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"Minato." - Regular Speech
'Musubi' - Thoughts
"Kaminari!" - Sekirei Incantation
Chapter 13: Face to Face: North vs. South
Two Minutes Prior to Matsu's Warning
Matsu's Room, Sahashi Minato's Home
The Sekirei of Wisdom let out a sigh of relief as, on the satellite imagery she had on the screen in front of her, her Ashikabi's kind and caring nature seemed to reassure the distraught Scrapped Number and prevent her from launching those spikes of ice at him.
Matsu shuddered as she imagined being a Scrapped Number; unable to find her life mate, unable to feel that intangible yet tangible connection that bound her to her Ashikabi. No, Matsu thought, she would rather be dead than a Scrapped Number. And if Takami-okaa-sama could help poor Akitsu, then she would lend her aid to that cause; no one deserved to live as a Scrapped Number.
Still, what really intrigued the redheaded Sekirei was Minato's development of what had to be Sekirei-exclusive empathic detection. Regardless of being the son of an Ashikabi, there was no way that he should have developed psychic powers, other than the general ones that all Ashikabi had, like that. Humans had the potential to have potential to have psychic powers, but it was the sole property of the Sekirei at this precise moment…or it should be anyway.
'Theoretically, the child of two Ashikabi who has also bonded with a large number of Sekirei might be able to develop powers like that, but that's so far into speculation, it falls under the term of a myth!' she thought, 'But I only know one of Minato-sama's parents, so confirming it is impossible, unless I ask Takami-okaa-sama.'
She then shuddered. Takami didn't like people poking into her past and doled out an ass-kicking to those who tried.
Matsu's attention was wrenched out of her mind when an alarm blared on her tracking computer. She tapped a few keys and her eyes widened as six blinking lights appeared in a loose circle around the park that Minato, Musubi and Kuruse were talking with Akitsu. More than that, they were closing in around her Ashikabi like a net! A couple of taps of keys revealed the information that she needed.
Moving with hurried but precise movements, she grabbed her cell phone and hit the speed dial for her Ashikabi's phone. As she waited for Minato to pick up, she quickly looked up the identities of the dots. All of them belonged to Mikogami and were some of his first Wingings; Number Five, Mutsu, the Earthquake Sekirei, Number Sixty-Five, Taki, the Mist Sekirei, Number One-Hundred and Three, Jūsa, the Staff Sekirei, Number Fifteen, Himeko, the Dual Blade Sekirei, Number Seventy-Three, Namiji, the Halberd Sekirei and Number Seventy-Five, Niwa, the Jujutsu Sekirei. All of them specialising in either close combat or support abilities.
"Mina-tan, get out of there!" she said as soon as her beloved answered the phone, "The Ashikabi of the South is heading your way with six Sekirei!"
"Calm down, Matsu-chan." Minato said soothingly, "Now where are they coming from?"
"All around you and closing fast." Matsu replied promptly, "From what I can tell, Mutsu, the only Single Number Mikogami's Winged, is there, which means he is there as well. He never leaves Mikogami's side, so avoid the east. I'll contact the others and get them to you as soon as I can, but until then play for defence. One more thing; the Mist Sekirei is there, so Kuruse-chan's teleportation abilities will be all but neutralised."
"Got it." Her Ashikabi now sounded firm and focussed, "We'll manage somehow until backup gets here."
Had this been a less serious conversation, Matsu would have swooned at the manly tone he had. For the moment, she only allowed a blush to appear as she hung up. Shaking her head as she regained control over herself, the Sekirei of Wisdom quickly dialled the number of Hibiki's phone and set about sending reinforcements to her master.
With Minato
"Well, that's the situation." Minato said grimly as he snapped his phone shut, "We have to get out of here."
"Aww!" Musubi pouted slightly.
"If this guy had planned on a basic Sekirei fight according to the rules, I might stick around, Musubi-chan, but he's obviously planning on taking down anyone who stands between him and his prize, presumably Akitsu-san here." the ravenette nodded at the Scrapped Number, who was gazing around melancholically, "As he doesn't plan to play fairly, I see no reason to entertain him."
"Hai…" the Power-type said sadly, "Why can't Ashikabi other than you abide by the rules, Minato-sama?"
"I have no clue." Minato said, "Kuruse-chan, summon some tridents; the Mist Sekirei is one of the six surrounding us."
"Wh-What?! That cow!?" the honey-blond growled before summoning not only a trident to her hand, but several tridents in a harness that she slung over her back and secured firmly in record time, "I'll teach her what happens when you chase me around for two days straight!"
"More running, less fighting in this case, Kuruse-chan." Her Ashikabi noted dryly. Evidently the Trident Sekirei harboured a grudge for what Taki had done to her before he had Winged her. Hardly a surprise.
"Hai, Minato-sama." Kuruse nodded reluctantly. She would run, but if the bitch got in her way, then she'd take great pleasure in avenging her pride! To be completely helpless as she had been during the two days of pursuit had been galling and the Trident Sekirei would not allow the slight to her pride to go unavenged. Generally speaking, she was an easy-going and forgiving person, but the thought that her choice could have been taken from her, that she could have been Winged by the Ashikabi of the South rather than her beloved Minato made her want to gag.
"Akitsu-san, can you follow us?" her Ashikabi continued.
The pale-skinned beauty nodded. "I will follow your orders, Ashikabi."
"Thank you. Musubi-chan, I'll need you to carry me if we have to move quickly." Minato said to his Third Sekirei, who nodded enthusiastically.
"Hai!"
"Good; let's move." He said, before yelping in shock as he was grabbed by an enthusiastic Musubi and pressed to her considerable chest as she, along with Akitsu and Kuruse, leapt into the air, heading west, away from Mutsu.
It was irritating that a large amount of mist sprung up out of nowhere as they landed after that jump. None of the Sekirei could see more than a couple of meters in front of them, even with their superior vision, and Minato could barely see a few feet.
"That wench!" Kuruse muttered angrily, gripping the trident in her hands tightly.
"K-keep on guard." Minato said, still a bit windswept from his flight via Air Musubi, "They could be around here anywhere in this pea soup!"
Kuruse tensed as her gaze swept around the area, looking for threats. Thanks to the mist, they couldn't risk another leap because it would leave them helpless against attacks in mid-air, even more so than usual due to the lack of visibility.
She barely had time to react when a long pole leapt from the mist and shot at her face, but she blocked it with the shaft of her trident and spun around, thrusting her own weapon at the attacker, a black-haired girl wearing a sleeveless pale blue kimono and with a tattoo on her left arm. Jūsa.
For Musubi, an arm reached out of the mist and grabbed her arm, attempting to throw her. The busty Miko-look-alike instead counter-threw her adversary, using her impressive strength to overpower her opponent's technique. The Sekirei wore a sleeveless purple top, short shorts and had long blue hair that ran down to the small of her back. Niwa.
Yahan emerged from Minato's shadow with a snarl as she blocked the attack of a large double-bladed sword-type weapon wielded by a short girl wearing a long kimono. Himeko.
Akitsu waved a negligent hand and a wave of ice spikes erupted from the ground and spread out into the mist, making someone let out a most unladylike yelp, likely as they avoided being turned into a pincushion by the frozen spikes.
"You do know it is not very nice to run from people wanting to talk to you." A lazy boyish voice stated, seemingly echoing around the group.
"Mikogami Hayato, Ashikabi of the South, I presume." Minato untangled himself from Musubi's arm with some gentle movements.
"And you are the spoilsport who is interfering with the game." The voice said, the boy himself being revealed by movement in the mist. He was what his sister would describe as a bishōnen, or what other boys at his school would have scornfully called a pretty boy. He wore a white dress shirt with an ascot, white trousers, black shoes and had hazel-coloured hair and eyes. Next to him stood an intense-looking man with silver hair, wearing black clothes and a dull-yellow scarf around his neck. Clasped in one hand was an unsheathed sword. The Earth or Earthquake Sekirei, Number Five, Mutsu.
"I would call stopping people from forcibly Winging Sekirei, actual sentient beings by the way, more of a community service, actually." Minato retorted lightly as he turned to face his Southern counterpart.
"Don't you see? That is why this is the ultimate game!" Mikogami exclaimed beatifically, "No board game, no pen and paper RPG, no computer game can hold a candle to this!"
"Mikogami, on topic." Mutsu chided his master.
"Err, right." The boy nodded before returning his attention to Minato, "Now, I would really appreciate it if you could hand over the Scrapped Number; she is a unique game piece and I value such pieces."
"Are you seriously saying that? Are you even listening to yourself?!" Minato asked, appalled at the other boy's attitude, "Akitsu-san is a living being, not an action figure for you to collect!"
As he spoke, Akitsu glanced between the two Ashikabi with a speculative look in her eyes. Before, she might have just gone with Mikogami out of gratitude that anyone would want a useless thing like her. Now though…
"I will not go with you." She said coolly to a surprised Mikogami, "Takami-sensei is going to try and free me from my accursed condition. Should she fail, I will consider what to do then."
"Why would you want to remove the thing that makes you unique?!" the Southern Ashikabi asked in confusion, "You're a collector's item right now!"
"She is also unable to complete a Sekirei's normal life-function; to whit, Winging herself." Minato almost snarled, fed up with Mikogami acting like this was a game or something, "She is in constant emotional pain and suffers from depression every minute of every day. Imagine not being able to have the sensation of touch, at all. No pain, sure, but also no tactile sense, nothing. Multiply that by a hundred and it's nowhere near close to the idea of how she feels!"
"And you know this how?" Mikogami sneered at him.
"I seem to have developed Sekirei-specific empathic abilities." The ravenette admitted, "Not just my Sekirei, I can feel the emotions of yours as well."
That titbit had Mikogami suitably taken aback. He, as an Ashikabi who had forcibly or accidentally Winged every Sekirei he had, could barely feel the emotions of his Sekirei on an unpredictable and intermittent basis, so the idea of not only being able to feel the emotions of his own Sekirei whenever he wanted but the emotions of other Ashikabi's Sekirei was difficult to grasp.
Putting the revelation to one side, he valiantly continued on with his attempt to acquire Akitsu, although he was a bit concerned by the fearful and sympathetic looks all of his Sekirei aside from Mutsu were throwing the former Ice Sekirei. Was the stoic Sekirei's condition really that much of a bad thing for their species? He had little to no need for outside contact, so this was not registering properly as an issue for him.
"Look, I'm almost through being nice with you here." The Ashikabi of the South said as he smoothed out a non-existent wrinkle in his shirt, "Hand her over and I won't terminate your Sekirei…just rough them up a little."
It was a fair trade, in his opinion.
"How about 'no'?" the Ashikabi of the North snarked back.
"You're outnumbered here!" Mikogami reminded him, "I really don't think you have any room to argue in this situation."
"I would disagree." Minato gave his counterpart a knowing half-smile that started the faintest tingles of alarm in the back of Mikogami's mind, "Well, I agree that Musubi-chan, Kuruse-chan and Yahan-chan are outnumbered two-to-one, but that's if you don't factor in Akitsu-san. Plus, I think my Sekirei are superior fighters compared to your Sekirei, so it's really a case of quality versus quantity. Plus…"
"Plus what?" the bishōnen snapped.
"Plus us, ya little creep!" a female voice snarled as a white veil snaked out of the mist and wound itself tightly around Jūsa's body , jerking her into the cloud of mist with a yelp.
"Hammer time!" Yashima shouted as she leapt from the mist and brought her hammer down on Mutsu, who whirled around and brought up his sword to parry the strike. He regretted that action, as it felt as if he was striking a solid mass of iron the size of a car thanks to the Gravity Hammer Sekirei's ability. He was still strong enough to resist it, he wasn't a Single Number for nothing, and was about to send the girl flying when Musubi sent Niwa flying into him like a Sekirei missile. It distracted him enough for Yashima to use her hammer like a pole jumper would and spring over to her Ashikabi's side, weapon swinging into a guard position as she landed. Uzume strode out of the mist to flank her sister-wives with a strut in her step and a hard look in her eyes as she eyed one of the two Four Great Ashikabi who had attempted to force her to be theirs.
"Where the hell did these two come from?" Mikogami growled, "And what the hell happened to Namiji? She was supposed to keep other Sekirei away from here!"
"Thunderstorm of our pact, destroy our Ashikabi's misfortune!" two voices chanted in sync as Mikogami flinched.
"They defeated Namiji!" he growled in anger and disbelief.
"Sorry, my Sekirei are on edge after Higa tried to have me assassinated using his Sekirei and the Yakuza." Minato said with a shrug as the Raiden Futago leapt out of the mist and flanked him, purple lightning crackling down their arms as they stood ready to defend their Ashikabi.
"He did what?!" Mikogami may dislike this man for messing with the game, but murder was a bit much.
"My girls handled it." The other Ashikabi said with a smile at his wives, who all smirk in unison, which was pretty disturbing for Mikogami, considering they were all tooled up and ready for a fight, especially since now the boot was on the other foot; they now outnumbered his Sekirei.
"Mikogami, orders." Mutsu said as he threw Niwa off him and stood up, with Jūsa and Himeko falling back to join him and Taki appearing out of the mists she created.
The former-Hikikomori frowned. His Sekirei were outnumbered by two, three if you counted Akitsu, which wasn't as big a gap as one might think considering Mutsu was a Single Number. There again Akitsu's status as the Scrapped Number meant that her control over her cryokinetic powers was subpar to begin with and a stressful situation could affect them in ways he couldn't predict. Plus, as both he and Sahashi were present, both sides potentially had access to their Norito, meaning that things could get very messy, very fast. He had already lost one Sekirei to this endeavour and frankly the costs were starting to outweigh the gains by a not insignificant number.
"Fine. I'll let you have the prize this time." He said to Minato reluctantly, "But you and your Sekirei are now banned from the South. You spoil the game."
"Grow up. This is a blood sport!" Minato was starting to lose his patience with the other Ashikabi, which was unusual for him. His grandmother had said that he had the patience of a saint on more than one occasion, although Minato was certain that she had meant it as a bad thing.
Mikogami ignored him. "Mutsu, Niwa, Jūsa, Taki, Himeko, let's go. The self-righteousness around here is becoming stifling."
Eying Minato's group carefully, the Sekirei of the Ashikabi of the South retreated into the mist, which retreated after them until the park was free and clear of it once again.
"That ended well." Uzume said with a sigh, "Good thing that brat was smart enough to see diminishing returns when they crop up. Even with Mutsu on his side, a win would have cost him some or all of his Sekirei."
"I'm honestly surprised that he backed down." Kuruse said bitterly as she teleported her mostly unused weapons back to their secure lockup, "Would have given me a chance to get my own back on that mist bitch if he had."
"Matsu-nee did her research on him; Mikogami may be a hikikomori, but he's also very smart." The Veil Sekirei warned her sister-wife, "He's already tested out of highschool and is almost finished with college. He isn't going to act stupidly without some serious emotional trauma putting him off balance first."
It took a long kiss from Minato to make Kuruse stop sulking after that, but in the end the Trident Sekirei was appeased.
"Should we get going back home?" Minato asked and was surprised by all his Sekirei shaking their heads.
"We eliminated a Sekirei, Namiji, Minato-sama." Uzume explained, "It's a point of grace and honour on the part of the victor to stay with the defeated until MBI comes to pick up her body."
She turned to look at the twins with a critical eye. "Was terminating her really necessary?"
"Yes." Both twins said immediately, making the brunette facepalm and groan.
"There's the helicopter now." Musubi pointed at the double-rotor helicopter that was approaching from the distant MBI Tower in the centre of the New Capital. Minato's phone went off and he answered it.
"Min-chan? Are you OK?" his mother's worried voice asked.
"I'm fine, Kaa-san." He answered easily, "So are my girls. Why do you ask?"
"Because a clash between two of the most powerful Ashikabi in existence sends warning lights all across MBI, Min-chan." His mother deadpanned at him, "I'm en route in the helicopter. Unfortunately, that idiot Minaka won't let me take Akitsu back to the MBI building, but there's an off-site lab that I'm going to use for a particular pair of Sekirei. I'll escort her there tomorrow. You kids head on home now. Consider your duty discharged."
"…was her message." Minato said as he flipped the phone closed, "I'd feel better if we could get back home ASAP. The last thing we need is for Higa to take another pot-shot at me while we're in the open."
"Right." Hibiki nodded decisively, "The helicopter's about to land anyway, so let's go."
With one final glance back at the sprawled body of a young woman lying on the ground where she and her sister had defeated her, Hibiki led her family away from the park and towards home.
Later
Elsewhere
"So, let's get this straight." A man said. He was sitting in a dark room with two other men and a woman around a table. He had black hair smoothed back and large sideburns and wore a suit that any salaryman would consider normal, "Despite the resources and funds our country have allocated to this operation, you three have yet to so much as uncover a single scrap of information about these 'Sekirei' that we did not already know about. Is that an accurate summarisation?"
The man to his left winced. He had neatly cut red hair and dressed similarly to the first man. "Sir, it isn't that simple. The Company have severely underestimated the variety of skills and powers that the Sekirei possess, as well as the amount of security, both digital and physical, that MBI have surrounded themselves with. All hacking attempts are rebuffed, all attempts to infiltrate MBI are stopped before they start and all attempts to subvert MBI personnel have recently fallen through, as they have started cleaning house. Any gains we have made have been neutralised."
"That just shows how incompetent you are!" the first man snorted derisively.
"Sir, with all due respect, you are a fucking idiot." The woman growled. She was at least half-Japanese and wore a tracksuit and had large bags under her eyes. She looked as if she hadn't slept in a few days. "MBI has had unrestricted access to X-ray tech for literally decades. The fact we have been understaffed and constantly harassed by you, our handler, hasn't helped. If you actually want us to succeed, get us some proper funding and more men instead of barely enough to get by with!"
"Bitch!" the first man snarled, making to get up.
"Enough, both of you!" the last man thundered. He was a big man, with the upper body of a bodybuilder and wearing the usual outfit of a traditional Japanese fishmonger. He was also bald and wearing a hachimaki. "Kirika is both right and wrong; while more funding would be greatly appreciated, more men would likely raise flags with MBI. Sir, Alan, you have to understand, this is no ordinary company or corporation we are dealing with. They all but control Japan and their leader is a certified genius, as well as having more than a few screws loose."
Alan sat back with a thump and rubbed his aching eyes. Kirika hadn't been the only one to have trouble sleeping recently. He hated jetlag. "Fine. I'll ask, but they're not going to want to throw good money after bad. I have to have something to take to them in order to use it as a carrot."
"We did manage to get something out of one of our last informants in MBI before he went dark." Kirika said with a sigh, "Steve?"
"According to our informant, one of the more powerful Sekirei, a 'Single Number', was experimented on and made unable to link with a human." Steve said, "She fled and was sitting in a park until a couple of hours ago. Now she is in the custody of one of the four most powerful 'Ashikabi', or Sekirei Handlers, in the capital. What we managed to get was that Sahashi Takami will be escorting this Sekirei to a lab tomorrow…an off-site facility, well away from the MBI Tower."
"A single unstable Sekirei is not a big enough carrot." Alan retorted, "AND tomorrow is far too soon for funds to be wired."
"I'm getting to it." Steve ran a hand through his red hair before continuing, "In addition to this 'Akitsu' person, there will be a single other Sekirei there, Sekirei Number 108, Kusano. She is currently the physical age of an eight or ten year old girl and will be undergoing the final treatments to accelerate her mental and physical age to the level of a teenaged girl over the next week. If we can get the funds and men in, we should be able to storm the building, capture Sahashi Takami, Akitsu and Kusano, as well as confiscate all the data they have at hand."
Alan blinked. "That…would be a major coup. Very well. Set someone to follow them and I'll get approval from my contact."
Kirika shifted uncomfortably, which was noticed by the last man.
"Kirika, the brat not only isn't human, she's going to be eighteen, both physically and mentally, by the time we capture her." He said forcibly, "Besides, these damned aliens murdered a battalion of men! There's no need for guilt!"
"Easy for you to say, Iwamoto." The woman said without any fire in her voice before yawning, "Imma go an sleep. Wake me up and I'll rip your balls off."
All three men winced at the threat. All three had worked with her before and she had actually gone after a teammate's genitals before when he had woken her up after she had stayed awake for three days straight.
"…so, beer before you leave, Alan?" Steve asked after she left.
"Fuck it, why not."
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Next Chapter: Enter Sahashi Yukari
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