Transition and restart, book seven: High School Days

Chapter one, 2018, Hatsumode, part three

"Noriko," Kyoko suddenly said and woke Noriko from her private world of momentary bliss, "shouldn't we call your brother."

"Mmm," Noriko answered and slowly shook her head. She could feel her hair rubbing against Urufu's chest. "No service," she added without checking her phone. She added a grin to be on the safe side. Talking things out with Urufu and Hitomi convinced her the hurtful show in her classroom just before Christmas had been a brutal but somewhat effective way to hammer a message through Ryu's thick skull. That still didn't mean Noriko felt entirely certain Kyoko had done it all for her benefit.

"Lots of people here." That was Yukio coming to her rescue. "Hard to get on a network."

"Huh? I'm connected. Do you want me to call..." Urufu began behind her.

"You're disconnected," Yukio interrupted him. "No signal at all, man. Got it?"

"But look, I'm... Hey give me back my phone!"

"Look, out of battery. These gadgets just give up in crowds," Yukio said and gave the phone back to Urufu. Noriko saw the black screen flashing by and guffawed. Yukio, sometimes you're just awesomely cool!

"Dammit! Why did you shut it off?"

"Out of battery."

"Hell it is! I have a power bank and there's no way..."

"He said: Out. Of. Battery." Kuri's voice didn't exactly invite to an applied study in relativism.

"But I... OK I get it. Out of battery. How stupid of me."

Noriko turned in his arms and hugged him. "You're not stupid. Just a case of bad memory."

"Yeah, whatever. How long am I going to be out of battery?"

"Until we tell you your, what did you call it, power bank works again." Kuri's smile was sweet and deadly. "Now this girl needs to go wash her hands. Hitomi, feeling dirty as well?"

Hitomi nodded, and with their hands full of food both girls expertly navigated the crowd in the direction of the restrooms closest to the shrine.

Noriko smirked, and then the voice of her idiot bro told her he had found them.

"Kyoko, Yukio, I got..." He met Noriko's eyes. "I'm sorry I'm late," he said.

"No problem, man. We'll stay around for a bit longer anyway."

Noriko sent Yukio a thankful thought for pretending nothing was out of the ordinary.

"Uhum, guys. I don't see Kuri. Know where she is?"

"Ladies stuff," Jeniferu offered. She and Tomasu had joined them just before Urufu's phone... went out of battery.

"Ladies stuff?"

"Washing her hands," Jeniferu explained.

"Ah, maybe I should wait for her. Where did she go?"

Jeniferu pointed her fingers at the restrooms closest to the stairs.

***

Not funny you guys. Not funny at all!

There was a long line to the ladies restroom. Twenty minutes long. Ryu had timed it. That was quarter of an hour ago, so he was confident Kuri had never gone here in the first place.

This just has to be sis, or Urufu. Giving it another round of thought Ryu accepted it could be Yukio's or Kyoko's doing as well. They really, really disliked his tampering with Urufu and Noriko. Ryu grumbled, used the men's restroom as a precaution and left the area.