Accusations of Urufu cheating died down, even though they left a dirty memory behind. Jeniferu’s expulsion, however, went through.

Silently Kyoko wondered how Kareyoshi dared, because foreign journalists still clung to both Himekaizen and Irishima High making the scandal fester, and Kyoko agreed with them. It was a disgusting scandal.

She stood, phone in hand and looked at it. Among other news it seemed Jeniferu had made new friends at Irishima High.

And a press conference.

Right now Jeniferu was one of the most hated girls in Tokyo ever since she disclosed details, not only of the gang rape but also about the atrocities the police had made her go through while at the same time dissuading her from filing a report.

The reason Kyoko stared at her phone was the latest news that an opportunistic China had used the incident to warn their citizens off travels to Japan since security for females couldn’t be guaranteed. South Korea was bound to follow suit within a day or two, which, just as Ambassador Cooper had threatened, would make it all blow up into a huge international scandal.

Rightfully so.

The police report, at least the parts someone managed to dig up, indicated the rape was Jeniferu’s fault for being in the wrong place at the wrong moment. Which meant being exactly where Kareyoshi’s goons had ordered her to be at the time they wanted her to be there.

Isn’t the police supposed to be protecting us?

So in the end Jeniferu got kicked out of school for indecent behaviour. And the online communities went up in flame where ‘foreign whore’ was among the politest epithets attached to her.

Does it mean it was my fault I was attacked? Twice?

In a bad way Kyoko suspected not everyone believed so, because the Stockholm Haven café had two new customers at the moment. Two scary men who had once moved from Japan to Sweden, or at least one scary man. The other was Ai’s father, and he just made Kyoko feel awkward since he somehow was involved in Ryu and Ai breaking up last spring.

One of the men, however, was definitely scary. The father to one of the five Swedish guests they had entertained last summer. Rika, if Kyoko recalled correctly. The former student council president of their sister high school, or at least something very close to a student council president.

She could ask, Kyoko noted. Both Rika and Ai’s older brother Jun were present as well together with Jun’s girlfriend. Three of those five students attended universities in Tokyo, and as far a Kyoko understood, none of them planned to spend all four years here.

The scary man sat talking with the not so scary one, former Principal Nakagawa and Kuri-chan’s grandfather, who by all rights was a scary man himself if Urufu could be believed. From time to time Urufu’s guardian and James joined their conversation, but most of the time they shared their own table with Kuri-chan’s photographer and a very old woman Kyoko had never seen before.

As for Kyoko she stood behind the counter taking orders and serving them. She did so together with Noriko and that university student part timer James had hired for late evenings.

Urufu was in the inner room together with the three Swedish students, of whom two were really Japanese. It wasn’t club activities, because the café proper was filled with club members ever since Urufu booted everyone out from their club room.

Kyoko forced down a very unfeminine growl when she saw Jeniferu in her sailor uniform talking with another Irishima High freshman and Tomasu. Jeniferu should never have had to wear that uniform, or even better, should have worn it from the beginning.

Then Kyoko’s eyes sought out the adults again.

What are you thinking? Half a dozen arrivals in the café. You stand out like a sore thumb. And they did. It was still early enough for the students to be here, and the only adult expected except for James was the vice principal of Irishima High.

Sure enough students glanced at the older people from time to time, and Kyoko sighed with relief when Urufu finally left the inner room together with their former guests and let the grown-ups inside.

“Kyoko, Noriko, could you tell me when you have your next break?”

Kyoko shot their older colleague a glance, and when she nodded approval Kyoko met Urufu’s eyes again. “Now is fine.”

“Outside.”

She followed him through the door, and the short delay until the bell rang again behind her was proof that Noriko had joined them as well.

“What is it?” Noriko asked when the door closed.

Urufu turned and faced them both. Behind his back Kyoko saw cars passing by in a steady stream and on the other side of the street her body guard sat in a car waiting as he always did whenever she visited the Haven café. Just one body guard, because Yukio and Ryu were away running errands for the club.

“The old people are planning something dirty. I think it has do do with Kareyoshi.”

“Why can’t they just have him put in jail?”

Urufu grimaced. “They could. To be honest I believe even we could by now.”

“So why not?” Kyoko just wanted the madman gone.

“Because they’re adults. Because they need to know he isn’t replaced by someone equally bad.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Because adults don’t do the right thing or the wrong thing,” Noriko said.

Kyoko turned and looked at her, and in doing so she saw how Urufu drew a deep breath.

“I’m pretty certain they need to negotiate with whoever put him there in the first place,” he said.

“Negotiate?” The word felt strange in Kyoko’s mouth. “He’s involved in the assault of four girls!” The word made her sick. “Negotiate? What’s there to negotiate?”

“It’s not that easy to...” Urufu began. The he stopped mid sentence and bowed. “I apologise. Adults to disgusting things and call it being pragmatic. I apologise for even thinking like that. You’re right. There’s nothing to be negotiated.”

***

Yukio saw Kyoko together with Urufu and Noriko across the street and waved. To his chagrin she didn’t even notice his arrival, but when his body guard left for the car and got inside she must have seen something moving, because her hand went up and Yukio saw her looking straight at him.

Something happened? he thought when he saw how dark her face was.

Traffic was heavy, so Yukio impatiently trod his own feet waiting for a chance to cross. It came just as Urufu turned and looked for whom Kyoko was waving at, and halfway across the street Yukio was met by both Urufu’s and Noriko’s hands as well.

“What’s up?” Yukio said as soon he was safely on the pavement on the other side.

Above them daylight had long since given way to night; had done so earlier now when November crept towards December. A sudden bite in the air announced the approach of winter, even though neither Urufu nor Kuri ever accepted that Tokyo had anything resembling winter in the first place.

“Nothing’s up,” Urufu said, and those words had Yukio realise the answer had been late in coming.

“You look a lot morose for nothing to have happened. Spill!”

Urufu’s eyes avoided his, but Yukio saw him glance at Kyoko and Noriko both.

“The grown-ups are playing dirty little games of power inside,” Noriko said instead.

“Who’s winning?” Yukio didn’t feel like waiting for the trio to slowly spit out the story in bits and pieces. Urufu once taught him how to cut to the chase, and by now Yukio felt confident he was better at it than Urufu.

“Winning?” Urufu said.

“The dirty games,” Yukio clarified.

“Eh, I guess we are.”

“But it’s taking too long?” Yukio guessed.

Angry nods from Kyoko and Noriko confirmed his suspicion. Kareyoshi’s actions finally made someone willing to bring the axe down on him, or rather several someones, but right now they were probably jockeying for power rather than swinging that blade.

“Urufu, can you promise the end result will be disgustingly awful for Kareyoshi?”

“I can’t promise anything.”

“Then,” Yukio began and looked at Kyoko, “we can’t wait.” He stepped past the trio and opened the door to the café.

“Yukio, wait! What do you think you’re doing?”

Yukio grinned, but he didn’t turn. He did however wait for the bell to jingle to add some extra effect to his next statement. “If you can’t, then I’ll find someone inside who can give us that promise.”

“Yukio, you really shouldn’t...”

“My man! He’s all my man,” Kyoko’s voice interrupted Urufu’s attempt at stopping him.

Still grinning Yukio went inside. They’d been a couple for close to a year and a half now, but Kyoko still knew how to say exactly the things that made his heart go bump in his chest. Behind him he heard the door close to the sound of the bell, and he imagined how Urufu stood staring at it mouth agape.

Now the question was where those playing a dirty game were. The café proper was its usual jumble of odd furniture and students in their gakuran and sailor uniforms from Irishima High mingling with the few Himekaizen uniforms who still dared to go here.

By now anyone here still sporting a Himekaizen sports jacket had attained an almost mythical status, and Yukio received a much warmer welcome than had been the case a year earlier.

Yukio nodded at James, who stood at his usual place behind the counter, and then he turned to face eyes meeting his. “Where are the really old people?” Yukio said. Some of Urufu’s rudeness had rubbed off in a good way.

“Inner room,” a female voice answered.

Yukio searched for the owner and found Ai. She had dyed her hair again, and once again to a darker brown tone. It was as if she slowly wanted to look as unobtrusive as possible after her crashed relationship with Ryu, and Yukio felt sorry for her. Just sorry though. He wasn’t about to help her, because with Ryu and Kuri dating, and Urufu getting accustomed to being with Noriko, their respective worlds finally stopped being full of thorns.

“Thank you,” Yukio said and made his way behind the counter.

An opened door later he was inside, facing old men who should have scared him a lot more than they did.

“This room is booked for the evening,” a man who had to be Ai’s father said.

They did scare him. He was just a sixteen year old boy after all. Still, he had all but promised Kyoko an end to Kareyoshi’s atrocities. On shaking legs Yukio pretended he hadn’t heard and walked to the grand table and pulled out a chair.

“It’s booked,” another man said.

A very, very scary man Yukio admitted to himself when he met cold, calculating eyes. He forced himself to sit down and plastered a false smile to his face.

“Christmas,” Yukio said. “We’re just kids, and we can’t do much,” he added.

“Christmas?” Nakagawa-sensei asked, and for the first time since entering the room Yukio felt at least a little warmth from one of the men inside.

“We know adults who will help us if we ask,” Yukio explained.

He only got a questioning gaze from his former principal in return.

“After Christmas, if Kareyoshi’s not gone, well ask,” Yukio added.

There was a moment of silence, just a moment, but it was enough for Yukio to realise he had successfully thrown the dice in this dirty gamble of adults.

“Do you really believe you can threaten us,” the really scary man said. “Do you have any idea of what kind of power we represent?”

Yukio did. If he hadn’t he wouldn’t have dared doing this. “Kareyoshi had Kuri assaulted last year. He put Kyoko, Urufu and me in hospital. Now two girls were raped because of him,” he said, still ashamed he couldn’t recall the name of the Korean girl. “With all that power of yours, what have you planned on doing to us to make us more afraid than we really are?”

This time the silence settled into the room. He had gained what Urufu called leverage. What an ugly word!