Transition And Restart

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 .

Advertis.e.m.e.ntThe 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?"