Thawing her Heart
Act 1
Day 13, Late Night
"Alright Number Seven, go ahead and lay back on the table, let's see if we can't actually make some progress today," a man grumbled as he entered the room. He looked up and saw her. "Ah, I see you already did. Excellent."
Akitsu, already naked and laying on the cold metal table, nodded. This was hardly the first time she had been in this room with Doctor Kimura, or even the hundredth. She had been called to this room several times a week for the past year for her adjustments.
Akitsu remained relaxed, uncaring of her nudity, as the machinery in the table below her whirred to life. She remained still, no longer needing to be instructed to do so. Others might have gotten antsy or bored, but not her. She was always good at being patient and unmoving as the ice she could create.
Doctor Kimura, however, was not nearly as stoic. "Why does your core have to be so troublesome?" he complained as he inputted commands into the control console at the side of the table, a frown on his face. Akitsu remained silent. Experience taught her that he wasn't actually talking to her. "Not just the single digits, but most of the rest of the Sekirei have been released as well by now. It's making me look incompetent."
He paused. "But maybe… maybe I figured it out," he continued, an emotion that Akitsu couldn't identify rising in his tone. "When I checked the logs for the other single digits, I found that you weren't the only difficult one. Number six also had some troubles. Different problems, but perhaps similar enough."
His fingers moved faster over the control console, his actions more animated. "Asama's notes were difficult to parse to be sure. The man might have been a genius, but he was a terrible researcher. But such a minor obstacle wasn't enough to stop a man of my intelligence."
Akitsu continued to remain quiet. She wasn't completely following Doctor Kimura's words, as she had never met 'Asama' or Sekirei Number Six. But she did understand that he had possibly figured out a method to finish her adjustments, which would allow her to finally go out and find her Ashikabi. Akitsu might have been patient, but even she was eager to finally find the one that would make her complete. A hopeful smile tugged at her lips as the machinery in the table powered up.
Of course, it didn't turn out that way at all.
A few minutes into the adjustments a sudden pain lanced through Akitsu, originating from the nape of her neck and shooting through her entire body like lightning. She heard herself scream out as her back arched, fingers scraping against the smooth metal of the examination table as she tried to grab onto something, anything, to steady herself.
Doctor Kimura cursed and fervently manipulated the console controls. A second later the table went dead, the power cut, and Akitsu slumped back down as the pain ended. Her chest heaved as she panted, a dull ache still pulsing through her body.
"Number seven?" Doctor Kimura said as he stepped closer to her, examining her. "Are you… Shit, that can't be good." He suddenly turned away from her and pulled out his phone. Akitsu was barely aware of him, her attention turned inward. She could feel it, beneath the fading pain, a sensation she couldn't identify. It wasn't painful, but it was uncomfortable, like something inside of her didn't line up correctly.
"Doctor Sahashi? Something has happened. Yes. No. Look, just come down to Adjustment Room One, you'll need to see it for yourself. Yes. Yes, I'll see you momentarily." Doctor Kimura hung up his phone and then sighed. "Fuck."
"D-doctor?" Akitsu stuttered, tripping over her tongue, which felt heavy in her mouth. She started to push herself up.
"Lay back down Number Seven, I need to run a deep scan," he said, turning back to her. Akitsu hesitated, the pain still fresh in her mind. "I said lay down! This won't hurt, it's just a scan. I'm not touching your core this time."
Akitsu nodded and slowly laid back down. She was nervous, but she trusted Doctor Kimura, who had been responsible for her for so long.
The table hummed to life again, and Akitsu tensed, but no pain came this time. Akitsu recognized the way the motors and other mechanical parts of the table whirred below her as a normal scan and she relaxed. Doctor Kimura did not relax, however. He spent the entire time staring at the console screen and cursing under his breath.
A few minutes into the scan, Doctor Sahashi walked in. Akitsu hadn't interacted with Doctor Sahashi much, as she was usually busy with other things. However, they had met a few times, enough for Akitsu to recognize her easily.
"Just what is so urgent that you-" Doctor Sahashi started. Then her eyes fell on Akitsu and her mouth snapped shut. She stormed up to the control console. Kimura didn't say anything and simply stepped aside to give her access. Her eyes flicked between the screen and Akitsu. Specifically, Akitsu's forehead. Her expression darkened the longer she looked.
"What. Did. You. Do?" Sahashi asked, voice cold with anger.
"A-as you are aware, Number Seven's adjustment has been… difficult."
"All of the single digits had difficult adjustments!" Sahashi snapped.
"Yes, they did. Which is why I turned my attention to the adjustment notes to her predecessor, Number Six, and her own difficult tuning handled by Doctor Asama. I took some inspiration from the methods he used and-"
"You what?!" Sahashi said, turning on the man. "You just copied what he did and hoped it would work out, despite the fact that Number Six's issues were wholly unique to her and not related to your 'troubles' with seven?"
Doctor Kimura hesitated. "Well… yes. Which, in hindsight-"
"Oh, yes, in hindsight it was a mistake, but not beforehand."
Kimura frowned, his back straightening. "I admit, I made a mistake, but my reasoning was-"
But Sahashi cut him off again. "A mistake is insufficient to describe just how badly you fucked up, or did you forget how to read a scan when you lost your god damned common sense?" Sahashi jabbed at the screen without looking at it. "Don't you realize what you've done? Her god damn Crest is on her forehead!"
Akitsu frowned, reaching up to touch her forehead. It didn't feel any different, maybe a bit warm or sore, but she couldn't tell if that was just in her head or not. But she did know that her Crest, her proof of her bond with her Fated One, shouldn't be appearing there. Or appearing at all when she hadn't been winged. She hadn't been worried before, but now her anxiety quickly grew, a pit in her stomach that set her heart aflutter.
"A simple mistake, one that I'm sure we can fix."
"You are a god damned fool. You didn't just make a mistake, you permanently damaged her core. Look, here," she jabbed at the screen again, pointing at something Akitsu could not see. "This is where a bond to an Ashikabi is normally formed. Does that look okay to you?"
Doctor Kimura paused, eyes glancing at where Sahashi was pointing. "Well… no, it doesn't. But surely we can reverse the steps and-"
"If you do that you will rip her core in half," Sahashi hissed. Kimura paled at that, the gravity of the situation finally catching up to him. Sahashi wasn't satisfied with just that though. "There is no way to fix this. You have mangled her core to the point where she'll never be able to properly form an Ashikabi bond."
Akitsu froze, her entire body going still. She couldn't even feel her lungs breathing or heart beating. All she heard was Doctor Sahashi's words, repeating in her head. She'll never be able to properly form an Ashikabi bond. She'd never find her Promised One. She would never be Complete.
"I… I…" Kimura stammered, panicking.
"I suppose congratulations are in order though," Sahashi said, disdain clear in her voice. "After all, before this point, a fuck up of this magnitude was purely theoretical. But I believe we can say that we have our first official Scrapped Sekirei."
The world fell away from Akitsu, and she was barely aware as Sahashi turned back to the console. "If only Asama were still here, he might have had a chance at salvinging this. As it is, I don't think there's anything I can do."
"Ma'am, please, I was just doing what I thought best-"
"And look where that got us," she snapped. Then she sighed. "This is my fault, I should have known better than to leave the single digits in the hands of anyone else. I was just so busy, and you insisted that you would be able to handle it."
"I could," Kimura replied. "I still can!"
Sahashi shook her head. "No. I'm not risking any more fuck ups." She turned and started heading for the door. "Finish that scan and send the logs to me. I'm pulling all of the other tuners off of the Sekirei Plan. I'll finish the remainder by myself. You'll get an email with your new assignment within a few hours."
The door closed behind Doctor Sahashi without her having once addressed Akitsu directly.
Not that Akitsu was in any state of mind to notice, as she was too caught up in her world crumbling around her. She had waited for so long to be adjusted, to have her powers limited to a level where she wouldn't put her Ashikabi in danger. She had been patient as the other Sekirei left the tower and went out into the city, finding their Promised Ones. She wasn't jealous, she knew it was just a matter of time. All she had to do was wait.
But now… she would never fulfill that desire. The only desire she had ever had. She hadn't wished for anything else but to find an Ashikabi and serve them to the best of her ability. Every atom of her very being had been dedicated to that dream. And now she was aimless, the doors to that dream shut forever. She floated in nothingness, drowning in despair.
She wasn't aware of Doctor Kimura's mutterings, how he declared it wasn't his fault, how he had done everything right. She wasn't aware of the way his eyes, filled with the anger of a wounded pride, turned to her. She wasn't aware of the hatred and blame he placed at her feet.
But she was aware of the way his hands wrapped around her neck. She was yanked back to reality as she truly became unable to breath, pain radiating from her neck. She thrashed, reflexively trying to throw him off. But she was still weak from the pain earlier.
"You! You! You!" Kimura growled. "If only you didn't exist! If only you just disappeared!"
For a moment, Akitsu stopped struggling. His words pierced her hazy mind. He was right, she thought. She should just disappear. If she couldn't find an Ashikabi… then what was the point?
A manic smile lit up Kimura's face as she stopped struggling. But there was another emotion there as well. "Might as well get some use out of you," he whispered, more to himself than to her. The pressure on her throat lightened, just enough for her body to greedily suck in a thin strand of air.
Her vision cleared, the fog fading as oxygen was sent to her brain. Enough for her to see why he had taken his hand from her throat. Enough for her to see the way his hand fumbled at his belt.
Akitsu was quiet, not an idiot. Sexual education had been a part of every Sekirei's curriculum from a young age. After all, while not every Sekirei would have intimate relationships with their Ashikabi, it was very likely to end up that way. The researchers and tutors they hired had explained it all to them, both from a clinical perspective and a more social and intimate one.
So Akitsu was able to realize immediately what Kimura's intentions were, what he wanted to do to her.
"N-o-," she croaked, barely able to speak. Panic rose in her again. "No!"
She had been willing to give in, to let him end her life. She had believed, for a moment, that it didn't matter anymore. That nothing mattered.
But something inside of her refused to give up that. Death would be preferable to letting the man who broke her take something that was only meant for her Ashikabi, to let him touch her that way.
He ignored her protests, his pants falling to his knees, and Akitsu's panic intensified. She thrashed, but she was still too weak. His grip on her throat tightened as he used his other hand to force her legs apart.
Her mind went white with panic, and for just a moment, she wasn't aware of anything except the overwhelming desire to stop him.
When awareness did come back to her, the scene was different. Her throat hurt, but she was gasping in air, breathing unimpeded. No one was touching her, and the room was quiet. She coughed and sat up as her vision returned to her.
And she was treated to the sight of Doctor Kimura on the ground, flat on his back and his pants around his knees, with half a dozen foot long spears of ice lodged into his chest. Red stains slowly grew on his shirt, staining it.
Akitsu stared at him, at his body, as she caught her breath. She had killed him. She knew she wasn't meant to, that humans weren't the same as Sekirei. Killing anyone was something that she had been repeatedly told was wrong and to be avoided except in the case where she had no other option to save her life or the life of her Ashikabi.
Which is what she had done, wasn't it? She had defended herself. But would the others see it that way? She didn't know, and that frightened her.
She stood up, legs shaky. She wasn't in any state of mind to think clearly, but the feeling of just wanting to die had disappeared. She didn't have a goal or desire, but her instincts told her that this place wasn't safe for her, not anymore, and she had to leave.
She grabbed the coat from Kimura's shoulders, pulling it off of his cooling body, and put it on herself, hoping that the blood stains would draw less attention than her own naked body. And then she left the room, fleeing from what she did and what had happened to her.
Day 23, Afternoon
"She should be passing through here any moment," Sekirei number thirty-nine, Mitsuha, said to Akitsu as both of them stood on a low rooftop overlooking a street. People milled below them, walking to or from some destination that Akitsu couldn't be bothered to fathom.
"Mm," Akitsu said, acknowledging her partner. Mitsuha would just repeat herself if Akitsu didn't respond at least a little, even though there was no way she could have missed the energetic girl's words.
Mitsuha sighed. "You're so cold, Akitsu. Get it? Cold? Because you manipulate ice?" Akitsu just looked at the girl blankly. It was the fifth time she had made that joke since the two of them had been paired together. Mitsuha turned away and threw her hands up. "Whatever, I give up. Be grumpy or whatever all you want. So long as you do as Hayato-sama desires, I don't care."
An awkward silence fell over the two of them. Akitsu still wasn't used to working as a group. During her adjustment period she hadn't interacted much with others. Most Sekirei had been raised in small groups according to their number, but that didn't apply to the single digits. One through five were special even among the single digits.
The other four single digits had each been raised and adjusted by themselves. Homura had issues early on, and Doctors Asama and Sahashi had focused on her before releasing her fairly early. Yume's special circumstances and her talent had gained the Director's attention fairly early on, and she was fast tracked to the Disciplinary Squad. Tsukiumi had been adjusted by Miyajima, who had retired at the same time as Asama, so she was one of the rare Sekirei who lived and grew up outside of the MBI Tower.
Akitsu hadn't been special, not really. As a single digit her core had been difficult to work with due to the fact that they were already embryos by the time MBI was there to start adjustments, but there hadn't been anything else notable about her. And since all of her peers had special circumstances, her adjustments had been done in solitude. At first she was ahead of the others, the non-Single Digits, and then she fell behind them, never syncing up.
But she wasn't alone anymore. She had found her Ashikabi, or at least the closest thing she was ever going to get to one, and she had many sisters that she spent time with.
If only she knew how to spend time with them. If only the word "Ashikabi" didn't ring so hollow in her ears. If only she could ignore the pang inside of her whenever one of the others used their Norito.
"There she is!" Mitsuha said, drawing Akitsu from her thoughts. Akitsu looked to where the other Sekirei was pointing and saw a girl among the crowd. Dressed in a sleeveless kimono and carrying a bo staff as she was, she stood out among the pedestrians. She also matched the description that Mutsu had given them earlier.
"Hmm. She doesn't look all that special to me. What do you think, Akitsu?"
Akitsu shrugged. Nothing stood out to her about the girl, but that didn't really mean anything. "Does it matter?"
"Hayato-sama would be happier if she was," she replied. "But I guess it doesn't really change our job. Alright, let's follow her."
They stuck to the rooftops, hopping from one to another as they tracked their target. Though it didn't take long for the other Sekirei to notice something was off. Perhaps she heard something, or saw their shadows, or maybe it was just instinct, but something caused her to look up and behind her, spotting the two of them.
Akitsu could make out her expression. The confusion that grew, quickly followed by realization and fear. She took off, pushing her way through the crowd as she ran.
"After her!" Mitsuha shouted rather unnecessarily. Both of them took off in pursuit. This was ideal, in a way, as they were forbidden from fighting where there were too many prying eyes. All they had to do was wait for the Sekirei to run somewhere alone.
Which she did, eventually. Either she didn't know the rules, or she was too scared to realize that staying among the crowd was the safest bet, though Akitsu knew that Mitsuha would start a fight eventually, crowd or no crowd. They were on their own timetable after all.
"We've got her now!" Mitsuha whooped as the Sekirei ducked into an alley. "Akitsu-"
But Akitsu was already moving, not needing to be reminded of their plan. She dashed ahead and waved her arm. A wall of ice grew to block the entrance of the alley, rising more than two stories tall. The Sekirei ran into it, barely getting her arms up in time to absorb the blow.
Akitsu didn't waste any time. Any Sekirei, especially the Weapon types, could jump or scale a wall of that size, but it would leave them vulnerable to attack in the air, unable to dodge. So as Mitsuha landed in the alley behind her, Akitsu moved to stand atop the wall she made, cutting off all avenues of escape.
The Sekirei whirled, eyes darting as she realized that she was trapped. She took her Bo staff in both hands and held it in front of her, ready to fight.
"Now, now, it doesn't need to be like that," Mitsuha said in a smug tone. "You're looking for an Ashikabi, right? Well, we just so happen to know one that is looking to expand his flock, and I can promise you'll be happy there! So why don't you just come with us and we'll introduce you?"
The Sekirei stiffened. "I'd prefer to find my own Ashikabi, if it's all the same to you."
"I'm afraid it isn't," Mitsuha replied, an edge entering her voice. "Really. I insist." She flicked her wrist and her whip cracked through the air, chipping one of the stone walls of the alley.
The Sekirei flinched, but steadied herself. "I am Sekirei number 103, Juusa!" she declared formally.
Mitsuha sighed. "Number thirty-nine, Mitsuha."
"Akitsu, sev-" she started before cutting herself. "Scrapped number," she said softly instead.
Confusion flickered over Juusa's face, and Mitsuha took advantage of her momentary lapse of concentration. Now that introductions were done, they could start fighting for real.
Not that it could be called a fight. It was over in just a few exchanges, with Juusa disarmed and bound by Akitsu's ice. She struggled to break through the frozen lumps that kept her wrists and ankles together, but Akitsu's ice was too strong to break, and she slumped over, giving up.
"Fine, fine!" Juusa complained from the ground. "You win!"
"Yay!" Mitsuha cheered. "Oh, don't look at me like that. Once you're winged, you'll see just how great Hayato-sama is!" She looked at Akitsu. "Come on, pick her up and let's go home."
Akitsu nodded and put the bound Sekirei over her shoulder, carrying her like a sack of rice, barely feeling her weight. Juusa groaned, and didn't seem happy, but she wasn't struggling either.
As they took to the roofs and started heading home, Akitsu tried to ignore the guilt she felt squirming in her stomach. Part of her didn't like this business of capturing more Sekirei through force for her Ashikabi to wing.
But she buried those feelings under thick walls of ice. This was what Hayato-sama wanted, and she owed him everything for accepting a broken bird such as herself when she had nothing left and nowhere to go.
And another part of her, a more vindictive and jealous part, suggested that Juusa should just be happy she could be Winged and have a proper Ashikabi. So what if it wasn't one she found? An Ashikabi was still an Ashikabi. She should be grateful.
She buried the jealousy she felt later when she witnessed Hayato-sama give Juusa her wings. But she couldn't escape the dreams she had that night, where a naked Doctor Kimura chased her through an endless crowd of faceless people who all looked at her with pity, but none moved to help her.
She was caught in the end, but she jerked awake as soon as he laid hands on her. She was alone in her room, covered in sweat, and tears streaming down her face. She didn't sleep again for the rest of the night.
Day 42, After Midnight
She found herself in the same position again a few weeks later, staring down at an unwinged Sekirei that had just been released from MBI, Mitsuha at her side.
"-so why don't you come with us?" Mitsuha finished her recruitment speech.
The girl, younger looking than Juusa had been and lacking a clear weapon, looked up at them warily. "Your Ashikabi has a lot of Sekirei then?" she asked.
Mitsuha seemed surprised, but pleased, that she hadn't been immediately denied. "That's right! He's very powerful and-"
"Is Kusano one of them?" the girl asked, cutting Mitsuha off. "Number 108. She's blonde with green eyes and she can grow plants."
Akitsu vaguely recalled an incident from a month ago. She and Mitsuha had been called in as backup to capture a Sekirei that Yomi had let escape and hole up by turning the Botanical Garden into a jungle. But by the time they got there, MBI had left and the Sekirei had been long gone, much to Hayato-sama's annoyance.
Akitsu opened her mouth to say as much, or at least to say that Hayato-sama hadn't winged her, but Mitsuha cut her off.
"She is! She's so happy with us, so happy to be winged by Hayato-sama and to help him however she can. We can take her there, if you want."
But the Sekirei's eyes narrowed. "And has she mentioned me?"
"Of course! She talks about you all the time!"
"So you know who I am then? What's my name?"
"You're Shiina, number 107!"
Shiina didn't look convinced. "What does Kusano call me?"
"Eh?"
"Kusano. She doesn't call me Shiina, she calls me something else. If she talks about me all the time, you should know what it is, right?"
"O-of course! She calls you… uhh… Shi-tan?"
Shiina stared at them for a moment longer. And then she suddenly turned on her feet and took off running.
Mitsuha cursed. "After her!"
Akitsu lifted her hand to wall off Shiina's escape path, but her instincts screamed at her to dodge and she threw herself back, narrowly avoiding the pink blur that passed through where she was just standing. Mitsuha wasn't quite as fast, and she was knocked to the ground.
Akitsu was on edge as she turned to face their attacker. It was a girl in a pink dress and blonde hair. She looked younger than any Sekirei Akitsu had seen, but she held herself with a confidence that Akitsu's instincts told her meant she was dangerous.
"Who the hell are you?!" Mitsuha demanded as she scrambled to her feet. Akitsu glanced at her, noting that she didn't seem to be injured.
"Oh, no one important," the girl responded smugly. "Just a concerned citizen who's not willing to sit back while you forcibly enslave that poor Sekirei."
"Concerned citizen, yeah right," Mitsuha growled. "But if you care so much, fine, we'll just take you on first!"
"Only if you can catch me," the girl said with a wink before sticking her tongue out at them and turning to run in the same direction that Shiina had.
Mitsuha growled. "Don't let her get away!"
The two of them gave chase to the mysterious girl, following her through alleys, just barely able to keep her in sight. Akitsu's gut warned her that they were making a mistake, that the girl was playing with them. But she knew better than to try to convince Mitsuha of that when she was so riled up.
One alleyway was long enough for Akitsu to catch sight of the girl fully, and to see ahead of her, so she created a chunk of ice in front of her. But due to her haste, it was sloppy, not nearly tall enough to impede her, and she jumped straight over it. Akitsu frowned, but both her and Mitsuha followed her, leaping over the ice.
And they immediately came to a dead stop. On the other side of the ice was a large space that was under construction, and within it were more than just Shiina and the mysterious girl. On the other side was a man with dark skin, followed by four women. She recognized one of them, Matsu, Sekirei number two. The others she didn't know, but one matched the description that Shiina had given just earlier, and the remaining two stood in a way that Akitsu recognized as them being ready to fight. There was no doubt in her mind that this was an enemy Ashikabi, and a dangerous one at that if he had winged Sekirei 02.
The blonde one with green eyes was ahead of them, clearly having been approaching Shiina before they had arrived, a fact that Mitsuha didn't miss. "Hey! We had eyes on her first!" she shouted at them. "Back off!"
Akitsu looked toward the Ashikabi, knowing it would be him that would react first. He didn't react verbally. Instead he narrowed his eyes at them.
Suddenly, the two that Akitsu couldn't identify, the gold one and the red one, burst into motion. Akitsu responded immediately by putting up a thick wall of ice between her and the red one, who was headed directly for her, and leaped back.
She was vaguely aware of golden ribbons snapping out to disarm her partner, who started scrambling back. Most of her attention was on the wall of ice she had made, which the red one went through, the tip of her spear pulverizing it into little more than snow with the sheer force of it. Akitsu caught her expression, cold, uncaring, but not upset. This was just a duty to her, and not a particularly difficult one.
Akitsu jumped back further, to the top of the glacier she had made when she tried to cut off the pink one. She was shaking. It was hard to imagine that any Sekirei outside of the single digits had that kind of sheer power, but she didn't recognize the red girl at all. "We should retreat," she called out to Mitsuha.
"Dammit! We were so close!" Mitsuha fumed, clearly not happy about being denied, or about disappointing Hayato-sama.
"I'd take the advice of your friend," the pink one said. She hadn't moved when the other two had attacked. She slammed a fist into her open palm and the noise of the impact cracked through the air. "You won't be getting anything tonight."
Mitsuha hesitated, clearly not wanting to disappoint Hayato-sama, but even Mitsuha wasn't hot-headed enough to ignore the fact that they were outnumbered and outmatched. "Dammit!" she repeated. She pointed her finger at them again, specifically at the dark-skinned Ashikabi. "You'll regret this one day!"
Mitsuha jumped over the glacier that Akitsu was standing on and escaped down the alley. Pausing just long enough to make sure they weren't going to be followed, Akitsu turned and chased after her, quickly catching up as they put some distance between themselves and the other group.
"Dammit, dammit, dammit!" Mitsuha cursed. "Hayato-sama is going to be so disappointed!"
But Akitsu wasn't paying attention to her partner. Her mind was focused on the memory of the Ashikabi who hadn't said a word or done a single thing, but had still immediately taken control over the entire battlefield, and the girl in red who had crushed her defenses so easily, yet so unenthusiastically.
And she wondered if she looked like that to others.
Day 42, Late Morning
Later that day, after Hayato-sama had thrown a tantrum when they reported their failure, the two of them were sent back out to patrol the streets, looking for lone Sekirei. Unwinged ones were to be brought to him, and winged ones to be defeated before the Plan progressed further. It was what they spent most of their time doing, and now that all of the Sekirei had been released from MBI, it would be all they would do until the next Phase.
"It's all your fault!" Mitsuha groused as they walked among the pedestrians in the street. They got a few odd looks, but the residents of Shinto Teito were fairly used to seeing strangely dressed girls at this point. "If you had done a better job with your ice, 107 wouldn't have gotten away!"
Akitsu didn't reply. It wasn't the first time Mitsuha had blamed her. Since reporting back to Hayato-sama and being chewed out for their failure, enemy Ashikabi notwithstanding, she had been irritable and was taking it out on the only person she could- Akitsu.
Akitsu's mood wasn't much better though. If she couldn't be winged and she couldn't even accomplish her Ashikabi's will, then what purpose did she serve? Was this what she wanted? She tried to ignore those thoughts, to focus on her loyalty to Hayato-sama.
"Just because you're not really Hayato-sama's Sekirei doesn't mean you can slack off!" Mitsuha continued.
Akitsu's breath caught in her throat and she felt a pit open up in her stomach. "That's not-"
"Agh, whatever, I have to pee," she complained, ignoring Akitsu's protest. She looked around until she spotted an arcade. "There, that should have a bathroom." Without waiting for Akitsu, she marched into the arcade.
Akitsu stood there for a few moments longer, unmoving. 'You're not really Hayato-sama's Sekirei.' She tried to ignore how much those words cut through her, how they reopened the still raw emotional wounds she suffered the day she was Scrapped. She buried it again, a comforting chill filling her as she suppressed the pain. She couldn't afford to allow those feelings to control her, to take her over. She was scared of what might happen if she lost control again.
Once she had collected herself to the best of her ability, she followed Mitsuha into the arcade. Her partner was long out of sight and Akitsu had no desire to follow her into the bathroom, so instead she wandered the arcade itself, trying to distract herself with the colorful displays.
But then she suddenly came face to face with someone she hadn't expected. The red girl that had busted through her ice so easily, though her outfit was more casual and much less red now, a simple jacket and denim shorts. "Ah," she said, freezing in place.
The red girl tensed up as well, but only for a moment before she clicked her tongue and continued walking straight past Akitsu.
Confusion flickered through her mind as she turned to keep facing the girl. Last time they met the red girl hadn't hesitated to fight. Now, here they were, meeting again. Both were alone, true, but Akitsu was definitely the weaker of the two, even if she still wasn't sure how that was possible.
Before she could think better of it, a question slipped from her lips. "You're not… going to fight?"
Akitsu heard the other girl sigh and she turned to face Akitsu again. "No?" she replied, making it a question rather than a statement. "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…"
Akitsu shook her head. She would lose, and she'd be terminated. Or worse, she'd be left alive and Hayato-sama would be disappointed in her again, and the others would doubt her even more.
The girl shrugged. "Then we can just pretend we didn't run into each other, or whatever." Then she turned away again and stepped up to one of the game machines, which she started playing.
Akitsu stared at her, still confused. The girl had said it was her… break? As in, she wasn't assigned to patrol the streets and was just having fun? Hayato-sama frequently indulged in games, relaxing and enjoying his leisure time. In fact, he did that more than anything else. But his Sekirei rarely did such things.
Though, to be fair to Hayato-sama, more often than not it was Mutsu-san who put them to work. Patrols, body guard duty, or training usually. Still, the idea that a Sekirei would be out alone in public, apparently glad to get some time away from her Ashikabi, boggled her mind.
Yet here she was, shooting at virtual enemies, her back exposed to a real enemy, seemingly without a care in the world.
Akitsu didn't even notice when she stepped closer to watch the girl play. She had seen Hayato-sama play games, but hadn't really understood the appeal.
"What?" the girl snapped at her. "Change your mind?"
She hadn't, of course. But curiosity gnawed at her. She wasn't willing to just ask her about her relationship with her Ashikabi directly though, so she tried a different angle."What happened to that Sekirei?"
"She got winged. Apparently she's the friend or sister or whatever of one of ours, so she convinced her to join too."
That made sense to Akitsu. She had expected the winging, and 107 had been looking for another Sekirei, who had apparently been looking for her as well, and convinced her Ashikabi to pick her up as soon as possible. Missing out on another Sekirei for Hayato-sama was regrettable, but part of her was happy that the two of them were able to reunite. "I see."
A few moments passed as the red girl seemed to relax and she focused on her game. Akitsu considered asking another question, but she was nervous about broaching the topic that she was really curious about. Asking about another Sekirei's Ashikabi, and their relationship, was… scary. After all, she was almost certainly winged. She didn't want to hear another Sekirei go on about how amazing that was. She got enough of that at home.
So in the end, it was the red girl who broke the silence. "Where's your partner? The loud blonde one." Her tone wasn't worried, she simply sounded like she was making conversation.
"Bathroom," Akitsu replied. She didn't see a reason not to. The red girl didn't want a fight and neither did Akitsu. The girl made a noise of acknowledgement, but said nothing else, and the slightly awkward silence fell over them again.
Akitsu wondered what she was doing, just standing here awkwardly with an enemy. She should be calling Mutsu-san or Hayato-sama, or getting Mitsuha as backup. Instead she was… not making friends, but fraternizing with someone she had fought against just a few hours before.
Akitsu's thoughts and worries were interrupted by a bit of fanfare as the girl cleared the level. Akitsu spotted a grin on the girl's face before she looked over at her. "What, you wanna play too or something?"
Akitsu hesitated. Hayato-sama had never invited her or any of the others to play alongside him. "...should I?"
The girl rolled her eyes, a hint of a grin still on her face. "There's no point just standing around. Come on, grab the second gun, play a few rounds."
Akitsu was about to turn down the offer, but she reconsidered. If this red girl, whose expression earlier reminded her so much of her own, found this kind of thing fun, perhaps she would too? So instead, she took up a position next to the girl.
She explained to Akitsu how the game worked, and then they started playing. It took Akitsu a bit to get used to it, but she soon adjusted to the flat display and the plastic trigger. The mechanics were different, but she had trained her ice power against much faster moving targets while at MBI.
As both of them settled into the groove, landing every shot nearly in sync, the girl's smile widened. "There you go, that's what I'm talking about! You sure you've never played before?"
Akitsu shook her head. "Never. Easy."
"Guess you Sekirei are just that impressive, huh?" the girl said with a chuckle.
Akitsu frowned, the statement sounding strange to her and for a moment she didn't realize why. But the girl had clearly just said 'you Sekirei' as if she wasn't one. "You're… not a Sekirei?"
"Nope," the girl said casually.
"I see," Akitsu replied distractedly while her mind reeled. She was a human? She was so much stronger than her and she was a human and she wasn't winged? It didn't make any sense. The man earlier was clearly an Ashikabi. She had recognized #02 following him, and #107 and her blonde friend were both definitely Sekirei as well. But this girl wasn't? Was the golden girl not one either?
Akitsu barely noticed when the level ended, having completed it on auto-pilot. But her mind refocused when the girl spoke up again. "So… what was up with this morning?"
She was pushed further off balance by the question. Not only was she not a Sekirei, but she didn't even realize why she had been fighting earlier? "We heard that the last Sekirei was being released," she explained, not even considering whether or not she should be sharing this information. "Ashikabi-sama wanted her. We were sent to grab her."
The girl's smile disappeared. "Grab her? Not talk to her?"
Akitsu suddenly felt uneasy, but she ignored it, burying it under ice. "Tried that first, didn't work. Orders were to grab her anyway."
On the screen, the next level started. Both of them raised their plastic guns. "That's fucked up," the girl said softly.
There wasn't condemnation in her voice, not quite. But Akitsu felt judged nonetheless. "It is what my Ashikabi wants," she insisted.
"Fuck that, it's still messed up to force them like that," the girl replied, more fire in her voice now. "Like, just because some prick kissed you, you have to do whatever the fuck he says? Including forcing more girls to become slaves?"
Akitsu flinched, controller lowering as she stopped shooting. She wanted to refute her words, to insist that being winged was not the same as being enslaved. And she truly believed that, though in the depths of her mind even she admitted that forcing a winging was perhaps a bit muddier of a situation.
But she couldn't argue that point, couldn't even think about it really. Because the girl was wrong in the most painful way possible. "He… didn't," she said.
"Huh? Didn't what? And don't slack off!" The girl made up for her lack of shooting by picking up her own pace. She didn't look at Akitsu.
"He never kissed me," Akitsu said. "Never winged me." She didn't play the game again, she had lost the motivation.
"So you're not even his Sekirei? That's even worse."
Akitsu flinched at that. "I- I can't," she insisted. She needed this girl to understand, but she didn't know why. The girl finally stopped playing the game and looked at Akitsu, and she saw a flicker of concern in the other girl's eyes. Akitsu lowered her own gaze. "I'm… broken. I can't be winged."
The girl didn't reply immediately and Akitsu struggled to maintain her composure. Admitting it, explaining her failings like that, felt both like taking a weight off of her shoulders and ripping open a wound that had just begun to heal. Both relieving and unpleasant at the same time.
She was prepared for the other girl to offer some kind of condolences. The others had, when Hayato-sama had saved her. Though Hayato-sama himself hadn't.
And, to her surprise, neither did the red girl. Even more surprising, she seemed angry. "So why the fuck are you with him then? You don't even have the excuse of not having a choice."
Akitsu tried not to gape at the girl. How could she not understand? "He- he'll throw me away again," she said. It was the thing she was most afraid of.
"So fucking what?" the girl dismissed. Akitsu did gape then, unable to prevent her shock from appearing on her face. But that only seemed to spur the girl on. "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."
Akitsu flinched again, the word 'rape' bringing unpleasant memories to the forefront of her mind. "It's… it's not like that…" she said. But the seed of doubt had been planted. The Sekirei they hunted down… Hayato-sama kissed them whether they wanted to be kissed or not. It wasn't as extreme… but it was the same thing, wasn't it?
The girl clicked her tongue again, but some of the heat left her as she continued. "Let me guess… something bad happened to you and he was the first person that found you and helped you, right?"
Akitsu stiffened, surprised at how accurate the girl's guess was, even spelt out vaguely. It was undeniably true that Hayato-sama had been the first person to find her, to offer her his hand, after the events of that fateful night. But admitting that felt like admitting the girl was right.
Not that it mattered. She could see it in the girl's eyes that Akitsu's reaction was all she needed. The girl turned back to the game, starting over after they had failed due to both of them ignoring it.
"You can't trust people like that," the girl said, her voice quiet and lacking the heat she had before. "Not blindly at least. They'll betray you in the end."
It clicked for Akitsu then, why the girl was so heated about this. Why her expression when they had first met resonated with her. Why she had taken the time to talk to her instead of running away or fighting.
The two of them were one and the same.
The only difference was that the other girl's hurt had happened longer ago. She was the image of what Akitsu could potentially become.
So, despite how uneasy the conversation made her, how much it drew her own beliefs into question, she decided that she needed to know more.
"Who… betrayed you?"
"An asshole. 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."
As she continued, her voice grew more and more heated. "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."
Akitsu nearly jumped as the plastic gun in the girl's hand cracked and splintered. The girl froze for just a moment before she collected herself, her expression twisting into a sneer.
She put down the plastic gun and clenched her hand before looking at Akitsu, gauging her reaction. She could see the unspoken question in her eyes. Was the man who extended his hand out to her the same?
"He's… not like that," she answered. But she could hear the doubt in her voice.
And so could the girl, because she snorted. "Yeah? How sure are you about that?"
She wanted to claim that she was very sure that he valued each of them too much to use them like that. But here she was, patrolling a city and looking for fights before the fighting even properly began. This morning she had almost faced opponents too powerful for her at his command. Would he spend her life if it meant he could get a proper Sekirei? Or was the novelty of her broken status enough to prioritize herself?
She found that she didn't like either of the possible answers from that. She didn't want to be thrown away, but to be valued for her flaw, for the thing that made her miserable, curdled her stomach.
The girl suddenly turned to look behind her, and Akitsu looked up to see Hayato-sama and the others. The entire group was here, including Mitsuha. Akitsu only then realized just how much time she had spent talking to the other girl, far longer than a bathroom trip should have taken.
"Good job keeping her distracted Akitsu!" said with a thumbs up as the group approached them. Akitsu felt a burst of panic inside of her. She hadn't intended to do that at all, and she was worried that the red girl would take that as betrayal.
But a glance at the girl showed that she had turned to face the others entirely, and she didn't even react to Mitsuha's words. And after a moment, Akitsu stopped to wonder why she was concerned about that in the first place. They were enemies, weren't they?
"And you!" Mitsuha continued as she pointed at the red girl. "I told you you'd regret interfering this morning!"
"Yeah, I doubt that," the girl replied. Her tone was casual and irreverent, but even Akitsu could see the way she was sizing everyone up. The others noticed as well and tensed, prepared to fight. No doubt Mitsuha had told them about the girl already.
The girl remained unphased though. If anything, she relaxed slightly as she snorted. "Seriously? You're so upset that I stopped you from kidnapping and enslaving an innocent girl that you're gonna jump me?"
Hayato-sama seemed confused by her words. "Enslaving? But don't Sekirei exist to be winged? That's the entire point of this game after all."
Akitsu remained silent as they exchanged words, anxiety welling up in her stomach. Why? Why was she nervous? Why did it feel like something terrible was about to happen? They could get away from this without a fight easily enough… but she knew Hayato-sama. He wouldn't back down from what he saw as a challenge.
Akitsu recalled the girl's words from earlier. 'How sure are you about that?' she had asked when she denied Hayato-sama would throw them away. She couldn't picture it before.
Hayato-sama grinned. "I want you to duel one of my Sekirei! You and your Ashikabi prevented me from getting one-oh-seven this morning and now I'm going to pay you back for that!"
But she could picture it now. Hayato-sama had a confidence that she had found admirable, at first. But after witnessing the red girl's strength, it just felt brittle and hollow. Whatever Sekirei he chose would lose.
'How sure are you about that?'
Doom hung over her like a cloud. Hayato-sama, her savior, the Ashikabi she could never have, was doing exactly what the red girl implied he would. Things hadn't gone wrong yet, but she knew they would. She felt lost, unmoored. The safe place she had found after fleeing MBI suddenly did not feel safe. And in that moment, she realized that it hadn't ever felt truly safe, like she belonged.
She followed the others in a daze as they headed outside and up to the roof of the arcade, where the fight would take place. She trailed behind, barely paying attention as the others circled around her, forming a ring.
The red girl bantered with Hayato-sama for a bit. Akitsu didn't really pay attention. But her attention focused back on what was happening when Mutsu-san stepped forward, drawing her sword.
Akitsu felt a flicker of hope. Mutsu was the strongest of them, by far, being one of the original Disciplinary Squad members. Her adjustments had been minor and she had plenty of experience. If Hayato-sama had chosen her, then that meant he was taking the situation seriously. He wasn't throwing them away. He was just choosing a hard fight and taking it on as best as he could.
The girl lifted her hand and summoned her spear seemingly from nowhere. The others murmured in confusion as it didn't seem to fit what most Sekirei abilities were. But Akitsu recalled the girl's words from earlier, claiming that she wasn't a Sekirei.
Akitsu didn't understand how she could be not a Sekirei but still be so strong and have strange abilities. But her being a Sekirei was impossible as well. Was she even human then? Or was there some other kind of person in this world, hidden just like the Sekirei were?
She didn't know, but she stayed quiet. She wasn't sure what was about to happen anymore. She trusted that Hayato-sama wasn't throwing them away, but she had seen both the red girl's strength and Mutsu's strength and she could not say which was greater. She wasn't even sure which one she wanted to win, a feeling that caused guilt to well up inside of her.
So she stayed silent, and she watched. Whatever the result was, she needed to witness it.
Their clash started normally, with Mutsu on the offensive and the red girl defending herself. Neither seemed to have an edge over the other, but nor did they seem to be pushing themselves yet. Mutsu wore a focused expression, her gaze calculating. Akitsu couldn't see the red girl's face, but her movements didn't seem particularly hurried.
That changed in an instant. The red girl suddenly blurred, faster even than their fight this morning, and Mutsu was thrown away, red blood arcing through the air behind her. The fragments of her sword fell to the ground, tinkling behind the thump of her body.
No one on the rooftop moved. Akitsu was pretty sure they weren't even breathing. She certainly wasn't, as she started at Mutsu, who didn't so much as twitch, even as the seconds ticked by.
It was the red girl who broke the silence. "Ding ding ding. That's my win, right?" Her voice was monotone. Their fight meant nothing to her, good or bad. She had claimed earlier that she just wanted to let off some steam, but Akitsu doubted she accomplished even that.
"Mutsu… lost?" Hayato-sama breathed. For a moment, he looked sad and lost, his expression unfamiliar to Akitsu. But it quickly shifted to a more familiar one, one of frustration and rage, as he focused on the red girl. "No, no, no, she's the strongest! She couldn't have lost! You! You cheated somehow! You had to have!"
The red girl sighed and mumbled something Akitsu didn't catch before addressing Hayato-sama. "Face it kid, we fought and I was stronger. Isn't that how this game is played? And now I'm going to fuck off and enjoy the rest of my day."
Then she turned around and started walking away while Hayato-sama gaped at her. No one dared move, her spear still in her hand and its blade red with Mutsu's blood ensured that. She headed toward Akitsu, where they had jumped to the top of the building, and came to a stop right at the edge next to her.
The red girl looked up at Akitsu and made eye contact. "You said earlier you were broken, right?" Akitsu nodded, wondering why she would bring this up. And in response, the red girl shook her head and pointed back over her shoulder. "You're not. That's what being broken looks like."
Akitsu looked back at Mutsu, who still hadn't moved and was bleeding out on the rooftop. She couldn't deny that 'broken' was an apt descriptor. Complicated emotions stirred in her gut. There was a sort of indifference there. She hadn't personally been very close to Mutsu. But she felt guilty for not feeling bad about her termination. She was anxious too, worried about Hayato-sama's mental state and how things would turn out.
But still Akitsu could not acknowledge the red girl's point. "No," she whispered. Mutsu might have been literally broken, but it didn't change the fact that Akitsu was fundamentally flawed. Mutsu had performed her duty well, being a loyal Sekirei to her Ashikabi until the end. Akitsu could only imitate that. No matter what, she would still be broken.
Annoyance flashed over the red girl's face. "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."
Akitsu tried not to flinch at how her words mirrored her own thoughts earlier. "He won't," she insisted. She hoped it was true, that he had learned just how outmatched they were. He took a gamble on an unknown… but surely, if he had known just how strong the red girl was, he wouldn't have done that. Right?
The red girl's eyes narrowed at her for a moment at Akitsu's denial, but then a smirk grew on her face. "Yeah? Let's find out." She turned around, away from the edge, and started walking toward the center of the rooftop again.
Akitsu didn't know what the girl was planning, but dread filled her as she came to a stop and addressed the others. "You are half right though. I was hiding something from you. But I wasn't cheating. I'm actually fighting with a handicap. 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."
Akitsu was confused. Earlier she had said that she wasn't even a Sekirei, but now she was claiming to be an unwinged one? That was ridiculous. Judging from the callouts of the others and how they made the red girl show her lack of crest, they seemed just as confused as well.
But then she saw the greed that was growing on Hayato-sama's face, and the dread she felt earlier came back in full force. She instantly realized what the red girl was doing… and that Hayato-sama was about to prove her right.
"But you said you'd let me go, right?" the red girl said. "That's how the game goes… right?"
"That was when I thought you were winged. A duel between winged Sekirei is one thing. But catching an unwinged one? I can use as many Sekirei as I want!" Hayato-sama declared as he stood up, regaining his confidence.
Akitsu desperately wanted to call out to him, to get him to stop this. But none of the others said anything. Could she tell him to stop? She remembered Mitsuha saying how she wasn't really Hayato-sama's Sekirei. Was her lack of faith in him because she wasn't winged?
Hayato-sama was ignorant to the doubts warring inside of her as he pointed at the red girl. "Everyone! Get her!" When no one moved, he stomped his feet in anger and yelled. "What are you doing?! I said go!"
Akitsu watched as the battle unfolded, the other Sekirei hesitantly approaching the red girl. She was rooted in the spot though. Her worst fears were coming true in front of her eyes as Hayato-sama pushed the others to take on an opponent they could not possibly defeat. He was using them up for the smallest chance to gain a powerful Sekirei.
Hayato-sama yelled as he stomped his feet. "You useless birds! At least get a hit in before you go down! The rest of you! Get her!" He was clearly more upset about their lack of progress than their terminations.
The rest of the others moved in, though Akitsu was still frozen in place. Taki put up a cloud of mist that covered the center of the rooftop, but Akitsu didn't need to see to know how the fight would play out.
Sure enough, just a moment later the mist cleared again to reveal that the rest of them were defeated.
"You- you-!" Hayato-sama stammered, fear widening his eyes. He sank to his knees, tears streaming from his face. "Trash! Trash trash trash trash! You were meant to be the strongest!" He looked up and caught Akitsu's eyes. Anger flickered onto his expression. "You! Akitsu! What are you doing? Why are you just standing there?"
"I-" Akitsu started to reply, but no answer followed. What was she doing? Why was she not following her Ashikabi's orders? She was his Sekirei, she had to be, or else she would be nothing, so she had to do what he said.
But her feet didn't move.
Hayoto-sama raged. "Attack 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?!"
The red girl turned to face Akitsu as well. "This is what he's like. 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."
"Might as well get some use out of you," Doctor Kimura said as his hand lowered to his belt.
"That makes you rare, right?" Hayato-sama said after she told him she was broken.
"Just because you're not really Hayato-sama's Sekirei doesn't mean you can slack off!" Mitsuha chided her.
Her mind was a storm of memories and emotions, thoughts she couldn't even begin to process. Her body finally jerked into motion, her arm starting to raise to launch an attack at the red girl. But thinking about the red girl made her hesitate.
Even if she stood a chance, she found that she didn't want to attack the red girl. Brutal and uncaring she might have been, and she was an enemy of her Ashikabi, but Akitsu couldn't shake the bond that had been formed between them. They were similar in a way that Akitsu couldn't ignore, and in her mind, attacking the red girl would be the same as attacking herself.
"Akitsu, do it!" Hayato-sama insisted. "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?" the girl said nonchalantly. "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?"
She was right. Akitsu didn't mourn the others, but she hadn't been close to them. They had barely acknowledged her, even when Hayato-sama took her in. She wasn't winged, so she wasn't part of them, not really. She had tried to ignore that… but right now she couldn't lie to herself. She had been excluded in all but name. Tolerated, but not accepted.
So them being terminated was a tragedy, but not one that felt like it touched her. She still felt guilty for that… but as she looked at Hayato-sama, she knew who was to blame. The red girl had goaded him into it, but all she had done was make herself look valuable. Hayato had been eager to spend the lives of the others to get her, and she saw no remorse on his face.
He would spend her too, if she let him. She was scared of him throwing her away, of calling her trashed, scrapped. But that's what he was ordering her to do. To break herself on this red girl for the slightest chance that she could be Winged, an impossibility in the first place.
He had already thrown her away in his mind. He wasn't her Ashikabi. He never had been. She had just been a novelty for him to collect.
Her hand lowered. "No… I don't."
"No no no no no no!" Hayato said, despairing. "You- you can't abandon me! I'm your Ashikabi! You're mine! You have to do what I say!" Tears streamed down his face as he stared at Akitsu "I… I'll be alone again if you leave. I'll have no one."
Akitsu hesitated. She understood being alone, how bad that was. Perhaps he could learn after all, and grow from this.
But the red girl cut off that train of thought."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."
Neither Akitsu nor Hayato could refute her words. Hayato just gaped at her, like he didn't believe what was happening. Akitsu firmed her heart up. It scared her, and it hurt her, but she would find an Ashikabi who cherished her whether or not they could wing her.
The red girl turned away from Hayato, her attention being caught by something in the sky. "Helicopters?"
Akitsu turned around as well and spotted them. There was only one reason for helicopters to be approaching them. "MBI. Here to pick up the others."
The red girl looked around at the devastation she had caused. "Makes sense. 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."
Akitsu nodded. She would do what she wanted. That much was clear to her now, that being beholden to Hayato just because he had found her first was a mistake. She needed to find an Ashikabi who understood her.
And she knew exactly where to start looking.
She followed the red girl, turning her back on Hayato and the others for good. She had to remind herself that she wasn't betraying him. He had betrayed her first, after all. So she left without any regrets, save that it had taken such drastic measures to make her realize the truth.
The red girl didn't comment beyond giving her a strange look as Akitsu followed her off of the roof, into the alley, and back onto the street. But several blocks later, whatever patience she had was used up.
"What are you doing?" she asked. Her tone was harsh, but Akitsu could tell there was no bite in it. "I said do whatever you want."
"I am."
"What, by following me? You're not going to find a partner like that."
Akitsu disagreed, as she had already decided that she wanted her to be her Ashikabi. But she couldn't figure out how to ask in a way that the prickly girl wouldn't immediately dismiss.
"Besides, I won't be here long," the girl continued. "I'll be leaving this city tonight, and I won't be coming back."
But that was a chance. Ashikabi or not, Akitsu no longer had any interest in the Sekirei plan or anyone in it. "Can I… come with you?"
The girl looked at Akitsu with narrowed eyes, trying to puzzle her out. "Why?" she asked. Akitsu didn't respond, still trying to find a way to make her request. As the silence stretched on, the girl 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 with a bow of her head. She didn't really understand what their situation was, but she decided to wait and find out more information while looking for a chance to ask the red girl to be her Ashikabi, in name at least.
After all, the events of today had made it clear that this girl would never use her or betray her. They were too alike for that. She was prickly and ruthless… but she cared. She had gone out of her way to open Akitsu's eyes to the truth when it would have been easy for her to walk away. She had taken the time to speak with her, to play a game with her, despite them being enemies at the time.
She wasn't perfect, no. But Akitsu was flawed as well, broken beyond repair. But maybe together they could be better.
So Akitsu followed the red girl, whose name she still didn't know, toward her new future.
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AN: I thought I was done with Shinto Teito until I started writing this and realized I needed to start it before Akitsu met Kyouko. Which increased the length of this by so much that I realized that I needed to split it up into two, maybe three parts. This is primarily going to be some characterization for Akitsu, who doesn't get much from Roland's PoV due to her sticking to Kyouko and not emoting much, but also will showcase more of Kyouko's growth, something Roland isn't going to directly see much of because she stays so on guard around him.
I did end up repeating the same scene of Akitsu and Kyouko meeting, including repeating a lot of dialogue. I was hesitant to do that, but Akitsu's PoV and how she interpreted things was too important to get across, and I couldn't have done that without repeating the dialogue. Hopefully since that was several chapters and a few tens of thousands of words ago, it doesn't feel stale/repetitive, even to those not reading this as it updates. If not, oh well, you live and learn.
