Takumi Fujiwara vs Kyoichi Sudo

The battle between Takumi Fujiwara and Kyoichi Sudo is the eighteenth battle of Initial D.

Prior to the Battle
After Takumi's victory against Seiji Iwaki on Akina, Kyoichi Sudo travels to the gas station where Takumi works to challenge him to a battle on Akagi. After Kyoichi leaves, Takumi states that he wont be accepting the challenge, saying that it would seem like he was trying to hog the spotlight right in the middle of the hype for the battle between Emperor and the RedSuns

Takumi receives two phone calls from an unknown caller, explaining to him that Natsuki Mogi is engaged in compensated dating with a salary man, with the latter call telling him that he can witness the two of them if he goes to the hotel they are at (changed to a family restaurant in Second Stage). He drives to the hotel and witnesses the two of them leaving. Heartbroken and enraged, he decides to vent his anger in an egotistical battle with Sudo. Before the battle begins, Kyoichi states that he doesn't consider this to be a real battle; instead he sees it as teaching Takumi that his car is inferior and unsuitable for racing.

During the Battle
Despite his head start, Takumi has a clear disadvantage from the beginning and struggles to keep Sudo's Evo 3 behind him with the car's misfiring system further aggravating him. Sudo accepts that Takumi's skills and adaptability are good, however he notes that without gravity helping it, the Eight-Six is at a major disadvantage. He waits until they reach a flatter section, then passes Takumi in a corner. Kyoichi is amazed at the Eight-Six's ability to stay behind him. Takumi desperately tries to keep up, and for the first time, he has doubts about victory. Just when it seems like he can manage to keep up, Sudo changes his driving style into a spectacular drift. As Takumi sees Kyoichi speed ahead on the straight away, he accepts that he had lost and the AE86's engine blows, sending the car to a screeching halt.

After the Battle
Visibly shaken, Takumi sits in the car in shock, as smoke fumes rise from the hood. Gazing at the car in disbelief, he notices the Evo 3 driving back. Sudo reaffirms the engine's destruction, stating that while it would technically count as a loss, he didn't consider it as a race in the first place. He tells Takumi to challenge him again when he gets a real race car, then drives off. Predicting that the engine would have blown, Bunta arrives afterwards in a tow truck, and returns home with tearful Takumi while towing the AE86. After Takumi explains that he wishes to fix the engine, Bunta explains that there would be no point fixing it up, instead he will replace the engine with a better one, to which Takumi complains that it would feel like a completely different car, to which Bunta tells him that he has to know when to move on.

Second Stage

 * Speedy Speed Boy - Marko Polo
 * Don't You (Forget About My Love) - Sophie
 * Goodbye Yellow Brick Road - Wain L

Battle Stage

 * Take Me To The Top - D. Essex

Fastest Typing in Kanto Project

 * Don't You (Forget About My Love) - Sophie

Trivia
This is the first time Takumi loses in a battle. Though not an official battle, as interpreted by Sudo Kyoichi himself as he considers it as a lesson for Takumi to understand his car is not suitable for racing, this still at least to Takumi was considered as a loss.