Transition and Restart, book five: Spring of youth

Chapter four, 2017, revolt, part five

So he's not really suspended at all? Noriko had heard her parents talk with Urufu on the phone a few times when they thought she didn't listen. Both Urufu as well as her parents believed she and Ryu didn't know that they knew about the arrivals. More importantly, they thought Kuri's grandfather from that other world was a secret.

Noriko didn't understand why that was important for them, but together with her brother she kept the illusion alive.

Right now another illusion was foremost on her mind, the one about their club. The club that by all rights should have been permanently shut down as soon as Principal Kareyoshi targeted it.

For once she didn't sit in the inner room at Stockholm Haven café. An outdoors café close to the entrance to Ueno park presented a view of gravel and a line of tree walling off the park from the surrounding city. The gravel ended in a rather ugly fountain with its associated rectangular pond. Come summer and the park would be packed with people seeking refuge from the worst of the city heat.

Across the table former Principal Nakagawa sipped a cup of coffee and waited for her to take in what he had just said.

Noriko looked at the older man she really didn't know all that well. He was the kind of person her father surrounded himself with, or rather the kind of person her mother made certain her father surrounded himself with. Her parents had a peculiar partnership that way, and Noriko never understood who really pulled the strings between the two of them.

When she was done mulling over the bomb Nakagawa sensei had dropped Noriko put down her soda and drew breath.

"You lost control over the school but bought the PTA instead?"

Nakagawa sensei nodded. "We bribed them, yes." Wrinkled hands shook a little when he lifted the cup to his mouth again.

Noriko leaned back in her chair. A draft of wind offered some cool in the pre summer heat. Soon the rainy season would start, and after that Tokyo would become an oven, wind or no wind never mattered.

She took another mouthful of soda. How the old man could drink hot coffee now was beyond her.

"But doesn't the board of directors have the last say anyway?"

With a thin smile of approval Nakagawa sensei nodded. "A Wakayama through and through. Yes, you're correct."

"I don't think dad would do business with you," Noriko said. "If push comes to shove you're not in control."

Nakagawa sensei shrugged like a westerner. "Having the PTA in our hands bought us some time."

Noriko copied his shrug. "It's running out."

"Irishima High is our ace in the hole, or rather their affiliated university is."

Noriko knew a little about it. Not really an escalator, but students from Irishima High could enter the university on good grades, and bypass the entrance exams that way.

"I don't understand." Underhanded business wasn't really Noriko's forte. "Would you please explain?"

"This club of yours is vital. We're protecting everything exceptional an arrival comes up with. We have reasons to do so."

That made sense. A secret organisation letting a few arrivals play havoc with Japanese norms was crazy in itself, but the costs associated had to be huge. One way or another there had to be a pay-off.

"So you want to prevent Kareyoshi from shutting it down?" Noriko didn't even pretend to show her new principal any respect.

She got a grin in return. Her lack of honorifics hadn't gone unnoticed.