Transition and Restart 167 Chapter three, 2016, school festival, madness and glory: 6

"You wanted breakfast for the guests. We didn't plan for it so I sent down everyone who could prepare it," Noriko said and looked up from her laptop.

Outside the windows he saw the pool, since a few weeks drained of all water and left in dry desolation. Memories from summer, especially one which he shared with Christina, played in his mind. 'Was that really only three months ago?'

"Look, Noriko you did nothing wrong," he said. "It's just that some things here make me so frustrated."

She looked back at him, and her eyes showed no awareness why he should feel frustration. 'Not her fault,' he decided. 'Just me who can't wrap my mind around the gender differences here.'

There was no time changing that during the last day of their festival. For the moment he needed to accept that here cooking was a woman's chore. Accept. He didn't have to like it.

"I apologise for being so curt. You've done a fantastic job. Keep it up." He went for the door when he recalled one of his own rules. "You all have. It's a pleasure working with people like you," he said to the others in the room, including council treasurer and a couple of students from the planning committee.

It wasn't entirely true, but sometimes well timed flattery did wonders, and he needed miracles to pull them through the day.

'One hour, maybe two before hell hits us.' Ulf pulled the door shut behind him and walked down the corridor. By the stairwell he turned and made it into the main building corridor.

He knocked on the door to the main teacher room. There wasn't any teacher he needed to talk to right now, but their windows faced the main courtyard and he wanted to know what the queue looked like.

A few of the teaching staff looked at him when he was let inside, but by now they were used to him coming here just to walk to the windows with a laptop in his hand.

"Jirou?"

"Jirou here, you should call Kyoko. Out."

Ulf followed the main street with his eyes until it ended by the gates. "Kyoko?"

"Kyoko here."

"Ulf here, you'll have your first batch incoming soon. Over."

"Understood. We're ready. Over."

"Good work. Tell the rest I'm proud of you. Over and out."

He looked at the stalls on both of sides of the main street. Too many of them took orders where the students manning them shook their heads and pointed in the direction of the plaza. It didn't worry him yet, but there were more than a hundred guests queuing by the gates and through the tree line bordering the school grounds he saw people walking in small groups or couples as they were redirected to the service gates.

Ulf turned and faced the teachers present. 'A full hour earlier than I had hoped, but it can't be helped.' "Excuse me, but may I have a bit of your time?"

"Yes?"

He could only hope the old goat had prepared them for the question he was about to ask. "How many of you have your cars here and some spare time to give us?"

His next insane request would go to Ryu.

***

'"I need the prince of Himekaizen." What kind of request is that?' Ryu shook his head in amusement. 'You really don't know what makes girls tick Urufu. Right now you're the king of Himekaizen, and the senior girls probably think you're more interesting than I am anyway.'

He wasn't sure how he knew, but he did. Urufu's personality, and how he handled the festival was certain to attract more than a few third years. They were preparing to leave high school life behind them, and to a degree they acted in a more adult way than they would as first and second years in university. At least if what his father said was true.

'That only means I have to become a more grown up prince.' A strange thought, and one he wouldn't have made just half a year earlier. 'Am I growing up as well?'

The way Urufu and Kuri impacted his life scared him, but he acknowledged that they did. Easy for them. 'They have their wingmen after all.' Then he accepted why that thought lacked dignity. 'They earned their wingmen. Sometimes I wish I could be more like Yukio, or Kyoko for that matter.'

Ryu turned left after the vending machines and walked almost to the end of the corridor. From here on it was mostly a matter of knocking on doors. Urufu wanted a dozen third year girls to do two shopping rounds each. He would get them, or Ryu wasn't worthy of being called prince of Himekaizen.

***

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.

Chapter end