Chapter five, 2017, leverage: 5

"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 girls. 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.