Foreword

Hello everyone! Levy here again, but not in the same way as last time. Last time Roland allowed me to write his daily, or close to daily, journal entry for him so I could share my perspective on the first trip to Shinto Teito. But today it's not my perspective that his own entry was lacking, but that of the others, and I knew he would ask them.

But I've been working on something, so last night, after Roland finished writing his entry for our latest trip through the portal, I dragged Bisky over to him so I could tell the both of them about it.

"I know what I want my Hatsu to be," I declared to the two of them. "Ever since I found out that I was a Conjurer, it was clear to me what I would conjure. The only thing I'm familiar enough with is books. I've loved books my entire life and I've read more than I can count. I know how they feel in my hand, I can imagine them clearly in my mind, and I can even recall their scent."

Roland nodded, a small smile on his face that I don't believe he was aware of. "That makes sense. Of course, the question is how to make books a useful technique." Worry flashed across his face. "Not that it has to be useful in like, combat, or something. Bisky's Hatsu isn't a combat thing, for example. Just… what are the books going to contain?"

"That was the same thing I first asked myself as well," I continued. "And it's something I've been giving serious consideration since then. Eventually, I settled on an answer that was inspired by you, Roland."

He cocked his head. "Me?"

"Yes. Ever since the first time we stepped through that portal, I've been amazed at your knowledge. Your ability to know a world just by the name, to identify the situation just from a few clues, the hidden secrets that you know, and your understanding of the important people within that world are all incredibly useful tools for our adventure. They are, in my opinion, your most powerful trait."

He sheepishly shrugged. "It's not that special. I'm just a nerd who watched a lot of anime and played a lot of games. Matsu is the same."

"It may not be special in your world, but there's no doubt that it's useful to us, here and now," Bisky added, cutting into the conversation for the first time. "Levy is right. As our leader, you being well-informed is valuable." Bisky then turned to me. "So what is your plan?"

"Similar to how Roland turns our adventures into an exciting story, I want to Conjure books that contain the stories of people," I said plainly. I shot Roland an apologetic smile. "Not that I'm doubting your knowledge, but there have been times where either you or Matsu do not know a world that we visit. I want to be able to help out in those situations."

"No, that's smart," Roland agreed, not at all offended. His hand was on his chin and his eyes unfocused as he considered my idea. "There are infinite worlds out there after all. And plenty that I know of, but know nothing about. If you can help fill in gaps, or discover something after we've changed it, that could be very useful."

Bisky nodded. "Indeed, information is the greatest advantage you can have after all, not just in a fight, but to achieve your goals. You can't acquire all of the best gems in the world if you don't know where to look." She looked at me. "But that's what makes it difficult to acquire. Have you come up with Conditions for this technique?"

"I have," I answered. "Though they are what I wanted to confer with you about, because I'm not sure if my idea will work. I came up with seven different possible conditions, but I want to make it so I only need to match three of them to use the technique, and the more I meet, the better the results."

"I see," Bisky muttered. Her brows furrowed as she thought about it, shifting her expression to something much more mature than her youthful appearance. "Having them be optional like that would likely reduce the effectiveness of each Condition, but you've made up for it in numbers. It could work, depending on the Conditions and how you imagine the technique scaling with them."

"Detail and time are the main two variables, in my opinion," I replied. "With just three conditions, I imagine I will only get the past day or so of their story, or maybe a few days with a lower amount of detail. But with all seven Conditions, I would get their entire life's story." I offered them the piece of paper I was holding. "I've written down the possible Conditions here."

I'll transpose them here as well, since I ended up not saying most of them aloud.

1. The target gives informed consent to the user
2. The user has recently heard the target speak their name
3. The user is touching the target
4. The user knows one of the target's secrets
5. The user tells the target a secret of theirs
6. The target is indebted to the user
7. The user has not used this technique on the target before

"These are pretty good Conditions," Bisky praised. "Some of them are easy, but in a good way. They match the technique as well, creating a connection between you and the person you're using it on. But the last one… you do understand how that limits you, right?"

"Yes. If I want the best possible results, it will have to be the first time I use the technique on that person, and will require a significant amount of work. After using it once, I won't be able to use it at its full potential on that person ever again."

"Which makes for a powerful Condition. It makes up for the weakness of a few of the others as well, since using the technique while only meeting a few of the Conditions has a permanent cost. Even when you improve your raw power and skill so you can get better results with fewer Conditions, there will always be a peak you can't reach." Bisky met my eyes and nodded. "I approve of this technique and these Conditions. They're well thought out. It will make your power situational and difficult to use, but in those right circumstances it could be very useful."

"I agree," Roland added, eyes still on the paper as he reread the conditions. "I especially like the numbers you chose, of seven and three. A magically important number and a narratively important number. It ties you and the technique together nicely."

I felt the smile on my face widen, pleased that Roland had picked up on that detail and understood it the same way as I had. "Thank you. Now, the reason I brought this up this morning is because I wanted to use it for something. Roland, you planned on asking one of the others to write about their experiences in Shinto Teito, correct? Either Chiho or Mami?"

"I planned on asking Chiho, yeah. Why-" He cut off his question as a look of understanding dawned on his face. "Oh! That's clever. You want to use your Hatsu to get their perspective instead of them having to write it."

"Yes. I love the way you write your journals, but asking everyone to meet those standards is a bit much."

He frowned. "I wouldn't ask that though. I didn't do it for you or Matsu, you just did it on your own."

"And because we did, there's a precedent and a pressure to match that," I agreed. "It's our fault as well. But with this, all I need to do is transcribe it from my book onto your phone. This way it also doesn't interrupt their training or other duties."

Roland looked at me with concern. "You didn't come up with this technique just for that, right?"

The fact that he was worried about that warmed my heart. Roland was our leader, and he became a better one every passing day, but he wanted us all to have lives and skills outside of him as well. Which was maybe a little silly, considering the Skyblock and the Company, but I appreciated the sentiment.

"Nope," I reassured him. "I thought of the technique a couple of weeks ago and have been working on the conditions since then. I only thought of using it like this just now, while you were writing your entry."

He smiled in relief. "Good. Then yes, in that case, please practice your ability by getting the other's perspectives. Chiho or Uzume, or both, so we have a record of how their mission went."

"And Kyouko," I added. "You've seen the way Akitsu is clinging to her, right? Aren't you curious about that?"

He paused. "Well… part of that is just Akitsu being Akitsu. But yeah, I do want to know how that went down." He gave me a stern look. "Make sure you get her to agree. I don't mind if you have to bribe her or whatever, but don't do it secretly or trick her."

"Yes sir!" I responded cheerfully, pleased that he was okay with it. I didn't even mind the sternness. In fact, I enjoyed it. What kind of girl doesn't like a big strong man like him being stern with them?

"Hold on, there's still something important you need to decide," Bisky cut in. "You have to name your Hatsu."

Roland's face lit up. "Oh! Yeah, it needs a cool name."

"I'm way ahead of you," I reassured them. "I've decided to call it Tanin Monogatari." Which roughly translates to English as Another's Story, in case any readers of this don't have Communication Talent.

Roland nodded approvingly. "I dig it. Simple, but concise."

"It's a little on the nose I think, but I suppose it's appropriate enough," Bisky reluctantly agreed.

After that we ended up having dinner before going to bed. Shiina was a fun and adorable addition to our night time activities. She's so cute when she's blushing, and Kusano in particular enjoyed guiding her through things. I think she liked acting like the big sister for once.

Akitsu, of course, stayed with Kyouko. I'm not sure yet how I'm going to convince Kyouko to let me use my technique on her, but I'm sure I'll think of something. I bought some fancy chocolate yesterday, maybe I can bribe her.

But I've talked for long enough. I only wrote this part to explain the parts to follow, to give context for the stories you'll be reading. I'll be saving these alongside Roland's journal going forward, inserting them wherever appropriate.

I know they're not Roland's words, and some of you reading might be disappointed by that, but they are an important part of his saga, so I hope you enjoy these Tales from the Skyblock!


The Alley Cat and Winter Bird

Day 42, Morning

Kyouko trailed behind the others as they walked through the city, heading to some shopping district. She had only been to Tokyo once, as a kid, but honestly she didn't see the fuss. It was a bit more crowded here, but a city was a city. There wasn't much difference here or her home of Kazamino or Mitakihara.

Though apparently it was called Shinto Teito here, not Tokyo, which was weird but ultimately didn't matter. She wouldn't be here long enough to care about it.

Which was a strange thought in and of itself. Not that she wouldn't be here long, but why she wouldn't be here long. That she was now part of some story-like group that traveled to different worlds, but would be magically pulled back after just a day. It seemed far-fetched. Honestly, she hadn't believed it, not at first. The Skyblock, the pokemon, the strange powers, and even arriving in a city that was familiar yet not hadn't been enough to fully convince her.

What finally convinced her was the lack of Kyuubey here. And the lack of Witches. She had tried to search for both, casting out her mental and magical senses. But there was nothing. A city this densely populated should have at least one Witch or Familiar in range, and Kyuubey was all over the goddamn place. The fact that she couldn't find either made it sink in that she was really in a different world.

Kyouko glanced at Mami, who was animatedly chatting with Levy and seemed to be taking the whole situation in stride. That rankled at her. For all their falling out and disagreements, Kyouko knew Mami wasn't stupid. She should have been worried about the same things. But she wasn't, because she trusted the others too much.

Though even Kyouko had to admit that he hadn't steered them wrong yet, as much as she hated to admit it. She hadn't caught him in any lies and he hadn't made any mistakes. Hell, if anything, he was playing it too safe. The fight earlier with the ice and whip bitches had been over before it even started. It wasn't even enough to alleviate her boredom.

Though speaking of boredom, her eyes caught sight of a sign on a nearby store, advertising a deal for a game console and small TV. It would take up a bit more than half of her pay, but she couldn't spend that much money on snacks anyway. Some would go bad before she could eat a hundred thousand yen worth of snacks, and that would be a waste she refused to allow.

So she broke off from the group and started heading towards the game shop.

"Where are you going?" Bisky's voice stopped her before she got more than a few steps away. Kyouko looked over her shoulder to see the others looking back at her, acknowledging her for the first time since they left.

She didn't like Bisky. The lolibaba was constantly on her ass about doing this or that, despite being a newbie Magical Girl. But, with her aura unlocked, Kyouko was aware of how strong Bisky really was. And she remembered how the younger looking girl had fared when fighting two witches by herself just hours after becoming a Magical Girl. As annoying as she was, Kyouko had no choice but to respect her strength.

But that didn't stop her from being an annoying busybody.

"To buy something," Kyouko said curtly. "With my money."

"We need to stick together," Bisky argued. "Wait until we finish the group shopping, and if we have time-"

"Fuck that," Kyouko cut her off. "I can take care of myself, and no one here knows what the fuck I look like. You guys do your thing, I'll do mine."

Bisky's brow furrowed and Kyouko braced herself for an argument, but before she could get started, Levy placed a hand on Bisky's shoulders, stopping her. Then she dug into her pocket and tossed something to Kyouko. Kyouko caught it and looked at the phone before looking back at Levy.

"Stay close, and call us if something happens," Levy said simply. Her expression was carefully neutral, not annoyed like Bisky was, not obviously so at least, but not really any other emotion either. "Our numbers are saved in it already. You can text instead if a phone call is too much of a pain."

Kyouko considered arguing, but she knew a good deal when she saw one. "Fine," she pocketed the phone and turned back around and left without a word, not looking back to see their reactions. Especially not Mami's.

She didn't recognize the game console or even the brand of the company who made it. So, just in case she couldn't get any other games for it, she spent a while perusing the game selection and getting quite a few.

She wasn't that big of a gamer, not of the console variety at least. She preferred arcades, especially games like DDR where she could beat everyone's high scores by taking advantage of her Magical Girl prowess. But she was starved for entertainment and would take whatever she could get. So she picked up a variety of games, not knowing what she would like.

The console and the TV together were kind of bulky to carry around, and there was no sign of the others when she left the game store, so she took to the rooftops and headed back for the portal to drop off her goods. Thankfully, the others hadn't gotten back yet, and she enjoyed a rare moment where no one else was on the Skyblock and she could enjoy the silence alone.

She paused there, taking a moment to relax for the first time in over a week. Just her and the gentle breeze. No one was there to berate her for not doing some bullshit task, no Mami being overbearing, and best of all, he wasn't there to fuck the others loudly while she tried to sleep and ignore them. A task that was impossible, for more reasons then she was willing to admit.

But the moment couldn't last forever. As the time ticked by, she grew more and more worried about one of the others coming back with the shopping and finding her like that. So she forced herself to her feet and headed back into the city to buy the snacks she wanted, and maybe find an arcade to waste some time at.

Snacks were an easy purchase, she just had to hit up a few convenience stores to get everything she wanted. It wasn't that much, admittedly, but it was a few bags worth that should see her through the week at least. She didn't bother dropping them back off at the Skyblock though. There was too much of a chance of the others being there already. Instead, she walked around eating her snacks until she found an arcade.

She had to give this strange not-Tokyo credit, it had killer arcades. Or she had stumbled onto an unusually good one by luck. It was large and had multiple stations for nearly every game. Better yet, it was practically empty, with only a few older teens present. Kyouko loved not going to school, it meant she could play whatever she wanted during that time without having to deal with crowds and lines.

It didn't take long to find the DDR machine, though apparently DDR stood for Doki Drive Relation here and not Dog Drug Reinforcement, which was just bizarre. She put her name at the top of the leaderboard of the three hardest songs before deciding to check out some of the other games. There were a few that weren't familiar to her that she wanted to try out.

She turned a corner and then froze as she came face to face with someone familiar. She had told the others that no one in this world would recognize her, but she had overlooked exactly two people who could, the two Sekirei that had been chasing the new girl. And now one of them, the ice-user, was right in front of her, nearly having run into her around the corner.

"Ah," the woman said softly, eyes widening slightly in recognition.

Kyouko tensed for a moment, but then she clicked her tongue and relaxed. She stepped around the kinky cosplayer, ignoring her.

"You're not… going to fight?" a soft voice said, causing Kyouko to stop again. She sighed, and turned around to face the Sekirei, who was turned to look at her, wariness and confusion on her face.

"No?" Kyouko replied, making it a question. "Why would I? I'm on break, so I want to play more games before I get called back. I mean, if you really want to fight…" The woman shook her head, and Kyouko shrugged. "Then we can just pretend we didn't run into each other, or whatever."

With that, Kyouko turned around again and headed for one of the shooting games nearby, swiping her purchased card to start the game. The other woman didn't move at first, but after a few moments she followed Kyouko, taking a position nearby and watching her play.

"What?" Kyouko asked as she played the game, her enhanced reflexes making it almost too easy. But those kinds of games were built to be unfair anyway, so she was just leveling the playing field. "Change your mind?"

"What happened to that Sekirei?" she asked after a moment.

"She got winged," Kyouko answered after a moment. "Apparently she's the friend or sister or whatever of one of ours, so she convinced her to join too."

"I see," was the ice-user's only reply before falling silent again.

Kyouko let herself fully relax. They didn't have a reason to fight and neither of them seemed to be looking for one. Instead she just focused on the game and had fun.

"Where's your partner?" Kyouko asked, more curious than concerned. "The loud blonde one."

"Bathroom," was the short reply- but it wasn't terse. Even Kyouko could tell that was just how the woman talked.

Kyouko hummed in acknowledgement but didn't say anything else. The next few minutes passed in silence as the woman watched Kyouko play.

When she cleared the level, Kyouko glanced over. "What, you wanna play too or something?"

She slowly blinked at Kyouko, clearly not having expected the question. "...should I?"

Kyouko rolled her eyes. "There's no point just standing around. Come on, grab the second gun, play a few rounds."

She hesitated for a moment before slowly stepping up to stand next to Kyouko. Kyouko pulled the second gun out of its slot and handed it to her. "Have you ever played a game like this before?" Kyouko asked, and the other woman shook her head. "It's really easy, aim this end at the bad guys on the screen and pull the trigger. If you're out of ammo, just aim off screen and shoot and it will reload. Got it?"

The woman's eyes furrowed slightly, but she nodded, so Kyouko prompted the game to move on to the next level, and the two of them started.

The Sekirei seemed to struggle at first, and Kyouko almost started berating her for it, but she improved quickly. Within seconds she went from missing everything to hitting most of the time. And then just a few moments later she was landing every shot and keeping up with Kyouko.

Kyouko felt a grin split her lips. "There you go, that's what I'm talking about!" Kyoko cheered her on. "You sure you've never played before?"

"Never," the woman insisted. "Easy."

Kyouko laughed. "Guess you Sekirei are just that impressive, huh?"

The ice-user side eyed her. "You're… not a Sekirei?"

"Nope," Kyouko admitted easily. She hadn't been asked to pretend like she was one, and they'd be leaving this world for good sooner or later, so she didn't see a point in caring. But she didn't see a point in explaining further either.

"I see," the woman said. The conversation died there for a bit, the only sounds being the plastic clicking of the triggers and the sounds the arcade machine was playing through its speakers.

As the level ended, Kyouko decided to ask another question. "So… what was up with this morning?" she asked, curious. The truth was she had only half paid attention to what the others were saying. She had agreed to help them fight in other worlds, so she'd do that. But she didn't need all the information to do that. She just needed to be pointed in a direction.

Honestly, she would have preferred more information, but the others gave her too much. They would just go on and on about things that didn't really matter and not just give her the relevant information.

But this Sekirei seemed like a woman of few words, so Kyouko wouldn't have to worry about that.

"We heard that the last Sekirei was being released," she explained softly. "Ashikabi-sama wanted her. We were sent to grab her."

Kyouko frowned at that. "Grab her? Not talk to her?"

"Tried that first, didn't work," she said. "Orders were to grab her anyway."

Kyouko knew roughly how Sekirei worked. The nerdy one had explained it back in Mitakihara, at the park, though she only vaguely remembered that considering everything that happened after. But she had pieced it together from those memories and other things she picked up. She knew about winging and the bond it formed.

Kyouko's mind flashed to the scene she saw just this morning, of Kusano cheerfully dragging around the new girl and introducing her to everyone. She saw the White Knight carefully explaining the truth of the Skyblock to her and offering her a choice before gently winging her.

And then the scene changed. The new girl was instead in that construction lot, covered in ice up to her neck as a vaguely masculine figure held her head still and forced his lips onto hers.

The next level started and Kyouko raised her plastic gun to start shooting. "That's fucked up," she said.

"It is what my Ashikabi wants," Akitsu said. Kyouko wasn't sure, but she sounded a little defensive.

"Fuck that, it's still messed up to force them like that," Kyouko argued. "Like, just because some prick kissed you, you have to do whatever the fuck he says? Including forcing more girls to become slaves?"

Kyouko thought that maybe the other woman would get angry at her bad mouthing her Ashikabi like that, but instead the woman seemed to deflate. Her arms lowered and she stopped shooting at the targets on the screen.

"He… didn't," she said in a low voice.

"Huh? Didn't what? And don't slack off!"

But the other woman ignored her. "He never kissed me. Never winged me."

Kyouko was too distracted trying to kill two players worth of enemies to notice the hint of despair in her voice. "So you're not even his Sekirei? That's even worse."

"I- I can't," she said, and Kyouko finally noticed something wrong in her tone, and looked away from the game. It was subtle, but the ice-user's mask was cracking. "I'm… broken. I can't be winged."

Kyouko stopped paying attention to the game, ignoring as the enemies on the screen chipped away at their health. She wasn't sure what to say to that. It was obvious to her that winging was important to Sekirei, even if she didn't see the appeal of tying yourself to someone like that… unless you absolutely had to, like she had. But they were weirdo aliens with weird mating rituals, so she could accept it.

But that just brought up another issue.

"So why the fuck are you with him then?" Kyouko demanded as the Game Over screen appeared on the arcade machine, ignored by both of the girls. "You don't even have the excuse of not having a choice."

"He- he'll throw me away again," she protested, sounding genuinely scared at the idea. It was the most emotion Kyouko had seen from her yet.

But Kyouko just snorted. "So fucking what?" The other woman stared at her in shock, but Kyouko was angry now. "I mean, fucking look at you! You're a sexy woman who can flash freeze a person faster than they could blink! I would bet all of my money that there are literally over a million people in this city that would love to have you at their side. If you're that desperate for a partner, you could pick whoever the fuck you want. Seriously, you don't even need to worry about them being an Ashi-whatever, just find someone who isn't a total prick that forces you to help them rape the minds of other Sekirei."

The woman flinched at that. "It's… it's not like that…" she protested, but it was weak.

Kyouko clicked her tongue. "Let me guess… something bad happened to you and he was the first person that found you and helped you, right?" The Sekirei tensed, clamping her mouth shut, but Kyouko could tell she had hit the mark.

She turned her attention back to the game, choosing the replay option. "You can't trust people like that," she continued, voice quieter. "Not blindly at least. They'll betray you in the end."

Another few moments of silence passed as Kyouko began playing the game. It was still in two player mode, so she had to deal with twice the amount of enemies, but that was fine. She wanted the distraction.

But she wasn't going to get it.

"Who… betrayed you?" the ice-user asked.

Kyouko clicked her tongue in annoyance. "An asshole," she said simply. "A manipulative prick who took advantage of the shitty situation I was in and offered me a deal that seemed too good to be true. Because guess what? It fucking was. I didn't read the fine print, and I lost everything because of it." Her family, her friends, her humanity. "And even then I still trusted him. And you know what he fucking did? He tried to fucking kill me. He tried to use me as a suicide bomber."

There was a sharp crack as the controller broke in Kyouko's grip. The game immediately stopped, the screen replaced with an error message, and Kyoko grimaced. She put the controller down and shards of plastic fell to the ground, though none pierced her skin. She was too tough for that.

She clenched her fist and looked up to see the woman looking at her, fear in her eyes. "He's… not like that," she said quietly.

Kyouko snorted. "Yeah? How sure are you about that?"

Before the Sekirei could come up with a response, Kyouko felt a large group enter the relatively small range where she could detect aura. She looked behind her to see a group of nine people. Eight of them were women dressed in either cosplay or some kind of fetish-wear. Two of them she recognized. Or one of them at least, the blonde from earlier, but there was another girl identical to her that carried steel wires at her hip instead of a whip.

And lastly, their final member was a boy dressed in a white suit. Kyouko wasn't sure how old he was, but he was shorter than herself, so probably pretty young.

"Good job keeping her distracted Akitsu!" the annoying blonde from earlier said, giving the Sekirei behind her, Akitsu apparently, a thumbs up.

Kyouko might have felt betrayed, but she hadn't had any expectations for Akitsu, and if she was being honest, she didn't believe the twin tailed one knew what she was talking about. Kyouko was pretty confident that Akitsu did not have the acting skill required to pull off something like that. Most likely she had come back from the bathroom to see the two of them together and had called in backup while assuming Akitsu was distracting her.

"And you!" she continued in her entirely too loud voice. "I told you you'd regret interfering this morning!"

"Yeah, I doubt that," Kyouko snarked, uncaring about the sudden presence of a bunch of potential enemies. Like she had claimed earlier, they were chumps. Only one of them was even noteworthy, the tall brunette with a sword at her hip. Kyouko could tell from the way she stood and the look in her eyes that she had experienced actual combat, and a lot of it.

But her gaze was also confident and condescending. Kyouko could tell that she was being underestimated, and she knew how to take advantage of that.

The other Sekirei tensed, hands moving to their weapons, and Kyouko raised an eyebrow. "Seriously? You're so upset that I stopped you from kidnapping and enslaving an innocent girl that you're gonna jump me?"

The boy frowned at that. "Enslaving? But don't Sekirei exist to be winged? That's the entire point of this game after all."

"Game?" Kyouko asked with a raised eyebrow.

"The Sekirei Plan, of course," the boy explained.

"Oh, right, that bullshit battle royale thing," Kyouko grumbled, almost to herself. "Whatever. What do you want, brat?"

The brunette with the sword narrowed her eyes at Kyouko at her rude tone, but Kyouko ignored him as she crossed her arms and glared at the kid.

"I want you to duel one of my Sekirei!" He declared, looking smug. "You and your Ashikabi prevented me from getting one-oh-seven this morning and now I'm going to pay you back for that!"

Kyouko raised an eyebrow, and then glanced at the others. "Is he serious?"

"This isn't a joke, no," the katana wielder said coldly. "So I suggest you follow us to the roof, where we can have a duel without being disturbed, before we drag you there by force."

Kyouko was almost tempted to force them to try, but she realized that fighting here would mean risking damaging the arcade equipment, which meant she would have to find a new arcade once she kicked the asses of the brat and his birds. So instead, she shrugged. "Sure, guess I could let off some steam. Lead the way."

The kid smiled. "Excellent!" He turned around and headed for the back exit of the arcade. His Sekirei all stared at Kyouko, clearly waiting for her to follow.

Kyouko reached down to pick up her bags of snacks and casually followed him, ignoring the Sekirei that surrounded her. It was an obvious intimidation attempt, one that failed utterly just because of how weak and inexperienced they were. Kyouko spotted several of them that flinched back whenever she looked at them, scared of her even when she was outnumbered.

Kyouko smirked. As they should be, she thought.

They left the arcade through a door marked employees only, which led to an undecorated hallway, which they walked through until they found a door marked Exit. They stepped outside into an alley, and several of the Sekirei jumped up, either jumping off the opposite wall or jumping straight to the top of the two-story building they had just exited. The katana wielder picked up the boy in a bridal carry before jumping to the top. Kyouko noted that he had an even easier time of it than the others.

Kyouko was left with just Akitsu and a couple of the other Sekirei, who all watched her expectantly, as if they expected her to try to run. Except for Akitsu, who looked troubled to Kyouko. But Kyouko just rolled her eyes, let her magic flow through her body, and then jumped with just enough strength to lightly land on the lip of the roof.

As she stepped onto the roof proper, heading to where the kid was standing, the other Sekirei jumped up behind her, with Akitsu in the rear. They spread out behind her, forming a large loose ring around her on the rooftop, another attempt to cage her in.

Kyouko laughed and put her snacks down next to an air conditioning unit, or whatever the big machinery with the fan was. "Is this a duel, or an execution?" she snarked. "If I win, am I gonna get jumped by the others? Because if so, I might need a moment to stretch. I wouldn't want to pull something while I'm kicking that much ass."

Several of the other Sekirei bristled, but Hayato was unfazed. "No, if you win the duel, then that'll be that! Those are the rules of the game after all."

"Sure, sure, right," Kyouko said disinterestedly. "So, who am I fighting?"

"Hmm, good question," the brat said. His brows furrowed as he looked over his Sekirei. "This is a pretty high level encounter if what Akitsu and Mitsuha said is true… Okay Mutsu! This one is yours!"

The brunette with the sword stepped forward. "As you will, Ashikabi-sama." She walked forward until she was just five or six meters away from Kyouko and drew her sword. "Prepare yourself."

Kyouko lifted her hand to her side, palm facing Mutsu, and her Soul Gem, currently in the shape of a ring on her finger, glowed as she used her magic to manifest one of her spears from it. The red and gold metal almost seemed to extrude from her palm as it exited her Soul Gem, the only way she could summon it when not transformed.

The light show definitely caught the attention of the other Sekirei.

"What the fuck?" "Is that her power?" "I've never heard of making weapons." "Maybe she's summoning it from a pocket space?" "Or just somewhere else." "Maybe it's hard-light? Or an illusion?"

Kyouko tuned out their speculation and focused on Mutsu, who's eyes had narrowed, similar thoughts clearly going through her head. Kyouko grinned. She loved not having to hide or explain her magic. Their reactions were hilarious.

Once the spear was fully manifested, the familiar weight of it fell into her waiting grasp and she gave it a few twirls. Magic pulsed through her body, fuelling her strength and dexterity. She finally let the spear settle over her shoulder, pointed at the sky.

"So, are you going to ring a bell, or should I just start?" Kyouko asked with a cocky grin.

Rather than be intimidated though, the brat's eyes just sparkled in excitement. "Begin!" he announced eagerly.

Kyouko's guess that Mutsu was experienced was immediately proven right as the Sekirei rushed at her without hesitation. But it wasn't a reckless charge. Kyouko could feel the brunette's eyes on her, carefully watching to see how she would react.

Kyouko casually swung her spear down, intercepting the arc of Mutsu's swing and knocking the blade aside. Mutsu didn't fight it, letting her sword be pushed aside and simply shifting her grip for another swing, this time an almost vertical chop.

Kyouko blocked that one as well, assessing the other woman even as she herself was assessed. Mutsu's attacks were probing ones, meant to test her defenses and get the feel for how strong Kyouko was without over committing to an attack.

Kyouko was only somewhat familiar with fighting actual people. As a Magical Girl, most of her experience was against Witches and their Familiars, which were rarely humanoid in size or shape.

But she had, on more than one occasion, had to fend off fellow Magical Girls from muscling in on her territory. She was pretty sure she had condemned a few of them to death, considering how much magic they used up against her without having any grief seeds.

Though now she knew that what she had really condemned them to was becoming a Witch.

She wondered how many times she had pushed a Magical Girl to become a Witch only to then hunt down that Witch a few days later.

The thought twisted her stomach with emotions she couldn't identify, so she pushed them away and ignored them, turning her attention back to the fight. Just as Mutsu had used careful strikes to appraise her ability, Kyouko had been playing defensive to gauge the strength of her opponent, since she didn't have a good grasp of how strong a normal Sekirei was.

But she found Mutsu exactly how she thought she would- not a threat. Even her spars with Mr. White Knight over the past few days had been more exciting, though not by much.

And unlike those fights, she didn't have to hold back.

Magic and aura flared, both flowing through and around her body, as she lazily swept her spear at Mutsu. Mutsu saw it coming of course and got her blade up to intercept it, aiming to have Kyuoko's spear slide against and up its edge so it would go over Mutsu's head and leave Kyouko open for a counter attack.

Instead, the spear hit the sword and barely stopped as the steel blade shattered. Mutsu barely had time to widen her eyes in surprise before the head of the spear caught her across the chest, cutting it open and sending the Sekirei sprawling to the side.

There was a moment where the rooftop was silent save for the tinkling of steel shards and the splatter of blood that hit the rooftop. No one even seemed to be breathing, just staring at the scene with jaws agape, not believing their eyes. Mutsu made no move to get up.

Kyouko glanced down at the fallen Sekirei with apathetic eyes. Violence was something she had long gotten used to, and she had already likely taken lives, albeit indirectly. She knew enough about the Sekirei to know that she wouldn't even die, just enter a coma-like state of near death. So really, it was nothing to get worked up over.

She looked back up at the still silent others. Particularly the brat, whose face was turning pale as the blood rushed from it. "Ding ding ding," Kyouko said in monotone. "That's my win, right?" Kyouko cast her gaze around the others. Most of them flinched as she made eye contact.

"Mutsu… lost?" the Ashikabi brat finally spoke up, finding his words. He clutched his head in his hands. "No, no, no, she's the strongest! She couldn't have lost!" He looked up at Kyouko in a rage. "You! You cheated somehow! You had to have!"

Kyouko sighed. "You can't even be a good loser, huh?" she grumbled. "Face it kid, we fought and I was stronger. Isn't that how this game is played?" She sneered at calling it a game. "And now I'm going to fuck off and enjoy the rest of my day."

Kyouko turned around to leave, ignoring the kid sputtering in outrage. He didn't move to stop her though, and neither did any of his Sekirei. All of them were frozen on the spot, looking at her like she was a dangerous animal.

As she headed for the edge of the roof they jumped up to, she spotted Akitsu standing there. The icy Sekirei was wearing a small frown, like something she didn't understand or could have predicted had happened. She met Kyouko's eyes, and Kyouko could see just how unbalanced she was under that mask of hers.

Kyouko kept eye contact with Akitsu as she stepped closer to her. "You said earlier you were broken, right?" Kyouko said, quiet enough that only she could hear her. Akitsu nodded slowly. Kyouko shook her head and pointed at Mutsu's body. "You're not. That's what being broken looks like."

Kyouko wasn't sure what she was saying or why she was going out of her way to say it in the first place. But something inside of her pulled her to do so, to not ignore the foolish Sekirei she had run into.

But Akitsu was more stubborn than that, it seemed. Her eyes hardened and she shook her head. "No," she whispered. She didn't expand what she meant by that, just averted her eyes.

Kyouko clicked her tongue, annoyed that she wasn't seeing things correctly. "He'll throw you away, just like that, against an enemy he was too stupid to know he shouldn't poke. If you don't want that, leave."

"He won't," Akitsu insisted. But Kyouko saw it in her eyes. The doubt.

An idea, more of an urge really, popped into Kyouko's head and she smirked. "Yeah? Let's find out." Kyouko turned back to the brat and started walking towards the center of the rooftop.

Then, loudly enough for everyone to hear, she addressed the kid. "You are half right though," she said. He looked up, part confusion and part vindication. "I was hiding something from you. But I wasn't cheating. I'm actually fighting with a handicap." She slammed the butt of her spear against the rooftop and grinned. "I'm not actually Winged. That guy I was with earlier? That was just an alliance of convenience. That means I'm up for grabs."

The confusion of the kids face slowly faded, replaced with understanding, and then finally a much darker emotion. Desperate greed.

"Bullshit!" one of the other Sekirei called out. "Show us the back of your neck!"

Kyouko was confused for half a moment, but then she remembered all of the Sekirei she knew had that tattoo thing there, instead of over their womb like her and the others on the Skyblock, and guessed that it only appeared when they were winged.

So she shrugged, lifted her hair out of the way, and exposed the back of her neck to the others, turning in a slow circle and showing them the blank skin. When she looked back up their expressions had changed. Fear was still a big one, but so was bewilderment and confusion.

And in a few of them, including the kid's, was the expression she expected. A look of consideration and calculation, and eyes that viewed her not as an enemy to be feared, but an asset to be obtained.

"But you said you'd let me go, right?" Kyouko continued. "That's how the game goes… right?"

"That was when I thought you were winged," he said, shaking off his hesitation and fear as it was replaced with desire. "A duel between winged Sekirei is one thing. But catching an unwinged one? I can use as many Sekirei as I want!" He was almost manic, his last sentence rising to a shout.

He raised his hand and pointed at her. "Everyone! Get her!" No one moved at first, not with Mutsu's body still on the ground between her and the brat. But he stomped his feet in anger and yelled again. "What are you doing?! I said go!"

Kyouko spotted several grimaces on their faces, but they moved. The blonde twintails with the whip and her doppelganger were first, both beelining for Kyouko and their weapons lashing out at her.

Kyouko ignored the blows entirely, their whipping points smacking into her with loud cracks, but doing little more than slightly stinging her. She aimed her spear and thrust twice, and both Sekirei went down with red stains blossoming on their chests.

The others were already in motion though, having been spurred on by someone else going first. Most of them hesitated as the two blondes went down, but one continued on with a look of determination, approaching Kyouko from behind her, her scythe raised high.

Kyouko didn't even bother looking. She simply pulled her spear back so the butt of it jutted out behind her and slammed into the Sekirei before she could swing her scythe. The woman gasped and sputtered as the air was knocked from her lungs, and she was totally unprepared when Kyouko turned and spun the butt of her spear against the Sekirei's head. She crumpled bonelessly onto the rooftop.

Once again stunned silence descended onto the rooftop, interrupted only by the wet coughing of the two blondes on the floor suffering from punctured lungs. The remaining five Sekirei hesitated, weapons raised, but not daring to get any closer after seeing their allies taken out so easily.

"You useless birds!" the boy raged, stomping his feet. "At least get a hit in before you go down! The rest of you! Get her!"

Kyouko smirked, casually shouldering her spear, the tip of it red with blood. "You heard him. Come get me, if you dare."

Not a single one of them seemed to want to, their fear was clear on their faces. But, spurred on by their Ashikabi, they steeled their resolve.

"Taki!" one of them shouted out, and the woman with a strange dress and long white hair nodded. Some kind of mist or smoke billowed out from her body, quickly covering the entire rooftop and restricting her vision. It was thick enough that she couldn't seem more than twenty centimeters from her face.

Once upon a time, that might have been an issue, a small one at least. Sure, against opponents of this level, she was fast enough to react to any moving mist and counter attack before she was hit, but that assumed the mist moved like normal mist, which wasn't a guarantee.

But it wasn't a concern. As much as it annoyed her to admit, even in the privacy of her own mind, the Nen skills she had been forced to learn were particularly handy here. She couldn't see any of the other Sekirei, but she could feel their aura and knew exactly where they were.

Better yet, of the remaining Sekirei, only Akitsu was a ranged fighter. The rest of them, except for the mist user of course, used melee weapons.

"You guys are really making it too easy for me," she muttered, the sound of her voice muffled even to her own ears. Then she moved. Four lunges delivered to four targets. Four muffled cries of pain and surprise.

The mist faded, and four more Sekirei, the mist user included, were on the ground, bleeding from grievous wounds.

"You- you-!" the kid yelled, but it was clear from the way he was stammering and the look on his face that the fear was starting to overcome his anger. He sank to his knees, tears streaming from his face. "Trash! Trash trash trash trash! You were meant to be the strongest!"

His eyes latched on to the one remaining Sekirei. "You! Akitsu!" he called out to her, anger filling his voice once more. "What are you doing? Why are you just standing there?"

"I-" Akitsu started, panic clear on her face. She had spent the entire fight frozen, not making a move. She hadn't said anything when Kyouko claimed to be a Sekirei, despite Kyouko telling her otherwise earlier.

"Attack her!" He screamed at her. "Capture her, kill her, I don't care! Just do something you useless piece of trash! What's the point of being my Sekirei if you can't even do that much?!"

Kyouko ignored the brat and turned to face Akitsu, posture relaxed. "This is what he's like," she found herself saying. "I told you, didn't I? People like him, they'll betray your trust and use you up. He just threw away all of his Sekirei because he wanted to enslave me, and he wants you to do the same, no matter what the odds are. Because to him, you aren't a person, you're a game piece that can be sacrificed without worry."

Akitsu stood there silently, but her expression was practically screaming about the emotional turmoil she was experiencing. Her eyes were wide, panicked, and darting between Kyouko and the kid. She slowly raised her hand, pointing it at Kyouko, who didn't move.

Seconds ticked by like that, Akitsu's prodigious chest heaving and her hand shaking as she posed ready to attack Kyouko with ice, but unable to pull the trigger on it.

"Akitsu, do it!" the boy urged her. "If we take her down, we can recuperate our losses! There aren't a lot of Sekirei left but we can get more! Better ones than these trashy failures! We can still win!"

"Hear that?" Kyouko said. "He said 'better than these trashy failures'. If you lost too, you'd be one of those pieces of trash. He's not even mourning them, he's just concerned about that stupid game of his. I said before you could have whatever partner you want. I meant that. Do you really want it to be someone like him?"

Akitsu's eyes continued to flicker between the two of them… before she dropped her hand and lowered her gaze. "No… I don't."

"No no no no no no!" the kid said, panicking. "You- you can't abandon me! I'm your Ashikabi! You're mine! You have to do what I say!" He didn't get up though, he just stared at the two of them, on his knees, tears streaming down his face. "I… I'll be alone again if you leave. I'll have no one."

Some of the tension left Akitsu's shoulders, and for a moment it looked like she was reconsidering. But Kyouko snorted and turned to him. "You really should have thought about that before you ordered the others to commit suicide by attacking me. Seriously, you saw how easily I took out that first girl, and she was by far the strongest one here. But you got fucking greedy. All this? It's your fault. I would have been happy being ignored so I could play my games. You're the one that poked the sleeping bear. Remember that."

The kid didn't respond, he just sat there stunned, mouth opening and closing but no noise coming out.

Kyouko turned to leave once more, and as she did she spotted something in the sky, headed for them. "Helicopters?" she mused out loud.

Akitsu turned to see them. "MBI," she said in a quiet voice. "Here to pick up the others."

Kyouko cast her gaze over the slew of Sekirei collapsed and bleeding on the rooftop, all of them unmoving. "Makes sense," she said. "It'll be a pain in the ass if they catch me here though. You… do whatever you want. I'm getting out of here."

She grabbed her bag of snacks and dismissed her spear, letting it dissolve into motes of red light that quickly faded. Then she jumped down back into the alley they had come from. She turned to leave, but was surprised when Akitsu jumped down as well, landing next to her.

Kyouko glanced at her, but Akitsu's face was impassive. So she shrugged, figuring that Akitsu also had to jump down to go where it was that she wanted to go, and started walking, leaving the alley behind. She joined the throngs of people on the street, none of whom had any idea about what had just happened a short distance above their heads, and she headed deeper into the city.

When Akitsu followed her out of the alley, she didn't think anything of it. It was the quickest way to the street after all. When she followed Kyouko down the street, that also wasn't that weird. You could turn left or right from the alley, so it was a 50/50 chance of lining up, not that weird.

Several blocks later when Kyouko ducked into an alley and Akitsu was still following her, she could no longer ignore it.

"What are you doing?" Kyouko asked. "I said do whatever you want."

"I am," the icy Sekirei said quietly.

"What, by following me?" Kyouko snorted. "You're not going to find a partner like that. Besides, I won't be here long. I'll be leaving this city tonight, and I won't be coming back."

"Can I… come with you?"

Kyouko stared at Akitsu with a frown. A dozen reasons why she should tell the girl 'no' flew through her head, but all of them required explaining the weird shit about the Skyblock which was too much of a pain in the ass for her.

So she stalled instead. "Why?" she asked.

Akitsu didn't respond, she just continued to look at Kyouko, who sighed. "Fine, fine. Look, I lied earlier. I'm not a Sekirei, but I am… attached to that guy from this morning. He's the one in charge. If you really want, you can ask him."

"Thank you," Akitsu replied, bowing her head.

"Yeah, yeah," she grumbled, pulling out the phone Levy had given her earlier and pulled up the contact list. "There goes the rest of my day off."


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AN: Funnily enough, I came up with Levy's Hatsu a while back, just based on her personality and the influence of Roland back when I reread her perspective of the first Sekirei trip and how impressed she was about the value of Roland's metaknowledge. When I came up with the technique, it was by fusing together that impression and her love of books and stories. It wasn't until the last chapter was almost done, long after I had written the Kyouko scene, that I realized that I could use it to create chapters like this. As our cast grows and Roland is forced to split the group into teams, I'm sure this will be very useful.

For those who want to see how Levy uses it in action, Roland will describe it in his own journal entry. But not next time. I have another of these Tales to write about Chiho and Uzume's mission in Shinto Teito. I was going to include it here, but there's really no reason not to break these up. Roland has long chapters because of the format, but these are different. Levy is treating them basically like short stories, supplementals to add that expand things. And yes, she came up with the titles herself. Outside of her foreword explaining things, Kyouko and Akitu's meeting was a pretty self-contained story.