Gearing up had cost him almost
nothing. Almost two years' worth of shopping had him equipped with
most of what he needed. Sure, he had to compensate for growing a bit,
but from what he recalled from being a teenager the first time he'd
only add a couple of centimetres more.
Ulf checked his bags one last
time, and then he did the same with his climbing sack, the one he
preferred for long biking hikes. Nothing forgotten, and with a deep
sigh he straddled his bike and started east.
Fuck, they'll wonder what
happened, but I really need a break now.
Back in their shared data
repository lay everything needed for the sessions his customers had
already ordered. He'd only accepted facilitation, because he wasn't
going to break his friends' belief in themselves. The work wouldn't
earn the company all that much money, but it would give the four of
them all the pocket money they could possibly need.
When he waited by a red light a
few pedestrians and the driver in the car at his side gave him
strange looks. Probably gave his clothes strange looks. Japan might
be number one in the world when it came to manufacturing super light
weight gear, but very few people wore them. For some reason they
seemed to prefer hideously expensive European and American gear of
lower quality.
Their loss. I get the best for
a discount.
He'd left just about everything
he usually carried along at home. His phone he carried in his
backpack, but it was shut down. As in had its battery removed and
placed in a separate plastic bag. Ulf didn't trust the software
shut-down to guarantee he didn't leak some kind of signal.
This was his personal break, and
he didn't intend to be found before he was done, no matter how long
that might take.
Fuck it. I hurt you really
bad. Half a truth. I hurt us both. I'm sorry Christina, but I
can't take your life away from you, but neither can I live without
you. He needed this break. He needed to find a way not to betray
them both after the damage he had already done.
With wind flying in his face his
thoughts were easier to collect. He'd get lost from time to time, but
he'd also lived long enough to learn to read a map and a compass from
a time before GPS was available to everyone. So I can find my way in
Japan, but I can't find my way in my own life. Funny that.
A nagging suspicion that he had
forced the solution on Christina crept around in his mind. There was
a feeling he had neither given her the respect she deserved nor the
right to make her own decisions about her future and their
relationship. That suspicion was what finally drove Ulf to flee from
everything. If he had done wrong. If he had, the he had cost himself
the chance of a lifetime, and if what he read in her eyes, Christina
as well.
He sped up and used an uphill run
to punish his legs as much as possible. Don't dwell on it. Don't
think about it. Just get out of Tokyo and as far as possible.
The way he was right now he'd
refuse to employ himself. Mentally unstable people weren't the kind
best suited to guide others.
Ulf understood he had another
problem as well. Some kind of shit scary acquaintance of the
Wakayamas was on a killing spree, and only Urufu's asking Amaya to
abuse her indecent powers put a stop to it. Now, offline for the
first time since the early nineties he had no way to make sure the
body-count didn't rise again.
It didn't help that the shit
scary man was Christina's grandfather. But I can see where you came
from. Did you ever realise that hard part of you was one of the
reasons I fell in love with you?
Thinking of her hurt. Had hurt
for over a month now. Ulf wiped tears from his face when traffic
allowed, and then he wheeled under one of the highways feeding the
east Kanto region.
Been a while since I last
hiked like this. Last time was on foot, but damn that sucks! He
grinned, and for a short moment there was only the glory of his
silent wheels, the wind in his face and the feeling of being in
control of his destiny. But am I really?
So much time spent on preparing
to change the world around him to the better. The way he had always
lived his life, even when it turned out he was wrong. And again that
nagging suspicion this was one of those times came eating on his
mind.
He skidded to a halt, left his
bike and fed a machine some coins. Despite being Mars with optimal
temperatures for a hike like this, he'd still consume huge amounts of
water. He recalled those vending machines being just about everywhere
in Japan, but he didn't want to chance it, so he bought a litre of
sports drink. It should suffice for the next two or three hours or
so.
The afternoon saw him leaving the
parts of Tokyo he knew behind him, and as darkness fell he had made
it firmly into the outskirts.
While Ulf didn't have anything
against cycling in the dark he decided to call it a day and spend the
night at a hotel. A love hotel more precisely. They happily accepted
cash and asked no questions. Besides they were surprisingly good
value, seldom asking much more than five thousand yen for a night.
Ulf locked his bike and went
inside.
It took him a while to decipher
what went for a reception, but then he realised the display of rooms
worked pretty much like the restaurants where you bought a food
ticket and gave it to the waiter.
There was no waiter here, just a
tiny hole by the counter that allowed him to pay, receive his keys
and leave without neither him nor the receptionist ever seeing each
other's faces.
Shoddy
living for a shoddy person. Let's see how long I can keep this up.
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