Upside Down

"I warned you didn"t I?! My daughter is very sensitive right now! You need her cooperation to even get into that bas.e.m.e.nt and you do something that stupid right off the bat?!"

"Your daughter? Don"t make me laugh!"

I hear a meaty slap and a heavy grunt.

"Say that again! I dare you! She"s as much my daughter as Chinatsu is! If you think I"ll let you touch one hair on her head without her permission you had best think again! Do you think you can do whatever you want just because you are the director of a company?! Daiki and Ai made your company what it is!"

"You are one person Mr. Kobayashi. I have hundreds who work for me. If I wanted I could walk out of this house with her and there would be nothing you could do about it."

Dad"s voice drops low and takes on a menacing tone. "Try it. You won"t make it one step in her direction before I break you in half. You don"t think I haven"t made my own arrangements for her safety? Who do you think I am? Even if I disappear, I have enough people that will step in to guard her and take not only you down, but your company as well. You are out of your depth here. I suggest you apologize and start over before you lose everything you are after. After all, you need Sora"s cooperation to get anywhere."

"Those nanites are the property of my company, that means we own her!"

I hear Dad sigh loudly. "I don"t know if you are stupid or simply arrogant. Either way, you don"t own her. One, Daiki and Ai obviously developed those nanites outside of your company, so you don"t own them. Two, since they developed them on their own and are dead, it means Sora owns the rights to them or more accurately my wife and I do until she turns 18. Three, you are an idiot if you believe you can own a person. The only reason you even know of this is because I thought your company might be able to help Sora."

Dad takes a deep breath and continues in an even more dangerous tone. "Now, if you want to continue acting like a complete moron, I"ll throw you out of this house and you will never see a single word of the research notes Daiki and Ai made. If that happens and I or any of my people see any of your people within 500m of my family you will not live to see the next day. Am I making myself clear?"

"..."

"I asked you a question. I think you had best answer me."

"Y-yes. ~ahem~ I understand."

"Good. Now I think you had better apologize."

"I apologize for my lapse and arrogant att.i.tude Mr. Kobayashi."

"You are apologizing to the wrong person."

"Eh?"

"You should be apologizing to Sora, you scared her to death."

"Apologize to a child?"

"Of course. If you want her help, you need her to trust you. As it stands, she is obviously afraid of you. I promise you, neither I nor my wife will ever try to force her to help you. So, you need to figure out a way to gain her trust. Apologizing is the first step in that." Dad says and a few moments later he looks at me over the back of the couch. "Sora, are you alright?"

"Yes Dad. I"m alright. I just got scared is all. I"m sorry I worried everyone."

"You have nothing to apologize for. Are you willing to talk to Mr. Akiyama?" Dad asks me.

My heart starts beating wildly. For some reason, I am terrified of this man and I want nothing to do with him. "NO!!" I scream, leaping off the couch and running up the stairs to my room; I slam the door behind myself and lean up against it. Sliding down the door, I rest my forehead on my knees and begin quietly crying.

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[Eiji"s POV]

"You heard her. She"s terrified of you and doesn"t want to talk to you. Unless she changes her mind, which I don"t see happening, your involvement is at an end."

"You can"t do that! This is too important to leave this to the decision of a thirteen year old!"

"Mr. Akiyama, do you have children?"

"Eh? Yes, what does that have to do with anything?"

"Try imagining your child is terrified of someone and that same person is telling you, it"s too important to leave the decision to your child. So, just turn your child over to me and forget about it. What would you do?"

"Eh? Why, I"d take into account how important it was. If it was important enough I would."

"Bulls.h.i.t! You would fight tooth and nail to protect your child. Unless… Do your children live with you?"

"No, I haven"t seen them since they were two when their mother and I got divorced. That was fourteen years ago. Why?"

"Well that explains it then."

"Dad, can I say something?"

I glance at Chinatsu and nod.

"Mr. Akiyama, from what you just said you aren"t a parent. You are nothing more than a sperm donor. You have no connection with the children you sired other than that. That is why you would be willing to turn them over. I"ll never allow you to touch my sister, even if my Dad didn"t, I"d kill you myself if that"s what it took to protect her."

I chuckle at what my daughter says. The apple didn"t fall far from the tree.

"How can you allow a child to speak that way to an adult?"

"Hmm? That"s easy, she"s right. You said it was laughable when I said Sora was my daughter earlier. Are you going to tell her that Sora isn"t really her sister after that? By the way, I wouldn"t recommend you do so."

"No. No, I have no intention of saying something so ill-advised. You would hit me again if I did."

"Dad wouldn"t have to, I would."

His eyes open wide in surprise when Chinatsu tells him that. Enough of this though.

"Well, as it stands this subject is closed. Unless Sora changes her mind, you or your people will not come near any member of my family. This house is watched around the clock and my family has people watching over them at all times. Understood?"

"Yes, Mr. Kobayashi."

"Let me make it perfectly clear to you. If I hear even a rumor of you considering a plan to do something to my family, I"ll take my time killing you. By the way, that isn"t a threat, it"s a promise. If I don"t someone else will. If it takes me killing you and burning your company to the ground to keep my family safe, that"s exactly what I"ll do."

"I understand perfectly Mr. Kobayashi. I never wanted to hurt her anyway."

"LIAR!!! You said you owned my sister! People who mean no harm don"t say things like that!"

"Calm down Chinatsu. Go check on your sister. I"ll deal with this."

"Okay Dad."

Before she leaves she looks at Akiyama again. If looks could kill he would be dead.

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[Chinatsu"s POV]

[Kon~][Kon~]

"Sornee?"

I try to open the door, but it wont move.

"Sornee, would you let me in please."

A few moments later the door opens and Sora is standing there with her eyes puffy and tear stains on her cheeks. Seeing her like this makes my heart ache and I want to go back downstairs to kill that man for doing this to her. She"s trying her best not to show it to anyone, but I know she"s barely been coping with all the changes. I"m afraid this might actually break her.

I don"t know how to help her, other than being here for her. The problem is I have to go back to school Monday. I have no idea how she is going to react when I do either. I know Mom will be here with her, but it"s not the same. Even Mom knows it because she said as much. Mom always said Sora and I were two sides of the same coin. I totally agree with her.

As far back as I can remember, Sora and I have always been together. He was the gentle brother I never had. When the other kids wouldn"t play with me because I was too rough and tumble even for the boys, he was there. When I was six I fell out of a tree and broke my leg, he carried me all the way to the house. He never complained about anything. Whatever I wanted to do he was fine with. I could go on and on with everything he ever did for me.

He was my first and best friend. Even when people tried to tell me it would be better if I stayed away from him, I quit playing with them rather than stop playing with him. He was always there for me. No matter what. He needed me and I needed him. I have other friends now as well, but even so, it"s still that way to this day. Even now that he is a girl, I don"t see it ever changing.

Stepping inside, I close the door behind me and hug Sora tight. I can feel her shaking like a leaf, even as she wraps her arms around me and buries her face against my neck to begin crying again.

Tears of frustration being falling from my eyes. I want to help her so much, but I haven"t a clue how to do so in this situation.

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[Eiji"s POV]

"I"ll walk you out, Mr. Akiyama."

He just bobs his head at me as I follow him out the door to the gate.

"Mr. Akiyama, let me reiterate what I said. This house and my family are watched over at all times. Just in case you don"t believe me."

I let loose a piercing whistle and fifteen laser dots appear on Akiyama"s chest. He looks at me puzzled.

"Look at your chest Mr. Akiyama, I suggest you remember what I told you."

He looks at his chest and his head pops back up as if it were spring loaded to look at me.

"I-I"ll remember Mr. Kobayashi."

"Well, have a good night and drive safe. If Sora ever changes her mind I"ll call you, but until that time you are to have no contact with my family."

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[Chinatsu"s POV]

I finally got her to move to the bed and sit down. It wasn"t even fifteen minutes later she fell asleep. It"s no wonder with all the stress she has been through this evening. All because of one idiot!

I don"t want to leave her, but I have to go get Mom to have her help me change Sora into her nightgown. She cant sleep like this.

Why did this have to happen? She was starting to do better after our talk earlier. At least I"m pretty sure it helped. I"m really good at reading Sora, but some things are a little harder to get a solid read on.

I stand up and move quietly out of the room, so I don"t disturb her. As I reach the bottom of the stairs I hear Mom"s voice and stop.

"Do you think he will leave us alone?"

"I pretty sure he will, I scared the h.e.l.l out of him. Anyway, people like him are cowards. They are fine as long as there is no risk to themselves. Since he knows that no matter what happens to me he will be killed, I seriously doubt he tries anything."

"Why was Sora so afraid of him?"

"I have no idea. All I know is she"s terrified of him. She may not even know herself."

"I"m worried though. We had made good progress on getting her used to being a girl and she was starting to come out of her sh.e.l.l. You had to have seen it when she helped me make dinner. We may have just lost all that."

"I did, she was happy, very happy actually. Far more talkative and boisterous than I had ever seen before."

"What do we do?"

"Honestly, I have no idea. I suppose just making sure she knows we love her and will be here for her is the best thing. When she"s ready to talk about it she will. Although that will most probably be with Chinatsu rather than one of us."

"I know. Those two are almost joined at the hip."

When Mom said that I could hear the smile in her voice. Well, enough eavesdropping…

They notice me immediately when I walk into the living room.

"How is she?" Mom asks with a concerned expression.

"She was crying before I got up there and cried until she fell asleep. Mom, I feel so useless. I want to help her, but I have no idea how to help her through this. I have never seen her so terrified of anyone or anything before. This is far worse than her panic attack earlier today."

"We are at a loss ourselves. I wish we knew what to do or say. All we can do is be here for her."

"That is pretty much what I had figured out too Mom. Anyway, I need your help. She fell asleep in her clothes. Can you help me get her changed?"

"Sure, I"ll be right up."

"Thanks Mom."