CHAPTER 2 : The Crimson Sekirei

Xenovi held Haihane's blade beside Yuki's body, the eyes of which, under Xenovi's control, stared coldly at the person who had tried to kill him, "Well, Haihane, what's next?"

The bandaged Sekirei tilted his head and smiled, "I'll have to do this, you don't have a bigger chest than Benitsuba, so there ain't no chance you'd piss her off" his eyes glinted, "And I remembered to get my TV show recorded, so no problems there, Kazehana"

The woman in purple smiled, "Of course"

Xenovi closed the eyes of his host, "I can't use this too many times, but if I do, I can probably restore some sort of function to this body…"

Haihane crouched, "Yeah right"

"Call of my pact"

Haihane threw his right arm's weapons to the ground and swung at Xenovi's head with his left.

"Break out from the eternal slumber"

Xenovi threw his arms back and his spine cracked. He felt all his organs explode in pain, but continued to bend his body until his head was horizontal. He screamed the last words of his incantation to the heavens, "Draw out my Ashikabi's pain!"

As soon as he finished, Haihane's blades pierced his heart, supposedly stopping it.

Xenovi smiled as Haihane's power was drawn into him from the wound, "I'm the spirit of Sekirei number 69, Xenovi the Vampire"

Haihane's eyes widened, "No way, You're the… Crimson Sekirei!"

Xenovie shook his head, "I am merely a fraction of the smallest power left behind by the late Crimson Sekirei"

Haihane withdrew his blades, but as soon as they exited Yuki's body, the wounds healed. Xenovie felt himself fading as his host's life no longer sat in the balance. He also knew that because he'd used his incantation, he would be destroyed and a portion of his power be given to Yuki. He smiled, "As a goodbye present"

The sleek black katana fell from Yuki's hand and slammed with an immense amount of force into Haihane's foot.

"Oh, and by the way"

"Huh?"

"I probably am bigger than her"

Yuki fell to the ground, barely conscious, but he could feel that his body was completely healed. The sword disappeared, along with the scabbard on Yuki's hip. Kazehana ran up to Haihane and, just before Yuki blacked out, he felt the last part of Xenovi flash a small burst of his power into the air, with no apparent reason. Yuki's vision faded and the last thing he saw was Minato Sahashi's confused face hovering concernedly in front of his own.

Yuki had a distinct sense of dejavu as he awoke on the couch in Maizon Izumo. Miya hovered out of the room and Minato stood, "What the hell, Yuki, do you have an idea who that was!?"

Yuki's forehead creased in confusion Of course I do Minato, you know I'm a Sekirei now…

Minato's worried voice pierced his thoughts, "I have no idea what compelled you to stand up for us like that but you didn't have to…" he kept speaking, but Yuki didn't have the energy or the intent to listen. Minato, did you forget all of that? Or was is a dream? No, I know what happened, I can't feel Xenovi inside me any more. Wait a second, what was the thing he did at the end. Lets see, Number 69, Xenovi the Vampire. Incredible regenerative abilities and strength. Absorbs enemies attacks and energy through direct contact and uses that to power his own strength. He is also known to be able to mess around with peoples minds by releasing his strength. He can even do something to peoples memories. Yuki suddenly knew what happened, Xenovi had accepted that, even though Yuki was reacting to Minato slightly, he would accept Yuki's wish and erase Minato and Kazehana's memories of Yuki's abilities.

Two more days passed without noteworthy incident. Then Matsu decided to pay the world a visit and asked Minato to accompany her to her room.

"May I accompany you guys?" asked Yuki, "If you're going to be talking about the Sekirei Plan then I would like to take part"

Matsu shot a quick look at him, "Well, I didn't know you knew about the Sekirei Plan" (She just happened to be talking to Miya at the time the fight took place)

Yuki smiled, "I was one of the highest ranking members of MBI, one of only a handful to be a part of the group I was in"

"Matsu, let's go, if you want to come, Yuki, I'm sure Matsu won't mind"

Minato and Yuki knelt on the floor behind Matsu, who was rapidly typing on one of her multitude of monitors. She smiled, "Alright, this might come as a surprise to you two, as it did for me, but then again it is Minaka… anyway, from what I can find, it turns out Homura might not have been the Final Feather as Minaka advertised"

Minato leant forward and Yuki's eyebrows raised themselves against his will.

"You see, I have here a list of Sekirei battles and outcomes. Over the entirety of the list of victors there are a lot of Sekirei missing, but that is understandable because some of them never won anything. But here's the clincher. I've got both lists here. Along with a list of those numbers that were discarded and those that stopped functioning before the Plan began and there is only one thing I can find similar between all of them. One absence. Over all the lists, only one hundred and seven Sekirei are actually documented. If I were a later Sekirei I might assume it died while still in embryonic form, however, I was the second to hatch and know that none died before hatching. I cannot find any record of the nineteenth Sekirei, no name, no alias, no ashikabi, not even a description of any kind except for one thing. Apparently, Sekirei number 69, Xenovi, the Crimson Sekirei, the Vampire, was a close friend of this Sekirei, and was later killed by it. Still, there is no record of a name or description of this Sekirei"

Yuki felt his right hand start to shake violently and he stood, "Excuse me" he walked outside just as his entire body began spasming. A long series of convulsions followed, along with a very swift vibration of both of his arms. He felt his organ all start moving freely again and realised that his power was beginning to go AWOL again. He felt his weight shifting as the gravity in the room affected his body instrange ways. H felt his lungs begin to float as his stomach flew forward. His kidneys were pushing to the right of his body and, most painfully of all, his skull was being torn to his left. Yuki stumbled into his room before he was completely consumed by his violent spasms. He fell to the floor, silently screaming in agony.

Only metres away, Matsu and Minato stared at the door where they'd seen Yuki just walk out. The normally wouldn't stare like that at something so normal, however, it wasn't the door they were staring at. It was the eerie afterimage of his hand, which was still there long after he wasn't. Matsu closed her eyes, "I don't think I have to voice my thoughts here, do I Minato?"

He shook his head, "No doubt about it, that's no ordinary MBI member"

Matsu nodded, "Something simple like that is no proof, but we must keep a close eye on him, especially if he's hiding something. If he is who I think he is, he must have an unstable ability, and so will probably end up killing himself"

"I won't be alive much longer anyway" Minato seemed to remember Yuki saying that at some point, But when, and why?

Yuki felt the bones in all of his limbs straining. Any normal skeleton would have simply shattered by now, but his reinforced bones wouldn't allow that, and Yuki sometimes wished that they did, it would end his suffering without his own hand being involved. He didn't have the gut to do that. However, he knew that the spasm would end soon, in fact, they only go for an average of thirty seconds, but every single one of those felt like days to Yuki, every slight movement sending a new form of agony to his brain. Yuki climbed slowly onto his bed, and his convulsions stopped. His strength waned but so too did the pain. He felt himself come back from his agony induced insanity and he heard his door open. Ku walked in, "Hey, mister Yuki, are you alri…" she screamed when she saw the state Yuki was in, blood running down his body, the same crimson liquid flowing from every orifice on his head. His normally beautiful white hair was matted and stained red with his blood. Her scream drew Minato, Musubi, Matsu, Miya and Tsukiumi into Yuki's room. Musubi immediately had the same reaction as Kusano, while Minato immediately ran to his side. Matsu and Tsukiumi joined Minato and Miya ran downstairs to get a first aid kit. Musubi took Ku outside and Tsukiumi joined hem, sick in the pit of her stomach. Matsu and Minato were busy talking to the barely conscious, barely responsive Yuki, who promptly vomited blood on Matsu's favourite clothes.

Matsu grabbed Yuki's arm, "Yuki, Yuki, are you alright?"
Minato's expression was one of terror, "what happened, who caused this?"

Yuki smiled slightly, "No, I'm going to die soon, nothing I can do. No chance of you saving me this time, eh, Xen"

Both of the people at his side looked confused, "Pardon?" asked Matsu

Yuki laughed, bringing up more blood, "Well, no response, nah, couldn't expect one"

He fell from the bed.

Three days later he was fully able-bodied again. That was the worst yet, no chance of surviving again. He walked to the door and Miya intercepted him, "Going somewhere, My Injured Boarder?"

Yuki nodded, "And if I don't come back, consider me gone forever, I'll probably be dead"

Miya grabbed his arm with the force of a vice, "If you plan on ending your life, I won't allow it"

Yuki shook his head, "My body is self destructing, Miya, I'm going to end up the same as a few nights ago again soon, and I don't want to hurt Ku again"

Miya nodded, "I can keep her our"

Yuki shook his head, "I'm not going to survive another one. Sorry Miya, but I don't want anyone here going up on murder charges" he walked out the front door, leaving everything but the clothes on his back in his room.

Miya walked upstairs ad into Yuki's room. It was as meticulously clean as usual, not a thing out of place. She looked around, "I realise that it isn't right to look through peoples things, but I don't want you to go, Yuki" she picked up his wakizashi which he had hanging on the wall and drew it. The beautiful, yet relatively unadorned blade shone in the pale light thrown by a lamp in the corner. Miya noticed a small mark below the hilt, a Sekirei symbol coloured deep purple and a number. 69.

She looked up from the weapon and opened the closet. She pulled out a few of the loose items of clothing Yuki was so fond of, and found a dark purple tailcoat hanging from a hanger, along with a crimson suit that seemed to shimmer in the light. Both of which had Sekirei symbols embroidered on their lapels. The crimson suit had a huge tear over where the heart of the wearer would have been. And the purple coat had a similar tear over the left shoulder. Miya immediately recognised them both, they belonged to ex-discipline squad members, Sekirei 69, Xenovi, the crimson Sekirei, and Sekirei 19, Yukisoma, the purple Sekirei.

Or as she had preferred to be called; number 19, Yuki, the Blade Dancer.

WOW! Ciffhanger number 2! Yuki's a girl, who saw that coming? All of us, I know, but still, it is so much fun playing with these characters. My question is, how will Yuki survive the night, and if he does, what will Miya's reaction to him be. Heck, what will Minato's be? Looking forward to it. LATER

Kisuke Bomb, signin' off

Oh, by the way, I'm going to focus on this one for a while then do the Death Reaper