Transition and Restart, book two: The Billion Dollar Empress

Chapter one, 2016, crescendo, part four

Insect! Who the hell do you think you are? Christina stretched to her full length and stared down at the tall student from Sweden. Stick to your girl you piece of shit! Then she turned her attention to Ulf again. "Ulf!" No! I gave him the black stare as well. Ulf I'm sorry!

Ulf winced visibly, but then he regained his composure. "You look stunning!" he said in a tone reassuring her that he understood what just happened. "I'm honoured."

It felt strange to be taller than he was, but it was impossible to move in the right way without her heels. She had come here to conquer after all.

Facing her Ulf stood staring back. She watched a peculiar glimmer of absence in his eyes. Spellbound, he's spellbound. He can only see Christina Agerman. Ulf I want you to find me beautiful. Your Christina. "What do you think?" She had to say something.

Something shifted in his eyes. One moment he had been staring at Christina Agerman, Princess of Scandinavia. The next he looked just as intensively at her. "My Ina, you're my beautiful Ina!"

Ina? Oh! Christina, Ina. Yes I like that! "Do you really mean that?"

In response he took a single step and kissed her. He had to tilt his face up to do that. Then he took her face between his hands and looked into her eyes. "What are you doing with me? I can stay in this Japan forever with you Ina." His eyes were the brownest of brown, soft and caring and she drank herself dizzy with his gaze.

That has to count as a declaration of love. "I'm just loving you." It still felt strange being taller than him. My little U-kun! "U-kun, I love you! You fill my life."

The look she got in return was filled with endless love, but also with endless sadness. He looked happy and forlorn, ecstatic and horrified, basking in her feelings and filled with self-loathing. He looked like he wanted to be in two places at once.

Then her surroundings tore her from that singular moment of glory. "Miss! Miss! Can we have a word with you?"

"I saw her first. I'm her agent!"

"She's signing with us. All contacts will have to go through our agency!"

Ah, the work I came here to do. I don't want to any more but I have to. Ulf, U-kun, we need to talk.

Christina turned on her right toes, let her left foot follow in a tight circle and set it down toe and heel clicking against the stone pavings simultaneously. The movement sent a calculated shock wave through her body which she used to flick her neck into the terminal pose used on the catwalk just before it was time to turn around and go back.

Toes out, never inwards like some Japanese girls did to look cute. She wasn't here to look cute. She had an empire to build.

The crowd pushed forward to see better, and the formal fashion shoot drew almost no interest any more. Christina doubted it was even commencing at all by now. The first half of her plan had gone through without a hitch. Now the time had come for the second half, and that one depended on the people she saw elbowing their way to her through the crowd.

A man in his thirties approached her together with a woman a few years older in a business dress. Behind them one of the cameramen from the scene followed carrying photo equipment designed for a static shoot. This was the real deal.

"We would appreciate if you tell your agency that we disapprove of your disrespectful prank here today," the woman said.

Too easy. They're making this too easy. "Agency? Aren't models using those?"