Judgment

While sitting down on the sofa in front of us, Mr. Okazaki bowed.

"I can't thank you enough for this opportunity, Kaito. Thanks to you hiring Sanae and Risa, everything unfolded as it did. I would like to know the story."

"It isn't that interesting," I giggled. "In short, I needed to create a business for my final project to graduate university. One day, I was walking past Sanae's and Risa's house when I stepped on chewing gum. I sat on the stairs to take it off and they saw me. They thought I was there to apply for the manager job they were hiring for. Stuff happened and we ended up with the idea of making a galactical idol group. Then we ran auditions to find the rest of the girls and the rest is history."

"I'd say that's quite interesting," he smiled. "Then how did you end up being threatened?"

"I have no idea at all. I received the call last week, so I guess he already had the material to expose us with. I immediately told the police, but they couldn't do anything. Have you found the culprit?"

"I fear not. We have known about him for a few years already; he's quite sneaky. But I never imagined he would be able to find all this information. Kaito, is it okay if my team of detectives contacts you about this? I'm sure collaborating will give them good data."

"I don't know if I'll be useful, but sure."

"Splendid. That's all I had to tell you."

I should ask him for help with the court session.

"Mr. Okazaki. Since Sanae and Risa weren't registered as citizens, I couldn't make a contract for them. I'm sure the NBBT requested my attendance at the court today regarding that. Is there anything you can do about it?"

He stared at me for a moment. "I'm truly sorry, Kaito; I can't. Even if Sanae and Risa registered today, which is impossible, you already violated the law. I would ask one of the government attorneys to help you, but that's going to hurt our reputation even more. And, being honest, I believe an attorney won't be of much help for your case. Still, try to find one. And I'd suggest Sanae and Risa declare they were willing to work without a contract. Hopefully, that will alleviate your infringement."

Disappointed, I replied, "I understand."

"Please forgive me," he bowed. "There isn't much else to discuss, so—"

"Wait," Sanae interrupted. "Is… Mother okay? Those reporters can be quite scary."

Mr. Okazaki smirked. "She is. In fact, she's just getting out of the car in the garage."

"Eh?" Sanae, Risa, and I uttered.

We stared at where we had arrived from, which was behind us. I glanced at Mr. Okazaki and even he seemed nervous, bouncing his foot on the carpet. An eternity later, he stood up and approached the door. It opened and a woman stepped inside. She jumped at Mr. Okazaki to hug him.

Is that Sanae's and Risa's mom?

"Satoshi, I…," she faltered.

"It's okay, Mariko. We are together now."

"Finally."

After a long hug, she stepped back. Her black hair barely reached her shoulders. She wore ordinary clothes. I only needed a second to notice the resemblance between her, Sanae, and Risa. She then noticed us and stared at Sanae and Risa. Her eyes teared up and she slowly walked towards them.

"Sanae, Risa…, can I hug you?"

As soon as they nodded, she knelt down and squeezed them. She started crying.

"I'm really, really sorry for what we did to you. I'm incredibly embarrassed to show my face after all these years, but no amount of words can describe how happy I am to see you."

Sanae and Risa hugged her back. Mr. Okazaki and I stared at them with a smile.

I guess I really should leave now.

When I stood up, their mom saw me.

"Wait," she said. "You're Kaito Miyahara, right? The manager of the group."

"I am."

She stood up and bowed in front of me. "I apologize for introducing myself while looking like this. I'm Mariko Tanaka, but please call me Mariko. I can't thank you enough for giving us this opportunity."

"No problem," I giggled. "You can call me Kaito."

I still don't think they should be thanking me.

"Understood," she smiled. "Were you about to leave?"

I nodded. "This is more of a family reunion. I should leave you alone to talk about things."

"Are you sure?" Mr. Okazaki asked. "There really is no problem."

"I'm sure. As long as Sanae and Risa are okay with it."

Smiling, they nodded at me.

"Understood," Mr. Okazaki replied.

He called a butler to guide me back to the garage. I got in the same car with the same chauffeur as before and told him to take me back to the old studio.

As we drove through the city, I received yet another call from the government.

I answered. "Hello?"

"Mr. Miyahara," a male voice replied. "I'm a detective for the government. The president told us you could have useful information regarding the security breach."

"Oh, right. I might, but I'm not sure," I giggled.

He stayed silent for a moment. "Let's go through the basics. An attack of this kind usually starts with undesired access to your personal documents. Can I access your documents logs?"

"S-Sure."

I didn't even know those existed.

A warning appeared in my glasses, telling me someone was accessing important data about my account.

"Did a warning display on your glasses?" the man asked.

"It did."

"Have you seen it before?"

"No."

"I see. Well, just with a glance, I can tell that your documents have been accessed illicitly multiple times during the last month from different parts of the world."

"What?"

"That's a common way hackers hide their real location. And since you never saw a warning before now means that the attacker has a way to prevent them from showing. We'll need to investigate further on that. For now, do you have any idea how they could've gained access?"

"Not at all."

"Have you allowed any public computer to use InsTransfer on your account during the last month?"

"I…." Suddenly, a flashback appeared in my head. "Yes, I did. At my university and at a café in the Trading District."

"That should be it. Please send me the locations and we'll investigate right away."

"Sure."

The call ended a minute later. I felt bad for dragging Kiku into the problem, but it was for the best.

I arrived at the studio a couple of minutes later and Butcher helped me get inside. We stood next to the door.

"Where are the girls?" he asked me, worried.

"They stayed at the president's home to talk about life. Although slowly, it seems like they will be able to fix their relationship over time."

"Seriously? I'm glad," he said, but his weak smile said otherwise.

"Are you okay?"

"Are they going to leave me?"

"Not at all. They kept repeating that they want to stay with you. And the president promised to help you, but I don't know how or when."

He now smiled properly. "Good."

We walked to the kitchen and I told everyone what happened. We chatted for a few hours and came up with what we wanted to say publicly. Then Aki, Astra, and Umi practiced for the performance for the next day.

Fewer and fewer reporters waited outside as time passed, but there still were a lot. It was almost time for me to go to court, so I researched a bit about attorneys. For my case, an attorney wasn't required, but the government would offer to hire one for you for twenty thousand terras; too expensive. Instead, I decided to call the suited man that had appeared at my door that morning. He only asked for five thousand, so I hired him.

We planned to meet at a library near the court. I tried to call a taxi, but no one wanted to come to the Trading District. With Butcher's help, I had to go outside and walk for five minutes towards Saitama. A bunch of reporters followed me the entire time until I got in a taxi.

I arrived at the library a few minutes later. The lawyer was already waiting for me and we started to discuss the case. In short, he had no idea how to avoid penalization. Still, he suggested a few things to alleviate it. One of them was to make Sanae and Risa declare they had accepted to work without contracts—exactly what Mr. Okazaki had suggested.

One hour flew by and it was time for the session. Sanae and Risa arrived and we all stepped inside. There was a small jury on each side of the courtroom. The lawyer and I sat at a desk in front of the room, while Sanae and Risa sat on one of the benches behind us.

"The session is commencing," the judge sitting at the front bench stated.

My heartbeat accelerated. I felt the pressure of guiltiness in my chest, even though I had harmed no one.

"Kaito Miyahara, the owner of the company Galactical Idols Management Agency, is being prosecuted for evading the obligation of providing each of his employees a contract, required by the law. Mr. Miyahara, please affirm that you are conscious of this."

"I am, your honor."

"Now you have the opportunity to present your defense."

"Yes," the lawyer replied. "Your honor, I want to request the presence of a person to testify."

"Permission granted."

"Thank you."

He glanced at Risa and signaled her to come. She walked to the judge's bench and sat on a chair next to it.

"Young lady, please introduce yourself," the judge requested.

"S-Sure. My name is Risa Okazaki, one of the employees at the company."

The judge's eyes opened wide and the jury at the sides of the room started to murmur.

"Silence," the judge commanded, hitting the desk with a hammer. "Please continue."

"Yes," the lawyer replied. "Your honor, as she just said, she's one of the company's employees. In fact, she's one of the two people not to have a contract. She has something to say about it."

Risa nodded. "I willingly accepted to work without a contract."

"Did he pay you?" the lawyer questioned.

"He didn't. He only bought stuff for us when we asked for it, so it was more of an act of friendship than pay," she giggled.

"Understood. That's all."

Risa stood up and walked back to Sanae. The lawyer then requested Sanae's presence and she testified just as Risa did. Everyone was shocked when they heard her name again.

The judge continued, "They were the two employees that had no contract. Is that correct?"

"That's correct," I replied.

"They willingly accepted to work for your company. You didn't pay them, meaning they have had no salary. Still, you offered to buy things for them."

"I didn't offer that, your honor. It was a proposition I made after they had accepted to work; it didn't affect their decision. As they said, I did it because I wanted and not to convince them."

The judge stared at me in silence. "Understood. That would imply that there was no forced work and that there were no transactions related to a salary without a contract, meaning there's not going to be a fine for any transaction."

Some of the weight lifted from my shoulders. I sighed out of relief.

"However, the law requires a contract for each of the employees. Since this article was broken, there is going to be a fine to the company of two-hundred thousand terras. Until this fine is paid, the company is prohibited from operating in any form. Is that clear, Mr. Miyahara?"

My heart sunk in an instant.

Two-hundred thousand? Where am I going to get that much money from? We won't be able to do anything until I pay. How am I going to tell the girls? And Aya…

"Mr. Miyahara, is that clear?" the judge repeated.

"Y-Yes, your honor."

"The session has concluded." She hit the desk with the hammer.