“There’s something fishy about that story.”

Yukio nodded, and Ryu gave him a long stare as they listened to Kuri’s reaction to what Yukio just told hem. All in all Ryu agreed, but being in that room when the old people told the story about the runner would have been better. As it was he had to rely on what Yukio said.

“It’s too easy,” Yukio said in agreement.

“Aren’t you the one who tries to make everything easier?” Ryu retorted as they passed across the great Shibuya intersection.

Kuri had some kind of job at 109, and being a Sunday the Himekaizen members of the club were all together for the first time in months. They were joined by Jeniferu who tagged along with Tomasu a bit further back. Always a bit further back these days. Something had gone out of her eyes, even though Ryu guessed he was one of the few who saw the feelings she tried to hide.

After searching for Jeniferu and Tomasu Ryu was grateful to find Kyoko together with the pair, and less so for finding Noriko hand in hand with Urufu halfway across the street.

“You know,” Yukio said, and Ryu realised Yukio must have given the teasing retort more thought than in was really worth, “I try to make things as easy as possible while still keeping the important stuff there.”

Now it was Ryu’s turn to give things a thought.

“Interesting, please continue,” Kuri said.

Ryu looked at her, because there had been a warmer tone to her voice than he had expected. Her blue eyes hidden behind that golden halo were always harder to read than those of other girl. If that was because he loved her, or her being a foreigner or her real age hiding her true feelings Ryu didn’t know.

“I guess making things too easy means you have to lie,” Yukio said. “Not lying by telling lies but lying by telling too little of the truth.”

“And?” Kuri passed through a sliding door.

Yukio and Ryu followed her, but Yukio waited with his answer until they were indoors. “It’s just been a little more than a week, but there’s something nagging at me.”

“About their story?”

“Yeah. Ah, man, I can’t explain, but it’s too easy.”

“So they’re hiding something,” Kuri said and entered an escalator.

Ryu followed her a couple of steps below, and Yukio quickly joined. Together the three of them rode it a floor up with people around them staring at Kuri as if they couldn’t believe there was a life sized version of the face plastered to electronic bill boards all over Tokyo.

Smooth, really smooth, Kuri, Ryu thought. Does the word discreet even exist in the thesaurus you use? He shook his head and followed her up the next escalator all the while Kuri’s body guards made a futile attempt to keep the mob of fans from getting too close to her.

At the third floor she signed her first autograph and at the fifth the twentieth. Ryu decided their earlier conversation had to wait.

“Kuri, aren’t you even worried in the slightest?” he wondered during a brief break in photos taken and her signing just about anything people handed to her.

She smiled. “As long as we’re moving my body guards should handle the rest,” Kuri said silently.

“Aren’t you afraid you’ll sign some dirty contract by mistake?”

Kuri’s shoulders swivelled and suddenly Ryu had her face so close their noses touched and her hair embraced him in golden velvet. She gave him a wet kiss and he felt her arms around his neck.

Around them people shouted, some voices in delighted surprise, but others carried an annoyed tone to them. While not a Japanese style idol Kuri still had her fans out there who expected her to live up to the impossible ideal of a sexy virgin.

“I love you,” she whispered when their lips parted. “I love how you care for me. I’m happy I met you.”

Ryu grinned. He felt equal parts elation and embarrassment running though him. “You didn’t answer my question,” he said in an attempt to regain control.

“Autographs,” she said. “I have a legal document where the distinction between my autograph and my signature is made explicit.”

The Billion Dollar Empress. You’re my girlfriend, so I forget who you once were. “I see,” Ryu said. He hoped he sounded calm, but inside of him sensations of anxiety and outright fear quickly built and burned. You’re my girlfriend, and you’re older than my mother.

The short seconds it took for thoughts and feelings to run their course was enough for Kuri to widen the distance between them, and Ryu felt her hand pulling him toward the next escalator.

Behind him Yukio followed. Ryu saw him mirrored in that glittering world of glass, spotlights and cloth that was 109. Further behind Ryu knew the others tried to catch up, but with the mob of fans gathering around Kuri they were bound to be stuck a floor or more below him.

Kuri, I really do love you, older and all, but right now you’re behaving more like an elementary school kid than the seventeen you look. Ryu growled, a satisfied growl he admitted, but a growl still.

He winked at Yukio, turned and followed Kuri up another floor, and then another.

The crowd around them thinned, and Ryu guessed Kuri’s body guards had finally managed to take control of the situation, but then his world changed from one of casual luxury to one of mad chaos.

“He’s got a knife!”

Red Rose uniforms?

“Ageruman-san, watch out!”

But that school is closed.

“Down Ryu!”

Kuri?

“Down!”

Legs so white he could hardly see where they ended and her panties began flew above his head.

Golden hair sailed across the escalator.

Yukio roared.

Ryu’s head connected with a red blazer.

Hurts!

He fell.

***

What the hell? “Down Ryu!” Christina backed away from her attacker. “Down!”

From the corner of her eye she saw how Ryu sank down on his knees, and then she jumped over him, down the escalator. It would probably hurt later, but she desperately wanted to get away from that knife.

Below her Yukio screamed at the top of his lungs.

“Kill the bitch!”

She landed on one foot, lost her balance and crashed down metallic steps still moving upwards. Then all of a sudden she was saved in Yukio’s embrace, and the entire world came to a stop and they both fell.

What?

Yukio let go of her, and she saw him staring up the escalator. Surprise turned into rage in his eyes and then he rushed upwards, stepping on her arm on his way. It hurt, but Christina didn’t care. Somewhere up there Ryu stood facing the attacker she had fled from.

When she followed Yukio’s dash with her eyes, understanding that someone must have pushed the emergency stop dawned on her. That was the reason the world stopped earlier.

Above her a red blazer swirled, then it was hidden behind Yukio’s back.

Ryu shouted, Yukio shouted, and behind her, clearly audible through a bedlam of hard heeled shoes running up the escalator, her personal body guard shouted.

She tried to get up only to be brusquely shoved to the side by her body guard as he ran past her. With both hands against the glass wall she righted herself again and started climbing the unmoving stairs.

Ryu, what’s happening?

Her foot hurt. The foot she had landed on, and her arm hurt where Yukio’s foot had clamped down just moments earlier. Just like she had done during the brutal first years as a model in her previous life Christina pushed the pain away and marched up the stairs.

Kill the bitch? I’ll give you bitch!

She barely made all the way up when Yukio backed into her, almost pushing her down the escalator. For a few moments Christina balanced precariously, feet halfway outside the step she stood on, before she grabbed the hand rails and righted herself again.

She began her ascent again, but Yukio was in her way, and when she tried to pass him he held her back.

“Stay here!”

She tried to pull away, but Yukio didn’t let go.

“I said stay here!” he repeated. “You should let your body guard handle this.”

“You just ran up there yourself.”

“I’m… I was stupid.”

Christina knew he really meant to say he was a boy and she a girl, but she respected him for changing his mind. Then panic took hold of her again and she forced herself free.

Ryu! Ryu!

Two steps was all she needed to leave the escalator, and doing so she realised she should have been able to see him even from where Yukio tried to keep her safe.

“Miss Ageruman, he’s safe.”

Christina whirled in the direction of the voice.

Her body guard stood shielding Ryu who sat on the floor clutching his arm. One assailant lay prone on the floor and another two Red Rose uniforms were manhandled by the body guards Vogue provided.

“Ryu, what happened?” Christina said and rushed to him.

“He cut me,” Ryu said and pointed at the prone body.

“I’m sorry for resorting to violence, Miss Ageruman,” her body guard said. His smile belied his apology.

She looked around at an unnatural scene of normality. The place was crowded, but no more so than the mob that usually flocked around her. Nothing smashed, nothing torn down, just her body guards trying to handle everything as discreetly as possible while they waited for police to arrive, and Ryu sitting on the floor bleeding from his arm. Behind the crowd some people were even shopping as if nothing had happened at all.

“Miss Ageruman, if I may suggest, you should probably escort your boyfriend to hospital.”

Christina nodded numbly. Of course, hospital. Ryu was bleeding. Hospital was probably a good idea. She looked at him. He was bleeding.

“What the bloody hell is going on?”

Ulf? Yes, we were going to 109. I have a job to do here. She turned and looked at Ulf for help. They said the job was important. Should I finish it before we go to hospital? No, Ryu’s bleeding right now. She searched for an answer in the eyes she probably would love until the day she died. Maybe just do part of the job?

“She’s going into shock. Get an ambulance here!”

Ambulance? Why? I was told to escort Ryu to hospital.

“Hamarugen-san, it’s on its way.”

“Thank you!” Ulf turned and looked behind him. “Noriko, could you get hold of Thomas and Jennifer? I’ll stay here so we know which hospital they’re going to.” Then he turned again. “Ryu, you OK?”

Ah, I forgot. He belongs to Noriko now. Christina beamed at her friend who came into her field of vision. And I love Ryu now. There was warmth in that thought, and a sense of security. But he’s bleeding.

“Urufu, will he be OK?” Noriko asked, and Christina could see how scared she was.

“Ask him,” Ulf said.

“I’m fine sis. I think.”

At the edge of her vision Christina saw the two standing Red Rose uniforms being led away. They vanished through a door into the heart of the building where only personnel had access.

I should be signing autographs. She rose on wobbly legs and made for the crowd.

“Miss Ageruman?”

“Christina, what the hell are you doing? Stay with Ryu! He needs you.”

“Kuri, do as Urufu says!”

“Kuri-chan, what’s going on?”

Ko-chan?

Christina’s world went white, and then black.