Chapter -: Prologue

Before we get knee deep into this prologue I would like to state a few facts. First, this story is by no means a self insertion story, the character (whose name will be mentioned in below) is his own standalone person I have devised and edited over the course of 3 years. He is nothing like me (though I don't expect you to know that) and his past will be obviously not mine. And the final state I will like to say is: I do not own sekirei, most characters are thanks to its original storyline and creator. Thank you for baring with my little rant now please enjoy my story.

Welp, thanks to a review from Ikrani, I realized the amount of loopholes in this first chapter, because ladies and gentlemen, I am not a smart man. When I edited this in the first wave, it was edited for grammar and repetitiveness, because I forgot overall quality. So now this chapter has been gone through with a fine tooth comb to show a story, not just some word soup. Enjoy.

A man carrying a three month old child had just arrived in America. His name was Takehito Asama and he had just stolen the child of Hiroto Minaka and Sahashi Takami. Though, Takami had known he had taken her beloved child. He had explained the situation to her and took her heartfelt request to take her son far away from the experiments Minaka had in store for him.

He was taken out of his deep thoughts as the baby in his arms began to nibble on one of his fingers. Takehito smiled warmly towards the small child and got into the safe house he had set up to protect him as he grew. Though, a new problem arose, the child needed a new name, a new alias so Minaka couldn't figure out his identity let alone his location. After a few minutes of thought Takehito had created the perfect name for the young child.

"Soul Sweaper" he said with a smile. Soul Sweaper, a name so foreign and strange it made no sense to name a child that. But he had ulterior motives, a name so outrageous and nonsensical, no one would think to look for it (at least, for now). Also the fact he was pretty shit with names kinda forced his hand. The child, who would now be known as Soul, giggled happily, as if he understood what happened. This produced produced a chuckle from the newly dubbed guardian. He rocked Soul gently before placing him in a crib, the child would need to rest from the long trip. Takehito frowned now dreading the child's future, he would need to sacrifice everything if something would go wrong, and he needed to prepare for that, no, he needed to prepare both of them for that.

6 years later

Soul was sat on the couch awaiting for Takehito to arrive home from Tokyo. He had learnt Takehito wasn't his real father a year or so prior, but he treated him as like he was his real birth father. The phone rang and the young child ran over.

"Hello?" He asked curiously in his native language (English) as he began to hear quiet sniffling from the other end.

"Hello Soul" a soft but shaky female voice answered. Soul's face lit up recognizing the voice immediately.

"Miya-san! Do you know when Takehito is coming home!" The child asked in Japanese "I want to show him what I made!" Soul asked enthusiastically. He heard more sniffling a little son and made a confused face. "Are you alright Miya-san?" He questioned.

"I'm sorry Soul, Takehito isn't going to come..." She responded

"Do you know when he'll be back..?"

"A long, long time..." She said gently, not wanting to break the bad news that hard to him, he was only a young child after all.

Soul went silent for a moment. What could she mean? Takehito wasn't coming home? Before he could ask anything the electricity in the house was forcibly shut off leaving the child (literally) in the dark about his caretaker's condition.

"Soul? Soul? Are you still there?" She asked into the phone, her only answer being the disconnected sound . She sighed and and assumed he ended the call to cry or something similar to that.

Soul was not really afraid of the dark, Takehito taught him not to fear the dark, only fear what's in it. He felt his way around his house trying to find the breaker but instead felt the clothed feeling of a large leg. He looked upwards and saw a gloved fist rapidly approaching his face and was, almost instantly, knocked out when it finally hit him. The man caught the child carefully and, with the help of his subordinates, gently carried him into the van outside.

"Sir, are you sure we have the right person... this is only a child" one of the men asked another person who looked that of a higher rank and stature.

"Yes, this is him, this is the son of Minaka" the man replied with a large grin. "He will be the perfect specimen for our experiments, with his DNA the experimental serum has only, uh..." He opened paused to open a notepad before continuing his thought "a 20% chance to kill him instantly, well, that's what the eggheads in the lab told me anyway." He threw the notepad somewhere while lower ranked looking man tensed up visibly "What, is there something wrong with this?"

"I-I just don't feel right doing this to a child…" He admitted.

"Well your feelings are irrelevant, now drive before I reprimand you for insubordination" He knew that "reprimand" meant something much different than it's original definition, and he had a family to feed, he couldn't get "reprimanded" now.

"Yessir" the lower ranked man swallowed hard and began to drive off with Soul unconscious in the back.

7 Years later

Soul was strapped down to a metal table for his next batch of shots, the same ones that the U.S Government had been injecting into his bloodstream for the past seven years or so. These said shots made Soul that of a super-human, that is, if one could consider him human anymore. It gave him a upgraded and fast healing factor, a fast metabolism, iron like skin, a drastically elevated IQ, extremely increased strength and speed, the power to control many different elements (which was very hard for them to design and create and reproduce) and among many other miniscule and various things. He had been tortured, past the breaking point of his already fractured psyche, beaten till his bones were broken and his body bloodied. Everyday since he arrived there he had watched others that were like him, children that were kidnapped for the sole purpose of being used as testing specimen. And everyday he watched as the serum that was regularly injected into him slowly degrade and destroy their minds, and shortly after, their bodies. Their twisted faces haunted his troubled dreams. Their screams echoed loudly in his ears. He knew nothing of why he was being held in such a personal hell except that he would be used to combat a man named Minaka's "sekirei project" and bring it down, though he had no idea what any of that entailed. All he knew about this obscure "sekirei project" is he could use a special power to chant and break a "bond" between "ashikabi" and "sekirei". Though at the moment he didn't care about any of that, he needed to escape, he wouldn't let them have their way with him anymore. Everyday for four years he had been studying and observing the mannerisms of the scientists. He knew their specific speaking patterns. Their names. Their mannerism. Their speech patterns. Their senses of humour. Even the different ways they breathe. He knew everything he needed to know to escape. One of the researchers in his working area behind a large one-way mirror looked tiredly towards the analoge on the southern most wall before smiling lightly, it was his dinner break time. He got up and signalled his fellow colleagues before exiting the room to get some coffee and subpar food to fend off his tired mind and body. Soul knew this, they never deviated from their schedules, always on time never late. He laid there on his cold, steel table in deafening silence, waiting, and waiting, and waiting. Soul needed to make sure they weren't there, they would bound him with more bindings. He would be trapped in an escapable hell where he surely would perish. He refused to accept that. He couldn't accept that. All the planning, all the lying. It took years to get this point, he had to fool everyone that his abilities were only somewhat above a human's. Every time they thought his powers hit a wall, his threshold was thrice as much as he showed. After a considerable amount of time had past he gathered all his strength into his arms and pulled at the metal bindings. He pulled harder, harder and harder. His wrists bled, his bones cracked and began to break. He swallowed a roar of pain, his consciousness beginning to slip from the pain. Finally they snapped off, along with the bones in his wrists and legs. He heaved on the table, his bones snapping back into place, his wounds sealing slowly. He swallowed his pain once again and sat up slowly, his body still racked in pain "I need… to get out…" he wheezed. After considerable effort, he rose from the table, stumbling, before finally being able to punch the titanium walk beside him, staring weakly then slowly his anger propels his punches with more power. It took so much time, so much effort, but finally he broke through falling to the sandy ground. Getting to his feet, he ran, ran as fast as he could. He needed to get to the coast, he needed to get away, he needed to be free.

Head researcher John Sullivan was returning with his coworkers from his hour dinner break to perform some more needed tests on their most successful (and only living) prized specimen. He dropped his cup of coffee when he saw the giant gaping hole in the wall of the testing zone along with the corpses of the guards that was supposed to be watching him. "Oh fuck! Quick someone pull the alarm, the subject had escaped!" He screamed in an obvious panic. Guards were dispatched quickly, but they were too far behind him.

Day by day, he hid in mountains and ditches hiding from his pursuers. After many weeks, he finally got out of what he figured out was Arizona. It took him close to 3 months to get out of California and by then the Government sent their feelers out to find him. But once again, he was a few steps in front of them. He made it to a port and into a carrier ship on its course to Japan. He cried quietly, he was afraid, so very afraid. What would he find in Tokyo? How would he fit in. He wasn't human anymore, he was a monster, a monster hiding within the shell of a one-human being. Soul had no idea what to expect from in the near future. Though, he had a goal, he needed to find Takehito, from there it would be much easier. And if he couldn't find him… he'd at least figure out what had happened to his surrogate father.

3 years later

Miya was getting ready to visit Takehito's grave. Her husband had died by the hands of Minaka, who had figured out he had been planning treason. She knew in her heart it wasn't a quick death, but she still hoped it hadn't had been painful for him. Miya had just made food for her residents only moments before she got ready for her short trip at her (and once Takehito's) inn, "Maison Izumo". It was a traditional but a quaint and peaceful place, far away from the fighting of the soon to be started Sekirei plan. Some of her residents are evidence of the said plan, she had taken them in and protected them using a loophole in the agreement she made with the vile Minaka who knew of her monstrous power. Speaking of her dear residents, one of them had just come down the stairs. It was a male with white colored hair and striking red eyes. Though, with his build and face, it was easy to mistake him for a female. "Good morning Miya-san, are you about to go?" The casually dressed resident asked his landlady.

"Good morning Kagari-san, I was about to visit Takehito's grave..." Her voice grew audibly sadder as she reached the end of her sentence. The man, whose name was now introduced as Kagari, made a face full of remorse. He felt quite stupid for making her sad, especially at such a sensitive topic. She smiled at him and turned to open the door to make her way to her late husband's grave. Though, when she did so, she saw a dirty boy curled up at her doorstep. She kneeled down to check if he was alright and recognized him. It may had been more than enough years since she had last laid eyes on him she could not mistake him for anyone else, it was Soul, the boy her husband swore to protect with his everything. He looked as if he had been attacked pretty viciously attacked the previous night from the state of his clothes and, from his surroundings, was fairly obvious he barely made it to her front door. Miya called Kagari to help and they brought him inside. After finding no visible injuries on the poor boy, Miya laid him on a futon and cleaned him up a little the best she could. She didn't care how he found his way to her humble abode nor how she figured out she had lived there, Miya was only happy that she had finally found him, somewhat safe and sound, and that she had finally fulfilled the one, final promise she had made to her dear Takehito before he died.

That wraps up the prologue. I have left out large chunks of Soul's past on purpose so I could introduce them later on. If you have any suggestions, questions, or pointers please put them as a review or send me a PM. I should have the first chapter by posted maybe as soon as this one goes up depending on how lazy I feel. But anyway thank you so much for reading and I hope you will read on.

Update 10/11/15: added some extra events to extend and show what happened to him previously before the story starts officially.

Update 03/17/16: Added a lot more extra events to expand on his past with greater details. Scenes where Soul had been kidnapped have been edited. Soul's thought process and inner demons have been altered and intensified somewhat.

Update 11/28/16: Fixed a lot of the backstory and changed more of the plot.