As Minato lifted the noodles into his mouth, he wondered where Kazehana was. It was getting late, and he was starting to worry. He really shouldn't, since Kazehana was one of the Single Numbers; according to the Lightning Twins (both their reaction and the result of their encounter with her), this was kind of a big deal. Probably off getting a drink, or twelve. Likely the latter.
Next to him, Musubi was mowing down her plate of fish, her attempts to spoon-feed him dropped when Miya presented her with her dinner. Kagari, the other male resident, had once again skipped dinner in favor of his job: hosting a club, according to Miya. He was quite popular there, it seemed.
Minato's train of thought was brought screeching to a halt when Musubi shoved another wad of noodles into his mouth, smiling. He nearly gagged, but smiled back. He knew she was just trying, if a little too hard, to make him happy.
Another pair of eyes observed Minato as he ate, watching him intently from her secret lair on the second floor. Adjusting her glasses, she placed a hand on her chest. She felt her body growing hotter beneath her pink cheongsam dress, and she knew what that meant. Now all she had to do was wait for the right time to experiment a little...
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"Well, here's to us, brother," Kagedansu declared. He clinked his sake cup against his Ashikabi's beer bottle, spilling a little sake on his robed pants.
"May our deaths be neither horrible nor imminent," Izanagi said in his usual dry tone, tilting his head back and taking a long swig.
Kagedansu chuckled nervously. "Here's hoping?" the Sekirei replied. Is he always this morbid?
Looking around, the place was packed, cram students having come to wash their worries away with drink and music. Suddenly, it made perfect sense as to why the owner didn't card people. Having met the owner, who tended the bar, it was good to see that he didn't let his underage customers drink themselves silly.
A flock of male students were gathered on the other end of the bar, all waving yen around. Catching a few glimpses through the mess of bodies, Kagedansu could see that they had surrounded two extremely beautiful women, both laughing and wavering in their seats as the slurped down sake. One wore a Chinese-style skin-tight dress, purple in color, which exposed her flat stomach and massive cleavage. Her long black hair had been tied back, cascading down from the ribbon that bound it. The other wore blue jeans and a pink bellytop with a yellow star on the front, clinging to her slightly lesser but no-less-impressive chest. Her hair was brown and unbound, sans the pony-tail sticking out of the left-top of her head.
Kagedansu had a thing for brunettes, and the sake was already bringing it to the fore, so he couldn't help but stare. Izanagi was leaning back on his stool, staring at the two naiads that had graced the joint with their presence.
"Think we should say hello?" Kagedansu asked.
"I'm fine where I am," replied Izanagi. He took another long shot of beer, some of it dribbling down his narrow chin. Kagedansu's hand shot out to steady him as his sworn brother almost fell off of his seat. It wouldn't do for his Ashikabi to be this off-balance on just his first bottle.
They stayed for a while, observing the two women throw down shot after shot of sake, the brothers sipping their own drinks. There were other girls around, sure, but none could compare to those two, making it pretty easy to spot who was single and who wasn't. Izanagi finished his beer soon enough, and Kagedansu switched to water after his second cup of sake. He knew how much liquor he could hold, and it wasn't much. He was surprised that he'd managed to make it to two, though that's not something he wanted his new Ashikabi to know.
Eventually, the two women got up and shouldered their way through the throng of students, making their way to the door. They'd somehow managed to widdle their way through the entire crowd, because by the time they were sauced-up enough to walk zig-zags without trying, every horny idiot in the bar had run out of cash. Kagedansu turned around in his seat, taking in all the other occupants having a good time, some laughing, some crying, a few running to the bathroom in panic. His eyes narrowed as he spied a trio of rather shady-looking individuals approaching the two buxom women from across the room. From their smiles, he could tell that these three sought to take advantage of certain intoxicated females. Shooting a glance at Izanagi, he got up, his Ashikabi slapping a wad of yen on the counter as he did the same.
Seems happy hour had been cut short.
The brothers briskly navigated their way through the tables and patrons to the entrance. Given that the women were doubling-back on their path every eight steps, unable to walk in a straight line, this was not a challenging thing to do.
"Oh, hi there. Baiagurla drink?" said China-Dress as they approached, waving her empty sake bottle around.
"You two have had enough," Izanagi said, draining the last swig of beer from his own bottle. China-Dress's muddled mind thought this was very hypocritical. "Besides, I think the owner's out of booze."
"Then allow us, as the kind folk we are, to walk them to their home," said one of the shady characters, nearing them.
"No, it's okay, they're in good hands," Kagedansu said, holding up one of his own. He wasn't about to start a fight over something as silly as a pair of wobbly women, certainly not with a trio of weeds like them. Then again, his new brother was pretty spindly himself, so The Shadow Sekirei wisely omitted that last part.
"Maybe they'd like to be in better hands," another sneered, sparking a chuckle from his comrades.
"Yeaaaah, maybwe wooood," said Star-Shirt as a small hiccup escaped her lips.
Izanagi wasn't about to stand for any of this. He flipped his now-empty beer-bottle around in his hand and broke it against the door frame. Next thing Sleaze-Ball the First knew, he was staring at a circle of jagged glass. The Ashikabi snarled something foreign, which Kagedansu didn't catch as his English had only just started to form, but whatever it was, it didn't sound very nice. If looks could kill, those three would be nothing but idle puffs of red vapor; a fact they seemed to realize, because they scrambled away from the spindly kid, feeling his glare burning in to the backs of their skulls as they fled.
Kagedansu let out a sigh of relief. Much as he enjoyed a good brawl, there was nothing to be gained from fighting washed-out highschoolers. Also, Izanagi was apparently a scrapper, or at least tried to play at one. Plus-factor for him.
Tripping up as she exited, Star-Shirt stumbled around and fell against Kagedansu, her breasts sliding down his upper abdomen.
"Wooah, yor hyooooooge," the brunette slurred. Kagedansu suddenly felt dizzy, though he attributed that to the heavy odor of liquor on her breath, not her rather provocative grinding against his chest, her breasts sliding down to stop just above his-
Down boy! Priorities!
Supporting his theory was how his eyes bulged and he coughed, his lungs refusing to allow the miasma of sake-vapor into his body.
"And you have a beautiful eyes," he wheezed, his own eyes watering. Sliding his hands under her arms, he placed her back on her feet.
"Oohh staaaahpit, yu," she said, drunkenly waving a hand at him. Kagedansu rubbed his eyes with his thumb and middle finger, trying to get the burning gas out.
One more excuse to wear sunglasses at night, Izanagi thought to himself.
"A'm Oo-z'me, bythuh-way," said Star-Shirt.
"Izanagi," said the Ashikabi, then gestured to his gagging Sekirei. "And Kagedansu."
"Pffff, thaaas nod'a name!" Oo-z'me guffawed.
"Yes it is," said Kagedansu.
"No iss naht!"
"Yeah it is, it's my name!"
"Wuwl, thn yuuuuu," slurred Star-Shirt, drilling a finger into the large Sekirei's ribs, "don' godda name!"
"Yeah I do!" Kagedansu protested. "I'm Kagedansu!"
"Ana A'm U-zume!" she declared.
"Pleased to meet you!" Kagedansu grinned, offering her a hand.
"Yeah-i'-is!" U-zume shouted, getting more booze-breath in Kagedansu's face and causing his eyes to water again. Despite this, he still managed to give her hand a good shake.
Izanagi addressed Purple-Dress. "What about you?"
"I'm-" Purple-Dress slurred something but Japanese or English, it was garbled in transit.
"'Drunk'," Izanagi translated.
"Naaaah, thas Kaz'hana!" U-zume corrected, a hand catching her about the waist before she could tip herself forward.
"Well," Kaz'hana giggled, "he's-not wrong!"
"So then, where's your house?" the Ashikabi asked.
Kaz'hana clumsily pushed him away. "We khen geh home juss-fine," she drawled, nearly falling over, Izanagi catching her by her waist.
"Don't listen to yourself when you're drunk," he said, slinging one feminine arm over his shoulder and reaching around her back to hold her up. She slurred something that might've been a complaint, but Izanagi could neither tell nor be bothered to care. "Do you remember where you live?"
"Thah way," both women said, pointing in opposite directions.
The males collectively sighed. This was going to be a long walk. Still, virtue was its own reward and all that, and having a buxom woman lean on each of them would certainly make the trip go faster, right?