This story was inspired after I read The Path of Grace by Eirenei.

My one and only disclaimer: I don't own ES21 and I never will. I think that should keep me covered for the rest of this story, no?

What kind of crazy nut would spend two or three hours a day just running? –anonymous

Prologue

Predawn shadows chased the figure that ran along the quiet country road. The cool early spring air nipped at Sena's body only to be brushed away with the heat his body was radiating. Sweat dripped down his face, matting his messy brown hair and making his shirt stick to him. Breathing in and out heavily, he pushed his legs against the dirt road again and again, a faint memory of another boy teaching him how to run correctly floating in the back of his mind. He couldn't remember what the boy looked like very well, but his voice echoed clearly in his head, a voice that Sena called Riku.

Glancing to the side as his running disturbed some small animal, Sena felt an aching in his heart. This morning was his last morning running down these quiet dirt roads and mountain paths. Just before his fourth year of elementary school, his parents had decided to intervene in his life due to the bullying that plagued Sena every day at school. After a lot of discussion, they'd sent Sena to live with his father's parents in the country to give him a chance to start over. The results of the move were actually quite good.

Sena was still a very quiet boy, but he was no longer picked on or bullied. He'd become acquaintances with a few people in his class, and had developed the rather healthy habit of going on multiple long runs every day, starting with an early morning run that had him out and about before even the sun was up. That was all coming to an end though. Now that Sena was to start attending high school, his parents wanted him to return to the city to live with them. The fact that he'd be living with his parents again made Sena happy, but he'd grown very close with his grandparents over the years and would miss the wide open space that was the country.

Reaching his grandparents' house, Sena slowed to a stop, his breath hanging as visible mist in front of him before disappearing to be replaced by the next breath. Once his breathing had returned to normal, Sena placed his hands in the small of his back and leaned backwards, letting out a content sigh at the popping that ensued. Walking up to the front door, Sena sat just inside it to take off his shoes before heading up the stairs to the room he'd lived in for the past six years. He paused at the door frame to look at the marks there that started out rather short and slowly climbed higher and higher up the doorframe, marks that showed his physical growth since he'd moved in.

"It's been a while since we last measured you." Jumping a little, Sena glanced over his shoulder at his grandpa who was staring at him thoughtfully. Like Sena and his father, Sena's grandpa had the typical messy Kobayakowa hair; only his was now gray with age and cut shorter than Sena's. "Why don't we measure you one last time? We measured you the day you got here, so it's only right that we measure you on the day you leave."

"Ah, sure," Sena said, retrieving a pencil from his desk and standing with his back to the doorframe. Taking the pencil from his grandson, Shou Kobayakowa scratched a mark into the doorframe at the top of Sena's head. As Sena moved away to look at the mark, they could both see that he'd grown a few centimeters since the last time they taken his height nearly half a year ago.

"Would you look at that," Shou said, smiling down at his grandson. "I'd wager if we add that growth to your old height that your about 162-163cm tall now. Not bad, Sena." Smiling, Sena nodded. Compared to the mark much farther down on the doorway from the day he'd moved in, he'd really grown a lot. "Of course," Shou said, clapping Sena on the shoulder, "you've grown in more than just height." He gave Sena's shoulder a good squeeze, feeling the lean muscle that had developed there from helping with the chores. Chopping wood, carrying things around, and helping out the neighbors in various ways had helped to tone Sena's body along with his running. The fact that one of the acquaintances he'd made at school was obsessed with rugby and was always trying to get Sena to help him practice might have also had something to do with it though.

Staring down at his grandson who he'd become rather close with, Shou could feel his eyes watering up, so he cleared his throat and ruffled Sena's hair affectionately.

"Your grandma should be up soon to make breakfast, so go get cleaned up. She'll probably be nothing but a bunch of waterworks, so be patient." With that, he left Sena alone to go find the morning's paper. Sena didn't say a word, but he could hear the words his grandpa hadn't spoken as he turned to face his now rather barren room. All of his belongings other than what he could fit into a duffel bag that now sat on his neatly made bed had been sent ahead and were already waiting for him at his parent's home.

Perhaps, more than anything else, staring at the now lifeless room made Sena realize it was really happening. He was moving back in with his parents, and, starting in a few days, he'd be a student at Deimon High. Hopefully, he'd be ready for it.

...

Bleh. I'm not a huge fan of prologues, but this story got down on its hands and knees to beg and plead for one, so here it is. Believe me when I say that normal chapters will be a much more respectable length than a mere 965 words. I like my chapters to be a couple thousand words at least.

-EWAS