[center][h1][b][color=39b54a]Hakuro Kuroda[/color][/b][/h1][/center] He was just...always so [i]bored[/i] when he was home. He had an island paradise, but friends were few and far between, as guests came and went. It was like being the king of nowhere and nothing. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ [i]Take a child, just a young boy, and put him on an island beach. It's a fun place to be, to run and play and do all kinds of things that any kid could and would want to do in a place to themselves. Let him play and run around annd be himself for a while, until he finally tires himself out, exhausted all of his games. Now, tell him he can never leave. It's not to say that he was ever tricked into this life. They hadn't suddenly taken him here. He was always here, must like his parents, and THEIR parents, and so on. They weren't part of the country, not really. They didn't want to live there. Or at least, that was what his family wanted. But...a young boy wants something more. We live in a world where we don't wonder what's out there. We know. The internet tells us so, and it shares oh-so-many secrets and tales, so many things to do and be a part of... But what if you can't go? If the parents don't want to, and you're not old enough to go yourself, what can you do? The young boy sat on the beach, and felt his life becoming darker and grayer, lacking life and substance and feeling. Presently, he imagined the tide would be rising, only instead of how it normally does this, it would simply raise up on its own, like somebody filling a sink. It was constant, already reaching where he sat, and still going. He stood up, and it was already past his knees. He ran inland. It accelerated, engulfing the beach. Was the water raising or was the island sinking? Or worse... Was it being eaten? He ran harder, faster, climbed harder to make it up hill. No good. It was on his heels. There was a distant echoing groan. He HOPED it was just his father being overcome by the water. That was the tamest of all thoughts, at the moment. Higher and higher he went, until he'd reached the top of the tallest hill on the island, the lookout point of the hiking trail. The sea was everywhere. The ocean was eating everything. He had nowhere to go. The groan again, this time somehow everpresent, all around him, and then an arm stabbed out of the water and grabbed for him! Backing away, he saw himself...! But it wasn't...was it? The other boy had his clothes, his face, his build, but...everything was wrong. He had drowned gray-blue skin, with wrinkled hands and feet like prunes. His hair was just a ragged mess, his nails were like claws, and he looked malnourished. A savvy person would say he looked like a ghoul... Seemed to fit. His face looked like death, with rotten teeth and sunken black pits for eyes. He didn't look like a person. It was almost alien... And then, to top it all off, the apparition spoke in his voice, too. It said... [color=39b54a][b]"Stop running. We belong down here."[/b][/color][/i] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ As you can imagine, the last few hours for Hakuro were [i]not[/i] of normal sleep. He'd had a nightmare, one that he hadn't had since he was a young boy. The island dream was something he vividly remembered because it was his prime motivation to leave, to see the world. He'd had this thought that the ocean would just swallow everything up...and his young imagination conjured something pretty horrible in his sleep. That was when it started, or rather when he [i]started[/i] it. The Hatto-san... Hatto Ken Ko-to. The refuge against severe boredom and dark thoughts. He was his own chief morale officer, a doctor with only one patient, the cure for the common rut. For the moment, he was too tired to be particularly 'Hatto'. He'd woken up with the memory from long ago and needed to be upright. So, three hours before he was suppose to get up, he took to his swivel chair and his laptop with a blanket and absent-mindedly browsed through some of his files on the Hatto Site, smirking at all the goofy behavior there. He'd dozed, here and there, resting his head against the laptop, looking at the site again, resting again, looking at some comments... Hmmm. There was one from Sherry, of all people. Now, what did the Califoria Ninja-Girl want? He clicked on it. [i][color=39b54a]...what?[/color][/i] [color=silver][b][i]"So, anybody else find this ironic? My little pupil told me he left home to get away from the isolation of living on an island, and now he's been living on a bigger island."[/i][/b][/color] Sherry was the one who had transformed him from a roaming hat-boy who kinda' knew the basics of martial arts to a full-blown parkour specialist. Don't read too far into it. 'Specialist' just meant he didn't get severely injured by misjudging a jump or losing his grip at a critical moment, for the most part. It meant he was [i]good[/i], not godly. Anyway, she'd made this point, and...Hakuro hadn't even considered it. Was he just feeling some of home because the UK was a series of islands, separated from the rest of Europe like Okinawa from Japan? The parallel was...surprising. She might've been onto something... The difference, of course, was that London was bigger than his home. [i]England[/i] was bigger. It was also harder to get use to, because of when they ate and some of the food and how [i]certain things just aren't done[/i]. Well, no matter. Since it was time to get up, may as well BE up. He put on some music from home and got to work. [center][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pNDzL8w6XI[/youtube][/center] Off with the blanket, whipping it around and tossing it at the bed. Bed clothes off, quick shower, dry and groom before picking out the day clo...oh right. One thing he'd liked about his time in America: The lax dress code, allowing him to wear more casual clothes instead of a uniform. Well, he got [i]that[/i] on. It wouldn't matter, because he still had the finishing touch. Take that coat off the hook and pull it on with a flourish! Put that hat on with style! Hatto-san powers activate. He stepped on out and headed for the courtyard area. Let's see if there were any early bloomers out right now. [color=39b54a][i]Yeah, some people here and there. I'd have a better look if I could get up high.[/i][/color] He looked at a promising tree to climb. [color=39b54a][i]I wish I had a grappling hook...[/i][/color] Not actually [i]aware[/i] of Laurence on the other side of said tree, Hakuro took a running jump - [color=39b54a]"Hatto-[i]leap![/i]"[/color] - and began scaling the thing, making good use of any of the knots and folds in the bark with his momentum and sure grip. It would have to be sheer smooth to defeat him, and that wasn't likely. He was gonna start making the squirrels jealous, a thought that made him laugh, suddenly.