Surprisingly enough, Eliza's trip to the library was uneventful and even though she had walked it hadn't taken that long, plus the red head felt fairly confident that no one recognised her or was following her. With a slightly more relaxed posture than the one she had held throughout her walk, probably making her look rather suspicious or paranoid depending on who was viewing her, she walked up to the front of the library. This 'always having to look over your shoulder' period of her life, short as it may be, was something Eliza was not cut out for and she would be very happy when, or perhaps if now, she could get back to just playing video games and doing boring computer jobs. She even wished for her old menial tech job that while mind dulling was a much safer occupation than Eliza's current job description that involved risk to personal safety as a likely consequence.
Attempting to discard those disheartening thoughts, the red head scanned the library, thankful that most of the general public were sensibly still in bed or at least not at the library this early in the morning, for an empty computer spot. Looking around Eliza noticed the obviously students, who looked sleep deprived as if they had been here all night, which was entirely possible since this place was open 24/7, some falling asleep on their text books. She assumed most of them were cramming for the entrance of one of the biggest universities in Tokyo that was in a couple of weeks or so if she remembered correctly, having seen the signs posted around the area last time she was there. That had actually been one of the reasons the teenager had planned to avoid the library, not particularly comfortable in crowded enclosed spaces and this place packed with student was not somewhere she would have enjoyed spending her time in.
Luckily enough for Eliza most student had either finished last night or had yet to arrive, allowing her to find a free computer which she could start working on. Walking towards the computer in the far left of the library behind the study area, the right occupied by mostly book shelves, she passed a young man of similar age to herself sleeping of his palm, most likely having been here most of the night. The man had messy black hair that just reached pat his eyebrows and wore a white top and blue jeans and was sleeping over a large amount of textbooks. Eliza wondered for a moment if perhaps she should wake the boy as he probably wanted to revise but then again he must have been really tired to fall asleep here and might need the rest from the stress of revising. With this in mind the red head decided to leave him be and would wake him if he hadn't awoke before she left.
Sitting down in front of the keyboard she began hacking into the library's server, not wanting to log into her library account in case her online activity was being monitored, she did not want to take any risks. Once in she began encoding some safe guards into the system, knowing that this public server was highly unlikely to have any good protection against viruses, she had managed to hack in with no problems. While she was trying to improve the pitiful excuse of safety software, Eliza cursed herself for letting her own laptop to be corrupted, forcing her to go out of her way just to finish the job.
Glancing up and out of the window that showed a clear view of the centre of the city which unfortunately meant a clear view of the ugly and annoyingly tall MBI building that seemed to always be in sight no matter your distance from it. A shiver crawled down her spine and it wasn't caused by that horrid tower but rather a feeling of being watched, a feeling that had Eliza's paranoia increasing tenfold. Had she been followed? Had she slipped up when she hacked the computer? Her hands froze over the keyboard unsure of what she had done to get spotted and what she was going to do in order not to get caught again.
Suddenly the sound of a phone ringing went off and the sound of a thud as flesh hit wood could be heard, followed by a groan. Eliza jumped at the noise, turning her head to see the previously sleeping guy rubbing his face as he pulled out his phone, looking apologetically at Eliza for the disturbance. Raising the device to his ear, a female voice blared out in a scolding tone, the words Eliza could not make out, however the tone and conversation had the boy shrinking in his seat slightly.
Noticing movement coming toward the young man, Eliza's eyes changed focus to see an authoritative and stern women with half moon glassed. She had short grey hair, wore a light purple outfit with lots of frills around the neck and breast with a slit down the thigh and had a red spot on her forehead. For all intent and purposes she looked as much like a librarian, as if the job was made for her. Said librarian moved to the black haired guy, tapping him on the shoulder and indicating her should move away to avoid disturbing anyone, pointing towards Eliza in the process but not turning to face the red head.
Wondering why she had been singled out, Eliza looked around for the other students she had seen in the study area on her way over but found her and the young man on his phone were the only ones left. Odd. When had everyone else left and where had they gone, the library looked basically empty except for the three of them and that was soon going to be down to two. The connection finally sunk in and Eliza understood her feeling of unease, which seemed to be rising now she was aware of the lack of witnesses around. It was probably for her best interest to get out of there before any trouble began, avoiding conflict was a good plan in her opinion.
Remembering noticing an emergency exit just past the computer section when she arrived, Eliza believed this constituted as such. So with that in mind she shut down the computer and made a hastily exit, trying not to looked too inconspicuous as the women still seemed to be directed the male away from them. Once outside in what seemed to be a dead end alley, the door banging closed behind her, Eliza went to make her way towards the street, hopefully to get lost in the crowd but instead found herself facing the grey haired women standing at the end of the alleyway.
"How the hell?" Eliza thought, spinning back to face the closed exit door, she couldn't figure out how she had been beaten here but then thought it was probably not a good idea to turn her back to the stranger and was once again turned to face the would be librarian who was now a lot closer.
"Oh hey.' The red headed started nervously, backing up, trying to figure out an escape to what could be a dangerous event and probably would wind up with her injured and in handcuffs again, something she did not want to go through again anytime soon or at all really. "What can I do for you?" She asked trying to bide her time, hoping maybe an escape plan would come to her or she'd get really lucky.
The slightly older women was moving in fast, taking purposeful strides towards the retreating teenager who was running out of alleyway. "I've been looking for you." She calmly stated, seeming unaware or unconcerned with Eliza's nervousness.
"Ah really? Well guess you've found me so I can just be goin..." Eliza's back hit a wall and her head whipped around, hoping what she felt wasn't real and that she still had somewhere to escape to. She didn't. Seeing that her shoulders sagged only to tense up a moment later when she came face to face with the other women, hazel eyes looking into hazel. Eliza's words caught in her throat, sensing the other women's body just mere inches from her own, feeling her breathe on her face. Eliza didn't know what the women was playing at or what she was going to do next. It seemed she could only wait and see, her mind not being of any help to her at this point it time.
"My ashi.." The older women's breath was coming in pants and a extreme blush had reddened her cheeks, interfering with the stern and quite intimidating persona she had held herself with before. "Please," She breathed at the red head, almost desperately, "be my ashikabi."
"There was that word again," thought Eliza, "the one that angry pink haired..." However she didn't get to finish that train of thought as lips came crashing down on her own, causing a gasp to escape her lips which was swallowed by the kiss. The other women's body pressed against Eliza, effectively pinning her to the wall as her hands laid delicately on the red head's chest. However despite the unexpectedness of the kiss and the fact she was an unknown stranger, Eliza couldn't help but to relax into it, responding in kind as her eyes fluttered closed. The teenager's hands rose automatically to rest on the other women's waist as said women lent further into Eliza's body.
A blinding light flashed beyond her closed eyelids, curiosity forcing her to open them to witness a beautiful sight of violet wings of light emerging from the back of the older women neck. The wings opened wide, illuminating the entire alleyway with a calming violet light. As the wings faded away and Eliza got enough control of her brain back to pull away and put some distance between the two of them, her mind still could only come up with one question, "What the hell was that?" However she did not voice the query having yet to regain control of her lips.
"Knowledge of my pledge, unlock the secrets of the universe before my ashikabi." The grey haired women recited, a smile gracing her lips taking away part of her stern exterior. "Your sekirei, No. 22 Kochou, now and forever."
Finally Eliza managed to form a slightly coherent thought but could only ask with a puzzled expression. "Wait what?"
Authors note: Thank you all for reading and for all the support, I've been meaning to write a sekirei fanfic for ages and chose to write this story idea first and I'm definitely happy I decided to write/post it. I will hopefully be posting fairly regularly, most likely aiming for Saturdays/Sundays though since exams are closing in. I appreciate all the feedback and I shall continue writing. :)