Author's note: After two years of working almost exclusively with a gritty radioactive post-Soviet setting, I've realized I'm in dire need of a change of scenery. You can thank (or blame) In a Quandary's The Sleeping Schedule for motivating me to catch up on this series and dust off some old ideas. The new story differs a bit from my usual style in that it diverts the original canon, instead of running parallel or subsequent to it, and doesn't rely on all the protagonists being ace gunslingers.

As this is a side project, updates may be sluggish unless there's a massive outpouring of reader interest. The plot is fairly straightforward by my standards, however, so there's a better than average chance I'll actually finish it. To start us off, here's a cold opening in which very little is properly explained – enjoy!


Wildcard

Act 0: The End of the Beginning

They were coming in force this time.

Homura counted five sekirei bounding across the rooftops and two more at street level. Briefly she worried the plan might be compromised, but the incursion's vanguard blew past her concealed vantage point without slowing. Uzume in her veiled guise led the pack, flanked by a pair Homura remembered from the night of her own traumatic winging – Oriha and Katsuragi. The couple in back were new to these parts: Sai and Shi, if the sentry was matching the right names to the faces she'd studied in Matsu's training sessions.

She didn't immediately recognize the pair on the street. One had blond hair done up in a knot and wore a sleeved gymnast's leotard. The other was a curly brunette in a garishly colored schoolgirl's uniform. Each was accompanied by a nervous looking young man, suggesting they were from Higa's collection of vassals. Perhaps Homura's own ashikabi had been correct in predicting their opponent might rely more on his reserves of cannon fodder after the outcome of their last engagement. No matter, if these were all the rich bastard – her ashikabi's words – had sent.

The roof-jumpers descended. Higa's sekirei split off to either side, moving to block the ends of the street. Uzume stood still, only moving once the vassals caught up with her. She headed directly to the front gate, no doubt intent on ending this as fast as she could. Homura quickly checked the placement of the enemy blocking detachments – her ashikabi's words again – and the positions of friendly forces. So far, so good.

Uzume was five paces from the gate to Izumo House when a figure stepped out of it. The rogue sekirei and her escorts halted at once. If they feared it was the one person they absolutely could not afford to meet here and now, they feared in vain: Asama Miya would never be seen wearing a windbreaker, and the hair under the lip of the army helmet was jet black in color.

"Hanako." Homura couldn't see Uzume's face clearly from this angle, but she picked up the renegade's wary voice clear enough. "Did Sahashi-chan send you out to speak for him?"

"Ah, no." Under other circumstances, the fire sekirei might laugh at the identical expressions the vassals adopted when they heard the gatekeeper's accent. "Minato-kun went away on an errand. The landlady's gone too, but you knew that."

"Yeah..." Uzume glanced about, though she gave no sign of noticing Homura or the others. "I guess you know why I'm here, huh?"

Hanako nodded. "You can forget about the jinki-thingy. It's been removed."

"I can't just take your word for it. You understand, right?" Uzume started to advance again. "So please, move aside."

"Nuh-uh." The woman in the helmet wagged a finger. "Violence is forbidden in Izumo House, after all." With her other hand, she took a folded piece of paper from the pocket of her jacket. "We were hoping you wouldn't get here before Minato-kun came back, but he left a message just in case."

As she came forward to hand it over, there was a yell from the far end of the street. "Aaah!" shouted Sai. "I know who that is! It's the sansei ashikabi that Hi – that Master's angry at! Take her out, Number Ten!"

Homura had to roll her eyes at the enemy's carelessness. If they didn't already know it, Sai would have just confirmed who was behind this raid. The outburst drew alarm from the loudmouth's companion as well. "Sacchan, we mustn't do that," Shi protested. "Attacking directly is – "

"Shut it!" The irate one turned her attention to the vassals instead. "You two, kill her! Even if she only has a couple of weak sekirei, she's an ally of the Ashikabi of the North!"

The subordinate fighters were timid, pitiful things, and their reluctance to strike was plain. Uzume stopped them with a raised arm. "Don't move," she ordered, never taking her eyes off Hanako. "You... Is this some kind of joke?"

"Nope, no joke." The gatekeeper made a show of rummaging in her trouser pockets. "Got a light?"

Homura tensed.

"I thought you hated smoking."

"Ah, well... Being an ashikabi is stressful, you know? I'm picking up all kinds of bad habits."

Being a sekirei is stressful too, thought Homura. You've done your part, now get out of there!

The incongruous banter only made Sai angrier. "You cowards! If you won't do as Master says – "

Then the opening salvo began. A sake bottle, plugged with a burning rag, arced over the roof of Izumo House and plummeted into the space between the buildings. It struck in front of Oriha and Katsuragi, covering the street in globs of gasoline mixed with dish soap. Ravenous flame and choking smoke sprang up at once, cutting the duo off from the rest of their party. Sai lunged toward the gate, narrowly outrunning a direct hit from the second incoming bottle.

"Tch..!" Homura drew back her hand, a ball of her own fire appearing at the unspoken summons, but Uzume moved even faster than she. The bolts of cloth surrounding the veiled sekirei darted sideways, intercepting Sai's blades.

"Ah," said Katsuragi. "Number Six is up there."

Homura bared her teeth and flung the ball at the nearest sekirei. Katsuragi jumped away, landing with one palm on the pavement. Against a ranged opponent on high ground, the jumpsuit-clad contact distance fighter was at a disadvantage. Unfortunately for her partner, Homura hadn't forgotten Oriha's weakness: "Snake fire!"

"Yeeeeeeeek!" Oriha backpedaled, flailing the bladed discs she had been poised to launch. "Not this agaaaaaain!"

Up the street, Shi was also panicking. "Sacchan? I can't see through the smoke, are you all right? Should I come in?"

As Oriha fled in disarray, Katsuragi straightened. "You can't beat me," warned Homura, readying another fireball.

"I know." It seemed the quiet girl was resigned to her fate. "But it's Master's order, so... Number Eighty-Six, Katsuragi, is your opponent."

As you wish. Homura threw to the left, driving Katsuragi closer to the smoke cloud. Just before the fighter touched the ground again, the fire sekirei heard the thwap of a recurve bow at her back. Katsuragi froze, staring at the carbon fiber shaft lodged in the pavement between her knees.

A new voice rang out from the roof of Izumo House, clear and precise. "That is my only warning to you. Number Thirty-Six, Karen, will not permit those of evil intent to trespass here."

Amidst the confusion, Homura hazarded a brief look in the direction of the archer's ashikabi. She was standing in front of the gate as before, hands on hips, watching Uzume finish rolling up Sai in her weaponized fabric. The vassal pairs had wisely retreated to the far side of the street. In the background, Shi barely had time for one final cry before she was removed from a fight she never got a chance to take part in.

Katsuragi still hadn't moved. It was not readily apparent whether she was trying to think of a maneuver that wouldn't end with an arrow through her heart, or waiting for teammates to take the heat off her. Homura dropped to street level, intent on preventing the latter. Exploiting Oriha's fear of snakes wouldn't work after the initial shock wore off: now it was dancing time, as a certain ashikabi liked to say. The flame wielder cast out a barrage of small charges, forcing her target to dodge and denying any openings to retaliate. Oriha tried to slip one of her weapons through the hail, but Homura deflected it with a concerted attack.

"Aiyah," exclaimed Hanako dramatically. "Landlady-sama, when did you get back?"

With those words, the skirmish was over. Katsuragi bolted, not waiting to find out whether it was a bluff, and Oriha vacillated for a fleeting instant before following the brawler's example. Homura let them go, torn between relief at retaining the upper hand and resentment at leaving her personal business unfinished.

The cold hiss of a fire extinguisher made her put those thoughts aside. "That should do it," said Hanako, spraying a little more onto the smoldering residue. "Watch the glass."

Homura leaped over the remains of the incendiary bottle, alighting at the human's side. "I could have ended it," she complained. "I only needed a little longer."

"You could have," agreed the gatekeeper, "but then there wouldn't be anyone left to run home and tell Higa how he lost so many assets."

While the fire sekirei understood the woman's motives, letting such information reach their enemy might be reckless given recent events. This wasn't the moment to argue, however. "I'll put out the other one," she offered, holding out her hands.

"Ah, sure. Go ahead."

As suspected, the announcement of Miya's return was a ruse. Uzume had meanwhile terminated Sai without fanfare and corralled her erstwhile escorts, the cannon fodder. So far as Homura could see, Izumo House remained undamaged. Now she did her part to keep it that way, holding the extinguisher nozzle low to the ground as she smothered the roots of the second dark cloud beneath a stream of yellow powder.

The fire died quickly, and with it some of the unease inside her was lifted. She was learning to hate this weapon as much as the gatekeeper advocated for it – a stinking, impure flame, born of foul chemicals and human machination, consuming whatever it touched without respect for the will of a being such as herself.

An unnatural draft cleared away the lingering smoke. "So many wretched children are coming to us lately," Kazehana sighed, gathering Shi's limp form in her arms. "A sour wind blows from the east."

"Ain't that the truth." Hanako zeroed on the captured ashikabi. "Lessee... Baseball cap and a nose ring, 'Born to Thrill' tattoo on the back of the right hand – Nanao and Okajima, right?" She folded her arms. "What did the rich bastard offer you for this job? Protection, a way out of the game? Don't say it was money."

"He said he could get us out," Okajima blurted, choosing to spill his guts rather than have them spilled for him. "He told us the Ashikabi of the North was going to start exterminating everyone else..."

"And you fell for it." The gatekeeper shook her head. "Whatever... You want out? Fine. There's the road. Leave the girls and get lost."

It appeared Okajima had a problem with that last part, even if the prospect of trying to fight his way past a pair of single-digits obviously terrified him. Not so for Nanao, who gave his gymnast a push that sent her stumbling forwards. The sekirei's whimpering and pleading looks met only stony silence: Nanao kept his face turned down, hiding his eyes behind the bill of his cap.

Homura wanted to reach out and reduce the man to ash on the spot. Her comrades were almost certainly entertaining similar ideas after seeing the cornered ashikabi jettison his partner in the most callous way imaginable. Pushing through to the center of the gathering, she pressed her hand against the girl's back. "These are the flames of my pledge, burn the karma of my ashikabi."

The gymnast shivered and sank to the ground. All eyes turned to Okajima. "Why?" he pleaded. "Akagi-chan is all I have. Why do I have to give her up?"

"Because you're shark bait," said Hanako flatly. "If you keep her, you're still in the game. If you're still in the game, you're on your own." She made a sweeping motion towards the right end of the street. "Well, if you want to take that chance, I won't stop you."

Okajima goggled at her. "What? But you just said – "

"If you want to get out of the Sekirei Plan, you have to give up your sekirei. That's MBI's rule, not mine... Personally I'd rather terminate your participation anyway, on grounds of being a security risk, but the Ashikabi of the North has a soft spot for hard luck cases and I have to respect that." Again Hanako placed her hands on her hips. "So be sure to say something nice if anyone asks about him."

"I will... I will! I'll tell everyone!" The promise given, Okajima grabbed Akagi's hand and ran, never looking back.

Nanao had somehow missed his cue to quietly slink away. "What are you still doing here?" the gatekeeper snapped. "Go. Scram. Fucking vanish."

And he did. "We're not going to punish him?" asked Kazehana, watching the coward's back recede.

"Not worth making a mess." Hanako pulled out her smartphone. "Eight minutes and forty-one seconds since they tripped the early warning system," she noted clinically. "That's a wrap. Well done, all of you."

The dominant feeling among the sekirei around her was more one of awkward relief than joy. Kazehana took it upon herself to dispel the tension. "Welcome home, Uzume."

"Yeah..." The veiled girl broke into a sheepish grin. "I'm home."

Homura was going to add her own sentiments when she heard a clatter from above and an apocalyptic vision of dislodged tiles falling from the roof flashed before her eyes. "Hana-nee!" a boisterous voice called. "Did I do good?"

"You were great, Nambu. Karen, you too." Hanako's voice dropped to a mutter as she dialed a call. "Only a couple of weak sekirei, my overqualified ass... Minato-kun, where are you? All right, hold on." She pulled the phone away from her head momentarily. "They're already at MBI, no losses. Hidaka-san was just taken into intensive care... Minato-kun, is your mom there? Could I talk to her real quick? Thanks... Takami-kun? Any news on you-know-what?" The ashikabi's face hardened. "I see... No, I'll speak with Matsu when she gets back. Thanks anyway... Yeah, we'll manage. I'm going to hand the phone over to Uzume now, okay? Need to clean up some broken glass before the landlady comes home."

As soon as the device was out of her hand, she made a beeline for the house's entrance. Homura followed instinctively, dropping the fire extinguisher by the gate as she passed. Then Nambu's compact frame landed on the path in front of them. "We're gonna have a party," the tawny fighter gushed, "since we got Uzu-nee back, right?"

Hanako smiled for what might be the first time all day. "I think we earned that much."

"Yahoo!" Nambu held up her right hand, wrapped in the cords of her throwing sling. "Sisfist!"

The gatekeeper bumped knuckles, but her look of happiness waned. "Red and Blue are coming to pick up the fallen. Could you get the cookies from yesterday's batch and put them in a bag for me?"

"You're giving them all to Planks and Stabby?" Nambu pouted. "You'll make more, right?"

"Of course I'll make more. Go on, now."

The tomboy scurried ahead as they went inside, and Homura found the ensuing silence oppressive. "Bribing the Disciplinary Squad with sweets," she remarked, trying to force some levity into the atmosphere. "Whether that's insane or brilliant, I don't know."

"Brilliant." All of Hanako's humor was gone. "Say it's brilliant. I think you and I might be the only sane ones left here."

So much for levity. "I take it Takami-san gave you bad news."

"Probably bad. As far as MBI knows, it wasn't Higa who torched my apartment and killed those other ashikabi."

"Not Higa? But we already ruled out Mikogami and Sanada."

"Exactly." Hanako took off the helmet, shaking out the remnants of what were once flowing locks. "So we're back to square one on that front... What am I looking for?"

"Dustpans and buckets?"

"Yeah, those." She stopped in the middle of the hallway, so abrupt that Homura nearly walked into her back. "Would it be better if I moved out?"

The non sequitur left Homura fumbling for context. "You've only just moved in."

"Don't pretend you're fine with this. I know you don't like sharing your room, and I know Nambu drives you up the wall. I can pitch a tent in the back of the Toyota and park somewhere different every night – "

Now the fire sekirei understood where this was going. "No," she said firmly, trying not to sound hypocritical in light of the caper they'd just pulled off. "I can't let you put yourself in danger."

"I'm touched, I really am." Hanako turned around. "But as your unwanted ashikabi, I think you should stop worrying about me and spend more time with Minato."

"Is that an order?"

"It's a request."

No amount of host club charm could dissuade her when she was like this. Even so, it wasn't wise to leave such feelings pent up where they might poison the celebratory mood later. "I didn't realize our situation was bothering you so much."

"Got to keep the morale up... I know, I know, I should be happy right now. I just don't know what to be happy about."

Such was the root of the problem. To the sekirei and Minato, what they'd accomplished today was an unequivocal double victory. To Hanako, it was merely buying time ahead of the next nerve-wracking sortie. Homura reached for a cigarette, remembering too late that she didn't smoke anymore. Instead her fingers started to play with the unfastened top buttons of her shirt as she weighed her next words. "Everyone is coming back safely," she pointed out. "Isn't that something to be glad for?"

"It's something." Hanako shrugged, as though shedding her malaise with a physical motion. "All right, you win. What the hell, I could use a night off." She began to walk once more, throwing a glance back over her shoulder. "But I do want you to consider my request seriously."

Homura arched an eyebrow. "If Tsukiumi finds out you told her rival to cheat on you with her lawful husband – "

"She'll blast me through the wall and never let me sit at the same table again," Hanako deadpanned. "Oh, and don't let me forget to ask Uzume about the quality of Higa's information. I thought by now he'd know who winged you."

"Mmf." The one who had been winged felt a sudden compulsion to shift the subject matter away from herself. "What happens next?"

"If we're lucky, Minaka won't start the next match right away and today's encounter will force Higa to keep his head down for a while... Is this the right cabinet? Nope... Assuming Minato is okay with it, I want Matsu to investigate the apartment fire and the suspicious deaths again. There's got to be a clue we've missed... We really need to do something about the Ashikabi of the North's bad PR as well. At this point Higa could say Minato reenacted the Potemkin Stairs massacre and people would believe – son of a bitch! Why didn't I think of that sooner!?"

"Think of... what?"

"Potemkin! That's it!" Hanako balled up a fist and slammed it into an open palm. "That's how we'll counterattack!"

"You've lost me," Homura groaned. "Is this good or bad?"

"It's... No, I'll wait until everyone is here." Finally the gatekeeper found what she'd come for. "Here we go. One for you and one for me."

The sekirei of fire accepted the dustpan, falling in as Hanako reversed course. For some reason she found her thoughts gravitating back to the question of her ashikabi's residency. "I suppose it's my own fault we ended up like this," she mused aloud. "My punishment for rejecting Sahashi when I reacted to him."

"It's nobody's fault but mine." Hanako's conviction was absolute. "Remember my promise and be strong."