Thomas had grabbed Ulf in his class room, and he in turn threw a quick call for Yukio and Kyoko while they ran down the stairs, through the cafeteria and towards the pool. When they reached the pool Ulf managed to get through to Ryu and had him and Christina run for the dressing rooms in case the information about where Jennifer had been called to was wrong.

Damn! For all her cheekiness she’s too damn trusting. Ulf wondered what made the girl believe she was immune to the rampant bullying sanctioned by Kareyoshi and his goons.

Racing to the gym he noticed four girls beelining in their direction as well. Then he was around the corner.

Not again!

A sudden roar from his right made him flinch and when he recovered he saw Thomas ahead of him screaming with rage.

It wasn’t Noriko this time, and they were to late as well. Six boys held down two girls while a seventh and eighth raped them.

Thomas threw himself into the group. There was nothing as schooled as what Ulf had learned, but the former professor held some dark secrets of his own. Between raging roars the boys fell to the ground one by one, and Ulf barely arrived in time to kick away the legs for the last one standing.

When that student fell to the ground Thomas had already beaten the boy raping Jennifer into something hardly resembling a human face.

Ulf kicked the second rapist unconscious just as shrieks caught up with him, and in moments four girls were busy covering Jennifer and the other girl up. Once again girls reminded him in the most humiliating way possible how he always got his priorities wrong.

“Thomas, please stop! You’ll kill him.” Ulf didn’t move an inch to stop his junior from beating the unconscious boy into an even bloodier piece of pulp.

One of the girls hugging Jennifer to her stared at Thomas, and in her face Ulf saw a predatory grin of satisfied approval which scared him into action.

“Thomas! Jennifer needs you.”

That got through. He rose from the prone body and crawled to where his girlfriend cried hysterically in the arms of her temporary safe haven.

A little bit away three girls sat in silence, two of them cradling the third who stared ahead with all light gone out from her eyes.

It could have been Noriko. Ulf sensed the relief in that thought, and that in itself filled him with self disgust. To clear his mind he settled for giving any assailant stirring a vicious kick to the abdomen while he made a phone call.

“Behind the gym. Where you found me last year. I’ll call for ambulance.” He killed the call and dialled 119. It took two tries to convince the other side that half a dozen ambulances were needed.

As he finished that call he looked up and met the stares of Ryu and Christina who had arrived. From further away the sounds of agitated voices grew closer and Ulf realised more than Yukio and Kyoko were on their way.

“Christina, please help her!”

The look he got in return was colder than anything he’d ever seen in her face, but when she walked over to Jennifer, making an effort to trample the nearest heads of the prone boys, Ulf realised Christina’s anger wasn’t directed at him.

He felt helpless and decided to walk away a bit unless he’d start maiming people to vent his rage and frustration. From the cafeteria Yukio and Kyoko arrived with some of the staff in tow.

Those are Kareyoshi’s goons. I don’t like this.

Three teachers came running. One of them had a dark rumour clinging to him that he actively participated in the bullying in his class. Ulf didn’t know if that was true. Himekaizen had become a hotspot for rumours since Kareyoshi became principal.

Then they arrived, and Ulf immediately got reasons to believe in the rumour.

The teacher stared at him. “Who started the assault?”

Ulf shook his head. “We interrupted a rape. There were eight of them and...”

“Can you prove that? You have a history of violence.”

What? Ah, yeah, Red Rose. “Eh, that was another rape situation.”

The first response was a growl. “You know, you’re quick to accuse your victims of rape.”

This isn’t happening. “You fucker. What about you being a bit more considerate of the girls here?”

The teacher glanced at the girls sitting on the ground. “I don’t see any girls here. Some cheap sluts and whores, sure.”

It took the combined strength of Yukio and the two other teachers to hold Ulf still after he kicked the arse to the ground.

When the police arrived, accompanying half a dozen ambulances, both Ulf and Thomas were promptly shoved into a car each. Aggravated assault, the teachers reported. A female officer stood surrounded by the girls taking notes of what they said when the car Ulf sat in drove through the back entrance and towards whatever police station they were headed for.

Halfway there Ulf gathered his thoughts together. Kareyoshi again. And where had he found students who’d go as far as committing the atrocity? What kind of infighting used children as tools to be abused to reach a goal? Was there even a goal worth scarring kids for life? Ulf didn’t think so, and even if there was he refused to accept it.

At least the rapists would see long prison sentences ahead of them. Not that it helped the girls at all. Sometimes Noriko still showed that haunted look in her eyes, and Ulf couldn’t even begin to understand what kind of thoughts and feelings went with it.

***

“Urufu and Tomasu got suspended?”

Yukio nodded. “Those boys got pretty badly hurt after all.”

Noriko shook her head. Something wasn’t right. Eight boys sent to hospital but not a single rumour about anyone missing from school.

“But...” she started.

“I know,” Yukio interrupted her. He stared across the seats under the great sails and Noriko saw how he fixed his gaze at the gymnasium. “Urufu taught me how to peel pieces of information from a whole.”

She followed his stare and waited for him to continue.

Wind gathered between the wings, swirled, caught specks of dust and blew it towards the gym. Cooler now, she noted. Soon the school yard would turn into a temporary festival area, and with that what had happened would turn into partially forgotten memories when arranging the cultural festival stole all attention. But not for two girls. They’d never forget. They…

“Sorry,” Noriko said when she realised Yukio had already started talking again.

“I was saying those guys probably aren’t students here,” he repeated.

She had already guessed as much. “Think it’s like when Kuri was assaulted?”

Yukio nodded. Then he turned his head, and as his arm rose Noriko saw Kyoko leave the cafeteria with a tray of food in her hands. Yukio waved her to join them, and Noriko lifted her hand to do the same. A feeling of uneasiness spread through her and she hesitated and dropped her arm into her lap. Instead of welcoming her friend Noriko turned and stared at her feet.

I’m so stupid. But she couldn’t help it. She was jealous of how the couple avoided getting caught up in the madness, which was unfair. She knew that. Last year both Yukio and Kyoko had been sent to hospital.

Kyoko arrived, and from the corner of her eye Noriko saw her sit down and give Yukio a short peck of a kiss before she turned her attention to her lunch.

“Yukio, father asked some friends.”

Noriko looked up. Kyoko’s father was some kind of public servant with a network of his own. He’d used it to look into Kareyoshi’s background earlier.

Yukio took a sip of tea from a bottle. “Uhum?” he said and dug into his lunch with chop sticks in one hand. The other returned the bottle to the small space between him and Kyoko. Noriko stared at it. Between them. A shared space. It made her miss Urufu again.

“Did he find out anything,” she asked. This time she had to face Kyoko properly.

“I’m sorry Noriko,” Kyoko said. “There are rumours about expulsions.”

Noriko shook her head. “Urufu said the arrivals pretty much were untouchable.”

Kyoko met Noriko’s eyes, but she stayed silent. There was something pained in her expression.

“Kyoko, what is it?” Noriko said when Kyoko remained silent.

“Urufu and Tomasu are safe. It’s about Jeniferu and that other girl.”

“What?” Noriko blinked and stared at her friend.

“The two of them might be expelled. Unless they drop the charges they could be kicked out of school. At least that’s what father said.” Kyoko fell silent again, but just as Noriko was about to scream with rage Kyoko’s voice cut through the short distance between them. “I’ve never seen him so angry. Not even after I was stabbed.”

At last what Kyoko had said registered in Noriko’s mind. Her throat went dry all of a sudden, and without asking she grabbed Yukio’s bottle and emptied half of it in four long gulps. But they were raped! How? Noriko stared blindly ahead of her. Yukio’s shape was there, but only when he grabbed the bottle she held out did she know for sure that he was really there and not just a shadow.

“He’s going down,” Noriko said.

Kyoko nodded. “But not for this. Father doesn’t think Kareyoshi’s behind it.”

“But expulsions?”

“Kareyoshi’s the principal here. He doesn’t want to stain his reputation, so he’ll do anything to hush it up, but father still believes someone else pulled the strings.”

“The PTA,” a voice said from behind Noriko’s back.

She turned and met her brother’s glare. “PTA?”

Ryu nodded, and the way he looked at her Noriko understood the glare wasn’t directed at her. With a sigh he found a seat for himself and sat down with his tray in his lap.

“You know how Kareyoshi got himself an obedient PTA after the old one put up a fight?”

“Uhum,” Yukio nodded. “And?” he added between bites.

“He should have thought a little more about why they were so obedient.”

“I don’t understand,” Kyoko said.

Noriko did. Time spent with her parents built a set of rough tools, and a year with Urufu had honed them to a sharpness that bordered on cynicism.

“Sis, if you will?”

“It’s Red Rose Hell all over again. Kareyoshi filled the PTA with the same kind of lunatics we had at our old school.”

“But...” Yukio started.

“They share the same world,” Noriko interrupted him. Rage competed with shame, because she had been so occupied with thoughts about Jeniferu that she forgot there was a second girl as well. “Yukio, you know some first years. Could you please as about her background?” Shame won. Noriko didn’t even know her name. “Discreetly please.”

“Why?”

“Because I believe she got targetted because she’s Korean or Chinese.”

“Sure. I’ll ask.”

“Yukio?”

Noriko looked at Kyoko who stared at how her boyfriend’s face suddenly turned all grim and dark. You and Kuri went to a decent place. You wouldn’t understand.

“Red Rose Hell, Kyoko. I told you about it last year, at the fireworks, remember?”

Kyoko’s gaze turned inwards, but then Noriko saw how she must have remembered whatever memory she’d been searching for. “Be careful.”

“I promise,” Yukio said. “But I won’t stand watching and do nothing this time. Never again.”

Another gust of wind seeped the little warmth Noriko’s clothes offered away from her, and she felt a desperate longing for Urufu.