Chapter 126: Chapter 125: Search…

[Sunday, August 18th]

Today starts out well enough. We bathe, dress and make breakfast. After we eat and clean up, we’re sitting at the table having coffee and chatting when the doorbell rings. Chiaki gets up, goes to answer it and comes back with Hiro in tow.

Miyuki immediately smiles, gets up, goes over to hug him and says, “Good morning, Dad. Would you like some coffee?”

Smiling, he replies, “Good morning. Some coffee sounds great,” and she heads into the kitchen to make him a cup.

“Good morning, Hiro. Have a seat.” Once he sits down, I continue. “I didn’t expect to see you today.”

Miyuki comes back, sets his coffee down in front of him and takes her seat.

He clears his throat and says, “I wanted to see Miyuki and I have something to talk about.” He turns to look at Miyuki and continues, “Baby, Shin and his friends were arrested Saturday morning.” Her eyes widen and then she simply nods. “They charged them with multiple counts of ‘Sexual Battery on a Minor and Simple Assault on a Fertile Female’ and are being held without bail pending trial. Do you understand what that means?”

She nods again and says, “I do. It means they won’t get out of jail.”

“True, but that isn’t what I was getting at. It means it’s safe for you to come home and I’d like…”

She drops her head and even though she’s sitting right beside me, I can barely hear her when she murmurs, “No.”

Hiro asks, “What baby?”

She looks up at him with tears running down her cheeks and cries out, “I said no! I’m never going back there! I hate that house!”

I reach over to touch her and she glomps onto me. Looking at me, she begs, “Sora-nee, please, don’t let him make me go back there, please! I can’t stand that place!”

Hugging her tightly to me, I rub her back as I try to soothe her, “Shh~ It’s alright. Calm down.” I look at Chinatsu and say, “Would you take Mii upstairs to our room?” She nods and I say, “Thank you.”

I watch them until they leave the room and then turn back to look at Hiro. “Airi and I warned you that this could happen. That house has too many traumatic memories for her. She may never want to go back there.”

He sighs. “Sora, I know what was said, but I want her home with me. I miss my daughter.”

I look at him for a moment while I think. ‘I don’t believe it’s a good idea to try to force her to go back there.’ I look into the living room at Dad. “Dad, can we borrow your office so we can talk in private?”

He looks over his shoulder and replies, “Of course.”

I tell Dad, “Thank you,” and look back to Hiro. “Come with me, please.” I lead him down the hall to Dad’s office and tell him, “Take a seat. I’ll be right back, I need to get my phone.”

Heading upstairs to my room, I open the door to see Miyuki clinging to Chinatsu. I think, ‘I knew the very second that he said it that this was going to happen.’ Walking over, I softly stroke her hair and say, “It’s alright Mii, try to calm down. I’m going to grab my phone so I can call Airi and we’ll have a talk with him about this.”

“Sora-nee, I really do hate that house. I don’t ever want to see it again.”

“Mii, trust me, I understand. I’ll do everything I can to make sure that you don’t have to either.”

Bending over, I give Chinatsu a kiss and murmur, “Thank you.”

She nods and Miyuki murmurs, “Hey, I want a kiss, too.”

Chuckling softly, I kiss her on the cheek and tell them, “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

I pick my phone up off the desk and head back downstairs. In the office, I take a seat, Hiro looks at me questioningly as I scroll through my contacts and click on Airi’s entry. Clicking on the speakerphone icon, I set it down.

Airi’s concerned voice answers after a couple of rings. “Sora, is something wrong?”

I reply, “Hi Airi, I’m fine, but we have an issue with Miyuki.”

“What kind of issue?”

“Hiro is here with me and he told her that the boys who attacked her have been arrested, so he wants her to come home. She freaked out, refused to go home and begged me not to let him make her go because she hates that house.”

Airi says, “I see. How has she been doing up until this morning?”

“She’s been doing really well. We’ve mostly gotten her out of her shell and she’s been as talkative, happy and boisterous as I’ve ever seen her. She still dives right back into it when something bad happens though.”

“Alright. Hiro?”

He replies, “Yes?”

“Don’t you remember what I told you about Sora and Miyuki as well as about the house?”

“Of course.”

“Then why are you trying to take her out of a safe environment and stick her right back into the place where all of this started?”

“Airi, I miss my daughter and I want her with me.”

I can almost see her quirk her eyebrow as she asks, “And you’re willing to throw away all the progress she’s made and force her to stay in a place she hates and finds traumatic simply because you miss her?”

He sighs. “Okay, I get it, I won’t force her to come home, but what am I supposed to do? I can’t very well just buy another house for us to live in.”

“Hiro, it isn’t just about the house. Miyuki needs Sora right now. At the risk of repeating myself again, if you force them apart you are taking away all the progress she’s made so far. Miyuki is a very traumatized little girl. If you force them apart you are just going to make things worse. Miyuki needs Sora.”

“You said that before, but for how long?”

“I have no idea, but it could be forever. She might never recover from what he and his friends did to her. I can’t really say for sure, but I’ll probably have a better idea in a few months.”

I jump in and say, “Hiro, I have an idea, but I’ll have to ask Dad about it. Give me a second.” I walk to the door, open it and yell out, “Dad, could you come here please?” A few moments later he comes into the office and I tell him, “Can you sit down? We have a bit of an issue.”

I spend the next few minutes catching him up on everything that’s been said and then tell him, “I hate to ask, but can we…”

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Dad shaking his head and chucking cuts me off, then he says, “Of course, Sora. It will be a few weeks before it’ll be finished for them though.”

Hiro has a confused expression as he asks, “Mind explaining what you two are talking about?”

“It’s not that complicated. Sora wants us to build you a new house on the property we bought in southern Tokyo.”

“I can’t let you do that.”

I shrug. “It’s either that or you’ll have to keep visiting Miyuki at our house.”

Dad says, “Look Hiro, I understand that you miss Miyuki, but after everything that she’s been through, staying with Sora is the best thing for her. I’m sure you can see that. I’ll be happy to build you a house on the property and you won’t have to pay a single yen for it. One condition though, you’ll not try to take Miyuki away from Sora until she’s ready.”

“What if she’s never ready? I miss her. I lost my wife, now I’ve lost Shin and maybe Miyuki as well.”

I understand where he’s coming from, but he needs to give her time to heal, so I tell him, “Hiro, you haven’t lost Miyuki. She loves you and she loves being with you, that should be obvious, but she can’t stand that house. I told you before that you are always welcome to visit. For that matter, take her out, go to a movie or something else that’s fun. I’m sure that she’d enjoy that.”

Airi, who's been quiet this whole time, speaks up, “Hiro, if you want what’s best for Miyuki, then leave her with Sora and visit her often. Give her some time to heal and come to terms with what happened to her.”

“Alright. I’ll do as you say.” He looks at Dad and continues, “Eiji, thank you. I appreciate you building a house for us there.”

Not much more happens here, so after we end the discussion, I head upstairs to get Miyuki and bring her back down. After telling her what was decided, Hiro asks if she’d like to go do something and she happily says yes. They come back as we are cooking dinner and we invite him to eat with us, which he accepts.

[Monday, August 19th]

Usual morning routine for us again. We bathe, dress and make breakfast. After we eat and clean up, we head upstairs to finish getting ready. Remember, today, we have our appointments with Airi at 9:00 for me and 10:00 for Miyuki.

Once we’re ready, I text Mr. Okami, collect everyone and we head to NTI.

I won’t go into any detail about our appointments, but I finally figured out why I got so upset when Ryu said I was dead. It’s a rather simple reason and you might even have guessed it yourself. It’s nothing more than I love Ryu and it hurt him that I died and he blamed himself. I can’t stand seeing anyone I care about hurting, so of course, it would upset me.

After Miyuki finishes her appointment with Airi, we set our next appointments.

As we are walking to the elevator I ask, “What sounds good for lunch?”

Miyuki grabs my arm and energetically chirps, “Barbecue!”

I smile and shrug. Everyone nods as I look around. “Okay then, barbecue it is.”

Thinking for a moment, I decide on Han no Daidokoro Honten since the food there is excellent. Pulling them up on my phone, I set a reservation for us as we make our way out to the SUV. I tell Mr. Okami where we are going and we head to the restaurant.

Lunch is awesome. Both the service and food are phenomenal as well as the portions being large. I still have no idea how Miyuki can eat as much as she does, but as I said before, I won’t stop her from eating however much she wants because she needs it to begin filling out like she should. After we eat, I pay our bill and we head out to go to TGR.

We arrive at TGR a bit after 12:30 and, along with our security teams, make our way up to my office.

After we greet everyone, Miyuki asks, “Can I go visit my dad?”

“Sure. Miku, Ume, would you mind going with her?” They both nod and I continue, “While I’m thinking about it, she needs security as well, so why don’t the two of you watch over her from now on?”

Miku replies, “No problem, Sora.”

After they leave, I sit down in front of Mirai’s desk and she fills me in on the people Hestia contacted.

“First up is a researcher from Germany, Albert Klopp, at 1:00. Next is a Swedish researcher, Valter Kinnaman, at 1:30. After him is another Swede, Ingrid Larsson, at 2:00 and finally, a British researcher, Dakota Robinson, at 2:30.”

I won’t go into a lot of detail, but I will say, five minutes into talking to Albert Klopp I decided not to offer him a position. It’s one thing to be confident, quite another to be arrogant to the point of rudeness and look down on people.

Valter Kinnaman, well, he wouldn’t even look at us when he was talking. I’m not sure what that was about. Whether he’s simply shy or what, he would have to be able to lead a team and you can’t do that with the way he acted. So, that’s a pass for right now.

Ingrid Larsson, something felt off about her and I looked at Mirai questioningly, who simply shook her head no. It seems she got the same feeling I did from her. So, another definite no.

Dakota Robinson is bright, cheerful, expressive and personable. Never married and nothing to tie her down in the UK. The more I talk to her, the more I like what I see and hear. When I looked at Mirai for her opinion, she nodded.

When I look back to the screen, I lean forward, smile and ask, “So, what do I have to do to get you to come work for us?”

She grins at me and replies, “I was already interested or I wouldn’t have accepted the interview, but if you’ll guarantee that I’ll be allowed to do a research project that I’ve had in the back of my mind for a while now, then we have a deal.”

“That’s all?” She nods. “What about salary? A place to live?”

She shrugs. “I don’t have much use for money, but I’m sure you’ll pay me what I’m worth and if you can line up a place for me to live that would be great.”

“Hmm… How about ¥22,500,000 a year, we pay for your housing, and provide a car for you to use? We’ll also pay your relocation expenses as well.”

“That works for me. It’ll take a couple of weeks for me to wrap up my affairs here once I tender my resignation.”

“That’s fine. If you run into any problems give Mirai a call and we’ll do everything we can to help.”

She smiles and says, “Thank you. I appreciate that. I’ll see you in a couple of weeks then.” She waves and says, “Bye.”

I tell her, “Bye.”

After I close the call, I turn to Mirai and she says, “I really like her. She’ll fit right in here.”

“I think so too. Would you and Hestia make the arrangements for her housing and admittance to the country?”

“Of course.”

After we say our goodbyes, we head down to collect Miyuki and her security so we can go home. All in all, I’d say it was a rather productive afternoon.

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