I do not own the bouncing battling beauties of Sekirei, though given how much I've changed him I might own 70% of this version of Minato.
Some reviews I would like to mention:
LordXeentheGreat: um, dude, l like how much you like my story but little two word reviews for each chapter in turn is a bit much and at the same time too little. Just review the whole story or last chapter please. This way was a little disturbing in its exuberance.
Jboy: pedant.
SpecialRelativity: You changed your name, anything behind this change? Sadly I have to report even the Meta could not survive the blast of a jinki exploding when he's barley five feet away from it. I wonder what you will think of his legacy and how I… deal with Karasuba in this chapter. Oh and Sarge makes a pain of himself in this chapter, quite a big one actually.
DemonAngel of Ice: Heh, yeah but it was a very near run thing, another round might have killed him. Thank you for commenting on the trial by the way, that was easily the toughest scene to write in this entire story. I wanted to give it enough detail to make it seem realistic but I didn't want it to overpower everything else in the chapter. I hope you like how I pictured Izumi Higa and his end in this chapter. And I was wrong, no one did see exactly what Project Golem was. Oh well.
Pravus Prime: welcome to the story, glad you like it. I have no plans to explicitly add more Sekirei to Minato's flock, though there might be some understanding later on. The bond isn't supposed to be replaced naturally that quickly after all, that would just cheapen it.
Uraharaisgod: Welcome, thank you for your reviews, though I have never seen Urahara as THE god, more like a Loki or Hermes sort.
Interesting little fact, I use Dragon Naturally speaking to do most of my writing, but I can't use it to write Minaka's dialogue, at all. I just can't speak like him, the words just don't come out right, yet I can write them out, weird huh? Anyway some readers will notice how he thinks of the Sekirei in the sections with him in it, that is deliberate.
No one mentioned my made up name for the asshole Ashikabi, so sad, I urge you to go back and look it up.
Oh and there is a joke here about Minato not remembering Natsuo and the name he called him instead, I hope someone realizes what it is.
The name of the chapter should be self-explanatory so let the violence begin and never end!
Chapter 20 End Game
As the mess in his office was cleaned up Minaka turned his attention to other matters. He spent a few minutes giving out orders to his troops still maintaining the interdiction zone around the city for a time before he was again interrupted by a report that two of the three Disciplinary squad members had just left the building despite no orders to do so. He sighed. "It seems as if the rot of free thought has spread further than I expected, it is such a pity that so many people have decided to ignore the will of the gods." Or one soon to be god anyway. "Have the troops try to stop them leaving, if they cannot then send out the deactivation signal to their cards. We can't have any more loose cannons, now can we?"
His chief security officer nodded curtly and turned to follow his orders as Minaka pushed up his glasses, continuing to talk to his chief sensor specialist. "While that is going on, see if you can find another way to track the Sekirei, we can't let them go without some kind of guidance can we?" That man nodded as well and Minaka turned back to his desk. It would take a few hours to activate all of the golems but once they were all up and awake he would have a small but incredibly dangerous army at his disposal. He wished once more that he had been able to gather up some of Minato's Sekirei as they had all proven to be far more powerful than estimated, but perhaps he would after this. Enjoy your life for these last few hours Minato-kun, because your little rebellion is finally going to end.
About an hour after the trial ended, though some of the interviews and videos were still being sent out, Minato took Bosu and Izumi to a nearby park. This extra time had allowed the captured Sekirei to get over their shock at the trial and agree to have their crests removed, thus saving them from the fate that would have awaited them if their Ashikabi died when they were still bonded to him.
While all of his wives were willing to do the deed themselves, he could feel that none of them were actually sanguine about it. Miya was too angry from Higa's comments during the trial to act dispassionately during this execution which was what it needed, it was an execution, not a murder and he wanted that understood. Akitzu would do it for him in a second, but it was because she would that he could not ask it of her, he knew it would bother her later. Kazehana and Tsukiumi were not mentally prepared to kill someone in cold blood or watch it being done. So it was Homura and surprisingly Shiina who came with him.
They entered the small park and moved into the center, where both prisoners were made to stand upright against a tree. Minato pulled out a handgun, clicking the safety off then reached into one of his other pockets bringing out a few white pills. "You have a choice, the bullet or the pill."
Higa stared at him, feeling fear for… well for the first time in his entire life really. He knew he wasn't going to live past the next few minutes, and he at last began to prepare to meet his end. Yet if he was going to die he was going to die on his feet, not pleading with the man who had singlehandedly wrecked his dreams and power. "And the pills are what exactly?"
"Cyanide, my wife Tsukiumi took them from your own hospital, poetic no?" Higa grimaced, but didn't argue the point.
B usu began to shiver against his own tree but Homura slammed him back against it hard, a small viscous part of him enjoying the man's fear (though the smell of his natural reaction was a bit much). The stories Niwa had shared had struck him hard, as she was one of the Sekirei he had helped escape from Hayato's searchers. The idea that he had helped her remain free only to have this man enslave her instead angered him. The man began to beg and plead but the three men, even Shiina were unmoved.
Minato stared down at him, face blank but eyes filled with contempt. "And did the civilians you had murdered beg and plead? You showed them no mercy, and you won't find any for you here." Busu kept sniveling and pleading but Minato shook his head, raised the handgun and 'Blam!' a single bullet blew the sniveling mans brains out before he could even register what was happening. Shiina flinched from the blood and noise, but Homura simply grimaced a little, thankful none of the detritus had gotten onto him.
Higa looked down at the man who had once been one of his more ruthless and thus useful tools and then away, gathering what remained of his courage and consigning his soul to any god who could find it. "I, I think I'll take the, the cyanide pill." Minato shrugged and handed one over, along with a bottle of water from the still staring Shiina. Higa stared down at the small white pill that would take his life, then up at Minato's hard, unyielding face. Then he gulped down the pill and turned to stare up at the sky, remembering the dreams of power and dominance that had brought him to this and wondering if maybe he had lived his life simpler what would have happened. As he began to convulse and foam at the mouth Minato continued to watch, feeling a little respectful of how the man met his end, until he stilled then he moved forward and checked Higa's pulse. After a moment he pulled away satisfied. The Ashikabi of the East was dead.
After burying the two bodies the trio was subdued as they made their way back to Izumo house. About five blocks away from home they were met by an unexpected interruption. "Minato!"
Minato looked up at the shout to see Benitsubasa and Haihane standing on a nearby roof. Both of them looked tired and a bit roughed up but Minato couldn't tell if they were seriously injured or not. Homura and Shiina both stepped in front of him protectively but to Minato it didn't seem as if the duo were there to fight, after all it looked as if they had already been in one. "Hey you two. Here for yourself or by your Ashikabi's orders… what was his name, Natsuke or something?"
Haihane and Benitsubasa leapt down to the road nearby and it became even more evident they had been through a bit of a ringer even if they weren't that injured. Their clothing was scuffed they both had holes in their clothing and were covered in soot. Benitsubasa spoke up for both of them. "For ourselves, we left MBI. We, well we don't want to work Minaka any more, not after we saw the things that we could have stopped if he hadn't ordered us to simply patrol the perimeter of the city."
Haihane giggled. "That and she found Natsuo had pictures of the president all around his wall like a stalker."
Her friend growled, she should never have told Haihane about that! They had even been caught by MBI's troops and forced to fight their way out because the stupid bitch had collapsed laughing when she told her about it. The pink haired fist type still nodded though. "That too."
Minato and Homura looked at one another sharing a shiver at the very idea, but a sudden thought occurred to Minato and he looked back at the two newcomers quickly. "Wait, did you hear the news about the MBI card?"
Both of them shook their heads. Benitsubasa reached into her purse, which she had hidden in the front of her kimono. "What about the card? I know there aren't any shops open anymore, but still it might be useful at some point in the future."
"Throw it away, now!" Minato barked, and both Sekirei stiffened and obeyed without thinking, the cards leaving their hands quickly.
It was well they did because about a second later, as the cards were still in the air barely five feet from them some kind of visible field of energy sparked into life around them, forming a sphere as the cards sailed on. Benitsubasa, who was just a little slower than her friend gaped at the energy inches from her outstretched hands, her eyes wide. "Wh-what the fuck was that!"
"That was a field that would forcefully cut off your connection to your Ashikabi, forcing your 'deactivation'." Minato said calmly. Really they had no idea what kind of difference it made, getting your crest deleted by a fellow Sekirei of by this field the cards made. Perhaps it was because it was a conscious decision, which weakened the bond just enough to make the deactivation a short term thing rather than the alternative. Whatever the case it wasn't something he wanted to chance. "Now come on, I think we need to get back to Izumo house. Something tells me something's going to happen soon, and I want all of us together to deal with it." The others nodded, both of the girls still looking a little shaken. Minato paused for a moment to pick up one of the field died around it. With a grunt he snapped the card in half, causing a small electrical discharge. Pocketing it he followed the four Sekirei down the street.
Minaka shrugged unconcern as one of the sensor section flunkies, Simon or something told him about not registering the deactivation signals from either Haihane or Benitsubasa. "It matters not at all, the path to godhood marches on, and they will be consumed by the tide to come as will all enemies to god's plan." Minaka turned to Karasuba, who was looking down at her blade introspectively. Minaka took a moment to analyze his most lethal yet most unpredictable tool for a moment, wondering about her mood, then tossed her a special MBI card.
Karasuba caught it automatically and looked at him, one eyebrow raised over her perpetually squinting eyes. "It's a special card Kara-kun." He ignored the twitching of her eyebrows at the cutesy name and went on, "It will emit a special field on command if you hit that red tab on the upper left corner that will cut off a Sekirei from her Ashikabi, thus eliminating her from the game."
And not incidentally knocking her or him out for a time or even killing someone if the bond was strong enough. Karasuba knew this and she looked at the card with renewed interest. Of course Minaka would prefer that Minato's Sekirei were in condition enough to be gathered in, but he was willing to overlook that. "I wish to send you out ahead of my little golems to seek out 01. And if you find yourself unable to beat her fairly, well, all that really matters is who is standing at the end of the battle yes?"
Karasuba looked form the card up to him, her eyes widening slightly, letting her mad eyes be seen as she began to laugh. "Sure, I'll be your little stalking horse, it'll be worth it to see Miya-chan's body at my feet. But remember I have to fight Musubi-chan too. She and I have a little promise I want to see to the end, make certain your little toys steer clear of her."
Project Golem was developed to find a way to subsume or override an existing Sekirei bond with a new one without losing any of the Sekirei powers as was normally the case when a Sekirei survived having her crest removed. They hadn't been able to find a way to do that, but they had learned how to emplace a new bond once the first one was lost. That was the whole reason behind the Sekirei Plan, Minaka had to find a way to do three things, one, find compatible Ashikabi for all the Sekirei, and two put in a system which would force the Sekirei to fight one another, thereby becoming stronger and three, allow them to take one another out, allowing him to collect the deactivated Sekirei. His use of the jinki was meant to help the Sekirei grow stronger, not strong enough to challenge him, but even if that aspect had failed, the other three had worked well enough, and he had over fifty Sekirei brought in, rebooted and made into soulless soldiers, loyal only to him, with all their strength and powers still in place. Only the ones with the strongest bonds had even been able to fight the process, and the more injured they were the easier it had been to replace the existing bond.
Over course some of the Sekirei they brought in had been too damaged to repair, but their cores, the odd part solid part energy state thing that gave the Sekirei their powers had survived. And Minaka was not one to let a resource lie unused if he could turn it to his own purposes, hence why Takehito had become the man he most hated with all his soul. Without all eight of the jinki MBI couldn't override the security programs on the ship, and when the one had been destroyed the ship had activated its internal defense systems to prevent further damage. He well knew the AI was devoted to blocking him, but there were ways around that, such as having the loyalty of at least 4/5 of the surviving 'crew' and he still controlled three of the remaining jinki and the ship itself, staving off anyone else trying to control it.
So, several men had the Sekirei cores implanted in them in a modified version of the experiment that gave him the Meta, though far less durable and powerful as the Meta had been gifted with two cores rather than one. Deuce was but one of these men, and all of them were as loyal as Sekirei but were also utterly insane, rabid dogs (much like Karasuba) that obeyed only him and lived to protect him (unlike Karasuba). This of course suited Minaka just fine. With them to see to his personal defense and the oddly durable and effective man named… well Minaka didn't know his name but Sarge in charge of the defense of the lower levels, including the nuke placed on the fifth floor in a department hidden under the name of secondary generator, he knew he was untouchable.
"I'll send the regular troops and the golems out after you. It's time we end this little rebellion once and for all." There can be only one god Minato-san, and I will ascend and conquer, regardless of anything you do. Once you are gone, the game will have served its purpose, and I will move against that brat in the south and the neutral holdovers. then the ship will have to obey the orders of one of my Golems. And with its technology Earth will be mine, and the stars themselves will follow!
Tsukiumi and the others were waiting for them, and they all stare at the two Disciplinary squad members following Minato, Homura and Shiina. Kazehana smirked, taking in their disheveled appearance. "Aw, it looks as if someone was in a fight, what's the matter tiny top, did one of these bad boys hurt you?"
Haihane chortled at the dig as Benitsubasa snarled at Kazehana then calmed down. "I see your brain is in reverse proportion to those monstrous tits of yours. If you actually thought a minute you'd know we wouldn't ever be following along so calmly if we had just been beaten. Or is that too difficult for you to understand wind-for-brains?"
Kazehana smirked even wider, understanding they were no threat at the moment decided to twit the pink haired girl, going back to tried and true methods. She hefted her massive breasts then allowed them to bounce for a moment as she leaned forward. "Is that jealousy I hear?"
Benitsubasa seethed but before she could find a nonlethal reply Yukari broke in angrily. "God damnit Kazehana, I've had it up to here with you and your tit-ocracy! Just because you have unnaturally large tits isn't any reason to try to make those of us who are normal feel bad! Besides, I bet some sweaty virgin scientist decided to tweak your genes or something to give you those things in the first place!" Benitsubasa grinned and nodded along with her ally while Minato and Haihane laughed together at the growing argument.
Moving forward gracefully between the three arguers Miya looked at her new husband. "Is it done?"
Minato nodded gravely. Chizuru, who had been standing next to Akitsu silent and anxious, began to cry tears of relief and joy in response and shot away to tell her sisters that their tormentor was gone and would never return. Minato related what had happened, as well as how Haihane and Benitsubasa had run into them on the way back. He turned back to the two newcomers. "By the way, how much trouble did you have getting away from MBI tower?"
Haihane turned to look at him from watching the breast based argument which had restarted as soon as Miya was out of the way. "Some, not much. Just really irritating. Tank shells suck." She pouted, lifting one of her metal claws, which looked a little bent and battered.
Minato understood from this that she had been forced to use it to block or redirect a shell round and he shook his head, amused anew by the abilities of the Sekirei. Part of him wanted to question the gray haired Sekirei about their numbers and disposition, but he knew it would be pointless. Besides, another question was much more important. "What about Karasuba, where was she when you were escaping?" It was always good to know where a rabid animal was after all.
Miya's eyes glinted. She had let Karasuba go because she wanted the other woman to know and have time to think about how badly she was outclassed, but that had been a onetime deal, and if the crow Sekirei ever crossed her path again, she would die.
Haihane shrugged, her eyes straying back over to the argument about breasts that had started to escalate again. "Don't know. Didn't run into trouble until after we left the tower." With that she turned away fully to watch the fun.
The argument was now touching on such important things such as firmness and sensitivity, causing Shiina to blush heavily and Homura to roll his eyes before walking away. Nishi and Oosumi had both come out as well, and they shared a grin and continued to watch. Most of the other Sekirei were in the backyard in small groups doing various things, including watching Kohta, Kusano and Shijime, one of Nishi's Sekirei that was the same age as those two play a rather cutthroat game of go fish with Kisami and Yui. But this looked much more amusing to both of them.
Minato shook his head and he began to lead the way into the house, Miya, Tsukiumi and Akitsu by his side. Miya stopped for a moment to warn the arguing trio about how she didn't allow violence in Izumo inn then followed her husband inside, sharing a look with her fellow wives. Minato was thinking about something, something that worried him, and she wondered what it could be.
They would never find out however as Matsu's scream for attention brought them all running into the command room. "Minato-tan, everyone, we've got trouble!"
Everyone tried to push into the command center, clogging the doorway and it took Miya's hanya mask attack to clear the way. Once that was done, Minato and his wives, as well as Nishi and the other Ashikabi came in, then stopped and stared while a few of the others, including a curious Benitsubasa came in after them. Matsu had hacked into MBI's sensor division and had put up the information it showed on the screens around them. What they showed now was MBI's troops boiling out of their prepared positions straight at them. What had caused Matsu's scream however was the forty marks designating Sekirei that were boiling out after them.
Minato's eyes narrowed as he analyzed the information. The troops were being spread out in a wide front rather than concentrated, and ten tanks were being spread out as well, showing that Minaka's rent-a-soldiers were just as incompetent as he was. Ten tanks moving through a city as fast as they could with the ability to cover one another at intervals was dangerous, a tank on its own in a city was merely a target, regardless of the troops kept close to provide protection. But really in a city as built up as Tokyo tanks would never be a weapon of choice. There seemed to be about four companies, so somewhere around 1,000 troopers were also spread out in a wide arc rather than combined into a single attacking spear. It would appear as if someone needs to learn about the truth of the phrase 'power to a point', still the regular troops are almost beside the point compared to the forty Sekirei with them. Forty! "It would appear as if our fears about the Sekirei bond being replaceable have been proven true." He turned and yelled out the door. "Someone get me the jinki, I've got a few questions to ask that damn AI!" Homura nodded and ran off quickly.
Miya however was searching for one mark set apart, and she found it well in front and to the side of the rest of the attacking force. Her hand clenched around her blade, and her eyes glittered with fury. "That one there would be Karasuba, there is no way that she would be willing to work with humans."
Musubi looked over at the mark Miya was indicating from her place in the doorway and frowned. She had long realized that their promise had been overtaken by more important things but it was still important to her, and if there was any chance to save Karasuba-sama… Before she could speak though, Homura returned carrying Chiho and one of the jinki, followed closely by Uzume and the chemist and his Sekirei, who stopped at the door.
Minato wordlessly gestured for the jinki and entered the odd mental connection to talk to the AI. As soon as he was in the connection he barked out "Defense on Kamikura Island, what are they and can one of my ladies take control of the ship if they take the jinki with them and get to the ship? What can you tell me about these Sekirei that have suddenly showed up?"
The AI answered quickly, realizing the urgency of the situation thanks to its limited ability to hack MBI's systems. "The defense of Kamikura Island consists of two companies of MBI soldiers and 14 'Golems'. The last word was nearly spat out like an epithet, the normally unemotional AI's voice showing stark hate. "That is what MBI calls these Sekirei. They consist of every Sekirei MBI has collected, including the ones that attempted to escape the city, their personalities and former bonds wiped away yet leaving their power and skills, replaced with soulless devotion to Minaka. This was hidden form me up to this point, but someone else left the code for it labeled such on their open server. There… there is no way to save them, their minds and souls are just… gone."
Minato paused frowning. He had thought it was fools dream, but… "Does that include the Sekirei #95, Kuno?"
"Searching…. Sekirei found. Subject was taken via card deactivation. Ashikabi killed as per usual in this operation." The AI said flatly, and Minato shook his head sadly at the loss of such an innocent pair. The AI went on inexorably answering his other questions. "Negative, only an active member of the crew can take control of me without all of the remaining jinki."
Minato groaned aloud. "And let me guess, that means Miya right?"
"Affirmative, while she was not supposed to be a member of the crew, since there were no adults on the ship she was labeled acting captain for purposes of programming and commands. I cannot override it without creating a blanket override, which would open me up to be taken over by MBI's troops."
"And the nuke? Can you somehow hack into MBI Tower's systems and somehow find out where it is?"
"Searching…. Affirmative, again someone has left the backdoors to their system open, allowing me more access than ever before. The Nuclear device is stored on the fifth story of the tower under the label 'secondary generator'. It can be activated by a signal from the Director's office on the top floor. I would conjecture, given the personality of Minaka Hiroto, that there is also what is called a 'deadman's switch', that would activate it if Minaka dies."
Minato frowned, taking several minutes to think of what to do, knowing that time in this strange connection moved slower than the outside world. After a moment he nodded decisively. "Alright, do whatever you can to prepare for liftoff without warning anyone. If you can do it, prepare to cut the islands communication net. Be on watch and you'll see when." As the computer answered in the affirmative he exited the mental connection.
He turned to the others, eyes sharp and clear with purpose. "Alright here's what we're going to do. Matsu get a map up on the screen." Matsu did so swiftly, knowing this was a time to be serious, especially since the forces, slow moving though they were, had already entered the northern section of the city. "Alright, Homura, I want you to create a firewall here." He pointed at a section of the map, moving his figure across it. "Right in front of that section of this attack. The moment that happens, Nishi I want all of your Sekirei to attack on a diagonal from this direction." Again he pointed the way he wanted that attack to go, the opposite side of the map where the lone Sekirei signal was. "The regular troops are a bit ahead of the Sekirei who are spread out for now, so get them to chase you back that way."
Nishi nodded grimly. He knew his limited skill at fighting wouldn't serve any purpose here, and so his babes would be fighting alone. But if they had to fight for their freedom, lives and love, better to do it now with the friends and allies that had proven themselves already.
Minato looked up at Tsukiumi. "Tsukiumi, you're in charge of the rest of our forces. When to use a norito is up to you. The jinki says these Sekirei have been completely memory wiped, they can't be saved so…" Tsukiumi flinched as did all the others save Akitsu, who stared back at Minato, her eyes slightly narrowed as she realized that if Tsukiumi was in charge of this battle, Minato would be doing something else.
Miya spoke up at that point. "I presume I will be facing Karasuba and then joining the rest and taking over?"
Musubi made to speak up, but Minato shook his head, answering before she could open her mouth. "Afraid not. This is the end game, and we need to take out every part of MBI's power before some other government moves in and takes over, which I bet some of them are already poised to do. That means assaulting Kamikura island and taking over the ship, and the only one that can take command of the ship as it stands is you."
Miya's eyes widened angrily, and she moved swiftly to touch the jinki. As she pushed her mind into the connection Musubi took the opportunity to speak up, her voice and face almost unnaturally serious. "Minato-san, I want to be the one to face Karasuba-sama. She and I made a promise to eachother to see which was stronger, hate or love. I believe that love is far stronger, but I have to prove it to her as well."
Minato leaned back thoughtfully. Tsukiumi, do you think that this Yume that's inside her will help her if she needs to? Miya did say Yume had given her, well her life in a way for Musubi after all. That had been one of the few serious conversations they had the night previous during one of their breaks form their lovemaking.
Tsukiumi answered in the affirmative. I believe so husband, yes. She cares greatly for Musubi, and this promise might have been started by Yume in the first place. I think this is something she has to do beloved, let her go please?
Minato sighed. "Alright Musubi, you can head out and intercept her now if you want, but try to lead her away from the rest of the battle, the farther away the better." Musubi nodded eagerly and Minato leaned in kissing her gently on the lips. "Come back to us okay little sister?" Musubi actually blushed a little as she nodded happily and ran out of the room.
Before she could leave the house however Kaho spoke up after spending the time since Musubi spoke up talking to her boyfriend/Ashikabi Oosumi. "I too made that promise Musubi-chan. I will go with you." Musubi stopped hugged her tightly and then ran off, followed swiftly by her friend, who stopped to get a kiss from her own Ashikabi before racing after her.
Miya scowled as she came out of the jinki connection. "Mou, this is so aggravating. Very well then I will go and do this little errand. I trust you all will still be here when I return?" The words were light but her eyes were serious and everyone could tell she was extremely put out by this. Everyone nodded, and once more Minato leaned in for a kiss. There was nothing gentle about this one though, it was purely primal, and Miya's wings spread swiftly, almost as large as his other wives. After learning where a few MBi helicopters were grounded on the outskirts of the city, she too moved off swiftly.
Minato turned to the others, confirming Akitsu's fears. "Me, Saki, Barei if you'll let her go with me Nishi, same with Yahan Oboro, Haihane and Benitsubasa will hide behind Homura's firewall. Once Matsu has reported that the majority of MBI's forces has swerved off to chase Nishi and his forces we'll make our way forward as quickly and unseen as possible. Our objective will be to take out the nuke, and capture of kill Minaka." Haihane and Benitsubasa had been leaning against the wall outside, able to listen but not taking part, and they both grinned at one another. Hopefully a few of these sick non-Sekirei would be there to make a fight of it. Barei and Saki however both shivered. Somehow they just knew this was not going to be easy.
Kohta spoke up then. "Um, I'd like my Sekirei to take part in this as well if that's okay. I don't think they need to be here to protect me and the other Ashikabi." Kaei nodded eagerly. Kusano, who was sitting next to the boy (and was it just Minato's imagination or were the two kids spending a lot of time around one another?) looked around worriedly, not understanding much of what was going on, but knowing they were going to be attacked somehow soon. Yukari nodded resolutely, motioning to Shiina who also nodded. Yukari thought the plan was okay, but she had her own idea of what she would be really be doing. Minato was her nii-chan not her commanding officer after all.
Katsuragi spoke up, which from her was rather unusual. "We want to help too. If we leave a few of us here to defend Matsu and the Ashikabi, some of us can head out with Nishi's Sekirei. We won't be much help against these Sekirei, but we can be a major help against the human troops." Shi nodded resolutely. They had to pay Minato and the others back somehow and this was the way to do it.
Minato sighed but nodded. "Okay, but Kisami and Shiina stay here along with three of you alright?" Shi and Katsuragi nodded. "In that case, I think that's as much of a plan as we can make. Good luck, and let's get this done." The others all nodded grimly and the group broke up swiftly running out to prepare themselves or talk to the Sekirei that hadn't heard Matsu's shout. They were followed swiftly by three sets of bond wings, spreading and flowing together in the air.
With Minato and his group behind him in a dilapidated building Homura waited until he could see the approaching soldiers coming down the road toward him before beginning his attack. Due to the tank's presence the troops had to stick to the main roads entering the northern section of the city, which had caused Minato a moment of reflection as he could have tried to defeat each group in detail, but they were too close together, and the Sekirei in the attack were too maneuverable for that to happen. Better to divert the whole attack into a single, unwieldy group moving in a different direction and whittle away at them. While the main attack looped around to take Minaka from the rear.
To create a large enough firewall however Minato and Homura had to kiss. Neither of them had been very happy about it, but it allowed Homura to use his norito later and allowed him to control more of his power than he normally would have been able to handle, having been experimented on far too much in an attempt to change his gender. It also made the temperature of his flame far, far higher. It looked far more like plasma or something, far hotter than his normal fire. Indeed the flame wall streaking from his position in both directions nearly spread five blocks, cutting through buildings both concrete and metal and one unfortunate tank that had gotten ahead of the rest of the attack as well as a few infantry men alongside.
The response from the MBI troopers was immediate. A lot of them fell back in disarray, but the tanks moved up firing on his position through the wall of flame forcing Homura to retreat. The Sekirei too moved forward quickly going around it and Homura winced as he recognized a few of them from his time as the defender of Un-winged Sekirei. Yet as they closed he could see their eyes, and they were blank, almost like clear glass that had nothing behind them. He shivered, realizing that this was what Minaka wanted for his entire race, to become soulless automatons obeying only Minaka.
Homura ran off in the direction towards Nishi's Sekirei, bringing out his walkie-talkie and talking to Matsu, Minato, Tsukimi and Nishi. "They're coming after me!" he reported, "The Sekirei seem to be a lot more aggressive than the mobile troops too, though I don't know if we'll be able to separate them that easily, not until the Sekirei are ahead of the regular troops anyway."
Tsukiumi replied from where she was with the rest of them, being busy directing them to different places and take up positions around the area. Kazehana would be the one in the first attack, looping back around when the 'Golem' Sekirei followed her. Nishi's group would then hit the MBI troopers behind that first assault, before retreating in turn in a different direction. They would also have Kana providing long range support. While any Sekirei could take out a tank if they could get close enough, that wasn't actually the point of this. Tsukiumi wanted the tanks taken out to sow chaos, confusion and fear among the regular MBI troops. She figured that the more that ran the less they would have to kill. She well knew that the troops were only really dangerous to the unchained Sekirei, as well as the Ashikabi. If they could simply run most of them off that would do them fine, and they could concentrate on these soulless Sekirei.
"That's fine." She said calmly, not exactly an emotion she was feeling at the moment. No her real emotion was a all pervading eagerness. She remembered the smirking, lusty looks that MBI troops and scientists had given her and her sisters as they grew up, and was glad for this opportunity to pay them back if they were dumb enough to keep coming. "Join up with Kazehana, she's in position over that odd adult toy store to the northeast from your starting position.
Homura snickered at that, remembering how the blond had been utterly appalled at finding out about that 'toy store' and what it contained (they had also found out that Matsu was a preferred customer) and replied "Roger."
The soulless Sekirei were more maneuverable and much more aggressive than the human troops so it was no surprise to Kazehana and the others that they contacted them first. Indeed they arrived at the ambush point only a thirty seconds after Homura arrived, having not slowed their pursuit at all. Kazehana motioned the man over to her and said crisply, "Combination attack immediately when they get within range. Then we retreat that down that road." She pointed, "And we meet up with Kaie down that way." Homura nodded equally serious. In this part of the attack there were five Sekirei near the front, and all of them were barreling down on the two of them with some seven or so about a block behind them. Homura and Kazehana could see them, but none of those seven would be within range to do anything to stop their initial attack. Kazehana counted down calmly as she stared at the oncoming Sekirei. As they came closer she saw what Homura had seen; that there were no minds, no souls, behind those eyes, only instincts and orders. The last of her doubt disappeared to be replaced by rage as she saw the blank eyes of those who had been her fellow feathers. "Three, two, one now! Wind blast!"
"Fire torrent!" Homura shouted at the same time.
The two attacks emerged, the wind powering the flame, working with it, moving with it to engulf all five of the incoming Sekirei. The 'Golem' Sekirei didn't even scream as they died, simply trying to move forward despite their bodies burning and failing under them. It was without a doubt one of the most horrifying things he had ever seen, and he knew we would have nightmares about it for weeks.
Kazehana however had seen worse, not much worse, but still. Shaking off her own horror quickly she grabbed the unresponsive fire user and ran off with him speaking into her walkie-talkie. "Five down." She reported crisply, all her normal flightiness and sense of humor gone in the heat of battle.
Behind her, the seven Sekirei that had been further back spread out to go around the fire trying to corner the two runner, moving well ahead of the MBI troops behind them.
About five minutes after the seven Sekirei were out of sight the tank in the lead coming around the wall of fire suddenly detonated as a blade of green light ten feet long in the shape of an arrow impacted it and slice through like a hot knife through butter. This was Kana's norito, the Gandiva Bow, and unlike most other norito attacks, it wasn't just a one shot. Instead her norito powered up her normal powers exponentially. The amount of time that extra power was available varied, but it would hopefully be enough to let her snipe the enemy tanks to oblivion.
The tank exploded, taking out its surviving crew and over a dozen of the infantrymen around it. The rest exclaimed in shock and started to scatter into cover, but Tsukiumi ordered two of Nishi's girls, Kuzuri and Kujika, in along with the un-winged Sekirei Shi and Katsuragi and they created havoc for a few minutes in close range before retreating as four more of the MBI-brainwashed Sekirei came up.
This new group of Sekirei chased after them, breaking up the enemy Sekirei further. As this was reported back to her at position about 3 miles back from this action Tsukiumi nodded grimly. MBI might have overwhelming force, but they weren't using it as they should, they weren't flexible and seemed to only react in certain ways, and no single enemy Sekirei could come close to matching even Nishi's girls, let alone a single-digit like her and her fellow wives.
She looked at the map on the portable computer pad that she had taken from Matsu, placing in her mind where all the troops were heading and the best places to set up ambushes. This was something that she and Minato had done on occasion, his desire to make his wives grow their minds, expand their horizons showing clearly, and Tsukiumi felt up to the challenge I will not fail my husband, I will not fail my sisters and I will not fail myself. "Uzume," she said softly into her walkie-talkie, "Kujika and Kuzuri are going to pass your position soon, when they pass attack the Sekirei following them from behind, that'll be the signal for the two of them to turn around and attack as well. Eliminate all four if you can but once you see MBI troops coming too close retreat directly north." Uzume replied with an affirmative, and the battle continued.
Musubi had found Karasuba easily enough, and she and Kaho stared across at her as she calmly waited for them, sitting on the edge of a roof. The black Sekirei shook her head. "And here I thought Miya would be the first one to find me, such a pity. Ah well, I suppose it doesn't matter. With everything else going on it really doesn't make much sense anymore for us to wait until we're the last two standing to fight. So are you ready to admit that hate is stronger than love Musubi?"
Musubi sighed a little, filled with the love of her Ashikabi and her fellow feathers. "No Karasuba-sama," she said, her voice clear and calm. "Hate will never win as long as there are those who love with all their hearts. And I'm going to prove this to you with my fists!" Beside her Kaho nodded grimly.
Karasuba laughed, bring her new sword out its sheath and into a guard position. "All right, girls" she said playfully. "I can spend some time destroying your delusions I suppose. I'd like a little warm-up before the main event anyway."
The three stood staring at one another for a moment and then without warning, charged forward. Kaho, using a spare naginata Oosumi had insisted they buy months ago just in case jumped into the air bringing it down as fast as she could. Karasuba brought her blade up to block and smacked her away, bringing her blade down quickly enough to block a blow from Musubi. Her usually narrowed eyes widened in surprise at the strength of the blow as it made her arm shake a little. Then she ducked away as Kaho swung her naginata in again, responding by slicing Musubi's side a little before backing away to dodge another punch only to take a kick that exploded into her midriff, sending her backward at the same time Kaho's back swing cut her check slightly as she twisted away.
Karasauba jumped away, wiping the blood away from her cheek. She licked the bit of blood from her finger and smirked, her eyes now fully open. "Well this might be more fun than I thought!" With that she jumped forward her blade swinging as she laughed.
Covering the length of the city had been easy, as had destroying what little defenses were around the helicopters. What surprised Miya was the ease with which she had convinced one of the helicopter pilots to pilot her out to the island. As she sat down, pulling her hakama around her in a demure ladylike fashion despite the blood dripping off of her sword she looked at him quizzically. "Might I ask why you are helping me?"
The man shrugged. "I've done a lot of things in my life that I'm not proud of, but I've never been one to push that all aside, I know what I've done is wrong, and following Minaka's orders is one of them. Yet you're trying to hit back at him, and if the choices are getting knocked out by you or helping you, I'll choose helping you. Besides, my family used to live in Tokyo, and they lost practically everything when they were forced to relocate when our house and the surrounding area was demolished to make way for a Sekirei fight area."
Miya nodded, smiling a little. It seems that what Minato said was correct, the little people might not be strong enough to strike back directly yet they always do find a way to irritate those in power, and you ignore them at your peril. "Very well, I am unaware of any kind of air laws or designated speed limits, but I would urge you to get me there as fast as you can."
"Then you better buckle up lady, because when this baby goes, it goes fast!" And with that one of MBI's secret radar invisible helicopters took off.
Minato and his group waited about 30 minutes hiding until Matsu reported that most of the troops had diverted to follow Homura and the continued assaults that had taken out the first few groups to respond. The flame wall had done its job, cutting off a major portion of the routes into the North, making them go around on both edges. And because they had been attacked from one side, they had diverted all their strength to that side rather than continuing to try and sweep through the territory. Minato was uncertain why they were reacting like this, going from a conquering force to a hunter killer force, it seemed almost idiotic to him to allow the enemy to dictate the pace of battle but he wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth.
As soon as the coast was clear his group made their way forward with Benitsubasa and Haihane in the lead making their way swiftly towards MBI tower. They crossed the empty city silently, only running into a few straggling groups of troopers, and one lone Sekirei who seemed to have been caught a little by the flame wall, as one of her legs was badly burned. Yet despite the shambling slow walk this forced her to use, she was still moving and when she saw them tried to attack them.
Haihane took her out easily, and Minato shook his head sadly as the unknown Sekirei, a muscle type who was rather tall and extremely muscular died. If the jinki had told him that there was any way to save the mind-wiped Sekirei he would've done it in a heartbeat, but their minds were simply gone as well as everything that made them Sekirei but their powers. Even if they killed Minaka and some of them were still alive they would be vegetables. That was no way to live, better to die like this, especially considering what militaries and government agencies around the world might do if they got their hands on a Sekirei body. He made a note of the position so he could send Homura or someone else to come back and deal with the body and they moved on.
Their first real obstacle came as they neared the tower as it was still ringed by defensive positions. The defensive positions were nearly empty, but they still had a few troops in them, and this forced them to stop for a minute as the further could into the Tower before any alarms were sounded the better. After a moment's contemplation, Minato sent Benitsubasa and Haihane forward wearing a few handcuffs each with the Saki and Barei following behind them. Saki had changed her form to be as masculine as she could, hiding everything else under a MBI officer's uniform, taken from the corpse of one Minato had shot in the back as he turned to flee their advance. This way they were able to get close without any of the soldiers in the dugouts calling out a warning. Minato shook his head at their stupidity falling for one of the oldest tricks in the book, the fake handcuff but at the moment he was thankful for it. As soon as the foursome closed, they exploded into action and within a minute all of the MBI troops outside the entrance to the tower were down and out of commission.
Once they entered however they ran into far sterner resistance Someone inside had seen evidently what had happened outside because as soon as they appeared, they came under fire forcing them back out the doors. Minato grabbed some grenades from a dead soldier and flipped them all through the doorway clearing it and creating enough smoke and chaos for the two Sekirei to get in close and finish off the defenders. Minato took the lead moving further into and up the building, but every few doorways or so they would run into more resistance, slowing them up. Minato cursed colorfully, knowing that Minaka knew they were already in the building and wondering what the madman would do.
In point of fact Minaka did not know they were in the building because the sensor specialists whose job it should have been to tell him were all too watching the fight that was escalating in the northern Territory through the videos cameras scattered around the fighting. Given a choice between watching regular troops fight eachother or mostly scantily clad Sekirei attack one another and regular troops, well the answer was obvious to all of them. Besides, it wasn't like they were in any danger right?
That, and the fact that one of them, the one who had been designated 'speaker to the crazy man' for the day had gotten shanghaied by a face from his past.
\\\Flashback/
Sensor specialist Simmons sighed as he finished putting the trash from his lunch in all the correct trashcans. The food in the cafeteria wasn't really good, frankly it reminded him these days of those damn MRE's from when he was in the army. Heh, yep all I'd need is someone shouting at me in the background to make this just like the army.
"Simmons, is that you!"
Yep just like that. Wow I didn't know my imagination was that good, I could swear I heard Sarge's voice just then.
"Hey Simmons, I'm talking to you! What the heck are you doing here?"
Hey wait a minute. The bespectacled man turned at last and gaped at the taller, broader man with the mustache who had been addressing him. "S-Sarge, wha-what are you doing here?!"
"Heh, same as you working for MBI. They were the only ones who agreed with me about the blue menace, so I decided to work with them. Well that and they didn't do a good background check but that's beside the point. Good timing, I need someone to handle this new computer controlled gun, and here you are! Now come on, let's get you dialed in or whatever the phrase is." Sarge grabbed Simmons' arm at the elbow and began to walk him away. "Besides I need someone to talk to, the damn meatheads they assigned me can't talk fer some reason, what kind a' names are Deuce and Trece anyway?"
"Wait, Sarge I really, can't, hey!" But the thinner man was no match for Sarge's strength. So it was that without the 'speaker to Mr. Crazy', no one wanted to leave the action happening on their screens to tell him about anything, so they simply set him inner office text messages. Minaka's crazy act had done its job, masking his true thoughts and personality, but it had come with its own downside. Then two, they had all seen the 'experimentals' and knew their capabilities.
\\\End Flashback/
However Minato had no way of knowing this and he grimly pressed forward with the rest of his group.
Kazehana ducked, blasting the ground with a blast of wind to knock one of her attackers back then using the backlash of the attack to fly in the air for a moment sending two more wind cutters at another attacker, this one looking vaguely familiar with spiky hair with little bells on the ends and a tall body. Regardless the woman was only able to block one of them. The other cut her body in half, sending the top half sliding off in a welter of gore.
Homura jumped over a kick, sending a thin but powerful blast of fire into the soulless Sekirei's mouth, burning out her head. He grimaced as he looked around while Kazehana took out the last of the seven that had come after them despite her desperate dodging, the massive pike she wielded slowing her down too much to dodge. The blond haired Sekirei still tired to charge forward even with her weapon sliced in half, but Kazehana simply responded but sending her crashing away by another blast of wind.
The two of them had turned at bay at the designated point, which Tsukiumi had chosen because it was pretty far back, making it unlikely another group of soldiers or Sekirei could sneak up on them as they were dealing with the group they had just killed, and it had several little explosive surprises scattered around, having been along one of the routes Higa could have taken to assault the North. When two of their seven pursuers tripped said surprises and went down, injured and dead, they had turned and attacked with Kaie coming out of cover to join them, and they had simply overwhelmed all of them, despite at least two of them being nearly as skilled as Musubi.
Homura looked down at the bodies of those two sadly, a large woman tanned almost as much as Yahan that had long hair down to her hips before Homura had burned it and her head with it. She had the strange power of using her hair as an offensive weapon, moving it around like blades, hands or whatever she wanted. Homura remembered helping her face down the idiot S&M twins months back before finding her Ashikabi, a young fisherman down by the docks who was the first in his family to go to college. She hadn't been one to like fighting, and had probably been deactivated when they tried to run. He didn't recognize the other one who had fought so well and so skillfully, and wondered what it said about him that he was thankful for that small mercy.
Kazehana finished clearing off her hands and wiping the blood from her face shaking her head a little before steeling herself and checking back in with Tsukiumi. The fight was still going on, and they would have to get back into it.
Tsukiumi cursed luridly as more soulless Sekirei made their way forward, announcing their presence by pushing Uzume to retreat from her ambush with Kuzuri and Kujika. She had already ordered the un-winged Sekirei to fall back. They had done their job excellently, killing or scaring into retreat at least half of the MBI troops attacking them, but they had nearly been caught by MBI's own Sekirei in turn. Shi was badly battered, and Niwa had nearly lost an eye and an arm. She had ordered both to retreat back to Izumo house.
When Kazehana, Homura and Kaie reported they had taken out the seven Sekirei that had been chasing them, she swiftly ordered them into the fight, using Matsu's ever updating map on her pad to direct them where to go.
That was over an hour ago. They had rejoined the fight, pulling the attacking Sekirei this way and that but the enemies simply had overwhelming numbers, and refused to be broken down further than ten. While Kana and the un-winged Sekirei were still able to keep MBI's troops hopping, constantly attacking and fading into the smoke and chaos of the urban environment the Sekirei were forcing her sisters back. Luckily the soulless Sekirei's aggression had broken them off from the regular troops, and so none of them were around to help the regular troops from the attacks form their rears. Seeing the last tank mark disappear from her map she smiled grimly, and ordered Kana to fall back to guard Izumo house. She knew once the other girls norito induced power up faded, she would be out of it for a while.
Shiina, Kisami and Kusano would protect her, Shi and Niwa there. Indeed Matsu had reported that Kusano had used her power to grow every piece of foliage within two blocks of the little community, making the entire area as tough to get through for anyone else as the forest she had created in the park. If she could have extended it further Tsukiumi would have been tempted to pull back into it, but as it was it would be a fantastic fall back spot, but she hoped it wasn't necessary.
She knew if the fight went on much longer they would start taking losses, and unlike the soulless Sekirei, she didn't want to lose any of her own sisters or Nishi's Sekirei. She had already ordered one of them, a short blonde haired girl with a very girly style of clothing named Kuruse to retreat along with one Namiji. They had been caught by a force of ten 'Golem' Sekirei, and both of them had been bloody and battered, only saved by Akitsu coming to their aid and killing several of them allowing them to escape.
Tsukiumi grimly put down the computer pad and her walkie-talkie down, knowing it was time for her to move forward to join the action. Her final order to her sister-wives went out over their telepathic communication, telling them to retreat further and bring all the attacking soulless Sekirei to a single point, a large intersection that had been completely demolished to make room for an arena for the Sekirei Plan.
Not even five minutes later she met up with four of Nishi's Sekirei and provided them with some long-range firepower against the eight enemy Sekirei they were facing. "Water celebration!" She shouted and a massive battering ram of water caught one of the Sekirei attackers in the side of the head smashing her side to land boneless against a wall on the other side of the street. Another shout of "Hydra!" sent hundreds of tiny but incredibly fast jets of water forward forcing the attacking Sekirei could Dodge around to avoid them.
One of them however responded by shrieking loudly creating a field of sonic power around her which impacted and dissipated the jets of water aimed at her.
She jumped forward carrying her scream with her and now launching in a wave of nearly visible sound from her mouth. Tsukiumi stopped and stared appalled. Minato told her and her sister-wives about MBI collecting any Sekirei that had escapes, but to actually see the Sekirei they had helped escape from the city stand before her, her eyes dead, no mind, no soul, no will behind them and knowing that her Ashikabi was dead as well was another thing entirely.
She fell back in shock and was nearly clipped by one of her enemy's sonic screams, two other fist types came forward and she barely blocked their punches and kicks. She summoned a water sword to guard against them, while concentrating on another larger scale attack behind her. One of their punches glanced off the side of her head and she reeled back shaking it but stabbing forward at the same time with her other hand to impale the other Sekirei before she could take advantage of Tsukiumi's weakness. As her water sword dissipated she sent her Yamato no Orochi attack forward, forcing all of the MBI's soulless Sekirei back except for the sound user, who was easily dispatched by Nishi's Sekirei.
Tsukiumi to the moment to stare down at her dead face and sightless unseeing eyes and shook her head sadly. Then she grimly gathered herself and moved away with the other four pressing their momentary advantage, hoping that Minato was doing better, but knowing she couldn't spare the time right now to check in.
Minato was not all right. He had nearly lost his head to a machine gun blast from up ahead, and he and his group had fallen back into cover. Whoever was in charge of the defense of the building had shut down the power so they couldn't use the elevators and had a heavily fortified every level of the staircase going up. Worse, there were troops on every level and they had tried to move straight up the staircase without clearing out the second and third floors only be to be taken from behind in a pincer movement. He had left Haihane and Benitsubasa behind to clear up the levels below them, while Yahan the two infiltrators and Minato forged on. They were able to make it up to the fifth floor, but it was the most heavily fleet fortified of the mall and they had barely gotten out of the staircase before they came under even more fire. One man was hiding in a doorway with a shotgun blasting away but not hitting anything at this range. But Someone had also set up a crew served machine gun operating form a computer at the far end of the hall, and it was only by luck that all three of them had survived long enough to dive into a nearby doorway. Yahan led the way, killing the two guards in there as the others tumbled in behind her to the sound of machine gun fire slamming into the walls behind them.
Minato looked around the small office they found themselves hiding out in before waving at the inner wall as he reloaded his rifle (describe rifle). Smash through here and keep going, I'll keep their attention on me here and pin them in place while you circle around them." Yahan nodded, but Saki and Barei were muttering together unheeding.
"He can't still be alive!" Saki moaned, leaning in close to Barei, who was using purple lipstick today. "I mean he's only human right, we saw him get thrown away when that jeep of his exploded!"
Barei shuddered. "But what if he's not human? I mean he could be some demon or something, fire would be his friend, just like that dam shotgun of his!"
"Hey!" Minato shouted, bringing both moaning girls back into the normal world. "Get it together. We've got a job to do girls, let's get it done." Barei and Saki nodded and moved over to stand by Yahan as she started to break through the wall, grimacing a little as they moved.
They had all taken bumps, bruises, cuts and a few bullets through this assault, and it was only because of their Sekirei durability that all of them were still on their feet. Well, that and the fact that Haihane and Benitsubasa had done the majority of the fighting up to this point.
As Minato poked his rifle out and fired blindly down the corridor, below them Haihane and Benitsubasa had in fact just finished clearing out the fourth floor when they heard noises coming up from below in the staircase. They peered over the edge and saw Yukari and Shiina making their way up the stairs.
"Aren't you supposed to be back at the inn?" asked Benitsubasa, not that she was unhappy to see her ally against the tit-ocracy.
Yukari grimaced. She and Shiina had followed Minato and his infiltration group at a distance since they left Izumo house, and she had to stop several times to throw up when they came upon the bodies left behind. She was still game though and she replied hotly "I'm worried about my mom, you haven't seen her or anything have you?"
Both of the ex-disciplinary squad members shook their heads. "Your mom was the head adjustor right, she'd be up on the fifteenth floor at least maybe up on the thirtieth. Go back down, find the generator room in the basement and get the power back on, then you can get up there far easier and we can too." Benitsubasa ordered, then turned away, following Haihane up the stairs. Yukari grimaced but nodded and she and Shiina turned around making their way back down the stairs.
Kazehana and Homura had just taken out two more Sekirei, but eight more were coming on towards them, more spread out than before and Homura was limping, having taken a sword thrust through his thigh. Luckily it had missed the femoral artery so he wasn't going to bleed out but his mobility was severely hampered. It looked bad for them until Akitsu, Uzume and Kaie appeared behind their enemies. Akitsu wasted no time at all, slaying two of them with large ice spears stabbing up from the ground. The other two Sekirei combined for another three Sekirei between them then Kaie rushed over and grabbed Homura around the waist helping him retreat. Kazehana nodded grimly and shouted after him "get back home, you're no use to us here with that lame leg of yours."
Homura grimaced. It was a pity, but his count was pretty good, and he had the distinct pleasure of killing another Sekirei twice, one of Higa's bitches that had taken pleasure in hunting down and bringing in other Sekirei for her master. Hoping that pleasant memory would keep the nightmares about the others he had killed this day at bay he moved off, leaning heavily on Uzume, who herself was looking much the worse for wear, her clothing in tatters, burned and ripped, leaving her without her primary weapon. Kaie followed after them to guard them missing one of her whips and with her hair missing one of her ahoge, but other than that still in fighting shape.
With their injured friends taken care of Akitsu and Kazehana backed away slowly, taking an awful toll on their enemies but still being pushed back as more 'Golem' Sekirei came up, the survivors of Uzume, Kuzuri and Kujika's attack. It was at that point that Tsukiumi's orders to retreat towards that particular intersection showed up. The two embattled element users looked at one another than bought time to disengage through use of a combination attack that pushed their enemies away and froze the ground beneath them, letting them jump away, though still in sight when the frontrunners recovered and joined the rest of the mindlessly following Sekirei chasing after them.
It'd taken over two hours at the top speed the helicopter could reach without appearing on radar, but Miya had at last arrived on the island. She scowled a little as they came in for a landing, the pilot having convinced the rather minimal air control in place they were there to drop off some supplies. The island was nearly lifeless, dominated at one side by a MBI military installation, where they were touching down, and the gantries and research station that had been built up piecemeal around the ship sunk into the ground. There had been more installations once, but she could see the massive crater her Takehito had created in his final act of bravery. The rocky landscape all around them seemed to suck at her enthusiasm, trying to trap her in those memories but she shook them off. God I hate this place. Far too many unpleasant memories. I've got a job to do, heaven help anyone who gets in my way. I won't fail my race or my husband, not again.
With that thought centermost in her mind the moment they landed she began her attack, slicing apart tanks and men stationed around the helicopter landing area with equal ease. She would normally not have been so blood thirsty, using violence only as a means to an end, but that was before these men had aided and abetted Minaka in his mad schemes. As such their lives were forfeit.
She paused as nine of the soulless Sekirei, who had been sent here just in case by Minaka came forward to attack her. She shook her head sadly, raised her blade and 3 seconds later the fight was over. While a single digit Sekirei could come close to matching her if they had a full bond like her fellow sister wives did, these will-less, mindless things… they may have retained their power and skill yet that power and skill was nothing in comparison to her own. She was simply on another level in terms of speed, strength, skill and everything else you could name.
She kept moving towards the ship, killing anyone that came near her with fell intent. After a few minutes though most of the troopers wouldn't come near her: watching a beautiful woman dressed demurely in a hakama slice their friends, the Golems and the tanks to pieces with a blood drenched sword without even a mark or spatter of blood on her was terrifying (and of course a few of them knew what she was, and wanted no part of trying to fight her).
About ten minutes later she was close enough to feel the jinkis in the pouch on her back react to the presence of the ship, and she paused sending her mind briefly into the connection to order the ship to prepare for liftoff, but was told something unpleasant at the same time. As she did so she could hear even louder sirens and shouts of alarm from the base around the ship, but she ignored them for the moment, turning towards where the ship had told her something was coming. She raced away, up the side of a cliff overlooking the ocean to peer out over the waves. For a moment she had a feeling of déjà vu, this sight once again bringing up dark memories of her time as captain of the Defense Squad and the invasion of the island that she and they had dealt with.
For over the crest of the ocean was an approaching fleet, complete with landing craft. From here she couldn't make out any discernible marks or flags but that really didn't matter. They hadn't taken any aggressive actions yet but their course was clear, and she wondered briefly what she should do to… discourage them. After a moment she decided and brought her sword up in a flash, sending a monstrous wave of force out to impact on the ocean directly before the forward most ship in the formation. From here she could see the monstrous wave this made wash over the ship and practically sink it, but it did cause them all to start to turn away, which was what she wanted. With that done, she turned and raced towards the ship.
Dozens of troopers and hundreds of scientists had tried to stop the ship from preparing to take off, but had failed miserably. More, the ship's own security system had come online at Miya's orders, and they were finding themselves increasingly locked out of the system. Some were even killed when they tried to get down to the engine room to shut it down there.
Most of them had retreated out of the ship, and when the scientists turned and saw her they began to scramble away, leaving all their work behind in their mad scramble to get away from the goddess of death they knew as 01 Miya. Only a few of them had the courage to face her as she raced towards the ship's open hatch. Natsuo was with them, as well as two more of the 'Golem' Sekirei. Natsuo ordered them forward while he fumbled in his pocket for something, wishing with all his heart he had been told to bring along one of his Sekirei or that he had thought of doing so on his own. He was bitterly regretting ignoring them now and only hoped he would get out of this with all his bits still intact.
The two mindless Sekirei didn't even slow her down she simply cut them down without thinking about it and moved on, only to stop as something silver flashed towards her. It looked like an MBI card, and Miya swept her blade forward and sliced out catching it midair between them with a blast of wind. The thing shorted and fizzled out before dying and she looked at the man before her who was still trying to control himself and appear calm. "Yes," she asked the very normalness of her tone, completely unwinded and not even a little tired or angry freaking out everyone nearby, "was that supposed to do something?"
With one hand she simply brushed the man aside and entered the open hatch, which slid shut soundlessly behind her. About five minutes later the entire island shook and most of the scaffolding and buildings around the ship collapsed in on themselves. One of the falling pieces of metal slammed into Natsuo who hadn't moved from where she had brushed him aside, paralyzed by fear at his brush with death, killing him instantly. With a roar of power the ship burst loose from the Earth to hover about 50 feet above it.
To the men in the fleet now circling the island twenty miles offshore the ship looked nothing so much as a giant quartz crystal. Though you couldn't quite see inside of it, it looked as if you should, if that made any sense. It didn't to their superiors when they reported this later, and many of them were sternly reprimanded for flights of fancy, but the fact of the matter was it looked as if it was a giant spire of crystal, with bits sticking out at various intervals and quite a few of them at the back.
There was no visible sign of propulsion, no engine or rocket or anything else, yet it hovered in the air, another impossibility with modern technology, without moving or doing anything for a moment then flicked away, moving more like a dragonfly than anything made by man could in atmosphere, in water or space, barely seen in motion and only really seen when it stopped. One moment it was hovering over the island, the next it was hovering over the fleet, and hundreds of sailors scattered to their various duties as the captains began to shout firing solutions to one another and elevate their guns in a poor attempt to be able to hit it the ship above them.
Fighters started to scramble as well, but thankfully before anyone to do anything rash. A voice came from the ship, almost impossibly loud over the ships few exterior speakers. "I am Miya, Sekirei 01 and now wife of my Ashikabi Minato. Leave us alone, and we will leave you alone. Yet if you come to us with war and violence we will show you no mercy." And with that stern injunction ringing in their ears the ship above disappeared again flicking off to another target. This time the target was Tokyo, and Miya hoped with all her heart and soul that her fellow wives, friends and above all Minato were still all right when she got there.
Minato grimaced as he heard more gunfire coming from the hole Yahan had made in the wall. Evidently the person in charge of the opposition knew how strong Sekirei were and what they could do and had fortified another room facing the walls just in case. "Great, so I guess its time to do something really stupid." He looked around and grabbed up the metal lined door Yahan had kicked in to get them into the office in the first place. Hefting it like an overlarge shield in one hand he charged out without warning into the hallway.
Almost immediately he came under fire from the shotgun wielder and the machine gun, but with his free hand he threw one of his purloined grenades up and over to land in the makehisft foxhole built around the machine gun. From ahead of him he heard someone shout "Son of a Bitch!" as it went off, but Minato didn't bother noticing more as he kicked the door forward as hard as he could, slamming it into the shotgun wielder, who ducked into a ball, grunting as Minato leapt after the door landing and rolling down the corridor.
Sarge grunted as he felt his ribs then turned to fire at the damn invaders back but Minato had already charged past Simmons position, covering him from fire from his rear. Sarge grunted angrily and followed him, taking a moment to check on Simmons, who had ducked away enough not to be killed but was still thrown sharply into the wall, knocking him out. He turned as noises from the stairwell drew his attention and scowled as he saw the two dirty traitors that ran off had come back and now were racing towards him. Sarge grimaced then fell back, still firing at them causing them to duck and slow down. They both paused for a moment, nearly collapsing as a wave of lethargy hit them, but then they were up and moving, not even noticing that heir crests were gone.
Minato immediately came across two huge men who were simply standing side by side in the corridor, disdaining any kind of cover. Minato paled a little seeing how much like the Meta that had been sent after Takehito they were, both in size and armor.
They brought up huge machine guns, the kind that were normally on a vehicle and immediately began to belt out fire at Minato, who ducked wildly into a doorway, now hiding in what looked like, he looked around, yep a bathroom, women's by the color and lack of foul smell. "Peachy" he muttered as the machine guns began to fire again.
Luckily for him Yahan, Saki and Barei had broken through the hard point holding them up and they burst through the wall on the other side of the hallway, drawing his attackers attention. He looked around the doorway to see Yahan kick one down the corridor and jump after him as two more appeared from the room across from her allies behind her. The three of them began to pummel Barei and Saki into the ground despite their speed and strength and Minato scowled but charged forward.
He tackled one of them to the ground, bringing out his spatha and stabbing down trying to find some weak point in the giant's carapace armor. He found a bit on the side that was weaker and stabbed in. The man below him convulsed and began to gurgle as he died but Minato rolled away just in time to dodge a stab from another one of the giant's wielding a serrated knife. He crouched, blocking one blow then pushing to his feet as the giant pulled back for another stab, kicking Minato to his knees. He barely got his sword in position to catch another stab on his swords edge. He punched out, catching the other man in the nuts and the man groaned, collapsing to forward and Minato stabbed him through the neck. All that armor on and no cup? Idiots.
He barely got to his feet when he had to block a slash from the last giant, who had just kicked Barei to the ground senseless to join Saki. He had been about to finish her and Saki off when Minato killed his fellow, and Saki had destroyed his gun so the only weapon left to him was his knife.
Minato blocked that first slash then gasped in shock as the blade of his spatha, the sword that had seen him through so much cracked at last. The giant man grinned and swung his knife in again and pushing Minato back against the wall of the hallway. The gina pressed forward and the spatha shattered at last, letting his blade in to stab Minato in the shoulder.
Minato however gritted his teeth and ignored his injury. Even as the man twisted his knife and raised another hand to grab Minato's throat he reached out catching the tip of his spatha in his fingers and bringing it around to stab into the giant's throat.
The giant fell back grabbing at his throat and staring but Minato brought his other hand up with the remnants of his blade to stab into the man's side.
As the giant fell to the floor Minato grimaced, moving his arm at the shoulder and Yahan came back, her legs covered in blood, some of it her own, and her face a mass of bruises, one arm already in a makeshift sling. "You, you alright taisho?" she asked wearily, her words barely discernible through her bruises. "Th-there were four more of them down there. I to-took 'em out but" She shrugged, eloquently bringing attentiotn to her battered state.
Minato nodded grimly. "Hopefully there won't be any more of those… those abominations." He moved over to Saki and Barei, breathing a sigh of relief when he found their pulses. Both of them looked a little better than Yahan, but they were down and out for now.
Shotgun blasts rang out from behind them and they both turned wearily to the noise.
Sarge was backing up frantically, trying to conserve his shotgun shells, a mode of operation he was never good at as Haihane and Benitsubasa made their way towards him. Both of them stopped and stared at something over his shoulder and he turned and gaped, seeing all eight of the creepy silent giants down, dead or dying. Before he could gape at anything else however the man standing there covered his own blood and thiers charged forward. Sarge tried to bring his shotgun up, but the man slapped it aside driving his knee up into Sarge's chest. Sarge gasped in air but reached out gripping the mans good shoulder and bringing him in for a head butt. Their legs got tangled and they went down.
Minato groaned as he glared up at the man even as Benitsubasa and Haihane raced forward to lift the man off him. "God damnit, you do know you're guarding a fucking nuke that can be triggered by the madman upstairs right?"
Sarge grunted, stopping his mad search for his hip knife to stare down at the younger man beneath him. "Excuse me, the wasawha?"
"The nuke, Minaka's last trump card, at least we hope it is." Minato ground out, even as one hand reached for a tiny holdout knife he carried in his belt.
Sarge looked over his shoulder, seeing the two Sekirei nearly on him and thought about his position. Reluctantly he put his hands behind his head, causing Haihane, who was about to stab him in his back with her claw blades to stop, looking down at him quizzically. "Prove it."
Ten minutes later they opened the door to the 'secondary generator' room and inside the found the nuclear device. Yahan pushed forward, examining the device critically. "I can shut this down easily." She affirmed through her bruises, reaching into a backpack she had kept safe throughout this mad fight, bringing out her tools and getting to work immediately grimacing as she could only use one hand.
Simmons looked at the device in shock. "I-I can't believe the director would set something like this up! Why, why…"
Sarge grunted angrily, smacking him on the shoulder. "Since when have the higher ups cared about what happens to grunts like us. Huh, bet they all like the color blue too."
Minato looked at him wondering what was up with the color but he shrugged turning away in surprise as the ding of an elevator reached them. He and Benitsubasa moved out to the hallway and stared as Yukari came out, hanging off of Shiina like she had no strength left in her. As soon as she saw Minato she rushed forward slamming into his chest, not even noticing him biting down on his lip to keep from yelling aloud at the pain in his shoulder as Yukari sobbed. "Nii, nii-chan, mama, she, mom, she, she's!"
Slowly the story came out that the two of them had followed Minato worried about Takami. At Benitsubasa's suggestion they had gone down into the basement and turned on the breaker to the elevator, but while they were down there they had come across a makeshift morgue. Takami's body had been thrown in and left on the floor just inside the door. She had been shot from behind by a large rifle.
As Minato comforted Yukari, Barei and Saki groaned into wakefulness, then made their way slowly toward where the sound of sobbing was coming from. They stopped and stared for a moment then came forward to offer what condolences they could. About ten minutes later Yukari was composed enough for Minato to move away, leaving her with Yahan and the others while he took Haihane and Shiina with him to take the elevator up to find Minaka. Sarge and Benitsubasa were sent to take out the communication center, something they would accomplish by destroying every piece of equipment inside it. Minato walked off, his eye hard as he racked another round into his rifle leaning back and closing his eyes.
As much as I disliked the choices she made, especially those in regards to the Sekirei and tome personally, Takami didn't deserve to die like that, shot in the back. Just one more mark in your ledger Minaka, and guess what, it's time to pay your dues.
Karasuba scowled angrily as her two opponents pressed her hard, something they had been doing since the fight began. How they hell have these two gotten so good and so fast! There's just no way the bond could've caused this, no way. She refused to believe it, but the truth was they had been fighting for over two hours now, and only now were the two of them making mistakes and getting a little sloppy.
A moment later however she saw her chance, and as Musubi powered forward with her kuma-ken she dodged inside wincing a little as the edge of that aura caught her, but her other hand, brought her sword slashing forward. Musubi desperately tried to raise a hand to block it, and then screamed in agony as her arm was completely cut off right below the elbow and went spiraling away to land several yards behind her.
Another slash of the blade barely caught Kaho coming in, causing her to block desperately with her now mangled naginata only to be tossed aside into another building.
Karasuba smirked, wiping away the blood from her mouth and ringing out her sore arm from pushing that much power through it. "Well, it looks as if hate is stronger Musubi, are you finally ready to admit it or am I going to end you here and now." A part of her, a long deeply buried and ignored part, railed at that yet the rest of her ignored it easily. This was after all only the prelude to the main fight with Miya.
Musubi fell to her knees gripping the stump of her arm, but her eyes were still hard and focused as she stared up at Karasuba in defiance. At this moment, bleeding out as they, were the spirits of Musubi and Yume were one, and it was with one voice they spoke. "There truly is no loving your soul is there Karasuba, in that case I will defeat your evil with all of my power and love!" Musubi/Yume got to her feet, bringing all of her power into her one remaining fist and starting to enchant her norito.
Karasuba laughed gaily. "Really in that case I'll go all out now!"
"These are the fists of my pledge, crush the catastrophe threatening my Ashikabi, Kuma no Te!" A huge beam of yellow light lanced out from Musubi's palm aiming at Karasuba.
Karasuba gather her own inner energy's into her sword, causing it to glow black with red lightning covering it. As the beam of yellow light came toward her, Karasuba sliced forward sending her own slash of utter darkness forward. The beam of light impacted her attack and she cut straight through it with difficulty, but she suddenly faltered, her attack winking out for a second before resuming. Karasuba shook her head as the momentary weakness left her then poured more of her power into her attack for another few seconds then both of their attacks winked out as one.
Musubi fell back with a long, deep gash going from her right shoulder to left hip and Karasuba stood there looking down at her smirking.
"You see," she said slowly, coughing a little, "hate is stronger than love." She coughed again and brought out a hand to her mouth to cover her mouth. She looked at her hand quizzically as she said bright red flecks of blood on it and then raised a hand to her chest. She felt her ribs and on side rather than feeling muscles or bones she felt only mushy innards. She looks down and she had a hole straight through her side. She gasped a little, "No, no, that can't be…"
A voice from behind her spoke up then edged with grief and rage. "But it can you bitch!" Kaho had pushed herself out of the dent she had made in the ground to see the two exchange their final attacks, and now dashed forward her eyes brimming with tears and her own norito powering her spear as she brought it around in an ark. Karasuba glared up at her, her eye already going dim even as her head was sliced cleanly off her neck to shoot away down the street.
With that done Kaho dropped her spear and ran over to Musubi kneeling beside her and trying desperately to staunch the blood. "You did it Musubi "she said loudly trying desperately to keep her friend awake. "You did it! You proved love was stronger so don't die on me, please!" Musubi smiled at her a wide happy smile and then her head fell back as her eyes closed. Fifteen minutes later Kaho was still desperately trying to patch her up when a huge shadow loomed overhead.
Tsukiumi, Akitsu and Kazehana had met up at the designated point having sent all of their other allies either back to Izumo or on another mission. Nishi's feathers had regrouped and moved around the attacking Sekirei to completely annihilate the troops behind them. Luckily Tsukiumi had read the soulless Sekirei well and none of them had peeled off to help defend the regular troops. All eighteen remaining MBI indoctrinated Sekirei had joined up and were now coming at the three single digits in a single mass, running along streets and jumping from rooftops in front of them.
Tsukiumi looked at her sister-wives and motioned them to get behind her. "It's time we end this." she said grimly.
"What are you going to do?" Kazehana said not arguing in the slightest. She had Akitzu had been attacked before they had met up, and both of them were practically exhausted and also in a certain amount of pain. Tsukiumi looked slightly worse than the two of them, having been in the front lines and holding there against ten of the attacking Sekirei as she ordered Nishi's girls to retreat.
"I'm going to end it." Tsukiumi said grimly and began to gather her power, as much of it as she could handle running into her. She brought up two fingers to her lips kissing them softly and then brought her hand forward. "By the depth of my bond with my Ashikabi!" She shouted her voice stern unyielding and powerful, so powerful that it even stopped the Sekirei facing them in their tracks for a moment. "Let the boundless wave of my devotion crash and drag down the enemies of my Ashikabi! Infinite Tsunami!"
From her in a wide 45° angle shot out water, unending water in a torrent faster and more powerful then than anything natural or unnatural that had ever been seen on Earth. Minute after minute it the attack went on catching all of the enemy Sekirei, and everything beyond them. Ten minutes elapsed as the attack went on and on, until it finally finished and Tsukiumi nearly collapsed to the ground, only being caught by Kazehana at the last moment. As the water subsided, disappearing down drains and into rivers and filling little areas of rubbish the three stared at the carnage it created.
It was as if someone had sliced out a portion of the city as easily as one could take a piece out of a pie. From where they were, they could see straight on down to what had previously been the docks situated over in Nishi's territory and there was nothing in the way of that view. Buildings made of concrete steel and everything else were simply gone everything was flat and everything that had been in the way of the attack had been completely disintegrated, demolished by the power of her pledge. Later all three of them would be astonished by the power of it but right now they were just too tired to care.
They wearily looked up into the sky as large shadow fell over them and then smiled happily at seeing the ship. Miya's voice came from above them, impossibly loud. "Thank you for making a landing zone Tsukiumi-chan but I really don't think it's necessary. I think this thing can hover as long as I want it to." The three of them looked at one another and then began to laugh a little as little beams of light came down impacting them and somehow teleporting them onto the ship.
Minaka had been in his office the entire time, watching first with pleasure, then disbelief and growing shock as the battle went on in the north of the city, costing him the majority of his Golems. A video clip of the sheer power of Tsukiumi's full powered norito was utterly beyond belief. Fully a fifth of the city was just not there anymore ,smashed, crushed, disintegrated into nothing and with it all of his remaining Sekirei. He shook his head sadly. He had greatly underestimated the power the bond could give the Sekirei, as well as the difference in power between a single digit and the double digits at his command.
He was about to order his personal helicopter readied to take him to Kamikura island when looked out of his window, stopping and gaping in surprise at seeing the ship hovering there. Wh-what the hell is going on! He looked down at his internal messaging service and noticed all the messages he hadn't seen before, and he read through them with growing fury and shock. Well they know damn well I never look at that thing, why didn't they send someone to tell me?!
He turned away to stare again almost lifelessly the rock ship that the Sekirei had first arrived in hovered over the cityscape in the distance. It was so large it loomed even from here, and with that sight he knew it was over. All that he could do now was take them all down with him. If I cannot become a God no one will.
Suddenly, the double doors to his office burst open and Minato strode in, followed by Shiina and Haihane, all three of them looking battered and bloody, though Haihane still looked game enough, her eye nearly glowing with battle lust. They had run into four more of the giants the moment they got off the elevator, but against Haihane and Shiina they had been overmatched, though Minato had also gotten in his own shots since Shiina was leery of using her entropy based powers near his allies.
Minato strode forward, empty rifle in one hand, and his broken spatha in the other. He was covered in bloody, his face covered in cuts, several of which were depe enough to become scars later and bleeding in several places, most of all his shoulder. "At this point," he said coldly. "I should really call upon you to surrender, but I couldn't trust your word nor do I really want you alive."
Minaka spread his hands almost gleefully. "Hubris comes before a fall my son!" he said gaily knowing that he was going to die, but also knowing that he had one final failsafe that would let him take Minato and all of his enemies down with him. "Why just look what it cost me, and will now cost you!" With a flourish he reached over to hammer a button on his desk before any of the others could stop him. When nothing happened he frowned, then bashed the button again.
"If you're thinking of that nuke you have downstairs don't" Minato answered,a wintry smile on his face. "We disconnected it and took it apart. And one of my allies has destroyed your communication center so even if you had something else up your sleeve it's not going to work."
Minaka glared at him his joy at the idea of taking everyone else down with him fading as he saw the seriousness on Minato's face as he came forward.
"And I am no son of yours." Minato continued walking around the desk and before Minaka could try to move away he was held in one unbreakable grip. Even as Minato winced as the move made his shoulder scream in pain he lifted and Minaka's legs lifted off the floor and he was slammed back hard against the wall-sized window that made up the back of his office.
Yet even as helpless as he was he wanted to strike back. He opened his mouth to shout out how he had Minato's mother killed when he suddenly gasped and he looked down and saw Minato had already stabbed him with the remains of the spatha deep into his guts. "No" Minato said coldly "no final diatribe, no final speech no nothing, just die, die and know you were nothing but a minor footnote in history, soon to be utterly forgotten." He backed up and then gave Minaka a single hard kick that sent him crashing through the glass to fall to his death low with a blade Minato it stabbed him with still in him.
Minato sighed and waved his hand a little. "It's done Yukari," he said and he turned and looked at the doorway as Yukari came through it still being supported by Barei and Saki. The Sekirei plan was over, MBI was finished, and Minato was just damn tired of it all. He put one arm around his sister and stared out over the view of the city at the distance spaceship now cruising above the city slowly.
End chapter
Whoo. That was a bitch to write and think of how to cut up into different sections. I realize the Golems sort of sound like the berserkers I used in Chaos vs Destiny and for that I apologize, but I didn't realize that until I wrote this chapter, and really I think it worked rather well, though if I ever go back I might make them less mindless, but then would the good guys be as sanguine about killing them, or would that whole combat become little more than a holding action while Minato tries to kill Minaka to shut them all down? I also think my description of the process to create them could be better, but on the whole I'm well pleased how it turned out. Before anyone asks, distance and the weakness of the bond in question was why none of the DS trio were effected by Natsuo's death for more than a moment. If he had been in the city it would have effected them much more, but he was nowhere near. As always tell me what you all think, and look forward to the epilogue next week!