Tokyo city
The next morning
Minato awoke that morning with barely a sound, from years of practice drilled into his head, and almost immediately started his daily rituals. He brushed his teeth and washed his face before getting dressed in a pair of black pants with many pockets and a pair of black boots that were lace less and went up just below his knees. On his top he wore a white sleeveless shirt, a black t shirt over that and a military camouflaged jacket over that, the jacket was covered with his trench coat.
Winter was fast approaching and the temperatures were colder than normal, so Minato was wrapping himself up and preparing the best he could. After heating up a MRE, or Meal ready to eat, and devouring it Minato threw on his gun holsters and knife sheathes. Once all his weapons were in place he donned his knapsack, in case he found anything useful or interesting, and picked up his rifle and turned the lights off before heading out into the desolate city.
Once he reached the door to the outside Minato reached towards his left hip where his gas mask was fastened and donned it, once it was secured to his face he reached into one of his many pants pockets and pulled out a makeshift scarf made of greens, black, and brown colors, it was cut from one of the military camouflaged nets, and wrapped it around his neck. Once the scarf was secure Minato drew up his hood and walked out the door and checked both ways for any sign of the Sekirei or their airships. He spotted one more towards the west portion of the city; once he was sure no one would see him he went down the street towards the botanical gardens to investigate the strange occurrences there.
Almost overnight a large rainforest had sprung up and several Sekirei had patrolled the area and that would've made most humans wary of the area and avoid it completely, but Minato was curious and wanted to know what was so important in there so he was going to get a closer look if he could. He'd have to cut his way through the most of the city, a portion of the sewers and then the park to remain hidden; none of the Sekirei went to the sewers or the park due to the amount of wild animals and other things in there. All in all he was looking at maybe a day and a half of travel if he was lucky, which he never was, so more like a three day trip.
Minato made his way down the deserted streets of the city and towards the park. The plants had seemed to reclaim the city within a matter of months after humanity abandoned the city. Trees were sprouting out of buildings and grass poked through pavement, vines curled around building and wild plants and animals wandered about without a care.
Minato sighed as he clambered through a buildings window in order to avoid going through a river in the middle of the street. Skeletons were often times inside of cars, or buildings, staying right where they had died. The Sekirei had often times used chemical warfare to clean out humanity from the cracks and crevices of earth, though the odd thing was that the gas only killed certain people, most fell over dead while others were fine. Hence the reason for his gas mask, the aliens themselves had a taste of humanities own chemical warfare and had quickly whipped out rebreathers, which looked like an oxygen mask, for themselves.
Minato jumped on the edge of a floor, or what was left of it; there was no center of the floor just a hole leading to the basement where several pointy spikes of various elements laid in wait for new victims. Minato edged himself across the room with his back pressed against the wall until he reached the next room and slid into it.
The Sekirei were amazing in the fact of their powers, they could wield elements like there was nothing to it, they could slice a tank in half with a flick of their sword, a single Sekirei could bring buildings down with a well-placed powerful punch. They could jump at most twenty or thirty stories depending on their powers.
Minato edged out of the buildings door and back onto the street before jumping down from a ledge made of raised asphalt and onto the lower platforms of the street. The street was raised up and down from where something either impacted or an earth type Sekirei had decided to let loose, wild grass and other plants sprung up all around, the grass went up to his waist and he could effectively hide in it with how much of the stuff was around, a stream ran from the way he came with the ledges of the raised street making impromptu waterfalls.
Minato snuck through the grass crouched so his head was just above the grass and he could see anything coming his way. As he had lived life abroad he had watched the Sekirei and he had seen that they didn't have two powers instead they seemed restricted to just one class. A Sekirei that wielded water couldn't use ice just because it was water related, but that didn't mean two Sekirei couldn't combine their attacks into one massive powerful strike.
Minato stood near the ledge of a street that was suspended over one of the many large craters that littered the city, the ledge of the street was anchored by a rather large tree, off in the distance he could see Sekirei aircraft flying across the sky near the rather large jungle that sprung up despite it being late fall or rather early winter. Minato turned away from the tree and made his way down the destroyed and up heaved road again.
He had personally seen a pair of Sekirei, one fire the other water, combine attacks and he had watched as the steam created from the combination attack literally melt the skin off of people as they ran. Minato had to run from the two after he had seen the attack, due to the fact that he started to vomit as the people screamed in agony, and he had hid in an old sewer and headed into the sewers to lose them and he had succeeded. Though they had literally flushed him out with a bout of superheated steam that had boiled his entire backside rendering him inactive for nearly a month except for the most basic of things like eating and drinking.
Minato dropped down from the ledge of the finally part of the street and onto a slope that started out as green grass then it lead down to the concrete embankment, then to the concrete made channel. The bridge that spanned the once roaring river, now little more than a six inch tall creek, was snapped in half and the ends of the two half's met at the bottom of the channel. Since the invasion of the Sekirei, and their subsequent landing, they had destroyed humanities damns and waterways that were inland, once roaring rivers now little more than trickles. They occasionally missed one damn or spillway which was why there were several streams and creeks in one area and not another.
Minato slid down the concrete slope and landed on the bottom without a scratch before making his way across the concrete channel, Minato walked through the slow moving currents and he noticed something odd on the opposite bank of the river. Once he reached the opposite side Minato saw what was so odd and he stiffened.
The object was a nearly six foot long lance barely missing the six foot mark by about two maybe three inches. The lance was a blood red in color, on the shaft of the lance was a crest of a bird with a ying yang symbol under it with two tomes flanking the ying yang's sides. It was a Sekirei crest and so the weapon most likely belonged to a Sekirei but the question was where was this Sekirei and just why did they leave it out.
Minato walked forward and let his hand touch the weapon before pulling it back slowly and looking around. Minato turned towards the weapon and decided to take it deciding that a Sekirei was less likely to survive if their primary weapon was gone, with that decided Minato readied his rifle with the red lance tucked to his back Minato looked down the channel and saw an entrance to the sewers where the metal grate had been ripped apart, small blood trails led to the entrance, always a bad sign, but with no other entrance in sight for at least a mile and not willing to risk the chances of a Sekirei patrol Minato braced himself before walking towards it.
Once at the entrance to the sewer Minato slung the rifle across his back and pulled out his sidearm, a 44 caliber revolver, the hand cannon was just about the only small arms pistol capable of taking anything down anymore, a small flash light was attached to the under barrel by duct tape. Minato flicked the flashlight on and walked into the darkness of the sewer.
It took about only twenty steps before it became pitch black, his flashlight was the only light he had at the moment and it could only do so much. The walls of the sewer were padded down with moss, mold, fungus, and bloodstains. Several human skeletons laid strewn about and torn apart with teeth marks on some of the bones. Minato took one look at the teeth marks and skeletons before pulling the hammer back on his pistol, and flipping the safety off.
With his weapon at the ready he felt a bit more safe, just a little, and he kept going down the winding sewers, going down one hallway and then down a tunnel and then down even more almost identical hallways had a way of screwing up your sense of direction. Then as he went down what he felt like the thousandth tunnel he heard it. A small ticking sound or tapping sound, like when someone takes a pen and taps it against a metal plate, the sound came again from behind Minato and he paused and behind his gas mask his eyes were wide.
The sound came again and Minato turned behind him slowly and leveled his gun down the hallway, there was nothing there. The sound got louder and louder and faster and he felt his hairs stand on end. Nothing came and then it just stopped, Minato kept his gun leveled at the hallway and when nothing still happened he relaxed slightly and just as he was about to turn around a string of liquid dripped down from above right in front of his face.
Slowly looking up Minato found himself face to face with a bug like monster, it had six legs and several glowing yellow eyes of various sizes, its' hide was covered in a tan colored carapace and had plates of the armor overlaying one another, two jagged fangs jutted upwards in front of its face attached to two mandibles each one with rows of sharp jagged teeth that could give a shark a run for its money. The thing that separated it from just a normal oversized spider like in a video game was the tail, a long one and a half meter tail was attached to it and at the end was a wicked looking stinger.
Minato raised his gun and pointed it at the monster but didn't fire, he didn't need to. The light of the flashlight hit the bug and once it came into contact with it the bugs body started to smoke and the creature howled in pain and fell from the metal grate sealing. It flopped on the ground and tried to escape but Minato kept the light on it and the creature continued to smoke, slowly the skin began to turn red and the bug began to flip and flop until it was on its back.
Minato squeezed the trigger on his revolver and with a resounding echoing Boom! The creature's softer unarmored underbelly exploded in a shower of red entrails. The creature still writhed about so Minato unloaded another of slugs into the bug making more gore fly about. The bug's legs stilled and Minato lowered his gun before turning back towards the way he was heading and pointing the gun ahead, he quickly wished he hadn't.
Xx Line Break xX
At Shin shuto
Northern half of the City.
Yukari woke up from her sleep with a yawn and stretching of limbs. She looked around and realized where she was and as soon as she did she scowled. She was in her room in Izumo inn; she was alone on her futon as usual. Shiina was forbidden from sleeping with her due to the fact she was, less than happy with the Sekirei and wouldn't hesitate to try and off him in the night, so they left her alone in a room so she wouldn't try to kill him as he slept.
She slowly got up and began to get herself dressed in her school uniform, even if humanity was extinct or on the brink of it she still had school truly this was hell, when she had first been put on her 'probation' as it was called she had been extremely angry when she learned she had to go to school with the things, they may have looked human but they were anything but human, that had killed off most of her race.
Though there were some interesting developments that she learned in the school. First off was that this wasn't the first time the Sekirei attempted something like this, there had been other races apparently that had met the same fate as humanity. The other thing was that children born in the Sekirei society had about a twenty percent chance to become an Ashikabi, that and Sekirei could breed with one another, though the birth rates were extremely low and more often than not ended up an Ashikabi, but with a low birth rate and the lack of powers in them the Sekirei preferred to subjugate others to produce powerful heirs.
Yukari looked at herself in the mirror and sighed. She wore the same outfit she wore when she had to talk with the others, it was the only one she had, bags were beginning to show underneath her eyes and little red veins were showing in her eyes themselves. Sighing she moved to grab her schoolbag and opened the door revealing Shiina there just about to knock.
Yukari glared at him as if willing him to spontaneously combust which was entirely possible. The boy shrunk in on himself as if he wished to disappear and for the girls glare to stop, Yukari became satisfied when the boy shrunk in on himself. She turned to the stairs leading down and went down them with Shiina following her. Downstairs the rest of the houses occupants were awake and in Yukari's opinion, unluckily, alive.
Yukari walked past them and to the door without so much as a word to them, Shiina gave a small wave and a soft goodbye, but that was it. Miya sat at the head of the table the others soon joining her, food was on the table and they all began to dig in. "That girl, no, that entire species." Miya muttered to herself. Karasuba nodded and swallowed a piece of food before speaking. "It's amazing, out of the dozens of races we've subjugated I've never seen a race as tenacious, hateful, and overall resistant as humans."
Karasuba shuddered at the end of her sentence. "I love 'em" She said while she licked her lips before taking a bite out of one of the eggs on her plate. Matsu at her place at the table nodded as well. "Truly they are rather resistant. Every time our race has ever conquered another race it usually only takes three years to subjugate them completely. These humans though withstood eight years of constant assault then another three of being assimilated to our society and yet they still resist. "
Homura nodded her head after taking a sip of a red colored liquid in her glass. "They have a passion that few races seem to have. They're stubborn and overall like to be in control and seem to hate to be told what to do." Uzume smiled as she leaned back with her hands supporting her. "Well enough about that, hey Yume-san want to go shopping with me?" She asked the other brunette who nodded happily. "Oi, you mind if we join?" Benitsubasa asked with Haihane giving a curious glance as well. Uzume nodded and finished off her drink before standing up already dressed in her Capri pants and number ten shirt.
"Sure but only if you've got your own money, I'm not a charity case." Haihane, Benitsubasa, and Yume stood up to join her with Kazehana joining them. "I need to stock up on my collection." She stated while holding up a Sake bottle. "Fine, I don't care. Let's just get going." And with that last statement Uzume, Yume, Kazehana, Benitsubasa, and Haihane all left. Miya shook her head while she sipped her tea and Matsu left to…do whatever she did. Karasuba just sat at her seat smiling like she always did until she pulled her sword out and went to her room.
"A entire house of crazy people is what I have," Miya muttered to her self. "Between the crazy homicidal sword wielding psychopath, the perverted technician, the shy school boy, and the possibly genocidal teenager I have no idea how it could get any worse." Miya would later find those words coming back to bite her in the ass.
Xx Line Break xX
Minato dashed down the hallways of the sewer like a mad man. The winding corridors had managed to confuse him and that got him lost as he was chased. As he ran down the sewer corridors a multitude of sounds followed him, screeches, scratching, tapping, and loud howls seemed to follow him and hound him. Minato increased his pace as the sounds seemed to become louder, he pulled the hammer on the pistol back and briefly turned his head and fired a bullet into the hall behind him. A dull orange glow greeted his sight briefly before he turned his head back towards his front in time to take a left at a split in the hallways.
Minato looked ahead of him and saw a steel door ahead of him, the door was ajar and looked in sturdy condition, so he increased his speed and dashed as fast as he could he made it past the door and slammed it closed. He knew he couldn't stand against the monsters following him, but he had nothing to fight them with in the tight closed quarters of the sewer corridors. Then he noticed two steel bars on either side of the door with enough space to fit between them and the door keeping it from opening, thinking quickly Minato reached behind himself and towards his back and pulled the red Sekirei lance that had been wedged between his back and his pack and pulled it off his back and put it in the spaces between the wall and the two steel pieces effectively blocking the door.
Stepping back Minato pulled up his pistol and pointed it at the door. Nothing happened for a moment before something slammed into the door with a loud boom Minato flinched back for a moment and pulled the hammer on the pistol back again and waited as whatever was on the other side slammed into the door again, this time it made a dent in the door but the lance held it back.
A dull orange glow radiated from under the door and Minato could see something pacing from the shadows projected from under the door. Minato held his breath and kept his gun pointed at the door as whatever was on the other side slammed into the door repeatedly until after what seemed an eternity the dull orange glow disappeared and the sounds of something running down the hall in the opposite direction of the door were heard. Minato sighed when he could no longer hear anything behind the door. He slowly relaxed the hammer back into place and pressed the top of the gun against his head with the barrel pointed towards the ceiling. Minato closed his eyes and listened as his raging heartbeat slowed until it was normal, exhaling Minato turned around to look around the area he was in.
It was a large circular room with several boxes lying about and a ladder in the center of the room led up to what Minato guessed was a manhole cover. There were several hallways that lead in all different directions and each one had the steel door but were all closed. The boxes that were strewn about looked to be munition crates and to the side there were four stacked together, two on the left to on the right, to make a makeshift table.
But what really caught his attention was the corpses strewn about, more like skeletons really, there were maybe half a dozen in total and each one was dressed in a military uniform with the Japanese flag embroidered on the shoulders, The skeletons were broken up with pieces of uniforms hanging on the bones. The military fatigues were gray and black with the digital camouflage pattern. Minato looked around the room before walking towards the nearest skeleton and bent down to inspect it.
There were several tears and rips in the uniform that looked to be made by whatever killed the owner of the uniform. The bones of the skeleton looked to be cracked in half and there were teeth marks on the bones that suggested whatever killed him began to eat him either while he was alive or dead. Minato's best guess was that some thing had came through the door he came in from and killed these men and then ate them.
Luckily the dead soldiers holsters, weapons, and ammo pouches were intact, something Minato planned to take advantage of. Before he began to scavenge off of the dead skeletons he searched them for dog tags and if he found them he took them. Once he was done searching the corpses Minato set the gathered objects on the makeshift table and evaluated his findings. He had found about two unhurt weapon holsters, a SCK/Minebea 9mm Pistol with three mags, three type 67 fragmentation grenades, surprisingly there were also five M18 claymores, two M18 smoke grenades, a MP5 sub machine gun with about a clip and a half of ammunition, a M1014 shotgun with a fold-able stock and about twenty rounds on a shell belt, four hissatsu knives that the Japanese Military were fond of, and finally a M4 carbine with three clips of 5.56×45mm ammunition.
Overall Minato felt overwhelmingly happy with the find and he hadn't even opened the crates yet. Minato set his pistol on the table with the other weapons along with his rifle. Picking up the pistol Minato opened the cylinder and emptied the shells into his gloved hand to observe how much he had left. In total he had spent five of the six rounds. Minato put the remaining pistol round in the cylinder and put the empty casings into a pocket. Digging around in his numerous pockets Minato pulled out the contents and revealed it to be a handful of 44 caliber shells. Minato filled up the rest of the cylinders slots before setting the cylinder back into place.
Minato flicked the light off on his pistol and holstered it, then he reached to his belt and pulled two flares off of it. Activating the red torches Minato tossed them about the room and removed his pack from his back and set it on the table. Minato stored the pistol in the bottom of the pack when he was sure it was empty, he set the two pistol holsters he found on top of the pistol. Reaching into a different pouch on his right leg Minato withdrew a roll of gray colored cloth and began wrapping the clips of ammunition up in the cloth so they wouldn't rattle when he moved.
Minato took the MP5 sub machine gun and set it on the side of his pack so that it was within reach if he needed a quick weapon. Minato did the same to the shotgun except he folded the stock up so it was compact enough to easily move with, the shells for the gun were set across Minato's chest by the shell belt. Minato took the carbines ammunition and set it in his military jackets pockets, the carbine was set between his back and his pack since he really didn't have any room to carry many more weapons. The grenades were set carefully wrapped up in gray cloth inside his trench coats inner pockets. The claymores joined the spare ammunition in his pack along with the knives.
Once he was done packing Minato noticed his flares were about to start dying so he popped the cap of another flare and tossed it in the room. Minato searched the boxes that were strewn about and found them to be loaded with explosives of all kinds along with ammo. Minato couldn't carry all of it so he instead deigned to remember the location of the cache of weapons and other assorted goodies. Minato picked up his Kar98 and strapped it to his chest since there was no room on his back and carefully began to make his assent up the ladder to the manhole cover.
It took a little effort but Minato managed to move the metal covering and poked his head out to look for any Sekirei or other dangerous things and once he was certain there was nothing he climbed from the sewers. Once out of the manhole Minato slid the cover back into place and once it was secure he glanced about to ascertain his location. He was at a fork in the road with two roads in front and one in the back, the buildings were along the lines of business fronts and less like residential buildings.
He looked for a street sign and once he found the name, which was Kanmon-odori, Minato pulled out a map of Tokyo and searched for the location, when he found it he marked it on the map with a small red pencil. He also looked to see how far he was from the new jungle and nearly groaned when he realized he still had a rather long walk ahead of him.
Unslinging his rifle from across his chest Minato stood up and started to walk towards the direction of the gardens. Instead of taking the main roads Minato chose to take the back alleys, side streets, and through the houses to get to his destination. He was three hours into his walk when he noticed the sky begin to darken signaling the time to hide. At that moment he found himself in the middle of a park, the trees were bare of their leaves and shadows seemed to dance about.
Minato looked to his left and recognized that he was near a safe house and decide to make his way there, the other option was to stay out fight off hordes of things and most likely become a midnight snack to a monster. He jogged lightly to the buildings until he reached a clearing where he found a rather odd sight.
There was a woman sitting on the ground, knees pulled to her chest and arms wrapped around her knees. She had short, light brown hair, her clothes were made up of a white short sleeved shirt and white pants. Both were torn in places and stained with blood, dirt, mud, and grime. He face was covered by her knees so he couldn't get that good of a look at her.
Minato was curious and wary of her, he though he was alone in the city, yet here stood someone or sat...whatever. She could've been a Sekirei, but they were usually so obvious, flaunting their abilities or their weapons, their clothes were always nice, clean, and odd. So Minato carefully decided on his course of action and slowly moved towards the woman, no sound came from his movements and he only stopped when he was directly in front of her.
Slowly and still without a sound he set the rifles butt against his shoulder and pointed the barrel at her head. When he was comfortable he flipped the safety off and readied to shoot if she was hostile. When the click of the safety sounded the woman stiffened and slowly looked up with a blank depressed look, and half lidded sleepy like eyes. Minato stiffened when he saw her forehead, a tattoo of the Sekirei crest on her forehead in crimson colored ink and what that meant was a mystery for Minato.
It could mean she was an outcast from the other Sekirei, for what he couldn't tell. She could've been an escaped human, did that mean that the Sekirei branded humans they captured with the tattoo. There were a plethora of ideas of what the symbol meant yet Minato couldn't decide which one was the right one. The look in her eyes set him more off guard, the dead look reminded him of the people he had seen who had lost everything to them and then they just decided to curl up in a corner and die.
The woman looked at Minato while he studied her and was quite stunned by his appearance. She had never seen someone dressed like this and with the layers of clothing on them she couldn't tell if they were man or woman. Though the weapon in their hands almost made her speak up, almost being key word. She considered stopping this person but she stopped herself. She was broken they said, worthless, a disappointment, this person would most likely bring her to their master or kill her, maybe even ridicule her.
"Who are you, and what are you doing here?" The person asked in a tone that displayed their lack of tolerance for any wrong answers from her. "Ah... I am...broken...disappointment, embarrassment. I came here to die." She spoke in a slow tone and Minato just stared at her behind his mask. "Why?" He asked her in a softer voice. "Ah... I was left to die." She stated to him and Minato couldn't decide how to respond.
"Who left you to die, did the Sekirei do this to you? Are you an escapee from the Sekirei?" He finally decided on a response and the woman spoke up again in her slow tone. "Ah... yes the Sekirei left me to die. I did run away." She spoke with her customary pause, and with that Minato lowered his rifles barrel slightly. Then a howl cut through the air and Minato stilled and looked about before returning his attention to the woman before him.
"Look, I don't know what happened to you, or how fucked up you are, but if we don't get moving now we are both going to die here. Do you understand?" Minato asked and the woman nodded her head slowly. "Ah...yes." She seemed to have that pause as a verbal tick of some sort Minato decided. "Then let's move, if we don't get to my safe house soon we'll both be a midnight snack to something." He said while holding out his left hand.
The woman looked at the offered hand in confusion and spoke again. "But...I am broken...useless?" She spoke questioningly and Minato sighed behind his mask. "Look, normally I'd never take a chance like this. But if you know how to get into the Sekirei city then you have more knowledge on their capabilities, defenses, habits, and resources than I do. And right now I need all the information I can get, so get up and let's move."
The woman glanced at the hand and gently lifted up her own and latched on and Minato pulled her up to her feet without much trouble. "Good now we need to move, keep quiet, no stopping unless we get into a fight and avoid being spotted. Just follow my lead." Minato spoke before letting go of her hand and then walking towards the buildings again.
The woman obediently followed along without a sound and mimicked him almost precisely. "By the way," Minato spoke as they reached the edge of the park and the street. He spotted the building they needed to get to across the street. "I never did get your name." He continued as he crossed the street the woman following without much of a sound.
They reached the two story apartment building and entered before shutting the door again. "Ah...my name is Akitsu." The now named Akitsu spoke and she followed Minato down the stairs of the building and to the basement where she saw Minato open a large steel door and motioned for her to follow him as he entered.
She entered and Minato flipped the lights on before shutting the door and barricading it with the steel bars and bolts. Akitsu studied the room and saw that there was a bathroom in the back that was separated from the rest of the room by a wall of plywood and a makeshift wooden door that was open. There was a cot in the back left corner of the room, a pile of plastic containers in the right corner and a full body length mirror leaning on the left wall.
Minato passed by Akitsu and set his rifle against the cement wall near the cot, and set his pack on the cot along with all the guns, explosives, knives, and his holsters. He set his trench coat on the ground along with his military jacket. He then removed his scarf and finally his gas mask revealing his face to her for the first time. "Well, I guess it's my turn for introductions." He spoke catching Akitsu's attention.
Akitsu blushed when she caught sight of his face. She found that his hair and eye colors suited each other and the scar that went across his left cheek seemed to give him the experienced fighter look and the without the jacket and the coat she could see that his body was muscled and was like a swimmers or an athletes body, made for running, stamina, and endurance.
"My name is Sahashi Minato and I welcome you to my humble abode." He said while giving a gentlemanly bow that was sarcastic and fake as all hell. He rose and looked her in the eye. "Now that those are over with perhaps you'd like to tell me why you have a Sekirei crest tattooed on your forehead?"
Hi there sorry about the long wait I just couldn't figure out what to write fro this story but here it is. Good, bad give me a review and tell me what I could do to make this story better. Thanks for reading, Ja ne!
