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 .

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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 .

Advertis.e.m.e.ntOccasionally 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 days 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 than 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 on 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 suns.h.i.+ne 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 j.a.panese way .

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

'c.r.a.p! 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 .