Fifth Stage - Act 7

Zero Hearts (無（ゼロ）の心, Mu (zero) no kokoro) is the seventh Act of Initial D: Fifth Stage.

This episode features the first part of the battle between Keisuke Takahashi and Ryuji Ikeda.

Synopsis
Keisuke's next opponent in Kanagawa's Four Lines of Defense is the leader of Team Spiral, Ryuji "Zero" Ikeda. Ikeda believes in his "Zero Theory", where the driver thinks of nothing except being one with the car to create the ultimate racer. Quite similar to Ryosuke's Fastest Racer Theory, Ryosuke also notices a few flaws in Ikeda's theory. A flaw that would arise as the wet conditions create a fog battle.

Plot
As heavy rain sets in at Nanamagari, Kenta and Fumihiro inside their wooden lodge worries that a half-wet surface can be tricky for their battles. Keisuke responds by stating he's more excited for half-wet surfaces as it gives him the chance to utilize his accelerator work. Takumi also tells he doesn't care about it much as he knows how much his Eight-Six will skid during a turn no matter the surface. Keisuke then suddenly steals Takumi's food they were eating for lunch, much to the dismay of the latter. Meanwhile, in his family temple, Ryuji Ikeda notes down the rain and realizes it will be the perfect setup to test out his Zero Theory. He also wonders about Ryosuke Takahashi and something special about him, yet he looks as if he holds something heavy inside. Meanwhile back at the lodge, Ryosuke checks out Ikeda's Zero Theory on his website with Fumihiro and tells him that he finds it similar to his 'Fastest Street Racing' theory. Fumihiro was concerned when he heard Keisuke will have a tought ime battling Ikeda, but Ryosuke assures he will find a way of assuring victory. At Esso Gas Station in Gunma, the SpeedStars comments on the heavy downpour and worries on the lack of vision when driving on rain which is only made worse during night-time. But Itsuki then recalls the time Takumi won a battle during heavy rain when Itsuki was on the backseat. He thinks that Takumi has more than just driving skills which helps him overcome the difficulty of the rain.

Soon as the night of the battle soon drew closer, Keisuke completes his practice run on the course. He remarks to Project D members about how the rain stopped almost everywhere around the course, leading to Ryosuke adopting a strategy ('Half Wet Pattern B') for this particular wet road condition. Ikeda who was meditating inside his Fairlady was knocked at by Junichi Sakamoto who then asks what exactly does he think when meditating. Ikeda tells the very point of meditating is thinking of nothing and to keep his mind blank, hence he came up with no plans for the battle, as he believes the desire for victory will be exposing human weaknesses. He plans to rely on his car's potential instead. Before staring off the battle, Ikeda tells Keisuke he will be in the lead and will go full throttle once they drive past the bridge ahead in the course. As the two cars line up at the starting point, some spectators remarks how the wet weather can hamper the high performance the two cars had to offer, but others state this will lead to a battle between skills and the cars will need to have higher levels of balance than power. As they both start off and soon step on the gas once they passed the bridge, Hiroya Okuyama waiting on top expresses his dissatisfaction with the weather condition as it affects the performance of his car. He hopes Ikeda can drag out the race as long as possible until the road gets dry enough for his car to be in full performance. Meanwhile Sidewinder members Eiji Kubo and Go Hojo discusses about the battle. Go tells that Ikeda may have taken the lead as he's trying to break the pattern in which the previous two Kanagawa hill climb racers lost to Keisuke by being the chaser. Eiji states being in lead in a wet weather condition can be quite stressing for the driver, but is aware that Team Spiral has strong mettle for such conditions. At the starting point, Junichi thinks about how their team modifies their cars extensively, but just in a way it fits their driving style, which is the foremost part of the Zero Theory. As Ikeda races on, he states the human mind is weak due to emotions running inside, and it can cause mistakes when driving. Hence one should 'listen to their cars', which is a point of his Zero Theory. Keisuke chasing him notes down how Ikeda is handling the car at high speeds without skidding at this wet condition, and he himself is having a hard time keeping up. Fumihiro asks Ryosuke about the Zero Theory. Ryosuke intercepts it as a way of reducing mistakes by making the driver understand his car's feelings, which he regards it as facts when racing, as seen by Takumi's 'Fujiwara Zone'. However, he disapproves on the facts of suppressing human emotions, as he tells its impossible to contain all feelings. Fighting Spirit is something which he thinks should be present, something the Zero Theory discards. It was at that time when something worse than rain started picking up around the mountains, the infamous 'White Demon' of Hakone, as predicted by Eiji and Go. Ikeda and Keisuke soon comes face to face with the fog creeping around the course as they prepare to race through it. Spiral members were shocked to hear it, but they knew they couldn't do anything as its a public street race and could only hope Ikeda can safely manage to race through. Even then Sakamoto knew Ikeda would struggle to keep up his pace. However, Ryosuke had already anticipated this fog as he looked through the historical details of this mountain pass. He had already told Keisuke about the high chance of fog and created their strategy. But Fumihiro still worries that the locals would hold an advantage in such cases, but Ryosuke thinks otherwise. Since Fuji Speedway is in the vicinity of this course, many locals tend to practice racing there, as Ryosuke intercepted the zero Theory to be inspired from such circuit racing environments. While it fits well with touge racing as well, its not with its flaws as it doesn't count the uncertainities. Meanwhile Ikeda feels the pressure building and tries to comply with his Zero Theory, while Keisuke sees the change of pace from Ikeda's car. Meanwhile Junichi recalls the time when Ikeda tells him that if he panicks while driving, it means he's made a mistake and should ease up the accelerator. It's the basics of Zero Theory. Back at the race, Ikeda is going through a dilemma on whether to let go off the gas or to stay in it. He decides to focus and have a fighting spirit, which he instantly realizes that he is now contradicting with his very own Theory. Keisuke realizes Ikeda is now driving even more cautiously to avoid any accident with an onncoming traffic as they are hard to avoid in such fogs, and even race marshals he kept are rendered useless. Meanwhile near the top sections of the course, Kenta awaits patiently as he recalls Keisuke telling him how important his role is when he passes through this section of the course. It acts as a passing point and had practiced several times here. Kenta makes sure no oncoming cars are approaching as he ready's himself with his phone. As Ikeda and Keisuke passes a particular hairpin turn, it was spectated by Shinji Inui and his mother. Mrs Inui asks her son about Ikeda's performance, but Shinji seemed more intrigued on Keisuke's car, as he visualized it like a 'yellow fireball'. It was then as Ikeda planned to go all out after the upcoming section, a heavy blanket of fog, like a white void blocked their view ahead, making both drivers petrified. However just then, Keisuke gets a call from his cellphone attached to his dashboard. He instantly knew it was Kenta giving him the signal for the overtake. As Keisuke comes next to Ikeda at highspeed in the thick fog, Ikeda struggles to make up his mind on whether to speed up or to avoid possible accident, the episode draws to a cliffhanger.

Airdates

 * Animax: February 8, 2013

Characters (in order of appearance)

 * 1) Kenta Nakamura
 * 2) Hiroshi Fumihiro
 * 3) Keisuke Takahashi
 * 4) Takumi Fujiwara
 * 5) Ryuji Ikeda
 * 6) Ryosuke Takahashi
 * 7) Kenji
 * 8) Itsuki Takeuchi
 * 9) Koichiro Iketani
 * 10) Tomiguchi
 * 11) Junichi Sakamoto
 * 12) Hiroya Okuyama
 * 13) Go Hojo
 * 14) Eiji Kubo
 * 15) Mrs. Inui
 * 16) Shinji Inui

Cars

 * 1) Nissan 180SX Type II (RPS13)
 * 2) Toyota Sprinter Trueno GT-APEX (AE86)
 * 3) Mazda efini RX-7 Type R (FD3S)
 * 4) Nissan Fairlady Z (Z33)
 * 5) Nissan Silvia Spec R Aero (S15)

Music

 * 1) Raise Up - M.o.v.e
 * 2) Speedy Runner - King & Queen
 * 3) 夕愁想花 - M.o.v.e

Quotes

 * Ryuji Ikeda: Human mind is weak because of emotions. Emotions hinder sound judgement and precise control. For example, in this rainy condition it causes frustration by not being able to step on the gas, as well as anxiety and fear of the slippery road. Those human emotions will lead to mistake. So you have to empty your mind and listen to the voice of your car. Zero theory begins by interacting with your car.
 * Ryosuke Takahashi: Project D consists of pure street attackers. Whether it's fog or whatever, we'll do what we need in order to win.
 * Shinji Inui: The lower car in the rear seemed more amazing. It looked like a yellow fireball to me, Mom.

Notes & Trivia

 * 夕愁想花 by M.o.v.e is used as the outro from this episode onwards.
 * This episode featured first appearance of Shinji Inui, the final opponent of Project D and the series.
 * The race started at around 7:45 PM, according to the manga.