An hour after his embarra.s.sing 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 looked at the glittering monsters just inside the main gates. "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. Students quickly dismantled one stall to allow the buses to turn. "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 c.r.a.p work?" a female voice said. And then some more crackle. "… push this b.u.t.ton 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 h.e.l.l? "Yukio here. Please identify yourself when you speak. Over." "The guy before, my a.r.s.e!"
"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 cla.s.srooms. 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?"