Ryu stared after
Kuri when she left the surfer shop for the outdoors shoots and her
personal petty revenge on Kareyoshi. Ryu wasn’t certain how visible
it would be, but apart from her, Urufu and their Swedish guests there
were mostly formerly expelled students from Himekaizen on the beach.
Kuri, rather unsurprisingly, had duped her crew into some group shots
for a ‘summer with high school friends on the beach’.
He grinned. It
was summer, and they were on the beach, and they were friends as well
as high school students.
“Some people
take all the good ones,” a whisper came from behind him.
Ryu didn’t
turn. Crew, model or just a visitor, he didn’t know, but he was
aware that whatever he lacked in looks compared to the male models he
more than made up for in presence, or charisma as some preferred to
call it. Still, he toned down his grin. It was an expression he had
copied from Urufu in the end. The old Ryu usually smiled, or laughed,
rather than grinned.
“That’s a
funny thing to say with so much beauty,” someone else said.
“They’re
models. He’s he real thing.”
He was, he knew
that. His was a good family, which was the reason he disliked Noriko
chasing after Urufu. Last year Ryu didn’t care, because he didn’t
fully understand. In the end, in this world at least, Urufu had no
family behind him at all, and Ryu worried for his sister.
“Wakayama-san?”
That voice didn’t
speak about him. That was a direct question, and Ryu had no other
option than turn.
“Yes?”
“I’ve been
asked to invite you to a meeting.”
Ryu looked at the
man in his early thirties. Definitely subordinate. “Yes?”
“If you would
please follow me.”
“May I ask
who?” Ryu said. He made a point of showing no sign of following.
“Ah, of course.
Eh, Uchida-sa… Uchida-san and Hasegawa-san are waiting for you”
What the hell?
The first ‘a’ in the interrupted honorific had been much too
drawn out. Uchida-sama? What’s going on?
“I’m
honoured. Please show me the way!”
Intrigued Ryu
followed the man to a nearby office and stepped inside.
Two men in their
late forties or early fifties sat waiting by a table, each sipping a
cup of coffee. One of them rose and reached out with a hand in the
western style of a handshake.
“I’m Hasegawa
Mamoru, pleased to meet you.”
Ryu took the hand
and bowed.
“First of all,”
the man continued, and now he reverted to a traditional Japanese bow,
“I need to apologise for the way I’ve behaved to you and my
daughter.”
Daughter?
Wait, Hasegawa. He’s Ai’s father!
Then
the other man rose from his chair. “As a matter of fact I’m the
one who needs to apologise.”
Ryu
looked at him. He oozed of power. It wasn’t the aura of his father
but something that reached beyond it.
What’s
going on? Ryu fidgeted, he knew that, but adults very seldom
apologised to kids, not even high school students.
“I’m
the reason Hasegawa-san was against your relationship,” Uchida-san
said.
“Sorry,
I don’t get it,” Ryu answered.
“You’re
good friends with Christina Agerman and Ulf Hammargren,” Uchida-san
said instead of giving an explanation. Then, then… Hey, there
wasn’t even a hint of an incorrect pronunciation!
“Kuri’s my
girlfriend,” Ryu said to buy some time.
“Is that even
legal?” Hasegawa-san said dryly.
“She’s just a
high school kid here, just like Wakayama-san here. We can’t apply
two sets of rules.”
Ryu decided to
take a chance. “Are you, like, Nakagawa-sensei’s goons?”
“Nakagawa-sensei?”
Uchida-san said.
“He’s the
former principal of Himekaizen Academy,” Hasegawa-san responded. Then he grinned. “He’s part of the local MiBs as well.
“Men in Black?
I see.” Uchida-san turned directly to Ryu. “No, we’re not part
of the local civil war. We’re here to put an end to it. Mamoru and
I belong to the Swedish section for a better alternative future.”
Ryu stared at the
two indisputably Japanese men. Without as much as a thought about
proper behaviour he sat down in a chair, leaving the two adults
standing. What the hell? “Could you please explain to me so
that I understand?”
“You have your
secret black ops here in Japan. We’re part of a similar organisation on the Swedish side of things.”
OK, that much
made sense.
“Officially I’m
head of Sony Northern Europe, well, in fact I am running that
section for real as well.”
“Yes?” Ah,
he’s Rika-sempai’s father! Then something Uchida-san had said
registered in Ryu’s mind. “What do you mean we have a
secret organisation here?”
The man’s eye
grew cold and hard. “I’ve known Christina’s grandfather for a
very long time, and through him your parents.”
Bile rose in
Ryu’s throat. “How long?”
“Once I was his
superior officer,” came the answer. “Last time I visited his home
Christina was a small child.”
“When… when
did you, eh, move back to Japan?”
The predatory
grin Uchida-san gave Ryu wasn’t entirely hostile. “I arrived here
1978.”
“1978?”
“Yes.
Himekaizen Academy had only been made into a co-ed school a few years
earlier. It used to be a girls’ school. You can tell from the
name.”
Ryu thought about
it. A school for the betterment of young ladies. It certainly made
sense when he thought about it that way. “Why are you here now?”
he asked instead.
“Partly to
apologise to you, and to the daughter of my colleague as well. Even
though he works with arrivals he didn’t want his daughter to get
involved, and I’m afraid I’m to blame for that.”
Ryu nodded. “And
the other part?”
“The Japanese
side has allowed things to get out of hand. Rampant racism and
arrivals don’t go well together. We’re here to force… to make
them reconsider.” Then any kindness in Uchida-san’s grin
vanished. “You could consider us friends from far.”
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