Cold Hearts & Steel Claws

Minato panted hard trying to catch his breath after having just been dragged for more than six blocks by a strange but incredibly cute girl who was incredibly strong and fast for how she looked. Catching his breath he looked over at her as she stood next to him waiting for him to feel normal again, 'She isn't even breathing heavy in the slightest! What is up with all these strange women today?' finishing his thought as he finally caught his breath enough to feel a bit normal again he realized he'd just been dragged over six blocks by this girl and yet he hadn't even gotten her name.

"So, uhm… I'm Minato, Minato Sahashi. What is your name if you don't mind myself asking?" He was a bit apprehensive of asking not sure of how she might react but he felt like he should know after the crazy stuff that had just happened to him and her involvement in it.

"Oh! I'm so sorry, you saved me when I fell off that building and then I dragged you with me when I ran. I don't know why I did that I guess I just reached out and grabbed your hand without thinking. My name is Musubi, It's very nice to meet you Minato!" She spoke with a smile on her face and a singular finger upon her chin showing Minato that she could be a little bit spacy at times but that she was a very cheery and effervescent person.

"Don't worry about it Musubi, I still have the groceries I had to get so its alright, nothing to worry about." He smiled at her trying to assuage any guilt that she may be having over what she had done.

"Thank you Minato, you're so kind." Musubi smiled brightly back in return. 'He is so kind and generous. He saved me when I fell and now he is being nice and trying to make me feel better after I've taken him so far out of his way. I wish I could find an ashikabi like him.' Just as Musubi was thinking this they heard a commotion arise and Minato and herself turned to find the cause only to see the twins from earlier appear down the street walking towards them as they bickered loudly between themselves about who's fault it was for losing Musubi back at the train station. Just as Minato's luck seemed to be going that day the twins just happened to glance in their direction at that moment staring at them with dark smiles growing upon their near identical faces as they began to stride confidently towards them.

"We thought that you'd be winged already after you ran off with that guy." Spoke the twin that appeared to be the dominant one as she took the lead, "But since you aren't that means it's our lucky day and we still get to fight you." the other finished coming up behind her larger chested sister and crossing her arms as she stood. The twins raised their hands and let their electric begin to spark and entwine with one another's. Musubi quickly grabbed hold of Minato's hand and dragged him along as she once again began to run. They ran down a couple streets and then turned into an ally to catch their breath not realizing that the twins were right behind them and seeing that their prey had turned into an ally had immediately split up to block them in and thus ensure that they would no longer be able to escape them and would have to fight the twins.

Minato and Musubi stumbled into the ally as Musubi was almost immediately stuck by a bolt of the twin's odd lightning only to be saved by the fact that Minato using his body as a shield to protect her had dove and pushed Musubi out of the line of fire and fallen on top of her but only after having been struck a glancing but still painful blow by the dominant twin. At seeing this display of bravery and selflessness Musubi marveled at Minato speaking only to say how brave that he was for saving her like he had. Though clearly in pain Minato stood and turned to face the dominant twin struggling to even stand and swaying dangerously as he did.

"I don't know who you are, or why you are after her and trying to attack us. But just know that I will do everything in my power to protect her and you will have to go through me first if you want to get to her." He spoke with a quavering voice as the pain coursed through his body, but as he spoke his fists clenched showing his determination to follow through on what he had spoke of. Musubi watched as Minato tried to protect her even when he was hurt and had no idea what he was getting himself into, she felt a warmth growing inside of her gaining heat and intensity rapidly, quickly enveloping her entire body and reaching the point to where it was near impossible for her to bare it any longer.

"Minato…" Musubi spoke breathily, almost unable to control the fire that seemed to be burning her from the inside out. She had to touch him, to protect him, to make him her own; she had found her one, she had found her ashikabi and the feeling of being so near to him now that she knew was burning her insides and threatening to explode if she didn't do something soon to quell the raging flames. Just then one of the twins shot another bold of lightning and as it hit the ground before them it knocked Minato backwards and the shrapnel loosed by the impact struck Musubi tearing at her clothing leaving it only just covering her ample frame as Minato came to land on her leaving the two, limbs entwined with one another and their faces only inches apart.

"Minato, I feel so… so hot… I'm sorry… I can't help it. I want you… I want you to be my ashikabi…" She slowly inched closer towards Minato's face having made her decision.

"Uh-oh sis, this isn't good. We have to stop her now!" The dominant twin said anxiously to her sister and they both began to rush towards the two ever-closer figures in the middle of the ally.

"What's and ashika-" Before he could finish his sentence his lips were met with the soft, sweet lips of Musubi and as the two kissed great pinkish wings of light sprouted from her back and spread out bathing the entirety of the ally way in their light as they grew and grew until they reached their full span and shone brightly for the world to see.

"Oh crap! She's done it, he winged her!" cried the smaller of the twins in despair at the sight unveiled before her eyes. "Well, I may not be able to take you out now. But I can take out the guy stupid enough to get in our way and wing you." She with an utterly dark look as she roughly grasped Minato by the collar of his shirt and held him while she brought a finger sparking with her lightning closer and closer to his face.

"Let Minato go!" Musubi shouted forcefully as she stood before them her clothes still hanging on for dear life as she moved towards them.

"Look who's brave all of a sudden, well then if you want your precious little ashikabi back then come take him." And with that the dominant twin thrust Minato to the ground and shot a bolt of lightning directly at Musubi eliciting a cloud of debris and dust. When the dust cleared however, Musubi was no longer there. Surprised at this the dominant twin began to look around only for her sister to cry out that she should look above her, as she looked up towards the skin her eyes grew wide as she saw the form of Musubi falling towards her ready to strike with her fist extended. The dominant twin only had a moment to defend herself in which she immediately created a barrier of lightning upon which Musubi's fist stuck.

"Hmpf, you may be a match for my sister and I" spoke the twin as she leapt backwards extinguishing her barrier and calling to her sister. "Lets go Hibiki, there's nothing we can do now that she's been winged. "Right Hikiri." Responded Hibiki and with that the two leapt away, "Good luck ascending to the higher skies above with your ashikabi." Were their only parting words as they disappeared over a distant building.

Turning to face Musubi after watching the events and the twins retreat Minato watched as Musubi collapsed on the ground; rushing to her side to see what was wrong he knelt next to her to find her passed out. Beginning to grow worried he shook her shoulder gently but stopped when he heard the sound of her stomach growling. Smiling slightly and laughing to himself a bit he gently scooped her up into his arms, retrieved his bag of groceries, which had amazingly survived the entire ordeal, and began the long walk back to his apartment with Musubi in his arms passed out and stomach growling. As he stepped out of the ally and began to make his way back to his apartment the only thought upon his mind was: 'Man, I really hope my landlord doesn't find out about all of this…'

A Place to Call Home…

The clock ticked off the seconds to Noon as Haihane and Benitsubasa, checked over their weapons and clothing one last time with anxious and agitated energy. The time was coming; soon the clock would chime and signal their release into Japan to find their Ashikabi and have them take them as their own since they were no longer of any use to MBI as part of the Disciplinary Squad. Finally, the bell began to chime and the gates of the MBI building were lifted as Haihane, Benitsubasa and the other Sekirei who had been scheduled for release today shot forth and began their search for their new lives that awaited them; of course there were a few unfortunate souls who got caught up by other Sekirei who thought that attacking one another immediately was a good idea.

Haihane and Benitsubasa stuck close to each other and climbed to the first tall building that they could find so that they could get a bearing on their new environment. From their perch high atop one of the cities many skyscrapers they saw a large amount of people milling about on the ground below them.

"None of these people really seem to be drawing me to them Haihane, does this mean that our future Ashikabi is farther away?" Benitsubasa asked with a slightly worried tone as she scanned the throng of people below them.

"Not really, you just don't have any boobs so none of them are looking for you. If you actually had a chest I'm sure you'd have tons of them down there trying to draw you in." Haihane chuckled as she watched Benitsubasa's face turn red with rage at the verbal jab towards her chest. "No, it just means that we have to move on and keep looking, you really didn't think that we'd find our new master this soon did you?"

"I guess you're right Haihane, we just have to keep looking. Why don't we move towards the shopping district? There is bound to be more people over that way right?"

A Master of Two and a Home for One…

"Sahashi! Get out here now!" The landlord screamed as he bashed his fist on the door to Minato's room.

Minato startled out of bed at the bellowing of his landlord at his front door, he tried to jump up but was surprised when he found himself buried underneath the once again nude bodies of his two Sekirei Akitsu and Musubi. As little drips of blood slowly began to exit his nostrils he gently shook the two awake and motioned for them to quietly hide and be quiet. As he got up and began to walk out of his bedroom he was glad that the banging on his front door had ceased… 'Wait,' he thought to himself, 'why did my landlord stop banging on my door?' His answer was given when he groggily stepped out of his bedroom and slammed right into the angered form of his landlord.

Birds took flight into the air, startled from their comfortable perches in the trees outside when the resounding voice of Minato's Landlord rang out across the crisp morning air: "GET, OUT!"

The Ashikabi of the Alley…

Haihane and Benitsubasa stalked the roof tops of the shopping district in their search for a worthy Ashikabi when they began to hear the sounds of shouting and fighting from an alley nearby, turning towards one another they both nodded ascent knowing what the other was thinking and wanting to do the same thing. Investigate the sounds of what might possibly be Sekirei fighting and where they may even find a new strong Ashikabi to serve.

The two former Disciplinary Squad candidates leapt to the ledge that looked down onto the alley where they noise was coming from, as they did they saw three Sekirei and one human and they all seemed to be fighting about something. The human was not acting like an Ashikabi and he didn't seem to be attempting to wing any of the Sekirei there in the alley. They continued to look on as the twin Sekirei threatened the human if he did not hand over the singular Sekirei to them so that they might defeat her, as they did the more dominant appearing of the twin Sekirei launched a bolt of large purple lightning at the what appeared to be a fist type Sekirei similar to Benitsubasa.

Shock enveloped both Haihane and Benitsubasa's faces as they watched the purple lighting streak towards the fighter Sekirei only for her to be defended by the body of the human who was not even her Ashikabi using his body to shield her and was thus stuck with a glancing, but still powerful and dangerous bolt of lightning saving her. They looked at one another with disbelief, surely this man was a complete fool or a very powerful warrior; either way this was the type of Ashikabi the two had been looking for to pledge themselves to and serve for the rest of their lives. Just as they were preparing to drop down into the alley to pledge themselves and remove the S&M lighting twins from endangering their newly decided Ashikabi when the alley erupted into light and they watched as the fighter Sekirei kissed their future master and was winged.

They couldn't believe their eyes, one moment they were about to drop to the rescue of their newly chosen master and the next they were watching as he and the newly winged fighter Sekirei rushed from the alley and the Lighting twins leapt away from them as well. What were they to do? Their new master was getting away but they did not know how his new Sekirei would react to two more Sekirei appearing to serve her master, the two had no doubt in their minds that they could take the fighter but they did not wish for that to be to first impression their new master would have of them. No, they would follow them and wait until they were sure that the time was right and then they would become one with their new master.

"There he goes for now Benitsubasa," Haihane said as she watched them in getting smaller in the distance and absentmindedly began to scratch her head and eliciting an "Ow!" from her as she had once again forgotten that she had not removed her claws and thus stabbed herself in the head slightly. "Well, what do you want to do? You ready to follow them? They may get away soon if we don't hurry and we could lose sight of him."

"Yeah, we should start following them; make sure that he doesn't get into anything dangerous before we pledge ourselves to him. But I'm not too worried about losing him though. Now that I have seen him, I can feel this fire inside me and I just know that I am going to find him and I will belong to him forever don't you Haihane?" Benitsubasa finished with her hand clutching her chest feeling the warmth inside her and tilting her head towards her steel clawed friend.

"I know how you feel Beni, there is a fire inside me that is feeling like it is starting to burn and I know it won't get any better until he accepts me as his Sekirei. Let's get going, we have a lot of ground to cover and a new master to protect until we are his."

And with that they two former Disciplinary Squad candidates took off to follow their new master, ready to serve him, protect him, and love him for the rest of their lives… Whether he was ready for it or not, his family was about to get a lot bigger.