Sekirei: Tale of the Crow Feather
By: Terrence Noran
Chapter 14: Cracked Shell
Noise.
What is this grating noise?
Like nails on a blackboard.
Why won't it stop?
It's driving me to madness.
Oh...right. I know why.
His eyes looked at Uzume, his newest sekirei...unfortunately, giddily walking beside him, asking him every question under the sun. Sure, he may have answered a few of them, but turned out to be a mistake. It spurned her to ask more and more questions, making him groan in annoyance.
"So, is your wife gonna be okay to perform a threesome or we gonna do this like an aff-"
"Uzume, right?"
"Ah, yeah. Why?"
"Don't you have anything better to do, like a job or something?"
Uzume became excited all of a sudden. 'Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh! Ashikabi-sama just asked me my first question! Judging by him, I'll try to be honest.' "No! Never have and never will.", she said proudly and wholeheartedly.
"Figures.", he deadpanned.
His morning is just not going out as planned, not that he did any planning anyway. Mostly, he'd just wing it and take expectation by the balls and wring the flaccid stick of disappointment dry. Great, now he's thinking about dick...that and a bit of Uzume as well. He had no doubt that the woman beside him was downright sexy (maybe on the same level as her, if the latter wasn't scary), it's just whatever perverted thoughts in his mind were being drowned out in a sea of a translucent, whitish cream he dee-
"So, where we going?"
"Home."
"Like...our home?"
"My home. Yours is in that inn. In fact, I don't even know why you even are here."
"But Ashikabi-sama~, the landlady is just so scawy that I just might need you as my pwotection.", the brunette sekirei whined, earning a slight twitch from Ren. "Plus, I just wanna get to know the person who I'll be spending the rest of my life wit-"
"Shut the fuck up.", he said, earning the brunette a stunned silence. "Ashikabi this, Ashikabi that. You think you could just bound yourself to me, and get all the sunshine and rainbows you want? Do you?!"
"No, bu-"
"Exactly. It isn't. But then, would you care? Forcing yourself upon me, who's unwilling...that shit is illegal. If you weren't protected by that goddamn company, I'd have you arrested."
"But I was reacting to you! What was I supposed to do while the reason for my predicament was right there?!"
"THEN DO SOMETHING ELSE! ANYTHING! ASK CONSENT! IF YOU AND THE REST OF YOU THINGS ARE STAYING ON THIS FUCKED WORLD, THEN OBEY THE GODDAMN LAWS OF THIS GODDAMN COUNTRY!"
"You wouldn't understand!"
"I DON'T! That's why I'm staying far from this situation as far as I can! WHICH IS WHY Y-" Just when he was about to unleash a tirade of insults, he was suddenly reminded of what transpired between him and Karasuba. How that caused him regret, how it led him to drink, and how it led him to this situation. He realized that this all started 'cause he opened his mouth and let his nature loose. Looking at Uzume again, who looked between pissed off and about to cry. In a calm but tired voice, he said, "Just...just go. Go back to the inn. I'll just go home myself." 'Damn it, I feeling it again. Gotta stop doing this...' He was about to walk away until he heard her speak.
"You're right."
He then continued walking, touching his ear.
"I thought I could put all my chips on you. Hell, you weren't my first thought or my first reaction. But now...now I see that I wrong all along. I made a mistake in choosing you. I. HATE. YOU. Don't you ever come near me again, Disciplinary Squad or not, MBI or not, M-miya or not, rules be damned." She angrily left, heading back to the direction of the inn.
Meanwhile
"Would you tell me what's going on?", asked Kazehana. Her clothes were slightly damaged from the fight. Yume and her both fought the obviously distressed Black Sekirei, and managed to keep her away from Izumo Inn. Normally, it would be easier to fight her on just combat alone...but her former colleague kept bee-lining straight for the inn, only retaliating when either #8, herself, or both got close...which made the fight a bit more difficult. Yume managed to knock out Karasuba after being distracted by something for a moment. She, herself, wasn't sure why she would act that way. A memory, an attack, something, or someone was somehow able to get her attention away from them...and that is something that she needed to know from the Fate Sekirei.
"I don't think I could tell you. In fact, I couldn't tell you if I wanted to.", Yume answered, lifting her unconscious grey-haired teammate. She respected the elder Sekirei a lot, but knew that if she told her everything about Karasuba, she would break the agreement between her and Takami.
"I get it." Suddenly, the Wind Sekirei's smile became rather mischievous. "At some point, tell me all the juicy parts. I can't be left all alone, not knowing what's going on."
"Maybe..." With that, Yume (with Karasuba in tow) left for MBI. Her smiling face shifted into a look of sadness and pity. She looks at Karasuba, and sighs, "Love is really painful, huh? I don't know if I could have what you have. But, I think...you will hate it if I try to suggest it to you. Maybe..."
The tower looming ever closer as Yume was nearing its location.
"...maybe, a slight push is what sh-, no, both she and her ashikabi need."