Upside Down 63 Chapter 61: The Board

After taking our bath last night and we get back to our room, I noticed the notification light was flas.h.i.+ng on my laptop. I had an email from Hestia with another twenty-four employee files in it for me to look at. I sent a text to Mirai to see if she was still up, which she was. We had a video conference call between the three of us and discussed it.

That's when I found out Hestia hadn't given her the files, which I immediately fixed. Hestia might be smart and very intuitive about a lot of things, but she's still less than a week old. She'll get better at this as she grows.

Mirai telling me about Mr. Maeda barging into our office Friday and screaming at her solidified my decision to dissolve the board at this point. I ask her to have every member at the conference room by 9:00 Tuesday and I'll take care of it.

I also ask her to read the files and be ready to give her opinions about the employees Hestia flagged for attention. Which brings up something else, Mirai has had run ins with six different members of security even after everyone was notified of her being hired. Now, I want to talk to Dad about bringing in a new head of security.

At this point, I ask Hestia about her security. She tells me there have been fifty-three attempts to disable her and two hundred fourteen attempts break into the Nanotech division's files. When I ask why she's just now telling us about this, she says it's because they came nowhere near succeeding which makes me sigh loudly and rub my temples. I tell her that any illegal attempts at access or actions against her are to reported immediately.

After ending our call, I sigh deeply as I lean back in the chair. If I wasn't already so experienced with it myself, I'd have to wonder how someone can be so smart and naive at the same time.

[Monday, June 7th]

Today starts off rather well. Get up, bathe with my sisters, get dressed, fix breakfast for everyone and lunch for my dad and clean up the kitchen afterwards.

I ask Dad to find me a new head of security and give him a summary of last night's discussion. I also tell him about going into TGR at 8 tomorrow to deal with some of this. He promises he'll have someone to replace the head of security for me before then, as well as having my security team meet me here.

Then since she didn't come to breakfast, I go check on Mama to see how she's feeling which I find she's still nauseous. So, I go get her some saltine crackers and a gla.s.s of water. I stay and chat with her while she eats a few and drinks at least half the water until I have to leave.

Mondays mean Airi and PT. Per the norm, I'm upset during my session with Airi, but I'm astounded when she tells me at the end that I'm making good progress. She'd have to have been blind to miss my look of disbelief. She chuckles and tells me, think about how little I fought her in talking about things today.

Emi works me so hard during PT that I can't even finish the session after my leg muscles give out. She apologizes for not paying attention, but Honoka still gives her a h.e.l.l of a dirty look. Again, I'm carried like a baby to the locker room by Honoka.

I'm so exhausted, can can't even move to help as Chinatsu and Honoka work to clean me up and put my dress on me. When Honoka picks me back up, I wrap my arms around her neck, lay my head on her shoulder, and we don't even make it out of the locker room before I'm asleep in her arms.

I wake up a bit after 6 in the evening in bed snuggling tightly against Honoka with her arms around me. Confused and a bit disoriented, I move to sit up and groan from the pain when I do.

She wakes up when I do and says, "Hi. You were really out of it this time."

"Umm… Why am I sleeping with you?"

She smiles. "You wouldn't let go of me. You slept against me all the way home. When I tried to put you in bed you wouldn't let go of me, so we gave up and I laid down with you. You snuggled into me and didn't move until now."

"Where's Chinatsu?"

"In her room, I think."

"I'm sorry I forced you to sleep with me."

"Sora, believe it or not, I'm happy to snuggle with you anytime you want."

"Thanks. Umm… I meant to ask you about this earlier, but… Anyway, you don't think that what happened on the train is in any way your fault do you?"

"If I had made her and Ryo come over to us it wouldn't have happened."

I shake my head. "Nee-chan, you're doing the same thing I always do. You know, as well as we do, that you aren't at fault for that. That's all that pervert's fault. You want to keep your sisters safe and we appreciate that, but you're only one person. You can't stop everything that could possibly happen. You're not G.o.d, you're simply our big sister who does her best and that's enough for us."

She shakes her head and grins at me. "Okay Sora, you win."

"Good. Now that that's settled, would you mind getting Chinatsu for me? I need her. I'd do it myself, but I don't think I can walk right now."

"Sure." She says while getting up.

"Nee-chan, you know I love you, right?"

She smiles. "I know, I love you too little sister." She leans down and kisses my forehead. "I'll go tell Chinatsu you need her. See you later."

Chinatsu comes in shortly and spends over an hour ma.s.saging my legs. Bathing comes next, so Chinatsu bounces out of the room to fill the tub. Hobbling around even after she worked so hard on my legs, I grab a nightgown and panties, then slowly make my way to the bath.

After Dad sees me, he gets angry at Emi for pus.h.i.+ng me so hard. I also find out pizza was ordered for dinner because Mama didn't feel like cooking and, of course, I was out.

After a hot bath and eating some pizza, Chinatsu and I go back to my room.

Checking my phone, I see I missed a call from Ryu and I have a voicemail and text from him. The voicemail is simply him saying sorry he missed me. The text says he is looking forward to seeing me again and Ryo won't shut up about Chinatsu, which makes me grin. Hopefully, Ryo has at least sent a text to Chinatsu. I would have called him back, but it's a bit late for that. So, I send him a text back and apologize for missing his call and tell him I want to see him too.

I set my alarm, then set my phone on the nightstand, and snuggle into Chinatsu. I doubt if it's more than thirty seconds after I do that I fall back asleep.

[Tuesday, June 8th]

First off, I wake up at 1 in the morning with a bad headache, sore b.o.o.bs, and moderate cramps. Yeah, you guessed it, PMS. This is the one thing about being a girl I truly hate, my period.

One nice thing I found out from Dr. Sato, my and, now, Chinatsu's, period aren't as long as most girls. Nanites having firm control of your reproductive cycles and hormones apparently does have some benefits.

Regardless, Midol takes care of it. I snuggle back against Chinatsu, who wraps her arms around me, and soon, I fall back to sleep.

The alarm wakes me up at 5:30. I reach over and slap it off and snuggle back against Chinatsu with a weary sigh.

A few minutes later, Chinatsu's voice brings me out of the daze I'm in. "As happy as I am that you want to snuggle with me, don't you have things to do this morning?"

I sigh. "Unfortunately, I do, but I also don't feel all that great. PMS sucks."

"Mhmm. How about a hot bath? It'll help both with the PMS and I know you have to be stiff."

The bath did help and I take some more Midol after we dress. I'm still moving slow, but at least I can move around normally.

Breakfast is far from what I would normally make for everyone, but truthfully, the smell of food is not real easy to deal with at the moment. So, I'm going simple today, scrambled eggs with cheese, bacon, and toast.

As I'm finis.h.i.+ng up, Mama and Dad come in. Today's the first time I haven't seen Mama looking pale. Hopefully, this means she's over her morning sickness because I don't like seeing her feel unwell. I really don't feel like eating, but force myself to eat at least a little because I'll need something in my stomach. Today will be stressful enough without my stomach trying to eat itself on top of everything else.

Dad notices I'm lackadaisically picking at my food and asks, "Sora, you're quiet today. Are you still hurting or don't you feel well?"

"Yes and no."

"What kind of answer is that?"

"It's nothing to worry about." I say, attempting to deflect where this is heading.

Dad's irritation is clear as he says, "Sora, just answer my question."

I sigh and blush as I reply, "Yes, I'm still a bit stiff and I've got PMS since my period is supposed to start tomorrow."

"Oh, sorry Sora. I didn't realize."

Mama shakes her head. "If you'd have thought about it, you'd have known. Sora doesn't normally evade questions and it was the first of last month when she had her period."

Blus.h.i.+ng furiously, I say, "Can we not talk about my period! Ugh! Excuse me." which nets me a surprised look from everyone.

Yes, d.a.m.n it, I'm grumpy and moody. I gather up my dishes and take them to the sink to rinse them. Then go sit down on the couch. Grabbing a pillow, I hold it against my stomach and lay down. Ugh. This just sucks. There are times my dad's straightforwardness is a bit hard to take. At this rate, today's going to be ever so much fun.

After Chinatsu and Honoka clean up, Chinatsu drags me upstairs to fix my hair.

"How do you want me to style it today?"

"Honestly, I don't really care."

She sits in my lap facing me. "Sora, I know you don't feel great, but you have to care, you're the boss. Dad says the image you present to people is how they take you. You want to be taken seriously, so you have to maintain your image." She gives me a soft, lingering kiss. "Now, how do you want me to style it?"

"Uh… Can you do something like the salon did for the party?"

"Probably not exactly, but I can get close. Would that be okay?"

"Close is fine. Oh, we can use my b.u.t.terfly pin too with this style, but before that can I have more kisses?"

She gives me a playful smile. "Someone's needy today."

She's not wrong. All I want is to cuddle in bed with her today, but that simply isn't possible. I have responsibilities. Responsibilities which I asked for, so I have to follow through.

Styling my hair, interspersed with kisses, takes forty minutes. I actually like how she's done it better than what the salon did. "Thank you Chinatsu, I really like it." I then pull her into my lap and give her a long, deep kiss. One good thing about this is my irritation from earlier is gone and I'm in a much better mood.

"Chinatsu, which do you think? My black or yellow heels?" Either would go well with my outfit, but another point of view is always helpful. By the way, today I chose a light gray short sleeve satin dress which falls to mid-thigh and sheer white stockings with a rose pattern on them.

"Yellow." She tells me which is what I was leaning toward myself. It makes for a really nice contrast.

If you're wondering where the new shoes came from, Mama has been adding to my clothes and shoes a little at a time. Although, this means s.p.a.ce is running desperately low for me right now. I'm pretty sure she is trying to turn me into an elegant teenage version of her. I don't mind at all since Mama is refined, stylish, and very feminine which is what I aim to be. I definitely need to bring up a new place for us again.

　◇ ◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆ ◇

For whatever reason my security team is late, which irks the h.e.l.l out of me. When they finally arrive twenty-five minutes later, we head out to the car. Of course, this means I'm going to be late for the meeting I called.

The driver holds the door open for us. As I step up to the door the driver says, "I apologize, Ms. Kobayas.h.i.+. We…"

"I really don't care why you're late!" I snap at him as I get in.

The look my sisters are giving me tells me everything I need to know about how I'm acting. After he gets in I lean forward. "Mr. Okami, I'm sorry for the way I spoke to you. It's not your fault and I know it."

On the way to TGR, Honoka has the driver stop at a pharmacy to get me something for my cramps which are getting worse. Let's not even mention the little fact that I'm also turning into an absolute b.i.t.c.h.

I take the pills she gives me and lay my head against Chinatsu's shoulder for the long ride to TGR. By the time we finally make it there, it's already 9:40. Honoka called Mirai before we left the house and informed her we would be late.

I tell Akari, Sanae, and Mai good morning as I breeze through the outer office and find Mirai waiting inside our office.

"Sorry I'm late Mirai."

"No problem, things like this happen. Of course, the board members weren't very happy when I informed them that the meeting had been pushed to 10:00. Especially, Mr. Maeda."

"Hmph! Why does that not surprise me." I say irritably.

"Sora, come with me for a minute." Honoka tells me, grabs my hand and pulls me into the small suite in the office. Once we are inside, she closes the door, and buries my face in her b.o.o.bs as she hugs me tightly. "Sora, calm down. You're getting far too worked up. This is not you. Just hug me and let it go."

I hug her back, take a couple of deep breaths, and relax into her while she rests her cheek against my head. A little later, she asks, "Better now?"

"Mhmm."

"Good. We need my calm, cool and lovely little sister here today, not whoever that b.i.t.c.h was."

"Sorry Nee-chan. I'm all over the place I know, it's just that it takes nothing to send me over the edge at the moment."

She nods and glances at her watch. "I understand. Try to keep it together for a little while though. Today will be hard enough without you losing your cool. We need to go if were going to make it in time for the meeting."

"Okay. Thank you Nee-chan."

Heading back out into the office, Chinatsu comes over to me to ask, "Are you okay?"

"I'm okay now. Chinatsu, would you do me a favor?"

"What's that?"

"Please stay here with Akari, Mai, and Sanae. I don't want you anywhere near this meeting."

"No, I want to be with you." She states adamantly.

"I want you with me too, but right now it's not a good idea. I fly off the handle far too easily right now and all it would take is for one of them to look at you wrong for me to lose it. I need to stay calm."

She bites her lip, then nods. "Okay, I'll stay here with them. I don't like it, but I'll do it."

I hug her and whisper, "Thank you Chinatsu. I really appreciate it. I'll do anything you ask of me later to make it up to you."

Mirai says, "Sora, we need to leave or we'll be late."

"See you in a little bit." Then I look at Chinatsu's male guard. "I'm sorry, but I don't know your name."

"Volkov, Ms. Kobayas.h.i.+."

"Thank you. Mr. Volkov, when we leave please watch the outer office door and let no one in or out until we return. I don't care who they are either."

"Certainly, Ms. Kobayas.h.i.+."

"Thank you, Mr. Volkov." I look at Mirai. "Shall we?"

She smiles. "Of course."

Honoka takes my hand and the five of us head down to the second floor conference room. We don't make more than a few steps into the room before Maeda stands and yells, "This is inexcusable! You called the meeting this morning and failed to show! Then you reschedule it and are late again!"

I glance at my watch. It's a few seconds after 10. Looking at him, I calmly say, "Mr. Maeda, my own father doesn't talk to me like that and I'll be d.a.m.ned if I let you talk to me that way. Now sit down and be quiet or leave the room. Your choice." I look around the room. "If everyone would please take a seat we can begin."

After everyone sits, I sit in my seat at the head of table. Honoka stands on my left with her hand lightly resting on my shoulder.

"I apologize for this morning everyone, there was an issue with my transportation and it isn't as if I can drive myself." Several of them chuckle. "I hadn't planned on doing this since I was content to let you folks draw your rather large salaries and carry on normally as long as you didn't cause any problems. Unfortunately, Mr. Maeda has been a problem from the moment I took over as CEO, not only for me, but Mirai and our staff as well. Friday was the last piece of straw that broke the camel's back. Mr. Maeda, you barged in to our office and began screaming at Mirai. I can't and won't tolerate this kind of behavior. Mr. Maeda, you're fired."

He stands up purple faced and I turn to my guard. "Mr. Daniels if he says one word, you're to escort him out of this room, drag him if need be. If he wants to act like a two year old we can accommodate him."

"My pleasure, Ms. Kobayas.h.i.+."

"Now, please sit down Mr. Maeda." I pause until he sits. "Thank you. I've been thinking about this since I first took over, but as I said, Friday's incident was the last straw. As of this moment, I'm dissolving the board." Several of them start muttering and I hold up my hand to stop them."Gentlemen, please let me finish and then I promise I'll answer any questions you have. Okay, thank you. I appreciate your courtesy. As I was saying, most of you have been with the corporation for over twenty years and I'll happily accept your retirement requests and provide full benefits, but your positions are gone. Does anyone have a question or something they would like to say?"

Maeda stands. I knew he would have something to say. "How does a, uh, young lady expect to run a corporation of this size? You simply don't have the experience for it."

I sigh and Honoka lightly squeezes my shoulder. "Mr. Maeda, have you ever heard the saying, an avalanche starts with one pebble?"

"No, I can't say that I have."

"Mr. Maeda, I've already introduced you to Mirai. She has experience, that is one of the reasons she was hired. I don't have the experience, yet. That will come with time. Until then, I have Mirai, amongst other advisors, and the department heads I can ask at need. A CEO's job is take all the relevant information and make a decision on what is to be done. The pebble, whatever I decide, starts the avalanche, my employees, which for good or ill moves this corporation. There's no one that makes perfect decisions no matter what age they are."

"Do you really think that is enough for someone your age to lead a multi-billion yen corporation?"

"What does my age have to do with it? The fact is I own a bit more than 76% of TGR. That gives me the right and responsibility to run this place to the best of my abilities. I'll always listen to advice, even from cleaning personnel, if it helps me run this place better. Can you say the same? So far as I have seen your style of leaders.h.i.+p involves threats and screaming. That's no way to engender loyalty. That breeds yes men, fear, and distrust. Try to tell me I'm wrong."

"Hmph, children." He grumps and sits down.

"Children indeed, but I think you should look in the mirror when you say that Mr. Maeda." Mirai says. "Sora, has yet to raise her voice to you. All I've seen you do is scream and threaten, who seems more like a child to the rest of you?" which makes several of them chuckle.

"Anything else?" I ask.

One of them asks, "If it was Maeda that was causing problems, why not just remove him? Why dissolve the board?

"Do you want an honest answer?" He nods. "Okay, because I don't trust any of you. All of you worked too closely with Akiyama. I doubt I'd ever be able to trust you. Take the retirement package and enjoy more time with your families. I'm trying to be nice here. I don't have to provide it. All I need to do is fire you all and save this corporation several million yen a year, but the thing is, I know some of you had to have done your best for this place and it wouldn't be right to do that to you. So, that's my offer."

Maeda speaks up again, "You fired me though."

"Yes, I did and I meant it. You'll be getting none of what I offered these gentlemen, but they didn't actively try to obstruct me and my staff. Any other questions or comments?" I wait for several moments and look around. "Okay then, I'll expect your retirement requests to be submitted to Akari by 8:00 tomorrow morning." I look at Mirai. "Mirai, would you have security send two people here immediately."

"Sure Sora." She takes out her phone and dials a number.

"Gentlemen, I appreciate most of you taking this so calmly and it makes me glad I decided to offer retirement instead. Mr. Maeda, you're young enough to get another job, so I'll do you the favor you never did me. I won't obstruct you from getting another job. Neither I nor any of my staff will say anything bad about you if someone calls for a reference. That is the best I'll do for you, but I suggest you not try to do anything you'll regret after this. I'm sure you take my meaning."

Someone taps on the door and the two officers I requested step in. "You called for us Ma'am?"

Standing, I say, "I did, please escort Mr. Maeda out of the building and make sure to get his access card before he leaves. Thank you."

"Nee-chan, Mirai, come on we have things to do. Gentlemen, call my office if you need something, I'll be happy to help if I can. I'm sorry this had to happen, but I do hope you have a good day."