Ice Chronicles

Chapter 63: Departure

It was one of those nights where I couldn't sleep. A couple of days now I've found myself unable to have good rest; and I know exactly why. Just recently, I found out my daughter has been kidnapped and held prisoner. To make matters worse, it had to be the bastard Ashikabi of the East, Higa Izumi. I wondered why she hasn't contacted me lately and now I know. Thankfully, someone I know is going to rescue her and Shiina. I just have to hope he can succeed; and there's no doubt that evil man will get a kick out of watching this unfold. He'll enjoy anything that entertains him, whether it's good or bad.

But I've recently been reminded of an entity from the past. I never forgot about him, but for some reason, I see a lot of him inside one of my colleague's nephew. Clyde's nephew was the one who told me about Yukari's kidnapping; however, when he told me about it, he also explained his plan to get her back and something else he didn't want to mention just yet. I could tell he looked scared at first and doubted his abilities. That's when I felt something snap inside me. When I saw that, I was reminded of my son. He wasn't the most confident or courageous, but he was very sweet and smart. He also wasn't the most reliable big brother, but he did his best to protect Yukari. I wasn't around that much due to work, but I would spend as much time as I could with them when I was; however, there was one day I never want to relive.

I was able to come home one week and relaxed with my family. Though I could tell something was wrong with my son; he wasn't acting his usual self. He was more aloof, which isn't like him at all. I thought he was just tired and wanted some quiet, but I never thought he was holding back so much rage; and then one night, we had a major falling out. I don't even want to remember what was thrown, except there was a lot of yelling. There was even a point where I wanted to slap him, but I tried my best to refrain from doing so.

After everything was declared, he packed his bags and left. I never saw my baby boy again and I haven't heard from him since, except from some cards or letters. We've never spoken to each other again and I don't know if he's doing okay or not. I do worry about him a lot, but after that fight that day, I've noticed from my mother how he truly felt. I've learned how my son really felt and how we only made things worse. I see why he left like he did; and I honestly don't blame him. I guess I did more than just try to keep my son away from his insane father's madness. While I did complete the former, I've also succeeded in driving him away completely.

"Can't sleep huh?" Someone interrupted my thoughts. I frowned at the sound of the voice and turned to face him.

"What do you want? Go away and leave me alone," I told him. He laughed at my demand.

"Oh come now Takami; I was just making sure you're doing okay," he said. "It's not like you to be up so early."

"I could say the same about you," I spat venom. "Now what do you want Minaka?"

"You were thinking about our son weren't you?" He questioned. I gritted my teeth and growled at him.

"He's not your son. He will never be your son."

Minaka laughed again.

"Oh really? Then why are my genes flowing through him? Why is my DNA inside him?"

I couldn't retort with that question. I hate to admit it, but he had me on that one.

"So what's your point?" I questioned back.

"My point is that no matter how you slice it, I'm our kids' father," he stated.

"There is no our!" I slam my hands on the desk. "There is only my; you are no part of this family. You are an evil man."

Minaka smiled wider.

"I'm an evil man? This coming from the one drove her only son away."

I frowned more and reached for my trusty clipboard without him noticing. He approached me, which I was hoping for, just so I can smack him with my board.

"Don't you dare use that against me," I told him angrily. "You have no right."

"Oh I have plenty right my dear wife," he said still smiling. He placed his hands on my desk, putting him within good range of my strike.

"I am not your wife," I said and waved my arm fiercely, swinging my clipboard along with it; however, Minaka somehow anticipated it and grabbed my wrist, stopping my attack cold. I gasped in surprise while he snickered.

"Do you think I wouldn't notice you reaching for your weapon? Now Takami, you know me better than that."

He squeezed my wrist, making me drop the clipboard, and wince in pain. While I was distracted, he managed to get behind me and put my arm behind my back while grabbing my other wrist. I tried to snake free, but his grip proved to be too strong. It was so strange though; I usually had him beat, but now he's showing remarkable strength. I couldn't free myself and found myself a prisoner as well. I turned my head and shot him a glare.

"Release me right now; don't make me hurt you again."

"You can try, but you won't succeed," he responded. I had to smile now.

"Ha; don't think that just because you have me trapped I'm in the palm of your hand. We both know I'll stomp your face in when I'm free."

"We'll see about that my dear," he tilted my chin up. He then whispered in my ear, "It's been a while since I've had control of you like this. How about we have a little fun, just like the good days."

P.O.V Change Ren

It was finally time for action. We've prepared for this moment and now it's time to put things into action. We've made the preparations and such for this operation and we're about to see who comes out on top. It's been a long time coming, but this is merely a stepping-stone for the real operation coming up at the end of the recuperation period.

It was very early in the morning, at least one thirty, and I was the only one in the house wide-awake. Well not necessarily wide-awake, more like still starting up. My wives and daughter remained asleep, because neither of them would be up at this time. I'm honestly surprised I'm up at this time. They'll have a hard time moving around so early, but hopefully, it will be okay. Before we leave, I'll have to make sure they're all up and ready. I'm a special case though; I really don't need much sleep to be fully rested. I just need about two or three and I'm good to go. Sure, my body will be many steps behind my brain, but I'll just have to deal with it for the time being.

I busied myself with some last minute preparations, making sure I had the entire plan and teams memorized. First, a small group, more particularly, our fastest members will sneak onto the property and take out the small patrols going around the perimeter. If Matsu's hypothesis is correct, the guards should be exhausted for an attack at this hour. Once it's clear, separate groups will infiltrate the building and take out whatever guards are patrolling the base floor. From there, our fastest member will follow Matsu's directions and disable security so all of us can enter without repercussion. Even Higa has to sleep; and we'll strike while he slumbers. We'll have to move silently to avoid confrontation; and with our large group, it won't be easy.

"It's almost time to wake up the girls."

I spent another half hour going over the plan and made sure I wasn't forgetting anything. It was pretty much decided that I am the leader and so all the decision making fell on me. While it was a heavy weight, I know I had to set that aside to guide my team to victory. I let out a sigh and checked the time once more.

"Shouldn't you be sleeping?" someone asked. I jumped and let out a surprised gasp while searching for the noise. "Over here."

I spotted the source of the voice, but frowned upon the confrontation. I was greeted by an unwelcomed visitor. He stared at me with that signature grin shining his face.

"I'm an early riser," I told him. "I don't need much sleep; but enough about me. To what honor do I owe of this meeting, Game Master?"

Minaka smiled wider while snickering.

"As you just said, I'm the Game Master; and as such, I have every right to know what goes in in my game."

His smile grew wider. "For instance, I'm well aware of the little plan you and other teams have created against the Ashikabi of the East."

It didn't surprise me that he knew of our plan; however, it was the real plan that worried me.

"So what? Do you plan to stop us?" I questioned. Minaka laughed at my question.

"Oh no, quite the contrary," he responded. "I'm going to watch this spectacle unfold. It'll serve as my entertainment for the meantime. With the finals coming up, I need something to keep me entertained until then."

"So you're not going to pull anything sneaky?" I asked.

"Now why would I do that? If I interfere, it would ruin such great entertainment. A better question would be; what will you do if you succeed? You're putting a lot on the line right now. You could lose some of your sekirei in this conflict, you could take down my business rival, or both of you could lose this battle. Exciting isn't it?" Minaka answered back.

"To you maybe, but I have a completely different view," I stated. Minaka snickered again.

"That's why you're one of my favorite players. Let's see what fate has in store for you; don't let me down now."

With that said, Minaka left the TV screen. I felt a little relieved that he didn't call me out on the big plans. He knew of my plan for Higa, but not for him; however, he could've done that to make me skeptical and distracted. Well he did a very good job in doing so, but I had to ignore it for now.

"There's no sense in dwelling on it," I said aloud. I looked at the time and saw it was time to wake up the girls. My first sleeper was my A.I program, Carmen.

"Good morning Director; is it time to start the operation?"

"Good morning Carmen," I greeted back. "Yes, it's time to get the show on the road. Contact the rest of the squad while I wake the girls up and start breakfast."

"Yes Director," my computer agreed. I only created one clone and had him prepare breakfast while I headed upstairs and woke up the girls. I went from room to room, but it took a bit to get them up. Akitsu and Musubi were ready, but the others, not so much. It was understandable, but we needed to move. So I had no choice but to resort to plan B. I gave Aki and Musubi a pair of earplugs to block out sounds. I put some in my ear and signaled Carmen to release the horn. Let's just say the house was filled with screams, and not the good type. They all rushed out of the room with their ears covered and glared at me. I removed my plugs and crossed my arms.

"Nice of you all to join us," I said.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Yomi and Toyo questioned.

"A lot of things actually," I responded bluntly. "And I said the other day we would have to get up early."

"It's two in the morning!" Yomi yelled.

"A woman needs her beauty sleep Ren," Toyo complained.

"You're all beautiful enough. Now go shower and then come down for breakfast. I already had Carmen contact the others," I answered. They groaned and walked away, but Uzume fell asleep while standing up and caused Chiho to try waking her up. "You go ahead Chiho; I'll wake her up."

"Okay," she yawned and gave me a quick hug. Musubi and Aki followed the rest while I stared at my sleeping brunette. I didn't even try shaking her and just pulled her panties so the lace would smack her thighs.

"OW!" She shot awake and screamed. "I'm up! Geez, why?"

"Now Uzume!" I ordered and slapped her ass. She pouted and walked away, but not without giving me a kiss on the lips.

"How about one more for good measure?"

I sighed and slapped her ass again, finally getting her to move. I headed back downstairs and assisted my clone in cooking the food. During, I received messages from Jason and the others about when they'll be ready.

By the time the girls finally made it down, the food was already done. It was a quiet breakfast, mostly because the feeling of sleep still lingered, but I could tell a lot was on their minds too.

"So, are you all prepared?" I asked.

"We're ready and waiting," Uzume answered. The rest nodded their heads in response.

"That's good," I said. "First thing's first though; we'll have to take Chiho and Matsu to the inn; they'll be safer there."

"Agreed," Matsu complied. "I can still guide you all there and have Carmen's wrist watch by my side at all times. With us two, you won't have to worry about a thing."

"How are we going about this?" Toyotama asked.

"We'll have to split into separate groups and scour the building. Our first team will consist of Kai, Yahan, Kazehana, and myself; we'll take out the first wave of guards on the sides," I explained. Kazehana perked up upon being mentioned. "Since we're the fastest and Yahan can teleport from shadows, we'll have a much better chance of succeeding. The rest of you will divide into groups of four with a single group consisting of five. We have about thirty-three people give or take so the groups need to be small in order to avoid confrontation."

"Wow, you got all this figured out don't you?" Yomi asked with a giggle. "How are you not exhausted?"

"I'm a very complex person. I don't need much sleep to be fully rested. A good three will do me just fine," I said.

"You're obviously a complex person," Toyo responded. "But, that's why we love ya."

"Agreed," Kazehana said, suddenly appearing behind me, and wrapping her arms around my neck. "As long as you're willing to fight, we will follow you every step of the way."

The girls agreed and their enthusiasm has returned. We enjoyed the rest of our breakfast and cleaned up our mess. After that, we all took one last look inside our newly rebuilt house, said our temporary goodbyes, closed the front door, and locked it. We left our humble abode and traveled to Izumo Inn. The night wind blew gently as it traveled through our hair. Some of us looked up at the night sky and marveled at the beautiful arrangement of glistening stars. They shined brilliantly against the black velvet, and the moon glowing marvelously in the high sky.

We finally arrived at the inn, where Jason, his sekirei, and the landlords greeted us. We could tell that they were still sleepy too, especially with their sluggish movement. Takehito let out a yawn.

"Ren, give me one good reason why you told them to get up so early."

"Well, would you rather take on exhausted guards, or energized ones?" I asked back.

"Still, it's too early for this. It couldn't be sometime like five or so?"

"Afraid not; but we'll get out of your hair as soon as we drop off Chiho and Matsu," I responded. Takehito let out another yawn and escorted his wife inside.

"Fine, just keep it quiet. We're going back to sleep."

The landlords retired to their sleep once more, as Uzume and I hugged our daughter goodbye. Matsu snuck a kiss on me and snickered as she went inside. However, the main problem was Kusano. Jason didn't want her coming along, causing her to throw a fit and complain. It took a while for Jason to defuse the situation, but he managed to coax her into staying behind. It was as we departed, we could feel the angry pout emanating from the youngest sekirei.

We then headed towards the meeting place we agreed on. It was the giant hill I encountered Ryan again for the second time; we all agreed to meet there and wait for everyone to arrive.

"Hey Ren, you look like you didn't get much sleep last night," Jason pointed out.

"Well I only got three hours' worth," I replied.

"Three hours?!" Jason and his sekirei responded. "What time did you fall asleep?"

"About ten," I said. "I'm okay though."

"That can't be healthy man," Jason responded. "I mean, three hours of sleep. How have you not collapsed?"

"How are you not even showing signs of it?" Ikki questioned.

"I'm a complex person," I answered.

"You can say that again," Jason and his girls replied.

We continued to wait for the rest to show up while I had to endure the never-ending questions of my complexity. Pretty soon, everyone started appearing, starting with Ryan and his still sleepy sekirei. Secondly, Kai rose from the shadows along with his sekirei, courtesy of Yahan. His girls didn't look tired at least. Akira soon appeared and was shocked by all the girls that accompanied us. After him, Seo and the lightning twins showed up and glared at me for the earliness. Finally, Sanada showed up with the former trio along with his six sekirei.

"Wait six? You have six sekirei?" I questioned.

"Of course I have more than three," he replied. "You think I could control the west with just three sekirei? The problem with these three is that they are hard to control and won't listen to me sometimes."

One started to laugh sadistically. She was a woman with short, messy black hair. Her clothing, all black, consisted of a pair of long, arm length black leather gloves, a small bikini top, a pair of leather heels, and black pants with the left leg cut short. Her ensemble is topped with a single thigh length stocking covered with a pattern of skulls. She appeared to be quite anorexic with her thin arms and visible rib cage. A scythe quite similar to Yomi's rested in her hands.

"It's a wonderful thing, crushing your enemies and destroying them. My trusty scythe here has cleaved many people in pieces."

"Meet no. 14, Chiyo," Sanada introduced.

"It's a pleasure," she said, bringing her scythe against my neck. "So you're the one who orchestrated this even. Then tell me, why shouldn't I cut your head off for getting us up so early in the damn morning?"

My girls prepared for combat, but I stopped them, causing Chiyo to smile wider.

"Not going to hide behind your sekirei huh? You got guts; now answer my question before I show them to ya."

"Alright Chiyo; would you rather take on a large corporation with the advantage on your side or be completely overwhelmed and slaughtered on the spot?"

"Ha! You don't know how much we love killing," she responded and moved her scythe closer. "Now, tell me why can't kill anybody."

"Because it'll cause more trouble along the way; and if you can tell me a better way to get into Higa's building without tripping any alarms or alerting the CEO himself, I'm all ears. Until then," I firmly grasped her wrist and push her scythe away. "Shut up, stick to the plan, and behave yourself. The stealthier we move, the quicker we can get this done; and upon the chance we are compromised, then and only then will I allow you to run free; but only upon my orders."

Suddenly, a giggle came from another one of Sanada's more evil like sekirei. This one has dark eyes and long black hair tied back into a pony-tail. Long bangs frame either side of her face and her clothing, all black like Chiyo's, consists of an exact replica as Chiyo's clothing, a black ribbon, tied around her waist, billows out behind her, and her left hand is covered in a standard black leather glove but her right glove goes up to her bicep and is patterned with skulls. Her giggle was much more evil than her older sister's, much like her smile.

"Don't get so high strung Chiyo; there will be plenty of chances to splatter blood. We'll just have to see how long we can get through this whole quiet phase," she told Chiyo.

"I suppose so, but you know how itchy my scythe hands get Yūna," the scythe sister responded. The one now introduced as Yūna patted Chiyo's shoulder. I could tell they get along great; however, it was the last one that worried me the most. She was a woman of good height, about Toyotama's height. She had short black hair, a part of which falls down as curtains from either side of her face. Like most other I've encountered sekirei, she had large breasts and a slender figure. She wore black gloves and wielded claw knives kind of similar to the ones Haihane carries. The single blade on each curved slightly at the tip, enabling both skewering and slicing. Her outfit consisted of a rather revealing bikini top, which leaves most part of her breasts uncovered, and jeans that have splits of the inner side. She seemed to be the quietest of the three, but could also be the deadliest. As the saying goes, it's the quiet ones you have to watch out for; and the smile gracing her lips as she observed me proved me slightly right.

"I'm no. 17, Yūna. The one you're gawking at is no. 20, Hatae; she doesn't talk much."

The one introduced as Hatae remained quiet as she nodded.

"Pleasure," I greeted her back. I then looked towards Akira, who still looked flabbergasted by everything. He looked back and forth, most likely pondering who the hell these people are.

"I feel so out of place here," he stated. "Who are these people?"

"They're friends of ours," Jason answered. "They agreed to help us out on this mission and brought their partners to assist them."

"I… see," Akira replied, still shocked.

"You'll get used to it eventually," Jason said with a chuckle. He then turned towards me. "So, our oh fearless leader, you have the floor."

"Oh there are plenty of things I fear, especially spiders and snakes. But anyway, now that everyone is here, it's time to start our mission. First off, we'll have to split into teams and tackle certain objectives. The first one, sending our fastest members onto the property and taking out the guards on the sides. After that, we'll try to infiltrate the building, rescue the prisoners, and take down the CEO. It won't be easy, but that's just part of the challenge. My eyes back home will overlook us, as well as another person I had the displeasure of speaking to this morning."

"Wait what?" Jason questioned. "Another person you had the displeasure of talking to?"

"Yeah, he contacted me earlier this morning and told me he was going to be spectating this operation. He won't try any funny business he said, but I still don't trust him. Minaka is going to be observing us," I explained. "My eyes at home though will inform us of any happenings so don't worry about him."

I handed a few the remaining earpieces.

"When this is all over, we can go back to sleep soundly in our comfy beds."

"So it's going to be tricks against skills," Jason pointed out. He smirked and hid his earpiece behind his hair. "I like those odds."

"Ready girls?" Ryan asked his sekirei. They all gave a collective grunt and nod as their ashikabi activated his earpiece.

"How about you all?" Kai asked his group. They too gave a nod.

"Hey I'm not our bureau's ace detective for nothing," Akira stated as he and Kai fitted their earpieces and bumped fists.

"Ready my lovelies?" Sanada inquired. The childish three gave a tired cheer while the bloodthirsty three simply smiled wide.

"How about you two?" Seo asked the twins. Hikari yawned loudly.

"As long as I get to sleep after this, I'm good to go," she stated.

"Agreed," Hibiki responded.

"And you all?" I asked my wives.

"Do you really need to ask?" Uzume, Toyo, and Yomi responded in unison.

"Hm, good point," I responded. "Well then, let's give them a show shall we?"

We split off into teams with my assigned team leading the party. Our other teams stuck to the shadows as we silently traversed into the east sector, where our mission starts.

A/N: That ends yet another chapter. I first would like to apologize for the lateness, but now it's done. I hope you all like it, as now the battle between North and East has commenced once again. Let me know what you think of the chapter in a review or pm please and I shall see you all in the next chapter. This has been MalevolentDarkness16, thanks for reading, and take care.