything else. Intake upgrades, ECU timing, stabiliser tweaking, anything we can to make her faster. Just, no turbos."

At that point, the high schooler Nakajima's friends entered.

"Hey, you! And, hi, Mr. Nakajima."

"Hi," He greeted back. "I see you all got coerced into modifying the Tempest as well?"

The father chuckled.

"No, nothing like that! We've been racing fans since around the time we all became friends! We used to watch Kotonami race. She was our senior."

"Alright, so that explains why I was dragged along to see the last Archangel race. Well, if that black car of his really is that powerful to defeat a car like Kotonami's, then the power that GTA makes now might not be enough. Well, let's go...

"...I want Hayate to win!"