Chapter two, 2017, ends and beginnings, segment three

Yukio took Kyoko’s hand in his and grinned. He grinned at Noriko rushing ahead across the gravel as if she had forgotten all her pain. He grinned at how much Kyoko had grown the last year. He grinned at how much their love had grown, and at this very moment he grinned with relief when he understood that he still shared feelings of friendship with the idiot who just received a bundle of pure joy in his arms.

Urufu, make her happy! She deserves it. Then Yukio laughed silently. Noriko, make him happy! He deserves it.

Beside him Kyoko squeezed his hand, and when he glanced at her he saw tears forming in her eyes.

“Kuri-chan, you idiot!”

Her voice was soft and silent, but Yukio heard the words anyway.

“Maybe Ryu’s good for her,” Yukio tried.

“I hope so. I hope so for all four of them.”

The squeeze got firmer, and Yukio tightened his grip on her hand. “At least they helped us two find each other. Has to count for something.” His voice was a little more shaky than he had expected.

That made the tears leave her eyes. “Oh Yukio! It means the whole world for me! Of course it counts.”

And he knew why her tears mixed sadness with joy. Those who had given the two of them so much happiness broke their own apart.

“Man, you hold on to her this time, or I won’t forgive you,” Yukio shouted when he saw the usual signs of awkwardness in Urufu. “You made her cry. You comfort her.” He’d be damned if he let Urufu get a chance to wriggle out of it this time. If he had no feelings for Noriko, well too bad, but Yukio didn’t believe that was the case.

Noriko’s back expressed her gratitude for Yukio’s words. How she managed that while she clung to the man she’d hunted for months Yukio didn’t know, but she did.

“Urufu, we’ll leave the two of you alone for a while,” Kyoko said. Then she pulled at Yukio’s hand. “I can’t even begin to express how angry I am with you, but I’m not Noriko, so what I think doesn’t matter.” She pulled harder, and Yukio followed her down the street in the direction of what looked like a derelict school.

Just as he was about to sigh with relief a voice from behind called to them both.

“It doesn’t work that way. We’ll tag along. I have too much to apologise for, and not only to Noriko.”

Man, what a bother! Yukio played Urufu’s word in his head again. We, at least he said ‘we’. “Sure. Noriko you can bring your boyfriend.”

Kyoko’s body went rigid beside him. Yukio could feel it through her hand. Looking at her he saw how she held her breath just like he did.

There was no response.

There was none.

Just the sound of feet following them.

This time Yukio didn’t even dare to glance at Kyoko. He stubbornly stared straight ahead of him and hoped the street would lead somewhere reasonable.

A gust of wind carried a faint scent of fresh water.

Another the sound of some lonesome cicadas.

“They’re frogs,” Urufu’s voice said from behind his back. “When I was a kid I thought they were crickets.”

With that weeks of worries ran of Yukio’s shoulders.

He’ll give it a try. He’ll give her a chance!

“Tell me more,” came Noriko’s subdued voice.

Then the footsteps caught up with them, and a little later Yukio saw Urufu and Noriko pass him and Kyoko hand in hand.

They look like a couple.

“Yukio knows just about all of it, and I’ll just bore Kyoko.” A slight hesitation. “I’ll tell you as much as you want to listen to later.” Another moments hesitation. “When we’re alone.”

Yukio finally dared to let out the long sigh that had waited inside him. By his side Kyoko did the same.

“Now what?” he said.

They were under a canopy of bamboo before Urufu answered. “We’ll get something to drink by the old school.”

After that the four of them walked in silence until they had left a rice paddy behind them and crossed another narrow street. It was Noriko who eventually broke the silence just before a can of soda slammed into the bottom of the vending machine.

“Urufu. I’m curious, but did you have any siblings?”

Huh? What kind of question is that? Yukio looked down at Urufu who was busy picking up the can.

“Yeah. Two older sisters and one younger.”

“And your mother, or father? Whoever is from here?”

“Yeah. My aunt.”

Yukio watched a wide grin spread on Urufu’s face.

Oh! Man, that’s some quick thinking!

“And he or she moved to Sweden and got married in this world as well?”

“Yeah. Mom did, but I was never born here.”

“And your father worked in construction?”

“How did you know?”

How could anyone not know?

Three of them burst out in laughter. Only Urufu stared back with a nonplussed expression in his face.

“That arrogance. You sure got it from your father,” Noriko said, and brought another round of laughter to the three of them.

“Huh?”

“Your aunt’s house. It should never have been built in Japan. Like never ever even in your dreams.”

“But...”

“That it still stands and looks like it does is testimony to your father’s skills. He must have been very good.”

Urufu fed a few more coins to the machine and Yukio watched how he picked up drinks for all of them.

“He was. He’s retired now, if he’s still alive.” Urufu stared back up in the direction of the alien house. “Archipelago construction. He always said it’d last longer than the neighbouring houses.”

“How old is it?” Noriko asked.

Urufu scratched his head. “I wasn’t born yet. Say a little over fifty years old.” He grinned sheepishly. “I always thought it looked strange inside. It’s very Japanese you know. Not the facade, but the inside. Dad said it had to be or it would start to rot.”

Yukio shook his head in wonder. Urufu’s words about change and adaption weren’t his own after all. He’d inherited them. From both sides of his family given how his Japanese side had decided to erect the visual insanity further up the hillside.

“Urufu,” Noriko said, “your sisters. They’re alive in this world as well?”

Urufu nodded. He bent his head backwards and gulped down half his soda. “That’s why this feels a little like home.” The can went to his mouth again. “My aunt thinks mom is my grandmother, or at least she pretends that’s what she believes.” He took two steps and discarded the can into the recycling bin.

“Urufu, we need to talk,” Yukio said.

“I know. Let’s get another bottle each and head back. Could as well introduce you.”

Chapter two, 2017, ends and beginnings, segment two

“There’s something that’s been bugging me,” Yukio said when they had changed trains once and hopped into a taxi.

Kyoko shifted a little to give room to Noriko who had fallen asleep again. The last day sure had taken its toll on her small frame.

“About the entire affair with the four of them?”

Yukio turned to face her. She could see how deep in thought he was. Right now he was thinking aloud rather than talking with her.

“No. It’s about the two different worlds thing.” Yukio fell silent again.

Kyoko waited for him to resume his train of thought. In the meanwhile she stared out the windows where small rice paddies were replaced by even smaller tea plantations. They were definitely heading into the mountains, and everything was smaller here. Well, apart from the mountains. Those might be ever present for most Japanese, but being a Tokyoite she had little reasons and even fewer occasions visiting them herself.

“The people who talked with Ryu,” she heard Yukio’s voice say. “It’s the thing with a Swedish organisation that keeps bugging me.”

But the arrivals all came from Sweden. Or at least the Sweden in that other world. Kyoko didn’t understand what her boyfriend was getting at.

“You see,” Yukio continued as if he’d been reading her mind, “they pop up here in Japan. People who have never existed in this world.”

“Yes?” Kyoko said.

He wasn’t. Wasn’t merely thinking aloud that was. She knew he wanted her to react to what he was saying from time to time.

“So there’s little reason for that Swedish section for whatever.”

“Why not?” Kyoko said. She could hear from his voice that he had reached the point where he was bouncing his thoughts with her.

“Urufu told me there had to be a Swedish organisation in that other world, because both he and Kuri got invites, so someone knew what was going to happen.”

That made sense. But a Swedish organisation in this world? Suddenly she felt cold in a way that had nothing to do with the AC in the taxi hammering them with a freezing draught.

“So you arrived there as well?” Yukio said. “If there is a Swedish organisation in this world I’m pretty sure there are people vanishing from this one and ending up in another.”

“But that means there aren’t just two worlds.”

Yukio nodded. “A chain of them I believe. I can’t explain, but I’d call them upstream and downstream worlds.” He frowned. “I don’t think it’s possible to go back to the world Urufu came from from this one, so upstream.” Then he grinned, an expression he’d had the help from Urufu to master, and one that still melted Kyoko’s heart. “That would make this one a downstream one.”

Under her arm Noriko shifted uncomfortably in her sleep, and Kyoko nudged a little away in her seat to make it a little more comfortable for her petite friend.

“And you think this one is an upstream one for another world?”

Yukio nodded. “I have to work on this idea with Urufu, but yeah, I believe so.”

“I wonder what it’s like,” Kyoko said as the taxi left what went for a main road up here and started climbing up streets so narrow meeting another car would have been impossible. Would I feel that creepy feeling of almost the same that Kuri-chan spoke about?

“What what is like?” Noriko asked sleepily and freed herself from where she had nestled under Kyoko’s arm.

“Hello sleepyhead,” Kyoko said. “We’re almost there.”

“What what is like?” Noriko repeated.

Kyoko glanced at Yukio.

“The thing with two worlds and all that,” he said.

“Urufu’s old world?”

“Uhum.” Kyoko wanted to have this conversation together with Urufu, just like Yukio, so she chose to give Noriko the simpler answer.

The taxi came to a stop, and Yukio paid the driver.

“We’re here?” Noriko said, and Kyoko smiled at how she turned her head in search of Urufu.

A short guffaw had them both look at Yukio.

“Almost,” he said. “I don’t know exactly where it is, but I have his mother’s maiden name, so I thought we’d ask in the shop here,” Yukio added and nodded at a small shop squeezed in between two houses.

Kyoko watched him go inside while she shouldered her backpack. Noriko did the same.

Looking around Kyoko noted how everything was small except the houses. Apparently, in a relative sense, there was more space here, but also more money. Where she lived houses like these would have cost a fortune, or rather the plot they stood on. Housing in Tokyo was brutally expensive according to her parents.

They were also surrounded by a less oppressive heat. It was still hot, but no longer the brutal heat at the resort. The valley the sides of which the village climbed funnelled a weak breeze that refreshed the air, and Kyoko stood admiring the greenery further up the mountainsides together with her friend until Yukio came back out from the shop.

“Straight ahead and just across a public parking place. She said we couldn’t miss it,” Yukio added and nodded at the shop he had just left. “Anyone wants a snack? I couldn’t just ask and not buy anything.”

“Which house?”

“Urufu once told me I’d know if I ever saw it, but that he didn’t understand himself. The lady in the shop basically said the same thing.”

“He didn’t understand it himself?” Noriko said.

Yukio shouldered his backpack and took the lead. “This was back before Himekaizen,” he said over his shoulders. His safe and wonderful shoulders. “There was a time when it was important for him to tell me memories of his.”

Kyoko wondered where this was going, but for now she was content with listening to Yukio’s voice. This was the voice of a boy who made best friends with Urufu. Not the disillusioned Yukio of recent. She preferred the Yukio who took pride in his friend. If for no other reason then because it reminded her of when she still took pride in Kuri-chan. I have to make up with her. Even if I can’t forgive, at least we have to make up.

They rounded a corner and suddenly a small gravel parking place spread out before them.

Oh gods!

Across it old style Japanese houses competed for space with more modern ones. All in what both Urufu and Kuri-chan had described as a faux European style. And then there was the exception. It shouted out it’s foreignness, blared how it didn’t belong here and in general made her wonder if the builders had taken leave of their brains.

It also spoke of a familiar world. One she had seen on pictures every days since Urufu filled their first club room with photos from Sweden.

Yeah, I see how we couldn’t possibly miss it.

Yellow, standing panel, white corners and tiles a burned orange red colour that basically never roofed a Japanese home. Urufu must have grown up around houses like this one. As alien as it was to her, as much a definition of normality for the child he once was.

“Didn’t you say his relatives were Japanese?”

Kyoko looked at Noriko. “Yes, they are.” Well, in as much as this family is related to him. He wasn’t born in this world.

“Then, why?” Noriko said and pointed at the abomination across the gravel.

“I guess influences work both ways. Why don’t you ask him?”

“Ask him? When...”

Kyoko grinned. On the street an open mouthed Urufu stood staring back at them. Even from this distance she could see how shame competed with joy in his eyes.

“Noriko, run to him! He’s all yours now.”

Chapter two, 2017, ends and beginnings, segment one

“Where did he go?”

Kyoko looked at Yukio. Hurt. Kuri-chan had hurt him, and so had Urufu.

“Who cares?”

“Yukio!” She loved him. That didn’t mean she couldn’t admonish him. “I care, and so do you.” And so does Noriko. Noriko, I’m so sorry.

They needed to find Noriko, and she needed to convince both her and Yukio to go searching for Urufu. Or rather, she needed to convince Yukio to lead them to wherever Urufu was, because she was certain Yukio knew.

Outdoors was a baking oven despite August running towards its end. That baking oven cooked Kuri-chan and a Ryu who was as smugly satisfied today as he’d been ragingly angry yesterday.

You idiot! Idiots! Both of you. Cause they were. Best friend be damned. Kuri-chan was still her best friend, but this time she really pushed that friendship to its limits. How could you?

“Does it change anything?” Yukio asked.

Kyoko grabbed his hand and forced him through the entrance and into the blazing sun. It was like walking into a wall of heat. Despite lying almost at the very edge of the ocean not a single gust of wind reached the resort.

“I have to help Noriko. She deserves better.”

“And if she doesn’t want to be helped?”

She definitely wouldn’t want to be helped, but she needed to. Kyoko had already made her mind up. Memories of Kuri-chan’s panicked look when the four of them returned a day late from Ise lingered in Kyoko’s mind.

Idiot! You broke up with him. You don’t have the right to be jealous any longer. But she had been. And she had done something about it. I wonder if you’ll even keep his friendship after this? Because Kuri-chan hadn’t tried to get together with Urufu again. Kyoko was sure about that.

“I’m ashamed of being his friend.”

“Yukio! Never say that again! Besides, he didn’t...”

“He could have said no!” Yukio interrupted. His voice rose to a growl. Then a glimmer of fear reached his eyes.

Oh no! You don’t get to be scared of me. You have every right to be angry. “Yukio, I understand. I know you’re not angry at me.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean...”

“I understand.” Kyoko hugged him close despite the heat. “I understand.”

“Our pockets?” Yukio suddenly asked, and Kyoko loved him all the more for how he dared change his mind when neded.

Despite the worry she felt in her heart Kyoko grinned. “Noriko will pay for her share.”

Yesterday Urufu paid their salaries. For being teenagers they were loaded. Half a million yen shared between them ought to suffice for hunting down Urufu wherever he had gone.

“Then let’s go fetch her.” Yukio finally nodded, and Kyoko almost jumped out of his arms and rushed indoors. She had already prepared three daypacks and she didn’t intend to give Yukio the chance to change his mind back again.

They needed to find Noriko quickly. They had to find her before the sight of Kuri-chan and her brother filled her with disgust, and if Kyoko knew Noriko right, self hatred.

“Yukio, follow me!”

Kyoko didn’t wait for an answer but dragged her boyfriend after her as soon as he was done attaching the small backpack to his back. One of her own on her back, one in her hand and Yukio in the other she ran to the beach despite the heat. Halfway there she had ordered the taxi thanks to a headset dangling precariously from one ear, and less than a minute later she found Noriko.

Kyoko waved at the girl, but Noriko’s eyes were fixed at the shoot where Kyoko knew both Kuri-chan and Ryu were to be found. Kuri-chan because of work, and Ryu, well Ryu because he finally cemented his relationship with his girlfriend since a few months.

“Noriko!”

That finally drew her attention, and she looked back. This time she even waved back.

“Over here, Noriko!”

Their friend stood up in momentary confusion and pointed at herself. Kyoko nodded and beckoned her to her.

“What’s going on?” Noriko said when they were close enough to talk. Her voice was subdued, just like her entire being was subdued since a day.

“We’re going to have a long talk with Urufu,” Kyoko said.

It hurt to see how mentioning his name brought even more sadness and pain to Noriko’s eyes.

“If you want to slap him I’ll help pin him down,” Kyoko promised.

“He just vanished.”

Behind them Yukio coughed to get their attention. Both girls turned their heads to hear what he had to say.

“He didn’t just vanish. He’s visiting family, or something.” Yukio’s eyebrows twisted together at his insane statement. “His family from that other world. Anyway, I know where he is.”

“Huh?”

Kyoko stared at Noriko rather than her boyfriend. For once the girl looked stunned with confusion. Not a trace of sadness was to be seen on a face that was busy showing exactly how flabbergasted Yukio’s words had made her. Yukio, you’re my hero. I love you!

“Look. In that other world he had relatives here. That’s where he got his looks from. OK?”

That kind of made sense. If he was a half then the other half by definition had to have roots here in Japan, even if it was a Japan in another world. Almost the same. The worlds are almost the same. He always says that.

By her side Noriko’s face had taken on a bit of determination, and inside of her Kyoko shouted with joy at watching that new expression.

“We’re going to him, and this time we’re making sure you get him.” Noriko wondered how she could be so certain. “He’s fond of you. More than fond given what he agreed to in Ise.” Because, if Urufu really didn’t have any interest in Noriko at all, then Kyoko was certain he’d either have bedded her for real or simply refused to share the bed in the first place.

“You think so?” And at once Noriko’s face reverted to the misery that had been plastered to it for a day.

“Look, Noriko,” Yukio said. He stared down at his feet when he spoke, as if he didn’t dare face their friend. “Urufu’s been hurting like hell. I don’t think what he did was a beginning.”

“But he slept with her!”

For the next minute or so Kyoko just held the sobbing girl in her arms. Despite Yukio’s clumsy words Kyoko understood he only meant well, and maybe Noriko needed to be reminded of what had happened to move on.

Still staring at his feet Yukio waited until Noriko’s sobs had subsided before he dared speak again. “You know, I think that was his way of ending it. I believe they said good bye.”

For a while Yukio’s words only resulted in silence.

“What makes you think that?”

Kyoko glanced at Yukio over Noriko’s shoulder. You’d better get it right this time.

“You saw your brother today.”

“Yes?”

“I believe something had to break first.”

“Huh?”

“They’ve been together all this time with nothing happening.”

“Yes?”

“Would you agree Ryu and Kuri are finally together for real now?”

Kyoko could feel some of the tension in Noriko’s body go away.

“Ah. But if she tries to...”

“She won’t,” Kyoko said. Now when she understood what Yukio had been aiming at it suddenly made sense. “They’re not getting back together again.” Half a year. The idiots needed half a year to break up.

“Then, if what you say is right, Urufu’s really free for the taking?”

Relief at Noriko’s words filled Kyoko. That’s my girl! “Let’s go hunt him down for you, shall we?

June 24, 2040, oceans of darkness

Christina shuddered when she heard footsteps further up the hill. She didn’t want anyone to see her crying. Especially not Ryu or Ulf.

She led a good life now, blessed with the childbirth she never experienced in her first life, and with far more love than she deserved.

While she had been an adult reborn, and not naive enough to believe you could experience love without hurting anyone, she most definitely had crossed a line of common decency.

And eventually I hurt them both, and Noriko a well. Come to think about it. She probably hurt Yukio and Ko-chan as well. Ko-chan. The one person she never grew used to call by her first name. Her best friend. And now she’s going away forever.

Because that was everything this trip was about. Coming together for some of them, but a parting for all of them. In a couple of days Ko-chan and Yukio would leave this world just like she herself had left hers a quarter of a century earlier.

I never apologised, or did I? She couldn’t remember what had happened after. Most of the last week of summer that year only held oceans of darkness in her memories.

Doesn’t matter. There was no way an apology could have gotten through anyway.

Chapter one, 2017, flashes of summer, segment ten

During the life he left behind Ulf took his first real girlfriend to his bed after some hesitation, or rather she took him to his bed. He’d been far too awkward to understand the repeated invites she gave him, so in the end, during a late evening alone with each other, she took to the offensive in a way even he wasn’t able to misunderstand.

Now was different.

While he and Christina had shared their bodies on a few occasions it was still a matter of adults in teenager bodies, or at least as much adults as their bodies allowed.

Noriko, however, was very much still a child. At least in his eyes. Ulf was thoroughly grateful she hadn’t tried anything in that direction. Spending the moments before they entered the pool together was bad enough, but she defused it by walking away before she took off her clothes.

It wasn’t like he wasn’t interested at all. She was cute, and he didn’t really have any body type preferences. Had he been the age he looked he probably would have tried something bad. Or good, depending on how you looked at it.

As it was he wasn’t ready for either love or making love, and Noriko deserved the full attention of the man who shared that sensation for the first time with her.

So in the end he was grateful for the pool as well. It was very much the same as a sauna during his university days back home. After a while the conversation drew most of his attention, and he felt his misgivings fade away as he enjoyed how she handled different topics in a way that lay far beyond her years.

Ulf enjoyed talking with Noriko. Problem being he had enjoyed talking with Christina as well since she quickly dispelled any notions he held of her being all looks. He’d been guilty of some severe preconceptions about beauty and brains.

Still, Noriko was different. She gave him a run for his money. Her mind moved so quickly he needed all of his experience to catch up, and only by playing a dirty game of steering conversations where experience mattered more than pure brains did he manage to keep up.

They talked and laughed, and talked some more. After a while he forgot neither of them wore any clothes, and from the way she Noriko acted, so did she.

A little too much time in the pool it turned out.

Dizzy from heat and fatigue Ulf left the water, grabbed his towel and got rid of the worst of the water. Then he draped himself with a yukata, not even bothering with the obi, and checked that Noriko didn’t fall asleep in the pool or anything equally stupid and dangerous.

He needn’t have worried. She stood, towel in her hair, with water dripping down her body in the light of their room and almost only a pitch black night as background.

Whatever lit the terrace was more for setting the mood than anything else, and Ulf was rudely reminded that this was, after all, not the same as sharing a sauna back home with friends.

Small breasts, narrow hips and yet a body that had decided to grow into adulthood, and all framed by her thin arms and a white towel furiously dancing around in her hair.

Ulf looked down in embarrassment but his body had already reacted, and he pulled the yukata tighter around himself and quickly took a few steps in the direction if the water boiler.

Damn. I’m getting turned on. Shit! I’m a creep after all.

“Could you pour one for me as well?”

Ulf refused to turn around and meet her face. From her voice he could hear that she was oblivious to how his mood had changed. “Sure, green or black?” he said with a voice you could curdle milk with.

“Sorry, I didn’t get that.”

“Black, sure I’ll get you one,” Ulf said and pretended he had misunderstood what Noriko said.

“Urufu?”

There was no way he could show her his expression now. Instead he fidgeted with two cups, teabags and spoons.

“Urufu, did something happen?”

“Nothing,” he murmured.

Quick steps behind him almost had him turn around anyway. Then two small hand tilted his head backwards where he sat on the tatami mats. He looked up and met Noriko’s worried eyes.

It was at that time he realised she could see a lot more than just his face, and when she suddenly let go of his head and leapt backwards he knew she had.

“I’m sorry.”

“I didn’t...”

Shame got the better of him, and he knew he was being unfair even before the words left his mouth. “You did. Wasn’t this exactly what you planned from the start?”

To his surprise her indrawn breath wasn’t followed by a scathing reply. Her words lay hanging in the air for a few seconds before they were voiced.

“I didn’t expect… no… yes I did, or rather hoped.” Then some more silence. “I don’t think I knew what to do if everything went as I planned.”

And there it was. In several aspects she was most definitely still a child.

“Urufu, thank you,” came the unexpected continuation of her thoughts. “You proved I can affect you.”

“Bloody hell, any cute girl probably could,” Ulf admitted.

“Urufu, thank you, or at least your body for noticing me as a woman.”

What could he say to that?

“Urufu. I’ll give you the space you want. At least until next term starts.”

“Huh?”

She sat down behind him, and once again those two small hands found their way to him. This time as a hug. “You want to come to some kind of conclusion with Kuri. I won’t pester you.”

Ulf let out a sigh of relief.

“On one condition.”

That night Noriko proved to him how shameless she could be when she wanted, and it took all his willpower not to act on the sensation of her body next to his. Every time she moved where she lay half atop him she must have felt exactly what his body wanted to do rather than sleep.

Chapter one, 2017, flashes of summer, segment nine

There are those who say you shouldn’t take a bath after dinner. Those had obviously never been to an onsen.

Now, the private bath wasn’t really part of the onsen. Heated tap water and nothing else, but it was still outdoors, with a gorgeous view if you chose to stand up.

With a gorgeous view if you chose to lie in the water as well. Urufu just didn’t get how sculpted his body had become, and enjoying it with her eyes wasn’t just a matter of being in love with him. There was something as pure aesthetics as well.

He had grumbled and pouted and protested, but in the end he wasn’t someone who’d miss out on a lazy evening in the water. Not even if it meant spending it stark naked alone with her.

“You started it,” Noriko said staring at his back.

No response. Even the stringy muscles low on his back looked grumpy.

“Last year you did,” she persisted. One way or another she’d have a conversation with him going. But last year there were four of us in the beginning and all six later. There was a difference in sharing a bath alone with him.

Still no answer, but the way his shoulders stiffened told her he had heard.

“You said it was only natural.”

“Yukio told me already.”

Finally an answer! Noriko stretched and sank deeper into the water. She did a little embarrassed after all, and Urufu was bound to turn around any moment now.

He did.

“Oh.” How could I forget he’s a boy when I fell in love with him? There were parts of him she wasn’t used to see at all. She sank to her nose in the water. Then she blushed .Much belatedly she realised the surface didn’t do anything to hide her body from him where he was standing looking down on her.

“Just natural, was it?” He smirked. “I apologise.” Then he sat down at the opposite end of the small pool. “Promise, I can only see your face from here, or half of it,” he added and grinned.

That grin reminded her of her second crush on him, before she even realised he was the same boy who saved her from the Red Rose rapist would be.

You didn’t grin at all the first time though. He had had little reason to. Stranded in an alien world where he didn’t understand the language of those around him. No wonder he turned rebel. Why he pretended being an introverted geek when admitted to Himekaizen he still hadn’t told them. Yukio probably knew, and maybe Kuri, but Noriko wasn’t certain about the last.

“How much do you train?” she asked. He already knew she was in love with him. He could just as well know she thoroughly enjoyed the sight of him.

“Train?”

How dense can he be? Or maybe he wasn’t. He looked like a teenager, but he wasn’t. Not really. Sometimes her parents shared jokes with each other that she didn’t understand, and it wasn’t just because they spoke of things she didn’t understand.

She gave Urufu another look. He looked like any other teenager now when he had submerged, but she remembered the stares he got that day on the beach in the Tokyo bay. Well, she realised and blushed again, any other good looking teenager.

“You know, sports,” she said to buy herself some time.

He spent over half a year as Kuri’s boyfriend. Given her experience as a model, or rather as a super model in during her previous life, there was no chance Urufu didn’t know exactly in what way he was attractive to the eye. Kuri wasn’t exactly the type to stay silent in matters of looks.

Urufu shrugged, and ringlets of water spread over the surface. When they reached Noriko she became aware she shared a very small pool with Urufu naked.

Don’t think about it! Don’t think about it! To haul him in she had to play older than she actually way. She needed to somehow close the gap that made him look at her as if she was a child.

For a moment, before she stripped and took to the bath, she played with the idea of flaunting her body to him, but then memories of Kuri came to her mind, and she quickly gave up that idea. There was no competing with that body.

Unfair! But life was unfair. She had to work with what was hers to work with.

“Why ask a question if you’re not interested in the answer?”

“Huh” Noriko shook her head. She had been so immersed in her own world she didn’t register that Urufu answered. “I’m sorry. Please, say again.”

“It’s a matter of how you define training,” he said.

The way he usually weighed his words before uttering them was dear to her. She preferred this man to the outspoken clown he became whenever he wanted the club members to act in a given way. The latter might be the one who won admiring glances from the girls, but this was the Urufu she wanted for herself.

And I’m a liar. I fell in love with a rebel who looked like something my mother really ought to warn me to stay away from. Somehow Noriko suspected her mother wouldn’t. There was something about her mother and father that hinted at a wilder youth that they wanted to admit.

“Explain.”

Urufu shrugged again, and once more ringlets of water spread towards her. This time she didn’t care.

“Formal training. Maybe six hours per week.”

“Formal training?”

He grinned and her heart jumped. “I train at a karate and an aikido dojo. Nothing much. Maybe twice a week each.”

The words registered, but they didn’t say much. Foreigners might believe everyone in Japan was crazy about budo, but that was very, very far from the truth.

“Is that much?” she asked.

“Dunno. A bit more than usual back home. A little bit.”

“Enough to explain that body of yours?” Noriko said amazed at her own daring.

“Good catch!” And another one of those grins than almost made her heart stop reached her from across the surface. “No.”

Noriko waited for Urufu to continue. Sometimes he needed the silence, but it didn’t mean he was finished.

“I bike around a lot, and walk,” he continued. So say another eight hours a week. “Maybe ten. Let’s call it fifteen hours a week all in all.”

“Is that a lot?”

“For a school kid? Yeah, it’s a lot. Still only half the time an athlete would spend.” Urufu’s grin thinned to a smile. “I like being active, but I’m not good at sports, so I don’t have any aspirations in that direction.”

Good! She wanted him for herself after all. Now all that remained was having him for herself for the evening in a way that would get them closer to each other without forcing his hand.

Chapter one, 2017, flashes of summer, segment eight

“Come on man. Feel proud instead!”

Ulf glared at Yukio. Pride wasn’t exactly the word he’d use. Flattered maybe. Noriko’s incessant attention wasn’t harmful in any way, and it didn’t exactly hurt his eyes looking at her.

He realised his way of thinking might be dated, but from what he had seen good looks still helped a lot among the young, so maybe it wasn’t dated after all.

Beneath him straw gave as he moved his legs. After two years in Japan he was used to sitting on the floor now and then, and being a teenager sure helped. Tatami mats. An altogether stupid construction, and yet so strangely relaxing. Ulf never could decide if he thought it was the epitome of idiocy or a superb blend of taste and function.

“So, what’s the occasion?” Ulf asked.

Yukio had requested that Ulf join him in the room he shared with Kyoko.

“Dinner.”

Strange. After pulling this one on me I could have sworn Noriko would be adamant about us two having dinner alone in our room.

“Thank you for that one at least.”

“Don’t thank me,” Yukio said. “Noriko insisted.”

Why would she? Ah! I’m an idiot! Ulf said nothing. From here on he could only pretend to be surprised at what came next. Birthdays were a lot more important in Sweden than in Japan. You just didn’t forget them. Hell, they were even part of your identity with your date of birth making up most of the personal number everyone living in Sweden was assigned.

Well, at least for old people. Once again he wasn’t certain about the young. Living among people who weren’t prone to public outbursts of affection didn’t help.

Ulf grinned at the thought of a third of their class suddenly rising from their seats to spontaneously celebrate some poor bastard by singing happy birthday to you. Back home a given, but here, maybe not so much.

He recalled birthdays from his first life, and reliving old memories it took a while until he noticed Yukio tugging at his shoulder.

“Man, Earth calling. This earth.”

“Sorry.” Ulf shook his head. “Noriko huh?”

She had remembered, and when he thought about it, so had she last year as well. Whatever he might think about her advances, it still warmed when someone cared.

“Yeah, Noriko.”

“You’re in on this one?”

Yukio glared at him. “Giving her a hand? Sure. She’s not fooling around. Damn, she had a crush on you before you and Kuri met.”

“Well, she moved on to Nao...” Ulf regretted the words as he uttered them.

Yukio grimaced, and they shared a few moments of silence. When it dragged out Yukio poured two cups of tea and offered Ulf one.

“You know,” Yukio began after he’d tasted a sip. “did you ever speak with him afterwards?”

Ulf had, but he wanted to hear what Yukio had to say. “Same school, so kind of hard to avoid.”

“Unless you’re expelled.”

“Unless you’re expelled,” Ulf agreed.

“Well, expulsion rescinded. Some of us will return.” Yukio scratched his head. “Anyway, I had a talk with Nao-sempai.”

“Uhum,” Ulf said and waited. He drank from his cup to show Yukio that there wouldn’t be a further response.

“He never slept with anyone.” Yukio grimaced. “Well, at least not from when he first saw Noriko and until well after they broke up.”

Break up? That’s one way of putting it. Ulf felt something akin to physical pain thinking of how much Noriko had hurt. I know what happened, but what an awful way to end it. Nao’s a bloody idiot!

“He got scared,” Yukio continued.

There was a dull, clack when Yukio placed his empty cup on the table. Almost as if it accused Ulf of drawing something uncomfortable out when it wasn’t needed.

“Scared?” By now Ulf was forced to pretend what Yukio said came as news.

“They play in different leagues is what he said. Sure, he’s a big name now, but when his looks fade Noriko will still be brilliant.”

Nao hadn’t phrased it exactly that way when Ulf spoke with him. The words Yukio echoed were Ulf’s. Ulf’s way of helping the tall model to understand his own fears.

“Well, she’s bright alright,” Ulf said. Understatement of the year. She is brilliant. I think I’m so smart, but bloody hell I envy her her brains! Ulf knew he had reasons to be proud of his head. He had a superb intellect, and he was aware of it. He was easily bright enough to grasp just how far ahead of him Noriko was, even if she still needed to grow into her own capacity as an adult.

Which meant she knew something he didn’t, or otherwise she would have given up on making him her boyfriend a long time ago. If she played both body and brains, then her actions and plans made more sense. Cause damn that brain of hers was sexy as hell.

But did she really understand him that well? Her social register was a little shaky. Empathy, not brains was his real strength. Well, unless he got stubborn and shut everything down and turned inwards in a blindness so total it was staggering.

Like with Christina.

“So, Nao didn’t sleep around, you say?” Thinking of Christina was, as always, a bad thing to do.

“He didn’t, and I think he was in love with Noriko to the end.”

“Idiot!” Ulf wasn’t sure he meant Nao.

“Idiot!” Yukio agreed.

“So, Noriko and dinner, you said.” The conversation was going full circle.

“Yeah, man. Noriko and dinner.” A friendly fist hit Ulf’s shoulder. “After that Kyoko and I want this room for ourselves,” Yukio said and looked at the private outdoor bath.

Ulf followed his stare. “Nice way to spend the evening,” he agreed.

“Sure is, but this year I’ll spend it with just the two of us.” Yukio’s face split in a huge grin. “Nice tip by the way.”

Tip? Ulf’s confusion must have shown.

“Mixed bath. You taught us last year.”

“I did?” I did? “Bloody hell! I did.”