[Saturday, July 2]

My phone blaring wakes me out of a sound sleep, and I blearily feel around on the nightstand for it. Once I find it, I slit my eyes open to see that it’s Jenny and answer the call.

Sleepily, I murmur, “Hi, Jenny. What’s up?”

“Nothing much. I’m calling to inform you that you will be in Washington DC on the 4th. No more excuses, Princess.”

“Umm, they weren’t excuses. I have been busy, you know. Heck, I stay busy lately. Busy enough that my husband and wife have been complaining. Anyway, why do you need me in Washington?”

“Don’t be obtuse. You know very well that I told you that we needed to have a meeting with Anne. You’ve put it off long enough.”

I sigh. “Jenny, I have not been putting it off. Like I said, I really have been busy, but alright, I’ll leave tomorrow evening my time.”

“Good. That will allow us to have our conversation, and then we can enjoy the fireworks.”

“Oh, yeah, that’s right. That’s your Independence Day.”

“That’s right. Text me your arrival time so that I can have you met at touchdown. We’ll see you then. Go back to sleep, Sora. Good night.”

I mutter, “Night,” and end the call. Setting my phone back down, I roll over and cuddle against Ryu. No sooner do I lay my head on his shoulder than I fall right back asleep.

　◇ ◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆ ◇

I already knew that complaints would be forthcoming when I told Ryu and Chinatsu that I had to go to Washington DC for a meeting. There are times when it totally sucks to be right.

Chinatsu bitterly states, “We haven’t even had time for a honeymoon, and you're off galavanting to Washington, yet again!”

I spread my arms helplessly. “What would you have me do, Chinatsu? I’d love for us to have a honeymoon as well. Hell, I’d love for us to be able to go to our summer house and spend even a few days there, but there’s simply too many things happening.”

She frowns. “I know all of that... Do you know how many times we’ve gotten to make love to our wife this week? Twice! That’s it! You come home, bathe, and fall asleep. And then, you are usually up and gone before we even wake up the next morning.”

I lean forward and place my forearms on the table and acidly state, “Don’t you think that I’d rather be spending time with my husband and wife? Do you really believe that I want to spend 12 or more hours a day at work?” Stand up and glare at her. “I don’t need this crap at home! I’m stressed out enough from work already!”

Ryu shouts, “That’s enough! Stop it, now! Sora, sit down!” He frowns while looking back and forth between us. “Both of you need to take a deep breath and remember that you love each other. We all want the same thing here.” He takes a breath. “Sora, You will take Chinatsu with you and go to the bedroom. You will then call DTI to tell them that you won’t be in this morning. After that, you two will undress and get into bed. I’ll be there shortly, is that understood?”

We meekly nod and stand up to do as we were told.

　◇ ◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆ ◇

[Sunday, July 3]

Mama and Dad got into a fight when I announced that I have to go to Washington for a meeting.

The first thing out of Dad’s mouth is, “No. I’m not going to give some moron a chance to shoot my daughter again!”

I begin, “Dad…”

He cuts me off. “I said no, and I mean no!”

Mama angrily states, “You are not going to lock up our daughter like this!”

He growls out, “Haruka, they shot our daughters! They tried to kill Sora!”

She retorts. “Do you believe for a single second that I don’t know that? If we lock her away, those people win, and that isn’t happening. Besides, she has responsibilities, and you know it.”

He sighs. “She does, but what if…”

Mama cuts him off, “Really? We’re going to play ‘what if’s? Are you kidding me? How about, what if an asteroid that could wipe out all life is headed for Earth? Would locking her in the house help? We can’t protect her from everything that could possibly happen. Now, tell your daughter that you love her and to have a good trip. End of discussion.”

He hesitates for a moment, then nods. I’ve told you before, even Dad doesn’t try to stand up to Mama when she puts her foot down.

He steps over to me, pulls me close and kisses the crown of my head. “I’m just worried, and I don’t want to see you get hurt again.”

Wrapping my arms around him, I murmur, “I get that, but Mama’s right. I have to go. Look at it this way: I will be in one of the most secure buildings on the planet. If I’m not safe there, I won’t be safe anywhere.”

“Sweetheart, I love you. Just be careful, alright?”

Hugging him a little tighter, I murmur, “Mhmm. I love you, too.”

After hugging Mama, and telling her thanks for backing me up, she helps me pack several days worth of clothes. It’s only supposed to be a couple of days, but you never know with how things have been going.

Even after yesterday, Chinatsu is still irked with me, and Ryu is with her. They decided to go somewhere, so here I am, alone with Mama. I doubt I’ll even get to give them kisses, hugs, and tell them that I love them before I leave, and that really upsets me.

I’ve said it before, I don’t like being away from them as much as I am, but there’s something inside me that says I don’t have a choice. Honestly, it’s annoying, but it’s persistent and drives me to do more, accomplish more, and that it’s my responsibility to make sure that things get done. It’s infuriating, and I’d really love to know why I’m this way…

Next, Mama picks out my outfit for this evening. She picks out an A-line, navy blue bustier babydoll dress, ultra sheer nude stocking with a lace print, and my white slouch knee boots. Of course, my wedding rings, a platinum watch I got for my birthday, emerald stud earrings and a black choker with an emerald pendant to go with everything.

“Mama, would you bathe with me?”

Going by her smile, you’d think that I’d just given her the best present in the world. “Of course, Sweetheart.”

You don’t have to say it, I’m spoiled by my family. After we shower and bathe, Mama blow dries and brushes out my hair.

“Sora, you need to get a haircut, it’s getting ragged again.”

I pull it around and look closely at it to see a massive amount of split ends. “Okay, I’ll do it when I’m in DC. Jenny has a stylist on staff that can do it.”

“See that you do. You’re too visible to be running around with ragged hair.”

She then styles my hair in a messy braided updo and sprays it with hair spray to keep it in place. Then she picks out a set of black hair sticks encrusted with emeralds. I told you that I got a lot of jewelry and things like this for my birthdays in the last couple of years.

We dress, and then she takes me downstairs where she has Amane make a light snack for us while we have some coffee. Honoka joins us a few moments later.

Mama clears her throat to get my attention. “Would Jenny still not tell you what this is about?”

I shake my head. “No, she’s being very mysterious about the whole thing.”

Amane comes back and sets some cheese danishes in front of us.

“Thank you, Amane.” She smiles and nods at me. I take a small bite of mine. After I swallow, I say, “I wish she would have, she’s got me curious, but at the same time it makes me nervous.”

“Why’s that?”

“Jenny usually isn’t secretive with me. If she has something to say, she says it.”

Mama shrugs. “Maybe she can’t tell you over the phone for some reason.”

“Maybe, but I’d think she’d tell me if she couldn’t. Oh well, it isn’t as if it really matters since I’m going anyway. I’ll find out soon enough.”

We finish our danishes in silence, and soon Jason comes in.

“Are you ready, Sora?”

“Yeah.”

“I’ll grab your bags and see you on the Peregrine.”

Yes, my ship is named after the lead class of the new ships.

He turns and leaves. Mama pulls me to her and hugs me. “Call me if you need anything, alright?”

I rest my head against her shoulder and murmur, “Mhmm.”

Mama kisses my cheeks, then lets me go so that she can do the same to Honoka, then she murmurs, “Watch out for your little sister.”

　◇ ◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆ ◇

20 minutes later, we’re descending to take our place in the landing pattern for Andrews. That’s one of the nice things about the Peregrine, it takes no more than 45 minutes to get anywhere in the world. Unfortunately, the alliance has restricted sales of the plane, so we can’t sell them to anyone other than the alliance military.

We land and taxi to our parking spot, where we see the secret service, along with a lot of Air police, waiting for us. They waste little time in getting our bags and us loaded into the vehicle and take off at high speed. We pick up our police escort at the gate and continue on through the cleared streets to the White House.

It’s been like this everytime and everywhere I go since Honoka and I were shot. I find it annoying as hell, but at the same time, I can understand why they’re doing it. That’s another thing. Ryu and Chinatsu mentioned wanting to go with me to visit different countries, but after the attack, I’m deathly afraid of them getting hurt, so I keep telling them no. That is probably a large part of why Chinatsu is so angry with me. What would you do, though? I’d never forgive myself if something happened to Chinatsu or Ryu. I’m sure that you can see that I just can’t take that chance.

Jenny meets us at the door. She immediately hugs me and says, “Hi, Princess! I’m so happy you're here.”

You know, it’s been years since my change, but I still can’t get over the fact that so many people care about me like this. I could never envision it as Sora-nii. He was so… well, jaded I guess is the best way to put it. Not that I blame him since he had good reasons for being that way.

I hug her back. “I'm happy to see you, too.” I pull back a little to where I can look at her. “So, want to tell me what all this is about?”

“Hang on to that thought. Anne is waiting in my office, and we can talk there.”

I look at her questioningly for a moment, then decide to let it go for right now. “Alright, if you say so.”

Jenny tells them that there’s no need for us to go through security, and after a bit of discussion, she leads us up to her office. When we get there, Anne is waiting for us.

She turns around and says, “Hello, Sora.”

“Hi, Anne.”

Jenny gestures to the loveseat and says, “Have a seat.”

I sit and ask again, “So, what’s this all about?”

Anne sits down beside me. “Sora, you know that we’ve been trying to create an alliance government.” I nod. “As it stands, the alliance is too cumbersome to govern effectively the way it is since it takes a two-thirds majority vote for anything to pass, and that is getting much harder to secure. Several of us have been talking, and we’ve come to the conclusion that we need a leader that everyone can get behind.”

Those simple words leave me with a sense of dread as I say, “That… makes sense, I suppose.”

“Sora, we came to the conclusion that a strong central leader with a congress to represent the member nations would be the most likely to succeed.”

I drawl out, “Mmkay, so?”

Anne takes my hands in hers and says, “We want to create a new form of government that hasn’t been tried before. A Constitutional Monarchy.”

Confused, I blurt out, “A constitutional what? That makes no sense at all.”

“It does, and if you’ll talk with us about it, you’ll see how it makes perfect sense.”

“Alright, but first, you’re going to have to explain to me what a constitutional monarchy even is. They seem to be mutually exclusive to me. It seems to me that a constitutional republic like the Americans use would be sufficient.”

Anne nods. “In a way, yes. In another way, no. We need a person at the top who people can and will rally behind. That means a leader with strong powers to basically force a fighting congress to work together.”

“So, a stronger version of the president.”

Anne smiles and shakes her head. “No. Not really. You know your history, so you know how much power kings and queens used to have.” I nod. “We want a monarch with almost unlimited power to lead the congress.”

“Okay, and I suppose that you want my help in convincing alliance members to join this… Constitutional Monarchy?”

Jenny and Anne chuckle, which makes me feel as if I’m missing something that should be obvious, but to me, isn’t.

Anne shakes her head. “Yes and no. We have enough others already to do that… Sora, we want you to be our monarch. We...”

Bewildered, I stand up and shout, “WHAT?! NO!”

Jenny says, “Princess…”

I whirl on her and cut her off when I yell, “Don’t call me that! I’m not a damn princess!” I look back and forth between her and Anne with a pleading expression, “Please, Anne, please, don’t ask this of me.”

Anne says, “Sora, think about it. There isn’t a better candidate out there.” She pats the seat beside her, and after a bit of hesitation, I sit down. “Look at yourself. You're bright, beautiful, kind, charming, elegant, poised, and above all, every single member of the alliance loves you and looks to you for leadership already. You put the alliance together, so you need to take responsibility for what you created.”

Agitated, I get up and pace around the office. I stop and look at Anne. “I’m 16 years old! 16! How in God’s name do you expect me to do this? Jesus Christ, I've barely even been married for 3 weeks, and I’m still learning how to be a wife, which, by the way, is rather hard when I spend so much time away from my wife and husband. And now, you want me to be royalty and somehow lead an alliance of nations that I admittedly helped create. There has to be someone else. Why can’t you do it?”

Jenny says, “Sora, Anne can’t because every other candidate from the alliance will be seen as biased. You are the one candidate that has even a remote chance of bringing us all together. It’s not really any different than when we got you approved as director of research and development. We have 105 nations in our alliance now and you also know how much squabbling goes on behind the scenes.”

“Sora, Jenny is right, but what George and I can do is be your regents. Jenny and many other alliance members have already agreed to that, if you accept, then all you need to do is ask congress to appoint us.”

“What about Ryu and Chinatsu?”

Anne glances at Jenny, then back to me. “They’ll be your consorts and they’ll be royalty as well since they’ll share your social status, but they’ll hold no position or powers other than that. I’m sorry, that’s non-negotiable, but your sons and daughters will be princes and princesses.”

I nod and look at her for a minute. “Anne, placing me in charge of development and research already placed me in the public eye. I didn’t mind that since using that popularity allowed me to get a lot of people behind our efforts. My popularity has only increased since that time. However, it also got me shot by some crazy people, too. All it would have likely taken is for those shots to be to my head and I wouldn’t be here right now for you to discuss this with.

“I’m not indestructible, and I can be killed, although it’s very hard to do so.” I look back and forth between them. “You have no idea what I went through when they shot me either. Now, you’re asking me, yet again, to take even a larger role with an even larger public presence. One I know I’m not ready for, or qualified to do.”

Anne smiles and pats my knee. “Do you think anyone is ready or qualified to rule? George and I weren’t much older than you when Queen Elizabeth died of a sudden heart attack and we had to take up the mantles. Honestly, we were terrified and we don’t even hold that much power.”

“How much power would I have?”

“Virtually unlimited. You would be able to override any congressional decision and the only way they could stop you would be a three-quarter vote by them to overturn your decision. This is being set up as a benign Monarchy with constitutional underpinnings.”

“That sounds… I dunno, ripe for abuse. What if my successor is a power hungry maniac? I’d certainly never raise one of my children to be that way, but what if?”

“There’s a proposed amendment that would allow for a vote of no confidence for a ruling monarch. If it passed, the monarch would be removed and replaced by the next in the line of succession.”

Jenny says, “Sora, you have no idea how much thought, time and effort has been put into this. Any argument you can probably think of has been accounted for.”

I shake my head and sigh deeply. “Again, I wish you wouldn’t ask this of me. Don’t I have enough I am responsible for already? And now, you want me to be responsible for everyone in the alliance as well? It’s too much to ask. I’m only 16. How can you expect me to do that?”

Anne takes my hand and gently squeezes it. “Sora, we’re going in circles here. The short answer is it has to be you. No one else would ever be approved by congress. Sora, please, for all of our sakes, do this.”

I look down at the floor while my mind races trying to come to terms with all of this, but I already know, I don’t really have a choice and they know it too. I don’t know where this sense of responsibility comes from that I have. I wish I did and I sincerely wish I could control it or at least moderate it... Me? Royalty? I just can’t see it. In my opinion, I’m nothing more than a normal girl that is extremely smart.

Looking up, I tell Anne, “I want to talk to my family.”

She nods. “We assumed you’d want to. There’s a computer across the hall, you can video chat with them.”