Upside Down

I tell Honoka about wanting to skip our walk this evening. She looks sad about it, at least, until I tell her to go without us. I explain there"s no reason not to since Chinatsu and I won"t be going anywhere, so she should enjoy herself.

Afterward, I take a confused Chinatsu"s hand and head to my room. Locking the door behind us, I take her in my arms and kiss her, and only break it a few minutes later.

"Sora, I"m not complaining, but why didn"t we go for a walk?"

"A couple of reasons. One, I want to be alone with you, and two, I need to talk to you."

"Okay. About?"

I lead her to the bed and sit her down. I kneel down in front of her and take her hands while looking her in the eyes.

"Chinatsu, I need you to hear me. Not listen, but hear me. I"ll always love and need you. No one is more important to me than you are. That"ll never, ever change. No matter how large my world becomes, no matter who I include in it, you"ll always be the most important person in it. You"re my heart, I"d die without you."

I pause for a few moments. "When you asked me to have babies with you, I almost couldn"t breathe and I thought my heart would burst from how happy it made me. I want you. I want to be with you. I want to share my life with you. Now and forever. No matter what future I see for myself, you"re always there beside me. I can"t even begin to imagine a future without you in it. Being with you makes me happy and I want to make you happy as well."

I take a deep breath and continue. "Chinatsu, I like Ryu. I feel drawn to him for some reason, but if me liking him is going to hurt you and make you unhappy, I won"t see him. I have no other way to show or tell you how much you mean to me. I"d do anything to make you happy. You tell me what you want me to do and I"ll do it for you. No hesitation. No questions asked."

I reach up and brush away her tears. "Chinatsu, I love you. I want and need you in my life. It"s a simple as that."

"Sora, you"re so unfair. You make me feel so small and petty. I know we have to find a boy to marry, but I want to hide you away and keep you for myself. I"m selfish when it comes to you, I know this. I should be happy you found a nice boy that you like, but I"m jealous of him, even more so after I saw the way you were looking at him."

"You have nothing to be jealous of. As I said, you tell me what you want me to do and I"ll do it."

"Will you promise me that he won"t replace me?"

I smile. "I don"t have to, he can"t. No one and nothing is or ever will be more important to me than you and your happiness. Regardless, I promise."

She sighs. "How can I tell you not to see him? You"d do it, it would make you unhappy, but you would and I don"t want that. If I can"t be as open-hearted as you or not willing to do anything for your happiness; then I"d be a selfish, self-centered b.i.t.c.h and I wouldn"t deserve to be with you. So, of course, you can see him if you want. It"ll just take me some time to get used to it."

"Thank you, Chinatsu. Although, right now, there"s nothing to get used to. For all we know he"ll never call me. Now, let"s get undressed. I want to make love to the person I love most in this world."

[Wednesday, June 3rd]

My alarm wakes me at 5:00. I kiss Chinatsu and quietly slip out of bed, and throw on my panties and nightgown. Quickly selecting a pair of my hot pants, a babydoll blouse, ankle socks, and underwear, I quietly shut the door behind me as I head to Honoka"s room.

After knocking on the door, I hear, "Come in."

"Good morning, Nee-chan. Are you ready to take a bath?"

"Good morning, Sora. Yes, I"m ready." She replies as she finishes gathering her clothes.

In case you forgot, Mirai will be meeting us here so I can take her to TGR before my appointments.

After we bathe and dress, I make a quick meal for us. We eat and I"m cleaning up as Mama and Dad enter the dining room.

"Good morning girls." They tell us.

"Good morning. Would you both like some tea?" I ask.

"Thank you, that would be great."

Gathering two cups I make them each a cup of tea and place them on the table.

"Sorry. I"d make you something to eat, but Mirai should be here in a few moments."

"That"s alright." Dad says.

"Sora, you seem really happy this morning." Mama says.

I smile. "I am. Thank you Mama, your advice fixed it."

"Fixed what?" Dad asks with a puzzled expression.

Mama chuckles. "That"s a secret amongst us girls. Right Sora?"

"Right Mama." I reply with a mischievous grin.

"Where"s Chinatsu?" Dad asks.

"She"s still sleeping."

"I"m surprised she doesn"t want to go with you."

"Oh, I kind of wore her out last night, so I decided to let her sleep."

Mama chuckles while Dad looks at me with a confused expression which makes me smile. The door intercom chimes and I stand to go.

"Love you. See you this afternoon."

"Love you too, be careful." Dad tells me.

"Love you too." Mama says.

"I will. Mama don"t forget to eat something."

"Who"s the parent here?" She says with a smile.

I tap my chin with a finger. "Hmm. I wonder." I say, then giggle. I wave bye and head to the door.

　◇ ◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆ ◇

No sooner did we enter the door than we were stopped by security. He laughs when I informed him who I am. At this point I"m irritated and pull out my ID/Access card to show him. He takes the card I place on the desk, looks at it, and proclaims it a fake.

As of this moment, I shift gears into being furious.

"Then do tell me how a fake card somehow allowed me to open the door?" I growl out.

"Little girl, go home, you have no business here."

I"m very close to losing my temper when Akari and Mai walk in.

Doing my best to remain calm. "Akari, would you come here please?"

She walks over. I can see she quickly gathers what the problem is.

"Yes, Ms. Kobayashi?"

"Would you mind informing this soon to be unemployed person who I am?"

"Of course Ms. Kobayashi." She looks at him. "Do you know who I am?"

"Yes, you"re the CEO"s a.s.sistant."

"Good, then you should have already heard we have a new CEO as well."

"I heard about it, but I don"t know who he is."

"She you mean, and she is standing right here." She gestures to me.

"You must be joking."

"Do I look like I"m joking?" She looks at me. "Didn"t you show him your card?"

"I did, he said it was fake."

She sighs. "I apologize Ms. Kobayashi. Apparently some employees don"t bother to read the memos about this."

"How was I supposed to know it was important?" He asks.

I look at him. "Part of your job was to read the memos so you"d know what"s going on. Since you can"t be bothered to read material that"s essential for you to do your job properly, you clearly don"t belong here. You"re fired." I look at Akari. "Akari, would you get my card from him, so we can leave? I don"t have much time today."

She retrieves my card and hands it to me.

"Mai, please call security and have them send a replacement for him. If they don"t have anyone else have the supervisor take his position for now. If they give you any problems tell me. I"ve already fired one person today another isn"t going to make much difference."

"Certainly Ms. Kobayashi."

"Akari, come with me please. I need you to do a couple of things for me. He"s wasted too much of my time already."

Once we get upstairs, Akari follows me into my office.

"Sora, would you like some tea?"

"No, thank you. Akari, I"d like to introduce you to Mirai Kuroki. She"ll basically be my executive vice president."

Akari nods. "Pleased to meet you Ms. Kuroki."

"You as well Akari. Just call me Mirai though."

"Mirai, Akari is my, well, our senior a.s.sistant. We have two others. Mai you saw downstairs and Sanae should be here soon."

"Akari, would you please call the department heads and tell them to be at the conference room at 8? Also I need an access card for Mirai as soon as possible."

"Of course Sora." She stands and leaves the office.

"Good morning Hestia."

"Good morning Sora. How are you today?"

"I"m fine, thank you. Hestia, Mirai is my executive vice president. Please grant her access just below mine and follow her requests as long as they don"t conflict with something I, my mother, or father have asked of you."

"Certainly, Sora. It"s nice to meet you Ms. Kuroki."

"Mirai please Hestia. It"s nice to meet you too."

"As you wish, Mirai."

"Sora, she sounds so, umm, human."

"She is. She"s a level two administrative AI and probably much more intelligent than we are."

"Sora, I"ve finished 58.4% of the background and financial checks that you asked me to do. I have several individuals flagged for your attention. Would you like to see them now?"

"No, umm, hang on a second." I stand and walk out to Akari"s desk. "Akari, do we have company laptops?"

"We do."

"Would you please call and have one brought to me immediately?"

"Sure Sora."

"Thank you."

I glance at my watch. Okay, it"s time.

"Come on Mirai, time to introduce you to the department heads."

Honoka seems to see how tense I am, because she takes my hand as we head out for the short trip to the conference room. I look at her and mouth, "Thank you." She smiles and nods at me. Yep, I definitely like having a big sister. I pause at the door, take a deep breath and slowly let it out. Then enter the room.

"Good morning everyone. Please take a seat. I see we have two new faces today. So, I"ll introduce myself to you two. I"m Sora Kobayashi. I don"t have a lot of time today, so I"ll keep it short. I called you here to introduce you to Mirai Kuroki, she"s my executive vice president. When I"m not here she"ll be taking care of things for me." I look at her. "Mirai, would you like to say anything?"

She nods. "As Sora said, I"m Mirai Kuroki. I"m a pretty easy person to work with, but I"ll be blunt about this. I work for Sora just as you do. What she says goes. Don"t come running to me complaining about something she"s ordered to get me to change her mind. Not without a very good reason. Sora may be thirteen, but I"m willing to bet a year"s salary she"s smarter than anyone else in this room. That said, if you have legitimate concerns about something, come talk to us. You won"t get in trouble for it. Sora needs to leave soon, so I"ll leave it at I look forward to working with you."

"Thanks Mirai. Does anyone have any questions?"

A woman at the far end stands. "I have to ask, why didn"t you choose someone from here to be your vice president?"

I fully expected this to be the first question.

"Simple, I have no idea who I can trust here yet. As you know, Mr. Akiyama"s been arrested. One of the charges he"s facing is for trying to abduct me. I won"t go into details of why he did it, but he hurt my pregnant mother to try to get to me. I have legitimate concerns about who might still be loyal to him. I told you all this to explain my reasoning behind this, not to try to gain your sympathy. I neither want nor need it. Any other questions?"

One of the people that wasn"t here yesterday stands. "You fired Mr. Morimoto yesterday. Are you planning on firing many more of us?"

I smile. "Actually, the only person I fired yesterday was Mr. Katsuki. Mr. Morimoto tendered his resignation, which I accepted. He said he couldn"t work for someone this young. Now, to answer your question, no, I have no plans at the moment to fire anyone. I wouldn"t have fired Mr. Katsuki had he obeyed my order to attend the meeting I called so I could introduce myself yesterday. Anything else?" I ask looking around the room.

"Alright, for the benefit of those not here yesterday, I"ll reiterate a couple of items we talked about yesterday. I"m an open-minded girl and fair in how I deal with people. I don"t do micromanagement and I won"t second guess every decision you make. I won"t fire you for voicing your opinions. I don"t lie and I expect the same from you. If you lie to me or any of my representatives you"ll lose your job in a heartbeat. My door is open to you if you want or need to talk to me. I"m sure Mirai feels the same way." She nods. "The two who weren"t here yesterday don"t know, but I asked for a summary and status report on all projects by the end of the week. I"ll extend that for everyone to Monday. That"s all I have for you today. Thank you for coming."

I begin walking toward the door when one of the men reaches out to my arm. Honoka grabs him and locks his arm behind him.

"None of you will ever try to touch my sister. Do you understand?"

"Nee-chan, please let him go. I"m sure he understands. Did you need something?"

She releases him, but continues to glare at him.

"Sorry, I didn"t mean to startle you. I"m curious, Mr. Akiyama closed down the Nanotech division, are you planning on restarting it?"

"You didn"t startle me, but as you can see, my sister is very protective of me. Everyone please make sure your subordinates know not to get too close to me. I"d feel bad if someone ends up hurt over a misunderstanding. You"re not hurt are you?" He shakes his head. "Good. I"m glad. After the incident where Mr. Akiyama hurt our mother and tried to abduct me, my sister has become a little overzealous when it comes to my safety. Concerning the Nanotech division, I didn"t know it had been shut down, but yes, I definitely will be reopening it. Is that it?"

"Are you going to rehire the ones let go from that division? What about the ones that transferred to other divisions? Are we going to be able to hire replacements if you move them back?"

"Wow. You managed to say all that in one breath. I"m impressed." I say impishly, which makes several of them chuckle. "Actually, I have no answers for you at the moment. As I said, I didn"t know it had been shut down, so I haven"t given any thought to the matter. When I make a decision, I"ll let everyone know. If you have something you"d like to say concerning it, set up an appointment to see Mirai and she will be happy to see you to discuss it. Anyway, I"m sorry, but I really do need to leave or I"ll be late. Thank you all for coming on such short notice. Have a nice day."

Glancing at my watch worriedly, I nod at them as I quickly leave the room.