This is going to be mostly a girl with a female harem...and one lone guy. I'm still debating on whether to add Matsu and Haihana to Honoka's flock.
Akitsu, as it turned out, was a scrapped number that Honoka had stumbled upon and subsequently adopted. The woman was subservient to a fault, something Honoka disliked. She had taken it upon herself to keep the scrap out of mischief and away from those that would abuse her quiet nature. Akitsu had not left the abandoned house Honoka had commandeered since the girl had left to get (read: steal) some food the night before and the fortune of running into Homura by accident.
Whatever Miya felt about Honoka's living situation before Homura found her, she was pleased to see such fierce loyalty in the girl. There weren't many children like Honoka who would take in a complete stranger and protect them without demanding payment first.
Akitsu followed Honoka like a puppy. Any doubts Miya had about the two them sharing a room went away after watching them interact.
Homura had been less than enthusiastic about the 'stray' his possible Ashikabi had picked up. But the fierce glare Honoka had given him shut his complaints about the matter.
And then, to the complete bafflement of the entire inn, Homura's pants caught on fire. And he wasn't the one responsible!
"If I catch any of you teasing Aki-chan, I will set you all on fire with a smile on my face," warned Honoka, hugging said scrapped number with a fierce glare at them all. Uzume was the first to react to her declaration with a snort.
"Definitely your Ashikabi, bro," she told Homura.
"Will someone explain what this Ashikabi and Sekirei thing is about?!" demanded Honoka, "You make it sound like one big conspiracy!"
Apparently, it was. Nineteen years ago the head of MBI found a spaceship with one almost adult and one hundred and seven embryos, some almost at the fetus stage. They spent the next few years tweaking these aliens until they eventually were released to find their destined one or were considered scrapped because they were flawed. When all of the Sekirei were released, the 'game' would officially begin, leaving only one Ashikabi and their 'flock' left standing for some mystery prize.
Miya's inn was considered neutral territory for Ashikabi and Sekirei, solely because no one in their right mind was willing to piss the landlady off.
However it was when Uzume cheerfully explain how a Sekirei was winging that Honoka acted her age. Her blush covered her entire face.
"You mean I have to kiss...him?!" she nearly shrieked.
"I like it less than you do. For crying out loud, I'm almost ten years older than you, and no matter how we explain it I still feel like a damn pedophile," complained Homura.
"Not to mention Miya wouldn't hesitate to kick his ass if he tried anything," said Uzume, more than amused.
"Which is why Honoka-chan will be sharing a room with Akitsu-san," said Miya firmly. Apparently she was giving the quiet ice maiden the task of protecting her friend's chastity from Homura.
"So why do I have to kiss him?!"
Homura winced as the girl's magic flared enough to cause his reaction to act up again.
Miya looked at her long-time (and only paying) resident sadly.
"Unwinged Sekirei have trouble fully controlling their powers. Homura is one of those who didn't quite take to the adjustment process, so his control is more half-hazard...and considering his power..."
"He's like a human phoenix," concluded Honoka with distaste.
"Pretty much," confirmed Homura. He looked about as happy about this as Honoka felt.
Honoka seemed to debate something, before she finally said "Until I turn old enough to even remotely consider that kind of relationship, you are going to be firmly stuck in the 'older brother' category. Deal?"
Homura seemed openly relieved.
"Deal."
Miya seemed to openly approve of this idea. So long as they acted like a pair of mismatched siblings, she would allow it.
Homura and Honoka went outside so that she could properly 'wing' the Fire Sekirei. Not more than five minutes later, a man appeared on the TV screen congratulating Honoka for entering the game, before she cheerfully leveled a hand at his coat through the screen. Homura was very pleased when a few seconds later, for no reason at all, Minaka's coat caught on fire and almost burned his hair off.
Whatever strange power his new Ashikabi had, it was blatantly clear she was as big a pyro as he was...especially if Minaka was involved.
Miya's attempts to get Honoka to attend a normal school was met with abysmal failure for multiple reasons.
One, Honoka had no last name, and despite the offer of being 'adopted' by Miya, there was the simple fact Honoka hadn't come to Japan legally. Two, Honoka was downright adamant about not telling anyone who her former family was, or why she had impeccable manners, yet had worn such oversized rags when Homura first ran into her. Three, her brash personality made it impossible for her to handle being in a classroom without a fight breaking out. Four, and this was a bit of a shock for Homura and Miya, Honoka had a genius-level IQ that she hid for reasons they were not happy with. But the biggest reason was that Honoka's Japanese was choppy at best, and no matter they did it was pretty obvious she was a foreign child who had been all but dumped in the city a year ago. She just didn't fit in, and she wanted nothing to do with 'normal' society because she had a bad habit of hiding in plain sight.
This combined with the fact she was apparently able to handle going days without proper food or water lead them to believe she had either been neglected or outright abused before coming to Japan.
Which meant they had no other choice but to enlist the aid of Matsu and enroll Honoka into online courses to get her up to speed on her education.
However even that came with it's own set of challenges. The second Matsu learned of Honoka's odd 'Gamer' ability, she wanted in on it. Well that and apparently Matsu wanted to be winged, age be damned.
(Un?) fortunately, Honoka was not only not disturbed by such rampant perversion, but quickly developed a camaraderie with the glassed Sekirei involving dropping perverted bombs at the worst time.
It didn't take much convincing for Uzume to join in, and the two Sekirei found Honoka an excellent shield from Miya's infamous Hannya mask, since she seemed immune to it.
Fortunately Matsu was willing to wait until Honoka reached puberty before she asked the girl to wing her.
"Is that an owl outside?" said Homura, blinking to be sure he wasn't seeing things.
"Dammit...not again..." said Honoka. Without hesitation she blasted it with a fireball.
"Hono-chan, we do not attack random animals," chastised Miya.
"We do if they're freaking stalkers," she retorted. Spotting another avian making it's way to the inn, Honoka tensed.
"DIE FOUL BIRDS, DIE!" she shrieked. She made the owl trying to fly it's way to the inn burst into flames.
"What the hell?! Are we under attack?" yelped Uzume. She had seen the resulting fireball.
Honoka looked ready to blast any owls that came near her. At least, before Miya firmly bonked the girl on the head with her ladle.
"No attacking innocent birds."
"I don't think they're so innocent Miya," said Homura. He had never seen his Ashikabi this freaked out before. Not even Miya's hannya mask bothered her. A closer looked revealed something very off. "Hono-chan, leave one of the birds alive."
"Don't let those accursed things near me," she said.
"If they bother you that much, go hide with Matsu," said Homura. Honoka took his suggestion and the sound of the hidden door opening and closing was heard.
Homura observed the next batch of birds. Something wasn't right about this. He'd heard of carrier pigeons before, but owls? And what could make a nocturnal bird fly in broad daylight outside of their regular sleeping pattern? For that matter, how in Enma's fiery hell did they find his Ashikabi?
The more he watched the birds, the more things didn't add up. Thanks to Matsu's cameras, they could see a name on each letter. Every single one of them was in English.
Whoever was sending these obviously didn't know Honoka had her name changed deliberately. Or that she had no intention of returning to an English speaking country until she was old enough to be legally able to make her own decisions without having some adult trying to make them for her.
If there was one thing Honoka hated more than anything, it was adults treating her like she didn't know anything and babying her. The one time Seo made that mistake, she damn near killed him. Miya had been torn between the 'no violence' rule and the fact that she disliked Seo immensely.
She settled on telling the girl she would only allow it this one time, but next time she would be in trouble.
Something was definitely up...and Homura had the distinct feeling that maybe Honoka had reason to be wary of the owls. Every time she came anywhere near the outside, the things tried to swarm her.
It was getting so bad that Miya had to bring food up to Matsu's room, since the table was too close to the outside doors!
Finally, after a week of dealing with the large amounts of avian predators trying deliver letters and leaving a major mess that left Miya fuming, someone came trying to find out what the hell was going on.
There was a knock on the door. Homura, who was just as harried as Miya was with all the birds trying to get in, was the one who opened it.
"Yes?"
"Is this the residence currently being surrounded by post owls?" asked the woman blandly. Homura jerked a thumb to a nearby tree. Within minutes of stepping outside, twenty owls of varying breeds appeared.
Every one with a letter.
"I see. May I come in?"
"Are you going to do something about these birds?"
"Preferably, yes."
"Follow me. Miya-san! We have a guest!" he called out.
"Ara...it's not Seo-san again is it?"
"No."
The woman tensed the second she saw Miya. Almost like she could sense something about the unassuming landlady.
"May I help you?" asked Miya.
"That depends. Is there a magic-user in this residence?"
"...Magic?" said Homura.
"Unexplained occurrences, shapeshifting... anything out of the ordinary often occurring around a certain individual? Common signs are an inability to use electronics until they find a way to counteract the effects of magic on their tech," she offered.
Homura sighed.
"Honoka. She's been acting off since the birds started to show up, even going against Miya's no violence rule for the house," said Homura.
"May I speak to this...Honoka-san?"
"Hear that Honoka? You're going to have to leave the room if you want to get rid of the birds!" Homura called out. When he didn't hear the door opening, he said annoyed "And don't make me come up there to drag you out!"
Without warning a book hit his head. It had been thrown at him from the stairs.
"I heard you the first time!" said an irate Honoka. She hadn't been sleeping well, and if it wasn't the hooting it was tap-tap-tapping of Matsu's keyboard.
The only time she could sleep normally, as strange as it was, was when Homura was there. Somehow his presence seemed to block out the sound enough for her to sleep. Not that she told him that.
It wasn't long before most of the residents at the inn were sitting at the table, with the door firmly shut to keep the birds out.
The first thing the woman did was produce what appeared to be ofuda talismans.
"If you place these around the door frame, the birds won't bother you if you open it," she informed them.
Uzume took them.
"Any specific pattern?"
"Just make sure it covers, top, bottom and both sides."
"Gotcha."
It was with some relief that Uzume opened the door and the birds scattered for no apparent reason.
"Owl-repelling wards. It won't stop those that have been enchanted, but from what I can see those were just standard postal owls. I'm sure you have many questions, so I'll get straight to the point to avoid wasting your time. Magic is real, and from what I can sense she (she looked directly at Honoka) has enough of it to attend quite a few schools."
"Huh... so it wasn't some MBI experiment that went wrong..." said Homura to himself.
The woman's expression thinned.
"I take it all of you are associated in some way with MBI?"
"We're Sekirei, or most of us are. We're stuck dealing with them whether we like it or not," said Homura equally flat.
"So Sekirei is the sub-species name? I'll have to inform the Department that deals with that sort of thing. We've tried contacting you and others like you since the ship was discovered, but that fool refused to let us in so we could at least make the transition smoother. He even tried to tag us more than once when he realized magic was real...we had to erase his memory and all records of our meetings when we understood the depth of his insanity," she said relieved.
"What?"
"You're not the first species that aren't Terran in origin, and you certainly won't be the last. There's an entire department in the Japanese government which specializes in getting aliens who've lost their planet or home settled in, provided they can at least blend enough to full the average human...and aren't here for an invasion."
"Wait...so that stuff about Tomobiki I've been hearing about are..."
"True...unfortunately..." said the woman depressed, "In any case, what names were on the letters outside? It doesn't have to be the full name."
"Potter something."
And with that, chaos reigned.