Once I return, we spend the remainder of the night dancing and generally having a good time. Although Gen did pull me off to the side to tell me that work would begin on Yakushima’s seaport around the 10th of January. Finally, midnight rolls around and we toast in the New Year along with some short kisses for Ryu.

[Wednesday, January 1, 2059]

Eir wakes us up well before sunrise today. For a lot of families in Japan, ours included, eating breakfast as they watch the sunrise is a tradition. Mama, Honoka, Sofi and I spend the morning making our New Year's Day breakfast, then we eat as we watch the sunrise.

After breakfast, we all head off to clean up and dress for the shrine visit. As stated, we girls will be wearing our kimonos to the shrine. While I do believe we are rather cute in them, dressing this way on a regular basis is not appealing in the least. Trust me when I say that donning a multi-layered kimono is arduous and quite time consuming.

The trip and visit to the shrine is heavily structured as well because there are far too many people there, so we’ve been admonished, multiple times mind you, not to leave the group for any reason. It takes quite a while for us to make it to the front of the line, all for a short prayer for a happy and healthy new year.

Back at home, we change into more comfortable clothes and just before dinner, Airi and Hiro arrive. After we eat, I take Mii into the living room along with everyone else, have her take a seat beside me.

Taking a deep breath to calm myself, I begin, “Mii, we have something to tell you and I need you to try to remain calm, alright?”

She nods and replies, “I’ll try.”

“There’s no easy way to say this, so I’m simply going to say it. Shin, and his friends’, trial is set to begin on the 3rd at 9 in the morning.” She nods. “You have to be there to testify as well.”

“I knew that already.”

“Mhmm. Now, it’s up to you if you want to stay for the whole thing, or just long enough for you to testify.”

“Okay.”

“Mii, we can’t go in with you because they are still minors so it’s a closed trial.”

Airi jumps in at this point to say, “Miyuki, I can go in with you since you are under my care, but that’s all.”

Mii begins to tear up and says, “But…”

I knew that we’d end up here like this. Reaching out, I take her hands. “Sweety, you are so much stronger than you think you are. Believe me, you can do this. You want to see them punished for what they did, right?”

She nods firmly. “I don’t want them to have a chance to do this to someone else.”

This goes on for a bit, but you get the idea of how the conversation goes, and she finally resolves herself to see this through no matter what.

[Friday, January 3]

I’m again not going to go into a huge amount of detail about today. After much discussion, it was decided that it would only be Hiro, Airi, Honoka, me and our security that would go to court with Mii.

We arrive shortly before 9 and take a seat outside the courtroom while we wait for the bailiff to call Mii to the stand, which happens around 10:45. Airi goes in with her as we continue our waiting game. Thankfully, I have my laptop with me so I can catch up on some of the most urgent projects that are ongoing at TGR.

They break for lunch and we head out to eat, then come back. Soon after we arrive, the bailiff again takes Mii in. She doesn’t come back out until shortly before 4. We already know that she can’t talk about anything she testified to, so we don’t even ask and I merely take her hand as we head out to go home.

[Monday, January 6]

As I’m sure you remember, today I have an interview with NHK News along with a couple of others to ask me questions. I’m not really looking forward to it, but it was the only way to get them to agree to leave me alone.

My parents consider it important enough that Mama took me shopping for the perfect outfit for it. Personally, I believe I have plenty of outfits that would have been more than appropriate for the interview without Mama dragging me around the mall for most of the day. I’d normally have enjoyed it, as you know, but looking for one outfit for one interview is a bit much in my opinion, not to even mention all the changing I had to go through.

She finally settled on an emerald green sheath dress that falls to my knee. I’ll be wearing a black belt, sheer lace patterned stockings and some black t-strap heels along with it.

I have to admit that after I’m dressed and Mama does my hair, I do look very good and quite professional. Of course, I’m not going to wear much in the way of makeup, other than my usual eyeliner, mascara and lipstick since they will be doing my makeup at the studio.

Chinatsu wanted to come as well, but Dad told her no that it would be just him, Honoka, me and my security team. Amazingly, she didn’t fuss too much about it. We head out a little early to make sure we aren’t late and arrive about 15 minutes or so early.

I’m quickly ushered in and they do my makeup. Then they escort me into the studio to introduce me to Erina as they pin a microphone to me. After they finish, I take my seat and cross my legs as I get into a comfortable position.

Soon, the director says, “5… 4… 3… 2…”

“Hello, I’m Erina Arai and welcome to a very special live edition of Direct Talk. Today, we have with us Sora Kobayashi, the young lady that everyone is so curious about. She’s the owner of Tokyo Genetics Research, amongst other businesses.” She turns to look at me. “Sora, thank you for agreeing to be here today.”

Smiling pleasantly, I reply, “It’s my pleasure. Thank you for having me.”

“So… I’m sure the first question you always get asked is exactly how old are you?”

Chuckling lightly, I reply, “You have no idea how often I’m asked that particular question, but I’m 14.”

“You’re still quite young, then.”

“As far as I am concerned, age is simply a number. I’ve met more than my fair share of adults that were immature and irresponsible.”

She smiles. “That’s true enough. Well, Sora, let’s begin here: If I asked you for one sentence to define who you are, what would that sentence be?”

I giggle since I never expected the question. “That’s easy. I’m simply a slightly abnormal teenage girl. Before you ask, I’m abnormal because I’m a genius, although everyone already knows that much. Other than that I consider myself quite normal for a teen.”

“How so?”

I shrug slightly. “I like the same things that most teens like. I like shopping, swimming, movies, dates with my fiancé, playing with my friends. I simply have other responsibilities, interests, and security concerns that most other teens don’t have.”

“Hmm, yes, I noticed that you have quite the security entourage.”

I nod. “Unfortunately, I have to have it. There have been two attempts to abduct me. I can’t really go into detail about why, but basically, the ones who tried want something my corporation has.”

“So, the ones that did it have been in contact with you?”

“Some, yes.”

A reporter from Reuters asks, “Can you tell us what they were after?”

I shake my head. “Unfortunately, no. That’s confidential information, and releasing it could very well make things worse. When the time is right, everyone will know what it is.”

Erina takes back over and says, “Let’s change the subject. Our researchers found out that you formed a new corporation, Dream Technologies, and that you hired Katsuo Yoshimori to be the COO. What will be their focus?”

That didn’t take long to get out, did it? “I’d say less of a focus than a direction I want them to take us. Mankind has stepped back from space. That’s not a good thing by any means.”

She looks a little confused as she states, “But, we have space stations and satellites. I can’t see that we’ve stepped back.”

“I never thought about it either until I had a conversation with a friend of mine and he pointed out several things, which made me think. We are stuck in a gravity well with a huge target painted on it. Scientists have been saying forever that it will only take one large comet or asteroid strike to end the human race. The virus showed us, in no uncertain terms, that cosmic threats weren’t the only ones that could wipe us out. We lost 90% of the human race in a decade, and our numbers have barely budged from where they stabilized.”

I pause and take a breath. “Look, we can’t even reach our moon at the moment, and we need to spread out to other planets and moons to reduce the risk. Not to even mention that we need the resources of the asteroid belt. Sure, people now live much better lives than ever before, but Earth’s resources have already been heavily depleted. Nanites have much improved our recycling abilities and massively reduced the impact of mining on our environment. That helps a lot, but they aren’t long term solutions. We need better power sources. New, more powerful and reusable engines to get us into space. Decades ago, we were researching all of that. We need to resurrect and improve on them rather than relying on technology that was out of date 50 years ago. Do you have any inkling of how many good ideas have been shelved over the years? Ideas whose time has come since we have the means and technology to bring them to fruition. Is it going to be easy? By no means, but if we as a species want to survive, we don’t have a choice or nature will choose our fates for us.

“That is the direction I want, and we need, DTI to take us in. DTI can lead the way and take the first steps to begin developing the technology we need to do all of this, but it’s going to take everyone. By that I mean, the nations of Earth putting aside their animosity and distrust so we can work together to save us all.”

“Do you believe that is likely to happen?”

“I don’t know. I’d love to believe that man’s better nature would allow us to work together to create a better, more prosperous future for all of us. I do know that we have the drive to do it. It merely takes resolve for us to take that rather difficult path. The Americans showed us what resolve could do back in the 1960’s when they decided they were going to the moon no matter what…

“Right now, I’ll happily settle for the nations that are willing to set all that aside and work with us to achieve that to join us. I’d hope that the others will come to see that it’s in everyone’s best interest that we all work together. I suppose we’ll simply have to wait and see. As it stands, DTI is still in the process of forming, we have a long road ahead of us before we can even start taking those steps. We have a lot of work to do before we can even begin.”

The reporter from the Associated Press says, “It certainly sounds like you have the vision and drive to get us started. If you don’t mind, I’d like to go back to something you said earlier. You mentioned that you were engaged. Aren’t you a little young for that, and who’s your fiancé?”

I’d hoped that they’d have left this subject alone, although I suppose that was too much to hope for. “Yes, my sister, Chinatsu, and I are engaged to the same young man. His name is Ryuichi Ueno and no, I don’t believe we are too young to be engaged. This isn’t one of them, but arranged marriages are still a thing here, so it happens quite often.”

He nods. “Next: I’ve heard rumors that TGR is in the process of getting approval for a medicine to combat the virus. Is that true at all?”

“I’m sorry, but I can’t really comment on such speculation. Look, if it were true, then I’d be divulging confidential information and secondly: even if something like that were true, how do you think people would feel if we were seeking approval for it and it failed? It’d be devastating to say the least, so no, no comment.”

I think you’ve got the gist of how and where all this is going. I no commented a lot of their questions, especially ones where they were about my family. I’m not about to give our enemies free information.

The interview wrapped up after 2 very long hours. I’d have never thought a conversation could be this exhausting.