Chapter 44: Chapter 43: Honoka

UGH!!! I got in one short little kiss with Chinatsu before Mama and Dad showed up. It's not like they don't know about us, so that isn't the problem. The problem was what Mama said with Dad backing her up, “No sex for three days.” That if they saw so much as a hand on a boob, we would be sleeping and bathing alone for that time. Oh, yes, almost forgot, no locking my door during this time too.

What am I? An invalid? Sex is relaxing, sex is fun, and no, sex isn't all I think about. I love cuddling with Chinatsu as well. Just the feel of her soft, warm skin against mine makes me feel totally at ease.

Of course, nude her against nude me usually comes out equaling sex. I’m not going to lie about that. What do you expect? She's one very sexy girl. We love each other, so sex is a natural extension of that. Nothing wrong there at all. I'll remind you prudish people out there that the age of consent is thirteen here. Don't like it? Don't live here.

Anyway, we didn't even think of trying to argue with them over it when we saw their expressions. A mixture of relief and worry. I've put my poor parents through the wringer since they adopted me. So, here I am, three days of no sex. If it makes them feel better, then we can deal with it. I’m pretty sure I can keep my libido in check. Simply hugging, kissing, and cuddling is rather nice too.

Climbing off Chinatsu's lap with a resigned sigh and maybe a touch of regret that they didn't come a bit later, I sit down beside her while our parents immediately start a game of twenty questions with me. You can guess the general content of them. How are you feeling? What happened? Blah, blah, blah. I'm getting very tired of hearing and answering those questions to be honest. It would be nice to have one day where it was 'Sora, you look well today.’

Thankfully, Dr. Sato's arrival interrupted their favorite game with me. Chinatsu explained what Airi did and relayed what she said. He then performed a wide variety of cognitive tests on me and very reluctantly admitted I was healthy enough to go home.

We thanked him and he left. Wasting little time, I basically leapt out of the bed to change into my dress, which drew an overprotective comment from Mama. I can see the next three days are going to be so much fun for me. I doubt she'll even allow me to help cook. Well, tomorrow I do have an appointment with Airi at 10:00 and then my physical therapy appointment at 11:30, so at the very least I have those to look forward to.

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On the way home, Dad tells me that Lt. Aoki will be having dinner with us so he can finish explaining to me what they found out. I’m not really sure I want to do that after what happened earlier. I suppose you can say I’m still a little gun shy.

That is, until Sora jumps in and tells me there's nothing to worry about anymore since we already dealt with what caused the problem. How that can be both disconcerting and reassuring at the same time is a little weird.

Whatever, I suppose it's simply another checkmark in the ‘strange things about me’ column. As if there weren't enough of them already. I guess the biggest ones would be boy turns into a girl, loves being a girl, girl loves a girl, but also finds boys attractive. Eh? Why did Ryuichi’s face pop into my head when I thought that? Are you putting thoughts in my head Sora? Oh, now you’re quiet. Figures.

We announce ourselves as we walk inside. After I take my shoes off, I head into the living room and see Honoka and Lt. Aoki at the dinner table talking. One look tells me there’s a huge problem.

“Good evening Lt. Aoki.” I say to him. He smiles at me and nods, but honestly, most of my attention is focused on Honoka. “Honoka, can I borrow you for a second please?” I ask sweetly.

“Do you need some help, Sora?” she asks.

“In a way, could you come with me please.” I tell her with a smile frozen in place.

I glance at Chinatsu, I can tell she knows what I’m on edge about. I take Honoka’s hand when she comes near me and lead her straight to her room.

“What’s up, Sora?” She asks me with a curious expression. How she can be so oblivious is beyond me. I mean, seriously! Look at how she’s dressed again.

“Honoka, would you please explain to me why you are dressed in that?” I gesture to the same grossly oversized slacks and blouse she wore the other day that prompted me to take her shopping in the first place.

“It’s comfortable. We aren’t going anywhere, so…” She answers me, completely oblivious to my concerns. Beyond dense I guess? Well, snapping at her isn’t going to help anything.

“Honoka, we’re friends right?” I ask craftily.

“Of course, Sora.”

“Then would you mind explaining to me why I spent so much money to fix the way you dress, and you go right back to dressing this way? Especially after you said you understood that you couldn’t wear those frumpy things anymore?”

“Did I say that?” She asks airily.

Chinatsu and I both nod emphatically. “Right there at the dinner table before they went to the basement.” Chinatsu patiently explains to her. Apparently, she thinks snapping at her won't be helpful either, but I’m quite upset and doing my best to not show it, which isn’t easy right now.

“Honoka, I don’t know how else to say this, but those clothes, and I use that word really loosely for them, are disgusting. Please, don’t ever wear them again. Do us all a favor and change back into what you were wearing earlier or even another outfit we bought you. We bought you so many cute outfits that are simply begging to be worn by a pretty girl. Not to mention, they suit you so much better than those frumpy things.”

“Look, we know you are attracted to Lt. Aoki.” Her eyes widen in surprise when I say that. Did she really think we didn’t see it? “Do you really think he’ll find you attractive dressed that way? Don’t you remember how he acted at the police station today? He went out of his way to directly address you then. Use what God gave you to help reel him in. We’ll be happy to help you in any way we can, but this,” I gesture to her clothes, “isn’t helping you. We’ll be happy to help you pick out something and we’ll even do your hair and makeup again.”

She looks at Chinatsu as if seeking confirmation which, of course, Chinatsu does by nodding emphatically again.

“Is it that apparent that I like him?” She asks bashfully.

“Well, it is to us. I don’t know if he’s noticed or not, but I’m pretty sure he’s attracted to you as well. Like I said, he lumped Chinatsu and me together when he said hello to us. He made a point of talking directly to you.”

“Sora, Chinatsu, help me please. I’ve no idea how to be girly. I told you before you’re my first girls as friends and I wasn’t kidding about it. Until you took me shopping I’ve never owned a skirt or dress.”

I give her a big smile. “Of course we will. We would be more than happy to help our friend, right Chinatsu?”

“Yep. So, how about this…”

　◇ ◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆ ◇

“...and that’s what we’ll do for tonight, alright?” Chinatsu tells Honoka.

Honoka looks doubtful, but she nods. “If you’re sure about it.”

“I am. It’s best to be low key and let him do most of the work, you just give some gentle encouragement here and there if he seems to be dragging his feet.” Chinatsu tells her. “As a general rule, men prefer a little bit of a challenge. Make sense?” She looks at me, “Sora-nee, will you handle Dad?”

“Of course, I bet I can even get him to help us. Lt. Aoki is his best friend after all.”

“Girls! Dinner is ready!” Mom yells at us from downstairs.

“We’ll be right down Mama!” I reply.

Yes, it took a while for us to get Honoka ready, but I think it will be worth the effort. We have her dressed in a red cowl neck mini dress which loosely hugs her generous curves. The cowl reveals quite a bit of cleavage for her. We paired it with black thigh stockings which only serves to emphasize the 6 or 7 centimeters of exposed fair skin between the hem of her dress and the top of her stockings. Shall we say, it tends to draw the eye? We reapplied her makeup, and fixed her hair as well. She looks nothing like the girl we brought up here, which I have to say is a damn good thing. I also plan on enlisting Dad to help with part two of our strategy this evening.

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His reaction was everything we had hoped for when we did all of this for her. The moment he saw her, his eyes widened and a huge smile appeared.

When Honoka stands there frozen like a deer caught in a spotlight, I step behind her and whisper, “Smile at him.”

Normally Chinatsu sits on my right at the table and Honoka on my left, but we’re reversing that tonight because that will put the two of them side-by-side. We told her to keep it to small talk during dinner. You know, how was your day? Show an interest in his work kind of things. It’s not really cheating, because she’s interested in his work and everything. Anyway, it works like a charm. They talk throughout dinner.

When we finally finish dinner, Chinatsu and I go help Mama clean up, but I get an immediate look from Mama. “You go sit down and rest. Chinatsu and I will handle this.” What did I tell you would happen? Mama is definitely in overprotective mode. This is so not how I want to spend the next few days.

“Honoka, Lt. Aoki, why don’t you two go sit in the living room so it’s easier to clean up in here.” I tell them.

“Sora, I wish you would call me Mitty like your father does.”

I glance at Dad, who just shrugs his shoulders as if saying whatever you want.

“Alright, Mitty it is then. Why don’t you two move to the living room? It’s a lot more comfortable.”

He stands and offers his hand to Honoka to help her stand. She blushes slightly when she takes his hand and they move to the couch. I move behind Dad and wrap my arms around his neck. I whisper, “Dad, we need your help.”

“What with?”

“Shh~ Not so loud, I don’t want Mitty to hear. Honoka likes Mitty and I’m pretty sure he likes her too. So, what we would like to do is take a walk. I thought you could say you're busy and ask him to help watch over us with Honoka. That way they would get a chance to spend more time together.”

He chuckles softly and quietly asks me, “When did you become a matchmaker Sora?”

“When my friend fell for your friend.”

“I do think he would be a lot happier with someone in his life. After Miyuki died he buried himself in his work. You’re certain she likes him?”

“Daddy, of course I am.”

“Say that again.”

“Of course I am.

“No, the other part.”

“What? Daddy?”

He laughs, then “I tried and tried to get your sister to call me that, but she never would. Thank you.” He says as pats my arm.

“If you would prefer me to call you Daddy, I will.”

“Only if you want to Sora. How about we get the rest of this over with so you girls can go on your walk?”

“Sounds good to me. Umm... I’m sorry I’ve put you and Mama through so much since you adopted me. It just never seems to stop.”

“Sweetheart, you can’t help what happens. You’ve had a lot of things to deal with, so, now and again, one or more of them might break loose and create a little chaos. No matter what, we’ll always be here to help you pick up the pieces. That’s part of what being a family is.”

I kiss his cheek and whisper, “Thank you Daddy. You have no idea how happy that makes me.” Yes, I realize it sounds a bit childish for a girl my age to call her dad that, but if he likes it, I don’t mind doing it once in a while. It’s the very least I can do after all he’s done for me.

Dad and I join them in the living room, so Mitty can tell me the rest of what he found out. As I pass by Honoka, I pat the outside of her knee to remind her ‘knees together’. Yes, we came up with a short list of signals to help remind her of things without having to say it out loud. After Dad and I sit down on the loveseat, Mitty turns his attention to me.

“Sora, are you ready to hear the rest?”

“Mhmm. Well, I suppose it’s more like I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.”

“Okay. Well, which part do you want first? Good or bad?”

“Mitty, good or bad doesn’t really matter since I’ll end up hearing them both anyway. So, how about telling me in the order it happened.”

He nods, takes a breath and let’s it out. “Alright. Your parents found a cure for the worst of the population problem. What I mean by that is, they found a way to reverse the sterility in women using nanites, but it’s only successful 30% of the time. It’s still a huge increase in the number of fertile women. If they had been able to use it on all the infertile women in Japan right now that would be an increase of over two and a half million women that would become fertile after treatment. Sora, I dare say you’re a multi-billionaire at a very young age. Even taking into account the large drop in stock value after your parents deaths”

He blows out his breath and I know something is coming I don’t really want to hear. “Sora, I know you already know Akiyama had something to do with your parents deaths.”

“Yes, he killed them for their stock didn’t he?”

He shakes his head. “No Sora, he didn’t. He killed them to hide the fact your parents found a way to help the population. According to the records we found, your parents were going to announce the results the next day. They had told Akiyama about their trials and how well they went. He wanted them to stay quiet about it. When they refused, he had a lab assistant remove the rebreathers in the lab and rig the Halon system. He waited until they were in the lab alone sealed the doors and set it off. They suffocated in a few minutes as you already know. We’re looking for him now. He’ll be joining Akiyama when we find him.”

“That’s not quite the end of his escapades. We would appreciate it if you didn’t tell anyone else about this either. Akiyama was selling the cure to wealthy people around the world. He made billions doing it. The AI is still sorting through records to find out exactly how much, but last count I saw was ¥21.9 billion. At the moment, that is the extent of what we know.”

“Mitty, I appreciate your taking the time to come tell me this. I could’ve come back to your office, so I really do appreciate it.” I look at Dad. “Umm, Dad, would you mind if I went on a walk with Chinatsu? I kinda want to sort through all this, but I don’t just want to sit in the house while I do it either.”

“I’d rather you didn’t. I have some things I need to do and Honoka can’t really watch over the two of you by herself that easily.”

“Eiji, I’ll go with them too, if you don’t mind me doing so. I feel like taking a walk as well.” Mitty offers.

Seemingly a little hesitant, Dad asks me, “Sora, is that alright with you? You can go if Mitty accompanies you three.”

Inside, you know I’m smiling so big it actually hurts. Good assist Dad! Note to self: give Dad a big hug and kiss later, “Umm, yeah, if he’s sure he doesn’t mind.”

Mitty smiles and answers while looking at Honoka. “I don’t mind at all.”

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