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"Minato." - Regular Speech

'Musubi' – Thoughts

"Kaminari!" - Sekirei Incantation

Beta'd by BigCC

Chapter 28: The Lazarus Project Begins

The Next Day

Living Room, Sahashi Minato's Home, Shin Teitō

Minato, having successfully managed to extricate himself from the tangled bevy of sleeping alien beauties that were his wives (a series of words that still made him want to scratch his head in confusion and wonder when his life had gone so off the rails) without waking any of them, let out a slight breath as he reclined in 'his' chair in the living room while nursing a warm cup of freshly brewed tea. He had managed to get a solid ten hours of sleep and yet he was still feeling mentally exhausted from everything that had happened yesterday.

The former Ashikabi of the, from all descriptions, highly violent Sekirei Number 13 had been taken away by some of his mother's people when she and her team had arrived to retrieve the defeated Sekirei that had started a fight so close to his home. The girl herself (he believed his mother had called her 'Yashiro') was apparently very much in need of seriously therapy, if not a full deprogramming, if the texts he'd received from his mother later that same evening were anything to go by. She was…an extremely weak-minded girl, with little to no self-confidence or self-respect and who would easily bend to the whims of anyone who exerted even the smallest amount of authority over her. An utter lackey in other words. Even more worrisome was that she seemed to take a certain level of…gratification from being used, abused, and generally mistreated.

To quote his mother, she was even worse than some of the 'really submissive' Sekirei she had seen over the years, which was apparently saying something.

As for the sheer idiocy Kuno's Ashikabi, Shigi Haruka, had displayed yesterday; his mother's rather intense interview with the young man (which had left him cowering in a corner) had summarized his issues to being a bad mix of a still immature personality and an extremely High-Functioning and minor case of Asperger's Syndrome, more commonly known as autism. She had classed him as 'High-Functioning' because his particular case didn't really interfere with or overall prevent him from having a fairly normal day-to-day life. It simply hindered his ability to read social cues, misinterpret social interactions, and generally led to him having extremely poor impulse control, particularly when he was under significant emotional stress.

…well that was Minato's own interpretation of his mother's, rather exasperated, statement that the idiot in question reacted to stress by, 'unconsciously breaking social convention without even understanding why.'

Her ability to diagnose the cause for the young Ashikabi's issues had, of course, not prevented the irate Head of the Sahashi family from tearing into the Ashikabi with her usual scathing disregard for idiots and fools. Haruka had gone to bed that night looking like he'd just been dragged through all nine layers of hell before being forced to stare Satan in the eye.

…Meh, he'd get over it.

Taking another sip of his tea, Minato let out a small, satisfied sigh. Everything that had been happening recently had certainly not been what he'd been expecting of his college life, not by his wildest imaginings, but he honestly couldn't say that he regreted getting involved in any of it. His life right now was far better than what he had ever believed possible for himself, potential assassination attempts and looming conflicts aside. Most males, he did not doubt, would have gladly killed to have a harem of beautiful women willing to wait on them hand and foot…and that wasn't just hyperbole either. He knew for a solid fact that at least three of his Sekirei would gladly switch out their current styles of dress for a maid uniform similar to Oriha's and spend every moment of the day and night at his service if he ever indicated he'd enjoy such a thing.

He knew that most of his girls were starting to get very impatient to match Hibiki and Hikari's wings so that he would then be able to have sex with them; it was patently obvious that they were slowly starting to boil over to F3: Female, Frustrated, and Frantic. The rapidly increasing number of times that each of them had to take a moment to…take care of themselves and lower their arousal was an easy indicator of that, especially during times like last night, when the twins had grabbed him and dragged him some place private to treat him to a double blowjob. And thanks to the mental link that was shared between his Flock, he could tell that most of the rest had scurried of to their own rooms to 'relieve' themselves a bit during and after said session.

Matsu was most insistent that, actual penetration aside to protect their power growth, they would all accept any form of amorous attention he wanted to deliver onto them, but it wasn't that easy. While he might have become far more willing (happy even) to accept and give shows of affection with his Flock than he had been after first Winging the Raiden Futago, he still had his own reservations about…pushing things a bit further himself. A lifetime of being a shy, timid wallflower didn't fade away so quickly after all.

Still, his girls didn't deserve to be left as frustrated as they were obviously becoming though, and as their Ashikabi it was kind of his responsibility to make sure that they were happy, including in that way, so he supposed he was going to have to man up and actually be a bit more aggressive.

With another sigh, he finished his tea and got up and started to head towards the kitchen. One thing he had discovered about himself was that he honestly did enjoy cooking for the otherworldly beauties that had fallen into his life, and with none of his Sekirei being particularly early risers, breakfast would likely remain his domain for some time to come.

Same Time

With Sahashi Takami

MBI President's Office, MBI Tower

"So, Takami-kun, what is the current status of the former Ashikabi of Number 13 that you had brought in for examination yesterday?" the cape-wearing imbecile that was responsible for this entire mess asked conversationally from behind his oversized desk.

"If you want my professional medical opinion, then it's simple: that girl is royally fucked up in the head." the ashen-haired woman replied bluntly. "To put it in layman's terms, her level of submissiveness goes well beyond anything remotely healthy, to the point that she utterly submits to anyone that can 'put her in her place.' Combine that with her severe masochistic tendencies and that girl is a walking victim just waiting for a bastard to snatch her up, something that Number Thirteen proved all too well. However, Amebane and his 'conditioning', while certainly a contributor, aren't the cause of this. Even just a tertiary interview shows that it was a part of how she was raised to think, something that has been wired into her personality for years. I've already assigned a few of our investigators to chase down her family and see just what kind of skeletons they can find. I don't expect it to be anything pretty."

"I see." the bespectacled man nodded. "Anything else?"

"I've already got her scheduled for an in-depth probing session with one of our best therapists so we can get a proper mental diagnosis on her, just to see if she can be helped without a full-on deprogramming routine." Takami continued. "I honestly don't have much hope after what I've seen so far, other than maybe mitigating her urges to a level they're not a threat to her own health and safety. Physically, she is just fine for now. She is showing signs of slight malnourishment and dehydrations as well as some bruises across her rump and stomach. Amebane was apparently a sadistic little bastard, but was careful enough not to do anything that would harm his 'tool' in an irreversible manner. I'm already starting another investigation into his assigned Tuner to see if he did anything hinky during Amebane's adjustment period, or if the little brat was just a natural occurring sociopath."

"Hm. Good, good; your investigation will have my full backing. What exactly are you going to do with Amebane himself?" Minaka asked.

"He's already been placed into stasis. I am holding off on making any plans regarding him until we know whether his actions were his own natural inclinations or a result of some 'off-the-books' adjustment." the Head of the Sekirei Plan stated. "And, once again, I will be forced to ask my son to borrow one of his Sekirei for a bit so that we can properly investigate our Tuners again. Did you even bother reading their resumes before you hired them, or did you just hire them at random using a dart board?"

"Takami-kun, I am wounded by your words. I fully investigated all of their professional credentials and every one of them were nothing but the best in their field." the white-haired maniac responded, sounding honestly insulted. "The fact that some had certain moral or personality deficiencies is inconsequential; we needed their technical ability to bring about a new Age of the Gods-agh!"

"IRON CLAW!"

Minaka let out a pained and panicked yelp as his ex-wife's hand grabbed his face in a grip of pure steel before lifting him out of his seat and making him stare eye-to-eye with the enraged visage of the woman he'd fallen so madly in love with. Oh dear, it looks like he might have taken things a bit too far this time.

"WE ARE DEALING WITH OVER A BLOODY DOZEN SEKIREI THAT HAVE BEEN UTTERLY AND COMPLETELY MISHANDLED, YOU INSANE TWIT!" she roared out at point-blank range, her already painfully tight grip on his skull gradually increasing like a vice as she vented her spleen. "One of the Single Numbers was reduced to a Scrapped Number and several more have had deficiencies deliberately implanted into their adjustments, and now we have to worry that even more of their psych profiles have either been doctored or completely forged! Do you have any idea how much extra work your utter bone-headedness has just dumped right into my lap!? Do you!?"

"OWOWOWOWOWOW! Myheadmyheadmyhead! Takami-kun my head!" Minaka howled as it started to feel like his eyeballs would be popped out of his skull by the pressure of his ex's grip. "I thought you were a marital artist, not an American Pro Wrestler!?"

"I'm allowed to have hobbies, you degenerate!" the mother of two snarled out as she continued to try and squeeze the stupid out of her boss' worthless head.

"My skull is cracking! Takami-kun, I can hear my skull starting to crack! Please have mercy on my poor brain! Losing my intellect would be a crime against all of humanity! It would be the loss of a truly priceless treasure!"

Snap!

"I'LL SHOW YOU A CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY, YOU UTTER FUCKING IMBECILE!"

"GYAAAAAHHHHHH!"

Within the Discipline Squad's Standby Room ten floors down, Karasuba couldn't help but smile slightly as she heard the sound of her least favourite human being thoroughly…what was the term?…Ah yes…chastised for the nth time by Takami. It had actually started to become a near-daily occurrence recently but the Black Sekirei never got tired of hearing the Head of the Sekirei Plan put the screws to the most annoying human in existence.

One of the perks of being a physically-oriented Single Number was that all of her senses were heightened to a superhuman level beyond even most Sekirei. A perk of being a member of the Discipline Squad was that she was usually close enough to use said senses to pick up on her daily entertainment.

Sometimes, life was just that good.

Humming in time with Minaka Hiroto's screams of pain and squeals for mercy, she kept her hands occupied with maintaining her sword.

Later

Sahashi Takami's Off-Site Laboratory, Gardens, Shin Teitō

"That stupid, moronic, pea-brained little excuse of….!" Takami muttered under her breath as she stepped through the security doors and into the building itself from the new, direct underground monorail that had just finished being installed yesterday. It connected this complex, which contained several delicate projects that she was personally overseeing, and the MBI Building itself, and only she had clearance to use it. Even the caped lunatic couldn't activate it without her being physically present on one end to authorise it.

After she had finished her latest bout of punishing that damned idiot for his many, many sins, which had included getting both more funding and more personnel for her department in exchange for letting him keep his balls. She was, in all honesty, in desperate need of both; both she and Minaka had seriously underestimated just mow much of a pain in the ass taking full control of the New Capital would actually be. Even worse, more and more Ashikabi and Sekirei pairs were trying to escape the cordon, most not even realizing just what they'd be risking if they leaved. They were now dealing with a new escape attempt on an almost daily basis.

What was more troubling was that there was more than a bit of civil disobedience starting to ferment under the surface since the cordon around the city had been put into effect. People did not like being cooped up, let alone when it was done without what they could consider a good reason. Even the typical Japanese attitude of listening to authority, keeping your head down, and continue working on was starting to fray under the pressure that was slowly building.

Personally, she was getting suspicious that Higa, or his company at least, was the one responsible for stirring the pot like this. The little brat was the very definition of a 'smart idiot' in her books; the kid had already read to her as a bit of a sociopath, incapable of feeling or understanding empathy and compassion in any real fashion and instead living by cold logic and self-interest. That didn't mean the little bastard didn't know how to turn public opinion into a weapon just as well as the next CEO.

Luckily things were keeping steady for now, with nothing worse than the occasional bit of rotting fruit being thrown at the MBI soldiery yet, but Takami knew that all it would take would be one soldier doing something rash or just plain stupid to spark the tension and set everything off.

It was for that reason that she'd already sent out another text to Minato, requesting to borrow Yahan for a bit again. She needed the Shadow Sekirei to both investigate the Tuners (again) and to follow up on the few leads that they'd managed to find on whoever it was that was trying to organize and build up the 'resistance' against MBI's little military occupation of Shin Teitō.

'If only we could give the people some kind of timetable; that might be enough to get the majority to settle down and cooperate for now.' Takami sighed as she sat down at her personal terminal. 'Unfortunately, even I don't have a clue on just how long this entire circus is going to last! Damned bloody Minaka won't even hint at what is going to happen after Stage Three ends, or even how many Stages he has planned for the Sekirei Plan! I'm supposed to be the damned HEAD of the Sekirei Plan, I need that kind of information to keep things under control!'

After momentarily pausing to vent her spleen with a dozen-or-so colourful curses, all of which were directed at the bastard who'd knocked her up, twice at that, Takami booted up the computer and quickly logged on. This particular terminal was a stand-alone model, not linked to the MBI Network or even the internet for security purposes. Accessing one file in particular, she scanned it before smirking.

'Right, looks like I have just about everything that I need to start. I still have one or two materials that'll be needed for the later stages, but there will be more than enough time acquire later.' the scientist thought, the list of medical equipment, chemicals, and materials that she'd been accumulating for this particular project was vast and fairly diverse. Almost all of the equipment was tech that had been developed by MBI using information gleamed from the Sekirei Mothership, particularly the medical bay, while a majority of the chemicals and materials had been manufactured in fabricators actually still on board the Mothership. MBI was good and they'd made impressive progress by reverse engineering the technology they'd found, but one couldn't catch up with a hyper-advanced, space-faring civilization's ability to manufacture specific chemicals in just a couple decades.

The sound of a buzzer caused her to jerk her head up a bit. "Huh, she's here earlier than I expected." Takami muttered as she stood up. 'Getting her on my side for this is going to be an absolute must if I want this project to succeed.'

"Yo, Takami." Karasuba greeted her lazily as she absently waltzed into her office a few moments later. "You had the idiot screaming like a choir boy today, any chance you did some permanent damage this time?"

Takami let out a snort. "If only we could be that lucky, unfortunately the caped idiot is impossibly durable. Some days I am half-sure that he used himself as a lab rat for some 'super soldier serum' or other such nonsense that he developed." she replied dryly. "Are the Red and Blue Sekirei keeping up with their work properly now?"

"Benitsubasa is actually fairly good at getting Haihane up off her ass whenever she gets a bit too into her otaku moments." the Black Sekirei offered, a smirk on her lips at the memory of the pink-haired pettanko physically dragging a wailing, flailing silver-haired hikikomori out of her room and away from the anime she'd been watching to go on a mission just half an hour ago. Karasuba had decided to show a bit of mercy to her junior and had set the television to record the show for the claw-user.

And some called her heartless.

"So, what exactly is it you wanted to talk to me about all the way out in your private fortress when you could have just stopped by the Standby Room after you were done with the idiot." the silver-haired Sekirei asked as she leaned back against the wall.

"Karasuba, if I asked if you wanted Yume back, what would your response be?" Takami asked bluntly, deciding that subtlety would do her no good here and thus going for the metaphorical sledgehammer. Neither she nor Karasuba were the types that enjoyed word games or dancing around a particular subject.

The Black Sekirei suddenly went dangerously still. "I am aware that MBI has access to machinery that could fabricate a new body for Yume from one of her stored eggs, but it wouldn't be Yume." she hissed out slowly. "Watch your step here, Takami. To use a human saying, you are starting to tread where angels fear to watch."

"So you know about the cloning technology? That is actually a relief, it saves me a good half-hour of explaining the technical details to you." the scientist nodded slightly, completely unruffled by the aura of menace the Black Sekirei was currently radiating. "I am well aware that any clone of Yume would simply be little more than an empty shell because the body would be born with an empty Tama. However…Yume's spirit has been found, Karasuba. Think on where it would likely be."

"Still in…in her Tama…Yume's Tama…inside Musubi…!" the other woman muttered out haltingly, her aura of menace breaking slightly. "But…can you actually transfer Yume's spirit from within the Tama in Musubi to that of a clone. Hell, would one of the clones even have a Tama in the first place?"

"We've experimented with the cloning technology quite a bit, and we've found that when a Sekirei is cloned using it, a new body can be replicated that is perfect match down to all genetic markers, including their Tama. They simply lack the…spark…that brings it to life." Takami responded. That question had been one of the first things she'd checked for answers regarding. "As for actually transferring Yume's spirit, my current theory is that it should be a relatively simple process once we have a proper vessel ready for it. Musubi's spirit has overtaken much of Yume's Tama, with Yume's own spirit 'slumbering', for lack of a better word, at its core. However, Tama were developed to only ever hold the spirit of a single Sekirei; one holding two isn't naturally healthy. I believe that if Musubi were to come into physical contact with a clone of Yume, Yume's spirit should be able to sense a compatible vessel nearby and react instinctively to lessen the pressure their dual spirit is causing on the Tama and move itself into the new vessel. If that doesn't occur, I have a few ideas about how to artificially stimulate that response, but I'd need to speak to Miya about them to get any idea if they'd work, and I hate having to deal with that stubborn woman. I can't trust her any more than Minaka to give me a straight answer. Unfortunately, the only other option would be to have Matsu access the Mothership to hunt for information from its medical library, something that would require her to activate her Norito these days."

"There seems to be a lot of supposition involved this." Karasuba pointed out blandly, though her eyes were sharp again.

"We're talking about dealing with the soul itself here, Karasuba. Humanity only discovered Metaphysical Biology when that idiot and I discovered that the Sekirei undoubtedly and unquestionably had souls." the Head of the Sekirei Plan let out a sigh. "But, every one of my current theories is backed by everything I've read and studied on the subject from data directly from the Mothership and our own tests. If nothing else, this Project cannot hurt Musubi or Yume's soul even if it fails. And having a cloned body of Yume around and on standby would be beneficial for when we do figure out how to actually get it done if the first attempt fails."

Karasuba was silent for a long moment after that before her hawklike yellow eyes once more focused on Takami's own, hard and full of a sense of purpose. "And just why are you so interested in bringing Yume back? To give your son another tool to fight against Minaka with? Another toy for his bed?" There was a sense of quiet in her voice now, a promise just as dark and deadly as the hand now resting on the hilt of her katana.

"Do remember just who you are talking to here, Karasuba." Takami responded blandly, letting out a slight sigh and seemingly utterly unconcerned that she was staring down the most prolific Manslayer among the Sekirei just moments after being threatened by her. "I have made it my mission to improve the lot of the Sekirei since before the S-Plan was warped into Minaka's asinine Sekirei Plan. Do you honestly think so little of me that you'd even suggest that? While I certainly wouldn't be opposed to having Yume as another daughter-in-law, my first and only goal in this is to right a wrong that should have been rectified years ago. Because that idiot was too obsessed with results that he didn't bother with proper security screenings, and I was too caught up in everything to else to do it myself, Musubi was almost killed and Yume was forced to sacrifice herself to save her. Her death was the cost of our negligence, and I refuse to let that go uncorrected. Number Eight should not have died that day, Karasuba, and I intend to ensure that she gets exactly what she deserves, her life and happiness returned to her."

Silence once again filled the room before Karasuba let out a little laugh. "Gods damn it, it really is a shame you aren't an Ashikabi, Takami. Even the most diehard of Black Ops started pissing themselves when I stared them down like that and you didn't even flinch."

"You're not my type." Takami shot back bluntly. "Besides, I've done enough to deserve whatever fate comes my way for failing to put that idiot down when I could have. But until the Sekirei no longer need me to help them, I have a responsibility to them to do whatever I can. Now, are you going to help me bring Yume to life or not, Karasuba?"

"Hah! You already know my answer, there's no way I can turn down this kind of chance." the Black Sekirei scoffed. "Mu-chan'll be a fun fight when she's ready, but a chance to fight Yume? To actually face her again, fully restored to life and with the full power of the Sekirei of Fate? That is the kind of prize I just can't hope to resist. What do you need me for?"

"I've already managed to acquire one of Yume's frozen eggs, as well as most of the materials and equipment that I need for the cloning process." Takami stated, nodding to her new co-conspirator. "Once I get my hands on the few final pieces I need, I can start the process, which will take two weeks minimum to get Yume's new body to fully maturity.

"The Mothership was able to bring us to full maturity in just a single day." Karasuba frowned.

"All of the Single Numbers were originally pre-fertilized foetuses stored in the Mothership, speeding up your maturation to the point you reached your early twenties was fairly straightforward." the scientist stated with a shake of her head. "What I am going to be doing here will be a LOT more complicated. I am basically going to take Yume's genetic material from the egg and use it to build a clone of the original. That will require me to constantly monitor the resulting foetus to ensure that the resulting DNA mirrors Yume's while also ensuring that no genetic abnormalities or defects emerge. Even with Yume's full DNA Map, which I've already acquired from MBI's database, this will still be an incredibly delicate and precise procedure. As for what I need you to do, I need you to keep the idiot in a cape busy and his attention far away from my personal lab during that time. He would try to interfere or even shut down this project faster than you can say 'Age of the Gods' since he doesn't want any more 'mortal interference' from MBI in his precious Sekirei Plan than absolutely necessary."

"…he is a hypocritical piece of shit, isn't he?" Karasuba concluded with a disgusted sigh. She knew that a part of the Plan, which Minaka had already confirmed, was to have the Discipline Squad join in as full contenders. If having your highly-trained, anti-Sekirei assassination task force joining into the tournament that your company was running wasn't overtly interfering, what the hell was?

"And you are just realizing this now?" Takami shot back with a snort. "He is even trying to prevent me from openly fixing those Sekirei that were misadjusted by those worthless quacks. 'The Age of the Gods requires possibilities from all things, Takami-kun. Even those with damaged wings will have the opportunity to Ascend to the Skies Above.' or so he says. More of that nutjob's stupid double-speak. So yes, your job is to keep Minaka busy, distracted, and off my case once I start the process. Then we can bring Mu-chan and Minato into this as well."

"I think I can handle that easily enough." the Black Sekirei nodded a bit of a smirk forming on her lips. "…by the way, just how long will it take for Yume to be able to fight at her fullest once she has been fully restored."

Giving the Sekirei's resident battle maniac an utterly exasperated look, Takami then actually gave the question some thought, "If our initial procedure works as well as I hope and the transfer goes relatively smoothly as I originally hypothesized, then we'd need at least a week of testing, evaluation and PT to make sure that everything worked completely. Add in another few days…maybe two more weeks after the procedure is completed. So, about a month from now at the earliest, though there's no way of being sure until I can see her mental and physical state after the transfer process is completed, particularly after she had spent the better part of the last decade within Musubi's Tama."

"A month…" Karasuba whispered out, her lips drawing back into a toothy smile that was both malevolent and joyful in the same breadth. "I've waited for this fight for years at this point, a month or two is absolutely no time at all. Thank you, Takami. If this actually succeeds then I will owe you more than you could ever realize."

"It helps you, it helps Musubi, it helps Yume, it helps Minato, and it helps the rest of the Sekirei." Takami stated with a smirk. "There's every reason for me to do this, and very few reasons not to. The fact that it will annoy that damned idiot only makes this all the sweeter. Welcome to the Lazarus Project, Karasuba. Now, let's bring Yume back."

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Next Chapter: Escape from Shin Teitō Part 1: The Plan Starts

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