It Means "Dragon To Be" Ch. 03

"What do you know of me, Papa? Whenever we are together outside of this place or the corporation offices, we can only talk business. Since I've been back here, we've never spoken of anything else. I don't think that you know me anymore, and I doubt that you'd want to anyway."

"That's ridiculous," Leopold said, "Of course I know you. You're my daughter."

"Your statement refers to a biological incident which occurred a long time ago," she said, "If it weren't for the company letterhead, you'd likely not have known that I went back to the family name when I came back to work for you.

Even so, it's incorrect. You've never asked me once about how my vacations went, so I saw no need to tell you. My last name has been Mochizuki for the past three years.

As far as your project goes, I'm out. Since I doubt that you know, the firmware and the voice recognition software were test programs which belong to a third party firm. You'll find the contact information on my desk, if you wish to purchase the programs. It will be expensive, and they will stipulate that their property not be used in any military or quasi-military purpose."

She smiled coldly, "I've ended the agreement this afternoon and uninstalled the programs as per the agreement, so what you have out there is a boat much as it was back in the day, only much faster and more powerful.

I personally think that it would be beyond stupid to try to run that boat without the self-management programs, but that's up to you. As far as I'm concerned, you may shove all 252 feet of my dream up your ass."

"Good day," she said as she walked out on her way to Human Resources, "and goodbye," she said quietly as she walked along the hall.

She dropped off her laptop, company phone and her keys, along with the drives from her home server, explaining what was on them, and then she handed the startled manager there her resignation, effective instantly. She wished him the best, and asked that a notice be put up with the usual nonsense that she'd gone to seek other opportunities, etcetera, ad nauseum.

"Would you do me a favor and please call me a taxi? Tell them that I will meet the cab at the gate."

Silke walked out then, thinking that if Tatsuya could rearrange his schedule, they might have as long as two weeks together. Fiji sounded good as a place, she thought, and if nothing else worked out, there was always their island in Thailand.

As she saw the taxi a few minutes later, Silke smiled at the sense of freedom that came over her at finally being able to begin her life with Tatsuya properly. They'd begun and continued to work at it, this marriage that they'd arranged themselves. She took Japanese courses, and he took German ones, so that they had more than one language between them and Silke also did it so that she could speak with his aunt directly. Silke struggled with learning Thai, and he was a washout at French. There were disagreements, but never fights. They just agreed to go on. She'd gone to watch him fight now and then and his speed and power amazed her.

But what had amazed her more was when he'd asked to see her in a tournament as she fought with the naginata - an ancient weapon often wielded by women warriors from out of the mists of time. She'd caught his look as she saw him between matches. It brought her a lot of quiet pride to see how proud he was of her, and that was matched by the women of her family. Riko would easily be a champion, but she'd said that she was too shy for something like that and she preferred to teach Silke instead.

The last time that Silke had been 'home' to the ancient cavern, she'd been asked by her aunt to accompany her one night. They'd brought a meal there in the darkness and it had been Silke's turn to observe so that the match between Riko and her new man might be judged. As they'd passed by to leave, that man had noticed nothing, but Riko had seen them. She'd smiled up at Silke there in the darkness and Silke slid two of her fingers against Riko's knee in passing to signal her approval.

She'd been very careful to ask, but her husband had sworn six ways from Sunday that when she slept in his arms, ...

Silke didn't snore.