A few days later, things had managed to go back to normal. Well, back to routine anyway. Troper and Rin were helping around the household wherever they could, I was still repairing the hole in the wall of the Izumo House, and my Sekirei did whatever they usually did, which by most reasonable measures would be referred to as 'shenanigans'. Also, my whole 'thinking in hyperlinks' problem had started to get better, now only happening when I was in Troper's presence. Still, all that time I was still preparing for the start of the third stage, but I was starting to become suspicious. At first the lack of action from MBI was merely puzzling, but now two weeks had passed since the announcement of the third stage of the Sekirei Plan without a single word since. Surely it couldn't take that long to arrange the matches? At the very least, Minaka would be eager to start the next part of his little show, twisted bastard that he was. Even if things weren't ready, I didn't see him waiting around for this long doing nothing. I had Matsu try to hack into the MBI mainframe to see what was going on, and she found a great deal of activity and encrypted information that wasn't there before. Even with a Norito, it was going to take some time to download and decrypt without being noticed.

So when Takami called me out of the blue asking to have lunch with her, I agreed to it immediately for a number of reasons. First and foremost was that so I could get any information I could out of her about what was going on at MBI. Secondly, I was hoping she might let slip how much the company might know about the people I've been burying in Osaka Park. Thirdly and less morbidly, well, she was my mother. We've had a hard time connecting ever since we met, the Sekirei Plan making things even harder for us to really see eye to eye. So, even if I needed information from her, I actually did look forward to spending some time with her and making our fragile relationship better.

This led to me sitting at a table outside of a café in downtown Shin Tokyo waiting for my mother to show up. Akitsu, despite my protests for her to sit down, was standing behind me and to my left in her usual position. At first I had been against her coming at all, seeing as how Takami probably wanted to talk to me alone, but both she and the rest of my flock had been insistent that she come along. After giving it some thought, it did make sense. It was only a few days ago that I had been attacked by a group of magi that had almost captured us if not for Troper's unlikely intervention. It's possible that more could still be in the city looking for me, and I would likely need all the help I could get if they did happen upon me a second time. And out of all of my Sekirei, Akistu was undoubtedly they only one prepared to fight a magus. Hell, she had already done so twice.

I looked back at her to see how she was doing, only to find her staring across the street rather than at me for a change. Following her gaze, I saw the reason for this was a pet store across the street. In the front window, there were a number of adorable puppies playing with each other. Maybe we could visit and see if they would let her hold one after lunch, though I couldn't remember at the moment if that was one of the pet stores that I had been banned from while I'll had been looking for Tsukiumi…

I frowned to myself. Actually, at the moment, I did feel like I was forgetting something important. What was it? Was I up to date on the Sekirei plan? Yes, I went over it last night with Matsu. I did I tell Troper to stay out of sight while I was out? Yes, he promised he wouldn't be seen. Was Akitsu wearing panties? Yes, I checked this morning, though I felt I was getting closer to the mark. What could it be…?

My thoughts were interrupted by my mother suddenly sitting down across the table from me. I didn't quite manage to stifle a manly yelp of surprise. "Ahh! Takami! Where did you come from?"

She gave me an even look. "From MBI headquarters, where else?" she replied sardonically. "Shirou, we need to t-!" The rest of her response was cut off by a choking sound from her throat, her eyes going wide as she looked up past me to my left. Following her gaze, I found her looking at Akitsu who had turned away from the pet store toward Takami. More specifically, she was looking at Akitsu's forehead.

Oh. Right. I forgot that the head geneticist of the Sekirei Plan might be just a little surprised by the fact the Akitsu was no longer scrapped.

"Uhh… I… um…" I stammered as I tried to think of an explanation that was anything but the truth.

Takami ignored me. "Akitsu," she managed to get out. "What happened to your crest?"

"Ah," the ice Sekirei said, and gave one of her smiles that were becoming less rare these days. "Shirou-sama has winged me. He is my Ashikabi."

"Wha… but… that's impossible!" She said. "I went over your biometrics myself! It's biologically impossible for you to bond to anyone!"

Before I could stop her, Akitsu bent down and pressed her lips against mine. Wings of ice bloomed from back, just like the time in the Izumo House where she proved to the rest of the household that she was indeed now a true Sekirei. I was going to have to have a talk with her later about this, considering that we were supposed to be keeping a low profile. With both MBI wanting to keep the Sekirei Plan as much as a secret as possible and with the Clock Tower after me, such blatantly supernatural displays were not a good idea. However, considering that the other patrons were looking at this display with mere surprise rather than shock, I imagine that there's been enough fighting between the Sekirei that no amount of MBI hush money had been able to cover it up from the whole city.

In any case, it clearly had the desired effect on Takami, who sat there looking at Akitsu with an open mouth gape. She eventually turned to me. "What. Did. You. Do?"

"Wh-why do you automatically assume I had something to do with it?" I stammered lamely.

She narrowed her eyes at me, clearly sure I was responsible for this dramatic change in how reality should work. "There is absolutely no way Akitsu could have spontaneously un-scrapped herself. This had to be caused by some sort of deliberate, outside force. For reasons which you may have been able to understand if you actually managed to get into college, it's incredibly unlikely that any sort of random series of events could have caused such a drastic biological change, so that means this was intentional. And quite frankly," Takami looked off to the side, a hint of embarrassment and shame crossing her face. "You're the only person who cares about her enough to try." She returned her gaze to me, her eyes hardening once again. "So I'll ask you again: what did you do? And so help me Shirou, if you say 'legacy of a misspent youth' again, I will smack you upside the head with this table."

I gulped as I looked back at Takami, trying to come up with a suitable explanation that didn't involve telling my rather terrify mother about my vast experience at precisely timed orgasms, but her tone indicated that she wouldn't tolerate my dancing around the subject. In the end, I ended up trailing off into murmurs and hoped she would hear something else. "Well, you see, I just kinda… mph mrm mrph mrp."

I wouldn't have been surprised if my flock back at the Izumo House heard her yell of "WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU HAD SEX WITH HER?"

Damn! I should have known an experienced mother would be able to speak evasive mumble. Takami was standing at this point her chair knocked over when she had suddenly stood up. She looked down at me sputtering, not sure whether to chastise me as a mother for having premarital sex or lecture me as a geneticist about how that didn't make any sense. After a moment to calm down a little, it seems the geneticist part of her won. "That shouldn't have done anything! How could an act of intercourse cause massive physiological changes?"

"Umm…" She was staring at me with those demanding eyes again, and I didn't think the 'she needed more genetic material' was going to work on the experienced geneticist. Say something, anything! "Apparently I'm just that good at it."

Oh god, anything but that! Why would I say that to my own mother? What is wrong with me?

Matters weren't helped any by Akitsu speaking up. "Ah," she said, a wistful smile on her face as she stared off at nothing. "I liked it." Well, that's it. Between my previous relationship with Rin and Saber, my current flock of voluptuous alien women and now this, there was no way my mother wouldn't think I wasn't some kind of sex fiend.

For her part, Takami just stared at me incredulously. "Do you honestly expect me to believe that broke several laws of biology because you're so good at copulation that is practically some sort of, tantric… sex… magic?"

While it was clear she was just grasping at words, it was a little surprising at how dead on she had gotten it. "I, uh, read a book about it and decided to give it a shot." I lied weakly. Takami just cradled her face in her hand and muttered to herself. Good god, this lunch had gotten awkward incredibly fast. "Maybe we should change the subject."

"Oh," she said, narrowing her eyes at me once more. "And what do you think could be more important than this?"

"How about the reason Akitsu was a scrap in the first place?" I said, my voice taking on a serious tone. I wasn't going to ask about it originally, but since the conversation had gone in that direction, I figured I might as well follow up on some suspicions.

Takami was taken off balance by this question. "What do you mean?"

"I mean how did it happen and why."

Takami hesitated for a moment before spoke, picking up her chair and sitting down as she did so. "Well, what you have to understand is… how much do you know about Sekirei, Shirou?"

"Enough." I replied vaguely, it now being my turn to frown. "Why, do you want to know how much you can hold back from me?"

Her face turned into a grimace. "That's not fair. My job requires that I keep some things secret. I have to keep some parts of my work away even from family."

I snorted at this. "Your 'work' as put it seems to be having a hard time staying away from me, so I think that point's a little moot. Look, Takami…" I softened my tone a bit. "Mom. This is more than just genes and money. The Sekirei might not be human, they're still people. And according to said people's traditions, to some of them, including Akitsu, you're now their mother in law." Both Akitsu and Takami gave a start at this realization, and looked at each other as if seeing one another for the first time. I let that sink in for a moment before continuing. "Please Takami, just tell me what happened."

My mother was silent for some time, looking down at the table in thought. Finally she looked back up at me and said. "I don't know how put this in terms you'll understand, so I apologize if it sounds like I'm glossing over things. However, the real truth of it is that I'm not entirely sure what happened. It was obvious since a few years ago that Akitsu wasn't taking to the adjustments as well as the others, but other than being stronger than she was supposed to be she was doing fine."

"Why wasn't she adjusting like the others?" I asked.

"It's hard to say." Takami said as she fished a cigarette out of her purse. "As talented as I am, most of the ground work on the Sekirei when they were young was done by Takehito Asama."

"Wait," I interrupted, "you mean Miya's husband?"

"That's the one." She confirmed as she lit the cigarette. "He died before the irregularities in Akistu's development started to show. All I can say for certain was that the things we did to her when she was young started to lose effect when she got older. So much so that she became far stronger than most everyone else in the first 8 or so Sekeri."

Hmm. Seems plausible, though unfortunately it didn't tell me anything. "And when she winged herself? Do you know how that happened?"

Takami gave a sigh. "I'm sorry, but I was in a different part of the building when it happened. She went in for a routine check-up when I'm told she started to seize. The crest appeared on her forehead and she passed out."

I looked up at Akitsu to confirm this. "Ah," she said, looking off to the side and her face taking a light shade of pink in embarrassment. "I can't remember."

I felt a particular suspicion in me begin to deepen. "Takami, was there any security footage or record of this check-up?"

"Not that I know of." She frowned at me. "Why?"

"Do you think that MBI might have somehow triggered Akistu to become scrapped as a way to keep her out of the Sekirei Plan?"

Takami opened her mouth, and then proceeded to close it with an audible click. There was a long pause before she said "I'm not sure if anyone besides me at MBI has the kind of knowledge or skill to induce a winging event artificially but… it is possible." Her face twisted into a scowl. "And I wouldn't put it past that bastard Minaka either."

"Do you think you could look into it?" I asked.

"Oh, I most certainly will." She said, cracking her knuckles in an ominous fashion. "And I guarantee that it won't be pleasant for some people."

"Thank you." I sighed out, feeling glad that things had just gotten a little bit better with my mother and relived that I was no longer the source of her ire.

Unfortunately for me, that didn't last long. Takami raised an eyebrow at me and gave me a look. "While we're on the subject of secrets, Mr. Legacy-of-a-misspent-youth, there is still the matter of why I asked to have lunch today."

And things had been so well too.

She continued. "I suppose you've been wondering why the Third Stage hasn't started yet?"

I furrowed my brow. "Yes, I was meaning to ask about that. What is going on with MBI? I find it hard to believe that it's taking them this long."

"Indeed." Takami said, taking a long drag from her cigarette. "Well, I wasn't going to say as much before, but since we're being so open with each other now," she said in a dry tone. "I might as well tell you that the reason for the holdup is that Sekirei are being taken."

"Taken?" I said in surprise. "You mean they're being kidnapped?"

"Yes, and it's been happening over the past two weeks. It appears to be the work of a highly organized group of people, but aside from a few very interesting pieces of information, we have no idea who they are."

"Wait a second, don't they Sekirei have tracking devices implanted in their necks? Can't you simply track where they are?"

When my mother arched an eyebrow, I winced as I realized I probably shouldn't have let on I knew about that. "I'm going to ignore how you know about that for now in light of bigger issues, but yes we can. There have been 3 separate raids so far, but many of bastards keep managing to slip away and try again somewhere else in the city. Not only that, while MBI has managed to recover the taken Sekirei…" Takami paused for a moment, a look of illness crossing her face. "The ones in the best condition were merely deactivated."

I felt a cold, sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. "How bad was it?"

"It's currently unknown if we can save some of them at all. At the very least many of them will be permanently crippled in some way." Takami shook her head as if to rid herself of bad memories. "It looks like they were trying to perform scientific biopsies on them, though they did so using no medical techniques that I could recognize. Hell, in some cases I'm not sure how they were still alive when we found them"

Through the horror I was feeling, the cold logical part of me acknowledge that it made a kind of sense. There are any number of amoral organizations in the world that would gladly take apart the Sekirei to learn their secrets. Given the current lock down of the city by MBI armed forces, getting into the city was a much easier task than getting out. Therefore, it might be more practical to perform any experiment while inside the city and find some way to relay the information back out. The real question was who these people were…

The cold feeling in my stomach sudden expanded when I realized the simplest and most obvious culprit. Pressing for more information to confirm my dread, I asked "You said you knew a few interesting things about them?"

Takami grimaced. "Yes, though it doesn't make much sense. During the raids we encountered heavy resistance from the bastards, but they weren't using any conventional weaponry. They seemed to be using some assortment of energy weapons, shooting things like lightning and fire out of things that look like ordinary objects, though there was at least one occasion where a woman was seen shooting a laser from her damn bare hands! Not only that, a few of them showed increased physical attributes during the fighting. Give this, we first thought they might have been genetically or cybernetically enhanced, or maybe even more Sekirei that weren't a part of the 108 that were found by MBI." She sighed in irritation. "But autopsies and genetic analysis from those that died in the raids show that they're completely normal humans! Not a single damn trace augmentation, not to mention the fact that aside from a few anomalous readings, all of their 'weapons' are just pieces of metal and wood!"

Takami continued on about how everything about this people made no scientific sense, but she quickly forgot to dumb it down for me and I quickly lost track of what she was saying somewhere around "quantum thermodynamics" and "metaphysical biology". It didn't really matter because I stopped paying attention when my suspicion was confirmed: the Clock Tower was in Shin Tokyo. Sure, it could theoretically be some other amoral, magical organization (God knows there's enough of them), but since when has my luck ever been that good? I guess this explains the Enforcer attack about a week ago; apparently the city had a number of mages in it at this point. However, it still doesn't entirely explain how they learned about the Sekirei in the first place. While the Sekirei Plan might be a poorly kept secret inside the city, Matsu had told me there was effectively a media blackout about it for anyone outside its boarders. Not only that, magi weren't exactly known for keeping up with current events. I felt a gnawing sense of guilt when I realized that they might have found out about them from their pursuit of me. If that was the case, then everything that was happening now was my fault.

Through my state of numb shock, I realized that at some point Takami had stopped talking. Looking back at her, I saw that she was studying me intently. I nervously gulped and said "Ah, sorry, what did you say?"

She stared at me for a few seconds longer before she said "Never mind. Suffice to say, nothing about these people makes sense. However, the most interesting thing about them, to me at least, is that analysis of street cameras videos combined with data about traffic that has entered the city in the past few weeks have shown that most of these people have come from the same place." She leaned forward and gave me an accusing glare. "England".

It took me a few seconds to realize what she was getting at. "Wait a minute; you can't possibly think that just because they're from England that I have something to do with them!" Seriously, what kind of weak logic is that? The fact that she's completely right was just a coincidence.

She snorted at this. "Of course not. What kind of scientist would I be if a reason as weak as that would convince me?" As she said this, she dug a tablet out of her purse and taped the screen a few times. Placing it between us on the table she said "This is a series of street cameras from around the time of the last raid about a week ago. They seem to be laying low for now, but that's not the point." The screen showed camera footage of a warehouse in the industrial district. Outside it there were several teams of people in urban tactical gear approaching one of the doors. Walking in front of them was Karasuba. When she got to the door she simply lashed out with her katana several times and the door, along with a significant part of the wall around it, simply collapsed into pieces. I managed to make out a flash of light as this happened, most likely a bounded field failing as part of the structure it was linked to was destroyed. Karasuba's form became a blur as she dashed into the hole, the tactical teams following in after her. All I could make out after that was a great deal of flashing light and smoke pouring out of the building.

"MBI has direct access to the city's street cameras. They're mostly used for tracking and gathering data for the Sekirei Plan, but I thought they might be useful for getting information on whoever these people are. I was going over the tapes this morning when I noticed something." Pressing a few buttons on screen the image rewound to a few hours earlier. It showed five people leaving the warehouse, Enforcers by look of their dress. "It seemed we missed a group in our raid. I was about to send word to the Disciplinary Squad when I lost track of them around here at Osaka Park. " The video went forward another hour, switching to a different camera and showed the small group of men and women enter the park.

Oh crap. I do not like where this is going.

"They never left the park, but do you want to know who did about an hour later?" Takami asked with her eyes narrowed. The video sped up again and when she paused it, sure enough, there was a clear picture of me, Akitsu and Troper walking out of the park and back to the inn. I slowly looked back at my mother, the sinking feeling in my gut returning, if for a different reason. For her part, she was giving me a disapproving gaze that had been honed by years of motherhood. "The reason I suspect that you might have something to do with these people is that both of you went into the park and only you came out. I sent I team to investigate and they found a torn up clearing with a few cleverly hidden graves. Not only that, reviewing the footage from other cameras shows that they saw you about half an hour before and followed you in the park." Before I could protest, she held up a hand to silence me. "I know that they could have been after Akitsu as a target of opportunity, but it doesn't change the fact that the 3 of you somehow managed to take down five highly trained operatives using unconventional but powerful weaponry who may or may not have had super human abilities. There's no way you could have done that unless you knew something about them." Her look softened a bit to take on one of confusion. "Also, while I have no idea what it could possibly mean, you being with someone who looks exactly like you is at that very least suspicious. I would have remembered giving birth to twins you know."

I opened my mouth to respond, but then I closed it again when I realize that I had no idea what to say. It's not like I didn't know about the cameras; that was one of the bigger reason I had set up the battleground for my geas in Osaka Park. As sickly as they were, the trees provided enough coverage to keep anything from being seen. I had just figured that so long I kept things discreet while in public no one at MBI would really bother tracking my movements. Unfortunately, this line of logic didn't account for targets of interest that happened to be tracking me.

Whatever the case, this left me in an awkward position. Takami still didn't know what exactly happened in the clearing, and it appeared from her account of MBI's run ins with the Mage Association that her scientific outlook prevented her from even considering the possibility of magic. It's possible I could get away with saying it was all Akitsu doing that saved us and we just got lucky, that it was a coincidence that Troper looked just like me and we happen to be old friends, that I really had no idea who these people were and I didn't say anything before because I wanted to lay low. It wasn't too likely, but it would likely be enough for Takami given that lack of other reasonable explanations. And yet…

I gave a sigh. "It's… complicated" While I could have given all of that as an explanation, I found that I didn't want to. Now that I knew that the Mage Association was in Shin Tokyo, it was only a matter of time before they came after me and my secret was revealed. It would be advantageous to myself and the rest of the Sekirei in general if Takami knew what she as dealing with. On a less pragmatic note, I also didn't want to keep my mother in the dark about my past any more. Lying to her now not only would have put up even more barriers between us, but also would have been pretty hypocritical of me after I insisted she stop holding back herself.

"I'll bet it is." She replied in an even tone. "So start talking."

"Not here." I replied. "They're probably looking for me, so it's best if I get back to Izumo House as soon as possible. Can you come by for dinner tonight?" That should give me enough time to gather my thoughts on the matter.

Takami arched in eyebrow at that. "I don't think Miya would approve of my being there."

"Given the circumstances, I'll see if I can get her to make an exception."

Takami held out for a moment before giving in. "Fine, but I full intending to get the truth out of you one way or another." She got up from the table and turned to walk away, but paused and turned back towards me. "Before I go, I have to know: who was that man with you?"

"Uhh… would you believe time travel?"

She narrowed her eyes. "No."

"Good, then you less gullible than Yukari, but I'm afraid the truth isn't any more believable."

She stood still for a moment before turning around and walking away, muttering to herself. "Oh yeah, this is going to be good." Then it was just me, Akitsu, and an empty table that reminded me that we forgot to actually order lunch. I sighed as I got up, thinking about what I would have to say to the landlady to allow an MBI employee into her home.

"Let's go home, Akitsu." I said. She nodded, her chains clinking slightly as she did so. However, notice that she very briefly glimpsed at the pet store she was looking at earlier. I knew I had just said that I needed to get back due to all of the magi looking for me but…

I sighed again and started walking across the street. "Come on, let's see if they'll let you hold a puppy."

"Ah," she said as she fell in line behind me. "I'd like that."