Slave to the Power
It was the last thing he'd said to her that weighed on him. Before Kagedansu took the Jinki and fled, before Ku had been brainwashed into helping him, before Tsukiumi had her crest stained black, Minato recalled a very pointed and paradoxically blunt barb he'd thrown Tsukiumi's way.
I don't want a clingy girl like you as my wife. I'll see you tomorrow. Goodbye.
He remembered thinking he'd console her when he saw her, and explain to her that while he loved her, she really needed to stop being so self-centered when it came to his romantic affairs. She knew what she was signing up for when she kissed him that day on the docks. She needed to cool down when it came to his "trysts," as she'd probably call them, with his other Sekirei. The fact that he fully expected her to chase him down, unless he'd said something as pointed as he did, wasn't the best endorsement of their mutual trust.
Minato sighed. Trust. Boy, there hadn't been much to go around lately. Trusted Kagedansu to be a pal, and he hadn't. Trusted his Sekirei to hold down the fort, and they hadn't. They seemed to have trusted him to do something, and it sounded like he'd screwed it up.
Right when he was about to reach the sliding door, he heard the floorboards creek behind him. Puzzled, he halfheartedly glanced over his shoulder at his wife.
...who was upright, visibly angry, and winding up like a baseball pitcher.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
The girls outside heard the splash and shout of surprise. Uzume wrenched open the door to find Tsukiumi in the process of body-checking Minato to the floor.
The angry blonde had him by the collar, and was shaking him furiously against the wood.
"How darest thou show thy face to me! Thou, thou-!"
One of those hands drew back, and made ready to tattoo Minato's face.
WHAP!
"Betrayer!"
Then she kissed him. Not passively, either, for even with Minato's confused struggling, everyone could hear Tsukiumi's tongue-play. Her wings shot from her back, the light brighter than when Minato presumably kissed her a moment ago.
With a growl, Tsukiumi broke from the kiss and drew back again.
WHAP!
"Vile adulterer!"
Though not vile enough to stop her from kissing him again. Her other hand pulled at his collar, or rather pulled herself against him. Her slapping-hand clawed at the side of his hair. Was it getting hot in here, or was it just those two?
And then...
WHAP!
"I'm of a mind to castrate thee!"
She was also of a mind to kiss him a third time, then a fourth. From how much she was twisting her head and clamping her lips, one would think she was trying to uncork a bottle with her mouth.
Tsukiumi broke away and drew back for another swing. "I-!"
Her jaw clenched, and her pretty blue eyes began to well up. "I..."
That hand which had drawn back came forward, gently, to caress Minato's cheek. "I thought I'd lost thee forever… My husband..."
Finally rubbing his reddened face, Minato sat up. Uzume expected Tsukiumi to lean back, but she didn't, and his face ended up in her lovely bust. She hugged him to herself, burying herself in his hair.
"My precious husband..."
Musubi gasped happily. "It is you, Tsukiumi!"
The brunette slid to her knees and gathered both Tsukiumi and Minato in a hug. The blonde's expression soured but she made no move to pull free.
"Of course it is," Tsukiumi scoffed, keeping Minato's nose in the notch between her collarbones. "Who else would it be?"
"It's just that," Musubi said, "when Kagedansu came back black, he acted… Oh..."
Musubi's pep ebbed away. Uzume had been about to join her, when she, too, remembered the cold truth.
"Ah, yes," Tsukiumi said calmly, rising to her feet. "Kagedansu. We must speak of him. But first..."
She whirled and leveled a finger at those gathered in the door. "I would have the privacy to dress myself, thank thee!"
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"Thank you for helping me with the dishes, Tsukiumi." Miya smiled at The Water Sekirei. "Why the sudden change of heart?"
"Pardon, Landlady," Tsukiumi replied, thrusting a plate beneath the running water, "but what dost thou mean?"
"I don't recall you volunteering to do dishes before," Miya said as she finished wiping down her own ceramic piece. "Certainly not anyone's but your own."
"Yes, well..." Tsukiumi refocused on sponging the next plate. "My attention was diverted to my lack of care for my husband's flock. They cannot possibly be paying their rent."
Tsukiumi glanced over her shoulder at the living room, where the rest of the tenants were murmuring amongst themselves.
"Twould not do for my husband's forces to divide by housing," she concluded, "not before the final skirmish."
Miya nodded. "Very true. Your concern for Minato is admirable."
Tsukiumi scrubbed harder. Truthfully, she was simply stalling while she prepared herself. Her cohorts, based on the snippets of murmuring she caught, would be most adverse to hearing what she had to tell. Worse still, they might dismiss her as biased, given her history. However, it was that history which made her resolve all the stronger. 'Twas clear that Kagedansu was condemned.
Rather, she thought, he was so long as Kusano remained irreconcilable. What strange madness afflicted the girl, Tsukiumi did not know, but she could venture a guess as to who caused it. The circumstances around her affliction, specifically those that preceded it, were all too well-aligned.
Handing the plate off to Miya, Tsukiumi decided she'd steeled herself enough. A kangaroo court awaited her.
"Thank thee for the meal," said Tsukiumi with a bow.
"Thank you for paying your rent," Miya said, jovially returning the gesture.
Sucking in a deep breath, Tsukiumi pivoted and joined the others in their reclination about the living room. She elected to remain standing, and soon commanded everyone's attention as one by one they ceased their quiet chatter.
"It is my understanding," Tsukiumi began, "that thou wouldst headhunt for Kagedansu, yes?"
Homura nodded without hesitation. Matsu looked away and did likewise. Kazehana's head dipped but any assent wasn't firm.
Musubi's head bounced with fierce determination, and she stood. "Let's go get him!"
"Not yet," said Tsukiumi, waving Musubi back down. "Homura, thou sayest thou wert the one who recovered me. What didst thou see of my confrontation?"
Homura's foul-tempered glare was etched in stone. "The part where he ran away and left you lying in the mud."
Tsukiumi thought for a moment. A kangaroo court, indeed. "Then I shall recount what transpired in thine absence."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Out in the street, Tsukiumi sparred with Homura, needing to blow off some steam after the stunt her husband had pulled. She couldn't believe him. After all she'd done for him, sparing his life during their first encounter, marrying him, fighting tooth and nail for him and his harem that he might be happier for it. He worried for her, or so she'd thought, but when no one was here to stop him he'd eloped with that shameless trollop Kazehana. No doubt she'd wooed him with her wiles and clouded his judgement, for she refused to believe that someone like Minato would just up and speak to her like that.
Her mind refocused on Homura as she dodged a flurry of small fireballs, countering with a geyser of water. They halted their spar when they noticed Kagedansu walking out of the front gate, Kusano in tow. Where could they possibly be going this late in the evening?
Kagedansu, catching their inquisitive stares, said, "We're going for a walk."
Reasonable enough, to be certain, though she thought it a bit reckless to take a child out with the Third Stage in full swing and Higa no doubt continuing to scheme. Just because they'd cost him Sekirei and foiled his attack on the inn did not mean the Ashikabi of the East was any less their foe.
"HE'S TAKING KU! DON'T LET HIM!"
Musubi's shout reached the two rivals at the same time as it did abductor and abductee. Tsukiumi struck first, firing a cannonball of liquid at the large Sekirei. Kagedansu rolled his body out of the way, Tsukiumi's attack blasting a hole in the fence behind him. The landlady wouldn't be happy about that, but Tsukiumi hoped she would understand.
Homura made to attack as well, but his fire refused to obey him, flaring out as soon as it strayed half a meter from his hand. His attention strayed from the Shadow Sekirei, and it cost him dearly. Giant shrub growths leapt out from behind the now-damaged fence and enveloped him. Just to add injury to insult, Kagedansu soared across the street and planted his foot right in Homura's face. Number 67 flipped himself up and landed, placing Homura between Tsukiumi and himself.
Tsukiumi rushed to her rival's aid. It seemed the villain had won the girl over to his side somehow, making the task of apprehending him that much harder when he inevitably resorted to taking her hostage.
Her former rival continued to struggle, his fires making slow progress as Tsukiumi cut through the freak plant life with her water blade. He continued to thrash, every released limb being re-ensnared even before the chunks of traitorous fauna hit the pavement.
"Never mind me!" Homura grunted through gritted teeth. "Get Ku!"
Nodding the affirmative, Tsukiumi jumped over the wall of green and spied Kagedansu bounding off. She could see Kusano tucked beneath one arm, like a sack of flour, and gave chase. It seemed she'd found a new outlet for her simmering malcontent.
"Thou hadst better not dally, Homura!" she called back, more spurring her rival to free himself than because she needed his help.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Tsukiumi halted in her account. "Dost thou have something to add, Matsu?!"
Matsu shook her head, her harrumph dying in her mouth. "It seems everyone misjudged him yesterday."
Catching Homura's scowl, the redhead added, "Kagedansu, not you."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Tsukiumi pursued The Shadow to the park, the ambient sounds of honking car horns all around, the center thick with willows. It was there that Kagedansu lost her, darting into a thick bush and disappearing into the shadows with Kusano. Tsukiumi combed the trees but found no sign of him. It seemed that his powers could extend to more than just himself.
"Damn thee, where hast thou gone?" She continued her search. After a few minutes she thought she heard a twig snap. Racing towards the sound, she found nothing but more willows, more shrubs, and a complete lack of Sekirei.
"Hear this, fiend!" she bellowed furiously. "Thou couldst never hope to escape! I shall have thee yet, and when that time comes-"
The rustle of foliage made her whirl again. This time, Kusano stood there, staring ahead, her expression that of the freshly woken. Plant life writhed like a den of snakes about her feet, leaving Kusano waist-deep in a green ocean. Foolish child, did she not realize who hath abducted her?
"If it's all the same," Kagedansu wearily called, stepping out into view behind the thigh-high wall, "I'd like to part here and leave Kusano with you." He reached into his pocket, flashing the Jinki. "This isn't yours, though, so it stays with me."
Tsukiumi's fist clenched. How dare he.
"Thou hast no right to ask lenience of me," she seethed. "I broke bread with thee, allowed thee into my home, even confided in thee my secrets of the heart… And thou saw fit to turn on us, thy house-mates, whom sheltered thee when thou wert in need…"
She jabbed a finger at him, her eyes red with boiling rage.
"Thou shalt pay for thy deception!" she screamed.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"And he will," Matsu said, in a half-hearted slouch as she stewed in her thoughts.
Tsukiumi swallowed her pride, a most bitter pill, and said, "I was wrong."
This earned her more than a few open-mouths, her husband among them.
"His actions and motives remain… Unknowable," said Tsukiumi. "However, as thou shalt hear, Kagedansu is much the victim as we."
Matsu bolted upright. "How?!"
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Tsukiumi called forth a mighty dragon, forming it out of vapor and sending it headlong into her foe. Kagedansu dove out of the way and came up charging at her. As her conjured beast gave chase, she summoned her waters to the ground in front of her and saturated it. Kagedansu suddenly found himself on his behind, sliding towards her, mud riding up the sleeves of his pants. The dragon closed in, tilted its head, its maw opened wide. As the Red Sea had done to Ramses in the Book of Exodus, the wrathful waves crashed together, crushing the blackheart between them. He struggled, attempting to get a foothold on something. Held above the ground as he was, Tsukiumi was content to let him drown. After this did him no good, he lay still, eyeing her through the water, thinking.
Soon, his thrashing returned, to no avail. His eyes slid shut and his limbs went limp, a trail of bubbles escaping from his mouth. Tsukiumi held him there a while longer, making doubly sure he didn't suddenly spring back to life, then perished the water and allowed him to flop down on to the muddied earth. Turning away from her fallen foe, she began to approach Kusano. The child still stood, motionless, all awareness absent from her eyes as a sea of green roiled beneath her.
Tsukiumi stopped as she heard a soft hissing sound, the quiet intake of breath through pursed lips.
She whirled around, but was too late. Kagedansu was already in motion, rocketing his knee right into Tsukiumi's stomach. The Water Sekirei coughed, the wind having been knocked out of her. Then the brute lashed out with his hands, slamming them together about Tsukiumi's head. As she doubled over from the agony in her abdomen, her hated foe landed, planted his feet in the muddy ground, and brought her head down into his rising knee. She was knocked a good three meters by the blow, landing hard on her back. She propelled herself to her feet using a trick she'd seen Kazehana do. Nothing felt broken, and she wasn't coughing up blood; both good signs.
Another dragon roared at him, faster this time, powered by Tsukiumi's unbridled rage. It smashed into him, knocking him off of his feet and sending him skidding back. He rolled backwards, up to a fighting stance, and began bouncing from one foot to another, two or more meters apart, trying to make himself a harder target. Such simple tactics would do him no good. Tsukiumi called her dragon again and swirled it around him like a boa constrictor, tightening the noose and crushing him in its grip.
Slipping his fingers into the dragon's watery flesh, Kagedansu sliced his way out of the stranglehold with his hand, his breath bursting from his lungs as he coughed up bits of water he'd inhaled.
"This- kh-hagh -won't end how you think it will," he warned, still choking slightly. His mysterious recovery had limits, then. So his arrogance was unfounded, then, the bastard.
Tsukiumi took all of her anger, her hatred towards this blackguard, her frustration with her husband, and channeled into a hydra's worth of serpentine water snakes. They slithered forth, over a dozen of them, and struck out with all her fury at Kagedansu. Their heads crashed down on him, again and again, each one making the crater beneath him grow larger, each one seeking to crush his bones into paste.
After a minute of the onslaught, all sixteen serpents had visited the wrath of their mistress upon 67's head. The hole that he now lay in could never be deep enough for Tsukiumi's liking. He deserved what he'd gotten and more for deceiving them, lying to them, making them laugh with him and at him, swindling his way into their hearts only to betray them. How could he be so vile?
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"Just to clarify," Homura asked, his rage having simmered down to a tic, "he's still the victim here, right?"
Tsukiumi nodded. "I merely convey my thoughts at the time. I wish thee to understand: I felt as thy heart doth now, but mine own hath seen the truth."
Homura snorted. "It better be one hell of a truth."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Tsukiumi found her mind steering back to her husband's elopement, much as she demanded it not. A soft breeze blew through the grass and trees, casting a green tide sweeping through the grassland. 'Twas a reminder of whom he had run with, no doubt sinking her claws deeper into Minato at that very moment. Such injustice. First the rescue, then this execution, if anyone deserved Minato's time, it was Tsukiumi.
Then she heard mud flop down at the bottom of the pit.
"Are you finished posturing?"
That was not Kagedansu's voice.
"Impossible," she breathed.
"Because I'm bringing him up," echoed the puppeteer, "and when we get there, dear lady, the gloves are coming off."
Tsukiumi skipped back and steeled herself for what horror might emerge from the earth. There he came, clawing his blackened fingers into the dirt, pulling his way free, his clothes completely soaked with dirt and water. He flopped up on the side, adding grass stains to his palette of filth, before climbing to his feet, his breathing having grown a bit heavier. The violet-tinted ink he wore slithered down his arms and into the shadow of his hands.
He sucked in a gut full of air, then murmured mournfully, "Please, Tsukiumi."
Now Tsukiumi was getting worried. The most she seemed to be doing was damaging his bravado. She was aware of Kagedansu's endurance, as he'd more than demonstrated during his skirmish with Musubi. What was this?
"Take Ku," he said, "and go."
She conjured her water dragon once more, but to her surprise Kagedansu simply turned and retreated. He ran under a thick willow and the dark shadows within. He ducked behind the trunk, vanishing from sight, no doubt hoping to pull the same disappearing act he'd used when they'd first met.
She wouldn't be fooled again. Her beast unfolded and hardened into a dome, encircling the tree. Tsukiumi clenched her fist, collapsing the dome into a meter-wide sphere, turning the tree into wood chips and green mush. She made it smaller, smaller still, then called it to her. It floated over to her and deposited the slurry in front of her. There were no bodily remains from what she could see. They would've left traces of blood, at least. Somehow, he'd escaped.
Metal crunched and Tsukiumi leapt into the air as a car flew by her. It had two hand-shaped marks on the side, from where it had been pushed. There he was, flying at her with his elbow drawn back. She quickly called her waters to her and met it head-on with a conjured hammer, the shock of the impact reverberating through her weapon.
The two gave ground and landed on opposite sides of Kusano, who was still standing there, nestled in a writhing, crawling garden.
Tsukiumi knew she was getting nowhere. He'd managed to match her at every turn; even drowning him hadn't worked. She had a mind to try it again, but keeping a rabid beast in a cage made of liquid took quite a toll on her. If this barbarian escaped again, she'd have exhausted a great deal of her energies, and while he showed signs of fatigue, it would be foolish to assume he was as damaged as she. Whatever he had done to Ku he might do to any of them. Tsukiumi didn't want to think what might happen if Kagedansu managed to hypnotize a single number like her.
Tsukiumi grimaced. First the Discipline Squad, then Higa's minion, now the Shadow Sekirei.
A new stratagem was in order, but it called for her to yield her advantage of reach. On the flip side, if she could just get to that symbol on his back…
Conjuring liquid blades from her hands, she flew at Kagedansu. His eyes widened in alarm, a good sign. She slashed at him in a flurry, him ducking beneath her dual swings as he tried to distance himself from her. She refused to let up, continuing her flurry of slashes. He opted to block her at the forearms with his own, pulling her aside and flinging her past him. She quickly regained her footing and changed her left blade into a shield, raising it in front of her head as his brown-stained foot thrust up in a kick. Her remaining blade exploded from her wrist, the thrust barely missing his face as he twisted away. She knew that maneuver; she'd seen it in the wrestling videos he'd exposed her husband to.
She tried for a slice, but Kagedansu blocked her wrist as he lowered his foot. The next thing Tsukiumi knew, he'd pulled her arm around his waist like a safety belt, bent over, and with a well-placed elbow to her crotch sent her flying over his back and into the mud.
Tsukiumi blinked, staring up at the clouds. From where did he learn that?
"No, please. Stop…!"
Recovering her feet, she found Kagedansu in a most unusual position. He lay on the ground, his left arm underneath his body, his black Sekirei crest peeking out from behind his collar. She approached him.
"TSUKIUMI!" he snapped. "Will you just take Kusano and leave before-"
His left arm slid forward, turning his body over and exposing his blackened palm to the air. The hand flipped like a spider, its fingers like rigid legs, and pressed against the ground. Tsukiumi saw an unsettling icon emblazoned on the back of that hand, drawn in smooth, violet lines: a single large eye, its many triangular eyelashes turned inward instead of out.
Unless… Those were teeth. An eye being consumed. Sight being swallowed.
"Please," he pleaded, "you don't have to do this. Not to her."
"Of course I don't," said the black, "but I think I will."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"So he put on a show," Matsu said dismissively. "With his powers, it wouldn't be hard."
"It's not just that," Uzume replied, looking across the room at the redhead. "I get what Tsukiumi's saying. If he had Tsukiumi on the ground, even for a second, he'd be all over her."
Tsukiumi's eyes widened.
"Not like that, Tsukiumi." Uzume looked ready to laugh, but caught herself and hugged Chiho instead. "I've seen Kagedansu fight. He's not one to let you go once he's got you."
Chiho looked up at her Sekirei. "Only when he fights?"
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
That one hand pushed Kagedansu to his feet. The black taint had spread, adorning the left side of his torso like a singlet as well as his feet. He seemed to struggle against himself, literally, gripping and clamping his left hand to himself with his right.
"Tsukiumi," he groaned through gritted teeth, his face beginning to redden with exertion.
Suddenly he lunged, his body and hand moving so quickly that even Tsukiumi's Sekirei reflexes failed her. She darted back but his palm caught her right in the middle of her forehead, biting her like a cobra. It stung, but it was hardly the crushing grip that would end her.
So why, Tsukiumi wondered, did she feel herself weakening? Her eyes were growing heavier as the world around her slowed. Sharp tingling enveloped her body, all of it internal. Her blade fell away from her hand, dribbling down through the air before washing over the black of Kagedansu's gi. She felt his fingers drag along her wifely cheek as her legs buckled, dragging her to the ground like she was falling through water. Her sensitive Sekirei ears grew dull, to the point where she no longer heard the distant sounds of blocks out of sight. She tried to raise her hand, but the tingling blocked her muscles; they would not obey.
You should have listened to him, Number Nine, thought the black. Oh well. Nighty-night, sweet princess.
Tsukiumi's mind thrashed against the invisible shackles, yet they only grew tighter as her body was taken captive. Powerless to stop herself, her beautiful face struck the mud she'd stirred, more a sensation than a sight, for her eyes were now closed. Even then, the swirling miasma of color behind her eyelids was growing smaller. She couldn't even turn herself onto her back. Only through pure fortune had Kagedansu's blow turned her head to the side, that she didn't drown in the muck and filth.
This was it. Her end. No final duel for The Prize of The Sekirei Plan, no wish to grant her Ashikabi, no long life as the mother of Minato's children.
She felt, ever so faintly, tears well up from her eyes. My beloved husband… I have failed thee...
The last of the colors faded, and the engines of cars and the din of sidewalk strollers ceased.
Minato…
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"Uh, Tsukiumi?"
"Yes, husband?"
Throughout the last part of her story she'd made her way across the room until she was practically sitting on Minato's leg, fingers threaded between his.
"Are you going to be okay?" he asked.
In response, she leaned her head on his shoulder, staring off into space. "I believe so. I am well, my conscience is clear, and thy punishment has been dealt."
Minato reached up and touched his cheek, still stinging from Tsukiumi's wrathful rights.
"Unclear, however," said Tsukiumi, "is our course on the oaf. What of his plight?"
"What plight?" Matsu said. "It's so obviously an act. Everything he did could easily be a psychic illusion."
"Even his spell of sleep?" Tsukiumi retorted.
Matsu hesitated. "It's possible, that… MBI didn't fully document his powers."
"Oh, come!" Tsukiumi chided. "Dost thou believe MBI to be so unthorough, its chairman anything but obsessed?"
Homura shifted in his seat. "It could've been intentional. A Sekirei with powers like his could derail the whole Sekirei Plan. He could get into MBI's headquarters and steal their files on all the Ashikabi. He could track every Sekirei down, one by one, and attack them in their own homes. He could move completely unseen, picking off all the competition one by one."
"It just seems a little too convenient," Minato said. "This secret data about Kagedansu sits on a flash drive for years, and then right when he's about to help us
"Someone at MBI must have found it and entered it into the system,
"There's something I don't understand," Chiho said. "If he really is bad, he could've erased Tsukiumi's Sekirei symbol, right? So why all the black mumbo jumbo?"
Homura snorted. "So she could wake up and assure us that Hametsu's real and Kagedansu needs help."
"Well, yes," Chiho conceded, "but that still means he has to take her down later."
Musubi spoke up. "Didn't Kagedansu bring her here after the night on the bridge?"
For a while after that, silence filled the room. Everyone's lips were clamped shut as each tried to decipher the labyrinth of actions and motives they'd uncovered. What did Kagedansu want? Obviously to be the last Sekirei, as did they all, but he seemed undermined by his own actions. Even the timing: why wait to run off with the Jinki until more of them were home to be able to stop him? Had he banked on Ku siding with him? Because that didn't explain the strange weakness that seemed to have affected everyone, save for Tsukiumi. And no matter who'd done it to them, why let Tsukiumi give chase at full power?
That didn't change the fact that he'd taken it. They'd still shake him down for the Jinki when they caught him. He wasn't stupid, and he knew they weren't stupid. If it was an act, what was the point? If it wasn't an act, what would Hametsu want with a Jinki?
Unless it was someone else who wanted it. Kagedansu already had one, so… Eliminating the competition. No Jinki for Minato's group, no entry into the final stage. But, again, why leave Tsukiumi alive? He could've put on a show about Hametsu forcing him to terminate her, if all he wanted was cheap sympathy, but instead he'd had done the black-mark thing that let her live. Did he know? He had to know, since Chiho had come back from it.
Minato groaned and clutched his head. Why couldn't he have just left well enough alone? Even then, Minato wasn't sure if he meant Kagedansu or Hametsu.
When the silence ended, of all things to break it, a heavily-distorted electric guitar was not what anyone expected. It wasn't deafening, but the fact it overtook the ambient urban noise of Tokyo was a ringing endorsement of its volume.
"What is that?" Musubi asked. "And why does it sound so upset?"
There was a whisper in amongst the guitar riffs, but no one could make it out. It wasn't Japanese, that much was certain.
Minato stood up, or tried to, before he was anchored back to the couch by Tsukiumi's grip.
The blonde cast her gaze his way. "Art thou going somewhere, husband?"
"Just outside, Tsukiumi."
She stood, gently hoisting him with her. "Then let us go together."
The riffs quieted by the time they and the rest went out the door to the front gate. The ambient noise from Tokyo's center had been replaced by the heavy power chords of the song. Minato wondered if this was what The Beatles had sounded like when they did their farewell rooftop concert, albeit not as aggressive.
As soon as Minato heard who was singing, everything clicked.
I ran away from home last night, gone fore-ever.
I was runnin' for my life…
"Kagedansu's out there," he proclaimed, turning (with Tsukiumi still attached) to the rest of his flock. "That's a W.A.S.P. song. He's telling us where to go, like before."
And I heard the words of what I should be: live, work, die.
Oooo-OOOOH, I'm the orphan of the niiiight!
Kazehana stepped forward and spread her arms, kicking up a soft but sturdy wind at their backs. "Then let's go."
Take me doooown.
I'm comin' ho-ooome.
The road to ruin's
Inside the pleasure doooome…
Author's thanks:
To pwashington, for pointing out the last thing Minato said to Tsukiumi over the phone, a point that really should've occurred to me while writing, and to Blackie Lawless, for writing a concept album that slots so perfectly into my fic. Seriously, I'd never even heard W.A.S.P until 2018, never mind The Crimson Idol, and I've been planning the Tsukiumi vs. Kagedansu fight since… June 2016, according to the docx file's creation date. The idea didn't even occur to me until a month ago, when I realized, "Hey, there's some parallels between this fic and the story of Jonathan Steele."
