Upside Down

After I check the size, I pull it off the rack. "Sofi, please go try this on for me."

"Okay."

She comes back a few minutes later and it"s exactly as I thought. It fits her perfectly and lightly hugs her curves from top to bottom. It really shows off how great of a figure she has. The skirt falls about a third of the way down her shapely thighs, and she"s absolutely gorgeous in it. I point to the mirror and she looks at herself in it. Her smile lights up the shop as she does.

"I take it you like it?"

"No, I love it."

Her answer makes me smile "Alright, why don"t you go change." She nods and heads back to the dressing room.

When she comes back she hands the dress to me and I drape it over my arm. We continue meandering through the shop when Chinatsu suddenly stops to look at a dress.

It"s an ivory, satin and lace, backless, corset party dress with a flared skirt, which falls to mid-thigh.

I walk back to her and ask, "Is it your size?" She smiles and nods. "Then try it on."

"Okay, be back in a few minutes."

When she comes back, she looks at herself in the mirror. Her huge smile as she turns to look at herself in it, tells me she loves it. I already know what I think. She should get it. She looks simply phenomenal in it.

She looks at me. "Well, what do you think?"

My smile should tell her everything she needs to know, but, "You look sensational, not to mention s.e.xy as h.e.l.l."

"Can we get it for me?"

"Of course. We ought to get you some red or maroon platform heels to go with it."

"If you think I should."

"I do."

I"m happy to see her choosing dresses like this on her own. Before Mama or I always had to chose them for her. She might finally be seeing that she isn"t the tomboyish girl she always thought she was. When she tries she can be as graceful and elegant as they come, not to mention just how gorgeous she is.

Walking over, she looks through the platform pumps while I look at some high heel thigh boots for this fall and winter. I see several different ones I like, but buying them is going to have to wait because they are rather expensive brands, and the lowest cost of the ones I like is ¥80k.

"Sora?" Chinatsu calls out.

"Coming." Reluctantly, I leave the boots, and walk over to where Chinatsu is. "What"s up?"

"How about these?" She asks.

She"s holding some maroon, five centimeter platform pumps, with a fifteen centimeter stiletto heel. The ankle strap for them is silver, which adds a nice contrast. I like them and if she wears these she"ll be almost as tall as Ryo.

"They are cute and I think you"ll look good in them. Have you tried them on and walked in them?"

She shakes her head, "No, I haven"t."

"You probably ought to. You"ve never worn heels that tall before."

"Okay."

She sits down on the bench, removes her boots, slips on the pumps and buckles the straps around her ankles. She stands up to take a few careful steps until she gets a feel for how to walk in them. Then she begins to walk normally in them.

"How do they feel?" I ask.

"I thought they would be heavy and clunky due to the platform, but they are very comfortable and easy to walk in."

"Good. Are those the ones you want then?"

She smiles as she says, "Definitely."

"Alright." I glance at my watch. "Once you get changed, we"ll check out. We have about forty minutes until my appointment, so we ought to go."

She nods, slips out of them and puts back on her boots. After she puts them back in the box, we head to the cashier. I place the items on the counter and delve into my purse for my wallet.

"Will that be all?"

"Yes. Thank you."

She scans the tags and tells me, "The total is ¥216,240. How would you like to pay for this?"

I hand over my card to her. She runs it, has me sign, hands me my card, and bags up the purchases.

"Thank you. Please come again."

I smile and nod at her. Chinatsu slips her hand around my arm as we walk out to the car. When I look at her, she quietly says, "Thank you for the dress. I love you," which makes me smile.

I whisper back, "I love you too. I"m happy that you"re finally picking out your own dresses."

"I pick out dresses for myself."

I nod. "Casual ones, but you always had me or Mama pick out your party dresses."

As we come up on the car, our driver comes around and opens the door for us.

"Thank you Mr. Okami." I tell him as I enter the car and he nods to me. After everyone is in, he closes the door and he heads to the hospital.

I won"t go into detail about my appointment with Airi. The gist of what we talk about today is my issue in dealing with people I don"t know. I"m a heck of a lot better at dealing with them than I used to be. Mostly I have an issue with boys I don"t know, even if it"s relatively minor compared to then. I believe this is the reason Dad mostly hires women when I ask him to find someone for me. We also talked about what happened when Ryu told me he felt somewhat responsible for my death and my reaction to it, which opened one h.e.l.l of a can of worms since this is what we will be talking about in my session Wednesday.

Once my appointment is over, Honoka calls the driver to meet us at the entrance and we make our way out to him. For lunch, I suggest Nabezo. I"ve eaten there many times before. It"s a really popular restaurant that serves all-you-can-eat Shabu-shabu and Sukiyaki. I doubt we make full use of the all-you-can-eat part of it, but the food is excellent and it isn"t all the expensive at around ¥2k per person.

Once we finish eating, we are finally off to what I consider the main event of today. Finding out if the treatment worked for Honoka and Mayumi. I can only pray that it has. I know how desperately Mayumi wants children. Honoka wants them too, but with the falling out she"s had with Mitty, I suppose it"s not as big of an issue at present.

Chinatsu"s and my security teams are waiting for us as we arriving at TGR a bit after 2:00, I delve into my purse for my access card as I lead the way inside. After opening the door with my card, we enter and the guard stands to greet me, "Good afternoon Ms. Kobayashi."

I smile and nod at him. "Good afternoon," I tell him as we pa.s.s through to the elevators. Taking it up we go to my office. In the outer office, I greet Akari, Sanae, and Mai, "Good afternoon ladies. How are you today?"

As usual, Akari is the one that speaks for all of them, "We"re fine, thank you. How have you been Sora?"

"Wonderful actually. We had a business party to attend last night and our boyfriends escorted us. It was a lot of fun."

"I know, I saw your family"s picture in the paper this morning. So that handsome young man is your boyfriend?"

I smile brilliantly as I tell her, "That he is. I"m a lucky girl."

Sanae chuckles and I look at her. "I"d say he"s the lucky one Sora."

I laugh and shrug. "He says the same thing… Akari would you bring us some milk tea? It"s already been a long day. Oh, Mai, while she"s doing that, would you call the department heads and tell them to meet me in the second floor conference room in an hour?"

"If they ask what it"s about what should I tell them?"

"Just say it"s nothing bad and I"ll tell them when I get there," I say with a mischievous grin. She nods and picks up her phone. "Sanae, would you call Kotomi Matsuoka and ask her to come up please?"

"Certainly."

"Okay, see you ladies in a bit." I turn and head into my office. Of course, Mirai is at her desk. "Good afternoon Mirai. How are you today?"

She looks up and smiles brightly at me. "Hi Sora. I had forgotten you were coming back in today. I"m doing well. Yourself?"

"A bit tired, but well overall." I say as I head over to the loveseat by her desk to sit down. Chinatsu takes the seat beside me while Honoka, Mayumi, and Sofi sit down on the couch.

"Mirai, I want to cater a party here on the property for all employees next Friday to thank them for all their hard work. It will be a paid day off, so everyone will be required to attend. Do we have a discretionary budget for something like that?"

"We do. Do you know what all you want to do?"

"Sort of. I"d like to make it more of a family affair for the afternoon, so the ones that are parents can bring their children along to have fun too. Then a more adult atmosphere in the evening so the ones that want to can have a few drinks on us, dance, and relax. We will be attending as well."

"That sounds like a wonderful idea. It"ll give the employees a chance to meet you and interact outside of work."

I nod. "Exactly what I was thinking as well."

Honoka chimes in with, "That"s all fine and good, but I want everyone reminded not to touch Sora, or to get too close."

"Nee-chan, I doubt anyone would hurt me here, but we"ll make sure the department heads tell all their people."

She shakes her head. "I"m not willing to take a chance on that. I"m the one that Dad would be angry with if something happened."

"Understood Nee-chan. We"ll still have my security team with us as well. With the amount of security around me and Chinatsu it would take an Army to do something to us."

She quirks an eyebrow and says mockingly, "Oh? Then what do you call that kidnapping attempt at Seiyu?"

"Nee-chan, come on, we both know they would have never succeeded in taking me. Sofi and Chiaki dealt with them in short order."

"No offense to Chiaki or our little sister, but one minor slip up and you could have been."

I sigh. "Nee-chan… How many trackers do I carry around everyday when I leave the house? Right. My phone, watch, and do you and Dad think I didn"t see the tracker on my necklace? I don"t even begin to know how many others you have sprinkled among my purses, clutches and such."

Her eyes widen momentarily, then she chuckles. "I told Dad that you"d notice."

The intercom chimes. Mirai answer it with a, "Yes?"

Akari says, "Mrs. Matsuoka is here."

Mirai looks at me and I nod. "Have her come in please."

A few moments later, she knocks on the door and Mirai says, "Come in."

She enters and comes over to Mirai"s desk where we are. Mirai gestures to a chair and tells her, "Have a seat."

I wave at her. "Hi Kotomi. It"s nice to see you again. Sorry to interrupt your busy day."

She smiles and replies, "No problem. I knew you were coming back in today, so I made sure I"d have a light workload. My a.s.sistants are not having such an easy day though."

I nod. "Kotomi, we"ll be having a department head meeting in a little while, do…"

A knock on the door interrupts me. Mirai calls out, "Come in."

Akari comes in with a tray of cups and tea. She comes over and sets it on the coffee table. When she begins to pour, I stop her. "Akari, thank you, but we can serve ourselves."

She nods, leaves the office and closes the door behind her.

As I"m making myself a cup of tea, I pick back up where I left off, "As I was saying, do you have anyone else qualified to run the tests on Honoka and Mayumi?"

"Hmm… Well, not that I would trust with this, but Dr. Tagawa over in Genetic Therapy is more than qualified and he"s rather tight lipped."

"Alright. Would you mind dealing with him. I"d like to get them tested now. I know we are going to have to wait a bit for the results."

"Not really, it"s a matter of looking at an ovum under a microscope to see if it"s viable. It"s obvious when they aren"t. Shouldn"t take more than half an hour once they are extracted." Kotomi looks at Mirai. "May I borrow your phone?" Mirai nods and Kotomi dials an extension. "Hiroji, it"s Kotomi. I need you to drop what you"re doing and come to Ms. Kobayashi"s office… Do you want to ask Ms. Kobayashi if it"s important?" She chuckles. "Alright, bye." She looks at me. "He"s a bit of an oddball, but he"s d.a.m.n good at his job. He"ll take good care of them."

"Good." I pick up my cup and take a sip. I think I"d rather have some more coffee, but I do love milk tea. Sighing mentally, I think, "I"ll be glad to get back home and take a nap." I look at Chinatsu. "Do me a favor. Stay here for the meeting with your security team. I need to borrow Sofi to take into the meeting with me."

Her answer almost astounds me because she doesn"t argue with me for once. "Alright. You won"t be a long time will you?"

"Maybe half an hour or so." I glance at my watch. Okay, fifteen minutes until we have to be at the meeting. I lean forward and set my cup down. "We"ll be back in a few minutes. Bathroom break." I pick up my purse, take Chinatsu"s hand, lead her into the office suite, and close the door behind us. Spinning her around to face me, I take her in my arms, and kiss her. As we kiss she melts against me.

When I break our kiss, she smiles at me and says, "How did you know?"

I giggle. "You"ve been fidgeting for the last half hour. How well do you think I know you?"

She doesn"t answer me, she simply leans in to kiss me. When she teases my lips with her tongue, I part my lips to welcome her. Look, I know it"s not fair to compare her and Ryu when it comes to this kind of thing, but it"s her win when it comes to kissing. I love the feel of her soft, full lips against mine. When she slides her hand to my breast, I grab her hand and break our kiss.

"Nuh uh. I"m not wearing a panty liner and I hate the feel of wet panties."

Her cunning grin as she quirks an eyebrow at me immediately puts me on guard. "Is that right? Easy solution there." She steps back from me and holds out her hand. "Give them to me. Now."

I have to smile at her, but I shake my head. "You really are a naughty girl. Sorry, but that"s a no. This skirt is way too short for that."

"I"m sorry. Did that sound like a request? If so, my bad. Give me your panties, now Sora."

How did I know it would end up like this when I said no? She can be as obstinate as Mama about the oddest of things. Although, to be honest, it"s one of the reasons I love her like I do. Rather than have a fruitless argument about it, I reach under my skirt, slide them off, and hand them to her. Turnabout is fair play though, so I kneel down, reach under her skirt, slide hers off as well, and hand them to her.

I grin at her when I stand back up. "I hope you know that you are in so much trouble when we get home."

She chuckles. "That was the plan all along."

I suddenly pull her back against me and force my tongue into her mouth. Kissing her fiercely, I crush her against me until she moans softly. When I finally break our kiss, I nuzzle her neck and whisper, "I love you Chinatsu. More than words can ever express, I love you."

"I know Sora. There"s no way I couldn"t know. You show me in so many ways every single day. I love you too," she whispers huskily. "As much as I hate to say it, let"s fix our lipstick. It won"t be long before you have to go to your meeting."

As we head into the bathroom, I realize that I"m already wet enough that the insides of my thighs are damp. I suppose it"s a good thing we have washcloths here. Normally, I don"t mind how easily Chinatsu can get me wound up, but this is one situation in which I wish I didn"t. Taking a washcloth off the shelf, I wet it, clean myself up, and hand it to Chinatsu to do the same. Trust me, if I need to clean up, she does too. Opening my purse, I take out my lipstick and a tissue to wipe off my smeared lipstick. Then quickly reapply my lipstick and gloss. Looking myself over in the mirror, I tuck a few loose strands of hair behind my ears. Much better now.

Turning to Chinatsu, I ask, "Ready?"

"Yep. Not that I"m going anywhere other than the office."

"I know and thank you for allowing me to borrow Sofi."

When we exit the suite, I find Honoka and Mayumi are gone. I look at Kotomi questioningly.

She answers my unspoken question, "Hiroji already took them down. They"ll be back in half an hour at most."

"Okay." I glance at my watch. "Well, we need to get to the conference room. Lil" sis, come on, you"re coming with me." I tell her as I hold my left hand out to her. She comes over and takes it. I look at Mr. Volkov. "Mr. Volkov, would you keep an eye on the office door? No one, other than Nee-chan or Mayumi, is allowed in until we get back."

"Certainly Ms. Kobayashi."

"How many times have I asked you to call me Sora?"

"About as many as I"ve asked you to call me Igor," he tells me with a grin.

Which makes me smile. "Alright, Igor it is then." I look at Chinatsu. "See you soon. Mirai, Kitomi, let"s go."

My male escorts, Jason and Kazuhiko, lead the way while Shiori, my female escort, walks on my right with Mirai and Kitomi following us. We take the elevator down to the second floor and make our way to the conference room. Jason and Kazuhiko station themselves on either side of the door while the rest of us go in.

"Good afternoon. If everyone will take a seat we can get this started." I take my seat and wait for them to settle in.

"It"s nice to see everyone again. I promise I won"t keep you too long. I have a few announcements to make. Mr. Wada and Mr. Yano are no longer the interim heads of their departments. Congratulations, as of this morning your positions are permanent. We"ve been keeping an eye on how you"ve been doing since you"ve held the positions and we"re more than satisfied with how you"ve performed."

Everyone claps for them. "I hope you"ll keep up the good work." They both nod at me and I smile at them.

"Now, for some news, I know all my employees are going to hate to hear." Everyone sits stock still, expecting the worst I imagine.

"I"ve looked into it and I found that no one has received a raise for the last three years. I had Mirai inform payroll this morning, everyone received a 5% pay raise along with a backdated cost of living adjustment for the last three years. I can imagine you will have some very happy subordinates come next paycheck since it will have a lump sum payment for the cost of living increase. I can only apologize for my predecessor. This will no longer be happening. Every April I"ll expect a performance evaluation on all employees along with your recommendation for how much of a raise you think they deserve, if any."

It"s quiet when I pause to let all of that sink in. It doesn"t last long though because I hear several of them say, "You"ve nothing to apologize for Ms. Kobayashi."

"Next item: I realize that I"m not here as much as I"d like to be, so it"s hard for me to get to know all of you." I look from person to person. "I"ll do my best to make sure we can do that soon. I told you before I want to get to know you and for you to get to know me. With that said, I need you to tell all your subordinates that next Friday is a paid day off because we are having a get together here. All food, drinks, entertainment, etc… will be provided to everyone. Attendance is mandatory. I need you to make sure all of your people attend, understood?"

As I look from person to person they nod. "Good, now, we don"t have a complete plan for all of this as yet, so if you have any suggestions please feel free to let us know. The basic outline is everyone to show up around noon. From noon to six will be basically for those with children to bring them and have fun. After six, we will be providing alcohol, and a band for dancing. Basically it will be time for the adults to get together and have fun."

I pause and take a breath. "Listen, make sure you tell your people that if they get drunk they are not to even attempt driving home. I will fire every single one of them that does so whether they get home safe or not. Security will be watching very closely." I look at Hiro, who nods. "I will happily pay for a cab to take them home rather than them take the chance of hurting themselves or someone else. Is that understood?"

A chorus of "Yes Ma"am," comes back to me.

"I, along with my sisters, and maybe even my parents, will be attending the party as well. Everyone is welcome to come talk to me, no matter who they are, but the same rule applies. No one is to ever try to touch me or my sisters. I don"t want to see anyone hurt over a misunderstanding. We will have our security details with us and you already know how seriously they take our safety. Make sure your people are clear on this too."

I look around the room. "Look, I mean for this to allow everyone to have fun and blow off some steam. Everyone has been working very hard and it shows. I don"t know if you know or not, but the stock price has tripled since I took over as CEO. That is all due to everyone"s hard work. This is also an opportunity for us to get to know each other better. I"d love it if all of you would come talk to me so we can get to know one another. Anway, that"s all I have for now. Any questions or comments?"

"Ms. Kobayashi, I have several people that will be running overnight experiments that day."

I nod. "That"s fine as long as you know they are working or attending the party. I know how delicate experiments can be."

"Is that all?" I wait a few moments and everyone shakes their head. "Alright then, a memo will be circulated with more information no later than Monday with all the information about this. Everyone have a good day."

Standing up, I take Sofi"s hand and lead the way back to my office. As we exit the room, Jason and Kazuhiko lead the way to the elevator again.

Jason holds open the door to the outer office for us and I tell him, "Thank you." He smiles and nods in response. On our way through, I say, "Akari, Sanae, Mai could you come in as well?"

Once everyone is inside and seated, I begin, "Alright, we have a party to plan for next Friday. Mirai has the general outline of how I want it done, so would you three mind helping her set up the plans for all of this?"

They shake their heads and say, "No."

"Good, because I never seem to have enough time for everything that needs to be done. I appreciate it more than you know."

Akari tells me, "Sora, what we"re here for is to help with things like this. You and Mirai are much better bosses than Akiyama ever even thought of being, so we are happy to help you with anything you need."

"Thank you. We appreciate that." I look at Mirai. "Mirai, sorry, I seem to be dumping even more work on you."

She waves away my apology. "It"s not like I"m so busy that I can"t do this, but I"d much rather hire a party planner. They are more able to get this set up with a lot less running around than the four of us. They have all the contacts for entertainment, catering and since you mentioned them bringing their kids, having them hire a small carnival ride company wouldn"t hurt either."

"I don"t mind at all Mirai. I simply want everyone to have fun at it and allow us to get to know one another."

Honoka and Mayumi walk in at this time and I look at them. Both of them come over and hug me so tightly it hurts.

Groaning, I tell them, "Not so hard."

Both of them laugh and smile at me. "We have the results." Mayumi tells me.

"And?"

"It worked for both of us." Honoka says with a dazzling smile.

It takes a second for it to register what she told me, but when it does I squeal in delight and jump into Honoka"s arms and wrap my arms and legs around her to hug her. I reach out to Mayumi and pull her to us and hug them both as tears of joy stream down my cheeks. When I lean back to look at them they are all smiles.

Mayumi brushes away my tears, takes my cheeks between her hands and kisses me on the lips, which shocks me and I blush furiously. Sliding off of Honoka, I notice Mirai wave me over.

When I go over to her, she bends over to whisper, "Sora, you have a very cute b.u.t.t, but if you"re going to run around without panties you really shouldn"t jump around like that," which only makes me blush even harder. I totally forgot I didn"t have any on. Turning, I give Chinatsu a dirty look, who laughs at my expression. Oh My G.o.d, I hope none of our escorts saw me.