"Hrm..."

Furrowing my brow in concentration, I kissed Akitsu again, reaching out with my psychic senses. There was something to be felt, there; it was subtle, and not all that big, but it was there, and it felt so familiar. But... all the same, I just couldn't place what it was. It seemed like it was the same sort of presence as the winging bond that existed between myself and each of Matsu, Musubi, and Tsukiumi, but I couldn't be sure; for all I knew, it could just be a sort of psychic tumor.

I broke the kiss after another five seconds of examination.

"You know," I said, "I'd complain about how hard this problem is to solve, but something tells me you're not that upset about it."

Akitsu's blush deepened, and she averted her eyes, sheepishly.

"Finally, someone else understands Matsu-tan's love of experiments," Matsu added.

"What exactly are you testing, here?" Kazehana asked. "How long she can hold her breath?"

"I'm trying to figure out what's going on with Akitsu's whole... psychic profile..." I said, gesturing vaguely. "Which is, for whatever reason, preventing her from being winged. I'm personally not all that bent out of shape about it, but..."

"But," Akitsu continued, "Rose always loves an excuse to kiss a pretty girl."

"That, pretty much," I said. "Hey, do you still want me to keep trying to figure out what's going on, or should we just accept that your daily kiss quota isn't really for science anymore?"

It was an interesting realization, that I was more interested in making Akitsu wingable as an intellectual exercise than as any real relationship milestone. But, well... she already slept in my bed and kissed me goodnight. That was about as far as we could take things, living here. What would a winging bond add to that?

"Please keep trying," Akitsu said, nodding. "It... it helps, knowing that you want me to be your Sekirei, but... I would rather be that in every sense, not just some of them."

"Fair enough," I said, nodding. "Right, well. Matsu, how much time do we have?"

"Three minutes," Matsu said. "Uzume just got off the train, and is walking to the hospital."

"Fantastic," I said, standing up and pulling Akitsu up with me. I still hadn't quite managed to initiate true telepathic contact with my non-Matsu Sekirei yet, but I could push out simple concepts to them, which is what I did now: "COME TO ME. NOW."

"So, how are you planning to help her from all the way across Tokyo?" Kazehana asked, as Tsukiumi and Musubi came running into my room, where we'd all congregated. "Is Matsu going to hijack those orbital cannons again?"

"You haven't been read in on my own bullshit yet," I said, turning to face one of the walls. "See, Kazehana... I'm from another reality. And one of the perks of that is having my own little pocket universe I can pop into." Before she could call me a liar, I opened a portal on the wall, and stepped through into my Warehouse. "And hey, if you really are that bored, I bet we could use some help."

Kazehana stared through the portal, wide-eyed, then at her bottle of sake, before she finally turned to look at Matsu.

"It's real," Matsu said. "What, you thought we were the only aliens?"

"You say that like I should have expected this," Kazehana murmured. "Hrm... Tell you what. I'll come with you, but... I'll just be watching. Don't count on my help."

"Eh, good enough," I said, shrugging. "Anyhow, that's how we're going to help Uzume from over here: we won't be over here. When she needs our help, she'll use that key fob I gave her to open another portal, and we'll jump through and probably punch some people."

"Our battle shall be valorous!" Tsukiumi added.

"Inside a hospital, though?" Kazehana asked.

"There's two possibilities, really," I said. "One, Uzume is intercepted outside the hospital, and any fight we have happens there. Or two, Uzume is intercepted inside the hospital, and any fight we have happens there. In possibility one... well, that's just an ordinary Sekirei battle. Been there, done that, against this same guy even, and we kicked his Sekirei's asses up and down the street. And in possibility two..."

"A Sekirei fight would kill a hundred people," Kazehana said.

"Yeah, collateral damage inside a hospital would be pretty bad," I admitted. "But, it must be stressed: even if we assume that our opponent has neither a moral compass nor any real concern for human life- and he's a CEO, so that's a safe assumption- there is still the fact that he owns the hospital, and thus has plenty of material incentive to not destroy it. It makes him a lot of money, and it is also the building he's standing inside."

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"So, you don't think it'll come to a Sekirei fight," Kazehana said. "That would explain the suit..."

"I do not," I said, nodding. And, indeed, I was wearing a three-piece business suit that Uzume had tailored for me, right before my interview- the company I worked for had a branch office here in Tokyo- but I was not expecting it to hinder me in the event of a fight. Uzume was a goddamn wizard, capable of doing things with clothing that just weren't possible for anyone else. This suit might fit me like a glove, but it still left me plenty of room to move around. "But... we do still have some preparations, in case it comes to that."

"Uzume is inside the hospital," Matsu announced. "Pulling up security camera feeds now..."

"Pretty simple preparations, really," I added. "But, hey- you said you'd be watching, right? You're about to see 'em for yourself."

"He's in front of her Ashikabi's hospital room," Matsu warned. "She's about to round the corner!"

"Throw the circuit breaker."

One of the delightful things about Hiyamakai Hospital was that it had its security systems- non-essential, often requiring maintenance- split off onto their own separate circuit from the lights, the climate control, and, of course, all of that extremely important life support equipment.

This way, instead of cutting power to the entire hospital and killing everyone in the Intensive Care Unit, we only cut power to the security system, which- due to an off-spec modification the on-staff electrician made to preserve his eardrums- didn't even set off any alarms inside the hospital.

Nobody who wasn't there could see what was about to happen in this hallway, not even us. We wouldn't know when Uzume opened the portal until she did so. So we all got onto tenterhooks, tensing up, ready to pounce...

And then, the portal opened into the hallway with Higa and Uzume, behind Higa. I gave a hand signal and silently stepped out into the hallway, before clearing my throat audibly.

"What in-" Higa said, jolting as he spun around. "I- Pardon me, ma'am, you startled- wait. Wait."

"I'm waiting," I said patiently.

"You," Higa hissed. "Rose Corcoran. The Ashikabi of the North."

"I've been considering going by Akane while in Japan, actually," I remarked breezily. "The names have similar meanings and connotations, and it feels... inconsiderate, to inflict a name on the people of Japan that their native tongue has trouble pronouncing."

"If I could persuade you to stop being obstreperous for two minutes?" Higa said, straightening himself up and fixing his tie. "It's clear that you're a perceptive woman, if you saw through my sleeper agent, and it's equally clear that you're a force to be reckoned with, in combat. And..." He noticed the portal open behind me, and the Sekirei standing there, waiting for an excuse to go ballistic. "...Well. It's now clear that you have some more exotic powers at your disposal, as well."

"I assume you're going somewhere with this?" I asked.

"Well, as it so happens, I, too, have assets that you lack," Higa said. "Connections. Facilities. Capital, liquid and otherwise. But... well. I think we both share a certain... disdain, for MBI, don't we? This, Sekirei Plan, fight until only one is left, nonsense... Neither of us is willing to put up with it. Which, well, brings me to my point, at last: I am willing to let bygones be bygones if you are. I'll even hear out exactly which complaints you have about myself and my prior behavior. All I ask is that you recognize that I am the enemy of your enemy, and work with me, against MBI."

"Will you allow the un-winging of all of your personal Sekirei, such that those forcibly winged may go free?"

He hesitated, and I sighed.

"Unfortunately," I continued, adjusting my cuff links, "I think we're at an impasse. The enemy of my enemy is my enemy's enemy- no more, no less. And while you may be unburdened by a moral compass, I am not."

"Now, be reasonable about this," Higa said. "Just because I use different recruitment strategies than you-"

And that's when I pulled the knife out of my sleeve and stabbed him.

"Ah," Higa said weakly, looking down at his gut.

"Don't worry," I said, twisting the knife. "You're already in a hospital. You'll live."

I stepped to the side and yanked the knife out; the resulting spray of blood died down very quickly, and mostly didn't get on me, but, alas, he did still get some blood on my cuff. Oh well, it'll wash out.

While I had been dealing with Higa, Uzume had taken advantage of the distraction to go into Chiho's room, open another portal, and carry Chiho through into the Medbay, leaving everything else behind. I hummed quietly as I grabbed all of Chiho's personal effects, and followed Uzume through into the Medbay, closing all of the portals behind me.

"Hey," I said, setting a few framed pictures and a sun hat on Chiho's new bedside table. Chiho herself was being tended to by a very serious-looking demoness in modern medical scrubs, which mostly involved getting her all set up in the convalescence pod. "You left these."

"Shit, thanks," Uzume said, breathing heavily.

The door to the Medbay opened, and Matsu walked in, grinning smugly. "Nice work, Rose. Didn't know you had it in you."

"Huh?" Uzume asked.

"I stabbed Higa in the stomach," I said. "That'll take long enough to kill him that he'll probably survive it, if the doctors find him soon enough."

"Oh," Uzume said, her eyes going wide.

"Hey, it was him or me," I said. "That snake in the grass was trying to talk me into an alliance so he could stab me in the back. All I did was-"

Uzume grabbed me and kissed me, which I hadn't really been expecting. And considering that the last time I'd kissed someone, five minutes ago, I'd been doing so for science... well, telling Uzume that I'd been thinking about my research project when she kissed me would be pretty funny, and also pretty par for the course as far as our friendship goes.

But, well, the real embarrassing thing isn't that I was thinking about psychic research when she kissed me. The real embarrassing thing was that, because Uzume was an ordinary Sekirei who'd been winged by someone else, and I could feel the shape of her bond with Chiho, and how it didn't react to kissing me, she ended up being the last data-point I needed to find the answer:

Akitsu couldn't be winged because she was already winged. And her Ashikabi was herself.