He's playing it by ear. Kyoko groaned as Ryu set up yet another stupid game for them. It was obvious to her how unplanned it all was, but he seemed to have an uncanny feeling for what worked.

The club members had spent three hours divided into two, three or four teams, competing in one inane game after another, and how Noriko had managed to scrounge up prizes was beyond her.

They're working like a tag-team. I've never thought of them as scary before, but just look at them!

Beside her Yukio failed horribly at wrapping an erected tent in sleeping pads. That had their team coming in last. Kyoko smiled at him. Even when you fail you're my hero.

She walked over to where Ryu had filled two buckets with water and dropped an apple in each. Beside each bucket a smaller box sat half filled with flour, and if the rumours around her were true, a marshmallow hidden somewhere.

“Oh no, shit!” she heard Yukio's voice from behind her. He groaned and continued: “Someone else represent our team.”

He knows this game?

Kyoko glanced at him. He only stood staring at the preparations with a mischievous smirk on his face.

Yeah, he knows. She took a long look at the set-up again and then understanding slowly dawned on her. “No way! No way I'm doing that!”

She felt Yukio's hands on her shoulders. Then his mouth was just behind her ear.

“I love you, just so you know,” he whispered.

She was about to turn around and hug him when he raised her right hand into the air.

“Kyoko just said she volunteers,” Yukio shouted and waved her arm around.

You! You! “Yukio!”

“Look, she's out of words for sheer joy.”

She shot him a glare she hoped he read promises of horrid retribution into. There was no getting out of it now. With a shrug she let her left arm join her right in a boxer's victory-gesture. “Who's my opponent? Who dares face me in epic combat?” She could just as well play along.

From the corner of her eyes she saw Noriko come dancing in exaggerated bounces. “I'll take on the little girl, with one change.”

Kyoko wondered about the last part until she saw Hiroyuki-kun and Sango-chan approaching them from the camping ground with a bucket and a box each in their hands.

“Founder's death-match!” Noriko yelled. “Yukio, wherever your beloved goes you must go.” She guffawed and grinned at her brother. “Planner of mischief, idiot bro. Show us you can compete in as well as plan these games!” She bowed and swung deep with all the flourish of a French musketeer right out of Dumas'.

All four of us? I'm so not going to end up last!

They lined up. Hiroyuki-kun shouted out the rules, and around them all the club-members gathered hooting and laughing.

With her hands on her back Kyoko felt adrenaline rushing in her as the wish to compete grew stronger and stronger. Yukio, eat dust!

Hiroyuki-kun quickly came to an end with the rules. “Ready! Steady! Go!”

Kyoko threw her face into the water and snapped after the apple. It bobbed away and floated back up beside her head. Another attempt to get a bite of it failed as miserably. What the hell! And she had an idea. Almost diving into the bucket she forced the apple to the bottom. This time she got a good grip of it with her teeth.

Triumphantly she brought her head back up with her prize in her mouth. Water splattered all around her, but she had the apple. A hand was stretched out and she spat it out.

Without a thought she dove face first into the flour. Where is it? Her world was white, her face smeared with goo and sticky dough dropped down her clothes. It didn't matter. She hadn't found the marshmallow and she slammed her face into the flour again with frenzied vigour. There! Got it! She grabbed it between her front teeth and rose with arms outstretched.

To her right wet sounds told her Noriko hadn't managed to get her apple yet, and Kyoko swivelled left. Yes! Both boys were face first deep in their flour boxes.

Distantly she heard cheering, and it took a while before the understood she had flour plastered to both her ears as well.

“I did it! I did it! Who's the champion!” she yelled.

“And the winner is, let's hear it for her...”

“Kyoko-chan!” the crowd roared.

She was grinning wildly, and it was just a stupid game, and she was filled with elation. I won! That wasn't a feeling she was used to.

Ryu and then Yukio resurfaced with their marshmallows in their mouths and managed to look crestfallen when they realised she had won. Noriko still made strange and watery noises. She hadn't got the hang of fishing up the elusive apple. When she rose for a new attempt she stared at them and laughed.

“You look like idiots!”

Kyoko looked at Yukio and Ryu. She didn't have to say what she planned. A few moments later Ryu had moved behind his sister and grabbed her arms.

“Oh, no, don't you dare!”

“Watch us!” Yukio grinned and at that signal Kyoko grabbed Noriko's box.

She smiled as sweetly as she could to Noriko. “My dear friend. You look hungry. Some dessert?” Noriko pushed the box to Noriko's face while Yukio pulled her head forward. Then all three let go of their friend and backed away.

“Idiot, you said?” Ryu taunted his sister.

“Bro! Idiot Bro!” And with those words Noriko sprinted after her fleeing brother with a box in her hand. The crowd quickly gave way to avoid being smeared with wet flour.

Through the gap opening between her fellow club members Kyoko saw a car climbing the road only to stop at the camping grounds. As the door opened she saw Noriko's mother climbing out of the car and search the students with her eyes.

“Ryu, Noriko, over here! Matsumoto-san and Takeida-san, you're wanted as well.”

Noriko ceased hunting her brother, and Kyoko grabbed Yukio's hand and walked towards the car. Wonder what's up?

“Excellent, kids, you're needed at… what on earth… how do you look?”

“She won,” Ryu said and pointed at Kyoko as if that explained everything. The look on his face was so deadpan that Kyoko doubled up and guffawed.

“We'll be right with you,” she said when she had caught her breath again. Looking at Yukio's face made her giggle again.

Noriko's mother shook her head in exasperation. “You can't look like that when… Oh hell, we don't have the time. Jump in!”

***

When they arrived at the hotel Kuri stood waiting for them. It was darkening rapidly and the lamp above the entrance threw its own silver onto Kuri's gold. She gave them each a long stare and palmed her face.

“Kids,” she said, but she smiled before she shook her head and led them inside. “Noriko, I need your help with introducing the four of you,” Noriko felt herself being scrutinized, “I really need your help now.”

Introduce? Noriko looked at the three others. If we all look like this I can understand why Kuri needs help. Crap! During the ride down to the hotel most of the waterlogged flour had fallen off their faces, but there was no hiding the stuff that clung to their hair and shoulders.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Still smiling Kuri walked towards the dining hall. “Who's the genius behind your exciting make-up?”

“Eh, I came up with the games, but...” Ryu began.

You idiot! Know a trap when it's dumped in front of your feet!

“Then you'll be in charge of tomorrow's activities,” Kuri said and gave him an outright malicious grin.

How could you not see you were being set up for a job? Noriko sighed and waited for Kuri to continue.

“Sure,” he answered without faltering. I'll run the members through some physical exercise. Maybe my own take on a walking talking session.” Ryu looked at Noriko as if to see what she thought of his ability to take things in stride.

“Not our members,” Kuri answered, and her grin grew if possible even more sinister.

Not our members? Then they rounded the reception desk and entered the dining hall. Noriko stared in stunned disbelief. When did all the people arrive here?

The hall was half full with the kind of people, all men, who usually surrounded her father. At least that was what it looked like. When Noriko gave the assembly a second look while Kuri savoured her last surprise, she saw that the faces lacked the assertiveness and self-reliance she knew from her father's associates. They don't look… they don't look like Urufu, she finally realised.

“Looks like the people who carry out dad's orders,” Ryu commented silently. “What do you want us to do with them tomorrow?” he asked and surprised Noriko with how quickly he accepted the situation.

Bro's becoming like dad. He always admired dad. Noriko glanced at Ryu. He's growing into what Urufu already is. That's the real difference between them. Urufu's already an adult, but Ryu's growing into someone I can't call idiot bro any more. It shocked her more than she wanted to admit that her brother was already in the process of becoming someone she would one day come to respect.

Noriko watched Kuri look at her brother with equal parts surprise and approval. Then she nodded thoughtfully. “I might just have to change my initial introduction,” she said and strode into the hall to get the attention of everyone present.

Her Japanese has really improved a lot this summer. Must be the time she spends with Urufu, Noriko thought, and with that thought came a sudden thorn of unexpected jealousy. And I thought it had stopped hurting. And with that thought came yet another realisation. They're both adults. She's already what he needs, and I'm only just growing into someone who could someday fill that need. That hurt a lot more than seeing him with another girl, because it meant he probably didn't even see her as a woman at all. We're just kids to him.

“Go ahead,” Ryu proposed to Kuri's back, and his words shook Noriko out of her thoughts.

“Wakayama Ryu, our resident clown,” Kuri said and bowed ironically to Ryu after she had got the attention she wanted, “will handle activities until lunch is served tomorrow. He just returned with his staff after arranging games for the students who are currently camping on the mountain. I'll leave your questions to him.”

Noriko watched her brother shrug the challenge off, and then he dressed up in his most winning smile and walked to Kuri's side.

“Gentlemen,” he said in the voice he used whenever he was allowed to take part in conversations with their father's business partners, “let not our unseemly outward appearance dissuade you.” With a discreet gesture he introduced Yukio, Kyoko and herself. “And please do not mistake our youth for a lack of training in the work we have ahead of us tomorrow morning.”

“What kind of joke is this,” an older man in a conservative business suit drawled.

Over fifty and past his last opportunity to make a career, Noriko noted. She had seen enough of the men and women who passed through her father's professional life to identify the failures without thinking. And so had her brother, she knew.

“The only joke is a misjudged estimate of time-boxing earlier. The event couldn't be called off despite the need for our presence here. Any more questions?” he asked.

He was rewarded with several smiles and a few soft laughs.

So most of them are already tired of the old geezer. Noriko slid behind Yukio and grinned.

“What did you have planned for us?” another man asked.

He might have been in his mid-thirties, and the edge in his voice made Noriko come back from her temporary hiding place. Hungry eyes. Careful bro. To her left Kuri looked at Ryu with a predatory, calculating gaze. She's assessing him. That's the look mom has when she helps dad hire the really important ones.

“An appropriate question,” Ryu said. “We'll run you through a physical and mental workshop we call walking talking.”

“Yes?” the man said. He was clearly waiting for Ryu to stumble and make a fool of himself.

“Basically it's a long walk during which you're called to handle cross competence problems in teams. In order to be a good member of a cross functional team one should get used to cross competence thinking.” Ryu took a few steps and Noriko could see how he moved his gaze over his audience to call for more questions.

I never noticed he listened that closely to Urufu's reasoning. Damn, my idiot bro could actually land this one! She knew he had already lost most of them, and that he had done so deliberately. Well done bro. They wouldn't dare to show that they didn't understand a high school kid.

Kuri must have seen something else though, because she cut in before any more questions could be asked. “As you may have assumed by now these four are employed as junior consultants in TAP.” She paused just long enough to awaken the want to pose a new question, but not long enough for anyone to ask one. “While they lack work experience from the industry you can rest assured that Hamarugen Urufu, the Swedish CEO, has invested a substantial amount of personal time in training them to the best of his abilities.”

“Will we see this CEO of yours?” It was the same man again, and for the first time Kuri faltered.

“Ah...”

“During the walking talking? No,” Ryu said, and Noriko saw the grateful look he got from Kuri. “He's otherwise occupied for the morning.”

“And after?”

“He'll make an appearance during the afternoon. I'm afraid I don't know his schedule, but I promise to pass on your question to him.” Just as Kuri was on the verge of saying something Ryu continued. “Would you want me to return with his answer later this evening?”

“No, no that won't be needed.”

Gods! I didn't know you could gamble this way! Noriko sent her brother a thought of respect. Tomorrow afternoon then. You bought us at least that much time. She glared at Kuri to make her keep her silence, and after that the five of them filed out into the lobby.