Tokyo: Maison Izumo

Jango slowly opened his eyes and took a moment to fully appreciate how nice it was to sleep in an actual bed, and on the quality of sleep that was given. Come to think of it, this was the first time he had ever slept in a bed. First it was the cold concrete floor of an abandoned construction site, then the hard wooden floor at Mikogami's estate. Compared to both of those, the bed was his personal piece of heaven. Warm, soft, and...wait, he was lying on his back. So why did his left arm feel like it was pressed against something?

He slowly rotated his head to the left, and his nose was practically less than an inch from Akitsu's. Now, his first instinct was to roar in shock, but long mental training had taught him to do the rational thing over the instinctual thing. What he did, was to slowly slide his arm out of Akitsu's grip, and slip out from under the blanket to stand by the door. Once up, he was able to breath a deep sigh of relief. He knew with absolute certainty that he had not invited Akitsu to share a bed, indeed he had gone out of his way to make sure the beds were as far away from each other as possible, on the opposite sides of the room in fact. The odds of her simply rolling across the floor and onto his bed were also practically nil, because she was under the blanket with him. That took conscious effort, which was a good thing on one hand, but a disturbing one as to what she had chosen to do with it.

Nevertheless, she seemed cognizant enough to make her own choices. So it wouldn't hurt to leave her where she was and go downstairs. Besides, she looked rather peaceful asleep, and it would be a shame to ruin the perfect picture.

As he shut the door behind him Miya's voice came from behind him, "Nothing perverted happened I hope."

He turned around with a sigh of exasperation to face Miya, who was still smiling, but with the mask floating over her shoulder, "Miya, like I told you last evening, nothing perverted is going to happen involving me and Akitsu, or any of the other sekirei in this building. I cannot speak for the others, so if you must insist on pestering someone about perverted behavior, go bother one of them."

His small rant seemed to have the desired effect, because the mask vanished and the smile remained, now at least appearing genuine, "Very well, breakfast will be served momentarily downstairs. Yomi-san is already setting the table."

He didn't need to ask how Miya had gotten Yomi to do what she wanted. By now it was obvious to him that Miya used that mask to terrify people into doing things for her, quite likely the only reason it didn't work on him was the fact that he literally had nothing to fear from number one. For the rest, Miya could beat them into submission with one finger, while blindfolded and hog tied.

Mutsu sat cross legged at the edge of the large table in the common room of Maison Izumo. It was a first for him to be served, but this was a tenant house, so he supposed it made sense. While on the topic of a tenant house, he had had a room all to himself, another first. He heard the door to the kitchen open and glanced in that direction, and he almost lost his stony visage to a fit of hysterics. Yomi was serving the food, while wearing the most revealing maid outfit he had ever seen.

Across the table, Jango's left eye started twitching, "Miya, why is Yomi wearing that?"

Miya didn't flinch, "What are you talking about?"

Jango's eye twitch became more pronounced, "As far as I know, Yomi would never wear that unless you ordered her to."

Yomi broke in, "Oh, no I chose to wear this."

Jango's mouth froze open for a long moment, "Ah, ok. So long as it was your choice."

Yomi walked around the table and placed a plate of food, rice and curry, in front of each of them before taking one of the two available seats next to Jango and digging in to her own dish with gusto. A long period of silence fell, broken only by the sound of silverware touching ceramics. The silence suited him just fine though, quiet usually meant peaceful. The sound of the front door opening made both his and Jango's hands drop immediately to their swords.

From the front of the inn, a man of medium build with medium length black hair walked in to the common room, "Miya-san, would it be possible for me to..." The man stopped speaking when he noticed that he was looking at a room full of sekirei, "...eh, I guess you've got some new tenants, huh?"

Jango relaxed slightly, "Miya, do you know this man?"

The demonic mask appeared over Miya's shoulder, "I do, and he's complete scum."

Jango looked back at the man with a thoughtful expression on his face, "I see, so I should kill him then?"

The man waved his hands in front of himself in a fearful fashion, "Whoa, let's just talk about this for a second."

Jango fingered open his sword, "Well, you have sixty seconds. So start talking."

The man started babbling, "I'm Seo Kaoru, and I was a good friend of Miya's husband before he died. So I can eat here whenever I need to. She just hates me cause I do it all the time!"

Jango fully sheathed his sword again, "Ah, so you're just a do nothing as opposed to malicious, very well." Jango then added with a smirk, "So, I hope that Hikari and Hibiki are keeping you in line?"

Seo looked startled, "Uh..."

Jango pointed towards the door behind Seo, "The two sekirei standing just outside the front door, they are your's, I am assuming."

Seo nodded, "Well, yeah. I'm not even going to ask how you know, but yes."

He stopped paying attention to the conversation and turned his focus back to his meal. He had some idea of how it was going to play out. Jango would talk with Seo for a while, then would grill the ashikabi for information on the rest of the sekirei in the city. Then number zero would continue his efforts to free every sekirei he could. If he was asked to help he would, but as far as he was concerned, for the moment he was out.

A small sound on the stairs drew his attention. When he looked up, Akitsu was standing just at the bottom of the stairs, silently observing the room. She seemed oblivious to his gaze, but she might just not have cared. Within a few moments Akitsu quietly walked over and stood directly behind Yomi, while giving the seated sekirei a glare that rivaled Miya's in the fear inducement department. After a second, Yomi also became aware of the glare, turned around, and at a subtle gesture from Akitsu scooted over away from Jango. Akitsu then took Yomi's place next to the zero number. He could have sworn that the corners of her mouth twitched upwards ever so slightly, but he might have just been seeing things.

Rapture: Olympus Heights

Minato fought off the almost overpowering impulse to sprint off into the warrens of Olympus Heights and kill as many splicers as he could before being brought down. In retrospect, perhaps this was what Karasuba felt almost all the time, but at the moment that couldn't have mattered less. Because he hadn't been there to do something, anything, Tsukiumi's worst nightmare had become reality. That created a ball of guilt deep inside that was worse than the anger, if only he had never decided to leave Tokyo...

Ivan's voice intruded into his thoughts, sounding a bit concerned due to his 180 degree shift in attitude on plasmids, "Ah, did I just hear you right? You want the plasmid now?"

He took a deep breath to keep himself from shouting, "Yes, I'm sure."

Ivan didn't sound entirely convinced, but relented, "Ok Minato, you got it. Take a left at the next hallway and find room two fourteen. Just give the door a good kick or two and you'll get in."

Before moving off he asked, "If it's that easy to get in, how do you know that the plasmid is still there?"

Ivan replied, "Easy, cause I kept it in a safe with a word lock. And I came up with a real ringer for the password, at least for the splicers. I'll tell you that when you get in."

The camera went dark and left him to follow the simple instructions. He walked ahead two feet to the end of the hallway. There, just around the corner, a huge splicer was punching through a door that just happened to be room two fourteen. Coupled with the recent events caused by the splicers, and this latest attempt at halting his progress was the last straw. He pulled out his Luger pistol, and charged in after the giant splicer.

Once he got inside, it took him a second to find the splicer in the dark. When he did, he walked right up behind the splicer, who was preoccupied with fumbling with the keypad on the safe in the corner, and put the barrel of his pistol right to the back of the splicer's head.

He cleared his throat with a short cough, "Hey."

The splicer turned around at his words, English, "Eh, what?"

He pulled the trigger and put a bullet right between the splicer's eyes.

The splicer roared in pain, but did not die, English, "OW! Why you piss licking, little shit!"

The big brute took a blind swing at him, but powered as he was with the twin fuels of adrenalin and anger he rolled under the log sized arm and swiftly climbed the back of the splicer. Once he reached the shoulders he steadied himself by pressing his pistol right to the back of the splicer's head, this time he fired twice. The splicer fell to the ground like a giant tree, slowly, and with a degree of majesty, before sprawling out on the floor just like any other corpse. Breathing heavily through clenched teeth he nudged the corpse's head with his foot just to make sure it was dead.

The camera crackled to life, "Nice kill, very stylish, if I may say so." Ivan slowly faded out, it was clear his heart was not in the attempt at humor, "Anyways, move the painting at the back and we'll get started."

He hesitated, and pointed to the safe that the splicer had been fumbling with, "But, the safe is right there."

Ivan let out a short laugh, more of a sarcastic one this time, "Oh, that? That's no safe, that is a cleverly disguised bomb. A parting gift for any splicer that dared try and take up residence in my old apartment. Trust me, you don't want to open it. I stuffed enough explosives in there to bring the entire district down, good thing that you decided to go for the plasmid in hindsight..."

He ignored Ivan and walked overt to the corner, and removed the painting from the wall, "Ivan, the password?"

Ivan cleared his throat and spoke, Russian, "Dasvidanya."

He started to reach for a key but stopped, "Wait, what did you say?"

Ivan sighed, "Are you deaf? I was speaking Russian." Ivan said it again, Russian, "Dasvidanya."

He started to get annoyed, "Well I'm sorry, I don't know how to spell in Russian!"

Ivan snapped back, "It spells exactly like it sounds, now chill out and punch the letters in as I tell them to you..."

Rapture: Minerva's Den

Ivan thought that he was giving a valiant effort at being patient with Minato, trying to translate across three languages to undo a simple lock. He split his attention between Minato and the security robot that he had especially assigned to lead Musubi by the scruff of her neck to the security room. He would go straight to Hell by choice if he let Musubi screw something else up.

He let out a deep breath of relief as Minato finally opened the safe, then added over the camera, "Ok, now flick the lever up and down twice."

Minato didn't even question him and did as asked. It was a good thing that he did to, otherwise he might be looking through a screen at a headless Minato. He had wired up a shotgun to the safe door as extra insurance against any splicer intrusion, if anyone had just ripped the door off they would have gotten a very nasty stomachache for their trouble.

He coached Minato through the contents, "Ok, the thing you want is the glowing red jar with the syringe. Oh yeah, and I hope you aren't afraid of needles, cause that's a big one."

There was a pause before Minato replied, "No kidding."

He started to speak, Now your going to have to..." Then his drone warned him that a certain brunette idiot was due to arrive, "Excuse me for a quick second. Be right back." Before Minato could object he shut off the live feed and set his head phones on the keyboard.

He picked up his shotgun and made a beeline for the door, allowing every erg of anger than he had been feeling, as well as all of his pent up frustration, to bubble up in a red tide. He tightened his grip on the shotgun so much he could have sworn that he heard the metal cry out in anguish.

Kagari must have noticed his shift in demeanor, "What are you going to do to Musubi-san?"

He bared his teeth in a demonic snarl and hissed the words, "Nothing more than she deserves."

A small fireball appeared in Kagari's hand, as an idle threat, "If you are going to kill her..."

He flicked a shot of Winter's Blast at Kagari's feet, "Chill he/she, I'm not going to kill her, this time. I can't say whether or not that I'll be able to restrain myself should anything like that happen again. But this time I'm only going to smack her around a bit, and I would usually never hit a woman.

Kagari still held the flame up, "Still, you shouldn't..."

He held up a hand and silenced the sekirei, "Look, keep quiet and I just might give you a hand with that little gender bender you seem to have a problem with."

At that, Kagari immediately shut up, and he walked right out to find Musubi staring into the ocean like a hypnotized person would stare at a swinging watch, looking for all the world like cotton candy and rainbows were going to start falling out of thin air. It was downright sickening. He cleared his throat to get her attention, what little of it there was, but to no avail. He tried once more, with feeling, and she still didn't look at him, but he did see the smallest flicker of movement in her eyes, like she was deliberately being obstinate. He supposed that it wasn't too far outside the realm of possibility. After all, it suited his view of the world that Musubi was being as stupid as she was on purpose, because no one could really be that idiotic, could they?

He dispensed with the polite approach and spun Musubi around by the shoulder so as to look her in the eyes while dropping his ultimatum, "Ok, look here girl. I utterly despise you right now, and were the choice up to me I would blow your head off right here and now, execution style. But seeing as you seem to be classified as the property of Minato, I'm going to give you one last chance, screw up again in any way that brings harm to anyone else, and I will personally turn your head into a canoe, am I understood?"

Musubi's face said that she didn't, but now that he was looking her square in the face he could see it in her eyes that she did, there was also a tiny glitter of fear, and a tiny sliver of anger. The anger cemented it in his mind that the idiocy was at least partially an act, but he needed a little more proof than just his gut instinct. Still, he needed a slight way to vent. He tossed his shotgun up into the air, caught it by the barrel, and swung it with both hands. The blow connected right on the side of Musubi's face, a few inches higher and it could have been lethal, and the brunette sprawled out unconscious. Somewhat satisfied he turned around and dragged her by the foot into the security room.

When he closed the door Matsu turned around, saw Musubi, stood, and started to speak, "What did you..."

He cut her off with both his words and a raised hand, "I don't want to hear it, she's alive, and lucky that she remains that way." He sat down and put the headphones back on his head, "Still alive Minato?"

Minato sounded annoyed, "Yes, but I've been sitting here for fifteen minutes with a giant needle in my hand."

He smiled lightly to himself, "Consider that a taste of what I've been dealing with for two years down here." Then he got serious, "Find a big vein in your arm, it's going to hurt a bit, and not just from the needle. Seeing as you're using Winter's Blast, it's going to feel like you've been standing in a freezer for hours on end."

He watched as Minato injected the plasmid cocktail, and promptly passed out, "Well, now I just have to wait until he wakes up." He rummaged through a nearby medical kit until he found a clean needle and took it over to Kagari, "I believe I made a bit of a promise, still interested?"

Kagari recoiled from the needle and pointed at it, "What is that for?"

He shook his head, "I think that would be obvious, I can't fix the gene making you a girl, or the other way around, unless I know what gene to fix. I need a blood sample for that."

Kagari glanced back and forth between his face and the needle, seeming to be debating with him/herself as to whether or not to trust him, Kagari rolled up a sleeve, "Go ahead."

He jabbed the needle into Kagari's arm, withdrew hardly any blood, and pulled it bck out again in less than a second, "That ought to do."

Kagari looked down at the red dot on his/her arm, "That's it?"

He nodded, "Yep, that's it. I'm searching for a gene, not running a blood bank."

Kagari asked, "How long..."

He cut the sekirei off, "Should take about fifteen minutes for me to isolate the gene I need, then five to brew up the cocktail, and about ten for it to take effect." He paused, "I am going to assume you want me to remove the feminine parts?"

Kagari glanced over at the other sekirei, then nodded vigorously.

Tokyo: Maison Izumo

Yomi set the gardening tools down in the dirt and let out a long sigh. Miya was a literal slave driver when it came to getting all of them to do work around the inn. She even had Mutsu doing things, what she did not know. Whatever number five was doing though, she could hardly imagine that it was willingly.

She moaned and looked down at her nails, which were caked with dirt, "Why does Miya have to be so mean?"

A voice came from behind her, "And just how am I being mean?"

All of the blood drained out of her face, and she resumed the gardening at a feverish pace, "I didn't say anything!"

After a few long moments she snuck a glance over her shoulder. Sure enough, the landlady was still there, with the same evil smile plastered on her face.

Miya barely moved, "If you don't like it, you can always leave."

She didn't bother to respond and turned back to her chores, almost praying that Miya wouldn't forbid her from the next meal. That seemed to be Miya's favorite punishment, the only thing that could be more cruel was to make the receiver of said punishment watch as everyone else ate. The only mitigating thing was that Jango would occasionally sneak some food to the afflicted after a while, but only if the punishment was for something relatively innocuous, like an accident.

Speaking of the resident psychic, she heard his distinctive voice behind her, addressing Miya, "Now, is it really necessary to loom over Yomi like a specter? I think you've already scared her enough for the day."

She slowed her work enough so she could pay attention to what was being said.

Miya replied in a deceptively upbeat voice, "I'm not scaring her, I just enjoy watching her do the gardening. She just does it that well."

Jango let out a long and exasperated sigh, "Fine, I don't see what you're getting out of it but that's up to you." He paused for a moment, "I'll be stepping out for a little while, our friend Seo informed me of MBI's personal hit squad and I think I'll be paying them a visit. Haihane and Benitsuba are in for a rude awakening."

She paused as a thought occurred to her, she turned around and pointed over the inn in the opposite direction, "But, the MBI tower is that way."

Jango's left eye started to twitch, but otherwise his face remained an expressionless mask, "I am aware of that, I just happen to be taking the scenic route."

Without waiting for a response, the zero number vaulted over the fence at the back and was gone into the concrete jungle.

Miya looked off after Jango for a moment, "What ever could be bothering him?" Then turned around and sidled away at last.

She stopped working again and tried to scrape some of the dirt out from under her nails, "Stupid landlady."

Taki dropped down to her knees on the other side of the garden, holding a bag of fertilizer, "I think that the feeling is mutual, that's why Jango-senpai defies her orders as much as he does."

She mumbled to herself, "He could whip her into shape pretty quick if he tried, why doesn't he?"

Taki shook her head, apparently having heard her little gripe, "You know the answer to that, Miya owns the inn. It's her right to make us work for our keep, but she does seem to enjoy abusing that right."

She remained silent and fumed internally. Like it or not, Taki was right. And it was nice to have three square meals a day, and a bed to herself.

Taki blurted out, "I think Akitsu is stalking Jango-senpai."

She hit her thumb with the trowel and stuck it in her mouth to stifle some of the pain, "What are you talking about?"

Taki shot a long glance over her shoulder to make sure no one else was within earshot, "I just got to thinking, Akitsu was standing right outside the front door, and she heard most of what Seo-san said about MBI and the Disciplinary Squad. I think she was waiting for him."

She focused on one aspect of the little story, "Why was Akitsu just standing around?"

Taki answered, "Miya couldn't think of anything for her to do after giving chores to the rest of us." Then forged ahead with her speculation, "And I just saw Jango-senpai leave out the back, like he was purposely avoiding her."

Puzzle pieces started to fall together in her head, "I guess that makes sense, and he got this weird eye twitch when I pointed out that he was going the wrong way."

Taki seemed intrigued, "Which eye started twitching?"

She responded, "His left, why?"

Taki smiled, "It's just something I noticed that he does, whenever he's angry his right eye starts to twitch."

She asked the question that begged to be asked, "And his left?"

The smile turned into a smirk, "Whenever he is embarrassed."

Annoyed, she stabbed the trowel into the ground, "So what? I'd be embarrassed to if I had Akitsu following me everywhere."

The smirk grew wider, "But you are a girl."

She snapped back, "Thanks for informing me." Then thought about it for a second, "You don't think..."

Taki finished the thought, "That she likes him? Yes I do."

She cocked an eyebrow at the other sekirei, "Ok, why?"

Taki rolled her eyes, "Besides the fact that she just seems like the clingy type, Jango-senpai is quite handsome, don't you think?"

She saw an opportunity to make a snappy remark and took it, "You sound like you like him to."

Taki shook her head, "Oh, not me. He acts too much like an older brother. Well, a slightly melodramatic older brother."

She made another snappy comment, "Funny, I could've sworn that Akitsu liked younger men."

Taki blinked a few times before responding, "Ok, that was just mean."

She smirked, "Oh come on, it's not like she's here to complain about it."

Taki just looked at her, with something like pity on her face. Then Taki's eyes flicked up and to the left. She took the subtle hint and slowly looked over her left shoulder, then proceeded to feel very scared. Akitsu was standing right there, and from the look on her face she had heard everything. Although most of it was in the eyes.

Akitsu glared at her, "I'm here, and I'm complaining about it."

Rapture: Olympus Heights

Minato opened his eyes, and immediately shoved himself up from the filthy floor. Ivan hadn't been kidding when he said it would hurt, especially the cold aspect of it. Then he tried to remove his left hand from the floor, and found that he couldn't. When he looked, his hand was covered in frost, and small layers of ice were forming on the floor around the spot where his hand touched the floor. With a bit more effort, he managed to pry his palm free from the floor.

The camera on the wall crackled to life right on cue, "Minato, you feeling alright?"

He touched his forehead, then had to pry his frozen hand off, "I feel fine, except I'm freezing things without meaning to."

There was a low chuckle from the other end, "Well, I suppose that there is a bit of a learning curve with plasmids. Essentially, everything involved with plasmids is based with your own will, so try willing the cold away."

He leered at the camera, "Will the cold away? You're crazy."

Ivan responded, "You want your left hand to stick to everything it touches?"

He sighed and stared at his frozen hand, "Point taken." Then started to concentrate.

After what seemed like ten minutes the icy aura faded away, and he could move his hand around without any impediment, "Got it."

Ivan sounded pleased, "Good, just do the opposite whenever you want to use it. As for actually throwing ice bolts at the splicers, that is going to take a bit of trial and error on your part. I find that a quick flick of the wrist does the trick for me, try that first when you run into something."

He lowered his hand and asked a question that came to mind, "So, is there a limit?"

Ivan scoffed, "Of course there is a limit, and that limit is your own physical stamina. Use that plasmid too much and you'll collapse until you recuperate. So pace yourself, alright? Train station isn't that far now, so just stay alive and I'll..." There was a metallic crash on the other end.

He spoke with alarm, "Ivan? What's happening?"

Ivan sounded rushed, "Got about fifty splicers just outside of Minerva's Den, and they seem quite intent on killing. Gonna make your job a bit easier, but do hurry all the..." The line went dead.

Without another moment wasted he kicked open the door and started to sprint for the train station. Whatever was happening, it was not good, and he needed to be there five minutes ago.