An hour after his embarra.s.sing talk with Urufu in the locker room Yukio stared at the main gates . 'We've got problems . '

He unclipped the walkie talkie from his belt and brought it to his face . "Urufu?"

"Ulf here . "

Yukio looked at the glittering monsters just inside the main gates . "Yukio here . There are two buses with television teams at the gates, and they're bringing gear inside the school grounds . " He stared once more . Students quickly dismantled one stall to allow the buses to turn . 'That's the least of our problems . '

"Local media, I guess . Let them inside, or better, have the student council do it . It's their show anyway . Over . "

The voice from the loudspeaker carried with it Urufu's very personal version of being a moron . "Man, turn on your brains . They're here right now and I don't have the time to run to the council room . " He remembered Urufu's instructions on radio communications . "Over," he added .

Advertis.e.m.e.ntThe loudspeaker blared to life again . A static crackle, silence and more crackle . "… this piece of c.r.a.p work?" a female voice said . And then some more crackle . "… push this b.u.t.ton when you speak . " That voice was male . Then there was silence and after that even more crackle .

"You, the guy before . I'll get down to you . " Once again the voice was female .

'The guy before' glared at his walkie talkie . What the h.e.l.l? "Yukio here . Please identify yourself when you speak . Over . " 'The guy before, my a.r.s.e!'

"This is the student council president speaking . Where are you?" the female voice said .

Yukio watched the students closest to him stare from their stall . Or at least some of them did . Most wore scared looks and had their eyes glued to the gates .

"Yukio here . I'm at the gates . President, how many guests do we usually have for the festival? Over . " 'This can't be good . I need Urufu or Noriko for this . '

***

Suddenly the door to their club room flew open with a bang . The sudden noise had Noriko swirl in her seat .

Urufu came das.h.i.+ng inside with the student council treasurer behind him .

"Noriko, we have a problem . You," he pointed at the treasurer, "sit here and take Noriko's com unit . " Urufu grinned at her . "Getting exiting now, so let's see what you're made of," he said to her .

She pushed her walkie talkie across the desks and looked back at him . "What's going on?" she asked, barely noticing the treasurer taking his seat and frantically emptying his school bag on his desk .

Urufu reached down and fingered the walkie talkie she had before her until moments earlier . "You had it turned off, so I guess you didn't hear . "

"Hear what?" Across the desk the treasurer lined up an array of pens and paper .

"He'll fill you in . We're setting up an HQ here . I have to run . " And with those words Urufu grabbed a walkie talkie from the rack and was out of the club room .

What on earth? "Hey!"

"No time, need to find Kyoko," Urufu's voice called from the corridor .

***

"Kyoko, over here!"

She stopped dead in her tracks and looked over her shoulder . That had been Urufu's voice, but with an edge to it she had never heard before .

"Get four guys from 9:1 to the back gates! I need their cell phone numbers as well . Amaya's on her way and Kondo-sensei is already waiting there . I'll instruct you later . "

Kyoko watched Urufu's vanis.h.i.+ng back and felt the unfamiliar weight of the communications device he had slapped into her hand . Thinking back she had heard him sounding something similar to this during their extended stay at the holiday resort, but only similar . His voice this time carried a tone of absolute command that had to be obeyed immediately .

She made her way back up the stairs and went for Himekaizen's newest addition to its number of cla.s.srooms . If Urufu had such a desperate need of four students by the back gates he would receive them there .

When the door slid open she looked inside and recognised a few faces who helped out with patrolling the school the previous night . While that night made her all fuzzy and warm inside, now wasn't the time to linger on those memories .

"You, you, you and you, follow me!"

The good thing with the students recently transferred from Red Rose was that they always obeyed without asking . The bad thing that they obeyed without asking . It scared her a little .

'Yukio, what would you think if you saw me now?'