On the way home, I think over the conversation I had with Bekker and to be honest, I’m more than a little worried. This should be at an end, but for some reason, I have a sense of dread about it and I’m on edge. Well, there should be an easy fix for this, I’ll talk to Dad and see what he says about it. Not much else I can do about it beyond that and being aware of my surroundings.

Sighing to myself, I think, ‘I can’t wait to go play in Okinawa,’ which brings something else to mind.

“Nee-chan, Sofi, do you want to invite Jim and Kei to go to Okinawa with us?”

Honoka tells me, “I hadn’t really thought about it. Would it be alright if we did?”

Smiling, I reply, “Of course. We have plenty of room at the house there and it isn’t as if we can’t afford for them to go.”

Honoka nods. “I’d like it if Jim came.”

I look at Sofi, who’s grinning like an idiot. “Do you really need to ask me that?”

All of us giggle. Of course, I thought she’d want him to go. “Okay, then text them and have them ask their parents. Remember, we’re flying out on the morning of the 30th, so tell them to do it soon.”

They both nod, pull out their phones and text them. Chinatsu leans over and whispers, “Why are you so tense?”

I shrug. “There’s something about the talk with Bekker that’s telling me this is far from over.”

“You think he might come after you?”

“If that happens, it’s more likely to be someone that I care about to try to force the nanites out of me. If he kidnapped me, I’d tell him to drop dead.”

Her eyes widen, she tenses and asks, “Do you remember what Mom told you in the car the other day? What I told you then? If you won’t think about yourself, then at least think about us! Damn it Sora, I meant what I said. If something happens to you I’ll kill myself.”

Thankfully, the windows are blacked out, so I pull her to me and kiss her. A few moments later, she relaxes and melts against me while demanding a deeper kiss. Once I break it, I tell her, “Relax Chinatsu. I have no intention of allowing them to kidnap, hurt or kill me. Even they should know that it wouldn’t help them if they did. Dad would hunt them to the ends of the Earth if they so much as lay a finger on any of us. All I meant by that was I would refuse to give them what they want, alright?”

“Do you promise me that?”

Smiling, I state, “I shouldn’t have to, but I promise.”

“Good. Sora, I know you know this, but I couldn’t take losing you.”

“I know. Calm down and relax. I doubt anything is going to happen, I’m just thinking about the worst than can happen. Nothing more than that. It’s no different than when I had Jason, Igor, Shiori and Kanna escort us shopping the other day.”

“Okay.”

She lays her head on my shoulder for the rest of the ride home. Once we arrive, I thank Mr. Okami and we head inside. We announce ourselves and hear Mama say, “Welcome home,” from the living room.

Making our way there, I climb into her lap and bury my face against her neck. She quietly asks, “What’s wrong Sora?”

“Johan Bekker followed us to the restaurant today. I talked with him in the hopes that he will leave us alone, but I have a bad feeling that this isn’t the end of it.”

She looks at Honoka and asks, “Why didn’t you stop him?”

“It was Sora’s decision and I think it was the right one. I made sure they weren’t armed and it might have gotten them to stop follow us around. Sora has pretty good instincts for these things.”

She sighs. “Okay. I still don’t like it, but if it stops this then it’s fine.”

“Sora, you’ll tell your father about this when he gets home, understood?”

I murmur, “I’d already planned on it. That is one stubborn man.”

She pulls me a little tighter against her while gently rubbing my back and says, “You’re safe at home, so relax and don’t worry about him for now.”

When I try to move off of her, she holds me in place and says, “Just stay where you are.”

I settle back against her, nuzzle against her neck again and murmur, “Mhmm.”

She takes down my hair and combs it out with her fingers. Once she has, she begins gently stroking it. Sometime during all of this, I doze off.

Mama softly saying, “Sora,” while gently shaking me, wakes me. I sit up and blearily rub the sleep from my eyes. Looking around, I see dinner is ready and Dad’s home. I lean forward and kiss Mama’s cheek, “Thank you. Apparently, I needed a nap.”

She smiles. “You were pretty stressed out. Why do you think I wouldn’t let you move?”

I nod. “Thank you Mama. I feel a lot better now.” I stand, stretch and then offer my hands to her. She takes them and I help her up. We walk over and take our seats. From the kitchen, Sofi asks, “What do you want to drink Sora-nee?”

“Some barely tea would be nice, thank you.”

She smiles at me and says, “You’re welcome.”

She brings me my drink, sits down and we serve ourselves. This is one of the quietest dinner I’ve had here since they adopted me. Hardly anything is said, but Dad keeps glancing at me throughout dinner. I’m guessing Mama told him about today.

Afterwards, Dad moves into the living room. When I try to help clean up, Honoka tells me, “You need to talk to Dad. We can handle this.”

I say, “Okay,” and walk over to Dad. I curl up in his lap and say, “I need to talk to you.” He mutes the TV and looks at me, waiting for me to continue. “Johan Bekker followed us to Kyubey’s today. I thought that if I let him have his say that he would stop following us around.”

He nods. “Makes sense.”

“Anyway, I have a feeling this isn’t over with.”

“Why’s that?”

“I don’t know, it’s just that I have a bad feeling they are going to try something to force me to give them the fertility treatment nanites. Either that or raid the nanotechnology division at TGR, which would be a lot harder for them to accomplish. I’ve already had Hiro increase security there, so that doesn’t seem likely. I suppose I’m mostly afraid they’ll try to kidnap one of my sisters, Maki or Ryu.”

He nods. “Sweetheart, I’ll take care of this, so don’t worry, alright?”

I hug his neck and tell him, “Thank you Daddy. Umm… One other thing. Can you get me two of the tracker watches? I’d like for Ryu and Maki to wear them just in case.”

“Of course. I should have thought of that myself. I’ll have them for you tomorrow evening when I come home.”

“Thank you, Daddy. That makes me feel a little better.”

Honestly, even after taking a nap on Mama, I’m still drained, so I grab Chinatsu and we head up to our room. I text Ryu and tell him, ‘We’d love to see you, but this has been a very tiring day, so we’re going to bed. We love you and will see you tomorrow.’

　◇ ◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆ ◇

[July 23, Tuesday]

Today, we go see the design firm to tell them what we want, so they can they can adjust the plans to meet our needs.

Chinatsu and I opted for a much larger kitchen on our floor than he had designed, and we had him double the size of the dining room there. We also tell him the features we would like for all the bedrooms on our floor. We made a lot of changes to the basic design he had and I could tell he was getting irritated with us, but we’re paying him for this, so he can just deal with it.

We had him increase the size of our closets. Add built-in shoe cubbies. Enlarged our bathroom and added a mirror that covered a whole wall in the dressing room. Then we had him change out the two-person tub to one that would fit six.

The designer had an external stairway with separate access to our floor in the plans, but Dad flat out told him,”No,” and to take it out of the plans. Dad also had them add a large panic room in the basement. By the sound of it, you could drop a 2 kiloton bomb on it and not do much to it.

Once we’re done with all of that, we go home. Chinatsu drags me upstairs, and says, “Sorry, but we didn’t see Ryu last night and we didn’t make love either, so I’m horny as hell and we’re going to make love right now.” She quickly strips us and we make love. Slow, gentle and sweet are the best ways to describe it. Afterward, we take a nap.

Honoka and I make dinner this evening. Once we’ve eaten, Dad calls me into the living room and hands me the watches for Maki and Ryu. I thank him, go upstairs and text Ryu to come get us. I pick up their watches and go downstairs, I grab Chinatsu and we go to the door to put on our shoes.

I open the door when the intercom chimes and after getting our kisses we walk over to his house. On the way over, I ask, “Where’s Ryo?” because I don’t really want to have to deal with him today.

“He moved back in with Dad.”

I’m a little surprised and saddened that he would do that to Maki and Ryu. I can only hope he comes to his senses quickly. “Are you alright with that?”

He shrugs. “It was his choice. I don’t think it was a good one, but he made it. He doesn’t know how overbearing Dad can be since I caught all of that. Hopefully, he’ll figure it out for himself soon enough.”

Chinatsu looks at him with tears in her eyes. “I’m so sorry Ryu, it’s all my fault.”

He stops and takes her in his arms. “No, it’s his fault. You did what you had to do. He made all those decisions on his own. Just because he regrets them now doesn’t change that fact.” He brushes away her tears and kisses her forehead. Once she calms down, we continue to his house. I palm the lock and he opens the door ushering us inside. As we slip off our shoes, we announce ourselves. Maki calls out, “Welcome. I’m in the living room.”

Ryu and Chinatsu sit down beside Maki. I sit on a floor cushion in front of them, which makes Maki look at me curiously. “Mama-Maki, I have a couple of things I need to talk to you and Ryu about.” She nods and gestures for me to continue. I take a breath and slowly let it out, then say, “There’s a man named Johan Bekker here in Japan. He’s the president of a South African tech company named GenTech. He’s basically been stalking me to try to talk to me. He followed us to where we ate lunch yesterday and I talked to him. I won’t go into all the details of why he wanted to talk to me. I’ll just say he wants something my corporation has developed and I refused.”

I look at each of them, take another breath and continue, “I’ve no way to explain it, but I feel that he might try something to try to force me to give him what he wants. That includes kidnapping one of my sisters or one of you. He might even try raiding TGR, but that’s unlikely.”

I look at the names on the boxes and hand the appropriate one to each of them. “These are yours.” They open them and then look back to me with a perplexed expression. “Those aren’t just watches.” I hold up mine since they are the same style. “They have a couple of special features. First, they’ll allow us to track you in case something happens.” They nod. “Second, they also have a panic button feature. You see that it has two buttons on the right and one on the left. If you press and hold the right buttons for two seconds and then press the left button for a moment it sends out an alert to our security teams and the police.”

Ryu asks, “Do you really think this is necessary?”

“I wish it weren’t, Ryu, but you two are too close to me. They could take you and use you to pressure me to give them what they want. No matter what, I can’t give it to them, so here we are, me placing trackers on you to help keep you safe. I don’t know what else to do other than this.”

Tears form and dribble down my cheeks. After I brush them away, I smile wryly and continue, “You two mean too much to me and my family to allow something to happen to you. Mama and Dad already consider you two part of our family. You already know how Chinatsu and I feel about you. Please, do us the favor of wearing them all the time. It would kill us if something happened to either of you.”

Maki pats her lap and tells me, “Come here Sora.” I get up and sit in her lap. She pulls me closer to her and kisses my forehead. “I hardly ever think about the fact that you’re only thirteen with how mature you normally act. Don’t worry, we’ll wear them.”

“Good, thank you… Okay, next item. We’re building a new house in Southern Tokyo on a rather large plot of land. I want to build you a house on the land. It’s safer that way.”

“Sora, I could never pay you for it.”

I shake my head. “I’m not asking you to pay for anything. I’m asking you to live there where you’ll be safe.” She sighs, then she nods. “One last thing. Do you have a driver's license?”

“I do, why?”

“Public transportation is too dangerous. I’m going to buy you a car to get around in.”

“No Sora. You spend too much money on us as it is.”

“Mama-Maki, it’s going to happen. I’ve told you before, money means very little to me and I have far more than I could ever even begin to spend. Your safety is much more important.”

“Alright Sora, you win.”

“Alright, good. Now that that’s settled.” I look at Ryu. “Honey, we have to take the finals tomorrow as well, so don’t leave on your own because we’ll be taking you with us to school. Also, from now on, I don’t want you walking back and forth to school. I know you can take care of yourself, but you’re only one person.”

“So, what do you expect me to do?”

“Take a taxi to and from school for the remainder of the semester. Next semester, you’ll be riding with us.”

“Okay. I don’t think it’s really necessary, but I’ll do as you ask.”

“Ryu, it’s necessary. I wish it wasn't, but trust me, it is. There’s been two attempts to kidnap me already. One of them in the middle of Seiyu… Now, what do you say we go to your room for a while?”

　◇ ◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆ ◇

[July 24, Wednesday]

The alarm wake me at 5:30. I shake Chinatsu awake and tell her, “Good morning.”

“Good morning. Aww~ I don’t want to go to school today.”

“Would you rather be held back a year?”

She grins. “I was being silly, as if you didn’t know.”

“I know. Come on, let’s get our uniforms, wake our sisters and bathe.”

I don’t know if you remember or not, but our uniforms are rather cute. A white, short sleeve button up blouse with a sailor collar, the collar colored by year, - green for 1st year, Blue for 2nd year, and red for 3rd year - a black jumper skirt, white thigh socks, and black leather loafers.

After we get everything together, Chinatsu heads down to start the tub filling while I wake Honoka and Sofi. We shower, and then soak for half an hour. Getting out, we dry off, blow dry and brush out our hair. We discussed our hair style yesterday and decided the four of us would do a reverse french braid bun. It’s cute and will keep our long hair out of our way.

Today, I’m cooking breakfast with Sofi’s help. I’m making western style sausage, 4 cheeses and onion omelettes, hash browns, and toast. Mama and Dad come in as we’re getting close to finishing.

Right off the bat, Mama says, “All of you look so cute in your uniforms!”

Honoka speaks for all of us when she says, “Thank you. Would you like some coffee?”

They nod and Honoka comes in to make them each a cup. She sets it down in front of them as Sofi and I are setting the serving platters on the table.

Dad says, “Sora?” I look at him. “I already talked to him about it, but don’t forget to follow up with the principle about getting your IQ tested.”

“Of course.”

We take our seats and serve ourselves. After we eat and clean up, we head upstairs to get out things. No makeup today, it’s not allowed for students, but we’re allowed to wear stud earrings, thankfully. The door intercom chimes as we’re making our way downstairs. Honoka opens the door and tells Ryu, “Give us a moment to put on our shoes and then we can head out.”

Slipping on our loafers, Honoka and Sofi lead the way out the door. Chinatsu and I smile as we tell Ryu, “Good morning.”

He replies, “Good morning. All of you look very cute in your uniforms.”

I tell him, “Thank you.”

Chinatsu and I give him a quick kiss, then he takes our hands and we walk to the SUV. Climbing in with Ryu between us, we settle in for the short ride to school. Mr. Okami stops at the front gate, comes around and opens the door for us.

After we climb out, I tell Mr. Okami, “I’ll text you when we’re done.” He nods. I take Ryu’s left elbow and Chinatsu takes his right as we walk toward the main entrance. You’d have to be deaf and blind to miss all the attention being directed at us. I hear various comments like, “Who are they? Why are they holding on to Ryuichi? Damn they are cute!” I see Ryo out of the corner of my eye and glance at him to see him glaring at us.

Just inside the main entrance are the shoe boxes. We don’t have one assigned yet, so our indoor slippers are in our backpacks. Quickly changing them, I tell Ryu, “We’ll see you later. They are testing us separately from everyone else.”

“Alright, good luck.”

Smiling brilliantly, Chinatsu tells him, “To you as well. By the way, after all the work Sora put into tutoring you, you had better get a good score. We’ll be very angry if you fail and can’t go to Okinawa with us.”

He chuckles. “There’s no way I’m going to fail. I can guarantee you that.”

“Good. We love you, see you later.”

“Love you two, too.”

After Ryu heads to his classroom, two girls step in front of us as we turn to go to the office. “Oh? Who might these girls be Chinatsu?”

I have to admit they are both extremely pretty. If it weren’t for their cold looks and very fake smiles, I’d say they were classic Yamato Nadeshiko beauties. Suffice to say, I want nothing to do with either of them.

Chinatsu says, “This is my sister Sora.” She gestures to Sofi. “This is our younger sister Sofi.” She then gestures to Honoka. “And this is our older sister Honoka.”

She gestures to the girl on the right. “This is Hisako Tachibana,” she then gestures to the one on the left, “and this is Kimiko Yamasaki.”

We tell them, “Nice to meet you.”

Hisako is the one who’s been doing all the talking so far and she continues, “Hmph. I’m sure it is. Listen up, you girls may be pretty, but we rule this school, so don’t push your luck.” Sofi chuckles softly and Hisako barks out, “What’s so funny?!”

“That fact that you believe we give a damn what you think. You want to rule this school? Be our guest, we could care less, but don’t ever make the mistake of threatening us again.”

Kimiko flares up and snaps out, “You little bitch! Who do you think you are?”

When she tries to slap Sofi, Sofi blocks it and backhands her so hard she falls to the floor. “I wouldn’t recommend trying that again. Listen to me you two, because I’m only going to say this once: Leave us alone and stay away from us. We don’t care about ruling the school or anything else. We’re not here to take anything away from you, but we won’t take any bullshit from you either, understood?” She helps Kimiko up, smiles pleasantly at her and says, “You might want to get an ice pack for your cheek. You wouldn’t want it to swell up, would you?” Sofi look back and forth between them. “Do yourselves a favor. Stay out of our way and we’ll stay out of yours, fair enough?”

She doesn’t wait for an answer from them. She grabs my hand and walks off toward the administrative offices. A little ways down the hall, Sofi say, “I hate girls like them. They think because they are pretty it makes them special.”

I stop and pull Sofi back to me. “Calm down Sofi. There’s no need to be so upset. They are a couple of pampered princesses that are used to getting their way, that’s all. They aren’t a threat to us. Girls like them are the least of our worries.”

“Sorry, I had to deal with girls like them in my last school.”

“I know how it is. Anyway, we need to get to the office.”

In the office, we announce ourselves to the secretary and are asked to take a seat. The principle comes out a few minutes later and says, “Come on in.”

We follow him into his office. He tells us, “Take a seat. I’m Kaichi Fujita. I know who you ladies are, but would you mind introducing yourselves so I can place a face with your name?”

Honoka stands and says, “I’m Honoka Kobayashi.” She gestures to me. “This is Sora.” She gestures at Chinatsu. “This is Chinatsu.” Finally, she gestures to Sofi. “And this is Sofi.”

“Pleased to meet you all. As you know, none of you finished your terms at your last school, so you’ll have to take the finals and pass them to be admitted. Sora?”

“Yes sir?”

“Your father has requested that you take the IQ test.”

“Yes sir, I know.”

“Do you really think that’s necessary?”

“Mr. Fujita, have you looked at my records?”

“No, I’m fairly busy so I haven’t had a chance.”

“If you had, you would have seen they tested me in primary 6th year and I scored a 231.”

His eyes widen and he says, “Impossible.”

I shrug. “Impossible or not, that’s what the test said.”

He pressed the intercom and when the secretary answers, he says, “Would you bring me Sora Kobayashi’s file, please?”

We sit quietly while he waits for my file. A couple of minutes later, she brings it in and hands it to him. He flips through my file until he finds what he’s looking for. After reading for a minute, he looks up at me. “I apologize, Sora. I thought they might have transposed some digits when they told me about you, but apparently not.”

“It’s nothing worth apologizing over.”

“Sora, why are you still even in middle school? You should be in high school or college already.”

“Umm… The simplest explanation is that I have some socialization issues and throwing a girl my age into an older crowd will just make things worse.”

He nods. “I can understand that. Okay, let me call our librarian, Ms. Hamasaki and we’ll get you started on your tests.” He picks up his phone and dials an extension. A moment later he says, “Ms. Hamasaki would you come to my office please?”

I’ll skip through a lot of this because it’s not all that interesting. She shows up and escorts us to a small room and has us spread out. We take tests in Japanese, history, math, social studies, general science and English. We’re given forty minutes per test, but it only takes me around twenty to complete each one.

Once we finish the last of the tests, she tells us, “They will post the scores in the main hallway on the first floor on Friday morning, but you’ll get a call to tell you your scores since you aren’t enrolled.”

We tell her, “Thank you,” and walk to the main entrance to change into our shoes and wait for Ryu. While we are waiting, Sofi’s and Honoka’s phones chime. They pull them out and both of them smile when they read the messages.

Sofi tells us, “Kei’s parents said he can go.”

Honoka chimes in with, “Same with Jim’s parents.”

Smiling, I say, “That’s great. I’m sure we’ll all have a lot of fun.”

Their beaming smiles tell me they think the same thing.