"First thing's first," Hiroto said, opening his hand as a Jinki left orbit to land in it.

A wave of energy washed over the room, and all of the Sekirei collapsed like stringless marionettes. Even Chiho collapsed, leaving me the only one standing... although, I did stagger down to my knees, just to look like his little stunt had done something.

"Alright," Hiroto said, letting the Jinki fly out of his hand to resume its orbit. "Is everyone comfortable?"

"Kill yourself," Homura spat.

"...Well, that's not how it went in Sword Art Online: Abridged," Hiroto grumbled, before shrugging. "Oh well. Rose, if I may indulge myself in a monologue?"

"Your entire life has been a neverending stream of people humoring you when they really shouldn't," I said. "Why should that stop now?"

"Hey, I'm humoring you too," Hiroto scolded. "I could have just killed you, you know. But... Well." He grinned. "I want to see where you're going with this."

"Really, now," I said dryly.

"Yes, really!" Hiroto said, nodding. "You wanted to know why I was doing this, didn't you? Well, if you're so determined to not let there be a Phase Three for our little deal to take effect..." Hiroto shrugged. "I might as well spill the beans here, huh? This might be the end, and I'd hate for all these juicy nuggets of truth to die with me."

"Alright," I said. "I'll bite: what are you trying to accomplish with the Sekirei Plan?"

"It's really quite simple, honestly," Hiroto said. "You see these lovely Jinki around me? Well, when one person has all of them, they have a nearly godlike power! The whole world is their psychoreactive oyster." His grin turned lopsided. "And here I was, planning on just giving 'em away!"

"Por que?" Kazehana asked.

"...Hablas tu espanol?" Hiroto asked, genuinely a little surprised.

"Hablas tu espanol?" Kazehana asked. Apparently I hadn't told her Hiroto spoke Spanish.

"La pregunta, por favor," I said loudly.

"En ingles, para los gringos," Karasuba added.

"Okay, show of hands, how many of you people speak Spanish?" Hiroto said, raising his hand. "...Oh, right, you're all paralyzed from the neck down."

"Fantastic work, Detective Poirot," I said dryly. "Now, why the hell were you planning on giving away the Jinki?"

"It was a simple plan," Hiroto said. "Hand out the Jinki more-or-less at random, and let the Sekirei Plan's nature take its course, funneling the Jinki into the single remaining Ashikabi. And why I wanted them in this person's hands..." He shrugged helplessly. "I wanted to see what they would do with it."

"You're a real asshole, aren't you?" I said.

"I'm bored!" Hiroto said. "All this godlike power, and I've run out of things to do with it. It's someone else's turn, now, and what better way to decide whose turn it is?"

"Do you want a fucking list?" Matsu demanded.

"Don't bother," Hiroto said. "I've never had time for the bad ideas of my lessers."

"Where did you put Takehito's body?" Karasuba asked.

"Oh, you ghoulish-" Miya began.

"Stasis pod," Hiroto said. "I've figured out how to wake him from his coma, I just can't do it, because not too long after he went into that coma, someone went and stole one of the tools I needed to do it with."

"Don't you dare blame me for your own-" Matsu began.

"Really, Miya, you're not the only person here Matsu's hurt with her theft," Hiroto continued. "You should know, Akitsu, that your self-winged state was always intended to be temporary. But when Matsu stole Jinki #8, we lost the ability to fix you." He sighed. "My condolences. But at least you know who to blame."

"Yeah, it's you," Akitsu snapped. "Fuck you, Minaka! You fucking locked me in a cage and poked me with needles, and you expect me to be mad at Matsu because she stole one of your needles?! How fucking delusional are you?!"

Hiroto paused, a little taken aback, then rallied quickly, turning to regard me.

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"She used to be so well-behaved," he said. "You're a bad influence."

"Blow it out your ugly ass," I said, staggering to my feet. "I'm done humoring you. Your motivations don't matter. Your plan doesn't matter. What matters is that you've wrecked and ruined so, so fucking much, and it was all for nothing, absolutely nothing, beyond the glorification of your own ego." I rolled my shoulders and cracked my knuckles. "That ends now. Vas a morir, cabron."

"Well, if that's how you feel," Hiroto said, standing up and shrugging out of his cape, the Jinki spiraling down and coming to rest on the crate. "Tell you what! We'll do a special bonus round, Ashikabi-kun! You versus me; no Sekirei, winner take all."

"...A duel?" I asked. "You know that didn't go too well for the last medical CEO I met, right?"

"You'll find me a more formidable opponent than that Higa brat," Hiroto said, cracking his neck.

"Alright," I said. "Let's dance."

He held out his hand, and a katana lept into it.

"Play that funky music, white girl."

Since when was he a telekinetic?

"...Well, if we're just saying memes at each other now," I said, reaching into my coat and pulling forth a revolver. "Parry this, you fucking casual." I squeezed the trigger.

And he did.

Somehow, his katana moving faster than it should've been able to in human hands, he parried a fucking bullet.

"Okay," Hiroto said, grinning, before dodging and yelping as I pitched the entire revolver at his head like a record-setting fastball.

"New plan," I said, pulling forth a high-explosive anti-tank grenade.

"Where are you getting those things!" Hiroto demanded as he dodged the grenade, letting it hit the wall of the vault, opening a giant hole to the city outside.

"I need to borrow this," I said, grabbing Miya's sword.

"You have my sword," Miya said, nodding.

"Of course I do, it's in my hand."

I unsheathed the blade, and rushed at Hiroto, sword poised.

This was a really bad time to have no idea what I'm doing.

Steel met steel, and I learned a few important things. One: Hiroto did in fact know how to fight with a katana. Two: Hiroto was stronger and faster than any man should be. Three: I was still faster.

"You're strong," I noted, hopping back and disengaging, positioning myself carefully.

"I've been practicing my psychic powers for twenty years," Hiroto said, shrugging. "And I did it without leaning on Sekirei. You may be strong too, but..." He smirked. "You're about to learn exactly why experience beats power."

He rushed at me, this time, and while he feinted a slash, his real attack was to try to push me out the hole in the wall.

Naturally, I didn't let him just push me, and instead took a leap of faith. My faith was rewarded a second later, when my feet landed on the roof of a commuter train, and I got my bearings.

Hiroto's eyes went wide, and a giddy smile crossed his face. He leapt out through the hole, landing on the train a few cars behind me, and cackled.

"Ohhhh, how I've been waiting for this moment my whole life," Hiroto said.

"This is what you've been training for, eh?" I asked.

"Hah!" He charged at me again, and the conversation ended as steel met steel. I stayed on the defensive; I was faster and stronger, so all I had to do was put my sword in the right place at the right time. Attacking would reveal the depths of my ineptitude, and while I was pretty prideful, I also had a good reason to keep him in the dark as much as I could.

I met a particularly powerful strike in the middle, and he leapt back, smirking.

"So, how long have you been studying the blade?" Hiroto asked.

"A few days, back in high school," I said. "Never got very far. This is my first time with a real sword in my hand."

"You've a natural talent," Hiroto remarked. "A shame that, one way or another, I won't get to see it blossom."

"And you?" I asked.

"Kendo club, in high school," Hiroto said. "I did very well."

He decided the Q&A session was over, and came at me again, his movements becoming more fluid and... honestly, dance-like. Maybe he was in a martial trance of his own. Either way, he was moving faster now, and I had to start giving ground if I didn't want to get cut. Trouble was, I didn't have much ground to give, only... what, one and a half train cars?

So... I had to think fast.

I hopped back, disengaging, and then leapt high into the air over him, twisting as I came back down to parry his attempted evisceration, and then the game was back on, sword crashing against sword.

"Hah!" Hiroto laughed. "Oh, this is so much fun! Where have you been all my life?!"

"Texas," I said dryly, leaping back, landing in a crouch and staying there.

He nodded, holding his sword up and backwards, cutting through the oncoming low-hanging sign before it had a chance to clock him in the back of the head.

"A nice try," Hiroto said, turning his katana the right way around and resting it on his shoulder. "But I'm the best human psychic alive."

"How certain are you of that?" I asked.

"Well, I willingly bet my life on it, didn't I?" Hiroto asked, arms outstretched. "I looked at you, and your own growing might, and I said to myself... Yeah. I've still got it."

"And, these psychic powers of yours," I said carefully. "Aside from the telekinesis I've seen... what are they?"

"A touch of clairvoyance and precognition," Hiroto said. "It's like eyes in the back of my head."

"I see, I see... and, would those include any mind-reading at all?" I asked.

"Nope," Hiroto said. "Psychic powers don't work that way, alas. You need an existing psychic bond to read someone's mind, and since neither of us are Sekirei..." He shrugged. "If you've been holding an unpleasant mental image in your mind's eye this whole time, I'm afraid it hasn't been working."

"Damn," I said.

"Anyway," Hiroto said, rolling his shoulders. "As fun as this has been, I think it's time we ended this distraction, and got back to business."

"Funny," I said, "that's my line."