A little plot bunny came to me recently, and I decided to write it out to free up some space in my crazy little head. Enjoy!
There was once a race of highly advanced space-faring people who came far away from the inner reaches of the galaxy called Sekirei. They were extraterrestrial super-powered humanoids with a genetic code similar to humans; their Earth name was taken from that of the Japanese Wagtail bird, as their exact name couldn't be pronounced in any known language on the planet they would awaken to.
Long ago, in the distant past, eight Sekirei settlement ships reached Earth, each containing one hundred eight lifeforms described as One Pillar. Unfortunately, one of these ships crashed into the sea near the landmass that would one day be modern Japan, while the rest landed in various locations worldwide. The Sekirei aboard, who bred with the humans of those archaic times, gave rise to the myths and legends of gods, goddesses, and heroes of untold strength and cunning that have passed through humanity's history.
Before the turn of the new millennium, an island that would later be named Kamikura emerged suddenly from the sea and was quickly investigated by two college students, Minaka Hiroto and Takami Sahashi. Together, they discovered archaic ruins that turned out to be the long-lost eighth Sekirei settlement ship that had crashed into the sea in ancient times. Of course, they found one hundred and eight life forms in suspended animation, which would be just the beginning of this story.
Minaka, who had used the advanced technology discovered on the Sekirei ship to amass the fortune needed to found MBI, had taken possession of the Island and had it declared extraterritoriality and the location removed from every world map, which resulted in several countries, including the United States, Russia, and China started to have distrust and growing skepticism about the cover story told in past events about the Island and the companies explosion of growth, many of which hadn't been very pleased when they learned that MBI decided to take the highly developed technologies of these unidentified aliens for themselves.
Coalescing their forces, those countries launched a massive invasion of Kamikura Island, hoping to discover its secrets. Their armies had been armed to the teeth with the most advanced military weapons in the world, and their sheer number of foot soldiers alone had surpassed any army in the history of war.
Even the combined strength of both world wars would pale compared to the absolute might descending unto the unexpecting wagtails; it was supposed to be lambs to slaughter until they ran into a brick wall that was Number One. Who sent all of them to their graves; it was a massacre, unlike the world had ever seen that one individual had the power to wipe out entire fleets and forces, and she didn't even try; it was like swatting a bothersome fly that infuriated the United Nations to no end. It made the lust for power even greater that no expense or human resources were overlooked with continuous raids on the Island throughout the years. To such men and women that ruled over the masses, they wanted those aliens studied and their genetic code tempered with humanities.
The next step to finally becoming a space-faring race was so close that it was a bitter pill to swallow when one person stood in your way towards your subsequent ascension.
It was considered the shadow war between the human race and the extraterrestrial visitors within hushed circles, with one group wanting to dominate and use the various technologies and the aliens as ways to make space exploration a reality. Things that were once just movie jargon became an actuality when MBI unveiled many myriad cures to once-incurable diseases or new technologies to surgeries and prosthetics that gave people who had battered or broken their bodies a new lease on life.
Things like Cancer, HIV, AIDS, and related sicknesses became a thing of the past, with each disease becoming entirely eradicated within a single decade. Something like the common cold no longer existed; the flu was something you spoke about like some old storyteller, causing endless friction among those desperate to partake in MBI's secrets.
The back-and-forth tug-of-war between MBI and the world governments continued for over two decades until the secret governance alliance decided to wait things out and see if they could get these aliens to come to them. Through backdoor dealings and bribes, they did learn that these creatures have to procreate much like any living thing, and it would be only a matter of time before Minaka slips up and gives the keys to the kingdom to the hungry beasts that awaited them in the shadows to consume them whole.
But this story isn't about MBI's dealings, Minaka Hiroto's craziness, or the determinations of those who want to enslave the Sekirei race. It is about one young man's will and resolve to become a savior to a race of people on the edge of extinction, even if he hasn't realized the invisible hands of fate that continue to transpose with a renewed destiny to the burdened youth after his unfortunate defeat at the hands of his once former friend.
For the adolescent boy in question, to set the world ablaze or carry it into a new age, which hand will he play? Only time will tell...
Kamikura Island Beach
Early Morning...
With the sun's opening rays slowly piercing the vast ocean's darkening skyline, its warming radiance induced the promise of a new day. A new day to be alive, a new day to muse upon the bounty that life could bring. Miya, the Queen of an anonymous race that once used the Island to lay dormant away from the unsuspecting world, looked upon the eternal blue horizon, lost in her little world of thought—sitting on a large piece of sun-baked driftwood that looked half submerged within the sand as a footstool. The tender touch of water swept ashore, caressing her toes, and the soft breeze blew slowly through her violet hair like invisible digits, much like a lover's tempered stroke. To many, it would be the perfect picture of tranquility; to her, it was just another day.
Twenty years have come since her awakening and meeting two humans that would be this world's most potent duo, with her providing technology and her people for experimentation. Her people, orphaned and without a haven to call their own, had to make do with a planet that would see them as nothing more than a means to an end once the Sekirei made their première to the masses and shatter the realms of sci-fiction and fantasy with the rest of humanity ultimately understanding that they aren't alone in the vast blackness that was the universe.
With countless raids upon the Island since the day it was declared an extraterritoriality by the founder of MBI, the years weren't sympathetic to the once-ruling Queen. She hoped to have time to get herself together, to allow time to close some of the scars that still ache from within to this very day from her mounting failures by those who were long dead and lost to the sands of time with the elder Sekirei being the only one left who could recollect their tales.
That was only one problem out of multiple within her perspicacity, outside of trying to keep hormone-driven young aliens from wandering off into the clutches of those who would abuse them or use them until they were deemed useless.
A hundred and seven super aliens eagerly looked for affection, and she knew many would find it in the wrong places. She could undoubtedly recall some of the most vulgar and perverse things many of the ruling officials had directed at her when she tried to build stronger ties with the ruling governments on Earth in hopes of establishing a settlement even though Minaka and Takehito urged against it, knowing how there fellow Earth kin would respond to first contact with actual Aliens.
To them, they were every man's daydream: young girls you could seize by winging them, and you could have more than one. The catcalls, howlers, and being called a whorish race made the Sekirei Queen wipe those corrupted bureaucrats from this mortal coil when so many deemed them nothing more than breeding stock to launch humanity into the next grand epoch. No one cared about her story or her people's plights. They laughed and ridiculed her for failing in her duty, with so many citing that her only worth was to get on her knees like a good little girl for the indicative interests of humankind and birth as many hybrid aliens as her body could.
And that saddened her to be treated like she was worthless. These humans were no different from those who left the Sekirei homeworld in shambles and forced many, including her, into the stars as aimless vagabonds.
Even Minaka, for all his outrageousness, knew better than to incite or prod an angry bird. Especially when said bird had the power to wipe out the superpowers on Earth, and that wouldn't even be scratching the surface of her overwhelming might.
The joining of Sekirei and Ashikabi together in matrimony, an act in the eyes of her people, was very precious, with a kiss acting as the commitment to never stray from their marital path nor sleep around with anyone else ever. It was a dedication her people took more earnestly than any human who wandered this planet, changing partners like someone would change a pair of dirty socks or grow bored with the same partner after being together for many years.
A look of shame overtakes Miya's more stoic features, with her reminiscing on everything she tries to do with Takehito, which would be considered taboo to any other Sekirei, as men and women of her race never slept with anyone other than their respective spouses. And here she was, playing house with a human who could never wing her. Pretending to be the storybook-blushing homemaker and never having those normal feelings you should have for someone. To be in their embrace and feel their warmth and love. She could remember how often she had to stop herself from withdrawing from Takehito's touch. Or, when he tried to get more intimate with her, how she had to defy with every fiber of her being from lashing out harshly as her intrinsic instincts would take over and push her into protecting her womb from someone who wasn't her lifemate.
She could not blame him for finally throwing in the towel. Why would any man put up with living with someone who was a roommate rather than a lover, even though he wanted to be her lover?
The rules of courting and marriage were no different, even for someone who was the absolute Pillar of power to the Sekirei people. If her Tama didn't react, millions upon millions of years of tempered and honed instinct would ensure she could never be bred with a false husband. Some might argue that it could be a safeguard that no one could try knocking up the most vital being among the wagtails or try to produce bastard children through rape.
On the other hand, Miya only saw it as a frustrating irritant to have an itch you could never get rid of...
If only worrying about nuptial things was the least of her concerns; at least that was something she could focus on, rather than sitting here doing nothing as she hid from the world once more. The little feathers were old enough now that they didn't need her anymore, and Minaka had been pushing the timetable for the S-plan with it going into its final stages of development before all of her brethren would be released into the streets of Tokyo with the intents of killing each other for the right to mate.
A hundred and seven were born, and by the end of the project, she wouldn't be surprised if you could count on one hand the remaining survivors. Her remaining people were to be sacrificed in the hopes that maybe an Ashikabi could slip through the cracks with their destined ones and build a family in secret because she knew that once the shit hit the fan, the fan was finally going to bust with every government on Earth tearing the entire world apart frantic to get their hands on a Sekirei survivor.
The coming years were going to be filled with such bloodshed, so many lives lost by those who would throw countless lives away for that singular goal. Both Ashikabi and Sekirei had hard times coming, and there wasn't anything she could do about it outside of total genocide on the humans, and she was wholly done playing the part of a ruthless butcher.
With a deafening silence, outside the tides crashing against the shoreline, the wagtail Queen continued staring into the infinite blue, knowing it would be another day like any other. If only something could happen, anything that could break her from this endless spiral she was stuck in; she didn't care who or what it was. Anything was better than her withdrawing into herself like some reclusive hermit who had nothing else to live for.
Like a prayer being answered, her reddish-colored eyes suddenly honed into an unknown object as it bopped within the swells. Using a bit of her extensive energy, she sharpens her vision as the color yellow could be made out from the deep bluish colors as it drifted towards shore. Gazing more intently, Miya could faintly make out the form of a humanoid the closer it came to her. Not knowing if this could be a simple bad day at sea for some seafarer, she stood up from her seat, dusted off her purple-colored hakama, and started walking to the beach's edge, ignoring the chilled waters that brushed over her feet and ankles with a strong wind at her back moving her long hair around as she awaited whatever was coming.
With one mighty clap against the grains of sand, the body tossed and turned within the break before being dumped at her feet in a heap.
Looking down, the elder wagtail could see the individual was male, around 18, by how youthful the body looked, and wearing the remains of a pair of orange and black colored pants with sizable rips and tears in the fabric, almost becoming a pair of shorts with how bad the damage was. Kneeling, Miya places her hands on his left shoulder and side and slowly moves him onto his back. Her eyes took in every sight of this unknown person, from his sunny blond hair to the unusual whisker marks that were on each side of his face before they settled upon his chest; she couldn't help but suck in a breath after seeing a large hole where his abdomen would be and one of similar extent near the location of his heart.
Someone certainly tried their hardest to kill this poor boy. Outside of gaping holes among bumps, bruises, cuts, and other lacerations upon the body and him missing an arm above the elbow, she wouldn't be surprised if there were a lot of broken bones as well. The deep incision on the center of his left eye would need medical attention if it were to have any chance of being saved.
The wounds told her that this young man had gone through a harrowing fight; the clean-cut among the muscle and bone on his arm stump was too thorough to be a mishap, and the holes in his chest suggested whatever ran him through was evident in their purposes to kill him. Everything that number 1 saw indicated this as someone with a grudge against this unknown blond and him being the one who lost.
The older alien could also see that the boy was in good physical condition besides the injuries, with him having the physique of someone who works their body every day. The amount of chiseled muscle he had on his upper chest and arms wasn't something you get through injections or other drugs that bulk power; this was muscle you had to labor painstakingly to get.
Inwardly, the violet-haired goddess always had a fondness for solid-bodied men, not in the meathead sort of way but in those who work hard and know their limitations.
Leaning inward, Miya placed her ear on his chest to see if she could pick up the indistinct sounds of a heartbeat. Anyone else who could've seen such a sight would have thought the young man was already dead or close to death with how badly his wounds were. To look almost like Swiss cheese would make even the most professional of doctors consider a more humane way of offing the boy just out of mercy than to let him suffer anymore.
It was faint after listening for a few moments, but a heartbeat was there. Carefully gathering the young man into her arms, Miya turned and started to walk back towards the beaten path that would bring her to the Sekirei ship that lay inert under the Island. The medical equipment and knowledge the humans have wouldn't be enough to save this young man, and they would write him off as a lost cause after taking one look at him.
If there was one thing that number one learned while living on Earth for twenty years, humans were very durable and could survive things that should have been instant death. While she wouldn't go out of her way to save every human who stumbled upon her path, her heart wasn't entirely made of stone to let someone suffer, especially someone as young as this youth in front of her.
Looking down at the young man's whiskered face while she walked through the jungle, a face that any human girl would love to kiss with his handsome looks, Miya felt something she couldn't quite put her finger on. It was brief; like a millisecond, she felt something from the boy, like an oscillation of spiritual vitality, before it vanished. This sensation was different in a way that made her stop in her tracks, considering her former earth husband had tried to make her feel anything for someone else for years and failed.
Yet, the apprehension wasn't there; it was more of a calm stillness with her muted instincts. No matter what memory she brought up during her time with Takehito, those quelled emotions were outside what she had encountered since her awakening. That feeling of strange calm made her wonder that maybe all this solitude was finally getting to her, and she was desperate for companionship.
Maybe in some way, she still held that ember of hope of wanting a mate herself after being alone for as long as she can remember.
Or maybe that ember was lingering to be lit into the bonfire it would grow to be and needed the right circumstances to kindle itself ablaze finally.
Taking a breath and holding it, Miya lowered herself until they were nose to nose. The closer she moved lower, the stronger the tingling felt within the pit of her stomach. It sent chills up and down her spine, giving off stimuli that felt entirely unfamiliar, like she was poured head to toe with warm water and how it resonated throughout her entire body.
There were no feelings of pushback, nor did she get that whim to protect herself. It felt more like she was being naturally compelled, her eyes locked on his lips again.
Just as she was going to kiss him, she pulled her head back, shaking off the effects of her people's reaction pull.
He's the one...
Why do you deny what your heart wants?
Isn't this what you always wanted? Your core has been crying out for a partner...
Quit dragging your feet and wing yourself already! You won't get this kind of opportunity again.
The impulsive voices echoed in her head and spoke eerily, sounding much like hers. The truth didn't hit her until that lukewarm feeling spread like a warming blaze; every sensation lit up like wildfire with the way her eyes widened in realization.
She was reacting!
"There's more to you than meets the eye..." Miya mumbled to herself in growing awe as she walked with renewed energy. "Now, let's return to the ship and heal you before I make that life-changing decision."
Impulse and emotions be damned, she wasn't going to wing herself to a spouse that could die at any moment and be stuck right back where she started. The best course of action would be to get him medical attention and go from there; if the reactive vibrations she felt were still there and not because of her depressive loneliness, she'd allow herself to emerge and finally be winged.
For this moment, she waited thousands upon thousands of years, going many sleepless nights dreaming of that faceless man to warm her bed with her. Her wings could wait a little longer to see if this boy doesn't die within the next twenty-four hours...
Sekirei Medical Bay
Ten Minutes Later...
(Water Bubbling)
(Sounds of Breathing through an Apparatus)
It didn't take long for Miya to bring the young man back and get him hooked up to the many life-saving devices that would sustain him while he was submerged within the whitish-colored fluid of the Bacta tank. The beneficial bacteria within the glass tube the boy floated in would ensure that nothing was making a home within his insides while he recuperated. She had no idea how long the blond had been floating out at sea, and seawater and sea life had a notion of trying to make a home inside almost anything quickly.
With his body badly weakened, this was the best step, considering the rejuvenation tanks were out of the question because she did not have the solvent needed for a successful cycle.
Numerous monitors continued to beep in the background while other machines took scans of his brain and other organs to verify they were functioning as they should. Briskly typing onto a holo-keyboard, number one put together a specially made file of every ailment that the whiskered blond was suffering from, and the list was quite lengthy with bodily damage...
Skull fractures, brain bleeds, multiple broken ribs, fractures along his rib cage, missing right arm, deep cut into his left eye, throat, and windpipe damage. Multiple fist-size holes, heart and lung damage from something strongly electrical, deep bruising along the liver and kidneys, and incisions on his small and large intestines. Along with compound fractures that were spread all over the skeletal system with areas that had nerve impairment.
The only time Miya ever saw such wounds was during the many wars she had experienced. No petty squabble would ever amount to this brutality, so this wasn't some disagreement between teenagers getting into a brawl to prove manhood or whatever the younger generation tends to be offended by.
This only confirmed her earlier thoughts about someone having a grudge. However, she still couldn't figure out why someone would pummel someone to an inch of their life and not finish the person off after the beating with the timetable the holographic screen projected would be at least a year and multiple healing and mending cycles until his physical body was restored. And another year of therapy to get him to use muscles he wouldn't have used in a while.
That road to recovery was going to be long and complex as the psychological effects of such an ordeal remained to be seen, and the wagtail prayed his mind wouldn't be shattered or he would flee into himself and fall into a brooding depression.
Even with worrisome news, the pulses of her Tama deep within continued to hum; even now, she didn't understand why her core suddenly chose this young man, but she was going to give it the absolute best of her abilities that he didn't die.
Sometimes, something transpires for a reason, and it is best to see it through before making a sound conclusion; she places her hand on the thick glass casing before saying softly. "If you can survive the first healing cycle, my wayward Ashikabi, only will our union be complete. Until then, sleep and dream of a better tomorrow..."