Chapter 004

Cole's Ill-Fated Decision (池谷の悲壮な決意!!, Iketani no Hisō na Ketsui!!, "Iketani's tragic determination!!") is the fourth chapter of Initial D.

Plot
At the Fujiwara Tofu Store, Iketani checks out the Eight-Six parked outside. He notes how normal it looks, and doubts that it could be the car that he had heard about. As he goes to leave he is surprised when he runs into Takumi. Iketani offers him a lift to work in his S13. On the journey there, Takumi asks why Iketani was at his house, with him lying that he had business in the area and was passing by. Iketani asks Takumi if he really knows nothing about cars, because he has an Eight-Six parked outside his house. Takumi tells him that he's wrong, saying that it has Trueno written on its boot, and Iketani explains to him that a Trueno is an Eight-Six.

At the gas station, Itsuki is annoyed with Takumi for not letting him know that he had an Eight-Six. He quickly changes his tune however, and asks Takumi if he can borrow the car for when they go to Akina to watch the RedSuns and SpeedStars race. Takumi is reluctant, but Itsuki insists that he must.

Later, Iketani fits new tires and brake pads to his S13 for improved grip for the battle with the RedSuns. Kenji tells him to take care, as a single mistake could kill him, but Iketani says he has to push himself in order to protect Akina's pride.

On Akina, Iketani struggles to make any improvement on his downhill run, his own home course feels tough to race on. At the top of the mountain Kenji tells him that Keisuke Takahashi had stopped by, noting that he's been showing up every night. Iketani says that Keisuke's way too eager to practice. Keisuke races down Akina, waiting for the Eight-Six to appear so that he can race him again.

At the gas station, Itsuki tells Iketani that the two of them should teach Takumi more about cars. They ask him if he knows what drifting is, and he tells them its when you let your front tires slide in a corner. The two of them mock him, telling him that he's describing understeering, and that real drifting involves sliding the rear tires. Yuichi overhears, and thinks to himself that Takumi is actually right, and that only someone who had mastered four wheel drifting would have given an answer like that. Keisuke pulls into the gas station, much to Iketani's shock, and asks Takumi to fill his gas tank.

Japan

 * November 6th 1995 (Tankōbon, Volume 01)

Chinese

 * January 1st 1998 (Tankōbon, Volume 01, Sharp Point Press)

English

 * May 21st 2002 (Tankōbon, Volume 01, Tokyopop)
 * April 17th 2019 (Digital re-release, Volume 01, Kodansha USA)

French

 * January 14th 2009 (Tankōbon, Volume 01, Kazé)

Italian

 * March 28th 2023 (Tankōbon 2-in-1, Volume 01, J-Pop)

Characters (in order of appearance)

 * Takumi Fujiwara
 * Koichiro Iketani
 * Itsuki Takeuchi
 * Kenji
 * Keisuke Takahashi
 * Yuichi Tachibana



Cars (in order of appearance)

 * Toyota Sprinter Trueno 3door GT-APEX (AE86)
 * Nissan Silvia K's (S13)
 * Mazda ɛ̃fini RX-7 Type R (FD3S)



Quotes