392 Chapter five, 2017, leverage: 2

Yukio saw Kyoko together with Urufu and Noriko across the street and waved. To his chagrin she didn't even notice his arrival, but when his body guard left for the car and got inside she must have seen something moving, because her hand went up and Yukio saw her looking straight at him.

'Something happened?' he thought when he saw how dark her face was.

Traffic was heavy, so Yukio impatiently trod his own feet waiting for a chance to cross. It came just as Urufu turned and looked for whom Kyoko was waving at, and halfway across the street Yukio was met by both Urufu's and Noriko's hands as well.

"What's up?" Yukio said as soon he was safely on the pavement on the other side.

Above them daylight had long since given way to night; had done so earlier now when November crept towards December. A sudden bite in the air announced the approach of winter, even though neither Urufu nor Kuri ever accepted that Tokyo had anything resembling winter in the first place.

"Nothing's up," Urufu said, and those words had Yukio realise the answer had been late in coming.

"You look a lot morose for nothing to have happened. Spill!"

Urufu's eyes avoided his, but Yukio saw him glance at Kyoko and Noriko both.

"The grown-ups are playing dirty little games of power inside," Noriko said instead.

"Who's winning?" Yukio didn't feel like waiting for the trio to slowly spit out the story in bits and pieces. Urufu once taught him how to cut to the chase, and by now Yukio felt confident he was better at it than Urufu.

"Winning?" Urufu said.

"The dirty games," Yukio clarified.

"Eh, I guess we are."

"But it's taking too long?" Yukio guessed.

Angry nods from Kyoko and Noriko confirmed his suspicion. Kareyoshi's actions finally made someone willing to bring the axe down on him, or rather several someones, but right now they were probably jockeying for power rather than swinging that blade.

"Urufu, can you promise the end result will be disgustingly awful for Kareyoshi?"

"I can't promise anything."

"Then," Yukio began and looked at Kyoko, "we can't wait." He stepped past the trio and opened the door to the café.

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"Yukio, wait! What do you think you're doing?"

Yukio grinned, but he didn't turn. He did however wait for the bell to jingle to add some extra effect to his next statement. "If you can't, then I'll find someone inside who can give us that promise."

"Yukio, you really shouldn't..."

"My man! He's all my man," Kyoko's voice interrupted Urufu's attempt at stopping him.

Still grinning Yukio went inside. They'd been a couple for close to a year and a half now, but Kyoko still knew how to say exactly the things that made his heart go bump in his chest. Behind him he heard the door close to the sound of the bell, and he imagined how Urufu stood staring at it mouth agape.

Now the question was where those playing a dirty game were. The café proper was its usual jumble of odd furniture and students in their gakuran and sailor uniforms from Irishima High mingling with the few Himekaizen uniforms who still dared to go here.

By now anyone here still sporting a Himekaizen blazer had attained an almost mythical status, and Yukio received a much warmer welcome than had been the case a year earlier.

He nodded at James, who stood at his usual place behind the counter, and then he turned to face eyes meeting his. "Where are the really old people?" Yukio said. Some of Urufu's rudeness had rubbed off in a good way.

"Inner room," a female voice answered.

Yukio searched for the owner and found Ai. She had dyed her hair again, and once again to a darker brown tone. It was as if she slowly wanted to look as unobtrusive as possible after her crashed relationship with Ryu, and Yukio felt sorry for her. Just sorry though. He wasn't about to help her, because with Ryu and Kuri dating, and Urufu getting accustomed to being with Noriko, their respective worlds finally stopped being full of thorns.

"Thank you," Yukio said and made his way behind the counter.

An opened door later he was inside, facing old men who should have scared him a lot more than they did.

"This room is booked for the evening," a man who had to be Ai's father said.

They did scare him. He was just a sixteen year old boy after all. Still, he had all but promised Kyoko an end to Kareyoshi's atrocities. On shaking legs Yukio pretended he hadn't heard and walked to the grand table and pulled out a chair.

"It's booked," another man said.

A very, very scary man Yukio admitted to himself when he met cold, calculating eyes. He forced himself to sit down and plastered a false smile to his face.

"Christmas," Yukio said. "We're just kids, and we can't do much," he added.

"Christmas?" Nakagawa-sensei asked, and for the first time since entering the room Yukio felt at least a little warmth from one of the men inside.

"We know adults who will help us if we ask," Yukio explained.

He only got a questioning gaze from his former principal in return.

"After Christmas, if Kareyoshi's not gone, we'll ask," Yukio added.

There was a moment of silence, just a moment, but it was enough for Yukio to realise he had successfully thrown the dice in this dirty gamble of adults.

"Do you actually believe you can threaten us," the really scary man said. "Do you have any idea of what kind of power we represent?"

Yukio did. If he hadn't he wouldn't have dared doing this. "Kareyoshi had Kuri assaulted last year. He put Kyoko, Urufu and me in hospital. Now two girls were raped because of him," he said, still ashamed he couldn't recall the name of the Korean girl. "With all that power of yours, what have you planned on doing to us to make us more afraid than we already are?"

This time the silence settled into the room. He had gained what Urufu called leverage. What an ugly word!