Chapter 6: The Road to War
Uzume entered the living room oncemore and sat opposite Miya whilst Murasaki came in and sat beside Neiyo. Upon sitting down Neiyo gave her side a quick squeeze in a loving way, letting her know he appreciated her presence beside him. She turned and smiled at him, squeezing his left arm with her own appreciation.
"So, where is this Kagari I hear so much about?" Neiyo asked turning to Uzume.
"He said he's be alone sooner or later."
"My, that's quite a vague statement isn't it." Miya intervened before Neiyo could even utter a word of his own opinion. He decided against it though.
"Well, let's eat. No point in letting it go cold." she continued. Allowing the others to eat their dinners.
Conversation was light-hearted, mostly learning about the new tenants and them learning about the current ones. Uzume didn't give a lot of information about herself, besides she liked to cosplay every now and then so that Neiyo and Murasaki wouldn't be 'freaked out' if they ever saw her in a costume.
However, Murasaki went into great detail about her life and growing up. How she aspired to be a better person than her father, to be successful but also put more time into her family than he did, if she ever got one.
This almost led to panic in Neiyo, who wasn't against having children, but such a topic wasn't on his list of 'things to do in the near future'. His eyes widened upon hearing her implied statement. She noticed this and gave his thigh a gentle squeeze which was only fair she return the favour from earlier.
Quarter of an hour later, a slim figure appeared at the door to the living room, they all turned to see it was Kagari. He could only be described as handsome to someone who had just met him, with roughly the same colour hair as Neiyo, except maybe a bit of a darker tint, a more ashen colouring to it.
"Oh, hello." He looked towards Murasaki and Neiyo, then back to Miya. "Sorry I'm late. I just woke when Uzume came to get me."
Miya just smiled and gestured a seat to her right, insinuating she wanted him to just eat his dinner while it was still warm.
They ate in silence until Kagari spoke up oncemore; "Sorry for the late interruption earlier. I'm Kagari."
"Nice to meet you, I'm Murasaki, and this is Neiyo." Putting her arm around Neiyo as she spoke. But quickly releasing it due to a glance from Miya.
"Glad we've got that out the way. You may not see me a lot during the mornings. I work at a host club at nights." he continued.
A moment of silence went past and Murasaki pondered to herself. A host? I'm surprised Miya even let's him sleep here.
"That's cool. I guess it might be hard sleeping at times then!" she let out a laugh that was both meant and slightly awkward, especially on a subject so... private.
The silence ensued oncemore, with everyone just about finished their dinner. Murasaki noticed that Neiyo had wolfed down his dinner, much like Uzume and Kagari and she was still eating.
"How come you guys ate so fast?" she asked the three of them. Miya however was taking her time and enjoying her meal.
"Well... uh..." Uzume stuttered. "It's because we were all so hungry, and Miya's cooking is delicious." She thankfully sighed as Neiyo finished her explanation for her.
"Oh, okay then. And yeah, Miya, it's great! I'd love to learn some of the recipies when you get the time."
Miya put her hand over the bottom half of her face, trying to hide a blush, "Why thank you. I'd be delighted to show you sometime. But for now let's enjoy the rest of the dinner."
They agreed on the last part and finished up their meal. Kagari and Uzume both left to go to their separate rooms, whilst Neiyo stayed to be polite and to accompany Murasaki.
Suddenly there was a loud noise outside, it sounded like a tree breaking and something landing on the floor. Miya went to look outside, as Neiyo and Murasaki heard her usual "Oh My...".
"I guess something's up. I'll check it out." Neiyo said, in the process of standing up. Murasaki just nodded and kept on eating, savouring the meal that had been so delicately prepared for her.
Neiyo got to the lounge door, that led outside and noticed two bodies on the floor. One was a boy who was kneeling, the other was a girl, getting up from what looked to be a hard landing.
Well, looky here...
"It's you two from earlier..." he exclaimed. The boy and girl immediately looked up and recognised him.
"Th-thank you for earlier Mr. Without your intervention, I don't know what would have happened."
Neiyo just laughed the thanks off, "You're welcome, kid. Name's Neiyo."
The girl immediately got up and went into a fighting stance to protect her Ashikabi. Not even noticing her clothes were half ripped up the middle and leading up to her neck, making her breasts quite visible to both Miya and Neiyo.
"There will be no violence in my home!" Miya shouted as a Hanya mask appeared. The girl immediately let her stance down and protected what was left of her 'modesty'.
"I think we should go inside and talk this out." she continued. "You especially need some medical attention on that knee of yours." Her gaze changing to the young man with a bloody knee.
Neiyo turned to go inside, muttering "I'll get the first aid kit". Miya gestured the both of them inside and left Minato in the living room sitting on the floor while Neiyo grabbed the bandages. She took the girl into her room and gave her a spare set of clothes to get changed into.
Murasaki had noticed the young man coming into the room, or rather, limping into the room and sit down opposite her.
"Uhm, hi there." she said, breaking the silence.
He looked at her and greeted her with the same awkwardness, "Uh, hello." scratching the back of his head at the same time.
"Where did you come from?" said a voice in the doorway. It was Neiyo entering with a green box in his hand. "And you'll have to lift up your trouser leg over the injury."
The man did what he was told and decided to reply to him as he was getting the injury dressing ready. "You could say, we... flew in with the wind." There again was that awkwardness and lack of confidence showing as he scratched the back of his head.
Neiyo looked up at him, inquisitively, "The wind, eh?... Guess we can leave it at that." He applied ointment on the bandage in his hand, and moved it towards the youngsters knee. "This will sting for the first minute or so. It'll ease away after."
The dark haired youngster nodded, and Neiyo quickly placed the bandage on top of the wound, applying pressure as he sealed it with medical tape. He let out a gasp in shock from the stinging but soon got used to the pain from it.
"I did warn you." Neiyo smiled. "You never mentioned before, what's your name?"
"My name is Sahashi Minato. I'm very grateful for what you did just now. Thank you." Minato answered.
"Don't mention it. You looked in pain and you didn't seem to be a threat to us. By the way..." Minato looked up to what was coming next, "Is that girl your Sekirei?"
Minato looked shocked, "Wha... How did you know?"
Neiyo's laugh sounded the room again, "You think I didn't know, especially with what happened earlier?"
"Can you really talk about this with, uhm, sorry I didn't get your name?" Minato asked the blue haired girl sitting opposite him.
"My name is Yatsu Murasaki, and I know more than you think." she smiled. Minato crawled backwards a little in fear as Neiyo gave off once again, a playful laugh.
"She is my Ashikabi. As you are to your Sekirei. But I'd keep it on the down low for just now. I don't know how many of the other residents may or may not know." He advised Minato on the delicacy of their situation.
"May not know what?" came a serene voice in the doorway. Neiyo turned faster than he ever had before, seeing Miya and the girl in front of her in a red kimono, splattered with purple coloured leaves.
"Uh, may not know how good your cooking is!" he explained hastily, covering up the conversation.
"Minato, I borrowed a kimono! What do you think?" the girl asked her Ashikabi. He was speechless, literally just looking with his jaw dropped.
"It looks, really, good on you Musubi. Really... good..." he answered. She smiled at his reply and stood next to him, facing Miya.
Minato spoke up first, "I'm so sorry, we borrowed your clothes and your time."
"It's not a problem, I always help out where I can. My name is Miya Asama. And you've already met two of my tenants."
Their gaze swapped from Miya to Neiyo and Murasaki who were now standing behind them. They smiled back at Minato and Musubi in a welcoming manner.
"This... is a boarding house?" Minato asked. Miya merely nodded.
"Please, we've just been kicked out of our apartment and have nowhere else to go!" he explained and bowed to her.
"Raise your head. My husband always believed in helping those in need... Welcome home." she said with a smile, that to Neiyo, resembed one from a long time ago.
"You did it!" Musubi shouted as she hugged Minato. "D-did what?" he asked, trying not to think about her oversized breasts on his back. "You found us a home!"
After all the events of the night, Neiyo decided to was time to sleep. But was still aware of the danger another Sekirei posed to him and Murasaki, yet seemed to feel that she wasn't a danger to him... he didn't see any hate in her, only compassion.
The two newest tenants and Miya discussed living arrangements in the living room whilst Neiyo and Murasaki departed to their room.
They opened the door to find their things in their respective places with two futons on the floor.
Murasaki walked in first, after Neiyo's gentlemanly view of 'ladies first' became apparent. She immediately pushed the futons together to make a double one.
Interesting. She's displaying affectionate qualities I've never quite seen from her before. Maybe she's different when she's alone with me than out in public.
"I'm going to get changed, I'll be back in a couple of minutes, kay?"
Neiyo let out a "mhmm" in agreement and decided to get changed himself when she left th room. He was still, no matter what kind of warrior he was, a little shy in front of the other gender. He lay down on the futon with only pyjama trousers on, showing his scarred back for the world, or whoever was in the room at the time, which was no one, to see.
He lay on the futon under the blanket provided and waited, trying not to fall asleep before his fated one returned.
The door opened after a few minutes, Neiyo's head tilting to allowing him to view who it was over his chest. There standing in front of him was Murasaki, who was in quite, provocative clothing.
Neiyo had to blink a few times to make sure it was the real thing. "You are aware of Miya' s rule, right?"
"Of course. But that doesn't mean I can't sleep comfortably does it?" she responded.
"Heh, no it doesn't. But I wonder how Miya will take it if she sees you in that."
"If we don't do anything, she won't have anything to punish us for, right?"
"I guess. Either way, with me here she can't do anything to you." he smiled.
Murasaki started to walk towards the futon with the empty side and crawled under the blanket, cuddling next to Neiyo.
He felt strangely at ease, knowing her hand was on his chest and he could feel her breathing on his neck. It felt... right to him. I never thought I'd feel this way after losing you, but it's happened. I feel both guilt and pleasure at the same time.
He turned to look at Murasaki who now had her eyes closed and her head leaning on the left shoulder. Yet, I can't help but be happy. Is this what you would've wanted? For me to move on?
"One day, you're gonna have to tell me how you got those scars on your back, y'know." Murasaki piped up.
"One day, I will. Good night, Mura."
"Good night."
One day, I will tell you everything... I promise.
A/N: Sorry, this one's a bit of a long one but things are starting to shape up within the story and like I said in earlier chapters, REVIEWS AND SUGGESTIONS are always welcome! In fact, they're necessary for me to keep the story fresh, and although I can appreciate some may say that the story is stale at the moment, it will freshen up in the next chapter when fighting breaks out, playful or not.