*Begin Meta*

In a certain part of the Shipping Sea, a heavy mist lingers over the water. Lost ships are inevitably drawn to this place, forgotten or abandoned by the creators and left to drift aimlessly. On rare occasions though, even if it is just for a moment, a ship will drift back out of the mist.

The S.S Uzume is the ship in this not-so-hypothetical scenario, and in this ship a certain First Mate lay sleeping. Well, less lay and more hunched over the communications desk with his head buried in his arms, but semantics. Especially since the moment this scene starts the communications desk starts buzzing loudly.

The First Mate bolted upright and flailed about for a moment before he remembered where he was. He blinked owlishly as the missive being printed out in front of him, and his eyes widened when he saw who it was from. Holy crap the author's not dead! He thought as he grabbed the paper and started reading through it quickly.

Even as he did this, a rhythmic thumping could be heard getting louder, as if someone was running toward the communications room as fast as his sea legs could take him. A few seconds later the Captain burst through the door, his face lit up with hope.

Without looking up from the paper the First Mate said "Still not a lemon chapter, sir."

Five minutes (and a good deal of cursing) later, Captain calmed down and gave the other man a weary look. "So, what's it this time? Another motley snippet before he casts us back to the void for God knows how long?"

"So it would seems..." The First Mate said flatly before he perked up a little. "But at least it seems this snippet came out because some fans really wanted him to continue it. So, at least Satire Swift is listening to audience."

"Oh yeah? Well, did he also listen to how what the audience really wants is for all the characters' clothes to fall off and for nature to take it's inevitable course?!"

"I think you're projecting a little, sir."

The Captain threw up his hands in exasperation. "Well at least it would be a definite end to the damn fic! This 'complete but not really' thing is getting old!"

"Well, people are still asking him to make new chapters, so what is he supposed to do?" The First Mate asked as he looked at the man. "Remove all the chapters after chapter six and put them into their own sequel fic, thus allowing the original run to be complete yet leave the door open for more?"

The two looked at each other for a long moment before they looked at the communication console expectantly. Sure enough a second later it buzzed and another sheet printed out. The First Mate took it and read. "...yes, he'll be doing exactly that in a couple of days."

"Well, that's something at least..." The Captain let out a mix of a sigh and a grumble. "You know, since Satire disappeared from the site, I had started to worry that he had gone nuts and devolved into writing self insert trash somewhere else. Thank god that didn't happen." The First Mate sucked in a breath between his teeth, and the Captain eyed him suspiciously. "...what?"

Even through the thick fog, the scream could be heard for miles. "What the hells is a Spacebattles?!"

*End Meta*


Uzume groaned as she trudged past the threshold of the Inn, her shoulders slumped as she moved down the hallway to her room. It wasn't a physical tiredness that bore her down so much as a mental one, a general frustration and exhaustion that came with running up against a problem that you couldn't solve. It was such that even the smell of Shirou's cooking wasn't able to brighten her mood, and she moved past the kitchen down the hall to her room and unceremoniously fell down face first on to her futon. She didn't even care that she was still wearing her business suit and getting it wrinkled, for all the good it was doing her lately.

A minute passed before she heard footsteps from the still open down behind her, and Shirou appeared in the doorway, wearing his apron (she assumed, still was face down). "So, it's been one of those days, has it?"

"Hrgrbmrg!" She muttered angrily into the pillow as she squirmed. She hated the suit she was wearing, it felt like a strait jacket for how confining it felt compared to her normal wear. She turned her head to the side as she awkwardly tried to remove her jacket. "Why the hell does it have to be so hard to get a job in this country? Everyone is like 'What's you're previous work history?', or 'Can I see your birth certificate?', or 'are you even Japanese?'"

She heard Shirou let out a sigh. "You know, you don't have to get a job-"

"Yes I do." She said stubbornly. Lord knew she would have been perfectly fine lazing on her ass at home all day, but… she couldn't count on Miya's kindness forever, and it wasn't like Chiho had picked up many marketable skills while being terminally ill for most of her life. And Shirou… well, that was a whole other complicated mess she didn't want to have to put strain on. She slipped off her skirt. "I'm perfectly willing to earn my bread or whatever. I just need to find a job that doesn't ask so many questions."

From behind her she heard Shirou hum. "That's going to be difficult in this city, considering how connected everything is. It's suspicious if someone doesn't have a background."

Uzume chewed her lip as she shrugged out of her shirt. As far as she knew MBI didn't have any real plans for the Sekirei to go out and get jobs on their own. She could try asking the company for a reference or something, but given the way the Plan was going she wanted to distance herself from them as much as possible. "So what the hell am I supposed to do?"

"Well, depending on your skill set, you could try a more... personal approach. Many occupations work on reputation and word of mouth rather than normal company references, and don't tend to care about history."

"Hmm..." Uzume hummed as she thought about that. She had been trying to leverage her skill with cloth to get a job, but what other skills did she have? Maybe something else she picked up-

She hesitated before she perked up. "I've got it! I'll be a professional wizard! I'll advertise in the yellow pages and everything!"

Shriou looked at her flatly. "Uzume, we've been over this. Just because it works for Harry Dresden doesn't mean it works in real life."

"Then real life is bullshit!" Uzume declared before she flopped back down to the futon. In truth she doubted she knew enough about magic at the moment to actually make a career out of it. Shirou had remarked that she was picking it up remarkably fast, but she had only been at it for a little while.

Shirou was about to say something else before he finally seemed to notice all the layers Uzume had peeled off, the woman now clad in nothing but a pair of panties as she lay face down on the futon. "M-maybe I should wait outside until you're done changing."

Uzume just looked back and stuck out her tongue at him. "Oh, it's nothing you haven't seen before."

Which is of course when Chiho wandered in. "Shirou, has Uzume come home-" was as far as she got before she saw her Sekirei mostly naked on the futon. "U-Uzume! You can't just take off all your clothes in front of people!" she exclaimed before she rushed over to her Sekirei and covered her with a sheet.

Uzume looked at the girl fussing over her. "Because you're the only one allowed to see that?"

"Ye-No! I mean- you know what I mean!"

Uzume chuckled as she looked fondly at her Ashikabi. She really shouldn't tease her so much, but Chiho was just so adorable when she was flustered.

For the doorway, Shirou shifted a little before he looked back at Uzume. "Look, I... may know some people that could use your talents, and won't particularly care where you came from. I could introduce you to them-"

"You really mean it?" Uzume said excitedly as she sat upright to face him. Of course, this resulted in the sheet falling off her. Shirou looked away with a blush while behind her Chiho let out an 'eep!' and moved to cover her lover's chest with her hands. This put her in the awkward position of groping Uzume, but since she couldn't stop let she stop covering her, Chiho simply buried her face in the other woman's back.

Shirou just covered his face with his hands. "Yes, I mean it. I'll see if I can get something set up in a few days."

"Awesome! You hear that Chiho? Things are looking up!"

"G-good!" Chiho said, her face still pressed into Uzume's back. "Now please cover up!"

The Sekirei rolled he eyes, but said "Fine." A moment later her power manifested her usual chest binding and she was covered. Chiho let out a sigh of relief… until she realized that her hands were now trapped fondling Uzume's chest. "Ah! U-Uzume! I'm stuck!"

Just as planned, Uzume thought to herself with a grin.


The sound of someone screaming in distress had become a somewhat familiar tone to Uzume, as least during her regular patrols with Shirou. Granted it wasn't always Sekirei related (there was plenty of mundane crime in the city as well), but Sekirei fights were sill common enough in Shin Tokyo that they couldn't ignore it. "Sounds like it's coming from... over that way." Uzume said as she pointed off to the left, a slight frown on her face as she stood on the lip of the building. "Sounds a little odd though..."

Perched atop a nearby water tower, Shirou grunted. "It's not echoing like it usually does... must be on a rooftop." He said as he jumped down next to her.

"Huh. You know, aside from that time Musubi and Tsukiumi chased me, I can't remember ever seeing a Sekirei battle take place above street level."

Shirou shrugged. "Most Sekirei don't fight until their winged, and most Ashikabi don't frequent rooftops. Though it seems there are exceptions."

The two of them moved quickly, the setting sun still giving off enough light that they could see clearly. In short order they found themselves atop a building across the street from the commotion. The other building was two stories shorter than the one they were on, so they got a good view of the two Sekirei fighting, both dressed in long kimonos. Well, it wasn't really a fight; one was on her rear and scooting away, the other was slowly advancing with a spear held in front of her. Their Ashikabis, a pair of generic looking young men, stood off to the side and did nothing but look worried.

Normally that would have been enough for her and Shirou to intervene, but something held them both back. Working on her own had given Uzume keen instincts, and, the situation just seemed... off. The one on the ground was screaming her head off, but it didn't sound like terror screams. And the one with the spear was in an awkward stance, like she had never held the weapon before. The whole thing looked... staged.

Which is why she threw herself to the side the moment she hear Shirou yell "Move!"

A blade passed through the space she had been in just and instant ago, and as she rolled to her feet, she froze in terror as who she saw. The gray haired woman was already turning away from her towards Shirou, but the black uniform combined with the overcoat draped over her shoulders made it clear who it was. Karasuba, leader of MBI's Disciplinary Squad, cackled as her blade slammed into Shirou's own. "Finally! Show me what you've got Kensei!" From the corner of her eye, Uzume also saw the two Sekirei who had been 'fighting' earlier throw off their kimonos and jump towards them, their outfits matching Karasuba's own.

It's a trap!

Uzume recovered before the first of the two Disciplinary Squad members reached her, a slight woman with pink hair who already had her fist cocked back as she descended towards her. The cloth Sekirei took step back and to the side, her cloth reaching out and wrapping around Pink Hair's fist just as she threw the punch. The only woman had only a moment to let out a surprised shriek before she was flipped over and cratered into the rooftop. Uzume then pulled back to avoid a swipe from the massive claw of the white haired one, who had landed next to her partner a moment later.

White Hair moved after her, but Uzume was already starting her White Lotus Dervish, and the claws tore through nothing but cloth. Still, as the first Disciplinary Squad member got up and engaged her as well Uzume was forced to remain on the defensive. These two were a lot more competent and dangerous than the last pair she had tried this on, and it was all she could do to avoid their attacks. And she wouldn't be able to keep this up forever.

And Shirou agreed, judging by the plethora of swords that suddenly dropped from the air and impaled themselves into the roof around them. Each was roughly the size and shape of a Roman Galdius, save that they all had a bright red stone in the pommel that was getting brighter and emitting an increasing tone. Retreat it is then, Uzume thought, and the moment before the rising tone reached it's peak she formed a cloth blindfold that tightly covered her eyes and ears.

Even through the covering she could still see and hear the blades exploding, as well as hear the muffled cries that came after. Sure enough when she removed the blindfold she found her opponents rolling on the ground cradling their heads. She and Shirou had talked about a number of contingencies for if things ever went south on a patrol, and he had shown her what she had mentally dubbed his 'Flashbang Swords'. Littering the entire field with them meant they were to bug out as fast as possible, and Uzume just caught sight of the man disappearing over the edge of the building and out of sight.

She moved to follow, but pulled back as a wild sword slashed in front of her. "Where do you think you're going?" Karasuba growled as she blinked rapidly, dazed but not down. "He'll have to come back for you if I keep you here!"

Uzume tried to back away, but even in her dazed state Karasuba was fast. The katana sliced through cloth as fast as she could form it, and every strike was pushing her farther back and more off balance. In a matter of seconds Uzume was nearly at the other end of the roof, and she knew the moment she tripped the Black Sekirei would have her. Out of options, she planted her feet and created a pair of large swaths from her arms, hanging them in the air in front of her as she tried something she had be training for but never done in combat: doing the wizard thing.

When Shirou had describe it to her he call it a trigger, a sort of mental image or feeling that activated one's magic. His was the the cocking of a gun. He had said that Rin's was slicing her own throat. It took Uzume a while to figure out what her's was. It couldn't just be any old thing, it had to be something that 'triggered' a primal reaction, that mix of terror and tension you feel the moment your fight or flight instincts take hold. In the end, she settled on that feeling she had the first time she had met Higa.

A chain tightening around her throat.

Her fingers danced across the cloth in front of her and runes flared to life on the fabric. With a cry she swept out her arms and the cloth swept out with it. Wind and flame trailed in their wake, and as they crossed several cyclones of fire formed between her and Karasuba. The Black Sekirei jumped back in surprise at the sudden pyroclasm, and in that moment when line of sight was broken Uzume jumped back off the roof. As she fell Uzume shot out a line of cloth at a near by flag and grabbed the pole, swinging herself clear of the building and down the street.

She was on the move for several minutes before she reached the rendezvous point, landing and ducking into an alley. She nearly lashed out at the person already there before she realized he had beaten her here. "Shirou! Are you alright? Why they hell is the Disciplinary Squad after us?"

The man looked around nervously. "I'm not sure. Probably finally got tired of us interfering with the Plan." He let out a breath before he looked back at Uzume. "We need to get back to the inn and get our bearings. We need to be a lot more careful now that MBI is after us too."

Uzume nodded grimly as she followed him out of the alleyway and back towards the inn (using every trick they knew to shake a tail, of course).Her thoughts revolved around Chiho, and how she would keep the sweet girl out of the new mess they had found themselves in. Although, if she had been paying more attention, she might have noticed the figure watching them from the roofs above.