I sat patiently at the dining room table while Shiina franticly told me what had happened. The group of Yukari, Seo, Haruka, and their respective Sekirei where ambushed by a group of enemy Sekirei. While it was nothing the group couldn't handle, they quickly realized that the ambushers were simply a distraction to separate my sister from the group. When they managed to get Yukari by herself, an unmarked van pulled up behind her, black bagged her, and sped off. The enemy Sekirei broke off at that point, their objective complete. Shiina lost sight of everyone in the confusion, but he remember hearing Seo yelling something about going after the van and Haruka panicking and running off. Finding himself suddenly alone and not sure what to do, he ran to the Izumo House to get help.

Shiina leaned back from me, casting his eyes down is shame. "I-I'm sorry Aniki. If I had been stronger-"

"Don't blame yourself Shiina." I interrupted. "I'm sure you did everything you could."

"I think your expression is implying otherwise." Homura said dryly. The rest of the household had swiftly gathered as well when they heard Shiina's panicked outburst.

I did my best to relax my expression, which I'm sure was one of anger. In truth, I was more furious at myself then I was with Shiina. It didn't matter that I had already sent Seo out to look after her or that I couldn't stop her from participating in the Sekirei Plan: It was still my job to protect my little sister. And now she was in the hands of god knows who (though I had some suspicions) because…

I frowned to myself. Actually, why was Yukari kidnapped? Normally I would suspect that she would be used as leverage against Shiina so he would work for the kidnapper. Hell, Higa's flunkies tried that exact same tactic on me. However, Shiina said that the enemy Sekirei immediately left once they had my sister, and didn't bother trying to recruit him. Since he was still active and they would have had plenty of time by now to kill Yukari, it's unlikely that they took her as an easy way of taking her Sekirei out of the game. Something about all this didn't add up.

I was about to ask Matsu to start searching street camera to track the van when my phone bean to ring. Sure enough, the call was from Seo. "Hey Shirou, I've got some bad news-"

"Someone has kidnapped my sister. I know. Shiina came here and told me." I interrupted somewhat sharply, but at the moment I was in no mood for good manners. "Did you find out where they took her?"

I could almost see him hold up his hands to placate me. "Whoa, whoa! It wasn't easy, but me and the girls managed to follow them back to a office building downtown. It belongs to some kind of pharmaceutical company, Izumi International."

I grunted. So it was Higa, though that was hardly a surprise. That still didn't answer the question of why though. "Thanks. I'm going to be putting something together soon. Can I hire you again to help?"

"Ah, don't worry about it." He replied. "Seeing as how I screwed up keeping an eye on her to begin with, this one's pro bono." His tone then took a lecherous quality. "Besides, you know how girls love it when a guy comes to their rescue."

I felt righteous brotherly fury well up inside of me. My Asura mask began to take form, and while I knew he wouldn't see it, I still completed its summoning by yelling into the phone "Making advances on my sister is prohibited!"

Surprisingly, I heard a choking sound coming from the phone. "Oh god, I was hoping you couldn't do that! I was just kidding, I promise! Call me later when you have a plan!" And then he swiftly hung up.

I stared at the phone in surprise for a moment before I said. "Wait, it works through phones? I never knew that." My mind started to race with the implications. This meant that it was feasible to combine magic and technology to certain extent. At the very least it showed that my Asura mask could be carried by digital signals. I wonder what would happen if I could call ever phone in the city at once…

I was snapped out of my musings of literally terrorizing the entire city when Troper said "Wait, you can do the Demon Head thing too? Does that mean other people can learn how to do it?" Looking up, I saw Troper stealing a few fearful glances at Rin, clearly worried that his lover might pick up the technique. It seems that even though Seo somehow managed to see it, the mask had also formed on this end as well, causing various states of discomfort and shock, ranging from Troper's simple paleness to Homura rocking back and forth, wide eyed and muttering to himself "nowhere is safe, nowhere is safe… " The only exception to this was of course Miya, who was instead coving her mouth with one hand and had a slight blush on her face.

Huh, that's kind of weird. Did she get scared of my Asura again and was now embarrassed? Oh well, it probably means nothing.

I decided to ignore Troper's question and get back to the task at hand. "Anyway, that was Seo. He said they brought Yukari to the Izumi International headquarters downtown. It's a pretty safe bet that the self proclaimed 'Ashikabi of the East' is behind this."

"You mean Higa?" Uzume asked somewhat nervously. This was the first she had spoken since she learned that my sister was kidnapped. All while Shiina was explaining what happened, she had remained silent and looked somewhat uncomfortable. "So, what are you going to do bro?"

I was silent for a good five seconds before I responded. "What am I going to do?" I said, my voice reflecting the rage I was currently feeling. "I'm going to find Higa, make him release my sister, and then show him just why it's a bad idea to bring harm to anyone in my family. I haven't quite ironed out the details yet, but what I have so far involves swords, his body, and the liberal application of one to the other."

"I'm getting the feeling that this isn't the first time you've had a run in with this man." Rin stated with an arched eyebrow, taking my casual implication of murder in stride.

"Not exactly." I said. "He's the inheritor of a rival corporation to MBI. I've had to deal with his flunkies before, and I'm well aware of how he views the Sekirei as nothing but objects. Really, taking him out is something I've wanted to do for a while now, but it has never been feasible due to the large number of Sekirei he controls."

"Actully," Matsu spoke up. "I've been keeping an eye on the other main Ashikabi, and Higa has somewhat recently lost a large number of his Sekrei. It seems the Black Sekirei paid him a visit and, well…" Matsu trailed off, leaving the rest unsaid. I had wondered how well my bribing of Karasuba with pastries had turned out.

Rin gave a grunt and folded her arms across her chest. "Well, even if that is that is the case, it sounds like this man has a great deal of recourses and has no problem using them in completely illegal ways to get what he wants. Also, it sounds like he could use a solid kick to the balls." She gestured to herself and Troper. "Count us in."

I blinked in surprise at this. "Well, thank you, but you shouldn't feel obliged to do so. You don't have to go if you don't want to."

Rin snorted. "We don't have to be in this universe if we don't want to. We're still here because we happen to like making things work out for people, or as he likes to put it," she said, rolling her eyes at Troper, "giving people the happy ending they deserve. So that means we're coming with and that's the end of it."

Stupid stubborn Rin. Given how similar she was proving to be like my Rin, I had a feeling it would be easier to stop the Sekirei Plan using a song and dance number than it would be to dissuade the small magus.

I turned back to Matsu. "Exactly what is the state if Higa's forces?"

"The only Sekirei that Higa has left are numbers 16, 18, 22, and 31." Matsu said, listing off the two I had fought on the roof when I winged Tsukiumi, Higa's brain type, and another weapon user. "While I can't get a good layout of the building or the number of personal there due to number 22," Matsu said with a hint of petulance, "I would estimate there would be between 2 and 3 dozen security personal in the building at any given time."

Troper gave a contemplative hum. "You know, those aren't bad odds. If we had a few more on our side, we could probably just walk in the front door and demand you sister back. By the sound of your reputation these days, he'd probably rather just hand her over rather than deal with the full wrath of the 'Ashikabi with Swords'." He said in a somewhat joking manner.

I blinked. "Actually… that could work."

There was a brief pause before Homura said "Wait, what? You can't be serious. I mean, yes, we're certainly a major power in the Sekirei Plan at the moment, but Higa doesn't strike me as the kind of guy who would just accept an opponent making demands of him."

"You're right." I agreed, pulling out my phone. "And Troper was also correct in saying that we would need a few more people in order to do something like that. So, we're going ask them with some 'offical' backing."

"Who are you calling, Shirou-san?" Musubi asked as I started dialing a number in my phone.

"I'm calling my mother." I responded, resulting in a few surprised looks from my flock.

The phone rang only once before my mother picked up. "Shirou, I don't have any information about Akitsu yet if that's why you're calling."

"It's not. I'm calling because Higa Izumi kidnapped Yukari."

There was a long pause before my mother said in a seething tone "What?"

"About an hour ago, Yukari was thrown into a van which was followed to the Izumi International building. I'm not sure what his goal is, as he didn't try to coerce Shiina into working for him, but I think we have more important things to worry about."

I could almost see Takami's eyes narrow. "You seem rather calm for your sister being in potentially mortal danger."

"That's because I'm planning to meet Higa and ask for her back." I said simply.

"… and why do you think that the kind of man who would steal a teenage girl off the street in broad daylight would simply give her back if you asked nicely?" My mother asked doubtfully.

"Because you're going to lend me the Disciplinary Squad to help." I heard several gasps from the room, but I continued on. "Think about it: Higa doesn't have the power to fight both the Disciplinary Squad and the 'Ashikabi of the North' right now, and if he knows that MBI is aware of his little transgression against the law, he's much more likely to just release Yukari rather than subject his company to shame of him receiving kidnapping charges."

There was another contemplative pause before she spoke again. "And after you get Yukari back, you're just going to leave him alone?"

"I never said that." I said with a frown. One way or another, I was going to make it painfully clear just how big of a mistake he had made.

I heard a grunt of approval from the other end of the line. "Good. Given what I've recently learned about you, I'm sure that you'll find some way to impress upon him the error of his ways." There was a brief sound of her yelling orders at people before she continued. "Normally my control over the Disciplinary Squad is tenuous at best, but I think I can convince Minaka to give the order even if they won't listen to me."

She sounded very confident of that last point. "Because he hates people who interfere with his game?" I asked.

"… Sure, let's go with that." She replied vaguely. "Also, since you're going to be working with her you should probably know that Karasuba has been making some rather… interesting remarks regarding yourself and the organization currently in the city. I'm pretty sure she doesn't actually know, but she at the very least suspects."

I gave a weary sigh. "I know. She ran into Troper thinking he was me and thing got…well, it was Karasuba." I said, that being enough of an explanation. "Needless to say, I know I need to be careful around her."

"Aright. Just give me a call for the time and place where you want to meet with them. And Shirou," Takami voice softened. "Get my daughter back."

"I promise I will mom." I said with conviction.

I hung up and looked at my flock, which were looking at me in various degrees of surprise. Well, all except one anyway.

"That's great Shirou-san!" Musubi said excitedly. "Now I can fight next to Karasuba-san and how her show strong I've become!" I noticed with some worry that she seemed to forget that if all went as planned, there wouldn't be any fighting at all.

And I wasn't the only one to notice this. "Shirou's not planning on any fighting going down, are you?" she said, turning towards me to ask her question. There was a hint of apprehension in her voice, but I couldn't think of why.

"Ideally, no. I just want to use intimidation to make him release Yukari, but things might not go as planned. In that case, it would be good to be prepared for a fight." My face and tone became harder. "Of course, regardless of what happens, I'm still going to introduce Higa to the business end of some sharp, pointy objects." For some reason, this did not seem to comfort Uzume.

"Ballsy," Troper stated while giving me a speculative look. "But you know Rin and I can't be a part of your Intimidation Demonstration, her for Higa not knowing why she's a threat, and me for obvious reasons."

I nodded. "That's why I need the two of you and Seo to sneak into the build while this is going on and try to locate my sister. There's no guarantee that the bastard won't try to sneak her out of the building and play ignorant. I'm counting you if things go pear shaped."

Troper considered this for a moment before nodding. "Right." He then pulled out his sunglasses and put them on his face with an audible whipping noise. "Operation Enemy Mine is a go."