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"Minato." - Regular Speech
'Musubi' - Thoughts
"Kaminari!" - Sekirei Incantation
Beta'd by BigCC
Chapter 14: Enter Sahashi Yukari
The Next Day
Sahashi Takami's Penthouse Suite
"Okaa-san, I don't need you to help me pack!" Yukari pouted. She was dressed in a stylish shirt and skirt combo that only seemed to add to the young woman's tomboyish looks.
"Let your mother act like one for once." Takami admonished her daughter absently, "Besides, you wouldn't know how to pack a suitcase properly if your life depended on it."
"HEY!"
The ash-haired woman merely hitched an eyebrow at Yukari and pointed at the one suitcase the girl had managed to pack before Takami had intervened. It was bursting at the seams and had clothes poking higglty-pigglty out of it. Yukari simply huffed and pointedly looked away from her.
"Why isn't Onii-chan here helping?" she asked after a moment.
"Why Yukari…I didn't know that you wanted him to see all of your panties." Takami affected an innocent tone as her daughter turned red again.
"OKAA-SAN!"
"In all seriousness, he's picked up someone who's been treated rather badly by a former employee of my company." The older woman answered seriously, "He's holding onto her for the day so I can take her to a private clinic to be looked after properly this afternoon. Don't tell anyone."
"Hai, hai." the younger woman agreed with a roll of her eyes. Yukari had figured out a long time ago that the 'pharmaceutical company' that her mother worked for was in fact MBI, though she still wished that her mother would tell the truth to her at least. She still considered her brother a bit of a space-case for not picking that up after all these years.
"Good." Takami agreed with a nod before she looked down and noticed something. Eyebrows rising, she let out a sigh of defeat before turning back to her daughter, holding a bit of risky-looking lingerie. "Do I even want to know why you have a pair of crotchless panties?"
The shriek of embarrassment that followed nearly left the poor woman deaf.
Same Time
Minato's House
Minato shivered as he cooked breakfast.
"Are you cold, Minato-sama?" Yashima asked in concern as she looked up from setting the table.
"No, I just had the oddest feeling that my sister was going to blame something on me for no apparent reason again." He answered.
Yashima scowled. She had heard of everything that had been said about her Ashikabi's sister and was not impressed by her whatsoever. She had also heard about what the Raiden Futago had planned for her if she stepped out of line and was more than willing to use her gravity abilities to help out if the little wench hurt her master.
"Mornin'." Yomi yawned as she padded in, dressed in a rather racy negligée and pair of thong panties that she had ordered online when she had arrived, using her MBI Card to pay for them. Compared to her usual set, they were only partially opaque and left little to the imagination.
"M-Morning, Yomi-san." Minato blushed. He was used to seeing his girls in various stages of undress, but nothing that was outright sexy as what Yomi had on at the moment. Add onto that the fact that he could feel a definite sense of arousal coming from Yomi via his newly acquired Sekirei empath abilities and he was worried about how long he could hold himself back.
One by one, his other Sekirei tickled in and he served them breakfast. Once he'd done that, however, he looked around with a frown.
"Where's Akitsu-san?"
"She's still in bed." Uzume volunteered, "Looks like she was more tired than she looked."
"With some hack of a scientist messing around with her to the point of turning her into a Scrapped Number? Doesn't surprise me, poor girl." Yahan said sadly.
The rest of the Sekirei murmured an agreement.
"Kaa-san said that the guy's in prison now, and that all of his assets have been confiscated, so he's paying for what he did." Minato chipped in.
"Good." Hibiki grunted.
Once breakfast was over, the Sekirei headed up to get changed, while Minato put a tray of food together for Akitsu. She needed to eat, since he distinctly remembered that she hadn't had anything last night, and who knows how long before that she had eaten anything.
A few minutes later, he knocked on her bedroom door politely. "Akitsu-san?"
Silence.
"Akitsu-san?" he called again, knocking again.
"…yes?" a tired monotone voice said.
"It's Minato. I've got food for you if you're hungry."
The distinct rumble of a very empty stomach could be heard from Minato's position.
"…" she paused, "…come in."
When Minato did enter, he almost dropped the tray. Akitsu was standing in the middle of the room completely naked, her large, firm breasts wobbling slightly as she turned slightly to look at him. She had the body of an athlete, firm and toned all over, with the only spare fat residing in her breasts and rear end.
"Akitsu-san, put some clothes on!" he squeaked.
"…ah." She said after glancing down at herself, "I forgot."
Lazily, she pulled the bloody shirt she had worn the previous day on before sitting down.
Now that he was no longer confronted with a sublime example of athletic femininity, Minato had calmed down and presented her with the tray, which held four slices of toast spread with butter, a large stack of pancakes covered in syrup and sliced strawberries and a cup of coffee. Smelling the scent wafting up from the tray made Akitsu's stomach rumble again.
"Dig in." the raven-haired boy smiled as he set the tray across her lap.
"…Itadakimasu." The Scrapped Number said quietly and started to eat as if she hadn't had a bite to eat in forever.
"How long's it been since you've eaten something?" Minato asked as the spread disappeared very rapidly.
"Three days ago." The former Single Number answered as she gulped down her coffee, "Just some…'fries', I think they were."
"Do you want seconds?" he asked in concern.
"Please."
The boy stood and headed back to the kitchen to whip up another batch. It wouldn't take long and she obviously needed it after so long without anything approaching a decent meal. His deceased grandfather would have whacked him over the head for being uncaring if he didn't feed her.
"How's Akitsu-tan?" Matsu asked when he re-entered the kitchen. The Sekirei of Wisdom was dressed in her usual china dress, but her hair was out of its usual braid and was brushed out in a silky orange mane. The look suited her, in Minato's opinion.
"Starving." He replied as he turned the cooker on, "She hasn't eaten in at least three days, and that was only fries from a fast food place. Goodness knows what she had before that and when."
"She must have run as soon as she got told about being made a Scrapped Number." The orangette sighed sympathetically, "To be a Scrapped Number…urgh, I don't wanna think about it. Poor girl."
Minato kissed her on the cheek. "You're so kind. Kaa-san should be able to do something. She doesn't try to do things that are beyond her abilities."
Matsu's face was a very pretty shade of pink at the simple gesture of affection from her Ashikabi. Before being Winged, she couldn't imagine that something as simple as a kiss on the cheek could make her react like a schoolgirl. Now her heart fluttered at the slightest touch of her Destined One and positively soared when he kissed her. Her lower lips got soaking wet at the mere thought of what he would do to her when she could finally bed him.
"So where is everyone?" Minato asked as he put the toast on. He didn't know where they had gotten an eight-slice toaster from, but it was certainly useful.
"Um, Musubi's out back practicing her forms, the twins have gone on patrol, Yahan's maintaining her dagger, ditto for Yashima and her hammer, Yomi-san's watching TV again, Uzume's gone back to bed and Kuruse is standing guard." Matsu listed on autopilot, "I wanted to see you before I got on with my internet searches…and maybe steal a kiss."
"That's easy to arrange." The raven-haired boy said as he drew Matsu into his arms and kissed her. He was firm, but not dominating. He only pushed her as far as he thought she wanted, but he did squeeze and massage her shapely rear end, which was making her heat up, metaphorically speaking.
"Mina-tan, you've gotten so good at this!" she cooed once they broke apart.
"Having eight beautiful alien wives will do that to a man." Minato said with a half-smile, "Kissing all of you at least once a day is good practice. Not to mention very enjoyable."
He reluctantly let her go when the toast popped and turned back to cooking.
Matsu managed to walk out of the kitchen with somewhat of a goofy smile on her face. She spotted flaxen hair in the doorway of the living room and sauntered over there.
"Enjoy the show, Death Scythe-chan?" she asked a trembling Yomi with a smirk.
"Screw you." The Death Scythe Sekirei huffed before she spasmed slightly, her thighs rubbing together and her nipples sticking up as hard as rocks beneath her thin t-shirt.
This made Matsu frown somewhat. Sekirei generally didn't fight against their natural instinct to find a mate because it gave them such joy and pleasure to be truly linked to a true Ashikabi. Yomi had been reacting to Minato almost from the first hour that they had met. She had known it, as had every one of Minato's other Sekirei, but this was becoming ridiculous. Yomi had just climaxed from feeling the residual psychic reverberations of Matsu and Minato kissing each other and was still thrashing slightly in the aftershocks of her climax.
"Yomi-tan, you can't last much longer." She said gently, "If you force yourself to ignore The Call much longer, there's no telling what might happen."
She helped the other Sekirei over to the couch as it was evident that she couldn't walk without help. Yomi blinked blearily at her once she was seated, a bit dazed still from what had to be the strongest climax of her life.
"I can't." she whimpered, "Not until I have a good excuse like Minato-sama Winging a new Sekirei. I'll look foolish otherwise."
Absently noting the use of the respectful honorific, Matsu scoffed. "Dear, you'll look foolish when you crawl to him inside of the next week begging him to make you his toy; because that's the way you're going. The desire to become Winged cannot be ignored, not without consequences, and if you continually deny yourself, the mating instinct will overwhelm you and reduce you from a combat-capable Sekirei into a sex-mad bimbo. If you go to him inside of the next day, you will merely look stubborn beyond all belief and retain your skills."
It was a well-known failsafe instituted by MBI that all Sekirei would lose their powers, save from empathy and the Winging mechanism, should they become insane. The same thing would happen if The Call was ignored for too long. As none of the Sekirei, even Karasuba, were off their heads or denied The Call, none had lost their powers.
"That…that can't…!" Yomi was looking at her in actual fear.
"It may be a guess, but my guesses are a great deal more accurate that a research thesis from an acclaimed professor at Tokyo University or from MIT." The bespectacled Sekirei declared, "I am the most intelligent being on the planet, after all. Even The Professor isn't as smart as I am."
The Death Scythe Sekirei could detect no false pride in her future sister-wife's words. There was simply the statement of an obvious fact, like 'an apple is red' or 'the sky is blue.'
She gulped. "I…I'll talk to him after dinner. I…think I can last that long."
Matsu just patted the girl on the head and said, "Good girl. Looking forward to having you as a sister-wife."
Leaving the conflicted Death Scythe Sekirei in the living room, Matsu strutted up to her computer room-slash-bedroom and got on with her research. With Minato having taken a stand against the Ashikabi's of the South and East, the only one who may be willing to ally with him would be the Ashikabi of the West, Sanada Nishi. He was a laid back biker and preferred not to fight unless it was absolutely necessary.
This made the fact that three of the Sekirei he had Winged were almost as battle crazy as Karasuba rather amusing. The other three were just as laid back as their Ashikabi and stuck near him as much as possible. Matsu decided to watch the man for a week or so longer before asking Minato to make overtures to him.
As much as she had confidence in the strength of her sister-wives, fighting a two-front war was not ideal and with both Mikogami Hayato and Higa Izumi against them, she couldn't calculate a proper victory where all of them survived. Just about the only blessing was that the Southern and Eastern Ashikabi disliked one another greatly, so the likelihood of a coordinated attack by the pair of them was infinitesimally small.
Matsu hummed as she worked, fingers clacking away at the keyboard as she worked for the sake of her new family.
Later
Dinnertime
Seeing Yomi confess to Minato how long she had been reacting to him and begging him to Wing her was both amusing and touching for the rest of the group. It was also a lesson for them about having an excess of pride and how being too stubborn was not good for them.
"No more pride getting in your way." Minato scolded her, "If you want something, tell me."
"Hai." The girl said with a fervent nod, "So…please…"
"Come here." Minato opened his arms and Yomi joyfully leapt into them, her lips connecting with his and her arms wound around his neck. A pair of dark green wings emerged from her Sekirei Crest and snapped open into full extension as she Emerged.
"My Ashikabi. Let my severing winds defeat our enemies." She purred as they broke the kiss. Minato stroked her hair before they separated to sit down. Yomi blushed when the other girls welcomed her with hugs and pats on the back.
Soon after Takami arrived, looking tired.
"What's up, Kaa-san?" Minato asked as he escorted his mother to a chair, "You look exhausted."
"Thanks, Min-chan." The ash-haired woman sighed, "Your sister is being a brat. She's so far in denial that she's in Cairo. Seriously, spank her when she goes out of line. Being wilful is one thing, but the way she acts is not acceptable."
Most of the girls exchanged wicked smiles with the woman at that before Takami became serious.
"Now that that's taken care of…where is Akitsu?"
"She's been staying inside the guest room that we gave her." Matsu answered, "Mina-tan's been taking food to her and picking up the empty dishes for her meals. We'll also have to give her clothes to wear, because all she was wearing was a bloody shirt when we found her."
"I'm around her size, although she's a bit bigger in the bust, so it'll be a tight fit." Uzume said offhandedly.
"Good. Can you prepare some clothes for her and get Akitsu to come down here once she's dressed?" Takami asked. The Veiled Sekirei nodded and headed off to do so. The ash-haired woman then espied Yomi with a far happier air about her than the last time that she had seen her.
"Well, well, well, so you finally threw your stubbornness away?" she grinned at the blushing Yomi, "Good for you."
"I-It was because I started over-reacting to Minato-sama almost overnight." The Death Scythe Sekirei huffed, "I went to bed fine and then, when I woke up this morning, I was almost a bitch in heat."
Takami frowned at this. The Call was not a well-studied part of the psychic abilities of a Sekirei, mainly due to Minaka not caring, but she had done some research about it and found this titbit to clash with what she knew.
"You just became desperate overnight? No warnings?" she asked.
"Nothing." Yomi confirmed, "I just…I had to Wing myself on Minato-sama or I would have gone crazy."
"Akitsu." Takami snapped her fingers in realisation, "It must be a passive effect of her Twisted Crest. It must passively send the instincts of Unwinged Sekirei that are already reacting into overdrive just by proximity. No wonder The Call almost sent you berserk."
"I really hope that scientist is having a tough time in prison!" the flaxen-haired Sekirei growled. She had almost lost her mind and powers because of his stupid experiment. "Just what was he trying to do, anyway?"
"From what I could get out of him, he was trying to alter Akitsu's Winging abilities to allow her to be Winged by more than one Ashikabi." Takami answered with an angry glint in her eyes, "An impossibility, as all Sekirei are aware, but the fool thought he knew what he was doing and caught Akitsu at a time when she was alone in a lab."
All of Minato's Sekirei were furious at that. Lightning crackled down the twins' bodies, a dark aura surrounded Musubi, Matsu's eyes were shadowed by her fringe, and the rest were growling in a fury.
"He had better hope that he never meets us." The twins said as one, with the rest of Minato's Flock nodding in agreement.
Just then, Akitsu entered, wearing a white and purple tube top, a red miniskirt and white thigh-high boots. Even without makeup, she looked stunning.
"…Takami-sensei…" she said after a moment, looking away from the woman. Minato realised that she was actually slightly afraid of his mother, probably a fear of all scientists after what the last one had done to her.
"Akitsu…first, I have to apologise to you for what that idiot did to you." Takami said, bowing her head penitently, "Rest assured that he is paying for his crime after being 're-educated' by Karasuba."
Akitsu stared at her dully for a moment before nodding. "Thank…you."
"I don't deserve thanks." The Head of the Sekirei Plan replied grimly as she straightened up, "I knew that Matoi Haruno was a weasel and that he was going to try something. But that insane bastard Minaka wouldn't let me give him the boot!"
"Then that means that most of the blame can be laid at his feet." Minato said firmly, "You tried how many times to get rid of this guy?"
"Baker's Dozen." His mother replied.
"Thirteen times." Minato shook his head, "And he turned you down every time?"
"Pretty much." Takami groused, "'Oh-ho-ho! Takami-kun, we need unusual scientists in order to open up the age of the gods!' and such nonsense. Really, that idiot."
"It's…alright, Takami-sensei." The Scrapped Number said softly, "You tried. That's…more than what the other scientists at MBI did for me."
Exhaling, Takami stood up. "OK then. Well, follow me. We're going to a facility that I bullied Minaka into building for me outside of the MBI Building so I can examine you and try to figure out how to undo that quack's botch job of a False Winging."
"Yahan, Kuruse-chan, you two escort my mother and Akitsu to their destination." Minato instructed the two of his wives that excelled at stealth and long distance attacks respectively. "There's no telling if some Ashikabi would try to take her using force."
"Hai." Both girls nodded and hurried to their rooms in order to change into their combat outfits.
"Thanks for the help, Min-chan." Takami said gratefully, "I would have a bodyguard, but he's…otherwise engaged at the moment."
Once Kuruse and Yahan came down, the four women left the house and piled into Takami's car, unaware of a man following them on a scooter.
That Night
Minato's Dreamscape
"Onii-chan!" a sweet voice called out to him.
Minato looked around and saw that he was in a large garden of some kind. There were flowers and hedges around the edges and he was standing in the middle of a grass lawn. The voice, which was that of a little girl, had come from a tree nearby. It was the only tree in the area, actually.
Walking up to it, he saw a little girl with long blond hair and moss green eyes looking down at him. Other than a one-piece dress, she wasn't wearing anything and was barefoot.
"Hello, Onii-chan." She said as she swung her feet.
"Hello there." Minato smiled back. He didn't know why, but he knew that this girl was special, somehow.
"I'm not ready to come and see you yet, but in a few days, I'm going to be all grown up." The girl informed him, "Then I can find you. Look forward to it, Onii-chan…my Ashikabi…"
Minato's Bedroom
"Whoa!"
Minato's eyes shot open and he attempted to sit up, but was weighed down by the bodies of his sleeping Flock. Looking down, he could tell that all nine of his wives were in bed with him now. He had gone to sleep with only Musubi cuddling him, but the rest had all 'sleep walked' into his bedroom anyway.
'I'll die…any more Sekirei and I'll die…!' Minato thought as he felt various parts of the female anatomy touching his body left, right and centre. It would be interesting to see which happened first; a heart attack from surprise or death from exsanguination following an epic-level nosebleed.
Peering at the clock on his bedside table, Minato was surprised to see that it was six in the morning, which was unusual. He never ordinarily woke up this early. He concluded that it must have been that odd dream that caused his early awakening.
Sighing in resignation, Minato settled down to go back to sleep, as there was no way he was strong enough to break free from nine Sekirei without at least one of them helping him out. Even Matsu, who was physically the weakest out of all of them, was at least half-again as strong as he was. Something he was very grateful for was that no Sekirei could consciously harm their Ashikabi; otherwise he might have a few broken bones by this point.
'They feel warm…' he thought drowsily as sleep started to encroach upon him again. They really did. Even the few times he'd been hugged by his mother hadn't made him feel as safe and comfortable as he was right now.
With a smile, he drifted off to sleep.
Breakfast Time
Kitchen
"You dreamed about someone calling you their future Ashikabi?!" Matsu exclaimed, eyes wide.
"So this is another Ashikabi thing?" Minato asked.
"Hai, it is." The Sekirei of Wisdom replied as she adjusted her glasses, "It's called 'Oneiric Communication' and usually happens when a Sekirei is resonating with an Ashikabi. This girl is naturally very attuned to you and can sense your power from a great distance now that you have gathered so many Sekirei. When this happens, it is common for both Sekirei and Ashikabi to enter a shared dream to get to know one another. What did she look like?"
Minato described her and both of Matsu's eyes widened. She pulled out a palmtop and started typing and swiping away before showing him a picture of the girl. "Is this her?"
"Yeah, that's her." He nodded.
"Number One-Hundred and Eight, Kusano." The orangette frowned, "Otherwise known as the Sekirei of Life. She's currently at Takami-okaa-sama's facility undergoing her final maturation processes and adjustment before being released. The girl's lucky that she's already found her Ashikabi before being released."
There were some complaints about that among some of the more clingy members of Minato's Flock, but it was only half-hearted at worst. They knew how attractive their husband/master was and actually applauded this Kusano for being able to sense that from such a distance. They were just worried about having to share Minato with so many other women.
It wasn't really a worry that was serious or anything. He treated all of them equally and fairly, with no favouritism for those he had Winged first. Admittedly, the Raiden Futago did spend a lot of time at his side, but they were his First Sekirei and thus something like the 'legal' wife to human eyes, while the rest were second wives or mistresses. Still, Minato treated them all like real wives and that was all the Sekirei of his Flock cared about.
Once breakfast was over, Minato got the girls organised so that Yukari's new bed, which the Twins had ordered while out on patrol, could be delivered without the secrets of the Sekirei plan being revealed to the deliverymen.
Musubi, not needed to do any heavy lifting this time, stood next to Minato, who stroked her hair. The Miko-look-alike was very happy at this. On Minato's other side, Yomi was cuddled up to him happily. The aftereffects of the overwhelming desire to be Winged were fading away, but they were still present, so she kept them at bay by close physical contact with her Ashikabi.
"This is going to be the last day we can be affectionate so openly with one another for a while." Minato sighed sadly.
"Only until she finds a Sekirei, Minato-sama." Musubi pointed out in a blissed-out voice. She was a very easy person to make happy, so the petting she was receiving was more than enough for her.
"True, but we can't exactly count on one running into her." He reminded her, "There are only 108 of you, after all."
The Next Day
Streets of the New Capital
Sahashi Yukari was pouting. This in and of itself wasn't an uncommon occurrence when she didn't get her way with her mother. Her grandmother was always much more accommodating than Takami was.
The reason she was pouting was that Takami had told her to walk to her brother's house in the northern section of the city. Her luggage was being sent via a moving van, but Takami was spending the week at a facility to oversee a delicate procedure of some kind, so she couldn't take Yukari herself.
'Somehow, Onii-chan is at fault here.' Yukari thought moodily. As she thought about her brother, she felt her body heat up as it always did when she so much as thought about him! It made no sense! Why was she so obsessed with her brother?!
Yukari had gotten lost in the forest as a child and had stuck close to her brother afterwards. He was smart, kind and doted on her. She had always hated seeing other girls near him, so she had kept them away.
Being told that she was harbouring incestuous feelings towards him a couple of years into puberty had been a shock. She had, quite naturally (in her opinion), blamed her brother for this happening. Most of her teenaged life had swung between beating up her brother and keeping other girls away from him.
There had been that time that an older woman had seduced her, birthing her love of large breasts, but other than that she hadn't had any romantic partners. Her eyes were locked unrelentingly on her brother when it came to men.
Women, on the other hand…
Currently, she was crossing at traffic lights, heading north from the lower central part of the city where Takami's penthouse was located. At her current pace, it would take her an hour and a half if she kept to walking. She, sadly, didn't have any money on her to pay for a taxi or the metro, so walking it had to be.
"Baka Onii-chan." She grumbled, ignoring that it had been her mother who had packed her wallet away the previous day.
She was passing by an alley when someone ran into her coming out of it. The pair tumbled to the pavement, with the newcomer ending up straddling Yukari's waist.
"Ow, ow, ow…" Yukari grumbled, "Watch where you're going, geez!"
"S-sorry…" a timid female voice said and Yukari looked up at the person who had crashed into her.
It was a girl, a rather petite girl at that. She had light purple hair cut into a short bob with a lavender bow tied over her fringe to keep it out of her warm brown eyes. Her clothes were just as unusual, being similar to that of a maid, including mid-arm length white gloves.
'Whoa, what a cutie!' was Yukari's first thought, swiftly followed by 'How the heck did someone her size knock me down?'
"Oh my…" the girl breathed as she gazed into Yukari's eyes. She could feel the heat of a reaction within her and knew that she had found her Ashikabi.
"Not that having you sit on me like this isn't nice and everything…" the youngest Sahashi said dryly, "…but do you think you could let me up?"
"Pardon me!" the girl yelped in mortification. She leapt to her feet and helped Yukari stand up. The practicing martial artist was again surprised by how strong the petite girl was.
"I am so sorry for running into you like that." the girl bowed, "I am Oriha."
"Sahashi Yukari, nice to meet you." Yukari responded with a flirty smile. The girl may not be as stacked up top as most girls she was attracted to, but she was like a china doll, slim, delicate and adorable.
"Sahashi? As in Sahashi Takami?" Oriha was caught off guard at this revelation.
"That's my kaa-san." The raven-haired girl nodded.
The maid-like girl was going to say something more, but stiffened when she heard male voices coming from the alley behind her.
"I am sorry." She said sincerely, "Ordinarily, I would explain everything to you, but this is an emergency!"
"Eh? What're you…?" Yukari started to ask, when Oriha threw her arms around her neck, stood on her tip-toes and kissed her on the mouth.
"MMF?!"
As Yukari stood stunned as she was kissed by a girl she had only met five minutes beforehand, a pair of grey wings emerged from the maid-dressed girl and snapped open fully. The maid let go and stepped back from a stunned Yukari once the wings faded.
"My Ashikabi…let my flying gears guard us for all eternity!" Oriha said with a smile, as two men ran out of the alley, almost running Yukari over.
"There she is!" one cried.
"I've just Winged myself on her!" Oriha yelled back, "I will not serve your master!"
"Shit, Higa-sama's gonna get angry!" the second man said fearfully.
"Shut up!" the first man barked. Both were dressed in black suits and wore sunglasses, "All we have to do is bring both of them to Higa-sama!"
"Not. Happening!" Oriha growled back, suddenly sounding more like an angry tigress than a nervous kitten. "I may have been all but helpless when I was Unwinged, but now that I've fully emerged…Moon Chakram!"
With a gesture, several circular shapes emerged from slits in her dress and started to spin.
"Shit! I thought her telekinesis was too weak to lift more than one?!" the second man moaned as he drew a handgun.
"I'm a Winged Sekirei now!" the purplette shouted, "I can now defend myself and my Ashikabi with my life! You two get the honour of being the first to receiving my Norito!"
Closing her eyes, Oriha chanted, "These flying gears represent my pledge. Cut away the enemies before my Ashikabi!"
In seconds, the seven chakram multiplied into several dozen, all flying in the air and spinning rapidly.
"Get them! Zangetsu no Mai! (Dance of the Cutting Moon!)" the Sekirei shouted, sending all of her chakram flying at the two men, who cowered at the weight of metal being sent at them and closed their eyes.
SLASH! RIIIP! FLUMP!
After a moment, and the feeling that they were colder than they had been a moment before, they opened their eyes and looked down. Both men had had their suits cut into shreds and were now standing in just their boxers. One had pink heart-dotted boxers, while the other one was green and declared that he 'had wood' in large black letters.
"Gross!" Yukari screeched, slapping a hand over her eyes, "Cover your shame!"
"Shit!" one shouted.
"Let's get outta here!" the other squealed and they both fled back into the alley. Oriha sniffed and brought back the cloud of chakram. They weren't spinning anymore and Yukari could see that they looked like flying gears. Another gesture from Oriha sent them into the dress that she wore through the slits the original seven had emerged from. Once all twenty-eight were loaded, she turned to a gaping Yukari.
"My apologies, Ashikabi-sama, for getting you dragged into my problems, but I had no choice." Oriha said with a curtsey, "Allow me to give you my proper introduction. I am Number One-Hundred and One, Oriha, the Sekirei of Flying Gears and I am honoured to serve you."
"Oriha-chan…" the other girl's eyebrow was twitching slowly, "…can you please explain what the heck is going on here?"
Several Minutes Later
A Café
"So, to sum things up, MBI have enslaved an alien race and are now forcing them to fight one another." Yukari stated, "There are 108 of you and the top nine are stronger than the rest. You were practically helpless without an 'Ashikabi' and you 'reacted' to me when you were running from those men, who were trying to kidnap you for this Higa Izumi character, so you 'Winged' yourself on me and unlocked more of your power in order to fight back. Is that an accurate summation?"
"Yes, pretty much." Oriha answered before she sipped a cup of iced coffee, "As I said, I would have told you all of this before I Winged myself on you, but those men were too much of a risk for such niceties to be observed."
The pair were sitting in a private booth that Oriha had paid for with her MBI card. Yukari was having a hard time believing everything that she had been told, but she had seen the petite girl in front of her, who was daintily sipping her drink, shred the clothes from those two Yakuza-like men in less time than it took to blink, so there was something iffy going on around here.
"And my kaa-san is the Head of this 'Sekirei Plan' and has been since the beginning?" Yukari asked.
"From the moment that our ship was discovered and the instant that the S-Plan was conceived, yes." The chakram controller nodded, "She is highly respected by the Sekirei because she continually treated us like equals rather than experimental test subjects like a lot of the scientists did. It is quite the honour to be the First Sekirei of her daughter."
Yukari massaged her temples. "So, what is the prize for the Ashikabi and Sekirei who win the Sekirei Plan?"
"The Sekirei winner is allowed to stay with their Ashikabi forever." Oriha smiled happily, "And I give you my word to give my all for that goal, Yukari-sama."
This made the other girl blush. "Er…and what about the Ashikabi?"
"The Professor didn't tell any of the Sekirei." The maid-dressed Sekirei answered with a shrug, "I would assume it would be a tremendous amount of money or shares in MBI stock or something along that line."
"Riiiigghht." Yukari's bullshit-o-meter was ringing loudly at this, detecting a high amount of bullshit. Not that Oriha was lying to her. Somehow, Yukari felt that she could trust that her…Sekirei…was being truthful to the best of her knowledge, but the fact that Manaka Hiroto hadn't told the Sekirei what their Ashikabi's prize would be was more than slightly concerning.
"Anyway, this is troubling, because I'm moving in with my older brother." She sighed, "How the hell am I going to explain a Sekirei to him?"
"Is he related to you by blood, Yukari-sama?" Oriha asked, making Yukari splutter. She had often fantasised about the answer to that question being no, but that wasn't here nor there.
"OF COURSE he is!" she hissed, "Why're you asking me something like that?!"
"Because if he is, it is quite likely that he is also an Ashikabi." The chakram user replied.
"Wait…are there any twins among the Sekirei?" the girl asked as a suspicion dawned on her.
"Hmmm…yes…yes, there are." Oriha thought after a moment, "There's the Raiden Futago, Number 11 and 12, as well as a couple of Sekirei who look like twins, but aren't."
"Then it's highly likely that my brother's an Ashikabi himself!" Yukari thumped her head on the table in despair. Oriha had described Winging as a binding of the soul, so there was no way that she could get these girls away from her brother, dang it!
"In which case, there is likely to not be any issues, so long as he isn't likely to attack me." Oriha shrugged.
"If he did, Ojii-chan would come back as a ghost to smack him one." The youngest Sahashi snorted, "He was very serious about treating girls right. He won't attack you or let his Sekirei-" she almost hissed the word, "-attack you either."
"Well then, shall we go?" Oriha said with a smile.
As the two walked, something occurred to Yukari. "Oh yeah, you said that each Sekirei had a power. Are those ring things yours?"
"Chakram." The purplette absently corrected her Ashikabi before continuing. "And the answer is yes and no. Yes, it involves them and no, it isn't everything. My power is telekinesis limited to chakram. I can manipulate them as I please to within an eighth of a millimetre. That's how I was able to shred the clothes of those two Yakuza. They weren't worthy of being the first my blades tasted blood from, so I didn't let it happen. It is from my gear-shaped chakram that I gained the title of Sekirei of Flying Gears."
"Oh. What about that chanting thing?"
"That was my Norito, my unique incantation." Oriha explained, "All Sekirei possess one. By kissing our Ashikabi, we can invoke all of our power and use attacks we normally wouldn't be able to. I will admit that my Zangetsu no Mai is a tad on the weak side though. All it does is multiply my chakram by four and then fire them at the enemy. Hopefully I'll earn a new one as I gain experience."
"Huh?" Yukari looked confused.
"According to MBI, if a Sekirei accrues enough experience and power, we will gain additional Norito incantations that are different from our originals." The Sekirei explained, "My Norito is simply strength in numbers at the moment, but if it changes, it could be enlarging my chakram to gigantic sizes or adding a wind element to them. I'll still be able to use my initial Norito, but why would I if I have access to a better one?"
Yukari nodded at that. The rest of the trip was spent chatting about inconsequential things as the girls got to know each other. It was when they started to enter the neighbourhood that her brother lived in that she felt some kind of pressure at the back of her head.
"Do you feel that?" she asked Oriha, who looked disturbed.
"That is the signal of a tremendously powerful Ashikabi…but how can you sense it?" Oriha asked in confusion, "You are a human, and only a Sekirei should be able to feel the song of souls."
"No clue." The ravenette shrugged, "Oh, there's a woman. Maybe we can ask directions."
The woman was a lavender-haired beauty dressed in a haori and hakama, sweeping the street in front of her home.
"Excuse me, ma'am." Yukari said, "I'm sorry to bother you, but do you know this address? It's supposed to be around here."
"Oh? Let me see…" the woman took the piece of paper that Yukari had fished out of her skirt pocket and peered at it, "Ah yes, this is Sahashi-san's address. Are you friends of his?"
"I'm his younger sister." Yukari replied, "Sahashi Yukari, a pleasure to meet you. This is my…friend…Oriha."
Oriha curtseyed politely.
"Ara, how polite…it is a pleasure to make your acquaintances as well." The woman bowed slightly in reply, "I am Asama Miya, the owner of the Izumo Inn. Your brother's house is over there, two houses down on the right. You can't miss it."
"Thank you, Asama-san." Yukari bowed to her, "I'll be seeing you later, likely. I have just moved in with my brother today."
"Oh my. That must be what the moving van was for." The landlady nodded regally, "Well then, have a nice day, Sahashi-chan, Oriha-chan."
Waving goodbye to her, Yukari asked Oriha in an undertone as they walked off, "Who could this strong Ashikabi be?"
"There are four Ashikabi who have multiple Sekirei, known as the Cardinal Ashikabi, who are the four strongest Ashikabi in the city." Her Sekirei replied in a low tone, "The Ashikabi of the West, South, East and North. The Eastern and Southern Ashikabi forcibly Wing Sekirei, the Western one is neutral and apparently the Northern Ashikabi has defended other Sekirei from attacks by the other two on more than one occasion. Those two men from earlier were the Eastern Ashikabi's thugs."
This made her Ashikabi scowl. "Scum. Any rumours about what this 'Northern' Ashikabi is like?"
"Not much, other than the fact that the North is practically a safe haven for Sekirei fleeing the South and East." Oriha replied with a frown, "Whoever he or she is, they do not like the Ashikabi of the South or East. That is a large point in their favour, in my book."
"Glad you think so." A soft voice said from above. Oriha and Yukari stopped and looked up to see a woman dressed in white veils perched atop the fence, along with a woman with an enormous hammer in one hand, as well as two women in jeans and t-shirts with electricity crackling over their bodies.
"Nu…Number Ten, Uzume…Number 11 and Number 12, Hikari and Hibiki…Number 84, Yashima…" Oriha gulped.
"Number One-Hundred and One, Oriha." Another woman emerged from Yukari's shadow to wrap her arms gently around their shoulders, "What does the Sekirei of Flying Gears want with our master?"
"If he's Sahashi Minato, he's my brother!" Yukari scowled.
"I was hoping that Matsu-chan was wrong." The dusky skinned woman in black sighed.
"Number 57, Yahan." Oriha identified her, "Wait…are you talking about Number 2, Matsu?!"
"Yep. You two'd better come in." the shadowy Sekirei answered, "Oh, and you, human girl. No attacking our master, or you will not like the consequences."
With that, she sunk into Yukari's shadow.
The one Oriha had called Uzume landed next to Yukari and beckoned her to follow. A bad feeling welled up in Yukari's stomach, but Oriha grasped her hand firmly and so she followed the Veiled Sekirei, with the others three landing behind them and boxing them in.
Yukari just knew things were going to go wrong.
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Next Chapter: Target: Sahashi Takami
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