I took out my phone as I hustled down the hallway, dialing my mother's number as I did so. She barely got out a hello before I interrupted her. "Takami, things haven't exactly gone as planned."

"What happened?" She asked.

"I don't know how or when, but Higa managed to get in contact with those people I was telling you about earlier." I said, not want to talk directly about the Clock Tower over the phone. "Long story short, those people are here, some people are dead, Higa's escaped, and I still don't know where Yukari is."

I heard an angry growl from the other end of the line. "I'm contacting MBI's assault and clean up teams. They'll be there in 10 minutes. I swear, if those medieval bastards did anything to her-"

"I'm going to find her, Mom." I interrupted, cutting her off before she could begin her rant in earnest. "I promise." I soon found myself back in the room where I had left Homura, Kazehana and Benitsubasa. The three of them were still on the floor, but they were now sitting up and seemed to be recovering. "Takami, I have to go. I'll be counting on those reinforcements." I hung up before she could say anything else. She may be mad at me later for how terse I had been, but I really didn't have time to fully explain things at the moment. "Do you think you can walk?" I asked the assorted Sekirei in front of me.

"We'll manage." Homura said, shakily getting to his feet. "Never mind that. Did you get Higa?"

I gave a grimace. "No. Uzume helped him escape."

"What?" Homura replied in shock. "Why would she do that? And for that matter, what was she doing here to begin with?"

I sighed. "I don't know. It could be that she always worked for him as a sort of outside contractor, but that still doesn't really explain why she would do it in the first place. She made it clear that hated the man."

"She did it for the one reason Sekirei do anything." Kazehana suddenly said. Turning to her, I saw she had a sad, knowing look on her face. "Love."

I looked at her in puzzlement for a brief moment. Then realization hit me like a freight train.

"Aaaargh!" I screamed out in frustration at my own stupidity. "Higa has her Ashikabi hostage!" Looking back, it seemed almost obvious in retrospect. I had thought her tactics as the Veiled Sekirei were simply a way of protecting her hospitalized Ashikabi, but it would also be just the kind of thing Higa would do to eliminate the competition. For that matter, I had already suspected Higa had a number of Sekirei under his employ through the use of threatening their respective Ashikabi. Why didn't I think to check if the safety of the very vulnerable companion of one of my house mates was compromised?

"Wait, you knew?" Homura shot the wind Sekirei an accusing glace.

"I suspected." She replied. "For all her slinking about during the Sekirei Plan, she didn't seem particularly happy with what she was doing. It wasn't until just now that I realized who was responsible."

Whatever Homura's response was, it was cut off Benitsubasa saying "Yeah, that's great, whatever. Now on to more important things, like WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?"

My Sekirei stared at her angrily, but I simply said "She has a point. We can talk about this later. Right now, we need to focus on regrouping and finding Yukari." I gave the red Sekirei a wary eye, not sure how much she knew about the magi. The video Takami showed me only showed Karasuba in the raid against the Clock Tower warehouses. It was possible that she didn't even know that the organization that was abducting the Sekirei had extra-normal abilities, or maybe just didn't know the extent of them. For now, I decided to settle on being vague. "As for what's going on, it seems Higa made a deal with the people who have been taking the Sekirei of late."

Benitsubasa's eyes widened at this. "Wait, how do you know about the abductions?" she asked with suspicion in her voice.

"A little bird told me." I remarked, sure she take that to mean I had used Matsu to find out. I'm not sure if it mattered, but I didn't want her to find out that Takami had been supplying me with insider information. "Anyway, the other team ended up running into trouble of their own, so they've become separated as well. I've called Takami and she's sending MBI forces as we speak, but at the moment we're all vulnerable."

Homura nodded at my assessment. "Well, it shouldn't be too hard to see where the rest of our party went." He said, waving his hand back towards the hallway were we had become separated. "Just follow the trail of destruction."

I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised that a fight between magi and superhuman aliens could cause so much damage, but by the time we reached the 5 ruin of a room, I was starting to worry for the structural integrity of the building. In addition to the mangled furniture, whole walls were missing, not to mention several holes in both the floor and ceiling. Given the size of them, it was likely the fight ended up moving to different floors. The thing that was most prominent though was the ice. There were very few surfaces on this floor that weren't covered in frost or had very large, sharp icicles sticking out of them. This was likely the result of both Akitsu and Tsukiumi using their abilities in concert with each other. The results of their powers were once again something truly humbling to behold, especially considering that walls and furniture weren't the only things we found damaged in their wake.

Kazehana had a surprisingly calm expression on her face as she kicked a severed arm out of her path. So far, the wind Sekirei hadn't given much regard for the numerous bodies we had come across. It was likely that her time in the first Disciplinary Squad had gotten her used to such grisly sights of death. Homura wasn't taking it quite as well, a somewhat sick expression on his face. Nevertheless, he still checked very body we came across to see if they were alive. Surprisingly, a few were, although they were in bad shape, either with many wounds, encased in ice, or both. As their wounds were serious enough that the odds of them surviving the next hour were slim to none, I decided not to kill them then in there. It might have been the more practical thing to do, but I was reluctant to kill helpless person in front of the two members of my flock. Although, I don't think Benitsubasa would have minded too much…

"Man, this is awesome!" The red Sekirei exalted, surveying the carnage around her with a disturbing amount of glee. "I always love to see Karasuba's handiwork, but whichever one of yours has the ice powers is something else."

As she leaned forward to inspect an Enforcer that had been pinned to the wall by icicles, I grimaced and thought of Akitsu. I had already seen firsthand the results of the snow woman's anger when it came to my safety, and the fact that she had been separated from me by these people likely hadn't done them any favors. I had no doubt she could (and would) tear this entire building down piece by piece in order to find me. After seeing all this, I was starting to worry about how she was handling this emotionally.

For that matter I was worried how all my Sekirei were handling this level of brutality. It was unlikely I'd have to worry about Kazehana or Homura. The wind Sekirei seemed to be able to deal with it just fine, and while the fire Sekirei wasn't used to it, he had a better grasp on the nature of the world in the people in it that most. He understood it and could deal with it. Akitsu… well, her actions said more than her words ever would on this particular matter. No, the two I was really worried about were Musubi and Tsukiumi. For all of Musubi's love of battle, she still had a very innocent air about her. I was not sure how she would handle this level of brutality from one of her flock members. Then again, she was friends with Karasuba, so maybe I'm worrying over nothing. Tsukiumi on the other hand may be shocked to see that being the strongest doesn't mean as much if there are people in this world willing to go to these lengths.

I was suddenly cut out of my musings by a scream from where I had come from. It sounded female, and familiar. Yukari!

I immediately took off as fast as my reinforced legs would take me, the Sekirei falling in suit behind me. In a few moments we reached the large office room where I had fought Eltanwise, and standing in the hallway looking in with a look of horror on her face was Yukari. "Yukari!" I yelled, jumping in front of her with Kanshou and Bakuya, ready to face anything that might be threading my little sister. I was surprised for a moment when I saw that the room was just how I left it, but then I realized she had been staring at the mess that used to be the magus. For all my worrying about my Sekirei, I forgot about how my sister would react if she saw the aftermath of battle.

"O-onii-chan?" I heard Yukari say from behind me. Turning around, I saw her looking at me with uncertain eyes. Particularly, she was looking at the two oversized Chinese sabers in my hands. While she had heard of my violent past, to see me standing there with some rather large weapons and holding myself like I knew how to use them was very jarring given her normal mental image of me cooking or doing house work. "What are you doing here?"

"Are you alright?" I asked instead. Her eye's flicked back into the room for a moment before coming back to me. She gave me a hesitant nod and I sighed in relief. "Good, I'm here to get you out of here." I said, touching her shoulder (carefully, I was still holding the swords) and pushing her gently, moving her so she couldn't see Eltanwise's remains. I had a number of questions for her, but at the moment I asked "How did you escape? Did one of my Sekirei find you?"

"N-no." She stuttered briefly before taking a moment to compose herself. "It was Sakura-san. When all the noises started, Sakura came into my room, and told me now was my chance to escape as all the people who were guarding me were busy." That's right, Yukari still thinks Rin is named Sakura. I guess she somehow got away from her captors and continued the search for my sister without the rest of Troper's group. Yukari continued. "I asked her to come with me but she was acting weird and she…" she trailed of looking down the hallway at the destruction the fight caused. "Onii-chan, what's going on? Why does this place look like a war zone?"

"Yukari, I'll explain later. Right now, I want you go with Homura and get out of the building. MBI forces are on their way and should be here shortly, they'll keep you safe." She tried to speak up but I shushed her. "Right now I need you to do what I say. Can you please do that for me?" She hesitated for a moment before she reluctantly nodded. I turned to the fire Sekirei. "Take her out the back of the building, but stay out of sight until MBI arrives. We don't know who might still be lurking around."

Homura nodded and gently grasped her hand, leading the two of them to the stairwell and out of sight. I took the radio off my belt and press the talk switch. "Troper, I've found Yukari. I'm sending her out the back with Homura. By the way, MBI teams are going to be arriving soon, so make sure to stay out of sight."

There was a brief pause before I heard a reply. "Really? That's convenient, I just found Shiina. They had us each locked in our own separate rooms. When word came down that things had gone out of control on the 25th floor, most of the Enforcers down here migrated upwards, and then the lot of my team made their respective breakouts." There was another brief pause before he continued. "Shiina just left to meet up with Homura and Yukari. In other news, I'm currently tracking down Seo and his twins, but I haven't seen any trace of Rin."

"Apparently she made it all the way up here at some point. She was the one who found Yukari." I said, walking back in the direction I was going before.

"Huh. How did she get up there so fast? Is she with you now?"

I frowned to myself. "No. Yukari wasn't specific, but apparently Rin didn't stick with her for some reason."

"That doesn't sound right." Troper replied. "I'll have to have a talk with her about that."

"Well, keep searching." I said, and hung the radio back on my belt.

It was about two minutes and 3 floors down later that I final found the rest of my party. It seems were ended up going around each other in circles for a little bit before spotted one another. Well, before Akitsu spotted me anyway. One moment I was walking down the hall and the next a blur of white jumped in front of me, causing me to nearly attack it out of reflex. "Master, are you alright?" While she said this, her head was tilted downward, her eyes nervously flicking between my gaze and the ground.

If I were still my 16 year old self, I probably wouldn't have understood why she was acting like this, but given my age and experience with Akitsu, is was fairly obvious what she was feeling: shame. She felt that she had failed in her duty to protect me when the bounded field cut us off from one another.

I put my hand on her shoulder. "I'm fine Akitsu, and it wasn't your fault. I should have thought of the possibly that magi could have been involved." I gave her a reassuring smile. "You did well clearing out the building."

There was a brief moment of hesitation before she looked back at me and nodded, then followed by a swift movement placing her in her usual position back and to the left of me. Say what you will about the snow woman, but given the proper reassurance, she put her own feelings aside fast.

"Shirou-san!" was the only warning I had before I felt the ever familiar sensation of two soft globes of flesh wrapping themselves around my head. Doing my best not to flail around with a sword in each hand, I managed to tilt my head so that my vision could see more than cleavage related darkness and I could see the rest of my group coming towards me. Sans Musubi of course, who was at the moment trying to asphyxiate me with her love pillows.

"Mu-su-bi!" Tsukiumi ground out, stomping up next to the enthusiastic bear Sekirei. "You always do this! You always take advantage of these situations to get close to Shirou!" As the two settled into one of their usually arguments, I felt somewhat relived and surprised by their normal behavior give all that's happened. Maybe my worrying over the stress of such brutal fighting was unneeded?

I didn't have long to think about it, as a moment later I heard. "Ah, Shiroui-chan, you sure know how to show a girl a good time." Readjusting myself, I managed to get a better look at Karasuba, who was walking towards me. The black Sekirei was covered in blood (most assuredly not her own) and was looking quite pleased with herself, like the predator after a difficult kill. The sight was quite jarring compared to the back and forth Musubi and Tsukiumi were engaged in, though they did stop the moment the saw Karasuba approach. Tsukiumi had a noticeable scowl on her face as she approached, and even Musubi seemed a little uncomfortable seeing her friend in her current state.

"I aim to please." I replied dryly. "In any case, I found Yukari a short while ago, and she was escorted out of the building. And by the sound it," I theatrically cocked my head to the side, indicating the sound of helicopters that was steadily growing louder, "MBI is going to be here any second. So I guess that's it."

"Aw, don't be like that," Karasuba said in a coy manner that might have been endearing if her current appearance wasn't so macabre. "They rest of these oddities may have fled like rats when the saw things weren't going the way they wanted, but I'm sure you and I could find something fun to do…" Her voice had taken on an oddly seductive quality to it, which made it all the more unsettling given that her idea of 'fun' most assuredly involved copious amounts of violence. I was somewhat surprised though when she turned her gaze to Akitsu and said "I'll even consider letting bring a friend. I never knew she was so… interesting."

I tried to ignore the rather twisted threesome implications by focusing on the fact Karasuba seemed to have taken an interest in Akitsu. It wasn't surprising now that I thought about it: not only did the snow woman show her that she was massively powerful, but also that she was capable of killing without hesitation as well. Given Karasuba's love of fighting, I was starting to worry she might just engage Akitsu right now to see just how strong she was.

For her part, Akitsu merely gave a glance at the black Sekirei before returning to her usual study of me. I saw the slightest hint of irritation cross Karasuba's face at this, as it seemed this was not the reaction she wanted from the snow woman. She was used to reactions like Musubi's friendship, Miya's scorn, and my own wary caution. Akitsu on the other hand seemed to simply dismiss her as irrelevant, and it was not a response Karasuba enjoyed.

Oddly enough, it was Benitsubasa that broke the tension that had settled around the group. "Karasuba, stop flirting with him and let's go! There's no one else left to fight and Takami will be pissed if you end up hurting him."

"… I'm a little tired." Haihane added. In truth, the blue Sekrei did look a little worse for wear.

Karasuba blinked in surprise at her two subordinates for a moment before giving a small chuckle to herself and relaxing her posture. She then proceeded to walk past me, not sparing me or my Sekirei a second glance. As her two subordinates feel in line, she said "I'm looking forward to our next date, Shiroui-chan."

I tried to suppress a shudder as she walked out of sight. That woman had issues.

Ten minutes later I found myself still wandering through the building, but now I was alone. Shortly after the meeting with Karasuba, everyone regrouped with the MBI forces to do a head count. Troper had managed find Seo 'fighting' with No. 22 and No. 31. He put the word fighting in finger quotes and the only elaboration he would give on it was that 'it was closer to sexual harassment than combat.' I decided I didn't want to know.

In any case, Takami had come along with the strike teams and last I saw of her she was comforting her daughter. I'm sure that normally my adventurous little sister could have shrugged of her kidnapping like it was a minor inconvenience, but the sight of gore had still shaken her up a bit. I was certain she would be fine, but I was glad Takami was looking after her while I searched for Rin.

For whatever reason, she still hadn't turned up, even with all of the MBI personnel currently searching the building for any remaining magi. It was at the point that Troper was starting to get worried, so I added myself and my Sekirei to the search, having the lot of us spread out.

I was on the 26th floor checking around some cubicles when I noticed that something was off. I turned around in confusion a few times, trying to pinpoint the discrepancy my sense were telling me was there. I finally found it in the form of a closed office door which my eyes had trouble focusing on. Inhaling deeply through my nose, I smelled the faintest sent of magic coming from the door. It must be a bounded field to prevent people from noticing it, I thought to myself. It must have been made quickly, otherwise I would never had a chance of perceiving it. Still, pretty impressive all things considered. I briefly considered my options before Tracing Kanshou and Bakuya. It was likely whoever was in there was waiting for MBI to leave so that they could make their escapes, and considering the skill it must have taken to set up the field on such short notice, I doubted I'd be able to sneak by it. That left one option: Knock down the door, and try to take them out before they knew what was going on.

I took a moment to ready myself. Then, I charged forward, kicking the door inward with swords at the ready, prepared to Trace and launch more if the target was out of range… and promptly found myself staring at a Gandr charged finger in my face.

Both Rin and I started in surprise, apparently neither of us expecting the other. "Oh, it's you." I said, breathing out a tension relieving sigh as I did so. It was silly that I didn't consider that Rin was the one who made the bounded field. If she was anything like my Rin, she definitely had the skill to do so. "Troper's been looking all over for you. The building's clear now, so let's go."

I made to turn around, but I then noticed that Rin's look of surprise hadn't changed. If anything, she looked even more shocked, with her figure still pointing at me (sans Gandr thankfully) and her jaw dropping open. I paused in confusion for a moment before asking "Rin, what's wrong?"

Her expression of shock slowly turned to one of anger, and I felt a very nostalgic sense of doom creep over me. "What's wrong?" she ground out between clenched teeth. "Six month… six months since we last saw each other and the first this you say to me is 'Oh, it's you'?"

I blinked in confusion as I stared at her. Six months? What was she talking about? The last time I saw her was an hour ago. Hell, she wasn't even in this dimension that long ago, let alone had seen me when I… was… fleeing…

My swords dropped out of my hands.

Oh.

Oh.

"Shirou?" Slowly turning my head to the startled cry to my left, I saw Saber standing there looking at with wide eyes. I would later learn that she had been scouting the building for enemy presence while her master hid, but the logistics of how and why the two were currently here were pushed out of my mind by two more pressing facts:

1. The women standing in front of me were my Rin and Saber.

2. Judging by the look in Rin's eyes and the Gandr currently gathering on her finger, my near future was looking completely screwed.

"Stupid Shirou!" Rin yelled, and fired the first of many curses in my direction.

The next two minutes were something of a blur of pain, dark bolts of magic and me running desperately through hallways to get away from the tiny magus's wrath. It could only image the scene would have looked rather amusing from the outside, because for some reason I swear I could hear music playing while all this was going on. It sounded an awful lot like the music that accompanied the chase scenes preformed by a certain English comic I had seen on Matsu's tablet. I think it was called Yakety Sax. In any case, I was sure that this was somehow Troper's fault.

Speaking of my counterpart, the chase ended when I turned a corner and ended up colliding with the man, sending us both sprawling to the floor. "Shirou, what hell?" He asked, pulling himself to his feet. "I heard screaming and I ran here as fast as I could. What's-" He was suddenly cut short when Rin and Saber rounded the corner after me, collided with him and the four of us ended up in a heap together.

After some more cursing on Rin's part the four of us got to our feet. Troper was still wearing his bandana and hat, so my two former lovers didn't recognize him at first glance. Troper on the other hand…

He was quite close to Saber when both straightened and looked at each other, she looking at him in suspicion and he looking at her with shock that had mirrored Rin's when she first saw me. There was a brief pause before he swiftly wrapped her in an embrace, much to the confusion of the blonde swordwoman. What seemed to confuse her more was that she didn't immediately shake him off, and why he seemed so familiar.

Of course, Rin and I were less confused about how we felt about him hugging her. "Hey!" we both said.

Slower than I would have liked, he released his embrace from Saber, a look of shame and embarrassment in his eyes. "I'm… sorry. I shouldn't have done that." He looked off to the side. "You're not her."

"Just who the hell are you?" Rin shouted at Troper. "And what did you think you were doing with her?"

He paused for a moment as if trying to gather his thoughts, but then just shrugged and removed his bandana and hat. "My name is Shirou Emyia," he said, Rin and Saber gasping in surprise at his appearance. "And I take it that you're his Rin and Saber?"

"…What?" Rin yelled in response to the absurdity in front of her. She pointed at the two of us. "You two. Start explaining. Now."

"Zelretch." We both said at the same time.

Rin opened her mouth… and then closed it. She opened it again, lifting a finger up… and closed it again, looking down at the floor with a look of deep concentration on her face. I'm not sure if she was trying to figure out if that was plausible or if she was deciding to just blast us both for such a terse answer.

"You… probably want some time alone with them." Troper said, nervously watching Rin as she started to mutter ominously to herself. "In any case, with this little revelation, I'm pretty sure I know what happened to my Rin, but we can talk about that later." With a final glance at Saber, he turned and walked away.

I looked at Saber, who's normally stoic face was a mixture of emotion. Oh god, what I supposed to say to them? There was so much going on, so many things that had happen, so many things they needed to know, so many things I wanted to say. "Saber, I-"

I was suddenly cut off by Saber grabbing me by the collar and kissing me deeply. I was surprised for a moment, before instinct and emotion overwhelmed everything else and I embraced her, returning the kiss with just as much passion.

"Hey!" Rin said, snapping out of her muttering. "Stop that! We're still mad at him for-" I promptly cut her off by breaking the kiss with Saber and giving her one as well, wrapping an arm around her body. She squirmed indignantly for a moment before giving in and returning the kiss in kind. As we broke apart, she put her head against my chest, and a small sniffle escaped from her. "Stupid Shirou," I heard her mumble into my shirt. "I missed you."

"I missed you too." I said, as tears began to well up in my eyes. "And you." I added, putting my forehead against Saber's. She smiled at me as I did so, her own eyes beginning to water with tears.

The three of us stood there in the hallway, embracing each other, too overwhelmed with the moment to say anything else.

I knew that wouldn't be the end of it.

I knew that things would be hard later.

But right then, at that moment, we had each other, and all was right with the world again.