The last Sunday of their spring break Yukio was supposed to meet Ryu, who wanted to tell him something strange that happened.

The last Sunday of their spring break Yukio sat together with Kyoko, listening to a Sato-sensei livid with rage.

Two older men he had never seen before listened to her yelling, together with Principal Nakagawa; former Principal Nakagawa. He was retired now.

From time to time Principal Nakagawa spiced Sato-sensei's yelling with a few choice curses of his own. They were both very much in agreement.

As for Yukio, he stared at the display in bewilderment, and by his side Kyoko sat looking scared. As scared as he was himself.

A minute earlier her father had stormed out of the room screaming obscenities that would have had him expelled had he been a student at Himekaizen. Yukio agreed with all of them, every single curse accentuated exactly what he felt.

“… don't care what you think you fucking whore-sons! They're getting an escort, and that's final!”

“Please Sato-san...”

“Please Lieutenant Colonel Sato! Shut the hell up and do as you're ordered! They gave me this rank just because I'd outrank you.”

Kyoko covered her ears.

“Ma'am!” Both men came to attention.

“It's just the...” one of them tried.

“Just the what?”

“The arms. Why an armed escort?”

Sato-sensei stared at the man with thunder in her eyes. “Because they were assaulted by a gun-toting maniac, one who shot and killed a police! Were you two born morons, or did you need some special education to lower your intelligence that way?”

Yukio noted how Principal Nakagawa grinned wildly at the assessment. One of them looked at him for help.

“No no,” he said. “I wouldn't use her language, but none of you two fill the requirements to be accepted to Himekaizen.”

Which was just about the same as using Sato-sensei's language.

One of the men reddened and tried to rise, only to be dragged back down by his colleague.

“Ma'am, we need solid evidence first.”

“Are you trying to tell me Kareyoshi managed to hide even one of the tracks leading back to him? Her bloody father fucking managed to dig him up!” Sato-sensei pointed at Kyoko who still sat with her hands over he ears.

'Her father' hadn't, not really. After he started making questions Yukio made a digital excursion of his own, and with Kyoko's father watching over his back the screen soon filled with an intricate net of information all pointing back at their English teacher. Now Yukio understood what Urufu meant when he said Kareyoshi needed a dictionary to find the meaning of the word discreet, and that he'd still fail understanding it.

“Ma'am, is that armed escort an order?” The protests had gone out of his voice.

“Finally! Yes, with that murderer taking the helm I'm not risking anything.”

And so it was decided. As soon as they could muster the men Yukio and Kyoko would go to school and leave school with an armed bodyguard. Yukio wasn't so certain the reason was their safety, more likely that Sato-sensei wanted Kareyoshi to know that the other side knew about everything he had done.

Looks like a fun second year, Yukio thought glumly. Well, as long as he had Kyoko he could face anything.

They left the nondescript building that had served as Kyoko's private hospital a couple of months earlier. The surgical facility was still inside, somewhere. He didn't have a lot of good memories from the place and tried his best at forgetting.

“Urufu, heard anything?” Sato-sensei asked when she drove them home.

Yukio shook his head. He guessed Kyoko did the same from the back seat. He didn't have Urufu's technical skills when it came to digging up a presence on the net. His skills lay in his understanding of dozens of communities, and the contacts he made on them. While some of his otaku contacts were bat shit crazy they were still very good at sniffing out stuff online.

“Sorry, Sato-sensei,” Yukio said in case she hadn't understood his gesture. “He's gone, but he can take care of himself.”

She looked at him when they stopped at a red-light. “You trust him that much?”

“We both do,” Kyoko said. “You know, this is the first time I've seen him hurt. He just needs some time to think things over.”

Think things over. Yeah, man, that's what you usually do. But it was fine mess Urufu put himself into this time. I just hope you're right, Kyoko.

Sato-sensei must have seen his hesitation. “But you're still worried, aren't you?”

“Yes, yes we are. I wonder where he is.”

When Sato-sensei didn't say anything, Yukio took his phone and sent Ryu a message. Maybe they could still meet, even if it meant being a little late.

By the time they reached Kyoko's home Ryu still hadn't answered. He still hadn't when Yukio unlocked his own door. That was reason enough to call him, but now Ryu's phone was out of service, just like Urufu's.

Well, they'd meet tomorrow. If it wasn't important enough for Ryu to keep his phone on, Yukio guessed whatever it was Ryu wanted to talk about could wait another day.

Yukio announced his arrival, but the flat was dark. His mother was probably out shopping. With the flat for himself he drew a bath and prepared to wait for her. At least he had someone to wait for.

Urufu, damn it! What the hell are you doing? Where are you?

***

Just outside Hiroshima Ulf heard a voice calling his name. His real name, not the Japanese pronunciation of it.

What the hell?

He stood by his bike outside a convenience store, and there just wasn't any way he could pretend he hadn't heard.

How did they find me? Oh well, I guess it was bound to happen.

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“Who's asking,” he said.

“I am,” a man in his forties answered in Swedish.

An arrival? Bloody hell, it's Christina's grandpa!

“You took ages to track down, but just vanishing off the net won't stop someone like me. I'm too old for that crap anyway.”

He would be. Ninety a hundred? Well, something like that. “What do you want, Mitsuo?” Ulf said, likewise in Swedish.

“They're looking for you, your friends you know.”

Ulf nodded. He knew. “What about it?” He couldn't depend on their friendship just yet, so he tried to sound as callous as possible.

“I heard you hurt my Tina.”

So he's here on a revenge trip. “She hurt herself. I helped,” Ulf admitted. Thinking of her ripped a hole in his heart.

“I heard she hurt you,” Mitsuo said.

OK, so not a revenge trip after all. “We weren't too smart, I guess,” Ulf said. “Too late now.”

Mitsuo shrugged. “I disagree. When they're dead, or you've transited, then it's too late, and sometimes not even then.”

Ulf suspected Mitsuo thought of how he met Christina in this world. “That's not why you had me tracked down, is it Mitsuo?”

Mitsuo smirked. “No,” he agreed. “It's not. I think you're both idiots, but I'm no matchmaker. I need to speak with you about killing.”

“I already made it clear that murders are unacceptable.”

“Does that include those directly involved in the attack on your friends?”

Ulf took a deep breath. For a moment he hesitated. Those directly involved. That would include the one who shot Amaya's friend. For a short time he fought a battle in his mind. His Swedish pacifist upbringing versus what had happened.

“Ulf, I need an answer.”

“Wait!” The morally right thing to do, or the right thing to do? “Kill them!” he said to his own surprise, and for the first time since the kidnapping attempt he remembered the sound of gunshots in the car he rode. How his daughter received the wounds she eventually died from. “Kill them all!”

“Whoa! Now you wait a moment. What do you mean by all?”

“Only those directly involved. Take them out. No torture, not talking, no nothing. Just kill them!”

“And those responsible?”

Ulf smiled, and then he felt his smile widen into a grin. For a moment Mitsuo flinched before he regained his composure.

“Sano-sensei,” Ulf said, for the first time using the polite way of addressing his senior, “I don't want them to die. That's too easy. I want them to live long and horrible lives.”

Mitsuo took a step back. “I can see why Tina fell for you. I hope you were good to her, because she never was to herself.”

“You'll have to ask her,” Ulf said. He heard how harsh that sounded, but talking about her hurt. “I can't presume to know, but I tried. If I was enough I don't know.”

“But you think you tried your best? That will suffice for me.” Then a calculating grin spread over Mitsuo's face. “Who's the most important for you, you or Tina?”

“I am.” Ulf's answer came immediately. His daughter's death taught him the hard way that the people depending on him would fall if he didn't take care of himself. If he didn't, who would?

“And?”

“I'd die for her.” That answer also came immediately. When the loss was absolute he'd step aside. Besides, a world without Christina, even if she was no longer his girlfriend, was no world worth living in. It would be, some day, Ulf knew that, but not today.

“So you really are a being of two worlds,” Mitsuo said. “Like my daughter.”

Ulf knew what he meant. Not this world and the other one, but Sweden and Japan. He was Swedish through and through, but sometimes he looked upon life in ways that was different from those around him.

That had been harder when he was a child, but as he grew up more and more people around him shared the sense of standing with a foot each in a different world. The new generation of Swedes.

In the end Ulf just nodded consent. Mitsuo knew, but he could never truly understand. He had moved from one world to another, not stayed his life in one, always listening to a shadow of the unknown.

“Did you get the answers you came for?” Ulf asked. He wanted to end the conversation and continue his hike.

“I did.” A darkness fell over Mitsuo's face. “Don't take too long. They need you. My Tina needs you.”

What? “Why, what do you mean?”

“She's dying inside. I met her. Even if you two can't be a couple, she still needs you close to her. Please, if not for yourself, then for my little Tina!”

Ulf dropped the food he had just bought into his bags. He didn't need to hear that Christina was hurting. “I can't promise anything. When I'm ready I'll return.”

“If that's the best you can do then I'll have to settle for that.” First Mitsuo made as if to leave, but then he stopped. “May I tell your friends?”

Ulf had known that question would come up. “I'm sorry, but you can't. I need this time. This is my spring break.”

“Ends tomorrow.”

“I know, let's just call it an extended spring break.”

Mitsuo bowed. “I acknowledge you,” he said and left the parking place.

Ulf stood left behind. The meeting with Christina's grandfather had signalled an end to something, and a new beginning. Now Ulf needed to reach that beginning before he hurt his friends even more.

Not tomorrow, but a few days more. I'll heal. I have to heal. Christina, I love you.