aghostownwhereibelong.

yo...

...let the story commence.


6:02 AM

November 12th.

2022

Friday.


Vehicles drove past the still-waking pedestrians on the black sidewalk, making their way to a destination, dominant hands ready to honk their horn at the slightest sign of an inconvenience.

It was a cold, bitter morning in Apollo City.

One could only barely tell the difference between night and day, the difficulty being birthed from all the bright street lights as well as the billboards and the like.

The biting cold made it hard to keep one's hands out of their pockets, the wet asphalts nor the wet concretes did much help to assuage anyone who wasn't a morning person.

Everyone had a destination, and they didn't know it, but they'd do just about anything to get there.

That is the nature of treacherous places like Hono-naikai, they leave you more like a criminal than the day before, shaping you into it's ideal pottery.

Except flawed and unfinished, like clay pouring down a wicked mold and left to dry on a city transformer somewhere, left to to starve and scrape by in pure and utter desperation.

A young man standing on the street, underneath a bus stop, he was an accurate representation of this desperation.

The young man stood shifty, never staying on the same foot for too long, but too still to be obviously perceived by others.

His eyes hid under the fringe of his golden yellow hair, which was pushed further to the front of his face by a black hood failing to contain more than half of his hair.

His sweatshirt was covered by a beige trench coat, and he completed his looks with a black pair of jeans and black timberlands.

The city was home to thousands of types of people who were equally expressive, and even flamboyant, in their own ways, especially on a good day, so it was a wonder how the young man managed to still stand out like a raven amidst a sea of doves and flamingoes.

But regardless of their disposition, as usual, people had places they needed to be.

And they couldn't care less about him, when they desperately needed to get somewhere in these poor conditions.

The young man was equally as uncaring of the rest of the misplaced workforce, and even more desperate than the standard Hononaikan, his only concern being the bus that he was waiting to get on.

And getting on the 'Calico Transit' was desperate enough for anyone to need to get anywhere.

They are a transit service that have varying fur designs from house cats on the bodies of their buses, and it was a clever front to hide the illegal human and animal trafficking services the parent company was leading, and have been leading for several decades now.

The boy had accidentally found out a week ago, the atrocities of a random transit service, completely by chance.

'Not a shred a of innocence in a single moving thing on this planet.' The boy had thought.

But, for better or worse, he didn't have to think much more about it where he was at, he could enter the one stopping right in front of him and think of it all the way on the way to his destination!

The boy prepared to board the bus with Yen ready to hand to the driver, ready to wait some more for his destination.

The blonde had glanced at the long bus he was walking into for a half second, a decision decided by his body and not his mind.

The boy boarded the bus, taking the coating into acknowledgement.

'Black fur. How telling.'

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8:20 AM

Same Day.

Location: Rodosha Province, Unknown, Calico Transit Bus.

The boy stood at he back of the bus, observing the emptiness with an appreciation he didn't think he would be afforded today.

'Okay, where to next.' The young man thought as he produced his phone from the pocket of his coat. *klik *.

After a few minutes, the boy sat down at the furthest seat and began to type away constantly at his device.

'First of all, I can't be here when the bus reaches the Eikona Gate,

I need to get off somewhere and look for an alternative entry.'

The young man surmised as he copied the maps of his next unavoidable destination, plotting an entry and escape path into and out of the next place.

The young man peeked out his window, observing to see if he was headed towards stone walls with colorful buildings hiding behind them.

And he was indeed, fairly close to him he saw a very tall wall, indicating his proximity to the Eikona Hub.

Without a sparing a moment, the young man pulled on the handle dangling at level with his nose, and proceeded to speed walk the distance of 12 seats in what was probably record time.

The bus stopped at a bus stand as soon as the boy got to the front, conveniently containing more passengers for the driver.

The blonde stepped off of the bus before he could be talked to and moved towards the big wall.

He checked his surroundings constantly, pulling his hood back for better hearing and kept his posture slightly hunched.

As Naruto walked slower, he brought out his phones with a newly ungloved hand and began to draw on the PDF of his next location, the 6th District or Province of Hono-naikai named "Eikona-gi" by the residents of the country.

The young man went over his knowledge of the country while highlighting landmarks on the PDF to mark his way out once he was in.

In Eikona, Hono-naikai had built itself up in order to be pretty and eye-catching. Lights on for half hours of the week every week, those flying to see this country will find that the buildings are plentiful in this large province and extremely tall too.

Some of the tallest buildings in this province boasts a colorful array of string lights, to huge shapes that depict animals, and even huge lantern lights from red to orange, yellow to green, and purple to pink, all of them alternating throughout the day.

'I can even see those ugly ass lights right now. Those buildings are too big.'

The sky is not the only colorfulness, the streets are paved with wonderful reds and golds, greens, blacks, blues and whites, all concretes or marbles, and on every street you will find ornaments of wild colors that one has never seen before.

The Eikona Province is known for its food, having hundreds of types of foods from cultures all over the globe, from European cuisines, to African cuisines, American cuisines and more from its own continent.

The young man's train of thought was halted at the sight of a bigger problem, an intersection.

"I think I just jaywalked across five different streets just now."

The young blonde said quietly as he checked his surroundings.

He observed the options in front of him, cross the bridge across from him and jaywalk some more, turn right and start walking there, or turn left and go where the cars are going.

The young man turned right, as every other path led to more eyes on him.

Now with a set goal, his mind continued to wander on his next destination.

The food is everywhere on almost every corner, and there are almost 240 different tourist attractions from amusement parks and museums, as well as nature parks and some mountains, monuments, statues, theaters, and much more.

'Eikona is a big place.' The young man thought in the midst of his walking, ignoring his rumbling stomach.

He looked above the disappearing buildings and reminisced some more, everything in Eikona-gi is colorful and there is much to do for anyone visiting from anywhere, if anyone decides to come to Eikona District, then they are bound to come back again and again due to the sheer amounts of experiences one could have.

The young man eyes his next stopping point, and continues to head for the less kempt side of the gray architecture where the greenery starts.

Everyone in Eikona-gi Province are workers, living jobs for the sole sake of the upkeep and upgrading of their District.

'It must be extremely hard work for people to maintain Eikona.'

The city clearly goes through excessive amounts of work in order to make sure the 6th Province is a genuinely enjoyable experience for anyone in the outside, and they need the help of those on the inside, those who don't care enough to respond to the video ads and billboard enticements.

From his experience, Eikonagan citizens can have a pretty good life if an entire family works hard enough to generate income for everyone.

'But there is always a greater shadow beneath the promises of a lasting smile.' The young man combatted himself.

Eikona-gi is a good enough place to live, but he saw personally that you give much more in exchange in order to live there. In 2017 there were reports of an epidemic of work-related deaths going on there, and it claimed around 120,000 lives after a year of festivities and celebrations.

The District of Eikona was shut down for over a year to clean out the dead bodies and care for the sick.

Entrance through this Province is possible, but you must be on specific transits or buses if you wish to avoid the hassle of being stopped and passive aggressively asked to spend much of your life in one place for the benefit of others and the detriment of yourself.

It's easy enough to travel through, one just needs their licenses intact and ready to provide to the travel hubs.

Which is why this man is not using any of those methods.

The boy happens upon another batch of options.

Around him is a green forest that no one pays attention to in the entirety of the Rodosha Province.

'It's obviously not gonna be easy for random people to just get up and out, but thankfully I got the chance to sneak out of here once.'

The boy accidentally stumbled upon a long buried memory, a day of smoke and greyness, much like this one only more wildfire.

He grit his teeth as hard as he could, closed his eyes and breathed.

" *Sniiiiiif , *whhoo...*". In through the nose and out through the mouth.

'just like Pervy Sage taught me...'

An even stronger torrent of memories and emotions came crashing down against the boys head and heart, twisting his features into a toxic scowl and clenching his hands, automatic reactions.

The young man quickly distracted himself by taking a look at his surroundings, trying his hardest not to start hyperventilating.

"Ok...ok...big walls...*hufff *...big ass trees...can't-*huffff , can't climb those things...*huffff *." The boy wandered further, going towards the location he already knew he was going to.

"Don't be too loud...*huff *...wanna die?...*huff *...didn't think so...".The boy attempted to humor himself into submission.

Regaining his composure, the young man glanced at the stream that was steadily traveling towards the Eikona District, preparing to swim his way to the other side.

The young man shed his beige trench coat and black hood, covering his phone with the new layers of clothing.

"The box I stole said it was waterproof, but I don't feel like taking my chances." The young blonde said to no one at all.

He took his boots and socks off as well, and once he was done bundling them all up, he stood in his black jeans and grey t shirt, impromptu bag in hand, ready to swim.

" *SWUUUFP *", *SPLAASSH*

And swim he did, he jumped into the big stream of water flowing out of Rodosha into Eikona after taking a large breath, and made sure to keep as low as possible under the water.

The boys vision was severely limited, but he kept an arm out to feel his way forward.

He traveled at a fast pace, especially with the help of the current, underneath a very wide, but extremely narrow gap for water to flow through.

Swimming a bit deeper, the young man sped up in order to reach the other side, taking a bit of a while in getting there.

After an indeterminate amount of time passed, with a healthy amount of breath left, the young man swam right into a gate, almost hitting it at the speed he was going.

Moving instinctually, he turned his body sideways and swam as fast as he could, being skinny enough to fit through along with his equipment.

Feeling the effects of old breath, the boy started to search for signs of light, and was discouraged to still not have found any.

After more time passed, the water rushed him downwards, pushing him up into the air momentarily.

" *HUGGHHH* *HUUUUF, *HUUUUUFF*". The young man took a deeper breath after expelling his old one, prediction his motion pulling him downwards once again underwater.

This chaos didn't last much longer, the boy felt the water slow down and was itself, and dim lights showed their selves above him.

The young man kicked his feet in expert rhythm, breaking the surface and heading towards one of the underside of one of many bridges in Eikona-gi.

He stood up, took off his shirt to try to wring out the water and began to collect himself for a few minutes.

"Holy shit, okay. I knew that place was all watered out as of a couple years ago, but I thought that there would be a bigger opening! The must have gotten rid of the stairs." The young man ended his train of self-conversation before it led him down a dark path again.

"Alright, black bridge...green grass...clean ass water...lots of cars and voices. I remember this place."

The young man quickly checked his impromptu "waterproof" bag, finding great joy in seeing his trench coat absorbed the brunt of the water.

He had put his phone in side a sock, which was inside another sock, which was inside a shoe, which was next to his other shoe, which was covered up in his hoodie, which was covered up in his coat.

He unraveled his masterpiece and checked to see if his phone was okay.

*klik *.

He clicked the power button to see if the battery still worked and...

"FUCK yeah!". The boy exclaimed, but quickly grew enamoured with the next objective.

The boy unlocked his phone and it opened to his PDF map of the Eikona Province.

'Right now, I'm around the Golden Square, I need to get to the Indigo Square, which isn't that far.' The young man devised.

Eikona has four distinct locations described by the predominant colors in each one,

Golden Square

This place is the home of golds, blacks and the white colors. Being home of most of the historical tourist attractions lie, the museums are plentiful here and it's where tourists going order to get a taste of Hono-naikai's past.

Where the boy needed to go, the Indigo Square was where he needed to be in order to reach the next province.

This square is often the third most visited behind the Scarlet Square, which is where the boy was supposed to go, but the Eikona Hub needed him to above 18, as well as have citizenship paperwork in Eikona in order to travel to and fro.

' I already have one of those, but sadly I'm underage for the next two months so everything is harder for me.' The boy thought in mild annoyance.

The boy put his clothes on, ignoring the coldness he was feeling underneath his relatively dry sweatshirt and completely wet trench coat.

He walked to the streets above him, desiring to be as inconspicuous as possible amidst the tourists.

Once the boy found the stairs that lead to the street, he walked into that street and began to paint a picture of his surroundings in his head.

Blending in masterfully with the crowd, the boy walked agonizingly slowly in comparison to the speed he wanted go at, and in the different direction, but he knew where this route was headed. He knew where all the routes were headed.

For the next 30 minutes he watched and pretended to be as interested as this batch of tourists, everyone being lead by the tour guide woman speaking English.

He was keeping his composure exceptionally well, but his sensitivity was at the maximum in this small but sizable crowd.

His eyes moved to and fro every second, he felt his hairs as they stood on end, and it felt as if he could feel every single blood cell that traveled through his veins.

Despite all this, the young man opted at a way to calm his nerves, externally.

His ears lost its filter and he began to pay superficial attention to the words of the tourists around him, allowing each voice and letter to blend in to the background of his mind.

'Looks like these people maybe American. Probably Australian or something I don't really care.' The young man said as he peered lightly into the crowd he was surrounded by.

A diverse group of colorful people,'if I look hard enough, maybe I can find some in Hono-naikai. It's a weird place after all ', the young boy thought.

The group of people mostly consisted of white men and women with their children and dogs and strollers, but there were decent amounts if not-white people littered around the crowd.

'I'm glad I blend in pretty well, I don't look Asian at all.'

The young man thought with a minuscule smirk, his blonde hair and cerulean eyes making him stand out in most crowds of this country, surprisingly.

The lady at the edge of the group kept talking about a golden statue that the boy couldn't stare at without hurting his eyes, something that seemed to be similar for everyone else there.

The young man used this opportunity to gaze about, receiving some recognition of the path he had taken more times he could count on his fingers in the past...

The young man tried his best to tune into the crowd of chatterboxes.

"...Wow, that's a big ass lion..."

"...Mommy, I have to use the bathroom!!".

"...why do these people even need such a large lion?..."

"...*rrrbbb *. Oh, I cannot wait to see what these people have to eat..."

"...Mommy, I have to use the bathroom!!!".

"...WAAAHAA!!.."

"...I wanna go home..."

At first, the boy found it very easy to settle in to the annoying, but strangely comforting noises from all the new people...

...*klik *.

The young blondes' head whipped around to the location of the sound, pinpointing it immediately.

What he saw was a boy around the age of thirteen taking a picture of the lion, the first picture he had heard being taken since posing as a tourist.

He hadn't been noticed, so he tried his best to inconspicuously out his hands in his wet pockets, close his eyes, and focus on his surroundings.

He tried to contain his breath, and he tried to focus on the chatter going around him, but the sounds...the feeling... the voices...and those men and women showed up in his mind.

...*klik *.

Another one sent his heart beating faster, he looked again to find that the sound came from someone so much closer, another teenager that was a few inches shorter than him, a ginger woman taking a picture of something behind them.

'why are they waiting so long to take these stupid ass photos...! '.

The young man thought, his breathing beginning to get out of control.

The blonde focused on the blackness behind his eyelids, the distant but not so distant sounds of tour guides speaking in different languages he couldn't understand, the even more distant sounds of birds flying above.

He focused on the dampness of his hands in the pockets, the feel of his phone against his hand, the hair of his that was brushing against his face in the cold wind...

He felt the presence of the crowd move around him, and the. he opened his eyes, somewhat under control.

The young boy felt an overpowering surge of anger rise in him, feeling inadequate at controlling his emotions.

'how have I had more...reminders, in one day than all of last week??...' The young boy took a break from the crowd, discovering that he didn't need to stick with a crowd.

He turned 360, checking his surroundings and peering at the people being guided in his direction.

He headed towards where the people had gone a few minutes ago and followed the path they were being lead on.

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Under 1 hour later.

9:12 AM

Location: Eikona-gi Province, Golden Square

The young man had dodged the tourist group, making his way to the exit.

On his phone, the boy had highlighted landmarks from memory, doing well to filter and constrict his thoughts to avoid anymore interruptions.

"If I take this trip on foot, it's gonna take forever. Well over days worth of traveling on foot."

The boy pondered, still walking towards the general direction of the Indigo Square.

He spotted a bus stop a couple paces ahead of him on the marble sidewalk, and jogged ahead to hurry and wait.

After a few minutes of that, Calico Transit showed it's colors again.

The same fur from before, just solid black, traveled down the road towards him.

At first, the young man's heart had jumped a little, was it the same one he had ditched in the Rodosha Province?

It was a short-lived worry, however.

He had memorized the driver's gender and looks, this person was a thin and younger, possibly middle aged man with lots of freckles on his face, and he had glasses.

The young blonde waited until the bus stopped until boarding, already producing slightly more money than needed for getting to ride the bus.

"Hiya, could you take me to the Indigo Square?". The young man asked the driver with as bright and polite of a smile as he could muster, feeling like it was the fakest thing ever since the moon landing in 1969.

But the bus driver was clearly positively affected, he grew a much more natural smile on his face and said, "Yes I will! Sit back wherever you want, it's gonna be a quite a while."

The driver advised the young man while gesturing towards the back seats.

"You are rather lucky to be getting an empty bus today kid! Especially in the Eikona-gi Province! Welp, I won't bother you much more, welcome to Hono-naikai and enjoy the ride!".

The chatterbox of a man said as he closed the door of the bus and began to drive towards the provided destination.

Smiling like that had physically hurt the young boy, and he needed to sit down to recuperate from the exchange between him and the random man, at the back of the bus.

He understood how dangerous it was for him to be so far away from the exit, but had a few measures he was more than willing to take in order to insure his safety.

'Plus, there are multiple exits. You'd just have to be stupid like me to consider the windows doorways.

The young blonde commented and laughed at his own joke quietly, letting himself be led to the Indigo Square.

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Several Hours Later.

1:16 PM

Location: Eikona-gi Province, Calico Transit Bus.

The young man had fallen asleep rather quickly, the rumble of the wheels on the asphalt and the silence of the empty bus soothed him smoothly to sleep.

The bus had picked up multiple passengers ever since the boy came on, but it ended up empty, as the boys destination was the only one that was so far away, and the bus driver had a lot more tourists to go, the early hours of the afternoon meaning that customers weren't ready to go home yet.

The bus driver kept his eyes on what little he could see of the boy in the back, smiling softly as he formed a one-sided connection with the boy, feeling like a sort of guardian over the boy.

'I could see the exhaustion on his face the moment he walked onto the bus, but he was moving like he couldn't recognize it himself.' The bus driver thought while turning down a colorful road.

'We're getting pretty close to the Indigo Square, so I'll have to wake him up from his rest sadly! '.

A few minutes had passed, and the bus started to slow itself.

The bus driver stopped by the bus stand, the closest he could get to the Indigo Square on wheels of this size.

The man decided to wake the boy up himself, so he got up and turned to start down the hall of the bus, but he let out a high-pitched help at discovering the mysterious boy was already awake and had made his way to the edge of the bus in the time it took to stop it.

"W-when did you wake up, son?". The bus driver asked the now awaked and alert young boy.

"A couple seconds ago. Thank you. Can you open the door?". The young man asked.

"Oh-yeah lemme get that for ya sir." The bus driver walked to the front of the bus and pulled a lever, opening the doors to the young man's right.

"See ya."

"Alright now, make sure you get some sleep young man!". The bus driver said, sending his well wishes for the young man.

'Can't believe my ass fell asleep. Ridiculous.' The blonde said, seething in silence as he walked towards the bustling center of Indigo Square.

The young man looked around, studying the outstanding buildings around him.

In one of the entrances of Indigo Square, the blonde could see very tall buildings, and probably hundreds of different variations of blues and greys, this square wasn't too populated but it wasn't going to stay that way for very long, considering how the tourists are typically guided.

The young man refreshed his knowledge of his location, the Indigo Square was right next to the ocean, causing it to be full of aquariums SeaWorld's. The square was full of tall buildings, underground exhibits well as more hands on activities like archery, of martial arts dojos.

This is the entry point for Hono-naikans coming from higher Provinces, also known as the exit point for the young man stalking through the blue streets of Eikona-gi.

'I'm gonna have to be careful if I want to get to the Aureus Hub illegally. These streets are about as empty as the last Square .'

The young man observed, keeping a deceivingly meticulous watch on his surroundings as far as his bodily constraints would let him.

The path he was traveling down was completely devoid of citizens, and it was littered with security guards and cleaners, the young man also made note of the hundreds of different openings he possessed being in a large street with tall buildings and now crowd to blend into.

The young man decided to duck into a narrower street, striving to find a vantage point to find the exact location of the Aureus Hub, the sixth transition point from one province to another.

The young man walked for over twenty minutes, to his measure, until he found a clearing of land, where the grass and trees started to reappear.

A long row of wooden utility poles presented itself to him, and the young man had an idea.

He jogged over to the closest one and begun to climb it.

With ease, the young man put one hand around the pole and the other to mimic, he looked like he was stepping on it the way he was advancing with such practiced speed.

Without any delay, the young man reached his desired height, high enough to see above the buildings to his left.

Another large wall in the distance was revealed, he scanned from right to left to see where the structure started to deviate from its original flat surface.

'I think I need to get a little higher-I can't even see the end of the wall.' The boy thought as he covered his palms in his sleeves, and braces his shoulders against the wood, sliding down the pole with his shoes and wrists.

In slow intervals, the young man slid down the would be tree and then jumped down when he felt he got to an appropriate place.

Brushing the small flakes of wood off of him, he began his jog towards the Eikona Wall.


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Three Hours Later.

3:29 PM

Location: Eikona-gi Province, Eikona Wall.

Much later, the boy had finally made it to the Eikona Wall, and was in the general direction of the Eikona Hub and Gate.

A long day of walking was sure to continue, but he was dead set on the goal in front of him.

The young man walked back into civilization slowly, peering down at the tourists and Hono-naikans coming from the Aureus Province and to said province.

A large area consisting of souvenir shops, food vendors, restaurants and more strategically placed stores was filled to the brim with citizens and tourists alike, making it potentially easier to blend in and enact his plan.

'Instead of almost dying in water, I'm gonna risk my life by sneaking under one of those buses that are the only ones that can take someone to one province or another! '. The young man planned, already looking for a hill or an alleyway to traverse, ready to fulfill his impromptu plan.

Slipping into a crowd again, the young man moved in between the people coming and going, aiming for another alleyway to go down walking fast, but slow enough to fly under suspicion.

Very close ahead, the young man's ears picked up a familiar sound, a bus's doors closing after its engine started.

He waited behind the postered bus stand until the loud rumble of the engine revved itself up and began to roll itself down the asphalt past him, then he jogged towards the moving bus before it could begin to accelerate faster.

Exposing himself to potential onlookers, the young man crouched and moved quickly, shedding his trench coat while running long the half point of the bus as it gained speed.

The young man then jumped on his back, grabbing on to the small frame to squeeze himself into the small gap, scratching his nose in the process.

Once the boy had actually managed to slide underneath the moving bus, he observed the smoky underside as quickly as he could

Spotting a pipe moving towards him, the young man grasped onto his trench coat, and threw it over the grey pipe, making sure to hold on to both ends of the coat as it was serving as an anchor.

He was dragged to an unobservable destination, and he had a hard time keeping his face away from the hot frame, and his scalp off of the asphalt.

" *Huff , *Huff *, Hhholy sshit!!". The boy said intelligently as he slid fast underneath the bus.

After a few minutes passed, the boy started to smell something burning.

He looked at his trenchcoat, didn't see anything due to the smoke and dark environment.

"Oh-Shit!". He pulled his coat with his left hand to move the burning leather, he pulled himself a bit closer to inspect the damages.

"Ahh, of fucking course!! Why WOULDN'T the underside of a BIG ASS BUS be HOT!?". The boy cursed himself, now attempting to maneuver the coat around so that he could minimize the burning.

This went on for a while, the young man was beginning to sweat a lot, smoke painting his face charcoal and his muscles were surely going to start protesting soon.

He didn't know how much time had passed, but he was beginning to feel sore in his body after a while had passed, and the coat he was wearing was long past the point of repair.

"I only got to wear it once... shame." The boy said to no one's ears.

He felt the bus start to slow down after a couple of seconds and his heart jumped in his chest," Is it finally fucking over!?"

He listened close and well, but he couldn't find clear sounds of people talking or other engines, his hearing was being deafened by the engine he was hanging onto.

Something told the boy to look up, and he cranes his neck to glance above him.

He didn't see anything, but then suddenly the entire vehicle jolted violently, going up and down and accelerating.

His ears were assaulted by a loud screeching noise, and he looked up to see where it was coming from.

To his absolute horror, the only other thing that could have fooled his plan at the moment presented itself to him.

"SPEEDBUMPS!?". He exclaimed, looking around frantically for an exit or something to help in the moment.

It was at this moment that his trenchcoat had finally given up on him, and the fabric burnt itself fully, snapping into two pieces.

This left the young man motionless, the bus moving ahead of him being the main danger now.

He brainstormed, trying to figure out what to do in this situation.

"Okay, the wheels aren't far from me...I can't rotate my body too much...gonna burn...SHIT!".

He shuffled along to the right side of the bus and attempted to peek underneath the hanging frame.

The seconds worth of time showed him that he was in a populated area, buildings and sidewalks along with other moving vehicles, not good.

The wheels were just a couple inches away from him when he got an idea.

The young man grabbed onto the frame, accidentally touching the exposed underside and burning his arm, but he persevered and turned himself around, a 180 from his previous position facing the front of the bus.

Next, the boy waited until the wheels approached him and grabbed onto the spinning tire with clothed fingers, the trenchcoat assuming it's final uses.

The material quickly spun out and left his fingers bare, but he had already slid out of the gap before the damage could get serious.

Next, he moved quickly, pouncing at the car behind the bus while staying low and pushing his body up against the black frame beneath the grille, scraping his boots heavily.

He stepped backwards when his feet met the speed bumps and kept that going until they were all gone.

But then the driver accelerated, making him push himself off to the side to avoid being run over by it.

He continued to move automatically, rolling onto the sidewalk on his left and standing up with as much speed as possible, he then walked forwards as if nothing happened.

"...what the fuuuuck...?". The boy had heard behind him, grateful that his hood was down to keep from being recognized.

He ducked into an alleyway and ran as fast as he could out of view of anyone.

He got to the backside of a orange colored house and took a breath.

" *HUFF , *HUFF , That was COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY.

I didn't even pass the GODDAMN GATE!!". The boy expressed his immense frustration in low volume, careful not to bring anymore attention to himself.

"Fuck! What do I do next?". He looked at the building in front of him, it had stairs.

The young man climbed the stairs and took a vantage point, aiming to wait out the day before he attempted again.

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Four Hours Later.

Sometime around Seven.

Location: Eikona-gi, Eikona Gate Hub.

The boy had waited for several hours, deciding to make his next move when more buses came by and night fell.

He had to keep track of time by observing the position of the sky, because he was pretty sure he had dropped his phone somewhere in the street, and he wasn't going to try to retrieve it.

It has gotten very dark, the only traces of the sun had retreated to the other parts of the planet for now, and it was time for the young man to go into action, for real this time.

He observed silently in his black hood as buses came and went consistently. The number of people dwindled completely, the only sign of life besides the buses being the security guards inside and outside the podiums of the Eikona Gate.

The street lamps were sparse, illuminating only parts of the street at the same time.

The sinister orange glow matched with cold wind blowing serenely across the asphalt made for a picturesque memory.

The wind graced the young boys features calmly, rustling his hair as he sat in rare solitude.

The bustling noises of the city squares were distant, engines were near to him but nothing was overwhelming in sound yet.

In this moment, the young man could feel every sensation in every single inch of his muscles, a painful warmth permeated throughout his limbs and abdomen.

He leaned on the edge of the balcony, closed his eyes and tilted his head backwards, the cold wind brushing against the nasty burn on his lower and upper forearm that was making its presence known constantly as his body got to work on disinfecting it.

'Things aren't going to plan, but I think it's gonna be okay.' The young man thought, feeling the effects of temporary peace.

" *Snniiif *...*ppphhhh * He took a deep breath in, and a deep breath out through the nose, the smell of ethnic foods, perfumes, and exhaust filled his nostrils gracefully.

Slowly, he opened his eyes, taking in every inch of the land before him in all its beauty.

"I gotta make it to him before the gate closes." He said with finality.

Without wasting another moment, the blonde young man had pulled his sleeve down past his arm and walked down the stairs he came up.

He waited some more in the alleyway he hurried through earlier, and found that another bus was coming in again.

'Getting pretty far between, huh? '.

He walked further down the sidewalk, pretending to be a normal pedestrian until he passed the bus completely.

He turned around to then jog back up to the back of the bus, making sure there weren't any vehicles too close behind him, or any onlookers to foil his plan.

He kept jogging until they had reached the Eikona Gate, the bus was barely long enough for him to not need to hide elsewhere.

He then got down on his back, and crawled underneath the bus, careful and noiseless.

After he situated himself in another impossible situation, he looked for a place to hold himself from, but he couldn't see any better than when it was still daytime, although, he had a bit of time to check for one since the people on the bus were being verified by the guards.

The young man poked and prodded at several different things that looked "grabable" and kept going until he found a metal piece that wasn't excruciating hot near the middle of the bus.

The young man hung himself off of this bar, it was pretty sturdy too, so he found his way out of Eikona safely.

He waited until the bus started up and then he grabbed on tight to the bar he had found under the engine.

Once the bus had gotten faster and the lights faded from the passing asphalt, he was certain he was out of this place, and was on his way to greener pastures.

The young man surmised that he couldn't hang like this forever, so he took his sweater off carefully, and tried his best to tie it around his waist and lower some of his weight onto the fabric, giving his body some rest.

'It ain't comfy, but it'll have to do.'

The young man then spent the next passage of time in growing pain, his hands were burnt, and the open wounds he had were bleeding due to the pressure he was putting on his arms.

'But I gotta hold on. Just until the bus stops. A little longer...'

He stayed that way for a while, his muscles started to cramp and he was bleeding down his armpits.

'Just a little longer...'

More time passed, as the ever inconvenient urge to use the bathroom had manifested itself in him.

It was a small urge, but he didn't know if he could move enough to stave it off.

More minutes grew into memories as the urge became rather bothersome, his entire forearm going up was filled with intense pain of too many types to count, and he was also hungry.

The bus hadn't stopped yet, and the young man didn't know if he had the energy to wait for it to do so for much longer.

An indeterminate amount of time passed before the vehicle stopped slowly, presumably at a red light.

The young man quickly tried to let go of the bar, but his hand were seemingly glued onto it.

He raised his equally sore legs and kicked himself off of the bar as hard as he could.

He fell of the bar and observed his surroundings for something to do, deciding to try to crawl under the hanging frame with his hands that were stuck in painful shapes.

He made half of his body go under when green lights suddenly flashed on the walls of the bus, and the bus began to accelerate.

He tried to get out in time, but the frame dug against his shirt and carved a line up his abdomen into his chest with increasing speed, causing him to grunt and try to move faster.

He made it to the other side, but was determined to keep his ride, so he ran up to the back of the moving bus and used its exhaust pipe as a jumping board, catching its roof with his forearms and cutting the new skin on his burn, but receiving enough purchase to swing his leg over and push himself up with is palms.

He rolled into a laying position atop the bus, disbelieving his current situation.

"*Huuuuuf , All this for a random guy I don't really know."

The young man had begun to question his commitment to the overall goal, but it was far too late for that, he was already in Aureus.

The young man shuffled further up the bus and laid himself down flat to make sure he didn't fly off the edge.

He tilted his head up slowly, attempting to gain his bearings.

He couldn't see very well in the poorly illuminated streets of Aureus, also while being completely flat on the roof of the bus, so he decided to just stay vigilant and try to keep his urges at bay.

The young man wiped his hands and arms as much as he could, trying to wipe the blood off of his body, his face scrunching up and his hands stung like they had been caught on fire.

But he persevered through it all, determined to not be held back by his bodily fluids.

He then realized how cold it was in the months of fall, and how he didn't have a coat nor a sweater anymore.

'Whatever, I'm not gonna die of hyperthermia.'

The young boy thought.

He kept his body moving as he wiped his hands some more on his black jeans, grateful for the time passing in peace.

An indeterminate amount of time, and several very close mental screenshots with traffic lights later, he had looked up for the umpteenth time to search his surroundings.

The bus was headed towards a mountain range that he recognized, but didn't know the name of.

He realized that he was getting close to his destination and sat up, not ready for the turn the bus was going to take at the two-way intersection splitting around the mountain.

His body flew off of the bus, crashing into the concrete side first and rolled to a stop in the middle of the intersection.

" *Huuff , * Huuffff , HH'i need... hh'a damn break..."The young man said, standing up on his holed shoes.

He walked towards the left of the mountain, starting up a jog towards the area he was headed towards.

.

.

Some Hours Later.

Location: Unknown, Aureus.

The young man had been walking for a measure of time that wasn't revealing it's form in his mind.

He walked, and walked, and walked, and walked, jogged, ran, jogged, walked, jogged, and then ran some more until he couldn't do anything but speed walk.

He was determined to sleep in a bed tonight, and he needed a place to stay.

'I don't think people would be in a hurry to turn down someone as young and hurt as me, so if this motherfucker is still in business... he had BETTER be a kind person...' The young man thought.

And so, he walked and he ran some more in the dim orange and fear-inducing glow of the road by the large and probably beautiful mountain range to his right, only stopping once to relieve himself.

After over 20 cars, 8 different intersections, somewhere over 30 different street lights and a lot of dark trees, the young man had reached large plains to his right.

An opening to the mountainside showed the distant orange skyline in the distance, a long road stretched into a hill in the cold night.

Tired eyes scanned the scenery very closely, his ears working better as his second sight, always staying vigilant even in the most vulnerable of moments.

In a distance that looked like a long trek to hell, the young man saw a light go out in the distance, a small looking two story building with a sign on its face.

" Something...about this is... familiar." The young man formed a sentence feeling like he was on the brink of passing out in exhaustion, but decided to test his thought and persevere even further.

He jogged with all his might and endurance towards the building, hoping that his mission was finally complete, maintaining a stride that was impressive for someone in his bad condition.

After some time had passed, he reached the end of the road and saw a parking lot in front of an almost shabby building.

It was empty, and the building had looked like it hadn't seen a single glance in a decade, but he knew someone was there because the lights had shut off earlier.

The young boy stepped closer to the building, realizing that it was a shop, and swelling up with recognitions, appreciation, and unbridled joy as he squinted at the letters on he large rectangle above the shops entrance.

(Urahara Shoten)

He walked up to the shop and kicked on the door as hard as he could, feeling his strength return to him in his newfound adrenaline.

"HEEEEY!! *KNOCK * OLD MAN!!! * KNOCK * YOU IN THERE!?? *KNOCK * GET. *KNOCK * THE. *KNOCK * FUCK. *KNOCK * OU-"

The young man's scratchy yelling had been cut short went he heard lights being turned on and saw the door open, all very quickly.

He stared as a short and dark-skinned young woman clad in a black night gown with long violet hair pointed the barrel of a long gun at him, golden eyes staring back at their hostage while contorted in anger.

"Who the fuck are you?". The young woman had asked, the sound of a trigger moving very apparent in the young man's ears.

"Uhh... Hello. Is Kisuke Urahara here?".The blonde boy asked with a thousand times the manners than just before.

"Answer my question before I blow your whiskered face into the wind." He heard the trigger squeeze more, and prepared himself to dodge, if that was even possible.

"Yoruichi, what's going on down here? And who's that ever so enthusiastic customer at the door?". A tall man with sand colored hair walked into the confrontation, wearing a soft smile on his face and white robes.

"This kid is gonna put a dent in your wall. I'm gonna put a pretty fucking big dent in his face if he doesn't tell me what he's doing here, and who he is!". The violette woman said without ever an inch.

"Well, Isn't this a pleasant surprise. How about it kid, mind telling her your name?". The man said with fake surprise painted over his features.

"I know it's you Urahara. You don't know me, but my name is Naruto Namikaze. I was a student of Jiraiya's before he was murdered." Naruto introduced himself with a new air, all fear leaving him, immediately replaced by hurt, longing, and anger at his first revisit to one of his most darkest memories.

"Of course you were, I'm very sorry for your loss, and I welcome you into my humble home." Urahara said as he bowed, gently moving a non-combative Yoruichi to the side for Naruto's entry.

"Thanks." Naruto said shortly as he walked into the store with clenched teeth and hand, he noticed that something in the woman's expression shifted when he said what he said.

Her eyes widened, she frowned slightly and her lips scrunched together.

'Weird. What did he say her name was again...? '. Naruto thought.

"So, what brings you into m-"

"What the hell happened to you?". Yoruichi interrupted, pointing towards Naruto's bleeding hands, feet, and chest.

"I went through a lot to get here." Naruto replied.

"Oh wow, I didn't even notice that before. Yoruichi, I'm gonna get the first aid kit m'kay? I'll be back you two, sit tight."

The man said as he paced down into a path of the shop Naruto wasn't paying attention to.

"Alright, follow me, let's get your ass sat do-",

"What's your name." Naruto said, sounding more like a statement than a question.

"What?". Yoruichi replied, confused as she attempted to lead the bleeding boy somewhere.

"What's your name. Both of them."

Naruto had gone completely rigid, so still that he didn't even seem to be breathing, his eyes trained onto Yoruichi without an ounce of emotion tethered to them.

"That doesn't matter right now, we need to get you some where that you can bleed all over instead of the front of the fucking store!". Yoruichi said, grabbing his left wrist and pulling, but not getting anything but blood out of it.

"What is your name." Naruto continued, calmly and unchanging.

"Oh my goood, if I tell you my name will you hurry up and follow me?". The woman said, her hand on her hip and her gun still in her right hand.

Naruto didn't reply.

" *Sigh *...My name is Yoruichi Shihoi-", The rest of her name was caught in her throat, Naruto had moved swiftly, he pounced on her with his right hand on her throat and begun to choke her out with one hand, his right leg on her left hand and his remaining hand holding her right one down.

" *URRGH-GHHKHKK *!!!". Yoruichi was caught by surprise, she begun thrashing underneath him, overwhelmed by the sudden strength of the boy on top of her.

Not another sound made it out of her throat, his hand trying to snap her neck, and with each passing moment that grew more and more possible.

Yoruichi looked around frantically and grunted, she kicked at the boys behind but he wasn't budging an inch.

She looked into his eye, and saw cold, deceivingly emotionless eyes staring back at her, masked by pure concentration and effort.

Naruto's body trembled as his bloody hand got closer and closer to his, goal, his nerves could almost feel the groaning of her trachea in his clutch.

Suddenly, a large *THOONG * rang out near Naruto's head, and he instantly fell unconscious.

" *HUGGHHH* *KOFF , *KOFF *KOFF * ,*HUFF , *HUUGH * *KOFF * *KOFF *". Yoruichi coughed relentlessly, her bruised throat making it harder and more painful.

"There there, It's okay you guys. I knew this would happen." Urahara crouched on his knees, releasing the metal bat and cradling the heads of Naruto and Yoruichi in his lap.

After Yoruichi had stopped coughing, she sat up and asked a him question,"How hard did you hit him?".

"I hit him as hard as it would take to knock him out, he's tougher than he looks Yoruichi.

"*Huff , I just*swallow , I didn't expect him to survive. Much less show up on your doorstep. He must be resilient." Yoruichi observed, standing up.

"So what are you gonna tell him when he wakes up?".

"What do you mean?". Yoruichi asked, picking Naruto up by the shoulders as Urahara closed the door.

"You know what I mean, about how your the reason his teacher is dead?". Urahara said nonchalantly, picking up Naruto's legs and letting Yoruichi guide them into a separate room.

A massive ball of familiar guilt swelled up inside of Yoruichi's heart,"We'll deal with that when the time comes, Kisuke."

Yoruichi couldn't help but feel hurt by Urahara's blatant admittance of how he felt about the situation so many years ago, but she decided not to hold it again him.

"For now, let's get this boy in bandages."

fin