"Takami," I said.

"Rose," Takami replied. "Why is Musubi here?"

"I forgot my MBI card in my room," Musubi said. "Can I go up and get it?"

"I- sure, fine," Takami said, pinching the bridge of her nose. "You know where it is. Now, Rose... just what the hell did you do?"

Takami led us through the lobby of MBI's headquarters to the elevator, and meanwhile, I talked.

"Trial and error," I said, simply. "A lot of trial and error."

Akitsu blushed, right on cue.

"Yes, yes, you're very naughty and had sex with your girlfriend," Takami said, rolling her eyes. "I've pushed two screaming babies out of my vagina. You're not going to shock me by being explicit about what you did."

"Well, it did involve some... shall we say, extra tools," I said.

"If you keep playing coy, I will turn this elevator around and throw you out the door myself."

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

Somehow, I managed to string Takami along with half-truths and nonsense long enough to get to the lab, where a bunch of scientists and doctors were waiting with a million questions and a million more electrodes they wanted to stick all over us.

From there, my participation was mostly on autopilot, and so I could afford to divert my attention.

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

"Musubi," a familiar voice said from behind. "What are you doing here?"

Musubi turned around to behold Karasuba, her oldest friend- the most feared of MBI's enforcers- a monstrous killer. Musubi blinked a little, forcing the thoughts of others back out of her head. She knew Karasuba better than anyone. She knew how to handle this.

"I left my MBI card in my room," Musubi said. "And now I can't find my room."

Karasuba closed her eyes, grinning and shaking her head.

"You really are still the same little airhead you were when you left, huh?" Karasuba asked. "C'mon, I remember the way."

"So smart..." Musubi marveled.

"Musubi, I live here."

"See?" Musubi told Matsu and Rose. "I was right!"

"It's Karasuba," Matsu began. "Of course we-"

"I'm sorry I didn't trust you," Rose said. "You know her pretty well, don't you?"

Karasuba had understood, from the beginning, that when Yume gave Musubi her tama, it didn't mean Yume was dead, for all that she wasn't walking around anymore. Yume was still inside Musubi, in ways that mattered- in ways that could be dredged up, even.

And so, Karasuba took an interest in Musubi. Musubi saw Karasuba more often than anyone else, growing up, and between all that time, and the flashes of memory she sometimes got from Yume, she knew Karasuba, inside and out.

Musubi had known that her part of the plan was a longshot, from the beginning. That she needed to leverage everything she could. That she'd need to find some way to convince Karasuba to help.

So far...

...it was working.

"Here we are," Karasuba said, opening the door to Musubi's dusty, disused room. "Need help looking for it?"

"Mhm," Musubi said, nodding. "Oh! My Ashikabi says I need to close the door before I bend down to look for things."

"Not the worst policy," Karasuba said casually, closing the door. "Now, where would you have left- Oh?"

"There's someone I want you to meet," Musubi said, once Matsu had shut off the room's surveillance. "We need your help."

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"Hey," I said. "Can we get, like, five minutes to take a piss, get some air?"

Takami sighed.

"Yeah, go ahead," she said. "We've gotten plenty; I don't know if we can learn anything else today. Take your time."

"C'mon, Akitsu," I said, leading my pretend-taciturn Sekirei out of the laboratory and into the ladies' room. "You okay?"

"I didn't enjoy being in there," Akitsu said. "But... I'll live."

I nodded, and opened a pair of portals for us. "See you on the other side, angel."

She nodded silently, and our paths parted. Her, to the undilated spacetime where the rest of our crew was waiting patiently, and myself, to a pitch black room, waiting for-

Another portal opened, and I stepped out of the darkness into Musubi's old room, face to face with Karasuba.

Karasuba was about as tall as Homura was, and bore other resemblances besides. Her hair was light grey, her face refined and angular. She wore a grey haori- a traditional Japanese coat- marked with the Sekirei crest on both lapels, but without her arms in the sleeves; it just rested on her shoulders like a cape. Beneath it, she wore a black mini-dress and matching thigh-highs, a thick brown belt...

...and, of course, a big ol' sword. A nodachi, not a katana, if I wasn't mistaken. But, well. I didn't know swords too well; my one singular karate class had only dealt in bare-handed combat.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"Interesting," Karasuba said, looking me up and down. Her hand, worryingly, was on that sword.

"And I didn't even open my mouth yet," I said, smirking at her.

"You didn't need to," Karasuba said. "I can tell from the way you walk- you've drawn blood with those hands, haven't you?" She chuckled a little. "Well. I'll tell you this, Mu-chan- congratulations on finding a human who's less useless than usual."

"She's really strong!" Musubi added.

"Yeah, I bet she can carry two ten-kilo rice bags at a time," Karasuba said condescendingly, patting Musubi's head. Like I used to.

"I can also carry a conversation," I said; Musubi had known Karasuba her whole life, and we'd been planning this for a while. Also, psychic. If she wanted me to defend her intelligence to Karasuba, she would've let me know. "Karasuba-san, was it? May I ask just what you think about the Sekirei Plan?"

"Oh, it's terrible," Karasuba said casually. "Releasing the Sekirei onto Tokyo to find their Ashikabi, and then pitting them against each other to fight until only one is left standing? Not exactly great for our survival as a species. But, well..." Her easygoing grin faded away. "With humanity crawling all over this planet like ants? Maybe we Sekirei are better off dead."

"Oh?" I asked.

"You've winged some Sekirei by now," Karasuba said dismissively. "Musubi, who's young and stupid, her head full of Yume's nonsense. Matsu, an absolute degenerate who probably gets off on losing her identity in favor of being your little love-slave. Akitsu, who never had an identity of her own to begin with. But lemme part the curtains for you, Ashikabi-kun: they do not speak for all of us. Do you think everyone in our entire species is some gullible little whore, gagging for the opportunity to be shackled to some pathetic, worthless human as their fucking housewives? Do you think I practice the art of carving people like turkeys so that I can turn around and prioritize being your fucking cocksleeve over everything fucking else?

"Because if you do think that, I've got a bridge to sell you."

"You hate that Sekirei can be enslaved to the will of a human," I said carefully. "So you're working for MBI, the group arguably most responsible for the continued suffering of Sekirei."

"It's a paradox, isn't it?" Karasuba said, tilting her head to the side. "But, if you'll tear your attention away from my thighs for a few seconds, you might remember that I just said we Sekirei would all be better off dead. And that's why I'm here- Minaka's stupid Sekirei Plan is going to get us all killed. Me?" Karasuba shrugged. "I'm here to make sure we stay dead. It's the only thing left for me, now."

"Now?" Musubi asked.

"I'm winged, now," Karasuba said. "Ichinomi Natsuo. A gay man, whose heart is as black, empty, and suicidal as mine is. My fate is sealed, I'm afraid."

"Iunno about that," I said. "I mean, there hasn't been a wedding yet, has there? You weren't all dolled up, the belle of the ball?"

"I fail to see the relevance," Karasuba said, quirking an eyebrow. "Are you going somewhere with this?"

"Some toothpaste can't go back into the tube, I'll agree," I said, before pulling out the Jinki. "But with this thing right here?" I grinned. "I betcha I can un-wing a belle."

Karasuba stared at me, silently.

"I am going to kill you," she said coldly, drawing her sword, "for making me understand that fucking pun."

"You can do that later," I said. "Right now? We're building a better tomorrow; no gods, no masters. Whaddaya say?"

She stood there, silently, sword extended.

Silently, she sheathed her sword.

"Convince me," Karasuba said. "Prove you're worth my time."

And then I was right in front of her, her stomach wrapped around my fist and the Jinki. The Jinki flared, and she wheezed, staggering back.

"Fuck, you move fast," Karasuba coughed out. "What the- how did- god, I barely even saw you..."

"I should mention that I'm physically as strong as a Sekirei," I said. "So, y'know, if you wanna assert your dominance through force of arms... maybe reconsider."

"Fantastic, just what I needed," Karasuba muttered. "The hell is your plan, anyway? Assassinate Minaka? Because I wouldn't advise that."

"Nah," I said. "We're here to steal the other seven Jinki. It's powerful Sekirei tech, and Matsu reckons that, if we get them out of MBI's hands and into our own, we can figure out something to do about this whole mess."

"Not... a bad idea," Karasuba admitted. "Minaka's tuned the Jinki to be specialized, so you'd want all eight of them."

"Yume said something about that," I said. "Can you please elaborate on that?"

"It's simple," Karasuba said. "Normally, a Jinki has a bunch of things it can do. Minaka's overridden them so each one can only do one thing, but better than it would usually be able to do if it was versatile. But if you have all eight of them, you'll have all the functions they're supposed to have, and you could reset them to versatile mode."

"...I see," I said quietly. "Well. Tell you what: as a strictly temporary measure, I do need to re-wing you for the duration of this mission."

"How's that?" she asked.

"If I'm psychically bonded to you, and you can go wherever you want in the tower," I said, "then I can feed you directions from Matsu to where the Jinki are held, Matsu can break down the security measures, and then, you just push this little button to open a portal." I tossed her a Warehouse key fob. "Then we pop out, grab the space rocks, pop back in, and go home."

"And you free me," Karasuba said.

"Musubi, punch me in the face if I don't," I said. "Full force."

"Okay!" Musubi said.

"...Let's make this quick," Karasuba said, closing her eyes.

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Getting into the vault was easy, really; Matsu, sitting in 100x time dilation, had all the time in the world to crack the security systems. And, true to her word, Karasuba popped open a portal once she was inside, letting literally everyone in Izumo Inn- including Chiho, who had nabbed one of those living armor suits I'd passed up on, so long ago- spill out into the unusually spacious vault.

"What the hell," I muttered, drawing everyone's attention.

"Come on, now," Minaka Hiroto said, sitting on a crate in the corner of the vault, the seven remaining Jinki orbiting around him. "Did you really think it was going to be that easy?"