Tokyo: Mikogami estate

Jango looked out over the city from where the building's former owner must have done the same. However, while the building currently had not been bothered by the human authorities, it was only a matter of time before some human somewhere realized that something was wrong and sent the law enforcement, however incompetent that they were, to investigate. While the human guns were absolutely no threat to him or the other sekirei, it would result in a pointless slaughter for the humans. Despite his hate for the humans, he would rather avoid such a confrontation. After all, those humans would just be doing their jobs, and there was a certain dignity in that.

Mutsu walked up behind him, "Have you thought of anything?"

He shook his head, but did not turn around, "No, but we will need to move soon regardless." After a pause he added, "How is she?"

He did not need to add a name, Akitsu had been practically catatonic after seeing Mikogami's headless corpse. She would follow simple orders, and eat or drink should she be told to do so, but other than that Akitsu was more of a statue than a person.

Mutsu's voice took up a tiny tone of melancholy, "No change, and being right where Mikogami died isn't helping anything."

He turned around, "Well, do you have any suggestions? Because you have been in this city far longer than I have."

Mutsu looked out over the city with a thoughtful expression on his face, "Well, there is Maison Izumo in the north. Miya is the landlady."

He cocked an eyebrow, "Number one went into business? Now that is an odd choice, do you have any idea why?"

Mutsu shook his head, "No, but she is the sole reason that Mikogami and the other two greater ashikabi stayed out of the norther section of the city."

He thought for a moment, debating with himself as to whether or not to investigate the option. At best, it would give him a place to work from, a stable place, and the other sekirei that he rescued would be among other of their kind. At worst, well, he really couldn't think of a worst case scenario. He nodded to Mutsu and started to walk over to the rest of the sekirei, who were idly passing the time in whatever manner they could. In Yomi's case, that was sharpening her scythe.

He cleared his throat to get their attention, "Ok, I would like a general consensus before proceeding, would you all be comfortable if we moved to Maison Izumo in the north?"

Taki nodded, "I would, although at this point I think that anywhere that doesn't remind me of Mikogami would be for the best."

The rest of them that spoke had a similar reason.

He nodded with approval, "Very well, no sense in wasting any more time here then." He gestured towards Akitsu, "Yomi, would you kindly be the one to lead Akitsu? We don't want her falling behind and getting lost."

Yomi sighed and stood, "Fine, I'll lead the ice queen."

Contrary to most of the sekirei present, Mikogami's death had actually positively affected Yomi. She smiled, laughed, joked. When he asked her about it, Yomi had simply replied that she felt free for the first time in her life. It was a nice change to see, although some of the jokes she made were slightly inappropriate for the situation. Like one that she had made about Mikogami, not that he was forgetting what the boy had done, but there was no need to spit on a dead man's grave.

He looked northward across the concrete skyline, "Miya, I hope you are ready for visitors."

Rapture: Ryan Amusements

Tsukiumi was shocked by Ivan's rage filled outburst. Not that she hadn't though the same thing about Musubi at one point or the other, but to say it out loud with such hatred took something especially bad.

Worry leaked into her voice, "What's going on?"

Ivan seemed to put a significant amount of effort into calming himself, and was only partially successful, "Well, that brunette bitch did exactly what I was afraid she would do. Musubi dropped a train car onto the tracks over in Pauper's Drop, effectively sealing off both you and Minato from Minerva's Den. By train at any rate."

She almost panicked, "But, is Minato..."

Ivan sharply cut her off, "He's fine, for now. But he'll have to traverse the most heavily splicer infested area in all of Rapture."

She pointed at the robot and barked a command, "You need to get me to Minato right now!"

Ivan let out a dry, cynical laugh, "As much as I would like to, that's impossible. But I'm not about to have you stuck out here by yourself, so..." A red light appeared behind her, "I'm having you take a shortcut. Through the belly of the dragon, so to speak. There is a vent that connects Hephaestus to both Ryan Amusements and Minerva's Den, you'll be taking that."

Her temper started to run wild, "Why didn't you mention this before?"

As with every other outburst that she had had, Ivan was unfazed, "Because if Rapture is Hell, then Hephaestus is the seventh circle. It is really, REALLY hot down there. You might evaporate."

She turned around and started to stalk towards the vent, burning hot air whipping her hair back, "I'm not made out of water, and I'll do anything for Minato."

Rapture: Minerva's Den

Matsu listened to Tsukiumi's angry declaration and watched on her screen as the water sekirei dropped down the vent into the furnace. It was hard not to admire Tsukiumi's dedication, even if it did get her in trouble sometimes. By the same token, it was also hard not to sympathize with her, especially when Musubi seemed to get in the way of just about all of them. Thinking of that, the only time she ever had any time alone with Minato had been a few times in her hidden computer station back in Maison Izumo.

Ivan tore off his headset and slouched in his chair for a moment, before looking over his shoulder at her, with a tired, still angry look in his eyes, "Is Tsukiumi always this obstinate?"

She smiled and shook her head, "Only when Minato's life is on the line. It's worse when she can't do anything about it, like now."

Ivan put his head in his hands, "You can say that again, oh, what I would do for a bottle of vodka right now."

She typed in a few commands on her keyboard, checking the progress of the two train cars that were still on their way, "Still mad at Musubi?"

Ivan swiveled his chair to face her, "No, really? It took me six months to get the trains working again when I got down here, and she fucks it up in about two seconds. I swear, when she gets here I'm gonna smack her so hard, right in the face, that her head is gonna pop off."

She smiled uneasily, "You are kidding, right?"

Ivan grimaced, "About knocking her block off, yes. About giving her a flying bitch slap, no. And I'll bet that I'm not the only one who's wanted to do that every once in a while." Ivan changed the topic, which seemed to calm him to a degree, "And what about Kusano and the he/she? They getting here anytime soon?"

She quickly checked her screen, "They should be getting here in another five minutes or so, provided that Ku-chan doesn't get tired."

Ivan smirked, "Little girls, what can you do?" Then added, "And the trains?"

She replied without looking, as she had checked that at the same time, "Half an hour for Musubi-chan, fifteen minutes for Kazehana-chan."

Ivan stood up and stretched, "Well, that's good at least." A thought seemed to occur to Ivan, "Matsu-san, quick question, how close, genetically, are you sekirei to humans?"

The randomness of the question caught her off gaurd, "Ah, I don't know. Why do you ask?"

Ivan shrugged, "Just wondering, you know, if Minato had stuck the plug in the outlet if you catch my meaning."

She had to fight to keep her composure, the sheer bluntness of the question causing her to think of certain things, "No, not yet."

Ivan blinked a few times and tugged on one side of his bushy mustache, "Has anyone ever bothered to tell you that you have the most perverted rape face ever? And I grew up in America just so you know, the people there have some pretty dirty looks that they give each other."

Without anything to say back, she just smiled and felt her face start to burn with embarrassment.

Ivan went on, "And you're probably banking that you'll be his first I'd suspect..."

Her voice came out as almost a mirror of Miya's when the landlady was pissed off, minus the hannya mask floating over her shoulder, which would have been really useful right now, "Enough."

Ivan laughed, "Suit yourself. I was just poking fun." The Russian then glanced at the heavy door, "I suppose I should go and open the door about now..."

When Ivan turned his back to her she delved into the research logs that she had snuck into on ADAM. Apparent right away was that Ivan had put a significant amount of ADAM into his own gene structure, as she had seen the Russian flipping through several different plasmids while waiting for something or other, at her count it was somewhere around seven plasmids. What she wanted to know was if that was enough to destabilize a person's mind, because if Ivan were more than just quirky, things could get really bad really fast.

Down near the bottom of the file on plasmids, from which she had identified the seven combat oriented plasmids that Ivan had added, was a link to another file, one on gene tonics. She shot a quick look over her shoulder to where Ivan was still fiddling with the lock, just to make sure she had the time. She opened the file and a huge list sprawled out on her screen, over a hundred different varieties of tonics, and none of them were apparent from physical cues. So she had no idea how many Ivan had added to his own genetic structure. Maybe if there was a sample of Ivan's blood on file she could...

Ivan gave her a holler, "Matsu-san, take that elephant gun hanging on the wall over the auxiliary station and toss it here, would you? Got a big guy out here that requires some bigger bullets."

Wordlessly she closed all of the ADAM related flies with a quick key stroke and tossed the long barreled rifle to Ivan, who quickly fired off two shots, followed by the sound of a very heavy body falling to the ground.

Ivan smoothly reloaded the gun, and chuckled, "Ah, impeccable aim my good man."

Her curiosity got the better of her and she slowly walked out to the door, to take a quick peek around the corner. Lying in a pool of deep red blood was what remained of an elephantine man, who was now lacking a head.

Ivan nudged the corpse with his boot, "Brute splicer, the product of a demented cocktail of Sports Boost and Armored Shell. Makes me really glad I only have thirty tonics compared to the several hundred these poor souls took in."

She feigned ignorance, "Tonics?"

Ivan slowly turned to her with a no nonsense look on his face, "Do you wonder why I have you at the auxiliary station? So I can keep an eye on what you are looking through, you already know what gene tonics are, and that there are several hundred varieties. More specifically, you wonder if I am still sane. Just so you know, I am well within the safety limit for a man of my height and weight. Thank you for your forwardness."

Ivan shouldered the elephant gun with a huff and stalked off into Minerva's Den to find Kusano and Homura, or so she could assume. Apparently he felt insulted that she hadn't just asked him about the topic. How would she have broached the topic though? 'Hey Ivan, how many ADAM cocktails have you put in you? I was just wondering if you were still sane.' Yeah, that was a great way to talk about things.

Rapture: Olympus Heights

Minato stepped out of the footpath between Dionysus Park and Olympus Heights. He had lingered for a few minutes just outside to rest, but the glass tube had started to unnerve him, what with all the sea life roaming through the water. Speaking of water, he had to wonder how Tsukiumi was faring right now. Ivan had said that there would be no danger down in Hephaestus, but that didn't exactly stop him from thinking through the 'what if's.'

He stepped towards the door and it slid upwards to admit him. Immediately inside, two splicers armed with pipes started to charge him. He backed off slowly, and deliberately placed one shot in each splicer's forehead. The gunfire brought out a third splicer, which received another bullet before it could react. He paused to reflect on what Ivan had said about Olympus Heights, the Russian had called it "splicer central." Seeing as he had been here for less than a minute and already three splicers had tried to kill him, Ivan's description was looking very accurate at this point. At the tail end of the thought another splicer, this one armed with a shotgun, received another bullet to the brain.

He loaded another clip into the Luger and started to move forward, thinking to himself how easy it was becoming to use a gun. When it came down to it all that it took was a light pull of the trigger, and a steady hand and anyone could kill anyone. It was a disconcerting notion, but when it came to survival there wasn't much of a choice.

A whirring noise announced the arrival of Ivan's robot, "Minato, racking up the body count I hope?"

He took a seat against the wall, "Four more, if you must know."

Ivan sounded pleased, "Very good, every one that goes down makes us getting out a little bit easier."

A small laugh escaped him, "Sure." Aware that Ivan must have had things to take care of he asked, "Any last minute advice?"

Ivan didn't answer immediately, "Minato, just how far are you willing to go to survive?"

Already, he didn't like the direction in which the conversation was going, "What are you going to suggest?"

Ivan sounded apologetic, "Look, I really can't do anything for you from here. But I do have a way for you to increase your odds, tip the scales so to speak."

He sighed, "I'm not going to like this idea, am I?"

Ivan relented, "Probably not at first, but hear me out. My first "home" in Rapture was here, before the splicers drove me out. I left something behind that you could use, a plasmid, an extra Winter Blast. You could find it and improve your odds a bit, if you feel like it."

He was appalled, "You want me to become a splicer myself?"

Ivan shot back, "Hey, one plasmid isn't going to turn you into a splicer. Those poor souls injected dozens of plasmids and hundreds of gene tonics that have become so mixed that the effects are moot. I would never tell you to do that."

He countered, "But you are saying that the only way I'm going to live is by using that plasmid."

Ivan sighed, "You're putting words in my mouth Minato, I only said that it would help. Not that it would be impossible for you to survive without it."

He shook his head, starting to realize that it was futile to argue with Ivan, especially when it came to Rapture, "Look, it's still a no."

The robot shrugged, "Suit yourself, it's on the way your going anyway, so it's always there if you change your mind."

He was surprised, "That's it? You aren't going to try and change my mind for me?"

Ivan replied, "Of course not. Like I said, it's your choice. You seem to be a competent gunslinger, so I'm not especially worried about you anymore." Ivan added just before the robot faded from earshot, "Besides, once you get here the whole gang'll be assembled. Then we can figure out what's exactly going on down here."

He muttered to himself, "How optimistic of you."

Then he picked himself up, stretched, and cocked his Luger. Ready for whatever Rapture had to throw at him.

Tokyo: Maison Izumo: front gate

Jango took his eyes off of the simple wooden construction that was number one's place of ownership. It was a humble abode, especially in comparison to the Mikogami estate, but it would do just fine if given the opportunity. Provided of course that Miya would be willing to allow them to stay.

He turned back to the group behind him, speaking directly to Mutsu, "Alright, wait here and try to remain inconspicuous. I'm going to go have a talk with Miya."

Mutsu smirked, "I think the inconspicuous part is already done for."

He screwed his face up in confusion, "What are you getting at?"

Mutsu pointed to the other side of the street with his thumb, "If you havn't noticed, most people in this city find our kind exceptionally beautiful. There is already a crowd of men gathered on the sidewalk over there, leering at the women."

He followed Mutsu's finger, and sure enough a group of ten or so men was standing stock still on the other side of the road, utterly transfixed. Luckily however, they were standing in back of an exceptionally large puddle. By giving a passing car a gentle, mental push he was able to shower the group of men with water, that broke up the crowd and got them moving again.

Mutsu commented, "It seems you still have not lost your sense of humor."

He shook his head while glaring after the last of the onlookers, "No, I was simply thought that a creative solution." He turned back to Maison Izumo, "But at any rate, I'll be going in now. Try and keep track of the rest, would you?"

Without waiting for an answer he walked in through the front door. The sight that greeted his eyes was rather pleasant. It was a simple interior, yet there was elegance in its simplicity. No frills or excessive decoration, just functionality.

A voice issued from within, apparently they had heard the door opening, "Hello? Is someone there?"

He followed the sound into the kitchen, "That would me, Miya."

Miya turned away from the smoking pot on the stove, "And you are?"

He sighed and answered, "Every time I hope that one of you will remember me. Anyway, I'm sekirei number zero, Jango."

A spark appeared in the back of Miya's eyes, "Oh, yes now I remember. What can I do for you?"

He paused to choose his words, "Not for me specifically, but I was wondering if you happened to have any room in your inn. I have several other sekirei waiting outside and, well, we know of nowhere else to go at the moment."

Miya remained smiling, "Of course, I only have two other tenetnts at the moment, you would be welcome here." She then added, "But you will work for your keep, understood?"

He nodded, "Perfectly." As he started to walk out a thought occurred to him, "Miya, why exactly are you running an inn in the first place?"

Miya didn't even turn around, "I left MBI after my husband died."

He had the gut feeling that was as much of an answer as he was going to get. So he changed the topic, "You mentioned that there were two other tenants here?"

Miya's attention was on her cooking, "Upstairs, Uzume and her ashkiabi are in the farthest room down the hall."

He gave a short, respectful bow even though Miya had her back to him, "Thank you for your hospitality."

He walked to the front door and waved the others inside before turning smartly on his heel to the upstairs. He wanted to meet Uzume's ashikabi, because if the brightness of Uzume's flame was any indication, then the ashikabi just might be a good human among the seemingly infinite numbers of bad ones. He paused just outside the door to listen, hearing nothing he assumed that they were either asleep or doing something else quiet, reading possibly.

He opened the door, "Uzume..." He had other words to speak but what he saw made it nigh impossible for the words to escape from his larynx, all he could manage was a hurried, "I'll come back later." Before shutting the door as fast as he could without slamming it.

A few moments passed before he heard the door open behind him, Uzume's was the one speaking, "Ah, you won't, tell Miya what you saw? Please?"

He forced the words out, "Don't fret about that." Then he changed the subject, "I see you really like your ashikabi."

Uzume nervously replied, "Well, yes."

He spoke as quickly as he could and still be coherent, "Well that's good, I'll just be going now."

As he neared the stairs leading down, Yomi rounded the corner and almost ran into him.

Yomi looked up at his face, "Jango-senpai, are you alright? You look like you've seen a ghost."

Without meaning to, his eyes glanced back towards Uzume's room, "No, nothing like that. I assure you, I'm quite fine." When Yomi walked past him and towards the room on the end he added, "That one is taken."

Yomi shrugged and walked into the room directly across from Uzume's. He breathed a sigh of relief and walked downstairs where the rest of the sekirei were walking in.

Mutsu approached him, leading Akitsu by the hand, "So, who is going to take care of her?"

He glanced around quickly and made the choice, "I'll do it. To be honest, it is partially my fault that she is like this to begin with, so I bear most of the responsibility for it. Find yourself a room, I'll be up shortly."

Mutsu nodded thankfully and walked upstairs, following closely on Taki's heels.

Miya's voice came from behind him, "I hope I did not just hear that you were going to be sharing a room with Akitsu here. Co-ed rooming is not allowed in this inn."

What with the recent events, he was near the end of his rope, so he narrowed his eyes and turned around, "Look, Miya, I am going to respect the fact that this is your inn, but there are certain things that I am going to have to do that will break your rules. Is that understood?"

Miya remained smiling, but a blue mask with what must have been a frightening expression appeared over her shoulder, "Just understand, no perverted behavior will be tolerated."

He scoffed, "Really, Miya? You have to remind me of that? Trust me Miya, that is by far the last thing on my mind."

The floating mask remained where it was, "Just make sure it stays that way."

As Miya walked away the very first thought to whisk through his mind was that Miya was being rather paranoid, then what he had seen in Uzume's room floated through his mind quickly and he decided that Miya might just have a good reason to be paranoid. Speaking of paranoia, he had the disconcerting notion that he was being watched. When he turned around however, the only person there was Akitsu. Maybe he was only kidding himself, but he actually found himself wishing that she was watching him. Such a thing would be a step in the right direction for her coming out of her self induced coma.

He held his hand out, "Come on, it's been a long day. About time to catch some sleep, yes?"

There was the slightest of movement in her eyes, and she lightly took the offered hand, still saying nothing. But it was a step in the right direction.

Rapture: Minerva's Den: exit from Hepheastus

Tsukiumi staggered out of the fiery heat and fell flat on her face out of exhaustion. Ivan hadn't been kidding when he had given his reasons for not making that her primary route, she had been literally been able to see the lave flowing beneath the catwalks she had been traversing. And she knew that she didn't handle heat well on a good day, that furnace however had her on the verge of passing out.

She forced herself to her feet and started to move away from the vent, once she had cooled off she should be fine, then she could go and find...

A deep booming voice in a language she didn't understand intruded upon her thoughts, English, "Ello poppet."

She turned around as fast as she was able and saw a huge hulk of a man casually leaning on the exterior of the vent she had just come out of. His clothing was tattered in places, but she could tell that at one point it must have looked rather nice. That did not stop a nameless fear from welling up inside her.

The giant started to walk towards her, matching her pace as she backed away, English, "Can't say I've had a proper lady since coming down here. You however, seem to fit the bill quite nicely. So if you don't mind, I'll be taking advantage of you right now."

One of the giant's huge hands closed around her torso, pinning her arms to her sides, then the giant roughly pushed her down onto her back.

The giant used his free hand and tipped the hat he was wearing, English, "Alright poppet, you just behave and all of this'll be over right quick."

As it dawned upon her what the giant was going to do, terror gave her new strength, however the giant's grip held, and her own personal nightmare began.

Minerva's Den: security control

Kazehana leaned back against the wall opposite Ivan and Matsu, fingering the bottle of Tate Merlot that she had brought with her from Siren Alley. She might have been worried about Minato, but she was quite confident that he would pull through for them. Ivan could go on all he wanted about how dangerous Rapture was, but love would eventually pull Minato through. On the topic of Minato she started to feel rather warm, some of the others might have said it was just because she was drunk, and that might have been true. But Minato was...

A horrified exclamation from Matsu interrupted her thoughts, "Ivan-san, look!"

Ivan looked over, then bolted up out of his chair and rushed over to Matsu's screen, his face mirroring the look of absolute horror that was etched in Matsu's.

Ivan grabbed a long barreled rifle off of the wall and barked at her, "Kazehana, you and me are going hunting."

She was curious as to what he had seen, but the tone he was taking wasn't all that nice, "I'm sorry?"

The Russian gestured over to where Kusano was playing, "I'd tell you out loud, but there are little ears here. Suffice to say that Tsukiumi is in a, painful and degrading situation for a woman."

Ivan's point was like a slap to the face, and she was on her feet in a heartbeat.

Olympus Heights: Apartment complex

Minato paused to take a breather right in the middle of the latest scene of carnage. Since speaking with Ivan for the last time he had gunned down twenty plus splicers, at least half of which had shot back. And as he fought, his confidence was growing. He felt that once him and his sekirei got back to the surface he would never be a burden to them ever again at this rate. Come to think of it, did bullets even hurt sekirei? That was going to have to be something he would put to the test next time Karasuba or another hostile sekirei attacked him.

He was passing underneath a functioning security camera when Ivan's voice crackled to life through the device, "Minato? You there?"

He paused to make sure that there were no splicers around before replying, "Ivan, what's going on?"

Ivan sounded very uncomfortable, "Look, I'm not sure how to say this. But ah, something happened to Tsukiumi, something bad."

He almost panicked, "She, she's not dead, is she?"

Ivan's tone dropped to one that you would hear at a funeral, "No, but I think she almost wishes she was at this point."

Now he was really scared, "What are you talking about? What happened?"

Ivan took a moment to answer, "Tsukiumi, she was, violated."

His heart skipped several beats, "Wha..."

Ivan went on, "A brute splicer ambushed her when she was still suffering from heat stroke, else I don't think this would have happened otherwise. Kazehana and me hauled her back here after killing the big brute as quickly as we could, but she won't speak to anyone right now, even your other sekirei. I think she needs you right now, Minato."

As he absorbed this information, a sensation that he had never experienced before started to fill his mind. A raw, bloodthirsty rage against every living splicer in all of Rapture. He desired nothing more than to kill every splicer he could find.

His voice came out sounding like someone that he didn't even recognize, "Ivan, is that plasmid still within reach? I suddenly have the need to tip the odds."