Everything was all that of white. It wasn't blank, it wasn't desolate, it was just white.

"Where am I", Keitaro said to himself.

He looked around, but saw no one. The boy suddenly heard a child laughing. He turned completely around and saw a little girl. It wasn't just any girl, it was the same girl he had made his promise to so long ago. She still looked the same, her short brunette hair, the sand castle she built, the little yellow squirrel toy she had, it was all so familiar to him. The only thing he could never remember was he name. It was something that haunted him till this day. She now knew that she wasn't alone as she looked over at the boy.

"Keitaro, come play with me", she asked in a sweet voice.

Keitaro hesitated to take the first step. What was going to happen? Was he suddenly going to fall into an abyss if he tried to go forward? Was she going to disappear? Was it all some hallucinating trap? He had to find out. He at least had to try and learn her name. Keitaro walked closer to her, one step at a time. When Keitaro reached the sand box, he knelt down to her level. He wasn't really sure what to say, all he could whisper out was, "Hi."

"Hi", she said back.

Keitaro struggled with what else to say. It felt like he had cotton in his mouth, and a jagged stone in his throat.

"You look so sad Keitaro", the promise girl said. "Why are you sad?"

"I...I don't know", Keitaro said.

"Don't be sad, cheer up. You have to be happy if you want to get into Tokyo U."

Her words put a numbing feeling in his chest. Tokyo U was always a goal that just seemed too out of his reach. It was beyond doubtful that he could get in now.

"Little girl I...I don't think I'm going to Tokyo U", Keitaro admitted sadly.

"Why not", she asked moving her attention away from the sand castle.

Keitaro fiddled with the sand too. Although his hands grasped the sand, he felt nothing as it slipped through his fingers.

"I'm not good enough little girl. I can't do it", Keitaro shamefully admitted to the girl. "Don't worry about me, you'll find someone better than me when you get there."

"But I don't want to find someone better."

Keitaro looked back to the little girl. She was a little bit closer to his face now. Her small eyes focused through his larger ones. He could swear that he could see his reflection in hers. Usually when he thought about these moments, he was still a little kid. Yet he was at his current age, and she was still very young.

"Don't give up Keitaro, I haven't given up. The worse is over now, Just keep trying, for me."

The promise girl held his cheek with one had before kissing the other. The small peck gave Keitaro a good blush. Compared to holding the sand in his hands earlier, he felt the small pair of lips meet his cheek.

Suddenly being thrown back into reality, Keitaro found himself under some sheets on a small sleeping mat. He had to sit up to realize where he was again. The room looked familiar to him.

"This is my old room", Keitaro said to himself.

His eyes shifted to the book shelf, the small desk, and the hole that still remained in his ceiling. Keitaro winced slightly at the pain in his shoulder. There were large wrappings on his shoulder with a tint of dried blood. They would have to be changed soon. When Keitaro rubbed his wounded shoulder, the memories of realization came back.

"I'm back here huh", Keitaro asked no one.

He looked back to the clock on the book shelf. It said three forty-two, an unusual time for someone to be up. He laid back down staring back at the hole in the ceiling, knowing very well who was on the other side. Even the soldier oy had a hard time wondering why he gave her a second chance. Other things ran through his head too. What was he going to do about everyone else? What was going to happen with him and his missions? Was he going to try for Tokyo U again? What about the promise girl?

It was all too much for Keitaro to go back to sleep again. The boy kicked off the sheets before putting his clothes back on, grabbing Skinny, and heading for the front door. He silently shut the glass entrance, then headed down the steps. As he neared the bottom, Keitaro gave a last look at Hinata sou before taking off on his bike.

The sun was now up with the call of some random rooster. Naru stretched her arms and legs with a yawn. As she sat up from her mat, she looked across the floor to the hole. Even though there were plenty of other places to sleep, Keitaro had taken the room right below her. Not second guessing about intrusion, Naru slowly lifted the small piece of wood.

"Keitaro, are you awake", she called out in a low voice.

There was no answer.

"Keitaro", Naru asked again as she peered through the hole.

To her disappointment, the Urashima boy wasn't there. The mat was there, and the blanket was folded neatly, but it was missing the person. Something didn't settle right with Naru, as she now had a bad feeling approaching.

The Narusegawa girl sped through the kitchen where everyone else was. That is, everyone but Keitaro.

"Everyone, where is Keitaro", Naru quickly asked.

"You mean he's not snoozin in his room", Kitsune asked.

"No I checked, he's not there", Naru said.

Shinobu dropped a hot pan of breakfast when she heard Keitaro wasn't in his room.

"What, the Sempai is no in his room", Shinobu blurted.

Everyone was worried now. Once again, Keitaro had left them. Just when they thought things were going to get better, it happens again. The girls searched the rest of Hinata Sou, from the hot springs, to the attic, to even some parts of the forest, but there was no sign of Keitaro Urashima.

Noon had arrived as all the girls sat in the living room.

"He left us again", Naru said with her head hung low.

No one else had said much while they waited for nothing. Each one them tried to concept why he left, but it only made them feel worse.

"This is all my fault...", Naru said to herself, but was cut off by Motoko.

"No, it my fault", Motoko admitted. "I'm the one who treated him the worse when he came back."

She thought of the bandages around her arm, chest, and head while she spoke.

"I physically hurt him the most, and I got when I deserved, but he still apologized to me."

She did have a point, but it didn't make the burden feel any less for the others.

"You hit him just as much as me Motoko", Naru told her, "But I'm the one who pushed him away the most."

The others wanted to say something to make Motoko and Naru feel better, but what was there to say. It was times like these when all you could do was listen to what the other person had to saw. No one else made a sound, only when there was a knock at the door. To everyone's surprise, Seta peered through the glass. Naru opened the door for her old teacher as Sarah rushed to him yelling, "Papa!"

"Seta Sempai, what are you doing here?"

"Hi Naru, Keitaro asked me to come here with my digging equipment and some elevator blue prints."

"Digging equipment, elevator blueprints, what are you talking about Seta? Keitaro isn't here", Naru said in confusion.

"He's not", the older man asked. "That's odd, he said to meet him here about noon."

Both Naru and Seta turned around as they heard two large trucks pull up. One pulled off to the side and dumped a lot of debris, from piles of wood, to stones and broken pieces of concrete. As everyone came to the front door, the second truck started unloading some boxes. From the shot-gun seat, Keitaro Urashima stepped out. Naru was the first to greet him at the bottom steps.

"Keitaro where have you been, what's going on", Naru asked.

"It's a little project I'm working on", Keitaro said as he waved by to the truck that dumped the debris off.

"A project, what kind of project", Mutsumi asked as she reached the bottom steps with everyone else.

"You'll see when I'm finished", Keitaro said as he gathered on of his boxes.

"What's in the boxes", Su asked from curiosity.

"Just my belongings, I'll put these in my room and be out of you way."

"Do you need a hand", Kanako asked her brother.

"No I'm good, thanks though", Keitaro said as he climbed the stairs. "Seta if you want to unload the supplies by the debris I'll be there in a few."

With that, everyone was left dumb folded at the bottom of the steps.

"Keitaro, what are you up to", Naru said in her mind.

It was now three thirty, and close to lunch time. Shinobu had prepared some snacks for everyone on a tray and took the set to the living room.

"Everyone, I made lunch", Shinobu said.

The others took a break from doing their various daily time passers like studying, polishing a sword, or working on some new invention.

"Thank you Shinobu", Kanako said.

"No problem", the younger girl said.

Shinobu looked around and realized someone wasn't there.

"Wait, where's Kitsune."

It was a good question, no one had seen their half sober friend in quite some time. It wouldn't be a surprise to anyone if they found her drinking, or hung over someplace. Still, everyone thought it best that they all go looking for her.

Back in her room, Kitsune leered through her window with a large scoped camera. She giggled to herself as snapped another shot of something.

"This is great, wait till I show the othas what I have."

Coincidently enough, the rest of the Hinata Sou residents showed up in her room, minus Haruka and Keitaro.

"Kitsune what are you doing", Naru asked her long time friend.

"Oh you're just in time. Come check out what I stumbled on", Kitsune motioned for everyone to look through the window. Everyone's face erupted in red and their pupils changed randomly by what they saw. Keitaro worked tirelessly through the assorted rubble without a shirt on. The sweat gave his well-built muscles a shine to it. He ran a hand across his forehead to wipe the sweat away. That was enough to make shinobu collapse on the floor.

"Kitsune, show some discretion", Motoko hysterically yelled.

"Why is that, I'm in my own room aren't I", Kitsune tried to make a point. "An beside the point, I can get some great photos here."

The fox girl handed the others the photos she had taken. Their minds nearly set into overload, by Kitsune's pictures. More were of Keitaro doing some manual labor, a few of them were zoom ins on Keitaro's muscles, others were of him bending over, and a few were even zoomed in crotch shots.

"Kitsune you pervert, you can't do this to Keitaro", Naru wailed out.

"Awww, but it's so fun Naru, just look at him out here", Kitsune leaned her friend out the window.

She was mesmerized by Keitaro as he separated the debris into different piles. Naru still wasn't sure what he was doing, but she was too entranced to take her focus off of Keitaro. The military training had really changed Keitaro...really changed Keitaro. Naru tried to gain some control as she changed the subject for them.

"What is he doing out there?"

"I don't know, maybe he's building a time machine" Su inputed.

The small foreign girl looked out the window at Keitaro, she had that same look in her eyes as a stalking predator. Like one, she was just as bold.

"We should have him take a bath with us!"

The other tenants said in unison, "WHAAAT!"

"He looks all sweaty, we should invite him to take a bath with us."

"SU WE CAN'T ASK HIM TO DO SUCH THINGS, IT..IT..IT'S INDESCENT", Shinogu shouted in a crazed tone.

As Shinobu peered through the window, she saw Keitaro looking in her direction.

She gasped, "Everyone hide!"

With no extra commands to process, The girls took to the floor to hide themselves from the window view. Once a few seconds passed, Kanako peeked over the window edge. The girls adopted brother still looked in her direction. Kanako retreated from view when Keitaro began to wave.

"I think we've been spotted by Keitaro", Kanako said embarrassingly.

Motoko had Kitsune by the neck of her shirt as she scolded, "Kitsune look what you've done now!"

Before the fox girl could receive any punishment, Su activated a strange divice with a wine.

"Let's see what Keitaro is saying about us."

The machine's noises bounced back and forth before calming down. Almost like a microphone, the girls could hear Keitaro speaking as if he was in the room.

"You really did dig a pit in three hours", Keitaro said. "So you're documented digs weren't an exaggeration."

"You could say I've made a career out of it", the girls heard Seta talk through the machine."

Kanako looked through the window again. The girls took a sigh of relief when Kanako confirmed that Keitaro was waving to Seta.

"Well, now that the hole is finished now what", Seta asked.

"That's pretty much it. I'll return the tools and the blue prints once I'm finished."

"No problem Keitaro just don't overwork yourself okay."

"No promises Seta", Keitaro chuckled.

The older gentleman left Keitaro to continue his work as the other girls listened in on the last words. None of the questions they had were answered, but at least they weren't discovered.

The rest of the day had passed in normal function for Hinata Sou...or at least as normal as it could get. Een though Keitaro hadn't been living at Hinata Sou for nearly two years, it felt odd that he wasn't around. They only times we ventured inside was to grab some drinking water, or use the bathroom. As of now, everyone was gathered in the den area, except for Sarah and Su who had fallen asleep early. Mutsumi had pulled out a board game for everyone to play along. As the others took their turn at rolling the dice, Naru looked through the window at the setting sun. It was well behind the horizon, but still radiated a small tint of orange.

"Naru, it's your turn", Shinobu interrupted her train of thought.

Snapping back to reality Naru rolled the dice and moved her piece. Once her turn was over, Naru began to daydream again as she looked out the window. The world looked the same on the outside, but inside her mind she was thinking about something else. Naru still wondered what Keitaro was doing. He was still at Hinata Sou, but he hadn't made his presence known. "Keitaro", Naru thought in her brain. It was simple as that, "Keitaro". Out of the blue, a sliding noise traveled from the back door to the living room.

"Speak of the devil", Naru mentally told herself.

The others soon caught on that Keitaro was in the dorms as they heard his approaching footsteps. It was enough to piqué their curiosity, but not enough for any of them to approach him. Naru peeked behind the kitchen entrance as she watched Keitaro. He still had his shirt off, and looked both dirty and sweaty. Luckily, no one saw the red blood gathering in her cheek muscles. She couldn't understand why she was hiding from him. It wasn't fear, and it wasn't shame, but something else...something that felt too close to...shyness. The same shyness that one feels when they see their crush. Naru pushed those thoughts out as she continued to spy on him. The other tenants joined in on this, even Keitaro's own aunt and sister.

At the time, Keitaro had his back turned to them while he poked through the fridge. Shinobu so badly wanted to tell him that there was a plate waiting for him on the table, but she had that same feeling that Naru had about approaching him. From all the things Keitaro could have taken from the fridge, he took out an entire case of water. It wasn't very odd, people got thirsty after all. Keitaro opened the water bottle and drained it dry in seconds, most likely from the days labor. With more H2O to spare, Keitaro drank another, then another, and another. Now things were getting very odd. The girls watched as Keitaro downed eight bottle of water under three minutes. It was odd to see, but he still showed signs of civility as he placed the empty plastic in the recycle bag, and the rest back in the fridge.

The well-built soldier bent over to peer through the fridge. As he continued to search, Naru tilted her head to get a better look at his behind.

Kitsune whispered into Naru's ear, "An yall called me a pervert."

Naru Kyaaaed at her own perviness. It was then that Keitaro now knew someone was behind him. Before he could turn around, the other girls went back into hiding. That is, all except for Shinobu who was too confused to know what was going on.

"Oh uh, hi Shinobu", Keitaro said.

Shinobu was frozen. She didn't know what to do as her blood pressure sky rocketed.

"Shinobu? Shinobu what's wrong", Keitaro asked as he stood back up.

Shinobu couldn't even mutter out small words as she stared at Keitaro. She had a crush on him even before he left, but now it was on a whole new level. Her mind spazzed out as she stared at Keitaro's thorax muscles. Before she could get lost in her fantasies, shinobu made a mad dash for her room.

"I'M SORRY SEMPAI! THERE'S A PLATE ON THE TABLE FOR YOU!"

Keitaro was now confused by Shinobu as she slammed her door shut.

"Hey wait, what's wrong! Is my fly down", Keitaro yelled back to Shinobu.

Pushing the incident out of his head, Keitaro took a few containers of food in his arms before climbing the stairs up to his room. The others came out of their hiding places as they looked up the stairs where Keitaro recently was. They remained in silence by their own actions. The all spied on Keitaro, and let Shinobu get caught for it. The missing sound was soon broken by Mutsumi.

"That was strange."

"Yeah", Haruka said. "What kind of person takes a whole meatloaf, and two pounds of rice to eat alone in their room."

I wanted to post another chapter up as soon as I could. I know this didn't answer squat, and only raised more questions; but I wanted to add some of the silliness I had been missing up until now. Some of these events will play a significant role in the later chapters. I wan to thank those who have read, reviewed, and favorited this fic so far. I finally reached fifty reviews. I know a few were mine from replying to comments, but it's all been thanks to you all. Let's try for one hundred reviews! Ill do the writing, you do the reviewing! XD