The brisk winter wind was harsh, any and all snowflakes blended together to blur the area. Amongst the snow was one lone figure, shuffling through the dense low mounds. It stood at around 5'9, covered in snow in dark black, from jacket to sneakers. Its hair was a shoulder length light brown, same as its eyes. While trudging through the snow the figure mumbled, "Why is it snowing? It's almost Spring, it hasn't snowed in weeks, but then randomly a blizzard hits." The figure, by the voice it was male, kept shuffling until stopping.

He turned his head to the left to see a highly blurred figure on a park bench. He walked closer to it, out of curiosity, and noticed that the closer he got, the lighter the snow fell. By the time he reached the bench he was surrounded by swirling snow, but around the bench was clear.

He looked down to see a woman with chin length, light brown hair slightly crouching on the bench in nothing but a blood splattered, formerly white, lab coat. Her head was directed at the ground, as if she didn't notice the snowstorm around her. He looked at her carefully before speaking, "Are you alright?"

She didn't seem to hear him but she slowly lifted her head, and quietly whispered, "Broken, unwanted."

He looked at her face and saw that she was quite beautiful, however her eyes looked blank despite the light chestnut brown they were. "You're leg is broken?" He asked tentatively, quickly checking what little he could see of her leg.

She shook her head and replied quietly, "No my body is not broken, I am." She looked back towards the ground, showing that she wanted what little conversation there was to end. Instead of leaving, like she expected him to, he sat down next to her while removing his jacket to reveal a plain black long sleeve shirt. He placed his jacket on her shoulders, which caused her head to slowly turn in his direction. For the first time that night her eyes showed something other than a blank abyss, confusion.

It wasn't exactly the first thing he would've liked to see, but he took it as a small victory. "I'm not sure if you noticed but there's a blizzard around us, and you're not really dressed for it," He hesitated before continuing, "or anything really." after his explanation she pulled the jacket in tighter. "If you don't mind me asking what do you mean when you say that you're broken?"

She looked at him for a moment before looking to the concrete, and letting her voice slowly explain. "I am broken, because I am unable to be winged." She slowly looked back at him and it was obvious that her explanation raised more questions than answered.

'Unable to be winged? How, in any way, does that answer my question?' By the time he was finished with his thoughts her head had dropped down again. "I'm sorry, but what do you mean that you can't be winged?"

She didn't bother to lift her head to continue, "I can't become an Ashikabi's sekirei and be useful to them. Or anyone now."

Everything she said confused him more than anything. "I might be annoying you by now and I'm sorry if I am, but can you explain what a sekirei and ashikabi are, and why you can't be winged?"

She nodded slowly before explaining further, "An ashikabi is a human that each sekirei looks for. They are the person that each sekirei will love and protect. There are 108 sekirei and we must all compete in the sekirei plan. It is a competition that we must battle in, to win the right to stay with our ashikabi." He was disgusted by how in order to stay with someone a sekirei loved they had to fight. "I am unable to be winged because during adjustments to weaken all sekirei's power, I was chosen to be the test subject for many experiments. The scientists wanted to understand if the winging process could be stopped."

"It can't right?!" he yelled, hoping that it couldn't. It would be cruel to her if among 108 others, she would be the only that would never find the one person special to her.

She was slightly shocked that this random man beside her would react over something that had absolutely nothing to do with him. She lifted her head to look at him and immediately saw that his face showed absolutely nothing but worry and hope. Instead of looking back to the sidewalk she looked right into his eyes. "It can. I was forced to swallow little pills and drink strange liquids. One day I was in great pain, after the pills and liquids, and when I looked into a mirror my sekirei crest was on my forehead."

His eyes snapped straight to her forehead and noticed that behind her hair was a mark. It looked to be a bird above and attached to a yin yang symbol. Beside the symbol were four marks, two on each side that looked to be dash marks. The entire mark was a reddish orange, close to the way a sunset would look.

When he looked back at her eyes she ended her story, "After I saw my crest everything had gone blank. When I awoke all the scientists were dead and I was wearing this coat. I left the building and wandered to this spot, where I sat alone until you came."

He didn't know what to do. This woman he listened to so intently, had gone through a volatile experience, and yet through the recounting of her tale she never showed any emotion and her voice never faltered. He wasn't sure if he could do anything for her, his brain couldn't think of anything. So, he shut it off.

He grabbed her shoulders gently and slowly pulled her into his chest. He wrapped his arms around her back and slowly whispered into her ear, "I'm sorry."

She was confused at this he had pulled her into him so softly and even apologized for something he didn't do. But what baffled her even further was the warm feeling that began spreading through her heart. It was so relaxing and comforting, though whether it was the warmth or his embrace she wasn't sure.

"Why are you apologizing? You have done nothing." she questioned.

He didn't let go of her to reply, "Because, it's horrible. No one deserves something so special to them taken away, regardless of what they've done. Everyone deserves to find the one person that's special to them, that they can love and will be loved just the same. It just isn't fair to you."

She slowly raised her arms and returned the continuing embrace. Once her arms touched his back the snowstorm suddenly stopped in mid-air and all the snow dropped, and the warmth in her chest continued to grow.

Eventually he let go of her and slid back to see her face. Her beautifully pale skin was slightly red, which caused his face to darken and warm up. He looked around for a distraction, and when he took notice of the lack of snow he smiled and said, "Hey, it finally stopped snowing. I guess we just didn't notice." His smile moved to her while he stood up stretching his limbs as far as they would go. The warmth in her chest shrunk the moment he stood up, and she was close to depression thinking that he was leaving her.

Instead of leaving he placed his hand in front of her. She looked at it and began to remove his jacket, thinking it was what he wanted. He smiled at her and then reached for her hand and pulled her up to him. He let go of her hand but quickly lifted her arms up and placed them through the sleeves of his jacket before zipping it up. He was lucky, it was just large enough to cover her rather large chest, and long enough to go half way down her thighs. Her arms though were obviously too short for the massive jacket, reaching only half way through the sleeves.

He chuckled at how ridiculous and cute she looked, like a little girl wearing her older brother's jacket. "Well at least it's not too small. I don't know why my mom sent me such a big jacket." He grabbed her hand and quietly said, "I hope you don't mind if I take you back to my apartment." It took him a minute to realize how his sentence sounded, "No! I mean so you could maybe have something to eat! I-I wouldn't think about doing anything to you."

He thought he was safe, but instead it got worse, "Do you not find me attractive?" she sounded a little sad.

His face became a darker shade of crimson from her question, before trying to explain to her, "No! I think you're very attractive, beautiful even. It's just that we haven't known each other for very long, we don't even know each other's name a-"

"Akitsu."

"What?"

"My name is Akitsu."

He smiled from relief that they were off the stressful topic, but also from how pleasant her name was to hear. "My name is Akito, Akito Otonashi." He smiled again and the warmth in Akitsu's chest came back. Before he could say anything else Akitsu's stomach growled, which caused him to laugh while she blushed.

He tugged her hand slightly as if to ask if she would go with him. She nodded her response but without a smile like he had hoped. Akito wished he would see her smile once by the end of the day. But instead of voicing his thoughts he simply smiled and began walking with her hand in his.

Until they heard a voice that sounded just a bit deeper than a child's, "Excuse me, But I think you're running off with my toy." Akito turned around to see a boy that looked to be quite a bit younger than him, and shorter by about several inches. He had light brown hair and eyes of the same color. He wore a white outfit that that made him reek of wealth, behind him stood a rather tall man with silver hair and gray eyes. He was dressed in black except for the bright orange scarf around his neck. He was holding onto a long black sheath, clearly containing a sword.

Akito moved Akitsu behind him before his entire demeanor changed, "Who are you? And what do you mean?" He changed from a nice, caring young man, to a person that would likely stand in front of anything without fear.

The teenage boy didn't seem to care that Akito was glaring at him with a fire hot enough to turn him into ash, he simple spoke calmly. "That's rather rude. Why not start with introductions? I am Hayato Mikogami, and this is Mutsu. And you are?"

"Santonio Holmes," Akito said, without a trace of sarcasm, "and what do you want?"

"You are a very rude person. As for what I want, is the little broken toy you were trying to run away with." His voice made it obvious how smug he was.

Akito became furious when Mikogami called Akitsu as nothing more than a person's possession. He was about to yell out at Mikogami but stopped himself when Akitsu walked by him. And so Akito reverted back to the way he was when he met Akitsu. "Akitsu, what are you doing?" He asked in a hushed tone.

"I am going to Master Mikogami. I can be useful to him." She sounded so calm, like she didn't mind be treated as someone's personal play thing.

"Well it seems she has made her choice. Let's leave now Mutsu." The stoic man did nothing but nod in acknowledgement. Akitsu didn't look back like Akito had hoped, so he tried to stop her.

"Akitsu, please don't go." She just kept walking, he thought maybe she didn't hear him so talked louder, not really thinking what to say, "Akitsu, I need you!" That was what made her stop.

She looked back at him and quietly said, "What?" She sounded the same, t her eyes showed something so faint. As if she hadn't felt it in a very long time.

Akito picked his head up and smiled slightly that he got her to stop. So, he kept going, "Akitsu I want- no, I need you. Please?" He held his hand out hoping she would go with him. He wasn't sure why he felt like he wouldn't live without her. Was it sympathy; was he just sorry for her? The only question he could answer; was if he needed her.

Akitsu looked back at Mikogami, who was standing a few feet away clearly agitated that she was hesitating, and then back at Akito. The only person that had made her feel like she was reacting to someone, though she knew she could never really react to anyone, but he made her feel that way. Then her gaze dropped to his hand, it was one of the hands that held her lovingly and the same one that had grabbed her hand.

Then she looked at the jacket that she was almost completely shrouded in. It smelled like him and it was still warm on the inside despite how cold it was. She took one last look at Mikogami before walking towards Akito and grabbing his hand. Akito was ecstatic; Akitsu had decided to go with him. He looked at Mikogami and smiled.

Mikogami simply sighed and said, "Mutsu, bring her hear."

"Yes, Mikogami." Mutsu simply turned towards Akito and Akitsu, and drew his sword. The blade glistened in the moonlight before both it and Mutsu seemingly vanished. Akito wasn't able to stay shocked at Mutsu's speed for very long before a long gash was cut into the concrete. When Akito looked up from the gash Mutsu was standing only a few feet away from him and Akitsu. When Mutsu charged forward Akito grabbed Akitsu's hand and began running as fast as he could.

Mutsu was about to cut them off but stopped when he heard Mikogami call out to him, "Mutsu come back. We'll just come back for her another day." Mutsu nearly stopped on a dime, and put his sword back in its sheath.

He looked on as Akito and Akitsu rounded the corner out of the park, before turning back and saying, "Yes Mikogami."