Emiya Shirou had been built of tough stuff. Shirou had a veteran of not only some of the most ferrous battles in the history of humanity, but also some of the most stupidly intense training in existence. Shirou had pushed that body hard until the human limit and beyond. He had been tall, broad shouldered with muscle in all the right places. He had been a man who could have taken a charging bull head on and pinned the thing to the ground using pure brute strength.

He had been cut, bitten, bruised, beaten, and burned on more occasions that he even cared to count. All of his trials and tribulations had given him skin like leather, hard enough to stop duller blades and rough enough to be used as sandpaper, even before his reinforcements bolstered his body. He had all physical feeling stripped away to turn him a fine toned machine of war.

Shirou new body however was not like that. Not at all.

The small female body was hardly even half of Shirou's old size and was less than a quarter of the weight at the most. While the muscular tissue was of a higher quality, it wasn't present in great mass. Her new skin soft as a baby's bottom, complete unblemished by bruising or scars, and... rather sensitive.

"Please... no not there... Ha ha ha... Stop it I can't... Ha ha ha..." Shirou spluttered as she tried to squirm free of the twins as they laughed and rubbed the soap from her body. The two blonds had been overjoyed to find that Shirou was now ticklish. If Shirou had ever admitted to having a warrior's pride, that pride would have been shattered into tiny pieces.

"No way! We are going to scrub you spotless!" Mitsuki giggled as she and her sister both started to rub at one of Shirou's new... The World was a cruel bitch, Shirou had hardly had time to adapt to the loss of her manhood and it was already kicking at her while she was down.

Shirou tried to escape reality by observing her surroundings, trying to distance herself from the events that were happening to her. Reality was not important, only how you perceive reality.

The bath was a large one, as large as most public bathhouses, not that Shirou ever went to them. However it wasn't in the style of Japan, rather it was in more of a western style with most of the surfaces done in synthetic marble flooring with walls covered in wall paper with complex designs and a fountain display of a baby riding a swan. It was all much more over the top than the simpler set ups more traditional to Japan.

Actually, what of the house she had seen was in the style of an old European mansion. Wood doors instead of paper, beds instead of futons, the artwork and plaster sculptures. It irked Shirou a little. Sure she had stayed in places like it in the past. But that was while she was outside of Japan. For something so large and un-Japanese to be sitting inside of Japan was an insult to the countries unique culture. She vaguely wondered if the person themselves was Japanese or not. She wasn't sure which would be worse.

The twins really let Shirou have it, scrubbing her down from head to toe hard enough to peel off the layer of dried goo from the tank she had woken up in. The only thing they were slightly gentle with was her long hair. It was apparently their favorite quality about her. Any attempts to stop them were met with failure as they were physically much stronger and quicker than Shirou herself and the reincarnated girl/man was reluctant to expose her skill to people she didn't know and was sure weren't human.

Still, even if they weren't human, they didn't seem to mean any harm, other than to Shirou's nonexistent pride. Strange as they were, they weren't hostile. Then again, Shirou seemed to be of the same species as them now, so even if they did hate humanity they wouldn't have attacked her for it. Experience told her to be careful regardless.

The fact that Alaya had seemingly stuck Shirou's soul in a none human vessel didn't really surprise her all that much. While the Will of Humanity usually preferred to act through humans, she was a Divine Spirit with enough power to destroy worlds and could directly alter reality, space and time in ways that Magi could only dream of. Doing something as simple as booting Shirou's soul into an empty shell was a hell of a lot easier than summoning up a tornado on someone's house. Shirou could probably name at least ten Magus who could do that much if she needed to.

It did seem a little out of the Divine Spirit's style. Usually she preferred to make humans solve humanity's problems before she brought other elements, like the Counter Guardians, into the mix. Was there some kind of problem going on where humanity had failed? Or did the bitch just want to fuck with Shirou for telling her to go to hell? In retrospect, telling such a being to go fuck itself was probably not Shirou's brightest idea.

When Shirou's mind returned back to reality, she found herself lying on a bench with a towel draped over her forehead.

"She's coming too." One of the twins said, she honestly couldn't even guess which one.

"Seems like all the hot water got to you. You feeling alright there?" The other said.

"I'm fi..." Shirou started but then her jaw slapped shut again. The two blond girls were leaning over him, each one still naked from their bath together and with their straight hair down to their waist. Their hands were behind their backs, pushing their large chests forward, showing off their figures.

Somewhere in the back of her mind, the fact that she had just lived the fantasy of most hormonal young men. Being given a bath by two gorgeous twin blonds. With Akitsu quietly watching their every move to make things even more surreal. She decided that those fantasies were horrible wrong and that the reality of it felt more like drowning than bliss. She felt so violated.

"Well, in that case, we better start getting ready." The twin on his left said as she moved to grab the clothes she had been wearing before they had entered the tub.

"Yeah, our Master will probably be waiting for us. We were going to introduce you too him." The second said as she pulled up her own dress. The two sisters hugged together as they reached around each other to do up the zippers. Shirou saw as their own tattoo like marks between their shoulder blades were covered up. Just like the ones on her own stomach and Akitsu's forehead.

"Ah... Master is waiting." Akitsu said, getting up and starting to walk out of the room.

"'Akitsu, clothes.'" The twins said together in an off handed manner. The brown haired woman stopped in the middle of the room and looked down to see that she indeed didn't have any clothes on before nodding and going to look for them.

"What about me?" Shirou asked, looking at the twins. "You said that you got me something to wear."

The twins grinned at each other. "That's right. Mitsuki and I got it for you after we found you yesterday." Mitsuha said as her sister went and grabbed a laundry basket.

"That's right! I just know you are going to love it." Mitsuki said as she reach down into it and pulled out something that made Shirou pale.

"'Tada! What do you think?'" The twins said together.

It looked like a tooth fairy outfit that a girl might wear on Halloween. Several layers of thin fabric in several dark shades of blue forming into a sort of tutu while the stomach was covered in a black cloth and long loose dark blue piece of fabric covered the arms.

It reminded Shirou of a curtain vampire with a fetish for... magical girls. She remembered when Rin and Luvia had been forced into wearing similar outfits when that madman felt like punishing them for messing up in their studies. They had taken out their anger on Shirou when the unfortunate magus accidently saw them in it.

Shirou stared at the costume, hoping that her eyes were somehow deceiving her. But it didn't go away. Options ran through her mind.

Shirou could just ignore it and project some of her own clothes? They would disappear when every she lost focus or went to sleep but she could certainly keep it up while she was out and about. Or she could use basic alchemy. While she wouldn't exactly call what she was looking at clothes, it was made out of cloth. She could change its shape and turn it into something actually wearable. It wasn't complex magic, since you didn't need to fool Gaia. The material is in a natural stay before, during and after the process. Even someone with an unusual element and origin like herself could manage it.

However the same road block came up with both of these options. She would have to reveal her magic. Even the slightest hint of her abilities could give others tremendous insight into her true skills. She might be able to be clothed comfortably, but at what cost? Grant Air could be weakened by the right bounded fields. While most Magus look down on the practice too much to guard against it, a cautious one would pick up on the slightest hint of Shirou's skills. A possible loss of an advantage over something like pride?

Pride had no place on the battlefield.

Shirou held in a sigh as she took the costume, making a mental note to find out where the twins got it and to burn it to the ground. But before she put it on she noticed something. "Um... don't I need... panties?" Shirou said weakly suppressing a shudder.

"Of course." Mitsuki smiled as she reached back into the basket, and Shirou's heart stopped as she saw the thrilly black painties, a long coat hanger wire tail attached to them. She only then noticed a small hole in the back of the costume for the tail to go through. Mitsuha pulled out a pair of black cat ears to match it.

Shirou felt like she wanted to cry.

Pride has no place on the battlefield. Pride has no place on the battlefield. Pride has no place on the battlefield. Pride has no place on the battlefield...


Hayato Mikogami was sitting in his dining room, basking in his good fortune. After weeks of trying to increase his number of Sekirei, with mixed results, one just falls right into his lap.

Sure the Sekirei Plan was a game, and it was the challenge that made it feel so rewarding, but it was still sweet when lady luck smiled on you. With this latest Sekirei, he would now be breaking the twenty mark. His collection was by far the greatest out of all of the Ashikabi who usually only had one, two at the most. Even the next greatest number was still only a megger seven individuals. He was also the only one to wing a single digit, and had a second one under his belt in the form of Akitsu.

While this new girl seemed to be another scrapped number and unable to be winged, that wouldn't stop him from adding her to his collection and making full use of her abilities. Not to mention how rare a piece she was. Number one hundred and nine. A piece that no one even knew existed. Even Mutsu who was much more informed about the behind the sense of the Sekirei plan than most Sekirei had confessed to not having known that there were more than one hundred and eight. Though he claimed that number zero one wasn't actually a Sekirei. Maybe this one zero nine was the real last one to make up for that little fudge in the numbers.

Hayato was waiting for the girl to be cleaned up and ready for their first meeting face to face. He wanted to give a strong impression. After all, this girl would not be bound to him by the link between a Sekirei and their Ashikabi. As such, he would need for her to understand that he was the number one Ashikabi in the game and that if she wanted to side with the winning team, it was him she would throw her chips in with.

As such he had gathered a few of his key members into the dining room to not so many as to make the place crowded, but enough to show how much power he could call on. He settled on seven of his nineteen Sekirei, if you included the twins and Akitsu who he had watching the girl. Akitsu would be someone that the girl would be able to sympathize with, as they were both scrapped numbers, and the twins would be able to bind the little girl if she tried to attack or make a break for it before they could talk.

Number zero five, Mutsu, was standing in his normal position on Hayato's right with the same determined expression that the male Sekirei always wore. The girls often teased that he had been modified in order to make sure he would always scowl. Though even so, the blond Sekirei was handsome in his own way, having that strong Samurai feel about him. He was an intimidating presence and one of Hayato's most powerful Sekirei alongside Akitsu, the two being the rare single digits and his first and second Sekirei. He rarely left his Ashikabi's side.

The space behind him on his left was vacant, as it was the position that Akitsu usually filled. As much as his other Sekirei girls wanted to be closer to him, they didn't want to chance angering the ice Akitsu in order to do it. Most of them might look down on her and say rude things while she wasn't looking, but they understood that as far as power went she drastically outmatched them. She was perhaps the most valuable piece that Hayato had gained so far, partly because he could not wing her.

As a scrapped number, she could wield power equal to a winged Sekirei in the presence of their Ashikabi, and as a single digit, the former number zero seven, her powers were stronger than almost all of the other Sekirei. She might even have been stronger than Mutsu. So Hayato could send her out on missions without the need to endanger himself or worry that she might be outmatched and terminated. He only had to worry about her getting lost, the reason she was always left with a babysitter to keep an eye on her.

The other three to attend were number fifteen, Himeko, number forty three, Yomi, and number sixty five, Taki.

Despite the fact that she dressed like a princess from a bad Japanese opera, Himeko was a skilled Weapon Type Sekirei. It was actually amazing how well she could use her close range weapon while wearing that long kimono and how fast she could move in her saddles. Her long black hair was worn in the traditional Japanese Hime style and tied together with a white ribbon. One of her arms was forever held up to hide the bottom part of her face with her long sleeve, as if to hide tears that didn't exist. She watched way too many soap operas.

Taki was an Elemental Type, with the ability to call up a massive amount of mist, enough to cover a good chunk of the city in a dense fog that would conceal her and her allies' moments. Ironically for someone who's power revolved around concealing things, her clothes were very revealing. The elegant white gown seemed to be missing its entire front part, revealing her cleavage and her stomach before coming back together right above her pubic hair. Her hair was colored like blue silver mist, an unnatural color that marked her as being a Sekirei to even the most casual passerby who knew about the secret. That was how Himeko had found her. She had been about as hidden as an elephant in the middle of a high school.

Yomi was a Hybrid Type, using both a weapon and elemental power. Both were weaker than in Himeko and Taki, but by combining them, she managed to produce results stronger than either one of her fellow Sekirei. She was dressed in her usual black gown with matching gloves and stockings, with a red ribbon tied around her neck. The entire thing was about one stone throws away from being a French maid's outfit. Her brown hair and eyes weren't unusual, so she would be able to move around more freely without worry about being identified as a Sekirei by others in the Plan.

The door to the dining room opened and Mitsuha poked her head in. Hayato could tell the difference between the twins. It had something to do with the connection he had to them as their Ashikabi. "Hello Master." She said with a smile, looking only at Hayato. "Sorry it took so long."

"Sorry doesn't cut it! We've been here for almost a half an hour!" Yomi spat angrily. "No doubt because you perverts were doing what perverts do."

"Oh give it a rest, Yomi. It isn't like you were going to do anything useful anyways. You were just going to be bumming around the city trying to find a needle in a haystack." Mitsuha said, glaring at the brown haired woman as she finished entering the room. "Mitsuki and Akitsu will be here with the little father in a moment. I'm just coming on ahead to give you a heads up."

Yomi looked like she wanted to snap back, but Hayato cut her off. "So what can you tell us? What's she like?" Hayato asked, seeming rather excited by the whole thing. He was rather childish like that, so thrilled to be part of the game that had disrupted his everyday boring life.

"Oh she's so cute, and super shy about her little body. Not to mention she's super ticklish." Mitsuha said cheerfully.

"So you admit that you were doing perverted things." Yomi grumbled, not that anyone paid any attention to it.

Mitsuha's smile faded into a sort of sad look. "She really is a scrapped number though. Whoever was doing her adjustments messed her up really bad. She doesn't seem to remember much. She doesn't even know her own name or number."

"Oh that poor poor child. She must feel so lost in the world." Himeko said putting on a fake display of compassion. Or at least they thought it was fake. She was always so over the top it was hard to tell.

"So you're saying she has amnesia? A self-winged child with an unknown past. How mysterious." Hayato said, tapping his finger together as he smiled to himself. Everyone knew that the characters with mysterious pasts and lost memories were always the coolest by the end of the game. "Well, we know her name and number now since the MBI have been kind enough to reveal it."

"How do you know that this is even the right one? Couldn't it be a completely different Sekirei?" Taki asked.

Hayato paused and then started to blush a little. "Well... that is... they released a picture of her... with the text message." He mumbled before shaking his head. "It is her, ok!"

"Why... was he blushing?" Yomi asked narrowing her eyes.

"Just drop it alright!" Hayato shouted.

"We're here! What's with all the excitement!?" Mitsuki said as she pushed the door open to walk in with Akitsu and their new guest.

Hayato flinched, trying to get back into his calm position in order to save face only for him to turn red as a tomato when he saw what the girl was wearing.

What was it with Sekirei and cosplay?


Walking into a room full of extremely powerful beings in order to meet whatever monster of a magus had managed to bind them while dressed in a cat girl outfit was not something that Shirou had ever expected to have to do.

She couldn't decide if she wanted to try to play innocent, pull out swords and prepare to defend herself, or simply dig a hole and bury herself in order to escape.

To say she was surprised when rather than the overwhelmingly powerful magus she had painted in her mind, she found herself face to face with some blond fifteen year old kid dressed like he thought he was a part of old royalty. It reinforced the idea in her mind that guys shouldn't have frills and that the middle ages had too much lead in their paint. It wasn't that he didn't exactly look the part, it was just that no one in this day and age would be able to take him seriously. Then again, Shirou wasn't exactly in a position to talk at the moment.

Still, Shirou should stay on her guard. After all, Illya had looked like a ten year old girl, that didn't stop her from using Berserker like her personal play thing. Power makes people crazy. Or maybe it was people who were insane attract power. Shirou herself was probably a good example of such a thing. Her single minded devotion to the idea of saving people could probably be seen as a form of mental illness.

The boy before her coughed into his hand a little before giving what was a rather impressive 'lordly smile'. "Welcome to my mansion. I understand that you have had a bit of a rough time of late, but you need not worry about such things any more since you are now in my care." The boy said placing a hand on his chest and nodding in Shirou's direction.

"Um... thanks." Shirou said, glancing around the room. His eyes lingered on the blond man who stood behind the boy on his right. He smelled of soil soaked with blood. His face was of a man who had no sympathy for others. Even as non-threatening as Shirou looked, with his ten year old body dressing in a catgirl outfit, the man was still gripping at the long sword he wore at his side. This was a dangerous man. His power was among the top Shirou had sensed since her reawakening. Right behind Akitsu and that presence she had felt during her escape from that tower.

"Forgive me, I suppose introductions are in order. My name is Hayato Mikogami these are some of my Sekirei; Himeko, Yomi, Taki, and Mutsu as well as Mitsuha, Mitsuki and Akitsu, who you have already met." Hayato said, pointing to the individuals as he named them.

"Sekirei? As in the wagtail bird?" Shirou said, wondering if she had misheard. It wasn't exactly an intimidating name for a powerful race. There must have been a history behind the name, similar to the history behind the name of Marble Phantasms and Reality Marbles. He searched through his memories about myths involving the birds.

Only one came to mind.

The tragic story of Izanami and Izanagi the gods of creation and death. The god and goddess had descended to the world and had learned of love from the Sekirei. But that love had been forbidden and became a poison as Izanami became pregnant with Kagutsuchi, the incarnation of fire, which burned her to death as it passed out of her womb. Blinded by sorrow, Izanagi drew his blade against his newborn son, cutting him into eight pieces and casting them out of the heavens as falling stars. Where each one hit the Earth a volcano formed and divine beings appeared, born from the abomination's blood.

The sword changed from telling to telling and became a part of several stories involving the sealing or devouring of fire. It was one of many Noble Phantasms with a connection to Izanagi that Shirou possessed in her Reality Marble, alongside the spear Ame no Nuboko and the staff Ame no Mihashira.

"So you true don't know anything do you? Well maybe we can fill you in. A good place to start would be your name." Hayato said.

"You know who I am?" Shirou said, tensing up slightly. That was absurd. There was no way that this kid could have known who she was. And if he did know then they wouldn't be sitting so casually in front of her. The power to replicate and use Noble Phantasms was what most Magus would deem rather scary. Only an idiot would have engaged her direction, even with all of these... Sekirei. They would had talked to her from the next town over instead of face to face.

"The MBI released information regarding your release, including your name and number." Hayato said pulling out his phone. "'Number one zero nine, Kurogane has joined the game. Try to win her over and find out her great and mysteries skills.' That Minaka sure does love his theatrics. How amazing." The lights in the boy's eyes were rather creepy.

"Kuro...gane..." Shirou mumbled the name they had given her. It felt to ironic to just be coincidence. She had once been Shiro (Kanji is a little different), white and now was going to have to go by Kuro, black. She might as well get used to it. No matter what she said people would be calling her by that name and she couldn't afford to tell them her real identity anyways.

It was rather fitting. Magus always live double lives anyways. The name might even help her resolve the difference between who she was and who she was going to have to pretend to be. In order to survive the current situation, she would have to let people around her believe she was a clueless and harmless child.

She trying to put on one of the postures she had seen Illya use in her last life. She put her feet together, crossed her arms and she closed her eyes as she tilted her head. She tried to form a pout, but the expression came across rather strange, though no less effective because of it. "The name feels weird. I don't think I like it. It's too long. How about just Kuro?" Shir... Kuro said, trying to appear innocent. An effort rendered much easier by the fact that she was a tiny girl in a catgirl outfit.

"Oh... alright... Kuro it is then." Hayato, said twitching slightly in reaction to Kuro's act. Kuro gave a grin of victory, not because she actually felt any success from it, but because that was what Illya would have done. It felt stiff and unnatural, but she would get used to it. It would become her disguise. It was a fundamental of any strategy; appear weak when you are strong.

"So... what was that stuff about Sekirei and MBI? I've never heard of them before?" Kuro asked, rubbing at her chin and looking up to the ceiling. "Is it some kind of government thing?"

Hayato sighed. "This is going to take some explaining. I'm going to give you the best picture I can, but if you need more details later, try asking either Mitsuha or Mitsuki." Hayato said, closing his eyes and thinking for a moment before beginning. "I suppose I should begin with where the Sekirei come from. You see, an unknown time ago, eight space ships came to Earth, and on these ships were alien beings which we call Sekirei."

Kuro's jaw nearly dropped. Aliens. Mother fucking aliens. Now that was a bad sign if her knowledge of the history of the Heroic Age was anything to go by. At the end of the Age of the Gods, when the Gods began to fade from the world, there was the Age of Heroes. It was marked by the terrifying war between the Ultimate Ones, the first interdimensional alien beings from the Land of Steel called by Gaia in order to destroy all human life, and Humanity's Heroes and the first Counter Guardians.

"They mingled with human society and had children with the people they met where every they landed. The Sekirei were seen as something like gods by the people and became the origin for several myths and legends. The truth about it those have long since been lost to time."

Alright, so maybe they weren't trying to destroy humanity. But then why did they come to Earth in the first place? To explore? To research? ...Did they come all that way just to breed? That seems... strange. What must have happened to their own population for them to get that desperate?

"However, as it turns out, only seven of the ships landed properly. One of them crash landed on an island somewhere out in the Pacific Ocean, and the Sekirei within it remained dormant until just recently when a brilliant man found the island and woke them up." Hayato continued his face lighting up with admiration. "He joined into a sort of alliance with the Sekirei and used their advanced technology in order to make giant leaps forward in all fields of engineering and research, building up a company that now holds over ten percent of the global economy's total wealth, meaning he basically conquered the world through business. All while keeping the secret of the Sekirei's existence hidden from the general public. That company is the MBI. The city we are currently in, Shin Tokyo, is the unofficial capital of their virtual empire. They control almost everything in the city from the police and the construction crews all the way down to the bakers and garbage collectors."

They conquered the world with money... original. No one can oppose them, because if they collapse then the world would be thrown into a Great Depression bad enough to cause all countries to fall to pieces. Wonder if Alexander ever thought of doing that.

Kuro didn't recognize the name Shin Tokyo or MBI. This could either mean she was in another dimension or that more time had passed then just ten years her body was probably developing for. Shirou had died in two thousand and four, but she had no clue what the year was now. That phone Hayato pulled out did look different than the fat boxes she was used to seeing. It was much thinner and have a screen that displayed more than just one line.

Where as in Shirou's high school days texting was just a stupid trend followed by snobs, it seemed actually doable on the more high tech phone.

"So... if the Sekirei are apart of MBI, and you have Sekirei... are you with MBI?" Kuro asked, trying to move the conversation along.

"A clever deduction, I admit that would make the most sense, but it isn't the case." Hayato said. "A few months ago the MBI started to release the Sekirei from the island where they were being housed and into Shin Tokyo."

Hayato paused, waiting for the obvious question. "Why would they do that?"

"They did it so that the Sekirei could find their Ashikabi and form a bond with them in preparation for the Sekirei Plan. A battle between the Ashikabi using their Sekirei in order to obtain a grand prize." Hayato said, his eyes shining with excitement.

Kuro's heart dropped down into her stomach. She felt as if she was going to faint. It all sounded too familiar. Powerful beings entering into contracts in order to battle over the ultimate prize. It was another Holy Grail War. And the administrators felt the need to build an entire city just to house it.

Number one zero nine. There were at least a hundred and eight other participants. Seven servants produced enough destruction to kill hundreds. How much damage would one hundred powerful beings cause? Even if they lacked the skills of legendary heroes, some of these Sekirei did have prana reserves nearly equal to a servant. If they possessed a way of channeling that power, like a Noble Phantasm. Good god.

"They released the Sekirei... us... in order to have us all fight to the death?" Kuro said. Suddenly the odds that the group surrounding her at the moment would try to kill her drastically increased. Her only chance at survival would be to grab the boy and hold him hostage. If he was the equivalent of a Master, then his Sekirei wouldn't dare do anything that might...

"What... no!" Hayato shouted in surprise. "It's not a fight to the death. This isn't a war, it's just a game."

"A... game?" Kuro parroted, not believing the word.

"That's right. The Sekirei don't fight to the death. They just try to terminate one and other by removing the other's seal. This can be achieved by either doing a curtain amount of damage to them or by pinning them down long enough to say a chant called a Norito while touching the seal. After that, the losing fails unconscious, but they don't die. They are just removed from the Sekirei Plan and get reactivated later after it's over." Hayato explained. "This isn't a war. There are rules that everyone has to follow to make sure that everything doesn't get out of hand."

A game? No one would release a bunch of super powerful beings into a city and force them to fight just for entertainment. No one was that crazy... no what... Zelretch... yeah he would do something like this. It would also explain why most of the Sekirei seem to be wearing fetish outfits.

Though a quick look around the room at Mitsuki and Mitsuha's uncomfertable expression made Kuro believe that this wasn't just a game like there Master thought. Did he Sekirei try to shelter him from it? Or was he just in some kind of state of denial.

It reminded her of Shinji's actions during the Grail War. He had been so completely out of his mind that he was convinced that it was all a game and that it somehow made it okay to kill innocent people. He viewed his servant as nothing more than a tool and claimed that anyone who beat him had been 'cheating'. He viewed himself as being more important than anyone else. Could this Hayato guy be like that? It was too early for Shirou to tell.

"You said that Sekirei and... Ashikabi have to make some kind of bond together. Are you wanting to bond me to you too?" She asked. She didn't like it. Contracts were always bonds business. Magical contracts can be removed with Rule Breaker, but there were other types of bonds than just contracts and seals. It was best to avoid if possible. If needed she would have to fight her way out in order to avoid being bound.

"Normally yes. However you are a special case." Hayato said glancing back and to his left to wear Akitsu stood quietly. "Usually a Sekirei and their Ashikabi preform a 'winging' ceremony of sorts. Afterwards the Sekirei is said to have been 'winged' by that Ashikabi. Afterwards a seal appears on their back between their shoulders. However you and Akitsu both gained marks on other parts of your body without being winged. These self-winging Sekirei are called the Scrapped Numbers and are unable to be winged by an Ashikabi. The official reason given for this by MBI is that they are simply too strong, causing them to wing themselves. However the reality of it is that when they were being modified so that they could more easily find their Ashikabi the person modifying them messed up, causing them to be winged prematurely. While this means that they can't access their full power which requires an Ashikabi, they are considerably stronger powerful than your average Sekirei when both are without."

Hayato leaned forward in his seat and smiled at Kuro. "But that doesn't mean that I don't still want you, or that it isn't in your best interests to view me as your Ashikabi. Out of all the Ashikabi currently involved in the Sekirei Plan, I have the most Sekirei and the most powerful ones. If you join me, then you will be on the winning team and will be able to avoid being terminated, meaning you can enjoy your freedom. You will be protected by my power and I will be able to make use of yours. It's mutually beneficial, yes?"

Kuro nodded a bit. It was beneficial to both parties. Kuro needed a place to stay, food and the like, as well as information on the situation. Whereas Hayato would be getting an operative that can move independently of him, allowing him to target his enemies without putting himself at risk or revealing his identity. Archers were always influential players in the Grail Wars because of their ability to act independent of their masters. Though it was not always for their master's best interests.

If Hayato was telling the truth and he really was the most powerful player in the 'game', then it only made sense to get close to him, either to move the Plan forward and speed up its end, or to remove him in order to change events that way. If time proved that this boy was a threat, nothing would be stopping him from stabbing him in his sleep. In this War, Kuro would play the part of the Archer class servant. The backstabbing prick.

"You would really help me? I mean... thank you for your kindness, Master." Kuro said, bowing to the boy.

Hayato grinned, clearly proud of himself. "You've chosen wisely." He said nodding his head. "Now tell me, what's your type?"

"My... type?" Kuro mumbled, running the words through her head before gulping. "Aren't I'm a little young for that kind of thing?"

Hayato blinked, thinking about what he and Kuro had said before flushing. "No! That's not what I meant!" He shouted as some of the other Sekirei giggled at his embarrassment. "I mean what type of Sekirei are you. Sekirei all have specialties which they refer to as their type."

"Ah." Kuro said, giving a sigh of relief. "Well, what types are there?" She asked. She didn't want to reveal any more than needed. Keeping her offensive power as secret as possible.

"Well, there are Power Types who can channel their energy through their body in order to increase their strength, Weapon Types who can use their energy to manipulate their weapons and draw out their weapons power, and Elemental Types who can call on the power of an element in order to fight." Hayato said, listing off some of the types.

Kuro frowned a little. She could easily fall into any of those categories. She needed to decide which one to claim. There were two things she had to do, not make herself seem like a threat, and make herself not look useless. They would probably ask for a display of whatever she picked. How could she show them the power in such a way that it would not seem like a threat, but would not make her look too weak to bother with.

Noticing Kuro's hesitation, Hayato listed off another option. "There are also Brain Types. They aren't much good in combat, but they are able to gather data in order to help their Ashikabi."

Brain Type? It would make her not look useless while at the same type leaving her in the possible position of being an invaluable resource.

Closing her eyes, she took in a deep breath, analyzing the magical signatures around her. The breath wasn't really anything to do with the air. It was only a cognitive trigger to help her concentrate.

"Besides those in this room, there are eight other Sekirei in the house and four more within fifteen kilometers. Of those, two of them are on their own and the other two are close together, perhaps in a group." Kuro said. Keeping her eyes closed, she started pointing at the man standing behind Hayato. "You're an elemental user, right? Your power has something to do with earth." She then continued on to the others in the room. "Akitsu and the silver haired woman both have powers involving water in some way. Akitsu's is colder, ice maybe? Mitsuki and Mitsuha both use weapons, something to do with metal cords. The brown haired woman uses a death scythe and air."

She turned to the last one taking another sniff at the girl who looked like she was a princess from a dramatics' production. "You use a different type of weapon. A single slab of metal, shaped into a two sided saber. Both blades and single edged but pointing in opposite directions. Most of the mass is in the center, minimizing the force required to spin the blade while maximizing the momentum behind the wider slashes." Kuro finished before opening her eyes to see their reactions.

The princess's sleeve dropped to show a startled face, and revealing the weapon in question pressed up against her body.

Everyone seemed surprised by the display. She couldn't blame them. She remembered how Rin had reacted when she found out that Shirou could actually copy a weapon into the Unlimited Blade Works using nothing but its 'smell', and she had always been pretty good at identifying the different magic elements.

"'Wow.'" The twins said together.

"That's... not a Brain Type." The blond earth user said a look of surprise on his face. "Brain Types access computers." Kuro had to surprise a flinch. Looks like she screwed up.

Though that thought disappeared when she looked over and saw Hayato's face. They fifteen year old boy was actually shaking with excitement.

(((

'I hit the jackpot.' Hayato said to himself. It was a new type. One that hasn't been in the Plan before. A Sensory Type. Now he would track down all of the unwinged Sekirei with ease instead of having to search the streets blindly for weeks on end. Not only that, they could be able to have information about their target before they ever had to engage them. It couldn't have been more perfect.

Then he remembered something from before.

(((

"What happened to your swords?" Hayato asked.

"My swords?" Kuro said, not exactly sure what the boy meant.

"In the... picture that the MBI sent out to all the Ashikabi, you were holding a pair of swords." Hayato said.

Kuro froze up a little. He had seen the fact that Kuro had used swords. How did he get the picture? Didn't he get the message with his phone? Did phone's do pictures now? How did that work?

"Ah..." Kuro said, starting to scratch the back of her head. "I guess I must have forgot them somewhere."

Everyone in the room paused and looked towards Akitsu than at Kuro and then back at Akitsu.

"What?" Akitsu asked, tilting her head.

"Guess the girl really is a scrapped." The brown haired woman with a scythe said as she leaned back in her chair.

Kuro looked around at them all, feeling like she was missing something, then she noticed a flush on Hayato's face. Frowning she thought over what had happened that might have made him embarrassed. Then she flushed.

"Wait a second... you said you got a picture of me with the swords, right?" Kuro said hoping that she was wrong. Hayato nodded, blushing deeper. "And in that picture was I... could you see..." Hayato didn't act like he didn't know what Kuro was talking about. "And... they sent it to 'all' of the Ashikabi?" Hayato only nodded.

Kuro's legs went weak and she slide down to the ground. Suddenly, she wished she had woken up in that tank wearing the catgirl custom.

"Damn you, Alaya. Damn you."

Weren't there laws against that kind of thing?


The idea about the Heroic Age of Man came from another story, a Sailor Moon crossover that divided the Age of Gods into the Golden Age of Gods, the Silver Age of Gods and the Bronze Age of Gods. I know it doesn't go along with the Fate canon, but I don't really care.

In the story, the Golden Age involved the gods having just come into being and not sure what they were supposed to be doing

The Silver Age was when the gods discovered things like beauty, happiness and love and found a reason for being.

The Bronze Age followed the collapse of the Silver Age when the gods found that love and happiness were finite resources and went nuts trying to hog as much of it for themselves as possible.

The Heroic Age was humanity getting fed up with the gods trying to steal all their happiness and fighting back, ending the Age of the Gods.

The Iron Age was after the Heroic Age died out due to humanity simply not having any more heroes.

The story revolved around Zelrecth getting really excited about the returning of the Gods from the silver age, the Sailor Scouts, and sent Rin, Luvia and Shirou to guard them from anyone in the magic community that might try to get their hands on them.

Luvia and Rin both have their eyes out for the Silver Crystal and Shirou is trying to explain to the Sailor Scouts that the world is better off without the gods and that they should just stop running around in their sailor uniforms before they really piss the Enforces off.

I tried to find the story again but I can't now... maybe I just made it up... wouldn't be the first time I accidentally pulled something out of my ass when thinking I saw it somewhere else. It is a rather big concept, but I have a rather big ass.