Upside Down

After my uncle told me the news, I never saw any of my so-called relatives. They didn"t even bother to attend the funeral. Although my childhood friend Chinatsu and her parents came over every day to check on me and attended their service.

A week later, the company my parents worked for announced they would be providing death benefits totaling nearly 300 million yen.

My relatives sure showed up then. They told me they would take care of everything if I would sign everything over to them. I had always liked my Mother"s sister, Katsuko, and her husband, Hideo. They were always nice to me when they would come for a visit.

I made the mistake of thinking that meant they cared about me. The second night after the announcement, I found out how sickeningly selfish my relatives were. That night, I woke up thirsty and went downstairs to the kitchen and overheard them talking amongst themselves. "How all they needed was for someone to get me to sign the paperwork and they would all split the money equally and dump me off at an orphanage or something."

I was beyond stupefied when I heard them say that. I was frozen in place while the same thoughts bounced back and forth repeatedly in my mind. When I snapped myself out of it, I immediately left the house and went next door to Chinatsu"s house. I kept pressing the door intercom until I woke them up. They brought me inside and I told them what I heard.  more I spoke the more furious Uncle Eiji"s expression became. Uncle Eiji soon stood up without saying a word and left the house.

Not once in all of my 13 years of life had I ever seen him angry about anything, until now. You would never know it going by how Uncle Eiji acts, but he was a member of the JSDF Special Forces until Aunt Haruka found out she was pregnant with Chinatsu.

A few minutes later, there was a lot of screaming and yelling coming from my house. When I took a peek I saw my relatives being thrown out of my house in whatever they were wearing at the time. It wasn"t long before the police showed up. As they talked to Uncle Eiji, their scowls deepened and they began glaring at my relatives. The sergeant came over to talk to me to confirm what they were told. Immediately after, they gave them 10 minutes to collect their belongings from the house and leave.

I stayed with the Kobayashi"s for the next few days until Uncle Eiji thought everything had settled down. After the fifth day, I was allowed to go back to my house and that is when it happened. Apparently, the house was being watched and that night they attempted to kidnap me. It seems they were willing to use any means to force me to sign everything over to them. What they didn"t count on and what I didn"t know, is Uncle Eiji was watching the house himself. He later told me he thought they would try something like that. I barely remember him storming into the room and taking down the five people there in a few seconds. It was a blur to me. The only thing I remember is being unable to stop crying as he carried me downstairs to call the police.

Uncle Eiji then fought the rest of my relatives in court on my behalf. After I give my testimony of what I overheard, their claims on my inheritance were dismissed. The judge instructed my relatives to stay away from me and my house. He explained to them if even one of them broke his order, that all of them would suffer the same fate.

Thankfully, that ended the my greedy relatives" medling, which allowed me to grieve in peace. Chinatsu stayed beside me basically the whole time. She would come wake me up for breakfast and walk me home after dinner. If it weren"t for her, Uncle Eiji and Aunt Haruka, I wouldn"t have made it through that period.

I went back to school five days later. I had always been picked on by several guys in my cla.s.s, but after they found out I had lost my parents, there was a completely new dimension to it. To say I never expected this to happen would be putting it mildly. They used to hide my shoes, gym clothes, or try to trip me in the hallways. It then escalated to actively hitting me anytime they would see I was alone or somewhere a teacher couldn"t see.

Which brings me to the point of telling you all of this. One day when the abuse was much worse than usual, I took off running for home with them hot on my heels screaming that "you"re going to get it even worse for running away." I thought I would be safe if I made it to my house and it turned out not to be the case. The seven of them followed me right into the house, blocking me from leaving or even going up the stairs to lock myself in my room. My only place to go was the door to the bas.e.m.e.nt my parents had always forbidden me from ever going into. Desperate at this point, I ran to the door, yanked it open, slammed it shut behind me and locked it. I heard them hitting and kicking the door saying they weren"t going anywhere and would wait for me right there.

I knew I was safe, because it was a steel door. There was no way they could get through it, but there was no way for me to leave as long as they were there either. I could still hear them talking outside half an hour later. The problem with that was I had to use the bathroom rather badly, not to mention being thirsty as well. I thought I remembered my mother saying she had to clean the bathroom down in the bas.e.m.e.nt once, so at least that problem could be taken care of.

Walking down the dimly lit stairs carefully, I reached the bottom and flipped on the lights. Seeing the bathroom, I headed directly there to take care of my urgent problem, pa.s.sing by workbenches full of lab equipment and a refrigerator tucked away in a corner of the room. Having taken care of my most immediate problem, the other issue decided to make a resurgence and remind me how thirsty I was. Walking over to the refrigerator, I opened it and looked to see if there was something to drink. All kinds of flasks and bottle cluttered the selves. One appeared to be nothing but water, so I took it out and sniffed it. It didn"t smell of anything, so I a.s.sumed it was water, took several big gulps, then replaced it inside the refrigerator.

I"m amazed by how neat and orderly the room is, considering how messy my parents usually were. "I ought to see if they have left yet" I thought and head back to the door to check. I lay my ear against the door and after five minutes I still didn"t hear anything, so I decide to take a chance and open the door. Uncle Eiji had told me before I went back to school if I had any problems to come to him and he would deal with it. While I didn"t want to bother him, I suppose this qualifies as being beyond my meager abilities to deal with anymore.

"It shouldn"t be this dark yet" I thought as I turn to look at the clock on the living room wall. "That"s odd; I must really be tired because I can"t read the clock."

Regardless, it should be close to the time for dinner, so I should head over to Chinatsu"s. As I turned to head to the front door, I became overwhelmingly dizzy and my stomach cramped hard enough to drop me to my knees from the pain. I asked myself "What is this? What"s going on?" The pain and dizziness continued to get worse. The last thing I remembered seeing was someone coming through the door.

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[May 2058]

When I wake up, I"m in an unfamiliar room. Everything is white. Although the gown I"m in is lavender.  It seems like I"m in a hospital room. The main questions I have is why I"m here and how did I get here? I look to my right and see my childhood friend Chinatsu asleep while holding my hand. How long have I been here I wonder? When I move to sit up, it wakes Chinatsu. Her eyes fly open and she jumps into my chest, hugging me tightly.

"Sora! I thought you were going to die too!" She exclaims me while crying and rubbing her face into my chest.

"Ah! Chi, not so hard that hurts!"

"Oh, I"m sorry Sora. I didn"t realize." She tells me smiling awkwardly, as I wipe away her tears.

"Umm…Chi where am I?"

"You"re in NTI Medical Center."

"Okay, next question, why am I here?"

"You don"t remember?"

"Of course, I don"t remember! Why would I ask if I already knew?!"

"Okay, okay, calm down Sora. When I came over to get you for dinner I found you unconscious on the hallway floor. I ran to get Mom and she called for an ambulance."

While she was explaining what had happened, I have to keep brushing my red bangs out of my face. So annoying, I need to get a haircut... Wait a second… Red hair? Huh? I reach up, touch my hair and follow it down with my fingers. I keep going until I reach the end of the hair at my waist. What the h.e.l.l!! How long have I been asleep and who the h.e.l.l dyed my hair!

I turn back to face Chinatsu, angry and a little confused.

"Chi, how long have I been in here?"

"Uh… I"m sorry Sora, I can"t answer that."

"What do you mean you can"t answer it Chi?"

"I mean, I was told not to tell you anything. That was the only way they would let me stay here like this."

"EH?! Why would you promise something like that?!"

"Baka! Aho! Because I wanted to be here for you when you woke up!"

"Okay, calm down Chi, I"m sorry. I know you did it for me. I apologize."

[Kon~][Kon~]

Someone knocks on the door and opens it. Uncle Eiji and Aunt Haruka come in and smile when they see me sitting up in bed.

"It"s about time you woke up sleepyhead!"

"Are you feeling okay? Are you in any pain?"

"Other than my chest being really tender, I feel fine. Aunt Haruka, thank you for helping me. Can you tell me how long I"ve been in here and who dyed my hair?" I ask her, she then looks at Uncle Eiji.

He picks up a chair, moves it over to the bed and sits down.

"Sora, can you tell me the last things you remember happening?"

"Sure Uncle Eiji. Uh… Well, I was chased home by some boys that had been picking on me a lot lately. I ended up having to lock myself in the bas.e.m.e.nt when they followed me in the house. I was down there for a while and when they were gone when I came back up. I was going to head to your house when I got dizzy and my stomach started cramping badly. Then I woke up here."

"You didn"t do anything else? Did you touch anything downstairs?"

"Well, I used the bathroom and drank some water, but that"s all. Promise!"

Uncle Eiji smiles sadly and shakes his head.

"Sora, I have something I need to tell you and I want you to try to remain calm, alright?"

When he says that my blood runs cold, I don"t know why I"m afraid, but I am and I"m very sure I"m not going to want to hear what he has to tell me. I turn to look at Chinatsu, but she won"t look at me.

"OK, I"ll try, but you are scaring me."

"You know your parents were researchers?"

I nod that I knew, urging him to get on with it.

"You also know they were researching the population problem too, right?"

"No, they never told me anything about their work, other than they were researchers." I shake my head while I answer him. What did my parent"s job have to do with any of this?

"Your parents were working on ways to fix the sterility issues in the population. You remember that most women are sterile?" He says, looking at me for an answer. Although all this is doing is making me even more confused. I nod again and gesture for him to continue.

"Well they found out there was no way to fix a woman"s fertility once she lost it due to the virus. Although it was an accident, they found out the method they used to try to make women fertile again would turn men into women. I mean completely into women, who are immune to the virus and able to have children. Do you follow me so far?"

"Yes Uncle Eiji, I understand. Although, if they found a solution, why wasn"t it announced?"

"Sora, that is one question I can"t answer for you. Knowing your parents I can make a good guess, but that is all it would be."

"Okay. Well, then can you tell me what that has to do with me being here?" As I"m asking the question he looks at Aunt Haruka and she comes around to the other side of the bed, takes my hand and smiles at me.

When I look back at Uncle Eiji, he continues, "Well, Sora, your parents used "nanites" to try and fix the problem. Do you know what nanites are?"

I simply nod without saying anything.

"Okay, that makes it a little easier. What you drank in the bas.e.m.e.nt contained nanites. These nanites rewrote portions of your genetic code while you have been in a coma. Do you understand what that means?"

When I shake my head no, he sighs and looks at Aunt Haruka for help.

"Sora, you said your chest was tender didn"t you?"

She asks me while smiling. I nod again.

"Okay, do me a favor. Look at your chest."

I"m a little confused, but I know Aunt Haruka wouldn"t ask me to do something so odd without a good reason. I pull open the neck of my gown and look inside…

What… the… h.e.l.l… is… this?!?! Th-th-those are b.o.o.bs! Why the h.e.l.l do I have b.o.o.bs?!

While blushing furiously I look at Aunt Haruka, confused and at a complete loss. I slide one of my hands under the covers to check for something else… I-it"s not there! Okay, I"m beyond confused now. I"m terrified and panicking! What the h.e.l.l has happened to me?! Tears began streaming from my eyes and running down my face.

She sits on the bed beside me, hugs me tightly, and softly whispers to me, "It"s okay. It"s okay. Calm down. Don"t worry, we"re here for you. You"re safe and awake now. Everything will be alright. Try to relax, we will explain everything to you."

After she calms me down, she loosens her hold on me, reaches up to gently touch my face, and wipes away my tears while smiling.

Honestly, I"m completely freaked out, but her soft voice and gentle touch has always been able to calm me down. She turns to look at Eiji and says, "Honey, why don"t you go get some tea in the cafeteria. I will come get you when we are done talking."

After Uncle Eiji leaves the room and closes the door, she turns back to me.