Princess of Scandinavia. Once her second name, but in this world she was the princess of Himekaizen, or maybe empress was a better expression. She was neither petite nor cute in the preferred way of a Japanese high school princess.

Yeah, empress it is, she thought when reminded of the task ahead of her.

What Ulf asked of her was far beyond anything that could decently be requested from a high school girl, but that wasn't what he had done, was it? For once he didn't look at her with love in his eyes, and she understood how he spoke with the billion dollar empress instead of his 'little Ina'. It hurt a little, and it made her immensely proud of him.

As long as he understands he can't use the rest of them this way, she thought, but it was already too late for that. Sooner or later some of them would break, and they would resent him because they were unable to live up to his expectations.

But you don't really care. Your reputation will suffer, because they think you're after personal glory. It had to be done, and all because of her. I shouldn't have started the Uniclo circus. Ulf please don't hate me for it!

“Hangers six and seven further back and to the left.”

Christina watched how two more metal frames moved closer to the exit. 'Try it on'. Fifteen minutes of fame. More like fifteen seconds, but adding an ad-hoc fashion show on the football field should secure a lot of guests in one place when the school got crammed beyond capacity.

Five hundred, maybe six, she thought. Perhaps the best of the crazy ideas he had come up with, and it still wouldn't be enough. She smiled to herself. You try so hard even when you know it won't suffice.

There were rumours about him. The magician they called him, and 'they' included teachers as well.

“OK, crew, team one stay here and prepare the planned show. Team two follow me!” If you want me to run two shows I'll make them both better than the one we planned.

Today would put her to the test. Without any professionals by her side she'd try to surpass Ulf's insane expectations. She owed him that much. She loved him that much.

***

Insane. He has to be insane! Barely lunch hours and over four thousand guests crowded the school.

Noriko staggered when a huge man almost bowled her over. Maybe she should have stayed in their room, but she refused to spend the entire festival indoors.

She had earned her break, but at the moment she regretted coming here. The streets were almost impassable, but soon the first major event in the gym hall should remove some of the pressure on the stalls.

Loud laughing voices and the smell of fast food sold around her belied the frightened faces she saw in some of the stalls. Luckily enough most of the students manning them simply didn't understand how crowded the school had become.

She hoped they could stay ignorant for a while longer, because with understanding came fear.

Irishima High had arrived in force. She recognised a lot of their faces, and from conversations she overheard she guessed the rest. What was worse was the large number of Red Rose uniforms she saw. Almost all of them from her old middle school, but a few from the high school as well.

What's going on? We never spoke of Himekaizen during my years there. That had come later, and only as a suggestion from her parents. Why are you in uniform? It's Sunday.

Noriko waved to a freshman from 4:1 in one stall and was let inside.

“Sorry, but I have to make a call,” she said to the baffled student in a yukata.

“Want a bite?” the girl offered. “Just don't tell anyone.”

Noriko thought for a few seconds. “Thank you. I'd love to,” she said. She wouldn't be able to have lunch later anyway.

Sitting on the ground she wolfed down takoyaki, and from time to time she looked up and gave the girl a tankful look. “You're a lifesaver,” she said after she swallowed the last ball. “Good! You make really good takoyaki.”

“Thanks! Dad runs a small restaurant and I help out some.”

“Send him my regards.”

It was time to make that call. She switched off her radio and dug in her pockets for her cell phone. This wasn't a topic for the open channel.

“Ryu,” she said after her brother answered, “there's an awful lot of Red Rose students here.”

“I know,” he answered. “I've told Urufu, and he's visiting Principal Nakagawa right now.”

Noriko pushed herself tighter under the counter to be as much out of the way as possible. From where she sat on the ground she saw the three students manning the stall frantically trying to serve an ever increasing number of orders.

“Good, then I'll leave it to him.” She crawled out from her corner and rose. “Ryu we're in trouble down here. The main street stalls can't handle this much longer.” During the time she spent eating even more people had arrived.

“What do you want me to do?”

“We can't allow any more people inside until we can fill the gym hall or Kuri's outdoor show is running.” Noriko wondered if they could let more people inside even with the gym hall filled, but she didn't tell her brother that.

“I'll cancel the patrols and send them to the gates then. It's not like they're much use with the school crammed anyway.”

“Could you use Yukio?”

“No,” Ryu said. “He's on a club errand.”

***

Damn I'm not getting any time alone with Kyoko! Which wasn't true, but he didn't get any during opening hours.

Right now she was tied up with the fashion show again, and would be so for another couple of hours since it didn't stop when the show ended. The beauty contest came right after it. How they were supposed to handle the ballot boxes with so many guests on the compounds was beyond him, but the planning committee said they were on it.

As for himself he walked around the premises with his phone taking pictures and short films from the festival. While he certainly would save some for himself, most were for the benefit of their partner club in Sweden. Cultural exchange club and all, so sending them footage of their cultural festival only made sense, but he really wanted more time with Kyoko.

Besides, this will only give them the wrong impression of a normal school festival. This is anything but normal.

Yukio sulked some more and shot a couple of photos through the windows.

Over the radio calls were becoming increasingly frantic as the school filled up and the main street stalls ran out of supplies. The arrival of a few cars driven by teachers Urufu somehow coerced into helping them mitigated the problem somewhat.

Yukio couldn't care less.

He walked down the stairs and made for the gym hall. On the way there he turned off his radio.

It was packed. Only with the help of a security armband he pilfered earlier did he manage to get inside. Of course they weren't supposed to be used that way, but he'd be damned if he missed Kyoko's participation.

People around him hugged ten stripes of coloured paper to their chests, and quite a few already slipped two into ballot boxes. They had made their mind up before the pageant even started.

Yukio looked at his empty hands and forced his way to the ballot boxes. He received his ten stripes, put the one representing Ryu into the boys' box and one for Kyoko in the other. The remaining eight stripes he handed back to one of the girls manning the ballot.

Third year girls. They stared at him when he voted for Kyoko. You probably don't even know who she is. Then they looked at his student book and checked his name on the list of first years.

After that he went inside again and elbowed himself to a place from where he could see the catwalk better.

He made it just in time to see the boys take the stage as they were introduced one after another. Nao and Ryu received the loudest cheers, but Urufu was surprisingly popular as well, despite throwing a glance at his watch as if he needed to be elsewhere.

You probably do, but you're not supposed to show that right now.

After that it was time for the girls, and Yukio felt how he was squeezed tighter in the growing crowd. It didn't matter. Soon the cutest girl of them all would receive her fair share of fame.

Whoever organised the pageant knew what was about to happen. A beautiful second year Yukio didn't know received a huge roar of approval, and after her Hitomi-chan got an equal share. Noriko blushed when she heard the shouting, even though it was nowhere as loud as when the two girls before her took the stage.

Kyoko waved to the audience when she received the politest of the ovations. Yukio knew she'd end up last of the five girls, but just making the short list was a big thing.

Then the loudspeakers announced Kuri's appearance, and the gym hall exploded with cheers even before she arrived into the limelight. The shouting turned painful when she showed herself, and Yukio saw how the four other girls flinched at the sound. The second year stared at the audience with the eyes of a deer looking at onrushing headlights.

Man, that's harsh. The rest of them experienced this yesterday. And there were even more people in the audience now.

Yukio listened to how the announcer tried to prolong the event, just as he had been primed to do in order to keep the hall filled as long as possible. After the contest a school band would play for the largest audience they had ever seen, and after that the fashion show. With some luck most of the audience would wait.

Switching on his radio was pointless now. He wouldn't be able to hear anything.

Yukio pushed his way through the crowd to the scene. He needed to prepare for his small part in the show, and the sooner he was done the more time he could spend with Kyoko.

***

Now that was a waste of time, Ulf thought. He knew he had better than average looks, but putting him in a beauty contest was a joke. Well, the joke was over, and now he could return to the job that needed to be done.

Ulf rushed to the service gates. With the contest running almost a third of the radios were out of commission, and key stations ran dangerously understaffed. This was the critical phase of the festival, but he had prepared just about everyone with scare stories about the twenty minutes when the contestants took the stage.

Should have told them about the two hours after that. With that thought he continued to make certain the service gates were closed for entrance. With the open grounds deceptively empty it was all too tempting to let everyone inside, and that spelled disaster when the gym hall eventually emptied.

Guests sitting at the tables just inside the gates rose or turned when a roar erupted from the gym hall.

That's Christina for all of you. Ulf smiled as he ran.

Fifteen minutes to count the votes, including all votes collected from ballot boxes strategically placed around the school for those who wanted to make their opinion heard but disliked crowds.

At the gates the security patrol allowed more guests inside in exactly the uncontrolled manner Ulf feared, and he pulled one of them aside and handed her a paper slip with instructions.

She looked at him with questioning eyes. Then she gave the relative calm around the outdoor café a long gaze and stared at him again with even more questions in her eyes.

“Just trust me on this,” Ulf said. “We've packed fifteen hundred guests inside the gym but sooner or later they'll go outside.”

She just shrugged and joined the rest of the patrol. All of them pointed at Ulf when queuing people asked what was happening as they closed the gates.

He waved at the irritated queue and made a time-out sign hoping they'd understand. After that he left an unhappy patrol who pointedly refused to look at him. Even their backsides were unhappy.

Well, I'm the better scapegoat. He smirked and went behind the gym. The back door must have been closed to avoid letting daylight inside and he stood knocking on it for a while before he realised the futility in what he was doing. The cheering from the other side prevented anyone on the inside from hearing him.

With a sigh he prepared himself for a wrestling match all the way from the main entrance to the stage and turned.

Red Rose? What are you doing here?

The first strike fractured both bones in his left upper arm. The second gifted him with a concussion and sent him sprawling to the ground.

Before he lost consciousness he felt two of his ribs crack as he frantically shouted for help into his radio.