Midsummer's day, 2040, morning glory

“It's not very warm,” Yukio complained.

Ulf pushed up his sunglasses and looked at his friend. “Yeah, you're right about that. We get a lot of sun this time of the year, but it's not as hot as in Japan.” He laughed at the comparison and recalled the bleak winters from his previous life. “We don't get as much sun during winter, so it evens out.”

“You mean light's out during winter?”

That question came just a bit too close to the memories Ulf had played along with before Yukio joined him in the morning sun.

“Yeah, and we don't even get much snow to mitigate the darkness.”

Yukio must have noticed something, because he coughed, lit a cigarette and looked into the sky. “But right now the sun's getting warmer, the air is crisp and we're enjoying the outdoors in its full glory,” he said after letting out a lungful of smoke.

Where did you get that string of melodramatic drivel from? It mattered little. Ulf was grateful his friend had changed the topic. His two first winters in Japan had really been mental light's out.

Epilogue

As little as a week earlier he would have thought riding out the storm possible. Now it didn't look that way. Hadn't he been Japanese he might have contemplated leaving the country, but what was the point in racial purity if you left the islands behind you?

Right now he was fighting for his life as an upstanding member of society. At least in one aspect the enemy had made a dangerous miscalculation. His wife knew his loyalty to her was absolute. They shared that loyalty and had done so since they married close to forty years earlier. It wasn't love – it was something much stronger and cleaner.

Last night she waited for him when he came home. Dinner ready and a bath drawn as always but this time she brought him an unexpected bonus.

Somehow the Himekaizen kids had made stronger allies than just the Wakayama family, and with that information it was just a matter of digging up some dirt on the new players. Everyone had something they wanted to hide from prying eyes.

While idiot gaijin believed proper Japanese women stayed home because they were abused and helpless servants, nothing could be further from the truth. Rather than being tied to one company they knit strings of power with other women married to men from different domains of influence, other wives to powerful men who could be manipulated. Only a moron failed to respect his wife, and there were a lot of morons out there with political clout.

Together they'd topple those behind the bothersome kids, and in doing so pulling the kids down as well. He didn't plan to go down alone, and his wife would despise him if he allowed that to happen.

With a smirk on his lips the principal of Red Rose Academy put his seal to a letter of resignation which he hid in the small safe behind his desk.

Rumours had it Principal Nakagawa of Himekaizen Academy had a similar safe behind his. Maybe he was just luckier keeping his dirty secrets behind locked doors, but that luck was bound to run out.

The time had come to fail to blackmail one diet member who had bought a few hours of conversation with the tall Swedish whore half a year earlier. The powerful man wouldn't crumble under such a weak threat, but he was certain to hang the girl out to dry to save his own skin just in case.

Chapter six (segment ten), 2016, November, Yukio

“This might sound like a strange request, but apart from club hours I want you two to work part time at Stockholm Haven café.”

It was definitely a strange request, but one Yukio could understand.

“Anything more?” he asked.

“Yes, after work you're to walk Takeida-san home, call me and go home yourself.”

Yukio wondered how many students had their principal's number in their contact list. “Understood Nakagawa-sensei,” he said. He would do as told. Kyoko had already been attacked once, and the way their school had upped the ante he didn't want to risk a repeat.

“Nakagawa-sensei?”

“Yes Takeida-san?”

“What about Yukio, eh, Matsumoto-san?”

Yukio felt his shoulders rise at Kyoko's unfamiliar use of his surname. She hadn't for months now.

Principal Nakagawa rested his elbows on his desk. He looked at Kyoko and scratched his chin. Then he caught Yukio's eyes with his own before Yukio had a chance to protest. “That's a relevant question. I'm afraid we'll have to chance Matsumoto-san walking home alone.”

“Not good enough,” Kyoko protested.

Nakagawa-sensei grimaced, but in the end he nodded at her. “Do you have bikes?”

Yukio didn't, but his mother had one he could borrow. “Yes,” he said.

“Takeida-san?”

Kyoko grimaced before she answered. “I'm not allowed to use one. It's not… it's not proper for a young woman.”

From the corner of his eye Yukio saw Nakagawa-sensei shoot Kyoko an equally stunned look of incomprehension.

“Not proper?” Principal Nakagawa finally asked.

Kyoko blushed slightly. “My father says it's unbecoming of a woman.”

What the hell? Did he time-slip from the Meiji era?

“Ah, I take it you don't have a bike then,” Nakagawa-sensei said and avoided the question that should have been asked.

With a frown Yukio watched Kyoko shake her head. Well, the bastard almost left me lying on the street after I got beat up. Some people shouldn't be allowed to have children. Then Yukio regretted that thought. If some people weren't, then his lovely Kyoko wouldn't be by his side now.

“Matsumoto-san, could you walk Takeida-san home and ride back to your home afterwards?”

The question made sense. He was much less likely to get into trouble if he biked home. “Yes. Yes, I'll do so.”

“Well, that settles it. You're dismissed.” With those words Nakagawa-sensei rose from his chair.

The meeting was over and Yukio bowed quickly before he grabbed Kyoko who had done likewise and hurried out of the office.

Guess we could as well make some cash from James, he thought when they trotted away in the direction of their club room. Could as well grab some stuff from there and carry it to the café. We're moving before we're forced to anyway.

Because they were. Any day now Noriko's mother would show up with a pick-up and help them move furniture from the club room to Stockholm Haven café. The inner room would be cramped, but in all honesty the main area was better suited for lounging purposes. The inner room was superior as a workspace though.

We'll be the only club with our club room accessible for another school. Two other schools, Yukio added mentally. But we're planning to make that one other school.

“Yukio, slow down! You're hurting me!”

Yukio broke his stride and came to a stand still. “Sorry,” he said. Then he saw how red Kyoko's wrist had become. “Crap, I'm really sorry. Please forgive me!”

She massaged her arm and gave him a glare. “Don't worry. You just can't drag me along like that without telling me where we're going.”

You knew we were headed for our room, but you just don't like being dragged along without my asking. He had some reflection to do. She was his girlfriend, not his property, and if he didn't behave properly he'd lose her and deserve it.

“I was thinking we should move one of the boilers and some of the tablets for tonight,” Yukio said in an attempt to change the topic.

Kyoko gave him a relieved smile and nodded.

“You know,” she said as they slid open the door, “I think getting to know Irishima high students is a god thing, but what about Red Rose?”

Yukio rummaged through the shelves and bagged half a dozen tablets while Kyoko went for the lounge area and one of the three water boilers in the room. He knew they had until it was time to leave before he needed to come up with an answer.

“I try not to think about it,” he said in the end. “To be honest I'm more worried about the new members from the transfer batch. They saw Red Rose Hell first hand for an entire term before transferring here.”

Kyoko left the room and Yukio closed the door behind them. There were quite a few students at school, but during club hours they usually didn't loiter in the corridors and thus it looked a lot more deserted than it was.

“They haven't complained about the move,” Yukio continued when it was clear Kyoko expected some kind of explanation monologue. “There are so many of us there I think they feel safe.”

“Idiot!” came the unexpected reaction.

“Kyoko?”

“Just about everyone at Himekaizen was present when they maimed Urufu. Why should the transfer students from Red Rose feel safe at the café?

He mulled over the question while they descended the stairs. Because we're aware of the danger now? he thought. Because those who attacked Urufu all were hospitalised as well? But that wasn't the reason, or a least that shouldn't be the reason. We can't make people feel safe based on having the other side more scared than us.

“I don't know,” Yukio said when they got outside. He looked at the darkening skies and pulled his coat closer. “It's just a feeling. I think it's a good thing there are students from three schools at the café. I think having the war out in the open somehow makes it less scary.”

“Are you telling me the truth?”

He looked at Kyoko and hugged her closer to him. Not entirely, he admitted to himself. “Maybe I just can't be that scared when I'm with you,” he said, and that was probably the truth in as much as there was something you could call truth. It didn't help those from Red Rose, but it did help him, and that was enough for now.

He could only be Urufu's wingman and Kyoko's hero, and he guessed it was the same for her. Neither he nor the woman he loved could protect more than two important ones. That was the depressing reality when you listened to the tunes of the wingman blues.

RoyalRoadLegend

There's a major overhaul going on at RRL. If you belong to the group who read Transition and Restart there it's currently basically not doable.

Let them sort the issues out after the site upgrade.

Chapter six (segment nine), 2016, November, Christina

Christina walked down the stairs to the vending machines on the entrance floor. Throughout her body she felt waves of pleasure reminding her that while all her plans to take Ulf to her bed had failed thus far, just being close to him when he thought of nothing but her was more than enough.

This is what I really want. Sex is fine, but I can wait. This, however, this I can't wait for. I need it. I need you!

She giggled at the memory of Noriko's expression when the girl finally understood what Christina had experienced during those moments when the tension in their clubroom grew unbearable.

You're too cute. I hope you'll share some of this with Nao-sempai, but you're really too young.

Having arrived by the machines Christina dug up a few coins and fed them into the slot. For once she picked a bottle of tea rather than the coke she usually chose.

I remember being in love with being in love. First love is like that, but it's a wonderful experience in itself. Enjoy it while it lasts Noriko. You've become an important friend.

Christina smiled and changed into loafers. She put her indoor shoes in her locker and left the school.

As she passed the gravel on the school-yard her thoughts darkened and coming up to the line of naked sakura all thoughts of love left her. It was as if those thoughts belonged to the innocence of school and had no place in the real world outside.

After she put the school gates behind her Christina pulled her phone from her bag and sent a select few photos to Kinoshita-sensei, her main photographer. After that she dialled him.

“Ageruman here,” she said, using the Japanese version if her name. Despite having been assigned to Europe during his previous life Kinoshita-sensei's spoken English was sub-par, and Christina found no reason to impair his understanding.

“Hello Kuritina,” he replied.

At least he's used to Europe enough to dispense with the honorifics. “I've sent the shots I think would be easiest to use.”

“Are you sure about this?” her photographer said. “This is the kind of photos that could destroy your career.”

She had thought of that, but that was also precisely the reason they were perfect. “Yes. We'll spin this a bit differently though. Can you accentuate the wet T-shirt aspect of those shots?”

“Yeah, but why? That's even worse.”

“Make sure to include one or two shots that clearly display me being assaulted.”

A few seconds of silence followed. “You calculating little bastard,” came the admiring reaction a bit later. “Who are you sending to the gallows?”

Christina smirked. “We have proof the principal of Red Rose paid for the assault. We just have to tweak the truth a bit. Make it so that he paid for those photos rather than having me beat up.”

“What are you after?”

Despite the question Christina knew that Kinoshita-sensei understood perfectly well. He just wanted confirmation.

“I want it on the grapevine that submissive high school girls turn him on.”

“You do know that he's married with kids?”

She was, and she didn't care. He had her Ulf sent to hospital, which meant she cared more for vermin. “After this, I doubt it,” Christina said. “Make sure it hits the news in the end. I want him permanently destroyed.”

“If that's what you want. Fine, I'll make it happen.”

Even though he made that promise Christina felt the hesitation in Kinoshita-sensei's voice. You're a good person. You're not like me. It does you honour that you doubt my course of action before destroying another human. “That is what I want,” she said and finished the call.

Next was Nakagawa-sensei. He'd blanch at how far she was ready to go, but he'd also agree more wholeheartedly than her photographer. Nakagawa-sensei had a sinister streak to him, an inner sadist that he kept firmly in check. Christina had worked with people like him before. They made the best and most honest of her subordinates during the dog eat dog years when she built her empire.

She made that call and continued walking. A few steps behind her her bodyguard followed like a shadow. He had caught up to her just as she left the school, and he would follow her doggedly until she reached home. Christina suspected someone else handled the surveillance from there on, but she hadn't really seen anyone else.

Still, from her prior experience good security companies knew how to be discreet to uphold at least the illusion of privacy when she was at home.

She sighed and continued walking towards the train station. Any other day she'd have joined Ulf's team, the one with the least physically able club members. Their walking talking sessions weren't as strenuous as what Ulf preferred, and only after his own hospitalisation did he agree to split the club into two groups.

Less walking and more talking as they said, but it wasn't really true. The faster walking group talked just as much, but Ulf wisely didn't say anything to allow the members to keep appearances up.

“Today's shoot will be a long one. You might want to call your employer about that,” Christina said into the air. She knew her bodyguard caught up on what she said. If he acted on it or not was his problem.

“When I'm done I'll grab some food and return home,” she added. “If you know of a cheap but decent place I'm willing to listen.” If you know of a place I can afford and you can secure in advance, Christina thought. It never hurt making work easier for people when there was no cost associated for herself.

Damn, I never thought I'd be grateful for this kind of security, but things are going to get really, really ugly soon. They already had, but as of now their smear campaign had turned into open warfare, and Christina didn't know how far the enemy was prepared to go in order to survive.

Chapter six (segment eight), 2016, November, Ulf

And that's the real beauty of it, Ulf thought as he waited for Christina to finish her explanation.

How to expand your market shares in a shrinking market. Just force a competitor out of that market. It was brilliant. Irishima high and Himekaizen aimed at stealing some 350 students from Red Rose. That was effectively the same as shutting the school down. Especially as a few middle schools stood waiting in the shadows ready to gobble up students from grade seven through nine, among them Christina's old school.

Christina and Kyoko's, Ulf reminded himself. She's the most important person in the world for Yukio.

Ulf took a deep breath before he continued. He still got winded quickly and it would take until the beginning of next year before he could start rebuilding the stamina he had always taken pride in.

“Anyway,” Ulf said. “as you can see one of the classrooms is this very room, so come April we'll be without a clubroom.”

There were quite a few shouts of outrage, and Ulf waited for them to quiet down.

“In return,” he continued when the room was silent enough for him to be heard again, “we've been given special dispensation to use the inner room at the café as our clubroom. It's cleared with the management there as well.” Which means James was behind the entire idea from the beginning, but I can't tell them why, Ulf thought. It made sense though. This way James got into closer contact with both arrivals as well as the Himekaizen part of whatever shadowy organisation that took care of the arrivals over the years.

Ulf shot Christina a worried look before he continued. Nakagawa's words from just after their evening meeting at the café played in his thoughts. Maybe it hadn't been such a good idea to refuse running for the student council after all. Without Nakagawa to cover their backs they'd be forced to gamble on how the new principal would play his cards, because here in Japan it was bound to be a 'he'.

“Given these circumstances I've decided that the theme for our walking talking sessions will be corporate competition.”

“Corporate competition?” Sakura asked and reminded Ulf that she wasn't anywhere nearly as silent and withdrawn as she had been in the beginning. “What about our school subjects?”

“It's the theme,” Ulf said. “Apart from classic Japanese we'll use the theme as the core for all subjects. For example we'll use examples from economic calculus for math, discuss real cases in English and Japanese and look at older cases from modern Japanese history.”

When he received blank stares in return Ulf palmed his face. This is going to take a while to explain.

He was saved by Noriko. “It's an interdisciplinary approach,” she said. “We're merging knowledge from separate knowledge domains to, eh, to increase our understanding of each domain,” she said, but her voice fell strangely silent at the end.

Ulf stared at her. That's almost correct, and shows way more understanding than any sixteen year old girl has any right to have. “Noriko got the gist of it,” he said. “It also helps us see how different domains are connected to each other,” he added, more for her benefit than for the others. They wouldn't understand the application of synthesis. Most of his old colleagues from his previous life hadn't, but Ulf suspected Noriko was already very, very close to do so.

He watched Christina distribute the compendia they had prepared. He had done most of the research, but she forced him to do a full rewrite of all sections concerning large conglomerates. He was too cute and naive she had laughed, and when it came to global business Ulf saw no reason to distrust anything she said. After all she was the billion dollar empress.

Kid's, you're getting a crash course my old Swedish customers would have paid millions of yen for. With you as a lecturer I doubt yen would suffice, Ulf thought and looked at her. You saved me. Without you I doubt I would have kept my sanity. I owe you so much more than I could ever give you.

She must have felt his gaze, because she suddenly stopped handing out compendia and stood staring back at him. He felt his cheeks heat up, and it was impossible not to meet her eyes.

No matter what you're stunningly beautiful, but that's not what keeps me by your side. Slowly her face faded from his vision and he only saw Christina's intensely blue eyes meeting his. I love your strength, and I love the caring you that you always try to hide. I love knowing that side of you. I wish I could stay with you forever!

And then even her eyes left his view and Ulf found himself locked in memories and the very love he felt for her. Right here and right now there were only the two of them, and in his mind he felt her embrace as real and soft as if they had really been alone together.

I've missed that feeling of being together. Since that day I've missed you even when you were with me. This was the real feeling he had longed for, this, the feeling of being together which for him was more real than seeing her face from his hospital bed.

His chest constricted and a pleasant warmness spread through his body from his stomach.

“Wow!” a voice in the background said. “Hey! You two, you're making us embarrassed.”

Ulf vaguely registered Nori's voice, and for once he probably wouldn't be accused of being the motor mouth, because most of the murmurs seemed to agree with him.

“Man, get a room before you look at her that way,” Yukio said, and the indecent suggestion brought a guffaw to most of the members. The awkward feeling dissolved, but not before Christina snorted in a failed attempt to pretend she hadn't been caught up in the tension.

That was intense! Ulf thought, and once again he recalled the reason he had fallen helplessly in love with her.

Chapter six (segment seven), 2016, November, Kyoko

Kyoko waved to the student council president before she recalled that the third year had stepped down by now. Since a week or so a second year boy from 7:2, which made him a classmate to Nao-sempai, had taken up that role. The election campaign had been a non-event where the only question among the first years was why Urufu didn't run for president.

Blinking away her thoughts Kyoko made for the club room to meet up with Yukio. They hadn't been able to meet since that strange evening in the Stockholm Haven café.

A few days earlier she participated in one of the most surrealistic conversations in her life. How to dismantle a school without ever inviting the target to participate in the planning. Kyoko hadn't understood all of it, only that the stakes had risen now when the headships of both Himekaizen and Irishima high were active participants in the war.

The door to their clubroom slid open under her hands as she entered, and when she came inside she saw Yukio chatting with the Wakayama twins. Urufu and Kuri-chan still hadn't arrived.

In the lounge area Nao-sempai sat half asleep in the sofa, and seated beside him Hiroyuki-kun and Kichirou-kun ran a low voiced conversation where they tried their best not to wake the junior up.

From time to time Midori-chan offered a word or two, enough to make Kyoko understand she was part of the conversation as well. Midori-chan still had a mess of a hairdo, but it no longer was the horror show that had been her trademark.

Ryu looked up when Kyoko stepped further inside the room and beckoned her to the table. During the short pause in their talking Yukio made place for a flying kiss that made Noriko frown grinningly and Kyoko blush a little. She still felt awkward with Yukio's public displays of affection despite having been an item with him since August.

As she took a place around the desks turned conference table Kyoko heard the door slide open behind her.

“Perfect, seems we're all gathered,” Urufu's voice announced.

“Just grabbing a drink,” Kuri-chan said, and from the corner of her eye Kyoko saw her friend beelining for the fridge still stocked with the last of the drinks they had bought off the cultural festival. “Anyone want one?”

The sound of the fridge door opening accompanied Nao-sempai's snoring, and Kyoko heard Kuri-chan run one round of orders to the group in and around the sofa. A sudden yell told her Kuri-chan deliberately voided the other club members' attempt not to disturb Nao-sempai.

“What the hell?”

“Pocari Sweat,” came Kuri-chan's answer before the sound of her steps receded towards the fridge.

A bottle of cold drink inside his shirt, Kyoko thought and smiled. It was an outrageous act she would never have dared herself.

By her side Yukio laughed open mouthed and Noriko grinned as well. She deserted her place beside Yukio and walked around the table to take a seat beside her brother. The small gesture filled Kyoko with warmth, and when Noriko sat down facing her Kyoko shot the small girl a grateful smile.

“Need any help?” Urufu shouted, but he sat down and opened up his laptop as if he knew beforehand that Kuri-chan would decline.

“Two hands is enough for six drinks,” Kuri-chan shouted back and confirmed Kyoko's impression.

When she returned with an armful of bottles the aimless chatter subsided and everyone looked at Urufu.

“Want me to explain?” he said and looked at them over the screen.

“You'd better,” Ryu growled. “I was planning to introduce Ai-chan to my parents when we suddenly got marched away to the principal's office in another school.”

Kyoko shared a small sense of the discomfort he must have felt when he and his sister got dragged inside Irishima high. Ryu attracted attention on any normal day, but walking around in the Himekaizen uniform must have made him stand out even more.

“Sorry about that,” Urufu said. I didn't know they'd pull that stunt. To be honest I don't even know why they guessed you waited for her by her school gates.”

“Well that's Ai-chan's fault,” Ryu answered and snorted. “Apparently she told her club advisor why she wanted to leave earlier, and he in turn reported that to their principal.”

Urufu shrugged. “Still means they had it all planned for our vice principal to show up there on short notice. Anyway, they pretty much took us by surprise at the café as well.”

“So, what's going on?” Noriko shot in to keep the conversation from derailing.

“Kyoko, mind turning the whiteboard?” Urufu asked.

Kyoko rose and faced the whiteboard towards them. While she was up she turned on the water boiler and prepared some green tea.

The table turned silent and Urufu used the break to set up his beamer.

“Well,” he said after Kyoko had returned, “this is what's happening.”

Kyoko looked at the whiteboard where two cutaways were displayed.

“This is Himekaizen, and this is Irishima high. These,” Urufu said and marked a few highlighted areas with a pen laser, “are available classrooms.”

Kyoko looked at three areas in the cutaway of Irishima high and five of them for Himekaizen.

“Starting the coming year Irishima high will open up an extra class of freshmen and Himekaizen two.”

By now a large number of club members had gathered by the table as those who entered the room came directly for the display and those who sat in the lounge area rose and joined them.

“Why a total of eight classrooms?” Ryu asked.

“It's nine actually. 9:1 already occupies one. All three freshman classes will be pilfered from Red Rose junior high.”

“Uhum?”

“Himekaizen and Irishima high will target the parents of the Red Rose ninth graders directly.”

“I don't get it.”

“Jeez,” Kuri-chan interrupted. “Ryu, we're running a smear campaign here. Our schools will target the first and second years as well in an attempt to save the poor students from a school going belly up.”