It doesn't make much sense for people to move to Yubari.
The town is bankrupt and dying, the elderly outnumbering the rest as its younger residents leave for jobs and education elsewhere in Japan. A drive into the city is a sad sight of abandoned car factories and banks, blocks of empty houses and dark storefronts. Tourists come for melons and mountain climbing, but most of year is quiet and lonely as the population continues to shrink.
People try to tell the young woman who buys a house there in the dead of winter all of this, on a silent night when the only sound is that of snow blowing over the landscape, but she insists that Yubari is just what she's looking for. She chooses a little cottage at the edge of town, no neighbors for miles and a long commute into the city, but she doesn't seem upset. She isn't fazed by the bleak job prospects, either, instead opening a hair salon out of her own home, and though most of Yubari stays inside on those cold nights, people claim that when they drive by that the lights are on and customers are coming in and out, long after the sun has gone down.
"What do you think?" the shopkeepers gossip, "Ghouls, maybe? Who else is out that late?"
"What does it matter? We aren't like Tokyo; we don't have a CCG office here. Besides, if they're willing to spend money, I say we welcome them."
"Won't that be awful, if it takes ghoul tourism to save the town?"
"If they actually save it, it won't be awful at all."
An urban legend begins circulating throughout Hokkaido that Yubari is where ghouls go for vacation, mostly as a joke by the shopkeepers who think it's pretty funny that they get a lot more people passing through town than before, lots of Tokyoites a long way from home looking for a little peace and quiet. The strange young lady who lives at the edge of town is the subject of more than a few rumors, but if anything, she only gets more business from curious locals.
Akika Hisano, as she is known by those who seek her out, was a bit skinny when she first came to town with hands that shook and eyes that always darted around like she was looking for someone, but the weeks turned to months and she slowly began adjusting to the slow pace of life in Yubari. A smile settled onto her face and never left, and some think she looks almost sage-like when she does hair, able to get anyone to relax.
Strangest of all, however, and the source of more rumors than anything else, is a regular who comes to Yubari without warning but often enough that most people know his face. He comes on foot claiming to be passing through or on a hike, but he stops by the hairdresser's house every time. He'll stand on the porch and knock twice, and those who have seen her open the door say her face lights up with so much emotion that they can't tell if she's going to laugh or cry. He stays the night and leaves quietly the following day, back the way he came, and nobody sees him again for a while.
There isn't much to talk about in Yubari, so the locals aren't shy about talking to him when he comes in. As he browses the aisles of a convenience store, the old woman working the register leans over the counter to watch, calling, "Back again from the big city, huh? This is the fourth time this month, isn't it?"
He nods. "That's right."
"You know," she says, "Most of us are pretty sure you belong to some yakuza group."
This obviously surprises him by the way he stops, turning to look at her in surprise.
"I'm not gonna judge you," she says with a passive wave, "As long as you don't bring any of your nonsense up here. The whole town's in debt, and we aren't interested in taking loans from you people."
"I'm not here for that."
She smiles. "Oh, I know you're not. You're here to visit Ms. Hisano. No need to pretend; we're a small town, people notice things like that."
"Ah."
The woman laughs. "You look embarrassed."
"I didn't realize my motives were so transparent."
"Well, what else would someone like you be doing up here other than visiting your mistress?"
The young man chuckles, shaking his head. "What makes you so sure I'm yakuza?"
"The way you act. You never use an ATM while you're here, so you're obviously concerned about leaving a paper trail." She pauses to point at him. "And that awful scar on the back of your neck. Normal folks don't do much that would give them something like that."
He puts a hand on the back of his neck self-consciously, but he smiles like he's remembering something pleasant. "Well, I guess you've got a point there."
"You be good to Ms. Hisano," the old woman warns, "She's a nice girl. She might be a little odd, but we've taken her in as one of our own."
"I would never hurt her."
She squints at him silently for a moment before nodding, satisfied. "You sound you like mean it."
"I do."
"If you really love her so much, shouldn't you marry her instead of keeping her up here all by herself?"
The man shakes his head. "She likes it up here," he says, "And so do I. Marriage is out of the question, though; she has a grudge against me."
"What, and you're hoping she'll soften up and forgive you eventually?"
He smiles sadly. "A man can dream."
He buys a few packets of instant coffee, like always, and then he's out the door with a polite nod and heading out to the little cottage at the edge of town.
"That's a man with a million skeletons in his closet," the old woman says to her friends later, "But he really does love her. I wonder what he did to make her so mad."
"They tell me that the lavender fields just outside of town will bloom in a few months, and the scent is the most heavenly thing in the world, not to mention the beautiful color it makes the hills."
Akika Hisano sits on one side of the table drinking coffee with Tatara across from her. "I'd like to see it," he says.
"Come every few weeks, then. I'm sure you'll happen across it." She sets her coffee down on the table and meets his eyes. "You know, Ms. Chino, the florist, keeps warning me about this suspicious guy wandering around town with a scar on his nape."
Tatara chuckles. "Well, I wouldn't know anything about that."
"Oh, really?"
"Really." They both laugh for a moment, but it dies out into silence and then they can't meet each other's eyes. "This is a nice town."
"It is," Akika agrees, "I see why you thought about moving here before."
"I still think about it."
Akika stands up and wanders over to the window, pushing aside the curtains to look out at the untouched snow glittering outside. She hears Tatara stand up behind her, but he doesn't leave the table. "It gets dark so early this time of year," she says absently.
"I would live beyond the city limits," she hears him say, "You wouldn't have to worry about seeing me." Akika turns slightly to look at him, frowning lightly, one hand still on the cold glass behind her. "You always get upset when I mention it."
"I moved here to get away from the CCG and Aogiri Tree…."
"I've assured my colleagues you're no longer a threat. I can't speak for the CCG, but I'm sure they think you're dead by now."
"And you," she finishes hesitantly.
She hears Tatara come a little closer. "Sometimes, I wish I'd thought to tell you that the best way to kill a ghoul is to aim for the kakuhou."
"You didn't have any reason to tell me that. If I recall, you were surprised I'd tried to kill you at all."
She looks up and he's frozen just out of arm's reach, looking down guiltily. "I shouldn't have been," he says.
"Do you think you'll ever be able to leave Aogiri Tree?"
He looks pained, hands twitching at his sides like he wants to touch her. "If I ever want to have any peace of mind, someday, I will."
Akika closes the space between them slowly, hands rising to cup Tatara's face. "If you leave them, then you could move here with me," she says quietly, "And on the day that you can forgive yourself, I'll forgive you, too."
When she starts to pull away, he holds one of her hands in place with his own, closing his eyes. "I don't deserve that," he says, "You should hate me."
"Maybe," Akika says, "But Mom brought me up to forgive people."
"You're not Buddhist."
"Neither are you, but you can't seem to shake off your upbringing, either."
Tatara presses his forehead to hers, breathing deeply. "You shouldn't worry about karma," he says, "As far as I'm concerned, Meng was right; you and your mother are the closest things to bodhisattvas I've ever met. You rose up like the lotus out of the mud, despite everything."
"I'm not a lotus," Akika says, "I'm just…someone who's changed her name a lot now to avoid the authorities. That's the furthest thing from a bodhisattva."
Tatara cuts off any further protests with a kiss.
Outside, fresh snow is falling, and the clouds are moving south across Japan. In a few days, there will be snow in Tokyo, a blanket of white that will fall over the ugly scars left behind by the conflict in the 11th ward. Come spring, an empty apartment unit will be cleaned and rented out to someone new, and rumors about the former tenant, Meika Kuno, will finally disappear just as she did.
Are you surprised that this didn't turn out to be horribly depressing? Me, too.
Thank you so, so much to all of my readers for sticking with me through this monster. It got a lot more complicated than I thought it would.
The sequel to Antonym will start next Saturday.