An hour after his embarrassing talk with Urufu in the locker room Yukio stared at the main gates. We've got problems.

He unclipped the walkie talkie from his belt and brought it to his face. “Urufu?”

“Ulf here.”

“Yukio here. There are two buses with television teams at the gates, and they're bringing gear inside the school grounds.” He stared once more. That's the least of our problems.

“Local media, I guess. Let them inside, or better, have the student council do it. It's their show anyway. Over.”

The voice from the loudspeaker carried with it Urufu's very personal version of being a moron. “Man, turn on your brains. They're here right now and I don't have the time to run to the council room.” He remembered Urufu's instructions on radio communications. “Over,” he added.

The loudspeaker blared to life again. A static crackle, silence and more crackle. “… this piece of crap work?” a female voice said. And then some more crackle. “… push this button when you speak.” That voice was male. Then there was silence and after that even more crackle.

“You, the guy before. I'll get down to you.” Once again the voice was female.

'The guy before' glared at his walkie talkie. What the hell? “Yukio here. Please identify yourself when you speak. Over.” The guy before, my arse!

“This is the student council president speaking. Where are you?” the female voice said.

Yukio watched the students closest to him stare from their stall. Or at least some of them did. Most wore scared looks and had their eyes glued to the gates.

“Yukio here. I'm at the gates. President, how many guests do we usually have for the festival? Over.” This can't be good. I need Urufu or Noriko for this.

***

Suddenly the door to their club room flew open with a bang. The sudden noise had Noriko swirl in her seat.

Urufu came dashing inside with the student council treasurer behind him.

“Noriko, we have a problem. You,” he pointed at the treasurer, “sit here and take Noriko's com unit.” Urufu grinned at her. “Getting exiting now, so let's see what you're made of,” he said to her.

She pushed her walkie talkie across the desks and looked back at him. “What's going on?” she asked, barely noticing the treasurer taking his seat and frantically emptying his school bag on his desk.

Urufu reached down and fingered the walkie talkie she had before her until moments earlier. “You had it turned off, so I guess you didn't hear.”

“Hear what?” Across the desk the treasurer lined up an array of pens and paper.

“He'll fill you in. We're setting up an HQ here. I have to run.” And with those words Urufu grabbed a walkie talkie from the rack and was out of the club room.

What on earth? “Hey!”

“No time, need to find Kyoko,” Urufu's voice called from the corridor.

***

“Kyoko, over here!”

She stopped dead in her tracks and looked over her shoulder. That had been Urufu's voice, but with an edge to it she had never heard before.

“Get four guys from 9:1 to the back gates! I need their cell phone numbers as well. Amaya's on her way and Kondo-sensei is already waiting there. I'll instruct you later.”

Kyoko watched Urufu's vanishing back and felt the unfamiliar weight of the communications device he had slapped into her hand. Thinking back she had heard him sounding something similar to this during their extended stay at the holiday resort, but only similar. His voice this time carried a tone of absolute command that had to be obeyed immediately.

She made her way back up the stairs and went for Himekaizen's newest addition to its number of classrooms. If Urufu had such a desperate need of four students by the back gates he would receive them there.

When the door slid open she looked inside and recognised a few faces who helped out with patrolling the school the previous night. While that night made her all fuzzy and warm inside, now wasn't the time to linger on those memories.

“You, you, you and you, follow me!”

The good thing with the students recently transferred from Red Rose was that they always obeyed without asking. The bad thing that they obeyed without asking. It scared her a little.

Yukio, what would you think if you saw me now?

***

“I'm not that good at estimating numbers, but at least five hundred by now. Over.”

Beside him the student council president instructed the last arrivals of students wearing security armbands. Yukio looked at the six already by the gates. He hoped it would be enough.

“I'm on my way to the principal's office. Should be able to get a useful estimate from there. Over and out.” Urufu's voice sounded excited and tired at the same time.

Yukio sent a grateful thought of thanks to his friend. The council president lost control of the festival from before it opened. Any teenage student would, but Urufu wasn't a teenager, was he?

“Urufu?” Kyoko's voice said from the loudspeaker.

“Urufu here. What's your status? Over.”

“Kyoko here. I'm mailing their phone numbers to you. Two of them are away in Kondo-sensei's car. Sato-sensei called and said she's here soon. Over.”

Yukio listened to the conversation on the open channel while he stared at the growing mob waiting outside the gates. She sounds so grown up. My Kyoko!

“Superb Kyoko. Send the numbers to Noriko as well. She'll take it from there. Over and out.”

The praise made Yukio blush a little, even if it was praise from his friend to Kyoko. Then he turned his attention to the gates again. During the short time another fifty or sixty guests had been let through. Any normal school day would have allowed them inside by the hundreds, but on a normal day those gates opened up to a flat expanse covered by gravel. Now stalls limited mobility to narrow streets.

“Yukio?”

Yukio winced at the sudden call of his name, but he quickly regained his composure and pushed the button. “Yukio here.”

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“Ulf here. Send a security detail outside and redirect people to the service gates. Over.”

Security detail? Oh! We don't have enough people for that, unless... “President, follow me!” He grabbed the stunned president by her hands and started dragging her outside. “Man, you're impossible, but I'll handle it. Over and out.” Damn, she'll have me pay for this later.

With his senior in tow he negotiated his way through the gates. Yukio registered how her hand was soft and small and warm in his, and how it felt very different from Kyoko's.

He hoped Urufu had arranged staffing of the back gates, but given the monstrous organisational capacity of his friend there were probably already students there setting up a second entrance to the festival.

“Noriko?”

“Noriko here,” the loudspeaker blared.

“Ulf here. We have an estimated fifteen hundred guests, and I see hundreds more coming on the streets. Over.”

That's a lot of guests. Isn't it family and alumni only today?

“Fifteen hundred? Sorry... Noriko here. Hang on a moment. Eh… Over.”

Yukio grinned at the uncertainty in her voice. So she can't handle everything on the fly after all. Good to know that she's human. Even though he did feel some satisfaction at that thought, most of him filled with affection. No matter what she was one of his best friends.

He made it across the street and stood to attention with the president by his side. “Honoured guests. I have the Himekaizen Academy student council president at my side. We have opened another entrance. Please allow her to instruct you.”

As he had hoped the cue he gave her was enough for her to become their president again, and after she shot him an uncertain but grateful smile she took command.

OK, what was that thing with my Kyoko all about?

***

With a firm push she turned her walkie talkie off. Kyoko desperately needed the rest. An hour after the opening well over two thousand guests crammed the school grounds. Several stalls were already running dry, and only Urufu's desperate gamble kept most of them supplied.

She sank to the floor in a tired heap and listened to the pandemonium from the office area turned festival headquarters. While the official festival planning room and student council room still operated as formal planning centres, the students there were swamped beyond capacity from before the cultural festival even opened.

Weary beyond belief she rose to her feet and struggled to the desks occupied by a few club members, two students from the festival planning committee and the student council treasurer.

“Noriko, how can I help?” she asked and slumped into a chair.

“Rest, please just rest,” her friend said. “You've been fantastic. I understand Yukio better now.” The smile in Noriko's face spoke of respect, and for once Kyoko felt she deserved it.

Kyoko watched Noriko send another email before she continued reading a seeming-less endless number of unread ones on her screen. With her right hand she jotted down notes on a piece of paper, moved it to the keyboard and opened up a document and changed something in it. After that she composed yet another email and sent it.

How can you keep all of it in your head? My larger than life midget sister, isn't that what Ryu calls you?

For each email sent the treasurer made a quick call only making certain who was to execute the instructions in it. An expression of awe played on his face whenever he stole a glance at Noriko.

“What are you guys really?” he asked during a brief lull in the madness.

Kyoko shot him a tired smile. “We're part of the club management,” she teased. “I'm the secretary and Noriko is our treasurer,” she continued knowing well that wasn't what he really had asked.

“Treasurer, huh?” he said instead. It made sense in a way. They shared that position.

Noriko flashed him a grin between emails “Talking about money,” she said, “we're unable to provide more funding at the moment. I need your help.”

“Huh?” That question pulled him back to the operational reality. “Funding?”

“Yeah, stupid, we're out of money. I need council funding to secure the continued flow of supplies,” Noriko said and frowned.

The treasurer sat upright. “You paid from the club funds? How much?”

Noriko sighed and pushed her laptop aside.

Kyoko couldn't help but giggle when she saw her friend stare at the ceiling while waving her fingers in the air like a Showa era elementary school kid. Learned the abacus did you?

“Three hundred, eh, make that four hundred thousand yen. Anyway, we're bled dry.”

“What?”

“I know. And we can't recirculate the money paid at the stalls either. Way too many coins.” Noriko grinned. “We'll get it all back later anyway, but I can't wait until the banks open.”

The treasurer stared at her, but Kyoko noticed how Noriko read the same email over and over again. Kyoko rose from her chair and walked behind her friend. Absent-mindedly she started massaging tired shoulders while looking out the window.

A bit inside the back entrance another piece of Urufu's black magic grew into existence. An unplanned outdoor café with the capacity to handle over one hundred guests, staffed by third years he had managed to scrounge up from gods knew where.

How he thought up the concept and made it reality while handling security patrols, their own food plaza and taking overall control of the cultural festival when the student council organisation crumbled was beyond her. Then she noticed one clue.

Among the third years manning the impromptu café a few club members walked around directing students two years their seniors as if it was the most natural thing in the world. Yukio was among them, her Yukio, and a third year always by his side year she didn't recognise at first. A girl with gorgeous waist long black hair.

Kyoko felt a brief sense of panic running through her until the identity of the girl finally found a match in her brain. What's the council president doing there?

“How much?”

The voice from inside the room tugged at her attention and she turned, still massaging Noriko's shoulders.

“How much, Wakayama-san?”

Kyoko looked down over Noriko's head and saw the email she had read so many times. And gasped. No way! Yukio, you should see this.