Chapter 162: Chapter 161: Dance Like…

[Tuesday, September 30]

I have no idea where this last year has gone. To be sure, I’ve been supremely busy, but it seems like it was merely a couple of days ago that we held my 14th birthday. Yet, here I am, 15 years old today.

I’ve lived 17 months as a girl, although it feels like I’ve been a girl my whole life. It took me a little while to see that this is who I truly am, and once I understood that facet of me, I've never regretted a single second of my life.

Oh, believe me, I have my memories of being Sora-nii, so I know beyond the shadow of a doubt that I used to be a boy, but quite frankly, it doesn't seem as if it was me or even real. There’s some kind of odd disconnect I feel when I think about back then. This me; the elegant, fashionable, somewhat pushy female me, this is the real me. The me that I was always meant to be.

It's amazing what a string of coincidences can bring about. Abe and his minions chase me home. They follow me inside and force me into a place that I’d have never gone otherwise. Being thirsty and drinking from that flask. It's all so improbable when you think about it. Yet, here I am.

Anyway, my birthday party is being held this evening and the list of those attending is rather extensive. Of course, family and friends will be attending, any number of business acquaintances, and of course, a large number of dignitaries from around the world. Foremost amongst those is Jenny and Mark. I’m really looking forward to seeing them in person again.

Stretching, I roll over to face Ryu, gently caress his cheek and quietly murmur, “I love you more than you'll ever know. I'm yours now and always. Never forget that.” I move closer and gently kiss him when I feel Chinatsu’s arm snake around me and her hand cup my breast. I look over my shoulder and murmur, “That goes double for you.”

She smirks, nips my neck, and quietly quips, “I know, my love. Now roll over and kiss me.”

Grinning, I roll over and give her a long, deep kiss. When I finally pull back, she quickly pulls me back to her to kiss me. I know exactly where this is heading, so I break our kiss and call out, “Eir?”

“Yes, Sora?”

“Lock our bedroom door. Emergency access only until I say otherwise.”

Basically, that will tell anyone who tries to have Eir unlock the door that we're busy since they would have to explicitly tell her the override code to enter our room. I wouldn't normally do that, but with what our parents did last year I thought it best to be cautious.

The snick of the door locking echoes through the room and she replies, “Done, Sora.”

Suffice it to say that after many orgasms amongst the three of us, we lay cuddling with each other, simply enjoying the afterglow. I give each of them a soft kiss and murmur, “No matter what else I’m given today, this will be the best present of them all.”

Ryu raises up, grins at me and says, “You can have as much of this kind of present as you want.” He leans down, nips my nipple and then suckles it, which makes me gasp as pleasure surges like electricity through me and fires me back up.

I grab his hair to make him look at me and state, “Don't do that unless you can follow through, got it?” His lopsided grin makes me say, "To hell with it," and pull him down to me as I wrap my arms and legs around him. Then bite my lip and hungrily stare into his warm brown eyes as he slips inside me.

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Sometime later, I finally tell Eir she can unlock the door and we pad our way into the bathroom to clean up. Once we finish, Chinatsu and I put our hair up in ponytails and then dress casually. For me, that’s a forest green, Bardot-style peasant crop top -yep, the style is still out there and quite popular 100 years later-; black pleated mini skirt; ankle socks and sports shoes.

That done, the three of us make our way downstairs to eat something before we girls have to go to the salon for our appointment.

I should probably mention that, much to Mama’s displeasure, Dad hired a nanny for Eri and Kaede not long after we got back from Okinawa. Think Chiaki and you’ll get the idea, but she really is a qualified nanny as well. Her name is Mariko Harikawa, 31, average height, black hair and eyes, but really cute and extremely well built. I’d say she’d give Alla a run for her money in that department.

We were a little worried when Mariko first showed up here, but she’s really good with Eri and Kaede, and they seem to like her. I get why Dad did it, we can’t always be there to watch over the two of them, so having a nanny makes sense. Tonight for example, all of us will be at my party and leaving them with strangers isn’t an option.

Surprise, surprise. Everyone else has already eaten and off doing their thing. After we take a seat Amane brings us a cup of coffee each, then asks what we want to eat. Me, I want something simple, yet filling, so I decide on smothered hash browns.

I prefer it when Amane cooks for me because Asumi’s eyes are always much bigger than my stomach. I don’t know if she thinks I’m too thin or what. Regardless, my nanites won’t allow me to exceed what they consider to be my ideal weight, so trying to fatten me up isn’t going to work. Petite I am, and petite I will remain.

I suppose you could say that I’m the original designer girl as the nanites designed my body to an ideal and keep it that way. Although, after wading my way through innumerable lines of code for them, they are also responsible for my growth throughout my life. I had to find out what was going on when my sisters and I gained a bit of height. Not much mind you, only two centimeters, and none of our other measurements changed a single millimeter. Personally, I don’t mind that aspect in the least since I think my breasts are more than large enough considering they look rather large on my frame. In many ways, I wish I was a B cup like my sisters.

There’s another section that I found fascinating. That would be the section on the nanites that maintain our brain. If you thought the nanites that maintain our cellular structure and heal us were complex, the ones that maintain brain function, memory and brain cells are far more so. They allow no aging of cells whatsoever. That makes sense when our nanites are programmed to give us a very long life. Imagine being a healthy young 500 year old with the brain function of someone on the verge of death. Not all that appealing. To answer your unasked question, yes, at 500 we’ll still be quite young since biologically we’d be 22. Therefore, my parents programmed them to maintain the cells in an almost static nature. I can’t understand how they accomplished that while still allowing for learning and gaining new memories. It merely proves that people had no idea of how truly brilliant my parents were.

Enough of my idle musings. So, a short time later, we load up to go to the salon where our hair, makeup and nails are done. My hair was done in a loose Dutch braid and bound with an emerald green bow. It’s not all that fancy, but it benefits me in many ways.

Mama chose my dress for this evening. Another little black dress, although it’s a bit more elaborate than the last one. It’s nothing less than a 1950’s style, off the shoulder, crocheted lace cocktail dress that falls about a third of the way down my thigh. The crocheted lace covers my back, the small sleeves that extend from the bodice are made from it, and there’s a small amount that covers my cleavage. Of course, I can’t wear a bra with this one since it would show and you know how tacky I think that is.

Paired with it is an emerald green ribbon belt, shimmery nude stockings and my emerald green, ankle strap stiletto heels. For jewelry, she chose my emerald stud earrings and platinum choker inset with a large emerald. Looking myself over in the mirror, I’d have to say that it’s rather elegant with a tiny dash of subtle sexiness. Once we’re all dressed and on the way, Mama tells me that I am allowed a few glasses of champagne this evening. The only stipulation being careful to not get drunk. I don’t even know if my nanites would even allow me to get drunk since alcohol is a foreign substance, so it would most likely be purged from my system in short order. Regardless, I do like the taste, so I merely nodded and replied, “Thank you. I’ll be careful.”

Entering the venue, we take our places as we wait to welcome the guests. Thankfully, it isn’t long before they begin trickling in, which quickly turns into a flood.

Katsuo, and family, enter and make their way down the line to me. “Hello Katsuo, Nami, Saya. Welcome and thank you for coming.”

Katsuo replies, “Thank you for inviting us. We..”

Then Saya interrupts him when she says, “Sora, I need to speak to you, immediately.”

I keep smiling as I tell her, “Not tonight, Saya.”

She leans forward and tries again. “It’s important.”

I drop my smile and growl under my breath, then snap out, “Believe it or not, everything going on around me is important.” She begins to interrupt me and my eyes flash angrily as I harshly whisper, “I said, not now. Tonight is my birthday, so please, allow me to enjoy it. Let me be a normal teenage girl once in a while. Whatever this is will still be there tomorrow, and we can deal with it then, alright?”

She nods and Katsuo says, “Happy birthday, Sora. We’ll see you later.” As they walk off I hear him tell Saya, “I told you to wait…”

Many more come through the line as I keep glancing impatiently at the entrance. You know damn well who I’m waiting for. 15 minutes later the line is thinning out significantly and I’m beginning to wonder if Jenny and Mark are going to make it. Fortunately, I find out my worries are unfounded when they come in. When they finally make it to me, I give her a long hug as I murmur, “I missed you.”

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She chuckles as she gently pats my back. “We talk all the time.”

I shrug. “Phone and video calls aren’t the same as in person.”

“True, but there isn’t much to be done about it. We’re both busy.”

Letting go, I look her in the eye. “Jenny, I have something to talk about with you. Would you mind if I came to Washington to see you soon?”

She smiles. “Of course you can. You’ll have to let the secret service know ahead of time so that they can make security arrangements for you. I can’t have some idiots harming my little princess, now can I?”

She began calling me her little princess during our calls and I’m used to her calling me that now, but it still makes me giggle. “Only in your eyes Jenny. Others think I’m a bit overzealous.”

As we stand there chatting, I see the greeting line disperse and Mama catches my attention, then points to a table at the front. I nod and give her a thumbs up.

Jenny smiles and replies, “Maybe in Japan, but in America you’re a celebrity. The girls all copy your outfits and follow everything you do almost religiously.”

“Me? Why?”

“Why? Do you ever take a look at yourself? You’re gorgeous, fashionable, elegant and rich. The girls want to be you and the boys want to date you. That’s enough for anyone to be a celebrity in the US. Try looking yourself up on VTube sometime to see how many videos there are of you. All of your interviews, speeches, talks and the like are there. It isn’t only the US either, you’re a celebrity in many other nations as well.”

I smile even as I shake my head. “You Americans are crazy. Me, an idol, pfft!”

Once I can stop laughing, she says, “Laugh if you want, but the truth remains that you are very popular.”

I can only shrug in reply to her statement. Offering my hand to her, which she takes, I say “We need to take our seats. Dad is going to want to start soon.” Leading the way, we take our seats. Dad gets up and walks over to the podium. He clears his throat and the room quietens.

“Ladies and gentlemen, good evening. Let me begin by telling all of you how great it is to see that so many of you took out time from your busy schedule to celebrate the 15th birthday of our little Sora.”

I call out, “Dad, please, I’m not so little anymore!”

Many laugh, Dad along with them.

“Alright. That’s true enough… Anyway, we all thank you from the bottom of our hearts for being here to help celebrate Sora’s 15th birthday. I don’t believe I need to explain how important this day is to her. Frankly, it amazes me that this very special young lady was born fifteen years ago. Haruka and I knew she would accomplish much throughout her life, but we never imagined that she would accomplish so much in such a short period of time. I expect that she will continue to surprise all of us.”

Katsuo calls out, “You forgot to add infuriate as well!”

Dad smiles and shakes his head. “That she can. When she gets an idea in her head, there’s no stopping her. You have no idea how proud we are of her, even if she does have a few quirks, and how happy she makes those who surround her. Let’s not forget that tonight is not only a celebration, but another small step into the future she is creating for all of us. So, relax everyone. Enjoy yourselves, for tomorrow the hard work begins again.

“Thank you.” He looks at Jenny. “Your turn.”

She nods, stands up and takes his place. I had no idea she planned to say anything. “Hello, ladies and gentlemen.

“I’m sure everyone knows who I am, but not how I see things. I’m genuinely honored that Sora calls me her friend. I’m quite sure that those she does feel the same way.

“First of all, a big thanks to all of you for coming to celebrate Sora’s birthday. I want to take a couple of minutes to talk about Sora and the wonderful, amazing woman that she is!

“I am so grateful to have such a great friend in my life! I’d been having a really tough couple of years, when a staff member showed me an interview Sora gave. So, I came to meet her and verify what I think I already knew. It didn’t take long for her to prove that my expectations were correct.

“Throughout the past year, I have seen Sora exceed everyone's wildest expectations. She’s a lovely, caring and fiercely dedicated woman, who refuses to take no for an answer. Sora is 15 today. 15, let that sink in and register with you. At 15, most of us couldn’t decide what color of panties to wear that day. Yet, look at all she’s accomplished so far.”

Lots of people chuckle.

“She has many roles she plays. Beloved daughter, sister, friend, fiancée, leader, genius, visionary, and problem solver are a few of them.” She turns to look at me and grins. “She even makes sure that date nights happen!

“I am honored to call her my friend. To be here for her and help celebrate another of her life’s milestones.

“Thank you.”

She walks away from the podium as Dad walks back up to it and waves for me to come up. She pauses on her way past, gives me a short hug and then seats herself. Walking up to Dad, he covers the mic and says, “You need to say something. It doesn’t need to be much.”

Taking his place, I look over the crowd of people.

“Good evening,

“A warm welcome to everyone tonight as we attempt to celebrate my birthday. Assuming we can ever get past the speeches that is. I’m frankly astounded that so many of you wanted to join us this evening.

“We should be having fun and socializing, not listening to boring speeches, right? That brings to mind the all too true words, that, at times, we should ‘dance like no-one is watching!’ Tonight should be one of those nights! Let's make some magical moments and create happy memories as we celebrate.

“I sincerely hope that every single one of you has fun here tonight! Thank you from the bottom of my heart for joining us and seriously, go on… let loose, dance a little… who cares if someone is watching!”

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