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

Insane. He has to be insane! Barely lunch hours and over four thousand guests crowded the school.

Noriko staggered when a huge man almost bowled her over. Maybe she should have stayed in their room, but she refused to spend the entire festival indoors.

She had earned her break, but at the moment she regretted coming here. The streets were almost impassable, but soon the first major event in the gym hall should remove some of the pressure on the stalls.

Loud laughing voices and the smell of fast food sold around her belied the frightened faces she saw in some of the stalls. Most of the students manning them simply didn't understand how crowded the school had become.

She hoped they could stay ignorant for a while longer, because with understanding came fear.

Irishima high had arrived in force. She recognised a lot of their faces, and from conversations she overheard she guessed the rest. What was worse was the large number of Red Rose uniforms she saw. Almost all of them from the middle school, but a few from the high school as well.

What's going on? We never spoke of Himekaizen during my years there. That had come later, and only as a suggestion from her parents. Why are you in uniform? It's Sunday.

Noriko waved to a freshman from 4:1 in one stall and was let inside.

“Sorry, but I have to make a call,” she said to the baffled student in a yukata.

“Want a bite?” the girl offered. “Just don't tell anyone.”

Noriko thought for a few seconds. “Thank you. I'd love to,” she said. She wouldn't be able to have lunch later anyway.

Sitting on the ground she wolfed down takoyaki, and from time to time she looked up and gave the girl a tankful look. “You're a lifesaver,” she said after she swallowed the last ball. “Good! You make really good takoyaki.”

“Thanks! Dad runs a small restaurant and I help out some.”

“Send him my regards.”

It was time to make that call. She switched off her radio and dug in her pockets for her cell phone. This wasn't a topic for the open channel.

“Ryu,” she said after her brother answered, “there's an awful lot of Red Rose students here.”

“I know,” he answered. “I've told Urufu, and he's visiting Principal Nakagawa right now.”

Noriko pushed herself tighter under the counter to be as much out of the way as possible. From where she sat on the ground she saw the three students manning the stall frantically trying to serve an ever increasing number of orders.

“Good, then I'll leave it to him.” She crawled out from her corner and rose. “Ryu we're in trouble down here. The main street stalls can't handle this much longer.” During the time she spent eating even more people had arrived.

“What do you want me to do?”

“We can't allow any more people inside until we can fill the gym hall or Kuri's outdoor show is running.

“I'll cancel the patrols and send them to the gates then. It's not like they're much use with the school crammed anyway.”

Chapter three (segment eight), 2016, October, Christina

Princess of Scandinavia. Once her second name, but in this world she was the princess of Himekaizen, or maybe empress was a better expression. She wasn't neither petite nor cute in the preferred way of a Japanese high school princess.

Yeah, empress it is, she thought when reminded of the task ahead of her.

What Ulf asked of her was far beyond anything that could decently be requested from a high school girl, but that wasn't what he had done, was it? For once he didn't look at her with love in his eyes and she understood how he spoke with the billion dollar empress instead of his 'little Ina'. It hurt a little, and it made her immensely proud of him.

As long as he understands he can't use the rest of them this way, she thought, but it was already too late for that. Sooner or later some of them would break, and they would resent him because they were unable to live up to his expectations.

But you don't really care. Your reputation will suffer because they think you're after personal glory. It had to be done, and all because of her. I shouldn't have started the Uniclo circus. Ulf please don't hate me for it!

“Hangers six and seven further back and to the left.”

Christina watched how two more metal frames moved closer to the exit. Try it on. Fifteen minutes of fame. More like fifteen seconds, but adding an ad-hoc fashion show to the football field should secure a lot of guests in one place when the school got crammed beyond capacity.

Five hundred, maybe six, she thought. Perhaps the best of the crazy ideas he had come up with, and it still wouldn't be enough. She smiled to herself. You try so hard even when you know it won't suffice.

There were rumours about him. The magician they called him, and 'they' included teachers as well.

“OK, crew, team one stay here and prepare the planned show. Team two follow me!” If you want me to run two shows I'll make them both better than the one we planned.

Today would put her to the test. Without any professionals by her side she'd try to surpass Ulf's insane expectations. She owed him that much. She loved him that much.

Chapter three (segment seven), 2016, October, Ryu

'I need the prince of Himekaizen.' What kind of request is that? Ryu shook his head in amusement. You really don't know what makes girls tick Urufu. Right now you're the king of Himekaizen, and the senior girls probably think you're more interesting than I am anyway.

He wasn't sure how he knew, but he did. Urufu's personality and how he handled the festival was certain to attract more than a few third years. They were preparing to leave high school life behind them and to a degree they acted in a more adult way than they would as first and second years in university. At least if what his father said was true.

That only means I have to become a more grown up prince. A strange thought, and one he wouldn't have made just half a year earlier. Am I growing up as well?

The way Urufu and Kuri impacted his life scared him, but he acknowledged that they did. Easy for them. They have their wingmen after all. Then he accepted why that thought lacked dignity. They earned their wingmen. Sometimes I wish I could be more like Yukio, or Kyoko for that matter.

Ryu turned left after the vending machines and walked almost to the end of the corridor. From here on it was mostly a matter of knocking on doors. Urufu wanted a dozen third year girls to do two shopping rounds each. He would get them, or Ryu wasn't worthy of being called prince of Himekaizen.

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

“What do you mean all the girls are down at the plaza?” Ulf asked. “What about the boys?” He didn't want the answer, because he knew it the moment he asked the question.

“You wanted breakfast for the guests. We didn't plan for it so I sent down everyone who could prepare it,” Noriko said and looked up from her laptop.

Outside the windows he saw the pool, since a few weeks drained of all water and left in dry desolation. Memories from summer, especially one which he shared with Christina, played in his mind. Was that really only three months ago?

“Look, Noriko you did nothing wrong,” he said. “It's just that some things here make me so frustrated.”

She looked back at him, and her eyes showed no awareness why he should feel frustration. Not her fault, he decided. Just me who can't wrap my mind around the gender differences here.

There was no time changing that during the last day of their festival. For the moment he needed to accept that cooking mainly was a woman's chore. Accept. He didn't have to like it.

“I apologise for being so curt. You've done a fantastic job. Keep it up.” He went for the door when he recalled one of his own rules. “You all have. It's a pleasure working with people like you,” he said to the others in the room, including council treasurer and a couple of students from the planning committee.

It wasn't entirely true, but sometimes well timed flattery did wonders, and he needed miracles to pull them through the day.

One hour, maybe two before hell hits us. He pulled the door shut behind him and walked down the corridor. By the stairwell he turned and made it into the main building corridor.

He knocked on the door to the main teacher room. There wasn't any teacher he needed to talk to right now, but their windows faced the main courtyard and he wanted to know what the queue looked like.

A few of the teaching staff looked at him when he was let inside, but by now they were used to him coming here just to walk to the windows with a laptop in his hand.

“Jirou?”

“Jirou here, you should call Kyoko. Out.”

Ulf followed the main street with his eyes until it ended by the gates. “Kyoko?”

“Kyoko here.”

“Ulf here, you'll have your first batch incoming soon. Over.”

“Understood. We're ready. Over.”

“Good work. Tell the rest I'm proud of you. Over and out.”

He looked at the stalls on both of sides of the street. Too many of them took orders where the students manning them shook their heads and pointed in the direction of the plaza. It didn't worry him yet, but there were more than a hundred guests queuing by the gates and through the tree line bordering the school grounds he saw people walking in small groups or couples as they were redirected to the service gates.

Ulf turned and faced the teachers present. A full hour earlier than I had hoped, but it can't be helped. “Excuse me, but may I have a bit of your time?”

“Yes?”

He could only hope the old goat had prepared them for the question he was about to ask. “How many of you have your cars here and some spare time to give us?”

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

Kyoko oversaw offloading the fourth car returning with supplies. More like guarded the boxes dropped by the service gates while two students from 9:1 carried a box each to the plaza.

The car had already left with two of their club members inside. Kondo-sensei drove.

Still early in the morning maybe a few hundred guests were inside. A decision taken by Urufu. He hoped to fill their stomachs and preferably bore them enough to leave before the real invasion started.

There was plenty of time until the official opening hour, and the early guests probably walked between stalls only partly operational or inside the school where most of the events had yet to start up.

“Welcome to the Himekaizen cultural festival,” she greeted half a dozen arrivals and let them inside. She wore a security armband for the duration of her stay by the gates. When all the boxes were collected she'd return to their club room and hand it to Noriko.

“Welcome to the Himekaizen cultural festival.” Another group of guests passed the gates.

She leaned outside and looked down the street.

“Noriko?” she said after pushing the button to her radio.

“Noriko here.”

“Kyoko here. I need the service gates manned. Guests arriving. Over.”

Her radio squelched for a few seconds before the response arrived. “How many?” Silence. “Damn this machine! Over.”

Kyoko had anticipated that question and already stood in the middle of the street. “I see some fifty or sixty coming my way right now. Over.”

Noriko remained silent from her end to the radio conversation. “I'll send down three guys.” The radio silenced before blaring alive again. “Over and out.”

Noriko, learn to use the radio already! Oh well. I wonder what it's like by the main gates now.

She stepped inside the gates and greeted another dozen guests while she watched the outdoor café behind her open for business.

The promised guys arrived, and Noriko had even remembered to have one of them ask for the armband Kyoko wore.

Shortly afterwards several students arrived and carried the remaining boxes inside, and Kyoko left the gates. For the second time that day she passed the bike stand, and for the second time that day she threw them an embarrassed look.

Not my proudest moment. Sorry Yukio.

She wanted him by her side, but over the radio she heard him trying to make another of Urufu's pipe dreams come true.

Through the main gates a mix of guests and Himekaizen students arrived, the latter throwing surprised looks at the guests already inside before they hurried to whatever station they had planned to open half an hour later.

Kyoko saw the council president, Tamura-sempai was it? standing inside the gates greeting an ever increasing stream of new guests.

Over the radio someone requested more people with security armbands to the front gates, and Kyoko heard Noriko promise the prompt arrival of another three students from 9:1.

We can't keep this up on our own. Where's the festival planning committee? She walked to the front gates. For two reasons. One because they had to be two students greeting arriving guests with the numbers arriving, but Kyoko also wanted to study the girl who had a crush on her boyfriend.

What she saw gave her even less reasons to worry than Yukio nurtured before. A flimsy girl who needed reassurance to take the lead, even if that reassurance came from a girl two years her junior.

She was vain, but then most girls were. Kyoko herself wasn't above the need to look good in the eyes of others, and Kuri-chan even made her money out of it.

Kyoko greeted another half a dozen guests.

A month earlier she thought that Noriko differed from the rest of them when it came to vanity, but since she started dating Nao-sempai even the hyperactive midget spent her time facing a mirror from time to time.

Another half a dozen, then two couples, then two groups of four friends each. The council president was equally busy greeting arrivals, and from what Kyoko saw greeting any more would soon become both impossible and stupid.

It was time to request more people to the gates. “Noriko?”

Kyoko backed inside the gates waiting for an answer.

“Noriko here.”

“Kyoko here. Front gates is becoming a queue just like yesterday. Over.”

“We haven't even really opened yet… Eh… Over.”

You're not supposed to make spoken reflections over the radio. “I'll leave the gate to our council president, but she'll need two more boys with armbands. Over.” Kyoko grinned at her walkie talkie.

“OK. Over.”

“Over and out.” Kyoko said and ended the conversation. A little bit strange how Noriko stuttered with the radio. She was by a wide margin the fastest learner Kyoko knew, but handling the radios correctly seemed to be beyond her.

The fastest learner, because Urufu didn't count. He just knew a lot, but it was the accumulated knowledge gained over half a century. She couldn't tell if it was a lot or not compared to other old people. Probably was, but she didn't know that. How did you define 'a lot' when you were in your fifties? She couldn't even ask her parents, because they were younger than him as well.

Kyoko shook her head and left the gates. Time to check out the plaza and see if anyone there needed a break. Both Urufu and Ryu said you had to be there in person, because those who needed rest seldom said so over the radios, and those who did not all too often did.

She walked between booths hastily manned by students surprised to see how guests already filled up the school grounds before opening hours. Most were readying their stalls, and a few had even managed to start cooking.

Their own stalls and most of the grills prepared food more suitable for a late breakfast than the cuisine they had planned for from the start. That in turn probably meant most of the girls were tied up preparing food there.

When she arrived she saw that the could scratch 'probably'. She donned an apron and went to work.

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

Being a natural early riser himself Yukio shook Kyoko awake. Time to patrol the school grounds, the last patrol before Himekaizen came alive for the second and last day of the festival.

She stirred uneasily under his hands, even tried to slap them away, but in the end she yawned and woke.

“Time?”

“Five,” Yukio answered. “It's our turn now. The guys from 9:1 are already away.”

She crawled over the floor to a corner they made into a small dressing area. It gave some shelter and a modicum of privacy.

Yukio listened to her getting into her school uniform and when she showed up from behind the false wall she looked a lot more like his girlfriend instead of the zombie from a few minutes earlier.

Guess that's part of loving someone, to feel her morning breath and still think she's wonderful.

As if she had read his mind she waved with two sets of tooth brushes. “You need one as well.”

He covered his mouth with a hand and grimaced. Guess I smell just as awful.

They walked out into the corridor and made their way down the stairs to the locker rooms.

After he was done and stood waiting by the vending machines for her to finish he felt more human as well.

He stole a hug and a kiss before checking that his radio was turned on and then they left through the main entrance and hit the startlingly chill morning air outside. His tooth brush he simply pocketed in his blazer.

A greyness covered the school yard in a ghost like pre-dawn light. But for the clouds above them and lingering morning mist it would have been lighter. Every gust of wind crept inside his body and he pulled her closer to him more for warmth than a want to hug.

They strolled through the temporary streets between empty stalls. With only the two of them there he felt like walking through a ghost town. Sounds came too clearly and whenever flags and other decorations moved in the wind he jumped. Skittish like a puppy.

“They should just move the haunted house here,” Kyoko murmured and held his hand a bit firmer.

She noticed as well. “Spooky, heh?”

“Uhum.”

None of them spoke much and they did their rounds in silence. Through the plaza, a quick loop over the remaining soccer field, along the fences and a cursory pass by the pool. The two patrols from 9:1 had a good view of the parts between cafeteria and the gym hall, so Yukio led Kyoko behind it and they arrived at the large outdoor café by the back gates.

He saw a couple of students climbing the gates. They wore the Himekaizen school uniforms and he recognised one of them from 7:2. With a wave Yukio acknowledged their presence and called in their arrival over the radio.

Students would start trickling in from now on and the need for patrolling came to an end.

He led Kyoko past the bike stands where she shrunk a little and offered him a guilty stare. “Sorry,” she said.

Yukio didn't answer. He had no reason reminding her about his first confession to her. It had been spectacular for all the wrong reasons.

They reached the end of the left wing and walked under the walkway between the wings until they stood in front of the main entrance. Normally he would have taken the short-cut diagonally across the gravel, but now stalls blocked the way.

By now any remnant of morning mist was long gone and above them the overcast sky was thinning out. Mostly sunny the weather reports promised.

He watched the main gates open to let a group of students past. Then the security patrol assigned there had them closed again. Urufu wanted it that way in case of an early invasion.

“Go inside and get some breakfast?” he asked.

Kyoko nodded and they returned inside the same way they left the building before.

In their club room sandwiches Noriko had prepared waited for them together with hot tea.

Anything as elaborate as miso soup, or even something as mundane as rice, was out of the question since they didn't have access to the home economics room. The side dishes associated with that kind of breakfast weren't a problem, but the thought of takuan mixing with bread in his mouth didn't exactly make his mouth water.

Kyoko wolfed down her breakfast and wiped her lips clean from breadcrumbs with a napkin. She certainly was well brought up, but the last month she mixed behaving like a lady with breaking all the rules just because she dared.

To prove the point she pocketed her napkin and kissed his mouth clean of whatever offended her.

More than a few of the club members present glared at them, but they were slowly getting used to her antics.

“Still hungry?” he asked when she was done.

“Have another sandwich and find out for yourself,” she suggested.

Yukio played with the thought of accepting her offer, but in the end he decided against it. He needed to prepare the back gates café and after that Urufu wanted him for some more black magic of his invention.

Man, how are we to manage today? “Help me prepare?” Yukio said to Kyoko.

She nodded and took his hand.

They left the room together.

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

“I don't know where he is,” Noriko lied to the council president.

By her side Nao grinned knowingly and she gripped his hand harder. The council president looked at what had to be Himekaizen's most mismatched couple and smirked.

“Think he's still here?”

“Maybe. Somewhere with Kyoko,” Noriko said and added some emphasis to 'Kyoko'. Can't you just accept he already has a girlfriend? One of her best friends at that. She wasn't going to assist the third year girl in any way.

“It's been a long day. Maybe they went on a date,” Nao suggested.

Thank you. Noriko squeezed his hand again to show she appreciated his help. More than his good looks his quick wits and ever present consideration attracted her. She grew fonder of him for each day since they started dating.

“Quite a catch you got there,” the president said with just a tinge of envy in her voice.

What's with you and other girls' boyfriends?

“I know. I'm happy I got her before anyone else did,” Nao said as if the comment had been directed at him.

Noriko squeezed hard a third time. I could fall even more in love with you for that. Thank you! She felt her cheeks heat up but she didn't care. The council president could watch her flare red for all she cared.

A chair scraped against the floor and Urufu's face popped into existence from their office area. “President, could I have your attention for a while?”

“Yes?”

Just before the council president turned to face him Noriko saw him wink at her. Then his face blanked. “I managed to borrow another six com units, so I'm thinking of making hot links between the three rooms we use.”

“Huh?” the council president said.

“You see, if we pair three sets of walkie talkies on dedicated channels we could...” Urufu grabbed her hands and led her around the bookcase to the desks in the office area.

Noriko listened to his voice fade and turned her attention to her surroundings.

Jirou-sempai and Sango-chan were busy loading the fridge with bottled drinks. Tomorrow they'd start the day with enough to drink for the entire crew.

Sho-kun and Hiroyuki-kun dropped two cases with drinks on the floor and left the club room for more. They met Kichirou-kun in the door when he arrived with a third case.

“Put it on top of those,” Noriko instructed. “Nao, could you call Aika-chan and Fumiko-chan?”

“For you I'll call anyone,” he teased.

She stuck out her tongue at him.

Nao grinned back before he waved her to silence when his call got through.

She opened up a document on her laptop.

On the streets shopping patrols in four cars methodically emptied shop after shop in an attempt to stave of disaster the next day. Noriko doubted it would be enough, but Urufu said even extending the time before they ran dry should help some.

“Can I help you?”

Noriko looked up from her laptop. The student council treasurer arrived with a notebook. He held a pen in his other hand.

“Eh? Yeah,” a sudden thought struck her, “you could tell me your name, and the president's.”

He stared back. “Murakami Kenshin, pleased to meet you.” His voice was heavy with irony.

“Wakayama Noriko.” What else could she do?

“My colleague is Tamura Rie.” He smiled. “Guess we've been too busy for common courtesy.”

Common courtesy, heh. We're in our club room where everyone is on a first name basis despite the fact that we really don't know each other that well. Noriko shrugged the thought away. Our club room, our rules.

“Noriko, Aika-chan is still in the store, but Fumiko-chan is on her way back.”

She looked around and searched for his voice. Nao stood by the windows looking out.

“Kenshin-sempai, you had some friends shopping for tomorrow as well,” Noriko said. She still looked at Nao's tall frame. “Could you write down what they bought so we have a better idea of our supplies?”

A pointless task. Whatever they brought back tomorrow would still see them running out of just about everything, but if it made him feel more useful. The feeling of being needed was important according to Urufu.

“I'll keep you updated with the supplies we bring in,” Noriko heard the treasurer say.

She nodded at him before turning her attention to Nao again. “Thank you Nao. What are you looking at?” Noriko walked up beside him and looked out as well.

“The bike stand,” he said. He never turned around. “I heard that's where you usually… I mean in this school.”

With a scowl she looked up at his face. “I'm not usual,” she said surprised at her own words.

“I know. That's what caught my attention.” With a huge grin on his face he grabbed her hand. “And you're cute as well.”

Too much flattery. You have it way too easy saying those things. “You're unusual as well,” she said suddenly at a loss for words.

He didn't answer, just stood there looking out. Behind her back she heard club members arrive with more supplies. Then those sounds faded as Nao's presence took up more and more of her mind.

Soon she needed to make Urufu fire up the grills one last time to prepare dinner for everyone who stayed through the evening helping out, but right now she only wanted to stand beside Nao.

Warm hands, you have warm hands, she thought and tightened her grip.