Welcome to my second fanfic, Running From Yourself, a LH story with in an alternate unierse.
Everything belongs to Ken Akamatsu, except my story.
Enjoy.
Keitaro staggered down the barren road. Anyone who would have seen the twenty-two year old would have thought he had just gotten his ass kicked in a real heavy fight. He had no shirt and his torso was covered in lacerations and bruises while what he had left of pants well the only body covering item he had on was his ragged pants, Keitaro walked the road shoeless as well. It was more like all the crap that the young man had piled on his back in life had finally hit him full force and yet the boy still stood on his own two feet, not for long though.
Kietaro had been walking for what he guessed was at least four weeks. In his traveling he had not come across any kind of vendor or place of business thus not eating anything for the whole four weeks except what little he had left of what he had with him. He continued on despite the feeling like his stomach was eating itself for nourishment and that his spine might break before he took another step.
The brown haired man stared into the empty sky. He felt so strange so alone; he hadn't had that emotion in a long time. Maybe it was the fact that the sky was only three colors during the day, blue, orange, and pitch black, and that there never seemed to be anything else in the atmosphere not even the sun. The only sound he heard was the wind constantly blowing against him. The lonely feeling, a thing that had not been in his life since that day he talked to his aunt.
It was funny he had never expected for a person like him to have had such good friends. If he ever saw them again he would thank them for all that they had done for him. Especially Nyamo who he had not known that well but she had definitely been a big part of Keitaro's reasons for changing for the better. He remembered the swords woman who he had known as a friend possibly a love interest and respected even more but whatever had been there was now gone, so much for it because Keitaro was either going to die of starvation or go completely insane.
Reflecting on it all made him feel old, he had experienced too much too early in his life. There were things he had seen that he wished he had not and would not wish upon anyone else. Yet there were times he would cherish forever even after he was worm chow, despite the hits he took which relatively were not as bad as a normal person might think. Naru may have hit extraordinarily hard for an average girl but he would rather have that then the other pains that had riddled his youth. Besides it not like his invincibility couldn't handle it.
The young man was taken from his thoughts as he heard a new sound make its way to his ears it was the sound of something being rattled within a piece of metal and rather loudly at that. "Son of a bitch."
It was all Keitaro could mutter as he watched Seta's van fall from out of nowhere land rolling on the ground. It hit the ground and performed an impressive display as it continued to head towards Keitaro without the use of its wheels. It rolled for about several minutes until it hit a shift in the earth that formed a natural ramp where it flew off from and landed rolling again until it just about landed on Keitaro who had to leap out of the way because it appeared the thing might tip over on top of him.
The van didn't however, as it regained its balance and rested on its four tires. The weary traveler was surprised to see it was still intact. The side door opened to reveal Seta and Sarah staring back at Keitaro who stared puzzled back at them. "Phew, good thing I wore my seat belt this time."
"What are you guys doing here?" Keitaro managed to whisper out of his dry, dry throat. It felt like he had swallowed sand and it was still making its way down through his esophagus.
"Haruka ordered me to come find you or she would kill me, she sounded serious this time." Seta replied with a cheerful smile. He was referring to the many times Keitaro's aunt had threatened such things.
"Plus we can't expect a loser like you to survive out here alone." Sarah added in.
"Get in kid we got a long way ahead of us." Seta commanded emotionlessly.
"You know you didn't have to do this." Keitaro said not getting into the van.
"I know, I didn't, but there's some women back home would disagree now get in." Seta replied with the same emotionless tone. He was not acting like his usual happy-go-lucky self and Keitaro knew he was the reason. Not that it mattered to the young man, but Seta was his friend and if he was truly that angered by what he had done then Keitaro would try to fix things. He would not apologize for his actions however, what he had done could not have been avoided.
Keitaro shrugged and climbed into the back seat as Sarah and Seta made their way to the front. Seta revved the engine and began driving again away from the barren desert. Peering outside the window Keitaro realized he had no real idea where he was going, the only land formation had been rocks and dying shrubbery, that and the smoldering machine parts from the now destroyed factory that had stood in the desert several mile s from the group's location.
"Hey Seta," Keitaro called still staring out the window.
"Yeah Kid," Seta would be referring to him as kid for the time being, because the archeologist was trying to be demeaning, as he was still angry for the decision Keitaro had made.
"Why'd you bring the van instead of the plane?" Keiataro asked.
"Sorry kid, plane's in the shop for now." The archeologist replied.
"Oh," Keitaro simply responded.
"Hey loser you plan on trying to apologize for all the shit you pulled?" Sarah inquired turning around in her seat to look at the wearied young man in the backseat.
"Sarah what have I said about using that word?" Seta scolded watching the paved road he had finally found.
"Oh right, sorry daddy, let me rephrase my previous question." Sarah apologized. "Hey loser you plan to apologize for that stupid crap you pulled?" she asked smiling evilly.
Seta just sighed his daughter would be as mean as possible when she wanted. Well to anyone but her own father. Keitaro thought that their relationship as parent and child was interesting. Whoever had cared for Sarah before Seta was obviously not in the girl's heart however one wouldn't expect Sarah to be very trusting towards other people, especially strangers. It often seemed that Sarah's real parents had been abusive, due to a strange marking on her back that Keitaro had accidently got a glimpse of before and that the blonde girl would become angry if anybody brought up her real parents.
So one would assume that at the beginning Sarah was not at all ready to accept Seta as her father, but it appeared as though overtime their bond had become strong once Sarah realized that Seta was someone who was big and strong willing to take care of her. She must have not experienced such a thing with her biological parents.
The part that Keitaro found odd and somewhat humorous is that to Sarah, her 'daddy' was superman yet it often looked like Seta was willing to do almost anything for her, and Sarah often took full advantage of that. An intelligent man fulfilling every whim of an eleven year old girl it was like those American cartoons with the big dog and the tiny dog that looked up to him but depended on the big dog for protection.
"So kid tell me was it all worth it?" Seta asked before Keitaro had a chance to answer Sarah's question. 'All worth it?' What exactly was all? He would have to think through the answer to that one. He would also have to consider Sarah's because well he hadn't expected to be alive after 'all' of it was over.
"You know what you guys are going to have to give me a moment to think those answers over." Keitaro replied after a few minutes.
"Take all the time you need kid, like I said we have a long way ahead of us. You take all the time you need." Seta replied as he continued to concentrate on the road.
Too honestly answer if it was all worth it, Keitaro would have to think back to that day in Shirai's restaurant as he discussed their lives with his old friend. Both were trying to escape what they had done what they were. It was the day after he had gotten the call from his Aunt Haruka. The day before he stood in front of the inn that he had not been told was now an all girl's dormitory. It was the day he would try to be a normal person for once.
Confused yet? I was expecting that, if your curious enough to find out why things are this way keep reading. Please leave a review.