[Other FULL] Sekirei: Wings of Fate

[Geras]

A flurry of feathers! Vs. Kana the Blade Weaver! Pt. 1

​

Kana watched as Maki leapt off the building, causing Number 9 to eagerly trail after her. Number 93 moved to follow, but a few words from Kana stopped her in her tracks. "Have you already forgotten that there's still a human up here you have to protect?" Athena realized that Kana was right, and cursed herself for the fact that she was just about to abandon a human in peril. A quick thought afterward told her that following after him would have been the right choice, as there were two Sekirei already here to oppose the disciplinary squad woman, but she would have acted without those thoughts.

The disciplinary squad member leapt across the top of the building in front of Athena, keeping her from going after the man without glasses now regardless of what she considered the best choice. Athena attempted to replicate her tactic from earlier to bind the woman, but the moment the cuffs formed in place Kana stepped backwards just enough to avoid them, not wasting any unneccesary effort in her movements. "That won't work on me again," she said matter-of-factly. Athena hopped back, trying to keep her distance as she struggled to come up with new tactics as before.

Ryce was still trying to process everything, so the fact that the cosplayer was struggling, the kidnapper kidnapped the other kidnappee, there was the naked wolf dude who actually turned into a wolf- which turned out to be the same wolf from Sakura's, and there was a freakishly strong woman standing nearby didn't help. He checked the feed he had running from the camera overhead, and brought the camera back in to grab it and shove in his pocket, along with his phone. He felt inclined almost as to give himself in, considering the circumstances.

Today was anything but a normal day after all... "Hey, uhm..." He had no idea who this person was, so... "Lady who was fighting the cosplayer. Where exactly do I come into all of this? What's so special about..." He sighed and got on his knees, knowing exactly where this was going. Crud, I'm screwed. "Meh." He shut up. At least his chances could improve if he stayed quiet, for now. It was in his best interest, actually, to make himself less noticeable for the moment or something, considering that he didn't really want anything bad to happen to him as it did to that cosplayer. These people have powers, anyways, wouldn't they stand out more...?

Kana glanced at the human, but proceeded to ignore him. Her focus was on her trio of opponents, as distraction would leave her vulnerable to number 93's restraints as well as number 7's jaws, and while neither necessarily meant death, both would be foolish to allow. She moved into a stance that was more defensive than her usual one, holding her blade with one hand but keeping the other ready for any throws or punches. This was the best choice for what this encounter was for, as her goal was to hold back the Sekirei until one of them began reacting to the human. Or, at least until the human began to draw their interest.

Kotone frowns and clicks her tongue, not entirely having been pleased with the state of affairs. She takes a deep breath and gets in a defensive stance herself, making sure to take note of as much as she can detect. Ki sense, the sound of the area around her, the feeling of the wind... all of it. "I really was showing a weak side of me earlier. I guess I should show you who I really am."

She points to herself, a smile on her face, though making sure she could still hold her defense if need be. "Mizushima Kotone, that's my name, and martial arts is my game. With these hands of mine, I won't falter. Not like earlier!" She eases herself back into her previous stance. She keeps clicking her tongue, not letting yet another method of detection go to waste.

What a waste these other Sekirei were beginning to prove they were, Noah thought to himself. His wolfen pupils were a brilliant green amiss the deep black of his fur as he circled the backside of the other member of the disciplinary squad. It was utterly disappointing that he had been tossed aside like nothing and at the same time, it was a relief. It was good that he didn't have to deal with them both, maybe now he stood a chance. He rose up to his full height, standing far above the opponents head; a gruesome sight he was as drool dripped from his dagger-sharp fangs.

A harrowing growl barreled from out his throat as he announced his presence. The night sky was dotted with tiny lights, the city lights hanging just below it as the metal beam cringed from his weight. He had made up his mind. This girl in uniform had carried his father's scent strongly on her clothes and it infuriated him. The growl grew in intensity while his long snout flared open. He would maul her and rip her apart; he didn't care if anyone else got in the way. It would be their funeral. His body hunched back for just the fraction of a second before he lunged for her right shoulder, aiming to rip the appendage off if he could.

Did he really think he could just jump at a member of the Discipline Squad like that and actually stand a chance? Perhaps he was no smarter than a lowly dog. Number 7's speed was certainly impressive, but he had no room to maneuver in the air. Kana waited for the moment it took Noah to reach her and ducked underneath, pushing down on the ground with her hands and kicking up into the wolf's stomach. "Come now, a single number should be smarter than that." She tossed out in a rather casual tone, resuming her combat stance.

Ryce watched the events carefully. First off, really scary woman at the center in a combat stance that threatened to kill everybody, even naked wolf-guy who had been flung away once again. Then, Kotone- as he now knew was her name- got into a defensive stance and announced- in a great bout of confidence- her name and her "game." Finally... actually he mentioned the wolf-guy got smacked away, so yeah, that was about it. Still, he was bothered. One girl had suddenly gone still, this wolf guy who had previously mauled another one of these crazy strange not-human people had been flung away, and all things considered the one he had once known as frog girl was no longer convincing as a candidate for the title of 'ass-kicker.'

So practically, he was the only one inactive.

There was something wrong with just sitting there, and he knew it. Every man had a conscience, and there was his, kind of just yelling at him to do something. It seemed everyone else had tried- or was willing to try- to beat the strong one up, so... he inched to the side a bit. It seemed there was a misplaced wrench nearby- a big one too. His fingers inched forward to it, before curling around it... but he decided not to do anything decisive yet, instead inching closer to the crazy strong woman calmly, yet trying not to be noticed.

Kotone frowns as she notices him moving, however, she doesn't particularly mention it. He probably has an idea, and she's not going to try to mess it up. With the wolf-man who scared her so being hurt so bad, she welcomed any ideas anyone had, although she begins to take note of his positioning more in case she has to bail him out. She shifts her stance enough to be able to make a break in case she needs to. She clicks her tongue and smiles a bit.

Noah cringed inwardly as the girl's foot impacted with his gut. His wolfen face contorting into pain while a sharp whimper cut the air. He could see the night sky twisting in a ferris wheel as his vision spiraled with his fall. He counted himself lucky that he had landed on a metal beam nearby. Damn, he thought ruefully. That dumb wench…The least she could had done was spare me the sound of her prissy taunts.

After a moment he pulled himself back up to his paws, though a limp was very much visible in his side now. He took a step towards Kana; if he had remembered the ♥♥♥♥♥'s name right, before baring his fangs towards her again. His expression was just as vicious as before, the determination in his eyes unwavering as he pushed through the pain and trotted towards her. Then quicker than human eyes, he was in a sprint, aiming this time for her ankles. If she had decided to jump up again, then he'd be ready for her. It wasn't like he knew how to do anything else besides attack; hell, he was a wolf after all. A primal dog ready to bite at anything that grew too close.

Kana did indeed jump, as Noah had expected, but her feet lifted barely an inch above the wolf, and promptly came straight down on his head without missing a beat. A quick leap backward left her a safe distance away and the others right back where they started. "Try again, " she taunted again, her face as unamused as ever. She had a feeling she would be here a while.

Ryce gripped the wrench even tighter at this point, moving a bit faster now that the woman seemed bored- but bored to the point of possibly being overconfident. He could see himself already getting impaled by the blade the woman carried, or just being smacked off the building or something. He couldn't just not do anything, but then again, wolf-man had already been hit by this one- and hit hard as well. Ryce closed his eyes for the moment. He had no way of modifying the wrench or doing anything to inflict more pain, so... he had to make do with what he had.

One does not simply stay still during war. If there was anything potatoes had taught him, it was that one, simple thought.

He snuck up as closely as possible to Kana's [theorized] blind spot, before running in. He gripped the cold metal with his fingers, putting away all the regular thoughts of cowardice just for a moment all for the sake of completing his conscience's... demands. So, without fail, he gave out his best battlecry and swung, in a trajectory that would theoretically hit the woman's neck.

Kotone notices the attack and rushes in. No matter what, she can't think about this ending very well if she doesn't do something to help. Her clicks and hearing, not to mention the echo her ki makes, guide her feet, though her condition and this battleground does make it a depressingly straight dash. She attempts to go for the solarplexus with a palm strike.

She had to give them points for effort, she wouldn't have expected the human to just run in and attack, although it is what the president hoped would happen. He's definitely a good judge of character. But she still couldn't help being disappointed in them after seeing what had happened to number 7. Kana stood stock still and waited for the wrench to be inches away from her neck before grabbing it and using it as leverage to toss the human into number 34 right in front of her, just hard enough to knock her off her feet without really injuring the human.

Athena watched as the human charged recklessly at the Disciplinary Squad member, something that would mean death for any human under different circumstances. Regardless, it wasn't something that could end well, so she quickly moved forward. She focused mid-movement in an attempt to restrain her once more, but Kana noticed Athena too soon and again dodged the cuffs, proceeding to throw the human into the blind Sekirei and down into the unfinished building below. "No!" She cried as she turned to form a platform to stop their fall, but Kana was upon her in moments. Apparently something had occurred to the woman to warrant this uncharacteristic show of aggression, as Kana grabbed Athena and flung her far off the edge of the building. From such a height, it would be a deadly fall for most, but Athena was able to create a platform on which to land safely. Not wasting a second after hitting the platform, Athena rushed back toward the top of the building.

Kana took a moment to contemplate her position and it came to her attention rather quickly that she was in a position where it would be rather hard to defend herself without killing the human if he got in the way. Even the Sekirei could become more difficult to hold back non-lethally if they grew bolder, although it was fortunate that Number 93's abilities showed no offensive presence and actually made it easier to keep alive, as was just demonstrated. At that point Maki was in a better place of it than her, besides the street-side civilians of course.

Kotone yelps in surprise, getting plowed away by a tossed human. She tries to right herself, but the sudden weight causes her footing to stumble. Were there more than a thin beam to hold her stable, this might not have bothered her too much; but with how things are, she falls back, and down, into the building. She keeps her hold on Ryce as they fall into the unfinished building, only letting go when she hits the floor below. "Gah!" She groans, a bit disoriented by the fall.

Ryce found his efforts to be in vain as he nearly let go of his wrench from being thrown into the girl, and used his other hand to make sure his glasses didn't fly away or something. The impact was horrible, and he could've sworn he heard something break- just not a bone. He didn't think about it though, instead regaining his breath and standing up, clutching his chest. "Are you-" He stopped mid sentence as he turned to his right to see a roach on the floor. "Ohmygodohmygo-" He raised his wrench with strength he had never known and brought his wrench down quickly, before turning back to the girl again. "...Are you okay? Because I may not be okay, but... are you okay?"

Kotone groans as she shakes her head. "F-fine... are you?" She lets out another groan while she picks herself up. She feels something stirring in her chest, it feels almost like partial nervousness, but also like... something else. She pushes it aside for now, still nervous about their opponent, before rubbing her head and clicking her tongue, trying to get a gauge of the area. She sighs and pats her other arm, wiping some dust off of it. "And... where's she?" She can feel some pain thoughout her body, but it's not enough to truly mess with her, should she have to continue fighting.

"Not really. I just fell from the top of the building, after being kidnapped, and then saw a roach." He sighed. "All things considered though, I'll be okay. For now." He looked around, quietly, almost awkwardly. "No idea. I'm going to guess that she'll be coming any moment now. I don't think she'd just stay up there after punting me into you." He tightened his empty fist. "Our best bet is to try and see if we can evade her. We should probably be more focused on survival then actually beating... whatever the hell she is. I mean you're not normal, but she's just insane."

The blind fighter cringed, but nods slowly. "Right... I can't really fight well enough to take her down. Honestly, my idea was to hold her off so you could get out, but... well... how would you have gotten down, anyway?" She chuckled a bit to herself, but sighs. She clicks her tongue once more. "But that sounds better... if a bit cruel to leave the others here."

"Thinking of abandoning the closest thing to allies you have hm?" An already too familiar voice intoned from above them. Kana dropped down to Ryce and Kotone's level and put a hand on her hip. "I'm sorry to inform you I simply can't allow that, the president wouldn't be very happy with me if I did."

"Well, I didn't think it'd work well like that even if we tried," Kotone sighs. She proceeds to click her tongue, before taking a defensive stance. "Ah... you should try to get out of here, sir. I don't know if I can keep you safe for long... if at all, really." If nothing else, from both the sound and feel, she feels she has more of an advantage than up above... but against an opponent this far above her... well, she's gonna just try to make sure the man by her isn't gonna get hurt.

Ryce looked on, gulping as he watched. "I wasn't going to abandon them..." He spoke quickly. "I wasn't going to abandon anyone. Running is probably my best option, but... this isn't a coincidence, I've seen a lot of people who are here right now before, like the cosplayer. So..." He breathed in, before deciding to stand his ground. "It's not like I'm never going to be thrown into a situation like this again. There's a reason why I'm here, isn't there? If I'm going to be stuck in this kind of thing later, I'll just..." He brought back his arm with the wrench a bit, as if stretching, before bringing his arm forward semi-dramatically to throw the wrench at Kana. "I'll just stay here!"

A neon green light flashed through the building's interior when Kana's energy blade bisected the wrench as if it were made of warm butter instead of solid iron. This was a fortuitous turn of events, it would be much easier to keep the human alive down here, and the other two Sekirei would most assuredly follow her down. "I'm glad to hear it, it would be disappointing if I was sent all the way here and you turned out to be a coward. I think you'll find yourself not feeling so brave before too long though."

 

[Zeta Sukuna]

A flurry of feathers! Vs. Kana the Blade Weaver! Pt. 2

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[h2][/h2]
"Brave or no, I'll give it a good shot." Kotone smiles and keeps where she is. "If nothing else, I'm not gonna back down again after that pitiful performance earlier. Not when someone's safety is on the line." She pauses for a moment. "Come at me, not him, and maybe then you'll find whatever you're looking for." Her sweat trickles down her face, soaking the bandages over her eyes. She keeps her guard up as much as she can, knowing she'd get killed no problem if she just rushes in.

She can only hope backup comes in soon, cause despite her talk, Kotone stands no chance.

Noah had laid still on the metal beam, his large head laid against the node of one of the screws used to secure it. Again, she had proven a bit too fast. An awkward grin stretched his jowls towards his furry ears. He didn't think he'd have to go this far against her. He climbed back onto his four paws, his muscular limbs tensed up as he called forth an arcane force. He howled viciously into the air as dark branches shot forth from around him.

Smoke obscured him as he delved down with a pack of six other ghostly wolves following behind. A crashing boom resounded, shooting up a dense wispy smoke. Shortly afterwards five more crashed down too, their booms echoing against the skeletal walls. Several malicious growls came from within, all of them aimed towards Kana. Noah stepped in front of the others, he was ready to attack her with full force. How would she respond to his might?

It appeared that Kana would not be allowed to take it easy on Number 7. She had not yet observed this new attack of his, so she could not risk underestimating it. A moment's focus spawned a circle of energy blades around herself, and another in her second hand. She stood there as the ghostly wolves charged forwards, mentally mapping each's location. In a flurry of activity, the beasts converged on her, hungry for blood. Yet, in mere seconds there was only a massive swirl of mist. Beneath it all, Kana seemed to almost dance as she moved, a myriad of swords spinning in a deadly performance. With a final step, the sawblade-like ring spun to a halt, dispelling the mist as well as the blades and revealing the unharmed warrior underneath.

Almost immediately afterwards, Athena came plummeting down, fist raised as she leapt towards Kana. She couldn't simply stand on the sidelines any longer when even the human she was meant to protect charged fearlessly ahead. That was simply unacceptable! She moved to drop onto the Disciplinary Squad member, only for Kana to move back just enough to avoid it. Undeterred, Athena struck again and again, each attack being gently sidestepped. Kana didn't entertain Athena's rather undeveloped plan for much longer, using a firm backhanded strike to send the Knight flying into the wall.

Kotone attempted to use Athena's attacking to her advantage. She runs in, rushing behind the disciplinary member in an attempt to force a two-sided attack. However, right as she charged in, the sound of Athena hitting the wall hits her ears, which immediately filled her with dread.

She keeps on pressing her attack, however, hoping beyond hope that she could still get in a good hit at this point. Her efforts were to no avail, as Kana dodged the first strike and punched the girl in the gut before she could get a second. Unlike Number 93, Number 34 was a skilled unarmed fighter, and allowing her to proceed as long as 93 did might present a risk. A swift kick sent her to the same outcome as Athena. She was surprised that they would all just rush in against a member of the disciplinary squad, making it clear that they did not understand the gravity of their presence. She would have to fix that if things continued like this.

The blind fighter groans as she hits the wall. She's still standing, though only because she's leaning against said wall. "Welp... that... w-went about expected. Gah..." She falls to her knees, holds her belly and tries in vain to stabilize herself. She spits on the ground and manages to stand up using the wall as a crutch once again.

Ryce looked back and forth at each attacker, noting that the cosplayer was back, wolf-man had a new skill by the looks of it, and that Kotone wasn't in good shape [not like anyone else was, either]. Considering that rushing the Disciplinary Squad member wasn't working, and nor was throwing wrenches, he looked around to see if he could find anything worth using. There wasn't much, really, from a glance, but he did notice something out of place nearby. He raised an eyebrow as he saw it, and quickly got out of the way of the other "combatants" to get near it. He held it in his hand for a moment, and grinned as he felt something all too familiar.

It was a wire. It wasn't live yet, but it was still a wire. And wires were beautiful.

An idea was already forming in his head, but to put it into action he needed some time. Then again, he was already pushing it by being the only defenseless one in the current situation, but... Eurgh. He hated the fact that he felt so open, and weak. He shook his head- this still didn't change the fact that he needed time. Seems like I'll need to rely on everyone else for a bit longer... The wire ran some ways, so that meant somewhere there was a power source. He got up and looked at it for a moment, before gulping. Cover me, I have a plan. He mouthed to Noah and Athena, aware that Kotone had bandages over her eyes, and began to run next to the wire to find any breaks in it or anything to use to his advantage.

Noah had stood back while his pack had charged forwards. One by one their bodies were slashes through and dispersed into a fine mist. Noah growled openly and loudly. It was beyond infuriating to finally realize just how weak he was compared to the Disciplinary Squad. That woman had barely broken a sweat going up against his Wolves…when other Sekireis would had been ripped down to basic limbs. He could feel his heart thumping exceptionally loud in his chest, even as it rose and fell erratically. His eyes shifted in their sockets as he slowly started to recognize the feeling coursing through him.

…Is this …fear? He asked himself. His instincts drove his eyes towards the human before he could think it through. He looked just long enough for him to get the gist of what the human was mouthing. Noah wasn't usually into obeying others but this was a special situation. He cursed himself for throwing his body into peril again but honestly, the primal urge to kill this woman was beginning to become too strong for him to control. His emerald eyes glazed over with darkness with this understanding; his fear was tossed to the wind. I'm going to kill her. Rip her apart. Shred her organs! He growled furiously.

His front paw stomped the earth savagely before he gaited up to Kana. He stopped a few feet away from her, his eyes lingering on the blades. It was becoming harder to think rationally, to think with reason. His razor sharp fangs dripped with drool, then suddenly, with a burst of air and debris, five more wolves had surrounded her.

Number 7 had put Kana in a bad position, and in turn, himself. At such a close range, she wondered if she could take out the phantom wolves and subdue Number 7 without killing him, as she would not have enough time to properly anticipate each's move. However, judging by their last attack, they simply charged forwards like rabid animals, and a quick look at Number 7 revealed that he wasn't much better. Opting for her same reactionary tactics from earlier, she prepared her two swords and decided to simply use kicks against Number 7.

Athena lifted herself off the wall, acknowledging that what she'd done probably wasn't the best course of action. However, she'd been met with no success in coming up with her own plans. She looked up at the battle and saw the Disciplinary Squad member surrounded by wolves of Number 7's creation. The woman moved as the wolves rushed mindlessly towards her, swinging her swords. In that moment, it seemed to Athena that time had slowed, her memories recalling the tactic that had gotten them here but proved to no longer work. She would need a much stronger barrier than the ones that formed the cuffs to be successful, considering how little force a Disciplinary Squad member would need to exert to break them.

With a flick of her wrist in Kana's direction to enhance her focus, she crafted barriers in the directions that Kana's arms moved in front of the arms themselves, stopping them from finishing their motions. Kana had not expected this, and instantly shifted to a dodge. Stepping away from the barriers, she leapt back to avoid the incoming attacks, but another barrier appeared behind her and stopped her. This was becoming incredibly frustrating for her to do without restoring her ring of blades, which would no doubt shred Number 7 to pieces. She attempted a spin to the side, swinging her blades to cut the barriers around her, but more inhibited her arms. Number 93 had never shown herself to be a tactician before, so this was quite uncalled for. The barrage of barriers was making it near impossible to do this properly.

Athena's actions had never been so precise before, spawning one barrier after another. Her hands seemed to move frantically like a crazed conductor as she worked, her gaze locked onto Kana and her movements, nothing else. She hoped that the Wolf Sekirei would be able to use this to his advantage and that the two of them could keep her busy long enough for the human to escape. It occurred to her that if this had happened even this morning, she would not be able to do this. She would have to thank the man who had helped her realize she could use her barriers in such a creative way later.

Meanwhile, as Athena created barriers with the expertise of a tactician, Ryce had found himself running a bit more away from the battle to encounter... What? He looked at it for a moment. Big, round, and by the looks of it, powered by electricity. In a construction site... There was one thing only one thing this could be, and the glass in the front gave it away. He looked a bit farther. It seemed like it was hooked up by... an extension cord? Seriously? No really long wire? Well... that was disappointing. He walked over to where it should be connected- rather, it wasn't. To conserve energy. Of course. So, if... He began grinning as he began to put the pieces together, running back to the spotlight to fiddle with it some more...

"Enough!" Shouted Kana in a surprising show of emotion as several blades formed around her in an instant and flew outwards, spearing through both the barriers present and each of the phantom wolves, with another stabbing straight into the wall next to Athena's head. Once Number 7 was the only one remaining nearby, Kana rushed toward him and drove a pair of energy swords into his shoulders before she grabbed him by the throat and slammed him into the ground. Every sword on the rest of the field disappeared as she leapt backward a few meters. "Why do you all seek death so?" she asked, glaring at Athena and Noah as she did so.

Noah hadn't been paying much attention to his ghostly wolves, his rage was fueling the flames of his attacks. As the woman screamed out enough, Noah's ears had rung from the sensitivity. Her scream was too piercing, too shrill. He whimpered a bit before stroking his large ears with one of his paws. You wench! Shut uppppp! He thought harshly to himself.

Then he felt an iron grip wrap around his furred throat and slam him into the earth. It cracked underneath him and he felt a sharp ache come from his ribs, followed by twin sharp punctures in his shoulders. The beast growled harshly before it slowly faded into a pain-filled moan, coupled with the sound of a sizzling heat. Noah was human again, his body covered in the sweat of transformation. "You horrid creature. Sekirei were never meant to back down." Grinned Noah. "Or did he forget to program that into you." Noah cringed, as he attempted to move between the swords embedded in his shoulders. Maybe now is the time to awaken. He thought lazily.

Kotone coughs once again, spitting out some more spit that gathered up in her mouth. She frowns as she hears the Disciplinary member's statement, slowly picking herself off of the wall. She pats her belly, to see how much pain it's still in. She cringes, but it's still workable. 'Just keep on talking... with all of us here, there's gotta be someone who can figure something out... and then it's good night.' She sighs and focuses all of her senses as much as she can, although foregoes the clicking so as to not completely give herself away.

She shudders as the pain still messes with her, but she shoves it out of her mind, not wanting to back down. If she were to die now, to die so early and to die without an Ashikabi, she's going to do it standing her ground, at the very least.

Ryce grinned as the spotlight faced exactly where he needed it to face, and took together both sides of the cord, clenching his teeth and grinning excitedly. Almost smashing them together, the plug going in quickly, he ran back to the spotlight to make sure it was pointing in the correct direction, noting Kana's remark as she said it. "We do not seek death, but survival! Now!" He cried, pointing the spotlight in Kana's face before running and noticing some more spotlights he hadn't seen before lighting up. Excitedly, he ran to adjust each one and attempt to blind Kana.

 

[disciplish]

Ryce
mother of rice WHAT JUST HAPPENED- the first winging of Wings of Fate

Kana gave a calming sigh, realizing that losing her cool would put her at too much unnecessary risk. A voice called out from a different direction. It appeared that the human was finally taking action. His words were confident, suggesting to Kana that perhaps he may be worthy of the title of Ashikabi after all. She turned to look at him, but it was a bad decision as a bright light shined straight into her eyes. She shut them immediately and stepped to the side, opening her eyes again only to be met by yet another light not long after. She realized that they were all going straight for her, she jumped upwards to dodge instead. However, there was another of Number 93's barriers stopping her from being able to do so.

Athena saw a chance as the human shined an incredibly bright light at the Disciplinary Squad member. She reasoned that if she couldn't see where the barriers were, she couldn't destroy them with an attack like the last one, so she moved to trap the woman, starting with a ceiling. However, as she made another barrier behind her, she was surprised to see the light from one of the spotlights reflect off it and into a wall. An idea occurred to her. She glanced at the other two Sekirei, seeing that the blind one was the only one who was fighting fit, so she proceeded with her plan. "Get closer to her!" Athena commanded as she got to work creating barriers at new angles in an attempt to form a sort of dome of light, something that took all her focus to maintain. Even the ring of blades would not be able to stop something like that.

Kotone noticed the hum of the spotlights almost immediately. She stands tall and clicks her tongue once more. Through the echo she sees the brightness of the barriers, albeit dimmer than the ki of their opponent. While she did hear Athena's shout, she said nothing she wasn't going to do to begin with. Kotone one rushes in towards the barriers, gathering as much of her power as she can.

She dashes in on Kana and immediately slams her elbow into her neck with as much force as she can muster. She proceeds to kick one of her legs out, trying to send Kana to the ground. The woman somehow managed to catch herself, but is unable to stop another punch directly to the spine, then a kick to the head. She moves to strike again, but the amount of power and the pain from earlier begins to kick in, causing her to hesitate.

Taking advantage of the opening, Kana delivered a punch to where she guessed Number 34 to be from her earlier strikes. It hit the girl's gut again and sent her flying back as before and being tossed out of the intense field of light through a gap in the barriers. She did not feel comfortable being in such a risky position, but she had realized that this was exactly what the President wanted. Thus, she did her best to predict her opponents' movements blindly, as futile an effort as it was.

Kotone groans and tries to pick herself back up, but the movement aggravated the pain even more, keeping her down. She shudders, completely unable to stand at this point.

Noah held his eyes on the woman as the lights blinded her, his instincts urging him to hit her while he had the chance. He rose up to his feet, fighting through the throbbing agony on his shoulders, even as they had started to heal. With a sizzle of heat and smoke, the holes closed up and yet the pain was still very much throbbing. Noah raised up to his feet and while Kana was distracted by Kotone went and created five more wolves. They popped up around him and started attacking from different angels, three of them charged forward, one of them leaped from above, and the last waited behind to see what she would do. And when he would see the slightest opening he would appear behind her and snap her neck. At this point, he couldn't care less for the rules of the Plan.

Ryce was actually pretty excited due to the results of his attacks- or rather, his 'blinding' technique against Kana. Was he finally gaining the upper hand? The thought of simply winning aganst Kana was pretty exciting, and the fact that it was partially due to him was even more awesome. Or at least, it was exciting until someone else fell. Like fell as in the equivalent of fainting-but-not-really-fainting-but-heavily-damaged-or-immobile. He ran over to Kotone, forgetting about the spotlights for that moment, pretty sure that they would be fine if he left them for a moment.

"Kotone, right?" He attempted to help her get up, and although he was very limited in terms of arm strength such a pitiful excuse for a guy, Aaron would say, he managed to sort of move her a bit, crouching and trying to put her over his shoulder. "Heh, if we stay here much longer... we have a chance at winning, but..." He grimaced, halting his speech for the moment.

Kotone groans as she's helped up. Her footing is weak and she's holding her stomach. "Ack..." She nods and leans on him, having no other way to keep herself up. "N-no ch...ance. Too... strong." She tries to catch her breath, her body shuddering.

After a moment, she closes her eyes. "B-but... thanks anyway... real nice..." She nods weakly and smiles. As her exhaustion and pain begin to wane, the nervousness from earlier begins to come back.

"...You might be right about the strong part." Ryce smiles afterwards, looking at her, face to face. "But hey, you're welcome. If someone's fallen, it's the least I can do to help them get back up... literally or figuratively."

Kotone breathes in and tries to focus, although the feeling just grows stronger. Not just nervousness, but a bit of excitement, even. "H-here... a reward... p-please don't be mad..."

"A reward?" Ryce looks at her strangely for a moment. "This isn't a time for a reward, but..." He's clearly confused, stumbling through his words for a moment before becoming quiet, still facing her.

"Well, it might be... guh... the only time I can..." She gulps before moving in, kissing him directly on the lips.

At the contact the heat in Kotone's body grew exponentially more intense, but without the slightest hint of pain, and soon spread through Ryce's body like a wildfire. Many different emotions and feelings, some of which can't even be put into words rushed through them a blur and Kotone's body began to glow. Bandages or no, for just a moment Kotone felt like she could see everything and it was all more beautiful than she could have imagined. And then the most amazing thing of all happened, wings, large enough to envelope them both in their soft, euphoric embrace burst from Kotone's back, appearing to be made of pure light in every color known to man and many more nobody could possibly comprehend. Just as quickly as they appeared the wings faded away, leaving only a trace of their ethereal presence and both became aware of the world once again, eternally bonded.

Meanwhile, Kana had begun to lose patience with Number 7. It had occurred to her that if he was still able to fight, he was well enough to survive another blade. She could hear the wolves approaching, in their ravenous growling, and spawned several swords facinng outward in a dome-like shape. The charging wolves could not be controlled as precisely as they potentially could at Number 7's current level of power, and ran straight into the suddenly conjured blades. Number 7 was wounded, so his heavy breathing served to reveal his location to the blinded Kana, as did the growls of the final remaining wolf, so she did as before and sent a pair of her blades flying at them, destroying the wolf and impaling Noah. Considering his single-number status, he should be able to survive the blade just fine, since she made sure to launch it at an abdominal height. Number 7 was pushed out of the dome by the force, sword in plain sight from his stomach.

Back with Kotone, she stands there for a moment, just processing what just happened. Within the span of just moments, she feels... different. Not just different, but somehow more whole. She opens and closes her fist, just amazed with what just happened.

The moment she heard the battle still going on, though, her mind was once again focused on that. She clicks her tongue and throws out her ki, showing her everything she needs to know. She slides into an offensive stance and stomps on the ground, making a small hole.

"No matter if our love is blind, I shall strike down my Ashikabi's enemies!" With that, she dashes in, far faster than before. With her new speed and awareness, finding her way through the barrier was far easier than ever before, and her first blow strikes true. A punch to the stomach.

Then without skipping a beat, she throws two punches. Headshot and another gut shot. Then three, her side, chest and an uppercut. And with one last gathering of power, she throws all she has into her last punch, straight to the stomach. Pain shoots through her own hand after this final strike, and she stands there, breathing heavily. Not even enough ki remaining after to send out afterwards. The bandages that once covered her hands slide off, torn from the force of her attacks, showing off her bleeding knuckles.

Ryce stands in awe, dumbstruck. He's still processing this. The fact that he was kissed and then suddenly the girl who kissed him gained amazing powers and became a badass martial artist is kinda a lot for him to take in for one moment. Please wait as we restablish connection with his brain.

...Much better. Ryce grins, suddenly feeling almost stronger for some reason, and wiping off his brow regardless of whether or not it has sweat. "...Awesome..." He speaks in English, which is weird in the way it comes out of his mouth because he hasn't spoken much English without Aaron nearby. Whatever. It still conveys the same message. Quickly realizing what was going on inside the dome, he rushes back to the nearest spotlight and adjusts it to give off more light.

The unmistakable words of a Norito sounded through Kana's ears, immediately followed by a strike that could only have come from Number 34. She took hit after hit until the final one that managed to knock the wind out of her. Then everything was still and silent except for the humming of the spotlights. If one could see through the dome's light, they would be able to spot what looked like the tiniest hint of a smile adorn Kana's face. "Mission accomplished," she said quietly under her breath. With her task complete, Kana was ready to leave, but she recalled the boldness of the Sekirei around her. It wouldn't do for the Sekirei to lose their fear of the Disciplinary Squad, and in turn, of the authority of MBI.

Having regained her breath, Kana stood upright and spoke firmly. "By the will of my lord, these blades shall carve a path to his dreams!" Kana took a step back from Kotone, and a column of blades flashed into existence around her. They promptly began to shoot out in all directions, moving deliberately to pierce the barrier panels despite the chaotic image presented by such numerous blades. As the blades met their targets, more spawned immediately in their place and sought out new ones, namely the spotlights. They sliced through the air as if they had eyes of their own, curving around obstacles to skewer only their intended targets. Yet more swords flew from the column, these aimed at the Sekirei present. They dug themselves into the ground near them, forming a circle right around each person.

The building was silent once more, Kana standing at the center of it all. She looked at each of the Sekirei, and her gaze lingered just a bit longer on Number 34 and the man who was now her Ashikabi.

If any present would have been foolish enough to try one last attack after that, all thoughts of such a farce were chased away when Maki landed next to Kana with a flourish of her staff and a light gust of wind. "Well it looks like you did a good job." She congratulated her partner without caring if the others were listening or not. Her face grew serious afterwards however and she leaned in close to whisper to Kana. "I think I was successful myself, and it's a good thing too; we have to go now. She's around again, I doubt she's going to try anything but I'd rather leave nonetheless."

Kana nodded in agreement. There was no reason to stay now that their tasks had been completed. She shuddered in brief anger at the mention of her, reminding herself that she still lacked the power to put that woman in her place. She quickly put those thoughts out of her head, not wanting to have them inhibiting her if something were to happen on the way back. She turned away from the scene, dispelling the dozens of swords around the field before starting home, the battered bodies of her opponents in her wake.

It took a moment for everything to catch up to the exhausted and injured Kotone, but after Kana and her partner left, she finally was able to take everything in. Even if she knows she's still nothing to those two, the feelings from earlier still have their hold on her. She weakly giggles and falls back, landing on the ground. "W-still alive..." She relaxes as much as she can on the cold floor of the incomplete building. Her muscles may be screaming for now, but she's still alive, she and everyone near. Especially him. That thought comforts her as she drifts off for now.

For just a moment, true fear and astonishment had shown on Noah's sweat smeared face. Even as a huge sword was jutting from his mid-section, he rose to his feet. His human canines were longer than man's but still small enough to fit in his jaws. They gnawed at the bottom of his lip, his elongated ears visible amongst the mess of his curls of hair. He stumbled forth and gripped the handle of the blade in the floor, his body was incapable of holding itself up. The wolf Sekirei had so much built up anger for them and that man. All he wanted to do was replace his flimsy human voice with a booming, godly one. His shallow breathes was turned into a sideways smirk as the blades dispersed.

"I'll kill, no…I'll obliterate you and this plan." He growled to himself.

His bare body was bloody to the point that most of it was colored either red or black. Still though, he laughed. He chuckled manically at his own weakness. And here he had thought that an Ashikabi would be useless. But gauging from that spike in power that blind girl had gotten; then they would prove to be the perfect tool for his ideals. He stumbled towards a barely built window. Turning his body towards the others, he gave them a poorly performed salute and toothy grin before falling out the window and into the urban jungle.

Ryce had a bunch of conflicting thoughts at that moment. Extremely strong people left. Girl suddenly kissed him and he had what could be described as the best moment of his life. Person jumped out the window. He took a moment to breathe before realizing that Kotone had said something happily before passing ou- passing out! He ran towards her, attempting to carry her with all of his strength.

Ryce was a toothpick, but for some reason he gritted his teeth and lifted her up steadily. Is it just me, or is she stronger- and heavier- than before? He shook his head, throwing it out of his head before it affected his lifting. Seeing a lift not too far from his location, he carried Kotone to it, gritting his teeth again and finally slumping down on it with her in his arms. "Phew..." He sighed- but smiled, before looking to Athena. "Um, hey... I never quite caught your name, but thanks. You can crash at my place if you'd like, it's the least I could do. I insist."

Athena blinked a few times, getting her bearings after everything that had just happened. They'd survived an encounter with the Disciplinary Squad, a Sekirei had been winged in front of her, and it just occurred to her from Noah's departure that she'd never seen a naked man before. The human's words broke her out of her stupor. She'd been leaning against the wall for the entirety of the battle's final stage, so she tried to stand straight, but a pulse of pain shot through her head, causing her to stumble before catching herself on the wall. She'd never exerted herself this much with her barriers before. She took a deep breath and righted herself, managing to be successful this time. "I am called Athena, and thank you for your offer, but I will be fine. It would be wrong to interrupt your privacy, after all."

She moved to the window Noah had jumped out of, but turned back to the human one last time. "Take good care of her, hu- Ashikabi," she said to him with a soft, kind smile unlike the stern, demanding expression he was probably used to seeing her with. "You are now one, bonded forevermore." She moved back to the window and began to conjure a set of stairs. Light purple energy began to form in front of her, but it seemed to wobble the greater the staircase grew until another piercing wave of pain hit her head, dispelling the enrergy. It seemed she had, in fact, overexerted herself, and the staircase plan would not be an option. She turned back to the closing doors of the lift the blind Sekirei and her Ashikabi were in and she quickly made a small cube between them, stopping them from closing while she made her way to it. "On second thought," she said, pulling open the doors with an almost sheepish smile. "I should at least accompany you two to the bottom to make sure you stay safe."

Ryce raised his eyebrows before simply chuckling. "It would be an honor, Athena, if you could make sure nothing happened to Kotone, or me for that matter. I couldn't defend myself if I tried," he said, chuckling and holding up a thin arm to prove it.

Right after the construction lift started to go down one of Ryce's phones issued a voice he had most assuredly heard before. "Oh goody! It's time for my favorite part of the day! Wait...it's already on? I mean." The voice cut off for a second and the phone started to beep, clearly waiting for Ryce to pick it up.

Ryce shuddered, and picked up the call. He figured that if this guy had already hacked into his phone, he might as well do so. "Um, hello?" He sort of tried to play along with it.

The phone's screen blinked into a video mode and the face of none other than Hiroto Minaka blinked on in front of Ryce, the president of MBI was not in his normal attire often used during public appearances or service announcements however. Minaka was wearing a strangely collared white cape over his suit and his hair was splayed about wildly, giving him the appearance of some mad villain. "Well hello Mr. Danner! It seems I have the honor of informing you that you have just become an important little piece in my Sekirei Plan! I hope you're a better listener than that last jerk at the restaurant... he had the nerve to interrupt me... ME!" Minaka's face became a childish pout for a second at mention of the last person, clearly he wasn't used to anyone being brave enough to cut him off.

Shaking his head, Ryce sighed. "Hiroto Minaka of the MBI? For some reason I'm not really surprised. I mean I've only seen so many things, like... well it seems like you're orchestrating this so you probably already know." He recalled a few people saying something about 'the will of the Plan' and stuff, so he figured this had to do with it... "Tell me, what's this whole Sekirei Plan thing anyways? And why do I have to be kidnapped by COMPLETELY RANDOM strangers to fufill it?"

Minaka smiled like he'd heard exactly what he wanted and continued. "I have no idea what you mean, I don't know anything about any kidnappings but the Plan is exactly what I'm here to tell you about. Now that you've winged sweet little Kotone you've become a part of the greatest love story of all time! You are an Ashikabi, you have bonded with Kotone and you two are now partners in the plan. You will fight to become stronger and the last Ashikabi standing will recieve their greatest wish alongside all their Sekirei. If you find more Sekirei you should try to make them emerge as well, the more Sekirei an Ashikabi has the more powerful they are. I'm sure Kotone can explain the rest to you when she wakes up, and I've got work to do. Just be careful around any Ashikabi you meet! They might try to hurt your dear Sekirei the first chance they get!" With that the screen blinked off, leaving Ryce not much more informed than he was before, but at least he was somewhat in the loop.

At that moment, Ryce simply thought of Athena, which was embarassing for that moment since she was literally right next to him. Afterwards he thought of that other guy who got kidnapped, as well as the other powerful fire-lady he had encountered. He clenched his fist tightly. He didn't really care much for the wish at the end, although it would be a nice perk. Survival just sounded a lot better for the moment.

Seeing the President's face and hearing his voice after so long stirred confused feelings within Athena. The events from earlier in the day made the Sekirei Plan seem like such an awful thing, offering them something wonderful then snatching it right back. Yet, the image of the blind Sekirei's beautiful wings held in her mind, making her wonder if all that suffering was worth it. She looked beside her at that same Sekirei, sound asleep, and said nothing for a few moments. "She's lucky. Perhaps I will find my chosen soon. Until now it has seemed like such an impossible quest, and I was starting to lose hope, but you both have given that back to me. Thank you."

"Heh... No problem, I guess." He blushed a bit, still thinking about what Minaka said. "Well anyways, if you ever need a place to say, my offer is still open. I hope we meet again, although I hope when we do it's not... well, y'know. Fighting." He grins sheepishly before getting up with Kotone in his arms. Heh... what a day, I guess. I mean, I started out throwing a football with an idiot friend who came from 'Murca and now I'm carrying a girl who... He shook his head to try and clear his head as the lift doors creaked open at the street level.

---

Once again Minaka was peering out over Tokyo from in front of the grand clock atop Teito Tower, looking down on the city as if it was his own. Two of the Disciplinary Squad members landed on the roof and approached him, one of them saluting and the other refusing to bother. "We've returned mister president, as I'm sure you are aware we are confident our missions were successes."

Minaka grinned the same mad grin he'd shown the American Ashikabi with the glasses a short while ago. "Do you know what this means my dears? 85% of the Sekirei have emerged, we're getting very close now. Demi is already out helping the security force set up the Northern District's blockades, I want you Maki to go do the same in the West, and you Kana to finish up the East. When all three of you are finished you will regroup here before moving to blockade the south. Steel yourself girls, tomorrow we begin Phase Two."

 

[Sephear]

The Sekirei Plan explained, you are an Ashikabi

​

"Perhaps you would like to discuss things after we've moved to a more... private place, hmm?" Fia questioned, glancing meaningfully about at the crowd that was starting to gather now that Layfe was no longer keeping them hidden. She didn't wait for him to reply as she moved behind him and wrapped her arms around his torso. Her wings, still ablaze behind her, flapped furiously a few times as they worked to get them both aloft. Fia may not be the strongest Sekirei physically, but she was certain she handle a single human. "Where do you live?" she called to him as she rose up over the buildings. "Your living quarters will do as a place of conversation, and you can dress yourself."

Seiji felt himself burning with embarrassment, it was a good thing for him he wasn't prone to blushing. "Oh yeah, I forgot you had these big pretty phoenix wings. Thanks for that, it's nice to know I won't have to walk home by myself. My apartment is...wait what about that guy who tried to help us?"

Fia gave Layfe an unconcerned look and gave a hum of thought. She didn't really want to set Seiji down after she'd just gotten into the air... Oh, that could work. Swooping down low to the ground again, but careful not to drag the human below her, she spun in the air and struck the male Sekirei with a kick in the side to send him skidding out of the street. "There, he won't be at risk of being run over by any vehicles now."

Geeze, she's so warm. It's nice but...weird, I wish I had more clothes on... He guided her towards his apartment, and as soon as they landed he waited for her to let go, then frantically unlocked the door and ran inside. He realized he had almost forgot his manners and stopped back in front of the door for a second with a courteous bow. "Thank you for the help and welcome to my home, please come inside and make yourself comfortable." Before running straight to his bedroom to get dressed.

Fia took the invitation to heart and strolled into the apartment as if she owned the place. If she was disappointed by his living quarters, she quickly forgot it as her feet led her straight to the kitchen. Her "meal" earlier hadn't been all that substantial, and she was now quite ravenous. Sadly, she couldn't find anything within the cupboards or refrigerator that caught her interest. In the end, she pilfered a tub of ice cream from his freezer and sat herself down on a couch to eat it; it was at least better than nothing.

It wasn't long before Seiji came back out of his bedroom in a plain white T-shirt, black jeans and socks. Instead of being annoyed at the sight of Fia eating his ice cream he laughed. "I see you had no problem taking me up on my offer to make yourself at home." He sat down on the other side of the couch from her and leaned back to stretch, so happy he could finally relax. "Ahh... So, care to tell me a bit about this whole mess I seem to be involved in?"

Her azure eyes flashed up to stare at him. She stuck another spoonful in her mouth as she pretended to mull over the question; really, she was just taking another moment to enjoy the flavor of the frozen treat dissolving in her mouth. "Hmm, how should I put this...," she mused. "I am what is known as a Sekirei; those others you saw on that tower were Sekirei as well. Besides that geeky-looking one, he was just another human like yourself. Well, perhaps not just a human. Judging by tonight's events, I think it's safe to say that you are both Ashikabi."

The explanation was so barren and short Seiji could almost imagine his eyes shrinking into dots and his mouth becoming a line like some anime character. "A Sekirei...Ashikabi..." The word Ashikabi didn't ring a bell but Sekirei..."That's a type of bird, but what does that-oh!"

Teach all the little birds the power of love...

"That dream... I think you might be right, I might be an Ashikabi uhh... wait...what is an Ashikabi?"

"An Ashikabi is a human a Sekirei bonds with so that it may reach its full potential." Fia smirked slightly at him. "Let's see if you can guess how the bond is made."

Thinking back to the dream Seiji wondered what she meant by that, whatever the answer was she seemed to think the question would entertain her. Teach all the little birds the power of love... so... something romantic? "Hmm... if that dream I had to go on I'd say it's probably some expression of love..." He tapped his chin for a second. There are really only two ways of expressing love that are never platonic... and I'm not going to even bring up the possibility of the second one, not around some girl I just met, that's rude. "Is it a kiss?"

"Bingo!" she exlaimed, twirling her spoon dramatically. "Which, yes, that means you'll have beautiful women fawning all over you within the next few days."

"Oh the timing." He muttered to himself. "And I just broke up with Hiromi - errh my last girlfriend... fate has a cruel sense of irony." After a few more seconds of thinking he made himself feel better and let out a chuckle. "But at least I'm safe for now I guess, you don't seem the fawning type." He added with a lighthearted smile.

A wicked grin crossed Fia's face. "No, I'm not particularly interested in fawning over anyone, but that doesn't mean I am not in need of an Ashikabi. Especially with the enemy I've made today, an Ashikabi would definitely be of great use to me..." She didn't say anything more than that, but rather left him to his own speculations about her thoughts as she purposefully allowed for her eyes to drift over his form again.

"Is that an offer? I can't tell if you keep 'appraising' me like that to mess with me or not." he countered with a chuckle. "I'm in no rush for another relationship, but I must say you are one of the most beautiful women I've ever seen, not just your looks, but your voice." He had to admit, she made being an Ashikabi sound rather appealing, but his personal experiences so far told him that whatever the good it might come with it was definitely a pain in the ass.

Fia laughed lightly at his words, but didn't give an answer to his question; she did, however, react to his praise. "If you enjoy my voice so much, I may be tempted to sing you to sleep if you ask nicely enough; and get me something proper to eat. While ice cream is indeed a delectable treat, its not near enough sustenance." While there was still a teasing tone in the words, she wasn't completely beyond the idea, especially now that she seemed to run out of her snack.

With a single check of his wallet Seiji decided he could spare some money for a treat, especially if it's to treat someone who just got done saving his life. "Well I have to thank my savior, what do you like to eat?"

"The most expensive thing you can afford, preferably," she responded immediately. "I have very fine tastes."

"Eh, I know just the place..." Seiji said with a nervous smile. Guess that new suit will have to wait... He held the door open for Fia, closed it, locked it, and proceeded to lead her to the most well priced, yet still fairly ritzy and very nice restaurant he could think of. A not so little place just called "The International Buffet" Which, contrary to it's name had plenty of made to order dishes besides the gigantic buffet. Surely Fia would be able to pick out something there, they had more different kinds of food there than he'd ever heard of before, and they weren't all simple or cheap either.

---

The waiter was the very image of courteous as he left the bill and moved on to service other tables, but that didn't stop Seiji from imagining himself unjustly attacking the man when he looked at the price. He hadn't actually brought enough cash to pay so he casually dropped his debit card on the table before patting his belly and addressing Fia. "Well that was delicious, I hope you enjoyed it, because my bank account sure didn't." He finished with a smile.

Fia wiped her mouth daintily with a napkin, eliciting a small sigh of pleasure that good food always provided to her. It may not have been the finest in the land, but it was likely the best she would be able to attain. "It was satisfactory," she said coolly once her face was was cleared of any crumbs and smears. His willingness to spend such a large amount of money on her had definitely been pleasing; perhaps this wouldn't be such a terrible thing after all.

She bit her lower lip in a small show of rare uncertainty, then her usual calm was back. Rising from her chair, she circled around the small table to where Seiji sat. Not giving him even a moment to wonder what she was doing, she leaned forward and pressed her lips to his.

Seiji was glad Fia had enjoyed the meal at least a little bit, because he'd have no money for anything else if it had to be a regular thing. At least I was able to properly thank her for- His thoughts were cut off by Fia's daring move, even if he had seen it coming he couldn't have possibly been prepared for the results.

The moment their lips met their bodies were suffused with a heat more intense than either had ever experienced, yet neither felt burnt. Both were wreathed in flames that cradled and caressed more gently and affectionately then the most endearing of lovers while a very soft chanting began in the backs of their minds. Fia glowed brightly for a few seconds of the contact before wings burst from her back, accompanied by a sharp rise in pitch and tempo of the growing song, but these were not the creations of azure flames she so often used. The wings could be described as nothing other than prismatic, they were twice as big as her body and shined in colors that defy human language to communicate. As the wings rapidly shifted colors so did the arias from the chorus of faceless singers reach it's crescendo and cut off all the various gasps and exclamations from the other patrons for Fia and Seiji. Although the pair were too frozen in bliss to see the spectacle they were creating, for just one single moment the rapturous beauty of the song they heard wrung a single tear from each of their eyes. It all happened in only a few seconds, but when it was done the two were bonded forevermore as well as being left completely breathless. Fia could feel a new warmth in her body, one that comforted her and made her feel stronger than ever before.

Seiji, being the weaker of the two thanks to his human condition was almost left gasping for air when they broke contact. "That... was... oh my god... I've never felt anything like that before, I don't think I could even describe it." He was so in shock from the whole experience he didn't even notice all the patrons staring at them or screaming and running away.

Fia took a small step back, her blue eyes wide with surprise as she attempted to regain her breath. Nothing could have prepared her for the sudden burst of overwhelming emotion and power she was being flooded with. "I... I can't say I was quite expecting it to be so... intense," Fia replied breathlessly, her calm voice belying the wonder still shining in her eyes.

"I... uh... So I guess this means we're... connected now, although I'm not really sure what entails. What should we d-" Yet another interruption, this time it was a waiter nervously handing Seiji one of those expensive touchpad devices. "What's this?"

"S-someone brought this in for you sir." As soon as Seiji took the tablet the waiter scurried off, no more eager to be close to them than the other patrons.

He still felt in a daze, he wasn't sure how clear his thoughts were, especially considering at that moment they kept darting back to Fia regardless of how hard he tried to focus. It seemed right then like the only important thing was how she was the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen, he shook his head. Ugh I feel so muddled... but so good too. He tapped the blank screen of the tablet and it flared to life, the screen lighting up rather quickly.

The screen was filled with the visage of none other than Hiroto Minaka, the president of MBI himself. "Congratulations Seiji! You've just become a part of the greatest love story the world has ever seen! You are an Ashi-"

"Yeah, I already know that part." Seiji interrupted with a dismissive wave. "But how are you related to-"

"SILENCE! There are plenty of things you don't know about the plan yet!" While Minaka cleared his throat Seiji couldn't help noticing how much different from normal he looked, his hair was spread out randomly, and he was wearing some strange cape over his suit that made him look like some insane person instead of the president of Tokyo's most successful corporation. "Now, you have become a part of the Sekirei Plan Mr. Taketo, you and Fia here are now partners, bound tighter than you can imagine. All the Sekirei in the plan are destined to fight until one Ashikabi and their Sekirei stand above all the rest, and are granted their greatest wish."

"Greatest Wish? So we get a wish granted?"

"Well, more or less, you'll understand later. But for now I urge you to enjoy yourself, because pretty soon you'll be fighting for your life."

"But... " Seiji looked down at the table for a second, he didn't like the idea of fighting other people, especially not to the death. "I don't want to hurt other people for no reason."

"That's a shame." Minaka countered with a rather sadistic smile. "Because there are plenty of other Ashikabi out there who aren't so impractical, and they'll come after you eventually. If you want to stand a chance you better help your Seikirei get stronger, and find more to wing. The more Sekirei an Ashikabi has the more powerful they become. Anyways, good luck, I have other matters I must attend to. Oh! One more thing! Don't try to leave the city, you're rather late to enter the plan, and I'm afraid what little time you may have had to run is already gone." With that the tablet blinked off and Seiji was left wondering what he'd gotten into.

He turned to Fia and put a hand on her shoulder for a second to get her out of the trance she seemed to be in and asked. "So, what should we do now?"

Fia blinked at Seiji's touch, and suddenly she was back to her composed self. She looked up at Seiji, not seeming to be the slightest bit sorry that she had dragged him into Plan. "I suppose I move in with you."

In retrospect such an open ended question was rather silly. "Yeah, of course we can't exactly go our separate ways now but I mean... I'm not sure where to go from here. So for now let's just go home." I hope I don't have to explain this to Hiromi anytime soon.

They had only just walked out of the restaurant when Seiji stopped dead in his tracks. "Wait... this isn't right. I'm glad we're okay and... well for what happened in there. But now that I'm dressed and you're alright I have to go back to that building and check on the other Sekirei. At the very least the knight girl ended up there following me after I was picked up." He grabbed Fia's hand and held it between both of his. "Fia, will you help me get there and make sure they're alright?"

A cold look entered Fia's eyes as Seiji mentioned the other Sekirei. She didn't see why he was so worried about them, and it especially bothered her that he had mentioned a specific one he held concern for. Just when she had found her Ashikabi, it looked as if there was a possibility she may already have to share. Fia did not like sharing. She gripped the hand that held hers tightly, as if to ensure that she had not lost him to some illusion. "Fine," she said after a few moments of hesitation.

Seiji squeezed Fia's hand reassuringly, noting the change in her expression. "Look I'm not looking for another Sekirei, I just can't stand the thought of people who were trying to help me getting hurt and doing nothing about it. I'm not going to try and gather some sort of harem." He gave her his most reassuring smile, he had meant every word. It was so weird, they had only met that day, and he didn't have all that much to tie him to her besides a single kiss and a bond he knew almost nothing about but... he couldn't bear the thought of hurting her. He only hoped she could feel his sincerity.

Fia looked up into Seiji's eyes searchingly, then gave a small nod. She led him outside and called her works forth in a burst of song. Though somewhat relunctant to remove the reassuring hold of his hands, she couldn't very well carry him if she didn't. So, she pulled her hands from his to wrap her arms around his torso again, before taking off.

He couldn't resist letting out a contented sigh. "I could get used to this. Don't get me wrong I know you're not some personal travel Sekirei, but you're so warm. Especially when your wings are out."

It only took them a few minutes to get back to the general area of the unfinished building, and almost right away they saw the skeletal lift carrying the other two Sekirei and the guy with glasses. "There they are! They're almost at the ground, why don't we go see how it went?" He figured since they'd gotten there they may as well check up on the others.

Fia's eyes set on the group descending the oversized elevator, and she glided down to be level with them as they reached the street below. She set Seiji down first before setting down next to him, her wings disappearing in a shower of embers. "So you survived as well," she mused in a tone that said she really didn't care.

"I'm glad to see you guys are alright." Seiji added, balancing out Fia's lack of optimism. "Those Sekirei in the uniforms were... scary, I'd have a few more bruises and a broken bone or two if it wasn't for that lady with the western sword."

 

[Lucifer-san]

The Shadow Watches

Layfe was only just recovering as a kick struck his body that sent him skidding out of the street and back into the alley. He groaned as he slowly got up revealing black chains to be covering his chest, which had cushioned the impact from the not so friendly kick he received. Why the Sekirei couldn't just help him to his feet he'll never know but it was fine it didn't hurt all that much due to him reacting at the last second. This situation had went much better than he had actually expected it to and he managed to gather a bit of info on his potential enemies/allies. Those Disciplinary Squad were as about as tough as he imagined if not tougher. While the arrow had been incomplete he hadn't expected it to only get a small scratch but he would be prepared next time. With a small wave of his hand an almost unnoticeable orb began to follow the duo of Sekirei and human/possible Ashikabi as he rose to his feet. That orb had been the last Security Orb he had made and had gathered a lot of info for him due to it lacking a presence until it was revealed.
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As Layfe stretched he could feel a dull throbbing in his head from the shot he had taken but chose to ignore it in favor of opening a gap and walked through it. As his form moved through the shadows he could feel himself healing as his balance of energy was restored and soon he arrived at a specific location. It appeared to be a small warehouse and it was just not for storage. "Alright time to review what's happened so far." He spoke as he pulled out a key for the warehouse and clicked a button. As the door opened up he couldn't help but be happy he managed to snag this place soon after the Plan started but that was a story for another time he told himself as he entered his place.
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It was a simple little pad with some chairs, wooden table, a couch, a mini fridge, and a decent sized TV along with his computer. Overall the place was quite bare besides the manga neatly stacked in the corner but it suited his needs. Taking off his jacket revealed him to be wearing a nice white button up shirt as he sat down on his sofa and snapped his fingers. As the sound echoed a 2 small orbs of darkness formed and took two different shapes, one looked to be a map of the city with a white blip popping up and the other was a clear orb of some sort. "Ah the wonders of shadowy chains that are almost untraceable." Layfe smiled wryly as the view from his security orb popped up on the screen, only to frown slightly as he noticed the blimp on the map was gone.
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With the chains he had planted earlier still in place he could use them as tracking devices for a short while before they would fade away. He only had about 10-20 minutes of usage on each chain if they went unused so he decided with that, that maybe he should go out and follow the group himself. The security orb had last seen them walking back to the area of the unfinished building and saw them with a couple of new faces. Donning some glasses from off his table Layfe opened up a new gap that put him right back to where he had been earlier this day, the rooftops. As the wind blew by he couldn't help but feel as if something was going to happen soon. Oh well it was of no importance for now he thought as he looked down upon the group that had just arrived. Things could change as they wish and he would change with them.​

 

[Fort PokePower]

Akira Takako​

A cheerful jingling sounded through the darkened street, dim street lights casting their soft yellow glow on the form of Akira as she quite nearly skipped down the street, the jingling coming from the bell hanging from the collar around her neck. There wasn't a person to be seen; all of the traffic was on the opposite side of the unfinished skyscraper she was now passing. Normally she wouldn't be going through here this late at night, but she had gotten a bit tripped off while out shopping when she saw a pet store. She'd spent hours there just staring at the fish they sold and contemplating how she would get to them, until finally the store owner had chased her out so he could close up shop. Besides that dream from the night before has been going around and around in her head, making her even more distracted than usual. And she never did end up making it to the supermarket... Hopefully she would have enough to make meals for the kids the next day...

Akira let out a yelp as her foot caught on something and she fell flat on her face. "Oww...," she groaned, slowly pushing herself up and turning her head to see what she had tripped on. Her eyes widened as they set upon the very naked form of a very, very handsome man. She simply stared at him for a moment, confusion written all over her face. What was a naked man doing on the ground? She let out a small gasp and forgot her befuddlement, at least for the moment, as she noticed a red pool forming beneath him; her gaze followed the trail of blood dribbling down his body to the deep wounds in his shoulders and stomach. "Oh...," she murmured. Had he been mugged or something? Were the muggers still around?! No, wait, they probably would have jumped her awhile ago if they were... Maybe...

She kneeled next to the man, nibbling on her lower lip. What should she do? Call an ambulance? But she'd forgotten her cellphone at home... 'I'll just have to carry him then!' Standing up, Akira leaned down and grabbed the man under his arms and heaved him upwards. For a moment, they were both upright; then the man's weight bore down on Akira and they both fell backwards. Akira growled in frustration, a small pout forming on her face. Maybe she should try waking him up... Crawling out from under him, as he had landed on top of her, she knelt by his head and stared intently at him for a moment, contemplating the best way to rouse him. Getting an idea, she rummaged in her small purse until she produced a small carton of milk. It was a shame to waste it this way, but she didn't have any water with her, so this would have to work... Opening the carton, she dumped the contents on the man's face.

 

[Yamagi Sosuke]

Noah the Wolf

Noah's eyes flickered under his closed lids. The feeling of being moved, of being lifted was beginning to rouse him out of unconsciousness. His mind fought through the fog and remembered the last thought that had enveloped him. Kill them! Obliterate the disciplinary squad! Tear everything to pieces! he thought tenaciously. And then there was an explosive burst of pain against his body followed by a deep darkness.

Though, it wasn't until a shockingly wet liquid had splattered across his face had his emerald eyes shot open in a panic, their usual color were intensified by his renewed vigor. He sat up from the ground before swiftly checking the pain erupting from his abdomen. "Aghh..." Was his short gasp of pain. "This still hasn't healed? Crap, this hurts." He complained with a tab bit of annoyance on his tongue. He was oblivious too his surrounds until he caught the faint sounds of breathing. A normally quiet intake of air that sounded like harsh winds to him.

Noah turned his face towards the person slowly, his eyes were a bit wide while his brows were furrowed with confusion. A sizzling sound could be heard from his wounds as the itch of healing had begun to stitch the muscles and skin back together. From a first glance he caught sight of long black curls, unusually cat-like ears, and a pair of deeper-than-blue eyes.

Gazing upon that woman's face was a bit out of the ordinary for him. He could tell from the look in her eyes that she was different... He could see curiosity in them and for a moment, he was trapped in their whirlpools. "What are you looking at?" He asked the mysterious girl crudely before attempting to stand on his feet. He got up to one foot before bending a knee from the pain.​

 

[Geras]

Meet and greet: Midnight Stroll

​

"Yeah, we did." Ryce smiled slightly in response to Fia, although on the inside he realized something quickly but kept it to himself. "Thanks to Athena, wolf guy, and Kotone. I only did a bit in comparison. Although I never did catch your names..." He raised his eyebrows at the mention of a lady with a western sword. Why would there even be... well, she's probably a Sekirei. "Lady with a western sword? That's the first time I've heard of someone like that."

Athena raised an eyebrow at the human's words of modesty. "I believe that Kotone's emergence may have taken more out of you than you thought," she said to him. "It seems you have already forgotten how essential your actions were in our survival. Without your expertise, it is likely that none of us would be here right now." She then glanced at the two in front of them and said to the man in specific, "As for you, I am glad to see you alive and well. I must thank you for your instruction eariler, it has proven quite useful." Seeing the two next to each other confirmed some suspicions she had about the sudden appearance of the Disciplinary Squad, but she said nothing of it.

Seiji rubbed the back of his head. "I'm sure you did fine, I wasn't particularly useful either." He smiled when Athena mentioned his little idea about her barriers from earlier. "Well I'm glad it proved useful... You must be Athena, right? That's the most knightly of the names he listed. Now I must thank you for trying to save me, and for your heroics back at Sakura's."

Fia surveyed the conversation with a cool gaze, not yet adding in her own voice after her initial greeting. Her eyes eventually set on Athena, their blue depths calm but still holding an evident warning. The knight appeared to be the only unwinged Sekirei present, and while she was certain Seiji would hold true to his word, there wouldn't be much he could do if a Sekirei reacted to him.

"You must be an Ashikabi huh?" Seiji continued after turning to Bryce. "I didn't catch your name, I'm Seiji." He paused for a second, but felt obligated to add in one more thing, considering his new station. He gestured to the lovely maiden next to him and resisted the urge to hold her hand, he couldn't believe he felt so attached already. "And this is Fia. I'm her Ashikabi." Truth be told he felt embarrassed to say it out loud, and he couldn't think of a better way to word it.

"My name? It's Bryce. Bryce Danner. Uh, I'm more comfortable with Ryce personally since it's generally what I go by." He grinned sheepishly, still holding Kotone in his arms. "Isn't she number 9 or something? She was strong, for sure. Um, this is Kotone." He stopped. Calling her his Sekirei would be weird, sort of like calling her his property. "Um... she... I... well, you know." He blushed, flustered- he honestly knew nothing about love, and in his panic tripped over his words. "She winged me. I mean, I'm her Sekirei. I mean... wait." He took a moment to think about it. "...Okay okay okay, so I'm the Ashikabi, and she's the Sekirei. Yeah. That."

It was a funny sight, not because Bryce was so bashful at the moment but because Seiji understood how he felt. It was a very confusing, if enjoyable experience becoming an Ashikabi. After some light chuckling he reassured Bryce. "Hey don't worry about it, I'm not so confident and in control of the situation either. Fia... caught me pretty well off guard, and at a restaurant no less." Thinking of it made Seiji blush just a little bit himself. "Wasn't prepared at all."

Fia smirked slightly as Seiji spoke of her emergence, finding his embarrassment of the moment amusing. She had looked away from Athena after being certain her message was clear, and her eyes were now back to being their usual calm pools. "It's good to know one of the weaklings got themselves on Ashikabi," she scoffed. "Perhaps she'll actually be able to pose a challenge in the future." To think the entire reason she had defended the two humans in the first place was to ensure that the competition wasn't wiped out before she got to have any fun, and now one of them was her own Ashikabi.

Ryce looked down for a moment at Kotone, and he stayed smiling, but inside he was already thinking of how much he had already disliked the woman in front of him, and yet she had only directly spoken two sentences. You're taking first impressions to heart, Bryce. Just... chill. "Quite the Sekirei you've got there, Seiji, although..." He chuckled. "She seems like quite the handful. Either way, yeah, I have to agree with you on the fact of being prepared, I was caught so off guard it was embarassing. Heh..."

He remembered what Minaka said, and felt slightly scared immediately. The woman was cocky, yeah, but she was strong without an Ashikabi. Now she had one... and there was possibly the fact that he would have to fight her and Seiji. Not only that... but... he couldn't help but be worried for Kotone. Although he was aware of her strength, as he held her in his arms her small figure seemed precious. Something he had to care for, regardless of whether or not it'd possibly end up the other way around. He bit his inner lip, but stayed quiet.

Athena had guessed that this Sekirei, Fia, had bonded with the man from earlier, Seiji. Once introductions had passed, she glanced in Fia's direction only to see the woman almost glaring at her. She knew that look, although she had never seen it first hand. Back when the television was her only window to the outside, whenever her preferred programs weren't on she would occasionally watch soap operas. She felt the need to tell Fia that she found the idea of one man being together with multiple women to be a deplorable one, but she wasn't sure how to bring up the topic, nor did she want to interrupt Seiji and Ryce. Besides that, she wasn't exactly fond of Fia's attitude towards the other Sekirei, so she wondered whether or not she owed that reassurance to her. So instead, she just continued smiling and listening to the conversation around her.

Seiji wasn't really comfortable with how standoffish and dismissive Fia seemed to feel towards the other Sekirei, but he wouldn't be chastising her as long as she wasn't picking fights. "Don't worry, I'm in no rush to start any battles unless we're attacked first. I'm not a big fan of hurting people and I definitely don't want to put Fia in danger." He could see the care that shown in Ryce's eyes when he looked at Kotone. It doesn't make sense, but then again I guess it doesn't have to. In any other situation I couldn't see myself being able to stand being around somebody who acts like Fia does but... regardless I feel... This whole bond thing is powerful, it's like after that kiss my subconscious decided for me.

"Heh, that's reassuring." He sighed. "I don't think I really want to have to get into fights, though it feels like it's inevitable. Regardless..." He shrugged. "What now? We can't just stand here forever, and Kotone... um..." He grinned, and would've scratched the back of his head if it weren't for carrying her. "She has a lot of muscle, and my arms are kinda twigs, and if I didn't have a good stamina I'm pretty sure I'd be dying now. In other words she's pretty heavy for me to carry forever." Although I will if I have to.

"Well then let's go. I'd like to learn a bit more about the only other Ashikabi I know of, we can walk with you for a while. That is, if you're okay with it Fia." Seiji added with a hopeful smile at Fia.

Fia shrugged indifferently. "I'm not in a hurry to get anywhere."

"Alright then." Ryce took the initiative to start walking. "I guess I should learn more about you, too. Urm..." Where do I even start? "...So, what do you do for a living?"

"Oh nothing too glamorous, I work in one of the offices fairly close to Teito Tower. I mostly do accounting, and I advise some of the other workers, they call me in to do a lot of little things but mostly accounting. I might be getting a promotion soon, I hope it's to something more complex, all this number crunching is getting easy and boring. What do you do, Bryce?"

"Me? I fix electronics and stuff." Bryce grinned. "Television sets, phones, cameras, you name it. I just fix it, that's all. I make some electronic stuff too, and it's all run by myself so I don't have to bother with a boss and stuff." He grins. "If anything breaks, just give it to me!" He mused for a second. "Um... do you live with anyone?"

"Well that's good to know! I've never been good at fixing electronics, something basic maybe." He laughed but when Ryce asked about his living arrangements he grew quiet for a second, he was a bit apprehensive to answer. He had never moved in with Hiromi and they were together a long time. "Well, I guess now I do..." He answered with a nervous chuckle.

"You- oh." Ryce chuckled. "I... my living situation is being stuck with a roomate who works as a mariachi. I felt bad for him, so I let him live with me, and in exchange he pays some of the rent and brings home food sometimes. Although... he's moving out soon. Hopefully." I feel like I'm giving an interview... "Where do you live, anyways? I mean we're walking to my house anyways, I think I have a right to know where you live." He laughed.

And so the discussion continued on, Seiji and Ryce got to know each other about as well as any two people can on a walk home. They exchanged addresses and cell numbers, it wouldn't be innaccurate to say they basically became friends in that short time. And of course inevitably, they made it to Bryce's apartment.

Athena had been following along without even realizing it, enjoying listening to the idle conversation between the two men. It made her happy to see two people she had made such an effort to try and protect walking and talking so peacefully, making the effort definitely worth it. Once everyone had stopped walking upon arrival at Ryce's home, she remembered that she never planned to actually come here. "I should be going now," she said, trying not to be rude about refusing Ryce's offer to stay after coming all this way. "Thank you for the offer to stay with you, but I feel it would be better to part ways for now. Goodbye, everyone."

With that, she began walking away before anyone could answer back. "You two should keep each other safe," she said to both Ryce and Seiji as she walked away. "There should be many Ashikabi by now who are fervently chasing Minaka's promised wish. If you stay cautious and nurture your bonds, you should be fine." She lamented not being able to tell them something along the lines of "Don't worry, I'll protect you," but recent events proved that without her own Ashikabi she was simply not ready. She would simply have to continue searching as before, her will renewed by Kotone and Ryce.

"Alright, see you later!" He grinned. "I have no problem with keeping Seiji safe I guess, I mean I'll have your back if you need my help. Speaking of..." Ryce walked in quickly, laying Kotone on his bed. I'll take the chair tonight. He thought this to himself as he grabbed something from his desk and walked back out with it. "Seiji, here." He gave Seiji a small digital watch- in yellow- the time shown brightly on the screen. Then he gave him another one, this one for Fia, which was what he'd call a "royal" blue. He scratched the back of his head.

"This is probably useless, but I figured if you're going to be in this Sekirei plan or whatever it might come in handy. I was originally going to use it to make sure Aaron doesn't get lost, but he's not dumb so I guess you can have it. Practically-" he brought out his own watch to demonstrate. "There's a button under here that when pressed should change the appearance- not the shape or size- of the screen so that it looks more like a GPS than a watch.

"It runs for about three hours like this, which is why you have the option to switch it on and off. The button itself requires something really small, like this-" He pulled out a toothpick and pressed it, enabling the watch to look like... a GPS. "-The watches allow you to locate each other in case you ever get separated. There's a few problems with it, but it should hopefully come in handy. The problems being, of course, the fact that the map it runs on can't be updated because it doesn't run on the internet, and the fact that it will occasionally take a while to locate someone. Maybe about two minutes at the most."

Seiji fiddled with his watch a bit before smiling. "This is pretty cool, thanks! Minaka didn't say anything about Sekirei and Ashikabi being able to feel each other's presence so this may come in handy. It was nice talking to you Ryce, don't hesitate to call me if you wanna talk or you run into trouble. Fia, would you like to go home now?"

Fia gave the watch in her hand a disdainful look. She didn't like the thought of anyone being able to track her, no matter who they were. But, she supposed such a thing could come in handy, so she could live with it. "Yes, home sounds good."

"Not a problem." He noted the look on Fia's face. Maybe she doesn't like the color? He thought snidely to himself afterwards. Well, serves her right for being so condescending and rude at someone who can barely move. He smiled. "Well, you should probably call it a night, so maybe it's a good idea for you two go home and get some rest. You never know what's coming at you tomorrow, after all."

He was one to talk. He was planning to play some videogames to keep the whole ordeal off his mind.

"Yeah, here's hoping we don't have to fight anyone too soon. Good luck and have a nice night!" Seiji waved at Ryce as he and Fia started walking back towards his apartment. He didn't ask her to fly them again, he figured if she wanted to she'd bring it up.

 

[Lucifer-san]

Meet and greet: Alliances and Schemes

​

It had been all too easy following the group especially since it was night, which had given him an easier time with keeping out of the Sekirei's range of sensory, which was much harder. Manipulating the shadows around his form he had stayed out of sight and had sucessfully followed the group back to the Ashikabi Ryce's home. "Hmm, I guess now would be a good time to reveal myself." Layfe spoke to himself as he watched the duo of Seiji and Fia walk away. With a single leap Layfe glided downwards towards Ryce and landed in front of him in a crouch with controlled precision. Dusting himself off Layfe rose to his feet as the glasses he had thrown on earlier gained a glint to them. With a wry smile he spoke. "Hello, my name is Layfe and I have come to talk...Ryce."

"How... how do you... where did you... are you a..." Ryce put two and two together fairly quickly. "A Sekirei? Damn I only learned about them today and here's another one at my front door. Don't tell me you're here to kill me..." When those words left Ryce's mouth, he suddenly realized what he had said and contemplated the possibility. At a younger age he would've broken into a cold sweat, but now he just kept on his regular demeanor. Not likely. If he knows my name, he must be aware of quite a few things about me as well, and he could probably kill me when I wasn't looking... He shrugged somewhat. "So? You know my name, I don't need to introduce myself."

Layfe hadn't expected Ryce to be so calm but it was welcomed, as it would help the situation run much more smoothly. "I can see you've calmed yourself mildly, that's very good of you." Layfe spoke with a voice that gave off a tone of amusement if someone that had known him were to hear him speak now they would note he did not sound like his normal self, however that was a matter for another time. "Hmm so Ryce let me get straight to the point of this chat. As you can tell had I wanted to I could've simply killed you from afar so you must be wondering why I hadn't." Looking up to the night sky he began to speak once more. "I wish to form a sort of alliance with you." As he spoke a small ball of darkness coalesced into what appeared to be a small pendant. "It is up to you whether you wish to accept and you may ask me any questions upon what the alliance would entail." Layfe finished as the pendant was formed and stuffed it into his pocket while he waited for a response.

"Well, I guess I'd be okay with that, but there's something bothering me. I guess the first- and only- order of business is what you want to gain from my side of the alliance. I guess it'd be to have an ally who has a winged Sekirei, but then again there's more to this than you've said so far, isn't there?" Ryce shrugged. "I barely know you anyways, this is the first time I've seen you. As long as you're not spying at me 24/7 it's okay I guess."

With a small chuckle Layfe spoke once more. "Hmm I guess I can tell you a tiny bit about what I gain. As you have stated I would gain an ally who has a winged Sekirei but I also gain something else and that would be.." Layfe trailed off thinking about what he should reveal to Ryce about his plans. Quickly deciding upon what he should reveal before Ryce could say anything he spoke. "Hmm for one I would gain a means to help other Sekirei." As he took a few steps forward the surrounding area suddenly began to become omnious. "You see in this plan there shall be many deaths and while I know I can not stop this I wish to give others of my kind a fair chance is all and through you I gain someone I can get to help me with this." As Layfe spoke his energy had floated off of him in wisps and the evil nature leaked out making the area seemingly colder. "All I wish for my brothers and sisters is a chance but some will not agree and that is where you come in to help me."

"...So you want me to strive to help you in a bid for all of your siblings to have a chance to survive?" He thought for a moment. This was, without a doubt, probably against the will of the plan. He thought of Kana and Maki, as well as Minaka, and smirked. Screw that plan. "I can't tell you I'm going to help you entirely. I can't tell you I can be one-hundred-percent there. I'm an Ashikabi first now, I guess, and something else second. Kotone's life, and my own, are on the line in a way, so I can't say I'm going to be with you all the way." Ryce thought for a moment. "How exactly do you plan to achieve that?"

Pulling the pendant out of his pocket it glowed with a strange light as he held it in his hand. "Hmm the best way to explain how I wish to help is to give you a demonstration of what I could do." Seeing an owl over atop of a tree he gave the pendant in his hand a simple toss. As it caught the owl on it's wing something odd happened, instead of it making solid contact it gleamed and dispersed into black dust. The owl made no movements for a moment before it simply disappeared. A moment after and a well hidden wince from the pain Layfe felt, the owl blinked back into existence as if it had never disappeared. Moving his body shot pain through his core but with practiced ease he hid it as he turned to face Ryce. "Can you guess what I just did?" He spoke simply as he wished to see what Ryce thought of what happened.

"..." He thought about it for a moment. "You... you obviously didn't obliterate it. If you made it disappear and brought it back..." He thought for a moment. Was it possible that he had cloaked the owl's movement? Actually, it seemed the owl's body itself hadn't moved much, but the actual owl as a whole did disappear. So... "Did you move it somewhere else? To where I have no idea, but maybe somewhere I couldn't see? Like... behind the tree, for example."

"Hmm that is very close actually to what I did." Layfe was pleasantly surprised by how smart the young man was and it seemed that he could understand without him having to explain things much. "What I did was technically movement of sorts but only to somewhere that I could access. I moved it into the Space Inbetween or in laymans terms literally inside of the shadows." Looking towards the shadow of Ryce he pulled a coin out of his pocket and tossed it at his own shadow. Instead of it hitting the concrete it sunk in and popped right out of Ryce's shadow on the ground.

Ryce was startled when it popped out of his shadow and jumped, before laughing nervously and sighing. "Oh... um. Yeah." The fact it popped out of his shadow was almost scary. "So... this space... you plan to..." He thought for a bit. "...Put Sekirei in it? But... that's sorta wrong, don't you think?" Ryce thought for a moment. If he thought about it correctly, Minaka had mentioned the greatest love story ever or something. Sekirei also seemed to react to acts of love, like... kissing. Locking them in a dimension, or this "space inbetween," meant... "Hey, you're going to keep them there from harming each other or something? That's... that's..."

Ryce didn't know what to do. Arguing with the Sekirei meant danger, obviously he was in no shape to go against one [and arguably never would be] and neither was Kotone. But... doing what he was thinking Layfe would do... there was something wrong about that. "...Is that what you're doing, Layfe?"

A cynical chuckle escaped his lips as he listened to what Ryce said. "If only I could do that... however I can't." Layfe chuckled some more as he began to speak. "It's one thing for myself to go through the space inbetween as I can move freely however if I was to place a Sekirei or a Human inside the space it is much harder to keep them there." Layfe thought this was quite funny as he let another chuckle escape his lips. Trapping Sekirei would be pointless in the long run as it would be the same thing as not allowing them a future. "While I could do so I could only keep them for but so long. The shadows do not accept others into it for long and even then Sekirei are able to break out if they keep struggling against it." Sighing he continued to speak. "However I can use this ability to make it easier for wingless Sekirei to escape or to even prevent confrontations momentarily."

Ah, so he was speaking of wingless Sekirei... "Hm, I guess that makes sense. Where do I come in, though? That's the big thing here." Can't tell if he's evil or good, sheesh.

Hmm... Layfe thought to himself upon how much he should let Ryce know about his part and then begins to speak. "Yes, I guess I should tell you where you come in shouldn't I?" Layfe spoke amusedly as he reached into his pocket and pulled out onyx star shaped bracelet. "What I need for you to do is carry this bracelet around with you and simply provide support if I need help and you can get to my location." He held the bracelet out in his hand and offered it towards Ryce. "In return you may call upon me to help you out if any of your future battles become too much or if you need info on someone or something."

"...Alright, I will." He grabbed the bracelet, although he still was convinced there was something going on, and remained skeptical. Am I being played for a fool? Gotta think about this one... "...Can I sleep on it?" He held out his hand to return the bracelet. "There's something I have to think about first."

"Yes you may think upon this deal, as you should do upon all things." Layfe spoke calmly as he thought about what he was doing. Ryce seemed like a smart individual so he would have to make sure to not make things seems too questionable. Either way his plan had been set in motion so it seemed time to make his departure. "I shall see you tomorrow, please have your answer by then." With a polite nod Layfe walked forward a bit and vanished into a gap as he began his trek back to his base. He would see about the other duo and if they could help him but for now it was time to settle down.

"Ah, right. Good night." Ryce closed the door and let out a loud sigh of relief, almost sliding down on the door as he did so semi-humorously. He looked around, and for a moment realized he had his house to himself. Or at least, almost did- Kotone was sleeping on his bed, so he probably had to keep quiet. He sighed. He wanted to go and get his game on, but he was aware that he probably should get some sleep, some rest for this "Sekirei Plan" or whatever it was. Sitting down on his swiveling chair, he grabbed his phone off the nightstand after rolling [the chair] into his room. Eh?

He had a new text message and checked it quietly, raising his eyebrows a couple of times before finally locking his phone, putting it on his nightstand, and falling asleep immediately after.

 

[Sephear]

Sleeping arrangements

​

"Finally!" Fia breathed out, stretching her arms up over her head as if releasing a great amount of tension. "Human conversation is so dry." Turning her head slightly to look up at Seiji, she added to him, "You can't really think this alliance thing is going to work, do you?"

Seiji shrugged. "It's nothing so complicated as that, it's just nice to have someone in the same situation to talk to. This whole experience is rather jarring and alienating for humans like us. That being said it couldn't hurt to have someone to count on if things ever get bad. I mean from what Minaka said some Ashikabi might have multiple Sekirei, but we've only got one each." A thought occurred to him and he got a goofy smile since it should be something Fia would like to hear. "This way there should be less pressure to expand, we can be happy just the two of us."

Fia's lips quirked in a smile. "That is definitely a positive. However, your new friend wouldn't be able to help much in a fight without breaking the rules of the Plan. I don't think either of us wants another encounter with the Disciplinary Squad."

"Certainly not, but who knows when someone else might break the rules against us? One day some crazy Ashikabi might decide he can gang up on us and be done before MBI noticed. I mean he'd be wrong of course, but still, it pays to have backup plans." Seiji was realizing rather quickly that his and Ryce's apartments weren't all that far apart, which brought to mind something else. "When we get home feel free to make yourself comfortable and set up the bed however you're most comfortable, I can spruce up the couch pretty nicely so I'll be fine."

"And why should we sleep separately, hmm?" Fia questioned, flashing a teasing smile in his direction. "How modest and gentlemanly."

Seiji's breath caught in his throat for a second at the implication. "Well don't get me wrong, I'm not some pure man or anything, it's just...well we only just met today so...yeah the couch is fine for now." He wasn't some easily embarrassed kid, but he had to admit Fia was good at pushing just the right buttons to unnerve him.

Amusement lit up her gaze as she got one of the reactions she had been expecting. Humans were so easy to tease, there was little room for boredom. "Whatever your humanity is comfortable with, dearie."

A mischievous smile crept onto Seiji's face as they finally made it to the building. "Laugh it up gorgeous, eventually I'll get used to you." When he moved to open the apartment's door he did an overly dramatic bow. "After you milady."

"Let's hope that's not too soon. I wanna have more fun." she said with a small, plainly fake pout as she walked past him through the open door.

Closing the door behind him Seiji only took a few steps into the apartment before the fatigue of such an...exciting day seemed to catch up with him all at once and he barely managed to stumble over to the couch before collapsing on it. "Ah, it feels good to be home after so much happening in one day. Maybe the whole manners couch thing was unnecessary, I'm not sure I could have made it to my bed anyways."

"I do believe I said something about a lullaby earlier..." She twirled around to face him as she was about to enter what she assumed was his bedroom; it was where he had gone to change earlier, after all. "I may still be tempted, if you are interested."

"I'm glad to learn that wasn't just a joke." A sleepy smile accompanied the approval. "That sounds heavenly right about now. I must admit, I was hoping I'd get to hear that beautiful singing again." Even just the thought relaxed him and made him sink a bit deeper into the couch.

There was a brief pause before Fia's voice filled the room. There were no words to the soft music she sang, but the faint rises and falls of tone seemed to paint their own story in the minds of those who heard it.

The gently drifting sounds could be appreciated so much better than the song during the battle, and it was easily the best singing Seiji had ever heard. "I don't care how much trouble this 'Sekirei Plan' has already caused me, I'm-" A big yawn. "Glad we met, Fia, and glad to be your Ashikabi." After having to deal with so much already the music carried him away in no time at all, he fell into the deepest sleep he'd known for a long time.

As it became apparent that Seiji had fallen asleep, the song gradually died away, leaving the apartment in silence. She stayed there for a moment longer, simply watching her Ashikabi's sleeping form with a small smile on her lips, before finally removing herself to the bedroom to get some rest herself.

 

[Geras]

Athena
The Dreams of a Fanciful Maiden​

As Athena detached herself from the group, she walked up the road and turned the first corner, stepping out of the sight of those who had been her temporary companions. She had no place to stay, so she had planned to wander in search of a hotel. Her head began to throb incessantly as she walked, making it difficult to stay focused on where she was going. Well, she didn't have any idea where she was going in the first place but the throbbing didn't help any.

The question rose in her mind as to how she would pay for a stay at a hotel anyway. The answer quickly came to her mind as she thought, Of course, I can use my ca… It occurred to her that she could have easily used the card to purchase the sword in that shop earlier today. She had placed it inside her gauntlet when she received it and completely forgotten about it as she never carried anything anyway. Forgetfulness wasn't a good trait for someone like her to have.

Speaking of forgetfulness, she had also forgotten to eat over the course of the eventful day. Her stomach growled in protest just as it had earlier. However, her brain screamed at her to prioritize sleep instead. She wandered further, and her brain eventually won the argument as she threw herself onto the nearest surface on which she could lie down. She didn't feel capable of walking any further in search of a hotel or a restaurant. Instead, she merely closed her eyes and allowed herself respite.

The Knight lied there, still, for who knows how long as the pain in her head slowly began to subside. Once she felt a little better, she moved a hand to feel the surface she happened to be on. Quickly remembering that her gauntlets drastically inhibited her tactile sense, she instead tried to feel for shape. After knocking on it a few times to make sure, she confirmed that she had found herself on a wooden bench. Her eyes opened slightly. It appeared that she had made her way to the playground she had visited her first day out without thinking about it.

Instead of getting back up to find a proper place to sleep, she decided to stay. There was something about this place that she liked, but she couldn't quite put her finger on what that was. Besides, last time she slept on a concrete rooftop and it turned out well enough. Sleeping in armor made most surfaces feel about the same in terms of sleeping ground.

The realm of unconsciousness was fairly tempting right then, but Athena didn't want to sleep yet. She liked to reflect on her day before falling asleep and, in a sense, review herself. The back of her head hurt from resting her head on her metal helmet, so she removed it and placed it on the ground beside the bench before delving into her thoughts. It was the most of her armor she was willing to remove in such a vulnerable position.

Athena could tell she was improving already. The event at the maid cafe stirred doubts within her, but the conflict with the Disciplinary Squad arguably resulted in success. Both the humans were safe, and each had now been united with their Sekirei. And while she was still without her own Ashikabi, she had still improved her skills considerably. The notion that she was not fit to be a protector of the innocent was dispelled. Even if she was not fit, then she simply had to become so.

As her mind replayed the events of the day, it seemed to repeatedly return to the moment of Kotone's winging. As unsightly as it was, she had to admit she was somewhat jealous. Not specifically because of Ryce, but simply because she wished to experience such a beautiful thing as well. She brought a finger to her lips and sighed longingly. Tomorrow she would resume her search for her Ashikabi, but… Did she really want to simply find her Ashikabi? She paused for a moment, feeling her helmetless head resting against the wooden bench before allowing herself to continue on that train of thought.

The idea of finding her chosen one in a dire, dramatic situation appealed to her greatly. He would be in some kind of danger, perhaps being attacked by a thief or a villainous Sekirei when Athena would swoop in to save him. Sword in hand, she would smite the evildoer and win the love of her chosen. They would kiss passionately, and she would sprout beautiful wings upon her emergence before taking him to a tall building that loomed over the city. There, they would watch the shining lights of the city below against the twinkling stars in the sky above as they sat hand in hand.

Athena could feel herself starting to blush, an idyllic grin on her face. She knew that she needed to find her Ashikabi regardless of how she did it so she could gain the power necessary to protect everyone, but it was nice to pretend it could happen like that. Those were some of the last thoughts that passed through Athena's conscious mind before it gave way to the unconscious. With a smile on her face, the Knight fell asleep and dreamed of a world where she could live out her fantasies. A world where she rode on a mighty steed wielding a magnificent sword and shield, where she could protect the innocent, punish the guilty, and find true love.
​

 

[Fort PokePower]

Cat Meets Wolf

Akira didn't react to the man's voice at first, her wide eyes instead fixed on his healing wounds. Her head tilted to the side in curiosity, she slowly raised her hand to touch the skin that had held gaping wounds only moments before. Oddly, she didn't seem entirely surprised when her touch confirmed that he had indeed completely healed; rather, she seemed awed and contemplative. Sitting back on the ground, she set her hands in her lap and stared up at him. "Are you an alien?"

There it was again, that curiosity that had been dwelling so calmly in her eyes. Noah swallowed hard, an action that had been foreign to him as she reached out to feel the healed areas of his body. Her touch was a bit cool compared to the heat of his powers but it was oddly refreshing for some reason. His emerald eyes, now dulled to a rich-forest color, were looking at the blue-eyed girl. "An alien," he uttered to her incredulously, his hand reaching up to scratch the back of his head. She was spot-on with her assumptions and that was a first for any human he had ever met. "I guess you could call me that. Do you know where I could get some clothes?" He asked her, feeling the humid air on his body.

"A clothing store, where else?" Akira seemed genuinely puzzled by his question, until realization dawned upon her features and her mouth formed into a small "O". "But I guess they won't really let naked people in..." She sat in thought for a moment, then suddenly clapped her hands together as she came up with what she thought was an absolutely wonderful idea. "You could come to my house! I've got plenty of extra clothes there. Then you can tell me all about the planet you come from!"

Noah let out a light breath of agitation. Was the girl really so curious and trusting as to let a naked man into her home? Maybe she wasn't taught to fear strangers as he thought so many humans were when they were younger. But he supposed he couldn't deny her idea; it was him who asked her for help after all. He stood up from the ground, his fatigued body just slightly shivering from the strain. He turned to the girl with a dead-set stare. "How far away is your house?" he asked indifferently. "If it's too far I could carry you. It'll be easier than me looking like a pervert beside you or," He chuckled lightly despite his pain. "Well vice-versa or you looking like the pervert."

"Ah! First..." Removing her thin sweater, Akira wrapped it around his waist and tied the sleeves in the back so his groin would at least be covered. A triumphant grin spread across her face now that his appearance was at least slightly more modest. Not wasting another moment, she pounced on his back in a fashion quite like the cat she imitated and wrapped her legs tightly around him so she wouldn't fall. "Onward, Mr. Nude Man!" she declared, raising a finger to point in the direction she had been going before she had stumbled upon him.

Noah's eyes shot off in any direction besides where the girl was wrapping her sweater, his eyes flustered with embarrassment as she so candidly dove down. How weird… and yet oddly exhilarating. The girl had just inspired a feeling in him that hadn't surfaced ever before. A irregular thump in his heart that wasn't there until just then. Noah touched his chest delicately, the dazed expression giving him a ravishing aura. His dark curls fell slightly above his brows, his lips were parted slightly, and his emerald eyes wide. "Uh…Thanks," He uttered as he intuitively grabbed the girl's thighs when she jumped on his back. He looked up the street as she pointed, a agitated expression replacing his earlier one quickly. "Mr. Nude Man?" He repeated with a slight growl in his tone. "Please refrain from calling me that." With that he dashed up onto the rooftops and started down the path from above. "You'll have to let me know when we're near girlie."

Akira let out a shriek of surprise that quickly turned into one of exhilaration as he leaped from roof to roof. She leaned forwards over the man's shoulders, her eyes bright with delight as she stared at the city sweeping by below them. Eventually, she stopped really even looking at anything, just resting her head on his shoulder and fully enjoying the ride.

She snapped out of her lulled state of mind when she realized they were passing through familiar surroundings. "There, that street!" she called, pointing once again. "The third house on the right."

Noah's leaps were controlled but high, something that he did when in deep thought or just taking his time. And even though he never really took the time to think about other people, he guessed that it had been second nature with this girl to take precautions. She seemed so small and trusting, it almost made her seem even frailer than normal humans. He turned his eyes towards her in mid-air as she laid her head against him. Again, another blush forming on his face. He gritted his teeth. She was definitely getting too chummy.

When she directed him towards her home, he quickly fell onto the house next to it before effortlessly leaping onto the street. He let her fall to the ground then carelessly walked up to the front door without her. His folded his arms against his chest as he waited for her to unlock the door and all that other human stuff. "Well," He uttered impatiently. "We don't have all day."

As he released his grip on her legs, Akira stumbled slightly as she attempted to keep her balance. She let out a small sigh of relief when she managed to stay upright and regain her footing, if just barely. Hurriedly, she shuffled around in her purse for her key, muttering to herself as she did so, "Oh, I hope I didn't forget it again..." Her concerns were shattered, however, as she finally found the key, stowed away at the bottom of her purse. With an unnecessarily cheerful air at this simple accomplishment, she unlocked the door and swung it open. She walked in ahead of him, flipping on the light by the door.

The extra lighting revealed walls lined with pictures of cats, a single door standing out amidst the feline decorations; this door, rather than decorated with images of cats, was covered in a collection of scribbled drawings, done by the children Akira cared for. Layers of them were stapled and tacked to the door, some completely covered by others as each seemed to vie for attention in the disorganized mess.

The only other door in view had a large poster of a black cat spread across it; it was this door that Akira went to. "I'll see what I can find for you to wear," she called over her shoulder as she disappeared into the room on the other side of the door.

Noah absentmindedly tapped his finger against his arm while he waited. Honestly, the girl was a bit less organized than most wasn't she. Once she had gotten the door open, he took a whiff inside. A habit of his that often ensured his safety. However, all he got from inside was her scent and the lingering smell of a few others. He stepped inside and immediately noticed the decorated walls. Most of them were filled with those wretched animals that had no pride in themselves. He couldn't really remember when he started hating them but it was soon after entering the human world.

As she walked into the room, Noah stepped into the house and looked at a few of the poorly drawn pictures. His hand gripped the bottom of one them as he traced the scribbled lines. "What idiot drew this?" he whispered to himself. "Had to be one of those dwarven humans, wait, I think they're called children." While he stared at the scribblings, he begin to think back to just a few moments ago. All of those foreign reactions to the girl was baffling. Was it possible that being exposed to so many emergences had drawn his Ashikabi too him. "Damn," He cursed openly. "I don't think I'm ready for this." Noah clenched his fist at his side, hoping that he still had a choice.

Before the girl could come back down or possibly while she was making her way back, Noah sauntered his way up to the door she had entered. He wasn't going to waste time downstairs by himself. Plus, all he really wanted to do was get some clothes and leave. He was sure he could come up with better things than lounging around with a bunch of ugly feline pictures.

It wasn't difficult to find a shirt large enough for the naked alien man - Akira had plenty of oversized t-shirts she used as pajamas. Pants, however, were a little more difficult to come by. Eventually, she gathered an old pair of baggy pants into the bundle in her arms. It was pointless to search for fitting socks or shoes; she already knew none of hers would be able to fit him. To make up for these missing articles of clothing, she piled a long black scarf into her arms - because warm scarves made everything better, right?

When she turned to bring the clothes out to the man, she did not expect for him to already be in her doorway and ran straight into him. "Ah...!" She backed up hurriedly and held out the pile of black clothes to him. "Here. I hope this is alright."

The small girl bumped into his unmoving stature. He spotted the clothes in her hands almost immediately but more so than anything else, he noticed a dark long scarf on top of it all. A dashing smile lifted his otherwise stoic face as he reached out and gripped them from the girl, a tender touch was inherent in his action. She sure had a lot of dark clothes in the pile, some of them seemed a bit small for him but even then they still looked like they'd fit. He stared purposely at the girl, his head nudging towards the door ever so slightly. "You gonna stand there all day or are you gonna let me change?" He asked her bluntly.

But before she could respond Noah quickly stepped around her and touching the left side of her hip, pushed her towards the door. "Out," He ordered, his hand gripping the handle as he looked at her coolly. "And no peeking alright, that would make you a pervert and a cat lady."

Akira stared at the closing door in bemusement. She'd already seen him naked so she wasn't really sure what the problem was. As the door was nearly closed, she suddenly remembered they had never been properly introduced. "Wait!" she cried, charging the door and shoving it open enough so that she could peak around it. "My name's Akira. What's yours?"

Noah could hear the girl's sudden step forwards, so he let up on the door, just enough so that she wouldn't hurt herself trying to fight against his superior strength. Her head poked out between the doors and Noah's emeralds eyes lowered as he hid his exposed lower body from her. Her name was Akira, he got it. But surely she could have waited until after he had put the clothes on. "Yea, yea," He uttered, waving his hand as he looked at her with narrow eyes. "… I would call you a pervert but I suppose it's only mannerly. I'm Noah."

After the introductions Noah closed the door and quickly slipped on the clothes. They fit a bit snuggly, his chest and abs partly defined under the shirt. He gripped the tail of the dark scarf and wrapped it around his neck, the ends falling down his chest and back. He walked back out and greeted the girl with a raised eyebrow. "Like what you see?"

Akira tilted her head, giving Noah a speculative look. "You looked better naked," she said bluntly, not at all realizing the implication of her words. In her eyes, he really had looked better naked - probably because the clothes he now wore didn't fit entirely well. Except maybe the scarf. The scarf was fine.

Noah's pale features lit ablaze with blush at her brazen compliment. It was a new experience to be the one on the flustered side of things. He gritted his teeth together, his unusually sharp canines becoming a bit visible during the action. It was frustrating to think that someone was affecting him like this. He rubbed the back of his head, trying to ignore the way the girl was making him feel. "Would you rather I strip back down?" He asked her with a enticing grin on his face. He took a step towards her, his hand pulling at the collar of the shirt he was wearing. "Y'know, you're not bad looking, I wouldn't mind spending a night with you," teased the Sekirei.

Akira's eyes shone brightly at Noah's words and she tackled him in a hug. "Of course you can stay the night! I've always wanted to have a sleepover!" she squealed excitedly.

Her arms wrapped around him suddenly and Noah's face jolted back in a silent surprise. Her reaction really wasn't what he was expecting. He was aiming for embarrassment, maybe a bit of hesitation and caution but not excitement. He gripped her shoulders with both his hands and pulled her off of him. "Are you out of your mind?" He asked her, his eyes glowing somewhat as he stared her down. "It's like you're attracted to danger or something. You're a weird cat-lady but I won't turn down your offer to stay the night," He uttered, letting his hands fall down to his side.

Akira barely seemed to be paying attention to Noah's words anymore as she whirled away from him and dashed back to her room, muttering to herself along the way, "If we're having a sleepover we're gonna needa make a tent..." Dragging sheets and pillows from off her bed, she spread them out on the ground between the bed and dresser. Then, she took her blanket and a stack of books and spread the blanket out above the sheets and pillows, using the books as weights to keep the blanket in place. It took a few attempts, with the "tent" collapsing inwards multiple times, but eventually she managed to get the blanket in place, though it still drooped down quite a bit in the middle. She clapped her hands together happily and stood to the side to admire her work. "There! Now its a real sleepover!"

Noah was content to just lounging on the couch when Akira left, but for some reason a mysterious pulse kept pulling his attention up the stairs. He ignored the feeling until it became too strong for him. He had to come up with a dumb excuse for him to go up there. The man climbed the stairs with long, quiet strides before stopping a bit behind Akira. His chewed on his gums in thought. She has to be my Ashikabi. Noah stepped pass Akira before turning his voice on the girl. "What are you doing with this?" He tried to sound uninterested.

Akira started at Noah's voice behind her, not having heard him come in. "It's a tent, of course! A sleepover just isn't a sleepover without a tent!" She paused, frowning slightly. "I think so, at least. I've never actually had a proper sleepover." The fretful look disappeared as she grabbed Noah's hand and tugged him towards the construct. "Come on, come inside!" she half-whined, half-giggled.

Noah was pulled inside, his expression taken aback as she dragged him in. It was becoming difficult to keep his persona true with the constant switch between flustered and flirtatious. He fell onto his knees on the floor of the tent, his eyes concentrating perfectly on Akira. Even her giggle had made him smile just a bit, perhaps the whole Ashikabi thing wouldn't be so bad. If it's her…than why not, he thought to himself. "You're pretty naive," said Noah, as he took hold of her hand intensely. If she was going to be his Ashikabi than it would only be appropriate to follow the rules of his power. She would be his if they established the bond and only his. He pulled the collar from his neck lightly with his free hand. "Treating me recklessly is going to toss your world upside-down, Akira." His voice was leaking with a cryptic danger.

Akira stared at him, sincerely confounded by his words. She was being reckless with him? Huh? Then her eyes widened and she put her free hand over her mouth. "Oh, I'm so sorry! I completely forgot about your wounds! Did I hurt them again?" she queried, nibbling at her lip nervously.

Her lip quivered and his heart went racing. How could she affect him so profoundly and not even know it? Noah smiled slightly before shaking his head slowly. "No, not even a little. A weak human like you could never hurt me," He told her before pulling his hand from hers."Honestly though, I'm starting to think that you're just inhumanly innocent."

Akira let out a breath of relief, then frowned as she went over his words in her head again. "But, I'm not human," she said, scowling up at him in a childish manner. "I'm a cat."

Noah raised a brow at her statement. "You're a cat?" he repeated, his eyes lifting up at the cat-like protrusions coming from her head. "But you're human, I can smell it on you," He mustered out.

"No, I'm a cat," Akira insisted. "I was just turned into a human."

Noah's brow slowly fell back down as she cutely pressed on that she was a cat. Well maybe now was the best time to actually see if she could get the picture; the idea that he was dangerous. Noah's eyes glowed a bit as he tensed his face into a furious snarl. "Well if you're a cat, than I should confess," He told her coolly. "I'm a wolf. The ancestor of all dogs."

Akira stared at Noah blankly for a few moments after his statement, her mind slow to understand the meaning of his words. Dog + cat = dead cat. Dead cat = not good at all. Her eyes widened slowly and she let out a cat-like hiss and slammed a foot into Noah's face before dragging herself to the opposite side of the make-shift tent, her eyes narrowed at him in a glare.

Her foot slammed into his face but he was utterly unmoved. He smiled a bit at her. "So you finally get it," He said lightly, attempting to make himself seem less dangerous. "You're a bit feisty too. Maybe you're not as dumb as I thought." He dulled his eyes again and smiled lightly at her. With his eyebrows lifted and his eyes narrowed, he crept forward. "Akira," He said firmly. "Calm down, I'm not that dangerous. You can be a cat if you want just pretend I'm a puppy. I don't like that look in your eyes."

Akira watched him warily, for once seeming to actually be paying full attention. Or, she was until he mentioned something about being a puppy. No, wait, he said to pretend he was a puppy. But did that mean he was actually a puppy? He was a very big puppy then... She scooted back over to him, any signs of fear gone. If he was a puppy, she didn't have to worry. Puppies had to be taken care of!

Noah stayed his ground as she drew close. He cracked his neck from side to side before finally sitting crisscross. His arms fell between his legs as he looked at her. The darkness in the tent was beginning to cling to her ravenous features. "I probably shouldn't tell you this but I'm in the middle of a war and I need a special someone to help me gain the power I need to win. I was wondering if you'd do it."

Akira's eyes went wide and she nodded eagerly, only to freeze as uncertainty entered her gaze. "I'll help if I can, but... I don't have any kind of power..."

Noah grinned just a bit, his lips turning up into a smirk. "Well then, there is only one requirement and that is," He uttered, leaning towards her. "All I need from you is one simple kiss."

"Ok," Akira said without hesitation. She shifted her body so she was facing Noah head-on and looked up at him expectantly.

Noah smiled at her, his expectations of new found strength lifting his pride. "Good," He told her, raising his hand up to the bottom of her jaw. "Don't move, let me do all the work." After a moment, he slowly begin to descend his lips down onto hers. He could feel her breath on his face and he could not deny the thrill that was sent coursing through his body. Soon he would be winged and he was sure he'd be ready for his next bout with the Disciplinary Squad.

At first the meeting of Akira and Noah's lips seemed to spark nothing at all, they held the kiss awkwardly for a moment with no results. However, the instant Noah started to think he may not have found his Ashikabi and began to let his eyes drift open they shot to full attention of their own accord. If Akira had enough control over her own body at that moment she would have opened her own eyes to see the jade fire now roiling in Noah's, accompanied by the faint blue glow now emanating from his body. An intense heat exploded throughout both without warning without one single moment of pain and a bright flash accompanied wings of pure light shooting out of Noah's back and bathing the room in their radiance. The wings were a bright, almost white blue at the edges, deepening to the darkest of blues at their centers, giving one the feeling of staring right through the ocean's surface and seeing all the way through to the bottom of it's deepest trench with perfect clarity. The Sekirei's wings left the room awash in their image, giving it the facade of being underwater. The warmth in their bodies was a stark, yet pleasant contrast to the cool colors surrounding them. In just a few moments that somehow felt instant and eternal all at once it was over, and both were brought to their senses, looking into each other's eyes and trying to understand what they had just experienced.

Akira's eyes opened wide, her mouth hanging open as she stared up at Noah wordlessly. "Wooooaaaah," she uttered after a time, somehow finding her voice. "Can we do that again?"

Noah's eyes were wide with undeniable surprise, his pupils minute against his emerald irises. "I don't think so, that has to be a once in a lifetime ride," uttered the Sekirei as he sat back on his butt. For some reason he could see Akira in a different light. It suddenly seemed like she was more than just a tool for him to become stronger, like maybe she was something to be cherished.

Akira seemed disappointed but didn't press the matter. Instead, she leaned in closer towards Noah, her eyes gleaming with curiosity. "Can you tell me about the planet you come from now? Do you have superpowers? Are there others like you? Are you fighting other aliens from an enemy planet? Is that what this war is all about?" Then she let out small gasp and said in a small voice. "Are you at war with Earth?"

Noah pursed his lips and narrowed his eyes, the muscles in his jaw tightening at her questions. Was she really all that interested about the Sekirei plan? Honestly, it was a bit trivial to him but he felt compelled to answer her questions. She would be stuck with him for long time. Even if she wanted out, his nature would be totally against it. Noah wet his lips with a small intake of air before smiling at her. "I don't know much about it myself. The planet I came from," He clarified for her. "But we are far stronger than you humans… As for earth, it's just a battleground. Nothing more and nothing less." He cocked his head towards her inquisitively. "Aren't you weirded out by this? You seem at home with the idea."

"Are you kidding?! I've always wanted to meet an alien!" Akira squealed. As if to emphasize her point, she snaked her arms around one of his and rubbed her head up against it, a purr rumbling in her throat.

Noah was surprisingly accepting of Akira's actions. Even if his face had expressed a conflict between two emotions, he couldn't pull his arm away from her. Instead he simply sat there and looked at the ceiling of the makeshift tent. Still though, his instincts were driving him to clear up her delusions. "Y'know that this isn't some E.T. movie, right?" He looked down at her ravenous head and pull her back so that he could look her in the eyes. "My fingers don't glow and I'm not a fairy tale role model. You think you can deal with that?"

Akira paused and looked up at Noah in confusion. "E.T.?" She had never heard of this E.T. movie, whatever it was. "Why would your fingers glow?" Her brow furrowed in thought before she shook her head. "I've never heard of an alien with glowing fingers."

Noah raised a brow at Akira, his face contorted with agitation. "How have you never seen E.T? I've only be around for a few years and even I've seen it." His arms left from around her shoulders as he reached up and rubbed the back of his head.

Then it all started to click with him, Akira was nowhere near the average human. She was kind, innocent, and a bit naïve. Not to mention she lacked even a thread of logical decision-making in her entire body. He shook his head of her. He had to shake the haze that she had over him and quick. "We-" he paused for only a second. "We should probably get some sleep. Your questions can wait till tomorrow can't it?" He asked her.

"I suppose...," Akira mumbled, falling silent. The silence continued for a few more moments before the girl perked back up and made for the door. "I'm going to get us a snack. Can't go to bed without snack time first!" Shutting the bedroom door behind her, she skipped down the stairs to where the living room and kitchen were conjoined, only a counter separating them into distinct rooms.

Before any awesome snackage could be properly acquired, Akira's TV turned on without any prompting and a voice ceremoniously echoed towards her. "Well hello! I can already tell this is going to be more fun than the last two!"

Akira nearly fell over in her surprise, only just managing to catch herself on the couch next to her. She slowly turned her head to stare at the face on the screen, her eyes bulging slightly. "Are you an alien too?"

A smile graced Hiroto Minaka's face, finally someone who would indulge him properly. "No my dear, I am the Game Master, who's sent out all these 'aliens' as you call them. And if I guess correctly you must be a beautiful cat."

Akira nearly let out another squeal of delight as she nodded rapidly. She liked this man! He was the only one to see her for what she really was without her having to tell him. Ooooh, and if he was the one who had sent out all the aliens, maybe he could tell her more about Noah! Scooting backwards, she plopped down on the couch behind her and sat attentively watching the TV as if she were merely viewing an enrapturing show, not even seeming to realize that a man talking to her through her television wasn't exactly normal. Then she remembered one of the words the man had said and she cocked her head to the side in confusion. "Game? Noah said it was a war."

"Don't many of the best games involve wars?" Minaka asked rhetorically, tilting his finger back and forth. "Akira, you have just become a part of the greatest love story the world has ever seen! What you call aliens, are known as Sekirei, they are super-beings very similar to humans. A Sekirei's only purposes are to find their Ashikabi and form a bond of love with them, and through that bond the Sekirei becomes more powerful. A Sekirei's second and ultimate purpose is to fight the other Sekirei until only one Ashikabi and their Sekirei are left standing! And you, my dear, are now an Ashikabi, with number 7, Noah as your first Sekirei."

You could practically see the stars in Akira's eyes as she listened. This was better than all of the manga she had read combined! She knew that if she waited long enough she would come across something like this! 'Woahwait, did he say first Sekirei?' Did that mean she would bond with others? More friends? More superpowered friends?! 'How many will I get?' she wondered. And then those superpowered friends would fight against other superpowered people and conquer them all, and, and...! If her tail had been real, it would be flicking wildly back and forth in anticipation; as it was, she could barely contain her excitement. This was just the sort of thing she had been waiting for all her life!

Her train of thought derailed as a problem came to mind: what use was she after she helped the Sekirei become more powerful? Nibbling anxiously at her lower lip, she voiced her concerns. "But... what am I supposed to do?"

Minaka's glasses glinted when he looked down and his grin turned even more manic than before. "Well that's the easy part, all you have to do is enjoy your partner. The stronger the love between an Ashikabi and their Seikirei, the stronger the Sekirei grow. And the more Sekirei a single Ashikabi has the more powerful they all grow. Since you're such a good listener I'll tell you everything you need to know personally. Those last two guys were no fun at all... The most important rule of the Sekirei plan is all battles are to be one-on-one between two Sekirei, no ganging up and Sekirei are never to attack an Ashikabi. The only other rule you really need to know is that neither you nor your Sekirei may leave Tokyo until the plan is complete."

Minaka flourished his hand dramatically. "Well that's all for now, Akira, good luck, if I may be honest you're my favorite so far. I'll be rooting for you Kitty-Ashikabi!" And the TV turned off as mysteriously as it had come on.

As soon as the TV went blank, Noah had descended down the stairs. A new terrifying look resting on his sculpted features. One of his hands was on the wall as he gazed towards Akira on the couch. "Was there a man in here?" He asked her seriously. He wasn't entirely sure but he had thought he had heard that man's voice from upstairs.

Akira looked up at Noah, sensing something wrong but not really understanding. She shook her head and pointed to the TV. "There was a man on there though."

Noah looked in the direction of the TV from the staircase. His expression was stuck in a frustrated glare as he concentrated on the voice he had heard up stairs. It wasn't possible…was it? With a short breath Noah shook his head of the thoughts. "It was taking you awhile," He uttered to her before starting back up the stairs.

Akira was about to follow Noah upstairs before she remembered her original reason for coming downstairs. Changing direction, she went instead to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. The shelves were quite bare, since she never had gotten her shopping done, but she was sure she had some leftovers somewhere... Aha! She pulled out a container and warmed the contents in the microwave before moving it to two separate plates. Humming cheerfully, she picked the platters up and carried them back to the room. Fried fish was the perfect midnight snack~!

Noah took notice of Akira heading off in a different direction but wasn't too worried about where. As long as he could feel her in the house, where she went didn't matter. He went back into the room and crawled into the tent, his body was stretched fully as he laid down on his side.

He would eat tomorrow, for now all he wanted was a nap. It would be too taxing for him head out to hunt now and much too late for him get something from the store. A shallow sigh left him as he thought about going to bed hungry. It didn't happen too often. His day had been chaotic and filled with emotions anyway, right now, he more than welcomed the sweet kiss of sleep.

"I brought fooooood~!" Akira declared as she entered the room. She ducked into the tent, both plates still in hand, to see Noah already laying down and seemingly sleeping. She sat there watching him for a moment, contemplating her choices: wake him up, or just eat the food herself? ...Eh, if he was hungry, he'd probably wake up himself. Setting one of the plates down next to Noah's head in the hopes of the smell enticing him to wakefulness, she set herself to delicately scarfing down the fish on her own plate.

It wasn't long until the scent of food had found its way directly into his nostrils. Sure he had smelled it before she had even made it up the stairs but being so close to the plate was too enticing. Without opening his eyes he pulled the scarf down so it wouldn't get dirty and sat up in the tent.

"Thanks…" he uttered less than appreciatively as he opened his eyes to the food. At first the smell had promised something delicious but upon looking at it…well, it wasn't the norm for him. He sighed lightly before taking it in his hand and biting into its body. "So Kitten, wanna tell me why you're so fond of cats?" He mumbled while chewing.

Akira paused in her eating to look up at Noah with a raised eyebrow. "Because I'm a cat, of course," she said, speaking as if explaining a simple solution to a young child. "Why else?"

For a moment Noah simply stared at her; while she ate he had hoped that she wouldn't catch him in the act. It seemed so simple and easy for her. He took another bite of the fish. It wasn't like he could exactly judge; he was a wolf after all. "A cat huh?" He uttered without purpose. "Do you think you could get along with a dog like me?" He asked her in between bites.

After gulping down the last bite of food, Akira replied, "You seem like a good dog, so I don't see why not."

A bitter expression narrowed his eyes at her. A sharp hmp came from him as he put the fish skeleton back on the plate with a silent coldness then turned back around. He disliked the idea that she saw him as a "good dog". Maybe it was his fault for using the term but he couldn't help the hurt pride that came with being called a dog. He laid down on his side, using his fist as a pillow before closing his eyes. Maybe tomorrow would offer up a chance to test out these new powers.

Akira chortled softly at Noah's reaction to her words, though she couldn't really understand why it bugged him. She didn't give it much though as she let out a yawn before curling up along side the Sekirei with a satisfied sigh and a purr rumbling in her throat.

 

[Sephear]

Day of Bonding: Stage Two of the Sekirei Plan begins

​

Karol peeked around the corner of the building at Shinto Teito's northern bridge, there were already MBI soldiers everywhere, they even had some APCs. He looked back to Juno and shook his head. "It's no good, the blockade is already being set up, we're going to have to fight our way through."

His Sekirei's eyes grew even wider and she shook for a moment. "B-b-but... I thought the whole point of trying to leave the city was so we wouldn't have to fight."

He grabbed her hands and held them together before pulling them to his chest. "Hey, hey, Juno. This isn't the same, we won't be tearing people who are in love from one another like this. We can do this, as long as I have you nothing will stand in our way." Tears formed in her eyes both at the sentiment and fear of what lay ahead, but she nodded and hugged her Ashikabi tight.

---

"Hmmm... no no no, we can't have any escapees. Especially not after I was generous enough to inform every Ashikabi personally of the blockades." Minaka kicked off of his desk to roll over to another one, taking the time to spin gleefully like a child on the way. He hated to react so strongly to a bit of fear, really, he did. But one does not simply break the Game Master's absolute rules, and he couldn't allow false confidence to convince other Sekirei to so foolishly throw themselves off of a metaphorical cliff. His smile grew even wider and more maniacally sinister when he pressed the COMs button on the desk. "North Blockade, get on alert, you have some visitors incoming. Make sure you keep them busy for a little while." He rolled away again and tapped the device on his ear. "You heard that right?"

---

"Go! Come on it's not much further!" Everything was going better than expected, the blockades may have been up but they weren't completely finished yet. Karol and Juno had made it soon enough that the floodlights weren't up yet, and in the dark they'd been able to get very close to the guards before they were seen, and now they were almost halfway across the bridge. Only one squad of guards and a single APC still stood in their way, but this team was more prepared and already had their guns trained on the would-be escapees. In a panic Juno grabbed Karol and kissed him, blushing as heat suffused their bodies and her wings made their appearance. By the ripples of our intertwined hearts all my Ashikabi's foes will quake in fear and kneel in defeat!

With the surge of power brought on by the kiss and her Norito Juno reacted before any of the surprised private soldiers could fire on her, and lifted her glowing mace into the air. Hallowed Tremor! With strength that could register on the Richter scale she brought the head of the mace down onto the bridge, sending a shockwave out that lifted the road above it like a wave of water, sending the men flying into the water below and the APC bowling over on it's side. Karol wasted no time getting next to Juno again, grabbing her arm and pulling her along to sprint as fast as they could towards freedom.

"That's it, we're going to make it! We won't have to see or cause anyone else to be torn away from their true loves!" The thought brought tears to their eyes. "I knew you could handle it, you're greatest Sekirei anyone could ask fo-"

Steel Cyclone! A torrent of spiraling air made it's way toward them and even in her heightened state of strength Juno couldn't keep up with it or parry it. When the wind drew closer she was just barely able to see a solid object in it before it caught her. Swirling around in the miniature tornado was a long steel staff, chains lashing out from either side of it, one chain had a blade on the end of it and the other a wrought iron weight. The attack slammed into Juno mercilessly and the staff struck her multiple times as it spun before the chains began to wrap into her, the chain with the blade snared her legs and the blade itself cut into her left ankle, slicing a tendon. Knocked off balance already Juno was hit doubly hard by the inverse momentum of the other chain wrapping around her torso while the weight smacked her in the head and pulled the top half of her body down to the floor with her bottom half.

"Well you got one thing right, you won't be seeing anymore Ashikabi and Sekirei pulled apart after tonight." The cold detachment in the voice chilled them even through the shock and fear already roiling through their bodies. A girl with long blond twin tails wearing the uniform of the discipline squad landed next to Juno and walked over to her slowly and deliberately.

"Leave us alone!" Karol yelled at the heartless woman with all the rage he could muster. "Haven't you caused enough pain already?!? Don't you ever get tired of making people suffer?!? You soulless ♥♥♥♥♥! You're nothing but a doll that deranged Minaka uses to-" He was silenced by the fist sinking into his stomach hard enough to break a rib or two at the same time as it knocked the wind out of him.

Karol slumped over onto Maki's shoulder before she tossed him to the side. "Shut up, after the night I've been through I'm in no mood for any sentimental crap." She took the last few steps to Juno and moved her chains just enough to rip the back of her shirt off, revealing the avian symbol accompanied by the familiar yin-yang emblem. For once not feeling any joy at having beaten another opponent Maki put two fingers to the Sekirei Symbol and sighed while her hair lifted of it's own accord and she began to glow. By the laws of my contract I will punish those who forget their place.

~~~~

Over 20 minutes later Karol was still by Juno's side, his eyes hadn't dried in the slightest and his voice was still strong in spite of how hoarse it was, the anger and sadness were still so fresh in him he couldn't keep his thoughts inside. "Why did this have to happen? And to her of all people... She was so sweet... She didn't even care about winning."

Maki leaned against one of the bridge's rails and waited for MBI's collection helicopter to show up, and wished the whole time the brat would just shut his trap. That's exactly why she was doomed from the beginning, the life of a Sekirei isn't for pacifists. They'd only known each other a few days, he had no right to get so sappy over the whole thing.

Karol slammed his fist on the road one more time, ignoring the pain and the blood seeping out of his knuckles, it was nothing compared to everything else he felt. This entire plan is a farce! It's just some excuse for that megalomaniac to watch us all squirm from his tower!... his evil villain spire of power! He felt the wind on his hair and heard the sounds of a helicopter above his head, but he didn't bother to lift his gaze or really move at all. When the men from MBI moved to collect Juno he felt one last burst of energy and hugged her to his chest, glad that the discipline Sekirei at least had the courtesy to take off the chains after she'd been deactivated. "This has to stop." He whispered into her now-deafened ears. "I don't care what it takes... I don't care if I survive, he can't just wait for people to find their soulmates... something so much purer than any love humans ever share with each other, only to tear them apart."

Some of the body collectors started to speak, and one began to push Karol but he shot upright and slugged the nameless man as hard as he could across the face. It was a valiant effort but the men soon had Karol on the ground, bruised and none the more satisfied for his attempt at fighting his fate. He watched the copter slowly lift into the air, only being able to just barely see the top of Juno's head for a moment before the collection copter flew off. His fists never loosened for even a moment as he strode back towards Tokyo, not even seeing any of the guards or vehicles he passed on the way.

---

"Ugh! Let me go you stupid tools! I don't need this, he was perfect!" A young woman yelled at the two Sekirei who had her by either arm, her strange blue hair smacking the male Sekirei in the face. Burkh didn't react to her words or her actions, he simply held her tight and waited for the elevator to finish it's ascent.

This always put a foul taste in Burkh's mouth, but he had to survive the plan at all costs, the pain of his victims was a small price to pay for true freedom. Why couldn't all the girls he brought in jump at the chance like some others did? It made it so much easier on him. "It won't be so bad, you'll have whatever you need and all the friends you could ever ask for." There was a ding signalling their arrival and the elevator's door opened, letting the golden ambiance of the sunrise shower them in radiance through the huge windows the eastern wall was made up of. "And see? Look at the view, it's not like it's a prison."

"I don't need you jerks for friends! Yuichiro was all I would have ever needed!" Her ranting continued while Burkh and his assistant half guided, half dragged her into the center of the room, in fact it didn't stop until a finger pressed to her lips.

"Now now, there's no need for such harsh words, we're all friends here my dear." She finally raised her eyes from the floor to glare defiantly at her captor, but one look at him took her breath away. Not because he was the most handsome man she had ever seen (although he was) but because she recognized him. That perfect face gracing the chiseled, golden-haired head atop that mountain of sculpted man could only belong to one person.

"Oh great, it's you, that German prick who's always got all the floosies falling at his feet like some-"

"Adonis?"

"Actually you remind me more of Narcissus."

A smile graced the man's features, highlighting his somehow-masculine beauty even more. "Well look who actually managed to get a hold of some worthwhile intellectual material in MBI's scientific prisons. All the better to know I've found such a clever girl."

"Shove it Dietrich."

"Please, please sweetheart, call me Brandy, all of my good... friends do."

She started to swish her tongue around her mouth in an attempt to gather a nice big blob of saliva to hock in his face but Burkh's hand pinched her cheeks and made her swallow it, this wasn't his first time being witness to such a farce. She wouldn't be beaten so easily though, she was going to make them fight for every inch of progress, so she readied herself to kick him right in his pride the moment he got close.

Before she knew it a warm, soft hand was on her cheek, stroking it as if she were the most important thing in the world. "Shhh, sweet Serrice, everything will make sense in a moment."

That smug bastard would get his-"I-I...whhhuh?" Her knees had gone weak, she couldn't gather the strength for the kick, she felt warm all over, and she wasn't even all that angry anymore. She didn't understand, weren't Sekirei only supposed to react to one Ashikabi in their lifetimes? Yuichiro was the one for her already...so why... She didn't have long to ponder the anomaly however, all confusion was forced out of her mind by the sensation of Dietrich's lips on hers. All thoughts of fighting back, all the hatred faded from her when the wings of light shot out of her back and her doom was ordained.

"Ah, I never get tired of that wonderful feeling."

Burkh let his grip of the new Sekirei die and the other guard who'd been holding her left the room without needing to be told. "Will that be all Mr. Brandt?"

"Yes Burkh." Dietrich replied with a contented sigh. "Leave Serrice and I alone for a while, I have a few things to explain to her."

"As you wish, don't take too long Dietrich, our scouts and one of my other sources tell me the Bridges out of the city have all been blockaded, looks like Phase Two is beginning. In fact it sounds like someone may have already tried to escape... They got caught by the discipline squad."

"A shame not everyone can follow the rules as respectfully as I."

"Right... whatever you say, I'm gonna go for a walk."

---

Seiji sat up in the couch so fast he fell right off and face-planted on the carpet. "Ah! Amazon army of super women conquering the modern world!" He sat there on the floor for a moment contemplating what he had just said and what an idiot he felt like. "Why do I have to watch such stupid movies? Ugh... Good morning world, guess it's time for my first day as an Ashikabi..."

 

[Zeta Sukuna]

Waking and Waiting

​

As much as she didn't want to, Kotone began to finally come back to the conscious world. Every attempt at trying to get back to sleep was foiled by the pain shooting through her hand. "Bluuuuurgargle." She slowly picks herself up before realizing something...

She's on something soft. Not just soft, but warm. She feels around with her good hand, ruffling the sheets below her. "Where...?" Kotone's voice trails off before clicking her tongue. Sending out her ki, she feels the room around her. And sitting off to the left is another ki signature, the one of her Ashikabi.

She smiles and grabs the blanket that covered her, lifting it up and carrying it over to him. She tries as hard as she can to put it over him, although when she's done, it's just kind of splayed out over parts of him and his computer. She smiles and pats him gently before walking out. 'Hope he wasn't too cold all night. While he's asleep, I should get some practice in.' Kotone thinks to herself. She stops and clicks her tongue again, getting a feel for this room as well. She puts her hand on the wall and feels for a door.

It doesn't take long, and she twists the knob open. She clicks her tongue again. The room she senses before her seems to have a lot of room. "Hmm... I think this'll do!" Kotone smiles and walks inside, shutting the door behind her. While she waits for Ryce to wake up, she might as well get some training done, after all.

 

[Fort PokePower]

Fia - The Blazing Aria
Morning Flight​

Azure eyes opened to the soft glare of the morning sun that trickled in through the blinds. Fia let out a sigh, stretching her arms over her head and feeling the sheets shift against her bare skin. Her clothes lay neatly draped over the dresser, a few small tears and dust still marking them from the previous night's battle; a small red ribbon, not of the size Fia preferred but at least of the right color, lay on top of the pile. She hadn't been about to let the clothes get even more scuffed and wrinkled in bed, and so had taken them off for the night. She would have to get some new clothing soon, though... These simply would not do to wear for very long. At least the tears were not in any terribly obvious places, the only terribly bothersome thing being how dirty they were after only a day's use. For now, though, she would have to make due with what she had - which is what she did as she donned the clothing, fixing the ribbon in her hair.

It seemed too early for Seiji to be up, as the sun was just barely peaking over the horizon, so Fia decided not to bother her Ashikabi quite yet; delicate humans needed their rest, after all. Perhaps a little fresh air and time to herself before becoming completely captivated within her Ashikabi's life would do; with this thought in mind, she walked over to the window and opened it, pulling the curtains open to either side. A light gust, filled with the smells of the city, greeted her, tossing her silvery white hair about behind her back. Maybe fresh air was a bit of a stretch in a large city... but the air above should be cleaner. With a burst of song, though the volume was low so as not to disturb the apartment's other inhabitant, she summoned forth her wings and leaped out of the window. Fia was certain she would be back before Seiji woke, so she didn't bother leaving a message for him; and if he did wake early and worry at finding her gone, it would grant her some amusement.

It took some work to get at a high enough altitude that she could ride the wind with ease, though she wasn't technically moving a muscle in the first place. Flying with wings made of fire was quite the strange sensation. She could feel the wings moving, but not anything that touched them. In fact, objects passed through them as they would pass through normal flames, but somehow, they were able to beat against the wind as if they were real wings. Quite odd indeed.

By now she was far above Tokyo, the buildings far below appearing to be nothing but children's toys, scatterings of clouds obscuring her vision of them. Any normal person would have been freezing at this height, especially wearing the thin clothing Fia did; Fia, however, was able to regulate her body temperature through her flames, so she was never really cold. In fact, the chilling wind brushing against her warm skin was quite exhilarating. Breathing deeply of the considerably fresher air, she then let the breath out before gliding gradually lower until she was hovering just over Seiji's apartment. She glanced briefly about, simply getting an idea of their surroundings in the daylight, before slipping back in through the window and dismissing her wings. Her flight had lasted barely over 30 minutes, and it did not seem that Seiji had woken to notice her absence.

Rolling her shoulders to release the tension in them that had come from flying, she strolled into the sitting room where she found Seiji still sleeping on the couch. Her lips twisting in a small smirk, Fia sat herself on the edge of the couch and leaned over him, her arm resting on the back of the couch for support as she stared down at his face. The amused expression still on her face, she lightly flicked his nose and leaned down closer to breathe into his ear, "Good morning, Seiji dearest."

---

Akira Takako
Wakey Wakey, Eggs and Bakey!

​

"Nyaaaaaaah~!" Akira yawned out, her watery blue eyes fluttering open. There was something warm against her back... Turning her head, she stared at the man she was curled up next to, her sleepy mind taking a moment to recall what had happened the previous night. Oh, right, his name was Noah, and he was a... Sekree? No, that didn't sound right... Sekirei! Yeah, that was it! Finally awake enough to remember the previous night's details, a smile lit up her face. That's right, he was her friend now!

Shifting carefully away from Noah so as not to wake him, Akira kneeled next to him for a moment as she contemplated waking him. ...Nah, she'd make breakfast first. Crawling out of the tent, Akira went down the short flight of stairs to the ground floor then to the kitchen. Before long, the sound of bacon sizzling in a pan could be heard, and the scent of food wafted through the house. She wasn't holding back this morning; besides the bacon, there was a platter gradually filling with pancakes, and there was a serving bowl holding the already finished scrambled ham-and-cheese eggs; meanwhile, the coffee was sitting piping hot in its pot.

After flipping the bacon out of the pan and onto a plate, Akira shut the stove off then dashed back up to her room. Throwing the door wide open, she jumped on top of the blanket tent, aiming for the spot she remembered Noah laying. The entire construct collapsed under her weight as she sat herself on the humanoid lump that could be none other than her Sekirei companion and proceeded to shake him by his shoulder. "Wakey wakey, eggs and bakey!"

 

[Yamagi Sosuke]

Noah the Wolf

Noah laid awake on the floor of the tent, his forest green eyes staring blankly at the soft walls. He had a lot to think about. Yesterday he had been plagued by thoughts of weakness, his anger once again had gotten the best of him. I was a fool! he told himself, solemnly. Winging myself to her was a mistake.

He squeezed a pillow between his head in frustration. It was too late now! He could already feel the love for her budding in his heart, changing his outlook. Even in the darkness he could see the faintest outlines of her face; her blues eyes shimmering back at him in that naïve yet cute look.

Letting the thought slide through the cracks of his indecisions. It was the smell of breakfast and the sounds of quick footfalls against stairs that made him bring his head from under the pillow. Akira… He thought to himself, joy spilling over even in his mind. He didn't have a chance to berate himself before a small mass landed on top and crushed the tent.

With a few grunts and incoherent curses, Noah pulled himself from under the covers, Akira ending up between his wide-spread legs. "Did you cook breakfast?" He asked, bypassing the topic of her rudely jumping him and heading straight for the food. "Hey," Two sniffs in the air was taken. "Bacon? Pancakes, maybe? I didn't know you could cook." said the wolf half-surprised and half-happy.
​

 

[Sephear]

Chapter 1.5
Day of Bonding: Good morning world

​

After his oh-so-graceful faceplant earlier in the morning Seiji had crawled back onto the couch and returned to sleep, this time left to the peace of a dreamless slumber. Not a single thing disturbed him, that is, until a light flick across his nose was just enough for him to start opening his eyes. While the reluctant lids creaked their way open he felt what was definitely the most beautiful voice he knew of tickle his ear . "Good morning, Seiji dearest."

His eyes finished opening but his mind still took a moment to adjust to the world before he could react to anything. Seiji felt the strongest sense of contentment he ever had when everything came back to him, here he was being woken up by his Sekirei... He still didn't know exactly what that might entail, but it made him feel good. "Good morning, Fia." He said, stretching and sitting up. "You still look as beautiful as yesterday, even better somehow, I guess it all wasn't some crazy dream after all." He finished with a smile and a wink.

"Perhaps you would be so kind as to get me some new clothes, then, so I can be even more pleasing to your eyes," Fia said as she sat up, her eyelashes fluttering flirtatiously.

Seiji stood up and stretched again. "Well I'll do what I can, I'm not rich by any means, but I'll try." After a moment of contemplation he rubbed a finger over his chin and snapped. "I have an idea, I've got some money put aside I..." He paused for a second, remembering it was for if he ever proposed to Hiromi tightened his chest, but he was able to relax again when he looked at Fia. "We could go shopping if you'd like, we could get you some new clothes and... spend some time together at the same time. I mean, if you want to."

'Well that was fairly easy,' Fia thought with a smile. Not even a day after being released into the world, and she'd gotten herself an Ashikabi that would buy her clothes to fit her tastes. Well, unless he chickened out when he saw the price tags. She'd just have to wait and see. "I'd love to. I warn you, though; my taste in clothing is extravagant as my taste in food. But, perhaps I'll go easy on you for today since you are my Ashikabi after all," she said with a disarming smile.

"That's very kind of you." Seiji said in a playfully sarcastic way, still smiling. "Don't worry, I could tell just by looking at your clothes, I'll try to accommodate you. Just let me get ready, we can't all look so good so easily." He walked into his room and came out shortly with an armful of clothes, walking over to the bathroom and pulling the door open. "No peeking." He said with a waggle of his finger.

Fia raised an eyebrow at him, her expression one of dry amusement. "I don't have x-ray vision... yet. So you're safe from these eyes for the moment."

He wasn't in for too long before the sound of the water stopped, he didn't want to keep Fia waiting, and a minute later he was out of the bathroom with his hair neatly combed and the rest of him dressed in a green button-down shirt and black slacks. "Well it's not exactly extravagant or the most stylish thing ever, but it suits me well enough."

Fia circled around Seiji, eyeing him over wordlessly. When she stopped in front of him, she shrugged. "Well, at least we can rest assured that one of us is looking good." she said offhandedly.

The comment hurt a little bit whether she intended it to or not, but he shrugged it off, he wasn't some model or fashion guru, he never had any illusions of being especially fashionable. Seiji sidled up to the front door, opened it and put his arm out towards Fia. "Shall we?"

Linking her arm with Seiji's, Fia nodded. "Let's."

While they made their way out into the streets of Tokyo Seiji couldn't help enjoying how warm and soft Fia's arm was. He couldn't decide if he was lucky or not being sucked into such a big mess. So for now, I think I'll enjoy spending time with a special lady.

 

[Lucifer-san]

An Enthusiastic Stroll
Layfe Sekirei of Darkness
-------------------------------------------------------

While everyone else had been up to the things and like a certain Sekirei had other things to intend to. "......Snore..." The snoring not being apart of the other things he had been up too but you get the gist of things. "Stupid narrator in my head shut up already..." Layfe grounded out as his form shifted from its lazy position on the couch. He yawned a bit as he stretched his body to get any kinks from sleeping on the couch/bed in his warehouse, it was morning currently if his internal clock was to be believed so that meant it was time to get up and enjoy the beautiful world. 'Tch yeah right...' he thought to himself, he'd probably go and get himself his coffee and get prepared for the dreaded thing he called a.....job. I mean how else would he be able to afford this warehouse, it's not like he could just totally rob people and not get in trouble for it......could he? Shaking his head he went over to his restroom and stepped into the shower, it wouldn't do for him to have such thoughts lest he act on them randomly.

A short while later he was out of the shower and getting some casual clothing on while he had some insta-ramen in the microwave. Throwing on some black pants and simple black shoes, he buttoned up his white shirt and grabbed his ramen and began to eat after muttering a quick prayer. This was really just a snack as this wouldn't really fill him up to much but food was food, and it helped him think a bit more clearly as he always seemed to be a bit more.....loopy in the morning when he was hungry. Finishing off his food he quickly made his exit from the warehouse and decided that now was the good time to get some of the things he needed done, done.

A while later we find Layfe in a certain manga establishment. "Hmm what should I pick up today...?" He murmured slightly as he browsed through all the manga the place had, he had read through some of the newer ones that had been released and was disappointed. Some times the classics were the best things but there were those that disagreed so meh. "Hmm what's this..?" Picking up a basket full of somewhat old manga he picked up some of the books and read the name on the spine of it. "Destiny/stay night....somehow that doesn't seem right. As if the title was changed to avoid something....oh well." He shrugged not knowing how right he was as he went up to the cashier.

"Hey miss how much are these books?" He asked the cashier who was currently looking down at her phone texting someone. She looked up for a moment and blushed slightly as she began to speak. "U-um those are free, I-I mean you can have them we were just going to give them away anyways." She said slightly stuttering as she looked up at me, it was mostly like this when he spoke to females and it was slightly annoying at times but meh it wasn't really all that troubling. Giving her a charming smile and uttering a short "Thank you." He grabbed the basket in one arm and decided to take a stroll around Tokyo, he had quite a bit of time till he had to work so a nice stroll would do him good.

I mean there was no way- you know what he wasn't going to walk onto that landmine last time he had ended up jinxing himself. No he was just going to go for a nice enthusiastic stroll through Tokyo and enjoy himself. Opening one of his books he began to read as he took his enthusiastic stroll through Tokyo, hmm maybe he'd stop at the park or something along the way because parks are peaceful.
​

 

[disciplish]

Ryce
It was the best of dishes, it was the worst of... balls?

Ryce woke up that morning a bit sore. Much of his mind was jumbled up in a disarray, and due to it's "disarray" he also felt as if sleeping on... some proposition he couldn't remember at that moment. It hadn't really been much of his fault, since it was late at night and his muscles had been more than sore; maybe it was just the fact that he got to converse with Seiji was... wait a moment. Ryce shuffled around a bit in his chair, still in a more lax, reclined position but slowly opened his eyes. He noted three things:

• He had a blanket. The blanket was comfortable, warm, and he quite honestly was content to have it. He wasn't sure if it was a cold, or hot, night, or even when it was put on him, but just the fact that it was there was enough to make him happy, a small, groggy smile showing up on his face as he noticed it.
• Kotone was up. Why was Kotone up, he didn't know, but she was up and by the sound of it she was already in another room. ...Maybe she was training? The walls were too thick to tell.
• Some of his stuff was OH GOD HIS STU-... nah. Ryce realized a few things were on the ground but he simply didn't care enough. Most of it was invaluable nuts and bolts.

He sighed as, after these three things, he realized his situation once again. He was happy to have Kotone nearby, but part of him had slightly wished he hadn't really heard all of these things and the previous night no one was trying to kill him and it was all a far-fetched dream. The text of the Sekirei plan rules that was on his phone- which was now on the desk in front of him. Getting up slowly, he creeped out of his room and quietly went into the kitchen instead. He fumbled around for a moment, looking for some premade rice, and quickly put together a few rice balls- putting avocado inside of them since he wasn't too crazy about what he was making. Eating one, he smiled. Not too bad- although they were strangely shaped. Normally onigiri was triangle-ish, but this was... square? Oh well. That wasn't what mattered, right? He placed them on a tray and held it one hand.

He walked over to the spare room where he could hear Kotone training, and opened the door slowly. He hadn't held a conversation with her since she had been winged, and because of this he wasn't exactly sure how to proceed. "...Good morning! I... I uh... I brought you some breakfast- just some quick onigiri I threw together. I have soy sauce in the fridge too." He smiled nervously.

 

[Geras]

Athena
Who Is Athena, The Knight?​

The indistinguishable voices of a surrounding crowd stirred Athena unpleasantly from her slumber. As she lifted her head to take in the scene around her, a sharp pain that was already becoming familiar shot through her head, forcing her to grit her teeth. It seemed that even a night's rest would not be enough for her to recover from how much she'd exerted herself yesterday. Gripping her head with one hand, she used the other to help herself up to a sitting position.

There was a decently sized crowd of children and a few parents as well watching her from a certain distance away. It reminded her of the previous morning when she woke with roof workers as her spectators instead. She wasn't sure what was more surprising to people; the armor or being asleep out in the open. Perhaps it was the combination of both that drew them in. However, now that she had remembered the existence of her MBI funds card, she didn't plan to sleep out in the open like this again.

Finally sitting upright, she reached down to where her helmet sat on the ground and placed it on her head. At that point, she immediately ceased the exhausted, pained groans she'd been making and fixed her posture. Her mind begged her for more sleep, but she knew that she couldn't do that here on the bench again and thus began walking to see if she could find a hotel nearby.

She could hear some of the people's conversations as she passed through the crowd, noting children asking if she was a princess or parents whispering about the city's drunks among other things. Both notions were amusing, as they were so far from the truth. A knight was meant to protect a princess, not be one, and she never planned to drink a drop of alcohol in her life as she needed to keep her body in top shape to protect people best. Although she wouldn't exactly call how she felt right now "top shape".

It didn't take too long to find a hotel after some asking around, as the few people willing to give her the time of day seemed happy to help what they probably thought was a lost tourist. Once there, her card cleared and she entered what was now her room. The hotel itself was nothing too extravagant, but it was still of good quality. The first thing she noticed was the large, soft bed sitting in the middle of the room. While it would be nice to just lie down on it and go to sleep right now, she didn't feel comfortable with wasting a day she could spend searching for her Ashikabi.

The previous day's events passed through Athena's mind for what seemed like the hundredth time already, specifically what happened at the end of the day. She held her hand forward and attempted to conjure a barrier, something that she couldn't do without intense pain last night. A simple box of lavender-colored energy formed in front of her, and to be sure it wasn't unstable she stood on it. It seemed that she had recovered at least some of her strength, however a tension in her head that threatened to worsen proved that it would still be a while before she regained all her energy. It seemed that this was what she got for challenging the Disciplinary Squad before she'd even been winged.

To avoid wasting energy needlessly, Athena stepped down from her box and dispelled it. Her next move would be to leave the hotel and continue searching, but as she was walking through the door that annoying growling sound from her stomach signaled a change in plans. It might be smarter to go get something to eat, especially considering that she hadn't eaten anything all day yesterday. Remembering her hunger made its effects suddenly hit her, and she tried to clutch her stomach in pain only to be stopped by the armor.

With her hand on her stomach, she realized something was off. Looking down, she saw a dent in that area of her armor so that the metal dug into her gut slightly. It was clear that it came from the back of the Disciplinary Squad member's fist during the fight. It occurred to her that despite the toll the battle took on her, she'd only taken one actual hit during the entire fight. She sighed as she imagined how the battle would have gone if she were on her own. However, instead of brooding over it like she would have before, she simply smiled softly. It looks like I still have a long way to go.

Athena's focus shifted to the armor itself. A knight had to take pride in their armor, and her armor didn't particularly look good with a big dent in it. Fortunately, it wouldn't take too long to fix as, despite her relative weakness as a Sekirei, she was still substantially stronger than a human whereas her armor was substantially weaker than real armor. She set about preparing for the repairs.

First, Athena locked the door with both its locks. She then moved one of the chairs in the room so that the back of the chair was underneath the doorknob, pushing the door shut. Next, she pushed a table in the room against the door as well, stacking various other objects on top of it in hopes of increasing its weight and further block the door. There was still the issue of the window, though. She wished she had a hammer and nails so she could nail something in front of it but that wasn't an option. Instead, she simply closed the blinds and curtains before placing a barrier in front of the window. For good measure, she placed another over the window and one on the door. It probably wasn't a smart use of her energy, but she wouldn't feel safe otherwise.

Finally done with her preparations she began to remove her cuirass, having to remove her pauldrons and neck guard first to properly get to it. Despite her preparations, she still began to feel nervous once the cuirass was off, so she placed another barrier over the window just to be sure. She looked down at the sheet of metal on the ground in front of her. It was always so strange looking at it like that. She realized that the dent went farther in than she'd first thought and instinctively put her hand to her stomach once more. Once the armored hand touched her soft belly rather than the hard shell of the cuirass, she flinched. Maybe she'd go find a chainmail shirt to wear underneath the plate later.

Her attention went back to the cuirass, and she started punching at the underside of the dent. It only took about a minute before the dent was more-or-less gone, but she spent several more making sure that the cuirass looked as undamaged as possible. As she did so, she realized that if she was capable of forcing her armor into a different shape, that Disciplinary Squad member should have been capable of much more than the dent she did make. It occurred to her that she'd probably been going easy on them all and still utterly destroyed them, and it made her shudder.

Once the armor was pretty much fixed, she frantically put it back on, not wanting to be without it even a second more. The moment everything was back on, the barriers she'd made dispelled. She moved to put the furniture back as well, but she stumbled as she tried to walk. Just maintaining those barriers took that much of my energy? She sighed, understanding that she probably shouldn't have made so many barriers anyway. Ignoring her renewed exhaustion, she put everything in the room back where it belonged. With that done, Athena walked out of the hotel and back into the city streets.

The first order of business was finding a place to eat, something her stomach would not stop reminding her of. She walked along the street knowing that eventually one of the city's many restaurants would come into view. However, something else intriguing came into view first. It was a store by the name of "Kaoru's Costume Shop". Ignoring her stomach for just a little bit longer, she entered the store and quickly exited with a massive grin on her face and a sword in her hands. While inside she'd purchased a sword belt as well in which she placed the sheathed blade. She was tempted to draw the blade and admire its beauty, but she knew better than to wave around weapons in the middle of Tokyo.

Athena realized that if she continued the way she was going, she would eventually happen upon Sakura's, the maid cafe from before. She turned before she got there and reached another area she had yet to explore. Wandering around, she happened upon a restaurant with what looked like an employee ushering people in. Athena came up to him and realized that he looked somewhat familiar.

"Yo, Gaijin!" shouted the voice to her. The way he said the word 'Gaijin' was all she needed to know who he was.

"Ya...Yamato, was it? I did not expect to see you again, given how packed this city is." Athena thought she'd forgotten about him, but the fact that she remembered his name meant otherwise.

"Me neither," he replied with a laugh. "So did you ever find that guy you were looking for? Bet they came swarming after you when you got to the club! Well, maybe not if you were wearing that, but that face is enough to at least catch some guys."

Athena wasn't sure what to say, given that she didn't even make it to that club. However, she could still answer the main question. Images of Ryce and Seiji appeared in Athena's head for some reason, but she quickly waved them away. After a pause, she finally said, "No, I don't think I found him."

"Oh?" Yamato raised an eyebrow as if Athena had said something strange. "That pause makes me think you found someone who might be your guy, but maybe you don't want to admit its him. Or maybe he's not exactly what you were looking for. Either way, you might want to consider giving him a shot. Although, it's no place of mine to give you that sort of advice."

Athena's brow furrowed as she reflected over those words. Honestly, she had no idea what to say, but before Athena could respond Yamato abruptly ended the conversation, saying, "As much as I'd love to keep chatting with you, I do have a job do. That job being getting you to go in there and eat some delicious ramen. But maybe you could come over another day during my 3:00 break and I could give you some life tips or something."

A small smile adorned the knight's face at being spared from having to reply to his conjectures. "Perhaps. Let me ask you something. Why have you been helping me like this?" She found it strange and very uncharacteristic of someone living in Tokyo that he'd take such an interest in her personal life to the point of offering that kind of advice.

"Because you remind me of how my sister used to be." He didn't miss a beat before answering her. Athena raised an eyebrow as if asking for an explanation. His face turned thoughtful as he seemed to reflect. "She was very lost, mentally I mean. She didn't know what she wanted or how to get it. That was probably because she couldn't know what she wanted when she didn't even really know who she was. I get the feeling you're in a similar situation." His usual grin reappeared. "But that's all a hunch, since I haven't really talked to you enough to know you that well."

It looked like Athena wanted to say something, but at this point Yamato actually pushed her into the ramen shop. As he pushed, he said, "Now go, we're blocking the doorway! Like I said, we'll talk later!" Athena couldn't really argue as her stomach growled the loudest it had since it started. "Haha, see? Your stomach agrees with me too!" Athena sighed, and proceeded to order a good-looking bowl of ramen at a table while Yamato went back outside the shop.

The bowl soon arrived, but Athena found herself simply staring at it as she thought over Yamato's sister, who she supposedly resembled. She didn't know she was, huh?
​