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"Minato." - Regular Speech
'Musubi' - Thoughts
"Kaminari!" - Sekirei Incantation
Beta'd by BigCC
Chapter 16: Rage of the Ashikabi of the North
The Next Day, 0830 Hours
Sahashi Siblings' Bedroom
Coming awake with a small groan, Yukari tried to roll over but found herself nearly completely immobilized by some outside force. Moving her head, the only part of her body that still had a full range of movement aside from her fingers and toes, to look down, she saw deceptively slender arms and legs wrapped around her, pinning her own arms to her sides and trapping her legs together.
Not to mention the fact that, despite going to bed with panties and a shirt on, she was now completely naked.
"Dammit, Oriha!" the girl groaned as she slumped against the restraining limbs. "Not again!"
Despite her demure, shy demeanour, Oriha surprisingly preferred to be the 'big spoon' in bed, often coiling around Yukari like an overly affectionate anaconda. This was not what Yukari was so pissed about, she honestly didn't mind her Sekirei's preferred cuddling position. What she did mind was the fact that while asleep, her Sekirei was very clingy, to the point she was like an octopus or squid, wrapping Yukari up to the point she couldn't move. Not only that, the slumbering Ranged Weapons Sekirei also seemed to take offence to Yukari's sleepwear for some reason. She could, now that she knew what to look for, see the torn remains of her clothes lying on the floor next to her bed.
This had happened yesterday and Yukari was just a tad irked that it had happened again today. She'd liked that pair of panties, dammit!
"Sucks to be you, girlie." A familiar voice cackled lightly from above her. Looking up, Yukari saw the sardonically amused features of Yomi looking down at her.
"What do you want?" the youngest Sahashi bit out. Yomi was just about the only one of her brother's Sekirei who didn't at least pretend to be polite to her and had snarked at her frequently for the previous two days, not to mention being somewhat contemptuous towards her for whatever reason.
"Nothing much. Just laughing at how your Sekirei's totally dominating you even while she's asleep." The flaxen-haired Sekirei smirked. "You are going to be so totally pussy-whipped by her once she gets you to screw her that it isn't even funny."
"Excuse me?!" Yukari whisper-shouted.
"I know the type of girl your Sekirei is, girlie." Yomi laughed softly and quietly so as to not awaken Oriha. "She's the kind to top from the bottom. She'll manoeuvre and guide you into doing exactly what she wants you to do; all the while making it look like it's your idea. In bed, she'll learn your tastes, kinks and fetishes and learn them so well that she'll make your eyes crossed with a single session. You'll be addicted to her touch and utterly unable to separate yourself form her…not that you could anyway. The bond with a Sekirei isn't something that can be broken by anything other than defeat or death."
The bond part wasn't what was worrying Yukari; the fact that she was now technically married to the girl was. She hadn't intended on settling down with a cute girl until after university. She had the feeling that unless it was with another Sekirei, Oriha would not be receptive to her playing the field.
"Munya….Yukari-sama…?" Oriha yawned as she woke up.
"Morning, Oriha-chan." Yukari said before stiffening. "Wandering hands."
"Sorry." The Sekirei of Flying Gears said with a blush and removed her hands from where they had started to fondle her mistress' breasts.
"This show was worth waking up early for." The Death Scythe Sekirei snickered as she leered at the new pair.
"Shut up for once and get me some damn underwear." Yukari groaned.
"Why? We're all girls here." The scythe wielder asked curiously.
"My brother is here in case you forgot." The younger Sahashi sibling hissed. "And you have to earn the right to see my naked body! No way am I flashing him and all of his girlfriends!"
"Tch, don't get conceited, brat." Yomi rolled her eyes. "In case it escaped your notice, Minato-sama has several wives who have better bodies than you do. Including me, just so you know; Bust 83, Waist 56 and Hips 89."
Yukari, who had the measurements 81, 61, 83 in that same order, glared back at the Sekirei, who had a smug expression on her face. Somehow, she just knew that today was going to suck.
Later, 0855
Central Laboratory, Sahashi Takami's Hidden Research Lab, Botanical Gardens
Takami's fingers tapped out a steady rhythm across the keyboard even as her eyes never left the large tube-like machine filled with semi-opaque liquid that was resting a few feet in front of the terminal she was working on, and the dark silhouette of Kusano floating within. Occasionally her eyes would dart to the screen attached to the left side of the tube, which was constantly flowing through a stream of data that only a Sekirei Researcher would have any hope of deciphering, before refocusing on the Life Sekirei's floating form.
The artificially induced physical maturation of Sekirei may look like a relatively simple procedure at first glance, considering it usually took a mere twenty-four to thirty-six hours to work, but it was a far more delicate procedure than most would care to realise. It required several perquisites in the Sekirei, mostly mental maturity and a month of special dietary planning to build-up a reserve of 'fuel' to power the sudden shift in physiology.
And all that was just the prep work before the subject was injected with chemical cocktail of several hormonal boosts and a small host of other drugs that didn't have a proper pharmaceutical description that they'd found on the Sekirei mothership. Once the cocktail was administered and the Sekirei placed in the tube for adjustment, the supervisor, in this case Takami, had to keep a weather eye on both the screen, which listed all of Kusano's vital statistics as well as some more metaphysical data that would have your average doctor or scientist scratching their heads in incomprehension, and the Sekirei's body, as several possible danger signs were just as likely to appear physically before showing up on the data stream.
Kusano had possessed the physical body of a young girl somewhere between the age of eight and ten when she went in; now she was taller than Minato. Her hair had grown apace with her and was floating down at her calves, covering her body in a veritable cocoon where she was floating amidst the special anaesthetic bath. From what could be seen, she also had better measurements than Yukari in all three areas; nowhere near Musubi's level, but definitely on par with or surpassing Takami's measurements.
Takami, having seen so many Sekirei with bras the size of watermelons and perfect hourglass figures over her time with MBI, had developed a near complete and total immunity to body envy. She just smiled and tapped a few more keys on her keyboard.
"Well then…how long until you come out of there, Ku-chan?" she mused. The youngest of the Sekirei had been in the tube for almost an entire day and night by this point, which was the minimum amount of time necessary for full maturation. Some, such as the Single Numbers, had to stay in for the full thirty-six hours, while most of the other Sekirei had popped out exactly twenty-four hours after being put in.
Musubi had been an outlier for regular Sekirei, requiring thirty hours exactly to fully mature. A side-effect caused by implantation of Yume's Sekirei Tama, she was certain.
She still didn't know how that was possible, save for a fact that had made her lock herself up in her office and drink herself unconscious after finding out. After doing what amounted to a full DNA analysis on both Sekirei after the incident, she had found that both Yume and Musubi were genetically related. That wasn't a big surprise, there were several Sekirei 'siblings' within the ship and several carried enough matching genetic markers that once could assume they were cousins. No, what drove her to nearly dive in the bottle was that the closest comparison between Yume and Musubi's match was…impossibly enough…a mother and daughter.
How that was remotely possible considering Yume had been an embryo and Musubi a fertilised egg upon arrival on earth was beyond Takami, but genetic testing doesn't lie.
As the Sekirei of Life, Kusano's powers and abilities were primarily based around controlling plant life, but that was only the surface. The youngest of the Sekirei was the Chairman of MBI's failsafe to resurrect the defeated Sekirei if any of the countries of the world got uppity. Had she been Winged as a child, she would have lost a great variety of her abilities and had her ability to resurrect Sekirei take the field as only a Norito. As a mature Sekirei however, she would be able to resurrect Sekirei at will, given some time and peace. Not to mention that her ability to control plants would be greatly expanded upon, and she would be able to fully control her powers, meaning that Shiina wouldn't need to clear out vast swathes of unrestricted growth every so often as he did right now.
A screen on the wall flared to life, making Takami break out of her thoughts and glance sharply at it.
"What the…?"
Outside
"This is Redneck Zero-One to Trinity-Actual, over."
"Trinity-Actual, receiving. Go ahead, Redneck Zero-One."
"Redneck Team and Bunker Team have reached the AO. Awaiting order to breech. Over"
"Consider the order given, Redneck Zero-One. All Redneck Units are advised that the orders given during the briefing are not to be deviated from; Tango-Alpha, X-Ray-Alpha and X-Ray Beta are to be taken alive, with only X-Ray Alpha being taken dead if no other solution is possible. Over."
"Roger that, Trinity Actual. Commencing breech at zero-nine-hundred hours, as per orders. Over and out."
The man who had been talking over the radio looked up and eyed his squad mates. The ten-man (and woman) team were all dressed in black combat fatigues, with grey body armour covering their torsos. All were wearing black balaclavas and they had helmets sitting in their laps, ready to place on their heads.
They were sitting in the back of a white van with false licence plates that had been acquired for their use. A similar van next to theirs held the smaller five-man squad of Bunker Team, named as they were the Bunker Blasters, carrying the shaped charges required to get into the hidden bunker in the first place.
"We've been given the green light, ladies. Now let's get this business done." He said firmly. "I want a quick and clean operation; in, grab the targets and documentation, and out. No heroics and no grandstanding. Understood?"
"Sir, Yessir!" came back at him.
"Good. Helmets on and last equipment checks, people, Blaster Team will be ready in a minute." He said with a nod. Following his own advice, he placed his helmet on his head and secured it there.
Weapons had been a bit of a tricky issue. MBI's takeover had done nothing to lessen Japan's extremely strict gun control laws (if anything they'd become even harder to circumvent thanks to MBI's adding a not-insignificant amount of muscle behind enforcing them) and smuggling enough assault rifles, handguns and grenades to properly outfit a combat team would have been a logistical and practical nightmare. Not to mention the political shitstorm that could be kicked up if their government sources were outed.
Fortunately, the local black market had been generous enough to 'provide' some of the MBI 'security company's' (aka. private army) standard-issue assault rifles. They didn't have an underslung grenade launcher as the man designated Redneck Zero-One would have preferred, but an assault rifle was an assault rifle.
Grenades were limited to smoke, flashbang and fragmentation, but that wasn't too bad; the enemy stronghold had a single unarmoured woman inside, with two extra-terrestrials of unknown power as well. He honestly could care less about what the enemy could do offensively or if they were women or not; a bullet to the leg would put them down, alien or not.
"Sound off." He ordered, looking around to be sure everyone looked ready. "Redneck Zero-One, functioning."
"Redneck Zero-Two, ready."
"Redneck Zero-Three, operational."
"Redneck Zero-Four, ready for combat."
One by one, the others affirmed their readiness. Then, Redneck Zero-One got contacted by the leader of Bunker team.
"This is Bunker Zero-One to Redneck Zero-One. All prepared on this end, over."
"Redneck Zero-One to Bunker Zero-One, all preparations have been completed on our side as well." He said. "Prepare to breech on the count of ten. Over and out."
With Takami
With narrowed eyes, Takami examined the image of a pair of white vans parked outside the hidden entrance of her laboratory. They had reversed in not a minute ago, and wasn't that suspicious? Every service in the entire New Capital was run, whether the city officials wanted to admit it or not, by MBI, and the only markings on the side of the vans were the MBI logo. They had standing orders to stay away from the Botanic Gardens in general and the hillocks inside the gardens in particular.
'I smell a rat.' She concluded and typed in a quick command that sealed that particular outer door shut. Even if they knew the code to open it, it wouldn't open. Hacking it was useless thanks to the efforts of Matsu and Kochō, whose technological magic had made the MBI network an all but unhackable OS before they ran away/were released.
"Shiina!" she called out.
A young man whom she knew her daughter would instantly classify as a bishōnen appeared in the doorway. "Yes, Takami-sensei?"
"We're about to have visitors of the less than pleasant kind." She said grimly. "Stay in here and guard Ku-chan."
"Hai." He nodded.
Leaving the room at a run, she made it to the small command centre-slash-panic room of the base and hit the lockdown button just as the main entrance of the base was breeched by shaped charges.
Thick metal security shutters slammed down and locked in place all across the underground building, even as concealed machine gun turrets emerged out of their housings in the walls of the lobby and took aim at the intruders.
Ignoring the slamming of metal doors, she opened a connection to the MBI Tower, only to get an irritating little message instead of the Chairman.
'I'm sorry, Takami-kun. I am currently not available because I am out being my usual awesome self. The Age of the Gods will not come about of its own will, you know! Please leave a message and I'll get back to you when I am done being awesome for today. ^_^'
"I am going to murder you, Minaka!" the ash-haired woman howled before forcing her temper back into submission through sheer force of will. Rage would get her nowhere right now; she could rend the idiot man-child limb from limb later.
She knew this particular lab's defence systems very well, having practically designed it from the ground up. Some of the accountant weenies that were on MBI retainer nearly had apoplexies at the cost of the materials and items she'd ordered for construction. Machine gun turrets, three-inch thick reinforced titanium emergency shutters at every three meters, the ammunition costs for the turrets…the list went on. Not to mention the screams from Legal about a facility of MBI housing lethal military-grade defences in the middle of the New Capital.
She had silenced them all with sheer domineering presence and personality, if she could keep a total fruit-loop like Minaka on a semi-straight path most days then dealing with a bunch of weak-wristed bean counters and snivelling bureaucrats was child's play. This place was the only building outside of the MBI Tower itself to be able to perform the Maturation process on Sekirei, as well as the Adjustment process. Thus, it was likely that if a certain country which was too big for its britches, despite being slapped down twice before for trying to steal Sekirei, made another attempt then this would be their target.
Takami had failed Musubi and Yume before. She was damned if she would stand back and let history repeat itself without a fight.
Thus, the bunker had been built to her specifications
Unfortunately, static defences would only hold back a determined enemy for so long, and those shutters would only delay an enemy determined enough to go through machine gun turrets. She had several guns in this room, not to mention a tactical suit of body armour, but an executive defence course wasn't really equal to true blue solider training. The only cards she could play, here and now, were the Sekirei and she was not happy about thinking about it.
Akitsu was still in the middle of recovering from the virus she had been injected with to counter her Unwingable status, Kusano was in the middle of her maturation cycle and Shiina was going to guard his not-so-little sister to the death. Honestly, that last one was comforting, so she refocussed on her other problems.
Deciding to bring out the metaphorical big guns while the turrets in the lobby fired at anything that moved, Takami tried to call the Discipline Squad. For once she wouldn't mind seeing some of Karasuba's bloody handiwork right about now!
A minute later and she was glowering at the result. Karasuba's phone was out of range (How? She hadn't left the city!), Benitsubasa's phone was turned off and Haihane just wasn't picking up.
Making a note to punish the younger ones (not even she had balls brass enough to think about punishing Karasuba) at a later date, Takami sent an e-mail to Homura, hoping he would show up, but that just left three unpalatable choices to her.
The first was to try and fail to call Miya in for help. It never ceased to infuriate Takami that the Sekirei Pillar was allowing her charges to be used and abused by Manaka Hiroto simply because she had promised Takehito to never wield her sword again. Giving that option up as a bad one, she moved on.
The next option would be to contact…her. Number Three, Kazehana. The Sekirei of Wind had tried to pursue Minaka romantically, but was shot down rather brutally, to the point that Takami had actually bought her some expensive Sake because she had looked so pitiful. The two of them were…not rivals so much as they were exact opposites. Like the element she commanded, Kazehana was flighty and whimsical, moving at her own pace, whereas Takami was like the earth; she moved according to how her environment dictated and never wavered from a goal once she had set her mind to something. Slow, thorough and methodical.
It was worth a try, she decided. Unfortunately, Kazehana had apparently ditched her old Discipline Squad phone after being released, because some man answered it. Drunkard she may be, but Takami knew Kazehana wouldn't have anything to do with a man who wasn't her Ashikabi, and the MBI network confirmed that Kazehana was still Unwinged.
'Why is it that my least palatable choice is the one I have to take?!' Takami thought in despair. Of all her choices, this one was the one she shied away from on an instinctive level. She did not want to involve her son in this bloodbath! But…she had no choice in the matter. If she didn't do anything, the soldiers storming her bunker lab would break in, grab the Sekirei, and possibly her into the bargain, and take them all away. She couldn't do that to Minato and Yukari. She had to stay to stop that idiot from going off the deep end and possibly reducing human civilisation to nothing.
Therefore it was with great reluctance that she dialled her son's cell phone number and put it to her ear, even as one of the four turrets in the lobby was destroyed by a concentrated burst of assault rifle fire.
With Minato
Pausing as he was about to sit down to his breakfast after cooking for his wives, sister and sister-in-law, Minato grabbed his phone from his pocket and answered it, walking a bit away from the table to have a semblance of privacy.
"Kaa-san?"
"Minato? Thank kami I got through." The relieved tone that his mother –a constant unmovable mountain of calm and control- had taken made him a bit concerned. "Listen, I need you to get your girls and come to the Botanic Gardens, right now."
"Why? What's the hurry at this time in the morning?" He asked with a frown.
"The lab is under attack by armed soldiers attempting to kill or kidnap everyone here, including me." Takami said grimly. "For whatever reason, the Discipline Squad is not answering my calls and that idiot is god knows where. I wouldn't ask your girls to fight humans if it wasn't important, but it is. Akitsu's here, as is Kusano and Shiina. I…they can't get their hands on them, Min-chan. Literally. It would be as good as a death sentence, worse even."
As she spoke, a faint pleading tone entered his mother's voice. Sahashi Takami, someone who had very literally kicked the asses of some certified badasses in her time, was almost begging him for help. That helped make up his mind faster than anything else could otherwise have done.
"OK. We'll be there ASAP." He said, a bit of anger stirring at the back of his mind as something Takami was saying finally broke through to him. Someone was trying to kidnap or kill his mother. Granted, she had been a bit distant over the years, not to mention domineering, but he had known and she had shown in a thousand little ways that she loved him and he loved her in return.
Minato was not really a confrontational person by nature. His first inclination when faced with adversity prior to Winging Hikari and Hibiki had been to appease and attempt to de-escalate the situation, resorting to defiance and direct action only if the situation became untenable.
This was not any ordinary situation.
Takami gave him a quick rundown of the situation before hanging up in order to direct the few static defences of the facility against the invaders.
"Girls, we have to get moving." Minato said grimly. All of his wives straightened up at the sound of command in his voice, as faint as it might have been.
"What's happening, Mina-tan?" Matsu asked in concern. She, and all the other Sekirei bonded to him, had felt the shock, worry and anger that had grown in him via their bond as the conversation on the phone had gone on. Leaving the first two emotions to one side, Minato was not an easy person to anger, which had made them wonder exactly what had happened to Takami.
"Kaa-san's lab is being attacked by soldiers." Minato said tersely. "Assault rifles, plastic explosives, the works. She's locked the place down as best she can, but it's only a matter of time before the static defences are down. We need to move, now."
"I'll coordinate from my computer!" the Sekirei of Wisdom dashed out of the room.
"Yahan, can you take other Sekirei with you into the Shadow World?" the Ashikabi of the North turned to face the Sekirei of the Shadows.
"Yes, but only one other." The dusky-skinned Sekirei answered tremulously as her Ashikabi's eyes bored into her, causing an electric thrill to go up her spine.
"Uzume-chan, you go with Yahan. Take out any of the soldiers that are hanging around the outside of the lab." He directed the Veiled Sekirei.
"I'll go grab my outfit. Two ticks." The brunette said, speeding out of the room.
"Kuruse-chan, Yomi, Hikari, Hibiki, you four leave now and travel by the rooftops." Minato continued. "Musubi, Yashima-chan, you two will be with me, Yukari and Oriha-san start preparing for Kaa-san arriving."
Yukari opened her mouth to protest but snapped it shut at the stern look he gave her.
It actually looked like he was channelling their mother for a moment there.
"Neither of us are suited for combat with soldiers, Yukari." Minato said firmly. "Me even less so than you because I have no martial arts skill to fall back on. Kaa-san knows how to use a gun and she's staying clear of fighting these soldiers directly. We have to leave this to my girls. And we need to guard this place, which means at least three combat capable Sekirei, Matsu-chan not included."
"He…has a point, Yukari-sama." Oriha said hesitantly. "Ashikabi are a Sekirei's biggest weak point; we are automatically inclined by nature to be overprotective of our Ashikabi, but MBI made it so that if an Ashikabi dies, their Sekirei follows suit."
Yukari blanched. It was one thing to risk her own life, her own nature was a bit more reckless and thrill-seeking than most, but to risk Oriha's life at the same time rather than separately was a totally different matter. She slumped down in her seat in defeat.
"I am not going to ask you to hold back against these soldiers." The raven-haired Ashikabi told his wives. "Against trained soldiers, that would be stupid. But we do need to find out what the hell is going on here and who is attacking my mother. I want to find them and…express my displeasure in person."
The group of Sekirei and sole human female shivered at the cold, protective fury in his voice and eyes. Rather than make them worried or concerned, seeing Sahashi Minato like this was making the Sekirei somewhat aroused. There was no doubt in their minds that if they were attacked like this, Minato would react in a similar manner.
Yukari tried to remember the last time she'd seen her brother so angry and came up blank. 'Angry' and 'Sahashi Minato' did not tend to go together in her experience. Just about the closest was the determined look in his eyes that he had gotten when he'd manned up and told, rather than asked permission to do, her, their mother and grandmother that he was going to take an exam for a university in the new Capital. That had secretly made her squirm in her seat…just as this did.
"OK Minato-sama. We'll take them alive." Yahan agreed, before grinning savagely. "We won't hesitate to break limbs though."
'Note to self: Yahan can be brutal.' Minato though with a sweatdrop.
Before they left, Minato kissed all of the ersatz rescue team, making their beautiful wings emerge and flutter. Much to Hikari and Hibiki's delight, their wings were just short of three meters long now; another couple of inches and they'd be able to bed their Minato-sama!
As Yahan sank into his shadow, carrying a wary Uzume along with her, Minato made an effort to turn his mind from the possible mortal peril his mother and the Sekirei were currently in, and that most of his current Sekirei were heading into, and tried to think what his mother would like when she arrived? Probably a bed and/or a bottle of strong alcohol.
The distance between his house and the Botanic Gardens was short enough to be reached with a mere five minute walk, meaning that his wives, who were filing out and commencing roof hopping, would reach it in under two, with Uzume and Yahan reaching it any moment now thanks to the Shadow World's ability to bypass physical distances.
'Please be safe.' He thought before sitting down and helping himself to his breakfast, which was now lukewarm.
A Short Time Later
Outside Sahashi Takami's Lab
"What goddamn idiot said this place would be easy to attack?! Whoever sold us the intel on this place needs to be shot! Repeatedly!" Redneck Zero-Seven cursed as she hauled the groaning form of Redneck Zero-Four out of the door of the facility and towards the van, where a medikit was stored.
The entire mission had gone down the toilet from the moment the doors had been breached and they tried to storm in. Machine gun turrets, in a civilian facility!? Not to mention the thick titanium security doors that could be seen sealing off the lobby area from the rest of the facility.
Redneck Zero-Three had been creased across the head at that point, the bullet dinging off his helmet and stunning him. Only Redneck Zero-One succeeding in grabbing the man before the guns could get a proper lock had saved his life.
A couple of minutes sniping at the turrets and using grenades to blow the damned things up eliminated their threat, but this left the question of which way to go from there? The clear lack of intel about the layout of the facility's interior was a major issue now and command clearly hadn't anticipated additional security doors locking down the ways out of the lobby itself.
Also it had to be said that Sahashi Takami was a sadistic bitch. She had to be the one controlling the defences and other systems of the facility, because there was no way an automated system could activate the fire systems and use them to spray fire suppressing foam at the Bunker Team every time they tried to set charges to blow doors open, which slowed their work considerably.
Not only that, but there were numerous machine gun turrets seemingly dotted in every single damned corridor of the accursed facility. For all that static defences were usually easily taken care of, usually that only applied when you were fully equipped and prepped for the experience. Lacking riot shields or anything along those lines, it was down to careful application of bullets and the dwindling supply of frag grenades that the squads had at their disposal.
Just to put the icing on the cake, there were multiple security doors spaced every three meters or so throughout the facility. In between the turrets that popped out of the walls, the thick security doors that they were having problems getting through with a very limited supply of plastic explosive and the rapidly dwindling time before reinforcements from MBI probably arrived, Redneck Zero-Seven was hoping that Trinity Actual would give this mission up as a bad effort.
"Urgh…" Redneck Zero-Four groaned as she placed him next to the possibly-concussed Redneck Zero-Three and opened the medikit, taking out the field dressings and starting to treat Zero-Four's bullet-riddled leg. Damned turrets.
"Keep it together." Redneck Zero-Seven told the wounded soldier as he cursed and groaned at her rough handling. "You've been shot before and you never bitched like this."
"The times I was shot before weren't on supposed milk-run ops." Zero-Four growled.
"How fascinating." A female voice drawled from behind Zero-Seven as the edge of a very sharp knife was lightly pressed against her jugular. "Now then you two, don't move or this will get unnecessarily…messy."
"Oh shit." Zero-Seven breathed. There was only one thing this could be… "The Discipline Squad?!"
The briefing packets on the Discipline Squad that had defeated the two previous attempts at 'acquiring' the Sekirei and their technology were sparse, but it was known that the one member who had been a part of all three iterations of the Discipline Squad wielded a blade, and was not afraid to cull any number of humans in defence of her fellow Sekirei.
Zero-Seven found her arms being bound by a length of cloth, the same with Zero-Three and Zero-Four, all three lengths connected to one brunette-haired woman who was dressed like a stripper on an Arabian Nights theme
She scoffed lightly under her breath, "Nope. We are not the Discipline Squad."
"Who are you then?!" Zero-Seven demanded.
"The woman in there? That's Sahashi Takami." The cloth-wielder smirked. "Our master is Sahashi Minato. Get it?"
"…hell in a handbasket." The female soldier groaned.
They had been given a briefing packet on Sahashi Takami's children. One was a spineless wimp, while the other was a hyper-aggressive bro-con with her bitch switch turned up to eleven. Of them, the brother was the only one that they knew was aware of their mother's real job at MBI and everything it entailed, so it was possible that he would have been here visiting her. If he had been, he would have been used as leverage to get his Sekirei to obey.
Now though, he had somehow become aware of his mother's predicament. And had sent at least two of his Sekirei to help her. Oh hell.
"I'll head on in. You stay out here and keep an eye on these three." The one holding her blade to Zero-Seven's throat told the one binding her arms.
"Got it. Be careful, Yahan." The brunette nodded.
"I always am, Uzume." 'Yahan' chuckled sensuously before removing her blade from Zero-Seven's neck and then…vanishing. One second she was there, and the next…gone.
"So then…" 'Uzume' said as she idly created a swing seat by sticking another veil into the roof of the truck and sitting on it. "What shall we talk about? Ooh, I know…how about why you're attacking my mother-in-law?"
Redneck Zero-Seven had a feeling that the busty Sekirei wasn't going to take a dull recitation of name, rank and serial number as an answer.
Minutes Later
With Takami
The Head of the Sekirei Plan was ready to have a heart attack. Either by prior knowledge or sheer dumb luck, the soldiers, despite everything she was doing to impede them, were heading straight for the main laboratory where Kusano and Shiina were located.
She had managed to reduce their numbers by three, but she was running out of turrets to deploy and fire-suppressant foam systems to jury rig into turrets. She did make a note to have the lab's foam systems able to deploy in a turret-like fashion as a part of the design, rather than with a hastily-made patch, when they rebuilt.
If she survived that long, that is.
"Takami-okaa-sama?!" Matsu's voice blared from the speakers in the panic room, making her jump.
"Matsu? Don't do that! I almost had a heart attack!" she clutched the chest area over said organ.
"Sorry. I was worried." The Sekirei of Wisdom apologised. "Grant me permission to access your system."
"As if you don't have a backdoor into the very OS you helped write." The ash-haired woman rolled her eyes as she complied.
"I will not dignify that claim of yours with either a confirmation or a negation." The bespectacled woman said haughtily. "And, even if they were, I wouldn't use such a system unless I had no other way to get what I or my Ashikabi needed from your systems."
"Matsu…"
"OK, Ok…Ah, I'm in. Hehehehe…looks like Yahan-chan's been busy..."
Takami looked at the camera currently viewing the corridor where the remaining twelve soldiers were and grinned. The various shadows of the soldiers had melded together and formed a single mass that allowed Yahan to stab out of the Shadow World with her dagger without needing to worry about being shot. She controlled the shadow portals that allowed her access, so if she only wanted a single portal only wide enough for her blade to exit and stab a soldier in the foot, that was what she got.
The large number of soldiers on the floor clutching a bloody foot gave testament to that.
The one who acted like the leader shouted something to his fellows and grabbed one of them. Ah, they were planning to retreat at least.
"Uh-uh. No way." Matsu said disapprovingly. "Minato-sama gave specific orders that we need to find out who was behind this. I am not about to let these idiots run. Activating secondary shutters, corridor ML-B4."
With the blare of an alarm, a thick titanium shutter that sealed not only the door shut, but covered the entire wall, slammed down, sealing both ends of the corridor shut. Takami severely doubted that the soldiers could blast through this set of doors. Not only were they twice as thick as the previous set, they were triple reinforced, intended to contain (or at least delay) Sekirei, up to and including one of Musubi's level of physical strength. Not even Karasuba could cut through them without at least using a Norito.
"Was it really necessary to use the Sekirei Containment Shutters?" the woman asked with a sigh.
"Minato-sama is rather angry about you being put in danger, Okaa-sama." Matsu said seriously. "Whoever these people are, he has stated he's planning on paying them a personal visit to express his displeasure at their actions."
THAT made Takami pause. Her eldest was not the type that was quick or easy to anger. It had taken months of blackmailing and verbal abuse from the man to make him angry enough to stand up to the corpulent runt of a landlord of his. There was a saying in Europe about not awakening sleeping giants, and one of The Four Great Ashikabi most certainly qualified as a giant.
'These idiots have really dug their own graves now.' She mused. Let alone Minato, Karasuba and Minaka would both be angry for vastly different reasons; Karasuba for her fellow Sekirei being put in danger by the ordinary humans and Minaka for his precious plan being put in jeopardy.
"By the way, can you get Min-chan down here?" she asked.
"Hmm? Oh for the…! Why did you install a hardwired security system locked into an autistic mode?!" the orangette complained.
The panic room was designed so that someone skilled enough, like Matsu, could remotely access the speakers easily enough and perhaps even take control of the rest of the facility, but the panic room was its own little environment, with the doors, ventilation, temperature and most other environmental controls completely locked to outside interference and operating on a completely separate, dedicated, hardwired system that was also permanently locked into autistic mode to prevent it being wirelessly hacked.
"It's a panic room." Takami replied dryly. "Not much point to it if someone could just hack into it. And the only ones who can unlock this one, without ripping doors off, are people who share my DNA, meaning Minato or Yukari."
"…I'll let Minato-sama know." Matsu groaned.
Later
Empty Room, Sahashi Takami's Laboratory Facility
Redneck Zero-One looked around the room in resignation. He and all of his troops had been stripped of all of their weapons, body armour and anything that could possibly be used as a weapon or tool before being locked into this room.
They had tried to fight, but whatever the hell had been harassing them from their own goddamned shadows had left and brought back reinforcements. That threw fucking tridents. A LOT of tridents. Attached to one was a note telling them that the thrower could keep it up all day and had a virtually unlimited number of tridents to throw, so if they wanted to be target practice, they should stay on their feet and keep their weapons in their hands.
Whoever the bastard behind this was, subtle, they were not.
In the end, it had been a no brainer to surrender. There had been no possibility of getting through the shutters, which made mainline battle tank armour look flimsy by comparison. What little plastic explosives they had possessed had been insufficient to blow through the metal and with whoever had been throwing those tridents from the shadows, his duty to the soldiers under his command had been clear.
The room they were locked into had likely once been a storage room of some sort, but it was now bare of anything, including furniture. There were no hatches in the walls, no convenient ways out and definitely no toilets. Things were going to get messy (and smelly) if their captors didn't come forward soon.
Just as he was thinking that, the speaker mounted onto the wall blared a loud horn blast before a cold female voice ordered them to stand on the other side of the room and not to try anything funny. Convenient.
Gesturing his men (and women) to follow the instructions, Redneck Zero-One followed suit. Once everyone was on the opposite side of the room to the door, it opened to allow four women to enter. One was wearing a dress and carried a curved scythe in her hands. Another carried a trident in her own, while the other two had a curved dagger and a ludicrously-sized hammer respectively.
Sekirei. And, to judge by the dark looks being thrown in his soldiers' general direction, they were not impressed by what they had guessed he and his troops had been here to do.
Then a young man stepped through the door and the tension in the four women's bodies ratcheted up several notches. This was their Ashikabi, Sahashi Minato. Zero-One recognised him from the briefing packet. Raven hair, neutral blue and white clothing and a slight physique. The only thing that was not like the picture in the thin dossier was the look in his eyes. While in the picture there his eyes were kind and placid, in person they were burning with anger.
'Well, considering we did just attack his mother's facility and tried to kidnap her, it isn't that much of a surprise, I suppose.' The leader of Redneck Squad thought practically.
"Which of you is the ranking soldier?" Sahashi Minato asked in a restrained tone of voice.
"I am." Zero-One stepped forward one pace.
"I see." The boy eyed him, no doubt taking in Zero-One's average appearance; short brown hair, watery brown eyes and somewhat forgettable average face. "Am I to understand then that you intended to either kidnap or kill my mother?"
This much, at least, he could disclose. "No, sir. Sahashi Takami was to be taken alive and unharmed at all costs. We wouldn't have harmed her, aside from perhaps a sore head after knocking her unconscious."
"I see." The boy repeated with a nod. "That scarcely makes me feel better, but it does allow me the leverage to offer you a deal…are you a sergeant or something?"
"I am." Zero-One confirmed.
"I have a deal for you in this instance then, sergeant." Minato said coolly. "In about…an hour…Sekirei Number Four, Karasuba, the Head of the Discipline Squad, will be here. She is not fond of humans at all, even Ashikabi; ones who would do harm to her fellow Sekirei even less. And while I am certain that you will deny it vehemently, my mother and a few others are certain that whichever country you represent are responsible for the two previous attacks on MBI property and kidnapping of a Sekirei, so she will be inclined to…indulge in her dislike of you, shall we say?"
That left Zero-One cold. He was well aware that the woman the boy was talking ever-so casually about had slaughtered an oversized battalion of mercenaries with only a single other Sekirei at her side, who didn't slay any herself. Karasuba had piled the corpses up in a massive heap and sat on them like a throne. A truly depraved individual.
"My deal is this: in exchange for disclosing every single detail about the operation your troops here have undertaken in Japan, including the contacts that coordinated everything, I'll arrange for you to be shipped off to a prison that Karasuba will not be able to enter." The boy said calmly. "Refuse…and I'll simply leave you all in here for Karasuba to find."
"That would be condemning us to death!" Zero-One protested in a shout.
"Letting you take any Sekirei would be a death sentence for them." Minato pointed out coldly. "Worse than death considering your country probably doesn't consider them humans, so feel unconstrained by any things like morality and the like. So which'll it be? Prison for life or death by Karasuba? I'll give you five minutes to think it over."
With that said, the boy and his Sekirei left the room, the door clicking shut quietly behind him, leaving a room full of scared and helpless soldiers with the choice between betraying their country or a death worse than they could ever have expected in the line of duty.
Outside the Room
Minato leaned against the wall with his eyes closed and his forehead against the wall and breathed heavily, fighting down the panic attack that threatened to overwhelm him, as well as the rising of his gorge at what he had just threatened to do. He had allowed his rage to carry him through the 'interview' with the soldiers, but…
"You did well, Mina-tan." Matsu said into the earbud that he had in his right ear. She had been feeding him lines the entire time, monitoring the room via the cameras and using her software to feed him cues and lines. "They completely believe you."
"I think I'm going to hurl…"
Yashima and Yomi hugged him lightly from behind. The flowery scent of two of his wives acted as a calming influence on Minato's turbulent mind, anchoring him and letting him regain control of himself. He turned around and drew the pair into a soft hug that made them coo in contentment.
"Min-chan, you didn't have to do that." Takami said as he walked over and looked her son in the eyes. "I could have done that."
"They know at least some things about Sekirei, Kaa-san." The raven-haired boy said shakily, a small smile on his face. "Including that a Sekirei is concerned, first and foremost, with their Ashikabi. They saw my girls tense when I walked in; no way would they have dared try something with them so obviously on guard."
"I'd have liked to see them try…" Yahan growled.
"Do you think they'll make the sensible choice?" the Ashikabi of the North asked in concern. He had no intentions of carrying out his threat, but …
"They will." Matsu said with certainty. "The information they know about Karasuba's rampage the last time their country pulled something like this is extensive, as Karasuba left everything intact for them to go over, including video footage. They know that she'd carve through them like a hot knife through butter without a second's hesitation. Just about the only sticking point would have been if they believed you weren't capable of it, but you finally seeming to develop a bit of a temper and letting it out for a test drive convinced them that you could and would do it."
"Are you OK, Takami-okaa-sama?" Kuruse asked in concern. "When we arrived, you were pale."
"I'm fine, dear." The ash-haired woman smiled at one of her (now many) daughters-in-law. "Just a bit of shock. That was a bit more excitement than I was expecting today."
"And it isn't even lunchtime." Minato joked as he released Yashima and Yomi, drawing Kuruse and Yahan into a hug, much to the former's complaints and the latter's vocal approval.
"Takami-sensei!" Shiina came charging down the hallway. "Ku! Ku's ready to come out!"
"Ah, about time." Takami nodded. "Twenty-seven hours, give or take ten minutes. Let's be about our business then; we wouldn't want to keep her from her Ashikabi any longer than we have to. Eh, Min-chan?"
"You're enjoying this far too much." Minato accused his mother.
"I have to take my enjoyment where I can get it." The elder Sahashi shrugged. "Now let's get you your next Sekirei, OK?"
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Next Chapter: The Sekirei of Life and the Second Stage
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