“Which means that as of now that illegal club is finally dissolved.”

Some of them grumbled, but only the PTA chairman said anything.

“I doubt you can do this.”

“As a matter of fact I can. I’m the principal of Himekaizen Academy, and I have the full support of the board of directors.”

“I don’t understand,” another PTA member said. This time a woman in her fifties.

“That means,” Principal Kareyoshi said, “that any student who visits that café will be suspended, and repeat offenders expelled from the school.”

Most of the parents present grumbled, and the teachers made their best to look like they didn’t hear a thing.

“Is it true,” a woman in her late forties said, “that the members of the club have increased their scores by ten percent compared to the rest of the school?”

Fucking bitch! Principal Kareyoshi put on his best smile. “We’re handling the cheating. They’re Koreans, and we all know what they are like,” he finished.

This time he got a few murmurs in agreement.

Finally! People needed nudging to understand that foreign influences, just like the foreigners themselves, were unclean. It took some time, but when he made people understand it was worth all the effort.

“Is it true,” the same woman persisted, “that the club members, who are not subject to investigation for cheating, have also increased their scores by the same ten percent?”

And some people just never learned. “They’re using unjapanese methods. That’s akin to cheating,” Principal Kareyoshi said and sighed. “When we find out...”

He got no further, because a man, face red from agitation and clad as you would expect from a civil servant, almost rose in his chair. “Are you trying to say that the learning skills my daughter has acquired is cheating?”

“Just as bad,” Principal Kareyoshi answered. “I’m sorry the previous principal allowed her to get bad company.”

“What?”

“In that club they’re learning to question what their teachers tell them. They’re forgetting how to respect their betters.” Kareyoshi gave his next words a moment of thought. “If your daughter remains in that club she won’t become a proper wife.”

“Proper wife?” the troublesome woman said. “What century are you from?”

“Yes, a wife who raises a family,” Kareyoshi noticed how his voice had risen and took a breath to calm down, “who raises good Japanese children and supports her husband.”

The woman stared at him. “Damn, here I thought you were merely stranded in the Showa era, but now I see that you’re firmly entrenched in the former half of it.”

The rude comment even brought a few giggles over the table, but most of the PTA members gave the woman an annoyed glance.

“I have my ideals, yes. They may seem a little old fashioned, but a clean Japan is a strong Japan.”

She only snorted. “Last time we thought that way we bombed Pearl Harbour, and look what that got us.”

“Enough!” the chairman barked.

Mentioning the war was definitely going to far, and Principal Kareyoshi noticed how the woman gave the chairman a sullen stare, but at least she looked properly subdued. Silently Kareyoshi wondered how a person like her could possibly have gained a seat here.

“So,” Kareyoshi began when he saw an opportunity to use the blessed silence that had settled over the table. “I’ve informed you of the actions we have taken, and the consequences for breaching the terms we set up. Would you mind informing the other parents?”

The chairman nodded. Then Kareyoshi noticed a dangerous spark in his eyes. “However, Principal Kareyoshi, if you take this too far there will be repercussions.”

You dare threaten me! “You were saying?”

“I’m just saying that within that group of students there are half a dozen with grades indicating they might enter a top university, and you have decide to target those rather than the ones who are barely able to graduate from here.”

That was grossly unfair. He would never do such a thing, but the good students needed protection from foreign dirt, or they would become forever tainted as adults. How could their parents of all people not understand the seriousness of the situation?

“It’s for their own good,” Kareyoshi said. He didn’t need a confrontation with the chairman. “I only want the best of futures for them.”

“Are we just going to accept this?” the woman asked.

The chairman turned in his chair and met her eyes. “Yes, we are. As Principal Kareyoshi said, he’s in charge of the school.”

A smile slowly spread over Kareyoshi’s lips, but it stopped immediately when the chairman continued.

“Until such a date when that is no longer the case the students and staff are to abide by his decisions.”

Until such a date?

“Fine,” the woman said.

Kareyoshi needed to take control of the situation. “If that is all,” he said and made as if to close the meeting.

“If I may,” a man who had been silent throughout the entire meeting said.

“Yes?” Kareyoshi and the chairman answered simultaneously.

The man only smiled slightly and distributed several copies of a document he had in a case. “Just to mitigate any worries.”

Kareyoshi just threw the paper a glance until the obnoxious woman cackled with glee. That forced him to give it a proper read.

How dare they!

It was signed by the principal and vice principal of Irishima High.

“Fantastic!” the woman said. She patted the worried father from earlier on his shoulders. “If your daughter is expelled for remaining in the club she’s welcome to attend a high school with a better reputation than Himekaizen Academy.”

Which was exactly what the paper said. Provided they passed an entrance exam it said, but Kareyoshi saw through the vindictive lie. Every student he evicted from school with that club as an argument would pass that exam.

On the threshold of raging he calmed down again. Well, then it’s no longer my problem. I can at least keep this school clean.

***

“How bad is it?”

Had she been as vulgar as Jeniferu-chan Noriko guessed she’d have spat on the floor, or something equally graphic to answer that question.

She wasn’t.

She wished she was.

Noriko stared across the table. A few weeks earlier the inner room would have been filled with Himekaizen students and a smattering of club members from Irishima High.

She wished Urufu was here, but he was busy working, and this time he’d brought her brother, Yukio and Kyoko with him.

“Noriko-chan?”

She bit her lower lip and turned to face Hitomi-chan. “You should know.”

Hitomi-chan smiled but shook her head. “Sorry, but I’ve been busy the last couple of weeks.”

The room looked larger now when it wasn’t crowded with students, but it was far from empty.

A few weeks earlier there would only have been a smattering of Irishima High club members. Now they were in majority.

“What is it like?” Noriko asked to change the subject.

Hitomi-chan combed that fantastic hair of her with both hands. “Smaller,” she said.

You’re way too obvious, Noriko thought. But for Kuri Hitomi-chan could have been the girl most admired in their grade, and now she could again. Even Noriko had to admit she looked absolutely gorgeous in the old-fashioned sailor uniform of Irishima High.

“Half a dozen,” Noriko said and answered the first question. “You included,” she added.

By Hitomi-chan’s side Jirou-sempai and Sango-chan sat, fingers locked and sharing a quizzical glance at Noriko.

Well, you don’t look all that different from before, Noriko observed. Old fashioned or not, they weren’t morons at Irishima High, and the boys didn’t have to wear their gakuran during summer.

Jirou-sempai wore more or less the same white shirt and black trousers he would have hadn’t he been expelled for refusing to leave the club.

In Sango-chan’s case it was a little different. There was no way the sailor uniform could be mistaken for a Himekaizen summer uniform.

“And in total?” Hitomi-chan wanted to know.

Noriko closed her mouth. She knew her lips were a thin line of irritation, but she didn’t care. “A dozen just stopped coming, and there’s another seven waiting for their expulsion notice.”

“I hope we’ll be in the same class again.”

With a shrug, just like Urufu did, Noriko smiled. “Still waiting, but yes, it would be good to know someone over there.”

“Urufu-kun as well.”

“I doubt he’ll transfer,” Noriko said. She felt a little ashamed, especially as she had come to think better of Hitomi-chan since the start of their second year. Still, telling the beauty exactly why none of the arrivals would be expelled was out of the question, because that meant telling her about the arrivals in the first place.

“Look, you of anyone should stop talking trash about him. Sure, he’s not among the top 50, but he’s not an idiot.”

Noriko stared at Hitomi-chan. You’re defending Urufu from me. What the hell? The absurdity became too much for her, and soon Noriko broke down in hysterical laughter. Her stomach hurt, but she couldn’t help herself. Months of pent up frustration and fear welled up in her, and she laughed and laughed and laughed.

“Think she needs help?”

Which brought out another round of guffaws.

Hitomi-chan came around the table and helped Noriko, who had fallen to the floor in hysterical laughter, and helped her to her feet. “It’s not that fun, you know. You could go to Waseda, or maybe even Toudai.”

Noriko sobered up and nodded. She wanted to hear what Hitomi-chan had to say.

“But Urufu can’t, and I believe he’s fit to teach there,” Hitomi-chan continued. “I saw what happened to him, and he never stopped giving us his all here. We owe him more than laughter.”

Noriko’s feelings for Hitomi-chan rose from mere goodwill to true respect. “You know I love him don’t you?” Noriko said without thinking.

This time it was Hitomi-chan’s turn to laugh. “I wondered for a moment. Your saying he wouldn’t transfer pissed me off.”

Noriko stared at the almost perfect face. While she was pretty certain Hitomi-chan had never been infatuated with Urufu, Noriko also suspected the girl must have given him more than just a cursory thought. Not taking any chances here. Urufu had fallen for Kuri, and there were no guarantees he wouldn’t fall for beauty once more. “I’d never go behind his back. When he behaves like a moron I tell him to his face. He won’t transfer because he doesn’t have to.” That had to do as an explanation. Hitomi-chan could read in as much as she wanted of underhanded connections or even outright bribes.

From her face Noriko could see Hitomi-chan accepted that answer. “And you?”

That was the question Noriko originally had prepared for, and the one she had only partially answered earlier. “I don’t know. Soon I guess. We should be expelled this week at latest, and after that we’ll all transfer to Irishima High.”

“My father is in politics,” Hitomi-chan suddenly said. “He said he can’t understand what Kareyoshi’s doing.”

Noriko noted the lack of an honorific. When it came to the bastard not a single club member offered him the respect an honorific would mean. She understood it made them exactly as unjapanese as the pig said, and she didn’t care one iota.

“He has his own agenda,” Noriko said, and she heard how weak that sounded.

“Half a dozen of the school’s top fifty, and not a single one of those expelled in the bottom half.”

“Top thirty,” Noriko mumbled.

“What?”

“I checked. We’re all in the top thirty, if we’re in the top fifty at all.” The club had the highest concentration of top students by a very wide margin. It didn’t start that way, but Urufu’s teaching methods finally made the impact he promised all along. Their last finals as freshmen came as a surprise, and the midterms results for all practical purposes killed off Kareyoshi’s dreams of scaring them all into submission.

“I’m sure our principal will be ecstatic,” Hitomi-chan said.

Noriko listened to her voice dripping with sardonic venom. It doesn’t go well together with your looks.

“Yeah, Irishima High is kind to care for us dropouts,” Noriko said, and she sounded just the same.