Chapter three, 2018, what happens in Kyoto, segment ten

Kyoko pouted. She felt in her bones how she was left out. Kuri-chan knew something, something she shared only with Noriko. Kyoko could live with that. Or rather she could almost live with that. Despite being parted from the science classes by two cars Hitomi acted on her curiosity and left theirs in search of Noriko. She’s got more guts than I do.

Something had happened. Well that was an understatement. With their Line circles swollen with new members and most every message covering only one topic since Noriko’s unexpected stunt, to say that something had happened would be the understatement of the year.

That something, however wasn’t what had Kyoko worried. Kuri-chan might be a former global celebrity, and she might become one again. That just meant she knew how to look more beautiful than just anyone else – she still sucked at keeping it a secret that she kept a secret.

How the hell did you build a business empire if you’re a danger to yourself at the poker table? Kyoko sulked some more when the answer came to her. You just steam-rolled everyone into submission. Maybe the world of fashion wasn’t one of subtlety. All gods knew Kuri-chan’s earlier campaigns of infamy lacked just about everything in that department.

Outside the landscape rolled by. With Nagoya a station behind them there wasn’t all that much time until sprawling Tokyo made itself reminded again. While large in its own right Kyoto still couldn’t compare with the insanity that was the capital. Rather Kyoto never felt the need to.

Hitomi having the guts to act on her curiosity wasn’t the only reason Kyoko sulked. A gutsy Hitomi meant a Hitomi two cars away, which pretty much left Kyoko alone with her class. Until a month earlier that wasn’t bad in itself. Sure, taking a stand against Kareyoshi meant most classmates didn’t dare being associated with her, but a substantial minority never accepted their insane principal.

A month ago she made a very public announcement together with Yukio however. Now anyone complaining about it could go to hell, but it still left her with very few who sought her company, or at least very few she wanted to keep company with. To add insult to injury more than one boy had appeared out of nowhere with one suggestion dirtier than the other.

Should I push Kuri-chan a little? Kyoko smirked. That would do no good. Kuri-chan never budged once she took a stance. Just leave it be? Probably the best alternative, one that respected Noriko’s privacy as well, but good friends kind of didn’t bother with privacy all that in the first place.

Just as Kyoko made ready for another silent round of complaints the door to their car opened and Hitomi returned from her mission. She promptly sat down in her seat two rows behind Kyoko’s.

Kyoko rose and walked to her friend. Smug as her face had been at her return it meant very little. In difference from Kuri Hitomi wasn’t anyone Kyoko ever wanted to play poker with. The benefits from a thoroughly polished bad upbringing Hitomi once called it. That bordered on cynicism of the first degree, but Kyoko never questioned the results.

“Switch with me?” she asked the girl beside Hitomi.

Kyoko got a polite nod in return and watched the backside until she sat down in what had been Kyoko’s seat just moments earlier. Infamy went a long way towards making people do as you wanted.

“Spill!”

Hitomi’s smug expression turned into a more neutral one, just as if the beauty had anticipated Kyoko’s actions. As if. My arse. She knew.

“Nothing to tell,” Hitomi said.

“Nothing?”

“Nothing.” Hitomi tore open a small bag with snacks and offered Kyoko some.

Staring over the bag while her hands accepted the gift Kyoko watched how rice paddies suddenly got replaced by hillsides, and moments later they were in a tunnel. Shinkansen was nothing like the sedate local trains in Tokyo.

She put half her booty in her mouth and chewed. Salt and sugar mixed, and somehow the experience of mixed tastes only got stronger from feeling the roughness of what was left in her hand.

“Nothing at all?” Kyoko probed.

For the first time since returning Hitomi smiled. “Explicitly so, as Urufu would have said. Noriko told me whatever happened would remain a secret.”

That meant part of what had happened. The main part was anything but with photos of Noriko racing the net to whoever was interested in the midget who received Kuri’s blessing.

“But something did?”

Hitomi swallowed her discomfort when they left the tunnel and air pressure suddenly changed again. “Yes, something did. She sat with one of her classmates and I didn’t see Urufu anywhere.”

Kyoko nodded. The two classes had gone to extremes, just as hers and Yukio’s had, when it came to accommodate a famous couple. Well at least she and Yukio were famous before the trip started. “I don’t think they angered anyone,” Kyoko mused.

Hitomi shook her head. “Noriko certainly did. A lot of people want their fifteen minutes you know.”

“But that’s not it,” Kyoko filled in.

A small portion of nuts and rice crackers travelled from bad to Hitomi’s hand and then into her mouth. “No,” she agreed after she had swallowed. “Even if it had been an issue you just don’t piss off the number one among the second years.”

Especially not when she’s an item with the hero number three. “Urufu wouldn’t keep his distance,” Kyoko said.

Hitomi guffawed loudly enough for a few faces to turn in their direction. “He just pretends to be aloof. But for all of Noriko’s clinging to him like a stamp he’s really the needy one.”

“He is, isn’t he?”

The two girls exchanged grins of agreement.

“No, this once Noriko needed some lonesome,” Hitomi said.

Kyoko mulled over the last sentence while the train rushed into yet another tunnel and left it mere seconds later.

“I wonder if it’s something bad,” Kyoko said when the windows once again displayed small towns and an occasional glimpse of the sea.

“Can’t say. Look, Kyoko, I need to catch up on some sleeping.”

Kyoko had to respect that.

“It’s not Vegas, but…” Hitomi’s voice started sleepily.

Vegas?

“I guess we have to accept that what happens in Kyoto…” Hitomi never finished the sentence, and the two of them spent the rest of the ride to Tokyo in silence.