DISCLAIMER: I don't own Love Hina nor The Place Promised in Our Early Days. These are owned by Ken Akamatsu and Makoto Shinkai, respectively. I only own most of my internal organs that I possess.

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Kumo no Mukou, Keitaro
By SK-superpower

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Author's Note: This chapter was slow to come out, and I'm still not totally liking how it is right now, so I've decided to bring this out and start working on the third chapter and I'll revise this one later. Enjoy!

Please read and review!

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Keitaro heard something shoot up in the distance. It sounded like a child's rocket, but it could be anything.

When he opened his eyes, night suddenly became day.

He looked towards the source of the light. 'Probably just an enemy flare...' he concluded after staring at the man-made shooting star for a few seconds. There was a sudden increase in machine-gun fire noise in the distance.

ratatta tat tat tttaatatatat tatat ata ttatatata atataa

pow pow pow pow

He could hear the exchange of rapid machine gun fire and a semi-automatic rifle. Keitaro could just imagine the mens' scream of pain and horror when hit by the bullets in his little foxhole. He tried to shake off the feeling, but the imagery came back again and again. It was a forever haunting memory inside his head, slow to go away, quick to come back and scare him half to death. If it wasn't the Soviet's bullets that killed him, it would be the psychological damage.

He curled up int a ball to keep as warm as possible and continued to think about the past, good times and bad.

\\Continued Flashback Sequence/

The men stood at the grounds and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited.

They were there for about 2 hours before some men started to shift around. The day was hot, humid, and sweaty in their uniforms. Some sat down on their bags, looking around for any signs of the colonel or any high-ranking brass coming their way.

One man decided to leave, the man looked of a less pleasant disposition, Keitaro decided to name him "Grumpy" for the time being. Grumpy said, "Damn it. Nobody's coming, and they probably will never come. I'm leaving." He gathered up his things and started to walk off.

The person that Keitaro saw that could be considered the "leader" (or more so, the "intimidator") of the group replied, "What's more likely is that they are testing our patience and loyalty. I highly suggest that you come back, or you'll most likely get shot."

Grump took one look at the "leader" and decided it was best to stay. With nothing to do, he just grumbled to himself the whole time.

Keitaro had to stifle a laugh.

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The rain started out as a few drops. Nothing more than a light drizzle.

But the rain kept coming.

The men just stood there, braving the rain out in the open. Desperatly hoping that somebody would come get them, escort them to their new barracks, and apologize to them furiously.

Then, lights could be seen. From the sky, it was a helicopter that descended. A large one, enough to carry all 18 men and equipment, Keitaro thought it looked more or less like a banana.

'Su...', he thought sadly. He shook his head, to try to make it less wet, and to get rid of past memories. Keitaro had a job now, he couldn't let anything interfere with it because the better he did his job, the more likely he could go back home.

The helicopter's speakers boomed out, "513th Demolition Group, board helicopter immediately."

Doing as told, the men gathered their belongings and ran towards the helicopter. The helicopter's back door dropped open and the men scrambled in to get away from the rain.

Inside the helicopter, it was rather roomy. There were two rows of seats lined on the sides of the helicopter, while up at the front was the control area. The men sat down and waited.

Keitaro looked to his left and right, on his left was a lanky man that looked like Seta, only without glasses. On his right was a man who had a scar along the side of his left jaw, the man's eyes were staring out into space, slightly unfocused. The man on Keitaro's right leaned back and closed his eyes, as if to take a nap from reality.

'If I could only escape from reality...' thought Keitaro.

Keitaro looked at the door and saw that it started to close.

He asked, "Uh, Pilot-san, where are we heading to?"

"I am unable to disclose that information at this moment. All that I can say is that you're just being transported to your training camp right now."

Keitaro and some other men exchanged glances. He just noticed that there weren't any windows in the helicopter, save the windshield. But the pilot closed the door, sealing off the cockpit from the cabin. Now, the men inside were getting a bit nervous and agitated. Most thoughts in the cabin correlated to 'Where the hell am I going?'

In fact, these men were headed for a training island, artificially created, about 100 kilometers off of the coast of Okinawa. It wasn't state-of-the-art, but rather a quaint island that had some wooden barracks and a small arsenal for training weapons. At a first glance, it looked just like any other special forces training island, and it was. It was the people who were to populate the island that were to make it one of the most infamous locations of the whole war.

It was just too bad that Keitaro didn't know that.

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Back at Hinata Sou, there was a tense atmosphere. What Keitaro first did when he got to camp, he usually begged the officer in charge to make a phone call to his relatives to make sure that he was still alive, it usually worked. But now, the girls were worried that something had gone wrong, that Keitaro wouldn't be coming back. Most of them expected to see a man to come up the stairs with a letter stating Keitaro's death. Even Su was worried.

All of the girls, save Shinobu in the kitchen, were gathered around the telephone, waiting for Keitaro's call. So far, no luck at all. Nobody was allowed outside in the streets due to a nation-wide curfew set by the government in order to to guard against the enemy. The true irony was that the enemy were their own brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, cousins, and family. It was a very sad time to see such division among one country, nothing like it had ever happened before.

"Everybody! I finished dinner!" Shinobu called out. She was the hardest hit by Keitaro's leave. All that she could think of the hours after were images of Keitaro's dead body, shredded by bullets or artillery fragments. She just couldn't shake off the feeling, and she probably never will.

"We're coming Shinobu." a tired Motoko said. Although her hard exterior didn't show it, her eyes were riddled with worry that something had happened to Keitaro.

The girls in the lobby walked to the kitchen, there was an aura of gloom and despair in the air, as with most wartime situations.

When the girls got to the kitchen, there was a long whistling sound in the air.

"Kitsune, you better not be faking those noises again. You scared us out of our wits the last time you did that."

"No, I swear, it wasn't me!"

A loud explosion outside told the girls what it was. Rocket artillery being fired from behind the border, it actually managed to get to the Hinata Prefecture. Usually, Soviet tactics were to fire off as many shells before the enemy could lift a finger, so the girls expected to recieve a large welcoming to war very soon.

"EVERYBODY! INTO THE SHELTER!" Haruka screamed.

The girls hurried into the underground shelter of Hinata Sou, just when the full artillery barrage came in. The rockets were a terrifying site, although they did not carry any NBC (nuclear, biological, chemical) warheads, the explosions from the charges rocked the very foundations of Hinata Sou. On a side note, they did not do as much damage that Naru and Motoko did on a bad day.

It was a short barrage, lasting only 6 minutes. But after the damage was done, it looked as if the town had been destroyed by an invading army. Thankfully, none of the Hinata girls were hurt, but they weren't able to do anything about the damages, as construction workers had already been moved North to prepare for the war that had started.

"Hinata Sou looks totaled." Kitsune said as she stated the obvious.

"Eto, we won't be able to live here anymore...it looks as if the roof will cave in." Naru added.

Part of the roof, promptly on cue, caved in.

"Ano..."

"Maybe we should go to Okinawa to Mutsumi's house?"

"Sounds like a good idea!"

"Let's go!"

Su pressed a button on a remote control that she saved from the rubble, and a giant mecha-Tama flew out of the partially destroyed Hinata Sou. The girls then boarded and were on a one-way flight to Okinawa, out of enemy rocket's reach, and safe from an enemy invasion. A phone rang in Hinata Sou, but nobody was there to answer it.

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Questions for SK-superpower:

From Ominae: "This sounds like the plot in Ring of Red. Wonder if AFW (Armored Fighting Walkers) will be involved here?"

Unfortunately, I haven't played Ring of Red yet, but it sounds really good, so I'll try it out later. AFW or mechas will not play a role in this storyline. All weapons here will be actual weapons used in the real world.

From Bananabomb: "what are your nation?"

I am from the United States of America and of Chinese/Korean heritage.

"(kill the american fuckers)"

Oh, um. I'm Saudi Arabian.