Chapter 5 – The Spark
A soft sobbing brought Minato out of a restless sleep where he then found himself in total darkness, where no ray of light could reach. The near total sensory deprivation disoriented him, and the pounding headache he was feeling wasn't making things easier for him. Suddenly, a small voice echoed through the black.
"Help me..."
Someone was calling him, a young female voice full of the same fear and trepidation thudding in his own breast.
"Onii-chan..."
"Who's there?" he replied, trying to make his way towards the voice.
He couldn't see a thing, and it felt like he was wading through a thick pool of inky darkness.
"Onii-chan, where are you...?"
He was suddenly reminded of his younger sister, of the time when she was lost in the forest near their home in the countryside. The look of distress and terror on her tear-stained face when he finally found her was something he could still see fresh in his mind. Minato had promised himself he would do everything in his power to never let her experience anything like that ever again, so to find someone in a similar situation galvanized his response. He was certain this girl was just as frightened as Yukari was.
"Just wait right there! I'm coming!"
Either by coincidence or finally stumbling on the correct path, he slowly began to make out more detail as the darkness began to fade. Replaced by a steadily growing verdant glow, he blindly groped his way towards the light. As if passing out of a cave, he found himself suddenly standing in the middle of a dense forest.
"Are you still there? I'm on my way, I'll be there soon!"
Focusing his entire being on listening for any sign of her, he pushed his way through the dense foliage with great difficulty. He locked onto the sound of her sniffles and began to pick up speed, running as fast as he could in her direction. Finally bursting into a small clearing, he saw the small figure of a young girl clad in a simple white dress sitting on the root of an enormous tree. It towered over her but its branches hung low, almost protectively sheltering her under its leafy boughs.
"Were you the one calling for me?" Minato asked softly as he slowly walked towards her. He didn't want to startle her and make her even more upset.
The girl looked up at him, and as her eyes met his, she broke out into a watery smile full of relief.
"Onii-chan, you're here." She said through her tears.
Minato smiled reassuringly and walked closer to her.
"Everything will be okay now." He sat down by her side and held her hand comfortingly. "So how come you keep calling me your Onii-chan? I'm afraid I don't remember meeting you before."
"Onii-chan is silly." She giggled, wiping her eyes cutely with her unoccupied hand. "Onii-chan is Kuu's Onii-chan, duh."
He couldn't help but smile wryly in response. Her name was Kuu, huh? It didn't ring any bells in his mind, but he let the matter slide for now.
"I suppose that's fair enough. How did you end up here all by yourself?"
A flicker of fear passed through the girl's face as the smile fell off her lips.
"A mean lady attacked Kuu... Hurt Ta-chan really bad..." She said, tears beginning to well up at her eyes again. "Ta-chan told Kuu to run... Kuu was so scared..."
A sudden rumbling deep within the earth violently shook the ground beneath their feet, and the girl screamed in terror. As if echoing her emotional state, the surrounding forest burst into activity. The verdant canopy, once a warm and vibrant color, grew dark and ominous. Gnarled branches curled protectively around the girl as the thick roots of the towering tree burst up from the earth beneath their feet. They knocked Minato away with a whiplike appendage, sending him flying with the air beat out of his chest.
"Onii-chan, help!" she screamed.
Minato gasped for breath, but her terrified scream filled him with reckless urgency. He exploded into motion, scrabbling on the ground and taking off into a desperate run to save the girl from the clinging roots, but to no avail. The harder he tried to run, the thicker of a strange miasma seemed to swirl around him and restrict his movements. He could feel himself sinking into the ground as if struggling against quicksand. Thick vines ensnared his body, tugging him down and away from her. Slowly, the roots formed a circular cage around her and began to retreat into the brush. She screamed frantically, hysteria in her voice.
"ONII-CHAN!"
He threw out his arm in a last-ditch effort to reach her, his head barely above ground level at this point. His fingertips extended as far as they could but they could only just graze the tips of her outstretched hand through the cage.
"Kuu!"
Darkness swallowed him up as he sank into the ground completely, stifling his senses once again.
...
Minato jolted awake with a feeling of intense pressure on his chest and a slight numbness in his arms.
"Who are you talking to...?" A voice asked sleepily.
"Ah... Go back to sleep, Minato-sama..."
He winced, head still throbbing in pain. Shaking his head a bit to clear the fog of sleep from his brain, he found himself tangled in a mess of bare arms and long legs. Apparently sometime in the night, his two Sekirei had gotten into bed with him and made themselves at home.
But now that he thought about it, when exactly did he get home? The last thing he remembered was meeting Kagari and heading into the club. Everything else was a hazy fog in his head. He had the vaguest feeling that he should be more concerned about the events of the night before, but the warmth of his Sekirei and their comforting presence was soothing his headache and driving those worries away.
Squirming a bit to make himself a little bit more comfortable, he felt the coolness of the sheets on his mostly naked body and froze in mild panic. It finally registered in his mind that he (and his Sekirei) were clad in nothing but underwear underneath the sheets. He had no idea how they had managed to strip him, but they did. And they apparently took the opportunity to strip themselves while they were at it. Their smooth expanses of flesh were utterly tantalizing, driving him crazy with wild desire.
"Mmmnhnnng... Minato... It's too early in the morning for nookie, stop poking my leg..." Karasuba mumbled, pressing her body deeper into his and snapping him out of his lustful haze.
Minato could only blush profusely and shut his eyes tight in an attempt to take his mind off of the sight and feel of the very... female forms now unquestionably seared into his memories. He could only consider himself extremely lucky that both of his Sekirei were too sleepy to realize they were clinging to or resting on both of his arms, keeping them well away from their bodies...
"Ah, Minato-sama... Poke me too..."
He suppressed the urge to groan aloud, hoping only to spontaneously sublimate into the atmosphere out of embarrassment.
If there was one thing that Akitsu realized she couldn't learn by reading the appropriate book or watching the instructional video, it was cooking. No matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't figure it out. Something always managed to go wrong. If it wasn't the temperature of the stove, it was the amount of seasoning, or the amount of time she was supposed to let something simmer, or the number of times she needed to stir something counterclockwise before adding in the vegetables. No matter how many cookbooks she read or online videos she referenced, nothing she seemed to try cooking ever came out properly.
"Really, Akitsu," Minato-sama would say. "You know it's perfectly fine that you can't make curry. I'm okay with making food myself."
And every time, she would frown to herself and nod with a bit of frustration as she scrubbed the latest failure off the pots and pans.
"I don't see why you keep trying, Akitsu. Everyone's got something they're bad at, and yours is cooking." Karasuba chimed in once in an effort to console her in her own Karasuba-ish way after a particularly spectacular kitchen disaster. Minato-sama had to scrub the walls for hours, and there was a faint smell of something permeating the air for almost a week afterwards.
No. 04 could never understand her feelings, she preferred to laze about instead of chipping in around the household to help Minato-sama. Apparently the Black Sekirei had tried cooking once herself but had quit after the one attempt. Neither she nor their Ashikabi would speak a word about why, always answering evasively when questioned, but the thousand-yard stare that got into Minato-sama's eyes whenever she would attempt to ask was enough to tell the tale. At least she, or rather the books, thought so.
It was partially Karasuba's inability to cook that motivated her own desire to help cook the meals for the household. After all, if one of the Sekirei duo were slacking, it was only natural for the other to carry the weight, right? However, more than anything, she wanted to see the look of pride and joy on her Ashikabi's face when he tried her home cooking. It would give her more purpose, more value to him. Show him she was worth bringing in.
Still, hard effort was no substitute for good results. Minato-sama never turned her away when she decided to try a new recipe or method she was convinced would turn her cooking fortunes around, for which she was simultaneously eternally grateful for and terrified of. No one had infinite patience, and his was certain to run out eventually. And where would she be then if she couldn't prove herself to him before that?
A voice startled her out of her reverie, accompanied by a gentle squeeze of her hand.
"Akitsu, you okay? You've been spacing out for a while."
"Ah... It was nothing."
Now wasn't the time to be lost in thought though. With an immense force of will born from her icy stoicism, she wrenched her thoughts out of their self-destructive spiral and forcibly smothered them down. For now.
"Well, if you're sure, we should hustle and catch up to Karasuba. She said she'd meet us at the department store after she takes care of some personal errands."
After one of her bolder cooking attempts, Akitsu had ruined their pot completely beyond any hope of salvage. There was no choice but to go buy a new one, much to Karasuba's amusement. The Ice Sekirei heaved a weary sigh at the memory of it all.
As if sensing her thoughts through the bond, Minato-sama squeezed her hand again and smiled reassuringly at her.
"Shall we get going?"
Akitsu blushed slightly and simply nodded her head in assent. Despite her near constant stream of self-doubt, it was these moments of kindness where her Minato-sama lifted her out of the dark like he did that fateful night.
Once they had selected and paid for a replacement pot, the group rendezvoused at the big square nearby before deciding to just head home. They walked in comfortable silence, having at this point grown well-accustomed to each other. Akitsu still held her Minato-sama's hand as Karasuba hovered just ahead of them, close enough for the casual observer to put her within the same group as the other two without being overly close by.
She could never really understand Karasuba's odd mood swings regarding Minato-sama's affection. There were days where she would be all over him and then have days where she would just as readily shrug off his attempts at more public displays like hand-holding. Akitsu herself took every opportunity she had to maintain skin contact with their Ashikabi if not simple close proximity. The Ice Sekirei could only shrug mentally at her sister bonded's peculiarities.
A sudden commotion behind them had the entire sidewalk full of pedestrians turn their heads to gawk at the noise, only to begin fleeing in terror. Loud cracks filled the air along with the distinct smell of ozone. The crowd surged around them in panic even as Minato-sama attempted to pull his Sekirei closer to him in an protective embrace.
"What's going on?" He shouted, trying to get the attention of anyone willing to talk.
"Sekirei fight! You'd better get outta here too, kid!" A man yelled over his shoulder as he ran past.
"Sekirei fight, huh?" Karasuba grinned eagerly, a predatory glint in her eye. "I would be lying if I said I wasn't interested."
Minato-sama looked a little apprehensive at her enthusiasm, no doubt remembering the last Sekirei fight she was in.
"Are you sure we should get involved?" He winced as a particularly loud bang sounded through the air, the conflict seeming to inch closer to them even as they spoke.
"Don't be such a stickler, Minato! These things are open-invite—"
"LOOK OUT BELOW!"
Akitsu and Karasuba's eyes narrowed suddenly, grabbing Minato-sama between them and leaping out of the way just a massive blur of motion crashed into the pavement where they had been standing. A cloud of dust flew into the air, punctuated by the screams of the bystanders inadvertently caught in the conflict.
"I hope this whole 'narrowly avoiding attacks from random Sekirei falling from the sky' doesn't become a thing..." Karasuba deadpanned as she massaged her temples.
"Ah, it is rather inconvenient."
Minato-sama still looked shocked that someone had fallen from the sky more than anything. Akitsu patted him on the back in what she hoped was the comforting manner she had seen in her dramas.
"Ow..." A voice said as the dust settled. Inside of the crater formed by her crash landing, a young brown-haired girl gingerly patted herself down.
She was clad in a modified miko outfit with bright red sparring gloves on each hand. Her hair was cropped on the short side. However, the most distinctive, or rather the most eye-catching, part of her was her massive bust. Akitsu had to admit it was fairly impressive, and, as she discreetly cupped her own for a rough comparison, she felt a little lacking. Maybe they were even bigger than her own combined with Karasuba's...
Turning to look at her sister-bonded for confirmation of her theory, she noticed that the Black Sekirei was tensed up with her teeth gritted and her grip white-knuckled on the hilt of her prized nodachi, possibly as soon as the dust settled. Akitsu had never seen Karasuba this much on edge before, not even when she dismantled Amebane.
Minato-sama must have picked up on his Sekirei's mood, placing a tentative hand on her shoulder in a calming touch.
"Karasuba, is everything alright?" He asked curiously.
Either Karasuba was too engrossed in whatever mood had taken her or she was flat out ignoring him, but she didn't seem to even register their Ashikabi's presence let alone touch or words.
"Musubi..." She growled lowly, just enough under her breath that only Akitsu's sharper hearing could pick up.
The pseudo-miko must have recognized the No. 04 Sekirei as well, brightening up immensely and running over with a broad smile, her bosom heaving up and down with each step. Karasuba visibly forced herself to calm down a bit, relaxing some of the tension in her shoulders and giving a rather strained "smile" that ended up looking like equal parts grimace and snarl.
"Karasuba-sama~!" The bubbly Sekirei gushed, bowing deeply in greeting. "It's been so long, Musubi is so happy to see you!"
"Yes, I can see that," she said, each word dryer than sand as if the very act of speaking was a chore.
"And who are these people, Karasuba-sama?" Musubi tittered, exaggeratedly peeking around Karasuba to get a better look at the bewildered Akitsu and Minato-sama. "Are they your new friends?"
Karasuba seemed a little taken aback at the sudden question.
"I suppose you could say that." She eventually replied. "The quiet frosty one is Akitsu and the slightly flaky-looking plain one is Minato," she said as she gestured to each person in turn.
Akitsu didn't know whether to be offended or not at being referred to as "the quiet frosty one," but chose to hold her tongue regardless. She hoped Karasuba would explain this all soon because none of the research material she had watched or read could have possibly prepared her for dealing with someone of such a textbook "genki" disposition. Minato-sama on the other hand just looked a little miffed to be referred to as "slightly flaky" and "plain."
"Ooh, I'm number 88 Musubi and a Fist Type! Pleased to meet you!" She gushed, practically vibrating with her unused energy as she vigorously shook each person's hand.
Karasuba's hand clenched even tighter at the sight of it and a small vein throbbed on the side of her neck, only to amplify as Musubi gripped Minato-sama's hand in both of her red-gloved ones.
"Musubi, you know you're not supposed to announce that kind of thing to every person you meet, right? Even if that madman has announced the Plan to the world, there is such a thing as 'tactical denial of information' you know..."
Musubi looked comically abashed, putting a fist to her head as she stuck the tip of her tongue out of the corner of her mouth and closed one eye. Akitsu hadn't thought it was even possible to make such a face in real life.
"Oops, I forget sometimes." She giggled. "But it's okay cause we're all Sekirei here! Or your Ashikabi at least~!"
"How did you know Minato was my Ashikabi?" Karasuba questioned in surprise. "I never said anything about it."
"Well, Musubi can tell really easily!" She held up a pinky and winked playfully. "Musubi can see the red string of fate attached between you two, and Akitsu-chan too! It's very strong and very bright, Musubi is jealous of your bonds, Karasuba-sama!"
Before the No. 04 could retort, a pair of sharp voices yelled out from a nearby rooftop.
"FOUND YOU NOW, YOU LITTLE THIEF!"
"Onee-sama, please don't yell in my ear."
"Sorry, sorry. BUT THE CHASE ENDS HERE!"
Akitsu turned toward the source of the voices to see two girls clad in what looked like matching pink and purple leather S&M outfits standing on the roof. They clasped their hands together, and sparks began to fly around them.
"Eat this! Lightning Crash!"
The smell of ozone filled the air as a massive thunderbolt flew from their extended hands towards the lot of them, all of whom managed to leap out of the way just before impact. Akitsu and Karasuba refused to be part of the crossfire, grabbing Minato-sama and jumping straight towards the source. The other Sekirei had other plans, however.
"Bye bye, Karasuba-sama~!" The genki miko yelled as she jumped in place and waved from her spot on an adjacent building. "Musubi's gotta run! Next time we meet, we should spar again!"
Karasuba said nothing in reply, even as Musubi quickly made herself scarce. Instead, she only kicked the ledge of the rooftop, sending chunks of rubble flying into the streets below.
Behind them, a noise that sounded oddly like a half-strangled cat trying to clear its throat drew their attention before either Akitsu or Minato-sama could react to Karasuba's strange behavior.
"S-so! You three must be accomplices of that damned thief!" The slightly shorter of the otherwise identical twins, clad in purple, said with a bit of a hitch in her voice. "Tell us where she's heading, if you know what's good for you, that is!"
"O-onee-sama, I t-think you should c-calm down..." The slightly taller of the twins, this one clad in pink, nervously nudged her older sister. She looked pale as a sheet and trembled where she stood.
A gradual feeling of ominous foreboding began to bubble in the pit of Akitsu's stomach. Mounting pressure nearly staggered her with its weight as someone's bloodlust began to pour out. She glanced around wildly and found the source to be Karasuba standing rigidly, back turned.
"You two are the ones who slung those thunderbolts around the city and interrupted my da— outing with my Ashikabi?"
A chill ran down everyone's spine at the sound of Karasuba's eerily calm voice.
"Erm," the purple twin said in a small voice, seemingly oblivious to the full weight of Karasuba's attention but just aware enough to know she was in deep trouble. "Well, yes and no, it's actually a funny story..."
"And now you're making demands? Of me?"
The Black Sekirei turned to face them fully, but the most terrifying thing about her wasn't the tone of her voice or the immense pressure rolling off her in waves. It was the look on her face. It wasn't a mask of rage like Akitsu might have expected or even a blank stare of surgical coldness. No, it was a slit-eyed caricature of a smile that looked entirely out of place on her.
"W-W-WE'RE VERY SORRY, KARASUBA-SAMA!"The taller twin all but screamed, grabbing her sister by the back of the head and forcing her into the same perfectly 90° angle bow she was currently in. "I-IT WON'T HAPPEN AGAIN!"
"You mean that's THE Karasuba?" The purple one whispered in shock before her twin stomped on her foot to silence her.
"N-now if you'll please excuse us, we REALLY must be going now..." The pink one laughed nervously, all the mirth in her voice replaced entirely by a distinct note of fear.
Bowing low once again, the twins beat a hasty retreat so fast Akitsu could have sworn she saw an afterimage of the grimace of terror on their faces as they turned to run.
An awkward silence descended upon the rooftop until Minato-sama plucked up enough courage to gingerly hug Karasuba by the waist.
"Um, are you alright?" He said in a tiny voice.
Akitsu watched as the No. 04 Sekirei exhaled, a long expulsion of the tension and unknown feelings running through her mind. She turned a bit and put an arm around their Ashikabi, running a hand through his hair.
"Yeah," she said finally. "Let's get out of here, I'm starving."
He smiled and deepened the embrace before yelping. Karasuba hefted him in a fireman's carry like a sack of potatoes and smirked at Akitsu.
"Let's take a shortcut today."
The Ice Sekirei couldn't help but smile at the sight of it all.
"Ah. Okay, Karasuba."
"Wait," Minato-sama chimed in suddenly from over Karasuba's shoulder. "Where's the pot?"
Akitsu's eyes immediately snapped to the bag in her hand she had been carrying this entire time. Or at least she thought she had been carrying. With a sense of growing embarrassment and trepidation, she lifted the bag to eye level only to discover a hole torn straight through the bottom. Mentally backtracking through the events that had just transpired, she felt the pit of her stomach drop as her gaze alighted upon the still smoking crater the lightning twins had made.
She swiftly jumped down without a word, Karasuba following with Minato-sama yelping on her shoulder. As if it was the result of some cosmic prank played specifically on her, the pot laid in the middle of the crater, half-melted and totally charred from the blast.
"Ah..." She really had no words for her complete failure.
Karasuba hopped down into the crater and nudged the corpse of their formerly-new pot with her boot clad toe.
"Yeah, this one's totally wrecked."
Akitsu kept her face a carefully sculpted mask of calm to conceal the panic welling up in her breast. Her stomach felt full of lead and she felt a wave of nausea threaten to spill out of her throat. She failed to keep the pot safe like Minato-sama asked her to, she failed what should have been an easy task, she failed his expectations, she failed, she FAILED, she—
"Oh well," Minato-sama said as he rubbed the top of her head. "Let's go back and get another before the stores close."
"But...!"
He shrugged and smiled casually.
"It's just a pot. Besides, it was an accident, right?"
The No. 07 Sekirei nodded hesitantly, uneasily, as she trailed behind him. She felt like she was being let off the hook too easily. Surely Minato-sama was furious at her for wasting his time and money because of her incompetence? She tried to dig through their bond for any sign of his displeasure to no avail. What if he was just concealing it from her, waiting for the privacy of their home to punish her? All of the social interaction models she had studied predicted such an outcome, there was no way it wasn't happening. A fresh wave of nausea threatened to spill up out of her throat at the thought of it.
Suddenly, she felt Karasuba sidle up to her and nudge her in the ribs with an elbow.
"Relax, I can feel your emotions bleeding through the bond." She said softly. "I've blocked off our Ashikabi for now while you calm down."
She turned to face her senior, a slight wild-eyed panic leaking out from behind her impassive mask.
"Ah, I..."
"It's fine, just focus on clearing your mind if I'm right and you don't want Minato catching on."
"Why are you...?"
It was entirely uncharacteristic of her to be so... empathetic, especially around her. Akitsu had assumed that Karasuba never particularly liked her, merely tolerated her for Minato-sama's sake.
"Because," Karasuba interrupted. "Minato likes you... And because I've grown fond of you. You're a decent sparring partner and I don't want it affecting him... Or your performance."
The Black Sekirei sped up, throwing their Ashikabi into a headlock and bodily dragging him along despite his muffled protests. Akitsu figured she was doing her best to distract Minato-sama from using the bond to tap into her emotions. The last thing she wanted was for him to find out how she was feeling at the moment and burden himself with her problems. It was bad enough that she had screwed up, there was no need to drag anyone else down with her.
She walked in silence, only the jingling of her chains indicating her presence.
Karasuba had already come to terms with the fact that she would have to run into Musubi eventually if she was to continue participating in the Sekirei Plan, but to actually come face to face with her was an entirely different story altogether.
She had anticipated their first meeting outside of MBI headquarters to be both extremely trying on her nerves and extremely awkward at best, which had turned out to be completely true and then some. Honestly speaking, she had hoped time and distance would give the both of them a more grounded maturity to make the No. 88 more bearable. "Out of sight out of mind," as the human expression went, but it seemed like "Absence makes the heart grow fonder" was the more appropriate phrase to use.
Apparently, she had always been a very... bubbly kind of girl and the aftermath of that day hadn'tdone anything to change that. Karasuba couldn't really know for sure why, but Musubi quickly began to bear a striking resemblance to her as she grew up, practically looking like sisters as time went by. That made the process of coming to terms with it all infinitely worse. It filled her with a near intolerable rage to see Musubi's brash, loud, and bumbling idiocy every day – that fool was everything she wasn't and it made the Karasuba's blood boil to have to stand by and watch as she wore her face and defile her legacy. To see that girl look up at her with those same damn eyes, filled with the love and admiration she had always wanted from hers.
It was a cruel mockery of fate that, coupled with the dying whisper that haunted her every other waking moment, nearly drove Karasuba mad.
A sudden honking from a car a few streets over from theirs brought her out of her thoughts. Nothing else but the cold winter night kept her company, the bite of the frosty air nipping at her cheeks as she sat on the rooftop of their home to clear her head after dinner. However, she wasn't so engrossed as to not notice Akitsu's soft arrival on the rooftop beside her. The younger Ice Sekirei was admittedly getting better and better the more she sparred with her, but it was a thousand years too early to even think about getting the drop on the Black Sekirei.
"Ah, Karasuba. Are you ready to go?" she asked in that characteristically even tone of hers.
"Yeah. Did you tell Minato where we were going?"
"Only that you and I were going out for a walk," she replied. "Minato-sama wanted me to tell you how happy he was that we were getting along now."
Karasuba resisted the urge to sigh and pinch the bridge of her nose. Minato was really sappy and embarrassing like that, she could practically hear his voice gushing about it as Akitsu spoke. She didn't really see why it was cause for celebration. Akitsu had proven herself loyal and a worthy Sekirei for him, so their initial squabble was ancient history as far as she was concerned.
All she wanted to do was take a walk to clear her head. She only invited Akitsu because it seemed like the Ice Sekirei could use a stroll herself after what happened earlier.
"Alright, let's go."
The two of them gracefully hopped off the roof and began their stroll through the neighborhood in a random direction. Neither of them were particularly adventurous, so they had never really saw fit to explore outside of the path Minato led them to go to the shopping district or the park before now. Still, the novelty of the walk quickly wore off as they went through the streets. Most of the homes looked identical to each other, and the few that deviated from the norm were blocked off by high gates and fences. If Karasuba had been an architectural type, she might have gotten something more meaningful out of it all, but her interests were more visceral than that.
An awkward silence gradually enfolded the two Sekirei. Without Minato around, they quickly realized they knew very little about each other's personal interests or hobbies. Small talk wasn't much of an option either — Karasuba had never been one to mince words, and the few times that Akitsu tried seemed like she was pulling one-liners out from a list she had written down from slice-of-life dramas and anime. A part of her wanted to ask about what had happened earlier with Akitsu and her near-panic, but Karasuba felt hesitant to broach the subject. She was definitely no therapist, nor had she experience with that kind of thing before. It would probably do more harm than good. Instead, she would give her space and let her sort things out on her own.
"Ah, good deal." Akitsu spoke up out of nowhere.
"Eh?"
The Ice Sekirei had paused a little ways behind her to take a closer look at a medium-sized flyer posted on the fence of a rather large property. If the fence alone was anything to go by, the grounds must have been rather extensive, even by the neighborhood's standards. Karasuba walked over to inspect the flyer herself, her own curiosity piqued.
"Izumo Inn," she read aloud. "Now renting rooms for boarders, long-term stay welcome. ¥50000 per month, meals and utilities included, inquire inside..."
Huh. That was a pretty good deal, all things considered. She had to smile wryly though. Minato must be rubbing off on them more than any of them expected. He could never resist a good bargain. Somehow, they must have been subconsciously trained to look for savings like he did.
"Can I help you?" A frosty voice not at all out of place in the winter air cut in.
Turning to face the source, Karasuba met eyes with a young woman, seemingly no older than herself, with long purple hair in a hime cut. She wore the traditional attire of a miko with a purple hakama, a white haori with a sash-like belt, wooden sandals and a white ribbon to partially hold her hair in place. Her deep brown eyes, almost red in shade, bore into her own grey with a steely glint. Gripped in her hand was a blade Karasuba knew all too well. The corner of the No. 04's lips twitched at the sight of her old comrade.
"Miya, what a pleasant surprise," she said with a broad smile that felt more like a lioness baring her fangs than a true greeting.
"Karasuba," the purple-haired woman grit out. "I can't exactly say the same for you."
The Black Sekirei laughed, sounding more of a sharp barking than anything, honestly amused by the whole thing. She knew "Izumo Inn" sounded familiar somehow but couldn't quite remember why until now. It had been years since she last laid eyes on the former First Generation Disciplinary Squad Leader, but she wasn't at all surprised to see she hadn't changed a bit.
"I see the years haven't done anything to dull that sharp tongue of yours, Miya."
"What do you want, Karasuba? You'd better have a good reason for showing up on my doorstep unannounced and unwanted, or you'll see if the years have done anything to dull my blade instead."
Karasuba's grin turned positively feral as her immense killing intent flared in response to Miya's implied threat. If it was a fight she wanted, it was a fight she was going to get. Consequences be damned.
"In all honesty, I was just taking a stroll through the neighborhood with my friend here," Karasuba grinned with a flourish of her hand towards Akitsu, who looked pale as a ghost watching the exchange. "I live right down the street, with no idea we were practically neighbors."
She glanced over at the large tree that towered over the fence, sensing a familiar Sekirei eavesdropping nearby.
"You should have said something when you dropped by that night, Homura."
A startled yelp and a crashing of branches announced his presence as the Flame Sekirei came tumbling down from his perch in the branches. With an unnatural quickness, he scurried over but hung back a little ways behind Miya.
"H-Hey, Karasuba. Fancy seeing you here, eh?" Homura chuckled nervously, no humor at all in his terrified voice.
A sharp glance like a whipcrack from Miya stifled his tittering and Karasuba had to resist a snort of her own. It didn't seem like she was in the mood to play around. A pity.
"As fun as this little get-together has been, we really should get going. Wouldn't want our Ashikabi to get worried, right Akitsu?"
The Ice Sekirei could only nod rapidly in reply, her body language practically screaming the words she dared not utter.
"You have an Ashikabi?" Miya scoffed dismissively. "Who's the poor wretch you threatened into winging you, because there's obviously no one stupid enough to willingly pick you of all Sekirei."
Karasuba's smile slipped off her face and crashed into the ground so fast you could have heard it thud onto the pavement. No one talked about her Ashikabi like that, especially not Miya. She strode up right to the purple-haired Sekirei's face and flared her killing intent, barely registering Homura clutching at his chest and collapsing to his knees from the corner of her eye. Akitsu wobbled on her feet, still managing to stand for now.
"Good girl," she thought privately.
"You know nothing about my Ashikabi, Miya." She hissed venomously into the purple-haired woman's stony face. Her lips slowly twisted into a cruel sneer. "But I suppose I can't fault you for that, can I? You don't know a damn thing about even having an Ashikabi in the first place."
Miya's composure snapped and she exploded with rage, the pressure rolling off her in waves. Both of her hands tightly gripped her blade, mere moments away from unsheathing it. Homura and Akitsu had collapsed entirely at this point, laid out flat on the floor under the combined weight of Karasuba's and Miya's formidable auras. But to the Black Sekirei, she could only feel her heart pound with adrenaline. Her palms itched for a fight and she had to grip her own nodachi bone-white in order to keep them from drawing her blade. As much as she would have loved to murder Miya for her insults, she knew it wasn't the appropriate time yet, for a great many of reasons. That didn't mean she would back down if the No. 01 Sekirei escalated things, though.
"You say another word... and I will cut out your tongue and feed it to you."
"M-Miya!" Homura managed to gasp out. "S-stop! You... can't act right now... it's... too soon!"
Her head snapped in his direction to level a powerful stare that might have been able to melt steel beams with its intensity. With a visible force of will, the No. 01 Sekirei reigned in her murderous intent and exhaled sharply. Only then were the two innocent bystanders able to slowly crawl to their feet and suck in the deep breaths of air that had been forced out of their lungs. Akitsu leaned heavily on Karasuba, who practically held her up with the arm she threw around her waist in support.
"Get off my property." Miya growled lowly. "If you even place one foot within the perimeter of this Izumo Inn ever again, I will kill you, Karasuba. Rules be damned."
As Minato's Sekirei walked away, the No. 04 couldn't resist sneaking in the last word.
"You can certainly try, Miya. You can certainly try."
Oh, this certainly was not good.
Suba-tan's appearance was most certainly not predicted by any of her initial calculations, but it didn't take a genius IQ to guess what would happen if she met Miya-tan this soon into The Plan.
She supposed they, "they" being all of Tokyo and possibly more depending on a number of variables, could consider themselves lucky the little confrontation had de-escalated when it had. She was still trying to salvage her instruments, most of which had been shattered under the combined pressure of Suba-tan and Miya-tan's killing intents. Luckily enough, disaster-proofing her hidey hole had proven to be a worthwhile investment as few of her more vital systems had been affected.
At least she had the benefit of her hidey hole to take cover in though. Everyone else at the Inn had to tread carefully around Miya-tan when she stormed back inside. Poor Homu-tan had been at Ground Zero when it all went down so he barely was able drag himself through the door in her wake before passing out in the hallway. And Uzu-tan unwittingly got a face full of ladle and spooky aura when she came home through the door in her usual loud manner, not aware of the foul mood in the air.
Getting back to the point, the unexpected visit threw quite the figurative wrench in her plans. It was now necessary to accelerate the timetable or risk losing the subject entirely. She didn't like it one bit, especially since she still wasn't 100% sure how the subject was going to react to her... stimuli. Her observations and variable analysis weren't yet completed to her satisfaction which meant she was flying in unknown territory, something that a woman of science like her found uncomfortable to say the least. But where would progress be without a little risk? History was written by the bold, so bold she would have to be to get what she wanted.
After all, she had plenty of... experiments earmarked for the subject pending success of the next stage of her plans. Experiments she was greatly looking forward to running.
"Just you wait, ufufufu..."
No matter how much he tried, Minato felt like he would never be able to get a good understanding of women.
He didn't know when exactly the change of heart happened, but it almost seemed like Karasuba and Akitsu finally managed to click overnight. Honestly speaking, he was ecstatic to see that the two of them were getting along after the initial period of awkwardness, but it was still a little jarring to hear things like Karasuba inviting Akitsu to go for a walk with her. Not that he was jealous or anything, he didn't really feel like walking much of anywhere after dinner that night and he didn't even stretch properly for it anyway.
No, it was just... weird, for lack of a better word. Which was why he felt more than a little blindsided by Akitsu and Karasuba's announcement a few mornings later that the two of them were going to have a "girls only day," politely requesting he leave the house.
...
"Wait, what?" He said confused, a piece of toast hanging from his mouth in shock.
"Is there a problem, Minato-sama?" Akitsu asked quickly. "Because if there is, I can—"
"That won't be necessary, Akitsu," Karasuba interrupted, absentmindedly moving her hand under his chin to shut his mouth for him. "We're big girls now, we don't need daddy hanging around to take care of us all the time."
Minato swallowed heavily at the lidded smile she threw his way, blushing bright red all the while.
"Or is the big man of the house going to sweep us up into his strong, muscular arms and tell us we can't? Is he going to bend us over his powerful knee and spank us for being so naughty?"
If he wasn't red enough already, he felt the remainder of his blood rush into his face. His face burned like it was set aflame by Karasuba's innuendo. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Akitsu abruptly stand up with a clatter of her chair and raise her hand.
"Ah! Actually, I would like that very—"
Karasuba clapped a hand over Akitsu's mouth and smothered whatever it was she was about to say. She laughed at the expression on his face.
"Don't worry, Minato. We'll just be inside the house. You go have fun in the city, it'll be fine in the daytime."
She stuffed a wad of bills into his hand with a wink.
"Don't spend it all in one place, and definitely not on any alcohol either."
...
Really, the nerve of those two! What would they even be doing anyway? From his admittedly limited experience, girls' days (or nights) usually consisted of Yukari and her friends lazing around eating ice cream and watching sappy movies together, or gossiping and painting each other's nails.
He could do that too! He didn't mean to brag or anything, but all the times Yukari forced him to do her nails for her made him get quite good at mani/pedis! He didn't really know if Karasuba or Akitsu were into that kind of thing (he couldn't picture Karasuba wielding her fearsome nodachi with sparkly nail polish on without laughing out loud), but still... He liked watching movies too, and ice cream was delicious at any time of day! He wasn't very good at gossiping admittedly, but he was a pretty good listener! It's not like he was jealous or bitter or mad at being left out, he was just saying that it didn't need to be an exclusively girls thing...
Whatever! He could have fun by himself without any of his Sekirei!
"That'll show em," he thought to himself.
Besides, it was a beautiful, if not a little nippy, winter day! The sun was shining and he had a pocket full of cash he was free to spend on whatever!
"Why does it feel like I was given a bribe by my mom to get out of her hair?"
Thrusting his hands into his pockets, he sulked his way down the street to look for a nice place to stop by and grab something to drink. Young people these liked to drink tea or coffee at cafés and take in the atmosphere, right?
Of course, he had no idea which cafés were popular or served good drinks, so he just walked into the first one he saw nearby.
"Welcome back, goshujin-sama~!"
Minato froze mid-step, hand still clutching the door handle to the café. Standing before him were a pair of twin girls, dressed in French maid outfits and curtsying deeply. He turned around in confusion, thinking he was in the way of some VIP, and hopped to the side to get out of their path.
"Umm..."
"Err, right this way, goshujin-sama~! Your usual table is this way!"
"My what?"
He had inadvertently stumbled into one of those maid cafés Yukari had gushed about so often. The decor was rather understated and simple, but the main draw was obviously the girls. He was extremely out of his element, and it didn't seem like this was the kind of crowd he was looking for either. Most of the people here were sketchy looking otaku-types, not the young people philosophizing over a nice cup of coffee he wanted.
Minato hesitantly took a seat as one of the twins, a pink-haired girl, took his order.
"What will you have today, goshujin-sama~?"
"Um," he said as he browsed the menu. "I think I'll try the... 'Super Deluxe Mocha Iced Love Love Frappucino?' Do you have this in regular, like without the 'Super Deluxe' or the 'Love Love' part?"
Was this kind of naming sense supposed to be cool or something? Young people's interests were changing way too quickly for him to keep up with.
"No, we only serve the Super Deluxe Mocha Iced Love Love Frappucino here~!" She replied with a slightly strained smile. "Would you like whipped cream on that~?"
"Uh... Sure?"
"Okay~! One Super Deluxe Mocha Iced Love Love Frappucino with whipped cream, coming right up for you, goshujin-sama~!"
She reached out to grab the menu from him and her fingers grazed his as he passed it over. Minato felt a jolt of static electricity pass between them and yelped in shock, sending the menu to the floor. The pink-haired girl eeped as well, clutching her hand to her hand with a deep blush. She stared at him with an indescribable look on her face that he took as equal parts horror and embarrassment.
"Are you alright?" He asked. "I didn't mean to startle you, I must have been zapped with static electricity or something."
She quickly shook her head and laughed nervously.
"Ehehe, n-no problem, goshujin-sama~! I'll be right back~!"
Minato watched as she swept the fallen menu into her arms, gave a rather clumsy curtsy, and scurried off. She must be a new hire or something, not quite used to the job yet. He winced as she bumped into a table and tripped over her own feet.
A short while later, the other twin (a purple-haired girl) came out with his drink on a tray. To his slight horror, it was in one of the least functional cups he had ever seen in his life and came with a ridiculously gaudy bendy-straw of all things. He should have known the café would serve something like that.
"Okay, goshujin-sama~! Your drink is here!" The girl said as she placed his drink on the table with a flourish of her hand. "But before you drink, I can recite a magic spell that will make it more delicious~!"
"Um, thank you but I really don't think it'll be ne—"
"Moe moe kyun kyun~!" She said with a wink of her eye.
Minato couldn't resist cringing at her overt display. He knew it was rude and that the girl was trying her best and just doing her job, but HOLY MOLY... Maid cafés were something else. If he were more attentive, he would have noticed how strained her smile was, or that her eye had a bit of a twitch to it all the while.
"Moe moe kyun kyun~!"
A few of the guests nearby turned to look at the spectacle, no doubt expecting to see something like this regularly in the establishment. The purple-haired girl faltered a bit, suddenly feeling the hefty weight of people's focused attention and gazes, but soldiered on bravely.
"Moe moe kyun kyun~!"
She twirled in place and held out her hands in a heart shape like those mahou shoujo characters would for shooting special laser beam techniques at their foes. Or were they love beam techniques? However, she slipped in her nervousness and pitched forward in an express trip for a painful faceplant into the table. Acting quickly, he stepped forward and caught her before she fell, holding her tightly so she could get a chance to stabilize herself.
"Are you alright?" He asked.
"..."
She made no effort to reply immediately, merely glowing bright red with embarrassment before hastily separating herself from his arms. With a stiff bow and nod of gratitude, she fled the scene, almost slipping and falling over again on the way out in her haste.
"Very odd," he mused to himself.
What were the odds he'd run into the one café with two new hires who also happened to be twins to boot? Sipping from his drink, he found himself pleasantly surprised by how good it was. Maybe a little too much on the sweet side for his taste, but nothing too unenjoyable. If only it wasn't so... flashy in here. He might even have considered coming back a second time if it wasn't so otaku-catered.
In the end, he decided to just finish his frappucino as quickly as he dared before risking a massive bout of brain freeze. It was getting late, and while Karasuba and Akitsu called to tell him they wouldn't be needing him to come home to cook them dinner (they ordered take-out), he still needed to eat one himself. Frappucinos were nice and all, but they were no replacement for a nice hot meal. Perhaps he would go for some ramen or something.
It seemed like the café was winding down to close for the day anyway. Most of the customers had trickled out by now, and some of the maids were wiping down tables and counters to clean up. A quick scan of the room located the cash register at the back, manned by... the twins of all people.
"Leaving so soon, goshujin-sama?" The purple one asked, her previous energy missing from her voice.
"Erm, yeah. It's kinda late and I should be going now."
"Have a safe journey," the pink one said with a curtsy. He almost missed the discreet slap she did to her sister's side when she noticed she wasn't following suit.
"Yeah, come back soon, goshujin-sama."
He could feel their stares boring into the back of his head as he left, not entirely sure why.
...
Almost immediately after leaving the café, he had a distinct feeling of unease creep up along the back of his neck. He couldn't quite place it, but it almost felt as if someone was following behind him.
Every time he would turn around, he would just catch a glimpse of someone ducking around a corner or pass out of his field of vision. Perhaps it was all of the sugar he just drank down making him nervous and jumpy. After all, that kind of thing only happened to important people in movies, not in real life right? He wasn't particularly good-looking enough to stalk, nor was he some kind of VIP in any field. He didn't resemble anyone famous, that he knew of at least, and he never borrowed money from loan sharks. There wasn't really any reason for him to be followed around, so he was likely just being unnecessarily paranoid. He definitely was going to stop drinking such overly sugary or caffeinated drinks if this was going to be how he felt afterwards.
But just to be safe, he decided to make 3 left turns at an intersection in a row. He remembered watching an episode of Tokyo Noir where the main heroine was being tailed by a couple of Yakuza thugs and quickly used the same technique to determine if they were actually following her or not. Like she had said, "One turn is a coincidence, two turns is less so, three turns is deliberate." Not many people, if any at all, would need to walk in a complete circle.
It was important though that he keep extremely calm as to not tip his potential-pursuers off that he was onto them. Taking as deep breaths as possible to keep his fraying nerves steady, he walked at as casual of a pace as he could. It was much more difficult than he thought it would be. Too fast, or even too slow, and whoever was tailing him would realize he was aware and do something drastic. With deliberate step after deliberate step, he finally managed to reach the first intersection. Hands in pockets, he rounded the corner seemingly without a care in the world. No one particularly stood out as a suspicious-looking person, but he figured only a truly incompetent tail would fail to blend in properly.
The eyes on the back of his head continued to weigh heavy on his psyche, but he refused to give into suspicion and panic. It was probably just jitters from that damned drink, nothing more and nothing less. There was really no reason to think anyone was following him, but he still racked his mind as he walked for anything that might explain it.
Karasuba and Akitsu were both supposed to be at home for their girls' day so it was unlikely to be them. Even if they decided to sneak out to follow him for fun, he doubted they would want to do that for long. Karasuba might have had the patience and skill to do it but if he knew his Sekirei (and he liked to think he did), they would both just rather jump him and smother him in affection. Besides, Akitsu was kind of too flashy of a person to be inconspicuous. No one looked like they would fit her distinctive silhouette even in disguise because her breasts were anything but... err... Never mind.
His mom might have reason to follow him to make sure he wasn't getting up to no good, but she was likely hard at work and far too busy to do things like this. If she had been too busy to see or keep up with him until she literally descended from the sky over his head, he seriously doubted she would take the time to follow him herself. He wouldn't put it past her to hire some kind of private investigator to do it for her though, but he got the distinct feeling that whoever she trusted enough for the job would be a highly trained and experience professional he would never have detected in the first place. The same went for Yukari as well. She loved to play pranks like this on him when they were younger and his mom had mentioned that she would be coming to Tokyo soon. Still, she was far too good at it to be slipping up and let him notice.
Before he realized it, he rounded the second intersection and waited to see if anyone seemed out-of-place or suspicious. A flash of movement in the reflection of a nearby storefront drew his attention to a pair of people trying very hard to remain inconspicuous, so much so that it drew more attention to them than if they were to act normally. He heaved a slight sigh of relief that they weren't some kind of trained assassins out to get him or some kind of super sleuth trying to investigate him, but the danger still remained. He still didn't know who they were or why they were after him.
After rounding the third and final corner, he ducked into the outdoor patio of a nearby café (this one, thankfully, a normal one) and pretended to check his phone. By hiding in a well-lit and public area, he figured he would be relatively safe from his pursuers even if they were to follow him there. Pretending not to notice, he spotted them out of the corner of his eye hastily scramble to find him. It looked like they had completely lost him and were panicking as a result. Maybe he was being reckless, but he wanted to know who would even bother to go to all this trouble just for him.
Putting his cell phone up to his face, he merely kept up the appearance of preoccupation with his gadget. Fiddling with it for a while, he switched it to the camera function to get a better look at the people following him. They appeared to be of similar height and build, though one was a little taller than the other. Both were clad in non-descript hoodies with large pairs of sunglasses obscuring their faces. On top of it all, they both wore blank baseball caps drawn low over their face to further mask their features. It was absolutely the most stereotypical "I'm trying to be incognito" outfit he had ever seen.
"There he is, Onee-sama!"
He looked up suddenly to see them pointing right at him.
"Get him!"
There were really no other words for it but "oh shit." The jig was up and if what they said was anything to go by, he probably didn't want to know what they had in mind for him. In retrospect, it had been utterly stupid to want to confront them in the first place. Minato took off in a dead sprint with no particular destination in mind except "away from the crazy stalker girls." He knew you never wanted to lead your pursuers to your home, so he had to go in the complete opposite direction of the two people whose capabilities he trusted more than his own.
The streets were sparsely inhabited at this time of dusk, not quite late enough for the bustling Tokyo nightlife but just enough for most to be home rather than out. It gave him more room to maneuver and run without needing to be careful of many pedestrians but at the same time, it meant there weren't many opportunities to hide in a dense crowd. Still, he had to be extremely thankful to Karasuba and her hellish training regimen — before he met her he might not have been able to sprint very hard or for very long. At least now he had somewhat of a fighting chance to stay ahead of his pursuers.
Minato led them on a merry chase through the city but his stamina eventually ran out. Gasping for air, he slumped onto the wall of a nearby building. There was just no physical way he could push his body any further. He hoped he had put enough distance between them to have successfully lost them but it was no sooner he thought it that they more or less dragged themselves over to him. Surprisingly enough, they were in even worse shape than he was.
"Damn... you... Why'd... you run...?" One of them wheezed, desperately trying to catch her breath.
"Onee-sama... You... spooked him..." The other choked out between ragged gasps of air.
Enough was enough. He was literally tired of running, he wanted answers and he wanted them now!
"Who... are you... people?" He panted back. "Why... are you... following me?"
Maybe they all recognized that there was not going to be any productive conversation if everyone was hacking up their lungs, but the three of them agreed to take a moment to calm down and catch their breaths. He decided to take that as a good sign, perhaps they weren't so bad after all.
"Ahem. As I was about to ask earlier before you sprinted away, are you an Ashikabi?"
Oh god. He was completely wrong about them. He didn't like where this was going.
"Um, I suppose so, yeah..."
"I knew it, Onee-sama!" The slightly taller of the two exclaimed excitedly. "I told you he was the one!"
"How could such a flaky-looking guy be the one we be reacting to? It makes no sense..."
Oh shit. Shit shit shit.
"Wait, slow down. How could you be reacting to me?" He shouted in disbelief. "I've never even met you before now!"
The two girls exchanged a strange look and seemed to only just now realize how they appeared to the public eye. They quickly removed their sunglasses and took off their baseball caps to reveal they were twins with matching long black hair. With their "disguises" off, he suddenly realized how familiar they were to him.
"You're those thunderbolt-shooting twins from the other day?! You almost blew us up!"
"Hey, I don't remember almost blowing anyone up recently!" The slightly shorter twin protested indignantly.
"The only people we've targeted recently was that damned thief girl and..." The slightly taller of the twins trailed off, furrowing her brows in thought.
Both twins' jaws dropped as they both came to the same realization at once.
"YOU'RE THE SAME FLAKY-LOOKING GUY WHO WAS WITH KARASUBA?" They shouted at the same time in disbelief.
Minato couldn't decide whether he was more offended by the flaky comment or the fact that he was completely unmemorable without the help of Karasuba to them.
"That doesn't explain anything though, we didn't even speak!" he argued.
"Actually, it's a funny coincidence because we were reacting to you when you came into the café earlier and not because of what happened on that day." One of them giggled nervously.
"Wait what? The café?" He asked again, completely confused at this point. Then it hit him, recognition dawning on him the same way it did to them. "You mean you two were those twin waitresses?"
It was their turn to be offended this time.
"Tch, yes!" She pulled out a purple wig from her backpack. "We were in cosplay for that shitty otaku hovel."
Her twin pulled out a similar wig but in pink. "Onee-sama, you can't say that about the café! That's our only job!" She chastised.
"So when you two were being all clumsy and such, that was because you were reacting to me?" he interrupted, trying to bring the conversation back on track.
"Oi, oi! We were not being 'all clumsy and such!'" The purple-wigged girl protested with a light blush forming on her cheeks. "I mean, I wasn't at least. I dunno about her though." She jerked a thumb in the direction of her twin.
"H-Hey, wait a second! That's not true, you were reacting just the same as me! You know we could only be reacting to someone if the both of us were!"
The two of them stared at each other, arms crossed. The air filled with the crackling of energy and the smell of ozone, making the hairs on his body raise up as if he were caught in a field of static electricity. Before the situation devolved into an inevitably messy fight between the two Sekirei, he knew he had to step in.
"Um, let's not get distracted now..." He said nervously, his hands raised placatingly.
Both twins' heads snapped over to his direction with heated stares and flushed faces. He was sure they had been so caught up in their squabble, they had completely forgotten he was here. Unfortunately for him though, it might have been better had they continued ignoring him. The two of them stalked over to him, backing him up against the wall and boxing him in with their bodies. There could only be one outcome from this and he wasn't sure if he was ready for it.
Karasuba and Akitsu had only just recently started to get along with each other, who knows what would happen if he just winged another two Sekirei at once. And he wasn't even sure if he was capable of handling the responsibility of taking care of them at all, let alone wonder if the four of them were going to be able to co-exist. The possibility definitely existed to just walk away and pretend he never saw them, but he understood the significance of a Sekirei's reaction to a potential Ashikabi. That just wasn't something he could do, especially knowing what had happened to his Akitsu. The scars of that traumatic experience still haunted her to this day. He couldn't knowingly inflict something like that on anyone.
Sekirei were risking it all for a chance at true happiness when they reacted to their Ashikabi, their destined one. To flee, to reject them would just be too cruel for him to legitimately consider. In the end, he found himself to be rather helpless in the face of their power of faith and love, but it was a two-way street. He would just to have a little faith of his own and trust that things would work out.
"Are you sure you want this? To be winged by me?" He had to confirm, to make absolutely certain their feelings and give them an out. Winging was a permanent thing, and these girls barely even knew him. He wouldn't be hurt in the slightest if they decided to change their minds.
"D-Don't be stupid!" One of them stammered. "If you're the one, then you're the one. That's all there is to it!"
"You are a strong Ashikabi with a good heart, the powerful resonance of our reaction is proof enough of that. Onee-sama and I wouldn't react to just anyone."
"If you're absolutely certain, then I'll agree to it." He still had a few misgivings about the whole thing, but those could wait for later. "Could I at least get your names first?"
As soon as he said that, the twins shared another look and burst into giggles.
"Pfft... This whole time we had completely forgotten our manners, how silly of us..." She shook her head before straightening up with a smirk. "I'm No. 11, Hikari!" The slightly shorter one with the purple wig announced proudly.
"And I'm No. 12, Hibiki." The slightly taller one with the pink wig bowed slightly.
"Um, nice to meet you," Minato replied rather stiffly. "I'm Sahashi Minato."
As soon as he finished, the two of them gently cupped his cheeks and leaned in for a kiss. Placing a chaste kiss on his lips at the same time, both Hikari and Hibiki's wings sprouted in a burst of bright yellow light.
"By the thunderbolt of our pledge," Hikari began.
"We will eliminate the disasters that threaten our Ashikabi," Hibiki continued.
"You are ours as we are yours, now and forevermore."
This last sentence they said as one, smiling at him with small blushes on their faces. Minato found himself at a loss for words as always. He had been through 3 winging ceremonies now, but he thought he would never quite get used to the whole thing. He hoped he never would.
Connected to the Lightning Twins by an official Sekirei bond, he could feel the nervousness and apprehension behind their brave faces. He could empathize completely. After all, they had just taken a massive leap of faith, reaction or not, to bind themselves to a stranger on the basis of a mysterious feeling no one could really explain. Minato drew them in tightly for a reassuring embrace, sending as many thoughts of affirmation and comfort as he could through the bond. The twins looked up in mild surprise, tensing up at the unfamiliar sensation pouring through them before relaxing into his arms.
"Let's go back home, shall we?"
"Yes, my Ashikabi." They replied in sync, holding him tight as they walked back to the Northern Sector.
A sudden thought hit him when they had reached the unofficial border line, and he mused out loud.
"You know if we're lucky, Karasuba and Akitsu should still be having their girls' day festivities. You can just join right in!"
The good vibes came to a screeching halt as his newest Sekirei stopped in their tracks to fix him with matching looks of horror.
"D-Did you just s-say K-K-Karasuba and A-Akitsu were waiting for us at home?" Hikari sputtered.
"O-Onee-sama..." Hibiki whispered as realization dawned on her. "T-That means Minato is the D-Demon Tamer Ashikabi...!"
"S-So he wasn't just coincidentally in the same area but was actually her Ashikabi? The rumors were t-true?"
Minato stared back with a look of utter confusion that was starting to make itself more and more at home on his face these days.
"What rumors are you talking about? What the heck is a 'Demon Tamer Ashikabi?'"
A new look of awe and respect replaced the fear written all over the twins. They gazed up at him like he was some kind of legendary figure, something that was starting to make him uneasy. He had a bad feeling about this.
"There's been rumors going around lately that the No. 04 Sekirei, aka the Mad Dog of MBI aka the Black Death aka the Blade of Calamity, Karasuba had been winged by an Ashikabi...!" Hikari started in hushed tones.
"They say she believed none was worthy of being her Ashikabi... So when she found the one man she actually reacted to, she challenged him to a fight to the death..." Hibiki continued in the same tone.
It seemed the rumor mills had greatly exaggerated the tale of Karasuba's winging. He could definitely see Karasuba not believing anyone was worthy of her, that much at least was fairly plausible. But a fight to the death? Maybe that fight with the thug in the alleyway counted somewhat, but that wasn't exactly what was going on in this tale, especially since it was less of a fight and more of him making a... tactical retreat with Karasuba in tow.
"Their battle raged across the city for 3 days and 3 nights without end until the mysterious man emerged victorious from a cloud of rubble and dust, standing above Karasuba's defeated body."
The whole escape... err... retreat... had probably lasted around 30 minutes and certainly not 3 days and 3 nights. Where were people getting this information?
"'End it!' She cried, not wanting to live in a world where she was no longer the strongest. She wanted a warrior's death in battle at the peak of her ability but the man denied her, sweeping her up into his powerful arms and clutching her to his broad chest."
"'I may have beaten you, but this is not where your end lies,' He told her. 'Become my Sekirei and I will find you worthy foes to slay. Become my woman and I will love you to the end of days, now and forevermore.'"
Now that conversation, he was sure, definitely did not happen. If anything, it was she who winged him! But the blushes and mini swoons from his newest Sekirei didn't go unnoticed. How could they like such a sensationalized tall tale so much? He thought they were too thoroughly spooked by Karasuba to care about anything else!
"Thus, Karasuba laid a searing kiss on the man who had won her heart and her wings burst from her back like gouts of fire and brimstone. Together, they defeated all comers and thoroughly destroyed any who dared approach. I mean, you can see the video of how she took down that Amebane guy online if you want proof."
"And that's how the Demon Tamer Ashikabi got his name, by winging Karasuba and making her his woman!" Hibiki finished up.
"There are so many things wrong with that story, I don't know where to begin." Minato deadpanned. "And how does Akitsu come into this?"
"Well, rumor had it that the No. 07 Sekirei, aka the Unwingable aka the Forsaken One, Akitsu had been punished by MBI for some unspeakable crime and was cast out to die."
He didn't know what crime Akitsu had done to deserve such a horrible fate, but being cast out to die was pretty much what had happened. Admittedly, she fled MBI of her own volition but circumstances forced her to do so. He would never forgive the company for doing that to his Sekirei, and if he ever found out who was responsible...
"It was in her moment of unspeakable despair that the Demon Tamer Ashikabi approached her with his hand of mercy. 'Join me, and I will give you purpose again. Become my woman, and I will love you until the end of days, now and forevermore.'"
His Sekirei swooned again, and he had to resist the urge to either groan aloud or curl up to die. Probably a little bit of both. It was so embarrassing how fanciful and flowery these events had gotten, but the worst part was how every story had just enough of the truth left at their core to be recognizable to him still.
"How does that make Akitsu a demon though?"
Hikari furrowed her brow in frustration. "I don't know! I don't make up these stories, I'm just repeating what I heard for your benefit!"
"Maybe it's because people naturally assumed she was some kind of demon for being treated in such a way," Hibiki posited innocently. "Like a divine punishment for evil."
"For your sakes, I hope you two never say that in front of her. What happened to Akitsu was horrible and disgusting," Minato said heatedly. "Don't ever suggest she was being punished for something because she was completely innocent!"
The Lightning Twins must have sensed his protective agitation, and quickly apologized.
"We misspoke, I'm sorry," Hibiki bowed her head low in shame. "I didn't mean to suggest that at all."
Minato sighed and patted their heads softly. He wasn't mad at them per se. Like Hikari said earlier, they didn't make up the story, they just repeated what they heard. It was just the idea of his Akitsu being punished for something out of her control like she deserved it somehow that filled him with revulsion.
"It's alright. But please, try not to talk about these rumors around the other two. Karasuba might find the ones about her hilarious, but I don't know if Akitsu will feel the same way about hers."
Nodding their assent, the trio continued to walk home again in their happy bubble of contentment. At least until Minato had another thought strike him.
"How did people even find out about all of these events? All of it happened in private, was someone spying on us to publish a fanfiction accounting of what happened or something?"
"Sir, here's the latest report you asked for."
"Thank you, Natsuo-kun! That'll be all for today!"
As the black-suited young man bowed slightly and made his exit, Minaka stood on his usual perch at the very top of the massive MBI clocktower that towered over the rest of the city. Not one day went by that he didn't get a kick out of surveying the skyline from on high. He liked to think it gave him a better perspective on things and helped him keep the big picture in mind.
"Hmm, interesting, interesting." He hummed a jaunty tune as he flipped through the pages of the report.
Takami-chan used to bring him these with a lot better notations and in the precise detail he asked for too, but she had been oddly distant these past few days. Then again, he supposed injury would make anyone crankier. Natsuo-kun did his best, but he was no Takami-chan. For obvious reasons.
"Now what's this?"
A notation in the margins of the "Latest Wingings" section of the report drew his eye, and as soon as he finished scanning it, his face broke out into a giddy smile.
"Well, well. Minato-kun has winged Nos. 11 and 12 Hikari and Hibiki, hm?" He read aloud. "Ain't that a kick in the pants, Takehito?"
If he recalled correctly, Takehito had a special plan in mind for the Lightning Twins and a certain contractor friend of his. Now that Minato-kun had winged them instead, he was certain that scenario had gone out the window. And he didn't even have to lift a finger to do it!
All the better for him and the true Sekirei Plan though. Things were definitely going his way, but based on the sparse After Action Reports he had been getting, there was still room for improvement. The city had been quiet recently, far too quiet for his taste. Karasuba-chan's fight was supposed to have been a step in the right direction, encouraging people to get involved and brawl it out for glory. Sadly, people had been more terrified than inspired, but he was about to change all that.
He reached into his white coat and pulled out his cell phone, dialing a number.
"Natsuo-kun?" He grinned to himself. "Play the announcement."
AN: Sorry again for getting this chapter out so late. I took the effort to give you all a longer chapter than usual to (somewhat) make up for it. As always, much love to the readers and reviewers who still follow this story.
I did want to take the time to address some of the reviews I've gotten for the previous chapter. While the majority of the comments regarding the last scenes featuring Minato and Homura/Kagari were either amusement or otherwise neutral, I was surprised to see so much borderline homophobic comments from a rather vocal minority as well. Of course you're all free to think and hold whatever personal beliefs you wish, I just don't want your narrow-minded prejudices in my story. I urge you all to keep an open mind when reading and avoid projecting any of your biases on the characters, especially when there isn't any grounds for it.
Hope you all enjoy my work regardless. Be sure to let me know your thoughts in a review.