"Remove winging bond," Matsu murmured quietly.

"It didn't give me much more than that," I said, shaking my head. "Can you tell what's going on with it?"

"Eheh," Matsu said, nervously. "Well... It... won't let me."

"...Oh?" I asked. "You, Matsu, a psychic Sekirei whose power is to psychically connect to technology, can't connect to this psychic piece of Sekirei technology?"

"Matsu was locked out of it," Matsu said, nodding. "Minaka said that he'd set the Jinki so that no Sekirei could activate them, only Ashikabi. There... might be a Sekirei more powerful than me-" It was Miya, we don't need to play coy, she's a Sekirei pretending to be an ordinary human woman, I've admitted my knowledge of such to her face, I know she's the oldest Sekirei on the planet. "-who could get through the restriction, but..." Matsu rubbed the back of her neck. "Let's... just say it's a long shot."

"Fantastic," I said. "Well, I've gotten my knowledge of computer science and networking significantly fleshed out by the Warehouse, but... that was all for normal computers, that we can buy in the store. I have no idea how this thing works. It probably doesn't even use anything like the ordinary Harvard or Von Neumann architectures. Hell, since it's psychic, it's entirely possible its architecture is a lot like a brain, but..." I frowned. "Well. No point in that line of speculation just yet. I know very little about neurology, aside from the fact that the brain is nothing like any computer humanity has ever produced, so that wouldn't tell us anything useful. Anyway. What next?"

"I have an idea," Musubi said.

Oh dear, I carefully did not say out loud or even think very loudly. "Which is?" I said instead, because... well, I could always tell her no.

"Both we and the bad Ashikabi know where Tsukiumi is," Musubi said. "They might be sending Sekirei out to capture her, so they can wing her by force. But!" She clenched her fist, as a look of 'I will righteously fistinate you For Great Justice' took hold of her face. "If we intercept them, you can free them! Those Sekirei that they've already winged by force, they will have a second chance to find their Ashikabi!"

"...That's..." I blinked. "...Actually a pretty solid plan. In addition to addressing the obvious injustice of Sekirei being winged by force, it'll also deny our opponents some powerful assets. There is a slight catch, though."

"Awww," Musubi said, deflating.

"I have no idea how effective the Jinki's ability to un-wing a Sekirei in the middle of a fight is going to be," I continued. "And, uh... well, considering that we're talking about using it as a weapon, I can't help but feel like testing it on anyone we know is going to be a non-starter."

"You could try asking the Jinki," Matsu said.

"...Right, one moment."

Drop back into meditation, receive the error message...

"Describe how to use the function that removes winging bonds," I commanded.

"Touch the Jinki, or its housing, to a Sekirei you wish to un-wing, and command the function to start," the Jinki replied. "In the event that the Jinki is touching multiple Sekirei, the function will first ignore the Sekirei who issued the command to start, and, if it is still touching multiple Sekirei, it will do nothing, and return an error message."

"Can a Sekirei to be un-winged be specified some other way?" I asked.

"With the-" There was a pause. "Error: that function has been corrupted, and cannot be accessed at this time."

Fantastic. I resurfaced from my meditation, and sighed.

"I'm going to have to touch each of them with the Jinki itself," I said. "Which is going to be..." I paused, recalling just what I could do. "...Hrm. Tricky, but... potentially doable, I think." I looked at Akitsu. "Akitsu. Will you help us with this?"

She nodded immediately, as though it was never in question.

"Your power is to create and control ice, right?" I asked, and received another nod. "Do you think you'll be able to use that to immobilize Sekirei in a fight?"

Akitsu considered this carefully, then frowned.

"Maybe," she said carefully. "It will be... hard."

"Would it be easier if they were made to hold still first?" I asked.

"Yes," she said, nodding.

"Fantastic," I said. "Alright, well... Musubi."

"Hai!"

"How are you with grappling?"

---

Two sleepless (for me) nights later, we moved out.

Matsu had been keeping an eye on the movements of Sekirei in the city, and gave us the signal to head out at about the same time she noticed five Sekirei in the eastern quarter of the city group up, and start slowly moving towards Tsukiumi's location- which, unfortunately for her, was in the eastern quarter, and not the northern no-man's-land.

Musubi and Akitsu were leaping from rooftop to rooftop in the hopes we'd get there first, and to speed things along, I was being carried piggyback by Musubi, which felt deeply ridiculous as I was a full foot taller than her. It got to the point that I had to accept that I'd be getting a hell of a core workout, because Musubi's original attempt to position me had her place my hands on her boobs, and claim they were the best place to grab on- after all, wrapping my arms around her neck might choke her. So I didn't put my hands anywhere, and just held on with my legs, keeping myself upright with my abdominal muscles.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

On my head was a monocular heads-up display, which Matsu was feeding a map of the city, with Sekirei movements overlaid atop it, and a set of color-coded arrows pointing towards some picture-in-picture windows; one blue arrow, pointing us towards Tsukiumi, and five red arrows, signaling the hostile Sekirei we were reasonably certain were hunting her down.

"There!" Musubi yelled, before putting some real oomph into her next jump and launching herself across three city blocks to land on the same rooftop as Tsukiumi.

Tsukiumi, it was abundantly clear just from having eyes, was running away, and to judge by the map and my own eyesight, she was running from those five Sekirei I could now see drawing closer.

"You!" Tsukiumi yelled, skidding to a stop and squaring up, since we had landed in front of her. "You're working with those-"

"Not even slightly," I said, as Musubi dropped me onto my feet. "We're here to fight those, in fact. Feel free to join in, but try not to get in our way." Akitsu landed beside me with a graceful flutter of kimono, and I stepped past Musubi, walking across the rooftop. "You can also feel free to go past us, if you don't want to fight."

"I- you-" Tsukiumi swelled with rage. "Hah! I may not be foolish enough to fight five others on my own, but it would seem my hand has been forced!"

"Fantastic," I said. "Well, if you don't mind, please try to hold 'em in one place so Akitsu can immobilize them with her ice. Musubi's going to be doing the same thing."

"Hmph, child's play, for one so powerful as I," Tsukiumi declared. "But! Because you asked so politely-" I really did not, closest I came was saying please and not just barking orders. "-I shall humor you, just this once!"

She was supposed to be a tsundere in canon, right? She's got tinges of that, here, but... is she also some kind of... chuunibyou, too? Hrm.

Well, we'll see soon enough. She was now in the back of our informal formation as five hostile Sekirei landed on the rooftop in front of us.

"Out of our way!" the Sekirei in the lead yelled. "Give up the Water Sekirei, now!"

Well, if you're going to set me up like that...

I raised one fist into the air, and with my other hand, patted my bicep. "Only thing I'm giving up is an asskicking."

"Don't," one of the other Sekirei said. "That's not a Sekirei, that's an Ashikabi. We can't fight her, the rules-"

"Oh, like the rules matter," the ringleader said, cracking her knuckles. No obvious weapons, wearing gloves... Fist-type, I'd reckon. Physically strongest sort of Sekirei, but, well, only really good with hand-to-hand. "One last chance to get out of our way, punk!"

"Let me handle this," I said to Musubi and Akitsu, stepping forward.

"Bad move!" And with that, she launched herself at me like a bullet, planting her fist in my gut...

I grunted in pain, but kept my footing, and looked down at her, watching horror dawn on her face. See, I'd impulsively burned a bunch of points on being a hundred times more physically capable than the human peak. That put me on par with Fist-type Sekirei such as herself and Musubi. And that meant I could actually fight them.

"Thank you, sir, may I please have another?" I asked, before sharply bringing my knee up into her face.

She went backflipping through the air, her nose a bloody mess, and then the brawl started in earnest, and I was swiftly realizing that, just because I had the physical capacity necessary to participate in such a fight, I sure as hell did not have any sort of combat training at all. I didn't know what openings looked like, I didn't know how to read telegraphing, all I knew was how to form a fist properly and how to fall without hurting myself. 'That meant I could actually fight them' wow was I fucking wrong, ten seconds ago. Oh, such sweet naivete.

And that was going to have to be enough, because in came the same Sekirei who'd attacked me before, her nose still bleeding powerfully. She was fast, but thankfully, I was faster, and I managed to keep ducking out of the way of her attacks, as, in the background, the three actual fighters on my side actually accomplished something.

I threw a quick jab to my opponent's midsection, managing to slip past her guard and send her wincing to the side, backing off to reassess me... and then, Tsukiumi shot her with a geyser of water, which then froze all the way from her feet up to her waist.

"Hah!" Tsukiumi declared. "I win!"

I blinked, and looked around at the rooftop. All five of the Sekirei sent to capture Tsukiumi had their legs encased in ice, and, with just a touch more inspection, three of those five were soaked above the waist, like they'd gotten hit by a firehose.

"Huh," I said. "You immobilized three of the five Sekirei, then?"

"Of course!" Tsukiumi said, before turning to face Musubi. "And I think that should settle who the better Sekirei is, hmm?"

"Four of the five have bruises," Musubi pointed out, and- yep, she was right, aside from the one Sekirei I'd been... well, 'fighting' was a generous word for my level of combat prowess... three others showed signs of having gotten their clocks cleaned by Musubi, including one who was also soaked to the bone. Musubi pointed at that Sekirei in particular, and continued. "I stunned her before you hit her with water."

"Hmph!" Tsukiumi said, lifting her nose and looking away. "Some people simply cannot admit defeat!"

"You two can settle that between yourselves," I said, reaching into the canvas cargo pocket Uzume had so kindly made for me to attach to my belt, and withdrawing the Jinki. "Good news, everyone here who doesn't like your boss: in my hand is the Pink Slip of Destiny."

"What are you-" the ringleader asked, before I jabbed her in the chest with the point of the Jinki and activated its sole working function once more. She screamed in pain as her wings manifested, flared brightly, then disappeared. "What- what did you do, I can't, I can't feel him anymore! Our connection, it's gone!"

I ignored her as she wailed, and began jabbing the remaining four Sekirei, of whom only one seemed distressed. The remaining three did have tears in their eyes, but...

"Thank you," the last one whispered.

...Well, I had my suspicions they weren't exactly upset.

"Akitsu, please un-freeze those three first," I said. "As for what we're to do with you two... Well. You'll likely go running back to your old boss- you actually like him, it seems. Hrm..." I yelped in surprise and stumbled backwards, as a slug of water impacted a trapped Sekirei in the face. She slumped forward, insensate and groaning.

"This is hardly complicated," Tsukiumi said, before nailing the other one who was still trapped. "Simply terminate them and be done with it, my Ashikabi."

I blinked at her.

She blinked at me.

She blushed as she realized what she'd just called me.

"At least let me buy you lunch first," I said.