Transition and Restart

Chapter one, 2016, school start

Midsummer'seve, 2040, seating the guests

There's a right way and a wrong one. Kyoko still preferred an orderly world like that even though Urufu had made her accept that most questions couldn't be answered that easily. At least in this case there really was a right way. They were seated according to name plates neatly laid out on each plate on the table. So there was a right seat, and obviously several wrong ones for each and every of them.

They're funny that way, Kyoko thought. Not a scrap of paper planning this party, but then there are papers telling you where to sit.

Despite being unrefined Swedes certainly made organization into an art form. There were also unwritten rules that had to be followed, almost as elaborate as back home in Japan. Different rules. Strange rules.

There were ways things were supposed to be done and then there were ways things were really supposed to be done. Swedes were an oxymoron, because they managed to be rigidly open minded.

An elaborate ruse. An illusion of the unrefined. Urufu, I understand you a bit better now.

Chapter one,2016, school start

Entrance ceremonies were supposed to be framed by a reasonably cute pink colour, but this year spring had been surprisingly stingy with its gifts. The sakura wouldn't bloom for another week.

Now, if Wakayama Noriko had been as starry eyed as the air heads around her she might have missed the absent stunning scenery more. But then, if she had been she wouldn't have been Wakayama Noriko.

Entrance ceremonies were supposed to be an occasion where you got your class assignation, listened to some canned clichés dressed up as speeches and got a good look at your home room and your class. In this aspect her first day of senior high was a resounding success.

Entrance ceremonies, alas, were also occasions where she had to drag around her good for nothing younger twin brother. Wakayama Ryu. Wakayama Stupid Idiot Ryu. And add a 'kun' to that. Of course it was a love hate relationship, but the never ending stream of girls trying to hang out with him certainly pulled the scales closer to the hate-region.

Well, senior high meant a new and unknown school, and maybe just maybe...

You can't be serious!

Some of the less scatter-brained girls from Noriko's middle school had apparently managed to pass their entrance exams here. Now they were in a heated argument with a bunch of girls Noriko didn't recognize. And the reason for their quarrel had climbed the rooftop of the walkway and was playing out his antics as usual.

"You there! Get down immediately!" And here come the teachers.

Noriko watched Ryu vault down from the roof, one nimble hand gripping the supports while he gracefully sailed through the air just to land like a cat. Then he grinned at her like saying: "Did you see that sis?" That idiot grin made it hard for her to stay angry at her twin brother for any amount of time, and it was the main reason he broke hearts left and right without actually doing anything wrong. Ryu, grow up some day!

He would be scolded by the teachers later, and the girls would continue their quarrel about who had seen him first, and then they'd start coming to her for advice and then, then... And then Noriko would spend another three years as 'Ryu's little sister', a popular attachment to her younger brother. Sometimes thought of as cute, but never a girl anyone would dare to approach for real due to her status as the 'little sister' of the daredevil Ryu. And of course he had to have grown so tall, so this time around there would be absolutely no end to the admirers.