"I hear you've been working through some relationship problems," Kazehana said, ambushing me on the roof.

"An entire fucking galaxy to hide in, and I still can't get a moment to myself," I said.

"To be fair," Kazehana said, "your 'entire fucking galaxy' that you actually hide in is the parts that you can get to from the hub planet with only five minutes of Sekirei jumping and going through interplanetary portals. Also, the people who live here are all too eager to rat you out."

"Fair enough," I said with a shrug. "So, what makes you seek out my company? Need a tall older girl to be mean to you for a few minutes?"

"Older?" Kazehana asked, quirking an eyebrow. "Child-"

"I'm twenty five, Kazehana," I said. "You're, what, twenty?"

"There was a great deal of artificially-accelerated aging in there," Kazehana said. "Whoever had built our ship had anticipated a need for that sort of thing, and had facilities ready for it. I may only be twenty, but I've lived all of those years as an adult, with an adult's faculties and solidity of identity." She sat down on the edge of the roof, and uncorked a bottle of sake. "Want a drink?"

"I don't drink," I said, shaking my head. "Anyhow, I'll concede that, if this conversation had happened ten years ago for the both of us, you definitely would've been the more mature participant in the conversation, but I'm not sure there would've been much of a conversation. Ten years ago, I was fifteen, and I probably would've been too distracted staring at your boobs."

"Understandable, honestly," Kazehana said, pouring herself a saucer of sake. "They are very nice boobs, and deserve at least some staring at."

"Well, as I'm sure you've noticed, even with another ten years of aging the honest way, I'm still quite willing to indulge you, there," I said. "But... I'm pretty sure you didn't come all the way out here-"

"It took five minutes."

"-just to make me look at your tits," I continued. "And so... now, for the original question: why are you here, Kazehana?"

"To talk to you," Kazehana said. "One-on-one, so I could really get your measure. And, well... I heard through the grapevine that you'd gone to Uzume for relationship advice."

"Well," I said, sighing. "Yeah, that did happen. A ghost- don't ask-"

"Right, Yume transplanted her tama into Musubi," Kazehana said, nodding. "I hadn't realized that it could bring the whole mind over, like that, but... well. I suppose it makes sense, given the psychic nature of the tama."

"Okay, well, Yume came to me and said I was a shit Ashikabi," I said. "Musubi, afterwards, had a different opinion that was a lot more nuanced, and I realized I'd been infantilizing her inappropriately this whole time, and then I went to talk to Uzume."

"And what did she tell you?"

"Something that it's embarrassing I even needed to be told," I said. "Uzume told me that I had to build a deep, loving relationship, instead of just waiting for it to happen. And that, y'know, close relationships in general are built by doing stuff together, so..." I shrugged.

"So, thinking about what stuff to do together with your Sekirei?" Kazehana asked. "Or did you already realize you had enough of them for a game of Dungeons and Dragons, and now you're just looking through your drawer of rejected fantasy novel manuscripts to see which would be the best railroad for them?"

"Wow, you are going for the throat," I said. "And... no. No, I think I'm doing a number of independent dates, one-on-one, for each of them. Once I've built some sort of actual relationship with each of them, then we can figure out how all those pieces fit together." I shrugged. "Plus, this way, I can't ignore anyone and only pay attention to my favorites."

"Smart," Kazehana said, refilling her apparently-drained saucer. "So... how do you feel about all this?"

"A bit tense, really," I said. "This is... well, this is a special effort I'm making. And, you know, maybe it shouldn't be a special effort I have to make, but the fact is, actual dates and stuff just don't really come naturally to me. I'm a homebody and a person of routine, y'know? But, well..." I sighed. "...Matsu said that we all have to make allowances for the people we love. And, well. Love's a two-way street. What would it say, if I wasn't willing to make the effort to do something I'm not naturally inclined towards? If I didn't think they deserved any special effort from me?"

"It wouldn't say anything good," Kazehana said. "So, I'm glad you've chosen to say something else."

"Yeah," I said, sighing. "This shit doesn't come easy to me, Kazehana. I don't really have a great track record with romance, and that's left some marks on me that... well. I kinda have to learn to move past them. For everyone else's sake, if not my own. I... I hope it works."

"You're making an honest, good-faith effort," Kazehana noted. "If I can notice that, well..." She shrugged. "Sekirei love deeply and powerfully, Ashikabi-kun. They can love you through your attempts to get better, even if they don't always work out the way you'd like."

"Maybe they can," I said. "But they shouldn't have to."

"Nobody said anything about having to," Kazehana said. "Let me let you in on a little secret, Ashikabi-kun: just because a Sekirei has to do what their Ashikabi says, doesn't mean they have to feel the way their Ashikabi says. We can feel however we want. Our capacity for love... It's nothing artificial, or forced. It's about understanding our Ashikabi, to the core, and liking what we see."

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"...Can I be mean for a second?"

"Go ahead."

"How'd that understanding to the core work out for you?"

"...You were right, that was mean," Kazehana said, nodding. "Well, I guess you know about my first reaction. Hiroto is... or, was... a man of passion. A man who knew who he was, what he liked, and didn't let anyone tell him otherwise. Everything he cared about, he threw his whole being into it, and he didn't let go of it until he well and truly thought he'd done it as well as it could be done. Founding MBI, reverse-engineering Sekirei tech, bringing us back out of cryostasis and hunting down our lost relics..." Kazehana sighed dreamily. "He was eccentric, yes, but... well, that's what happens, when you pursue your passions without reservation. And that, right there, was what I loved about him. That he was so completely and shamelessly himself, without reservation, and that he put his whole heart into what he did."

"And then," I said, "you stumbled on that one little detail of him already having a lover he'd put his whole heart into."

"It just isn't fair," Kazehana grumbled. "What does Takami have that I don't?"

"The ever-present odor of someone who eats cigarettes for breakfast, perhaps?" I said dryly. "Or maybe, once upon a time, he had a sense of ethics not unlike my own, which told him that sleeping with someone he raised in a laboratory would be fucked up."

"He didn't raise me," Kazehana protested. "The ship's computer raised me. The artificial aging routines required, and allowed, no human input whatsoever."

"That may be how you see it," I said, "but do you know if that's how he saw it?" I shrugged. "Anyhow, it feels... really weird to be attributing the possession of a moral compass to Minaka Hiroto, considering everything he's done so far. The records of Akitsu's experimentation have been redacted here and there, but enough survives that it's abundantly clear to me that she was very much a guinea pig they stuck with needles just to see what would happen. Hell, so was Homura, but at least there they stopped because he almost exploded, putting himself and a senior researcher in the burn ward." I sighed. "And he signed off on it. He approved this bullshit. Forsaken children, sacrificed to science, with his blessing."

"There... are downsides, to passion-" Kazehana began.

"Don't," I said, shaking my head. "Our friendship will last longer, if you don't try to justify why you still love that monster. Not after what he's done to Akitsu. Hell, not after what he's done to Matsu, or Tsukiumi, or Musubi, or Yume, or, or any of the Sekirei, including you."

We sat there, silent.

"We're friends, are we?" Kazehana asked, breaking the silence.

"I showed you my tits, didn't I?" I asked. "We sure aren't acquaintances."

"I can live with that," Kazehana said, nodding. "You seem like a good friend to have."

"Anyhow," I said, standing up. "I've cleared my head enough, I think. I'm going to go back to reality and talk to Matsu. You confident you can find your way back, or you want me to walk you out?"

"I wouldn't mind an escort," she said, re-corking her bottle of sake. "Lead on, Ashikabi-kun."

----------------------------------------

"So that's why you've been acting weird all day," Matsu said, once I'd explained the events of yesterday and today to her, starting with Yume. "Well, Rose... if you want to go on a date with me, I'd love to. What do you have in mind?"

"I do have an idea already, yes," I said, nodding. "I thought it'd be fun to go into the Warehouse and visit a makerspace, learn some new skills, and make something cool. I even have a particular project in mind that you might like."

"Ooooh yes," Matsu purred, snuggling up to me, her pupils being stopped from turning into hearts only by the laws of biology. "Talk nerdy to me."

"Once we're there," I said. "We've gotta find a good time for us to disappear for a while, and also, I've gotta plan out, y'know... when do we want to do this, and who else wants a date with me, and when do they want to do theirs?"

"You're overthinking it," Matsu said. "The answers are, I want to do this now, and all of your Sekirei want a date with you, and they want to do theirs now, too."

"Maybe," I said, hedging a little. "I mean, you've met Tsukiumi, right? You know she's not exactly that interested in me."

"And maybe you two could change that, by going on a date or two," Matsu said. "Get to know each other, find common ground, suck on those gorgeous tits of hers..."

"Alright, I'll ask her too, but I'll probably be doing it in a much, much less crude way than you put it," I said.

"You're no fun," Matsu said, pouting.

I kissed her, just enough to get her excited, and then, to really amp it up, I grew a single tentacle from behind my back, reaching it around and grabbing Matsu by the hips. And then... the next moment, poof. No more tentacle, no more kiss. Just me looking down at Matsu, a smug look on my face, and a pleading look on hers.

"Now that's just slander."