Upside Down 64 Chapter 62: Security

When we get into the outer office, Akari announces, "Sora, security called, there's a gentleman that says he was sent over by your father."

"Oh, yes, I had forgotten about that." I look at Honoka. "Wasn't he supposed to meet us at the house this morning?"

She nods. "He was, but I guess something happened to delay him."

I shrug. Oh well, no use fretting over it. "Akari, would you have someone escort him up here please. Oh, and please have the Head of Security come here."

"Of course Sora."

"Thank you." I grab Chinatsu's hand as I walk by her into my office. I look at Mirai. "Excuse me for a minute. Bathroom break."

Once we get into the bathroom and shut the door. "Please tell me you brought our lipgloss." I say.

She looks confused. "Of course I did, but your lipgloss is good."

"It won't be in a few moments because I need a kiss very, very badly."

I pull her to me for a very long, deep kiss. Several minutes later, I break our kiss.

"Whew! Damn Sora! Where did that come from?"

"I told you I needed a kiss, I wasn't kidding in the least."

She looks at me with a mischievous grin. "♪~Sora~♪, did I hear you say you'd do whatever I asked?"

"I did." I reply hesitantly.

Still grinning at me mischievously, she asks, "No questions asked? Anything I want?"

I'm suspicious as hell now, but I reply, "Of course, I promised you."

Still grinning, she holds her hand out. "Panties, now. Hand them over."

"What?!" I exclaim.

"You heard me. Give. Me. Your. Panties. Now. You promised. No questions asked and anything I want. This is what I want."

"Chinatsu, I'm at work. This isn't right." I say distressed.

"Hmph. So much for your promises." She says with her eyes glittering.

Sighing, I pull up my skirt, slide off my panties, and hand them to her. "This is mean. How am I supposed to concentrate on work now?"

"You'll figure a way. Keep griping and I'll take your bra too."

I glare at her. "Why are you doing this to me?" I ask plaintively.

"You'll figure it out later. For now, just remember to cross your ankles and knees together unless you want to show everyone you're not wearing panties."

"I'm going to pay you back for this."

"What, you think this would bother me?" She asks me with a raised eyebrow.

"Of course it would." I mutter.

"Ha! Try again." She hikes up her skirt and removes her panties. "There, now we're the same." She opens her purse and drops in our panties. She pulls me to her and kisses me very passionately.

Wow! I knew she was a bit of an M, but she has an exposure fetish too? This girl continually surprises me.

After she breaks our kiss, she tells me, "Sora, I love you."

"I love you too." I sigh. "Come on, I have several things I need to accomplish before we can leave today."

"Not yet, we need to fix our lipgloss."

Oops, slipped my mind. Yet, I'm supposed to some somehow be able to work like this. We quickly fix our lipgloss and go back out to the office.

"Okay, where were we?" I ask.

Mirai answers, "That depends on what you want to take care of first. The Head of Security is outside waiting, as well as the man your father sent over. I would say the records Hestia found for us to look over can wait until after that is taken care of first."

I nod. "Okay, let's do that." I head to my chair and sit down. "Mirai, why don't you sit beside me as I talk to this guy, uh, what's his name anyway?"

Mirai says, "Fukuda." as she drags her chair over. Honoka stands beside me and lightly lays her hand on my shoulder again. I look up at her and smile, which she returns along with a gentle squeeze.

I press the intercom. "Akari, would you send Mr. Fukuda in please."

"Certainly, Sora."

A few moments later he knocks on the door and enters.

He looks at me curiously as he walks over. "Have a seat Mr. Fukuda. I'm Sora Kobayashi."

He takes a seat and stares at me. What? Just how rude can some people be? Whatever, let's just get through this.

Swallowing my irritation with him, I tell him, "Mr. Fukuda, I have a few questions I'd like you to answer please."

He nods. "If I can."

I look at him with a serious expression. "You had best be able to since they pertain to your department. Question one, did you or did you not receive notification of me taking over as CEO?"

"Yes, I received an email about it Tuesday of last week."

"Good. Question two, did you inform all of your subordinates of me being CEO?"

"I posted the email about it."

"You posted the email?"

"Yes."

"That's all you did?"

"Yes. Standing orders are to read all the memo's before you take over whatever duty is for that day."

I sigh. "You didn't think this rather unusual situation required a more direct approach? As in holding a meeting to make sure everyone knew that I had taken over."

"No, my officers are adults and know what they are required to do."

"Then why was I held by one of your security people the very next morning? He was disrespectful and belligerent. Is that how you train your staff to deal with people?" I ask sharply and Honoka squeezes my shoulder.

"I heard about the incident and my understanding was your fired him for it and no, that isn't how they are trained to deal with people."

I look at Mirai, "I'm beginning to see where the problem stems from."

She nods, but doesn't say anything.

"What's that supposed to mean?" He asks.

I look at Honoka. "Care to answer his question Nee-chan?"

She nods. "I'll answer your question with a question of my own. How did you address Akiyama when he was CEO?"

"As Sir or Mr. Akiyama."

Honoka nods again. "Uh huh, sounds right. Now how have you addressed our current CEO?"

"Huh?"

I roll my eyes. He can't be really this dense can he?

"I asked, how have you addressed my sister the current CEO?"

"Uh, I haven't said her name or anything."

"That's right. You have yet to call her Ms. Kobayashi or anything even remotely respectful."

"Call a kid Ms. Kobayashi?"

I've had enough. "This young lady is your boss Mr. Fukuda. I fully see why your department is such a damn mess. Even after they were informed Wednesday of last week about Mirai's appointment, she was still accosted by your personnel not once, but six times in three days! Had you done your damn job, me being stopped and Mirai being messed with would never have happened!"

Honoka leans down and whispers, "Settle down Sora. Take a breath."

I smile at her and pat her hand on my shoulder. I take a breath and slowly let it out. "Okay, you've made my decision ever so much easier. The officers have picked up your attitude. Look at how you addressed me. You never once addressed me respectfully and you never introduced yourself after I did. You were surly when answering me. I can't believe I'm even going to say this, but I'll give you three choices and you get to choose one. One, you quit here and now. Two, I demote you to be a brand new security officer so you can be trained properly, or three, I fire you. However, if I fire you, you wont like the recommendation you get. I seriously doubt you'll find an equivalent position ever again. Which will it be?" I ask as I lean back in my chair.

"I don't think I was being disrespectful."

"Mr. Fukuda, Sora didn't ask for your opinion, she asked which option you choose." Mirai tells him.

He sits there and stares at me. After a full minute, he's still says nothing. "Really? Okay, I'll make the decision for you then since you won't. You're fired."

He surges out of his seat with an indignant expression and begins to lean across my desk. Honoka immediately shoves me and my seat backwards away from the desk, stepping in between us while Mr. Daniels steps up behind him.

Honoka growls out, "Mr. Daniels, escort this man out of the building."

"Of course, Ms. Kobayashi."

"Oww!! Nee-chan, that really hurt." I tell her as I hold my right breast. Damn, I knew my boobs were sore this morning, but this is ridiculous. Well, I have to admit, she did push me pretty hard.

When I look up, a worried looking Chinatsu is beside me. "Sora, are you okay?" I nod in reply.

Honoka turns around and kneels down in front of me. "I'm sorry Sora, I was worried he would come across the desk at you."

I shake my head. "It's no big deal, I wasn't expecting that though and my boobs were already sore this morning." I look at Mirai. "Mirai, I have to wonder if Akiyama purposely hired idiots like him."

She laughs. "Good Lord, I certainly hope not."

"Hestia?"

"Yes Sora?"

"Revoke all access for him and post a notice that if he comes back on the property the police are to be called. Oh, ya, I forgot, revoke access for Mr. Maeda as well."

"Certainly Sora."

"Thank you Hestia. Umm… I need you to go back through all employee checks and look for a history of disciplinary problems with previous employers. I do not want to keep dealing with this crap. It's too painful in multiple ways."

"Of course Sora. May I make a recommendation?"

"Sure."

"Would you like me to look for people that Mr. Akiyama directly hired as well?"

"Great idea, please do that Hestia. Thank you." I look at Honoka. "What's the new man's name?"

"Yoshida." She replies.

Moving my chair back up to my desk, I press the intercom and ask, "Akari, would you send in Mr. Yoshida please?"

"Certainly Sora."

A few moments later he knocks on the door and enters. This guy is huge and I mean huge. He has to be at least 190cm and is very heavily muscled. "Have a seat Mr. Yoshida." Once he's seated, I continue. "Hi, I'm Sora Kobayashi and this is Mirai Kuroki, my vice president."

"Pleased to meet you, I'm Hiro Yoshida." He tells us in a very pleasant baritone.

"Well, I know my father chose you to be the head of security here for me, but could you tell me a bit about yourself?"

"Sure, Ms. Kobayashi. I'm thirty-eight, married, two children, a boy, fifteen, and a girl, thirteen. I served with your father for quite a while in the JSDF Special Forces. I retired earlier this year after twenty years. Since then I've been working for your father in the security branch."

Pretty much what I expected. "I'd love to meet your family sometime. Your girl is the same age as Chinatsu and I. If you don't mind my asking, what's your daughters name?"

"I'm sure that can be arranged and her name's Miyuki." He says with a smile.

I glance at Chinatsu, who shakes her head. Yeah, I don't know her either. "I'd definitely like to meet her sometime."

"I'll talk to her and then let your father know. Will that work?"

"Yep. Well, you already have the job, so worries on that front. If our dad recommended you that means you know what you're doing. Only question now is how much do you expect as a salary."

"I'm making ¥20,000,000 a year under your father."

"Hestia, how much was the previous head making?"

"¥25,500,000 per year."

"Is that acceptable Mr. Yoshida?" I ask with a slight smile.

His eyes widen and he smiles. "More than acceptable."

I smile. "Good. Trust me, you'll more than earn it. You have a lot of hard work ahead of you, the previous department head, well, let's simply say he didn't do his job. Some of the people you are inheriting from him are badly trained, rude, disrespectful and don't bother to read information pertinent to doing their jobs properly. I'm going to give you free reign in your department. Fire them all, retrain them, whatever, it's up to you to decide. I just need a reliable security department."

"Thank you Ms. Kobayashi. I'll get it straightened out for you."

I stand up. "I appreciate it. We have a long road ahead of all of us to get this place straightened out. I'm not supposed to do this, but my dad sent you so it should be fine" I extend my hand out to him which he takes and lightly shakes. "Welcome Mr. Yoshida." By the way, his hand easily makes three of mine.

"You can call me Hiro, you're my boss after all."

"Only if you call me Sora."

"If that's what you want Sora."

I sit back down when another thought occurs to me. "Hiro, I have another question for you. How are you with investigations?"

"I'm no detective, but I have a fair amount of experience."

I look at Mirai, who shrugs. I look back to him. "Hiro, I don't know how much you know about me and the situation that brought me to be here."

"Hmm… Well, your dad told me Akiyama hurt you very badly you when you were young, then when he was arrested for it, tried to have you kidnapped and he hurt your mother in the process. He also killed your birth parents to keep their discovery to himself. That's the gist of what he told me."

I chuckle. "Yeah, that's the basics of it. He was also selling my parent's discovery for large sums of money to people around the world. Anyway, due to all of that, Hestia ran background and financial checks on the employees here. She's taking a second look for people that were directly hired by Akiyama as we speak. Oh, sorry, Hestia is our AI. Hestia, say hello to Hiro."

"Pleased to meet you Mr. Yoshida."

"You as well Hestia."

"Hestia, please inform Human Resources that Hiro is the new Department Head of Security and Payroll of his salary that we discussed please. He also has normal access as a department head. Mirai is allowed to adjust his access level if needed as well."

"Certainly Sora."

"Anyway, Hiro, I'm wondering if you would help Mirai with the employee files Hestia flagged for us to review. I think you and Mirai would do better interviewing them than I would."

"Sure Sora, I'd be happy to help with that."

"Thank you." Which brings another thought. "Hestia?"

"Yes Sora?"

"Can you tell when someone is lying?"

"I'm sorry Sora, but that is outside of my area."

"That's okay. Could you be taught how to do that by another AI?"

"Easily Sora, all they would have to do is copy the relevant code to me."

I look at Honoka questioningly and she shrugs. I suppose it can't hurt to ask him if he can help. I need to find out who worked with Akiyama or whoever else and what they told them. Time to talk to Dad again I suppose.

I look at Mirai. "Mirai, I'd appreciate it if you work with Hiro to find out who the bad apples are here. I'll work on getting the code Hestia needs to help you when you question these people. I know it isn't exactly legal, but I honestly don't care. I simply want to know who they are, who they told, and what they told them. Beyond that, I don't care if they're prosecuted or not. They won't be working here or anywhere else if I can help it though."

"Of course Sora. Pragmatic girl, aren't you?" She chuckles.

"You bet I am. I have people to protect and that means far more to me than what is or isn't strictly legal. Would you take care of getting him his access card and introducing him to the other department heads?"

"Sure Sora."

"Hestia, I almost forgot. Send the project statuses and summaries to my laptop so I can look at them please."

"Certainly Sora."

"Thank you Hestia. On that note, I'm tired. I'm going to head home. I'll try to come back in Thursday. Call me if you need me for anything Mirai."

"I'll do that Sora. You do look tired, get some rest"

"Thanks. I'll do that. Hiro, it was nice meeting you. You two don't work too late. Have a good rest of your day."

Hiro nods at me and says goodbye. I take Honoka's and Chinatsu's hands and we leave the office, telling Akari, Mai, and Sanae goodbye as we made our way through the outer office. It isn't until we're in the elevator that it hits me, I went through all of that pantyless.

I lean over to Chinatsu and whisper in her ear, "You're in so much trouble when we get home." Which makes her giggle.

Chapter end