"No, wait, it's not what it looks like, I swear!" Minato stammered, waving his arms out in front of him. "I was walking home when I heard thunder and then Musubi-san crashed into me so I took her to MOS Burger-"
"Two seconds after meeting her and you already took her on a date?" Kazehana pouted disapprovingly. "Am I not good enough for you, Minato?"
Minato spoke words but his 19-year-old-male instincts told him there was no right thing he could say. He babbled about lightning and stores and how his wallet had been mugged by Musubi's appetite, but Kazehana was having none of it. She kept glowering at him, her cherry red lips pursed in a way that didn't suit her lovely features at all.
"Minato?" Musubi asked from behind him. "Who's this?"
Minato didn't hear; the hot water he was in was bubbling too loudly.
After she'd strung him along for about a minute, Kazehana cracked and starting chortling, unable to keep up the act any longer.
"And then we found another Sekirei- Kazehana?"
Her arms were around him and her chest pressed to his. "You're just too easy, Mina-kun."
She gave him a kiss on the lips, igniting her pink wings. An elderly man living on the top floor of one of the surrounding buildings happened to be looking out the window when it happened, and upon shambling over to the bathroom, realized he'd forgotten to take his medication that morning. Damn telemarketers...
Meanwhile, the bright wings also lit a light bulb above Musubi's head.
"Oh, okay!" Musubi chirped. She bowed to her sister Sekirei. "I'm Number 88, Musubi. Nice to meet you!"
"Number 3, Kazehana," the other woman replied, mirroring Musubi's gesture. "So, how about we all go home?"
"Where's that?"
"At an inn a few blocks from here," Minato said, looking at her and causing Kazehana's second kiss to land on his cheek.
"Need a lift?" asked the raven-haired woman attached to him.
"I'll carry him!" Musubi exclaimed, throwing her arms in the air. "It's the least I can do for making Minato run so much!"
"And it's the least I can do for not getting here sooner," Kazehana countered, disentangling herself and strutting over to Musubi.
Minato saw the electric sparks starting to fly between their eyes, and had a feeling this playful little argument might take awhile. And while the sight of the two women assertively pushing their busts together did have its appeal...
Well, maybe he could watch just a little longer; after all, if Musubi was anything like Kazehana, she wouldn't mind, either. And now that he could compare, it seems Kazehana only just edged out Musubi in the breast department.
The Ashikabi shook his head. "Hey, Kazehana?" he asked, sticking a hand behind his back. "One finger or two?"
Kazehana smirked at this. "Out in public, Minato? I didn't think you were so daring."
While the ronin sputtered his flustered retort, Musubi hopped forward. "Two!"
At which Minato got a hold of himself and revealed his hand, showing that yes, two fingers were held up.
"Better luck next time, Kazehana," he said, the red in his face fading as Musubi took him by the hand and leapt into the air.
Minato can be such a spoilsport sometimes, Kazehana sighed internally, following close behind.
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"Don't worry. Miya can be a little..." Minato paused, trying to find the right word as they walked through the front gate of Izumo Inn.
"Terrifying?" Kazehana chimed in.
Minato nodded. "Yeah, but she's a good landlady."
"If a little strict..." Kazehana murmured to herself. Miya's hardline stance on lewdness really got on Kazehana's nerves, more so because she'd been a lot more lenient while her husband had been alive.
At the upper window, a silhouette observed the new arrivals. She leaned on the frame, her form obscured by the blinds, tiny slivers of light peeking through to reveal snippets of her curvaceous form.
So, that guy became her Ashikabi after all, she thought to herself. Well, there would be hell to pay for that later. She never should've warned Kazehana of her presence, just attacked her like she'd done to the rest. Urgh, how could she have been so stupid?!
As the unseen figure continued to flagellate herself, neither she nor the three below realized there was another pair of eyes, watching Minato with devious intent from elsewhere inside, already scheming to get to him by the time he'd disappeared from her view.
Back down below, an effeminate-looking grey-haired man appeared in the doorway, dressed in a well-pressed grey suit and form-fitting black jeans.
"Welcome back," the grey-haired man said as he passed them on his way out.
"And where are you going, Kagari?" Kazehana asked as she and Musubi pulled Minato through the door.
"To work," he said. "Can't keep my clients waiting."
Work. Right, Minato thought. Having a job would certainly be nice. Thankfully, he hadn't failed the entrance exam yet, so his mother hadn't brought the ax down on his allowance. Again, not yet.
As they went through the front hall, Miya looked up from the stove.
"You're just in time. Dinner's almost ready. But first," she said, thrusting her spatula at Minato and Musubi. "You two, into the bath, separately."
Minato sighed. He might've expected as much, considering how ragged he must look from being charred by lightning. Kazehana didn't seem to mind, pulling him on Minato's shirt as Musubi trotted down the hall, eager to bathe for the first time in days.
"Second door on your left, dear!" Miya called.
"Got it!" Musubi hollered back.
Kazehana still had a death grip on Minato's tattered shirt as she led him upstairs.
"So, what should we do until your bath is ready?" she asked.
"I'd like to just lie down for a while, Kazehana. I'm feeling kind of, well, filthy," he said, gesturing to his still-scorched clothes.
She stopped once they'd reached the top and turned to him. Her eyes flashed mischievously and she rested her head next to his ear.
"Funny, so do I," she whispered, and began to caress his leg with her own.
"Now, Kazehana, you know better than to do that within the grounds of my inn," Miya said, having spontaneously appeared at the bottom of the stairs.
A frightening hanyo face peeked from behind the landlady's shoulder. "Right?"
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Musubi sighed as she sank deeper into the hot water. There were few things she liked more than a hot bath, those things being food, fighting and training to fight. Minato being in her life expanded that list to a quartet.
As she took a sponge and began scrubbing her arms, she heard the door open. Another brown-eyed girl was preparing to get in the bath. She had her hair partially tied in a pony-tail that stuck out of the left side of the crown of her head, the rest of it flowing down behind her. The towel wrapped around her chest did nothing to hide her ample breasts.
"Hello!" Musubi beamed.
"Hi there!" the girl chirped, having up until that point been wondering who would post an "Occupied: Women" sign for an empty bathroom. "You just moved in here, right?"
Musubi nodded. "Yup. I just met my Ashikabi, and he was nice enough to-"
That's when Musubi caught a glimpse of the mark on her potential bath-mate's back, as the girl turned to hang up her towel.
"You're a Sekirei, too?" she gasped excitedly.
"Yeah," the brunette replied. "I'm-"
Musubi sprang out of the tub, her new adversary's bangs billowing in the wind of her uppercut.
"Wait," cried the girl, "we're not allowed to fight here!"
"I'm Number 88, Musubi! I'm a fist-type!"
The brunette yelped as Musubi swung again, missing and punching a hole in the paper door. Sliding under her adversary's outstretched arm, the girl grabbed her towel off the rack next to her head and burst through the door, looking to escape. Musubi, securing a towel of her own, pursued.
The brunette rounded a corner and leapt up to the top of the stairs, never touching one step. Musubi did likewise and they both found themselves in the hallyway. Eager as ever, Musubi rushed forward with another punch that her opponent bobbed beneath and dove past. The chase was on again, but not for long, for as she turned at the head of the stairs, she found Minato taking the last step up to his new room. The pair's confused and garbled cries of panic were heard throughout the house as they tumbled down the flight. The girl landed on the bottom of the pile, rolling once before slamming into the wall, sitting up against it.
Meanwhile, Minato landed perpendicular to her, his extremities splayed out as he rolled sideways, up her legs and on to her soft abdomen, the right side of his ribcage coming to rest up against her toweled chest.
Musubi arrived at the top of the stairs. Seeing her Ashikabi in the clutches of another Sekirei, she sailed down, skipping all the steps and winding up for another punch.
"Wait! Musubi! Hold on a second!" Minato stammered, flailing his arms.
A gust of wind heralded the arrival of his savior, but to Minato's surprise it wasn't Kazehana. The landlady Miya bolted in front of the prone duo, holding a pot lid like a shield, and caught Musubi's earth-shattering punch without so much as denting it. She then bopped Musubi on the head with her ladle scolding her.
"There is to be no violence in Izumo Inn, is that clear?"
"Okay…" Musubi whimpered. Musubi rubbed her head and lowered her eyes in shame, like a child who'd been caught with her hand in the cookie jar.
It took Minato a second before he realized he was still lying on top of the brunette girl. Springing up, he apologized as she climbed to her feet.
"It's fine," she said. "I'm Uzume, by the way."
"Sahashi Minato, pleased to meet you," he replied, bowing his head.
Musubi had already introduced herself.
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Minato lathered more soap into the sponge, collecting the day's events into his head. He'd managed to stay cognizant throughout the course of his cram classes, which was good since entrance exams were waiting for him at the end of the week, time forcing him ever-closer to the cannon's mouth.
Then he'd run into Musubi, then those twins, and then into that larger but just as over-enthusiastic Sekirei, No. 67, who of all things called himself "Kagedansu".
Minato also wondered if, given the man's similar attire and lack of weapons, he might also been a fist-type.
But then, one thing had led to another until Musubi had winged herself on his lips and become his second Sekirei. MBI, the company running the city-wide Sekirei tournament, had delivered a change of clothes for Musubi while she and Uzume had finished their bath. It frightened him a little that they had not only gotten his new address so quickly, but also that Musubi had become his Sekirei. He hadn't even moved his things from his old apartment yet.
Minato let out a weary breath. It would've been nice to bathe with his Sekirei, but he wasn't about to challenge Miya. That woman hid daggers behind her smile. Dinner was fast approaching, as was tomorrow.
He wondered if Musubi would be the last. It hadn't occurred to him that multiple Sekirei could share an Ashikabi. And it only now occurred to him that given the women's confrontation over who would ferry him home, he might find himself in the middle of a fierce tug-of-war should a more... possessive member join their group.
That in mind, he was simultaneously disappointed and glad that Miya had insisted he bunk by himself, his two Sekirei sharing a room next to his.
