"Do you like my outfit Minato-sama?" Musubi asked and did a little twirl for him. She and Akizu were both dressed in French maid uniforms with black stockings. As Musubi twirled about she revealed she was wearing black panties as well.
Minato felt a trickle of blood flowing down from his nose. "Ah, it's… really cute, I definitely like it. But why are you and Akizu wearing them?"
"Tsukiumi seems to think it would be appropriate," Akizu said indifferently.
Musubi nodded eagerly. "Tsukiumi says that since we are the concubines we should be the ones to do all the, 'menial labor.'" She smiled at him. "Does that mean Musubi-chan will get to wash Minato-sama's back?"
Minato clamped a hand to his nose as the blood flow picked up.
Yukari leaned over to Shiina with a naughty look on her face. "I'm buying you a sailor suit."
The boy gulped.
Tsukiumi glared at Musubi. "That is not what I meant my menial labor!"
Akizu raised a questioning eyebrow. "Do you want the two of us to service the master in bed? Are you tired of doing that yourself?"
Tsukiumi began to shake and literally spit with rage.
Blood gushed from Minato's nose and he collapsed.
XXXXXXXXXX
When Minato came to he was lying on a couch in front of one of the big screen t.v.'s with everyone gathered around him.
"Mi… na… to," Tsukiumi ground out. "Just what were you thinking about?"
"Nothing I swear!"
"The master was probably imagining a threesome," Akizu pointed out calmly. "If that is your wish master you only have to command it."
"What's a threesome?" Musubi asked.
"Shut up both of you!" Tsukiumi screamed. "And you!" She pointed an accusing finger at him. "Get such disgusting thoughts out of your mind! I am the wife! You may do anything you like with me but only with me!"
Before a pale Minato could answer the morning news report on the t.v. suddenly vanished to be replaced by the grinning image of M.B.I. chairman Minaka.
"Ladies and gentlemen of Tokyo! I am Hiroto Minaka of M.B.I., and I have an announcement to make. As of this moment M.B.I. will be occupying Tokyo! A new age of gods is dawning!"
"So it's begun," Akizu said. "The second phase."
Minato looked at her worried. She didn't usually sound worried about things. "Musubi's friend mentioned something about that, what exactly does the 'second phase' mean?"
"It means Tokyo will become an open battlefield," Akizu explained. "Only ten sekirei remain unwinged at this point. From here on out there is no need to disguise our existence, all sekirei will be free to fight each other using their full power under any circumstance. In fact I expect many ashikabi will begin aggressively seeking out battle in order to lower the numbers. Battles will become much more frequent and the danger of ambush far greater."
"But that's awful!" Yukari said. "I don't want Shiina to be in danger!" She possessively grabbed him and held him close to her.
Minato nodded. "I feel exactly the same way; I don't want any of you to be hurt." He turned his eyes to look worriedly at Tsukiumi.
Seeing the worried look on his face made her blush slightly. It felt good to know he worried about her. "Hmph," she said and crossed her arms over her ample chest. "There is no avoiding danger if you are sekirei, we exist to fight!" Looking at Minato she softened her stance a bit. "I've told you Minato, you have nothing to worry about since I aim to be the strongest. Everything will definitely be fine."
Minato tried to smile and relax, but he couldn't help worrying.
XXXXXXXXXX
Since coming to live in Tokyo Minato had seen the occasional news helicopter flying overhead. Today though there was a constant swarm of black helicopters with the yellow letters MBI always buzzing about. People at the cram school and at work had been talking about the sudden change and wondering exactly what it meant. But except for the helicopters things seemed to still be the same. All the usual businesses were open, traffic was the same as always, and so far as he could tell all the same laws were still in effect.
XXXXXXXXXX
From a nearby building Tsukiumi watched as her husband finished his work day. She felt the approach of another sekirei and turned around ready to fight. When she saw the familiar figure of Homura land on the roof top she did not relax. "Have you come here for us to have our last battle Homura?"
"Last battle?" He questioned.
"The second phase has begun and that means many sekirei will be attacking others to eliminate them!"
Homura held his hands up before him. "As the guardian of sekirei it would be a little contradictory for me to start eliminating them now wouldn't it?"
Tsukiumi slowly relaxed her posture. "Hmmm, I suppose so, but that doesn't mean that one day we will not have to fight and fight to a conclusion."
"Well I can't deny that it's a real possibility, but let's save that for another day, shall we?"
"Very well," she said and returned to her spot by the roof's edge.
Homura came over to join her. "Are you spying on your ashikabi again?"
"It's not spying! I just want to make sure my husband is safe! He is an ashikabi after all, who knows what might happen?"
"I wouldn't be too worried," Homura said. "This phase is about sekirei's fighting one another; the ashikabis should be left out of it." He looked at her closely.
"What?"
"You're really worried about him aren't you? You're completely in love with him."
Blushing like mad she crossed her arms. "There… there's nothing wrong with that! A wife should love her husband!"
"I didn't say there was, truthfully I'm… a little jealous of you. You have that special connection to someone, even though you always said you didn't want it, and it's obvious you're very happy because of it."
Feeling embarrassed she broke eye contact with him and instead looked back down to where Minato was working mixing cement. "It… he does make me happy. He can even do it with little things. Just this morning he said he was worried about me, it… it's silly, but when he said that it made me happy."
Homura let out a wistful sigh. "I envy you."
"Do not worry! You will definitely find your ashikabi and have these same feelings."
"I'm beginning to wonder about that," he admitted. "I'm starting to think there is no one out there who can become my ashikabi. Maybe it's just fate; the gods have always cursed those who were of fire."
"Don't be such a weakling!" She snapped. "I won't tolerate that in my rival. Just because you have not found her yet is no reason to give up. As a matter of fact my sister in law just recently winged a male sekirei and became an ashikabi."
"Really?" Homura sounded interested.
"Would you like to meet her?"
Homura hesitated but finally nodded. "All right, why not?"
"Good! You can come over to dinner sometime this week and meet everyone."
"Come over to dinner?"
"Of course! As the lady of the house I am eager to have a friend over and be a proper hostess!"
She used to hate the idea of even having an ashikabi, now she's wanting to host dinners parties. Homura began chuckling. "You really don't do things halfway do you?"
"What is that supposed to mean?" She growled.
"Nothing, so when should I come over?"
XXXXXXXXXX
Minato finished with work and was heading home when there were shouts from up ahead.
Any normal person would have turned around and headed in the opposite direction away from the trouble.
So of course without thinking about it he ran to see what was going on.
What he saw was a young girl with short dirty blonde hair lying on the sidewalk with a man standing protectively over her. He was standing between her and a woman with long white veils snapping about her. Her face was hidden by part of the veil.
"Get out of the way, I don't want to hurt you." She called out.
"No! I can't do that and let you hurt Kuno!" he shouted. "Leave her alone! She's no threat to you! All we want is to live together in peace!"
The veiled sekirei listened to his plea and stood there a moment.
"I'm sorry," she said. One of her veils lashed out and caught him, sending him flying into a nearby building.
"Hey!" Minato shouted and ran to the man's aid.
Meanwhile the veiled sekirei came over to the helpless girl. The girl looked up at her with tears in her eyes. "Please…"
"I really am so sorry," the veiled sekirei answered sadly. She placed two fingers on the other girl's exposed crest. "The veil of my contract, destroy the nightmare of my Ashikabi." The girl's crest began to vanish.
"Ha… Haruka… sorry…"
"No! Kuno!" Despite clutching his side painfully he ran over to her. As he took her in his arms she was already unconscious. "Kuno! Kuno! Wake up! Please wake up and look at me!" He shook her, desperate to get some response. When her eyes remained closed he looked up bitterly at the other sekirei who was still there. "Why?! She never did anything! Why did you take her away from me?"
"Because…" she tried to answer but finally turned away.
"Hey!" Minato shouted and ran up to her. "At least answer his question! Why did you have to do that if she was no threat to you?"
The veiled sekirei turned her head in his direction. "Because it's our fate, we do it because we have to. Sekirei must fight and fight and fight, so what choice do we have?"
Minato was caught totally off guard by her answer and by her melancholy tone. He'd expected her to be some kind of wicked person who enjoyed inflicting this on others. Instead he really thought she was sorry for what she'd done. Is that the truth? Is there really no other way?
Without warning the veiled sekirei leaped back as a geyser of water struck the spot she'd been standing on.
"Get away from him!" Tsukiumi shouted as she landed in front of him. "Stay behind me Minato!"
Who is she? Whoever she was she was strong! That attack would have crushed her if she hadn't moved. Since the job was done and there was nothing to be gained by staying she took off and fled.
"Where are you going you coward?!" Tsukiumi shouted. "Stay and fight me!" She made ready to leap when Minato grabbed her arm.
"No! Tsukiumi let her go!"
"But…"
"Please Tsukiumi! I'm begging you! I don't want you to fight her!"
The fear in his voice froze her in place. "All… all right Minato, if that's what you want."
Minato looked over to where the other ashikabi was still holding his sekirei in his arms and calling to her, pleading with her to open her eyes. He could hear one of the ever present helicopters approaching and knew M.B.I. would soon take her away. And he knew that she could never be with her ashikabi again.
Tsukiumi let out a surprised gasp as Minato suddenly grabbed her and pulled her against him. Her face turned a deep crimson, she really didn't like public displays like this. "Minato, what is wrong with you?"
"Please, never leave me Tsukiumi, I couldn't bear it."
Looking at his face she could see he was crying. Is he so worried about me? "Foolish man," she said and gently wiped his tears. "I've already told you I'll never lose, so you have nothing to fear. I will never leave you my darling husband."
Despite her assurance he continued holding her. She found it really wasn't so bad.
XXXXXXXXXX
On a nearby roof top yet another sekirei watched the scene below. She had long dark hair, a revealing red outfit, and an over sized bottle of wine. At the moment all her focus was directed at the young ashikabi who was embracing his blonde sekirei and weeping. The sight of such concern for his sekirei was making her heart beat a little faster. He was cute and very, very manly. "Not good," she muttered to herself. "I think I really want to get to know him."
