In Flight

by gabriel blessing

Honestly, Shirou was beginning to think that he should be used to this; being unwittingly selected to take part in brutal tournament that he had no idea existed until he found himself in the middle of it. Then again, second times the charm, right?

14. Fourteenth Wing

In Flight: Fourteenth Wing

Author's notes: And here it is, a chapter which is nearly twenty pages of nothing but violence! Just what all you battle starved psychos were looking for! Well, that and more Yukari silliness. Anyway.

Let's see, first off addressing reviews. A lot of people have been cursing me for my new found love of cliff hangers. Honestly, I don't really mean to use them. I mentioned before that I was trying to keep most of my chapters right around the 20-25 page long mark, and rather than deliberately trying to tease you all I'm just cutting myself off right around there so I can get the next chapter off before you all start suffering from withdrawal. I know I could always go on and release super chapters, but honestly, those would probably delay release considerably and I never really liked them anyway. In Hill of Swords I had to do them so that I would be able to end on the required dream sequences. Here though, I can just choose a nice little spot to cut myself off in and then go marathon whichever new anime I'm currently staying up all night to watch. For this chapter, the delay was Sora No Otoshimono, or Heaven's Lost Property in English. That series was freaking hilarious. Seriously. Migrational exploding panties? Where do they come up with that kind of stuff? Next chapter will probably be delayed due to me finally getting off my butt to watch Tengan Toppa Gurren Lagan. I know its been out for ages but I just never got around to putting it on. Now I shall finally know just why it is everyone thinks drills are awesome.

Another review that I wanted to hit on was someone noting in response to my mention of Akitsu being a game breaker just how well Shirou fits that role as well. My answer to that? Hell yeah he's gonna be tough. I mentioned this before in HoS how I always hated just how many stories started out with the incredibly weak protagonist that the bad guys just ignore until they get strong enough to be a threat. I guess this could be considered a Gabriel Blessing theme or specialty or something: main characters who don't start out sucking. On the other hand I always dislike the whole 'god mode' thing that stands on the opposite end of the scale as well. I like to think I do a good job of giving my protagonists enemies which are tough enough to make for an interesting story, and sometimes I think the best conflicts aren't the physical ones if they're done right. What do you all think?

Anyway, that's about it for the reviews. Now, onto the chapter specific stuff.

*Spoiler Alert*

First off, a brief Sekirei list. The original series has a potential of one hundred and eight unique characters, something which must be a nightmare for them to try and keep track of and most likely the reason why so they use Karasuba to kill so many of them off camera. I'm going to try and keep the Sekirei I use as being canon, but I might have to take some liberties since some of them get terminated without revealing their names or numbers. In this chapter we see Oriha (no 101) who was originally defeated by Tsukihime. The tie wearing Sekirei was named Oshino (no number given) and was originally spanked by Benitsubasa in the third match of the third phase. The striped Sekirei was named Sai (no 31) whom Homura originally had the win on during the Uzume arc. The tonfa user never got a name or a number originally, she existed solely for the purpose of giving Tsukiumi someone to hit during the Uzume arc. No 79, who never got a name, was defeated at the same time. Since she looked kind of ninja-y I called her Kurenai, which I shamelessly stole from Naruto.

My two favorite Sekirei for this chapter however were Toyotama (no 16) and Ichiya (no 18). These two appear to be Higa's primary enforcers, and every time they show up in the series they give off the whole 'bad guy's insane harpies' type feel. You know what I mean, the two chicks that hang around the evil dude and whose duties include looking sexy and kicking ass. I took some liberties with their characters, seeing as canon never explicitly says they're battle hungry sadists who get off on hurting people, but I like to think I'm being pretty true to their characters. What do you all think?

Since most of this chapter was battle there wasn't much space for dialogue. I tried to work some in to keep it natural but most of the talking will be next chapter. I did have fun stealing tsun-tsun lines for Tsukiumi from a variety of other animes and shows. Five points if you can guess where they come from. In Homura's case fans have already noticed in the past that I tend to write him as being a little more excitable than he normally comes off as in the original series. I mentioned before that he does have moments where he loses his cool, and so far its just turned out that Shirou happens to be way better at pressing his buttons then Minato ever was.

I think the part I'm most curious about in regards to reactions is Shirou again. I'm going to be honest here. In Nasu-verse unnaturally sharp instincts tend to be a big key for non-humans and heroes. It's such a common theme that when a character doesn't have them and still manages to be awesome Nasu had to name it specifically: 'Mind's True Eye', one of Archer's skills. What I'm trying to portray here is a Shirou that's well on his way to acquiring just that, raw experience on the level that makes him dangerously genre savvy when it comes to fighting. What I'm worried about is that instead Shirou is just coming off as being too smart. I try to counter that by showing he might be unnaturally quick in combat but that doesn't mean he can't screw up everywhere else. That was part of the reason I had him have the breakdown in chapter 11, and even his sudden blurting out about Tsukiumi's true nature in 13. My question is is it working? Am I managing to find a good balance for him, or is one side outweighing the other?

Beyond that, nothing else comes to mind. Next chapter might take a week or so, seeing as I have to iron out the details for a few scenes, and the whole Gurren Lagan thingy to take care of as well. For now, anything here stands out as particularly cool, give a shout! Questions/comments/concerns, same thing. And as always, enjoy.

*Story Start*

For a moment I could do nothing more than wonder: Was this what it would have been like if it hadn't been for the fire which had separated us all those years ago? Sudden interruptions of my daily life which spawned first nervousness, then worry, and then consternation? If Yukari and I had been raised together, would I have been able to handle having such a confusing element around me, would I have turned out like I am now? Or would it have broken me and left me a sad, pathetic, and broken thing?

"I'm sorry," I began, not sure what else to say. "Could you repeat that?"

"There's a guy in my room that wants to be my sex slave!" my little sister said again for my benefit, before rushing on, still sounding like she was hyperventilating. "I met him earlier, and then we had to run, and we made it to my room, and then he started talking about how he wanted me to be his mistress, and then that he was some kind of bird, and that I was some kind of something-or-other, and then he told me he wanted me to kiss him and mark him!" I began to get worried as she kept listing her circumstances. She was speaking so fast that I don't think she had time to breathe. "But now he's taking a shower, and when he gets out he's going to ask me to do it again and I don't know what to do!"

Finally she paused long enough to interject. "Breath, Yukari," I ordered her. "First of all, just breathe: deep breaths. In through your mouth, out through your nose." I heard a rustling noise, her hair I thought, most likely her nodding, and then frantic 'whoosh' noises that I assumed were her obeying my instructions. "Now, you need to calm down. Think of something peaceful, something happy." If I was going to get anywhere with this conversation first I had to tone her down from her near hysteria. When I heard the rustle of her hair again, I continued. "Now, let me see if I got this situation right first. You're in your room, with a boy." Rustle again. "And he wants you to become his mistress, and to kiss him in order to give him a mark." Another rustle. I began to get a very bad feeling that I knew exactly where this was going. "And he keeps referring to himself as a 'Sekirei', and you as an 'Ashikabi'?" I held out some frantic hope, some desperate implausible wish, that maybe my little sister was wrong. Maybe there was some other kind of unusual BDSM club or something which randomly went up to people on the street and asked for marks through kissing. Maybe Yukari really wasn't about to get involved in something as dangerous as I seemed to have found myself in, and was simply being propositioned by a horny kid that I could promptly kill for hitting on my little sister.

"Yes!" Yukari seemed relieved that I had a good grasp of the situation. "Those were the words he used."

I suppressed a sigh as she casually destroyed my lingering optimism. Serves me right I suppose. Now there was only one question left, one which left me feeling a little sick inside at the implications. "So why exactly was it that you decided to call ME instead of your mother when you thought someone was asking to be your sex slave?"

"Because I already know onii-chan is into that kind of thing," she promptly told me.

If I was a more dramatic person I think I might have collapsed to the ground in despair. It was just a few months and already my family thought of me as some kind of dangerous drug runner on the lamb from the law in another country and that I was some kind of deviant sexual predator that went around having threesomes and sex slaves. I took some consolation in the fact that they didn't know about the events after Homura's winging as well. With my luck they'd take it as some kind of evidence that I was actually gay and that I was just using the women as a cover or something. Why on earth were my mother and sister even continuing to talk to me? In their eyes I must be the personification of every worthless son and brother in existence. I think most people would have been disowned for the kind of reputation I was developing.

"And why did you think I was into that kind of thing?" I couldn't help but ask, morbidly curious about just how low my personal stock really was amongst my relations. Yukari gave a snort at my question.

"Because I was there when you told Akitsu-nee-chan you'd be her master, remember? There's no need to pretend, nii-chan. Remember, I already support your unusual lifestyle!" It sounded like the conversation had helped do its job in calming her down, even as her words struck me like an arrow. That's right. Yukari had been there when Akitsu asked me to be her unconventional Ashikabi. No wonder she thought I was the authority to call when it came to sex slaves! I involuntarily glanced at Akitsu in relief, happy that my sister had an actual reason for thinking I was a pervert, and then paused.

Glancing at Akitsu meant seeing the rest of my Sekirei and Tsukiumi, their bodies tensed for action. That was enough to remind me that I was currently on a roof, surrounded and outnumbered by enemy Sekirei, and about to engage in a battle where I would most likely end up being the number one target according to the enemy's battle plan.

And according to Yukari's report she was currently in the room with another of the species that was propositioning her in a fashion which might very well end up putting her in the exact samesituation at some point.

Life was so much simpler when I was still an orphan.

"Yukari," I began, my eyes darting over to where Kakizaki was finishing his own phone call, adjusting his glasses coolly as he placed the appliance back into his pocket. Shit. I don't have nearly enough time for this. Despite our earlier moment of cooperation I doubt that someone who was willing to forcibly subdue and wing a Sekirei like Tsukiumi and had as much as admitted to having planned an ambush and abduction with the intent to blackmail my own flock into doing his bidding would extend the courtesy of not attacking just because I was on the phone. I was surprised that I had done so myself. Honestly, if it wasn't for the fact that I had received a call at roughly the same time I would have already taken the initiative. I opened my mouth to continue, and found myself frozen.

My little sister had just called me for advice. The question was, what advice should I give? On one hand a very large part of me wanted to do nothing more than to tell her to leave the room right now, catch the first train out of town, and then hunt down the Sekirei that was apparently reacting to her and put it out of its misery before it had a second chance to try and drag Yukari into this mess. The simple fact of the matter was that she had no place in a battlefield. She was eighteen, and had only just made it into college. She should be going to classes, making friends, preparing for a future that had no need for things like aliens and shady conspiracies being run by even shadier companies. My fraternal moment from earlier when I had thought that she just had a boyfriend being a little to fresh with her and needed an ass kicking returned with friends. If I had thought such a mundane scenario had been enough to truly awaken my long unused protective big brother streak, the thought of Yukari being thrust into a world where powerful aliens did combat against each other and self absorbed secretaries planned ambushes lit a fire in me that nearly turned my vision red.

But on the other hand, maybe she would be better off if she did wing the Sekirei instead. I had no way of knowing how long the Sekirei Plan would last. From what I knew at the moment the first phase had been going on for nearly a year now, with one or two Sekirei being released every few days in order to limit conflict and give each member of the species time to find their Ashikabi. There was no telling how long the second phase would take, and I didn't even know precisely what the other phases entailed. It was safe to assume that during all of them Sekirei would be battling throughout the city. I'd only seen the aliens in action two or three times now, and I had no idea what kind of collateral damage they might cause. I'd seen one Sekirei cut through military vehicles without a second thought to the human lives within and then watched her tear the surroundings to pieces before I put her down. What if one of them goes wild around Yukari's school and she has no way of protecting herself? MBI had already said that they would take steps if anyone involved in the plan were to talk about it to someone who wasn't, so I couldn't even warn her to be careful without bringing the company's wrath on me.

Which would be better? To keep her safely uninvolved but ignorant of the potential dangers? Or to have her forewarned and forearmed but in a position to be in the thick of things?

I didn't know, and with the way things were at the moment I just didn't have the time to try and figure it out properly. With no other options, I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and did the only thing I could do.

"Onii-chan?" I heard Yukari speak up, sounding worried by my long pause.

"Yukari, I want you to listen to me very carefully," I told her, my voice serious. "The boy in your room; what is he doing right now?"

"Ah," Yukari sounded like she gulped. "Ah, he's taking a shower." My little sister sounded nervous, as though something had shaken her up.

"This is what you need to do then. When he gets out, I want you to have him tell you everything he can about the Sekirei. I want you to pay attention and not just dismiss it as a joke. After you're sure you understand the situation, you're going to have to make a choice over whether or not to do what he asks, alright?" I spoke quietly, keeping an eye on Kakizaki while I did so. I had no idea if his Sekirei could hear me, but if they could I didn't want them knowing that I was talking to what could potentially be another Ashikabi.

"Wait," Yukari interrupted, sounding even more worried. "What do you mean? Onii-chan, I'm confused. Why do you sound so mad? Is something wrong?" Ah. That must be what's throwing her off. She's used to the easy going Shirou, the one that puts up with her antics with a sigh and a smile. Right now I'm two heart beats away from a life or death battle and tense as a drawn bowstring. I wish I had more time to calm myself down and reassure her, but time was up.

"I have to go now, Yukari," I told her seriously. "I'm afraid I'm in the middle of something I can't put off anymore. No matter what you do in regards to boy in your room, I want you to call me back afterwards, alright?"

"Wait, onii-ch-" was as far as she got before I hung up on her. I glared at the phone in my hand, trying to keep myself from squeezing it too hard and breaking it in my frustration. In the end, this was the best I could do. I hadn't had much choice back when I was sucked into the Holy Grail War. It had simply been summon Saber or die by Lancer's hands. I had been lucky that Rin had been soft hearted enough to explain just what I had fallen into before she had tried to open hostilities on me. The Sekirei Plan was much the same for me. I suppose if I had never met Homura and only met Akitsu things would have been different. Minaka had told me she wasn't allowed to participate in it officially. But with Homura it had been enter the Plan or let him die. The only thing I could do for now was try to make sure that Yukari at least had all the information. Even if she didn't believe it completely at first, if she decided to wing whoever it was in her room than she would then, and if she didn't wing the Sekirei reacting to her then she would at least have some knowledge of what was going on in the city. Once this fight was done and she called me back, I would know which option she had chosen and be able to react accordingly.

"Shirou," a tight whisper came from my side and I glanced at Homura. It seemed like the flame user had managed to pick up on enough of the conversation to have some idea just what I had been talking about. "What the hell was that?"

I shook my head in response. "After the battle," I promised him. "For now, can you handle more than one Sekirei?" My little sister's life counseling could wait till the fight was over. It was time to focus on getting out of this alive and in one piece. Homura seemed to understand my unspoken prioritizing because he nodded once.

"I can probably handle two at a time if I need to," he assured me as he glanced at Tsukiumi. "So can she for that matter. The important part is you. If they get to you, Shirou, than it's all over. You need to get the hell out of here." It looked like he was still more concerned about my safety than the battle itself. I shook my head.

"Not if it means leaving you two here alone," I told him, glancing at Tsukiumi. The water user was still facing the group on our left and being circled by ribbons of her element, but they paused at my blunt statement. From some of her earlier responses I got the impression that if I could see her face then I would be able to see her starting to blush again. I grit my teeth. "Tsukiumi, I know you're still reacting to me. Will you be able to fight like that?" The last thing I needed was for the one I was trying to protect to be brought to her knees like earlier just because the fight got a little too close to me.

"H-h-ha!" the blond gave a stuttering laugh, and she slashed downwards with one hand as though the idea of her not being hindered by something like her biology was ridiculous. "Just watch and wait and you'll be able to see why I am the strongest of the Sekirei!" she blustered to me. It would have to do.

"Shirou," Homura snapped, and then seemed to decide that since I was being so unreasonable he'd just go over my head. "Akitsu," he turned to the ice user beside me. "You guard Shirou, do you understand? If you let even one Sekirei get close to him then you'll have to answer to me, you got that?"

The ice user beside me rustled, glancing once at her counterpart, and then locking her gaze resolutely ahead without any other response. I could almost hear Homura's teeth grind against each other at the dismissal, but he seemed to interpret the action as an acknowledgment. Akitsu had already shown once today just how protective she was of me when she threatened to kill Tsukiumi, and that combined with her display of her capability to follow through apparently was enough for Homura to chose to gamble on the scrapped number's ability to keep me safe.

I glanced at Musubi, mouth open to give her instructions, but paused. The shrine girl looked like it was taking everything she had not to start a fight on her own. She had both of her hands clenched in front of her chest and was bouncing on the balls of her feet so fast I think her outline might have been blurring a little bit. I grimaced. It looked like anything I said to the battle maniac that was anything other than 'Fight that one' would be lost. It seemed that if I didn't give the girl a target soon that she would lose all patience and chose one for herself.

"Last chance, boy," the secretary across the roof from me declared, his smirk already back in place. "Leave now and perhaps my employer will contact you at a later time. If not…" he trailed off, perhaps meaning to sound ominous or threatening. At his sides his two Sekirei shifted. Something bright shined from beneath the cloaked Sekirei's mantle, and the one in the tie fidgeted nervously.

There were two Sekirei in front of us, two more to our left, and three at our back. This was the enemies' self proclaimed home ground. The man in front of me who was directing this assault had already stated that he worked for yet another Ashikabi, so there were potentially who knows how many more Sekirei in the wings as reinforcement. At the moment I only had three Sekirei with me, and another fourth that was willing to ally with us, and maybe even join my side if this battle went my way. We were outnumbered and in the enemies' territory.

I pointed at the Sekirei beside Kakizaki, the fidgety one with the tie. "Musubi. That one."

"Yes!" the bear Sekirei shrieked in a voice that was so happy it should be criminal considering the circumstances. The tightly coiled Sekirei launched herself with enough force that the roof she had been standing on splintered outward in a web of cracks. I could feel the wind of her passage tug at my clothes, whipping my loose jacket around me. "Number eighty eight! Musubi!" the shrine girl declared immediately afterwards, already having closed half the distance between herself and the target I had selected for her.

The speed of Musubi's charge was so quick that Kakizaki barely had time to put on a startled face before her fists crashed into the unprepared Sekirei she had been unleashed upon. The tie wearing Sekirei reacted better, bringing her hands up into an awkward defensive position before the pink gloves found her. The force of the blow was enough to unleash a small shockwave which caught the secretary off guard, forcing him to stumble back. The cloaked Sekirei moved better, having the superior reaction speeds of her species, and instantly placed herself between the sudden conflict and her Ashikabi. With only the hasty defense the tie wearing Sekirei had erected she was completely off guard and the force of the blow sent her skating away nearly a dozen feet before she recovered her footing. The moment she did, Musubi was on top of her.

"What is that idiot doing?" I heard Tsukiumi mutter, though I kept my eyes solely on the recovering Kakizaki. The secretary had managed to right himself, and was even now adjusting his glasses while directing an angry glare at me. "She's not even giving her enemy the time to give her own name and number!" The water user was right. It seemed as though all of Musubi's pent up excitement had caught up with her and the only thing the battle maniac could think of at the moment was fighting the enemy I had set her on. The tie wearing Sekirei had at least recovered enough for to start attempting to raise some kind of defense against Musubi's whirling wall of fists and knees, but the young looking Sekirei was quite obviously being completely overwhelmed.

"What is that idiot doing?" Homura asked as though the question was ridiculous. "What is this idiot doing! Shirou, what the hell was that?" The flame user looked like he was on the verge of having a stroke when presented with the fact that I had actually had the nerve to initiate the brewing conflict.

"Not now, Homura," I snapped back, my voice hard as I studied the angry secretary. "The three from the rear are moving. Intercept them!" I wanted to tell my second Sekirei that I had a plan, but there simply wasn't time for it. The three were coming and they were coming fast. "Tsukiumi, you as well. Akitsu, stay with me."

"Damn it," the fire user swore. From the corner of my eye I could make out the final glare he gave me, and then he was off, rushing towards the incoming enemy. The roof we were one was long and of irregular height. Taking up nearly a city block in length, it would be more accurate to think of it as numerous roofs, one of those shopping complexes that that was comprised of numerous stores of different sizes that had probably been erected one after the other at different times. The three who were even now approaching were coming across it length wise, from the opposite end that we were currently on. Despite his frustration with my actions Homura turned, his long coat flaring out from behind him as he launched himself up to the next roof, one perhaps three or four feet higher than the one we were standing on, and disappeared from my line of sight.

Rather than follow my instructions Tsukiumi instead whirled to glare at me. "Now see here monkey," the angry blond declared, folding her arms under her chest as she glared at me. "I have no reasons to accept your orders, and if you presume to give them again…"

I didn't have time for this. The battlefield was no place for arguments like these. I snapped my head towards the angry water wielder, and she flinched backwards from my sudden movement. "Please?" I asked her, forcing myself to use the gentlest tone of voice I could manage at the moment. Tsukiumi wasn't my Sekirei yet, and so I really couldn't order her. I knew that, so I did my best to restrain myself, but it didn't change the fact that now really wasn't the time for the two of us to be bickering, not if we were going to make it out of this alive and in one piece.

Considering how the day had been going so far, I honestly expected Tsukiumi to launch into a lecture or a rant about debased monkeys presuming too much. Instead, the water user froze for a second and then began flushing from her forehead down to her chest. "A-a-aah," she managed to get out before she closed her mouth and swallowed hard. I realized that at some point in the conversation with Kakizaki, most likely when we had been preparing to face him down, she had moved to within a half dozen feet of me. While the confrontation had been going on the two of us had both forgotten about it, but this close and with our attention focused solely on each other reaction set in, and it set in hard. Being so near, when Tsukiumi's breath began to come in short pants, I realized something for the first time: there in the middle of an unfolding battle, surrounded by hostile Sekirei, I finally noticed just how beautiful Tsukiumi really was.

Long golden hair, wrapped around her by the whimsical breezes that existed on city rooftops, large clear blue eyes, fair features, smooth skin, tall and thin, and breasts that were only emphasized by the movement of her short breaths. In my dreams, she had always been silhouetted, partially obscured by the surreal nature of the occasions. Before when we were arguing she had been across the roof, and most of the time her features had been set in arrogant or annoying expressions. This close, and wearing a gentle and vulnerable expression as her body sped up in response to my presence, and myself completely unprepared for the revelation, the truth of just how attractive Tsukiumi really was hit me in the back of the head like a blackjack.

I couldn't stop myself from gulping nervously, the noise sounding far too loud in my ears.

"I-I-I will go c-c-catch up with Homura," the water user announced, taking a stumbling step backwards as she did so to put some distance between the two of us. "It wouldn't be satisfying to just let my rival claim all the glory." She swallowed, and finally turned away. "Y-y-you just stay here and watch me," she told me before she leapt up and onto the nearby roof before pausing. She spun around, and her face looked less red and more confident with the increased distance. "M-make sure you look very carefully, Ashikabi!" she ordered me again, putting one hand on her hip and pointing the other at me in what I was beginning to recognize as her signature pose. Still a little numb from my sudden and unexpected realization I nodded dumbly at her. She seemed inordinately pleased by my muteness and smiled down at me proudly one last time before whirling to join the battle Homura had already begun.

Despite the fact that I really should be paying attention to the other Ashikabi on the field, my eyes lingered on the conflict that unfolded upon Tsukiumi's arrival. Homura had managed to catch the three incoming Sekirei off guard while I was trying to convince the reluctant water user to follow the plan. He had conjured some sort of wall of flame between them and where the rest of us were still gathered. I winced at the wide scale attack. It brought about old memories of a certain other conflagration. I had a moment to wonder if I should call the fire department now in order to contain the blaze from spreading, but before that thought was anything more than a forming idea I noticed the effect the flame was having on the roof itself: none. No scorch marks were forming, no streamers of fire were spreading. Even as Tsukiumi closed in on the combat and the flames began to die away the roof remained completely untouched, bearing not one mark that it had only seconds ago been an inferno.

It was every bit as unreal to see as Tsukiumi's ability to call entire rivers from the empty air around her. I had never even heard of that kind of control among magi's who used the same element. Sure, a magi might be able to summon a fire and then put it out or control it as they wished, but to not leave even the faintest of scorch marks afterwards? It was a fantastic concept and it left me shaking my head in wonder.

Homura's first move seemed to have been enough to break the enemies' charge long enough for him to engage the three newcomers simultaneously. All three of them were female and clad in garments every bit as outlandish as I had come to expect from the species. One of them, with long hair tied up in a thin ribbon and wearing some kind of backless kunoichi outfit launched a lightning fast roundhouse at the male, which was ducked under easily and countered with a ball of fire that she dodged by leaping over with a spin. A second, wearing a brief looking top that barely covered her modest chest and was supported by a single strap along with a thick belt and long black pants and wielding a set of tonfa, came in low, sweeping at Homura's feet. It was his turn to take to the air, his coat spinning about him as he dodged the strike, only for both his hands to light up and dart at the air. The third member of the ambushers, this one clad in what looked like a bikini brief bottom and belt combined with striped shirt, sleeves, and socks, had stayed back and thrown what appeared to be a set of knives bound to long thick cords that tied around her wrist at the fire user while he was in mid air. With the ambush blocked it was the kunoichi's turn again, appearing above the still airborne Homura in an attempt to kick him which once more was met with fire.

Even as the kunoichi tried to press her attack it was her turn to be blindsided, a bullet of water catching her hard in the side, forcing her away from the fire user. When she touched down it was to discover that Tsukiumi was now blocking her way proudly. "You craven bitches! You think that three on one will be enough to make up for your weakness? If so I, number zero nine, Tsukiumi, will show you your error!"

"Number seventy nine, Kurenai," was the kunoichi's response, and then the two of them were battling as well. Kurenai's leg came for Tsukiumi's head with the speed of her race and was met by a spontaneously formed wall of water, stopping her completely. Tsukiumi smirked proudly at the halted enemy's attack, but when she opened her mouth to boast she had to shut it with a clack as she leapt back. She barely managed to dodge the knife the striped Sekirei had thrown at her from the side, though it looked like the water user's coat and tunic hadn't been quite so lucky. A small tear opened on both the garments, though from what I could see Tsukiumi herself remained untouched. When the enraged water user turned to confront the new threat, she was again forced to dodge as the kunoichi closed in to take the offensive.

Even as Tsukiumi was confronting her tag teaming opponents Homura was still engaged with the tonfa user. The minimally dressed Sekirei was doing her level best to attempt to strike the fire user, but every attack was met with white hot bursts of fire. The Sekirei Guardian was attempting to use his flames to disengage from his opponent, but the tonfa wielder was sticking to him as hard as she could.

As the battle unfolded before me I shook off my earlier inappropriately timed revelation so that I could focus on it. It was the first time I had actually seen Sekirei fight. The closest I had come to being able to see just how dangerous these battles would be had been when I had engaged number forty three, and that hadn't been very effective. I had dominated that battle from the beginning, despite the terminated Sekirei's greater strength and speed. She had been unprepared for the assault, confused by my unexpected skill, and in the end my bloodthirsty assault had broken her nerves and left her capable of doing nothing but begging me to leave.

Now I was watching five Sekirei, seven including Musubi and her opponent, in the midst of what I could truly assume would be an example of what I could expect from the rest of the Plan.

It was strangely disappointing.

Yes, the Sekirei were fast, faster than most humans could ever hope to compare to. Strong too. Even as I glanced away from the five way combat and back to where Musubi was still engaging the tie wearing Sekirei I caught sight of one of Musubi's fists cratering a good portion of the roof as it missed her target. The force of the punch collapsed a circle with nearly a foot and a half radius and it didn't even look as though the shrine girl was trying very hard. Her opponent already appeared like she was on her last leg, bruised and panting as she desperately tried to fend off my relentless Sekirei. More than just their physical abilities their esoteric ones were equally impressive. The way that Homura and Tsukiumi wielded their elements was beyond the ability of most magi to even dream of emulating.

What was lacking in this conflict, what made me lower my eyes in regret, was skill.

In the Grail War each of the Servants had been legends; people of such skill and power that their names echoed for centuries, sometimes even millennia, long after their eventual ends. The only possible exception had been Archer, and that was because the Heroic Spirit Emiya had carved his name into history at some point in a future that has not yet happened. Even then, afterwards, how long would his legend have echoed? These people, brought forth from the Throne of Heroes, empowered by their new forms as Heroic Spirits, had been creatures of terrifying skill and power. Perhaps it wasn't fair to compare them to the Sekirei because of this, but after having witnessed battles at that scale this felt more like a schoolyard scrap than an actual war.

It made me hate MBI just a little bit more.

Number forty three, Yomi, the Sekirei I had nearly killed had ended her part in the game screaming at me to get away. I understood why now. The Type-Sekirei weren't warriors. They were just a desperate species that had limited itself so that it could cohabitate with the dominate but weaker species called Humanity. They didn't seek partners in order to be able to better battle, they sought them so they could, as Musubi was so fond of saying, find love. When they were released it had been without training or preparation for the conflicts to come. Yomi hadn't been a warrior willing to confront death on the battlefield. She had been a girl who was just trying to please her mate by obeying what he commanded her to do, even if she had been ruthless in doing so. In the end, when confronted by something willing to kill her she had been able to do nothing more but panic and lash out in confusion, and when she had fallen she had only had strength to call out desperately for her master one last time.

I only had a moment to feel regret that this battle was occurring, but then I hardened my heart and raised my eyes. In the end, for all the perversity behind it, this battle WAS occurring.

And I was going to win it.

As it stood now, Musubi was probably almost finished with her opponent. Homura and Tsukiumi were both handling their fights well. Their opponents were attacking ruthlessly, but they were holding them off easily. For all that the enemy Sekirei were vicious in their attempts, the knife wielder in particular relentlessly targeting areas which would incapacitate or even kill if they struck, they were simply outclassed. It looked as though those rumors about single digits being more powerful were true. The only reason that the three outclassed Sekirei hadn't been defeated yet was due to the fact that both the more powerful opponents appeared to be trying to limit the damage they did. If Homura were to simply incinerate his opponent it would be over in a heartbeat, and Tsukiumi appeared to be trying to defeat her two foes honorably. If she were to level an attack like the one she had tried to use on me at the two they wouldn't stand a chance.

And when I turned back to Kakizaki, I could tell the secretary knew it as well. He wasn't smiling any more. Instead he had a scowl on his face, his narrowed eyes flicking from me to the fight behind me. Good.

There was a reason I had Musubi attack first, and it wasn't just because I was worried the girl was going to pop if she didn't get some action soon. The truth was that for however well we were doing at the moment my side of the conflict was in a very disadvantageous position being out numbered and in enemy territory. More than that, we absolutely had to win this battle. Right now there were eleven Sekirei gathered together in this location. That was over one tenth of all the participants in the Sekirei Plan. From what I knew from talking with Matsu and Homura Ashikabi having more than one Sekirei were rare, so it was highly unlikely anything like this had occurred yet.

This was quite possibly the largest battle the Sekirei plan had witnessed so far.

I needed to win in order to set a precedent. Whoever this 'Ashikabi of the East' was, he had devised an effective and ruthless method for hunting down Sekirei and Ashikabi. Considering the number of Sekirei he seemed to have in his possession, most likely acquired in the same way they had been planning to acquire Tsukiumi and I, that meant he was used to this tactic working. It still could. Despite the fact that my side had superior strength, we were still against nearly two to one odds. If they managed to arrange to get three, or even four on one against one of the single digits then they could almost certainly manage to overpower their target with minimal casualties and then turn on the survivor and repeat the tactic.

Kakizaki's confidence hadn't been unreasonable, and thus I had needed to shake him. By seizing the initiative I had thrown him off his game. He had been expecting me to attempt to flee, or maybe negotiate, and in the end he had thought that I would give in to his demands or play a defensive game while retreating. Suddenly having a battle erupt no more than a few feet away from him had shocked him, and now he was watching Tsukiumi and Homura hold off his ambush easily. He had probably been aware of how powerful Tsukiumi was, but he had had no idea of Homura's capabilities. He hadn't expected me to already be in the possession of a single digit and had most likely thought he would be able to steam roll right through us.

The moment Musubi had attacked I had taken the offensive, and with that I was now in control of the flow of the battle. It was a position that I was intimately familiar with. My entire sword style was based on controlling my opponent's attacks after all.

As the fight behind me continued, I could see sweat starting to form on the secretary's forehead. His eyes continued dart between me and the five fighting Sekirei. Nearby Musubi had nearly finished her opponent, the fidgety tie girl proving to be simply incapable of dealing with the battle maniac's zeal. The moment the tie wearer fell, I would have a third Sekirei to add to the fight behind me, evening it out completely. His advantage of quantity was falling, and it was abundantly clear that I had the advantage of quality.

And still he did nothing more than sweat nervously. Why? Why was that? It was my turn to narrow my eyes. He should have known already that the battle wasn't going his way. Was he really just too inexperienced to see it and was simply assuming that he still had the advantage? By now he should have already ordered the next logical step: after all, the two Sekirei to our left were still standing by. If he were to add the two to the battle behind me, then he could potentially turn the tables there.

It wasn't until his eyes flickered to me once more that I realized that it wasn't ME he was looking at. In her usual position behind me, Akitsu shifted, the rattling of chains clear even over the noise of the conflict surrounding me.

So that's what was worrying him: the fact that I had reinforcements of my own to deploy. Now the question was why? He hadn't been prepared for Homura's power, so was he now made nervous by the possibility that my last Sekirei might be equally strong? Or maybe he had recognized the symbol on her forehead as having marked the snow woman as a scrapped number? How infamous were the scrapped? When I had arrived at Izumo House Uzume and Miya had both known what it had meant instantly. But then again, just a few minutes ago Tsukiumi hadn't known Akitsu was scrapped until Homura had pointed it out himself. No, that didn't matter. Even if he didn't know how powerful the statue at my left was, she was still a Sekirei and that alone meant that would have some kind of ability. Was he worried that I would use her to attack him? That could be it. He was the sort that would freely attack Ashikabi with Sekirei, so he could be assuming that I might be the type as well.

It didn't matter in the end. As beads of sweat trickled into Kakizaki's eyes, causing him to reach up unconsciously to try to clear them the hooded figure next to him seemed to finally have enough. "Kakizaki," it snapped in a female voice. "If this keeps up we'll lose the unwinged Sekirei." The tone of the previously silent Sekirei surprised me. I wouldn't have suspected that someone who went around forcibly winging Sekirei would be willing to let one of their subordinates speak to them in such a disrespectful tone. Kakizaki took the opportunity of his hand being near his eyes to readjust his glasses.

"Yes," he admitted, not correcting the impudent Sekirei's manner of addressing him at all. "You better go help the others with number zero nine, Oriha."

What?

"About time!" the impatient Sekirei declared, reaching up to tear her cloak off. Beneath it she was wearing some kind of white dress with what looked like some kind of corset attached around her waist and hanging down her back like a second skirt. With the concealing fabric gone, she revealed her weapons as well; hanging as though set in the air around her were a collection of chakram, razor sharp throwing discs that looked like nothing more than rotary saw blades. I felt a brief moment of curiosity at the way they managed to stay airborne without any noticeable method. Was it some kind of wind ability? Or perhaps some kind of telekinetic skill? I already knew Sekirei were psychic to some extent, but I hadn't thought that went any further than the minor sensing and projecting skills needed for the species to seek out their mates. Without another word the young looking girl being orbited by throwing blades leapt, straight over my head and directly into the battle behind me.

I dismissed my idle curiosity over her abilities and focused on just what the hell was going on. I had been expecting Kakizaki to call reinforcements in, but not like this. Without that Sekirei, Oriha, beside him he was now completely unprotected against my own reserves still standing at my side. Was it some kind of ploy to shake me just like I had done to him earlier through Musubi? Did he have some method of protecting himself against Akitsu's attack that I wasn't aware of? Or was he counting on the two still in reserve to come down and protect him if needed? He must know the recklessness of that course. The two final reserves were a lot further away then Akitsu was. The snow woman could be on him in a heartbeat. Hell, I could be on him in a heartbeat if I needed to be.

It actually took me a second to figure out the truth, and when I did I nearly started to laugh. It took an effort to keep my expression stern.

He actually thought that I wouldn't attack him! It was absurd! It was ridiculous! Here, a man all too well aware of just how precarious an Ashikabi's position was, who employed deliberate strategies against them in fact, and he honestly didn't believe that I would come after him! He really thought that he was the only one who was capable of using such tactics!

It was the most hopelessly naïve thing I had ever witnessed. Was he really so self absorbed, so pretentiously arrogant, that he truly believed he was the only one in the Plan capable of using such underhanded tactics?

This was the level of the opponents I had been prepared to recreate the brutality of the Grail War upon?

I didn't even bother to continue studying him. He had made his move to attempt to regain the initiative of the battle. Oriha had already joined the two others on her side in attacking Tsukiumi. The water user had very nearly been caught off guard, but she managed to dodge it somehow. Kurenai was still doing her best to stay as close to the outnumbered water user as possible, and when the chakram user joined in the beleaguered number zero nine was now facing two opponents sniping at her. Having to defend herself from the close combat specialist while simultaneously dodging the two long rang Sekirei was taking its toll on the water user. Tsukiumi was managing to stay ahead of the attacks and remained unharmed, but the constant assault of blades was taking its toll on her clothing. Her long coat was shredded in places now, and if this still hadn't been a combat zone I would have had no choice but to blush and turn away from just how much of her tunic had been destroyed; she had been reduced to a few strips of cloth to preserve the modesty of her chest, and the new holes in the bottom were revealing her modest white panties to the world no matter what she did.

Still, she was holding out admirably despite the forces aligned against her. The tonfa user facing Homura was almost defeated. She had already lost one of her weapons and was far worse off than even Tsukiumi when it came to the battle to preserve her modesty. Her top was long gone by now, nothing more than cinders and her pants were missing most of one leg. With Tsukiumi now facing three to one odds it seemed that Homura's patience was finally about to run out. He had been taking it easy on his opponent so far, and seemed to have been trying to target his opponent's crest. From what I knew such a thing would result in an instant and painless win for the flame user, resulting in what would probably have been a level two termination. Now though it looked like he was finally willing to resort to however much violence it would take to simply incapacitate his opponent, a level three, maybe even a level four termination if he went too far. It would only take a small amount of time, and then he would be free to take on the snipers that were pressing Tsukiumi. If Oriha's addition was supposed to change the flow of combat, than it had failed. The only the thing that could stop the rout from happening at this point would be if Kakizaki committed all his reserves to the fight.

And yet, the two still did not move.

There must be something I was missing. Were the two perhaps unaffiliated with these five? No. When I had listed their presence earlier he hadn't shown any surprise at them being included. That meant he knew they were there. Were they just observers? Maybe meant to report back to this man's employer if things went wrong like they were right now? But then wouldn't they have left already? It should be obvious that the way things were going I would win. They must be here for something else. Think Shirou. What were there objectives? Tsukiumi for one. I didn't think it was coincidence that she was the one facing three opponents while Homura and Musubi were both left facing one. If anything Oriha should have attacked the shrine girl if they simply wanted to win. Musubi was the one closest after all, and she was so focused on the fight in front of her that I doubt she would notice a sneak attack until it was too late. If the chakram user had gone after Homura she would have probably saved the tonfa user from the total defeat she was heading towards. But then, why weren't the two launching a surprise attack at Tsukiumi right now? She was barely holding her own against three, and five would finish her almost instantly. The answer must lay in my own reserves. Kakizaki was still eying Akitsu warily. Did they have any other objectives?

That's when it hit me. Yeah, they had one more target in the match.

Now, how to respond….

"Akitsu," I spoke up, and the snow woman next to me tilted her head, studying me carefully. "Support Tsukiumi. Target the two long range fighters. Take them out of the game." The blond had been a stickler for the rules so far, adamantly announcing her name and number before every fight, and being generally outraged whenever the courtesy wasn't returned. She would probably be upset if I had Akitsu attack the kunoichi Sekirei directly. Kurenai had been the only other one to follow the rules so far, so Tsukiumi probably only considered her the true opponent.

"Yes, Shirou-sama," Akitsu murmured, and then she moved. One second she was in her normal waiting pose, and then she crouched low and launched herself into the air every bit as fast as Musubi had been when she had jumped the tie wearer earlier. Her arms trailed behind her like normal and icicles began to form with frightening speed as she ascended. When she reached the apex of her leap, she finally moved her arms, swinging both of them in front of her until they crossed and her hands framed her face as she hung in the sky. Then she swept them both down and unleashed a frozen hell upon her targets. The icicles launched themselves like bullets, two streams that screamed down on the striped Sekirei and the chakram user. I don't know how they managed to figure out what was coming, but in the same way as Yomi had somehow managed to block my first strike the two dodged.

It wasn't enough. They had obviously expected the sharp points of the icicles to be the extent of the attack, but everywhere the daggers of frost landed exploded, sharp crystalline formations erupting like twisted vegetation from the ground. The striped Sekirei screamed as one of those formations struck her, tearing away at her shirt and cutting the flesh underneath before the force of the strike launched her away. Oriha had apparently dodged a little further than her less lucky counterpart, and thus she had a fraction of a second to find purchase on the ground before she made a second leap. The stream of icicles followed her, and despite the fact that she managed to escape unharmed, her long flowing dress was snagged and large strips of it were torn off of her.

By the time Akitsu alighted on the roof between the two, landing in a crouch with one leg revealed nearly completely through the slit in her kimono's skirt, the striped Sekirei had barely managed to get to her knees and the knife throwers expression was pained as she did so. The chakram Sekirei was biting one thumb in frustration and already launching a chakram at the newest participant in the battle. It was too late by then. Akitsu already had her hands up once more to frame her face and a swarm of her signature attacks were already formed around her. The second wave once more split into two, one stream going towards the still recovering striped Sekirei, the other again at Oriha. The chakram user desperately dodged to the side, one of her chakram clutched in each hand as she swerved and batted away at the frozen hornets attempting to sting her. The striped Sekirei had no such opportunity, and all she could do was desperately try to cover her face with her fanned blades as the flying shards of winter closed in on her. Everywhere they struck they cut through her already damaged clothes and flesh, splashing bright trails of blood as they did so. She lasted for only a second, and then she collapsed backwards, unmoving.

The battle was now strictly one on one, and yet neither Tsukiumi nor Homura seemed particularly happy with the occurrence.

"Do not think I required such assistance!" the water user snapped, apparently unhappy that the ice user had thought she needed help. "I had everything perfectly under control as it was!" Despite the fact that she had been outnumbered and on the run, and that her clothing had one foot over the line of being completely useless, she refused to offer any words of thanks. I had to suppress a sigh; definitely a tsundere.

Homura had a different reason for being upset. "You idiot!" he shouted at the ice Sekirei who was already turning her attention away from the fallen knife thrower and directing it solely at the chakram user. "What are you thinking? Get out of here!" He nearly missed a block of the tonfa user that had tried to take advantage of his distraction but he ducked in time.

"Master's orders were to defeat these two," Akitsu explained herself softly, a circle of frost forming around her once more as her Sekirei power ran rampant.

Homura erupted in flames, literally. Unlike Tsukiumi's streamers or Akitsu's daggers, his element formed directly about him, sheathing him in a corona of fire that seemed to refuse to actually touch him. "Get back to Shirou! He's unprotected no-," was as far as he got before his eyes widened. "Shirou!" he shouted, his voice high with worry. "Behind you!"

The war party we were facing had already admitted to two objectives: Tsukiumi, yes, but myself as well. The reason that Tsukiumi had been singled out was because their primary purpose was in capturing her, maybe even simply eliminating her if capture proved impossible. That had been what the team of three was for. The other two hadn't interfered because their only objective was me. They had most likely been biding time until they could attack me, but there had been one obstacle in their way: Akitsu. The moment I had sent her into the fray, they had made their move.

With so many Sekirei gathered it served as a screen on my ability to sense Sekirei. However, even as I spun to face the two aliens at my back, my eyes managing to catch the triumphant look that had returned to Kakizaki's face as his plan came to fruition, I was finally able to get a precise lock onto the power of the two who were confronting me. It was musky and thick, and at the same time bitter. It took me a second to identify it, even as I caught sight of the wide smirks on the two ambusher's faces. The scent was that of arousal. I had seen smirks like those before. They reminded me of Gilgamesh, right before he had torn Illyasviel's heart out of her chest with his bare hands. They were the expressions of someone who was about to unleash great amounts of agony and death on their targets, and they were going to enjoy doing it. These two were going to hurt me, maybe kill me, and they were going to get off on it while they did so.

In the back of my head, in the imaginary place where I kept the trigger to my magecraft, the lever of a cocked gun went off and od flooded through my body.

Trace on.

Power flooded through me, leaking from my circuits and into my flesh as my body reinforced itself. My hands, already on the two edges of the bundle on my back similarly flooded with power. Reinforcement was simultaneously one of the easiest and yet at the same time most complicated magecrafts out there. On one hand, it was easy to put od into a vessel. It sank into the imperfections of whatever was being reinforced and made it stronger, better. The problem was, there was no way of knowing just how much power a vessel could hold, and if too much was placed within then the vessel would shatter. It's one of the reasons why reinforcing ones one body was considered such a difficult and dangerous ability. Most people would experiment with it slightly before discarding it as a technique completely in favor of other less risky ways to amplify their own abilities. I on the other hand had stuck with it, slowly increasing the certainty of the amount my body could handle. I still didn't think I had found the limits of what I could stand, but if I ever did than I would have achieved a skill which most magi could never dream of, perfect self reinforcement. Even as I carefully strengthened myself, I carelessly flooded the bundle with more od than something three times its size would be able to handle. The moment my fingers touched the cloth it ripped apart and my hands instead found the grips of my twin swords, Kanshou and Bakuya.

The two Sekirei coming at me looked older than most of the rest that Kakizaki had fielded. Their bodies were taller and the figures more mature. The first, launching herself at me feet first in the air, was decked out in some kind of purple, yellow, and black outfit that wrapped around her like some kind of harlequin costume. Portions of her midriff, her sides, her arms, even the outer portions of her thighs were exposed, while the rest was checkered back and forth with purple and yellow. She had long black thigh high boots and short black gloves to finish it. She was also probably the first Sekirei I had come across had scorned long hair and instead she kept hers less than an inch long, framing her skull closely. The second had long black hair that almost looked like it had a green highlight to it, the same way Akitsu's sometimes shown blue in the right light. She had long black gloves and boots which were attached to leather straps that led to a belt placed high on her hips like some kind of demented garter belt. Beneath she had on a mostly blue outfit that looked like the kind of thing I would expect to find on some kind of pinup that was displaying themselves on a car or a motorcycle. It was two parts, a set of short shorts and a cleavage baring top that had a white stripe on the very top of it. She was carrying a long red lance as she raced low to the ground, a few feet behind her mid air partner.

My back was still mostly to the leaping Sekirei when she finally struck me. Rather than try to dodge, I simply adjusted the flat of one of my overlapping twin swords so that her sharp looking boots planted themselves on the black steel of Kanshou instead of in my side like she had been aiming. The force of the kick was enough to force me to take a step, but that was all. Instead of stumbling I set my feet, bending my knees under the impact to absorb as much of it as I could. The attacking Sekirei barely had a moment to look surprised at the fact that I wasn't flying across the roof with the force of her attack and then I straightened my legs and put my shoulder to Bakuya, still underneath it's twin, and shoved her hard through my blades. Mid air and caught off guard she had no way to recover herself as she was repulsed. Even as she began her rebound flight my eyes tried to find the second Sekirei, the lance user, and I realized I had lost track of her during the second where the harlequin had mostly blocked my vision. If she had darted to the left or to the right, then I would have caught her with my peripheral sight. So that meant… I glanced up, and found my face full of light surrounding a hazy silhouette as the lance user came down with the sun at her back to blind me.

Really? That was the best you could do? Why not just tell me my shoes were untied, or glue a five hundred yen coin to the ground wait till I was bent over to kick me in the rear? I'm pretty sure both of those were just as old a trick.

However fast she might be while running, once in the air she was limited by gravity. It meant I had a moment to finally pull both my blades away from my back. I kept one eye closed to preserve my sight as I used the other to make my best judgment of her position, and then I showed her my counter to her little trick: Bakuya. I turned the gleaming white sword flat, and I was rewarded with a grunt of surprise as light reflected from the steel did the same to her as she had been trying to do to me. Now with both of us blind I used the sound of her surprise and my own hazy estimation of her position to dodge quickly to the side. Still blinded and unprepared, not to mention unable to change her course mid leap, she crashed down into the ground I had been standing on moments ago, cratering the roof around the point of her lance by a good two feet in every direction.

I opened my eye, the one I had tried to preserve my vision with, and saw that she had been holding high on her weapon, nearly wrapping herself around the lance in order to put all her weight into the thrust. Shaking her head to clear her own vision she regained enough of her sight in time for her to catch sight of Kanshou as it sought to cut her head from her body. She managed to leap free, launching herself backwards in time to save her life, but the black blade didn't let her go undamaged. The leap had put her neck out of my swing but had instead let me catch her torso. She managed to avoid a fatal strike by twisting, but I carved a wound at least a half inch deep into her, starting at just below her arm pit and ending right at the edge of her ribs. She cried out, a stifled sound of pain, and then the harlequin was on me again.

The two moved together well, with a sense of a practiced routine. Just like before when the harlequin had blocked my vision so the lancer could attack now the harlequin used the lancer as a smokescreen. Even as the now wounded Sekirei twisted out of the way the short haired alien came in her foot lancing at my head in a snap kick. She was fast, and with Kanshou still across my body I wouldn't be able to block properly. Instead I spun, using the lingering force of my attack to force myself to move fast enough to keep from being hit. Bakuya traced an arc behind me as I did so, and the kicker was forced to dodge in return. Instead of just moving out of the way she actually leaped over my sword, arching herself like some kind of insane pole-vaulter. The moment her hands came in contact with the ground I could hear the cement of the ceiling cracking as she dug her fingers into it, making purchase where there should be none. With her fingers as an anchor she spun herself, her feet wide as they whipped through the air like some kind of demented top. Even as she did so, movement from the corner of my eye alerted me that the lancer was coming as well. She had one hand clutching the wound in her side, holding it closed to keep her flesh from stretching even further apart as she moved, but her other hand still had a firm grip on her weapon. She came in low, aiming at my feet in a sweeping strike. If I didn't move quickly then I would be scissored by the two attacks, the lance coming in low to throw me further off balance and the leg high to send me flying. I was already reeling, my torso far over my center of balance from my earlier dodge and Kanshou held too low for me to use it properly in time. Bakuya was still in a position where it would be effective against the incoming leg, but with my posture there was a chance that the force of the kick might simply disarm me, tearing the hilt from my grip.

Sometimes wielding two weapons was a real pain in the ass. Strengthening my off arm until it could keep up with my dominant arm, sharpening my reflexes until I could fight properly with either side, the sheer effort it took in order to create a style that let me effectively use either weapon for offense or defense interchangeably, all of that had taken more blood, sweat, and tears then I was really comfortable admitting upon reflection.

And then something like this happened, and it made all the pain worthwhile.

I buried Kanshou point first into the rooftop beside me. The carefully reconstructed Noble Phantasm sank in easily, and I used it as a crutch to right my balance. Then, rather than try to recover the weapon sank into the earth, I simply left it there, using my now free right hand to support the back of Bakuya. The lancer's attack, which should have caught me in my legs and off balance found itself coming into contact with the buried blade's edge instead of its target. Kanshou was a legendary blade, and I knew well just how sharp it truly was. When the thin shaft of the lance encountered it, the edge bit deeply into whatever material the red weapon had been made out of. Then, with the inhuman force behind the blow supplying the pressure, the Sekirei in blue's weapon snapped. At the same time, the back of the harlequin's leg discovered that the sword that should have been knocked aside was instead supported with my full balance and both hands.

The impact of her flesh and my weapon was harder than I had thought it would be. I had half hoped that the same thing that would happen to the lance would happen to the limb and her own power would just sever the limb. Instead the sharp point met surprising resistance. It seemed that the long boots the kicker wore were more than just fashion accessories. It made sense, in a way. If I were trying to fight a weapon user with just my body I would want some kind of armor to protect my poor squishy meat. But the sheer force of her kick combined with the strength of my resistance proved enough to overcome whatever armor she was using. The defensive measure had been enough to keep me from removing the limb completely, and instead I only managed to force Bakuya about halfway through, severing her tendons and muscles and finally burying itself in the bone of her calf.

The harlequin in front of me wasn't able to stifle her scream of agony when I effectively destroyed her leg's ability to move below where Bakuya had cut into her the same way that the lancer had when I had carved open her side. The Sekirei in blue, whose weapon had been rendered just as useless, tensed at the sound of her comrade's agony. "Ichiya!" the lancer snapped, and despite the fact that her weapon was mostly useless she launched herself at me directly. With both hands on Bakuya, I had no choice but to dodge out of the way, twisting the blade brutally in order to both do as much damage as I could while simultaneously freeing the weapon as well. For all that sticking a sword into someone usually meant that the sword wielder had won it also tended to leave the swordsman in a dangerous position afterwards. Once a sword was in the victim's body acted as a natural trap, making the time spent freeing it an opportune moment for enemies to attack. If I still had Kanshou I would be able to elimanate that window of opportunity, but I didn't have time to pull the black sword free. If it had just been the three of us here I could bypass even that weakness by simply tracing a new copy, but there was no chance of doing that now, not with so many onlookers.

I barely managed to free Bakuya in time before the Sekirei was on me, but instead of pressing her attack she instead wrapped her arm around her partner's waist and leapt backwards, putting distance between themselves and me. Rather than chase I instead took the moment to recover Kanshou, spinning to face the two in my ready stance, arms at my side and blades held upright and away from my body.

It was a position which invited them to attack, taunted them with the lethal openings I displayed to them, and then when they tried to take what I offered it would be the position that cut them down. That was, after all, my style. It was the reason I had sent Akitsu away despite knowing that it would cause these two to try and take advantage of my unguarded state. I had wanted them to come, and now all that was left was for me to finish them.

The entire frantic exchange had lasted less than thirty seconds and had consisted of no more than a dozen movements on both our sides combined. A few scraps of cloth from the bundle I had shredded hadn't even managed to hit the ground yet. The end result was the blue Sekirei's lance being destroyed, her top rendered useless, a wound that would most likely take dozens of stitches to fix, and the harlequin's leg being nothing more than a lump attached to her knee.

"Holy shit," was the first indication that the silence that had fallen over the building top was something other than my intense concentration on my two enemies simply blocking the background noise from my perception. Rather than turn my back on the two wounded enemies I lifted Bakuya a little higher, using the reflective surface as a mirror to see what was happening behind me. The blood dripping down its length interfered, but I was able to make out the most of it. Homura was at the edge of the elevated portion of the roof where his battle had been taken place earlier, and he was presumably the one who had sworn earlier. Behind him his enemy was finally defeated, a large swathe of charred flesh covering her side. If I were to hazard a guess based on what I knew of his character he had most likely seen the two Sekirei attempt to ambush me and had finally lost his patience with his opponent. I knew damn well that the fire user was powerful, and in his rush to protect me he had most likely just swatted the tonfa user that had been fighting him aside like a bug in order to get her out of his way. Tsukiumi and her opponent were both standing perfectly still and seemed to have forgotten their long standing battle in favor of gawking at me. The kunoichi, Kurenai, had wide eyes as though the very idea of what she had seen was so preposterous that it must have been some kind of illusion. Tsukiumi's expression was, well, actually kind of funny. She had gone completely red in the cheeks, her mouth had dropped open, and her eyelids were twitching at a rather impressive rate. She had one hand up and pointing at me while the other was hanging slack at her sides.

There was a rustle of movement in my blade and I adjusted it in time to find Akitsu landing behind me in a crouch. On the roof both of the targets I had assigned her were laying perfectly still. It seemed that with her objectives fulfilled she had not wasted any time returning to her usual post. Still crouching, the snow woman spoke up. "Mission complete, master," she told me softly. I nodded once, and she stood, slipping into my shadow with the ease and comfort of long practice.

That left only one of my flock unaccounted for. I let Bakuya lower, my eyes drifting to a location to my front but also a bit to the side and away from my recent battleground. The tie wearing Sekirei whom never even had a chance to identify herself lay still on the ground. At some point in the battle her brief white shirt had been torn off her, and with her back to me I could see the empty spot where her crest should have been. Above her Musubi stood so still she reminded me eerily of Akitsu, the shrine girl's expression firm as she waited, patiently staring at the fallen member of her race. It was such an unusual stance for her that it took me a moment to realize what she was doing. That's right. It was a custom to guard the bodies of fallen Sekirei until MBI could be mustered to pick them up.

That left only four enemies remaining: the still frozen Kurenai, the wounded duo in front of me, and Kakizaki. The secretary was still in the same spot I had last seen him, at the edge of the roof besides the strange shed thing. I almost didn't recognize him for a second, what with how white his face was, or the fact that his previously arrogant posture had been replaced with something that could most accurately be described as cowering.

"What the hell are you?" his voice cracked half way through his strangled question. His question made me pause for a moment. Where had I heard something like that before? The sheer disbelief in his voice, the absolute shock shared not just by him but by everyone else who had just witnessed something they had thought was completely impossible: an Ashikabi standing up to not just one but two Sekirei simultaneously.

"It's fine to assume that the Ashikabi's role is to support from the back," I told him, echoing the words that had once shaken me to my very core so long ago after I witnessed a simple human match the Servant of the Sword bare handed, "but there are always exceptions. There are some Ashikabi who can only fight head on."

From the expression on Kakizaki's face it had the same impact on him that it had on me.

This was it. The battle was over. Despite having overwhelming numbers and having been on his home ground we had beaten him completely. He had three Sekirei left, and two of them were either crippled or disarmed. The final one was facing a single digit that had already managed to hold her off even when she had the support of two other Sekirei with her.

And it was a complete disaster in my book. I had only wanted to meet with an unwinged Sekirei in order to address our mutual reaction. I hadn't wanted to infringe on what was apparently a powerful Ashikabi's territory, nor did I want to reveal either mine or my Sekirei's abilities. There went my plans for hiding in anonymity until it came time to strike and then disappearing into shadows until the next time I needed to move. Even if I finished off every other participant here, that would leave seven Sekirei and one Ashikabi removed from the game, and that would turn heads, one way or another. From the way Musubi was resolutely ignoring the entire ongoings around her in order to guard her fallen enemy I don't think I'd even have the option of finishing the rest off and then disappearing to leave no name attached to this massacre. Someone was going to find out that I had been the one behind all this.

Well then. If refuge in anonymity won't work, then I guess it'll have to be refuge in audacity.

"It's against the rules for Sekirei to attack Ashikabi," I began, my voice cold. "Just as it is for the matches to be anything but one on one." I leveled a blank stare at the Ashikabi across from me. "However," I continued, "it isn't against the rules for another Ashikabi to attack an Ashikabi." The secretary's eyes widened as he realized where I was going with this. "First, I'm going to finish these two," I declared, raising my two swords to point at my wounded enemies. Then I brought the blades down quickly to the side, shedding the blood that soaked both of them to the sides in a spray that painted twin lines of crimson on the roof beside me. "Then, I'm going to kill you," I told him bluntly.

I was aiming for intimidation. I had already defeated Kakizaki's forces. Now I wanted to defeat his spirit. I wanted him to break and run, and then to spread the story of the murderous and terrifying Ashikabi that existed out there to everyone involved in the game who asked him. I had originally hoped to be like Lancer had been during the Grail War: an enigmatic figure that appeared and disappeared at will, a terrifying specter that couldn't be predicted or found. Instead, I'd have to settle for being the Berserker of this game; the unstoppable juggernaut that while easily located was incomprehensible to confront. I had the potential for the role. With Akitsu and Homura both being powerful elemental Sekirei, Musubi being a strong unarmed fighter on her own, combined with the intelligence that Matsu brought to the group, and my own combat potential, I was very much in the position to set myself as a figure that most other Ashikabi would avoid at all costs. What I needed to complete that was the reputation. Even if another Ashikabi had a powerful Sekirei, or even if multiple partners could manage to work together, if I had the reputation as being unstoppable that alone would be enough to ward most other challengers off.

In order to get that reputation, in order to buy myself the space I would need to maneuver away from the public eye, in order to scare away every two bit challenger who thought that simply having been selected by one of the Type-Sekirei was proof enough that they were hot shit and capable of taking on the world, I would do exactly as I had announced.

I had been aiming for intimidation. Against Kakizaki, it seemed to work. The secretary's breathing sped up to the point where he was nearly hyperventilating.

Against the two Sekirei I had just disengaged from, it didn't seem to be as effective. Despite the fact that the two were wounded, that one was crippled, and the other was disarmed, I felt the scent of their power increase in intensity. It took me a moment to realize that the arousal I smelt in the air wasn't just me sensing the two gathering their strength for our final battle; it was a genuine odor.

Judging from the return of their previous sadistic smirks, my original assumption had been right: the two were just plain getting off on this. The lancer glanced down at her shattered weapon and then unwrapped her arm from around the waist of her partner, stalking slowly to the side. The harlequin, despite her maiming, began to limp in a circle opposite of her sister Sekirei, her own smile widening despite the fact that she was most likely bleeding out right there in front of me.

"Number eighteen, Ichiya," the harlequin announced herself, her grin feral as she limped counterclockwise around me.

"Number sixteen, Toyotama," the lancer added on, her clockwise orbit just as slow as her partner's.

Well, well. It looked like my earlier estimation had been wrong. It seemed that even amongst the Sekirei there were those who truly were ready for this conflict. It made sense, I supposed. There were one hundred and eight of them. With that many I suppose there had to be a few who were ready for what it meant to engage in combat.

These two would not plead with me in the end. They would not shriek, 'Get away'. These two were ready to fight to the death, to kill or be killed.

I wouldn't regret this battle. Following this through to the end wouldn't haunt me like my fight with forty three did. These two would have been right at home in the middle of the Grail War.

Hell. Dressed in blue, wielding a red lance, and getting excited at the thought of being in a life or death battle? If that Toyotama had been there during the war I think her and Lancer might very well have given up on battle and run off together by the end of it.

Still, they had made their announcements. It only seemed polite I return them. "Shirou Emiya," I gave them my name. "No number. Just an Ashikabi."

The smirks on my opponents widened into outright leers. It seemed my observance of the ritual despite the fact that it went against two of the other rules of Sekirei battle only excited them more. "You can't be serious!" a new voice interrupted. From the sound of it, it seemed that Homura had had enough. Not taking my eyes from my opponents I snapped my response back.

"No one interfere!" This was now my battle. More than just a fight for my life or even for my pride, this had simply become just my fight. My blood sang in anticipation, and my knuckles cracked as I shifted my grip on my swords. I had spent three years sharpening myself in case I ever came across an enemy that surpassed humanity. These two were consummate hunters. There tactics, their coordination, they were Sekirei who existed outside of the rules that governed the rest of their species. They would attack without announcing themselves and without regard for the one on one rule, and mpy even care for whether or not their target was human or alien.

How many other Sekirei or Ashikabi had stood where I once stood and hadn't had the skill to withstand it like I had? Whatever that number might be, after today it would increase no further.

Ichiya shifted, putting her weight on her good leg, bending forward as she did so. She might be limited in her mobility, but she had operated earlier on her hands just as easily as she had on her feet. She was by no means an insignificant threat. The same with Toyotama. Her lance might be missing its point, but she was still an inhuman creature and though her weapon wasn't as dangerous as once it was it was still sharp. When it had broke it had splintered unevenly, and the splinters at the end would still be enough to penetrate my flesh if she aimed them properly. More than that, they were forewarned. They knew that I wasn't some pushover Ashikabi that they could smack around at their will. I was a genuine threat. They would come at me ready to risk their all, and in response I would…

"Enough!" a shrill voice interrupted my thoughts. From the way Ichiya and Toyotama jerked it had caught them by surprise as well. As if by some kind of signal only the three of us could recognize our heads jerked towards the interruption simultaneously. I blinked in surprise when I recognized Kakizaki, though at some point during our showdown it seemed as though Kurenai had found her way to his side. The kunoichi had spent the entire time fighting Tsukiumi directly, albeit with the support of her sister Sekirei helping her. Even with the assistance she looked like she hadn't come off completely unharmed. The powerful number zero nine had done her own share of damage to her opponent, and the kunoichi was in a state nearly as disheveled as the water user had been. She had one arm around the panicking secretary's waist, much in the way I usually treated Akitsu when it was time for us to do some roof hoping. "Ichiya, Toyotama. We're retreating." One hand came up to adjust his glasses, but the motion seemed more along the lines of a nervous gesture rather than the arrogant dismissal he had used it as before.

The two bloodied Sekirei paused, glancing at each other for a moment, their twin smirks of anticipation disappearing. Then Toyotama sighed. "Just when it was getting interesting," she muttered. Ichiya spared one last glance at her ruined leg, and then leapt a surprising distance backwards, displaying just how strong her remaining limb was. Toyotama simply turned and darted away, her body low to the ground as she raced in the direction of the already fleeing Kakizaki, her hair reminding me of a serpent with the way that it flowed behind her.

As the two fled on their own, Kurenai leapt as well, her smaller frame supporting Kakizaki's easily as she made a jump that took her to the edge of the roof. The secretary easily accepted the manhandling, allowing himself to be pulled along with the ease of long practice. Once they reached the edge of the roof, he somehow indicated to his support to wait a moment, perhaps through a pre-calculated series of gestures of some sort. He took advantage of the pause to glare at me, adjusting his glasses with his free hand as he gave me an angry study. "Shirou Emiya," he muttered. "I'll remember this."

Good. That was what I was hoping for. Let's make it a little easier to recall later. I adjusted my footing, moving my leg backwards in preparation, and then threw Kanshou as hard as I could at him. The black blade howled as it cut through the air, a promise of death to all that stood in its path. It spun so fast that it resembled one of the chakram that the now fallen Sekirei had been so fond of tossing about earlier, nothing more than a razor sharp disc as it closed on the wide eyed Kakizaki as the secretary realized that maybe stopping to taunt his opponent might not have been the brightest of ideas. I had intended the final gesture to be nothing but one last threat to finish my intimidation. Apparently it worked so well that he very nearly didn't have time to dodge as he froze like a deer before headlights. At the last moment it looked like Kurenai decided to take initiative on her own, and the kunoichi wrenched the frozen secretary out of the path of my attack, falling downwards toward the street and out of my line of sight. Kanshou cut through the spot Kakizaki had resided only seconds ago, and then finally finished its flight by burying itself in the concrete of the building next door point first, the strength behind its throw enough to sink it nearly up to its hilt in the neighboring building.

And then it was just five of us left moving on the roof; me, my Sekirei, and Tsukiumi. On the elevated roof top behind us were three Sekirei, two of them laying in pools of their own blood and the final one a mess of charred flesh. At the other edge of the roof Musubi still stood her patient vigil over the beaten form of a fourth. Despite the incredible powers that the three elementalists had been wielding the only damage to our surroundings were a few small craters courtesy of Musubi and Toyotama and the hole that I had gouged when I planted Kanshou into the cement. In the distance I could hear what sounded like a helicopter, the roar of its blades growing louder as it drew closer.

For a long few moments no one spoke. This innocuous background, just another unremarkable top of a building amidst a forest of its kind, had the unmistakable feel of a battle field after the campaign was over. All it needed was a few circling carrion birds and the image would have been perfect. I'm not certain how many other times the four beings with me had seen something like this. I know for me it had been far too many already. Regardless of their experience, or inexperience as the case might be, they knew instinctively that somehow words would detract from the profound sense of catharsis that was already filling them. It wouldn't last forever, but for right now these fleeting moments were meant to be used to look back on the fight, to wonder just how the hell you survived it, if there was something you could have done better, if this all could have been avoided.

And then my phone rang.

Three heads turned to stare at me as though in accusation for having broken the moment. Well, two heads anyway. Akitsu was already watching me in the way she usually did. With a sigh I switched Bakuya into my other hand so I could reach into my pocket to pull out my beeping appliance. Just why is it that people say these things are supposed to be convenient anyway? I glanced at the little screen on the front of the phone, and sighed again when I saw who it was. I started to raise it to my ear, and then paused as I realized what was about to happen and instead held it at arm's length away from me instead when I flipped it open. When nothing happened despite my preparation, I cautiously put it to me ear.

"ONIII-CHAN!" the loud scream of my little sister rocketed into my eardrum and I winced, pulling it away instantly. Once her voice died down and I was confident that she hadn't turned me deaf I pulled it back to my face.

"Damn it, Yukari," I swore, shifting Bakuya so the blade was pointing downward and I could use the pommel to scratch at my forehead. "What do you do, wait for the sound of my breathing or something?"

"Yeah," she admitted shamelessly, and then pressed on in a rush. Despite the fact that she had been yelling at the top of her lungs only seconds ago when she continued it was in a frantic hush. "So I listened to him even though I thought it was a joke but since you told me to pay attention I did and then even though I didn't believe him I decided that if you could be in a relationship like that then so could I even though he was probably a little crazy and so I kissed him and then he grew wings and destroyed my room!" She paused to draw a breath and I wondered if the poor Sekirei was in the same room as her right now, wondering just why his new mistress was whispering into a phone. "I need a continuation on my life counseling!" Yukari wailed, once more forgetting that she was most likely trying to keep her conversation a secret from the room's other resident.

Yeah. In retrospect, that was probably how I should have seen this day going.