A few hours earlier Ulf felt his heart warm up when, first an unknown second year, and then Hitomi decided to stand up for Yukio and Kyoko. He’d felt Noriko squirm when something took place among the liberal arts classes. He barely managed to pull her down to her seat, courtesy of their respective classmates arranging the seating so that Noriko and him just happened to be placed at the far end of each class and beside each other.

There were still students who would have preferred if Kareyoshi had been allowed to stay, but the vast majority abhorred their former principal with a vengeance. In the end Himekaizen was a far cry from Red Rose Hell.

As it turned out Kareyoshi would have been ousted no matter what those in the know had done. Ulf hadn’t been aware of it, but now he was. A group of over two dozen parents took independent action, and by now both the kid who was allowed to escape as well as his diet member father faced trials.

I should have trusted you from the beginning, Ulf thought where he sat in the hotel lobby. Almost thirty parents backed by a dozen of the most powerful parents to students in Irishima High made that diet power base crumble into nothing.

Leaning back in his chair Ulf stared at the ceiling. This being a lower to medium class hotel lights were out, or almost out. If he wanted anything he only had the option of vending machines, but to be honest that wasn’t too bad an option. They were amply supplied with a surprisingly large array of beverages, both alcoholic, which was out of the question for him in this life, and the non alcoholic variants. Something of the latter currently being brought to him by Noriko if he knew her correctly.

This being Japan he still failed to come to terms with girls all too often running domestic errands for him before he had a chance to stop them. It didn’t suit him, and he made a mental note of never allowing himself to getting used to it. He had however, Ulf grimaced at the thought, less of a problem with being expected to pay whenever they were out. That made him just as much of a chauvinist.

With a smirk he leaned all the way over the backrest when the sound of steps reached him. The upside down world offered him a view of a dark shadow transforming into a petite girl in a yukata. It was Noriko, and she was late and she did indeed hold a bottle in each hand.

To avoid being misunderstood for wanting to look up her underwear Ulf twisted in his seat and beckoned to her. Palm up, just because she stuck to the Japanese palm down version whenever she wanted his attention.

“Sorry I’m late,” she said when she came up to his seat. She reached over his shoulder to give him his bottled tea and quite shamelessly flashed a small breast leaning over his face.

“You’re not supposed to do that,” Ulf said. He felt his body react, both down below and a rush of heat firing up his face in a furious blush.

“Do what?” With those words she rose above him and quickly walked the few steps to a chair next to his. “Do what?” she repeated after she sat down.

Ulf avoided meeting her eyes. “You know,” he tried. She knew all too well.

“You’re my boyfriend. What’s wrong with making you look at me?”

And that was it. There was nothing wrong with what Noriko was doing. A life earlier for him and they’d shared bed and bodies by now, but that was a life earlier, or an earlier life. For now the discomfort of being in love with a girl not even half his age competed with his desire to share everything with her.

“Urufu?” A small hand found its way into his. “I fell in love with you on my own,” Noriko said. Her other hand followed the first and clasped his fingers. “You weren’t even asked. Honestly, even if I had asked you you probably wouldn’t have understood anyway.”

Despite his discomfort Ulf let out a laugh. No, he wouldn’t have understood, and not just because he didn’t know any Japanese to speak of at that time. “Because I’m blind as a bat when it comes to love?” he asked to confirm the main reason.

To his surprise Noriko shook her head. He felt her fingers grab his hand harder. “No, because you were too hurt back then.”

Ulf searched her face for signs of her teasing but found none. Her eyes were very dark in the subdued night light, almost invisible under her bangs. Her guess was also absolutely correct. That early autumn during his middle school days was too close to his transition and arrival here in Japan. At that time his thoughts were still filled with a desperate longing for Maria.

He used his free hand to grab the bottle of tea Noriko had brought him, but twisting it open with one hand turned out impossible. Just as he was about to withdraw his other from Noriko’s hands she let go with one and helped him.

“I need to feel close to you,” she said when he glanced at her. She leaned over her armrest and into his shoulder, moving his hand onto her lap as she snuggled up to him. “There’s too little of this.”

Ulf didn’t answer. He took a few mouthfuls trying to think of something to say. “I do love you.” Some more lukewarm tea found its way to his stomach while he bought time for something sensible to follow up that moronic statement. “Very much,” he added after he swallowed. “I’m just scared of hurting you.”

“Urufu, isn’t being scared part of loving someone?” Noriko said. She met his eyes and brought his head to hers with her free arm. “I’m scared as well, but I wouldn’t have it any other way,” she continued after the kiss.

She’s far braver than I am. He gave in to his needs and met her for a second kiss.

***

The following morning Ryu stood waiting for their home room teacher to arrive before they boarded a bus for Nara. With memories from Hatsumode still fresh in his mind he made certain to handle all bodily needs lest he spend the day trip in a toilet. For the very same reason he hadn’t disturbed his sister and Urufu when he saw them together late last evening.

Nara turned out to be just the kind of postcard experience he had expected with deer, parks and a huge, wooden temple as the centrepiece of attraction. The only cloud on his personal sky was the total absence of anything Kuri.

And I even tried to dress up nicely for you. Ryu threw the end of his scarf back over his shoulder. It made repeated attempts to plaster itself across his face whenever the breeze felt mischievous enough to call out his attention to the surrounding girls. There were girls; lots of them. A Ryu sans Kuri apparently meant he was free for the taking, at least temporarily.

“Of course,” he said to yet another party of high school girls. “No problem at all,” he added when they forced him to join them in a group shot. From what school, or even what city, they were he didn’t know.

“You’re impossible,” one of his classmates commented when the last group finally returned to their own class.

Ryu smiled but refrained from answering. In the background he saw a few of his smaller classmates lining up to crawl through a hole in one of the enormous supports. Then he heard a hesitant voice signalling that it was time for yet another smartphone being turned in his direction. The Todaiji was packed full with high school students from all over Japan. Quite a few of them were probably middle schoolers though, but that didn’t make them any less prone to request photos with him in the middle of a group of giggling girls.

“There he goes again,” his class rep said. There was no venom in the voice. If anything it carried a little pride of wearing the same uniform as the impromptu tourist attraction on two legs.

“Not here? What do you mean by no here?”

Ryu waited for his latest admirers to disperse before he turned after the voice. Something had upset Kyoko. He found her together with a few girls from Kuri’s class just beneath the central Buddha statue.

“Excuse me, could you please tell sensei I’ll be back in a minute,” Ryu asked his class rep. He didn’t wait for an answer but made for Kyoko. For once he shook his head when someone waved with her phone with a question in he eyes.

“Kyoko!”

She met his eyes. “Ryu, Kuri-chan’s gone missing.”

‘Missing?’ “She’s lost?”

“No,” Kyoko shook her head. “she never made it to Nara at all.”

He grimaced. “Kuri, for the love of...”

“And that’s not all of it.”

It gets worse? “Spill!”

“Their class rep says a third of their class went missing together with her.”

That was bad. That was really bad. “A third? How the hell did she manage to misplace a dozen of her classmates?”

Kyoko shook her head. “I don’t know, but there seems to be toilets involved.”

Toilets were worse than bad. Ryu didn’t want to hear anything even remotely reminding him of toilets. He had, after all, taken extra precaution not to this very morning. But still, a dozen students? Whatever Kuri did she did it with gusto.

He left Kyoko with a smirk. It wasn’t like he could help her anyway. She had Kuri’s number as well as Line address just as he had. If Kuri wanted to vanish she’d be invisible to both of them. With a shrug Ryu went in search of his own class. Now he knew that his singular cloud would cover its part of the sun for the rest of the day.

He walked through the bedlam and managed to avoid all but two more photo sessions before he saw the back side of his class rep. As it turned out their teacher didn’t even need any notification, and for that Ryu felt a certain degree of gratitude.

Less than an hour later they left the Todaiji for lunch and the afternoon was spent shuttling between minor attractions in the former capital of Japan. It was shuttling, or at least it felt like they spent more time in the bus than at the places they were headed for.

With a substantially lighter wallet and bags filled with souvenirs to distribute among family and family friends they returned back to their hotel in Kyoto just as evening fell. Ryu left the bus in the last lingering daylight, and when he disposed of his bags in his room it was already dark outside.

To his dismay Kuri still wasn’t to be found anywhere. To his surprise it didn’t look like their teachers cared all that much. That meant they knew something Ryu didn’t, and that in turn indicated something connected with Kuri’s work. Since her job really couldn’t be called a part time one Ryu suspected she might be gone for over a day, if she even returned to their trip at all.

He left his room as quickly as possible. With a bit of luck he’d find Kyoko before dinner. If not he’d try to contact her after their meal.

This sucks! Ryu observed after first having fallen out of luck and then finding out that Kyoko had her phone turned off. He played with the idea of calling Yukio, but Yukio probably was the very reason Kyoko’s phone was off in the first place.

On his way back to his room Noriko caught him just as he was about to take the stairs up.

“Anything about Kuri?”

Ryu shook his head. He searched for Urufu behind his sister, but it seemed Noriko was alone this time. “Can’t even reach Kyoko, so I have no clue.”

“Ah, OK. I heard something about toilets and thought you knew.”

Ryu grimaced and pulled her ears.

“Ouch! That hurts! Idiot bro!”

“You deserved it,” he said and let go.

Noriko stuck her tongue out at him, but her eyes were friendly. “Fill me in if you hear anything,” she said and turned.

“Promise,” Ryu said to her back. At least he knew she’s do the same for him if she learned anything.