Chapter 168: Chapter 167: Trap

[Saturday, December 20]

Eri woke me up bright and early the next morning saying, “Sora, your parents want to see you in the living room, immediately.”

Glancing at the clock, I see it’s barely 5:30. I yawn and reply, “Thank you, Eir. Tell them I’ll be right there.”

Slipping out of bed as quietly as I can, I pad my way over to my desk, pick up my nightgown and panties, then head into the bathroom. After cleaning myself up down there, washing my face, dressing and brushing out my hair, I head down to find out what’s going on. Mama and Dad are on the couch watching GNN. They still watch the local news as well, but after I started DTI, they began watching the global news much more often.

As an aside, you wouldn’t believe how many clips they have saved of me from the news and other sources. Parents can be so… embarrassing at times.

I begin to tell them, “Good…” when Mama makes a shushing gesture and points at the screen. Walking around the couch, I wiggle my way in between them as I seat myself. Mama pats my thigh and smiles reassuringly, although why she believes I need to be comforted, I haven’t a clue.

When the anchorman begins talking and showing clips from my livestream last night. I smile here and there during them as I think, ‘I did a very good job last night.’

Then he has a panel of experts talking about their reaction to everything I’d said and showed during my livestream. They immediately launch into various diatribes about how most of it was mere flights of fancy that authors have been using to sell books for more than a century.

All I can do is frown as I stare at the screen angry and confused as to why people, who never say what their fields of expertise are, would even say things like that without even trying to find out the truth.

Finally more angry than stunned, I turn to Mama, “I need your help. I need to look professional because I’m going to make a video call to that fu… ummm, person. They are not going to say that I lied about everything last night. Especially when they have no proof that I did, other than their uninformed opinion!”

She grins as she replies, “I thought you’d say that. I just got you the perfect outfit for it, too.”

Standing up she takes my hand and pulls me up, then says, “Eir, wake up Ryu and Chinatsu. Tell them I am on my up there with Sora, so they are to get dressed immediately.”

Mama knocks before we enter, and when she opens the door, we see Chinatsu and Ryu basically run into the bathroom. She looks at me. “Get yourself a white bra and panty set, along with sheer nude stockings with no pattern. I’ll get the rest together for you. While I’m doing that, have Chinatsu put your hair in a half up, half down style.”

“Alright.”

Chinatsu and Ryu try to play the 20 questions game with me as we hurriedly get me ready, but honestly, I’m in no mood for it, and talking about it would only serve to make me angrier.

No sooner does Chinatsu finish with my hair than Mama comes in and puts on my makeup. Afterward, she dresses me in an ivory, long sleeve, wrap dress. Then gives me the jewelry she picked out for me to wear. Looking myself over, I have to say, I look rather chic, even if I’m obviously still young. Shrugging, I tell myself, ‘There’s nothing I can do about that part since I’ll remain looking like this for a long time to come.’

Mama calls out, “Eir?”

“Yes, Haruka?”

“Call GNN and tell them that Sora Kobayashi would like to speak to Mr. Daniels immediately to correct his guests’ statements.”

“Of course.”

She looks at me with a serious expression. “Sora, listen to me, Sweetheart. Remain calm, and don’t let him push your buttons so that you lose your temper with him. You push him into a corner, and bring his bias out to show everyone. Don’t give him a way out except for him to come see the truth for himself. If you do, he’ll have to prove that you misled everyone or it’ll destroy his reputation.”

Smiling knowingly, I reply, “Of course, Mama.”

She nods and pats my shoulder. “Remember, if you lose your temper, then you lose the argument. Too much depends on you showing him to be the biased fool that he is.”

I’ll leave out the waiting, initial welcome and short introduction on the video call since it’s nothing important.

However, when he asks, “What do you say in response to our experts who said you had to be exaggerating about all the new technology that DTI has developed?”

I smile pleasantly. “To begin with, I’d have to ask what they were experts in. Neither you, nor they, ever stated what fields they hold any expertise in. Even then, they never asked to be allowed to review or even see a demonstration of the tech that I introduced last night during my livestream. Another thing I’ll say is that I don’t lie. I have a well deserved reputation for that as well as for not tolerating lies or liars.”

His smirk makes me want to smack the hell out of him as he asks, “Ms. Kobayashi, you have to admit that a lot of what you showed last night seems to be unreal in nature?”

I widen my eyes innocently along with showing a surprised expression. “Unreal? Fantastical? What do you think people said about the airplane? Electricity? Or just about any other invention throughout history? New technology usually surprises us when it’s made public… Mr. Daniels, I thought you were supposed to be a serious journalist, not a commentator.”

His smirk disappears. “I am a journalist.”

I innocently ask, “Is that so? From what I saw this morning, you, and your guests, were commenting since the five of you were talking opinions, not facts. You can’t have facts without actually finding out the truth. Before you aired that segment, don’t you think asking me for proof or at the very least, a tour to see things in person might have been warranted?”

He looks irritated as he says, “My team here tried to contact you about today.”

Continuing to act innocent, which really isn't an act, I ask, “They did?” I think to myself, ‘He just screwed himself!’ Smiling slightly, I call out, “Eir, contact Athena and ask her if there were any requests for an interview this morning.”

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“Of course, Sora. One moment, please.”

“Mr. Daniels, I seriously doubt your team did because I’m informed of every request for an interview. If your team actually told you that they did, you were most likely lied to.”

Eir says, “Sora?”

“Yes, Eir?”

“Athena says that the last time there was a request for an interview with you was five days ago from the BBC.”

“Thank you, Eir.” I smile a little wider and spread my hands in a helpless gesture. “Athena is our level 2 AI at DTI, and she literally knows every word said, action taken, project status and all of the innumerable other little things that go on anywhere on our campus. Nothing gets past her, so I’d say that you might want to ask your staff about this since you and I both know that AIs can't lie.”

He frowns, but nods. “I believe that I will. Now you said that if I’d asked, that you’d have given me a tour in person?”

I smile brilliantly because he is walking right into the traps I’ve set for him. I reply, “Definitely, but like I said in my livestream last night, I can’t show you some projects since they are classified.”

His expression says he’s excited, like he has me backed into a corner as he asks, “But, you’ll definitely show and demonstrate all of the projects you showed in the livestream?”

“Of course. I have no issue with that at all. So, if you want to know the truth of the matter, contact my office, set up a time, bring your cameras and film all you like as long as you don’t violate security. I’ll give you a personal walkthrough just like I did for everyone else during the livestream last night. I’ll have our engineers give demonstrations of each of them as well. All you need to do is call my assistant.” I lean forward and challengingly state, “So, what do you say, do you want to show your audience the truth? Show them that you’re a journalist and not an opinion based commentator?” I touch my chest with my left hand as I state, “I have nothing to hide, and I’d be happy to show you.”

I’m giving him everything he could possibly want here. If he doesn’t take the bait, he just killed his credibility as a journalist. He tries to dig himself out by snidely asking, “Come, now. Do you actually mean that?”

“Absolutely. I’m a busy person, Mr. Daniels, but I can spare a few hours of my time for you to show you around.”

He hesitantly nods. “Then, I’ll have an appointment made. Thank you for calling today, Ms. Kobayashi… That’s all the time we have for today…”

Ending the call, I lean back in my seat and look over at Mama. “What a pompous ass. Save me from that fate. I’d hope that you and Dad would spank me if I ever started acting like that. What’s even worse is that it’s people like him who are always asking how this world ended up being so screwed up.” I throw my hands up in the air as I look at the video screen. “Hello! Look in the mirror! UGH!” I shake my head and growl as I stand up, while Mama covers her mouth and laughs.

　◇ ◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆ ◇

[Chinatsu's POV]

Ryu and I stand off to the side watching as Sora handles that Daniels idiot like he was a naive little kid.

Finally, she ends the call, leans back in her seat and looks over at Mom. “What a pompous ass. Please save me from that fate. I’d hope that you and Dad would spank me if I ever started acting like that. What’s even worse is that it’s people like him who are always asking how this world ended up being so screwed up.” She throws her hands up in the air as she looks at the video screen. “Hello! Look in the mirror! UGH!” Then she shakes her head and growls as she stands up. Mom looks at her for a second then covers her mouth and laughs.

I feel a little lost here. I mean, am I the only one that feels as if I don’t know Sora any more? She’s changed so much in such a short period of time. Don’t get me wrong. I dearly love the changes in her. She’s so much more confident, outspoken, and definitely more mature. In my eyes, all it does is make her even sexier.

I don’t know, maybe it’s because I kind of feel as if she might be leaving us all behind. Oh, I know it isn’t true and she’d never do that to us. All one needs to do is watch her with Eri and Kaede, or her banter with Sofi and Honoka, or even when she’s simply relaxing in bed with Ryu and me to see how much she loves us.

But, she’s taking these huge steps into a much bigger world that we can’t understand or even follow her into, and truthfully, that worries me. Not for any reason you might normally think. Like her finding someone else and falling in love. That isn’t going to happen, and I know it. I’m worried that she’s going to get so caught up in trying to save everything and everyone that she loses sight of everything except that.

She’s so busy, and even when she’s at home with us, more often than not, she gets calls that she has to take. She used to try to talk about work with us. Honestly, I don’t believe any of us got what she was saying, and I know for a fact that she lost me in short order. The concepts and developments were far too complex for me to understand without a lengthy explanation, so it kind of left me blank faced. I realize that she’s stressed out dealing with all of this, and I want to be here to listen and help her through it, but I haven’t a clue how to do so. Therefore, she’s turned to Jenny and Airi for much of it, and that’s another little stab in my heart.

I glance at Ryu to see him grinning. “Why are you grinning?”

He gestures to the bathroom. “Sora, why else would I be? She led that man around by the nose the whole time.” He shakes his head slightly. “I don’t feel as if I’ll ever measure up to her, but then again, I don’t think she wants me to even try to.” He looks down at me. “You know, Chinatsu, all she wants is for the two of us to be happy. That’s it, nothing more. She doesn’t care what we decide to do with our lives. The only thing I’ve ever seen her demand of us is our love, and she already has that.”

I take his hand, lead him over to the loveseat and we sit down. “Ryu, did you ever wonder where you belong?”

He nods. “All the time, but isn’t that normal for people our age?”

I shrug. “I’ve alwa… uh, I know where I belong. By Sora’s side. Now, I belong with both of you. Other than that, I haven’t a clue. I wanted to be a doctor, but if what Sora wants to do for humanity comes about, then all that time spent becoming one would be wasted. There are other things I can do.” I shrug again. “For that matter, I could simply be a wife and mother to both of your children. The thing is, Ryu, I don’t want Sora to leave us behind.”

He pulls me to him and holds me. “I don’t think we need to worry about that. This is Sora we’re talking about. She’s the most loyal person I know.”

[Sora’s POV]

A member of Mr. Daniels' staff calls Athena later that day to set an appointment. She places them on hold and calls me. I tell her to set an early appointment for them on the 23rd since Christmas is coming up and then I’ll be in Washington DC until the New Year visiting Jenny.

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