"*ahem* Yes, well, this is going to be a lot of work, isn't it?" I asked in the most nervous of ways as I sat on the couch in the living room, holding Muramasa in my hands, still in the scabbard on my lap.

Tsukiumi and Akitsu were giving one another the ultimate death glare, kind of like in an anime where you see two people glaring at one another and there's two colliding bolts of lightning clashing and pushing against one another in between their faces. It was almost just like that. Akitsu was still maintaining her icy corona of emotionless expression while giving the satanic death glare, but Tsukiumi was just about to flip out, she was that hard and angry in her facial expression. "Tell me this, just who art thou who can even think of adressing him as husband?" Tsukiumi growled and demanded in her questioning.

"Number 7. Akitsu." she answered. "I am his wife."

I raised a finger. "Soon to be wife." I intervened.

She looked to me and nodded, her eyes glistening longingly at me. "Exactly, Nathan." she agreed.

Tsukiumi turned her gaze to me, and began to tremble an angry fist. "What is the meaning of this?! Are we in some sort of pyramid style harem?! Is this Akitsu on the top?!" she kept yelling at me questioningly.

I scooted away from her in order to give myself and Muramasa some breathing room. "This isn't a pyramid, its a palace. Two, given that you two are ice and water, you both hold similar placement. I met Akitsu first, so for now, since I know her the best, yes. I'm not going to really use placement in battle though, so stop being so worried and angry." I answered her.

She heard my answer and calmed down. "Then I suppose it's only a matter of time for me to become thy true wife, Nathan. In the meantime, I shall be cooking your dinner." she simply told me as she strolled to the kitchen.

Akitsu and I looked to one another, confused about my new sekirei. "Does she know that you ate already?" she asked.

"I'm hungry again anyway, so I'm not gonna mind another meal." I answered while smiling to her. "I'm gonna head down to the train station tomorrow, unarmored." I told her. "I'll need you to tell Katsuragi to tail me in case there's an ass hole ashikabi out there that wants to play dirty and outnumber me with sekireis or strong men."

She blinked and nodded. "Of course, master." she replied.

I smiled warmly and giggled. "That's just so hot, Akitsu."

She looked into my eyes and I did the same into hers. "Nathan, how exactly did you get Muramasa sent to you? I thought it world be a natural treasure." she asked and explained her way of curiousity.

"That isn't the real Muramasa. It's just a sword forged by the swordsmith, Muramasa. This is his true finest and yet most grim creation. Muramasa." I answered. "It was originally going to be my brother's. But he had told me that once I'm ready, it would find its way to me. Looks like he didn't lie." I kept going as I began to drift off. "Alan..."

Then I heard Oriha cry out, "Cool sword, Nathan!" in her sing-song way that she usually spoke with.

She bubbled and ran her way over to us and looked at me with sparkles in her eyes. She had that cute little grin of awe on her face and she asked, "Will you dance with me with that?"

I smiled and giggled before kissing her lips lightly. "Hey, I still need to dance with everyone else. Even Tsukiumi, so we gotta wait for us to dance all overkill again." I answered.

"Pleeeeeeeeeease? I'll do anything you want!" she cried out, almost seductively with the song in her voice.

Thinking about that made me realize why Minato always had those nosebleeds around women when things got frisky. "Hey, no means no for now. Now, I'm gonna try and make good conversation with Tsukiumi, I'm fearful enough to anger her already." I said as I walked my way to the kitchen and sat down at the counter. I put Muramasa on the countertop and popped my neck fatiguedly and tiredly. "Ahh, thanks for cooking tonight, Tsukiumi." I thanked as I saw how she was actually cooking rather precisely and extremely well. She was cooking something in a pot, with white onions, carrots and other ingredients, especially beef.

She looked over to me and then back at her cooking. "Think nothing of it, dear." she told me in such a soft way, it sounded new coming from her.

I chuckled. "I've never been called 'dear' before. By sekirei or otherwise." I exposed to her. "It's both funny and comforting to hear it from you."

"'Funny'? How am I funny?" she snapped interrogatively.

I raised a brow, confusedly. "Replace 'funny' with beautiful, powerful and temperamental. And how? Where do I start?" I responded to her snap of attitude.

Her face turned a very cherry red, and her movements became faster and more stiff. "Let's not make with the flattery right now, Nathan. I am cooking and my hands would be burnt with any slip up." she battered out as she kept going.

I picked up Muramasa and stood on my feet, away from the counter. "I appreciate you coming to my house, Tsukiumi. Welcome to my family." I told her as I walked away.

XXXXXXXXXXX

I walked down the sidewalk, with Muramasa at my hip. Thankfully a cloaking device in my person kept people from seeing the crimson blade. In my ears were earbuds, playing the David Bowie song: As the World Falls Down from the music files of my iPhone 5-c. Muramasa was comfortably bouncing from my leg a little bit with each step. I walked slowly and in synch with the music and the wind blew rather softly for a windier season. I was wearing a pair of jean pants, a black t-shirt and a black open buttoned long sleeve overshirt. My hair was combed back and my eyebrows were trimmed very neatly by Oriha. Overall, I thought that for the day, I looked a-okay. Click! "Master, is everything all right down there?" Katsuragi asked as the music paused.

I smiled as I crossed the street with a crowd of people. "Trust me, Katsuragi. I'm feeling safer now that you're with me." I answered through the microphone attached to one of my headphones.

"Really?" she asked in a romantic curiousity.

"Really, Katsuragi. Look, you're actually a point of interest to me. I'll make sure to take you out to ice cream and all kinds of good stuff. Okay?" I offered her.

"Master... I'd like that." she answered my offer.

I smiled gleefully. "There's a song called Bang It Out on my phone. Make it play for me, please." I requested as I noticed a couple strong men following me, specifically tailing me, no coincidence about it. "And don't be afraid to come down with me, I've got some assholes following me."

I walked my way purposefully to a detour in the middle of a park area. I noticed that more of them start to group around me, and I uncloaked Muramasa. "Alright boyos, let's see if you can handle this." I said aloud as I turned 270º and slashed Muramasa horizontally.

Normally, it's just a gust of slicing wind, and kinetic energy, but there was a new element involved in all of this. It was a small burst of red light, humming down in a low vibrational tune. My slash and that light decimated them. I held Muramasa in my hands, and stood normally straight. "Red light... Where did that come from?" I asked aloud until I realized that it was her. "Wait, it's you!" I called out.

She landed in front of me, on her feet. She wore a white gi with a white-grey overcoat, and there were no markings of any kind similar to Midasu's and the isides of her coat radiated golden light. Her hair was long and brown, flowing in the wind. Her brown-red irises and her beautiful ovalular eyes caught my attention with her perfect complexion on very light skin, as well as a petite nose and that pearly white smile with pink lips. She giggled to me and hugged me tightly, my arms wrapped around her too. Her chest was at least E-cup size, because I could feel them squishing against me as I held her warm and soft body. She was about five feet and ten inches tall, because she was shorter than I was: by three and a half inches. She held my head from the back of my neck and my back in her hands. "I was wondering when you'd come and play with me." she whispered gleefully in my ear. "I was beginning to think you'd forgotten about widdle old me." she sleazed playfully.

We let go of one another and I sheathed Muramasa, and then I smiled at her. "I'm Nathan." I greeted as I leaned in for a kiss.

She held my cheeks in her hands before kissing me long and deep with a big rush to it. Her wings were blazing white and gold light that could be seen miles away. I felt that delicious heat from the emergence of another sekirei overflow me, and somehow warm me up beneath the muscles as well. I only felt that with Akitsu, Midasu and Tsukiumi, but this came with it as well. We stopped kissing and she became all twinkly eyed at me. "I'm Kagayaki, sekirei number 25." she greeted as she smiled excitedly and did a little jumpy dance. "Well, come on! There'll be more of Mikogami's men coming our way." she spurred on as I took out Muramasa and she began to shine with energy.

And more they came. Heavily armed men with mid-tech body armor and heavy weaponry surrounded us, and there were at least a hundred or more of them. I looked at this and smiled, chuckling amusedly. "A hundred or so guys with nothing better to do than pick on a guy and a girl that barely met? You guys suck!" I shouted mockingly at them before Katsuragi landed next to me.

"Master, she's almost here! We have to hurry!" Katsuragi cried out.

I smiled excitedly and beastly. "Then let's dance, girls!" I battle cried as we all darted at our enemy's hired idiots.

In one hand was my blade, and the other, my scabbard. Katsuragi and I were pounding on people, running side by side shoulder to shoulder. I sliced with my sword hand and punched with the hand that held the scabbard; and Katsuragi sweep kicked, screw kicked and leopard struck and uppercutted with my vertical and horizontal and diagonal strikes. We were like a two person juggernaut, gaining power and momentum as we kept going. I smiled to her. "In!" I shouted as we jumped up into the air and I sheathed Muramasa. "And out!" I finished as she and I rocketed to the ground, and we both held the scabbard of Muramasa as the end of it struck the ground and sent the ground bursting and decimating all of them, making them flounder to the air uncontrollably.

I looked to Kagayaki as I prepped my blade for a grass-cutter slash. "In!" I yelled as I felt the wind and gravitational potential energy gather up at my feet. And in one perfect motion I dashed forward and slashed everything vertically, and the red humming light amplified my grass-cutter slash into an ionized tornado of death. Men were screaming and wailing before falling to the ground, most of them already dead, and the rest died from the fall of forty feet, straight down. I smiled and sheathed Muramasa. "Katsuragi, you are so getting rewarded for this. Take Kagayaki to the rooftops, you two will resume vigil for anything else while I check the train station." I told Katsuragi.

"Yes, master." she said as she jumped up to the top of a building.

Kagayaki smiled and blew me a kiss with her lips and two fingers with a wink. "Anything you say, ashikabi-kun!" she sleazed as she joined Katsuragi on the roof.

I looked back to where I walked over here from and smiled calmly. "Now to get back to where I was going in the first place." I said as I walked away from the scene of the three way overkill dance of light and intense powers.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

I stood there, leaned up against a wall next to the train departure and arrival schedule board, waiting for my guest to arrive. Muramasa was cloaked and my headphones weren't in this time. The sky was tinted orange from the sun's angle in the later afternoon, and there were clouds rolling with the light breeze in the spring sky. I smiled contently and I carressed the hilt of Muramasa at my left hip with my thumb, and I thought to myself, hoping that Alan would hear it, 'I'm doing alright, brother. Muramasa is in good hands.' Then I heard a ring tone from my phone. It was a loop p;ayback of the Final Fantasy victory music when you win a battle. I unplugged my headphones and checked who was calling me on my phone, and sure enough, it was my house number. I slowly slid the answer button across the screen and put the phone to my ear. "Hello?" I greeted questioningly.

"Nathan!" Tsukiumi's voice shouted from my phone as I flinched a bit and put the phone away from my ear. "What the devil ist taking thou so long!? Were you attacked by another sekirei or ran over by a car?! Tell me immediately!" she kept yelling and screaming at me.

I waited a second for her to calm down, then I answered, "Tsukiumi, my guest hasn't arrived yet, and we were attacked by a group of strong men in armor, and I winged another sekirei in order to help and be helped."

"Art thou insane?! Thou should have called for more than decent backup than a full body type and a random sekirei!" she roared in response. "Thou should have called for thy true wife!"

I frowned. "What did I tell you about that?"

" 'Don't think that you play favorites'. I'm sorry, Nathan." she apologized.

I smiled and walked to a quieter spot, still relatively close. "Listen, so perhaps I planned something for us tomorrow. Perhaps I planned on seeing a movie, eating at a five star restaurant for dinner, and a little bit of other stuff afterwards." I let her in on the plan.

Even from a phone line, I could tell that she was turning into a living candle, melting under the intense heat of a growing fire. "Art thou speaking truthfully?" she asked in a rather sweet and honeyed sexy voice.

"Does the sun shine?" I retorted to a question with a question.

I could hear her gasp in delight and I could feel her heart begin to glaze and melt for me right then and there. "All day?" she asked.

"All afternoon; I have to make you breakfeast in the morning." I replied.

She was silent for a few seconds. "Thou dost know I love thee, right?" she asked.

"I'll be showing how much I agree with that tomorrow." I said as I heard the trains arrive. "I've gotta go, Tsukiumi." I told her. "Bye."

I hung up on her and walked my way over to the train station walkway, in order to meet my guest. 'Minato said that she'd be here by now, so I guess it'd be a good time to meet her. What was her name? Yukari...? I think so, Yukari, yeah.' I pondered to myself as she waved to me. She was wearing a white button up shirt that made her breasts seem to pop out (though I had no idea how that worked, it just seemed to.) with a red tie that had the outline of an upside down cross in white lines on it. At her waist was a brown big belt of some kind that had a metal loop at the center to be the tying point for it, and the belt held a black skirt to her that reached down to about five inches above the knees. She wore black kneesocks that reached up to just a tiny bit above the knees, leaving some of the thigh to be shown. Her skin was a very light color and perfect complexion, and her face had a very similar resemblance to Minato. Her eyes were a dark faded blue color and her hair was a blue tinted black with a little yellow perfect perpendicular lines' shape hairpin in her partially unkeps and yet well styled hair. She waved to me and bounded her way over to me. She was five feet and two inches, very much shorter than me. She looked up at me, smiling. "Hi Nathan! It's been a long time, since my brother invited me over so long ago." she greeted with that 20 year old, rather pleasant and fun voice of hers.

I raised a brow and smiled. "It's been about three months, Yukari. If I could remember your name, I think we can say it's been only so long." I responded.

She giggled and immediately jumped onto my back and clung to it, pressing her breasts you it. "Whatever, big guy. Now gimme a piggy back ride." she demanded.

I rolled my eyes and began to walk with a 103 pound girl on my back, thinking to myself, 'Same old Yukari. Same old Yukari indeed.'

We walked over a few blocks in the direction to our house, and Yukari got off of my back in order to use the restroom of a nearby department store. Waiting for her, I noticed that I still had to give Katsuragi something for all of her help. 'Is there any ice cream or something good over here? I knew I saw— ah, there you are!' I heard myself in my ears. I saw an ice cream vendor and bought a couple cones. Katsuragi quickly jumped down and I handed her a cone. She smiled as bit and actually kissed me, which was weird because she was usually shy. "Thank you." she cried out joyfully with the calming shy tone still in there as she jumped back up with her cone.

I smiled and bought another just in time for Yukari to come out of the bathroom. We walked our way home, and then I told her that there was a motel nearby, and that she could stay there for a while. I walked her there, and then a very pivotal conversation began. "Nathan, can I ask you something?" she asked.

"What is it?" I asked in response while we were walking.

"How are you adjusting to living here, being from halfway across the world and all?" she asked.

"I'm doing fine. Sure, I'm getting used to the wording of everything and the way things work, but yeah. I'm good." I answered. "Your brother keeps me good company, and you're something to look forward to."

We were silent for a few second, walking on. 'I have to admit, I can't just spill everything to her. That's why I'm not letting her stay with me. Not a chance.' I told myself. "You know, you're a sweet guy." she told me. "You've been looking out for Minato, and you're so nice to me."

I smiled a bit. "Well, you know, I've gotta take care of the guy. He's one of my best friends." I told her.

"Well, I'm still happy about you doing it, big guy." she retorted with that cute smile as she slugged my arm, but then she rubbed her hand. "You consider being a bodyguard?"

I chuckled. "I'm a commission artist, not a bodyguard." I answered as we came up to the motel. "Well, here we are. You have my number if you need me, so I'll head back home." I said to her as I began to walk away.

"You said you were a commission artist right?" she asked me, calling out in an implicative way.

I turned back to a blushing Yukari with her hands behing her back, turning left and right back and forth. "Yeah, I am." I told her.

She smiled a bit. "What if I wanted to have a painting or something? Would tomorrow be a good time?" she asked, implying what I subconsciously feared she would.

I began to sweat a bit, and I was flustered with tension. "No, tomorrow I have some stuff to do. But the day after I might be available." I answered.

She closed her eyes and smiled, waving at me cutely. "I can't wait until then. See you in two days." she gave farewell as I waved and walked away.

In my ears, I heard myself muttering, 'Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, oh crap!' over and over again.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

I was in the bath tub room, sitting in the hot water with a towel on my forehead. I simply sat there with my legs stretched into full relaxation in front of me, and I was trying my best not to even think. Not even that effort could stop the overflow of thoughts coming through my head, calculations and strategies about any and all possibilities that would come up. "Nathan?" I heard Akitsu's voice call out from a slightly opened door. "Can we come in?" she asked.

I smiled. "Please do." I answered as I put all of the negativity aside, and let out a breath of releif as I did so.

Akitsu and Tsukiumi walked into the bath, their bodies covered with black towels and their hair relaxed and let down in their near-nudity. Tsukiumi and Akitsu looked very beautiful to me, and I was always glad just to even see them, let alone be with them. They slowly let their towels down and took a dip into the water with me. 'Alan... I think I might just be in heaven.' I told Alan in my thoughts. Tsukiumi got close to me with her cheeks red like strawberries. Her nipples were soft and a beautiful shade of pink, and they were so perfectly small and hard. Her skin was so soft, especially in the warmth of the water. She looked at me with her lapiz lazuli eyes, gazing into the windows of my soul, and then she asked me, "Who is Alan?"

I looked at her confusedly. "Alan?"

"The one who thou were speaking to at the air last night. I assume he gave you Muramasa?" she asked and elaborated her curiousity.

"You refer to Alan a lot. You're usually thinking about him." Akitsu added in.

I listened to them, and began to chuckle. "Akitsu, you keep telling me you aren't telepathic, but you know I'm always thinking about him. You guys are telepaths." I responded digressingly.

Tsukiumi grabbed my arm and raised her voice. "This is serious! Art thou ailed by this 'Alan' that thou must keep his identity from us?" she asked.

My smile melted into a remorseful expression. The light of my eyes became misty and my heart beat slower, and heavier. I was silent and looking down at the reflection in the water. "Since you two are in need of knowing, I'll tell you." I sombered.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Flashback:

My mother, father and I were standing in front of an open grave with a shiny black closed coffin in preparation to be lowered into the ground. We were all dressed in black formal wear and looking down at the coffin. There were others there too; a minister with a bible, most of our family members and friends of the families. Half of my friends were there as well, and I also saw some U.S Marines in their military formal wear and their hats. Most of the men were well decorated, and I could tell that they liked him just the same way I did. The sky was a blood red and orange mix with the grey and pink clouds draping the heavens for the sunset. The pine and grass mixed in so well with the light of the sun just about to fall. The minister finished reciting the scriptures, and said, "We commit Alan Christopher Felix to the earth, and we ask our heavenly father to keep watch over his soul, wherever he may go. And we ask that he accept him into the holy kingdom. Amen." he announced as they lowered Alan's coffin into the ground and began to cover it with dirt.

The 21 gun salute was loud and smoky as the sun gave way to the night, and the torches around us kept everything lit up for us to find our way back out to the parking lot. I looked down at my brother's grave and began to cry. "I'm sorry Alan. It's all my fault! If I were there... I'm so sorry!" I cried out in an angry sadness as I took out his zweihander from a hiding place and sunk the blade into the ground next to his tombstone before walking away to my waiting family and other guests.