Seiji Tsuchiya | speed-legend

(土屋セイジ) Seiji Tsuchiya

Nationality: Japanese

Birthday: January 3

Protagonist Debut: Speed Legend: Fujin – Tsuchiya Chronicles (風神 - 土屋クロニクル)

Age: 22 (Mugen: Akiyama Chronicles)

26 (Supido no Densetsu R series Epilogue)

28 (Fujin – Tsuchiya Chronicles)

Seiji is commonly called as “Everybody’s Hero”. A man of the streets, he worked his way up the Shutoku ranks to become the fastest street racer in his current time (Mugen arc) and lasted over 40 victories in his street racing career. He built a hard but strong rivalry with Daiki Akiyama and kept that friendship/rivalry for a long time. Despite his rival going to the professional league, Seiji stayed at Tokyo to master his use of his LanEvo and maintained his standing as the “Wangan God”, soon renamed as the “Wangan Guardian”, as known by a few. With respects to his racing career; in short, he is a living racing legend.

Story:

Early Life Prior to Akiyama Chronicles

Seiji’s young life was your usual run of the mill, above average lifestyle with a complete family. He lived in an apartment at downtown Tokyo with his parents. He had a very healthy group of friends at school and he aims to become a doctor at Tokyo University when he reaches college. At a very young age of 10, Seiji’s life experienced a huge turnaround while his father, Soichiro Tsuchiya, a detective in a local Metropolitan Federal Bureau, was investigating a case of an armed man who is constantly intoxicated who has been engaging in multiple cases of rape and murder.

Coming home one day from grade school, he found his mother* being assaulted by a wanted intoxicated robber and was knocked out trying to save her, who later died of asphyxiation after attempted rape. Soichiro came in to save them but after witnessing his wife lifeless, charged after the robber and got into a fistfight with him only to be stabbed by the same robber. Seiji saw his father’s gun and although still groggy by the impact at the back of his head, reaches for it and shoots at the robber, missing on his first two shots. The drunken robber approached Seiji and taunted him thinking he was a kid who does not have the balls to pull the trigger. Seiji shoots the robber, killing him and was traumatized by the scene after his vision cleared up. Seiji lost all sanity and was reduced to a lifeless doll the moment he saw his own house all covered in the blood of his parents and attempted killer. Given it was all at the ruse of self defense and there were no witnessed of the murder other than the aftermath, Seiji was put under a witness protection program at a young age prior to have been handed over by his other remaining family contacts. The traumatic experience psychologically scarred Seiji that he lost the will to smile during his youth. He lost all contact with his past friends and was mostly seen tending to himself most of the time.

After said events, he stayed with his uncle who was a race mechanic until he graduated from high school, moved to Tokyo and took up vocational studies on journalism where he got into JTKed later in time. His uncle gave him his garage demo car – a Lancer Evolution VII as a graduation gift which he deems that Seiji could be the only one qualified to “complete” it. Not long before he received his car, Seiji was visiting a girl he liked named Aya. Seiji and Aya were okay for some time, around 2 years or so prior to his graduation from vocational studies until one day, for no reason, Aya decided to break off all contact with Seij, “disposing” him in a sense – he received a text message annunciating their break-up; This confused Seiji dearly and was emotionally scarred for some time. The last known interaction between them is sometime around the second week of February; afterwards Aya disappeared from Seiji without a trace. Despite Seiji’s attempts to get a reason for the disappearance, it just drove him mad and completely obsessed in getting an answer from her. After being consolidated by his peers, Seiji comes to the conclusion that he was used by her and felt the same berserk feeling like when he was taunted to murder during his younger years. Although Seiji hated her guts and how he was treated like trash after their intimate moments, he still cared for her – visiting her while she was asleep though looking as if she never met Seiji at all to begin with. To express his sense of betrayal for Aya’s actions, he said that he will “dispose of her” the same way she did to him. Since then, they did not have contact at all with each other. Seiji still occasionally visits the same restaurant where Aya worked but their eyes never crossed.

Seiji met Aya for one last time, when he received a sudden call; a few weeks after his Graduation, where she was begging to save him from a possible attempted rape-after-kidnapping at Yokohama pier. Seiji rushed to the rescue, although still blinded by the rage of how she recently treated their relationship. With a gun in hand, the same gun his father used to have before he died, he meets Aya only to aim the gun at her. Two shots were fired and the sound of two falling bodies echoed around the pier. Turns out that Seiji indeed saved Aya but Seiji greets her back with the words “Next time, I won’t miss my shot.” The memory continues to haunt Seiji as a form of reminder how he was toyed and played and to not fall for the same trick ever again in his life. He broke off all contact with her right after but he still regularly visits her place past midnight for unknown reasons.

*names are disclosed

Events of Akiyama Chronicles

Seiji used that LanEvo he got from his uncle to participate on nightly Wangan Runs and circuit meets where his name was recognized; mostly out on the highways, to forget everything that happened to him with Aya, evidently it worked as he gets more engrossed into racing – winning every race he participated both in the professional league and on the highway. On that point is where he met Daiki Akiyama, after garnering 40+ victories in his lifetime from Wangan duels, then lost to him. Pride overwhelming Seiji, he declares Daiki to be his rival to beat. Seiji was soon obsessed in beating Daiki, training nightly, modifying his car in the process.

Seiji was later seen remodifying his Lancer Evolution with the one purpose of beating Daiki and taking back, his loss. Using all his connections in the tuning industry, that he collected from working with JTK-Ed., he boosts up his car from 400 horsepower to almost 500 horsepower and challenges Daiki, who was at that time, having his first date with Claudia Fortescue, Daiki’s supposed fiancée. The two of them get into a clash of principles and after some “encouragement” by fellow street racers and business & work rivals, Raymond Yamazaki and Kazuhiko Aizawa, Seiji challenges Daiki for a second time, only to lose to him again.

With the whole fiasco of multiple racers literally dying by the hands of Daiki Akiyama’s lingering will (possessed by Silverblood), Seiji laid low and was able to cool down about his little feud with Daiki and after seeing him suffer from the possession, and giving due condolences to the death of Daiki’s fiancée Claudia, Seiji had grown to respect Daiki (Probable reason of them losing someone dear to their lives – i.e. family / lover). Seiji soon swore to Daiki that he will be the one person to defeat him on proper grounds once he returns from his professional venture. They had one last battle to congratulate Daiki in saving almost all street racers from a fate worse than death, free from the abomination of the said lingering spirit. Seiji and Daiki made a pact with each other stating that they will continue to hone their skills to greater heights and race each other again. Initially, Daiki requests Seiji to be his partner in the professional league but the latter declined stating that he wishes not to take his spotlight away from him and would find his own way in perfecting his driving.

Meeting Daiki once again at the International League

Covering for a story for Japan Tuning (the Magazine company that Seiji, Kazuhiko, and Keiichi work at), they meet up with Daiki Akiyama and his apprentice, Tomogashi Kitsumoro along with the rest of Team Japan while they were being entertained by Kitana Tioseco, another of Daiki’s previous apprentices. Seiji wondered why Daiki would take up a personal student of his who mains an R34 GT-R. With Kazuhiko and Keiichi, they challenge Tomo, Sakura, and Kitami in a 3 versus 3 match down Kitana’s personalized circuit and lost in a dogfight against the R34 by a thread. Seiji understood why Daiki had eyes for Tomo then stayed in the sidelines to witness Tomo’s battle against Kitana’s Lamborghini Diablo VT.

The Fujin Arc

Revolving around his life as a racer, Seiji is at the absolute limit of his inner patience and begins to wane at the fact that he might be waiting for Daiki too long for their rematch. He soon feels a sensation of burnout and plans to give up on racing him. After the news of Team Japan’s Tomo and Sakura disbanding, this gave Seiji full of questions as to why Daiki, his prime rival, would allow a trump card of his to be disbanned off a team that he aims to be on the top. He carried these questions while at the same time trying to revive the fire in him with respects to racing as he encounters new people who would soon pose as a threat to either him and the community – not limited to a gaijin (foreigner) bragging about his forte as the best LanEvo tuner & racer, a teenager out of control in a car that is out of control, and a past legend who just returned to see what Seiji’s metal is.

The second of the three mentioned soon became a threat to the running public and Seiji has to take action to prevent any further casualties. Seiji makes use of most of his connections in setting up his car for that one moment in taking the out of control brat for good. Midway through, he faces off against a legend of the past – Motoya Iwasaki, popularly known as “Jintei / Speed King”. Iwasaki sees to it if Seiji is fit enough to be crowned as his successor at the same time aiding him at his aim of completing his Lancer Evolution. Grateful, despite certain moments of offense, Seiji takes his words to heart and completes his project worthy of his previous nickname: “The Wangan God”.

Seiji will soon get his desire revived fully once again, only to be tasked by a mysterious person to use that reborn desire to redirect Tomo to the right direction.

Personality:

Because of his dark past, Seiji is a cold-hearted, self centered, prideful individual who learned life the hard way. Seiji still has a soft spot for things and with certain people but this was rarely shown. He loves to go satire with his wordings to the point of pissing other people off; his friends are accustomed to this attitude of his and never took any offense to him. It does not show, but Seiji does love the company of people who appreciate him. He cares enough to look after them, friend or foe; as long as that person acknowledged his worth and respects him.

During the Mugen arc, Seiji is a die-hard sore loser. He hates losing most of all and takes much pride in his skill as a racer. Most commonly noticeable about Seiji’s personality is that he is very antisocial, to this very day. Seiji does not mingle with a lot of people and wishes to be alone; he works and races alone more than he races with other people. It may probably be a past attitude of Daiki Akiyama, his prime rival that soon rubbed off on him.

Seiji tends to bear grudges, very deep and strong grudges; especially those that involve him being the victim. He hates being toyed around and being played at. This contributed to some sort of disorder that developed within him that drove him mad to the point of pointing a gun at the person he once loved, because he was played like a used tool. Much like a Samurai, Seiji is very dedicated to his craft and with his “weapon of choice”. He never bothered to try out other cars unless instructed or part of the job and does whatever he can to maximize the potential of his own machine. It may look as if Seiji is a one-track minded individual but he could manage multiple things in his mind despite inner conflicts and circumstances that trouble him.

Seiji’s one desire was to have a rematch with his prime rival at the Wangan – Daiki Akiyama.

Relationships:

Seiji has garnered much of a crowd to nickname himself as “everybody’s hero” but he has huge respects to certain people that he soon became close to – rivals and friends alike. His grudges most of the time used to be close acquaintaces and people important in his life.

Daiki Akiyama

Daiki and Seiji started off on the wrong foot when they first met. That time, winning was everything for Seiji; including winning on the streets. The moment he experienced his first defeat against Daiki, he cannot get over losing to a person who has opposing ideals compared to him. Daiki is someone who drove Seiji to improve on his driving to his absolute limit. Seiji soon changed his thoughts of revenge into a spark of inspiration to his rival and kept a lifetime promise of racing against each other again when they both have perfected their craft.

Kazuhiko Aizawa

Kazuhiko was a co-worker of Seiji’s and they soon became close friends ever since they met. Despite his attitude towards other people, Seiji got along well with Kazuhiko. Kazu acts like the little brother Seiji never had and occasionally teases him. As a racer, Seiji has deep respects for Kazuhiko, given he is, like him, dedicated to his own car – a Mazda FD3S RX-7 Spirit R type A. He has full trust with Kazuhiko in both racing involved and other things.

Keiichi Iwata

Keiichi is another one of Seiji’s close associates in the JT Magazine crew. Specializing in FF machines, a nearly similar platform of his AWD Lancer Evolution, Keiichi and Seiji get along very well; even share driving and tuning advices with each other a lot. Due to the events of Fujin, Keiichi is not that engaged with Seiji during the first half but shows his loyalty to his colleague on the latter half.

Naoko Takahashi

Despite being Daiki Akiyama’s aide, Naoko has built a strong and healthy friendship with Seiji. She is very accommodating to him and even helped him out with his own racing dilemma. Unbeknownst to Seiji, Naoko later on developed an intimate interest for Seiji himself, ahd has fallen for him because he is soon acting like Daiki Akiyama, the person Naoko loved before (in the Mugen arc). As soon as she realizes these feelings, she interacts with Seiji more and for her benefit, she was not pushed aside by the young male. Although the prime reason was that he reminds him more of Daiki, Naoko willingly admits that he likes Seiji more than a friend, and Seiji seems to reciprocate similarly as well, even if it is not on a similar aspect.

Motoya Iwasaki

Also known as Speed King and Jintei, Iwasaki was Seiji’s idol when he was young. When Seiji grew, he also let go of his inspiration and soon became his own inspiration; but behind that ruse, he still holds huge respects for Iwasaki as a fellow legendary street racer. Iwasaki helped Seiji perfect his LanEvo by using his own R34 GT-R as a basis for their settings and, like how he wishes to race Daiki in the future, gave Seiji a race of a lifetime. Until now, he still has huge respects for Iwasaki as the person who got him to racing in the first place.

Stanley Lee

Stanley was like a father to Seiji whenever he visits the restaurant. He has always been looking out for Seiji’s welfare, especially when it comes to his recently developed “disorder” involving him and Aya. Seiji keeps on visiting Stanley whenever he has troubles of his own and where he feels he has no control of himself. He knows Seiji’s favorite dish and cooks it for him with no questions asked.

“Midnight Cinderella”

A fellow living legend of present, who is affiliated with Motoya Iwasaki; she presented Seiji with the challenge of finding the ideal balance of his car. Between street racers, Seiji has very high respects for Midnight Cinderella and her caliber as a driver.

Aya

A girl whom Seiji was mutually attached to during his vocational school life; Aya is your run-off-the-mill girl that Seiji got physically attracted to. She works at the same place as Stanley and every night, and Seiji keeps visiting her to take her home. The problem stemmed further and deeper when Seiji freely confessed to Aya at his opportune time, and she did not respond properly to his actions. Rather than come clean and tell him that she doesn’t feel the same way as Seiji; Aya went into hiding whenever he is around. This depressed Seiji intensely and went even worse when she “broke up” with Seiji by text. Karma soon got the better of her when she was in the verge of being kidnapped at Yokohama pier and she called Seiji for help. Seiji aimed his father’s gun at her warning her that if he ever treats him like trash again, he will shoot her. He demonstrated this when at the same position, he shot the 2 kidnappers who jumped behind her, leaving them for dead.

Seiji lamented on her last text one more time, then soon admitted that even if the break up was harsh, the fact she still went out of her way to wish him the best at the end of the text, she still cares for Seiji’s future. Seiji cut off all contact, the same way as Aya and moved on from her.

Ryo “Tokyo Fury” Haraguchi

During the early moments of Seiji’s racing career before he met Daiki Akiyama, Seiji was affiliated with a group of elite LanEvo drivers comprised of him, and 3 others. Among these 3 unmentioned individuals was Ryo Haraguchi who specializes in the CE9A chassis. He’s particularly close to Seiji who treats him as his uncrowned equal and their last interaction was an intimate duel between the two LanEvo masters. Ryo brotherly counsels Seiji to remind him of what is it that he is lacking; so that he will learn what is it that is holding him back. He moves to the US for business reasons where he continues his career under the pseudo name “Tokyo Fury” dealing with Terry and the local California street team, the D-Suns.

He is originally created by the creator of Adrenaline – Street Racing; by Parker Brooks a.k.a. 1mfilms.

Abilities

Seiji mostly learned all his techniques from other street racers and when he was fully established after the Mugen arc, he went professional around the racing scene, primarily at Gymkhanas and Autocross as to name a few. He doesn’t have any trademark techniques as most of them are orthodox.

Out of all of Seiji’s techniques, these are his favorite moves to use against his rivals:

Power Over – a turning ability involving an all-wheel-drive powerslide to throw his car into a “drift”
Slipstreaming – a copied technique from Akiyama Daiki, who maximized this skill. He aligns his car right behind his opponent to build up speed then at the opportune moment, he slingshots his way out of his rival’s position and take the lead from them.
Rear Pressure – a technique utilizing Slipstreaming while keeping pace with his opponent; rather than going out of his rival’s lane to overtake, he stays behind his rival to build pressure, hoping his opponent cracks and loses their momentum and that is where Seiji makes his move.
“Lead and Run Away” – A similar attack utilized by Motoya “The Speed King” Iwasaki, where he starts out hot during the battle and maximizes his techniques early on and creates a huge gap against his opponent. Seiji does this a lot during sprints but never used it on an endurance match.

Cars

Seiji primarily uses a Lancer Evolution 8 that he soon modified into an Evo 9. But during his stay, he originally started with the first of the CT chassis, the Lancer Evolution 7 GSR. Seiji is very dedicated to his mastery of the CT9A chassis and squeezed out every ounce of performance he could take. He tunes his car for speed, opposed to the Lancer’s natural ability of handling prowess and is able to tune it to hit speeds above 330 km/h. Seiji is one of the few drivers to have brought the car to such an inhuman level, amongst LanEvo drivers. No doubt he is a bonafide Lancer evolution Master.