Chapter 2

Matsu was enjoying her snack of leftover taoyaki and a cup of tea from the fridge when she looked up from her food and spotted Hamatarou coming from the hallway to her left. It seems he's unaware of my presence. Matsu noted with a smile. Let's see how long it takes for him to notice me. #02 kept eating, making sure to stay quiet and keeping an eye on Hamatarou. The oblivious one sat down on a recliner in front of his television, not turning on the device just yet. He decided to keep thinking about whatever he was thinking. Matsu noticed he has a habit of moving his head side to side when he's thinking about something really hard. She raised her hand to her mouth to stifle a giggle. What an amusing human! First his sharp intellect he's shown in handing that geezer's ass to him at his own game, now this truly adorable little habit of his. Matsu mused. She noted it might take a while for him to re-emerge into reality so she opted to make her presence known. Matsu cleared her throat audibly and called out to Hamatarou, "Hello there~!"

Hamatarou, having been incredibly deep in thought, was slow to react. He rose from his seat and looked in the direction of the voice, not really registering there was a stranger in his home. He took a moment to take in her appearance. She had round glasses on her face, reddish-brown hair, waist-length and tied into two braids and a figure women would kill for, from her massive breasts to the slim, tight waist and her large and shapely hips. She wore a sky-blue Chinese style dress which ended just above her knees and was split at the sides to show off her full thighs. Her complexion was a rather pale peach, almost as if she hasn't really seen much sun. Then his eyes started to open wide and various emotions started to show themselves all over his face, the most prominent being shock. He figured since the strange woman in his kitchen snacking on his food would make herself known by verbally calling out to him, she mustn't really mean him any harm. Nevertheless, she broke into his home and is a stranger so he opted to respond, "How did you get in here?"

Matsu's lips curved upwards. Naturally he'd ask what was on his mind, and what else would be his first question than that? Matsu waved her hand dismissively and answered, "Nothing a bobby pin couldn't handle."

Hamatarou's eyes narrowed at this, not buying such a simple answer. For starters, did she just jump the fence? And what about-

"Oh, and the security system revealed how to unlock itself. And really, the passcode to the gate is 1111?" Matsu released a melodic giggle at this. "You're not a very imaginative fellow are you?"

Hamatarou's face flushed at her almost condescending comments. She tricked the security system into unlocking ITSELF? So she hacked into it? He shook his head, before he delved deeper into his mind trying to figure out the meaning behind her statements and looked up at where she was seated, only to see she wasn't there anymore. Hamatarou tilted his head slightly in confusion, until he felt a presence to his right and saw her seated on his sofa, with her legs crossed and her head resting on her hand with a smile gracing her admittedly gorgeous face. Hamatarou found his voice again, "Would you mind telling me why you broke into my home? And how would be nice, but something tells me a thief wouldn't share the tricks to her trade."

Matsu's face fell in mock hurt, "Matsu? A thief?" She then realized that title isn't entirely false when it's used to address her, considering what she has in her sleeve from MBI. However her smile didn't falter and she continued, "Perish the thought! Matsu just wanted to congratulate you on your handy victory on that old man, what was his name?" She paused, trying to remember his name.

She calls herself Matsu. I guess that's her name, for now. Then Hamatarou registered what she said. The accountant's brow was already slightly furrowed in confusion but now it was well on it's way to forming even more wrinkles, "You were watching my game with the old geezer Nijima?" He thought back to his match with the crafty coot, distinctly remembering no one was close enough to see anything. "But you weren't anywhere close to watch the game...wait, are you...a stalker?"

At this, Matsu openly laughed. Partly because it was true in a way and partly because he figured it out so quickly. You're just full of surprises, aren't you Hamatarou? Matsu decided to play along with his latest accusation. "As expected of the subject of my deep love, you guessed right! Matsu is your stalker~!" She made weird grabby motions with her hands and her glasses became rather obtuse. "Now tell Matsu where you keep your toe nail clippings~!"

Hamatarou sweat-dropped and backed away from the strange woman while she advanced towards him at the same pace. "Right well, uh..." Hamatarou was at a loss for words. "Look, I'll give you my toe nails, just get out of here afterwords!" Now Matsu laughter spiraled out of control, to the point she grabbed her sides and leaned forward, showing Hamatarou a generous amount of her cleavage. Hamatarou's face took on a rosy hue once again, plus he was starting to get irritated. Laugh at me eh? He fumed. "What's so darn funny?!"

Matsu took her glasses off for a moment, breathed deep to calm herself down and wiped a tear from her right eye. "Oh Hamatarou, you are! You're so easily flustered, Matsu couldn't help but tease you." Matsu snickered a bit more but kept a lid on it as she noticed Hamatarou is starting to get angry.

"Yeah, well you can go yuck it up after I call the police on your stalker ass." He grumbled, finally fed up with this strange woman. Matsu's eyes widened at this threat, since MBI had men inside the various precincts.

"W-wait! Please don't call the police! Matsu apologizes for teasing you!" Matsu reached out and grabbed Hamatarou's forearm before he went any further.

Hamatarou looked at Matsu incredulously. "Wait? You broke into my house!" He near shouted, and since they were in such close proximity, Matsu cowed slightly at the power of his voice. Hamatarou slapped his free hand to his face and dragged it down slowly. She hasn't openly tried to harm me and nothing looks stolen now that I look around. Maybe I should just let her go? He took in her pleading look through the gap in his fingers and sighed, "I'm willing to overlook this, just get out of here."

Matsu realized her chance to talk to Hamatarou one-on-one was slipping out of her hands. "Hold on! Matsu wishes to challenge you to a game of chess!" At this Hamatarou dropped his hand from his face, paused and faced her. Matsu took this time to really get a good look at his visage and saw he was fairly handsome and the warmth that spread through her core surged once again. Oh, I'm definitely reacting to Hamatarou...but I don't know if I can get him to accept me just yet. So I'll just... "If I win, you'll listen to my request."

Hamatarou, being a man who never backed away from a challenge was put in a position where he'd have to accept, asked, "And what if I win?"

Matsu paused, not really knowing what to offer the young man. "Well, Matsu can't say...what do you want?" she decided directly asking him would be the best way to assure he'd accept.

At this, Hamatarou tilted his head slightly. After a quick second thinking about it, he responded, "How about you tell me your actual reasons for being here, and how my security system 'revealed' how to unlock itself? I'm going to guess you hacked it, but there's failsafes for that and you blew past it without even a peep. That's actually impressive." He admitted to the voluptuous woman in front of him.

Matsu blushed slightly at the compliment. "Matsu accepts your conditions. Do we have an agreement?" She extended her hand, wanting to shake on it. Hamatarou nodded and shook her hand, accepting the verbal contract. Hamatarou then moved towards the coffee table to the side of his recliner and lifted the glass chess board with its pieces already set. He then moved over to the kitchen's table and set it there, taking the obtuse glass pieces, which were the black ones. Hamatarou gestured towards the other side of the table and waited for Matsu to take her seat.

Hamatarou opened his mouth to say something, then closed it and stood up again. Matsu looked up at him in mild confusion and then realization when she saw Hamatarou grab a timer. Matsu then remarked, "Blitz chess, is it?" Hamatarou nodded, deciding he'd play this game with everything he can to his advantage. I agreed to whatever request she'd have if she wins. Naturally she's not GOING to win so I'd better make sure of it by stacking the cards in my favour. He thought to himself, feeling satisfaction at his own maneuvering.

Hamatarou spoke up, "Best two out of three?" Matsu nodded her consent and decided to go help herself to a re-fill of green tea. At this Hamatarou scowled, "Usually a guest, if I can even call you that, asks her host for a drink."

#02 had the decency to look ashamed of herself and humbly said, "Thank you very much for your hospitality." The red haired Sekirei re-focused on the matter at hand. Matsu was no slouch when it came to thinking quickly and since she was a Sekirei, she was confident in her ability to oust Hamatarou at his own game. Hamatarou used the same gesture he did with his match with Nijima earlier today. Matsu took the cue by slapping the timer on, immediately making her opening move and slapping the timer again signifying Hamatarou's turn.

Hamatarou, being the black pieces, statistically has a higher chance of losing but it was his style to await the first move. He opted to use the time they spent playing to interrogate Matsu, "So tell me, my stalker." At this Matsu giggled again but quickly re-focused, not wanting to take Hamatarou lightly. "What exactly made me the target of 'your deep love?'" Hamatarou put emphasis on the last part in a way Matsu could tell he obviously didn't believe she was his stalker. Slap (the timer, in case you guys couldn't tell).

Matsu made eye contact, dropping all semblances of jokes and decided the quickest way to make him accept her was the truth: "Your chess game. It showed just how sharp you are and you took those old geezers out to eat with your pay. Plus they called you 'Hana-sama,' which leads me to believe you've gone out of your way to treat them before." Matsu settled her piece down on the board. Slap.

After processing the last part of her confession, he realized she was right. Why the hell did I treat those geezers to some ramen? Sure it was at a discount, but that still cost me. Being an accountant, I know what those little expenses do to a checkbook. Are they my friends? But we just play games occasionally when I visit them at that park table. Hamatarou withdrew from his thoughts, moved his piece and continued his line of questioning, "So what, I prove I'm smart and all of a sudden you want to break into my home to see how smart? If that's all it takes to get a woman interested in you, I ought to have a different one coming in and out of this house on the daily. I'm not buying it." Slap.

Matsu looked up at him again. Naturally, a bit of an ego. He's the kind of guy who's right a lot and quite used to it. I can see why, he's on the money with his analysis. "There's that razor wit again. You just saw Matsu's supposed 'intentions' were false. Plus, even though Matsu deceived you, you're giving Matsu a chance. And now Matsu confirmed you've got a bit on an ego on you Hama-tan~" The use of -tan made Hamatarou raise his eye and look at Matsu severely. Slap.

"Don't call me 'Hama-tan'. No one calls me 'Hama-tan'." Hamatarou noticed he's getting irritated, so he attempted to calm himself down by breathing a little deeper and going about a mental exercise to re-focus his mental energies on the matter at hand. "So you've admitted you're here for a different reason than stated previously. I'm going to ask again, why are you here?" Slap.

Matsu smirked at his latest question. "Trying to get your prize ahead of time Hama-tan, for shame. You're acting as if you already wooon!" Matsu was trying to get a rise out of Hamatarou just like he did before with Nijima, except this time it was working. Hamatarou grit his teeth slightly and had a bit of a frown gracing his face. Matsu kept the smirk on her face, "Why don't you ask the question that's really on your mind, Hama-kun~?" Slap.

Hamatarou realized he was being messed with, but for some reason he couldn't quite rein in his irritation at the situation. He decided to try to turn the tables on her by asking a rather left-field question: "What are your three sizes?" On the outside he held his poker face, but internally he just face-palmed. NOT what I was going to ask! Now I seem like the creep! Of course, the question was pretty out there so Matsu naturally reacted, a startled jump, a "Huh?!" and a blush creeping up to her cheeks. Naturally, even Hamatarou was a little shook up from his own question, an even more intense blush painting his face. "You heard me, what are your three sizes?" Slap.

Matsu adjusted her glasses and wiggled in her seat a little. Muu, what an outrageous man~! So booold~! I'm falling for him even more~! Matsu gushed to herself. She then noticed the blush on Hamatarou's face and she smiled her pervert smile. "B 95, W 58, H 91." She figured straight up answering would fluster him even further and show Matsu an even cuter side to her future Ashikabi. As expected, Hamatarou's complexion approached a shade resembling a tomato; Matsu couldn't keep in her giggles and nearly forgot to move her piece. Slap.

Hamatarou tried valiantly to keep his composure, but cracks were starting to show and he knew Matsu could tell. Due to his shock about her actually answering his question, he ended up blurting out, "Your bust is how big?!" and he even took a peek at her glorious breasts, damn his male mind. Matsu couldn't contain herself, started blushing even harder, lightly slapped both hands to her face and cried out, "Iyaaan, Hama-tan hentaaaiii*! Don't stare at Matsu's breasts~!" Matsu started smirking her pervert smirk. "Or rather, don't stare at Matsu's breasts with this dress ooon~" Matsu pulled at one side of her dress, showing off more of her right breast. This finally threw Hamatarou over the edge and he proceeded to erupt blood from his nose, falling back into his seat and landing on the floor, nearly blacked out. Matsu again started laughing at her future ashikabi's expense and didn't stop for a good minute while Hamatarou tried, and failed, to regain his composure. Finally, he rose from the floor, righted his seat and sat down, only for the timer to ring and for him to study the board and see he lost the first match.

Hamatarou couldn't believe it. Matsu just blew through his guard and flustered him into her first victory. His normally iron-clad self-control was in shambles! This woman, who the hell is she?! And how shameless can she be, showing her breasts to a full-grown man like that! What if I attacked her? W-wait, I wouldn't do that! Hamatarou thought to himself convincingly (or so he thought). Matsu finally calmed down from her laughter and looked at Hamatarou with a rather cute smile. "What's the matter Hama-taaan, are you thinking ecchi** thoughts again~?" Hamatarou looked at #02 severely again and didn't answer, opting to reset the timer and both sets of pieces on the board. "Oh that's right, time for the final round," Matsu mentioned in an off-handed fashion. Hamatarou didn't miss that little comment but he knew her game now. Matsu was trying to fluster him into submission, basically. He figured if he just didn't respond to any of her advances and watch what I fucking say! He thought that last part to himself rather loudly, he'd be just fine. Instead of immediately talking to the perverted devil of a woman in front of him, he deigned to gesture once again, that the first move was hers. She opted for the same opening move as last time. Slap.

"I'm sure you know, but that still wasn't the question I meant to ask." Hamatarou stated and Matsu nodded at this, realizing her future ashikabi was all business for now. "What I mean to ask is, how did you see my game against Nijima? You weren't around to watch it, the only thing close enough to us to even see the game was that birch tree, and I'm sure it wasn't intere-" He stopped mid-word, coming to a realization. Hamatarou couldn't finish his sentence, instead just looking at Matsu questioningly. Slap.

"Very good Hama-kun! You're right, Matsu was in the tree. Oh, and before you ask, it was to hide from some dangerous people." Matsu told Hamatarou in a tame fashion, a complete 360 from her dragging of certain words and girl-ish teasing, and went on "And before you ask the next question, Matsu is afraid telling you who was chasing me or why would be dangerous to your health, unless you accept my request." At this, Hamatarou made a sour face and opened his mouth to say something, but Matsu interrupted, "And before you say what you want to say, Matsu is not trying to coerce you into throwing this game, Matsu is just telling you how it is." Matsu looked at her future ashikabi wistfully, almost as if she genuinely wished she could tell him right then and there, but couldn't. Slap.

Hamatarou withdrew into his own thoughts momentarily to digest what he learned. What could she be running from? Obviously Matsu has a brain almost as sharp as mine. Hamatarou pondered, completely oblivious as to how egotistic that last part was. What could she have done to have such dangerous people chasing her? I didn't see anyone running through the park looking for anyone, but it's not as if I was searching for people looking for other people. Could she be lying? I do sense a ring of truth in her words though... Hamatarou decided to return to reality and opted not to question Matsu further for now. Slap.

Matsu immediately noticed his lack of questions and decided it was time for her to bring a few of her own up. "Can Matsu ask you some questions now?" She queried with a tilt of her beautiful head. Hamatarou nodded with no hesitation; after all, it was only fair she gets some answers of her own. "Would you believe it if Matsu wasn't a human?" At this Hamatarou looked at her suspiciously, suspecting some form of foul play. She sure as hell looks human to me... Hamatarou said to himself. Slap.

Hamatarou decided to voice his concerns aloud, "Not really, you sure look human to me. Although, you're beauty is admittedly out of this world..." That last part was muttered to himself and even with Matsu's enhanced Sekirei hearing, she couldn't quite catch the end of his answer. She knew better than to ask though, Hamatarou would've spoken up if she was to hear it. Slap.

Matsu smiled wistfully once again, "Well, Matsu is actually something known as a Sekirei. And you are a human known as an Ashikabi." She decided to stop dropping bombshells for now, letting Hamatarou ask a couple questions she knew he was going to ask. Slap.

As per Matsu's expectations, Hamatarou took the bait, "Alright, I'll bite. I'm going to assume in the context of 'Sekirei', you aren't referring to the birds. However, I've never heard that word Ashikabi before, what are they?" Slap.

Matsu got straight to the brass tacks: "Sekirei are beings from another planet. There's currently 108 of us around Shinto Teito and we're supposed to participate in the Sekirei Plan. And what the Sekirei Plan is the 108 Sekirei find their Ashikabis, humans like you," Matsu pointed as she said you to Hamatarou and continued, "to bond to them and fight, and fight and fight..." At this part, Matsu trails off, personally not being a fan of the Sekirei Plan. She shook herself from her stupor and continued.
"Until there's only one Ashikabi and Sekirei pair left standing. Ashikabis are...regular humans such as yourself who have the potential to "wing" Sekirei. Each Sekirei has their own "destined" Ashikabi and hopefully they find them and the Ashikabi will accept them." Matsu paused once again, deciding to allow Hamatarou a few questions. The timer was forgotten from both sides of the game.

"I'm going to take an educated guess here that you broke in here to find your destined Ashikabi, me. Right?" Matsu blushed lightly at this and nodded. Hamatarou continued, "How do you go about winging a Sekirei? Who's behind this Sekirei Plan? And fight? In what, martial arts competitions? Chess tournaments?" Hamatarou last statement ended with an upward inflection, Matsu's answers to his questions just raising more interrogatives.

Matsu giggled and remarked, "'How do you go about winging a Sekirei?' Why Hama-taaan, do you want to wing Matsu~?" She said with a touch of hope in her voice? Hamatarou blushed at this, realizing this winging business might be rather intimate or was just made out to be by the accursed pervert in front of him. He motioned with his hands to get on with her explanation. Matsu giggled again and decided to oblige her future Ashikabi, "There's a few ways to go about winging a Sekirei, but the simplest one is a kiss." Her left hand rose to her face and her index and middle fingers touched her lips slightly, imagining what it would be like to kiss Hamatarou. She was getting ahead of herself though, and continued her explanations. "As to who is behind the Sekirei Plan, Matsu can't reveal unless you accept Matsu as your Sekirei. And as to how we fight, well. Watch this." Matsu then put her right hand to her temple and made Hamatarou's living room television turn out and change channels at her will. The egotistic Ashikabi swiveled in his seat and watched his television be controlled, seemingly by Matsu's ESP and turned back to watch the perverted Sekirei of Wisdom also turn on his microwave, coffee maker, oven and such from her seated position in front of him. Matsu chortled at Hamatarou's dropped jaw and starting guffawing even louder when she noticed he was starting to sweat.

Hamatarou swallowed audibly and decided he'd best comply with Matsu, "Well, considering you're an esper, I guess I'd better comply or you're going to rip me to pieces or something." Matsu blanched at his statement and looked at him closely. Hamatarou was afraid of her!

Matsu rose from her seat suddenly with a tear in her eye. "No! Don't be afraid of Matsu, Hamatarou! Matsu wouldn't hurt you..." Once again her perverted nature got the best of her, "Unless you wouldn't mind Matsu experimenting on you a little roughly, huhuhuh~!" At this Hamatarou paled and stood from his seat, realizing she really was a pervert, but still rather afraid of the superpowered beauty before him. Matsu noticed he was still afraid of her, and started to advance towards Hamatarou slowly with her palms open in a sign of surrender, "Matsu thinks you've misunderstood two things Hama-tan. One, my power isn't esp, or at least on all objects." At this Hamatarou's face turned into a question mark. How can you have ESP but only on certain objects? Then he remembered how the Green Lantern's ring couldn't affect anything yellow and decided to hear her out. "Matsu can only control technology, and even then only to a certain extent. Of course, should Matsu emerge Matsu's control would expand, but Matsu wouldn't expect it to be that much better. The second thing is, Matsu's power is much weaker when it comes to control of technology. Matsu is more intel-based. Matsu can act as a thought transmitter which means..." 'Matsu can speak into your mind, where it's much harder to keep things to yourself. Which is why Matsu is going to tell you the following this way. I would never hurt you Hana-tan.' Hearing #02's voice in his head was disconcerting to say the least, but the soon-to-be Ashikabi kept his cool on the outside at least. Hamatarou had stopped retreating and Matsu could finally get her hands on him. She wrapped her arms around his chest and embraced him, squeezing her large bust on his chest. "Please Hamatarou, I just want you to love me." Hamatarou couldn't help the blush or the beginning of a reaction from his nether regions. Like any man could, she just wanted him and she looked as drop dead beautiful as she did? Matsu decided it was now or never: "Hamatarou Tanaka, will you accept Matsu as your Sekirei and be Matsu's Ashikabi?" The Sekirei of Wisdom's eyes never leaving Hamatarou's face as she pleaded.

Hamatarou couldn't look her in the face for a while, clearly blushing and trying his hardest to remain in control of himself until he finally looked down and saw not a superpowered alien, a pervert who couldn't help but tease him or a rapier intellect capable of going toe-to-toe with him in a meeting of wits, but a woman hoping for the man she wished for to love her. And as a man, how could he not answer her? He thought about how Matsu continuously surprised him, by breaking through the wall around his heart, predicting things he wanted to say and even managing to out-wit him in a game of minds he was very familiar with. There won't be another woman like her coming along in my life-time, and I'd be lying if I said I felt no attraction to her as a person... Hamatarou mused. After staring at her milk-chocolate coloured eyes for 5 seconds, he placed an arm around her waist and another on the back of her neck and gave her a deep kiss. Matsu audibly moaned in his lips and her legs went weak as the heat coursing through her body flared through every part of her being. Yellow wings of light, reaching through half the living room and stretched to the walls of Hamatarou's kitchen extended and surrounded the Sekirei symbol grew out of her back and faded away once their kiss ended. Matsu face was glowing with a blush and her own happiness as she wrapped her arms around her Ashikabi's neck and buried her face in the crook of his neck. After snuggling her Ashikabi for a few seconds, she reached up, grabbed Hamatarou's face and kissed him again, causing her yellow wings to burst forth once more. "#02 Matsu, at your service Ashikabi-sama, forever and ever."

*'Hentai' means pervert here. And yeah, to some of you guys this is incredibly redundant but not all of us are enli-erm savvy on stuff like this.

**'ecchi' being perverted. Japanese does shit like that.

A/N: There we go! Hamatarou is officially in the Sekirei Plan thanks to Matsu. Will he be experimented on by next morning? And who's next to join Matsu as Hamatarou's Sekirei? Find out next time on Drag- erm, A Meeting of Wits!

Edit 1: Did a little maintenance, I guess you could say. I would like an actual proof-reader though if possible. If not I'll release 3 MK. I's, revise them, then get to writing more. Yeah it seems a little weird but I like to get new material hot off the presses and then let myself cool down so I can see what I did wrong as objectively as possible.