HEY EVERYONE! I am SOOOOOO sorry that I have been gone from you all for SOOOO long! _ I sincerely apologize for being gone so long; life got ahold of me and has only recently loosened her grip enough for me to begin my story again. XP Now, without further stalling please enjoy the long awaited Fourth chapter of Cold Hearts & Steel Claws~ Please! Read, Review and Always Most Importantly ENJOY! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A Place to Call Home…

The clock ticked off the seconds to Noon as Haihane and Benitsubasa, checked over their weapons and clothing one last time with anxious and agitated energy. The time was coming; soon the clock would chime and signal their release into Japan to find their Ashikabi and have them take them as their own since they were no longer of any use to MBI as part of the Disciplinary Squad. Finally, the bell began to chime and the gates of the MBI building were lifted as Haihane, Benitsubasa and the other Sekirei who had been scheduled for release today shot forth and began their search for their new lives that awaited them; of course there were a few unfortunate souls who got caught up by other Sekirei who thought that attacking one another immediately was a good idea.

Haihane and Benitsubasa stuck close to each other and climbed to the first tall building that they could find so that they could get a bearing on their new environment. From their perch high atop one of the cities many skyscrapers they saw a large amount of people milling about on the ground below them.

"None of these people really seem to be drawing me to them Haihane, does this mean that our future Ashikabi is farther away?" Benitsubasa asked with a slightly worried tone as she scanned the throng of people below them.

"Not really, you just don't have any boobs so none of them are looking for you. If you actually had a chest I'm sure you'd have tons of them down there trying to draw you in." Haihane chuckled as she watched Benitsubasa's face turn red with rage at the verbal jab towards her chest. "No, it just means that we have to move on and keep looking, you really didn't think that we'd find our new master this soon did you?"

"I guess you're right Haihane, we just have to keep looking. Why don't we move towards the shopping district? There is bound to be more people over that way right?"

A Master of Two and a Home for One…

"Sahashi! Get out here now!" The landlord screamed as he bashed his fist on the door to Minato's room.

Minato startled out of bed at the bellowing of his landlord at his front door, he tried to jump up but was surprised when he found himself buried underneath the once again nude bodies of his two Sekirei Akitsu and Musubi. As little drips of blood slowly began to exit his nostrils he gently shook the two awake and motioned for them to quietly hide and be quiet. As he got up and began to walk out of his bedroom he was glad that the banging on his front door had ceased… 'Wait,' he thought to himself, 'why did my landlord stop banging on my door?' His answer was given when he groggily stepped out of his bedroom and slammed right into the angered form of his landlord.

Birds took flight into the air, startled from their comfortable perches in the trees outside when the resounding voice of Minato's Landlord rang out across the crisp morning air: "GET, OUT!"

The Ashikabi of the Alley…

Haihane and Benitsubasa stalked the roof tops of the shopping district in their search for a worthy Ashikabi when they began to hear the sounds of shouting and fighting from an alley nearby, turning towards one another they both nodded ascent knowing what the other was thinking and wanting to do the same thing. Investigate the sounds of what might possibly be Sekirei fighting and where they may even find a new strong Ashikabi to serve.

The two former Disciplinary Squad candidates leapt to the ledge that looked down onto the alley where they noise was coming from, as they did they saw three Sekirei and one human and they all seemed to be fighting about something. The human was not acting like an Ashikabi and he didn't seem to be attempting to wing any of the Sekirei there in the alley. They continued to look on as the twin Sekirei threatened the human if he did not hand over the singular Sekirei to them so that they might defeat her, as they did the more dominant appearing of the twin Sekirei launched a bolt of large purple lightning at the what appeared to be a fist type Sekirei similar to Benitsubasa.

Shock enveloped both Haihane and Benitsubasa's faces as they watched the purple lighting streak towards the fighter Sekirei only for her to be defended by the body of the human who was not even her Ashikabi using his body to shield her and was thus stuck with a glancing, but still powerful and dangerous bolt of lightning saving her. They looked at one another with disbelief, surely this man was a complete fool or a very powerful warrior; either way this was the type of Ashikabi the two had been looking for to pledge themselves to and serve for the rest of their lives. Just as they were preparing to drop down into the alley to pledge themselves and remove the S&M lighting twins from endangering their newly decided Ashikabi when the alley erupted into light and they watched as the fighter Sekirei kissed their future master and was winged.

They couldn't believe their eyes, one moment they were about to drop to the rescue of their newly chosen master and the next they were watching as he and the newly winged fighter Sekirei rushed from the alley and the Lighting twins leapt away from them as well. What were they to do? Their new master was getting away but they did not know how his new Sekirei would react to two more Sekirei appearing to serve her master, the two had no doubt in their minds that they could take the fighter but they did not wish for that to be to first impression their new master would have of them. No, they would follow them and wait until they were sure that the time was right and then they would become one with their new master.

"There he goes for now Benitsubasa," Haihane said as she watched them in getting smaller in the distance and absentmindedly began to scratch her head and eliciting an "Ow!" from her as she had once again forgotten that she had not removed her claws and thus stabbed herself in the head slightly. "Well, what do you want to do? You ready to follow them? They may get away soon if we don't hurry and we could lose sight of him."

"Yeah, we should start following them; make sure that he doesn't get into anything dangerous before we pledge ourselves to him. But I'm not too worried about losing him though. Now that I have seen him, I can feel this fire inside me and I just know that I am going to find him and I will belong to him forever don't you Haihane?" Benitsubasa finished with her hand clutching her chest feeling the warmth inside her and tilting her head towards her steel clawed friend.

"I know how you feel Beni, there is a fire inside me that is feeling like it is starting to burn and I know it won't get any better until he accepts me as his Sekirei. Let's get going, we have a lot of ground to cover and a new master to protect until we are his."

And with that they two former Disciplinary Squad candidates took off to follow their new master, ready to serve him, protect him, and love him for the rest of their lives… Whether he was ready for it or not, his family was about to get a lot bigger.

Hey guys! Sorry for how long it has taken me to finally get this story going again, but I want to thank you all for coming back and reading my story and for supporting me and bearing with me so long even though I know I don't deserve all this I really wanted to say THANK YOU! Now that things are a bit easier for me I hope to make the chapters a bit longer and to start publishing them sooner. I am sorry for the briefness of this chapter but I am just getting back into it and am trying to get the feel for my characters back so that I don't ruin anything for you all! Thank you all for reading this Fourth Chapter of Cold Hearts & Steel Claws and I welcome all of you to review and comment your thoughts about the new chapter and let me know what you thought! See you all next time in Chapter Five: A Home and an Encounter! The new title is already set as you can see. :P and I know what I think is gunna happen. :3 See you all then!

~The Phantom