"Saya! Saya wake up!" Uzume's voice comes as she shakes me.
"U-Uzume! What time is it?" I reply as I slowly open my eyes.
"4:37 pm, we need to start getting ready to head over to Seo's place."
"Okay, I reply as a thoght occurs to me."You don't have any problems with his Sekirei, do you Uzume?"
"No, not really. Even while I had a reputation as the unwingable veiled Sekirei they never really came after me. Plus if you remember at least half of the first 12 digits were adjusted by akihito. Even in those days, I never had any real quarrels with them."
"Right! At least that's good." I say as I put on my pants. " By the way, Uzume, that was wonderful."
Uzume smiles as she says, "Yes, it was wonderful."
I reach in to kiss her, but right before our lips meet the door flies open. "Saya! Are you ready to go?!" I look at Haruhime who is standing in the doorway. " I'm sorry, am I interrupting a moment between you and Uzume?"
Truth be told she had interrupted a moment between the two of us, but it didn't really matter. "No Haru-chan! It's fine! Uzume-chan and I were just getting ready!"
After a few moments both Uzume and I are dressed, and downstairs waiting by the elevator. All six of my Sekirei were standing there, as we all piled into the elevator. We slowly ascend downwards, till we reach the 14th floor. The doors slide open and Akashiya-san steps in. "Ahh! Shirayuki-san, just the person I wanted to see!"
She was really one of the last people I wanted to see. But nonetheless I greet her," good evening Akashiya-san! Why did you want to see me?"
She gets as close to me as she can and asks, " you work for MBI right? Tell me, what is that eccentric bastard Hiroto up to? Why is the MBI militia blocking off all exits to the city? And what was with that weird announcement on TV a few days ago, about the city being the stage for some performance or something?"
Naturally she was beginning to catch on, to all of the weird dealings going on around the city. I'm sure most people not involved with the Sekirei Plan were, but it had to be kept a secret. " I'm afraid that I'm as in the dark as you are Akashiya-san! Even though I work for him, I can't fully understand all of his plans."
Truth be told I wasn't lying to her, I just wasn't telling her the whole truth about everything I knew. "I Know that you know more than you're letting on, Shirayuki-san. I can see it in your eyes, the way you hesitated slightly after my questions. It's obvious that you are not telling me everything."
Ding!*
The elevator reaches the bottom garage level, and the doors slide open. I quickly rush out while trying to get away from my nosy neighbor. "Look Akashiya-san, I can't tell you. The nature of my work at MBI is not something I can talk about."
"So you do know what's been going on! Then you must te-"
"I'm sorry Akashiya-san but I can't!"
She is about to say something else when suddenly her cell phone rings. She pulls it out of her pocket, and stairs at the screen. "Excuse Shirayuki-san! But I need to take this call, stay right there. I shouldn't take long, and then you can tell me all about what you know."
She steps away from me and my girls as Mutsu speaks in a quiet tone. "Quickly lets go while she is distracted. I hacked her phone and made it ring!"
I look towards my car as a realization hits me. There were seven of us including myself, there was no way all of us were going to fit into my car. Girls we can't all fit in my car. Two of you are going to have to travel by rooftop.
" I will volunteer!" Yahan says with a slight smile.
"I will as well." Kazehana says. " After all, I can move as swiftly as the wind."
Once the car situation was settled, my remaining Sekirei and I pile into my car. Uzume is in the passenger seat, with Akitsu behind me, Matsu in the middle, and Haruhime behind Uzume. I quickly pull out of the parking space, and drive off before Akashiya-san finishes with her phone call.
" That was quick thinking Matsu-chan!" I say as I turn the car out of the parking garage.
"Thanks Saya! Do I get a reward for helping?" Matsu says seductively, as her eyes glint behind her glasses.
"Maybe later Matsu-chan! By the way do you have Seo's address? " I say as I pull the car to a stoplight.
"Yes Saya. He lives in the apartment buildings at 3 Chome-32-39 in Itabashi. Building 7 Apartment 203."
"So about 15 blocks west of Izumo Inn." I say as I turn the car in order to head to the north side of the city. I glance up into the rearview mirror at Haruhime. "Haru-chan, we're going to meet with Seo and his Sekirei. Please don't start anything with numbers Eleven and Twelve please. Can you promise me you won't?"
"Sure thing Saya! Although I'm more worried about Hikari and Hibiki trying to start something with me."
" You know something Haru-chan, there is something I've actually been curious about."
"Yes, Saya?"
" Every time we are coming into contact with the lightning twins they have called you a pervert. I have been wondering why that is?"
Her head goes down so I can't see her eyes through the rearview mirror. "W-what d-do you mean?"
Her voice has a slight stutter to it, and I could tell she was slightly embarrassed even without the bond."
" Judging from your reaction , it's probably warranted. What did you do to them to make them think you are a pervert?"
"I-I-I may have accidentally dropped one of my tessen and caught a glimpse of Hakari's underwear. When I saw them I stopped for a second, and stared up at her pink striped panties. It was when they were wearing those maid dresses, the ones that they wear while they're working. Unfortunately Hibiki noticed me staring at her sister's panties and yelled at her. I ran away in embarrassment, but about an hour or so later they had managed to track me down . They showed up wearing their battle gear and started attacking me."
" So it was all just a slight misunderstanding then?"
"More or less, but I did stare at her panties for a good few minutes."
This wasn't something I really expected from her, maybe Matsu but not her. Though it did make sense to a certain degree considering she was a lesbian Sekirei.
"But it was an accident, they thought I did it intentionally!"
"Did you try explaining that to them?"
"I did try, multiple times in fact, but they wouldn't listen to me!"
"Maybe you could explain it to them now. Especially considering we need to be on friendly terms if we are going to work with them. By the way, Uzume-chan take my phone and send Minato a text. Tell him we're on the way over now. "
Uzume does as I asked and after a couple minutes she says" yeah! He said he is on the way over there as well and he'll see us when we get there."
"Right, thank you Uzume-chan!"
After a short while we arrive at Seo's place. The building itself looked slightly run down, like one of those cheap apartment buildings. "You said Building seven right?"
Mutsu nods, and after a few minutes we finally found the correct building and ascended the stairs. On the second floor we find Seo's apartment third door from the top of the stairs. I quickly knock on the door, and after a few minutes a girl answers the door.
She has dark hair and dark blackish gray eyes. She has a slender figure with a chest that was probably somewhere around 80 centimeters. This made her breasts noticeable but still rather small, unlike myself and my Sekirei. She has on a purple top with number 12 emblazoned on it in black letters, and black basketball shorts that went just about an inch down her thighs. Considering I was so used to seeing her and her battle gear, it took me a minute to realize that this was Number 12, Hibiki.
"Welcome!" Hibiki says ushering us into her home."Minato and his Sekirei arrived about 10 minutes ago. However you will have to give Seo a few minutes, as he is still unconscious."
As my Sekirei and I step in the small and if I have to say cramped living room. I take notice of Minato and his Sekirei as Haruhime asks. "Why would Seo-san be unconscious?"
"Hikari zapped him because his perverted antics pissed her off." She sighs before continuing as if this was a daily occurrence. " Don't worry though he usually recovers pretty quickly when this happens."
"Your ashikabi a terrible pervert?" Haruhime asked with an almost terrified look.
"No no! Don't get me wrong. He may be a massive pervert, he has his moments. Regardless, he is pretty good to us, despite his flaws."
As I hear this conversation going on by the door I walk over to Minato. He sits at the small table in the middle of the room with Musubi on his right and Yashima to his left. Behind him are two more of his Sekirei Tsukiumi and Kuruse. Musubi is rather excited to see us though most of the rest of his Sekirei minus Tsukiumi just say hello.
As I sit down at the opposite side of the table Akitsu sits to my left and Mutsu to my right with the rest of my Sekirei taking point behind me. However, just as I get comfortable, I am tackle hugged from behind. "Saayaaa Onee-san!!!"
The words of Number 108 Kusano blast in my ears. I shift myself so I am facing the young Sekirei. "Ku-chan!!! How have you been? Are you having fun with your new big brother?"
Kusano smiles and nods, "yes!! Minato Onee-san is a very fun big brother!!!"
"Glad to see you are happy, Ku-chan!" As I turn around Ku moves with me to sit on my lap.
I look to my left to see two other figures sitting on the side of the table to my left. The first is a rather short girl with light purplish blue eyes and short light blonde hair that stops just above her shoulders. She is rather petite, with a small bust. She wears a long sleeved blouse that's about the same color as her eyes with a white collar and ruffled skirt. Her black boots could just below her knees and has white stockings that go to just above her knees.
The other is a skinny man with short messy brown hair and green eyes. He has white shirt and blue jeans. He has black jacket over his white shirt. He looks to be in late teens, maybe early twenties at the most. If I had to guess he was probably around 19 or 20.
" You must be Number ninety-five and her Ashikabi. I know that your name is Kuno, but I do not know the name of your ashikabi." l say to the two as they stare at me.
"I'm Shigi Haruka and I want to thank you and your Sekirei for agreeing to help uno and me." Kuno Ashikabi replies eagerly.
"Well then Shiga-san, I'm Shirayuki Saya! It's a pleasure to meet you and your Kuno."
As I say that I hear a voice coming from the other side of the room. "jeez kid! When I told you I would help you over the phone I didn't think you would invite her too. This way too many people for my apartment."
I look to the source of the voice to see Seo Standing in a doorway, which I could only assume lead to his bedroom. He has a white tank top and pajama pants. His dark hair is messy and uncombed like he literally got out of bed 5 minutes ago and hanging from his mouth is a lit cigarette. He looks almost the same as he did the few times I had seen him with Takahito.
He is followed by the other of his two Sekirei, the larger chested Hikari. She was wearing clothes similar to her sister, but hers had a number 11 on them and her shirt was blue instead of purple.
As Hikari glances at Haruhime she says, " hello pervert!"
"Hikari try not to start anything. We are here to help 95 and her Ashikabi." Hibiki says pulling her sister down to sit at the table.
"Okay so before we start formulating a plan. How do you plan on paying for my services?" Seo asks, staring right at Minato.
Shigi immediately jumps up, "what the hell?! You're charging us to help you!"
"This is why you don't deal with kids. Grown ups like me don't do anything for free."
While Seo was arguing with Shiga, Minato pulls out his cell phone and calls someone. After a moment he hands the phone to Seo. After staring at it for a second or two he reluctantly takes the phone.
"Hello," he says before a look of other horror appears on his face." y-yes. No I wasn't! Wait, what do you mean you won't feed me anymore?!"
As Seo rambled on yelling into the phone Musubi asks who Minato had called and he simply replies, "Miya."
Suddenly Seo frantic rambling made sense. I remember Takahito telling me once that his friend Seo would always show up at his house, because he had no money to buy food due to crippling credit card debt. A habit that must have continued long after Takahitohd death. I have to admit that it was quick
thinking on Minato's part.
"Yes! Yes! I get it! I won't charge them for my help!" Seo sits in silence for about 20 seconds then jumps up and starts
strangling Minato. " Why you sneaky little bastard!!! I thought you were too innocent to do something so underhanded."
After Seo finally stopped trying to kill Minato he slams a map down on the table. "Look even though I'm not getting paid for this little escapade, I still intend to help you get out of the city. Tell me, do you kids have any idea the state that the city is in right now? I'm sure Saya knows better than anyone what stage 3 will entail when the last few Sekirei obtain their wings. I'm sure they have seized control of every city district by now."
Seo draws a large x over the map dividing it into four sections. " However, in addition to MBI forces, we might also have to deal with one of the four powers that control the city. Three out of the four sections of this map have become the domain of a very powerful ashikabi. Luckily enough we have one of those powers on our side."
Seo turns to me, " the first of the four powers is none other than Saya here. "
Hey it wasn't my intention to become the ashikabi of the west. It just sort of happened." I replied to him.
"Yes but you basically declared war on the previous western ashikabi." Seo says, giving a slightly bewildered look.
"I was only defending Uzume-chan, it's not my fault West-san got in my way!"
"Anyway," Seo continues as he points to the southern portion of the map. " the one who controls the South is some rich little punk named Mikogami Hayato. We had a run in with his Sekirei when we were trying to rescue the Green Girl.
"The bad Scythe Lady!" Kusano says as she suddenly clutches my arms tightly.
"Right! That was one of Mikogami's Sekirei Number 43 Yume. And of course to the east we have Higa Izumi. I've met him a couple of times and no he's not to be trifled with, although he is against the Sekirei Plan so there is that.
"But if there's only three then why is the city not divided into three parts." Minato asks, looking at Seo."
"Because," Seo makes horns using his fingers and puts them to his head. "They said that section of the city is controlled by a scary demon landlady."
It was obvious that he was talking about Miya. Although I figured Minato was probably going to win the title of northern ashikabi pretty soon.
" I would much rather not deal with Higa or Mikogami which leaves us with only two options. We can get out to the West or the North." Seo says drawing X's on those two sections of the map.
"The West is no good, there are no exits that MBI has not been locked down." Matsu catching everyone's attention. " I've been monitoring the situation and the best place to escape would be a railroad bridge just north east of here."
Matsu points to a point on Seo's map, as he says. "That sounds like a good place to escape, however we must still be wary of MBI as they will try to stop us."
"But it's just MBI militia like those from the botanical gardens. It should be easy."
"No! We should be able to take them out easily!" I look at Minato and then to everyone else sitting at the table. " The Disciplinary Squad is the ones who will cause us opposition. There are four extremely powerful Sekirei that work for MBI. The black Sekirei #4 Karasuba, The Yellow Sekirei #102 Kiiroitori, The Blue Sekirei #104 Haihane, and The Red Sekirei #105 Benitsubasa.
They are all pretty powerful in their own right, Karasuba is the most powerful out of the four. Are you sure that you want to do this because I'm pretty sure that they will come after us."
" Bring It On!!! I will fight them! " Musubi yells with enthusiasm.
I had to admire Musubi's daring courage; she was much braver than I was. " Anyway, like I was saying we are most likely going to run them as opposition; however bringing all of our Sekirei would be rather unwise. Minato, I suggest we each bring three."
"I'm definitely going! If the disciplinary Squad is that strong I definitely want to test myself against them!" Musubi yells
"I'll go too!" says a girl in a cream-colored jacket and red dress. I recognized her from yesterday when I had seen her on Matsu's tablet. She was #54 Kuruse.
"Thou will go too!" Tsukiumi says turning to Kuno and Higa. " Thy plight tis a noble one and it would be thou honor to help."
I look to my own Sekirei and Kazehana is the first to volunteer." Oh your story is so romantic. Wanting to leave the city and escape the horrible reality of the Sekirei Plan. True love is such a wonderful thing. You can count on my help."
"Kazehana is right," says Uzume. " There is no greater force than true love. I'm sure we can succeed if we have the power of true love on our side. I will help because true love is definitely worth fighting for."
" Oh my Kami!!! You two look so cute together I just have to help you. Number 25 Haruhime is at your service."
With our team's apparently settled, I address everyone. "It's 9:33, we can meet at the railroad bridge tomorrow around 10 am."