Midsummer's day, 2014, pre-dawn

Pre-dawn lasted forever, just like dusk's afterglow went on for over an hour the evening before.

The morning chill had nothing of summer in it, or at least nothing that Ryu associated with summer.

He dressed James, who had fallen asleep in a chair, in a second blanket and walked over to the other side of the house. The music had changed character, and he guessed a lot of the kids called it a day by now. A few probably spent the rest of the morning in pairs doing things they incorrectly believed their parents knew nothing about.

Kids! It's about time you got a clue how you came to be our kids in the first place. He smirked and stared down at where the party was still going on. Well it's your party. I'm too old for that crap.

Pre-dawn. He once spent one waiting for a friend to wake up all those years ago, but that time the party ended long before that.

Damn you scared the hell out of us. The magic couple to the rescue. Ryu smiled at the memory. A good one born from something bad. The magic couple, huh. Guess you still are.

Chapter three (segment fifteen), 2016, October, Yukio

Yukio hugged Kyoko closer to him. The blanket barely managed to keep the autumn cool out, but he didn't care. Up here on the rooftop they could be alone at last. He hadn't even bothered bringing their radios.

“She said she hated me!”

Yukio relived his anger at seeing Kyoko's bruised face. The face Kuri struck so hard that vessels burst. Tomorrow it would look like she had used her fist, but Kyoko promised it was a slap.

“She can go to hell!” Yukio said.

Kyoko shook her head. He could feel her nose rubbing his chest. “No. We turned our radios off.”

Yukio stroked her hair and looked down. Late afternoon wind played in it and her blouse.

“Look, Noriko, we couldn't have heard anything. Kuri didn't, no-one with a radio inside the gym did.”

Deep inside he realised Kuri's wrath expressed her fear and helplessness more than anything else, but still. She had slapped his Kyoko.

Deep inside he was scared witless, but he couldn't say that.

His fingers moved through Kyoko's hair while he listened to her sobs. But for her need to believe him a solid rock of strength and safety he'd have joined her long ago.

Are you OK man? Are you going to die on me?

Over the other rooftop a helicopter slowly rose to vanish away from the school. The third to do so in short time, and at the service gates a small truck had just arrived with desperately needed supplies; and Yukio didn't care at all.

The cultural festival had become a meaningless display, one that slowly degenerated into chaos now when most members in the club had fallen into apathy.

“I'm scared,” Kyoko whispered.

Yukio pulled the blanket closer around them. From below he heard the rumbling murmur of thousands of guests milling around the school grounds. Sometimes interrupted by a shout or a loud laughter but always there in the background.

He knew the student council and the festival committee belatedly tried to do the job they should have done from the very beginning, but without the club they didn't stand a chance. Without Urufu if he was honest.

“Kyoko, I'm here. I'll always be here, OK?”

She hugged him tighter and rubbed tears away from red rimmed eyes. “I know. Thank you!”

“Kyoko...” Yukio fell silent. He wanted to stay by her side more than anything else. “Kyoko, you're my hero. Help me be yours!”

She took his hands in hers and rose to her feet. Together they walked to the railings and looked down.

“Yukio, they need us now, but could we stay here for a while longer? Please!”

He looked at her for a long time. “Yes I think we can,” he said and smiled. Smiling was good. Smiling made his fears take a back seat. “In fact I think we have to.”

An icicle of wind cut through his clothes and reminded him of the season. “Will you help me?”

Kyoko nodded back. “Yeah. If I'm with you I can do anything.”

Yukio grinned at her. My girl! He thrust his hand into his pocket and pulled out his phone. Noriko picked up on the second signal.

“Noriko, could you have someone come to the rooftop with two radios and a blanket?”

He waited for her surprised affirmation and the anticipated question afterwards.

“Why? Because the festival committee can't find their own arses in the dark, and that's not good enough for Urufu.” Yukio laughed when Kyoko slapped a hand to her mouth. “Noriko, we started this madness. Let's finish it the way we planned. I'll stay on the rooftop with Kyoko and help you get the show running again.”

He almost finished the call there and then, but as an afterthought he put the phone to his ear again.

“Noriko, tell that idiot brother of yours to keep the council president off my back. I only have room for Kyoko on it.”

Chapter three (segment fourteen), 2016, October, Nakagawa

“We have to tell them!”

Principal Nakagawa looked at the frantic student council president. “No!”

“Don't you have any feelings?”

“No. That's why I'm the principal and you're still just a student.”

She turned and walked for the doors. “You're right. We don't have to tell them, but I have to.”

“I won't allow that,” Nakagawa said. He followed her with his eyes, expecting her to stop and face him again.

With a wave she left his office. Her parting words lingered like a promise: “Whatever. Suspend me, expel me, do whatever, but I'm telling them. Learn to be human!”

Good for you, he thought. You're finally growing a backbone.

She wouldn't reach them in time to create chaos, and he wouldn't punish her for her insubordination. Hers was the morally correct choice and his the only working one. He needed the ambulances to leave through the service gates before the fashion show ended to avoid panic.

“How bad?” he asked the council treasurer who had remained in the office.

The gangly third year frowned before he answered. “All eight Red Rose students hospitalised. Hamarugen-san and Ueno-san as well.”

“Ueno-san?”

“Yes. He's the captain of the karate team. The rest of the team suffered superficial injuries at most, but we're sending them to the hospital just in case.”

Nakagawa scowled and rose from his chair. Looking out the windows he watched the absurd crowd on the school grounds below. Eight thousand or more according to the last report. Both gates were closed for new entrants and irritation grew by the minute. She said another four thousand expected. We can't let them in.

In a way the assault was a blessing. With police present on site people in the queue were unlikely to force the issue when denied entrance.

He waved the treasurer to his side. “Look at that,” he said and nodded at the gates. “Murakami-san, make sure Ageruman-san finishes her show in good order!”

The treasurer looked at the moving mass of people on both sides of the school gates. Nakagawa could see uncertainty and fear competing for space in the teenager's eyes.

What I did earlier was indecent, but this is inhuman. Nakagawa shook his head and dismissed Murakami. Forcing the arrivals to handle a situation like this was bad enough, but they were fifty years old mentally. Now that burden fell on the student council.

He'd help from the shadows of course. When Ageruman-san rose from the abyss and came after them like a vengeance demon he'd make certain the brunt of her attack was directed at him. With her rising fame she had the power to permanently terminate the future for both council president as well as its treasurer.

Well, all bets are off now. You went after one of the arrivals despite our agreement. Rage rose in him, a seething, smouldering rage. I'll give her free reins for revenge, and if Hamarugen-san survives I'll channel my hate through him. You'll find out westerners have a very different definition of hell than us Japanese.

At the moment there was very little he could do for the arrivals. Nakagawa looked at the phone on his desk. There was one thing. Despite working miracle after miracle the exchange club finally found themselves at wit's end to solve an impossible logistical problem.

He tapped a contact and placed the call. Abusing his power didn't come close to describe the order he gave. For what it was worth the festival wouldn't run out of supplies.

Chapter three (segment thirteen), 2016, October, Noriko

Noriko threw a worried look at her phone. Urufu didn't answer calls over the radio and this was the third call he failed to pick up.

We're on stage in a few minutes. What are you doing?

“Nothing?” Kuri asked? Behind the stage it was almost possible to talk, if shouting counted as talking.

Noriko shook her head.

“Damn! He knew I was up to something.”

Up to something? “What did you plan?” Noriko asked her friend.

“Pissing on a tree,” Kuri answered. “Ulf being the tree.”

Noriko shook her head again. The connotation was lost on her.

“You know, like a dog marking territory?” Kuri tried again.

“You planned to pee on Urufu?”

That stopped Kuri in her tracks. She slapped her hands to her face, but she soon removed them and shot Noriko a very twisted and very knowing grin. “No, I don't think he's into that.”

A sudden visual flashed through Noriko's mind, and this time it was her turn to fly both hands to her face. “I didn't… I mean…,” she stammered.

While it was clear Kuri hadn't heard a word Noriko still saw teasing understanding glimmer in her eyes. When Kuri threw her head back and guffawed Noriko knew Kuri had seen exactly what flashed though her mind moments earlier.

“You have a surprisingly dirty mind,” Kuri shouted when she was done laughing. “But no,” she continued and turned serious all of a sudden, “I planned to show the world we belong together.”

Kuri made her last preparations for the show, and Noriko listened to the school-band guitarist reaching the crescendo that marked the end of their participation.

They couldn't have prepared all that well, because the sound was out of tune, a little like the sound of wailing sirens mixing into the music.

With a thunderous rumble from drums and electric guitars the show finished and all band members bowed to their cheering audience.

The gym hall fell eerily silent despite the music sound technicians poured out of the speakers while everyone prepared the fashion show.

Urufu, where are you? If he didn't arrive within a couple of minutes Kuri needed to change the schedule. Nao couldn't stand in for Urufu. He was too tall for that. Anyone else?

“I'll bloody kill him,” Kuri muttered from the hangers closest to them both. “Nao-kun, come here!”

Nao-kun. She's calling her senior Nao-kun. Noriko grinned at Nao who came rushing obediently. Guess that's Kuri for you.

“Nao-kun, can you run a double with these?” Kuri asked and fingered two sets of clothes.

Nao looked at them and nodded. “Why?”

“Ulf's not here. I'm tall enough to show off his costumes as a fun gimmick.”

You're not serious!

“I'd love to see that, if Noriko allows,” Nao said. He flashed her a smile that for once had Noriko's heart skip a beat.

I think you're reaching your goal, Nao. She looked at him and revelled in the warmth that spread though her body. I'm really falling in love with you.

“Yukio, Kyoko, prepare for stage. Let's get this show running!”

Kuri's words reached her through a daze. A few seconds more. Noriko let her eyes linger on Nao. Yes, I definitely am.

Chapter three (segment twelve), 2016, October, Kyoko

Kyoko grinned when she was announced as fifth place together with one of the third year boys. Noriko beat her with less than a ten vote margin and lined up beside the other third year.

Hitomi-chan fidgeted uncomfortably when it was clear she wasn't partnered with anyone. Urufu apparently timed his absence superbly to miss out on receiving his third place prize.

The junior took second place with a solid margin to Hitomi-chan, and the cheering from the audience told Kyoko how popular she was among her fellow second years. Ryu smiled shamefacedly when he was announced as the runner up and joined the grinning second year girl.

A wave of roaring sound rolled in over the stage when Nao-sempai and Kuri-chan entered the scene. Kyoko guessed last day's fashion show decided the results, because both won their respective first place by a margin so large it wasn't even funny.

Urufu, that was nasty of you. Hitomi-chan didn't deserve to stand here alone.

Truth be told Kyoko felt a little bit betrayed. After a scowl she made up her mind and twisted those feelings into something good. If Urufu didn't think this was important enough for him to drag his lazy arse here then she could spend the next twenty minutes together with Yukio watching the band.

In front of her Noriko turned and faced Kyoko. “Where's Urufu?” she shouted.

Kyoko shrugged with both palms out. She had learned the outlandish gesture from Kuri-chan, and by now most of the club members used it jokingly whenever they were clueless.

Noriko smirked and shook her head before facing the audience again. Any longer conversations were impossible with the thundering cheers drowning all other sound.

Ah, I like your kindness! Kyoko thought when Ryu caught Hitomi-chan's hand and greeted the crowd sandwiched between two girls. I wish you find someone for yourself.

She couldn't see Hitomi-chan's face, but Kyoko noticed how the left wing beauty stood straighter after Ryu's gesture.

I'll chew your face off for this, Urufu. Yukio and I both will. He could have as much problems understanding girls as he wanted, but what he had just done was just inconsiderate.

She felt bad for Hitomi-chan, and when the ceremony was over she hurried backstage and turned off her radio. Yukio smiled at her all the time and she grabbed his hand and followed him into the crowd.

“Watch the band with me?” she said, putting her lips close enough to his ear that it counted as a kiss.

He nodded back at her and led her through a mass of bodies. They couldn't go too far away or they wouldn't make it back in time for the fashion show. Both she and Yukio had small parts to play in it.

Chapter three (segment eleven), 2016, October, Ulf

Ulf rushed to the service gates. With the contest running almost a third of the radios were out of commission and key stations ran dangerously understaffed. This was the critical phase of the festival, but he had prepared just about everyone with scare stories about the twenty minutes when the contestants took the stage.

Should have told them about the two hours after that. With that thought he continued to make certain the service gates were closed for entrance. With the open grounds deceptively empty it was all too tempting to let everyone inside, and that spelled disaster when the gym hall eventually emptied.

Guests sitting at the tables just inside the gates rose or turned when a roar erupted from the gym hall.

That's Christina for all of you. Ulf smiled as he ran.

Fifteen minutes to count the votes, including all votes collected from ballot boxes strategically placed around the school for those who wanted to make their opinion heard but disliked crowds.

At the gates the security patrol allowed more guests inside in exactly the uncontrolled manner Ulf feared, and he pulled one of them aside and handed her a paper slip with instructions.

She looked at him with questioning eyes. Then she gave the relative calm around the outdoor café a long gaze and stared at him again with even more questions in her eyes.

“Just trust me on this,” Ulf said. “We've packed fifteen hundred guests inside the gym but sooner or later they'll go outside.”

She just shrugged and joined the rest of the patrol. All of them pointed at Ulf when queuing people asked what was happening as they closed the gates.

He waved at the irritated queue and made a time-out sign hoping they'd understand. After that he left an unhappy patrol who pointedly refused to look at him. Even their backsides were unhappy.

Well, I'm the better scapegoat. He smirked and went behind the gym. The back door must have been closed to avoid letting daylight inside and he stood knocking on it for a while before he realised the futility in what he was doing. The cheering from the other side prevented anyone on the inside from hearing him.

With a sigh he prepared himself for a wrestling match all the way from the main entrance to the stage and turned.

Red Rose? What are you doing here?

The first strike fractured both bones in his left upper arm. The second gifted him with a concussion and sent him sprawling to the ground.

Before he lost consciousness he felt two of his ribs crack as he frantically shouted for help into his radio.

Chapter three (segment ten), 2016, October, Yukio

Damn I'm not getting any time alone with Kyoko! Which wasn't true, but he didn't get any during opening hours.

Right now she was tied up with the fashion show again and would be so for another couple of hours since it didn't stop when the show ended. The beauty contest came right after it. How they were supposed to handle the ballot boxes with so many guests on the compounds was beyond him, but the planning committee said they were on it.

As for himself he walked around the premises with his phone taking pictures and short films from the festival. While he certainly would save some for himself most were for the benefit of their partner club in Sweden. Cultural exchange club and all, so sending them footage of their cultural festival only made sense, but he really wanted more time with Kyoko.

Besides, this will only give them the wrong impression of a normal school festival. This is anything but normal.

Yukio sulked some more and shot a couple of photos through the windows.

Over the radio calls were becoming increasingly frantic as the school filled up and the main street stalls ran out of supplies. The arrival of a few cars driven by teachers Urufu somehow coerced into helping them mitigated the problem somewhat.

Yukio couldn't care less.

He walked down the stairs and made for the gym hall. On the way there he turned off his radio.

It was packed. Only with the help of a security armband he pilfered earlier did he manage to get inside. Of course they weren't supposed to be used that way, but he'd be damned if he missed Kyoko's participation.

People around him hugged ten stripes of coloured paper to their chests, and quite a few already slipped two into ballot boxes. They had made their mind up before the pageant even started.

Yukio looked at his empty hands and forced his way to the ballot boxes. He received his ten stripes, put the one representing Ryu into the boys' box and one for Kyoko in the other. The remaining eight stripes he handed back to one of the girls manning the ballot.

Third year girls. They stared at him when he voted for Kyoko. You probably don't even know who she is. Then they looked at his student book and checked his name on the list of first years.

After that he went inside again and elbowed himself to a place from where he could see the catwalk better.

He made it just in time to see the boys take the stage as they were introduced one after another. Nao and Ryu received the loudest cheers, but Urufu was surprisingly popular as well despite throwing a glance at his watch as if he needed to be elsewhere.

You probably do, but you're not supposed to show that right now.

After that it was time for the girls, and Yukio felt how he was squeezed tighter in the growing crowd. It didn't matter. Soon the cutest girl of them all would receive her fair share of fame.

Whoever organised the pageant knew what was about to happen. A beautiful second year Yukio didn't know received a huge roar of approval, and after her Hitomi-chan got an equal share. Noriko blushed when she heard the shouting, even though it was nowhere as loud as when the two girls before her took the stage.

Kyoko waved to the audience when she received the politest of the ovations. Yukio knew she'd end up last of the five girls, but just making the short list was a big thing.

Then the loudspeakers announced Kuri's appearance and the gym hall exploded with cheers even before she arrived into the limelight. The shouting turned painful when she showed herself, and Yukio saw how the four other girls flinched at the sound. The second year stared at the audience with the eyes of a deer looking at onrushing headlights.

Man, that's harsh. The rest of them experienced this yesterday. And there were even more people in the audience now.

Yukio listened to how the announcer tried to prolong the event, just as he had been primed to do in order to keep the hall filled as long as possible. After the contest a school band would play for the largest audience they had ever seen, and after that the fashion show. With some luck most of the audience would wait.

Switching on his radio was pointless now. He wouldn't be able to hear anything.

Yukio pushed his way through the crowd to the scene. He needed to prepare for his small part in the show, and the sooner he was done the more time he could spend with Kyoko.