Sahashi Minato opened his eyes in alarm, then calmed as he realized that, for once, his gaggle of sekirei had not snuck into his room in the middle of the night. Since the assault that he led on Higa to free Uzume things had actually been rather quiet. Of course, quiet in the terms of the game, and he did hate calling it a game when it put people's lives on the line.
There was a knock on his door and he responded, "Yes? It's open."
The door opened and the landlady of Maison Izumo, Miya, was standing there with her perpetual smile, "Minato-san, breakfast will be ready soon."
He smiled and nodded, "Oh, thank you."
After Miya shut the door he stood and started to get dressed, wondering to himself how it was that Miya was always smiling, even when it was stupidly obvious that she was pissed off. Of course, what with that absolutely terrifying hanya mask that could appear over her shoulder at any time, she really never needed to look angry. When he was finished he started t make his way downstairs, checking cautiously around every corner just in case one of his sekirei felt the need to give him an early morning "surprise". That would usually be Kazehana or Matsu, as they seemed the least body shy of the lot.
He sat down at the table and slowly looked around, he asked the landlady, "Um, where is everyone else."
Miya just filled a bowl of soup and handed it to him, "Most of them were still asleep, but the others should be..."
The landlady was cut off by a commotion on the stairs. Two of his sekirei, Musubi, his first, and Tsukiumi, his fourth, were racing down, elbowing their way past each other in an effort to be the one that sat next to him. At the bottom, Tsukiumi tripped and made a grab for Musubi's ankle on the way down. She missed however and Musubi plopped down next to him with a huge ditzy smile plastered on her face.
Musubi threw her arms around him, "Good morning, Minato-kun!"
Unable to escape, and with his arms pinned at his sides, he could only return the greeting. He looked over Musubi's shoulder at Tsukiumi, who was red in the face with barely suppressed fury, and could only shrug helplessly.
Tsukiumi started to yell, "Musubi, how dare you..."
Tsukiumi stopped when Kusano, his second sekirei, sprinted around her and took a seat on the side of him opposite Musubi, and promptly clung to him while sticking her tounge out at the, still standing, Tsukiumi. His fourth sekirei stood in silence for a moment, then let out a defeated sigh and sat on the other side of the table. If he didn't know her better, he would have thought that her eyes were tearing up slightly.
He tried to ignore the two sekirei clinging to him and started to talk with Miya, "So, is there anything that needs to be done today?" It was the most reasonable thing to ask, especially considering that they had heard absolutely nothing from MBI for almost a week now.
Miya started to say, "Well, the windows need to be washed, and the..."
She was cut off when a voice came from directly overhead, "Minato-san, turn the TV on."
He looked up, and almost freaked out, his third sekirei was staring down at him through a hole in the ceiling, "Matsu-chan? What are you doing up there?"
Matsu shook her head, "That doesn't matter right now, just turn the TV on, you'll see why immediately."
He shot a glance at the landlady for permission, once Miya gave her consent he untangled himself from Musubi and Kusano, walked over, and turned the TV on.
The news was on, and the anchor woman seemed mildly alarmed, "In a surprise turn of events, MBI CEO and founder, Minaka Hiroto was found dead this morning in the courtyard directly in front of the MBI tower. Police are still working to find the cause, but inside sources have revealed that every bone in his body was crushed into tiny pieces. One could surmise that Minaka fell from the top of the tower, but it seems unlikely that so much damage could be sustained from a simple fall. The police are urging..."
He stopped listening at that point. With Minaka dead, did that mean that the game was over?
He asked Matsu, "When did this happen?" He could assume that she knew, what with hacking the MBI mainframe every night just out of principle.
Matsu clambered down from the ceiling before answering, "Minaka went missing around midnight. Nothing more was heard from him until they found his body this morning."
His head whipped around towards the door, half expecting some goons from MBI to be there, demanding that he hand over his sekirei. Instead, it was Seo Kaoru, with both Hirari and Hibiki right behind him.
Seo glanced around quickly, "So, I'm guessing that you've heard the news?"
Miya answered, "It's such a pity, he was such a nice man."
Seo chuckled, "You are kidding, right?"
The hanya mask appeared over the landlady's shoulder, "He was a better man than you, scum."
They all cowered under her glare, which was only intended for Seo.
He asked, "So, what should we be doing?"
Seo recovered from Miya's glare and answered, "Well, if I were you I would be putting as much distance between myself and MBI as possible. Things are going to get crazy around here for a while until they pick a new CEO. It might even be your mom."
He scratched the back of his head sheepishly, "Ah, sure, that would be great."
Seo continued, "But until then someone might try and scoop up any sekirei that isn't already back in the labs. It would probably be a good idea for you and your..." Seo smirked, "...harem to get out of the city for a while."
At the word "harem" his face went as white as a sheet, "You make me sound like a pervert!"
Seo chuckled, "Relax, I'm just teasing you. But I was serious about leaving the city."
He thought for a moment, "How exactly would we do that? MBI still has the city under lock down doesn't it?"
Seo smiled, "Well, I do happen to have a friend that runs a ship that brings goods into the city. I saved his life once actually, so the guy can't say no. Just mention my name and he'll give you a lift to wherever you need to go, and I recommend Iceland, on the sole reason that MBI doesn't have any presence there."
He started to get up and go wake his other sekirei, but something about Seo's words gave him pause, "You said, get me and the others on board. You aren't coming?"
Seo waved him off, "Are you kidding me? I still have work to do, besides, I want to find whoever had the guts to kill Minaka and congratulate him or her." Seo turned to leave, "And the boat captain is Sado Kurosaki, runs a boat called the Ishimura. Ask around, he should be easy enough to find."
Seo walked out without another word. Both Hikari and Hibiki gave a quick bow before doing the same, appearing significantly relieved that Seo hadn't embarrassed them this time.
Matsu set her hand on his shoulder, "Minato-san?"
He thought quickly, if they stayed, and Seo was right, a whole army of MBI goons could rush Maison Izumo and take everyone back. If he left... it might be awkward initially, but he was sure that he could handle it. That his sekirei could handle it was an obvious answer.
He turned to face the four sekirei that were already present, "I guess we'll be taking a vacation for a bit." He turned to Tsukiumi, "Could you go and wake Kagari-san up? I'll go and get Kazehana-san."
Tsukiumi looked like she wanted to say something, but stopped and simply nodded before standing and going back upstairs. He waited for a moment, partly out of a desire to not be looking up Tsukiumi's dress while climbing the stairs, and partly out of confusion. Tsukiumi usually, no, always had an opinion. Something must be bothering her, and while he would have liked to take the time to figure it out right now, he was currently more concerned with getting all of them out of the city safely. When they were on the boat he should have ample opportunity to find out what was wrong. He filed the thought away for later and followed Tsukiumi up the stairs, stopping outside Kazehana's door.
He hesitated before knocking, Kazehana, his fifth sekirei, was usually drunk when she turned in for the night, and that meant she could be naked at the moment. He shook his head and took a deep breath, time was off the essence, he spoke while knocking three times, "Kazehana-chan?"
The door opened and his earlier fear was justified, Kazehana was nude from the waist up, and he felt his eyes pulled unwillingly towards her very large breasts.
Kazehana smiled at him, and he could have sworn he heard steam, "See something you like?"
He forcibly averted his eyes, "Ah, could you put something on. We need to leave."
Kazehana didn't move for a moment, "What happened?"
He answered, while still attempting to not look at her, "Someone killed Minaka, and Seo thought it would be a good idea to leave the country for a little bit."
Kazehana sounded sad, for her, and considering that she had formerly been in a sexual relationship with the psychotic CEO it was understandable, "Oh, what a shame, he was such a nice man." Then her attitude shifted, "Where are we going?"
He finally resorted to turning around, "Iceland, by boat."
Kazehana turned him back to facing her, and gave him a wink, "I'll be right down."
When Kazehana finally shut the door he shot a glance every which way, judging by his previous luck someone would have seen something and called him perverted, or called Kazehana slutty. But in a rare stroke of good luck, no one was there.
He had a thought, he had never actually left Maison Izumo with all of his sekirei at the same time, and he dreaded just how chaotic it was going to be. He heard a door close and turned towards the sound. His sixth, and only male, sekirei Kagari, was slowly making his way towards him.
When their eyes met, Kagari only nodded. Nothing else was needed.
City docks: forty five minutes later
Minato let out a deep sigh and tried to ignore the bickering that was going on behind him. Granted things weren't as bad as he had feared, but it still pushed him to his wits end. Kusano was having an argument with Kazehana of all people, and since Kusano didn't get what Kazehana was trying to say, her being a little girl and all, the argument just kept going and going... He had stopped paying attention to what they were arguing about, probably five seconds in, so he couldn't follow now even if he wanted to. When it came to the rest of them, things were relativly peaceful, Musubi was doing her usual thing and clinging to him, with Tsukiumi doing the same thing on his other arm and glaring at Musubi over his head. Kagari was standing a short ways off and seemed to be trying to appear that he didn't know them. At times, he could understand why Kagari felt that way. Especially what with all the perverse things that tended to happen.
He turned to look at Musubi, "Could let go for a moment?"
Musubi gave him a look that she had frequently, like she didn't even understand what he had just said, "Huh?" The look was cute but...
He gestured to the customs official presiding over the gates, "I need to talk to the man over there so I can find the captain Seo-san mentioned."
Musubi still didn't look like she understood, but she let go of his arm. He was about to turn and ask the same thing of Tsukiumi, but she let go of her own accord.
He turned to Tsukiumi anyways and rubbed his arm where she had been holding, "Thank you, Tsukiumi-chan."
Tsukiumi averted her eyes, but she did respond, "You're welcome, Minato."
He paused again, wanting to find out what was wrong, but he still didn't have the opportunity. On second thought, whatever it was, it probably wasn't a good idea to talk about it in the middle of a public area.
He walked up to the custom's officer, "Excuse me?"
The officer, a heavyset man with a similarly full beard, seemed very agitated, "What do you want?"
He tried to be polite, "I'm looking for a ship captain named Sado Kurosaki. Have you heard of him?"
The older man's face softened slightly, "Manners, that's a first for the day. On to what you were asking though, yes. The guy's just loading the last of his cargo onto the Ishimura. You'll have to hurry if you want to catch him. I'll get the gate for you." The officer pulled a key ring off of his belt, "Family outing?"
He didn't quite get what the man was asking, "I'm sorry?"
The officer gestured back to his sekirei, "All of them."
He thought for a moment, still not sure if he could safely disclose the details of the sekirei plan yet, "You could say that."
The officer smiled and tipped his hat after unlocking the gate, "Fair enough, enjoy wherever you happen to be going. Ishimura should be the fourth ship moored here."
He thanked the officer and walked through, Musubi promptly clung to his arm again, only this time it was Kusano that grabbed his other arm. He couldn't see Tsukiumi, but he knew from experience that she would have a crestfallen look on her face right now.
As he neared the Ishimura he felt his hopes rise. This had actually gone off without a hitch, something that almost never happened. At the base of a wooden ramp leading up onto the deck of the Ishimura there was a man standing with a clipboard in his hands. He was a tall, lean man, with a short stubble of grey hair and a wet looking mop of identical grey hair covered by a small skullcap. The man also wore a long brown coat that looked like it had been mauled by a dog several times, he also had a hurried air about him. He had to assume that this man was the captain.
He walked up to the man, "Sado Kurosaki?"
The man looked up from the clipboard, he had a very throaty, grizzled voice, "Eh? Who's asking?"
He responded, "Sahashi Minato, Seo said that you might help us out."
The man smiled, "Ah, old Seo is it? Well, a friend of Seo's is a friend of mine. What can I do for you?"
He hesitated for a moment, choosing his words, "Seo thought it might be a good idea to get out of the city for a while, what with all the chaos that'll be happening with the murder of the MBI CEO. We were wondering if..."
Sado cut him off and finished the thought, "I could help you out of the city. That sounds fair to me." Sado rapped the clipboard with the back of his knuckles, "But this isn't going to be a pleasure cruise, I'm short handed so I'm gonna put you to work. Understand?"
He thought for a moment, it really wouldn't be all that different from staying in Maison Izumo, so he responded, "That sounds fine to me." He turned to his sekirei, "Is that ok with all of you?"
The majority nodded silently, the only one that didn't, as usual, was Musubi, she was distracted by something flying overhead.
He cleared his throat, "Musubi-chan?"
Musubi finally looked at him, "Huh?"
He sighed, "Are you ok with working for our trip?"
Musubi gave him her usual smile, and nodded, "Yes."
Sado chuckled, "Well, from what I'm seeing I'll be getting a crew and a show, welcome aboard the Ishimura."
He shook the captain's hand, and followed up the ramp and onto the deck.
Tokyo: one week later:
Sekirei number 4, Karasuba slowly stalked along the city streets in the black night. Ever since that idiot Minaka got himself murdered things had been on a steady downward spiral, and she hadn't gotten to kill anything since then. Hence the reason for her wandering the streets at night on the hope that she would stumble upon another sekirei. Even a pathetically weak one would do, just enough to sate her blood lust for the time being. She would have gone after humans, but none of them could even attempt to put up a fight. Most ran the instant she looked them in the eye. What she would give for the opportunity to fight Yume...
She shook her head and muttered to herself, "Like I'll ever get the chance now."
Musubi and her ashikabi had vanished without a trace, as had all of the other sekirei that that stupid boy had managed to bond with. And with Musubi gone, so was Yume.
A deep, sonorous voice flowed out of the darkness, "Endless desire to kill, so like you number four."
She had her blade out in half of a heartbeat, "Show yourself!"
The voice chuckled before answering, "Look up."
She did, and floating in thin air about five feet in front of her and seven feet up, was undoubtably another sekirei. The figure dropped to the ground and into the light of a street lamp so she could get a better look. The man was tall, heavily muscled, and what was visible of his flesh was heavily scarred. Through the black hair that hung part of the way over his face she could see that there was also a scar that ran across his face from the middle of his forehead to just above his right eye. He wore a dark grey robe that dimly resembled something she had once seen on a mannequin in a museum on Japanese history, and there was a katana on his hip.
The figure scowled, which gave the impression of a statue doing the same, "To wantonly slay your own kin, I am disgusted by you. Even the meddling that the humans did cannot account for all of it."
She shot back a smirk and readied herself to charge, "And what do you care? You had the same done to you."
The figure shook his head, "Obviously you do not recognize me. Understandable after all this time, but no, I was not tampered with. Fortune seemed to favor me by separating me from the rest of you in the crash. Although I do wonder if I could have performed my duty had I not."
She straightened up, "What nonsense are you babbling? There were one hundred and eight of us. Is this some kind of mind game?"
The expression on the man's face changed from contempt to, pity, "Not exactly, I was the one meant to protect all one hundred and eight. I am sekirei number zero, Jango." The expression shifted back to contempt, "Even from each other."
She dropped back into a combat stance, clearly this "Jango" had hostile intentions, "And what do you plan to do about it?"
Jango made no move to draw his blade, "The obvious thing, I'm going to stop you right here and now."
She charged at Jango and swung for his neck on the right side, "Not going to happen!"
Jango made no attempt to get out of the way, indeed all that he did was lift his left hand across his body and held it, palm open, in the path of her sword.
She put extra muscle behind the swing and screamed, "Die!"
Her sword stopped, dead in the air, a full foot from Jango's hand. Not wasting time being surprised she attempted to pull away and try from a different angle, her blade would not move back either, nor could she.
Jango slowly lowered his left hand and set it against her stomach, "You never were one to think much before wading in swinging. Although I imagine that this will be the first time it will have cost you."
Before she could reply she went from completely static to going backwards at a dizzying speed as what felt like a ball of pure force hit her in the stomach right where Jango had put his hand. When she finally skidded to a stop against a building Jango was standing about five feet away.
The zero number gazed upon her with a face devoid of emotion, "Are you going to submit? Or do I need to keep hurting you?"
She used her sword to steady herself as she stood, "I'm not done yet."
Jango shook his head, "Pity." Jango then extended his right hand towards her, fingers clenched like he was holding something.
What he was holding quickly became apparent, her. She felt like her body was being held in place by a giant, invisible hand. Slowly, she started to float into the air, higher and higher. When Jango himself was little more than a speck on the ground she came crashing down at terminal velocity and hit the ground hard enough to make a crater, and she still could not move of her own volition.
Jango floated down into the crater she had made and set his boot upon her stomach, "You know, you did choose this outcome."
She spat back, "What are you?"
Jango narrowed his eyes, "Exactly what I said I was. The zero number sekirei, meant to protect the other one hundred and eight."
She shook her head and attempted to stand, but was pushed back down, "Not that, how could you beat me down so quickly?"
Jango smirked, "I believe the humans call it telekinesis. I simply prefer to think of it as mind over matter."
She snarled, "So now what? You kill me?"
Jango's blade slid out of its scabbard and into his hand without him touching it, "You certainly deserve it."
She closed her eyes in anticipation, suddenly afraid for the first time in her life. She still didn't want to die in spite of everything. There was a soft click of metal on stone and she opened her eyes. Jango had stabbed the cement right next to her ear.
The zero number explained, "Despite everything that you have done, I am not physically capable of killing my own kin. Humans are a different matter entirely, but I still do not slaughter them without just cause."
She felt her confidence return, "So I suppose you just let me go with this lesson and be on your way?"
A shadow fell across Jango's face, "Oh, I said I can't kill you. That does not mean you are walking away with a sound body." Jango rolled her onto her stomach with his boot and sank the blade of his katana slightly less than an inch into a spot just between her shoulder blades, "The first thing will be to do away with your connection to this foul ashikabi..."
She screamed, "NO!"
Jango spoke as one might to a misbehaving child, "You say that now, will you feel the same when the genetic tampering has been removed." The steel of the sword started to get warm, "Now, this won't hurt a bit." Jango paused, "Ok, I'm sorry, this is going to hurt a lot."
Her screams echoed in her own ears, and it was a wonder that the entire city was not awoken.
Three weeks later: 433 km west of Iceland
Minato flopped down on his cot in his small cabin. Working on a ship was a lot harder than he had thought it would be. So contrary to what he had planned getting aboard he still had not had enough time to talk to Tsukiumi about what was bothering her. It just kept getting pushed back and pushed back. On a positive note things hadn't gotten any worse, aside from Musubi almost capsizing the ship by accidentally dropping the anchor. Captain Sado had not been happy about that and sent Musubi to the brig. Which was essentially a small, empty steel room that you sat in for hours on end. He felt bad about it happening, but it was Sado's ship, and his word was law. Not that much different from living in Maison Izumo as a matter of fact.
He sighed and spoke aloud to the metal ceiling, "Well, at least this trip is almost over."
Come to think of it, most of his sekirei should be asleep by now. Maybe Tsukiumi was still awake and he could find out what was wrong right now.
He slung his feet onto the metal floor and stood, muttering to himself, "No time like the present."
When he reached for the door however, a large slab of metal dropped down and there was a hiss as an airtight seal was created.
He stood for a moment is confusion, "Wha..."
The intercom buzzed to life and a raspy, computerized voice spoke, "Hull breach detected, sealing all personnel cabins and life support systems."
He pounded on the door, yelling, "What's going on?"
The intercom buzzed again, "Ejecting personnel cabins in three, two, one..."
An explosion went off and threw him against the back of his cabin, then he felt no more.
An unknown time later:
Minato slowly awoke to the sound of a light tapping sound on coming from the walls of his cabin. It was dark, but he could still see to a certain extent, and when he looked, he was standing on the back wall of his cabin.
The tapping was suddenly accompanied by a voice, English, "Hello? Anyone alive in there?"
He crawled up to the small porthole in what used to be the door, "Is someone there?"
The voice responded, in a tinny tone, "Huh? What's someone from Japan doing all the way out here?"
He struggled to see out and saw a tiny glowing light, "It's a bit complicated."
The voice relented, "Well, fair enough. Could always use an extra set of hands down here."
His mind suddenly snapped fully awake and he thought of his sekirei, "Please, is there anyone else alive?"
There was a pause, "Well, from what I can see on the sonar I've got five other pods strewn across the sea floor. I have a few drones on their way but I don't know if there's anyone alive in them yet."
He blurted out, "What? I'm on the bottom of the ocean?"
The voice sounded amused, "Well yeah. You thought your boat got torpedoed and you would magically wind up on solid ground?"
He was dumbstruck, he was on the bottom of the ocean, in a small metal box, and he was still alive. Lucky didn't even begin to describe it.
The voice piped up again, "Ok, got a drone coming up on the first cabin right now." There was a pause, and the digitalized version of a wolf whistle floated through the metal, "Well, there's a real beauty of a woman in this one. Long black hair, wearing some kind of purple outfit, and got a really nice pair of boobs on her. And amazingly, she appears to still be asleep."
He let out a sigh of relief, "Kazehana-chan. Anyone else?"
There was another pause, "Ah, got another girl, red hair, glasses, white slip. What kind of boat were you on? A pleasure yacht?"
He gave an indignant shout, "NO!"
The voice carried on, not really seeming to care, "Ok next pod. Got two people in here, and now it actually makes sense now that you weren't on a pleasure cruise. One of them is a little girl, long blond hair, long white dress. And there is also, ah, a woman with short silver hair in a black outfit."
He muttered to himself, "Black outfit, Kagari-san! But, Kagari-san is a man."
There was a pause, and the voice indignantly responded, "Ok, I may have been down on the bottom of the ocean for two years, but I can still tell men from women. And let me tell you this fact of life if you havn't figured it out yet, men don't have breasts. Care to explain that?"
He hesitated, unable to come up with an explanation that didn't involve a lengthy explanation of the sekirei plan, "It's ah, complicated."
The voice laughed, "Suit yourself. I get the feeling that there are quite a few complicated bits that I'll have to hear later. But on to pod four, got a brunette inside, short hair cut, pink and white outfit, looks like she has absolutely no idea what's going on. Sound familiar?"
He smiled sheepishly, even though it was likely whoever was speaking couldn't see him, "Musubi-chan."
The voice laughed again, although this time it was more of a snort, "Sounds like you know she's trouble, but I'll save judgment till I see what she does. But so far as pod five is concerned, well, this one landed with the porthold down in the muck. I can't see inside."
He started to get frantic, according to the descriptions of the man on the other end only Tsukiumi wasn't accounted for, "Can you listen? Like what you are doing to me?"
There was a tired sigh, "Well, I suppose I can try. Give me a second." There was a pause, then a shout of surprise, "Sweet mother of God!"
He reacted with alarm, "What? What happened?"
The man on the other end sounded angry, "Oh I'll tell you what happened, the instant I set the listening device to the side of the blasted pod I hear screaming loud enough to shatter glass. I swear my ears are bleeding after that racket!"
A glimmer of hope flared within him, "Do you have any idea what they were saying?"
The voice growled, "How could I not? I can still hear it echoing inside my skull. The woman, and I have no doubt that it was a woman because no man could have a voice that shrill, was spouting some nonsense about how a man's legal wife should never have failed her husband so. I assume then she was talking about the corpse that is resting on the roof of your little cubicle then?"
He did a double take, "What are you talking about?"
The voice said, "Just a second." The glowing light vanished for a moment, then a partially destroyed head appeared in its place, "Look familiar?"
He was unable to stop himself from screaming and falling down to the bottom of his former room. The head was gruesomely deformed by whatever had happened to th Ishimura, but he could still recognize the face of the captain.
The disfigured head went away and the glowing light returned, "I'll take that as a yes. And I'm sorry for scaring you. But was that the lady's husband?"
He replied honestly after collecting himself for a moment, "No, that was Sado Kurosaki, he was the captain."
The voice sounded dissapointed, "Ah well, I guess the young lady won't have a body for the funeral, sad really but what can you do?" There was a pause, then the voice continued, "You know, it just occurred to me that I've been chatting away with you this whole time and I still don't even know your name. But I'm not the type to ask without giving something in return, so I tell you my name and you tell me yours. Sound fair?"
He paused only for a moment, it was awkward to speak to someone and not know their name, "It does, I'm Sahashi Minato."
The voice sounded downright cheerful, "Minato is it? Alright, as promised, I'm Ivan Dragovitch." Ivan chuckled, "Well, I suppose that's enough for the formalities. I still have to get you and the rest of the survivors inside."
A loud clank shook the pod, "Wait, get us inside where?"
Ivan replied and almost sounded happy, "Just wait for about five seconds and you can see it with your own eyes. Trust me, no words I could use could do it justice."
There was a loud crash as the pod was flipped so the floor was once again the floor, the pitch hurled him against the metal rather hard.
Ivan spoke again, "Sorry about that. Worker drones you know? About as delicate as a bull in a china shop." Ivan waited until he was back on his feet, "Well, take a look out of the porthole and be ready to have your breath stolen."
He approached the porthole, and looked outside. Instantly, the exact thing Ivan had said would happen, happened. Out in the water, close enough that he could have swam out to touch it if he wanted to. All that he could see was a giant mosaic of glittering glass. It was like seeing the entire skyline of Tokyo under the ocean, shining like the stars in the sky.
The small robot that Ivan was speaking through floated in front of the vista, "Well? Are you completely enraptured?"
In spite of himself, he could only nod.
Ivan started to laugh hysterically, "Wow, I never thought I would get to tell that joke." Ivan took a good while to calm himself, but eventually finished, "Minato, allow me to be the first, and probably only one in the city to say this to you." Ivan paused for dramatic effect, "Welcome to Rapture."