Transition and Restart, book two: The Billion Dollar Empress

Chapter two, 2016, southbound, part one

Something had broken between Urufu and Kuri-chan, but strangely enough their ties with each other grew stronger as well.

And Kyoko was filled with shame. And so was Yukio. So now they shared both new-found love as well as shame.

But I have to make a choice, and you're the most important to me, Kyoko thought and threw Yukio a guilty glance. She received one in return.

They were shaking along the rails on a regional train to a resort where the Wakayama parents had called in a favour to find the club a hotel they could afford. The Shinkansen was the better alternative, but most members in the club wanted to avoid the premium cost.

Our first field trip. Because four days and three nights by the sea counted as their first field trip together.

Two rows ahead Urufu and Kuri-chan sat nestled together sharing silence. Kyoko could only guess what it contained, but she felt it wasn't empty. Silence filled with meaning, like the one she shared with Yukio, and yet nothing at all like it.

She went through their schedule in her mind again. The most important part of it. After they chose their rooms and settled in Urufu promised to give them a more coherent explanation of what had happened. He had to. The entire club regarded Red Rose Academy as a personification of everything bad and evil, but Kyoko believed that was too simple a description.

She had spoken about it with Yukio, but he remained adamant that Red Rose Hell, as he called it, was indeed evil incarnate, and so she wanted Urufu's side of it. Loving Yukio didn't mean she took everything he said at face value.

This was too important to be analysed by teenagers only. Urufu would have an adult's insight, and Kuri-chan could be counted on to share her pool of experience as well.

If it wasn't for that silence.

Since the night he drank himself to a stupor, with most of the club members sitting in the next room, Urufu hadn't spoken much. Kuri-chan forced a promise from both Yukio and Kyoko not to leave his side when she was away on her modelling sessions, but Kyoko wondered how smart that really was. Urufu never got any time alone.

She watched the backsides of their heads close together. They would open up and talk and laugh when they were ready again. With that thought she snuggled up closer to Yukio and was rewarded with a shy kiss.

The train staggered onwards tapping its thudunk, thudunk, thudunk onto the rails as it ate the distance to their destination. Outside the windows suburban Tokyo slowly gave way to small stretches of countryside interrupted by smaller towns mixing up the rice fields with shopping malls, old industries and apartment buildings with the odd temple or shrine thrown in for good measure.

Behind her Kyoko heard the club members with the poorest finals results discuss the catch-up exams they had been through this far. Apparently most of them were done for summer break, and if what she heard was true even Kuri-chan and Urufu only had small leftovers to handle.

She looked at the objects of those rumours. They hadn't spoken much about summer school at all, and as Kyoko cleaned out her score at her first attempt she didn't know how well they did. I'll ask Noriko later.

Both twins sat some distance behind her. Noriko most likely asleep, but Ryu kept up his role as the prince of Himekaizen and entertained both his and Kuri-chan's fans to make certain she got some time alone with Urufu. Kyoko sent him a thought of gratitude for that. It had to be hard on him as he was still in love with Kuri-chan.

The Wakayama twins. I can see you both are true to the loves you declared. But why don't you move on? Beside her Yukio stirred as he slowly fell asleep while hugging her close. Stupid question. You can't, just as I couldn't. But I got my reward in the end, and there is nothing coming between those two.