Chapter two, 2018, field trip, segment six

Kinoshita Dai looked at the photo once more. One of the best he had taken during his entire career, during both of his careers.

Funny. We couldn’t use it the promotion, and then this.

“I saw you,” it read. From last summer during the Odaiba shoot, from the moment when Kuritina lost herself in memories and regrets, and also a new hope for her future.

He’d cut away the swim suit to focus on the woman, and he got permission to use the result for a photo competition. Her face, hair, neck and shoulders. Nothing more, and yet the very definition of youth lost. The bittersweet first steps into adulthood. Just Kuritina Ageruman. Of the model there was nothing left, just a young beauty caught in transition and restart.

I have to call her. He wasn’t sure she knew the world of photo awards. And she doesn’t know she’s part of it now. There was a certain amount of shame in that thought. She had chosen him to be her main photographer, but he hadn’t even told her about the photo he sent in for a competition. Because this photo is private. I caught something I shouldn’t have seen in the first place.

Calling her would reach a mere one floor away in the hotel they shared. Calling her would reach a world and a life away. Calling her would reach all the way to the man she once shared that world with, and Dai wondered if he had any right to do so. Then, did he have the right not to? Damn, how did it get this messy? He knew she hadn’t let go of her feelings for the man who, just like herself, got caught in a new world eerily like the one they left behind.

But it was too late now. In a much smaller universe than the one belonging to models and fashion that photo spread and created an uproar. In difference from Kuritina’s current universe this one was global. Dai had already received reactions from Europe, and while most of them concerned his prize winning entry quite a few wanted to know more about the girl in the picture.

She’s got a new boyfriend now, and if he sees this he’ll know. With a sigh Dai decided he couldn’t avoid it. He had to make that call.

Grabbing a beer from the minibar Dai contemplated when would be the best time to make that call, but in the end he realised he was just procrastinating. Another sigh later he punched up her contact on his phone and waited.

His third sigh was one of relief. She was busy with another call, but Dai accepted that he couldn’t postpone it for much longer. In anticipation of Kuritina finishing her phone call Dai fired up a web browser with all the relevant sites side by side, stacked the booklets with his prizewinning entry and emptied his beer.

The next call went through.

“Kuritina, we should meet,” he said after she answered.

“Now?”

“Yes, now. Would the lobby work for you?”

There was a moment’s hesitation. “Sure. I’ll be there in five.”

Dai was already prepared, so he left his room and took a lift down to the entrance floor. This being a top rated hotel, in Kyoto to boot, they served a fabulous array of tea and traditional Japanese confectionery. While most people preferred their western counterparts Dai had taken a liking to the intensely sweet cakes. It had nothing to do with being conservative. He just liked the taste and how it contrasted with green tea.

Just as he received his order Kuritina left the lift, searched the lobby until she recognised him and approached. One look from her told him that she most definitely didn’t approve of his tastes. She had even less a reason than most since she was from Sweden. Westerners usually blinked and offered as polite as insincere a lie after they forced themselves to swallow a bite.

“Please have a seat!” Dai said and gestured towards the sofa on the other side of the table.

Kuritina said nothing, but she sat down opposite him. He waited for her to make eye contact with the staff and noted how she picked a cup of strong coffee and some nondescript snack to go with it.

“So, what’s up?” she asked when her order had arrived.

Dai said nothing. He just pushed the booklets to her side of the table and opened up his laptop. After a few seconds it made them company, the screen facing her.

“When?” was the only thing she said after she had studied the material for a few minutes.

He couldn’t tell if she frowned, or if she even cared. For being a model she was eerily expressionless whenever she was deep in thought.

“Last summer. Odaiba,” he explained.

She looked up at the ceiling. “In the sportswear place?”

Dai nodded. “I cut away almost a third of the photo.”

“Contractual problems?”

He shook his head. “No, I got permission.” He bit his lower lip. “I forgot to ask you though.”

She shrugged and took a sip of hastily cooling coffee. “I don’t really mind. See any problems coming from this?”

Dai frowned while he mulled over that question. Problems from a business point of view? No, more like opportunities. “No, not for you as a model,” he said. “You might be contacted from abroad, so it’s mostly a matter if Vogue wants you to broaden your repertoire or not.”

Kuritina shrugged. “It’s not like shoots in the US or Europe is anything new for me.” Then she grinned, a beautifully malicious grin. “I’d be happy to be contacted. Make certain they contact me as well as Vogue.”

“How so?”

Kuritina emptied her coffee and let the last of her snacks accompany it. “I love to change the power balance. Europe is the real world for a model.”

She said Europe, but Dai knew she meant Paris. Paris was the Rome of the fashion world – all roads led there. He nodded. “I’ll do so.” He hesitated for a moment, but there was a second question that couldn’t go unasked. “Privately, what’s your feelings on this?”

He got a searching stare in return. “Privately? Privately I never knew I looked like that. I’m amazed Ryu stayed by my side.”

So she hadn’t been entirely happy after all. The worst part was that she was more unhappy with herself losing control than him saving that moment for the world. He had, Dai thought, done her both a service and a disservice.

Chapter two, 2018, field trip, segment five

Damn, how did it turn out this way? Christina lifted her head and waited for the makeup artist to finish.

Rather than staring out a hotel room window she now faced a mirror in a bus. Her classmates were doing high school student things, and she was doing work. It didn’t matter all that much. Missing out on Nara was the big deal, but the two day excursion to Osaka was something she could do without. Well, the high school student part would have been fun, but she had seen Osaka to death during her previous life. Anyone doing major business in Japan had.

So why did she sit here swearing? Because she put a lot of her classmates in a pickle, that’s why. Her entire crew, including two very famous and very popular male models arrived just when the gang were about to leave a public toilet. She, being the moron she sometimes was, sent a Line message about the importance of the event. “Stuck at the toilet,” her future Nobel prize winning entry read. A wonder of clarity which she shared over her phone just as she was forced to turn it off and get working.

I’m the empress of idiots. She sighed as she remembered the faces of her classmates when they understood that the price for the autographs they had gained was missing their bus for Nara. And then I just vanished from their sight. Gods I’m the queen of responsibility not taken. That was worth another deep sigh.

“Ageruman-san, please don’t move!”

And now I’m making work difficult for makeup. She bit her teeth together and did as told.

The shoot took less time than she had feared but more than she hoped for. That was yet another day she had to spend without Ryu, and Christina started to understand there was more than one reason she spent most of her previous adult life without anything but temporary relationships.

I’ll redo this life in a better way, she decided over a delicious meal with a staff colleague and two men in power who couldn’t decide whether they wanted to bed or make money out of her. That Ryu would stay with her for the rest of her life was unlikely, but she didn’t have to sabotage that remote possibility the way she had done with Ulf.

Why did you want me to pursue this? She wondered; a thought aimed at her ex. Ah, that’s not it, she realised. You wanted me to pursue whatever I saw as important for myself. Idiot man! You should have been more selfish, if not for yourself then for me. Christina hid her smirk behind a fork and pretended to listen to whatever one of the men said.

If Ulf hadn’t been able to, then she needed to treat Ryu better. There was a life’s worth of experience between the two men she had fallen in love with here in Japan. We’re supposed to be sharing field trip as high schoolers and here I am doing work. She’d be doing work, more work and even more work. If she continued like this her life would vanish under an avalanche of work while she excused letting it slip through her fingers with the never ending demand for more work.

“Gentlemen, sensei, I have some sleeping to catch up with and a boyfriend to call,” Christina said as soon as the dinner turned from main course to desserts.

Her superior sent her a sour glare. Letting one of the two men take her to his hotel room would have sold another contract, but Christina refused to let herself be used in that way. Clearly stating there was a boyfriend should put a stop to any attempts in that direction.

She put fork and knife on her table and made to rise.

“Ageruman-san, please accompany us some more,” one of the men said, and Christina saw how he wanted her body more than the money she represented. Early in her previous life it would have made her feel sick, but now she knew what made men tick.

“I’m afraid that’s not possible. The Wakayamas are a little old fashioned, and a late call would look bad,” she said. Hinting at old fashioned usually carried the connotation of powerful in Japan, and she wanted to make certain something bad didn’t happen to Ryu. The last year had seen too many bad things happening to people she cared for.

“Please leave her be. You’re only young once,” the other man said to his business partner. “Ageruman-san, it’s been a pleasure having you part of our promotion. I hope to see more of you,” he added, and Christina understood he chose the money over spending a night with her.

By her side her superior made a happier face. So I’m of the hook this time. There would be other times, more dangerous times, but right now she had the evening for herself without any repercussions.

“Gentlemen, it’s been my pleasure.” She turned and bowed to the happily beaming staff member. “I’ll be ready for tomorrow’s morning shoot.” That should work as a reminder that after lunch she was supposed to rejoin her class and once more become a high school student.

“Is he any good,” the first man asked with a sullen voice tinged by just a little too much alcohol.

“He’s the best,” Christina said. “I’ve never been this much in love in my entire life,” she added. That was a lie. She had, twice. Her first love and Ulf, but here and now she was supposed to be seventeen with an innocent lack of experience. For the first time in forever she forced her mind to, not Ulf but the awkward boy she had fallen in love with an eternity ago. Those memories brought a slight blush to her face, and she hoped it was enough to satisfy the three persent at their table.

Christina left the table and went for her room. She really did have some catching up to do in the sleeping department, but first she planned to make good on her decision to spend some time listening to Ryu’s voice.

Chapter two, 2018, field trip, segment four

The following morning Ryu stood waiting for their home room teacher to arrive before they boarded a bus for Nara. With memories from Hatsumode still fresh in his mind he made certain to handle all bodily needs lest he spend the day trip in a toilet. For the very same reason he hadn’t disturbed his sister and Urufu when he saw them together late last evening.

Nara turned out to be just the kind of postcard experience he had expected with deer, parks and a huge, wooden temple as the centrepiece of attraction. The only cloud on his personal sky was the total absence of anything Kuri.

And I even tried to dress up nicely for you. Ryu threw the end of his scarf back over his shoulder. It made repeated attempts to plaster itself across his face whenever the breeze felt mischievous enough to call out his attention to the surrounding girls. There were girls; lots of them. A Ryu sans Kuri apparently meant he was free for the taking, at least temporarily.

“Of course,” he said to yet another party of high school girls. “No problem at all,” he added when they forced him to join them in a group shot. From what school, or even what city, they were he didn’t know.

“You’re impossible,” one of his classmates commented when the last group finally returned to their own class.

Ryu smiled but refrained from answering. In the background he saw a few of his smaller classmates lining up to crawl through a hole in one of the enormous supports. Then he heard a hesitant voice signalling that it was time for yet another smartphone being turned in his direction. The Todaiji was packed full with high school students from all over Japan. Quite a few of them were probably middle schoolers though, but that didn’t make them any less prone to request photos with him in the middle of a group of giggling girls.

“There he goes again,” his class rep said. There was no venom in the voice. If anything it carried a little pride of wearing the same uniform as the impromptu tourist attraction on two legs.

“Not here? What do you mean by no here?”

Ryu waited for his latest admirers to disperse before he turned after the voice. Something had upset Kyoko. He found her together with a few girls from Kuri’s class just beneath the central Buddha statue.

“Excuse me, could you please tell sensei I’ll be back in a minute,” Ryu asked his class rep. He didn’t wait for an answer but made for Kyoko. For once he shook his head when someone waved with her phone with a question in he eyes.

“Kyoko!”

She met his eyes. “Ryu, Kuri-chan’s gone missing.”

‘Missing?’ “She’s lost?”

“No,” Kyoko shook her head. “she never made it to Nara at all.”

He grimaced. “Kuri, for the love of...”

“And that’s not all of it.”

It gets worse? “Spill!”

“Their class rep says a third of their class went missing together with her.”

That was bad. That was really bad. “A third? How the hell did she manage to misplace a dozen of her classmates?”

Kyoko shook her head. “I don’t know, but there seems to be toilets involved.”

Toilets were worse than bad. Ryu didn’t want to hear anything even remotely reminding him of toilets. He had, after all, taken extra precaution not to this very morning. But still, a dozen students? Whatever Kuri did she did it with gusto.

He left Kyoko with a smirk. It wasn’t like he could help her anyway. She had Kuri’s number as well as Line address just as he had. If Kuri wanted to vanish she’d be invisible to both of them. With a shrug Ryu went in search of his own class. Now he knew that his singular cloud would cover its part of the sun for the rest of the day.

He walked through the bedlam and managed to avoid all but two more photo sessions before he saw the back side of his class rep. As it turned out their teacher didn’t even need any notification, and for that Ryu felt a certain degree of gratitude.

Less than an hour later they left the Todaiji for lunch and the afternoon was spent shuttling between minor attractions in the former capital of Japan. It was shuttling, or at least it felt like they spent more time in the bus than at the places they were headed for.

With a substantially lighter wallet and bags filled with souvenirs to distribute among family and family friends they returned back to their hotel in Kyoto just as evening fell. Ryu left the bus in the last lingering daylight, and when he disposed of his bags in his room it was already dark outside.

To his dismay Kuri still wasn’t to be found anywhere. To his surprise it didn’t look like their teachers cared all that much. That meant they knew something Ryu didn’t, and that in turn indicated something connected with Kuri’s work. Since her job really couldn’t be called a part time one Ryu suspected she might be gone for over a day, if she even returned to their trip at all.

He left his room as quickly as possible. With a bit of luck he’d find Kyoko before dinner. If not he’d try to contact her after their meal.

This sucks! Ryu observed after first having fallen out of luck and then finding out that Kyoko had her phone turned off. He played with the idea of calling Yukio, but Yukio probably was the very reason Kyoko’s phone was off in the first place.

On his way back to his room Noriko caught him just as he was about to take the stairs up.

“Anything about Kuri?”

Ryu shook his head. He searched for Urufu behind his sister, but it seemed Noriko was alone this time. “Can’t even reach Kyoko, so I have no clue.”

“Ah, OK. I heard something about toilets and thought you knew.”

Ryu grimaced and pulled her ears.

“Ouch! That hurts! Idiot bro!”

“You deserved it,” he said and let go.

Noriko stuck her tongue out at him, but her eyes were friendly. “Fill me in if you hear anything,” she said and turned.

“Promise,” Ryu said to her back. At least he knew she’s do the same for him if she learned anything.

Chapter two, 2018, field trip, segment three

A few hours earlier Ulf felt his heart warm up when, first an unknown second year, and then Hitomi decided to stand up for Yukio and Kyoko. He’d felt Noriko squirm when something took place among the liberal arts classes. He barely managed to pull her down to her seat, courtesy of their respective classmates arranging the seating so that Noriko and him just happened to be placed at the far end of each class and beside each other.

There were still students who would have preferred if Kareyoshi had been allowed to stay, but the vast majority abhorred their former principal with a vengeance. In the end Himekaizen was a far cry from Red Rose Hell.

As it turned out Kareyoshi would have been ousted no matter what those in the know had done. Ulf hadn’t been aware of it, but now he was. A group of over two dozen parents took independent action, and by now both the kid who was allowed to escape as well as his diet member father faced trials.

I should have trusted you from the beginning, Ulf thought where he sat in the hotel lobby. Almost thirty parents backed by a dozen of the most powerful parents to students in Irishima High made that diet power base crumble into nothing.

Leaning back in his chair Ulf stared at the ceiling. This being a lower to medium class hotel lights were out, or almost out. If he wanted anything he only had the option of vending machines, but to be honest that wasn’t too bad an option. They were amply supplied with a surprisingly large array of beverages, both alcoholic, which was out of the question for him in this life, and the non alcoholic variants. Something of the latter currently being brought to him by Noriko if he knew her correctly.

This being Japan he still failed to come to terms with girls all too often running domestic errands for him before he had a chance to stop them. It didn’t suit him, and he made a mental note of never allowing himself to getting used to it. He had however, Ulf grimaced at the thought, less of a problem with being expected to pay whenever they were out. That made him just as much of a chauvinist.

With a smirk he leaned all the way over the backrest when the sound of steps reached him. The upside down world offered him a view of a dark shadow transforming into a petite girl in a yukata. It was Noriko, and she was late and she did indeed hold a bottle in each hand.

To avoid being misunderstood for wanting to look up her underwear Ulf twisted in his seat and beckoned to her. Palm up, just because she stuck to the Japanese palm down version whenever she wanted his attention.

“Sorry I’m late,” she said when she came up to his seat. She reached over his shoulder to give him his bottled tea and quite shamelessly flashed a small breast leaning over his face.

“You’re not supposed to do that,” Ulf said. He felt his body react, both down below and a rush of heat firing up his face in a furious blush.

“Do what?” With those words she rose above him and quickly walked the few steps to a chair next to his. “Do what?” she repeated after she sat down.

Ulf avoided meeting her eyes. “You know,” he tried. She knew all too well.

“You’re my boyfriend. What’s wrong with making you look at me?”

And that was it. There was nothing wrong with what Noriko was doing. A life earlier for him and they’d shared bed and bodies by now, but that was a life earlier, or an earlier life. For now the discomfort of being in love with a girl not even half his age competed with his desire to share everything with her.

“Urufu?” A small hand found its way into his. “I fell in love with you on my own,” Noriko said. Her other hand followed the first and clasped his fingers. “You weren’t even asked. Honestly, even if I had asked you you probably wouldn’t have understood anyway.”

Despite his discomfort Ulf let out a laugh. No, he wouldn’t have understood, and not just because he didn’t know any Japanese to speak of at that time. “Because I’m blind as a bat when it comes to love?” he asked to confirm the main reason.

To his surprise Noriko shook her head. He felt her fingers grab his hand harder. “No, because you were too hurt back then.”

Ulf searched her face for signs of her teasing but found none. Her eyes were very dark in the subdued night light, almost invisible under her bangs. Her guess was also absolutely correct. That early autumn during his middle school days was too close to his transition and arrival here in Japan. At that time his thoughts were still filled with a desperate longing for Maria.

He used his free hand to grab the bottle of tea Noriko had brought him, but twisting it open with one hand turned out impossible. Just as he was about to withdraw his other from Noriko’s hands she let go with one and helped him.

“I need to feel close to you,” she said when he glanced at her. She leaned over her armrest and into his shoulder, moving his hand onto her lap as she snuggled up to him. “There’s too little of this.”

Ulf didn’t answer. He took a few mouthfuls trying to think of something to say. “I do love you.” Some more lukewarm tea found its way to his stomach while he bought time for something sensible to follow up that moronic statement. “Very much,” he added after he swallowed. “I’m just scared of hurting you.”

“Urufu, isn’t being scared part of loving someone?” Noriko said. She met his eyes and brought his head to hers with her free arm. “I’m scared as well, but I wouldn’t have it any other way,” she continued after the kiss.

She’s far braver than I am. He gave in to his needs and met her for a second kiss.

Chapter two, 2018, field trip, segment two

Kyoto station was something to stare at. Where the super capital of Japan offered catacombs the former capital joined the competition with a fantastic view of an indoor skyline.

Kyoko smiled and followed the long line of second year students out of the station area to where buses stood ready to shuttle them to their hotel. Them and half of all second year students in Japan it felt like. Late January saw more than one school running their school trips even though Kyoko knew it was more common that the new third years began their school year that way.

The buses took them through strangely straight streets compared to Tokyo’s eternal maze. Then they left the orderly grid and shortly afterwards they arrived at a large but rundown hotel complex.

She barely had time to find Yukio for a short moment of hands hugging before her class was herded to elevators and up three floors.

Kyoko entered the room she shared with five other girls, four of them almost but not really friends and the fifth Hitomi, and she was most definitely a friend by now. A few minutes was more than enough to dump luggage and switching into something that didn’t smell of three hours worth of travelling.

She even had time for a quick shower in between, and feeling like someone who could coerce a hug from Yukio without feeling ashamed she took a lift to the dining hall. He already waited for her there with arms inviting her to step inside his embrace. A few students giggled and grinned at their show of affection, but Kyoko didn’t care. Being close to Yukio was far more important than a snide remark or two.

“You heard the new principal’s joining us?”

Kyoko turned in the direction of the voice. She hadn’t heard.

“He wanted to inspect his troops.”

“’Troops’, yeah, can you believe that. Like some old Showa era commander.” The girl who had said that laughed, and Kyoko watched a couple of seniors beeline for the queue while they continued the conversation that had piqued Kyoko’s interest.

Yukio tugged at her arm and shrugging off the news Kyoko followed him to join the queue. Her hand in his she joined it and mentally shrugged off the snide remarks and disapproving glares from one of their teachers. By now Kyoko had made peace with the repercussions of declaring her and Yukio’s nocturnal activities in front of Noriko’s class late December. If anything, being the pervert couple was a reason for envy rather than scorn.

“What’s he like,” she asked Yukio. Their new principal was shrouded in mystery, and most of the rumours clinging to her and Yukio had faded in favour of guess work pertaining to Kareyoshi’s successor.

“Dunno.” Yukio made it to the tables where food and plates waited for them. “Short they say.”

Short? Kyoko loaded a plate and some food onto a tray. Being a shorty hardly qualified as a mystery. She smirked, filled her plate, grabbed a glass and went to fetch something to drink. Shortly afterwards she joined her boyfriend. One benefit of being one half of the perverted couple was that no one complained when they sat together despite belonging to different classes.

“Card games tonight?”

Kyoko looked up at the voice behind her. It belonged to Hitomi who quickly took the place by Yukio’s other side. For outsiders it must look like Kyoko had gained some unwanted competition for Yukio’s attention, but Kyoko welcomed the presence of the beautiful girl. Next to Kuri-chan and Noriko she had quickly become Kyoko’s best friend.

“Saw him?” Yukio asked as soon as Hitomi sat down.

Kyoko looked up as if their new principal had suddenly popped into existence by their table.

“Saw him,” Hitomi confirmed. “The rumours are true.”

OK, give a little more! “Yes?” Kyoko said and hoped her irritation didn’t show in her voice.

Hitomi just smiled. Then she blinked and opened her mouth. “Short. If he’s a hundred and sixty I’d be surprised.”

That was short indeed. Urufu and Kuri-chan aside, that still counted as a shorty in Japan.

“Still makes me uncomfortable,” Hitomi added between two bites. Since she became of of the closer friends she had discarded just about any trappings of being a princess. “He reminds me of my dad.”

Behaving like your dad is bad? Knowing about Hitomi’s family was one thing, but experiencing her coldness towards them first hand was another.

Hitomi gulped down her tea before saying anything more. “He’s not a bad person the way dad is, but he still gives me the shivers. Dangerous.”

“Dangerous?” Yukio’s voice cut in. “How?”

“Look, the creepy guy from down there is bad like my dad, but in difference from dad he’s dangerous all by himself.”

The creepy guy from down there had to be the friend of Noriko’s parents. Kyoko could understand why anyone would label him as dangerous. Urufu had said he came from a very different Japan, and by different he didn’t mean the upstream world. A long time ago this had been a much more violent society. Kyoko grimaced. A long time ago. That depended on whom you asked. Maybe eighty years wasn’t all that much time for some.

“Why does she go for someone like him?”

Hitomi growled and Yukio joined her. Kyoko just shook her head at the comment from two tables away.

“Maybe because she has a good eye for men,” a loud response came from yet another table away.

That brought a smile to Kyoko’s lips. After a year and a half with Yukio she wasn’t all that much concerned by competition, but anyone badmouthing Yukio still ired her. For that very reason praise filled her with warmth. Besides, if Hitomi had indeed decided to make a pass at Yukio it did indeed mean she had a good eye for men. They didn’t come any better than Yukio.

Then, suddenly, Hitomi rose and turned in the direction of whoever had voiced that last comment. “I wouldn’t stand a chance,” she said loud enough for anyone to hear.

Kyoko stared at Hitomi and felt heat flaring up in her face as she blushed from neck to hair line.