The Trilogy Outtakes

THE KAIZEN TOWER

SUMMARY: This story takes place before Black Water Lilies of "YES, ITS US!" which is the last part of the KiraSayaRiri trilogy. Its best enriched after having read "IS IT REALLY YOU?", "BEHIND CLOSED DOORS", and of course, "YES, ITS US!" This chapter was also inspired by the Carpenters' "Top Of The World" as well as its Japanese version. 

    Five years after the Momobami triplets were born, Kirari and Sayaka decided on their next child's conception. And it was just as well because Kirari had been relentlessly trying to herd the triplets into learning new languages, problem solving, accounting, and physical conditioning after they had all spoken their first words eleven months after they were born. 

    Kirari would strap all three of them on their high chairs in front of a white board while tutoring them with a serious commanding air, no matter if they responded to her in squeals and baby talk, unable to comprehend what exactly she was forcing them all to learn. 

    "Stop her, Sayaka. I don't want them to be copies of us. Our childhood was traumatic enough. I know I said that history was going to repeat itself but--REALLY?" Ririka would plead over the phone after Sayaka sent her videos of what Kirari was doing with them during her spare time. 

    "I'm not sure I want to. Its funny watching them react to Kirari and equally funny watching Kirari struggle at learning patience. She's actually been more patient with them than she's ever been with us. I'm learning things about our children by the way they react to Kirari's dictatorship. And I probably would train them scholastically except not too soon. Perhaps at seven years old because that's exactly the age I started to study everything so seriously."

    "This is ridiculous, they can't even go potty by themselves. They're not even a year old! No wonder they love me so much more. I never pressure them into anything," Ririka would sigh exasperatedly over the phone before she closed their connection. She resolved to give the children lots of playtime whenever it was her turn to babysit them and she continued to spoil them until they were five years old. 

    Damien Inbami was overjoyed whenever it was time for the IVF process. In all the months where they had timed Sayaka's ovulation and harvested healthy eggs from her, Damien insisted on a fresh batch of thirteen to fifteen donations which always had Sayaka blushing and Kirari furiously chasing Damien out of the Inbami hospital no matter if he looked completely haggard and could barely walk but was enthusiastic to stay longer than necessary to donate more. Finally, Masayaka Kisara Momobami was conceived after three attempts and Kirari had embarked on her most ambitious building project yet to mark the birth of the first Bami-Igarashi heiress. 

    Kirari never did anything ordinary. If her short stay in Hyakkaou was any indication, she took a school that the Momobami's didn't own and turned an entire social structure over its head and held every rich heir in the country by the throat when she was just a freshman. Her presence had far reaching consequences that every surviving alumni would have the name Momobami ingrained at the back and forefront of their heads at the financial and psychological devastation she had caused on their progeny for a whim.

    Ririka expressed her doubts about Kirari's desire to create the tallest building in Tokyo, not because of its intent but its structural design. Not JUST because The Kaizen was 733 meter-long but because it was designed to mimic the human DNA in a double-helix, "You know that our country is earthquake prone, right?" 

    "Well, if Baabaa is to be believed, Japan will be underwater as well. If that happens, our building will be the only thing left," Kirari countered.