"Hello Mina-" That was as far as Karasuba got before she had to tilt her head to the side to avoid the black, oversized Chinese saber I had thrown at her head. It imbedded itself in the wall behind her up to the hilt, vibrating slightly as the black Sekirei gave it an amused look.

"There, I've tried to kill you. Now shut up, stop calling me Minato, and follow me." Without saying anything else, I walked past her, pulled Kanshou out of the wall, and proceeded to walk towards the Inzumi International building without looking back, wrapping the sword back in its bindings as I went.

"Ah, you're back to your usual self Shiroi-chan." She replied cheerfully, as if I hadn't just tired to split her skull open like a cantaloupe. Regardless of her usual casual dismissal of my attempts on her live, she did indeed fall in line behind me. "Are you mad about the fight we had yesterday? I must say, you're looking rather well considering the state you were in when you finally managed to get away from me. Of course, that's not the only thing that looks off…" I could feel her eyes on the back of my head, looking at the distinct lack of the white strands of hair that were present on Troper's head.

As much as I needed her, I really didn't feel like putting up with Karasuba at the moment. After I had ironed some details out with my flock, I had called Takami back and told her to send the Disciplinary Squad about a block away from the building as a rendezvous point. Seeing as how she was following me without asking any relevant questions, I assumed my mother had informed her just what we were doing. "Look Karasuba, even though you're being ordered to help me, I do appreciate your assistance in this. However, my sister's life is currently in danger, so you'll have to excuse me if I'm not up for our usual back and forth."

"You call that a back and forth?" Homura exclaimed from a ways behind me. Out of the 5 members of my flock which I had brought with me (him, Kazehana, Tsukiumi, Musubi and Akitsu), he was of course the one the most surprised by my attempted murder of Karasuba. Tsukiumi, Musubi and Akitsu were less surprised as they saw how things went between us when she came to visit. Oddly enough, Kazahana just arched an eyebrow and shrugged, deeming it of no importance.

Not only that, my Sekirei weren't the only one's surprised by our behavior. "You're just going to let him get away with that, Karasuba?" Bentisubasa said incredulously. "Seriously, I don't get why you're so obsessed with this guy. He can't be nearly as good as Natsuo…"

"Maybe she would like Natsuo more if he tried to kill her ever now and then…" Haihane said thoughtfully.

I did my best to hold back a sigh as I walked through the front doors of the Inzumi International building. The ground floor was a spacious layout with a number of comfortable looking chairs and couches spread out for waiting. Right before the elevators there was a reception desk with a pleasant looking young woman staring at us with growing concern.

"We're here from MBI to see Higa Izumi about the immediate release of Yukari Sahashi." I said to the woman with no preamble.

For her part, the secretary gave us a speculative look before asking nervously "Do you have an appointment?"

Before I could respond, Karasuba spoke up from behind me. "I take it you weren't here the last time I visited, were you?" She had a predatory grin on her face and the thumb of her left hand was stroking the hilt of her sword. She then pointed to a much more terrified looking security guard by the elevator. "Looks like he was though. Maybe you should ask him what happened when I was told I didn't have an appointment."

The secretary took one look at the guard, promptly decided that she wasn't getting paid enough to try and stop us, and then turned back to our group and blurted out "Mr. Izumi is in a meeting on the 25th floor! You can find him there!"

"Thank you so much." I said with a smile. Without another word, we walked past the reception desk and into the elevators, letting the Sekirei pile in first with me stepping in last and pressing the button for the 25th floor.

As the elevator began to rise (and I desperately tried to not to think about who in this somewhat cramped space was groping my backside) I started to wonder how Troper's team was doing. He, Rin, Seo, the lightning twins and Shiina should have been sneaking into the building through the loading docks at that moment. It was their job to make their way through the building discreetly and try to find out exactly where they were keeping my sister. My counterpart and I each had a two way hand radio to use in emergencies. While they wouldn't be needed if everything went as planned, it was reassuring to know that there was a backup if things went wrong. I just wish the lot of them hadn't decided to 'disguise' themselves with bandanas across the face. Sure it kept people from identifying them, but looking like a bunch of robbers was not going to help if they ended up getting seen. Troper added a wide brimmed hat to his ensemble, and this combined with his longcoat made him look especially like he had walked of the set of an American western movie. When I asked him why, he simply said 'when I realized I had the look going, I just decided to go with it.'

Stepping off the elevator, we made our way down the hall, briefly asking a bewildered looking intern where Higa was. We eventually came to a set of double doors, which I pushed open without delay. As I stepped into the room, there were several things I noticed all at once.

The first was that the room was surprisingly large, in both surface area and in height. I wouldn't have been surprised if you could have fit a small house in there. Adding to the rather opulent feel of the room there were several marble columns along the sides, all empty space between them until they reached a large desk in front of several large windows. Or at least I thought there was a desk, as the next thing I noticed was that at the other end of the room there were at least two dozen people standing and looking in my direction. However, these features took a back seat to the scent my nose picked up the moment I stepped across the threshold.

Magic.

"Magus!" I screamed as I tore Kanshou and Bakuya from my back, Reinforcing myself has I did so. My sudden shout managed to stop the Sekirei in their tracks, though Homura, Kazehana, and Bentisubasa had already stepped into the room with me. Before we could do anything though, there was a flash of light along the doorway and a telltale tightness in my chest that indicated a bounded field becoming active. Suddenly my reflexes screamed at me, and I found myself jumping back from the door just in time to see faint lines of silver streak out from behind the two closest columns and attach themselves to the 3 Sekirei who were now trapped in the room with me. As soon as the strings touched them, they all screamed out in pain, collapsing to the floor.

"Shirou-sama!" Akitsu's voice was muffled a bit by the field as she called out to me, her hands pressed against the slightly simmering barrier between us. Daggers of ice began to accumulate around her as she clearly intended to try an punch through the barrier, but she suddenly jumped back as a gout of flame shot through where she had just been standing. I saw Karasuba blur past, charging at what was most likely the Enforcer who shot the fire. I heard more distorted shouting from the hallway, and I could gather that the rest of the Sekirei in the hall were also caught in their own battles.

I had only a few moments to stare in confusion at the 3 writhing in pain on the floor before I heard a voice with a light Germanic accent speak up from behind me. "Well, what do you know? I thought it was a long shot, but it seems you were right when you said kidnapping that whelp would draw him out, Mr. Izumi." Turning around, I saw the crowd part somewhat to reveal a tall, thin man with dark hair and hawk-like features looking at me in amusement. He could have been considered well dressed if a bit old fashioned, clad as he was in a black embroidered dress coat and slacks. This combined the with general arrogance and distain he was wearing like a second skin made it painfully obvious that he was the magus who was responsible for this.

"Of course I was right." A second voice called out from behind the desk. I couldn't quite make him out through all the people, but it was a safe bet that this was Higa Izumi. "The girl had been seen walking through the North district far too many times to not be associated with the Ashikabi of the North." I felt a cold dread creep up my spine when I realized what was going on.

Higa had somehow ended up contacting and joining forces with the Clock Tower. They set a trap for me.

And I had walked my flock right into it.

I was of half a mind to Trace and launch a dozen swords in their direction that instant, but something about the other people in the room held me back. Namely, not one of them had shown the slightest reaction to what was going on around them. They all had a vacant, glassy eyed expression that was indicative of hypnosis. Looking closer, I saw that they were an assorted group of office workers and security personnel, probably Higa's own employees. They're using them as human shields, I realized.

"Oh where are my manners, allow me to introduce myself," the tall magus said with a slight inclination of his head. "I am Victor Eltanwise, heir to the noble house of Eltanwise." In the back of my mind, I vaguely remembered how Eltanwise was a fairly minor bloodline which had some sort of stigma attached to it which I couldn't remember at the moment. "And you I presume are Shirou Emiya, the whelp that was given a Sealing Designation for toying with something he shouldn't have and actually getting it to work."

I ignored the fact that he knew who I was and charged forward, planning to jump over the mass of people and land behind them so I would have a clear shot at the magus. My Reinforced legs launched me into the air, easily lifting me over the heads of the enthralled employees. However, just as Eltanwise's full body came into view, I saw the slightest movement of his right hand and one of the security guards jumped in the air to meet me. I had anticipated that some members of the crowd might try to stop me, but I certainly didn't anticipate any of them jumping ten feet in the air to meet me head on! I was so surprised that I failed to block the man's shoulder to my center of mass, which caused me to tumble backwards and hit the ground with a heavy thud. Due to my Reinforcement, I was able roll with my momentum and end up on my feet rather than lying sprawled and winded on the ground. What the hell? I thought. That man isn't a magus, and even if Eltanwise enhanced him somehow, hypnoses wouldn't allow you that much control over a person…

The magus simply tisked at my actions. "Now now, it's rude to interrupt someone while they're talking, whelp." He said is a tone that one might use on a petulant child. "I suppose I'll have to put you in your place." With that and another wave of his hand, five of the security guards broke off from the group and rushed at me.

Far too fast.

I was barely able to bring up a guard before the first man punched at my mid section, his fist instead meeting the flat side of Kanshou. There was an audible crack of the sound of the bones in the man's hand breaking, but he didn't seem to notice or care. I ducked under the strike of a man to my left, shoulder checking him as I did so into a nearby pillar. He staggered for a moment, his left arm hanging limply at his side before he dashed back at me, completely ignoring the dislocated limb. Whatever's enhancing them is increasing their speed and strength, but not their durability? I thought as a jumped away from a third man who tried to jump down on top of me from above. What kind of technique is that? Whatever it was, it wasn't quite as good as my own Reinforcement skill, and the attackers themselves only showed the most basic skill at combat, if even that. However, those advantages were mitigated by the fact that there were still five of them all attacking at once. Not only that, while they seemed to show no concern for their own wellbeing, I did. As far as I knew, these were just innocent people being manipulated by Eltanwise.

Even with the battle unfolding in front of him, the magus continued to talk. "You know, I should really thank you. If you had never killed Archibald, the Clock Tower would have never bothered assigning me to track him down and finding that he disappeared in this city. But since you did, I was able to discover this rather fascinating new Type."

Oh god, he's really going to monologue, isn't he? I thought to myself as I swept the legs out from under one of the guards and drove is body into the ground with the pommel of Bakuya.

Indeed he continued on. "Of course, there was the problem of finding who did kill Archibald. Once I learned of the precious commodity this city holds, it became clear that it was done by a magus who wanted these Sekirei for himself." He sounded rather impressed with himself, enjoying the chance to lord his superior intellect over me. Clearly, this man could not grasp the villain ball any harder if he tried. "So when Mr. Izumi told me about a rather troublesome young man named Shirou Emyia had been causing problems for him, it became abundantly clear that the man by the same name who had escaped the Enforcers several months ago was the one responsible." I didn't see so much as feel the sneer he gave me. "So, did you think that by being the one to bring the Sekirei to the Clock Tower, they would revoke your Sealing Designation? I'm afraid that's not how it works, whelp."

I didn't bother trying to correct his misconceptions and instead focused on trying to figure out how he was controlling these men. If I could deduce what it was, then I might have a chance of breaking the connection with something in my arsenal. As my mind raced through all the enchantments I could think of, my Reinforced Eyes allowed me to see just the hint of a silver string coming from the man's neck as I moved past a man who was trying to grab me. I quickly traced the line back to Eltanwise's hand. That combined with the silver strings that incapacitated the Sekirei tickled something in my memory, something I had heard about from Rin a long time ago…

I suddenly remember, my eyes going wide and blurting out in surprise "Etherlite?" I couldn't remember any specifics, but I did remember that it was a thread of ether that could connect to a person's nervous system. The house that created it was feared and scored because of its use to read other people's minds. Although, it seemed that Eltanwise was using it for a lot more than just that. If the Clock Tower learned that he was using it (and just how he was using it), there was a good chance he might end up with his own Sealing Designation.

The magus affected a tone of mild surprise. "I'm surprised that a third rate magus like yourself was able to recognize it. I'll admit, it is somewhat vexing that the Eltanwise family is looked down upon just because we happen to be a distant branch of the Eltnam that originally created it. Still, if you're going to be accused of something anyway, you might as well do it. What you see is the work of hundreds of years of refinement." He said, making a grand gesture to all the people in front of him. "Normally I would say something to the effect of you not being able to live now that you know my secret, but I wasn't planning on leaving you in a state in which you could talk anyway."

Oh yes, I thought as I finally managed to put one of the guards down with a swift strike from the flat of my blade. He has definitely grabbed the villain ball and is holding on with all of his might. Unfortunately for me, that assessment wasn't quite true as he sent out two more of his thralls to replace the one I just downed. He may have been monologuing, but he was doing it behind several human shields while his minions keep me occupied. Furthermore, this little revelation didn't help me much. I tired cutting at the threads with Kanshou and Bakuya, but it was about as effective as a dull pair of scissors. That meant that I would have to use something that directly anti-thaumaturgy, and that meant only one weapon I had might work.

Jumping above the three that had rushed me at that moment, I threw Kanshou low at a fourth. He bought the feint, and jumped up into the sir to meet me. Rather than finding my right hand empty however, he ended up jumping straight into another quickly traced weapon. "Rule Breaker!" I shouted as it pierced his torso. As I rode his body to the ground, I felt the blade draw a fairly small amount of my od before I saw the thread detach from his neck. The man was unconscious before we hit the ground.

I felt some elation at how little it cost to break the connection. I wasn't sure if I could do it 2 dozen times, but I should be able to free most of them. My good feelings were cut short however, when another guard came at me from the left and punched not at me, but at the small, strangely shaped blade in my hand. The fragile dagger shattered from his enhanced strength, and I was force to jump back. Stealing a glance at Eltanwise, I saw that he was no long smiling. It seems him realizing I had some way to break the Etherlite connection had made him become much more wary.

"Mr. Eltanwise, does that mean you would have to silence anyone who saw you using this ability?" I heard Higa say as I summoned the black blade back to me, grabbing it and letting its momentum swing me around to strike the person behind me with the flat of the blade.

"Hm? Why of course that doesn't apply to you," the magus lied, quick as a rattlesnake. "That's mostly just for him and the few addition magi I've had to add to my ranks since I started this operation. Even then, they're all fairly unimportant people with little to no weight within the Clock Tower. They should have to good sense to keep their mouths shut if it gets results." There was a brief pause as my newly Traced Rule Breaker was shattered before I had the chance to use it. "Well, all except that bleeding heart anyway…"

Eltanwise turned back to the battle "Enough! While it was fun playing with you for a bit, I'm afraid I simply have more important things to do." With a gesture from the hand holding the Ehterlite threads, two of my assailants rushed straight at my blades, as if trying to impale themselves. Lacking the time to do anything else, I let my weapons disperse back into od to prevent them from being killed. The two men latched themselves onto my arms, and with the weight of a third man from behind I toppled forward onto the ground. Shortly after that, another 3 piled on top of me.

Damn it! There was no way I could move under this many strength enhanced men. The only options I had left would end up turning the men on top of me to mincemeat.

Eltanwise gave an amused grunt. Since I had landed on my stomach face forward, I could see him smirking at me. "You're much softer than I thought. I was going to impale them on your swords so that they could wrestle them away from you. Well, time to end this." With that I saw him cast out his left hand and saw an Etherlite thread head towards me. Apparently he intended to use it on me directly, probably in a similar manner as the three Sekirei still by the door.

As fast as I could, I did the only thing I could think of that might protect me. I quickly incanted "My body is made of swords," just before the thread touched the base of my neck.

For the briefest moment, I was no longer made out of flesh and blood, but of steel.

What I had hoped would happen was nothing, as the thread probably required a normal human biology to interface with. What might have happened was that I would have needed to use my magic resistance to fight of the foreign prana.

I was not expecting what actually did happen.

Eltanwise gave out an animalistic scream of pain as dozens of large gashes appeared on his body. As he did so, everyone else in the room besides Higa sized for a brief moment before collapsing on the ground unconscious. The magus fell to his knees as I rose to mine, push the security personnel's limp bodies off of me. I looked on impassively as he tried to stop the flow of blood from the numerous wounds that had spontaneously appeared on him. I wasn't entirely sure what had just happened, but I wasn't going to let this chance pass now that I had a clear view. As he looked up at with a bewildered and bloody face, I Traced a simple broadsword and launched it at his head at 90 mph. He was in too much pain to raise any kind of defense.

The results… weren't pretty.

Higa sat in mute horror as the sword imbedded itself in the front his desk, pinning the remains of Eltanwise's head to it. I turned away from him, moving toward the back of the room to where the Sekirei lay. The threads had disappeared, and now they were moaning in was I hoped was considerably less pain than they were experiencing before. "Are you alright?" I asked.

"Of course I'm not alright!" Bentisubasa screamed. "What the hell was that? I'm going to… kill…" she trailed off as she saw the bloody mess I had made.

"It seems there is a reason you consider yourself a fighter and not a lover…" Kazehana said in a pained voice, giving the carnage a wary look.

Homura simple waved me off as he sat up. "I'll be fine, I've experienced worse." He looked passed me and his eyes widened. "Shirou!" he said, pointing towards the end of the room.

Turning around I saw Higa exiting through a door on his side of the room. I turned back to Homura, wanting to give chase but not wanting to leave my Sekirei in such a state.

Homura must have seen the conflict on my face and said "Go! We can take care of ourselves!" A bit surprising coming from the man how had insisted that I should just stay out of combat altogether.

I nodded once and took off, my Reinforced legs swiftly carrying me through the door in pursuit. I briefly lost sight of Higa as he ducked through several corridors, but my superior speed allowed me to reach an intersection and locate him before he ran around another corner. I saw that he was yelling something into a hand held radio like my own, but I couldn't make out what it was. It didn't matter though as only a few short moments later I found him running past some cubicles in the direction of the stairs. Retracing Kanshou and Bakuya, I threw the white blade in front of him to head him off.

Because he was running along the end of the row along some windows, the sword crashed through the glass and went out into the air. Higa turned to me and gloated "You missed!"

I gave him a cold smile in return, moving my position to the side slightly. He apparently hadn't been paying too much attention to the fight earlier. Otherwise he might have known how I can summon the sword back to me, and might have paid more attention to the white blade which was currently flying back towards the building, with Higa directly between it and me. Its trajectory probably wouldn't kill him, but there was a good chance he was about to find himself with one less limb.

Or at least he would have if a white sheet of cloth didn't suddenly lashed out from the side and knocked Bakuya off course.

An instant latter a woman dressed in several swaths of white cloth jumped to Higa side. "Uzume?" I said in surprise. "What the hell are you doing?" Last I saw her she was wishing the lot of us luck as we left the Izumo House.

Uzume looked at me from under her cowl, and I could see that her eyes had the determined glare of someone who was ready to die for what they loved. "I'm sorry Shirou, but I can't risk it. I'll always appreciate the friendship you gave me," she wrapped one of her arms around Higa. "but the next time we meet, you will be my enemy." And with that she leapt out the broken window with Higa.

I ran to the window to see her extending a bolt of cloth to the top of a nearby building, using it to swing away not unlike a certain American comic book character. I traced my bow and lined the pair up in my sights… and did nothing as they swung out of view.

I let the bow dissipate as I stared after her in confusion. Why was Uzume helping Higa? Before I could think anymore about it, I heard Troper's voice coming from my belt. "Shirou! There are magi in the building!"

I sighed as I unhooked the radio from my belt. No, really? I thought to myself as I cursed my counterpart's completely too late warning. "I know. I fought and killed one. Higa escaped and Uzume's helping him for some reason. Where the hell have you been?" I snapped.

There was a brief pause before he responded. "I'm sorry, I got carless. We weren't expecting anything magical, so my team ended up walking right into some kind of defensive sleep spell. It was a pretty powerful one. We were all knocked out before we knew what was happening."

"What's your status?" I asked.

"I don't know where the rest of my team is, they seem to have split us up while we were unconscious. I just woke up."

"How did you get away? Didn't they restrain you somehow?"

There was another pause. "I think they were going to but… Well, I can't be sure because I was unconscious at the time, but I think the guy who was looking after me tried to read my mind."

I blinked. "Why do think that?"

"Two reasons," he said. "One is that I've suffered mental incursions in the past, and I know what it feels like afterward. The second is, well," His tone became sheepish. "There's a guy in the room with me who's curled up in a fetal position and keeps muttering to himself 'nothing is real' and 'they're all reading me from beyond the wall'."

It was at that moment I decided to try very hard not to think about what the inside of Troper's mind was like and instead asked "Does the man have a sort of silver thread is his hands?" I wanted to confirm a hunch I had.

There was a longer pause during which I assume Troper had gone to check. "Huh, yes he did." He eventually replied. "How did you know?"

"He's probably the brother of the man I killed." I said. It was impossible to be sure, but given Eltanwise's reaction and Troper's own experience, it was probable that making a connection with Etherlite is very bad for the user if the person on the other end happens to have a Reality Marble. It also seemed the exact results were as diverse as they were horrifying. "Look, things have gone south really fast. We need to regroup as soon as we can."

"Right." Troper agreed. "I'll look for my team and you look for yours. We keep in contact and set a rendezvous point when we have everyone."

"Make sure to keep an eye out for Yukari." I said as I began to run back to where I had left my Sekirei. Magi or not, I still needed to find my sister.