A/N: I want to thank all of my reviewers; all of you rock, seriously. And as for Crossoverpairinglover's question, the answer is: I don't know if I'm going to have any lemons, limes, whatever. I've never really tried to write any yet, so I just don't know. However, there might be some hints and such to such acts, but again, I'm not sure. For now, I'm going to work on trying to keep the story to a nice pace, having character development and whatnot, and focus on the story arcs in general. If I do decide to have lemons and such, they will most likely be at the end of an arc or in an epilogue or an omake.
Writing with writer's block sucks too. But I'm still trying my hardest. The chapters are probably going to be still rather short for awhile yet (usually around 2000 words, according to what my word counter says, although I do have to take out quite a few words due to author's notes and such…), but they should pick up once I get into the next arc.
But enough; let's get this show on the road, shall we?
Chapter Four: Fitting In, and Character Development
We followed Miya into what turned out to be the dining room. So far it was deserted, although with the smell of delicious food, I was sure that wouldn't be the case for long. As we sat down, Miya said, "I assume you two are that couple that Uzume met a couple of days ago, correct?"
"Yes ma'am," I said politely, "And it's a good thing that she mentioned that this place had openings; we were told to get out the second we got back to my old apartment."
"Ah, yes. Uzume did mention that you were living in the place where Minato was staying previously." Miya said, nodding. "Thankfully, we do indeed have a room for you two to live in. And seeing as how you're involved in the Sekirei Plan, rent is free, seeing as how we have a few M. B. I credit cards that have no limit." I mentally sighed in relief; I wasn't sure how I was going to pay rent, seeing as how I had no job. I only had what little money I had left when I came to Japan.
"You two will be expected to do chores and such while you are here, however," she said, a large hannyo mask appearing behind her. I guess it was supposed to be intimidating, but I wasn't scared at all. It seemed Akitsu wasn't as immune to it as I was, for she lost what little color in her face that she had, and began shaking.
"You know, you don't have to try to intimidate us into it; we would've happily agreed to help around this place. After all, you're agreeing to house us; it's the least we could do," I said, trying to prevent Akitsu from going into cardiac arrest from the mask of death that Miya was projecting.
My statement must've shocked Miya, for the mask disappeared. Or maybe it was the fact that I wasn't in danger of soiling myself after seeing the mask. I wasn't entirely sure. But in any case, we were interrupted before the conversation could go any further.
"Oh? Who's this?" Came a man's voice. "Do we have new tenants?" Came another man's voice. Turning, I watched as the owners of the voices entered the room. One man was slightly taller than I was, with silver hair, and he looked even more feminine than I did (my longer hair tended to give people the wrong idea about my gender). The other had unruly black hair, about my height, and seemed like the gentle sort.
They both immediately gained looks of suspicion and wariness, respectively. All of it seemed directed at Akitsu, who looked guiltily away. My brow furrowed, but I said nothing…yet.
Following the men came two rather busty women, a young girl and a young boy, and…
"Zach! Akitsu!" Uzume cried as she came into the room.
"Uzume!" I smiled at the woman as she sat down next to me.
"Fancy meeting you here," Uzume winked at me playfully, "How are you?"
"Just fine; looks like we're going to be living together shortly," I responded.
"Well, now that we're all here, introduce yourselves please," Miya said.
"Right. Well, I'm Zach, and this here is my Sekirei, Akitsu. We hope that you will take care of us." I said respectfully.
"I'm Minato," the dark, spiky-haired man said. "I'm an Ashikabi, just like you; my Sekirei are Musubi," The brown-haired well-endowed women smiled brightly and waved, "Kusano, or Ku for short," the young blonde girl smiled slightly and bowed, "Shiina," the young silver-haired boy bowed, "and Matsu," Minato finished, with the orange-haired woman grinning in a perverse manner, her rather impressive rack bouncing with her slightest movements.
"My name's Homura; I'm Sekirei Number 6, the Fire Sekirei," the other man spoke, "I hope we get along well."
"My name's Uzume!" Uzume cheerfully yelled, causing me to snort in laughter; what a silly woman…
"Well, there you have it. Zach and Akitsu are now official members of Izumo Inn. Now, let's dig in to this wonderful meal, shall we?" Miya smiled; I don't know if anyone else noticed it, but there was a slight strain in her voice. She also frequently looked over at Akitsu, Homura, and Minato often during the meal. Something was definitely up, and it was bugging me. Due to my position at the table, I had somehow ended up next to Minato, much to the obvious annoyance of his Sekirei. 'Perfect.' I thought. Nudging Minato, I muttered just loud enough for him to hear, "Can we talk outside after supper? Just you and me?"
He gave me a curious look, but nodded, and, looking up, we realized that quite obviously, Sekirei's hearing was much better than we had given them credit for; they all had a similar expression on their faces (granted that Matsu's was more of a perverted leer, but whatever), and seemed to all have a similar train of thought-you could practically hear the gears turning in their heads. (My suspicions were confirmed upon seeing smoke starting to come from Musubi's ears, who was obviously not used to using her brain, other than the necessary parts.)
In the end, me and Minato ended up outside, and judging by the lack of Sekirei, it was safe to talk (I had a funny feeling Miya was keeping them all away…but I'm sure that she was listening somewhere nearby).
"Minato," I started, "What's your relationship with Akitsu? You all seemed to be on guard while around her. Did something happen?"
"Well…you see, she was one of the Sekirei who attacked us in a attempt to prevent me from winging Ku and Shiina. Homura was able to fight her off, but…It's a shock to see her here now. Why is she with you? Didn't she have an Ashikabi?" Minato questioned.
"I found her in the park a couple of days before I met Uzume; she was all alone on a bench and was obviously distraught. She was talking about being thrown away by her former master, so I decided to take her in. You can't tell me you wouldn't have done the same thing, right?"
Minato looked thoughtful for a moment, then chuckled. "I guess you're right…so Mikogami abandoned her after she failed to bring him Ku and Shiina, is that it?"
"Yep. That's what I gather, anyway. She also mentioned something about being a broken number."
"Homura told me about that…she can't be winged officially, right?"
"Well…I guess whatever was 'broken' was fixed, cause after a few times of trying to wing her, it worked."
Minato looked thoughtful for a moment, then shook his head. "Well, that's all in the past, now. You won't have to worry about looking over your shoulder, expecting Akitsu to be attacked; I'll have a talk with my Sekirei. You might have a problem with Homura, though, so be wary of him." He cautioned.
"Gotcha. Thanks. I hope you don't mind me saying this, but…I think this is the beginning of a great friendship."
The gentle man smiled. "Yes, I think so too. Let's work together to survive this crazy tournament."
He held out his hand, and I quickly grasped it in mine, shaking firmly. We both grinned, and proceeded to walk back inside. Much to my lack of surprise, Miya was standing there, waiting for us. She smiled at us, obviously pleased with our newfound friendship.
Over the next few days, I noticed that everyone had seemed to warm up quite a bit to both me and Akitsu. Typically, I hung out with Minato, Akitsu, or Uzume; it wasn't that I didn't get along with Minato's Sekirei, it was just…I don't know, weird. How weird? Well, it was hard to be around Ku and Shiina due to my rather mature nature, Musubi was as dense as they come, and Matsu…well, I think I've been a target of a few of her perverted fantasies a few times (usually together with Minato and/or Homura, from what Miya told me; the landlady always seemed to know what exactly was going on in the perverted techno-freak's head).
I was on guard around Homura, though. He still seemed to be wary, even somewhat hostile towards Akitsu. It only confirmed things when Akitsu had come up to me one night. Homura had confronted her.
"Broken number, Akitsu," said a voice. Akitsu, who had been sitting on the roof, looking at the moon, jumped, and quickly took a battle stance. Behind her, Sekirei number 06, Homura, was staring at her, in his own battle stance. Trying to get her breathing under control, Akitsu responded, "Yes, number 06?"
Akitsu could feel the heat gathering around Homura; she began to panic inwardly. Wasn't fighting banned in the Inn? Where was Miya to enforce these rules like she normally did? She didn't want to die yet; she had finally found her Ashikabi! Somebody who didn't think she was worthless!
"…Why are you here, broken number? Finally got sick of your previous Ashikabi?" Homura asked dangerously. "Figured you'd look for a new one? Trying to get close to Minato and all of us for revenge?"
"N-no…I've found an Ashikabi that I can trust."
"Oh? Whatever happened to your Sekirei crest on your forehead?"
"…It's now on my back. I am officially winged by Zach. I am his Sekirei, now and forever."
"Impossible! There's no way that could be! We both know that your body was claimed as unwingable! You were deemed 'broken' as a Sekirei, useless!"
Akitsu smiled. "Well, my Ashikabi seems to think otherwise. I am…broken no more."
Akitsu: 1. Homura: 0.
Booyah.
On that note, the score is actually something like this:
Akitsu: 1. Homura: 0. Minato: 2. Musubi: -5. Ku: 0. Matsu: -10. Miya: We lost count some time after 6350. Me: A proud 52.
Yes, I've been bored enough to keep track of these little things. Musubi only had negative scores due to her denseness. We deducted points from Matsu whenever she did/said something perverted.
Speaking of which, Matsu was almost murdered the other day. Minato had gone shopping with Miya, and Homura had gone off to his job as a host, which left me as the only male in the house. Uzume had gone off somewhere, and Ku was sleeping with Musubi, I presumed.
Oh no, Izumo Inn didn't get attacked or anything. Nothing like that.
She did manage to piss off Akitsu and Miya, though.
It's quite amusing, in retrospect. Y'see, I had been sitting in my room reading a rather interesting fan fiction. The Harry Potter fandom had once again managed to make render me in awe of the absurdness and rather disturbing things they will make one or more character(s) do to another character.
Ahem. Digressing from that particular thought, I had heard a noise. It sounded suspiciously like a door closing; mine, in fact. Looking up, I saw none other than Matsu. Yes, you can probably tell where this is going.
I was instantly on guard; I had learned the hard way to be wary of Matsu, what with her perverted mind and all. Her questions SEEMED innocent enough, but they weren't. She'd normally twist them into some sick twisted tale of lust and whatnot, and I really wasn't willing to go through with that again.
"Zaaaaaaaaaaaaach," she had said.
"Meh." Was my charming response.
"Can I ask a question?"
"You just did. And, no, you can't ask another." I wasn't going to give her the chance to do something that would embarrass me or potentially get me killed by Miya.
"Aww, you're no fun. I just wanted to know what you thought of Mina-tan." She said, pouting.
I sighed; fine, if it would get her out of my room…I'd probably regret it later, but…
"He's a nice guy, I guess. Laid back, caring, and other stuff like that."
Matsu smirked. Oh dear god, no, not THAT smirk…that smirk generally caused me pain and/or suffering. Usually both, but occasionally just one of them.
Huh. That last statement made me realize just how unfair everyone is to me. What a bunch of jerks.
Before I could react anymore than ponder over everything I have just told you, she was right next to me. Close. Very close. Too close. My personal bubble had just been violated, and I was probably never going to get it back.
What a bitch.
Pardoning my French, I quickly back-pedaled away from her. I was NOT getting molested by her. Not this time. Not again…oh the horror…
…Come to think of it, where was my Sekirei? Normally she would've showed up by then…
Oh well.
Continuing on, she kept getting closer to me, and I kept backing away until…
THUMP!
…I hit the wall.
…
…
…
Why the hell was that wall doing there? It shouldn't be there. It's impeding my escape route away from this perverted geek. This hot, perverted geek, I might add. But that's neither here nor there.
Stupid wall. Screw you, wall. I hope you die. I hope you die slowly and painfully.
…Wait, walls can't die, can they?
…
Damn it all.
Matsu finally had gotten WAY to close. I may be a straight male, but I like to think of myself as a gentleman, so I was just going to sit down and take it. I began weighing my options.
Option one: Tackle Matsu, hope I manage to barrel roll over her and into the hallway, where I could get the hell outta Dodge City.
Option two: Sit there, pray to the god of my choice, and hope that whatever she had didn't scar me for life TOO much.
Option three: Freak out, stab her in the face, and run like hell.
Option four: Freak out, stab her in the face, run like hell, find Miya, tell her what happened, then continue running like hell before she can process that the fact that I just killed one of her tenants.
Or, option five: Break down this flimsy wall and make my way towards Akitsu, who could then unleash a can of whoop-ass on this perverted psycho-bitch.
Hmm.
So I turned around, did my best impression of a Falcon Punch, and broke through the wall. It wasn't the best impression, seeing as how a big fiery bird of death and destruction didn't burst forth from my fist and disintegrate my target with the fires of hell, but it worked.
It also kind of hurt my hand a bit. And by a bit, I mean I had quite a few scrapes and such on my hand.
Stupid wall. Not only did you impede my escape, but you hurt me as I forced you out of my way.
Anyway, I took off, screaming something about me being the teal wolf that would one day rule the world and would use my god-tier nipple blades in order to do it.
Aside from making me sound like a raving lunatic, it served its purpose: attracting the attention of everyone who was still currently in the building.
Within seconds, Akitsu was next to me. I quickly hid behind her, using her a meat-shield in case Matsu was in one of her 'smothering' moods.
Matsu had the stupid idea of calling out for me, which would, you know, kinda piss off someone who had promised herself to me now and forever.
It was also insanely stupid of her to say it in such a seductive tone when Miya and Minato had just arrived home, with Homura and Uzume in tow.
Watching Matsu run for her life from the combined forces of Miya and Akitsu was rather amusing. Downright hilarious, actually. Uzume and I were literally hanging onto each other for support; Homura face palmed, Minato laughed nervously, and Musubi and Ku had looks of confusion on their faces, both having only just come downstairs to see what the commotion was.
God, I loved my new dysfunctional family.
A/N: Whew. Another chapter done. That took a lot longer than I thought it was going to…Bleh. Anyway, please review, and a late Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and of course a belated birthday to myself (December 21).
