Chapter three, 2017, shards, segment six

“Urufu and Tomasu got suspended?”

Yukio nodded. “Those boys got pretty badly hurt after all.”

Noriko shook her head. Something wasn’t right. Eight boys sent to hospital but not a single rumour about anyone missing from school.

“But...” she started.

“I know,” Yukio interrupted her. He stared across the seats under the great sails and Noriko saw how he fixed his gaze at the gymnasium. “Urufu taught me how to peel pieces of information from a whole.”

She followed his stare and waited for him to continue.

Wind gathered between the wings, swirled, caught specks of dust and blew it towards the gym. Cooler now, she noted. Soon the school yard would turn into a temporary festival area, and with that what had happened would turn into partially forgotten memories when arranging the cultural festival stole all attention. But not for two girls. They’d never forget. They…

“Sorry,” Noriko said when she realised Yukio had already started talking again.

“I was saying those guys probably aren’t students here,” he repeated.

She had already guessed as much. “Think it’s like when Kuri was assaulted?”

Yukio nodded. Then he turned his head, and as his arm rose Noriko saw Kyoko leave the cafeteria with a tray of food in her hands. Yukio waved her to join them, and Noriko lifted her hand to do the same. A feeling of uneasiness spread through her and she hesitated and dropped her arm into her lap. Instead of welcoming her friend Noriko turned and stared at her feet.

I’m so stupid. But she couldn’t help it. She was jealous of how the couple avoided getting caught up in the madness, which was unfair. She knew that. Last year both Yukio and Kyoko had been sent to hospital.

Kyoko arrived, and from the corner of her eye Noriko saw her sit down and give Yukio a short peck of a kiss before she turned her attention to her lunch.

“Yukio, father asked some friends.”

Noriko looked up. Kyoko’s father was some kind of public servant with a network of his own. He’d used it to look into Kareyoshi’s background earlier.

Yukio took a sip of tea from a bottle. “Uhum?” he said and dug into his lunch with chop sticks in one hand. The other returned the bottle to the small space between him and Kyoko. Noriko stared at it. Between them. A shared space. It made her miss Urufu again.

“Did he find out anything,” she asked. This time she had to face Kyoko properly.

“I’m sorry Noriko,” Kyoko said. “There are rumours about expulsions.”

Noriko shook her head. “Urufu said the arrivals pretty much were untouchable.”

Kyoko met Noriko’s eyes, but she stayed silent. There was something pained in her expression.

“Kyoko, what is it?” Noriko said when Kyoko remained silent.

“Urufu and Tomasu are safe. It’s about Jeniferu and that other girl.”

“What?” Noriko blinked and stared at her friend.

“The two of them might be expelled. Unless they drop the charges they could be kicked out of school. At least that’s what father said.” Kyoko fell silent again, but just as Noriko was about to scream with rage Kyoko’s voice cut through the short distance between them. “I’ve never seen him so angry. Not even after I was stabbed.”

At last what Kyoko had said registered in Noriko’s mind. Her throat went dry all of a sudden, and without asking she grabbed Yukio’s bottle and emptied half of it in four long gulps. But they were raped! How? Noriko stared blindly ahead of her. Yukio’s shape was there, but only when he grabbed the bottle she held out did she know for sure that he was really there and not just a shadow.

“He’s going down,” Noriko said.

Kyoko nodded. “But not for this. Father doesn’t think Kareyoshi’s behind it.”

“But expulsions?”

“Kareyoshi’s the principal here. He doesn’t want to stain his reputation, so he’ll do anything to hush it up, but father still believes someone else pulled the strings.”

“The PTA,” a voice said from behind Noriko’s back.

She turned and met her brother’s glare. “PTA?”

Ryu nodded, and the way he looked at her Noriko understood the glare wasn’t directed at her. With a sigh he found a seat for himself and sat down with his tray in his lap.

“You know how Kareyoshi got himself an obedient PTA after the old one put up a fight?”

“Uhum,” Yukio nodded. “And?” he added between bites.

“He should have thought a little more about why they were so obedient.”

“I don’t understand,” Kyoko said.

Noriko did. Time spent with her parents built a set of rough tools, and a year with Urufu had honed them to a sharpness that bordered on cynicism.

“Sis, if you will?”

“It’s Red Rose Hell all over again. Kareyoshi filled the PTA with the same kind of lunatics we had at our old school.”

“But...” Yukio started.

“They share the same world,” Noriko interrupted him. Rage competed with shame, because she had been so occupied with thoughts about Jeniferu that she forgot there was a second girl as well. “Yukio, you know some first years. Could you please as about her background?” Shame won. Noriko didn’t even know her name. “Discreetly please.”

“Why?”

“Because I believe she got targetted because she’s Korean or Chinese.”

“Sure. I’ll ask.”

“Yukio?”

Noriko looked at Kyoko who stared at how her boyfriend’s face suddenly turned all grim and dark. You and Kuri went to a decent place. You wouldn’t understand.

“Red Rose Hell, Kyoko. I told you about it last year, at the fireworks, remember?”

Kyoko’s gaze turned inwards, but then Noriko saw how she must have remembered whatever memory she’d been searching for. “Be careful.”

“I promise,” Yukio said. “But I won’t stand watching and do nothing this time. Never again.”

Another gust of wind seeped the little warmth Noriko’s clothes offered away from her, and she felt a desperate longing for Urufu.