Chapter 8: Taking Stock


Paying close attention to the map displayed on his HUD, Six made his way through the alleyways, using his active camouflage to hide in plain sight and directing his sekirei where to go.

Soon enough they found themselves in another long alleyway, at which point one of the twins decided to break the awkward tension that had fallen on the party.

"So, how long have you been winged?" Hibiki asked Toyotama.

Toyotama gave her a sidelong glance, suspicion clear in her eyes, "You trying to be friendly with me or something?"

"Oh, make no mistake. Like my sister I don't care much for you either. However, it doesn't mean I can't be civilized with you – right sis?" Hibiki explained, glancing at her sister who just huffed.

"Fair point. Well in that case, I winged myself on him last night."

Hibiki's eyebrows rose, "Only last night? How did the two of you meet?"

"He saved me from being dragged off to the Ashikabi of the East to be forcefully winged by him," Toyotama answered, a tone of bitterness in her voice.

Both Hikari and Hibiki's became shocked and horrified at the greenette's words.

"That's horrible. I heard he had a reputation of forcing sekirei to emerge," Hibiki mused before shuddering. "Being forcefully winged by a person who is not our destined ashikabi is the worst fate imaginable."

Even Hikari couldn't help but shudder a bit at the notion. "I wouldn't wish that on any sekirei even if they are my worst enemies."

"So, what happened?" Hibiki pressed.

"To make a long story short, Higa sent three of his sekirei to hunt me down and cornered me in the apartment complex I mentioned before. We duked it out, but I was outnumbered and tired, so it wasn't long before they had me on the ropes. Before they could try to drag me away however, this guy showed up and ended up defeating two weapon-types and even a strength-type. He saved me from a fate worse than death and I'm forever grateful to him," Toyotama explained, directing a loving smile at Six's back as they walked.

Hearing the greenette's story, the twins couldn't help but be disgusted at what could've been her fate. At the same time, they were in awe at the Spartan to hear he took on three sekirei and won, especially against one like a strength-type.

Stunned, Hibiki remarked, "Wow! I didn't think he could take on a strength-type, let alone three sekirei!"

Even the ever-stubborn Hikari was impressed, "I'll say. We've dealt with Higa's goons once before – persistent assholes. But my sister and I were able to get away from them."

"You've had run-ins before?" the weapon-user asked curiously.

"Couple of weeks back out while we were out hunting unwinged sekirei, we ended up becoming the hunted for once. A little electro-shock therapy made them reconsider, though," Hibiki replied, grinning a bit deviously which was shared by her twin.

"Speaking of that, who did Higa send after you since he wanted you so much?" Hikari queried.

Toyotama gritted her teeth at the memory, especially where it concerned the betrayal of her friend, " He sent Numbers eighteen, thirty-one and one-oh-one after me: Ichiya a strength-type sekirei, Sai another weapon-type that uses whips with blades attached at the end of them, and Oriha a weapon-type that can control disc blades."

Hibiki raised an eyebrow at that, "Ichiya, huh. With how close your numbers are I guess you two would've known each other?"

Toyotama scowled, her eyes darting to the side, "I thought we did."

The sisters felt a pang of sympathy for the younger sekirei, knowing full well what the Sekirei Plan did to those considered close.

Surprisingly enough, it was Hikari who tried to comfort her. "You know she was just following the orders of her ashikabi, right?"

Toyotama sighed. "I know she was. Still, it just hurts to know how far she was willing to go to bring me back to Higa…. Look can we drop this already? I don't want to talk about it."

Seeing that things were getting a bit heavy, Hibiki decided to change the subject.

"Well, if we have anything in common at least we avoided ashikabi that would've been the bane of our existence."

"What do you mean?" Toyotama asked, her curiosity piqued.

Hikari rubbed the back of her head, "Well we had an opportunity a while back to get winged, but we didn't take it."

"Why?"

The sisters looked at each other for a moment wondering who should tell this, "You want me to explain, sis?" Hibiki prompted.

Hikari shrugged, "Go ahead, you probably can tell this a lot nicer than I could."

Hibiki nodded and began, "Not long after we were first released we met this guy named Seo. At first he seemed like a pretty decent guy since he was willing to take us in, which netted him some favor with us since we didn't have a place of our own yet."

"Sounds awful nice of him, so why didn't you wing yourselves to him?"

Hikari folded her arms and spat to the side, while Hibiki grimaced a bit, "I was getting to that. He brought us to his apartment and when we first walked inside we noticed a few red flags. The place was bit messy and a little disorganized."

Hikari barked out a laugh, cutting off her sister, "A bit?! In the living room the table had nothing but empty beer cans on it! And we even found porn magazines hastily stuffed under the sofa seats – creepy bastard was probably trying to hide them from us before got there."

The pieces began to fall into place within the pole-user's mind and the result was rather bleak, to say the least. "…he was a bum wasn't he?"

"Please, that's being nice," Hikari retorted bitterly.

"And that wasn't the end of it. He had no money, no job, and we barely found any food in his fridge and cabinets. He'd been living off of food stamps…. He was a deadbeat," Hibiki went on, developing bit of a headache just thinking about the guy again.

A tick mark appeared on Hikari's forehead, a bit of electricity starting to radiate off of her, "Got to a point that we were starting to see behind the illusion since he started perving on me. I can't tell you how many times I caught him ogling my breasts, even tried to cope a feel and ended up with a violent shock for his troubles."

"So, we ended up ditching him since he was a creep and a freeloading leach," Hibiki concluded with a look that bespoke of relief but added with a note of disgust, "since we also learned he's been getting food from the home of his dead friend's widow."

"He's a real scumbag then," Toyotama declared with a scowl.

"Yep, he was the lowest of the low. If we did end up with him we would have faced hardships every day," Hikari remarked, idly imagining the future she and her sister would've had under him and shuddered.

For her part, Toyotama couldn't fathom herself with Higa either. The bond between an ashikabi and their sekirei was meant to be one of trust and of course mutual love. But given the feeling she got from Higa, she had the sinking notion that it wouldn't have been anything like what was expected of that magical connection.

Hibiki scoffed, "Knowing what we almost had for an ashikabi, it makes you wonder who is more dangerous: our fellow sekirei or the ashikabi themselves?"

Toyotama and Hikari nodded in agreement since ashikabi have proven to be more dangerous and unpredictable thus far – one being a broke pervert, and the other a corporate asshole.

"Yeah, we could've had it rough. However, I like to think we all ended up making the right choice for an ashikabi," Toyotama remarked, smiling at the Spartan leading the way in front of them. "He's rough around the edges but he is interesting, and he damn sure doesn't try to cop a feel…though, I wouldn't be against it, hehe."

As Toyotama went off in her own little world, the twins took their attention from her to the Spartan in front of them as they continued following him. In some ways they couldn't help but agree with the greenette. Despite the rough first encounter with each other and the absurd story Six and Athena told them, the twins couldn't help but feel they did make the right choice.

Noble Six for the most part was not part of their conversation, but he overheard all of it. From Higa of the East and this worthless excuse of a man the twins mentioned called Seo.

Unbidden, Carter's last words to him echoed in his mind.

"Six! That AI chose you... She made the right choice."

"That remains to be seen…." Six found himself muttering but quickly shook his head.

These thoughts served him not a shred of good. He needed to stay in the present, not the past.

Right now, he had a new mission: to put an end to this insane charade along with the madman responsible for it. Even if he was alone in the field without any support, that suited him just fine.

'Just like the simulations,' he thought wryly.

"You may not like it, but I think those girls are right. Out of all the Spartans who could've ended up here and with the record you have, I believe those girls are in good hands," Athena commented listening in on their conversation.

Not wanting to broach any further on the subject, he aimed to bring up another one, "That name they mentioned – this Higa of the East. I take it he's another major ashikabi like Mikogami?"

"Yes. I went ahead and perused the MBI records a bit and found his name slated alongside a designation: Ashikabi of the East. The three sekireis you fought last night were from Higa as well."

Six narrowed his eyes, already weighing the possibilities. If those three managed to report back to Higa, he would likely have to deal with the rest of his Sekirei instead of just three this time.

"Athena, dig up what you can on this Higa, his known sekirei and anyone working with them. If I'm going to have this Ashikabi of the East coming after me I want to be prepared."

"I'm already on it."

With Athena back to work, Six was left to his thoughts.

Thinking back to the AI he delivered to the Autumn, Six hoped that Captain Keyes and his crew found whatever the AI led them to. Hopefully it was a weapon powerful enough to finally defeat the Covenant. Much as he'd rather be back in his time and universe to see what the sacrifices of Noble team lead to, his part there was done.

But things were only getting started here it seemed.

"I will be honest though," Toyotama was saying, bringing him back to reality, "least your winging went lot smoother than mine."

Six cursed under his breath.

'Oh crap, here we go.'

"What do you mean?" Hibiki pressed, glancing at the taller Sekirei.

"Well how do I put this…," Toyotama started, rubbing the back of her head, "He …pulled a gun on me after we bonded.

"He what!?" Hikari and Hibiki shouted in perfect unison.

"Not going to let that go, are you?" Six grumbled with a bit of embarrassment in his voice.

Toyotama smirked at him, "Not a chance. I'm going to hold that incident over your head until we're both dead and buried. So be prepared for me to bring it up every so often."

Six just groaned in annoyance. And now he was being blackmailed until likely the end of their days…

'Wait, just how long am I going to be with her?'

Athena's chuckle broke him from his musings, "You certainly know how to make a first impression on a lady don't you, Spartan?"

Dodging her remark with practiced ease, Six demanded, "How long until we reach the factory?"

"Shouldn't be long now; I can bring up the map if you want."

Six simply nodded, studying the map with the intent of both figuring out their next move as well as drown out the cluster of mother hens behind him.

After recovering from her shock, Hibiki chuckled nervously, "Well that's an… unusual way for a sekirei and Ashikabi to bond."

"Unusual here having the meaning of uncalled for," Hikari snipped, aiming a glare at Six.

Toyotam shrugged sheepishly, "Well it was kind of my fault to be honest. I tricked him into taking off his helmet and faking a headache to get him close enough for a kiss," the sekirei admitted with an impish smile.

The twins both aimed sour looks at the spartan who had the sense to look a bit guilty.

"I'll simply say that I was still on alert after fighting off three other hostile sekirei… then seeing your wings I didn't exactly have the best response…. Can we not talk about this anymore?"

Unfortunately for him, the three Sekirei, for some reason they found his discomfort of the kiss-at-gunpoint incident adorable.

"Aww, is somebody a little shy?" Hikari teased with chuckle.

"I think it's kinda cute…in a really messed up sort of way," Hibiki remarked with dry smile.

"Definitely memorable!" Toyotama chirped with a grin.

'Kinda cute? On what planet would that be-? …oh, right. Aliens.'

"By the way sis, what do you think ever happened to that cosplayer we were hunting?"

"Hmm, good question I totally forgot about her," Hikari replied, scratching her head.

"Strange. Now that you bring her up, I can't help but feel like I've seen her before," Toyotama remarked, pursing her lips in thought.

Hikari scoffed dismissively, "Who cares? We're going have to hunt her down again before she's winged anyways."

Toyotama glared at Hikari, opening her mouth to fire off a scathing retort only for their ashikabi to break his silence.

"No, you won't."

Hikari's head snapped towards him, indignant, "What?! But if we don't take her out soon she'll-!"

"I'm well aware, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it," Six cut her off, imperiously. "As of right now your unwinged sekirei hunting licenses have just been revoked."

Hikari, not one to back down to any sort of authority, held her ground, "You're making a big mistake you know. If we don't take out any unwinged sekirei then we'll have bigger problems on our hands!"

"I'll be sure to take that under advisement. From now on, no more hunting of unwinged sekirei."

"Can we at least ask why we're not allowed?"

"Because I don't want to endorse that psycho's game and I don't plan to give him what he wants," Six answered tersely.

Hikari huffed, "You know sooner or later we're going to have to…"

Suddenly, Six came to a stop and with it the other three as well.

"Let me be clear. If you two go against my orders, there will be consequences – do you understand?"

With those four words, Six turned to stare at the sisters who gulped seeing their own reflections staring back at them from his visor.

It was an unnerving sight to say the least.

Toyotama couldn't help but smile. It warmed her heart to see her ashikabi looking out – in his own way – for other sekireis, giving them the chance to look for their destined ones without the fear of people like Hikari and Hibiki stalking them.

'You continue to prove that I made the right choice making you my master,' she thought fondly.

Now the only other things the unwinged would have to worry about are the despicable ashikabi of the East and the South who hunt them down only for their power.

However, what the Spartan and greenette didn't notice, was the sisters putting a hand behind their back and crossing their fingers.


Sahashi Minato watched the rise and fall of the brunette's chest, lying passed out like a rock on his bed. Turning away, he gave a sigh. Minato could barely believe what he'd seen earlier, or that he somehow managed to get her back here without any trouble.

Once more he replayed the events back in his mind again, hoping to make sense of it. This cute brunette had quite literally fallen into his lap, dragged him away running as fast as a speeding car, then he passed out from motion sickness. By the time he woke up she had laid him down on the soft grass on the bank of a waterway. She apologized profusely, then she passed out herself. Thus, he had to be the one to get her to somewhere safe which, as luck would have it, could only be his place.

'Okay... so a cute girl dressed like a miko falls from the sky, explosions, something soft- ahem, some crazy girls who shoot lightning from their hands... That green haired girl with a staff... and a 7-foot mecha-robot-thing that was somehow invisible.' Minato recited internally. 'I must be crazy, but it seems all too real...'

All of this seemed way out of his realm of comprehension. At first, he'd thought he might've stumbled into the shooting for a movie scene what with the explosions and cute girls showing up. But it wasn't, it was real – all of it!

One could look no further than the out-cold brunette lying on his bed to prove that fact.

However, he remembered something the girls had mentioned. 'An ashikabi… I wonder what the heck that is?' Minato wondered to himself.

The greenette seemed proud of it if nothing else, which was evident by what happened next.

'Is that what an ashikabi is: some sort of 7-foot tall robot?'

Minato didn't know what to think anymore, hoping today would be just some crazy dream and he would be waking up to take his college exam again.

Ring!

Ringtone blaring and feeling the vibrations in his pocket, Minato whipped out his phone and looked at the caller ID.

It was his mom.

"Wonder what she could want now? Hello, Mom?"

"Hey Minato," Takami greeted on the other end.

"Hey, um…gotta say, I wasn't expecting a call from you so soon."

"Well, I'm on my lunch break so I figured I'd call you to see how the exam went," Takami replied, which made Minato's stomach drop.

Minato gave a depressed sigh, "I didn't get in."

There was a long awkward silence on the other end of the phone, and Minato braced himself ready to hear his mother shout. Yet somehow, a shout would've been easier to handle than a simple:

"Well better luck next time I guess."

Minato was stunned she didn't yell at him like he expected "Um yeah… I see you're in a better mood today, since the last time I failed you were mad as hell."

"Oh I'm still pissed that you failed again, but let's just say I've got a neat little distraction at the moment," Takami chuckled a little bit on the other end still laughing at that fake article about Minaka.

Minato gave a mental sigh of relief; grateful she was in a much brighter mood. But in the back of his mind, he was wondering if he should tell her what he saw today. Biting the bullet, he went ahead and said, " Um…Hey mom can I tell you something?"

"Yeah?"

"I saw something..."

"Saw what? Get to the point, Minato."

"Uh.. well..." Minato hasn't considered how to say what he saw, since he gets nervous around his mother stuttering. Both his mother and little sister had always been domineering types and thus effectively made it hard for him to be confident around them. "You see, there was-!"

But Takami cut him off sharply, "Hold on, Minato - what did you say? Im on the phone... WHAT?! You lost them?! How can you lose them?!"

"Mom? what's going on?" Minato asked hearing the commotion on the other end.

"And now he has two more!?" Takami shouted again, completely ignoring him. "Sorry Minato I'll talk to you later, something just came up at work that I need to deal with. See ya."

"Mom wa-!"

CLICK.

"I wonder what that was all about?" Minato wondered to himself as he put his phone away.

Turning his attention back to the sleeping girl in his bed, Minato just sighed and collapsed on the floor on his back. "I hope this is all just a crazy dream," he muttered before he passed out on the floor exhausted after all the craziness he saw today.


"This is where we're staying? …a run-down car factory?!" Hikari exclaimed, looking at their new home through the fenced gate in front of them.

The sekirei looked upon the building's floorplan, equivalent to a three-story complex with another three-story brick building of offices on one end. All of them looked unsure of their ashikabi's choice in locale for their new home, but Hikari was by far the most vocal in her protests.

" I don't know about this. I thought you were taking us to like an apartment or a house or something… not an abandoned industrial complex," Hibiki remarked, frowning as she stared up at the rundown building.

Toyotama was also skeptical about the place but unlike the twins was a bit more accepting. "Well… least it looks better than the last place… hopefully there's no rats this time… When you said Athena found us a new home, I was expecting the penthouse I mentioned earlier not…well this."

"I'm with the stripper! A penthouse with an awesome view would've been kickass." Hikari protested with a huff.

"Who are you calling a stripper, battery?!" Toyotama yelled, whirling on the shorter sekirei.

As Hibiki tried once more to keep the two from killing each other, Athena gave a chuckle in Six's ear. "Kind of spoiled aren't they?"

The spartan said nothing as the realization of these girls' cirsumctances settled in. MBI had likely waited on them hand and foot all their lives, so now that they were out in the real world they weren't prepared for the dismal reality it really was. It was something the spartan fully intended on correcting at the earliest opportunity.

"In case it's not clear, I'm not exactly well off at the moment so a five-star hotel is a bit of a stretch," Six said aloud, getting their attention. "You all may not like it but this place suits me just fine. Truthfully, this might as well be a hotel compared to what I'm used to."

Grabbing the lock and chain on the fence, he tore it off with little effort and broke the chained lock, discarding it with a toss over his shoulder. With a push, the gates opened wide and admitted them entry.

For all his training, Kat had at least drummed into him the idea of being a gentleman, even if the concept was still as foreign to him as it was the day she taught him.

"Ladies first", the spartan said, gesturing them to go ahead.

"Oh, so polite," Toyotama giggled, batting her eyelashes at him as Hikari did the same. Hibiki for her part just smiled at him, while Six rolled his eyes inside his helmet.

With the girls in the lead, they walked through the entrance with six following right behind them, the spartan giving one last glance at the gate.

"You're sure we're off their scanners?" Six asked Athena. The AI appearing in a tiny window of his HUD.

"Don't worry big guy, I took care of it. I have them watching re-looped footage of you and the twins in that alleyway…Hmm, but it looks like they figured it out already, and now they are scrambling field agents to your last known locations as well as to the old place."

The window replaced Athena's profile, showing satellite surveillance footage of his old base with MBI vehicles parked outside. Men in suits came in and out of the building, and a number MBI soldiers were stationed around the perimeter with a group with them going into the building with the agents.

"Doesn't look like they appreciated our disappearing act," Athena added, her image replacing the video feed again.

"What's to stop them from tracking us down, then?"

"As I said don't worry about it. I'm hacked into those satellites hiding you and the others from their scanners. If they pass over here I can easily feed them old footage showing nothing but an empty lot," Athena assured her partner with a smirk.

Six smirked. Having a smart AI like Athena really was convenient. "Good work, I'm counting on you to keep us hidden and safe from their surveillance."

"You can count on me for anything big guy!" Athena cheerfully said.

Her enthusiasm still had him at a bit of a loss though, so all he could do was nod and catch up with the girls.

Soon enough they approached the door to one of the office buildings. While they weren't chained up like the gates, it was clear they hadn't been opened for some time.

" Now how are we getting in? I doubt these doors are unlocked," Hibiki complained, hands on her hips.

"Same way as before," Six said, moving to kick the door down with his foot.

"Hang on, Six," the AI spoke up, garnering the attention of the Sekirei also. "The roller-doors should be easier to resecure than this one. There's a one on the west-side you could lift up to get inside."

"Good idea. That will save me a bit of work."

Hikari huffed, "Can I ask you something? Do you always go around breaking into places like this?"

"It's the simplest way to get in,"Six said a bit defensively as he started walking to the west side of the building with his sekirei right behind him.

"He has a point, girls – although a broken door would let in the vermin Toyotama hates so much."

Developing a look of disgust, Toyotama shuddered a bit," I don't want to deal with that ever again." She only stayed one night in that rat-infested building but once was enough for her.

"I didn't think the apartment was that bad," Six protested.

"Says the fully-armored super soldier!" Toyotama spat, irritated. "Of course you wouldn't have a problem with it. You wouldn't even feel it probably!"

"You're just nitpicking now," Six sighed.

"And you, mister, have no respect for a woman's feelings!" Toyotama shot back, folding her arms as she glared at him.

Behind her, the twins nodded sagely at their fellow sekirei's words.

Feeling that discretion was the better part of valor, Six decided to leave things as they were and keep any further protests to himself.

Soon enough, Six and the trio stood in front of a huge, thick, and heavy loading bay door

"Athena, any chance you can open this thing?" Six asked the AI.

"Well Six I would, but the problem is the power is shut off for the whole building so you're going to have to open this thing manually."

Six nodded and walked up to the sliding door.

"Ok, I can have some suspense of disbelief you'd be able to break metal locks and kick in doors," Hibiki started to say, shaking her head, "but there is no way you can get this open yourself."

"There's no shame in asking for help, Master," Toyotama sneered at him, still obviously upset about his words from before.

Six, not even responding to their taunts, bent his knees and dug his fingers under the door. With little to no effort he started lifting it up, and a painful scraping sound filled the air as the top of the door was hauled up, forcing the girls to cover their ears with their hands to block out the noise.

After a few moments the horrible noise stopped, the girls uncovering their ears and saw Six hefting the heavy door just right at his shoulders.

"Anything you'd like to add?" Six asked, his voice not even showing the slightest bit of strain.

Six's sekirei were all blushing madly with Hikari openly gawking at him. Seeing him throwing punches like a sekirei was one thing, but this made it seem he had held back, as if there was nothing he couldn't lift... And it was unexpectedly hot?

"H-holy," Hikari murmured, swallowing hard.

Hibiki was about as red as a tomato, trying and failing not to gawk at her ashikabi.

Toyotama however…was eyeing him like a piece of meat, her heart hammering wildly in her chest. "You make it…really, really hard to be mad at you," Toyotama grumbled under her breath as she walked through the entrance. "Oi, come on you two!"

"R-right!" Hibiki snapped to reality once more, grabbing her sister's hand, "Come sis."

"Haah," Hikari mumbled, face flushed as she let Hibiki drag her through.

"…what's up with them?" Six wondered out loud, puzzled by their behavior

Athena scoffed, "Are you really that clueless? They are impressed with your strength. As they say women love a strong man. If I didn't know any better I figured you were showing off on purpose."

"You're imagining things," Six replied stoically, but didn't deny it outright. Once everybody was in he pulled the door back down, sealing off the way they came in.

Pitch darkness enveloped them.

"Well… this is great I can't see a damn thing!" Hikari complained not being able to see two feet in front of her.

"Calm down, let's see if we can find a light switch somewhere," Hibiki suggested blindly trying to fumble around for it.

"Even if you found it, without any power running through this place it wouldn't do a thing," Toyotama pointed out.

"Then why are we here if we don't have any power?!" Hikari complained.

Toyotama shrugged even though nobody could see it, "Well you guys are basically walking generators why don't you – KYAA!" Toyotama cut herself off with a squeal as something touched her.

"Hey I think I found something…. feels kind of squishy though," Hibiki commented as her hands touched something soft.

Even though nobody could see save for Six thanks to a certain augmentation which enhanced his vision even in the dark, Toyotama eyes squinted with a blush forming on her face, "Hibiki…those are my boobs…"

The second the words registered to her fellow sekirei, Hibiki yanked her hand off as if scaled," Ah!…Sorry about that!" Hibiki exclaimed.

Athena laughed gleefully in Six's ears, "Quite the wives you-"

"Stop calling them my wives," Six growled, making sure his helmet speakers were off so it was just him and Athena.

"Then what am I supposed to call them, Six?" Athena asked, glaring at him on his HUD.

What indeed. Thus far, Six had been so focused on figuring out how he was going to function in this new world that he'd almost neglected anything to do with the sekirei apart from what was absolutely necessary. That of course didn't mean he care about them, but all this talk of destined ones and such flew right over his head.

In the end, he settled for what accurately summed up their situation.

"Bonded partners."

Athena rolled her eyes, "Somehow I have a feeling they're not going like being referred to by that."

"They'll get over it," Six declared stoically, turning on his helmet lights to help the girls see in the dark.

"Finally, some light!" Hikari cried joyfully.

"Let's keep moving, and make sure to not get separated," Six commanded, taking the lead once more.

All three of them nodded and followed him as they continued with their trek through the abandoned complex.

Soon enough they found themselves traversing through the warehouse part of the building where the workers likely had kept supplies, evidenced by the boxes scattered about the area.

Not long after, Six was able to lead them out into the main assembly area where they saw a rows of paired robotic arms along conveyors and lots of empty space.

As expected a lot of the equipment was covered in dust and cobwebs here and there, but not too much. The place had been abandoned pretty recently it seemed.

"Everything looks intact, which is good. All it'll need is a bit of cleanup and this place will be good as new," Six stated, casting a critical eye over everything.

"Wait a sec. You're not expecting us to clean all of this, are you?" Hikari pressed, overhearing what Six said and looking at the massive room in front of them.

"Let's keep moving," Six said, ignoring her as he walked past.

"Hey! Don't just walk off like that, you big lug!" Hikari snapped, chasing after the spartan as the other two took up the rear.

The group walked to the other end of the building coming across a set of dual-swing doors, with a tall and narrow window with safety-wires through the glass that were partially covered in sheet stainless steel to prevent wear and tear.

"Is there any other way inside?" Six inquired.

"Not really, unless you want to break one of the windows outside."

Six sighed. Guess that left him little options then. "Alright, stand back you three."

"What are you going to do?" Toyotama asked.

"Improvise," was all the spartan uttered before giving a sharp kick to the door, sending it flying inward bolts and all. "Come on."

Had he glanced back just then, he would've noticed the blushes each of the women were sporting.

At this point they knew he was beyond human… It was just difficult to get used to the sight of another being that has superhuman abilities other than a sekirei – especially from one who claims to be from a few hundred years in the future of some other reality.

But that wasn't a complaint; if anything, it was one hell of a perk that made their ashikabi quite a catch.

"If there's one thing I can't wait for, it's to get him out of that armor," Toyotama remarked aloud, her voice thick with desire.

"Same here," they said in perfect sync, drooling a bit as they imagined him without that armor of his making bodybuilder poses.

Six, despite being a good distance away, picked up everything they were saying because of his hearing enhanced hearing. Deciding not to comment on it, he barked out, "Are you three coming or just going to gawk all day?"

They almost scrambled through the door at that.

Continuing down another hallway, they came across another door but this one had a set of maglocks. With the power off, there should've been no conventional way to get this thing open.

So Six kicked the door in, sending it swinging wide-open and breaking the locks on them.

"Surely you don't intend to break down every door we come across," Hibiki deadpanned. "

Six just shrugged, "Anything broken can be fixed up better than before later."

Hibiki found she couldn't argue with that logic, and neither could Athena.

The group made their way inside, stopping to take a look around the place. Surprisingly, the interior felt more like an actual home with carpeting, appliances, etc.

"Well now, this looks way better than what I was expecting. Is this place really our new home? " Toyotama wondered, giving the place a good once over, "Still, is this really going to be our new home? I wasn't expecting to live out the rest of my days in a factory of all places."

"I have my doubts about this place too. And all that stuff you broke on the way in doesn't ease my anxieties," Hibiki stated folding her arms under her chest.

Hikari gave a strong nod, throwing in her two cents. "Of all the places you could've picked out to live in, why did you decide on this anyways. There are literally thousands of other areas in the city we could choose from! Why here?"

"We're staying here – end of discussion!" Six declared, turning towards them with a clenched fist. Calming down a bit, he gave a sigh, "Look, I understand it's not much right now but give me some time. With your and Athena's help, this will be the secure place in the city. And I'm sure MBI can pay for the materials expenses after all."

The three alien women took in everything he said. All three looked at one another unsure of his words. Finally, Hibiki spoke up.

"Where do we start?"

But Six shook his head, "Let me take a look around first. In the meantime, you try to get this place cleaned up a bit and I'll return soon."

The trio nodded and set about their tasks while Six headed out to scour more of the facility. In a matter of minutes, they had the place somewhat tidied up and each took a seat on some of the chairs that had been left gathering dust.

"We certainly know how to pick our destined ones," Hikari remarked sullenly.

"It could be worse," Hibiki remarked, crossing one leg over the other.

"How so?"

"We could be working for Higa," Toyotama pointed out grimly.

Hikari winced, "Fair point. I still think our ashikabi has got a few screws loose."

"Hikari!" Hibiki chided her sister.

"What? It's true! I'll bet he doesn't even consider us in a romantic sense either."

"You might be right," Toyotama cut in, determination glowing in her eyes. "So we need to change that."

"And just how do we do that?"

Toyotama's grin turned devious, and it sent a chill down the twins' spines, "Simple: we peel back that armor of his and see who's really under it."


To be continued.


Notes.

I like to give a big thanks to Jakeros, another writer that's been helping me out. He help me with the last chapter and I forgot to mention him.

this chapter he was the one that proofread and edited this chapter instead of SoTaWoB this time around .

Other than that I re-edit some chapters. I felt like I had Six to awkward and him excepting too easily of his sekireis as his wives. At least that's what I thought when I was reading certain parts.

And I redid the intro to chapter 1. One point in the future chapter 1 I plan on giving a complete overhaul, since re-reading through it the other day realizing the chapter still needed some work.

Also if there's any Gears of war fans here, hopefully you caught Marcus Fenix's Infamous quote.

So I hope you all like this chapter, leave me your thoughts and comments