She finally got to make use of the make-up kit Kuri-chan had given her in the locker room during the cultural festival.

The first night of the two they spent in the resort, Yukio made no approaches more than suggesting they use the family bath. The second night Kyoko had enough with his polite refusal to suggest they share more than their bed.

It was warm and sweaty, and it hurt a little; and she'd never wish it undone. Now the connection between them was stronger than ever before.

Come morning he was less shy with her, and she experienced something close to pleasure. It gets better with time, you said. Thinking of Kuri-chan soured her mood a little, but she couldn't live Kuri-chan's life.

As it was Kyoko really didn't want to live that life. As soon as spring break started Kuri-chan was whisked away by her employer, and since a few days she didn't even respond to messages.

Spending a few days at the resort only left Noriko and Ryu back home in Tokyo, because Urufu had vanished just as thoroughly as Kuri-chan.

Idiot! Do you know how worried Yukio is? You should at least have told him.

Kyoko growled and swallowed another bite of delicious breakfast.

They needed to leave early for Nagoya where the first of their sessions was being prepared. Both Ryu and Noriko would arrive in the evening and the coming three days were packed with work for Urufu's customers.

She wasn't worried about the customers. Urufu had made certain the four of them only had to work with people who were long used to having teenagers running the show. Besides, this was the kind of facilitation Ryu could run in his sleep with the backup of his sister.

Why Urufu wanted her and Yukio was a little more unclear, but Kyoko was happy to work together with Yukio. Especially as he cut away content with a brutal ruthlessness, making the presentations she had to produce that much shorter. Urufu never complained, rather he just gave Yukio a stare filled with equal parts wonder and curiousness.

She gobbled down some more food and turned to Yukio. “Half an hour?”

His face rose from a huge mouthful he tried to hide behind a bowl of miso soup. After a frantic and successful attempt at swallowing it all he nodded.

That had to hurt, Kyoko thought. As a reward she gave him what she hoped was a sweet smile. You're so honest. You're the best that ever happened to me. I love you. Just to be on the safe side she gave him another smile.

“Then I'll have a taxi ordered,” Kyoko said. Working for Urufu changed her perception of what was usual in more ways than one. A year ago the very concept of 'taxi' was something she associated with adult. Now, merely efficient when he needed them somewhere with little time to spare. It helped that his company paid for the fares.

Three days. 75 000 yen. I never even thought it was possible to make money like this. And because of that she saved most of her money. Somewhere in her mind she was vaguely aware she earned more per day than she was likely to do after she finished university and entered the workforce.

To make it even better she thoroughly enjoyed her part time job. She learned more there than in school, and by now she honestly felt she deserved her salary. She wrote the invoices. Three days amounted to well over half a million yen, almost two hundred thousand a day. Urufu's documents even stated that was a hefty discount because he liked the customers so much.

Then Kyoko decided she had enough breakfast and left for their room. Our room. Thank you mom and dad! She sent a thankful thought to the lady at the inn who hadn't as much as batted an eye when she and Yukio arrived two days earlier.

Packing took almost no time, and when Yukio arrived she had finished with their bag. He carried it down the stairs, limping and all. She could have done it herself, but she didn't want to deny him that little token of manliness if he desired it.

When they reached the entrance floor she saw the taxi waiting for them.

“Yukio, it's here,” Kyoko said as if he lacked the power of sight.

He just nodded and smiled.

The ride to the station was shorter than she remembered from the club field trip last August. The train to Nagoya, however, wasn't.

To make up for the agonisingly slow train the circle line subway took them to the conference centre in a breeze, and when they checked in at the hotel Ryu and Noriko stood waiting for them.

“Any news?” Kyoko asked while Yukio handled the formalities. They had two rooms. Urufu had been sensible enough not to push Japanese norms when that might cause them problems. She'd share hers with Noriko.

“News, you tell me,” Noriko said, and a grin that threatened to split her face in two spread over her face. “Ryu, help Yukio!”

Ryu looked at them, smirked, but promptly did as he had been told.

“Kyoko, I want to know everything.”

Oh dear! This is so embarrassing! “What do you mean?” Kyoko said, but she knew exactly what Noriko meant.

Noriko looked at Ryu and Yukio by the counter, and Kyoko saw in her eyes that she just wanted to make sure they couldn't hear. In the end Noriko seemed satisfied with the distance to the boys.

“Did you do it?”

No way! Then an evil demon popped up its head in Kyoko's mind. “Yeah, we went to the family bath.”

The nonplussed face staring at her was worth it.

“No, I mean it.”

There was no point in dragging it out any further. Noriko and Ryu bought the vouchers after all. “Uhum. Yes.”

“No!”

That had more than a few faces turn in their direction, and Kyoko felt her face flare red. “Not so loud!” But it was already too late. That a few of the strangers looking at them smiled knowingly didn't matter, but Yukio's beet red face gave no wriggle room for misunderstandings. He had heard.

“Noriko, in our room, OK? First I want to know everything about Kuri-chan and Urufu.”

***

As far as he knew he managed to avoid anyone recognising him. The half a day biking too close to Nagoya for his own comfort had him on the edge, but now he had made it safely south of that city.

Ulf burned with longing for going on-line, but that was just too risky. An old style Internet café would have sufficed, but that meant heading into central Nagoya, and he was certain someone would pick up on him if he did.

Now he was less than a day's ride from his destination, and the morning sun led him in his wanted direction.

Last night, and the night before that he had spent in love hotels. When the population density increased he didn't dare sleeping in the open. Not because it was dangerous, but because someone might call the police, and then his adventure would be over.

Ulf rode small roads and the occasional street. Always south, and always closer to his goal. That village loomed bigger in his mind the closer he got. An illusion, he knew, but an illusion that might help him understand where he had gone wrong with his life.

Just south of the cluttered town he turned west and started climbing the mountain roads. The disorganised splattering of buildings gave way to, first rice fields, and when he got further inland, to tea fields with their rounded rows of bushes lining the slopes.

Occasionally the road cut across a river with concrete embankments and a desolate rill worming its way through the middle.

By now he knew where he was. In that other world he'd come here with his parents from time to time since he was ten. The last years he even brought Maria and their kids.

There would be differences, small ones, but important ones for him. In this world his mother was never his mother, and the few things he'd helped add to the house wouldn't exist.

His legs hurt from too many day's of cycling. In this body he'd never done anything like it, and it had barely begun to adapt to this kind of punishment. It should get better within a few days, but until then he just had to live with it. Well, and walking like a lame cow whenever he dismounted.

Then he crossed the last river, made a sharp turn left and rolled into the village. Here there were only rice fields embracing the river on both sides, and old and new mixed together in a dizzying display of how the residents had made more money from selling their fields that growing rice on them. Two golf courses a bit upstream had taken their place and made people rich overnight.

Ulf rode his bike a bit uphill, navigated narrow streets until he reached a small parking place.

There, just across the street lay one of those newer houses. Just one among the others. The building that sat on the spot where his mother lived her first eighteen years.

Now, when he had finally reached his goal he was suddenly unsure about what to do. It wasn't like he could knock of the door to perfect strangers. Ulf shook his head. He felt a little distraught, but then a solution reached his mind. The small graveyard lay just a few minutes away, and he could pay his respects to his grandmother, despite her never having been his grandmother in this world.

With new-found determination he mounted his bike again and pedalled away. Close to the temple, hidden away behind it. Not many people visited it each day, and he hoped to find it empty when he arrived there.

Ulf led his bike the last bit. Arriving on foot just seemed more decent. When there was just one corner remaining he parked it and dropped his backpack. With his hands he tried to tidy up his hair, and after that he started walking the last few metres.

Glorious sunshine followed him to the graves, and when he looked up he saw he wasn't alone. His aunt, or the woman who had been his aunt in his previous life stood there caring for his grandmother's grave.

Pity, poor timing. I'll just wait.

Then she turned and looked at him.

He heard her draw for breath and saw how she dropped the flowers she held in her hand.

“Who are you?”

Huh? “Excuse me, my name is Hamarugen Urufu,” he said in the Japanese way.

“Who are you? Why are you here. You look just like my older sister.”

Crap! Forgot I got my looks from mom. “I do?” he tried.

“You could be her son, but she only had daughters, so who are you?”

So mom married in this world as well? That makes me happy to hear. “As I said, I'm just a visitor.”

“Just a visitor? You're tall like a foreigner, just like all of Akane's daughters.”

Wait a moment, so she married Lars in this world as well? So I have siblings of a kind in this world. Still, being recognised for who he couldn't be was a problem. It was time to be partially honest.

“Well, I couldn't possibly be the son of your older sister,” Ulf said. He was thirty five years younger here after all.

“You could be a grandson. Her daughters haven't visited us since they married.”

Mom's grandson? Yeah, I have a daughter older than myself now. That could work. “I wouldn't know. It's been a while since I met my grandmother.” A partial truth. He hadn't seen his mother for over two years.

“I don't know who you are, but I know you're not telling me everything. Someone looking so much like Akane and wearing her name is someone I must talk with.”

Yeah, she would be Akane Hammargren in this world as well. He bowed acceptance and followed the old woman after she had set the flowers by the grave. It gave him an excuse to pay his respects as well.

The interrogation that was to follow was a price he was willing to pay.