The Calm Before the Storm

The group of men around the office all passed the documents around the room, each one giving the various agreements their approvals and perusals. Business etiquette dictated that a consensus was reached before any deal of this scope could move forward. Still, the final approval came from the senior man in charge, so when the time came, Isamu Ikemoto stood up almost ceremonially turned towards Akito Yamamoto. "Are we ready to handle the increased demands this will potentially have on security?"

Akito nodded resolutely. "You have my word our teams will have our central facilities protected from any unexpected trouble that this deal may provoke. We may need to increase our budget for more personnel though to handle our day-to-day protection for our people, depending on how much territory we're talking about."

Isamu nodded to another one of his advisors. "Make sure accounting allocates whatever funds are necessary to handle the increased expenses," he ordered as the advisor confirmed with a nod. He turned to the rest of the men in the board, and with a final acknowledgement proceeded to stamp the contracts with his personal hanko, passing the contracts around to other parties for additional legal and financial signatories, committing his company to a deal that would have ramifications that could only be known in the coming weeks ahead.

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Kyosuke checked his watch one more time as the crowds of fans passed the sidewalks. He was standing in the Akihabara Electric Town, a notable shopping hub famed for its electronic retailers, ranging from tiny stalls to vast department stores. Kyoko had told him that her father had discouraged her from getting involved with a great deal of the pop culture media material because he considered much of it juvenile and low brow. Not hoity-toity enough for his Princess, Kyosuke thought to himself, which he thought was a real shame. Sure, museums with fine art, high brow political and philosophical discussions of academic topics, classical music and haute cuisine were fine but if she spent all her time with her nose in the air, she'd miss out on so much more in life.

"Hello there," Kyoko disembarked from a high-class limousine. Kyosuke noted that in addition to the chauffeur, there was another man who got off alongside her; probably her bodyguard, he thought. "Sorry about all the entourage, but after last time, both my father and his head of security insisted."

Kyosuke shrugged nonchalantly. "That's fine; you'll have someone to carry your stuff if you decide to buy anything then," he lightly quipped, much to the escort's annoyance.

Kyosuke and Kyoko made their way into the crowds, entering the first sets of stores advertising everything from the newest computers, cameras, televisions, down to second-hand electronic junk. Kyoko amusedly picked up a box featuring an electronic game with an illustrated soldier pointing an exaggerated rifle shooting cartoonish enemies across the artistic background. Kyosuke chuckled as he shook his head, pointing to the side of the illustration, "I'm off to the sides, feeding the troops, remember?" All around them, as they went, people started noticing the couple, particularly Kyoko with her entourage and began snapping pictures and video with their phones, with her security escort doing what he could to keeping some separation for Kyoko and the crowd as they sent up emojis, tagging reactions and posting tweets.

"Surely, you have your own computer," Kyosuke assumed as they browsed the computer and electronics boutiques. "I can't imagine anyone with means these days not having one."

"Oh, several," Kyoko assured. "A laptop for university classes, smartphones, personal computer in my room, tablets, everything."

"But no gaming console, I take it," Kyosuke guessed.

"Um... when I was a child, I had one of those old Nintendo Wiis growing up. This was back before my dad made it big and my mom was still alive, and I was still going to public school. After we moved out of the old neighborhood, everything kind of went classy, so no more video games and manga. It became all about presentation in our new social class," Kyoko remembered. "That's when we started spending time in museums, operas, Kabuki, charity functions, stuff like that. I could tell you a lot more about the history of Japanese classical art than the latest popular manga or video game."

"So, no manga, anime, television or movies?" Kyosuke asked.

"Television sure; dad has three of them in his office always set to the financial markets, political and current events channels. Once in a while, we'll watch some old classic movies on the large projection television together. Usually though, the most I've gotten to watch are short video clips on my computer browser," Kyoko admitted. "Sometimes, I've had friends at school show me their manga magazines, which are interesting, but I couldn't get into them."

Kyosuke sighed, "You know, I get what your dad was trying to do, I really do. But at some point, kids have to be kids." He led them both into a manga kissaten. After getting a pair of drinks, asked the hostess for advice for some shojo titles suitable for someone just getting started in the genre. Kyoko started flipping through the first title. As she did so, several of the surrounding witnesses watched excitedly, paying particular attention to the title and adding it to the caption of the tweets, "Kyoko Ikemoto likes Love Live! - School Idol Project!"

"We could just take those with us," Kyosuke offered. "The clerk says there are tons of other titles too, if you end up liking that one." He paused a moment; "What about pets? Even Presidents and Prime Ministers have kept dogs in the public eye, so it's not like your dad can say those are low brow."

"I-I guess I hadn't thought about that," Kyoko admitted. "But between school and juku, I didn't have time growing up."

"Well, no time like the present then," Kyosuke suggested.

They bagged their manga purchases and Kyosuke took them to down a few blocks to "Cat Cafe Mocha", a well-known lounge with the notable feature that it was filled with cats who had long ago become accustomed to the attention of strangers and given free reign, along with the expectation of attention and free treats. Upon seeing them, Kyoko was filled with affection on how adorable the scene was. "Ooh... how cute...!"

"Come on, let's find a place to sit," Kyosuke suggested. "If you buy one of the cat treats, you'll get more attention."

Kyoko purchased a cat lollypop and carefully held it as two of the closest, a tuxedo-colored American short-haired and an orange Ragamuffin came forward to compete for the offered treat, both licking furiously, much to her delight. "They're adorable!"

"Well, they are, until it's time to clean them, brush them and pick up after them," Kyosuke smirked, "though I guess if they were living in your household, someone else would be doing that."

"Well, I..." Kyoko trailed off with sheepish embarrassment.

Kyosuke waved it off, "It's no big deal; trust me, if I were in your situation, I wouldn't be wasting time keeping the floors spotless in a household that size either, especially if I had a multinational conglomerate that employs thousands depending on me."

From the windows of the cafe, more spectators had gathered and continued to gossip amongst themselves. On the social media rumor mills, the image of Kyoko Ikemoto with pair of cats in her lap and the same man next to her were spreading, along with calls from the tabloids demanding interviews. Since no official statement had been issued, rumors continued unabated at least for now.