When he opened his school bag Ryu found the planner still inside. At first he smirked, but it quickly grew into a smile. He wondered if Urufu had used something like it earlier in his life. Fifty, he's over fifty. Did they have laptops thirty years ago? Ryu didn't know, but he decided Urufu probably had been dependent on pen and paper to do his planning early on.

“You're silent.”

Ai-chan's voice made Ryu look up from his bag. She was cute and likely to become a real beauty a few years down the line. But it wasn't her looks that caught his interest. Not that looks didn't matter. For him they definitely did, but having grown up with Noriko he doubted he could ever settle for someone docile.

“I thought if I'm silent like now and you talk like you usually do then on average we'll be, well, average.”

The insult earned him a fist and a glare. Neither were entirely playful, but nor were they in earnest.

“You mean if you continue to make an effort to look good you don't have the mental resources to speak at the same time?”

Guess I deserved that one. “You're the one who ordered me to look good,” Ryu said. “My poor mind can't grasp why.”

Ai-chan grabbed his ears in her hands and pulled his face to hers and gave him an almost kiss. Only their noses touched.

“I haven't told my friends about you, even if they suspect by now, and you need the goukons I arrange to spread those rumours of yours.”

So you noticed, didn't you? But he didn't really care. As long as Ai-chan was the only one who understood what he was playing at he felt safe. While he didn't know her all that well yet, he still didn't believe she was the kind who'd betray him unless he gave her reasons to. Those reasons being two-timing her or dumping her, which could have been a concern hadn't he been truly interested in her.

“Why this place?” Ryu asked to change the subject.

Ai-chan sat down on a stool by the windows and looked out. Behind them the clerk answered questions about prices from another group of teenagers, and Ryu waited for them to vanish inside the building before he joined his girlfriend.

“Didn't you recognise their uniforms?”

Ryu shook his head. Apart from a few extreme elite schools he only knew the uniforms from Himekaizen and Irishima.

“Sheesh!” Ai-chan sighed and palmed her face in an exaggerated expression of despair. “Why do I even try? You want to sink Red Rose Academy, and you don't even know their uniforms?”

Crap! I guess I should have known better. There had been something tugging at his mind, but since the cultural festival occurred early October just about every school switched from summer to winter uniforms just days earlier. There simply was no way to get used to the winter uniforms from other schools in so few days. But damn it! I went to the middle school. I have mush for brains today.

Ryu looked at Ai-chan and took her hands in his. “Sorry. I usually only see the Irishima high and Himekaizen uniforms on my train,” Ryu said. That wasn't entirely true, but the other uniforms belonged to schools too far away to be anything but reminders that some students covered indecent distances when commuting to and from school. To and from some of those elite schools he knew about.

He knew he should have remembered the Red Rose uniform from the assault on his sister, but that had been during his last year in middle school and the middle school and high school uniforms were different. Besides that happened in September with the associated summer uniforms worn to boot.

“You know, I don't have any friends from Red Rose, but...”

The tension in Ai-chan's hands grew, and Ryu could feel her fingers squeezing his. She's doing this for me, but she's unhappy about it.

“Yes?” he said.

He kept is gaze on her eyes in an attempt to make her look at him, but she continued staring at their hands and played with his fingers.

“It doesn't seem right,” Ai-chan said after a while. Suddenly she looked up, but she still averted her eyes and pretended to watch the passers-by on the street outside. “Someone did something awful to you. I can understand that, but why would you go after the entire school?”

She's in love with me, and she's hurting herself for my sake. Ryu lifted her hands and kissed the fingertips. “It's not that easy,” he said and joined in her pretence of watching people strolling down the pavement.

“Make me understand. Please!”

“There were teachers involved, and even if we can't prove it I know the principal looked the other way.”

Her gasp told him she wanted to believe, but that what he had just said sounded too fantastic to be true.

“My friend, Urufu, has some pictures,” Ryu continued. “They wouldn't mean anything to you, but for all real victims they're all the proof we need.” Because you wouldn't believe they sent a goon to attack Kuri last term, and they attacked Urufu during the festival.

Ryu still wasn't entirely certain that last attack was sanctioned by Red Rose. It stank of pure revenge, and the sheer idiocy of assaulting someone when you were dressed in your school uniform more or less invalidated the idea of a conspiracy.

“I appreciate what you're doing for me,” he said, “but don't do anything dangerous. This is our fight.”

Ai-chan turned her face to him. A glimmer of sudden determination ran over her eyes when she faced him. “I want to be closer to you. If someone hurt you I'll hurt them back.”

There was a reason she had piqued his interest in the first place, and Ryu admitted to himself that her boyish reaction to a fight attracted him.

“I'm not after the students at Red Rose Hell,” he said. “If anything I want to save them from that quagmire.” He let his lips play over her fingers again and enjoyed how she blushed at the touch.

“What… what do you mean?” The look in her eyes told him she no longer thought of the war between the two schools, nor that he was bringing in Irishima high on their side as well.

“We're taking Red Rose down,” he said. Before he let go of his plans and enjoyed the evening with her she had to understand that he was serious. If she decided to leave him as a result, then so be it.

***

Noriko grimaced when she saw her brother hand in hand with Ai-chan. Not that she had anything against her brother's choice of girlfriend; on the contrary. For the first time he got serious with anyone, and on top of that he chose someone with her head firmly screwed onto her body. That was a good thing in Noriko's book.

The reason she grimaced was far simpler. The pair came walking towards her, which meant they'd stop and chat and ask her what she was doing, and that in turn made it unlikely she'd be able to spend time alone with Nao.

“Sis, over here!”

Noriko looked at her shoes and smirked. Then she plastered a false smile over her face and looked up again.

“Idiot bro, what do you want?”

There was a distinction between what words she used and her expression. While she often thought of him as her idiot bro she never really disliked him. Abhorred him, hated him and felt disgusted by him, sure, but not dislike. When you grew up as tight as they had done you learned to be honest, and Noriko honestly saw that her brother was growing into a good man. An idiot, self-centred and much too playful man, but a good one nonetheless.

He must have seen something in her face, because a shadow of worry ran over his eyes when he glared back. Then he got hold of himself and put up a show of ignorance.

“Sis isn't cute like you,” Ryu said to Ai-chan, but Noriko felt how the words rather were directed at her.

“She's a lot cuter than you. We both are,” Ai-chan responded and gave Noriko a toothy smile.

Good girl! As long as you don't behave like a puppy he'll stay interested. Noriko shook her head and shot Ryu's girlfriend an approving grin. That's girl conspiracy for you. Chew on that idiot bro!

“Ryu, there's...”

“Noriko-chan, there's...”

Both girls went silent and looked at each other. In the end Noriko nodded at Ai-chan to continue.

“We're… I'm helping Ryu with your fight.”

You're helping us with what? Oh. Oh! “Ai-chan, are you certain that you want to get involved?”

Rather than give her an answer Ai-chan grabbed Noriko's arm and pulled her aside.

“He already got Irishima high involved, and my friends probably know we're dating by now.”

What's that got to do with anything? “I don't understand,” Noriko said. She glanced at where her brother stood a bit away. He leaned lazily against a wall and made a show not to disturb the privacy of the two of them.

“Your brother isn't exactly subtle, so people already know he's behind those rumours.”

Alarm flared throughout her and Noriko grabbed Ai-chan's hands. “That's not true! Ryu isn't the one who started them. He's just helping out.”

In return Noriko got a sad smile. “I know that. Ryu told me as much, but he's kinda famous and my friends at school believes he's the one. Besides they only know of that Ageruman model from your school.”

They would at that I guess. Of course they'd know about Kuri. Her face is all over Tokyo now. A flash of suspicion sprung up in Noriko's mind. “Kuri, ah, Ageruman-san dates another boy at school, so you don't have to worry.”

Kuri desperately tries to mark her territory when it comes to Urufu, but you don't need to know that. The mere thought that someone like Kuri could be afraid that her boyfriend would be taken away from her was ludicrous. Especially if you knew Urufu and how loyal he was. It made Noriko a little angry on Urufu's behalf, but he wasn't her matter to worry about any longer, if he had ever been.

Allowing her thoughts to run their course Noriko turned her attention back to Ryu's girlfriend. The relief written in her face was almost comical to watch.

“I'm not worried,” Ai-chan said.

Noriko decided to let the lie slip. “Good,” she said instead. “Now, about helping us, what are you talking about?”

“Well,” Ai-chan began, “not to speak badly about Himekaizen, but Irishima high has a pretty good reputation. We're spreading the rumours to friends in other schools as well.”

“Yes?”

“Including Red Rose.”

You idiots! “That could be dangerous,” Noriko blurted out.

Ai-chan took a few moments to make sure no pedestrians were close enough to overhear them. “You mean an assault like the one at your school? Don't worry. There are a lot of powerful parents with connections to Irishima high.”

You mean there are a lot of rich kids at your school rather than the poor sods at Himekaizen? “That was unexpectedly blunt, coming from you.” Despite her words Noriko felt her opinion of Ai-chan rise a few notches.

“That's exactly as blunt as expected from me,” Ai-chan answered and climbed yet another peg.

Noriko followed Ai-chan's example and waited for a sudden crowding around them to disperse. “Why are you telling me this now?”

“Because I want you to pipe down,” came the brutal reply.

What? “You know we really need the momentum to keep up.”

“Sure, but if you leave it to me for a while it'll look like the source of the rumours changed.”

Yeah, she sure has her head screwed on right. Ryu, you got yourself a first class girlfriend in her. “I can't control Kuri,” Noriko said.

“Kuri?”

“Eh, Ageruman-san, the model. She's a force of nature to begin with, and it was her boyfriend who got assaulted.”

“Her boyfriend? So it was all a vengeance trip?”

Noriko gave the question a few seconds of thought. She needed to give Ai-chan an almost truth as an answer.

“No, it began with some girls being sexually assaulted at Red Rose. The rumours are true.”

“Really? How would you know?”

Maybe more than an almost truth was needed after all. “I was one of those girls.”