264 Chapter six, 2017, spring break: 1 (1/2)

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 west.

'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, then he had cost himself the chance of a lifetime, and going by 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.