Starry Starry Nights

Chapter Seven – Seventh Night

What was he? Who was he? Adrift in that weird dreamlike state of being self aware yet not awake and fully conscious, he HAD to get these questions answered! Now! But, dammit, it was very dark here, pitch black in fact, and he couldn't see anything, not even with the enhanced night and infrared vision he KNEW that he possessed, but didn't know how.

Strange. He couldn't feel his limbs. Matter of fact, he couldn't even feel his lips! His body had no weight, no form, no orientation, no plane of reference. It was like he was floating about in some kind of psychic, out of body experience.

Suddenly, sights, sounds, tastes, smells, and feelings formed around him in a roiling jumble of incoherency. It was as if he was drifting helplessly and aimlessly through the dark and echoing recesses of his disembodied mind's past and present memories. He tried to see them all at once, struggling to find anything that looked familiar and answer his self identity questions.

Wait. He recognized some of... There! There was his best buddy Kurt the Nightcrawler and other half of Logurt! Hah! Hey Kurt! And ol' Colossus, that big lug! His pal Pete who so casually called him Shorty all the time! There she is! On again off again mind buddy, Betts the Psylocke, killer of that badly whittled down turd Mats'ou! The Bastard. Even Scott the giant douche bag. Ehhh.

And Jean! Whoa! Looking, feeling, and smelling good! But, now, so distant? What? Wait. Kurt was dead now, wasn't he? Killed by Bastion? And Betsy, there was something very wrong with their psychic bond! Again? What had happened?

Where was Emma? And Rachel? Why couldn't he "feel" their minds. Matter of fact, who were they? Confused, he tried to see more and maybe even arrange the disjointed visions appearing in his darkness. Most called him Logan, but order and a Logan self image and awareness still strangely eluded him. How could he remember them but not himself? Damn.

Then even more strangely, other faces, lovely female faces, and then their bodies suddenly appeared around him to be instantly felt and recognized; some he instantly knew to yet be alive and others whom he KNEW were dead, and yet, now alive? Again? How?

There was his first great love Silver Fox! So beautiful and, and, killed, by, by Creed? Who was he? And, hadn't Silverfox been buried at the wilderness cabin her Logan had built for them? But now she was alive and, and become a very busty, exquisitely gorgeous Japanese woman in a tight purple mini dress smelling like fresh and slightly reddish petals of jasmine? This woman didn't LOOK like his first love Silverfox, yet she FELT exactly like her! Very much alive and very, very close!

And whoa! His sweetly beloved and gentle Itsu was very, very close now too! Only, what? She had split into two vanilla flavored twins? One with brown hair and one with gray? Weird!

Just as close was Yukio, the yin and yang epitome of totally unpredictable sweet/sour and soft/edgy femininity, but instead of short black hair, she now had ultra long and thick chestnut tresses with a side pony tail? Silver Fox, Itsu, and Yukio together in one place and feeling close to him in his mind now?

That didn't make any sense! What was happening inside the psychic part of his mind? He should have high shields against these kinds of visions and tricks!

Then farther away in his surreal drifting lurked more living and dead yet weirdly living again females, their faces and forms swirling in the background of his mind's disjointed images and memories. Who? Who were they? He strained to see.

Yes. One was easily identified as the very pretty and lilac smelling Atsuko in an old fashioned kimono, his sword wielding lover that had been murdered just before Nagasaki exploded, but now she had long lavender colored hair and was sitting seiza in front of a small memorial shrine? And feeling very warm and alive again?

There was his lover/friend, the too tricky for her own good, Russian agent killing queen. Now how had red haired Charlemagne of the red charm tease, eventually hurt by him but killed by ol' Spidy, come back to life with red eyes instead of green? Feeling unnaturally hot/fevered with dumb looking round glasses?

And Black Cat Felicia? Smelling like hyssop? Huh. Fee-Fee with her damn claws, too snarky mouth, and great looking ass, but why had she cut her hair so short and weird? And wrapped her great body in mummy bandages while wearing those dumb looking combat boots?

Another one who looked wrong, yet FELT right? Over there was yet another wild female he sensed lurking in the violent dark depths of his mind, prowling the edges of the images he was seeing, familiar yet smaller and unidentifiable, snarling at him from the deepest shadows, and yet pausing at the edges of light to briefly present and waggle her round backside for mating before prowling back into the depths again. Now who was she? The Native? Lynx?

Wait. There! A very powerful psychic and live mind thinking about, about ... him? He looked at this female's mental self image of herself in surprise. Over there and almost behind him in his mind was Mariko? Mariko Yashida? Standing on the roof's edge of a very tall building with her right foot propped up, a long cape and her butt length gray hair billowing in a night breeze!

Staring out over a city with its highly illuminated skyline to frame her, Mariko had unusual long black boots, a short black skirt, and a sword? What kind of screwy caped outfit was that for kimono loving Mariko? Why had she died her black hair grey and cut it so differently? And clove smelling? Wrong feeling yet alive, or was this some strange clone/doppelganger?

Logan strained his mind to psychically push himself towards this Not Mariko. He had to know who she really was, and if not a doppelganger, then how she had come back to life after he had killed her himself. And why she had postponed their wedding instead of letting him help fight her Yakuza problems by her side as her husband?

She had never really given him a hard and convincing answer to that one other than her "honor" had demanded it. Well, he had his personal "honor" too, or, uhhh, of a sort maybe, not that it didn't get frayed around the edges upon occasion. All right, too often, but what the hell? They had really loved each other greatly, hadn't they? So why not get "honorably" married and face life's woes together by using her brains and him kicking ass?

"Mariko?" He greeted her cautiously in psychic mental contact. Who knew? Even though he was probably an astral projection that couldn't be physically hurt, she felt very dangerous. Wearing that sword, maybe too she might be a little pissed off at being poisoned by Mats'ou's assassin and then stabbed to death in mercy by her lover's claws while still so young and beautiful. Why risk a psychic backlash that could send his astral body into some nameless abyss from which he could never return?

After all, Mariko was her father's daughter, and old Shingen Yashida had been one scary Zen master type fella. She turned her head to look at him, sleepy eyed, unsurprised at his psychic presence, one eyebrow slightly raised in annoyance. Now that right there confirmed she was NOT Mariko.

"You starting in with that again?" The Not Mariko sighed irritably while speaking out loud. Odd. This doppelganger female knew him already? She also didn't seem surprised at all that he could impact her mind as clearly as he had even though they both knew he wasn't "here" physically. Did they share the same kind of psychic bond and ability to "connect" that he had with Psylocke, Rachel, and Emma?

"Just give that Mariko shit a rest, Big Boy. I'm not her. I'm Karasuba. Remember it, and if you've just dropped by to psychically screw with my mind, then you can just piss off. I'm NOT in the mood. And I'm NOT going on another party hard bender with you ever again! Got it? Hey, is that what's going on here? You just came by to telepathically piss me off and rub my nose in you going out drinking with other Sekirei girls and doing your Ashikabi VIBE with Benitsubasa?"

"Benit who?"

"Prick."

Yep. Not in a good mood all right. Even sounding a wee tad bitchy jealous of some Sekirei girls, whoever and whatever they might be, or at least really pissed off at that Benitsubasa fella. Why was Karasuba blaming him for whatever that other guy was doing to piss folks off? Doing an Ashikabi vibe? What was that? Sounded like a bad idea for mosh dancing or even floor moves more lame than the Robot, cabbage patching, or even going vogue.

On the other hand, what did he know about current hip trends in dance? Besides, he gave up dancing way before disco had died, never could see why anyone would macarena, noodle, chicken noodle soup, dirty, Watusi, pony, jerk, mash potato, twist, work, swim, or even ocho ocho, but he could probably still jitterbug or even good old rock and roll a little with enough beer in him. This Karasuba didn't look like the type to move like Jagger or even samba, rumba, waltz, mambo, or tango either, unless maybe she led some poor guy around the damn dance floor with both of 'em drunk out of their minds.

"Soooo, you LIKE dancing? And drinking?" He asked warily. He just wanted a little clue as to what an Ashikabi Vibe was supposed to be, not ask Karasuba out for another party hardy bender. Besides, when had he taken her out for a night on the town? "A little Mambo #5 with a few cold Sapporo beers, maybe? Or is that something, uhhh, you want to do with that Benitsubasa guy?"

"WHAT? Guy?" She glared at him with a half snarl before turning back away. "I TOLD you not to screw with me, didn't I?"

Okay, so she wasn't much of a dancer, nor a party animal either apparently, just an insane head chopper. He stared at her silently for a long time, taking in every physical detail, and shook his mental head slightly while doing so. It was amazing that her facial profile was exactly identical to Mariko's, and yet the feel of Karasuba's mind and dark personality was the exact opposite.

The silence grew into long minutes as she studiously ignored him, staring once again out over what he now recognized as Tokyo's skyline. He almost decided to hell with it and began to drift back into the darkness of his id when all of a sudden she spoke without looking at him.

"Who was Mariko anyway?"

"A woman I loved once, fiance, daughter of a Yakuza clan lord, Shingen Yashida, but murdered before we got married. Hired assassin poisoned her. She asked me for a merciful death. I gave it. Your face is an exact duplicate of hers even though she was a much better person than you and me in every way. Still, to see you, it, uhhh, surprises me."

Now what had just happened? He had remembered all that so very clearly! This inhuman female had some psionic power that he could use to sort things out in his memories? Had she drawn his disembodied mind here to telepathically talk to him? Karasuba turned to look at him in amused curiosity.

"Bothers you too, eh? Me having her face?"

"Yeah, sorta, I mean, you know, the image of your dead lover comes back to life years later as an egotistical, insane, alien serial killer with smaller tits, gray hair, and smelling like cloves; working for some world class ass clown with an ego even bigger. You could call that bothersome."

"Heh," Karasuba gave a brief snort of amusement as she pounced on the only thing she felt wasn't true. "I'm insane, huh? Tell me, what happened after Mariko died? You go after her killer?"

"Ahhh, that female hired assassin was nothing, killed almost right away, maybe. Committed suicide, I think. I'm not sure, but the Turd that hired her, well, he lived for awhile."

"But not peacefully I'll bet." Karasuba shifted her foot off the roof edge and half turned to face him with a knowing smile. "You're a ruthless bastard, Logan. We both know it. I can see right through you and those murderous eyes of yours. The Turd didn't live well, did he? Nor did he act alone, right?"

So, there it was. She KNEW him. He was Logan the Ruthless and Murderous Bastard. That seemed to fit some big piece in the overall puzzle of his self image. And yeah, The Turd hadn't lived well at all after hiring Mariko's death. He, Logan the Ruthless Bastard, had enjoyed torturing him too much too.

"I took a hunk out of him on every yearly anniversary of Mariko's murder. His original body mass was down about two thirds and about to lose his left butt cheek to live another half ass year when he got cute. After he caused a whole lot of unnecessary trouble to get someone to kill him before I cut another chunk, he bothered a mutant gal pal of mine. She's a psychic ninja named Betsy who wanted to mercy kill him. Well, Betts is one that's sometimes a pal and sometimes ain't. We fought about it, but I let her finally snuff his ass."

"Heh, that's almost sexy. A psychic ninja huh? Interesting. And the others? There were others working with him, right? There always is."

"Cynic, but yeah, Mariko's half brother was the Silver Samurai, a sword fighter like you. He was in bed with the Turd and trying to take Mariko's inheritance. I eventually cut off his right hand. He doesn't swish his sword too good any more."

"You're a real bad ass then, huh?"

Her amused disbelief made an earlier unfocused image of snarling Victor Creed snap into total clarity, his fanged Sabertooth smile mocking Logan as they had fought and saying he was what Logan would be. This was followed by image after image of their decades and decades of bloody "let her rip" dueling until finally Logan had slain the eventually mindless, ravening beast Sabertooth with THAT sword. Nothing had been left of Victor Creed in the head he had chopped off.

"Sister," he said slowly while wondering if he too was to become a mindless beast as Victor had predicted, "not too long ago I cut off the arm and head of a long time enemy of mine whose fighting skills make you look like a sniveling schoolgirl with a dull steak knife. And I've taken out several others that you couldn't even carry their water on your best day."

Or had he? Somehow Logan felt like he battled Sabertooth after that, maybe even a couple of times, but dammit, he just couldn't remember!

"Oh really!" Karasuba now chuckled in genuine enjoyment as she moved to sit on the roof's edge and dangle her legs and feet over the edge, flinging her cape to the off side, leaning back on one hand, and patting the spot beside her for him to join her.

"I'm getting really, really bored with these twelve hour guard shifts thanks to your little stunt the other night and whatever you've done to that brainless Flatty-chan. Come over here, Ruthless, and keep me entertained by telling me all about those big bad enemies of yours."

Amazingly, her challenging interest made some swirling memories he had been drawing upon her power to see come closer together, coalesce, and turn recognizable. Yes, he COULD finally make some sense of some memories now. Telling her might really be the key help he needed to find out about himself! There followed a short trip down Logan's catch as catch can memories of battles and wars he had been in; WWI and WWII, Mutant Civil War, Sabertooth, Red Omega, Lady Deathstryke, Lazear, battle against the Hand mobsters, Ogun, robot Shiva, a giant alien dragon in Japan, the monster island Krakoa, and even his own son Daken.

At the same time he was able to talk a little about friends, assholes, betrayers, and douche bags he had known and fought with and/or against as well as fickle/faithful/ferocious females he had met, fought, loved, and lost. Karasuba kept up a highly amused running dialog of comments and questions, mostly in total disbelief and a little in ill concealed envy at his wide range of travel, conflict, and bloodshed amidst shifting loyalties, betrayals, victories, defeats, and high adventure on all continents, Madripoor, the world's major cities, and even in outer space.

He didn't notice that she was surreptitiously tapping away on a notepad beside her off leg the entire time, occasionally frowning at the results. Eventually he wound down having exhausted his ability to recall and make sense of all that he had remembered, frustrated that none of it had really gotten to the total core of his self identity other than him being Logan the Ruthless and Murderous Bastard. Karasuba watched him as he mentally stared up at the sky above, his melancholy and confused mind far beyond Tokyo's horizon and even Japan.

"That is, without a doubt, the best batch of total bullshit I've ever heard," Karasuba finally shook her head in admiration, "and you call me insane? There isn't one name you've mentioned in any computer data base MBI can access, and trust me, the geeks over there get access to some really heavy duty data storage world wide. Hell, just in Asia alone there is no Madripoor, no Krakoa, no Yashida Clan of the Yakuza, no Shingen, no Silver Samurai, no Hand crime organization, no Tyger Tiger, no Ai Chia Wong, no Yukio, no Amiko, no alien dragon attack of Japan, no Ogun, no demon Muramasa, no Daken, no Itsu, no Jasmine Falls, no Atsuko, and no freaking Mariko Yashida. So you can forget calling me her from now on, Slick.

"There's also no world wide hunt or even mention of any of those exotic named mutants like Sabertooth, Kitty Pryde, Storm, Cyclops, Jubilee, Rogue, Colossus, Nightcrawler, or any mutant organizations either. You, my totally delusional and grade A asshole, are also a first class loony, but I must admit, you tell it well even if your mind is a total mess. It was fun. So who are you? And other than a ballsy ruthless prick, what are you?"

He held very still, looking through her eyes down at the busy night streets far below while troubled greatly. She had been telling the truth about none of his supposed memories being real? He could sense it in her mind voice and attitude that she at least thought she had. Not one mental image of his memories had been real then, and no one he had known? Where was he? Or was his head that screwed up? But it all seemed so real. Wait. He had been used with false memories injected into him before. Was he being manipulated again? Now?

His fist blades were real and his strength, weight, and quick healing. He wasn't human. That he knew for sure. Some kind of deep secret experiment for human enhancement, maybe? Yes! Weapon X! But, no, that program had been publicly exposed years ago, and there would surely be some computer data on it everywhere by now, right? Some program beyond Weapon X or, or what? Damn! What was going on?

"Our geeks are betting you're some enhanced, war cyborg experiment, probably American, that shouldn't be running around free in Tokyo," Karasuba gauged his reaction to her announcement with a sidelong glance and probing his mind. No response from him. Wait. There was a small confused frown on his features.

"Hey, you REALLY don't know who or what you are, do you?"

"I know for sure that I'm Akitsu's mate with dog tags saying I'm Logan or Wolverine, or both, maybe, and I'm Canadian, I think," Logan shrugged in resignation. Maybe he wasn't even Logan the Ruthless Bastard either. How did a fella become a figment of his own imagination? Hell, even Fake Face didn't really know anything more about him than he did, and a lot less apparently, and she sure as hell didn't know shit about Mariko.

"And also I know you're the very image of a great and sweetly beautiful love of mine, and yet you're so revolting ugly inside."

"Revolting, eh?" Karasuba snickered in disbelief. "And ugly? So you're saying you don't like my sexy thighs and hot looking ass when you keep ogling me?"

"Ya know, self loving, fake face, and probably still a virgin gals like you are all alike, one curious look at you actresses from a guy, and you always start running your mouth about your supposed hot sexuality when you're really a total inexperienced dud in the sack. Can't even spell romantic and mutually satisfying sex let alone understand and do it."

"Oooo, now you're not only getting defensive, you're taking shots at Hollywood and Bollywood starlets? Oh, but they're not inexperienced virgins in romantic sex, now are they. I suppose me pole dancing or even doing a slow hula in grass skirt would leave you cold too?

"As IF, and that's a giant IF, you could drag yourself away from your mirror long enough to even find a pole or grass skirt, let alone take a bath and brush your teeth. Face it, Fake Face. You got less sex appeal than an unrinsed bathroom mop."

"Yeah? Then what was with that romantic feeling Starry Starry Night thing you left for me on the door back there? And while we're at it, that stupid attack on MBI's compound?"

"Ahhh, wasn't meant to be romantic and that attack was just a little exercise in educating Micky," Logan mentally shrugged again in growing disinterest. Bandying insults was not going to get him any information he wanted. It was time to go and break this psychic connection/interview.

"Giving Four Eyes the knowledge to be wise in the future and never threaten me again, nor try to stop me from going where the hell I want to go. Starry Starry Night. Remember the song's line they could not listen they did not know how, perhaps they'll listen now? Let's just say the note indicates I'm fairly worried I might become more of a wild beast that might run amok and kill everyone down in that compound, including you, next time, especially if you guys keep screwing with me and Akitsu. You and Micky better listen."

"Woo! I LOVE a good threat! A rampaging wild beast, huh? Killing everyone in sight? Blood and total mayhem? Now THAT actually sounds pretty hot AND romantic! Kinda makes me want to rip my panties off and jump YOUR bones!"

"No thanks," Logan sighed in disgust. MBI's dog was a total sicko all right. What a waste of time and energy this whole dreamlike push to here had become. "I'd rather have a beer."

"Ouch," Karasuba chuckled heartily while wincing, but it belied the sudden coldness in her obsidian eyes. "There's another real ego boost! I've never taken second place to a beer before."

"A twisted sister like you always running around with sour breath and unwashed panties better get used to it," Logan observed dryly as he willed himself up and away from her, slowly breaking their psychic bond. "A dud act like yours could never win first prize anyway, let alone simply finish. I'm leaving before you start drawing flies."

His disembodied mind drifted back in the direction where he had been and away from Karasuba's now white hot hostility. He pushed away from her harder only to find that only total darkness in his memories was now surrounding him again. Maybe he was Logan the Ruthless Bastard, and now, maybe not. What was real? He was once again alone, then, just as the sense of his body's weight returned, he was suddenly falling to hit hard while still not knowing who or what he really was, and now, not even where.

An intense pain lanced through him as Logan actually felt his head hit something very hard, then his mind faded into total unconsciousness.

*scene break*

Was that who and what Logan was? Matsu blinked then wiped and adjusted her constantly fogging glasses as she once again read the very brief addendum to a very old, still classified, and top secret file of enemy secret agents captured by the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II.

She had just found the small entry buried in Japan's current Ministry of Defense data archives during a very focused and intense psychic/electronic search of "Logan" that had taken hours to refine and then glean the ¼ billion data hits garnered word wide. The few abbreviated words now on her computer screen were as puzzling as they were extremely exciting.

"AGENT FILE CODE - *Wolverine* - James Howlett, m/w, black hair, blue eyes, 5'4", 185 lbs, approx. age 35, aka James "Jim" Logan, Canadian covert ops expert, saboteur, master spy, acrobat, and extremely effective assassin, highly skilled in firearms and explosives, master/instructor of blade & unarmed combat, highly educated, self styled warrior-poet, multilingual, cunning, ruthless to extreme, captured/interred in highest classified/top secret "berserk/insane" experiment facility at Nagasaki, June 12, 1944, deceased a-bomb attack August 9,1945."

Matsu tried to contain her rising excitement as she downloaded the small entry to her notepad, but as usual, everything about Logan beget even deeper mysteries! She had to show this to Miya! Once again Matsu found herself pounding barefoot and disheveled down Izumo Inn's stairs while racing for Miya's small bedroom suite next to the Inn's first floor bath. She even forgot to politely knock before throwing Miya's door open and flinging herself inside.

Miya, sitting seiza in front of deceased Takehito Asama's small shrine set against the middle of the room's back wall, sent a highly annoyed look back over her shoulder. Matsu's entrance had disturbed the smoke from the shrine's burning incense, making it swirl about the open, tall wooden box standing beside a picture of the smiling Takehito. The box contained two long, curved bokken, the wooden practice swords shaped like katanas given to Miya earlier that evening by Logan.

To Matsu who had frozen at Miya's angered look, it looked as if a similarly disheveled looking Miya was either explaining Logan's gift to her dead husband's spirit and/or asking for permission to keep and use it.

"I, I, uhhh, SORRY!" Matsu finally gulped out while thrusting out her notepad to Miya's back. "I didn't think, and, and, I found THIS! Miya! It's, it's about LOGAN! Who and what he is! Or, or, well, MIGHT have been! Uhhh, maybe, I, I just don't KNOW!"

Miya closed her eyes and sighed, her proper meditating posture drooping slightly. She couldn't let Matsu know Takehito's devoted widow had been tossing and turning upon her futon; trying to sleep before finally deciding to confront her inner turmoil. The result of Miya's emotionally charged failure/attraction during their meeting with Logan had GREATLY bothered her. Even gazing at Takehito's calm smiling face hadn't helped as it had in the past, because Miya's thoughts kept forming an image of Logan in his rickshaw runner outfit, his bulging arms, broad shoulders, muscular chest and thigh muscles, and, and THAT other highly disturbing bulge.

And just before Matsu had burst in, Miya had fought letting those images of him lead into images of him and her intimately together, sensuously washing and bathing each other as she had with Takehito that obviously would also lead to, to... Logan and her kissing and, and... her sweet, hot surrender. Miya shook herself while clenching her fists.

"What IS it Matsu? And it had better be good for you to, to," Miya hesitated to say just how she was being disturbed.

"Miya! I think I've found him! Logan!" Matsu rushed forward and threw herself down to point to her notepad. "Or at least, his grandfather! Look! It all fits! His last name! His Canadian accent! His description! Being in Nagasaki like Homura said! His, his fearless attitude! Even coming here dressed in archaic clothes!"

"His clothes?" Miya's right eyebrow went up in skepticism. "That of a rickshaw runner from over a hundred years ago?"

"YES! It's an old undercover/master spy technique of being so outlandish and noticeable that no one notices the individual, only the outfit! Anyone searching would subconsciously and almost automatically look past the wearer and his tourist ride equipment because it's so way over the top obvious! Logan and Akitsu came here like that with those huge old hats hiding their faces just in case anyone was watching Izumo Inn for them! And they were! Mutsu and his gang are still out there! And I think Logan dressed that way to impress you! Homura described you to him as very old fashioned and, and..."

"Old fashioned?" Miya's suddenly cool frown interrupted Matsu's enthusiastic explanation.

"Express Logan's poetic and romantic side!" Matsu plowed on to deflect Miya's quick ire, "and why he's so enamored with that old sad song Starry Starry Night! The lyrics described masterpiece paintings of Vincent Van Gogh, a disturbed painter in an insane asylum who eventually went totally nuts and killed himself! Get it? Logan the highly educated assassin somehow identifies with the deeply disturbed longing and darkly romantic meanings behind Van Gogh's paintings about life and death! Especially when it comes to losing his beloved Itsu! Read this! READ THIS!"

"Matsu," Miya slightly squinted in disbelief at her excited and highly distraught Sekirei tenant and friend being initially rejected by her Ashikabi. "Are you missing the parts of deceased in 1945 and the fact that this guy was 35 then and would be over a hundred years old now? And if it was Logan's grandfather or even a close relative, this description doesn't mean this old dead spy passed the family tradition along to our Logan. Nor does it say one thing about Van Gogh."

"OUR Logan?" Matsu said softly after a very long and pregnant pause, her red eyes searching Miya's while feeling a new yet faint psychic connection between them. She reached out and touched Miya's hand that was holding the notepad. "You, you are reacting to Logan too, somehow? Even though you can't be winged? Or just getting the HOTS for him as a female?"

"You're burning up!" Miya snatched her hand away in embarrassment at being found out and then brought her palm back to touch Matsu's forehead in alarm. She had carefully kept the imperative secrets that her beloved Takehito hadn't been an Ashikabi as well as her ability to be winged for all these years. And she wasn't about to divulge either facts now to anyone, not even Matsu, not yet. It wasn't time, but Logan? Reacting? Maybe? If she could repair such a totally disastrous first meeting somehow? But he wasn't even human, or was he? Yet incredibly attractive! But first Matsu and her crisis.

Miya felt Matsu's throat and found a much too rapid pulse. "And you're pulse is way too high! Get to the bath now Matsu! Run cold water and get in! Immediately! You can't let your body temperature go out of control, or you'll suffer brain damage! I'll get ice compresses!"

"But Miya!" Matsu protested as she was literally picked up and shoved out of the bedroom. "It's him! I can just FEEL it! If his body regenerates then maybe he doesn't age or at least ages slowly! He could father our babies AND still be alive when they grow up! Even generations of our babies! Miya! Please LOOK at this seriously!"

"Yes, yes," Miya sighed indulgently as she forced Matsu into Izumo Inn's bath. "But let's take care of YOU first, and then we can talk more about who and what OUR Logan might be."

*scene break*

"So who and what is Logan then, Boss?" Haihane repeated louder in an aggravated voice as she paced back and forth in front of Karasuba's open bathroom door. When all she heard in return was sounds of teeth being brushed and mouth being rinsed, Haihane stopped impatiently with her fists on her hips.

"You had some kind of very deep mental, psychic connection to Logan for some time tonight, but didn't track him down and kill him, right? Why not? He getting to you? Got you spooked? What? Is that why you quit our guard spot to take a bath? And what has he done with Washboard? Where's she? What are the two of us gonna do if she's gone for good?"

Wrapped only in a large white bath towel and long wet hair hanging limply in front of her right shoulder, Karasuba strolled out of her bath. She gave Haihane a half bored/half irritated look before letting out her own exasperated sigh. She sat down on her dressing bench, picked up a brush, and began stroking the tangles out of her long and wet gray hair.

"Sit down, and take a few deep breaths, will ya? First, I didn't get any sense of where Logan actually was in Tokyo so that I could find and kill him. It turns out the prick has very strong psionic powers too and is maybe able to mentally mask his location somehow. I couldn't sense his physical body at all.

"Second, he hasn't got me SPOOKED. I'm just smart enough not to jab a freaking wild animal unless necessary, at least until I've actually seen him in action myself. Then we'll know how to fight him when we have to. Call it reasonable wariness of an unknown quantity because the bastard FEELS really dangerous.
"Third, he drew a total blank when I asked him about Benitsubasa, and I actually believe him. She's was drinking and pissed off at you for ragging on her again. Now she's probably on another bender like last time. She'll be back.

"I've pulled Number 55 Saki out of MBI's spy pool and got her doing Minaka's guard duty up on the roof. She can take Flatty-chan's place for now and from now on if need be, so ease up on the panic and crisis mode, okay? Now let's look at the big picture, and answer this question. What do we HAVE to do about Logan?"

"Well for one, we have to stop him from wrecking our home base again! I mean, damn! Minaka's going absolutely nuts! And it made us a laughing stock!" Haihane grimaced as she threw herself into an overstuffed chair and began nervously, angrily tapping her fingers on the chair's arms.

"Which is exactly what that crazy ass Logan wanted," Karasuba responded with a small unperturbed smile. "And you've got to give the ballsy bastard his due, it worked. He expressed zero interest in Minaka's Sekirei Plan other than being left out of it, then Minaka threatened him. Minaka got hit hard. Now, if Minaka leaves Logan totally alone to go his own way which is what Logan says is all he wants, then Logan does nothing to MBI. Minaka calms down and goes back to his game.

"Meanwhile every major military power has shown signs of going after Logan, so let them. One of their snipers can take out Akitsu, right? Maybe even Logan too. When that happens we go get her body and let them have his. Minaka already has that deal in the works with the Americans. Until then, we, you and I, need to do, nothing."

"Okaaaay," Haihane grudgingly admitted. "Then what about the Sekirei Plan?"

"Again, nothing. Look. Logan doesn't even know who and what he is. All he knows is what we know. He's a physically and psychically powerful, claw wielding amnesiac that Akitsu has latched onto, not human and not Sekirei and not even a true Ashikabi.

"Did Logan and Akitsu seek any further information about the Sekirei Plan? No. Have they fought any other Sekirei? No. Have they sought out any unwinged Sekirei to increase their power? No, at least none yet. Have they tried to gain powerful allies with other Ashikabi? No. Are they working for any foreign government or corporation to steal MBI's Sekirei assets and secrets? No, or they would have hit the underground labs when they had the wide open chance and been long gone by now. That buffoon American agent named McKenzie would have told everybody about that plan before hand anyway, and even they don't know who or what Logan is, or at least claim not to.

"But, we KNOW Akitsu is brain damaged, and now I'm pretty sure Logan is too. Him going nuts on that cop car in the park was the work of an irrational and probably insane mind just like Akitsu hitting that passing helicopter. Now we KNOW he's totally delusional because everything he related to me earlier during our psychic contact had zero factual basis of provable reality. Where he came from, who knows? And the same for who and what he is, but then again, do we really care?

"The consensus of our geeks is that he's a giant problem child of some super secret experiment that some other government has lost control over, and now he somehow just happened to land in Japan. All we have to do is let them deal with him while we keep an eye on Akitsu in Tokyo and for now just do nothing. Feel better?"

"Sounds simple enough, I guess," Haihane frowned while relaxing slightly. She cocked her head sideways and gave Karasuba an appraising look with one eye narrowed. "So why are you taking a bubble bath and brushing your teeth BEFORE breakfast, Boss? You got the hots for that screwy old guy now or something?"

"Nope," Karasuba audibly sniffed while grimacing slightly, "just got tired of smelling like an unrinsed bathroom mop."

Haihane gave her boss another silent and contemplative frown. Now who other than mouthy old Logan would make Karasuba think something like that about herself? And stay alive? After a long silence Haihane's frowned deepened when Karasuba spoke again in somewhat of a distracted tone.

"Claws, do you know how to dance? Something called the Mambo #5? Ever heard of it, or done it on a dinner and dance date?"

"Boss," Haihane responded in aggrieved disbelief. "Do I LOOK like some kind of dinner date and dancing diva? Hell, I've never even been asked out for ice cream and a movie, let alone go drinking and dancing! Never even BEEN on a date for that matter or asked out. I don't get too many whistles just walking down the street either. I can't even remember talking to a guy in public other than work, uhhh, unless you count that old doofus Logan the other night. Say, is HE messing with your mind here? Is that what this is? He ASKED you out again?"

"No, no, of course not. Just curious. That's all. Forget I even mentioned it. Besides, when I went out with Logan it was strictly business. Minaka ordered me to do it, remember? I'm gonna eat and hit the sack. Later we'll head out and drag Benitsubasa's drunk ass back and dry her out again."

"Uh wait, I forgot to tell ya something," Haihane scratched her head while squinting to remember exactly what it was. "Oh yeah, I got a call from Security last night about Washboard's cellphone being found at The Sake and Suds Bar near Shinjuku Station. We should probably start looking for her around there."

"What was she doing in the east?" Karasuba stopped brushing her hair and turned to give Haihane a puzzled look. "She's never hung out over there before has she?"

"Ahhh, once," Haihane shrugged. "We met Number 22 Kochou for a couple of beers a few weeks ago. Her and Washboard used to be big drinking buddies and school chums back in our Kamakura Island days growing up."

"Kochou? Kochou," Karasuba shook her head slightly while rubbing her chin and gazing sightlessly at the wall. "Wasn't she a bratty little super brain type that, uhhh, Minaka had all kinds of trouble calming down after, oh shit! Now I remember! She's Akitsu's twin sister! Separated and drugged hard when they got too powerful for Minaka to control even as little kids! Allied to Higa now, ain't she? Hah! It's a good thing she's already winged and Akitsu's been short circuited! If those two had ever gotten together with the same Ashikabi, it would have made Hibiki and Hikari look like elementary school weenies!"

"Yeah?" Haihane's half hair covered facial features took on another highly worried look. "So what if, uhhh, Kochou and her Ashikabi switches their alliance to Logan and Akitsu? And Logan wings a still hammered Washboard too? She may be a brainless flat chested ditz, but, uhhh, she's a strong psychic too, and one helluva ranged and close combat fighter, so, ummm, I mean, that's a LOT of serious fighting firepower there, especially for Logan slamming everyone in the Sekirei Plan. What do we do then?"

Karasuba stood up abruptly with her face set in sudden deadly seriousness as the same thought had already occurred to her. Her towel fell to the floor as she reached for clean panties and then turned to get a clean battle uniform from her closet. Her reply was just as deadly serious.

"Then you and I and Saki will have to kill them all immediately despite any deals Minaka makes with outside governments, and no matter who or what Logan really is."

*scene break*

His confused and still amnesiac mind came back to sentience after hitting hard in that fall, but now he was again back in a disembodied, astral projecting state while once again not knowing who or what he was. Once more he also began drifting helplessly and aimlessly through the dark and echoing recesses of his past/present memories, none of which meant anything to him now. It was as if almost everything within his rational mind and soul had been stripped bare to leave him as an elemental being barely able to sense his self awareness; an awareness of a dim, human taught part of him surrounded by a wily, feral, and predatory animal.

A faint soft glow on the distant edge of his mind called to him. It was an old memory of coldness and freedom, smelling of earth and pine forests, and feeling very familiar. He willed himself that way to find himself suddenly and physically standing on a snowy, rugged, and tree covered mountain. It seemed his astral body had settled into a real life memory from somewhere in his past, and he reveled in the feelings of being vibrantly alive, powerful, and with all his senses fully aware and active.

Ahhh. He remembered this particular time and place well. It was the time after he had escaped from the place of great pain, clinical cruelty, and repetitive, dark experimentation upon his amnesiac mind and now metal altered body. He had fled into the northern mountain wilderness, frustrating all pursuit by his animal cunning and marvelously strong, adaptive, and regenerating body. He had fled and lived like the animal they had named him in their dark laboratory stronghold. He had lived, hunted, and avoided capture like a wolverine. Now he remembered all this very well.

The dark of this particular night and its pine laden breezes did not conceal the points of body heat and faint unmistakable scent of distant human enemies once again moving toward him. They were slowly and almost carelessly advancing up a tree and snow covered mountainside in his northern wilderness home. The cloying human scents of sweat, soap, leather, gun oil and diesel exhaust fumes on the cold mountain winds drew a deep snarl from his lips. Hunters carrying their fire shooting metal sticks and riding in their metal beasts were hunting him, again.

He had repeatedly warned them to leave him alone by marking his far flung dominion with his urine, but once again they had not listened. Perhaps they did not know how because they had such poor noses and were still foolishly working their way towards another mountain behind him; one where he had seen three of their metal air creatures yesterday. His human enemies must have assumed that this time he would once again go deeper into the mountains as a dumb animal and not move towards them.

Once again Wolverine would kill, kill them all as in other times he had been hunted by humans. He bared his teeth in a feral growl of rising anger at their aggressive invasion of his northern mountain wilderness. This vast range of tall rugged mountains was his home, not theirs. This time he would not let them and their metal air creatures hound him towards a place they had prepared for his capture while making him sick and dizzy. The last time he had fought free before turning to slaughter them, but the colored clouds from the bad exploding eggs the air creatures had dropped had left him sick and wheezing for several days. He had learned.

His lips came back even more to bare his fangs as he growled deep in his throat. This time he would attack first and now, tonight, hours before they were prepared and still more carelessly on the move towards their dawn rendezvous with their metal air creatures.

As he began to run down the mountain slope, leaping smaller and fallen trees, bounding over boulders and snowdrifts, he unsheathed his long, sharp metal claws. Swiping away potentially hindering branches, his feral growl became a series of hard grunts in rising berserk rage and blood lust. So lost in attacking these hated humans, the feral and almost mindless Wolverine did not see nor smell an upwind and smaller attacking female; one with long streaming pink hair who was also bounding obliquely down the mountain towards his enemies' right flank.

Wolverine burst out of the trees into a very large sloped meadow filled with staggered lines of armed troops in white battle dress and night goggles. They were walking with and around armored tracked vehicles painted in winter camouflage. Even though he had nominally caught them by surprise and far short of where they had planned to begin their hunt for him, the soldiers reacted quickly in highly trained battle drill while another caught off guard but highly trained crew hastily readied their still packed capture equipment, specialized bullets, and poison loaded darts. He had only been in view a few seconds before reactive small arms and rapid machine gun fire began.

He began a blurring and superhuman weaving side to side as he continued to run, creating after images of where he had been. What painful bullets that struck him were simply ignored as his mutant Wolverine body instantly healed itself. His super quick dodging baffled launched and thrown grenades as well as the rapid cannon fire of the armored fighting vehicles.

Then, he was among them. His long slashing and stabbing Adamantium claws began their bloody and deadly work long before the invaders could ready their heavy capture nets and specialized drug darts filled with colloidal fluids containing very expensive and poisonous mixtures of very rare Adamantium allotropes and Carbonadium.

The confused soldiers, unprepared for such simple, animal, hand to hand viciousness, could not fire en-mass for fear of hitting their comrades, nor could they kill their berserk attacker with shooting single and short bursts of assault rifle and heavier machine gun bullets. Most panicked and tried to flee as Wolverine ravaged among them; blood and bodies flying about as if they were crimson loaded brushes being wielded by an insanely murderous painter intent on depicting his madness on a snowy linen land.

Then the small pink haired female dressed all in black attacked on the side opposite of the rampaging and completely berserk Wolverine.

Fists and feet striking with superhuman speed, she literally blasted her way among and through the special capture unit of soldiers armed with anti-Wolverine bullets and darts. They were unaware of the fatal bone and soft tissue crunching sounds coming at them from their right and masked by the din of battle.

The soldiers were totally focused in trying to draw a bead on and get a clear crippling shot at Wolverine when the much smaller, pink haired female struck. She only paused from her killing of them to strike the ground in front of one armored fighting vehicle. She then rushed another as the first exploded from the force of her shock wave that ignited its explosive shells and fuel. Another blew up, then another until suddenly, it was just Wolverine and the unknown female standing in the midst of the now silent, unmoving, burning, smoking, and bloody carnage they had wrought together.

He snarled at her in scowling confusion as she began a slow and sensuous walk towards him. Calming from his killing rage, he could now sense their new male/female mental connection. She felt very pleased at what they had done together and wanted him to be proud of her.

When had this mental link happened to let her astrally yet somehow physically invade his memories like this? She smelled of fresh blood and smoke with a slight, bittersweet, and saffron musk. Her too hot body was not human. Her hair was long and pink, her eyes red, and her very slim and almost tomboyish figure did not look familiar, yet Wolverine KNEW her somehow.

A dim memory of a female human named Lynx came to him from the very small part of him that still retained a trace of sane humanity. The feral aura around this not human female was all Lynx as was the adoration in her facial expression and mind. She approached him whining and mewling in pure pleasure, her half gloved hands reaching for his shirt to pull and grind her much smaller body onto his. Her tongue began licking and biting his gore covered chest now exposed by his gunshot tattered t-shirt. She was demanding that he mate with her NOW despite the differences in their sizes and his still scowling confusion.

Wolverine pushed her roughly away, snarling loudly again as he did so, crouching and holding his long bloody claws crossed in front of him to warn her away. She began snarling back at him while yet panting in feral desire, half circling him in the crimson splashed snow, pausing only briefly to present her waggling rounded backsides in invitation to mate. He took several deep breaths of the stronger and now exciting musk she was emitting, and stood with his clawed fists down by his thighs.

Seeing this, the feral female scrambled on her hands and knees to him, clutching at his lower legs and dragging herself up towards his stiffening loins. He put his the lower palms of his fists on her slim yet muscular shoulders and stopped her. She whined in renewed discontent, her upturned red eyes pleading with him to take her, especially since she could smell and see his growing avid interest in her. He snarled again in confusion while backing away, crouching and rapidly swiping his long claws through patches of clear snow to cleanse them.

Something was very wrong. That small human taught part of him was alerting him to unknown danger. This female in blood lust heat was not Lynx, yet in FEEL she was. Somehow he realized that this attack and wholesale slaughter memory he was reliving HAD happened, just as several others mass killings of human hunters by him had happened before it, but there had been no pink haired female fighting with him before. Where had she come from? How had what he remembered so clearly been changed this time?

"You want me! I can see and feel it! I can SMELL it!" The pink haired female panted out loud suddenly. "Take me! Take ME! I NEED you!"

Wolverine frowned at her anew. Somehow the small human taught part of him had also understood the speech sounds that had come out of her mouth. She wanted very much to mate with him. He knew that already from the way she smelled and acted, but need?

Mating was mating. He had mated with several females, and then left them to return occasionally as was the way of his species. Yet mating with this one felt like she would not let him just freely leave, ever. This one would always follow.

He sank to his haunches, letting his claws retract while cocking his head to stare at her. She too was not human, but did he care? No. She had fought well, protecting his back. That was good. He would protect hers also. That felt right. The small, highly agitated, and dim human taught part of himself also finally came to grips with something and calmed into a peaceful acceptance that also felt right. He was a feral beast of the wilds. He killed when needed and/or provoked as any predatory animal would. There was no need to deny it any longer, feel remorse, nor fight it.

Not-Lynx too was a feral beast, and a young and pretty one in mating heat at that. Her nubile breasts were small, probably very sensitive, but they would grow once providing milk for their offspring. Once again she came to him, walking upright on her knees through the crimson splotched snow. She closed in with half lidded eyes of desire, wormed her way between his knees and up against his massive chest again.

His hands dropped to her small but very shapely buttocks and pulled her harder to him. He would take her. Her arms came up around his neck as she growled in smiling triumph to begin kissing and licking him again while whining in happiness. She wasn't very big, yet she felt very sexy, insistent, demanding, craving, and exciting; a wild little female beast in her own right.

A faint noise came to his alert ears. He stood up instantly when he heard the far off noises of metal air creatures. They would be coming to once again rain down sharp needle pains and explosive fire around him, blasting the forests and mountain rocks around him and into him. Then they would drop hard exploding eggs to break open into different colored and bad smelling clouds that would make him feel dizzy and sick.

He must move, move fast and hide before they caught his scent and saw his body heat. He knew of an old and little used cave just below the tree line and up to his right that had another concealed opening on the other side of this mountain. He would run there now and hide before the air creatures came over the horizon and found their slaughtered companions.

Not-Lynx could follow if she wanted. She could also mate with him later if she desired, even if she was small and it would hurt her at first. It would help pass the time. He began to explosively run and leap up the mountain at super human speed, using tree cover, rocks, and fallen tree trunks to greatly mask and minimize his snow trail.

The young female Not-Lynx bounded joyfully behind him as the noise of the enemy air creatures grew slightly louder in the far distance, their increasing and echoing din starting an avalanche from the steeply sloping peak high above. It was now a leaping race from exposed rocks on the mountain's side to safety, but the rapidly falling and roaring waves of powdered snow would cover their few tracks quite nicely.

Once narrowly gaining the cave's entrance, he paused to look back out over the glistening, very rugged, snowy mountain wilderness that had now completely covered their back trail. He then looked up at the star filled heavens stretching endlessly into the distance. This had been that old and cold familiar memory in his darkened mind that had drawn him here; to catch the breeze and the winter chills in colors on the snowy linen land. He could happily stay here and never return to being somewhat human again.

His new female was stripping out of her blood soaked coverings behind him in rising excitement. When his enemies had tired of their pursuit and left once again, he would hunt meat. If they came again, he would slaughter them until they stopped coming. Whatever else he was or had been in the dark depths of his mind, here he was simply the wild hunting predator. Here was where the territorial and killing beast in his soul belonged; a highly dangerous and extremely vicious male animal outwitting and slaying his enemies, hunting for food, and mating with his new female.

He was home in his cold mountain wilderness. There was no reason to go back to the confusing darkness and jumbled false/real memories in the dim part of his human taught mind, because he finally now KNEW who and what he was.

*scene break*

"Who and what the hell is this guy?" Seo Kaoru groused to himself as he stared at the set of x-rays up on the private clinic's lighted and wall mounted panels before him. "LOOK at this! He's got a skeleton of freaking metal! Some kind of unknown heavy metal at that! Look at those three extra metal bones in each forearm! Damn! They're his claws that Homura was telling me about? And yet he has all the normal organs, flesh, blood, and, even though they're damn massive, muscles and ligaments.

"All those big bruises on his body and that nasty bump he got on his forehead when you dropped him are gone now too! The same with the deep scratches on his arms you made trying to stop him! Man, this guy is some kind of total regenerating superpower freak! And he ain't human or Sekirei! Why do you want him to wing you gals?"

"The heart wants what the heart wants," Kazehana simply shrugged from her bedside position on Logan's right and opposite of the clinic's somewhat outdated hemodialysis machine. "Besides, is he any more of an inhuman freak than what Takehito made you, Seo? You took those treatments willingly to have some control over your Twins.

"Maybe Logan got treated too, maybe not even willingly, and it changed him. What does it matter? He may have different abilities, but he still looks and feels and expresses his love like a human. Look, we already KNOW what he's not and don't care! We NEED to know WHAT made him black out and fall the first time! And WHY he isn't waking up if he regenerates so well! We want him conscious when he wings us as his Sekirei, and soon too!"

"Well, I'm not sure about the what and why," Seo scratched the back of his head uncertainly and yawned. "But he probably would have woke up sooner if YOU hadn't dropped him on his head trying to get him up on that rolling bed. I mean, I'm no doctor, but that IS a clue."

"He's heavy," Kazehana winced in self recrimination at this minor truth. "His kimono was torn. It ripped away just as we lifted him and, and, well, he just slipped! I TRIED to catch him!"

"Butterfingers," Seo again while shaking his head.

The way too emotional Sekirei females, even Kazehana whom he had known and been friends with the longest, had been pretty much of a gender separated mystery to him. When Logan, and then shortly afterward Akitsu, had collapsed on the street, Seo had been a little flattered to be the first one Kazehana had called to help her.

After all, his private money making business was solving problems for a price. He had jumped at the chance to make 100k yen to use his old lab skills learned from the genius Takehito Asama and see what he could do to revive this Logan guy. That flattery had quickly deflated when he had found out later that Logan and Akitsu were responsible for hitting MBI. They were both now the subjects of a massive hunt, and Seo's help had to be done on the deep hush hush or, ipso facto, SEo would have deep police type troubles too. A situation he greatly wanted to avoid due to several unpaid fines for past peccadilloes of his own.

Still, Kochou waving that big wad of cash HAD been a giant persuader to do what he could, especially to the half starved Twins who wanted a giant grocery cushion on their meager kitchen shelves. Kochou had also promised to buy them food too. Seo had done what he could, called in a few favors, found a shady doctor and former friend of Takehito willing to lend his aging and barely making a profit clinic for the night, and went to work, but he really couldn't understand what Kazehana, Uzume, Kochou, Akitsu, and the dead drunk Benitsubasa saw in this freak Logan.

Seo yawned because he had been at it half the night and was getting tired and sleepy, but he was also getting a little nervous from the way they had really been pushing their luck in this place. Kochou's undisguised hostility at him wasn't helping his wary mood or his nerves any either. He stepped back from gazing at Logan's weird x-rays to almost trip over the totally blitzed and passed out Benitsubasa still sleeping off her 24 hour bender under Logan's rolling clinic bed.

Seo, normally a calm and cool type, turned and did a fast nervous peek out between the old clinic's lab window to make sure his Lightning Twins were still alertly guarding the front. Uzume was up on the roof backing them up. They couldn't afford some nosy cops just cruising by and wondering why some lights were on that maybe shouldn't be and then asking for identifications. So far they had been lucky tonight, very lucky.

"All I do know for sure about Logan's current condition," Seo finally continued while turning back to face his long time drinking buddy Kazehana and trying to ignore Kochou's continuous baleful glaring at him, "is that your Logan's heart rate and blood pressure were simply off the scale when we first got here.

"My first quick blood analysis also showed his blood was way too acidic and there was just too much fluid in his whole system overall as well. That's why I figured his kidneys were malfunctioning and hemodialysis would stabilize all that, and it has. It's helping his vital signs come down too.

"What puzzles me is the machine's filters have kicked out some kind of unknown grayish gunk that's in his system, and then after running long enough to be finished cleaning his blood, it kicked out more of the stuff. I've never seen that gelatinous crap under a microscope before, like some kind of metallic jelly or something. Ya know, now that I think about it, it's like the big fella's has been poisoned in some ongoing fashion somehow.

"Yet I'm thinking that his kidneys and liver are pretty much normal now because he can regenerate them as fast as they're getting damaged, only maybe they ain't quite keeping up for some reason. Or they got behind, needed a little help, and that's why the hemodialysis has worked as well as it has.

"Anyway, he's probably been suffering increasing headaches from the toxic build up in his system until he went into toxic shock and passed out. I don't know for sure. I just know my original hunch seems to be working. Look. We really need a doc here. I'm just a lousy former lab tech. I don't know enough about this shit to really cure Logan for good."

"And Akitsu? Why is she still out cold?" Kazehana sighed in frustrated annoyance while exchanging glances with a fuming Kochou who was tightly holding her still unconscious sister's left hand to her bosom.

"Kazehana, I'm not sure there either. My best guess is she's so deeply bonded emotionally to this Logan that when he went down, it sent her into sympathetic Sekirei shock. You guys have got some pretty intense hot buttons when it comes to your Ashikabi getting hurt. I'm pretty sure she'll come around though, probably before he does after we get him cleaned out enough. She also had a low red cell count, probably from the last round of drugs MBI injected into her.

"Luckily, she's got the same blood type as Logan so I've been giving her a transfusion of some of his blood. That's also been bringing his fluid levels down to more normal while elevating hers. Kind of an alien/mutant, no brainer, two for one treatment."

"Don't be condescending, you rat bastard human scum!" Kochou glared at Seo in pure hatred, but bit back her desire to bitterly curse at him again. Although he had been part of the MBI lab team that had initially separated her from Akitsu, and deserved every bit of her intense hatred, he was now the best underground quasi medical help for Logan and Akitsu they could immediately scrounge without alerting MBI.

Still, she hated Seo's ever loving guts.

"Won't Aki-chan be blood poisoned now too?" Kazehana asked diplomatically.

"No," Seo yawned again while shaking his head. Man, they had to wrap this up. Even though Kochou had forked out a big wad of cash to get Takehito's old medical college and down on his luck buddy to let them use his run down clinic overnight, their time here was almost up.

And Seo definitely wanted out of here before the angry and deranged looking Kochou suddenly went postal and tried to kill him.

"Akitsu's getting some of Logan's filtered clean blood," Seo explained carefully while keeping a wary eye on Kochou, "not what's directly coming out of his body. Who knows? Maybe whatever is in his blood and body cells that naturally does that instant regeneration trick of his will make her feel a little better. Might even help wake her up quicker.

"At any rate, I've done all I can do here. We promised to be out of here before dawn so my friend won't get in trouble. There's several laws were breaking here since I'm not licensed, ya know. A sneak dialysis, a simple transfusion, and a few routine blood tests, x-rays, and vital sign monitoring is about all we can do here anyway. We've got to move both of 'em out of here, and then just wait to see if we're on the right track. It'll cost plenty to try to get back in here again, a lot more than what you spent tonight if I'm a betting man. And I am."

"You just let me worry about the money, you, you," Kochou began tightly, but Seo had suddenly cocked his head and frowned in thought up at the ceiling.

"Actually," Seo half muttered to himself to cut her off. "If simple hemodialysis to help his kidneys clean some poison out of his system is the right way to go with him, then you could buy a home use machine and a bunch of filters pretty cheap at any medical supply. There's not much to hooking it up either. I can teach you guys how to do it in ten minutes or so. Then we wouldn't need risking the use of this dump again, but there might be one other way to help him too. It wouldn't cost much either."

"Name it!" Kochou snapped peevishly. "I TOLD you NOT to worry about money! Now just EARN what I'm paying you! And the food card I bought Hibiki and Hikari! I don't need you to teach me anything about using dialysis either, you thick headed dunce! I just watched you already! Learning quickly is WHAT I DO! What is this other procedure?"

"Beer."

"WHAT?" Kazehana and Kochou chorused in synchronized shocked disbelief.

"Well, yeah, uhhh, beer," Seo winced sheepishly at their reaction and Kochou's instantly revved up hostility, but he plowed ahead anyway.

"Lots and lots of beer to keep him pissing as much as you can, or just water, juice, any fluids really. Help his regenerating kidneys and system flush that gunk out even faster than what he has been doing on his own. But you said he loves to drink beer and sake, right? Guzzling beer and regular hemodialysis 3 times a week for 3 hours at a shot ought to get your super freak Ashikabi rocking and rolling again."

"You're not going to try anything else?" Kazehana scowled. Now that sounded way too simplistic as a cure for Logan's head pain and ills, even for medically knowledge challenged Kazehana. "Maybe surgery or something?"

"What? Surgery?" Seo gaped at her in astonished alarm. "C'mon! Kazehana! I work construction part time! I was just a low grade lab tech when I quit MBI years ago! With three semesters of med school before flunking out! Not a freaking exploratory surgeon! I'm already over my head here and risking jail time! Not to mention how long I could get locked up if I got caught cutting on folks without a license! We don't even know exactly what's wrong with Logan, let alone what he is! You'd need an ultra high tech operating room to work on this guy that way!

"Even then you'd need some kind of super duper plasma cutter to open his heavy metal skull! Besides, his skeleton's freaking magnetic! MRI and almost every other high tech diagnostic machine would be useless! Unless of course you two WANT MBI to work on him down in their specialized underground labs!"

"That might be a good option," Kazehana frowned thoughtfully, "because I'm pretty sure he could probably leave anytime he wanted after cured, but he'd most likely kill everyone on his way out though."

"You KNOW what a killer he is and still want him to wing you?" Seo recoiled from his old drinking pal in surprised half horror. "Kazehana, this is one bad ass guy! Homura has already told me all about his fist blades and temper! And the Twins are absolutely scared to death of his super strength and speed! He's little more than a freaking aggressive animal! With claws!"

"Ummm," Kazehana smiled knowingly while giving Seo a predatory look he had never seen from her before. "Maybe I've got my naughty side too, Seo-kun. Just like Uzume, Akitsu, Kochou, and our little pink animal under the table that's probably wanting him too. AND your Twins! We ARE Sekirei, right? Born warriors? Some of us VERY experienced at killing?"

"Damn," Seo said to himself softly while letting his eyes once again slide over Logan's hard muscled body. The big fella was BIG, and add those fist blades? That was downright scary, and yet these gals WANTED him? Seo shook his head slowly at this new unashamed peek into the unfathomable depths and potential darkness of Sekirei femininity, not that he hadn't already gotten zapped out of those same unknown depths a number of times from his own dark Twins.

A signal beeped on Akitsu's simple hook up that was monitoring her transfusion from Logan. Seo unhooked her monitor, withdrew her connecting needle and tube, pressed down hard with a sterile compress on her needle wound, flipped off the switch on Logan's hemodialysis setup, and pulled the tube connected needles out of Logan's left arm.

Seo then watched in fascination as the needle entries in Logan's skin instantly and bloodlessly closed. He shook his head in wonder. Man, what a fella could do with instant healing like that, with or without any other super powers. At the very least he would be a quick recovery stud in the bedroom, and able to go all night long. That was something that would be real handy for a guy bonded to twins.

Moving around the front of Logan's rolling bed, Seo once again tripped over Benitsubasa's comatose body. He paused in his haste to clean up and get out of the clinic to look down at her with a puzzled frown.

"What you gals going to do about this one? You know MBI is going to be beating the whole city looking for her, especially Karasuba."

"Relax. Benny passed out while we were calling you. She won't even remember getting here. For now, we're going to park her in a hotel room near Shingen Station," Kochou scowled in her repugnance at even talking to him. "Not that it's any of your business. Akitsu and I can't afford to have Karasuba and Haihane sniffing around while our Ashikabi is ill and Kazehana, Uzume, and I are not winged by Logan. We're not ready to fight Karasuba, yet, and we may need him to wing more help before we do. Right now Benny's better off back at MBI."

"Pretty quick to throw your drinking pal under the bus, ain't ya?" Seo recoiled slightly. Man, this Kochou was one frigid customer. Good luck Logan-san. "I thought she wanted winged by Logan too. Isn't that why you two were following Logan's rickshaw?"

"Benny's a big girl, and well able to take care of herself," Kochou shrugged coldly. "She can make her bonding pitch to Logan some other time when it's more convenient for us and she's looking more attractive. She'll probably thank me."

Kazehana looked down at Benitsubasa and shrugged also. The Crimson Sekirei wasn't any pal by any means, but who knew? If she wasn't just blind drunk and being a screw off from Disciplinary Squad duty, then Logan would have to decide what to do with Benitsubasa if she was truly reacting to him. Added to that, she was no weenie stooge in a Sekirei fight either. She might come in real useful against Karasuba if Logan did bond with her.

"We'll let Logan worry about her later, Seo," Kazehana said firmly in agreement. "For right now, we'll pay you to concentrate on helping us make Logan well."

"And we want my sister WELL again too, you dirty bastard!" Kochou snarled while trying to hug Akitsu's unconscious body closer to her.

"Look, Kochou, separating you two when you both were young wasn't MY decision." Seo, finally reaching his limit, held up his hands palm out, half in defensive pleading for understanding and half in pleading for mercy. "And I had NOTHING against keeping Sekirei twins together! Hell, I winged Hibiki and Hikari, right? That was Minaka's decision on you two and even Takehito, Takami, AND Miyajima couldn't talk him out of it! I was just a back bench lab tech in those days, see?"

"A willing accomplice!" Kochou accused with narrowed eyes of pure malice.

"A PAID minor employee, dammit!" Seo threw up his hands in defeat. "You Sekirei were, are, aliens to this planet! And it wasn't like anyone really KNEW what they were doing back then! Or the deep psychic and emotional bonds Sekirei formed! None of you had been winged yet either! Nobody knew! Not even the older Sekirei and Miya! Kazehana! Tell her!"

Kochou turned her accusatory stare at her Onee-chan who again shrugged in return with troubled eyes. This was getting way too close to her exceedingly painful memories of Minaka's rejection of her. Still, in the interests of peace and keeping a paid Seo and his Twins a nominal ally, it might help Seo's bruised nerves to get Kochou off his back.

"Our early years, Kochou, were," Kazehana paused to search for the right term, "rather turbulent, and yes, ignorant. If it makes you feel any better, Mutsu and I both felt splitting you and Akitsu apart would be emotionally harmful, and we said so. So did Miya and Takehito, Takami, and old Miyajima as well. Minaka ignored all of us. But we, Logan's Sekirei, will always have him as our Ashikabi, and we'll never be separated again, ever. We'll KILL anyone even trying to separate us."

This last bloodthirsty note from her Onee-chan and soon to be mutually "Logan bonded" Sekirei seemed to strike exactly the right chord in the vengeful Kochou as she blinked and finally nodded her agreement. She turned to silently and still frostily stare at Seo, daring him to disagree.

He wisely shrugged his acceptance of her icy hostility in silence and continued putting things away so they could quickly leave. On the other hand, he just couldn't wisely keep his mouth shut.

"We're done here, right?" Seo smiled hopefully and in what he also hoped was at least a partially ingratiating and disarming manner. "Mind paying me and the Twins now so we can sneak out of here before daylight?"

"Oh no you don't!" Kochou fairly growled at him. "You don't leave here until ten minutes after WE leave with my sister and Ashikabi! We've got to make my sister and Ashikabi safe! And be sure a dirty, money hungry fink like YOU won't know where! I will leave your cash and a prepaid grocery card in Hikari's name in a maglev station lock box and mail you guys the key and location. And if this beer/hemodialysis thing doesn't work, or you try screwing us in any way, you mangy looking prick, I'll have my sister SQUISH you like a bug when she wakes up!"

"Okay, okay!" Seo backed away wincing anew in nerve tweaked worry. Akitsu going nuts on him was NOT something pretty to think about, let alone both of them. "Just have the big fella drink a LOT of beer, and buy a hemodialysis machine and supply kit. Hook him up 3 times a week until the headaches stop! Anything else will have to take a REAL doctor, because that's the best I've got! Besides, I didn't make him collapse or drop him on his freaking head! So cut me a little slack here, will ya?"

"And we're really grateful for..." Kazehana began soothingly while wincing again at Seo's damning accusation.

Schnickt!

Whatever Kazehana was going to say to Seo and/or the maligning Kochou was suddenly interrupted by Logan's blades springing forth and his rolling off his wheeled bed to make a blurring leap into the far rear corner of the old clinic's lab room. There he crouched with his fist blades crossed defensively before his bare chest, his moving eyes and head rapidly assessing his surroundings. His wild looking blue eyes settled quickly on the comatose Benitsubasa.

"Lo-chan!" Kazehana called softly as she moved to go around the bed, but Logan's loud threatening growl and the slamming of his claws together in a ringing, sparking, metallic warning stopped her.

Logan stood up, still growling in such a total feral and menacing manner that Kazehana, Kochou, and especially a very wide eyed Seo slowly started backing away. With deep rumbling coming from his chest and teeth bared, he made his blades weave before him ready to slash and stab if anyone made a threatening move as he slowly advanced to where he had lain.

Reaching Benitsubasa's supine figure, he reached down with his left hand while keeping his right blade on high guard, grabbed her by the back of her neck, drug her slowly back from under the wheeled bed, then easily flipped her slim body over to peer down at her. Then he sniffed loudly. He stood, head cocked to one side while eying her closely, frowning with narrowed eyes for a few seconds as if he knew her yet something was wrong as if she didn't look right.

He then began looking at the still comatose Akitsu just as closely, snuffling her body loudly and then staring at her face. Again his body language and facial expression was as if he recognized her, but he seemed confused because she looked wrong somehow.

"Lo-chan!" Kazehana whispered urgently so as not to alarm him further. The wild look in his eyes was really SCARY. "It's me! Your Kaze-chan! Calm down and talk to me! Please!"

Logan looked up and peered at her too while again sniffing the air, but there was no visual recognition, only puzzlement that perhaps Kazehana's voice, body, and face just weren't readily identifiable to him. He turned his head with more sniffing as he suddenly starting noticing the lab's medical equipment and clinical atmosphere complete with needles, tubes, probes, electrical hookups, and many different bottles of reagents. His facial expression of rising anger showed that he clearly didn't like the chemical smells nor the seemingly familiar and obviously hated instrumentation he was seeing.

He snarled viciously at Seo, clearly trying to decide whether to cut him to ribbons or not, but after several long and nerve wracking seconds, Logan backed warily away instead. He edged to the clinic's back wall, used both of his claws to slash a large X as if the concrete reinforced wall was soft butter. He gave one more derisive sounding snarl at the lab's astonished occupants before crouching. Logan, only wearing black spandex shorts and black, two toed rickshaw runner boots, then suddenly blasted his way through the wrecked wall and bounded away into the night.

"YAHHHH!" Seo immediately groaned in complete consternation and dismay, and then yelled, "SHIT!"

Uzume, up on the roof and unaware that Logan had went nuts, whirled at the sounds of him destroying the back wall and instinctively followed him as he burst into sight and headed south towards downtown Tokyo. She started bounding higher to keep him in sight while calling to him, but he was so fast! And ignoring her!

"Dammit! THAT'S gonna bring the cops!" Seo shouted, shaking a very worried and angry fist at the gaping back wall as the front door was blasted open by lightning. That also startled another "YAHHHH!" of complete surprise and angry dismay out of him.

"What? Seo! Are you hurt?" Hikari yelled as she and Hibiki leaped through the clinic's destroyed front door and rushed to his side.

"NO! But you guys are killing me here!" Seo shouted angrily. "What am I gonna tell the doc?"

"Seo!" Kazehana took quick command while ignoring his complaints. "You and the Twins get Kochou and Akitsu to Izumo Inn! Stand by there if I have to call for help! I'm going after Logan and Uzume!"

"NO!" Kochou exclaimed angrily. "Not THERE! Not with HIM!"

"You'll GO as I SAY!" Number 03 Kazehana rounded on Number 22 Kochou, hands ready to chop a hard wind that would drive Kochou headfirst into a concrete side wall. "Miya is the ONLY one who can protect you and Akitsu from Karasuba until we get Logan back! And we're probably going to need Matsu's computers and help for that too! YOU and Akitsu will NOT kill Seo and the Twins either! We're going to need all the firepower we can get against Karasuba before this is all over! Now GO!"

With that and Kochou's frowning quick nod of instant agreement, Kazehana also leaped out the clinic's destroyed back wall and into the night, using her wind aided power to keep the leaping distant Uzume in sight and even gain on her as they crossed the Asakusa District towards downtown Tokyo.

"What are we going to do about this freaking mess here!" Seo stood in the back wall's opening and bellowed after Kazehana. "And the doc that owns it? Dammit! You're gonna get me freaking arrested!"

"Oh forget all that, you dumb creep!" Kochou returned in a highly aggrieved and impatient tone. The mentioned threat of Karasuba had quickly aligned her priorities with Kazehana's if not Kochou's extreme dislike and distrust of Seo. "Let's get my sister to safety! Now!"

"But the doc is gonna call the cops!" Seo turned and protested while holding his arms and hands out, shaking them in a plea for common sense. There was a crisis here! He was gonna get arrested and sued, and man, he didn't have any money or time for all that!

"WE'RE the ones that's gonna anonymously call the cops AND Haihane to come here after we leave, you total moron!" Kochou angrily hissed at him. "When they arrive they'll find Benitsubasa passed out on the floor, won't know why, and blame her for all the damage! Then this all becomes MBI's problem to explain and pay for. THINK, you brainless dolt!

"We'll call your doc friend later and tell him Benitsubasa came here really drunk and looking to question him about illegally renting out his clinic for after hours treatment of Yakuza thugs getting shot and not reporting them. She got angry and started busting the place up when we denied her allegations, but then she suddenly passed out after she called Haihane and the cops to come and help her. We left before the cops and Haihane arrived because we didn't want to get involved with any trouble and clearly weren't the ones Benitsubasa was looking for.

"Let the doctor explain why she was wrong to be here to the cops if they ask him! And tell the doc I'll double his pay from us if he keeps us totally out of it. If he doesn't want to cooperate, then threaten that we'll tell the cops we WERE working on shot up Yakuza thugs! Got it?"

"Ahhh, ahhh," Seo frowned as he thought this all over, trying to find a flaw in Kochou's plan of payoff, misdirection, coercion, and possible blackmail. "Why would the cops think Benitsubasa was investigating this clinic?"

"Because we'll TELL them she was when we call them, moron! It'll at least hold them here until we can get to Izumo Inn and hide!" A dumbfounded Kochou turned to ask Hibiki and Hikari. "What in the hell were you guys thinking when you let this stupid buffoon wing you?"

"Well, well, uhhh, ummm," Hikari began to stammer.

"Seo may be a stupid buffoon," Hibiki asserted angrily while pointing an irate finger at Kochou's nose, "but he's OUR stupid buffoon! So there! What have you and Akitsu got, huh? A mindless short ape with claws? He can't even use a door!"

"Unlike YOU, Genius? Logan's sick and hurt! What's YOUR excuse?" Kochou shot back and pointed at the destroyed front door to make Hikari wince.

"Kochou, will you please put away the knives? We get it already. You hate Seo. You don't like us. Fine. Go your own way. We don't need you."

"Yep. Just ignore what Kazehana just ordered us to do and piss her off too. Another genius. You don't IGNORE and DISOBEY Number 03, you fool! Matter of fact, you guys just stay here or go to your apartment, Hibiki, and risk it. What if Karasuba shows up here instead of that idiot Haihane, asks a few questions, follows you after breaking your doc pal, and starts chopping heads? Smart. Real smart.

"You guys gotta be some kind of anatomical anomaly. Not a complete brain between the three of you," Kochou shook her head wearily and sighed as she picked up and cradled Akitsu. "We've GOT to get to Izumo Inn as Onee-chan ordered! Now! Let's go! We'll make a quick stop along the way to call the cops! Then we can all eat a free breakfast."

The Twins looked at each other and then Seo. The thought of free food prepared by Miya did it. All three shrugged and followed Kochou carrying Akitsu out through the big hole in the back wall of the now very sad looking clinic.

Just a few minutes later, Kazehana and Uzume both paced back and forth in tear filled frustration on top of the last building roof they had seen Logan land upon. Both loudly called to him repeatedly while running in every direction on the roof and searching the distant skyscraper skylines of Tokyo as well as the Asakusa District streets below for a glimpse of Logan's fleeing figure.

Not yet properly winged, both were being driven crazy by not being able to clearly feel any psychic resonance with him strong enough to at least get his direction of travel. He was alive. That they could sense, but they could not get a bearing on Logan's location. Nor did they see the deep claw marks in the north side of the building below them.

Hanging by his claws and hiding directly below the large protruding edge of the tall building's roof, he didn't respond to the two strange, not human, chasing females directly above him on the roof that were calling out to Logan. He didn't know why the pair had followed him, but they had been in and guarding that hated place which smelled and looked like another where he had suffered great pain. He would never go back, and soon they would give up and leave him alone as he should be.

He also didn't answer the loud yelling females above him because he was not Logan. He was Wolverine, wild, powerful, and free. It was who and what he was. Tonight he would rest. He was very tired. Tomorrow he would hunt food. He was hungry. Then he would go north to live alone in the far mountain forests, killing any and all humans and their metal machines trying to stop or capture him again, just as he had before on that cold, snowy, and blood filled, starry starry night.