Sea of Madness
In a heartbeat, motion exploded from everyone.
Minato moved. His Sekirei moved. Sanada moved. The captured Sekirei all moved. Mikogami would've moved if Mutsu hadn't picked him up and dashed forward.
The Ashikabi knew what they all had to do. No one could sit this one out; they had to break the spell.
Sekirei met Sekirei as a hurricane of battle raged in the park. Hibiki's lightning clashed with her sister's.
"You okay, Hibiki?" Seo shouted from behind.
"I can take it!" Hibiki said, standing still and eating every volt of her blind sister's lightning. "Just get to her already!"
Mutsu drew steel and fought Himeko and Nanami two-on-one. Juusa caught Mitsuki's wires on her bo staff. Akitsu vanished into Taki's fog bank.
"Freeze her solid, Akitsu!" Mikogami called, still slung under Mutsu's arm. The Earth Sekirei was purely defending here, his blade dancing around him like an Olympic fencer's rapier. The problem he faced was Nanami's tuning fork spear. He had to block it at the handle or avoid it entirely; one solid blow to his blade and his arm would go numb. Not for long, but that was a moment he couldn't spare.
Meanwhile, Sanada's three children ran about the legs of his three killers, tripping them up and making them stumble. The girls giggled and laughed, while the women tried to hack their little heads off. If not for the stakes, it might've resembled a comedy bit. Sanada certainly wasn't laughing. Even if he kissed them, he'd likely pay in blood; the way his wilder Sekirei showed affection was always with teeth and fingernails.
On Minato's front, Musubi dove for Kazehana and got blown back. Tsukiumi rekindled her old rivalry with Homura, meeting his supernova with a planetoid of water. That left Minato free to go for Matsu, who in her current state seemed hell-bent on tangling herself up with Kazehana and Homura.
Unfortunately, there was one extra player in this pandemonium. He zoomed forward and seized Minato's collar.
"YOU COULDN'T HAVE WAITED FIVE MINUTES?!" Kagedansu bellowed, shaking him. "FIVE MINUTES! KARASUBA AND THE SQUAD COULD'VE BEEN-"
One of those trees, that he'd been hiding in not one hour ago, came to life and seized him. Other willow branches reached for him, but his powerful hands slapped them away.
Ku was still bawling on mute, her eyes flooding her face but no sound coming from her trembling lip. Those eyes squeezed shut as Kagedansu was flung across the field, tumbling into the wall of willows.
Minato wanted to praise her, but… The wound was still open and very, very raw.
Instead, he directed her at Matsu. "Tangle her up so I can kiss her."
Ku didn't object, which made Minato proud. She was being such a good kid, all things considered.
Matsu was watching Homura and Kazehana duel. She didn't even seem aware of the other Sekirei around her. That was his chance, once Kusano's plants strung her up by the wrists.
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Matsu watched Kazehana and Homura carefully, noting the movements and patterns of the black phantoms they fought. One had dug its claws into the yellow grass, solid as a rock as Kazehana blasted it with her wind. The other shot inky black blobs at Homura's flames whenever he attacked, before rushing in with a baseball bat of black and swinging at his head. Homura ducked and countered with a flaming sword from his wrist, at which the baseball bat flattened into a shield. Bonus: it seemed to affect the stuff, causing the shield to bubble and shrink as if it were made of water.
"Wah!" Matsu suddenly found herself hoisted up in the air by the wrists, like the final scene of a hentai she once saw. "What the-?!"
She twisted her hands and kicked her legs but these black tendrils, similar to Ku's, weren't letting go. Lucky, then, that she wasn't alone.
"Little help here, Homura!" she called.
Homura booted his amorphous foe back and swept his sword at her. The blade became a sweeping orange wave that flew up and sliced through the tendrils. Matsu dropped to her feet just in time to spot a new phantom creeping up on her. It lurched to the side, as if avoiding something, but there was nothing there.
As it dove at her, Matsu sinking into a judo throw, her nose caught a whiff of something… Ozone? What?
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Minato's jump saw him caught and tossed by Matsu, surprisingly strong for someone who never left the house. The fact he knew how to "ride" the throw and land on his feet still hurt him: Kagedansu showed him how to do that. Not just the specific move, but how to use his hips to make sure he was carried along the thrower's side.
He was a little peeved: if not for that rogue lightning bolt, he might've had Matsu.
"Hit her again! Little stronger this time!" Seo shouted.
Now it was a wrestling match and his other two Sekirei wouldn't know if they killed him. Matsu was trying to call for help again but found difficulty keeping Minato's hand off her face. Such a strategy wouldn't last, since his plan required her mouth to be open.
"Keep them busy, you guys!" Minato shouted at his other two. "Don't let up!"
"Right!" Musubi shouted back, still clinging to the ground. Kazehana's gale paused as she wound up for another blast, allowing Musubi to bound forward and sweep Kazehana's legs out from under her. Kazehana fell on her back but Musubi kept hold of her ankles, turning her over into a double-leg Boston crab hold.
"Ow! Ah!" Minato cried out as Matsu bit him, hard. He had been distracted by watching Musubi and now Matsu was going coyote on his wrist. Then, for some reason, Matsu's eyes rolled back in her head and she went limp for a moment.
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For all her braininess, Matsu didn't know what came over her. She'd chomped on this black phantom's limb as it had her by the wrists, but now all her strength was gone. She barely had the energy to turn her head and avoid the thing opening its maw of needle-like teeth and biting her face off.
Then, her strength returned. Nothing got the blood flowing like being face-to-face with a eyeless, humorless, angry Venom knockoff.
She fought against the tendrils that held her, this thing drawing back to bite her again. She threw her head forward and smacked the thing right in the teeth. No concussion for her, but she'd only bought herself… A little...
Matsu's strength crashed again. Her head lolled back against the grass, and that's when the thing struck. Its worm-like maw dove for her face. There was nothing Matsu could do but shut her eyes and brace for the pain. Nothing, that is, except give one last defiant scream and hope that one of her friends saved her.
Its black flesh touched her lip first. Then a tongue like…
What's happening? Matsu thought, her eyes still closed but her voice silent. The thing's tongue in her mouth was furiously wrestling with her own, swirling around and pushing against her like it was the first or last kiss it ever had.
The next sound she made was a moan, as the cobwebs cleared from her mind and she recognized the hot breath and sexy bod pressed against her. The energies building inside of her were swirling around like a fiery cyclone. Its touchdown point was the small of her back, and when it did, the orgasmic explosion of her bright orange wings made her eyes shoot open and roll back.
When her vision came back into focus, Minato was climbing off of her, helping her to her-
"Get down!" she shouted, tackling his knees as a rogue fireball streaked over his head. She could smell the burnt hair from Minato's bangs. What a close one that had been.
Matsu and Minato both climbed to their feet, for real this time. Matsu's first instinct was to apologize and grovel and beg and kiss and strip and…
Priorities, Matsu, she thought, and analyzed the situation. "Tsukiumi! Put water around Kazehana and Homura's hands!"
Tsukiumi swatted Homura back with a water tendril, causing him to bump into Hikari. "Matsu! Dost thou presume-"
"Just do it!" Minato barked. He'd apologize later.
Tsukiumi was shocked but obeyed. Kazehana's wind was momentarily cut off and Homura's fire extinguished as water enclosed their hands. The beach ball-sized spheres immediately started to swell.
"Now, Minato!" Matsu grabbed his wrist and whipped him towards Homura. Minato didn't even stumble. Ballroom-spinning around Chiyo and Shijime's twisted game of tag, Minato blindsided Homura and caught him. The lad accidentally copped a feel on Homura's feminine chest, but had no time to dwell. Yanking Homura's mask down, he quickly pressed their lips together.
On Homura's end, the inky phantom that held him pushed its blank black face against his own and kissed him. A rush of ecstasy coursed through Homura's body, her female anatomy so thrilled by the chemical reaction that Homura, for a moment, forgot who she was. Then he came around, looking into the surprised face of his Ashikabi, holding his head in place.
"You with me, Homura?" Minato asked.
Homura felt his head start to itch. He suddenly felt sweaty, particularly on his cheeks. "Yeah," he croaked, his bishounen voice a little more femmy than usual. "Yeah. What's the plan?"
"Watch our backs!" Matsu barked, sliding behind him. "One to go, Minato!"
Minato nodded. As he shuffled along and flanked Kazehana from behind, he wondered where Kagedansu had gone. More importantly, he didn't see Ku, either.
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"Get him, Ku!" Uzume shouted, trying to catch the wind for her sprint as she dropped Ku and Chiho on the ground. Her target had a small, double-edged triangle knife in his hand. It cut through her veil when she tried to snare his waist, but that left him open for the willows. Their vine-like branches swiped at his knees and his chest, but Kagedansu pulled a Hong Kong-level stunt and sideways-spin-dodged, his body horizontal as it passed between them. All they did was ruffle his crimson robe.
Kagedansu landed, crouched, ripped a clump of dirt from the ground and hucked it at Ku's face. She put her hands up and caught it, carefully placing the grass and its soil down on the ground. That was enough for Uzume, though, as she'd been able to finally circle around and cut him off, her veils twisted into needles and their bodies hovering like serpents in front of Kagedansu's face. One thrust, and he'd be on the business end of an icepick lobotomy.
"End it," Uzume said, her needles swaying forward to emphasize her point.
"Can't."
"Bullshit," Uzume snapped. "Switch off the mind control or I'll do it for you."
"Not gonna happen, Uzume," he said, eyeing her weapons. "I need to be touching someone to switch anything."
"Fine." Uzume nodded at Ku. "Tie him up."
As the willows swayed again, and the branches wrapped around his wrists, Uzume approached to confiscate his little triangle knife. Even while the whirlwind of Sekirei continued in the background, she took her time. Trust was not a luxury she could afford anymore, not with this… monster. Nor could she use her veils to do it, since that would take her focus off the ones hovering in front of him, waiting on a hair-trigger to-
STRIKE!
Kagedansu ducked, yanked the willows down and Uzume's reflex sliced through them. Not cleanly, but enough so they snapped from the tension. Kagedansu ducked the crisscrossed veils above him and leapt forward, his skull smashing into Uzume's chest.
"Gugh!" The wind was knocked out of her. Even as she fell to the ground, he was already manipulating her body. Flat on her back, his finger burrowed beneath her and found her crest, quickly turning her over so Ku could see it, too. He was tripoding on his toes, leaning on her arm like he was about to start some one-handed push-ups, with his other arm still on her crest.
The Green Girl stood still, shocked, surprised, just now catching up to what had happened. Uzume gasped for air; if not for that, she'd have cursed Kagedansu's genetic predisposition for processing information quickly. It seemed that what Matsu could do with computers, he could do with people. Or, at least, he could do it with a single person.
"Don't hurt her, Kagedansu!"
Chiho stayed behind Ku, her face cast in shadow from the willow canopy above them, but that was still too close for Uzume's liking. That knife had an edge and Kagedansu's muscles suggested one hell of a pitching arm.
"You gonna do it?" she asked, glaring up in his yellow eyes. "Might as well. You ripped out my heart just a few minutes ago. Want my crest, too?"
"Uzume, don't goad him!" Chiho shrieked.
She chuckled. "Doesn't matter. Either way, he's not leaving with those Jinki." Tears started to reform in her eyes. "So go on. Do it."
Kagedansu frowned at that. Uzume was just glad he remembered.
"DO IT!" she screamed, startling all three of them a little. Unfortunately, Kagedansu had chosen his capture position better than she had, so it wasn't enough to get his finger off of her crest.
Damn it, Uzume thought. I tried, Chiho, but it looks like the guy who saved me is… Wait a sec…
Kagedansu nodded. "Alright, I will."
Shifting his weight from her arm to her back, Kagedansu reached into his robe. He shimmied his feet forward, allowing him to stand up while still bending over to hold Uzume's killswitch. So long as his finger was there, Ku and Chiho wouldn't make a move on him. His fist emerged holding Jinki No. 8.
He let it linger in her line of sight for just a moment, and then flung it away.
"CATCH!"
The shout distracted the dwindling combatants, as by now, most of them had come to their senses. The more strategic among them (meaning Matsu and no one else) thought it suspicious, as if this entire battle was just one more move in Kagedansu's game.
That sentiment didn't last long once they all saw what had landed among them. They were all thinking it; Mikogami simply said it.
"Mine!"
"I'll get it!" said a reoriented Nanami, tuning fork turned towards the Jinki.
"Me first!" Musubi shouted, rushing to meet her.
Beneath Minato, her fingers hooked into his biceps and her legs crossed behind him to keep him pinned against her, Kazehana popped her lips free of his and turned her eyes on Musubi. "Woah boy…"
Sanada grunted and pushed himself free of Hatae, wiping some blood from his lip. "Kuzuri, get back here!"
"Wheeee!" Kuzuri beat both Sekirei to the Jinki and scooped it up. "I win! Oowoowoowoo!"
Nanami withdrew her tuning spear from Kuzuri's arm and plucked the Jinki from her slackened fingers. "Got it!"
"Nope!" Musubi beat her to it and winged it to her Ashikabi. "You catch, Minato!"
Behind her glasses, Matsu's eyes narrowed as they tracked the Jinki's trajectory. Something wasn't right. Its arc, its refraction, the placement and sheen of the red sphere inside it were all wrong. As Minato caught it, Matsu snatched it out of his hands and rubbed her thumbnail against the pink "8" painted on the side.
Because that's what it was: painted, under a gloss to hide its cheap material, on a material that was neither heavy nor cold enough to be glass.
"It's a fake," Matsu declared, throwing it against a rock in the ground and watching it break. "He did it again."
"So, wait…" Mikogami's eyes widened and he pulled at his brown hair. "This was all for nothing?!"
"Get your head on straight, kid," Seo said, leveling a glare at the youth as his two exhausted Lightning Twins leaned on him. "The spell's broken, the con was blown open, and everyone's still here."
"Yeah, so…" Sanada's eyes went from side to side, sizing up Minato, Seo, Mikogami and Chiho in turn. "What happens now?"
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Uzume, for her part, didn't allow his obvious diversion to work. As soon as Kagedansu threw the Jinki, he took off running. Uzume knew that, even if he had a spare, Kagedansu wouldn't just toss a Jinki away like that. He at least pretended to be working for Minaka, which made his dismissal of the Jinki doubly suspicious.
That's why, when he took off running, so did Uzume. She sent Chiho and Ku back to Minato and tailed her ex-lover to a manhole cover. She entered the sewer by a nearby drainage grate, knowing he'd probably wait a minute for someone to follow him.
Using a trick she'd figured out from Matsu hacking his purchase history, Uzume wrapped her veils around her feet. It wasn't bedding foam, but it was better than the clack-clack of high-heeled shoes on concrete.
It seemed Kagedansu wasn't expecting anyone, because his footsteps never stopped from that point on. He led her through quite the chase through the sewers. It made him easy to follow, which gave Uzume time to ponder some questions she had.
Namely, who would save someone from a clean, suspicion-free death, just to kill them again later? It's not like Uzume was essential for this gathering to happen. He could've let her self-sacrifice for Minato play out, let Shi impale her with that wire-knife she'd thrown at the attack on Maison Izumo. Instead, he'd saved her, having now admitted that their entire love affair meant nothing.
Uzume choked up a little. It still hurt. Ruthless assassin or no, she still had a heart, and letting herself be vulnerable that night, with him, had left her vulnerable to lingering yearnings.
She was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she nearly missed it when he stopped running. Her foot hovered above the concrete as she nearly lost her balance. Gritting her teeth, wobbling awkwardly on her back heel, Uzume made a mental note to burn these damn shoes and get some more practical ones.
Gently setting her foot on the ground, rolling it along the side first so it wouldn't make any noise, Uzume pulled her veil off her head and listened closely, ears alert for any sign of movement. There was some odd scratching sound from up ahead, a murmur, but… There! Soft, subtle, but definitely footsteps.
Carefully matching their rhythm, Uzume got down on her fingers, crawling with her veils as her hind legs instead of her… fucking heels.
"Pursue me with caution, Number 10."
Uzume stopped and stood, more out of perplexity than fear. He was using his Hametsu voice, and as she rounded the next corner, there he stood, silhouetted by his robes but pitch black. The footsteps had stopped. The faded light failed to reflect off of him; his wild yellow eyes seemed to stare into space, as if he was on a weird drug trip.
"You failed to reckon the sound of metal on stone when you entered behind me," he said.
"I didn't reckon a lot of things," Uzume said, "most of which I regret."
'Hametsu' shrugged coyly. "Haven't we all? Except me, of course."
"Of course not. Were you always like this or is the whole mustache-twirlingly evil thing just another chess move?" Uzume rolled her eyes at him. "
"Oh no, I've plenty regret," 'Hametsu' said, "but nearly all of it for things I reckoned for."
Uzume hesitated, though had the caution not to take her eyes off of him. "Was saving me one of them?"
"On the contrary," came the reply, his whispy tenor voice mellowing out. "You're the only Sekirei I trust with the keys to that superweapon."
Sekirei, Uzume thought, a scowl forming on her face.
"Look, just drop the hokey charade, Kagedansu." Her veils unwound from her feet and returned to her shoulders, battle-ready.
"Oh?" 'Hametsu' took a step forward, using the same rolling footstep she used to conceal the sound. "Is this not preferable? Is not some small, romantic part of you hoping, no, praying that I am real and Sixty-Seven is therefore not guilty?"
"Doesn't matter," Uzume spat. "I'm here for one thing. Shoving a spike through that hole where your heart would be is just a bonus. Now hand it over."
"Aaah, quite right," said 'Hametsu'. His hand came out from behind his back, revealing Jinki No. 8 in the dim light. "Ask not if I am real, but if this-"
Uzume's veil snapped out so fast it might've outpaced a bullet, swiping at… an illusion.
"-is," he finished. Then he paused, waiting. "No response? Not one I can hear, anyway. Therefore, you must've made your move on me."
Uzume knew better than to try again. Instead, she cocked an ear and listened.
"However, just as the snapping of fingers can hide the press of a button, a voice might likewise conceal…"
Nothing. Time to play the lottery, then. Uzume bolted through the psychic holograph, picked a direction at the next fork, and ran.
"The-pitter-patter-of-receding-foot-steps."
She ran until she came across a drainage grate that someone hadn't put back right. That was that, then. Kagedansu could've gone any number of places, and even he wasn't dumb enough to go back to his apartment. He could be anywhere, which meant only he could find the Jinki.
But worst of all? Worse than even losing her best shot at getting that Jinki back for Minato?
He was right. Even after all of this, even after everything he'd done, everything he'd said, some part of Uzume held out hope for him.
Uzume chuckled to herself, clutching at her aching chest. She sighed, sinking to her knees as she teared up a little. "True love really bites."
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Miya hummed to herself as she watered her front garden. Her guests were inside; she'd join them in a little while.
The first person to return was the last person she expected. Kagedansu, clad in what looked like an oversized red ceremonial robe, had landed behind her fence and was sifting through the dirt and leaves.
"Interesting day?" she asked. When he looked at her for clarity, she indicated his unusual attire.
"It's for, uh, performance," said Kagedansu, who went back to sifting.
"I see." Miya returned to watering. "So, nothing's changed, then?"
"Eh, nothing on my end." She heard him stand up, and glanced over to find Jinki No. 8 in his gloved hand.
Miya chuckled. "To think, it was there all along. Whenever did you find the time?"
"When I came back. Would've done it sooner, but I had a lot of things to get done and epoxy resin is a little tricky to cast without air bubbles in it."
The hanya mask floated from behind Miya. "I hope you understand, Kagedansu, that this is the last time you'll involve my lovely little home in your machinations."
He shook his head. "Nah, don't worry. I wouldn't want this place to get wrecked. The fence was as much as I was willing to do, and that was for a reeeeally cool entrance."
As he walked away, Miya spoke one more time. "Do you plan to keep the Jinki you stole?"
"If I did," Kagedansu said, looking over his shoulder, "well, after the rant I gave Matsu about fair shakes and sporting chances, that would make me a hypocrite, now wouldn't it?"
Author's response:
to pwashington: "Face reality?" Dear friend, as not of Minato's grasp on reality. At any given moment, there are many realities, but there is only one truth.