Note: Sekirei belongs to Sakurako Gokurakuin and the only thing I own here is my OC.
This week is turning out like crap so far, I mused as I walked down some street in Shinto Teito in the evening. I couldn't even approach the MBI Tower without the ghostly feeling in my heart getting exponentially stronger. And the worst thing is, I couldn't do anything about it. Chiho was in Intensive Care Unit, recovering from a series of procedures that cured her illness and she'll stay there for at least several days more.
The pull was so strong that I even began to have dream about her which proved that she was my True Ashikabi more than anything. The pair had to be very damn compatible to get dreams about each other. It's truly a pity the dreams were so short, we barely could get a decent conversation before it ended, the link getting too weak to support itself.
So I had decided to camp out with the Specialists guarding the Shinto Teito perimeter. Overall, I found their company enjoyable. It was kind of funny how much respect they had for the Disciplinary Squad and the complete lack of thereof towards all other Sekirei.
"They are like kids," Anton laughed as he explained it to me in thick Russian accent. "Kids with guns that someone gave them and showed where the trigger was."
"Now, that might seem dangerous," The big man continued, tinkering around with his exo-suit. "But us professionals will merely laugh at their attempts to look cool and intimidating."
"We respect you," Andromeda, a small blond European woman with twin SMGs at her hips picked up where Anton left off. "Because you earned it. The Black Sekirei, the Reaper, the Blue Sekirei and the Red Mist…You'll find that those 4 names are legendary in certain interest groups and circles."
"It's no surprise really." Mathew, a big black-skinned guy with a huge metal shield on his back and an automatic shotgun at his hip continued. "All of us have seen recordings of you in action and quite a few of us were on the clean-up missions to destroy all evidence after you left. Hell, we all even got favourites we all cheer on for!"
"Eh?" I stared at them in shock. These guys cheered us on as we killed their kind? What the hell?
"Yes." Anton moved his arm, testing out the exo-suit after finishing maintenance. "I for one cheer for Benitsubasa. Just seeing that girl take down buildings with a single punch...I get the shivers."
"Oi now," Andromeda poked the guy 3 times her size playfully. "No need to tell us all about your fetishes."
The sight of these 3 Specialist Captains – each one a monster in their own right – bickering like children over which Sekirei in the Disciplinary Squad is the 'best' using the most random criteria was…hilarious. Especially when they began arguing if I and Beni were cheating due to armour or if it was merely our way to catch up to Kara and Haihane. I also asked them if they've ever seen Akitsu in action. I was surprised to learn that Anton happened to be fighting by her side during the 2nd Kamikura Invasion. He spoke of her with reverence and pure awe in his voice.
I didn't take it against him though, from what I read Akitsu practically single-handedly stopped the marines from taking over Kamikura Town. Considering the garrison of the town was only about 50 grunts and as many Specialists, it's no surprise that the thousand marine strong force, reinforced with heavy armour, practically steamrolled the defenders. Or would've had if Akitsu didn't call down several comets to shatter the tank attack and then proceeded to make icy fortifications for the defenders, saving quite a few from instantly dying.
The most interesting thing happened at the end of our talks. Andromeda, bored to tears by her guard duty, challenged me to a fight. She did it with such a desperate expression that I just couldn't resist. Next thing I know, we are on a training ground, Specialists taking seats everywhere while Anton and Mathew took bets – mostly on how long Andromeda would last. There were quite a number of grunts on site too, each one of them expecting a spectacle.
Once everyone was seated, I let Andromeda go first, interested in seeing what she's got. That turned out to be a bad idea, I thought as I blindly dashed forward towards her, my gauntlets shielding my face from the barrage of bullets. I might've tried my usual style of dodge, parry and block but the stream of bullets was literally a stream. Andromeda somehow had 100% perfect accuracy on full auto with her dual SMGs.
No matter how fast I tried to move, her bullets would find me without fail. And so, I chased after her while she sprinted away from me – still laying down that perfectly accurate suppressive fire on me as she ran. The first time I tried to catch up to her during reload was also the last. Not only did she reload both of her SMGs within a second, she almost shot my eye out as I tried to peek to see where she was exactly.
Truthfully, I could've ended the fight anytime I wanted by just using my powers. However, I wanted to see if I could defeat her, a Specialist Captain, without my powers. So far, we got a tie. I couldn't get close enough while she couldn't find a weak spot in my solid armour and was forced to fire at the one place that wasn't armoured: my face.
Thankfully, like all things in this world, bullets tend to end eventually and when this happened, things got interesting. Andromeda holstered her SMGs and pulled out a couple short swords from somewhere. Ah, when I said that things got interesting, they got interesting for me. Although Andromeda's unerring precision in combination with her flawless technique were scary, she did not have Dietrich's ability to foresee my attacks before they even began. That meant that, at the end of the day, she simply couldn't keep up with me, our speeds were just far too different.
"I surrender." She stepped back after a couple minutes into the melee, clearly seeing that I was leisurely examining her at this point.
"To be honest, your melee was better than some Sekirei I've met." I admitted truthfully. Her skills with her SMGs were of course, so good that they didn't even need mentioning. I bet that she could take down most Sekirei just by pouring enough of her perfectly accurate bullets into them. It didn't work on me due to my armour and wouldn't work on higher level Sekirei but I had no doubt that Andromeda could take on a good portion of Sekirei and win. Honestly though, I expected as much; Andromeda was a Specialist Captain for a reason.
Over the week I've fought with Mathew and Anton as well, but the only one of the 3 captains that made me use my powers was Anton. The bugger had a plasma-thrower integrated into his left arm! If I didn't Gate:Open myself, I think he would've barbequed me.
I remember, years ago, how I thought my phase ability was useless. Granted, at the time I could only use Gate:Open after charging it up so it's use was limited. Now though, I can use it practically on the fly and my skill with it increased to the point where I can pretty much constantly spam Gate:Open with my swords. I've long lost track of the number of times Gate:Open saved my life.
Speaking of saving my life, I turned to find a very pissed Yukari, with her melancholic looking Sekirei by her side.
"You…" She literally shook with rage as she glared at me. "How dare you attack my brother!"
"…Wasn't I the one who got challenged?" I questioned the skies, knowing that she wasn't listening anyway.
"I trusted you!" The small girl raged on. "Shiina! Get her!"
"As you wish, my Ashikabi." Shiina clearly didn't want to fight me but went along with his Ashikabi's order anyway.
This will be a difficult fight, Shiina's abilities are all area-of-effect and considering his power is Disintegration, any one without long-range abilities is screwed. The thing is though; I am 100% certain that I can kill Shiina. Considering that my abilities cannot be blocked nor parried, only dodged, this means that if I actually went for the kill, Shiina wouldn't stand a chance. However, considering I am going to try and defeat him rather than kill him, the situation is going to turn around a full 180. I simply don't have any abilities that I can safely use without Shiina getting critically injured in the process. Maybe I should just run away?
As I was thinking, Shiina ran up and hit me with a bright glowing palm. Or rather, he swiped at me right before getting into range of my blades and a pale gray wave washed over me.
"What?" Shiina stared at my ghostly form. Hmm, his power is very potent, in the half a second I stood in the blast wave, my tabard and haori turned into dust.
"What to do with you…" I mused as I stared at Shiina who grew more uncomfortable by the second. "I don't want to kill you but I can't defeat you without killing you…dilemma."
"You coward!" Yukari stroke a pose and pointed at me. "Come out and fight!"
"If I do, Shiina will die." My even voice full to the brim of certainty made Yukari flinch. "Or perhaps you are tired of him already? If you want, I can easily give you a way out-"
"No!" Yukari dashed up and covered Shiina with her body…déjà vu? "I'll never let Shiina go! He's my Sekirei and only mine!"
"Then why are you in such a hurry to kill him off?" I asked, confused. "Do you not know who I am?"
"Um..." Yukari scratched her head, embarrassed. "Should I?"
I pulled down my mask and facepalmed.
"Mistress…" Shiina sighed looking dejected. "Why didn't you ask me?"
"Oh come on!" She stomped her foot on the asphalt. "I just winged you 4 days ago! I didn't get a chance to figure anything out…"
"What do you know of the Disciplinary Squad." My eye twitched when Yukari shrugged nonchalantly and then I phased back into the Living Realm. "Right…Phone, call Takami."
"W-wait, w-why would you do that?" Yukari turned so pale that a mutilated corpse would look like the picture of perfect health in comparison.
"Hi Takami!" I cheerfully greeted the woman who grumbled at being disturbed. "Would you by any chance know why your daughter just sicced her Sekirei on me?"
"What." Suddenly, Takami's image came into existence as a hologram and surveyed the scene. Huh, I didn't know Takami managed to sneak install the holo-projector into my armour.
"Yu-ka-ri…" Takami's projection hissed as it advanced at the cringing girl. "You-"
"She attacked brother!" Yukari suddenly stood up straight, a spark coming to life in her eyes. "Because of her, Yashima is in agony right now, struggling to so much as breathe and Minato practically lives by her bedside now!"
Huh…I can't tell if she's madder about the fact that Yashima is injured or that Minato is practically drowning his downed Sekirei with affection and care.
"Yukari…" Takami's projection slumped. "Do you not understand? Had they challenged anyone else of Rei's level, Minato's Sekirei wouldn't be in the hospital. They'd be snug in their graves."
"Yep." I smiled gleefully at horrified Yukari. "Takami and I go way back so I took it easy on Minato and you. I actually have very few abilities that aren't mean to instantly turn my opponent into minced meat so that's why I decided against fighting Shiina."
"See you around!" I waved at the duo and left, Takami still talking to her daughter.
As the days progressed, Chiho grew distraught in our dreams. Apparently, visits were allowed now as Kara, Beni and Haihane all spent a good deal of their time with their Ashikabi, telling her about the responsibilities of the Disciplinary Squad and what we did. Amusingly, it weren't the horrifying details of the missions we undertook to protect our kind that were bothering her. She was bothered by the fact that she wasn't sure if she could be of any help to us. Kara, impressed by this, suggested that she accompany us for the next mission and Chiho agreed if somewhat reluctantly. She said that she wanted to support us, who did so much for her and for our kind. She was rather apprehensive of the upcoming mission though.
I couldn't do anything for her, being in a dream, all I could do was smile and try to convince her that's so long as she did her absolute best it'll be enough for us. It's not like we will ever let our Ashikabi actually fight with us, that's what we are here for. All we need Chiho to do is to be our anchor, a being we could all return to and know, at the end of the day; regardless of what we did, we would always be welcomed by her. It was as simple as that really, there was no need for her to be in danger. Chiho smiled at this and promised to try her best to always be there for us.
Chiho couldn't wait until she was healthy enough to wing me. She could see just what I was undergoing as I waited for her patiently. Chiho was rather protective of all her Sekirei, as a patient that spent nearly all of her life in constant pain in a hospital; she didn't want those close to her to suffer. She was rather empathic like that.
We also couldn't help but look around, awed by the dreamscape. The dreamscape, according to Takehito, was an amalgamation of surrounding area of both parties and the abilities of the Sekirei. For instance, he theorized, the dreamscape of Homura, number 6, would be Shinto Teito, burning to the ground
In our dreamscape though, we stood upon the roof of the MBI Tower, specifically the helipad upon which all new Sekirei arrived for their new life amongst humans. Around us, the skyscrapers of downtown Shinto Teito rose in challenge to the skies and everywhere was a myriad of soul orbs. In fact, the horizon just turned into a sea of ever shifting pale blue flame maybe but a hundred meters away. Even the surrounding buildings looked hazy making it seem like we are looking through a thick fog at them. The only thing that could be clearly seen through this endless ocean of blue fire was the dark-red sun that shined oppressively upon all. It was strange how this was like the Spirit Realm yet it was fully colored like the Living Realm. An odd combination of the two.
Unlike the real Spirit World, the soul orbs in the dreamscape weren't moving about randomly. Instead, they slowly drifted from somewhere below us towards the sky, like objects caught in a whirlpool. Except it wasn't a whirlpool, not even close. Directly above us was a gigantic black hole which took up most of the pale blue sky and absorbed the infinite mass of the soul orbs. We stood directly below it; one could liken it to being in the eye of the storm – a completely quiet and motionless area. It was as if a gigantic barrier surrounded the MBI Tower upon which we stood. In fact, one could almost liken it as a gigantic relay that pointed straight into the black hole which spun slowly in the sky above.
Sometimes, we just stood there, together, staring up the endless blackness of the reality tear in the sky above us. Just looking at the hypnotically moving endless mass of soul orbs that were disappearing into nowhere.