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Watcher's Council Warehouse Safe House, Three Days Later, Early Afternoon, Xander's POV

NOTHING! DAMMIT! he thought as yet another attempt by him to get in touch with the Cleveland branch of the Council came up empty. Just how far is Willow planning on taking this?!

He'd been trying for the last two days to get in touch with them so he could arrange for safe teleportation of Caridad and Dana's remains back to the branch they'd been assigned to for burial. While technically he could've called any branch of the Council to receive the remains, it had been a long standing sign of respect to send them to their comrades or to the location closest to their families. In the case of the two that he'd seen incinerated, though, they had no family outside of the Council and that meant that the Council was their family. However, despite his efforts, no number related to the Cleveland branch of the Council would connect and any emails he tried to send bounced back like he'd typed in the wrong address, even though he knew for a fact that they were right. The only possible answer to this that he could think of was that Willow had used her influence with the IT department to change the email addresses and input some sort of screening program on the phone network. How she managed that even with the store bought cell phones he'd never figure out but what it did mean was that he wouldn't be able to do what he wanted.

Still, it'd be best to get Dana and Caridad's remains out of the city sooner rather than later, he thought as he began dialing another phone number. I don't know if that bastard or his bosses intend to retrieve the remains of their test subjects but I won't allow them to defile the girls any more than they already have.

The phone ringed a total of three times before it was picked up, probably indicating that things were a bit busy back at the African branch of the Council.

"You've reached Abena's House of Pain!" declared the teenage girl on the other end of the connection. "We guarantee you'll be screaming inside of five minutes!"

"Would that be a scream of pleasure or pain, Abena?" he asked casually but with a smile on his face. "Cause I gotta tell you I'm pretty sure I told all of you that I'm not into pain."

"BOSS! Hey everyone, it's XANDER!" Abena yelled at what had to be the top of her lungs judging by how his ears were ringing. "How's it going, Boss?"

"Fine, though you really need a refresher on phone call etiquette," he said jokingly before getting down to business. "Is Ayotunde awake? I need him to activate the connection between teleport circle JP9 and the African branch HQ where you guys are."

"What's up? Need us to send something over?" Abena asked, sounding like her curiosity had been piqued.

"More like I need protocol RIP zero-one-one-zero enacted," he replied with a somber voice as he looked at the two plastic bags that contained as much of Caridad and Dana's remains as he'd been able to recover.

"W-what? Who?!" Abena asked in shock and worry.

"Caridad and Dana," he replied with all the emotion required for the loss of two friends.

While the two of them hadn't been assigned to the African branch, there had been times in which they'd come to Africa either to deliver important files or when a target fled into his territory. During those times they'd gotten along with his Slayers just fine and had even stuck around to learn a few new moves. Unlike the other branches there was no real weapon that was off limits for him when it came to instructing the Slayers under his care. If for some reason he wasn't all that skilled with a particular weapon, he did his best to find someone in the know that was and then hire them to instruct the Slayers. They had to pass certain security checks and then pass the acid test of first experience with the supernatural, but assuming nothing bad came up they began teaching as soon as possible. Melee weaponry, projectile weaponry, firearms, explosives and other things were incorporated into the teaching schedule. They weren't taught EVERYTHING since to do so would take years and years to master but what they were taught would be enough to help them in the field when necessary. He took part in these classes when possible but the job of head Watcher for an entire region kept him pretty busy, so he was a good three or four weapons behind everyone else as a result.

Caridad... Dana… Veronica… all of them had come for one reason or another and, while they were never able to stay long enough to learn even a single one, they'd still been considered friends.

"How… how did it happen?" Abena asked, clearly affected by the loss of a sister.

"I can't go into too much detail even over this phone. Powerful people might be listening in," he said, not sure if the idiot from MBI might eavesdrop or the monsters he'd fought either. "All I can say is that it wasn't pleasant and that I plan on paying back the people responsible tenfold. Before that, though… Caridad and Dana need to be properly tended to."

"Ayotunde! Get your lazy ass out of bed! RIP zero-one-one-zero!" Abena yelled, albeit with her mouth further away from the phone this time. "He's on his way, Boss. Teleport will be ready in fifteen minutes."

"I'll be ready on my end," he said, already having taken out the necessary arcane artifacts and ingredients for the procedure.

"Um… if you don't mind me asking, Boss, why are you sending them here?" Abena asked, clearly uncertain if she was treading on fragile ground or not. "Last I heard they were assigned to the Cleveland HQ."

"Um… they're experiencing some… technical difficulties there," he said, deciding at the last minute not to reveal the argument that had taken place. "So I decided to send them to you instead until things have cleared up there. Not a problem is it?"

"Of course not! They'll be kept properly until Cleveland is available." Abena said as though the idea of there being a problem was ridiculous.

"Thanks Abena," he said with true gratitude.

Until the remains of both Caridad and Dana were safely out of the city, he wouldn't be able to focus on things that really needed his attention.

"Anything else you need help with, Boss?" Abena asked casually.

"Yeah. Don't ask me why but put every Slayer base in Africa under KNAB yellow alert," he said, worried that the bastards responsible for what happened to Caridad and Dana might try reaching further. "It might be for nothing but better safe than sorry."

"Consider it done. They'll all be on yellow alert within twelve hours." Abena declared in a tone that would not be denied.

"Good. Expect me when you see me!" he said before ending the call.

Moving over to the teleport circle, he began to employ each artifact and ingredient as he'd been taught in order to activate the runes that comprised it. Once that was done he began the chant to establish the connection between the two circles and, just like clockwork, Ayotunde did the same, making the link up happen that much smoother. Less than five seconds later magic surged through the circle and the plastic bags containing the bones and ashes of Caridad and Dana disappeared. Almost immediately following this the power and the light left the runes returning them to a fancy looking floor pattern to the untrained eye.

Now that that's out of the way, it's time to try and find that bastard Razor so I can pound some answers out of him, he thought as he tested his formerly broken arm. Almost all better. That shit Bohlale gave me, the recipe for actually works as advertised. Another twenty-four hours of drinking the stuff and it'll be all fixed.

The concoction was a mix of a variety of herbs, both common and exotic, that Bohale had come up with after giving him a once over with his arcane talents. The old goat had assured him it'd accelerate his natural healing by a factor of three but had warned him to not use it too often since it put something of a strain on the system. The stuff definitely had a kick to it after the first gulp but, so long as it did its job, he'd bear with it. He couldn't afford to be at anything less than full strength for too long because, the longer he stayed on the bench, the more Veronica would suffer while under Razor's control and that was NOT permissible. At present he'd still go out in a bit to look for information along with Natsu since he still didn't have an HQ location for the bastard or a proper ID for his employers. Once he had solid leads he could act on, he'd follow them and do whatever he had to in order to bring himself one step closer to saving the little Slayer.

You bastards better enjoy your lives while they last because when I find you I will END THEM!

After Sunset, A Sidewalk in the Business District of Shinto Teito, Natsu's POV

"Sorry about making you do some footwork, Natsu," Xander-sama said as they walked along with the rest of the pedestrians. "Until I finish settling things with the scrap heap that used to be my rental car, no other business is willing to let me have another."

"I don't mind," she said, liking the closeness that was possible by walking side by side with him. "It's easier to search for something when you don't have to worry about crashing into something."

Plus it allowed her to cuddle with her ashikabi without the gear shift or the seatbelts getting in her way, so she definitely preferred this way of getting around. The only thing that might be better than walking with him would be if he got a motorcycle because then she'd be able to get on behind him and wrap her arms around him. After all, while they were no longer the strangers they'd once been, Xander-sama still hadn't told her where he was staying or even trusted her enough to show her where he was staying. She'd tried to call him on it a few times before but all he said was that his job was big on confidentiality and that he couldn't let just anyone into the building he was staying in. Naturally she'd gotten a bit upset at his words since, from her point of view, she was not 'just anyone' and in the end he'd asked her to give him some time to think it over.

While not the answer she would have preferred, at least it wasn't an outright refusal so she would wait patiently for the day het let her get closer, both figuratively as well as literally.

At present they were combing the streets looking for the monster that had killed two people Xander-sama considered friends or clues that might lead them to that wolf in human clothing. According to her ashikabi, they'd first just walk about the area and act like bait in the hopes that their opponents of three days ago decided to go another round with them. Xander had many weapons hidden beneath his coat and had the large sword case strapped to his back, disguised to look like a guitar case. It was a little charred thanks to the energy attack that'd hit it but not enough to throw away since it could still do the job it was designed for. The second Razor and Veronica attacked, she and her ashikabi would lead them to some place isolated area before moving onto phase two.

Phase two was the deployment of weapons and tactics consistent with taking their attackers alive, albeit for differing reasons. Veronica they'd be taking alive in the hopes that her free will could be returned to her, as well as the incineration mechanism removed from her body. In the case of Razor, though, he'd be captured solely as a possible source of information and then, once they had everything the bastard had to offer, they'd end his life, avenging those that had been slain by him. Two thirds of the weapons Xander had hidden on his person were designed for non-lethal apprehension of a target while the remaining third were of a decidedly lethal nature. All of the remaining third were high caliber in nature, with three clips worth of armor piercing rounds for each weapon in order to make sure they'd do their job. Combined with the swords in the case and her own knives, they'd be ready for just about anything, especially since she now had a better idea of what they'd be fighting.

If they try to overwhelm us, though, we'll have to pull back, she thought as she continued her casual looking about. If three were enough to give us trouble, anything more than that would be impossible.

She'd had her stockpile of blades replenished by MBI as usual and naturally they were concealed beneath her own coat since anything less would lead to a breach the confidentiality rules. No one not involved in the Sekirei plan could know of it or even suspect that it existed in the first place, therefore walking around with weapons exposed was considered a violation. Some Sekirei, she imagined, had no choice but to carry them out in the open due to their sheer size or the lack of ways to feasibly disguise it, but those exceptions were few indeed.

I'm gonna need to train harder from now on, she thought, remembering how she fared against Caridad and Dana. Even if they weren't as powerful as winged Sekirei, they were still strong. I need to be better if I'm to keep Xander-sama safe.

Her injured arm was still sore so the training she'd done the last few days had been primarily focused on using her one good arm, but that only helped her progress. Normally with her training she'd have made sure to keep the balance between her right arm and her left arm so as not to be weak in either, but at the moment that was impossible. Thankfully for her Sekirei were quick to heal and in three days she expected her injured arm to be perfectly ready for battle. Once it was all healed she would add it to her training regime until everything was as good as she could possibly make it so that none would be immune to being pierced with her blades. Even if they wore armor she'd find a way to locate the weak spots and then target them with everything ounce of strength or skill she possessed.

She would protect her ashikabi!

"IIIYYYYYAAAAAA!" came a scream of fear from a nearby alley.

Without a second of pause Xander-sama dashed across the street, nimbly avoiding any cars coming or going, before entering the alley the scream had come from. Using the superior strength, speed and agility that all Sekirei possessed, she managed to catch up with him swiftly, allowing them both to proceed towards the cry for help. Two turns later they finally arrived at their destination and the sight she beheld with her ashikabi was one that brought both of their brains to a boil.

On the ground and scrambling to get away was a girl with light brown hair with blue ribbons running through her tresses. Clad in a thigh length, tight white gown and black stockings as well as black long gloves, it was clear that the young woman wanted nothing to do with the man advancing on her. The man, on the other hand, middle sized as well as in his twenties, had brown hair and was dressed in jeans as well as a green pullover. Just by looking she could tell that the guy was an asshole of the worst kind and that made her choice all too clear.

Too bad Xander-sama beat her to it.

"I don't know who you are, buddy, but I think it's pretty obvious that the girl doesn't want anything to do with you." Xander-sama said in a casual yet firm tone of voice. "Show you have at least some brains and leave. Now."

"This doesn't involve you, shithead!" the pullover guy growled, only sparing a sneering glance at her ashikabi, "Go someplace else if you want that bitch of yours to blow you!"

This pissed her off as on emotion alone she began to take off her jacket just so she could show this asshole just how precise she could be with her throwing knives. However, when she began to hear some rather creepy chuckling coming from Xander-sama, she paused out of puzzlement since she'd never seen him like this before.

"Ya know, I was planning on letting you walk away from this with just a stern warning, but then you just HAD to say something like that," Xander-sama said in a slightly disturbing manner. "Now? Now I'm angry and trust me when I say you're not gonna like what an angry me is capable of."

"What the fu-" was all the foul young man was able to get out before a powerful right hook slammed into his jaw, sending him spinning into the alley wall.

"Now, now, now! Don't you know it's not proper to use swear words in front of ladies?" Xander-sama asked rhetorically as he advanced on the thuggish man. "Sure, if they start doing it first then you have a little leeway but it's never right to be the first one out of the GATE!"

This final word punctuated with a swift kick that knocked the offensive man off his feet and onto his back in a rather painful manner. This was proven by the groan and the slow movements that the brute made as he pushed himself into a sitting position. The jerk only got halfway there though before her ashikabi slammed his booted foot down onto his chest, sending him back to the ground HARD!

"Still, it's also rude to make them see someone get the crap beat out of them. They have such a delicate constitution after all," Xander-sama said with mock concern. "So I'll be a nice guy: leave now and with a little luck I'll forget you ever existed."

As soon as her ashikabi raised his foot the bully immediately scrambled to his feet and, for a moment, she thought that the guy would finally grow a brain. Instead the idiot pulled out a knife and, with a desperate look, began to lunge forward, no doubt to hurt her ashikabi, but this time it was she who would be putting a stop to the idiot's stupidity. Pulling out the two throwing blades that were easiest to access with her coat on she threw them with expert precision at two separate targets. The first pierced the wrist that connected the knife hand to the jerk's arm, causing him to drop the knife out of pain. The other one sank into the thigh of the leg the fool had been about to put some weight on, thus resulting in the young man crashing to the ground screaming in pain.

"Nicely done, Natsu," Xander-sama complimented with a smile on his face. "Good placement on the knives. Nowhere near major arteries but still capable of doing the job."

"Thanks, Xander-sama!" she said, beaming at the praise she had received.

"Now, since it looks like you don't have any intention of leaving, we'll be the ones to leave," Xander-sama said before walking over to the young woman still on the ground. "Need a hand getting up, miss?"

Watching as her ashikabi extended his hand to help the young woman to the ground, she made sure to glance at the jerk every so often to make sure he didn't snap completely and do something crazy. After all, the idiot had defied common sense and intelligence so far, so why should he suddenly change his ways now? It was due to this division of attention that what happened next almost occurred without her realizing what was going on or what was about to happen. One second her ashikabi had successfully helped the unsteady young woman back to her feet and the next the same young woman had one hand behind Xander-sama's head with her lips pressed to his. She was about to vent her outage when something happened that she had not seen before but had always heard about happened before her eyes.

Springing from the young woman's back were multiple blade-shaped feathers of pale blue light moving in accordance to some unseen wind, before vanishing as quickly as they had appeared.

"I pledge my loyalty to you, my ashikabi," declared the young woman with utmost commitment. "Now and forever."

"Huh," Xander-sama said with a hint of surprise. "Wasn't expecting that."

A Short While Later, Xander's POV

"So your name's Yashima, huh?" he asked rhetorically as they all walked casually down the sidewalk. "Cute name."

Watching as his newest Sekirei blushed at the compliment even as Natsu seemed a little annoyed, he had to wonder what he'd done to inspire this sudden turn of events. Contrary to what some might think, he was not oblivious to the fact that Natsu had been making romantic advances towards him almost from the day he had 'winged' her. They were the advances of someone who only knew romance through books, TV and movies but advances nonetheless. Obviously whoever had been behind their education had gone with the text book version of the real world rather than allowing the Sekirei to experience it firsthand like a normal human. As such he imagined that all of the Sekirei were naïve as to the realities of the world and thus would be unprepared to face its darker side. In particular the fact that not all humans were nice and there existed some were no better than the vampires he so despised. From what he'd been told, Sekirei experienced a physical reaction when they encountered someone capable of becoming their ashikabi but this was based on biological compatibility according to Natsu.

Biological compatibility was a poor way to find a partner, a friend and potentially a future spouse, depending on how things transpired.

Personally he didn't believe in the whole spiel about how certain bits of information in your DNA could determine if you had a predisposition towards certain behavior and they most certainly didn't tell you the whole story about someone. There were things you could only learn about someone by actually talking to them, spending time with them and using the brain God gave you to determine if you should trust what your senses are telling you about the person. Considering that Yashima had likely been minutes away from being forcibly winged by that asshole in the alleyway because she'd thought he was her destined ashikabi… yeah, this had the potential to go seriously bad.

So while he was flattered that both Sekirei felt that way towards him, it didn't feel right to take advantage of their innocence by responding to their romantic overtures.

At least not until they got to know each other better that is.

But that would have to wait until later.

Looking at Yashima, he noticed that she was a little dirtied up from her encounter with the jackass in the alleyway and it was drawing some stares from the other pedestrians. While he didn't think the man they'd left bleeding in the alleyway was going to try to follow them to get revenge, he also preferred to blend in with the crowd if at all possible.

"You look like you could use a fresh set of clothes and maybe a shower," he said after obviously giving her a once over visually. "Do you live near here? We can stop by there so you can freshen up if you want?"

Then, much like he'd seen many young ladies do, Yashima looked rather self-conscious about her looks on a level consistent with being in the presence of someone she liked.

"Y-yes. I was on my way to work when… when he…" Yashima replied, sounding like she still wasn't completely over what'd happened. "It's only a couple of blocks away."

"Lead the way," he said with a reassuring smile on his face.

A smile with some serious wattage blossomed on the brunette's face and, while he'd do his best not to lead her on, he was glad he could cheer her up. It was one of his many roles, to distract people from the troubling things they'd recently been through, and while he'd only just met her, he knew it was the right thing to do. However, seeing as Natsu seemed to be disliking the attention he was giving the new girl, he knew it'd be best to reassure her that she wasn't being replaced or anything like that.

A few minutes after they were underway, he dropped back to where Natsu was following and fell into stride next to her.

"The girl's been through a lot just now. If I can cheer her up and take her mind off things, then I don't see the harm. Besides which, like it or not, she is my Sekirei now, just like you are. That makes her safety my responsibility and her good treatment my obligation. You're both important to me."

This, thankfully, had the effect he was going for: it dispelled the whispers of jealousy that were gaining strength in Natsu and let her know how seriously he took his position of ashikabi. In a very real way an ashikabi was a lot like a Watcher in that it was expected of him to help both Natsu and Yashima become as strong as they can be while letting them be the young women they obviously were. True, not many Slayers developed romantic feelings for their Watchers but, for those that had, the current version of the Council had a flexible set of rules. The Slayer had to be of age as determined by her country of origin and both parties involved had to be capable of setting aside their emotions when necessary to accomplish the mission. If they could do that, Giles and the rest pretty much kept their nose out of it. Only if it became clear that the couple couldn't do their duty and get the job done because of their relationship did things come up for evaluation. Either the duo would be reassigned to a non-combat role in the organization or they'd be relieved of their duties and discharged. With the number of Slayers and Watchers available now they could afford to let a few go if they couldn't be relied upon to do their job and, truth be told, it was the most honorable way to handle things.

"Sorry," Natsu mumbled, looking appropriately chastised.

"Don't sweat it," he said, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. "You're young and that means you're entitled to make a couple of mistakes a week. So long as you accept responsibility for those mistakes and do your best to make up for them, you'll get no grief from me."

With those words the three of them got closer as a group and in about ten minutes they arrived at Yashima's apartment building. It was a fairly standard looking place all things considered but not so expensive that someone on a limited income would go broke keeping it. A few minutes later they were inside and the place looked pretty common except for one thing that made him wonder how Yashima could've had such trouble with the jackass in the alleyway.

Smack dab in the middle of the room was the biggest hammer he had ever seen in his entire life, including the Troll God hammer. The head of it was big enough it could've been used as the cornerstone of a building and the rod sticking up out of its center looked solid but he couldn't see how it could be used without bending in half. Still, MBI didn't strike me as the sort of company to give one of their people a weapon that'd break easily, so it had to be made of materials strong enough for it to be used in battle. However the sheer strength that'd be required in order to wield the weapon should've easily been enough to toss the asshole that'd been attacking her up and down the alley. The only thing that made any sense was that her emotions had been ramped up so high she'd been unable to think clearly and so that little fact had been overlooked.

Should probably teach her a few of the meditation techniques I know, he thought as Yashima went into the bathroom and closed the door. Losing your cool in a fight is a good way to wind up dead.

Continuing his survey of the apartment, it looked like there were only a few personal touches here and there with the rest looking like they'd come with the apartment. Had she only just recently moved in or was her budget so limited that she couldn't splurge like that? Whatever the case he continued to survey the room as he waited for Yashima to come out of the bathroom so that they could finish this meet and greet. As much as he'd like to take the day off to properly get to know the hammer-wielding young woman, Veronica needed him and he needed to shut down the operation Razor was a part of ASAP. He'd have to try and come up with an alternative weapon for her or teach her some hand to hand combat that could take advantage of the superhuman strength she possessed. Carrying around that huge hammer of hers was going to draw eyes from just about everyone not in the know about Sekirei and that would only cause problems.

Maybe at nighttime she could carry it around or maybe whatever replacement rental I get could carry it in the trunk, assuming the suspension can take the weight.

While he had no doubt that it was a powerful weapon, he could easily see some weaknesses as well that he'd need to help her overcome if she was to last past three or four fights. The weapon was so large it was only good for horizontal or vertical attacks, making it very predictable and therefore easily avoided. Granted, a blow to the ground would break up the concrete in every direction and might give off a shockwave potent enough to knock some of the less resilient Sekirei for a loop, but against a truly skilled opponent Yashima would be cannon fodder.

It was then that he remembered the one time that he'd led a group of Slayers to take on a group of vamps in a factory and one of them managed to do something both amazing as well as something he'd been unable to get out of his head for two weeks after. Somehow she'd managed to turn a metal pipe sticking out of a metal slab into a stripper pole while also using it to great effectiveness against any fang face that ventured too close to her. Janice, of course, had remarked that the only reason half of the blows landed was because the ones that'd been hit were guys, so they were perving so bad on the show that they hadn't seen the kicks or punches coming. The Slayer in question, however, insisted that it'd been all skill and argued the merits of using such pipes to build up momentum as well as keep the enemy guessing as to which way the hits would come.

He'd naturally kept out of the discussion and deflected any attempt to drag him into it.

It'd worked… for four hours, but then he'd been forced to say something about it.

No force on EARTH would get him to reveal how THAT had turned out.

Yashima's POV

It HAPPENED! Just like in my books! she thought as she went about cleaning the dirt and gunk off of herself. My knight came to my rescue!

All her brothers and sisters made fun of the sort of books she liked to read but if they could see her now, they'd know that there was just as much fact as fiction in those same books. Just like in the books she had been in trouble against a truly foul man and then a handsome young man had come to her rescue. Better than that, the reaction in her body had told her more than ever before that he was her promised one and so she had done what was perfectly natural for her kind.

Indeed, she'd been so overwhelmed with joy that she hadn't realized how dirty she and her clothes had gotten until her ashikabi had mentioned it. Taking the face cloth to the last patch of dirt on her face, she scrubbed it clean before giving herself one final examination to see if she'd missed a spot somewhere. Finding nothing, she then looked to her dress that was also dirty in several places before concluding that only a spin in the washing machine would get it clean. This left her in a bit of a pinch since she hadn't thought to bring something else to wear with her when she'd entered the bathroom. She blushed as a naughty idea came to her: taking off her dirty clothes and walking to her bedroom wearing only a towel wrapped around her body. It would certainly be thrilling but at the same time there were so many ways it could go wrong and wind up embarrassing her completely. In the end she decided to take off her black stockings and wear her dirty dress back to her bedroom but she did save the scenario away in her mind for a future occasion.

Once she got to know her precious ashikabi-sama well enough to know whether or not he'd react positively to such a sight.

As she closed to the door to her bedroom, she thought on the OTHER woman out there with her ashikabi and wondered just what her relationship with Xander-sama was. Obviously from the tattooed number on her shoulder she was a Sekirei and most likely had formed a pact with Xander-sama but she was curious about the more personal side of their relationship. How long had they been together? How did they meet? Had they fought other Sekirei and their ashikabi? Had they gotten… close? REAL close? She blushed as she thought about it and her mind came up with images. Shaking her head to clear it, she went to her closet and picked out a clean version of the dress she had on and set it on her bed. She didn't want to take up her ashikabi's no doubt important time and besides that she had a shift to do at the local restaurant that she couldn't miss. She was still on probation with the manager and, if she missed a shift, it could mean losing the job and she really needed it if she was going to keep her apartment.

Maybe… maybe she should inquire about whether or not Xander-sama had a place of his own and see if he had a spare room.

NO! It's way too early for that! she thought as she threw off her dirty dress before picking up the fresh one.

Once the new dress was on she checked herself out in the mirror to make sure everything looked alright before heading for the bedroom door. Opening the door, the eyes of both Natsu and Xander-sama turned to look at her, instantly causing her to feel like she was being seriously evaluated making her feel rather unprepared. What was her ashikabi looking for? What would he disapprove of? These and other questions raced through her mind and she had too few answers to calm her nerves down, so she looked away and hoped that that'd be enough to keep her from completely spazzing out.

"Pretty as a picture," Xander-sama said in a way that implied that he meant every word.

She couldn't keep herself from smiling at the compliment even as her heart pulsed with returned love.

"So you said you were on your way to work?" Xander asked rhetorically as she lifted her eyes to look at him. "Well, me and Natsu'll escort you there. Just in case that asshole decides to push his luck or ask a buddy of his to have a go at it."

"T-thank you," she said, genuinely grateful for what he was offering to do for her.

"Not a problem. You're a member of Team Xander now and with that comes certain perks," he said with a bit of humor in his words. "Of course Natsu has seniority so you'll have to work hard to catch up to her."

"I'll do my best!" she said with a smile on her face and some resolve in her eyes.

"You'd better, newbie!" Natsu said with an aggressive look in her eyes. "'Cause I don't plan on just sitting still and waiting for you catch up with me. I plan on soaring higher and flying faster from here on out, so if you're not good enough you'll never catch up with me."

A challenge if ever there was one and she felt a fire blossom within her that compelled her not to lose to her senpai no matter what. Just because Natsu had been winged by Xander-sama first didn't mean she was any better and, for the prize of being her ashikabe's lead Sekirei, she'd push herself to her limits and beyond if necessary. She would rise, she would close the gap and she would OVERTAKE!

"Well, let's get going, 'kay?" Xander-sama asked, snapping her out of her stare down. "You're probably late as it is for work and the whole 'I got mugged' excuse is only going to go so far."

"Right." An idea popped into her head and on instinct she took it.

She latched onto her ashikabe's right arm with both arms and made sure it was a good enough grip that he wouldn't get away without seriously pulling. Looking up at him, she smiled and showed him how much she liked being right where she was, making it even more unlikely that he'd deny her this small bit of tactile contact. In the end he only gave her a small grin back and that was enough for her.

"Well then let's get going!" Natsu yelled with enthusiasm that was laced with annoyance.

Pulling open the door, the dark haired woman then latched onto the left arm of Xander-sama, guiding it with obvious intent to nestle in the valley between her breasts. To her this showed her just what sort of tactics her sister Sekirei was willing to employ in order to keep her superior position on 'Team Xander'.

Well that was just fine!

She'd show the woman that she could gain all the ground she needed through the little things without lowering herself to such… such… low class methods. She would prove her superior worth by cooking wonderful food for him and, if necessary, help with any cleaning or preparations he might need for whatever sort of work he did. After all, no matter how… interesting… some people might think a woman needed to be in the bedroom, it didn't mean much if she was completely useless elsewhere. THAT would be where she'd show her superiority to Natsu! Everywhere the knife thrower came up short she'd excel in, no matter what it took!

"So what sort of restaurant do you work at, Yashima?" Xander-sama asked as they reached street level.

"It's a ramen restaurant just a few blocks from here," she replied as they walked on the sidewalk in the general direction of the restaurant. "It doesn't look like much on the outside but Mister Himura really knows how to make it super tasty."

"Well, now you've caught my interest," Xander-sama said, sounding genuinely intrigued. "I've been eating at mostly fast food places since coming to Japan. Not bad when you need something in a hurry but nothing beats a meal that someone actually takes the time to prepare right."

Her eyes brightened at this because it was a good sign that if he was presented with good food he'd likely be grateful to the one who made it.

"What do you say, Natsu? We sit down for a meal before making another three passes of this section of the city?" Xander-sama asked of the other Sekirei.

"Sure… that sounds… nice." Natsu replied with a look that made it clear she knew of the opportunity her rival was getting.

"Then it's settled!" Xander-sama said with a smile and a nod. "We'll drop Yashima off at work, grab a bite to eat and then more surveying the city."

With that they continued towards Mister Himura's ramen restaurant but in the back of her mind she was making plans to have her employer teach her how to make good ramen. At the moment she was only one of the waitresses that took the orders and, when needed, helped clean up at the end of the night. However now she had a reason to do more, to learn more, and hopefully when she was done she'd be able to present her ashikabe with something no one but her will be able to match. She'd also have to consider learning other meals as well since it'd be too easy for Natsu to match her if she only did ramen. She'd have plenty of time to learn since she only worked evenings at the restaurant and had two days off for every five that she worked, so learning to cook many new things was indeed more than possible.

I'll have to stretch out my paycheck a little more but I'm sure I can manage, she thought, not willing to admit that money would keep her from the place she wanted to go.

Maybe if she proved to the manager that she had talent for cooking he'd give her an increase in pay for helping out in the kitchen. After all, if he had an employee who could do two jobs instead of just one, it'd be cheaper even if he had to toss another ten percent onto the paycheck. With the added money she'd be able to make her apartment look a little less sparse and fund her efforts to become an excellent cook. With a plan in mind and a goal set she walked with the confidence of someone who knew beyond a doubt she would succeed because no other outcome was acceptable.

It was just that simple.

A Little Over a Week Later, A City Park, Late Evening, Xander's POV

Hope I haven't inconvenienced those two too much, he thought as he sat on a bench waiting for his Sekirei to arrive. With what I found out, though, I can't afford to put this off any longer.

For days he and his girls had tried to lure out Razor by providing perfect opportunities for ambushes and kills away from the prying eyes of others. Naturally he made sure they'd have a way out if things didn't go their way but appearances were everything with strategies like this, so unless the punk rocker was smarter than he looked they should've gotten a nibble. However, when nothing happened, he'd gone back to the old way of doing things which involved tapping any local info sources and checking out locations where enemy HQs might be found. Sometimes Natsu had gone with him as his bodyguard or back up and sometimes it was Yashima, but there were also times when they'd have to work. True, with the funds at his disposal, he could probably handle their rent and groceries himself so that they wouldn't need to work at all but he didn't think it was quite necessary yet. It wasn't that he was being a Scrooge or that he hadn't gotten closer to the two young ladies but rather because he felt it was likely that either Minaka or whoever was backing Razor had electronic surveillance going all over. If he started making big purchases or withdrawing money from THAT account, his enemies and non-allies will start getting suspicious and he didn't want the big reveal to happen just yet.

Not when there were still things that needed doing back in his neck of the woods.

It hadn't been until earlier, though, that he'd hit his first real lead in his pursuit of the asshole that'd already killed too members of the Council and still had a third enslaved. On a hunch he'd checked around to see if anyone had been buying up expensive lab hardware or the necessary maintenance materials for such a set up. He didn't know the specifics but his sources did so he'd gotten a word back from them a few hours later letting him know that if he x-ed out M.B.I. as a buyer then there were only two other companies with the yen necessary. He'd spent the rest of the day up until two hours ago staking out some of the less travelled locations belonging to those two companies before spotting the one person he hadn't expected to.

Kakizaki.

The description he'd been given by his favorite female felon fit to a 'T' and so he'd snapped a quick picture of the guy with the camera he had and did the same to the license plate of the car. Once he'd gotten back to the warehouse safe house he'd run both through the back door the Council had in just about every major law enforcement agency in every major country on the planet. Some had been knowingly placed there by the top dogs of the agency while others… not so much knowing, as Willow hacked in and slipped some of her hand crafted code into the system. It took five minutes to get anything even after he limited the search to Japan but it was well worth it in the end.

Kakizaki Kenji, the secretary and right hand man to one Higa Izumi.

From what he'd read, Higa had for the most part a positive reputation among other businessmen and the general public as well. However there were three times in which he'd become implicated in some rather shady dealings and one particularly nasty rape charge but in all the cases the charges were dropped due to 'insufficient evidence' or 'lack of witness credibility'. He'd seen stuff like this whenever he butted heads with Wolfram and Hart lawyers, so he knew that in all likelihood someone had gotten paid off or a scandal was manufactured to smear the prime witnesses. In his mind this meant that Higa was likely guilty of those crimes and had probably committed more than a few others that no one had caught onto. Partner him up with Kakizaki and he was sure he had Razor's backer or at least someone who was involved in the fake Sekirei plan and that meant it was time to move onto phase two.

Planning a B&E of the facility where he'd spotted Kakizaki in the hopes of finding Veronica, or at least more info on what the bad guy's overall game plan was.

However, before he could do that, he'd need to get some firsthand knowledge of Yashima's abilities and see if Natsu's knife throwing needed any sharpening. He hadn't been able to keep up with the latter's fight when Caridad and Dana had attacked with Veronica, so he needed a chance to watch without any distractions. If they were really going to raid the place he needed to know what roles each of them should play and just how far they could push it before they'd need to make tracks. While he suspected that Minaka might have enough pull to give him some leeway with the police, he doubted the millionaire could cover up EVERYTHING. Once he had a good idea of the strengths and weaknesses of his back up, he'd be able to formulate a plan that'd work out the best for what he wanted done. With that in mind he'd called them up and asked them to come to the park with their fighting gear on to do some training. Neither of them had questioned it but he doubted either of them had any clue what he intended to do.

He'd chosen the park at this hour because he figured there'd be less of a chance of anyone seeing them plus it had enough open space for the training he had in mind. He'd even brought some of the training tools stored at the safe house to help out since he'd need more than stationary targets for the two Sekirei to practice on. He had targets that could hover or cause to fly along specific paths at various speeds thanks to a simple levitation crystal embedded in them as well as movement enchantments. He also had wooden practice versions of both throwing knives as well as the closest match to Yashima's hammer that was stored at the warehouse. He'd use them for when the two would spar since he figured that they both needed practice fighting opponents that wielded such weapons for when the Sekirei plan hit its next stage. Both of their chosen weapons had strengths as well as weaknesses and it'd be his job to minimize the weaknesses while maximizing the strengths.

Natsu's weapon was the throwing knife and that had an effective throwing range of about fifty yards before it lost momentum or some other factor affected its course. Each were six and a half inches long with a metal ring at one end and a double edged blade at the other, with the latter thing with the intent most likely of maximizing penetration. He'd seen her throw them and use them for close quarters combat to reasonable effectiveness but he wasn't sure if she'd be good enough to take on a real threat, given how she'd fared in the previous fight. Sure, he'd told her to pull her punches after he'd discovered who it was they were fighting but she'd been bruised up plenty before that. It led him to believe that she suffered from much the same weakness as most mid-to-long range fighters: she wasn't durable enough to take hits from fists or weapons. Either that or her close quarters combat skills still needed some work, but that was something he could help her with.

Not by much, considering the time constraints he figured they were under, but he'd take whatever he could get.

As for Yashima, he'd have to wait and see just how effective she was with her giant hammer weapon before he could make any judgments on how she could improve. In his mind the weapon carried a lot of the same flaws that that anime character's zanbatou possessed: it might be devastating if it hit but its sheer size limited the ways it could be swung to two. Either it could be swung horizontally to catch the opponent in the side or it could be swung vertically by bringing it down in an overhead smash. That would make her rather easy to predict and once that was locked in then evading each swing would be child's play making counterattacking that much easier. In order to counter this weakness he'd need to teach her something to cover for the times when she was vulnerable after each swing. To him that definitely meant seeing what he could do to up her hand to hand combat abilities or turning her into a dodge ball champ, with her hands never straying far from her weapon.

As an absolute, ABSOLUTE, last resort he might see about getting the security footage of the stripper pole melee fight since he was pretty sure at least one of his Slayers had it tucked away someplace.

Now if I could only figure out how to ask for it without coming off as a complete pervert...

Yeah, he'd have an easier time trying to stop the next apocalypse wearing nothing but his boxers with a toothpick in his hand.

It was then that he spotted both Yashima and Natsu walking side by side towards him, with the former resting her giant hammer on her shoulder. He seriously wondered if this city had its own version of Sunnydale Syndrome because he just couldn't see how anyone could fail to notice such a large weapon being carried by such an ordinary young woman. He knew if he was walking down the street and saw her, he'd be gaping for sure and then, after he recovered, he'd probably tell all his friends about it. Whatever the reason, it worked out in his favor since it'd let some of the weird stuff slide as far as the public was concerned, giving him some leeway in terms of how far he could take things. There was obviously going to be a limit as to how far but, depending on the situation, he'd push the proverbial envelope as far as he could.

"Well we're here, Xander. What's up?" Natsu asked, looking about the immediate area for clues.

"I've gotten a lead on the people behind the fake Sekirei production. I saw Kakizaki coming out of the place with my own eyes and verified that his boss is into shady deals," he replied, getting off of the bench. "My plan is to raid the place and either free prisoners or steal any interesting info from the place. To pull it off, though, I'll need some help. I'll need your help."

"You don't even need to ask, Xander," Natsu said without a shred of hesitation or reluctance. "You are my ashikabe. If there's a reason you need to break into this place, I'm with you all the way."

"S-same here. I trust you, Xander," Yashima said, sounding uneasy about the idea.

"Thank you. Before we can even think of doing anything, though, I need to know what you can do and how much you can handle fight-wise. Once I know that, we can plan the raid and get the job done. Let's get started!"

Four Days Later, A New Park, Late Evening, Natsu's POV

"Don't slow down, Natsu!" Xander yelled from his position off to the right. "Remember! The people we'll likely bump into will be using guns, tazers and who knows what else! For you speed and movement are KEY!"

"Hai!" she yelled back as she continued to move in random directions while throwing her blades at the floating targets.

It wasn't as easy as she'd thought it'd be when they first started training four nights ago because, while the target wasn't maddeningly small, the pyramid upon which the target sat kept rotating in random directions. Just when she thought she had a shot lined up, the object would rotate in a direction that made hitting the mark impossible, forcing her to reposition herself in order to try again. What made it all the worse was the fact that there were FIVE pyramids and Xander had set the goal that she had to hit the bullseye on all of them in under five seconds. It was an unbelievable task but her ashikabe assured her that the goal was achievable for someone of her physical prowess, meaning all it'd take would be practice. At the moment she'd only been able to successfully score hits on three of the five targets within the set time limit. It'd been frustrating at first but, after the first dozen tries, she'd let her stubborn nature shine through and even now four nights later she was determined to reach the goal that'd been set before her.

As she leapt into the air to try and get a bead on the five targets from above, she glanced in the direction where Yashima was doing her own training.

It'd been due to the hammer-wielding Sekirei that they'd had to change from the last park they'd trained in because of the devastation caused by her blows. Indeed, the one time that Xander had asked the girl to show her prayer technique, Gravity Hammer, it'd been powerful enough to leave a crater spanning a third of the park's total size. They'd all had to get out of there pretty quickly in order to keep from getting arrested by the police and since then the technique had never been used again. Instead Xander was teaching her hand-to-hand combat that could be used without her hammer, followed by moves that could be used in conjunction with her chosen weapon. Most of the latter moves seemed centered around using the solid metal rod at its center as a form of defense while employing attacks from different angles. Most of those angles would be difficult, if not impossible, without the aid of something to grab onto to support you, but that just made it all the harder for an enemy to guard against them.

For both her and her sister Sekirei, the training was demanding but their ashikabe wasn't being a bully or a tyrant about it. It was more like he knew what they were capable of and wasn't willing to settle for anything less than their best.

"Yashima! Keep your attacks random looking!" Xander yelled from his position. "If you fall into a predictable pattern your opponent will be ready for you and probably have a nasty surprise waiting for you when you get there!"

"Hai!" Yashima responded before making it even harder to determine if she was going to throw a punch or a kick.

Using her sister's determination to bolster her own, she began to try to think up ways in which she could reach her goal. The obvious option was to slow down and take the time to observe the rotations of the targets to see if there was any pattern to them that she could use to her advantage. Was there any one time where all bullseyes lined up next to each other at the same time on the same side? Was there a time when they lined up from left to right or right to left one after another before rotating out of alignment? She did not believe that her ashikabe would set the goal for her if there was no chance it could be reached. Thus, with a deep breath to release all her pent up frustration and anxiety, she focused her eyes on her targets mentally keeping track of how they rotated, which direction they rotated in and how many targets faced her at the same time. For a good five minutes she watched, never letting a single detail escape her notice and always looked for the ideal moment to strike with her throwing blades.

It took a while for her to get what she'd need but, once she had it, she did not hesitate when the best chance to score all five hits appeared.

NOW!

Pushing her body as hard as she could, she threw two blades with speed and precision before leaping into the air to get an eyeball on the remaining three targets. Her observations had shown that there was no time in which all five targets faced her at the same time but there was a moment where two faced her with the remaining three being in feasible positions for her to hit if she took to the air. In a split second she could see the targets but they were already beginning to rotate out of her direct line of sight. Refusing to fail when victory was so close, she threw her remaining three blades while praying that they would hit their mark like she wanted them to. For a time it seemed like time had slowed down, if only by half, as she watched the three pieces of sharpened metal inch ever closer to the moving targets.

TING!TING!TING!

YES! The targets dropped from the air to the grass below. I DID IT!

"I did it, Xander! I did it!" she crowed after landing back on the ground and began to act like a boxer that'd just won the world title.

"That you did, Natsu," Xander said with a proud grin on his face, "but don't let this go to your head. We've got three more nights of training and there are another four levels to this exercise before I have to think up something else."

"Four more?" she asked, almost cringing at how hard things were going to get.

"Yep. Don't know how far you'll get with three nights to work with but I'm hoping it'll be enough to make sure you're prepared for the raid." Xander replied with a nod of his head before walking over to the targets she'd just knocked down. "Now let's see if your win was a fluke or if you're really ready for level two."

"Right," she said with a nod of her head before she went to reclaim her thrown blades.

"Yashima! You're doing better but don't think that metal pole is going to be able to protect you from everything. Once your opponents get used to you fighting that way, they'll come up with ways of getting around it or some of them will be able to slice right through it. The pole is merely a tool, a way of attacking them and defending yourself, but a strong fighter has more than one tool at the ready."

"Right! Xander-sama!" Yashima yelled back before she adjusted her moves to include the pole part of her hammer only a third of the time in her defense.

It was harsh training but, even as she turned her gaze back to the reset targets that were rising back into the air, she knew it'd be worth it when it was all over with. Their skills would be sharper and maybe, just maybe, they'd be able to show the Sekirei they'd have to fight a few surprises that'd completely throw them for a loop. When they were all living inside an M.B.I compound, they were grouped according to type for most of their training but occasionally they sparred against someone of a different type. Naturally the people who organized the training made sure that no one Sekirei got to see more than three members of a different type in order to keep the second stage of the Sekirei plan interesting. If everyone got to see everyone else's moves before even leaving the compound, there'd be no surprises and therefore the fights would be less amusing for those watching.

If this training with Xander made her even a little stronger than she was before she'd met him, then she would make it through all five levels of the floating targets no matter what!

Narrowing her eyes on the five targets, she once more began to measure, evaluate and predict their movements waiting for an opportunity like before to show itself.

Patience! Just wait and it'll come!

Two Days Later, Outside the Black Lotus Bar, Mid-Morning, Xander's POV

Here's hoping Funanya's feeling generous, he thought as he looked up at the bar's sign. Otherwise this'll probably cost me an arm.

Still, Natsu and Yashima's training was coming to an end so he'd need to ask the arms dealer sooner or later, so he figured it might as well be now. At the moment he figured he had a pretty good grasp of both Sekirei's abilities, along with their habits, so it wouldn't be all that difficult planning out the raid on Higa's building. Now what he needed was information on the building in question from the layout of its various floors to what kind of security it had both inside and outside. If he could even get an idea of what their security protocols were, what they'd do in a given situation, then the op would go down that much smoother. The only problem was he couldn't get that information on his own because most of the skills he'd learned since leaving Sunnydale focused on being out in the wilderness rather than the busy cities. That meant his hacking skills were less than stellar and he'd probably make members of the intelligence gathering community cringe at his attempts to case a place for an op.

With everything on the line, he couldn't afford to screw things up by tipping them off any more than he already probably had.

That meant he needed to call in some favors and pay someone to do some superb hacking to get every online file possible about the target structure. Fortunately for him the arms dealer lady knew a lot of people in the hacker world since such skills helped considerably when it came to 'liberating' a few crates of this type of gun or a box of that type of grenade. He remembered the woman once telling him a tale of how she'd managed to clean out an entire Russian warehouse and it wasn't until a month later that the owner realized that his stockpile had been stolen. Apparently the hacker she'd hired had somehow managed to leave a circular paper trail of sorts that made the owner think that the merchandise was just in transit to one of his other storage facilities. It wasn't until the man finally had his people put eyes on all the places the paper trail said the weapons were that the truth came out.

The owner had NOT been happy to say the least.

Rumor had it that heads literally rolled in the days that followed.

With a little luck maybe she'll be able to hook me up with the same hacker, he thought as he entered the bar.

Looking about the place, he saw a lot of the same type of people that'd been there last time but this was just peripheral knowledge to him. He kept his gaze focused on the bartender who spotted his approach once he reached the halfway point between her and the bar. He ordered a local beer that'd he'd developed a taste for since coming to Japan before asking the pierced woman to let Funanya he was here to see her. Moving over to a vacant, table he could tell that the other bar patrons were getting his measure but some were eyeing his new hair and eye color. After the fight outside Izumo inn, he hadn't bothered to put his 'Xander disguise' back on since there was no one from the Council other than him in the city at the moment. They probably thought he was some punker-wannabe or perhaps an American who was into cosplay. He didn't mind since it meant that it'd mean they were underestimating him and, if they blabbed to anyone else, those people would probably underestimate him as well.

That worked in his favor nicely.

"Oh! Now I know you be havin' a t'ing for Funanya," Funanaya said in her usual sexy manner as she approached his table. "M'be you be tellin' me all 'bout it in back?"

He couldn't help but chuckle in amusement.

He'd known the woman for over seven years and she never ceased to try to get him all flustered, even though he knew that there was nothing outside of friendship between the two of them. Perhaps occasionally it swelled into a 'friends with benefits' relationship but he knew there was nothing romantic between the two of them. Still, it was amusing as hell to have a battle of words with her and having a friend on the wrong side of the tracks gave him a heads up on potential trouble approaching the people he cared about.

"Maybe some other time. Gotta build my stamina back up, ya know?" he asked rhetorically before moving onto the main reason he was here. "I actually came here to ask if you know a hacker I could hire. I'm going on a venture of sorts and need the lay of the land. Know anyone?"

Funanya looked a little disappointed that she wouldn't be able to have her afternoon fun but then the look was gone and she was business casual as usual.

"I be knowin' a few computer crackers who might be willin' to help you. How gray is it gonna be?" Funanya asked, obviously wanting to know the risk factor involved.

"Corporate. Shady Corporate," he replied, trying to convey the important without giving any eavesdroppers anything juicy to sell. "A slippery sonuvabitch that's slipped the law nets quite a few times."

"Hmmmmm… you've managed to track him down, haven't'cha?" she asked, catching onto the game he wanted to play with words. "If you be wantin' a peek at his books, no second stringers will be up to the task. I know three who be free at th'moment. They be pricey though."

"I'm willing to be reasonable," he said honestly as he recalled how much spending money he had to work with. "I'm even willing to add a bonus if they go above and beyond without tipping off the prey. It has to be done without a single vibration in the web."

"Then there be only one cracker for you," Funanya said after a moment's consideration. "She be a bit crazy that one but never met someone like her b'fore. She get wha' you want with no one de wiser for it. Gimme your email and I'll pass it 'long to her. She'll contact you within two hours."

"Good. I owe you one, Funanya," he said as he wrote down his email address on a napkin.

"You be owin' me more than that, milord," she said with a saucy smile. "Believe me when I be saying I will collect one a these days."

"I don't doubt it," he said as he slid the napkin with his address on it across the table to his ally. "As long as it's not like that time after we took down that group of mercs. It took me weeks to walk normal again!"

"Don' worry! After de sixth boy I took to me bed ran off, I decided doin' t'ings like dat ain' worth it no more." Funanya said with a bit of amusement as she pocketed the napkin. "Dat's one a the good t'ings about those t'ings. There's always somethin' new to try."

He gaped at some of the possibilities his mind was coming up with and, like clockwork, Funanya started laughing at him because of how she'd made his head go into chaos. Shaking his head at the woman's hobby, he got out of his own chair and started walking to the bar entrance since he wanted to be ready at the warehouse safe house when the hacker contacted him. He already had a mental list of the things he wanted grabbed divided into 'I ABSOLUTELY NEED IT' and 'if you come across it, grab it' columns. With a bit of luck he'd have the game plan all mapped out by tomorrow afternoon and that'd be just enough time to go through it with Natsu and Yashima a couple dozen times, until they could recite it all in their sleep. He'd do his best to keep it as simple as possible, but he'd have to plan for every possible turn of events with a seventy percent or higher chance of happening at certain points in the operation. His soldier memories gave him some ideas of how the security personal might react in worst case scenarios and the times he'd encountered organized merc bands in Africa would also help.

For it to really work, though, it might be time to finally let those two know where my HQ is, he thought as he exited onto the sidewalk. Natsu's been with me long enough that I feel I can trust her and Yashima is pretty much an open book with her intentions. Besides, if I'm going to have them break the law and possible thrash a lot of people, I need to do something in return.

In the beginning he'd kept Natsu away from his base because he wanted to know more about the whole Sekirei thing before he let her into his inner sanctum. He was concerned that someone at M.B.I. might've conditioned them or programmed them somehow and that by letting one of them into his HQ he might be opening the Council up to espionage. After a dozen times using various anti-surveillance device talismans with a negative response, he dismissed this possibility especially when he left some juicy bait out there for the blade thrower to grab. He'd also tested her the few times that she'd tried to trail him back to the warehouse but, while she wasn't completely amateurish, it wasn't hard for him to lose her. He'd concluded that either whoever had trained her had trained her using methods from the movies or hadn't trained her at all. As for Yashima, she was far too nice and meek to be able to pull off anything sneaky and not give herself away with at least a dozen tells.

She'd be cleaned out if she ever played a serious game of poker.

Definitely have to keep her away from Faith, he thought before shaking out the image that came to mind. That woman would take too much pleasure playing a game of strip poker with Yashima.

Almost forty chronologically, thirty physically and she still hadn't matured past her early twenties mentally.

The Next Day, Late Afternoon, Outside Natsu's Apartment, Yashima's POV

"So why do you think Xander-sama's picking us up so early?" she asked as she stood with her hammer resting on the pavement in front of her. "Wouldn't it make more sense to do… it… at night? When there's less of a chance of someone spotting us?"

"I'm sure he has his reasons," Natsu said with a trench coat covering the numerous sheathes strapped to her limbs and body. "He hasn't steered us wrong so far, has he?"

"No, he hasn't," she replied even as she continued to look for any sign of her ashikabe.

It had only been a little over an hour ago that Xander-sama had called her and let her know that he'd be picking up her and Natsu outside the latter's apartment. When she inquired as to why, he'd only told her that it was time for the final prep work for what they'd be doing tonight and that they should make sure to have their 'tools' with them when he arrived. She'd correctly deciphered that he meant their weapons so, once she was in her proper fighting clothes, she put her hammer on her shoulder and walked over to where Natsu lived. She knew that M.B.I. wanted the Sekirei Plan to be confidential but she'd been told that, if anyone ever asked, to just say it was a prop for cosplaying and to never let anyone touch it since that'd instantly give away the weapon's weight. She'd just arrived at the address to see Natsu coming down the front steps wearing a trench coat but, before she could ask why, a gust of wind revealed the truth. Holsters strapped to each limb plus one around her waist with all of them filled with blades that had no doubt been provided by the man in charge of the Plan.

That had been twenty minutes ago and still they waited for their ashikabe.

It was when she was just about to give Xander-sama a call to see where he was that she noticed what looked to be a moving truck slow down before pulling up to the curb next to them. There was no company logo anywhere and the windows were tinted so that it was difficult to see who was driving, but when the driver's side window rolled down she was surprised to see it was Xander-sama.

"All aboard, ladies!" he said with the lopsided grin she'd become used to seeing. "We're on the clock!"

Nodding, she went to the rear and pushed open the rear of the vehicle since there was no way that her hammer would fit in front with the three of them. With ease born of familiarity, she placed her weapon inside before sliding the back shut and securing it before heading for the passenger side door. She was a little disappointed to find that Natsu had already cuddled up to Xander-sama but she consoled herself with the fact that her cooking lessons at the restaurant were going wonderfully. While she still had a ways to go, her mentor had told her that she had the talent for it so it was just a matter of refining it until she reached the level of a professional. Once she was there, she'd steal away ALL of Xander-sama's attention with one delicious meal after another until Natus's naughty methods looked pathetic more than anything else.

"Where are we going, Xander?" Natsu asked as the moving truck merged back with traffic.

"My HQ. It's time to brief you on how tonight is going to go," Xander-sama replied without taking his eyes off the road. "I've spent the last day going over information on the building and the security it has. I'm pretty sure I have a surefire plan for getting us in, getting what we want and getting out before Higa can get any reinforcements there. I'll explain more once we get to the warehouse."

Warehouse? His HQ?!

This was a shock to both her and Natsu since never once before had their ashikabe told them anything about it, much less taken them there. They'd both been curious and had asked the odd question but Xander-sama had merely changed the subject or given them answers that didn't really tell you anything of value. Natsu had once tried to get clues to its location so that she could figure it out based on the layout of the city but, given the sour look on the knife thrower's face three days later, it hadn't worked out well. Why was he doing this? Had they finally earned his trust? Had they earned the right to see where he was living inside the city? It made her smile since she believed that the answer to the last two questions was yes and it meant that they'd taken a BIG step forward in their relationship with him. With this level of trust she would be able to ask about his past, where he was from and how he had become the man who was her ashikabe. Oh, he'd told both her and Natsu little things about himself but she could tell that he kept the bulk of the truth to himself, though she didn't think it was for the same reasons as keeping his HQ a secret.

She looked forward to learning all she could from this point forward.

It took them a good couple of minutes to reach the warehouse that, to her mind, was a good size more than she thought one person would need for a solo mission. When he rolled down the window she thought she heard him say two words, mellon and fellowship, but she couldn't be sure because he said them so softly. Whatever he said the entrance to the building rolled up to admit them and, once it was up high enough to allow the vehicle entry, Xander-sama drove it inside, parking it on top of a painted section of the concrete floor. Looking in the rearview mirror, she could see the warehouse door rolling back down and, with its descent, the engine of the vehicle was turned off.

Looking about the room once she got out of the truck, she was amazed at how it looked more like military barracks than what she'd expect from the interior of a warehouse. There was an obvious training area taking up almost half of the interior on the opposite side of the building. A series of mats like you'd see in a martial arts dojo were laid out and up against the back wall was a plethora of equipment, ranging from practice weapons to the real thing. She could also see what looked up to be fold up targets that could be set up on a moment's notice for anything from archery to knife throwing. On either side of the warehouse there were two floors of rooms that didn't look to be half the size of your average dorm room, making her think that at most the place could host twenty-four people comfortably. More could probably be handled if they brought sleeping bags and laid them out on the mats but that'd likely be an extreme case.

Closer to the side of the warehouse they were on there were two areas: a small kitchen and what looked to be an expensive mix of computers as well as stuff that could either be found in a lab or on the set of a magic movie. There was a high tech looking table in between the lab and the computer set up that she presumed was just an electronic screen meant to provide an alternate way to display information from the computer or another source.

All in all it was an impressive set up that made her ask herself just WHO or WHAT was her ashikabe was but she didn't have an answer… YET.

"Well, it isn't a fancy hotel or a posh mansion but it's what I've been calling home lately," Xander said as he led them over to the odd looking table. "Normally it's meant to be home to a lot more people but, since I didn't know if the other safe houses had been compromised or not, I figured this was my best bet."

"How many others are there?" Natsu asked curiously as she walked.

"In this city? About eight, with a ninth under construction at the moment," Xander replied offhand as he reached the table and pressed a button on it. "They're scattered all over so that if anyone comes to the city and gets into trouble, they won't have far to go to find sanctuary."

"What is it you guys need sanctuary from?" she asked, not having heard anything on the topic.

For a minute Xander paused, a look of conflicting desires on his face but reached a decision in the end.

"Well, this might be hard to believe but… the group I belong to fights the supernatural and the demonic. Demons, vampires, ghosts and dark magic users," he replied, looking at them both right in the eye without flinching. "Slayers take on most of the work but Watchers like me do what we can where we can. I was sent to this city to investigate the disappearance of two of our teams and to learn more about you Sekirei, to determine if you were friend or foe and, if it was the latter, figure out your weaknesses in case we ever fought."

There was no real way to respond to that so she simply gaped.

She'd heard of a lot of the things he said he fought against but she'd been told many a time that they weren't real, that they were make believe, so she didn't have to be afraid of them. Her first instinct was to dismiss his claims as some kind of joke but then little things began to drop into place in her mind either from what she'd seen firsthand or what she'd heard from Natsu. The tools he'd used to train them so far, the stories Natsu had told her about how he fought the fake Sekirei that'd come after the two of them and now this set up. While she'd still probably need to actually see a vampire or demon before she'd be totally sold on the idea, she wouldn't call him a crazy person.

"Now let's get down to business!" Xander said as the surface of the table lit up, revealing it to be a touch screen as he manipulated the folders and files displayed. "Thanks to some help from a local hacker I managed to get quite a bit of information on the building we'll be raiding as well as its security set up. It cost me a few hours of sleep but I managed to come up with a plan. First take a look at stage one of the plan."

With that something happened that she hadn't been counting on: a layout of the area surrounding the target building appeared but then it ROSE into the air to form a three dimensional hologram. Everything looked to be perfectly scaled to the point where she recognized each building, even though it was a different perspective than she usually had from street level.

"Amazing! Not even M.B.I. has something like this!" Natsu exclaimed, looking quite interested in the sight before her.

"That's because it's not based completely on science," Xander-sama explained even as he somehow took a holographic version of the truck they'd arrived in and put it two blocks from the target building. "One of my… well, let's call him 'associate' because he's way too annoying to be a friend, watched a movie once where this cool billionaire inventor had something like this in his workshop. From that point on he used all his free time to make science and sorcery mesh so he could make this work the way he wanted. Once the first prototype passed inspection we began making them like crazy and put them in every major city where we have a deal hammered out with the government."

With that her ashikabe swept aside any further inquiries and focused on explaining the plan he'd come up with for the raid on the Higa building.

She made sure she caught every word and understood everything he did his best to explain to her as well as Natsu.