Chapter 49

In the First Degree.

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"Okay, so I guess the question really amounts to what do we do about it?"

Dave sums up their thoughts as the four eat dinner. It's been almost three more days since Katsuragi joined them, and while she is significantly more viable as a combatant than Kochou is, to hear Mindy tell it that isn't saying much. They are both improving, however.

What he is talking about now is in response to the two so-called 'Great Ashikabi' that have managed to become 'Great' by way of forcing themselves on Sekirei and winging them against their will.

Turns out, once that has happened, the poor girl is basically fucked. She can't leave her Ashikabi, and if the Ashikabi dies, She'll drop into a coma. Kochou had found quite a bit about the two on the message boards that have cropped up concerning the Sekirei. Theoretically, it all supposed to be hushed up. But how you could expect to do that with super-powered battles happening in the street on nearly a daily basis is anyone's guess.

Mindy shrugs. "Honestly? I say we grease the two fuck-wads before they make things worse, then bring the victims back here and see if we can revive them with magic. We ignore it, they'll go after more Sekirei. If we try to warn them off, all that will happen is that they'll be on the lookout."

Kochou looks at her in shock. "You would kill them?"

Mindy shrugs. "They are enslaving people, then using those slaves to enslave more people. The fact that it doubles as sexual abuse is just the icing on the shit cake. I promise you, I've killed for a hell of a lot less than that before."

Dave shakes his head. "I don't disagree I guess, but what happens when we can't revive the what, like fifteen or more they already have between the two of them?"

Mindy rolls her eyes. "Then they can rest easy in the knowledge that we have spared their sisters getting the same treatment from the same assholes. Seriously, why are we even talking about this?"

Dave sighs and rubs the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger.

"Because we are contemplating cold-blooded murder, and it needs to be discussed?" At her look, he nods. "No, I get it. Like I said, I don't disagree. I'm just rolling it around a bit trying to think of another way. Who are the two, anyway?"

Kochou clicks the mouse a few times and then turns her laptop around so they can see the slender, brown-haired young man that is wearing what must be a few thousand dollars worth of white silk clothing.

"Mikogami Hayato is the primary Ashikabi of the southern end of the city. As near as I have been able to figure out, he's basically a spoiled rich kid who is treating the one hundred and eight of us that are left like we're Pokemon and he wants the biggest collection." She sighs, troubled, but unable to give false information in a briefing even if she thinks that in the end, the little rat deserves it. "In his case, I don't think he's evil so much as he is convinced that this is all a game and we're the prize. It isn't that he thinks of us as slaves, it's that he seems to consider us a fairly complex pet. Not sure if I find that better or worse. While he doesn't have unlimited muscle to call on, he does have Mutsu. Number five, and a swordsman of incredible skill even if you ignore his earth control abilities."

She clicks the mouse again and the screen shifts to a much more traditionally dark-haired Japanese man, also slender, who is pictured at the grand opening of a local hospital.

"This is Higa Izumi. Mikogami is a garbage human being that treats my people like we're toys. But if I had two options for an Ashikabi, I would crawl on my belly through broken glass and rusty razor blades to get to him before I would be willing to even look at Higa twice." She pauses for a second and blinking a bit the screen changes to show other things, largely a bunch of forum posts about the guy.

"He is not only forcibly winging any Sekirei that he can get his hands on, he is also blackmailing other Sekirei to do his bidding. Granted, there isn't a lot of evidence on this aside from circumstantial and word of mouth, but if you cross-reference that with the history of his and other people's movements and then the fights that break out among the different Sekirei and their Ashikabi, it isn't hard to find enough evidence to convince any reasonable jury. The problem with going after this guy has even less to do with his Sekirei than Mikogami. Basically, he's a public figure. Heir to a massive pharmaceutical company. He'll have armed guards around him as well as at least a few of his Sekirei at all times."

Mindy nods. "Cool. Slavery, rape, blackmail, and it sounds like probably a bunch of kidnapping and arranged murders. What do you think, Dave? They playing our song?"

Dave still looks annoyed. "I wish I knew what the hell was involved in this 'winging' that it drops them into a coma if their Ashikabi dies. I would really rather we knew how to revive them before we went into this. Or at least knew if it was possible. Seems like having that little nugget of information might be useful to make our decisions here."

Kochou offers an expression of worry before she responds to this.

"If I bonded with you, would it tell you on your status what actually happened? Would that help with the others?"

Dave and Mindy share a glance, and Mindy just shakes her head.

"It might? But there's a decent chance that getting rid of one or both of these degenerate losers will result in us getting shuffled back off dimension. The odds always go way up when we start doing shit, you know, proactively." She sighs and sits down across from Kochou. "I can guess why you are offering though, and I am here to tell you that it really isn't worth it. It can't be worth it for you to go through all this to end up on death's door just when we're leaving and won't be here to help you." Then she scowls. "And that is completely ignoring the fact that I'm not interested in sharing Dave anyway."

Dave breaks in at this point.

"Yeah, so, probably not going that route. So what do we have on their condition when they do the whole 'fall into a coma' thing. I mean, obviously, that is bad. But there's a difference between a strange mystical ailment that might be as simple to cure as an enervate, the same thing we use to bring somebody back around after they've been hit by a stunner, something that is less strange but involves blood clots in the brain or something."

Kochou nods as she flips the computer back around and begins typing.

"This was everything collected by the emergency crew and hospital staff that responded to a car accident that killed the Ashikabi of a pair. It was such a mundane way to die that nobody even thought to contact MBI until after they had already processed her in and filed their findings. Pretty sure that MBI did a sweep, but I found a copy of the file in the attending physician's home computer."

She flips it back around so they can read the report, but continues reading it aloud with her eyes shut as she does, paraphrasing the vast majority of it.

"According to this, there was brain activity throughout. Nothing to indicate she was actually damaged in any way physically, they just couldn't get her to wake up no matter what they tried. The official line from MBI is that the Sekirei and Ashikabi bond is a melding of souls to a point and that if you strip away half their soul, they no longer have a reason to live."

Mindy scoffs at that. "MBI is a corporate interest. They don't have souls, how the fuck would they have any way to measure something they don't even have? No, that sounds like straight-up propaganda to me."

Kochou nods. "In truth, I think it has to do with our Tama. That thing in us that enables us to use our abilities. Allows me to access computers, and gives Katsuragi her increased speed, strength, and stamina. That will have become entangled with our Ashikabi when we bond as the bond itself is one of our abilities, and then when they die I suspect that it is damage to the Tama that actually causes the problem."

Mindy looks at her curiously. "So... When you check your statistic sheet, is there a label for Tama anywhere?"

Kochou blinks a couple of times and then mutters 'status' so she can take a look.

"Interesting. Actually, no. But according to my status sheet, both the ability to bond to an Ashikabi and the Technopath abilities are considered magical ones." She rolls her eyes. "Everything in the psychic abilities apparently has to do with finding the correct Ashikabi and being able to read them once you have well enough that you can keep them happy."

She seems a bit put out when she is done with this realization.

"Nice to know I suppose, but it makes the situation among Higa's and Mikogami's flocks even more dire. They actually know how little they are valued, and they are stuck there anyway."

Dave waves a hand for them to keep going as he pulls a trunk out and removes from it a reference guide for medical potions. When he realizes that they have stopped talking, he turns back to them.

"Actually? I think the precedent might actually be set. A couple of worlds back, there were lots of ways to damage a magical core. Most of them a person could recover from on their own with just bed rest and time. But there are a few types of magical creatures that can't repair their core on their own, need a boost to make it happen. There's a half dozen spells that can help, but the best options tend to be in potions. This one here, the 'Core Cleanser' seems like it would probably do the job. Among other things, it patches damage on a magical core and stimulates healing on it."

Mindy quirks an eyebrow over her smirking mouth. "Do we have what it takes to make it?"

Dave nods. "Everything we need for a few hundred doses at least. One of the ingredients for it is powdered fire-crab shell, and that is the only magical animal bit. The rest of it we can either grow ourselves or probably find at a local pond. Toads and frogs aren't exactly an endangered species as long as you aren't picky what you find." Then he pulls out another tome and his expression becomes inscrutable when he flips to what he is looking for. "Well, that's annoying."

Katsuragi looks at him curiously, having gotten to know them pretty well over the course of the last few days she isn't nearly as shy as she once was.

"What's annoying about it? It sounds like this might actually work!"

He shakes his head absently. "Not really what I was irritated about. I just checked the tome for potion ingredient substitutions, and there is one for the powdered fire-crab shell. It's even labeled here as being damn near as effective in most things as the real deal. And we have access to it." He looks at Mindy and then closes his eyes in consternation. "Powdered Abraxan hoof apparently has a lot of the same properties. And we wouldn't need a lot of it, a teaspoon will be plenty for a dozen doses. It's just... Annoying. I am kinda not looking forward to having somebody rasp the hell out of my feet."

Mindy giggles, and Dave smiles.

"I'm glad you find it so humorous. It's actually powdered Hippogriff talon. Don't worry, I'll be gentle."

Mindy cocks her head to the right and raises an eyebrow.

"Really? I'm gonna see that when I look in the book?"

Smirking, Dave hands it to her.

"Actually, it's both. I just figured if I said me first and we all got your reaction, you might snivel less when it was both of us."

Mindy rolls her eyes as she scans the page. "It says here that either can work, but Abraxan is better for most things." Then she sighs, having gotten to the part he had obviously already read. "And a four parts Abraxan to one part Hippogriff mix is best for healing potions, yeah, I see it. How tough is the potion?"

Dave checks the first tome again. "It doesn't have a grade equivalent, because it isn't taught at Hogwarts. It's listed as being taught in the first year of an apprenticeship toward either potion mastery or if a person goes into magical medicine. But going by the instructions, I would call it a third-year potion. Maybe fourth at most. After that ridiculousness that was the animagus potion, I don't see us having any problem. It's even quick to brew. Totaling up the time between steps, it looks like maybe an hour per, but once they're started you can start additional cauldrons. You don't have to hover over this one, and the stirs and times have an error margin of up to five and three minutes to still have a viable result. So if we start them two minutes apart, we should be able to roll three cauldrons each, and each cauldron can double batch, meaning ten doses per. So sixty doses in maybe two hours?"

Kochou and Katsuragi are pleased, but Kochou raises a finger. "Should we make so much of it before we know it works?"

Mindy shrugs. "We have a portable greenhouse we can use to grow most of this, and apparently we can become the ingredient we need that we can't grow. This really won't cost us much, and besides this is a good one for us to have a stock of anyway. With as often as we gain new abilities, I'd say it is all but a given that eventually we'll do something to hurt our cores."

Katsuragi has managed to be silent about this for a while, but finally, she can't take it anymore.

"So, excuse my ignorance here. But what exactly is a Hippogriff, or an Abraxan, for that matter?"

Kochou's smile is infectious. The ability to become an animal is amazing to her, but even beyond that. They both turn into powerful, beautiful animals but after seeing Dave as an elephant-sized flying horse, she had managed to fall in love a whole new way.

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S.S.S.S.S.S

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In the end, they decided to only run two cauldrons each for themselves, but use the other two in an effort to teach the Sekirei how to brew potions. They have most of the ins and outs of the greenhouse trunks sorted out now, and the idea of making a few to leave with them if they show an aptitude is pretty strong. So the two of them are working on a simple bruise balm while they are cranking out the core cleaner potions. In all, they end up spending four hours doing it because they actually bother to teach their students rather than just intimidate them into doing their own studying like Snape was so fond of doing.

Once they have the potions bottled into single-dose vials, and the balm repackaged into a few small, short, wide mouth jars they begin the planning process in earnest.

"Look, I get it. I do. But these motherfuckers have got to be stopped one way or another. If you like we'll start with this Higa douche, based on what they have been saying and what was in those forums, if there are any Sekirei that actually like having him as an Ashikabi, they are probably as big of assholes as he is."

Dave nods, thankful she is willing to at least take it one at a time.

"So, we pop this guy, collect his body and all the Sekirei that drop because he died, and then what, portkey the whole mess back here?"

Mindy nods as they are going over the details put together by Kochou concerning the jerk's normal schedule and the Sekirei he has under him.

"Sounds good. I'm thinking we hit him in the morning. According to this, Monday morning all of his Sekirei and a couple of others that we're pretty sure are actually Sekirei with other Ashikabi's will all pile into his main offices for briefings and whatnot of the last week worth of jobs and what they are expected to get done in the next week. We pop him during that meeting, we'll have all the notables in one spot. Plus, I'll snag whatever computer he's got in his office, we'll see what you make of it, Kochou. Not interested in corporate espionage, but if he's kept records on who he's blackmailing? That could be useful."

Kochou nods but doesn't look optimistic. "If he's smart at all, the likelihood is that he'll have anything that condemns himself hidden away on a server that only he knows about. But anything is possible."

Dave breaks in at this point. "Okay then, if we're doing this tomorrow morning, then we need to slap together an alternate suit of armor for each of us tonight. It doesn't have to be perfect, but something that isn't recognizable as our standard might not be a bad idea. It's almost a given that we'll end up on video."

Kochou nods. "Again, you mean. The altercation with number nine is already on the forums. So far they have Mindy down as a 'mystery Sekirei' and Dave down as her Ashikabi. But it's only a matter of time until MBI speaks up to make a mess of things."

Mindy's eyebrow climbs again. "Make a mess of things how?"

Kochou finds her own eyes rolling, though she controls it quickly. "Minaka, the man that runs MBI? He is running the show with the whole plan that involves us fighting each other. He basically considers himself the king of this city, and we're some kind of gladiatorial entertainment, as near as I can tell. Given his reactions to things in the past, I would give it at least a fifty-fifty shot that he'll claim she is a Sekirei, and that instead of an Ashikabi, Dave is one too. Then the two of you will have the same problem with stalkers that we do, and he'll get lots more footage of you when people post stuff online."

Mindy grimaces a bit.

"Been famous before. A few times, actually. It tends to just get in the way and piss me off. Starting to think that this 'Minaka' fucker might need a nine-millimeter surgery done on his frontal lobe."

Dave smirks. "One thing at a time. Now, I'm thinking Acromantula chitin and Dragonhide, plus the flying harness under it, now that I have that figured out. Maybe a chameleon rune set on the armor? Or even basic invisibility, maybe. Nothing like the cloak Harry has, but the standard Auror setup for stakeouts would probably work fine. Basic invisibility along with silencing runes on the armor, and flight on the harness underneath. We'll go ahead and make the effort to change the style to something different, I'm thinking something like an armored ninja would work, given where we are. All in black, of course. Add on the toughness and repair runes, I'm thinking we could make a go of it. If I do the fabrication, will you apply the rune sets?"

And so it was, though the reality is that without the additional two rune cutters, they would have played hell getting it done in time to actually get any sleep before they had to get busy.

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S.S.S.S.S.S

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Dave is once again marveling at the usefulness of their map function. Whether or not it would see through an enemy's concealment is up for grabs, but it is easily able to see through the invisibility they are using right now. Not quite perfect, but better than a chameleon charm by a fair bit. Also, he's thankful they were able to sort out how to have the silence effect extend from the suit and then out only a foot or two, rather than the entire area the suit is in. Which makes it way easier to use their communication system, the same set of listening runes they are using on their standard armor.

"This the place? That's one hell of a complex."

Mindy nods absently as they slowly float over the eight good-sized buildings that make up the corporate headquarters of Higa's organization.

"According to Kochou, anyway. What do you suppose she is up to?"

Dave sounds surprised. "What is up with her? What do you mean?"

He can't see her, not really. But he can tell by her tone that her eyes nearly rolled right out of her head.

"Seriously? She's been all over the rune texts and any other magic book we give her. Not that I have a problem with her learning, but haven't you noticed that her efforts are a bit directed?"

Dave's response is in an obvious monotone.

"You mean directed towards Arithmancy, Runes, and now Potions? The three areas that we've proven she can function in without the need for a wand? How dare she use logic, and drag poor Katsuragi to the same fate. The fiend."

She is lowering herself towards the top floors of the tallest building there and starts peering into the windows.

"Yeah, if you say so. I think this is it here. Holy fuck. Who needs an office this big? This is obscene."

Dave looks in appreciatively. "Yeah, there's what, twenty people in there? Betting the thugs in the corners are normal bodyguards, and the man standing next to him is probably his secretary. The rest are all Sekirei? That's a bit of a herd."

Mindy nods. "Gonna pop in there and find out what he's saying. All things being equal, I'd rather not have to kill the bodyguards to get rid of the guy unless he's waxing poetic about kidnapping and murdering in front of them. Then I'm a bit less conflicted."

He looks at his map and sees that she has gone just to the other side of the thick glass. Then he starts working out how he would make a short-range portkey item with a listening charm on it for spying.

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S.S.S.S.S.S

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"...you've failed two weeks in a row, number ten. If you can't do something as simple as this, I am uncertain whether or not I should bother continuing my efforts to keep your Ashikabi alive. The poor dear is quite sick, isn't she?"

The girl in question, number ten apparently, stiffens at that. Her face is covered in a veil and she has a disturbingly large amount of white cloth on her for somebody that, from the front at least, is basically wearing thigh-high white boots and a two-piece swimming costume.

"You are asking me to kill a sixteen-year-old boy because he kissed someone you wanted. How is that even sane?!"

The man's demeanor drops to sub-zero levels of cold.

"How dare you question my sanity, you ridiculous alien trash! Now you'll get out there, and you'll terminate that Sekirei and get rid of that child to make an example or your Ashikabi will be out on the street dying of her disease within the hour and you'll only have yourself to blame!"

After he gets done talking, there are a few loud 'pop' sounds. Then, his head falls off.

Oh, it wasn't quite as easy as that, the sword swipe was just barely visible and while the blade passed through without complaint, there was enough friction to cause his body to lean in that direction and spray the man next to him with arterial blood. The popping sound was a directed burst of magical energy towards the two obvious cameras in the room, and then sweeping that burst along the walls and ceiling while a few other devices short out in the walls.

All around the room, there are a number of people that fall to the ground while she is making her way around the room at speed to deal with the bodyguards, tagging the secretary on her way by. From the time that Higa's head falls off to the time that the last bodyguard has fallen? About fourteen seconds.

Then Mindy turns off her silencing runes and faces 'number ten.' Who is looking around the room in a highly disturbed fashion.

"Who in the hell are you?! That guy was a total piece of crap, but I needed him. I don't have the money, my Ashikabi..." She drops to her knees, and tears roll down her face. "You've killed her. You've killed us."

Mindy shakes her head. "I doubt it, this guy is a big-time creep. I wouldn't put it past him to be poisoning your Ashikabi to keep her there. But regardless, chances are we can cure her anyway. We have some tricks on that front. You know where she is? Can you go get her? Take her somewhere safe, and I'll meet you there after a while?"

The woman looks at the slayer of her lifeline slash personal tormentor with confusion.

"They said it was incurable. All they can do is try to keep her as healthy and happy as possible. It's a virus, they said."

Mindy is at this point collecting up all the collapsed Sekirei and tying them all up into a rope that she makes a portkey, sending all eight of them on their way. Number ten looks at her with shock.

"What did you do! MBI will be here to claim them back soon, that's the way it works!"

Mindy shrugs as she pops back the boss and his secretary, then starts looting the room at high speed, things getting dumped into her inventory as fast as possible.

"Like I said, I have some tricks up my sleeve. If I give you an item that will take you instantly to a spot I designate, you and anybody you are holding, would you use it to bring her to us? See if we can help her?"

The woman climbs back to her feet, getting nervous now as to what kinds of orders the people at the hospital might have for her Ashikabi if Higa should wind up dead. She isn't loving the thoughts crossing her mind just now, and it makes her panic, lash out and grab anything that might be a life raft.

"You mean like they were sent somewhere? You mean you weren't finishing them off?"

Mindy shakes her head as she pries up the top of the desk that must be worth tens of thousands of dollars. There are a couple of drawers that don't go as deep as the others, generally a good sign when looking for hidden things. She finds a few notebooks and some thumb drives, all of which make it into her inventory.

"Nope. We're pretty sure we have a way to fix their Tama. Get them back on their feet, let them go find an Ashikabi that isn't a douche bag of epic proportions."

She sees that number ten is getting ready to complain further, and shakes her head even as she casts a repair charm on the desk, and cleaning charms on everything else. The bodyguards she just vanishes. The other two she kept because they might have incriminating evidence on them. But nobody tells a corporate bodyguard anything substantial.

"No time. You want the help or not?"

Nodding frantically, the woman holds out a hand.

"Yes, please! If you think you can help, any chance is better than no chance."

Mindy reaches into her inventory and pulls out a disk of metal about the size of a half-dollar and hands it to the woman.

"When you have her, and you are in the clear, say the words on the disk while you are holding it and her. Give me about an hour before you pop in. We've got a bit on our plate. Also, I put a limiter on that thing. It stops working in six hours, so if you haven't made it by then, don't bother trying."

She steps back towards the window. "I gotta go, you okay getting out of here on your own, or could you use a hand?"

The girl looks nervously towards the door to the office. She doesn't have time to screw around with corporate security drones right this second.

"Yes, that would be nice. Thank you."

Mindy pulls out another coin. "Where is the hospital you're going to? If I've been anywhere near it I can solve some of your issues by popping you into the area."

She points, and about fifteen or sixteen blocks away there is an enormous building. Ten stories probably, and more than a city block in size.

Waving her hand over this one, she then hands it to number ten. "Same thing. Say the words on it. That one will dump you on the roof of the hospital. Remember, give me an hour."

Then the girl disappears, and number ten looks at the coin and despite the worry she has, she can't help but roll her eyes.

"Split pea soup with a side of yak snot."

Then she too is gone.

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S.S.S.S.S.S

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The two gamers pop their way back and begin taking stock of their guests. Dave motions with his chin as he cuts the ropes that bind them.

"Think we should spread them out among four rooms for now? Two per room, so we can avoid using the top bunks until they are hopefully doing better?"

Mindy nods. "Yeah, and we need to get them settled pretty quick. I told the Sekirei that was in there and wasn't Higa's that I'd take a look at her Ashikabi. Apparently, Higa was stooping to medical blackmail to get the girl to commit murders on people that pissed him off."

She picks up a pair of them, one over either shoulder and takes them after Dave as they start hauling them from the break room to their actual rooms for now.

"I gave her a portkey that'll take her to that warehouse across the street we're using for deliveries. I asked for an hour, so once we get these people settled I'll go over there and see what I can do for them."

It only takes the two a few minutes to get them all situated, and then to clean the mess made by Higa and the corporate drone she sent here. She makes it a point to strip the bodies looking for anything of note, but aside from phones, wallets, and in the case of the secretary a mid-sized tablet, she doesn't find much. Once anything that might possibly be of use is stripped off of them, they vanish the bodies.

Dave motions back toward the rooms.

"We don't have the equipment here to keep them alive for long if we don't get them up. Want to try to get that done while we wait? We still have a proximity charm on the other warehouse from when we were getting deliveries, we'll know when she arrives. What's wrong with her Ashikabi?"

Mindy shrugs. "A virus, supposedly. Who knows though, you didn't hear that Higa bastard. I wouldn't be shocked at all if he was poisoning the girl to keep her in his hospital."

They make it to the first room, and they both stand next to the bed while Mindy pours the contents of a vial in the girl's mouth, and using a combination of a magical spell and massaging the neck, she gets the girl to swallow while Dave is monitoring her.

"Yeah, it's definitely doing something. I don't have enough experience to tell you what, exactly. But it's fixing something, anyway." He holds up a hand. "And now, unless I am very much mistaken? She's just asleep. Her core is showing as different, but not hugely so. If I'm reading it right, I would say that their core has a lot in common with a Veela's."

Then he points the wand at her and a red beam lances out to smack into her chest. At Mindy's questioning look, he shrugs.

"Basic stunner. I figured we should make sure they are all going to be alright before we wake any of them up."

At her nod, they continue their chore and then head down to the warehouse proper, where they find Kochou and Kat are at the primary crafting table talking fast to each other. As soon as they notice the Gamers walking in, they both quiet down significantly and Katsuragi looks at them curiously.

"So how did it go?"

Mindy shrugs while Dave walks around the table to see what they are working on.

"It went fine, and we're pretty sure that the Sekirei that slime enslaved will be fine after a while. The potion seems to have worked, but we went ahead and stunned them because I need to see to a sick Ashikabi in probably another twenty minutes." She then gives the basic explanation. Kochou speaks.

"Twenty-two? Covered in loose white cloth? That's Uzume. I knew she had an Ashikabi, didn't know they were sick though. She's genuinely nice or was to me at least. If she ended up working for Higa, he must have been doing something to get her under his thumb, I suppose medical blackmail would do it." Then she smirks. "She's also one of the few that I know of that I would actually give a reasonable chance against one of you. She's quick. Very quick. And her ability makes that cloth she wears attack when she wants it to, and it's like getting hit by steel when she does it. We sparred a little bit when I was very young. Before they figured out that my talents were best used elsewhere."

Then Mindy's head swivels towards the door to the warehouse. "She's a little bit early, but not too bad. I'll head over now I guess."

Dave nods to her as she stands. "You want backup?"

Mindy wrinkles her nose and shakes her head. "No, I think I'll be fine on my own for this, but I'll make sure to leave my coms on, feel free to listen in."

Then she walks out, and Dave turns to Kochou and Kat.

"So what are you two doing? Looks like a custom trunk?"

Kochou nods. "I was thinking about having an escape route should anything happen that I am not prepared for, and it occurred to me that a trunk with the interior dimensions in at least one of its compartments to be an armored coffin and that has a portkey rune destination built into it, would give me an escape from any kind of bad situation. Particularly if I build cameras into it and computerize the interior. Add some defenses and the runes that would let it float around, like your new harnesses? My biggest worry is that I'll be at the mercy of the portkey when I use it, so that needs to be completely reliable. Overpowered to get me to my safe spot no matter how far away or what kind of crap might be there to block it."

Dave smiles. "You're building a little attack aircraft, basically." He frowns. "Something that big, plus armored, you know we won't be able to get it moving that fast, right? Maybe thirty or forty miles an hour at the absolute outside. Even that might be asking too much."

She nods. "That would be fine. More than fine, really. I am primarily setting this up as a way to make an escape and not be helpless when I get there in case my home has been compromised."

Dave nods. "Yeah, I can see that. While we're talking about runes and stuff, how is your gear working out?"

He can see that they are both wearing their new armor. Pretty close to what they had said they would be making, save that the shins and boots of Katsuragi's suit are massively reinforced to deal with the sheer punishment that she can deliver with her kicks. For pure power, she is actually somewhere between Mindy and Dave. What she is lacking in is skill, and Mindy has been working with her on that almost non-stop.

Kat smiles at him. "This stuff is amazing! I know that a large part of it is the runes, but even still I have got to know, where did you find stuff this strong?"

Dave offers a wide smile that is bordering on a smirk. "Sure you want to know?"

She nods, though she is slightly less enthusiastic. Dave gives up on holding back and goes full-blown smirk.

"Remember when we said it was dragon hide and Acromantula chitin?" At her nod, he continues. "We weren't lying. I think you can guess what a dragon is. An Acromantula is a magical spider the size of a car or bigger. There was a serious infestation of them in the forest near where we were staying a while back, so we made a couple of trips in to make some money. On the second trip in, we filled a couple of trunks with bits and pieces rather than sell it all. So basically, you're wearing flying lizard and spider carcasses."

He erupts in laughter at the look on the girl's face.

.

S.S.S.S.S.S

.

Mindy walks into the warehouse across the way and sees them immediately. Uzume is sitting down, leaned against a wall, and has her Ashikabi in her lap.

"You're a little early."

Uzume looks up at Mindy, her eyes red with tears.

"I held off as long as I could, but I couldn't get her out of the Hospital without using the window. They had her under guard. When goons started fidgeting with the lock, I just used the coin. Can you help her? She's pretty fragile, and the teleport thing you gave me knocked her out."

Mindy walks over and gives the young girl, Uzume's Ashikabi, a once-over with her diagnostic spells. She isn't a trained mediwitch by any stretch of the imagination, but she's eaten the books for it, and so she can attempt most anything. It's interpreting what she finds that is difficult. Fortunately, this time at least, it's pretty simple.

"Well, I have good news, bad news, even more bad news, and some good news. What do you want first?"

Number ten is looking more scared by the millisecond. "I just want to know if she'll be okay! You said you could, I was hoping, I..."

Mindy rolls her eyes. "You're no fun at all, you know that right? The good news is that Higa wasn't actually poisoning her. The bad news is that she's had this bug for so long that it had a crap impact on her development. I doubt she'll ever be an Olympian, and I don't really expect her to get much taller than she already is. The more bad news is that the virus she has is a magical one, and she managed to catch it because she has just enough of a core for the thing to survive in her, but not enough to kill her quickly. The good news? I can cure this. It isn't even hard, but I'll need to make the potion. I wasn't originally planning to invite you over, because we were planning to keep Ashikabi's out of the way if we could. But since the potion in question takes three days to brew, I figure I should probably offer you two a bunk." Then she reaches out and plucks a vial from the ether. "Give her this to get her up and about. It isn't a cure, but she'll wake up with most of her aches and pains from illness gone for a while." Then she stands and smirks. "Don't panic when the steam comes out her ears, that's how you tell it's working."

Uzume looks up in shock, having already coaxed the mostly asleep girl to drink the lion's portion of it. The steam from the ears is only one of the strange permutations that occur to her Ashikabi.

Her look of shock becomes one of amazement when her Ashikabi looks up at her, eyes wide and happy for the first time in a long while.

.

S.S.S.S.S.S

.

Author's note.

So... Yeah, I'm fairly familiar with the source material, and I have to say that possibly the most damning thing about the way MBI handles the whole fiasco that is releasing aliens into the wild has to be that they never did anything to stop Higa. Mikogami is a colossally screwed-up individual, but he's only evil in the same way that the man that trains the monkey to smash the cymbals together is. He doesn't really consider them human, so using them for their 'intended purpose' to win a game is very exciting for the kid. He's legitimately more ignorant, arrogant, and selfish than he is evil.

Higa though, he did everything he could to take what was already a pretty bleak, horrible existence and went out of his way to make it so much worse for everybody involved.

And yeah, now that they are doing stuff, they won't be here much longer. Two to three chapters probably. At most.

The basic stats, since somebody was asking about it when I said they had capped for now.

Dave:

STR: 52

DEX: 24

CON: 56

INT: 23

WIS: 24

CHA: 21

Mindy:

STR: 24

DEX: 60

CON: 45

INT: 23

WIS: 22

CHA: 26