[Monday, September 9th]

Mr. Okami drops the seven of us off at the gate. As we are walking to the school entrance, something feels off and I can’t quite figure out why. That is, until I look around to see Ryo off to the side, smirking at us, which makes a cold chill run up my spine. Of course, it also makes me wonder what the heck he is up to. Looking further around, there’s a lot of people pointing in our direction and whispering. Sighing to myself, I think, ‘I thought we’d have gotten past this? Don’t they have better things to gossip about?’

There’s this funny little thing about life and I’ve known about it for quite a while now. Never say anything you don’t want to come true and I should’ve known better than to do it, but I’m getting ahead of myself here, so we’ll come back to that.

Kimi touches my arm and asks, “Is this an everyday thing for you?”

I shrug and reply, “So far it has been.” I pull on Ryu’s hand to get his attention, nod in Ryo’s direction and murmur, “What do you suppose that’s about?”

Ryu looks at him for a moment and shrugs. “Who knows, but he’s acting stranger than normal. Has he said anything to any of you?”

Chinatsu and I shake our heads and I ask, “How could he have without you knowing? You’re almost always with us.” Then he looks at Honoka and Sofi. They shake their heads as well.

He shrugs. “It doesn’t really matter since it’s not as if he can do anything,” which causes a wave of foreboding to wash over me.

Remember what I said earlier? I’ve learned to trust my instincts with this kind of thing. He’s definitely up to, or has done, something. I have no idea what, but it’s something and I’m very sure we, or much more likely I, won’t like it. We continue inside where we change shoes and then head to class. All talk in the class stops and they stare at me the moment I enter.

Sighing and shrugging mentally, I take my seat and moments later 2 girls approach me and ask, “Sora, is the rumor true?”

Looking up with a neutral expression, I tell them, “I don’t pay attention to gossip, so you’ll have to tell me what you are talking about.”

“That you own Tokyo Genetics Research.”

I’m more than a little stunned because no one other than my family should know that, so I’m a little curt when I demand, “Where did you hear that?”

“A girl that knows Ryo Ueno told us he said it and even showed her pictures of you going inside.”

I struggle to constrain my anger that he would do something like that and think, ‘Great! That’s just wonderful! There goes my somewhat quiet school life. I really hate Ryo right now! Of all the childish, vindictive crap to pull!’ I growl quietly, stand and ask, “Excuse me, please.”

They ask again, “Is it true?” as I’m taking my phone out of my purse. I don’t bother answering as I walk out into the hallway and dial Dad.

Two rings later, he answers. “Hi Sweetheart.”

Skipping over the usual pleasantries, I immediately tell him, “Dad, you need to get more security around the school, now. Ryo told everyone that I own TGR and there’s no way we can hide it.”

I hear him sigh. “Are you sure?”

“Very sure, Daddy. By tonight the news will know exactly who I am. If they already don’t. You’ve seen rewards for information of who I am, someone will tell them. Soon after they will be able to confirm it. The cat’s out of the bag and it’s too late to try to stuff it back in.”

I hear him grunt. “You’re probably right. I’m sorry, Sweetheart. Okay, I’ll call Jason and Igor’s teams and have them watch the school. If nothing else, they’ll be able to keep the reporters away from you.”

“Thanks Daddy. What should we do now though? I mean, now that everyone is going to know who I am.”

“Hmm… It would probably be best if you held a new conference to introduce yourself.”

I let out a huge sigh. “Alright… Can you set it up for after school at TGR’s main conference room. It’s the only place big enough for everyone that I think is going to show. Plus, I’ll have Hiro and his security teams to help keep things under control.”

“Sure. I’ll call Mirai and she can make the arrangements for this evening.”

“Thank you, Daddy. I need to get back to class before the bell rings. Daddy?”

“Yes, Baby?”

“Thank you for trying to give me a normal life. I love you and Mama more than you’ll ever know.”

“We’ll still try, but I love you too, Sweetheart.”

I end the call and head back in the classroom. Making the decision, I walk to the front of the class and clear my throat. After all the conversation stops, I begin. “Hi everyone. I’m sure that most of you have heard the rumors.” I see many people nod. “Let me just confirm them for you. I own TGR, it’s a fact, not a rumor.”

Several people start talking at once and I hold up my hand. “Please guys. Enough. There’s not much to say here, other than to say that I’m the same person I was before you heard the rumor. You finding out that my owning a corporation doesn’t magically change who I am. I’d appreciate it if you didn’t treat me any differently simply because of that.”

Several people start throwing questions at me at once and I ignore them as I make my way back to my seat. Sitting down, I groan and bury my head in my arms. Why the hell did he do that? Yeah, I know he doesn’t like me, but what’s the aim behind letting everyone know I own TGR? It makes little sense to me. I feel a soft touch on my shoulder and raise my head to see Chinatsu, Sofi, Ryo, Ako and Kimi surrounding my desk and fending off people who want to talk to me.

Kimi kneels down beside me and quietly asks, “Why didn’t you tell us?”

“I’m really sorry, but I just couldn’t. It’s not that I don’t trust you to keep it to yourself, but we were trying to keep it quiet so that I could have a somewhat normal life. Look around, you can see why we tried.”

She nods. “Don’t worry. I’m not angry or anything, merely surprised. I knew your folks were well off, but now I know why you didn’t even flinch when you bought the dresses and shoes for us.”

Thankfully, the chime rings then and saves me from feeling any worse. All through the morning, the more I think about Ryo doing that, the angrier I get. When the morning break chime sounds, I almost launch myself out of my seat and head out the door with Sofi, Ryu and Chinatsu hot on my heels. I’m literally fuming at this point and you can probably guess where I’m headed.

Literally running up the stairs to the third floor, I go from class to class looking for Ryo until I finally see him. All conversation stops when I march into the room, other than a few people asking, “Who are they?”

Without so much as a by your leave, march straight up to Ryo and slap him so hard that I hear the vertebrae in his neck pop.

Balefully, I stare at him as I sweetly purr, “You think you’ve hurt me by telling people that I own TGR? Try again, it’s an annoyance at most. The people who like and know me will still like me, the rest, well that doesn’t much matter, now does it? Do you ever bother to use that tiny little brain of yours? Do you ever consider the consequences of what you do? You’ve seriously underestimated who the hell you’ve screwed with. You want to play stupid games in an attempt to punish me for something that is your own fault? Shall I show you how to truly hurt someone? Do you want to find out the hard way that playing stupid games wins you stupid prizes?”

I stand there staring at him waiting for an answer, but I guess I’ve shocked him because all he does is stare at me blankly.

“Fine! Be a coward and don’t say anything. How about this then? Your mother told us that your father owes several years of back taxes on the Dojo. How about I pay them off and close the damn thing?! Or, even better, I keep it open and pay him barely enough to feed and house you two? How happy do you think he’s going to be when he finds out that you’re the reason that it happened? By the way, don’t even entertain the thought that you can go running back to your mother after this, you’re banned from our property. You want to try to mess with me and my family? Well, let me show you that I have far more resources to make sure your life is messed up beyond belief.”

I hear someone mutter, “Oh shit dude! You seriously fucked up!”

I stare daggers at him as his face becomes progressively redder. “You bitch! The only one to blame here is you! You started all this! You took Chinatsu away from me!”

I snort and can’t help but laugh. When I can finally stop, I wipe away the tears, look at him and say, “Whew, that was hilarious. Does this ring a bell, ‘I can’t live up to yours and your families expectations’?” I look around, touch Chinatsu’s shoulder and ask, “What would you think of a boy that broke up with a girl like her for a made up reason? All because he wants to play video games more than spending time with his girlfriend?” Looking back at him, I continue, “Believe it or not, I never said a word to Chinatsu, other than to ask her to sit down and talk things out with you. Like I said, you made that decision and now you regret it. Here’s some free advice, stop blaming other people for your decisions. Only losers do that… Now, do you still want to play games with me?”

He stares at me for a few moments, then drops his head and shakes it.

“I thought not. I’ll leave this alone for now, but don’t mess with me or my family again or I’ll destroy not only you, but your father for good measure, understood?”

I turn on my heel to walk out the door as I hear, “Holy shit, Ryo! You thought it was a good idea to fuck with her? Dude, all I can say is, wow, you truly are an idiot!” Several people laugh. I smile as I keep walking, thinking, ‘And there’s his punishment. You reap what you sow.’ Regardless of what happens, he’s going to have a hard time living this down.

Thankfully, me confronting him has helped me settle down. I’m sure I’ll still have to deal with a lot of questions from my classmates, but I’m no longer angry. I’m mostly hoping that this doesn’t change how people act towards me.

Lunch for me is nothing more than a barrage of questions, some of which I answer, others which I ignore. Honestly, by the end of ‘lunch,’ which I never got a chance to eat, I’m totally fed up with the asinine questions.

It took me snapping and pointing to a couple of others in our class whose families are very well off and saying, “Enough! How are they any different? They have money too! Having money doesn’t show a damn thing about who you are!”

I’m almost in tears when Ryu takes me in his arms, pulls me against him and Kimi yells at them, “Are you proud of yourselves now? What did she do to you guys to deserve the way you’ve been treating her? So what if she didn’t tell you she owned a business. How does that impact you? Kanoko, Enji, I know your fathers work at TGR. Aren’t they better off with her in charge rather than Akiyama? I have no idea how many others work there, but I am sure several of your parents do. You folks need to take a step back, think about this and look at what you are doing for no other reason than you didn’t know.”

Thankfully, they disperse after that and leave us in peace for a few minutes, which I spend snuggled up to Ryu, wondering if I should have been honest and simply told everyone that I own TGR, while he holds me and strokes my hair. The warning chime sounds and I pull away from Ryu and we make our way back to our seats.

I basically daze my way through the rest of the day lost in thought trying to think of what to say during the press conference. Even as the final chime sounds for the day, I still have no idea what I am going to say. Really, what can I say? ‘Hello. I’m Sora Kobayashi and I’m the 13 year old owner of TGR.’ Seriously? That isn’t going to go over well.

So, the seven of us head down to meet Mr. Okami at the front gate. Yes, I said the seven of us. Kimi and Ako are coming with us since we still need to collect their things from the house and then drop them off at the house.

Once we arrive, we head up to my office to meet Mirai. I wave to our assistants as we breeze through the outer office.

“Hi Mirai.”

“Hi Sora. I’m so sorry.”

“It isn’t your fault. So, who all is coming?”

“The easier answer would be to tell you who isn’t.” She glances at her computer. “Okay, we need to leave. Five minutes until we are scheduled to start.”

My nerves are really getting the better of me at the moment. After all, this is international news. “How are we doing this?”

“I’ll open the conference and introduce you, then you take over from there.”

“Okay.”

“Nervous?”

“Very. I have no idea what to say.”

“Introduce yourself and the rest will take care of itself.”

“That’s easy for you to say.”

She chuckles. “I wouldn’t worry if I were you. I’m sure that you’ll do fine. Come on, we don’t want to be late.”

Heading downstairs, we enter the conference room through the side door. Mirai walks out to the podium on the stage as I wait in the wings. She waits until they quieten down and then begins. “Welcome and thank you for coming. Many of you already know me, but for those who don’t I’m MIrai Kuroki and I’m the senior vice-president of TGR.” The room erupts with questions from several of them. “Hang on to your questions for a little while longer. There’s been a lot of speculation about who the CEO is and today, we’re going to put that to rest.” She gestures to me and continues, “Please, welcome the owner and CEO of TGR.”

Taking a deep breath to calm myself, I let it out, paste a pleasant smile on my face and wave at them as I make my way to the podium.

The room erupts the moment they see me and the most common question being yelled out is, “Is this some kind of joke?”

I wait for a few moments hoping they would settle down. Then tap on the mic when they don’t. “Excuse me, but please, settle down, so we can continue,” which seems to work because the noise tapers off. “Thank you. Now, let me begin by introducing myself. I’m Sora Kobayashi and as Mirai told you, I own and am the CEO of TGR.”

Rather than try to come up with something to say, I decide to merely take their questions. Pointing to a reporter in the front, he stands. “Aki Hada, NHK. Ms. Kobayashi, how old are you?”

I fully expected this to be the first question. “I’m 13 and I’m in 2nd year middle school at TNA. Listen, I know it’s highly unusual that someone my age runs a multi-billion yen corporation, but then again, I’m not your typical pretty little girl.”

Several of them chuckle and I relax a little. I point to another report and she stands, “Kana Isobe, Japan Today. How did a… someone your age manage to bring TGR back from the edge of bankruptcy?”

“It wasn’t only me. I have a large team of people to help me here and we reversed a lot of the nonsensical decisions Mr. Akiyama made. Honestly, it seemed as if he were trying to make TGR fail. Every employee did their part in turning things around for us and gaining several new contracts didn’t hurt either.”

Suffice to say that I manage to make it through all the questions without any huge misstatements. After all this though, my name and picture are going to be plastered all over the news and the papers. And, finally, I can only hope that this doesn’t mean another massive change to my life.