Naruto x Sekirei - Part 5

Takami woke up and immediately needed to resist the urge to grimace at the stinging pain over her left eye, knowing that it would only make it worse. That crazy bitch Yomi had nearly taken her eye and MBI's doctors had insisted on putting her under for surgery because there was still a dangerously high risk that she would lose it anyway. What the hell was that brat of an Ashikabi thinking, attacking her in broad daylight so that he could forcibly wing an eight year old Sekirei?

"Good morning Takami-chan!" The irritatingly familiar voice grated on her ears. She'd forgotten that her idiot boss was hospitalized too, though he was in for being turned into a eunuch by Naruto and Karasuba, rather than something more dignified.

Wait a minute…morning?

"What time is it?" She demanded without responding to his greeting.

"It is precisely 09:42 in the morning."

Takami scowled, despite the pain it caused her freshly stitched over eye. There was a doctor that would be losing their job as soon as she had time to fire him. She'd specifically instructed that she be woken up as soon as the surgery was finished, despite his insistence that she could still lose her eye if she didn't rest.

"Where is Kusano?" She'd also instructed that the child Sekirei be retrieved before anyone could make another attempt to wing her forcibly.

"Still in the botanical garden of course! Truly a marvelous development, it has all the makings of a grand event!" Minaka said grandiosely.

"What?" Takami hissed furiously. "I ordered that she be retrieved!"

"I canceled that order and stationed troops to guard the entrances until the start of the event. I intend to let all the Ashikabi know that she is there soon to create some competition for her winging, it should be interesting."

"Are you out of your fucking mind?!" Takami howled at him. "Wasn't it enough that you got your balls cut off? Are you trying to piss Uzumaki off or has it just slipped your mind that every time you do something, it backfires horribly?"

"Severe setbacks to be sure, but I am already looking into ways to counter them and the Sekirei Plan absolutely must continue." Minaka insisted seriously.

"She's just a child!"

"She's a Sekirei."

Minaka's dismissive attitude towards the Sekirei never failed to piss her off, but the fact that Kusano was only eight years old made it much worse than usual.

"I'm going to get Kusano out of there." She said abrutly and got out of the bed, seeing that as usual, there was no use trying to reason with him. He'd apparently lost the last few marbles that he'd still had in his head when Naruto and his wife had decided to wreck his plans. He didn't even have the wits to know when he was standing in the way of an unstoppable force. The fact that all the tracking devices had stopped working at the same time had been a far bigger proof of power to her than the lightning storm. If they could do that as well as shrug off high powered sniper rounds to the head, then there was very little leverage that anyone could use pressure them with. Takami wasn't too thrilled at letting the horned duo do as they pleased but she could see that it was better than what Minaka had planned. The insane idiot would drive the Sekirei race into extinction with his delusions.

"The soldiers guarding her have already been instructed not to let anyone in, especially not you." Minaka piped up. "I cannot let you get in the way of the Sekirei Plan Takami-chan."

Fuming, the silver haired woman stomped out without responding, her injured eye throbbing painfully under the bandages in response to her anger as she started muttering a litany of curses aimed at Minaka. She wouldn't be able to get past the soldiers if Minaka had ordered them not to let her in and even if she did, all it would take was one Sekirei to find her and she wouldn't be able to protect the Green Girl.

Usually she would go to Homura about this, but he was just one person. He wouldn't be able to protect her if a horde of hostile Sekirei came after her, which was exactly what would most likely happen.

But she knew one person that would have no trouble at all with any of that. She didn't like doing this, because she was quite certain that Kusano would not be returning to the labs to finish her adjusting if Naruto got his claws on her, but it was better than the alternative. Besides, he and his wife were probably far more capable of making changes to the Sekirei's bodies than MBI's scientists, if what they'd done so far was any indication.

She just hoped that she was doing the right thing, because she was far from certain that telling Naruto about a cute young girl that needed someone to take care of her was a good idea.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The unexpected ringing of the phone drew the perplexed eyes of everyone in th hotel room. None of them could think of any reason for someone to be calling them.

Shrugging to himself, Naruto picked it up.

"Sex toy testing center, how may I help you?" Haihane giggled, Yashima was embarrassed, Xanna was indifferent and Akitsu…looked interested.

There was a short pause on the other and, the caller clearly thrown a bit by the off color greeting before they responded.

"Cut the crap Uzumaki, there's no time for it and I'm not in the mood." Takami snapped.

"That's the problem with assholes like me…..they never care whether you're in the mood or not, the bastards." Naruto responded with a highly convincing sympathetic tone.

Takami had obviously been having a very stressful time ever since she woke up, not to mention that the still fresh injury over her eye was making her mood even fouler, but she just barely managed to calm herself down.

Though the reluctance in her voice was obvious, she went on. She was still deeply leery of this course of action, but she knew that the most likely candidates for winging Kusano would be either the Ashikabi of the South or East and both of them were far worse options than Naruto."There's something you should know."

"You're horny as hell and need me to put out your bonfire? I'd be happy to, but you'll need to refrain from smoking, those things are murder on my sense of smell."

"No, you horndog! There's a young Sekirei, Kusano, trapped in the Botanical Garden and there will probably be other Sekirei coming to drag her off to be forcibly winged soon. I'm not happy with the idea of a pervert like you taking her in, but it's the lesser of two evils."

"How did this situation even happen I wonder?" Naruto asked musingly, giving a nod to Xanna and teleporting away.

He knew of young Kusano and had been considering getting her out of the labs soon either way. She was the one of the last Sekirei still in the labs and Takami kept close watch on her. There were others who needed help more and he liked to do things one at a time. Though in light of her age, he would have taken her in the very instant that she was released.

"Never mind that now, just save her." Takami said impatiently.

"I'm already making my way through this lovely new forest, you might as well tell me what happened."

"Kusano wanted to go outside, so I took her to the park. We got attacked by #43 Yomi and her Ashikabi. I got injured and Kusano panicked when he tried to wing her, which is how that 'lovely new forest' sprung up. I ordered that Kusano be safely retrieved before I went in for surgery, but Minaka countermanded me. By now he's probably already sent out e-mails to every Ashikabi in the city."

"That man just never learns." Naruto sighed and shook his head. "I'll save her, but you owe me a striptease for this one."

The line went dead, Takami having hung up without dignifying that with a response.

"Oh yeah, she wants me." Naruto affirmed to himself with a snicker and chucked the phone into a random direction, before staring that way for a few seconds longer. "Wait, that was the hotel phone…which we use to order room service. I should not have done that."

Deciding that the young girl was a bigger priority than the phone, he ambled off towards the proper direction.

It didn't take him long to find the girl huddled up in a tree, clearly too scared to make her way down.

She was the very epitome of cute with her bright green eyes, little white dress and messy blonde hair.

"Kuu-chan?" He said gently. He wasn't much for honorifics, but the girl would be scared enough of his appearance that every little bit would count. He could just change his appearance, but it was better to just get it over with as soon as possible.

The young Sekirei started, clearly having trouble staying conscious. She probably hadn't slept much. When she caught sight of him, her eyes widened and she tried to hide even further up the tree, obviously frightened.

"It's ok sweetie, I'm not here to hurt you. Takami asked me to get you out of here." He continued in the same gentle tone.

"Takami-nee?" She asked hopefully.

"She's alright." Naruto assured, guessing that the young girl had been worried about her caretaker. "Why don't you come down from there?"

"I can't. It's too high, I'm scared." Kusano said tearfully.

"I'll come and get you then." He said with a grin and levitated up to her.

Kusano made an amazed 'ooooh' sound when she saw him lift off the ground. "You're flying!"

"Yes, yes I am." He agreed. "My name is Naruto by the way, forgot to mention that earlier."

"Are you a Sekirei too?" The young girl asked, having always been told that only Sekirei had special powers.

"No, not a Sekirei." He answered, amused. "I wanted to ask if you'd like to be my little sister, you look like you could use a big brother to take care of you."

"An onii-chan?" Kusano repeated, sounding very happy with the idea. She'd only learned about big brothers from the TV and from her interaction with Shiina, but she knew that having a big brother was a very good thing. Something inside her was telling her that she already had a big brother waiting for her somewhere out there, but the long distance reaction to Sahashi Minato was too weak to influence her decision.

"Yeah, jump over here if you'd like that." Naruto said, holding out his arms so that she could easily jump to him.

Hesitating only long enough to think about it for a second and check her footing, she jumped into his arms.

"Good girl, now sit tight and grab on to my horns." Naruto instructed, placing the cute little girl on his shoulders and using his hair to grab her so that she didn't fall.

"Onii-chan, your hair is acting weird!" Kusano warned in childish alarm even as she did as she was told and grabbed his horns.

"Don't worry about it." He assured amusedly and lowered himself back to the ground. "It's just to make sure you don't fall. How's the view up there?"

"It's like being in a tree! You're so big onii-chan!" She responded enthusiastically, having taken only a few seconds to deduce that she was being allowed to 'steer' him and having lots of fun doing so.

"And you're such a cutie. How can someone as cute as you even exist?"

Kusano giggled happily, inadvertantly causing flowers to bloom everywhere.

"Oh, so you'd like to play at who can make the prettier flowers huh?" Naruto asked teasingly. "Take a look at this."

Upon saying that, the ground bloomed into a riot of colorful flowers, most of which had no business being there.

"Pretty." Kusano said dreamily, staring at the new flower field.

While she was distracted, Naruto made a quick examination of her core and frowned. He'd never seen this kind of thing happening to a Sekirei Core, but if the weak chakra stream going outwards from her was any judge, she was reacting to someone.

She's much too young for that. He thought to himself and locked her bonding ability, as well as gently putting her to sleep. There were several other things about her core that needed attention, but there was no time for it right now. He could already feel the approach of several people, one of them extraordinarily hostile. Figuring that he might as well meet them, he stood there and waited patiently with the tiny Sekirei sleeping on his head.

"….is that little brat?!" A female voice was saying angrily, clearly searching for Kusano and annoyed about it.

"She's bound to be around here somewhere." A much calmer male voice answered.

"We'd better find her soon, or I just might cut off a limb for making us search for her like this."

"Hayato-sama specifically ordered us to bring her back unharmed Yomi."

"I know that already Mutsu, just shut up!"

At about this point the duo had reached Naruto and stopped in surprise at seeing their quarry sleeping on his head.

"Who the hell are you?" Yomi demanded, brandishing her scythe and already planning to kill the horned weirdo.

Naruto raised an eyebrow and noted that the southern Ashikabi apparently didn't have much in the way of intelligence gathering if he wasn't known to them already.

"Why are you so hellbent on dragging Kusano over to your brat of an Ashikabi? She's just a little girl."

"Don't insult Hayato-sama you bastard! He told us to bring her to him and that's what we're going to do!" Yomi howled angrily, pointing her scythe at him. "Hand her over and maybe I won't cut your legs off you pervert."

For once, Naruto refrained from going on a tangent over being called a pervert. He could clearly sense that Yomi was intending to kill him no matter what he did and this seemed to be her default setting. She wasn't like Karasuba who lived for a good fight, Yomi was simply a psycho that enjoyed hurting and killing people, just like that Amebane guy he'd killed the other night.

That was a strangely common occurrence among Sekirei. All of the former Disciplinary Squad was just a shade more restrained than that. They all enjoyed a good fight, but didn't feel the same need of killing that Yomi and those like her seemed to feel.

Something to be explored later, it made for an interesting mystery.

"We both know that you're lying Yomi, you're planning to kill me either way." He answered, his tone amused. "And no, I won't be handing Kusano over so that your immature, bed wetting, spoiled punk of an Ashikabi can enslave her."

By the time that Naruto was finished, Yomi was so angry that she couldn't even speak and simply launched herself at him with deadly intent, her scythe arcing through the air in such a way that it would cut through his neck, not even caring that Kusano would also be killed by such a blow.

"Yomi no!" Mutsu shouted urgently.

Usually, he would have been the one doing the talking, but something about this horned man was making him incredily wary, aside from his demonic appearance that was, and he'd been trying to figure it out. He knew a dangerous man when he saw one and this one was very dangerous indeed. Years of Sekirei superiority told him that he was no match for them, but the unease remained.

Before he could come to any conclusions Yomi jumped into the attack and his warning was too late to stop her….not that she was very likely to listen in any case.

Before she made it anywhere close to her target, Naruto summoned the Kusanagi, still shaped like a naginata, and drove the thick blade of the polearm through her heart, suspending her in the air with blood rapidly trickling down the blade and pole. Mutsu had only had enough time to grab hold of his sword, but every instinct was screaming at him not to attack.

"What a waste. Such a pretty girl and such an ugly spirit." He murmured to himself as the blond scythe user looked at him with disbelieving, pained eyes as she died.

"Are we going to have a problem Mutsu?" He asked the male Sekirei mildly, still holding the recently dead Yomi in the air.

A bead of sweat trickling down his face, Mutsu struggled to remain calm as he very slowly let go of the sword. This was just as bad as the last time he'd spoken to Miya, when she'd threatened to cut him into chunks if he darkened her doorstep with the Sekirei Plan, all with an eerily pleasant smile on her face.

"My Ashikabi ordered me to retrieve the Green Girl….." He admitted, tensing when the gold-orange gaze narrowed with a silent threat and hastily continued. "…..but I'm sure he'll understand that it was impossible."

He didn't for a moment doubt that the horned man was capable of killing him faster than thought even if he still had Yomi's corpse impaled on his weapon like a macabre trophy.

"I can unwing you." Naruto mentioned casually, causing Mutsu to freeze in shock just as he'd been about to walk away very carefully. "I know that you got winged to that little punk by accident, so I figured that you might want to get unwinged."

Mutsu had no idea how the horned man knew that he'd accidentally drank from the same glass as Hayato at a social function that Minaka had been hosting years ago and ended up getting winged, but it hardly mattered right now.

"Be that as it may, I've come to act like a big brother to him and wouldn't wish to abandon him now." Mutsu answered slowly, after nearly half a minute of silence as he deliberated the offer.

"As you wish." Naruto said flippantly, adding an uncaring shrug. "Do be sure to warn him that his time is running out though. My wife has already called dibs on him and if he resists her in any way, she's going to kill him."

"What does your wife want with him?" Mutsu asked worriedly.

"Research." Naruto answered with a grin, turning back towards the corpse on his naginata and disintegrating it. Useful clean up ability that.

Mutsu was even more nervous at the unhelpful(not to mention worrying) answer and demonstration of power.

"You'd better go now, I'm about to have new visitors."

Mutsu left quickly, being well aware that this was less of a suggestion than it was a demand and knowing that he wouldn't be getting anything more than that one vague hint.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Sahashi Minato was worried, very worried.

When he and Seo had first come into this forest, he'd had a vague hint about where to find the child Sekirei that was hidden inside it, being able to follow a nebulous feeling that drew him in a certain direction. But that had suddenly cut off and they found themselves stumbling forward blindly. Musubi had already caught up to them so now it was him, Seo, Musubi and the thunder twins looking for a little girl in a big forest.

He feared that suddenly losing that sense of direction that led him to her meant that someone had already winged her by force. He was fairly sure that she had been reacting to him and he didn't want some unscrupulous Ashikabi to wing her against her will. Musubi had been quite vocal on the subject of Sekirei needing to be winged by the one that they reacted to and it sounded bad if one were to be winged by force.

All of his worried thoughts on the subject screeched to a grinding halt when he suddenly beheld the sight of the very Sekirei they'd been searching for, fast asleep on someone's head.

That in and of itself wouldn't be too terrible if this someone was not a towering blond that looked more demon than man. The bloodied naginata he was holding wasn't very comforting eaither.

"There she is Minato-sama! The Sekirei that was reacting to you!" Musubi announced the obvious with her usual enthusiasm, not even registering anything strange about finding a horned man there.

Minato froze when the predatory, slit-eyed gaze turned to him with a searching look.

Naruto assessed the boy that shared his father's name and instantly deduced that he was right to call him a boy. He was skinny, lacking any kind of muscle definition and was definitely not a warrior of any kind. Worse than that, he was practically pissing himself in fear at the mere sight of him.

Kusano had been reacting to this….this wet noodle?! How did the idiot boy expect to protect her from anything if he couldn't even muster the courage to keep his legs from shaking? His decision to lock away the Green Girl's ability to bond further reinforced, he decided to scare him a bit more.

Peeling his lips away from his teeth, he snarled at him in a way more reminiscent of a dire tiger than a man, snorting when the boy fell flat on his ass in fear.

"Kid, I think we might have to cut our losses and go back to the Inn." Seo advised warily. He might not be able to keep a job for more than a few days, but he heard things from all around the city and the things he'd heard about a long haired, horned blond made him think that he was to be avoided at all costs. They'd come here to keep the Green Girl out of the hands of any unscrupulous Ashikabi, but he very much doubted that picking a fight with this guy would end well for them.

"Yes, you might have to at that." Naruto agreed with a mocking chuckle.

He was tempted to make some choice comments on the S&M outfits worn by the twins that were clearly with the scruffy Seo Kaoru, but he was more interested in seeing whether the wimp would do anything. It wasn't that he didn't find them attractive, he really did, but they weren't that attractive. He only made constant perverted comments to women for the fun of it rather than having any extreme attraction to them. His wife outstripped the beauty of any woman he'd met so far by a colossal margin.

Their Ashikabi was also a bit of an oddball, though he'd already known that. It was like someone that was halfway between human and Sekirei, though he'd still yet to discern any particular difference between the two aside from the whole 'artificial chakra core' thing.

"We can't do that! She reacted to Minato-sama, he has to wing her." Musubi insisted.

Though badly shaken, Minato managed to get back on his feet and address the terrifying man. Despite his scary appearance, the little girl was sleeping peacefully on his head instead of being carried away by force.

"Umm…s-sir, s-she r-reacted to m-me, so ummm…could you please give her to me?" Minato managed to stutter out.

Naruto pointed the bloodied blade of the Kusanagi at him and spoke in a demanding voice. "Tell me boy, what do you even know about the winging?"

Yelping at the threatening way that the polearm was being pointed at him, Minato tried to marshal his thoughts and answer the question, but Musubi beat him to it.

"The winging is the destined bond between an Ashikabi and his Sekirei!" She piped up, always eager to extoll on the subject.

"Be quiet Musubi, I didn't ask you." Naruto commanded, not even looking at the naïve Sekirei. That girl was as gullible as they get and believed whole-heartedly the crap that Minaka had been spewing. She was damn cute, but the boy needed to answer this one himself. "Well?"

"Umm…well, I don't really know much about it, but don't Sekirei react to the Ashikabi that is meant for them?" Minato asked uncertainly once he'd pulled himself together. He was so off balanced that he didn't even think to question how the man knew Musubi's name.

"And you think an eight year old girl is meant for you?" Naruto asked pointedly. "You some kind of pedophile?"

While Minato spluttered, Musubi piped up again. "What's a pedophile?"

Everyone gaped at her, completely unsure of how to respond to that, not to mention unwilling.

Except Naruto, who knew exactly how to respond. With blunt honesty. "A pedophile is a man or a woman that likes having sex with children. People like that are the scum of the earth and should be made to die screaming in agony."

"What's sex?" Musubi asked again, still confused.

The others barely had time to feel either incredulity or dread before Naruto answered with brutal honesty once again. "Sex is the act of interaction between sexual organs performed by two or sometimes more adults, usually but not always of opposing genders."

Musubi's face was scrunched up in a cute form of confusion at this explanation. "Musubi is confused, is sex like common sense?"

"Yes Musubi, sex is a lot like common sense." Naruto told her, figuring that if he couldn't explain it to her, then he might as well make things worse. "You should ask Matsu to show you some videos."

Seo looked badly startled at this and was furiously thinking of any way that the horned man could possibly know of Matsu or her perverted tendencies. He came up blank.

"Who's Matsu?" The scatter brained Sekirei asked further, still confused.

"I'm sure you'll meet her eventually." Naruto said dismissively and turned away, intending to go pick up the hotel phone he'd randomly and for no reason whatsoever thrown away earlier.

"W-Wait, what about the Green Girl?" Minato asked nervously.

"Oh don't worry, I'll take good care of her." Was the nonchalant answer.

"But she was reacting to Minato-sama!" Musubi said indignantly.

"That doesn't matter anymore, I locked away her ability to be winged."

"How could you?! Finding an Ashikabi to fight for in the Sekirei Plan is a Sekirei's purpose in life!" Musubi screamed, now truly angered as this went against everything she believed in. She actually looked ready to attack him.

Naruto turned back to look at the fist fighter and cocked an eyebrow at her simmering-in-rage posture. "Hasn't anyone told you yet? The Sekirei Plan doesn't exist anymore, The Disciplinary Squad is all but disbanded and Minaka is only going to stay alive for as long as he stays amusing."

All of them looked very stunned at this, having heard none of it before, making Naruto snort. "Looks like Sparky hasn't been very open with the information I gave him, though I'm sure he's told Miya."

"The landlady?" Minato said in confusion, wondering what the gentle and yet somehow terrifying purple haired widow had to do with anything.

Naruto let loose a deep belly laugh at that, scaring away a great many birds and various land bound animals as his roaring amusement echoed into the distance. He calmed down after about ten seconds and just shook his head at the ignorance. "Right, a landlady. I hear landladies are pretty dangerous these days."

"How do you know Miya?" Seo asked warily, being the only one present that knew exactly what Miya truly was, and therefore catching the implications of that final statement.

"Oh, I've never spoken to or even seen the woman." Naruto answered blandly, paused for a moment and then suddenly developed a highly perverted expression, deliberately extending his tongue obscenely far out of his mouth as he spoke. "I must remember to ask her if the carpet matches the drapes and if she'd be willing to let me take a look."

Everyone bar Musubi blanched at the mere thought of Miya's reaction to that kind of question, especially if it was paired with the disgusting tongue waggle that had accompanied it.

"I'm sure she wouldn't mind allowing you to compare her carpets and drapes, the landlady is very nice." Musubi said, the true meaning of the words having escaped her utterly no matter how blatant Naruto had made it.

Naruto roared with laughter again, infinitely amused by the naïve Sekirei's antics. He knew that she was also something of a combat nut, which made her like a strange mirror image of Karasuba. Where one was harsh, cynical, hateful and fairly merciless, the other was naïve, hopeful, cheery and always positive.

"Well, never mind that now. As for your other question, I locked away her winging ability so that she has time to grow up before making a choice to bond with someone. I'll restore it to her in ten or so years, maybe a bit more."

"Oh." Musubi said, still looking confused. She had no idea why that was important but she did understand that the Green Girl would be able to get her wings when she was older and the horned man seemed nice enough, so she chose to believe him.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A meeting was taking place in Izumo Inn and an odd meeting it was. It consisted of Miya, Matsu, Homura, Seo and Uzume. Miya had sent Minato, Musubi and the thunder twins grocery shopping to get them out of the way. Musubi was the only one completely oblivious to the fact that it was just an excuse to make them leave the Inn.

"Now that we are alone, would you be so kind as to tell me why we needed to have this meeting scum-san?" Miya asked pleasantly, already holding a rock and exuding a miasma of negativity.

"Uzumaki Naruto." Seo said bluntly. "He knows that you're #01. I don't know how he knows, but he knows."

"I see." Miya said simply while the others looked startled, not seeming bothered even though she actually was. "And how did you come to know this."

"We met him while trying to save that kid Sekirei that Minaka set up as a prize for whichever Ashikabi finds her first. Uzumaki was already there and he'd blocked off her winging ability and taken her with him, but not before dropping some hints about someone he calls 'Sparky' telling you that the Sekirei plan didn't exist anymore."

"Ah, that would be me." Homura admitted ruefully. "He called me Sparky when I met him the other night, though he made no mention of the Sekirei plan, he only said that the Disciplinary Squad had been disbanded."

Matsu and Uzume snickered at the nickname, but Miya made an expression best described as 'pleasantly upset'.

"And why…..did you not tell me this sooner?"

Homura swallowed nervously and was quick to answer. "I wanted to make sure that he was for real. The things that he was saying just sounded too good to be true."

"What kinds of things Homura-tan?" Matsu asked curiously.

"Like the Disciplinary Squad being disbanded and Minaka basically being used as a punching bag every time he tries to get things back on track."

"What do you mean used as a punching bag?" Uzume asked.

"Well, apparently Uzumaki's wife ripped off eight of his fingers when he bribed an Ashikabi to attack them in order to find out more about them and Uzumaki somehow managed to convince Karasuba to castrate him."

Seo gave an instinctive wince, accompanied by an awkward shuffle at hearing this, while everyone else simply smiled at the thought. Minaka was not a well liked person in Izumo Inn.

"In short, he and his wife have basically hijacked the Sekirei Plan and wrecked it in the few days that they've been involved, going around unwinging Sekirei as they please and sidelining Minaka entirely." Homura summed up. "To be honest, I'm kind of glad of it. Minaka's insane Sekirei Plan would have seen us kill each other stupidly."

Homura made no mention of the malicious glee he felt at knowing that the madman had been reduced to a plaything for someone powerful beyond anyone's ability to control. Revenge was supposed to taste bittersweet, but Homura had so far found nothing bitter about it, even if it wasn't him doing it.

"I may have agreed with you if I knew what they were planning on doing in his place." Miya said with a grim tone that she hadn't used in a while. She had been determined not to involve herself in the Sekirei Plan, but things had changed drastically.

"When Takami spoke to him he told her that he was just looking to adopt a few little sisters, though he also seems to have something in mind for Karasuba, seeing as he called her one of his 'projects'." Homura added. "Then again, he's also claiming to be a god and I'm still kind of doubtful on that despite the fact that he was more than happy to demonstrate that he was obscenely powerful."

Miya mulled that over, not finding herself too surprised at the claim of divinity. She and the other seven Pillars had also been called gods and she knew that it could simply be nothing more than a description for someone of immense power rather than true divinity.

The man's connection to that woman notwithstanding, she found herself unable to let this go. "I find it doubtful that that is his only desire in regards to the Sekirei and I would like to speak to him soon."

It would mean getting involved again despite having washed her hands of the whole thing years ago, but she couldn't help feeling that there might be some hope for her feathers again. She hadn't been able to move against Minaka, because without him, the rest of the world would descend on the Sekirei like vultures. No matter how powerful she was, they would slip past her watch eventually now that most Sekirei had been turned loose in the city. If Minaka were killed, they'd spread even further and all her power would be useless if she wasn't there to defend them. Not every Sekirei was capable of fighting off an army or even a commando squad. And she was not foolish enough to think that she was invincible to begin with, even if she slew soldiers by the thousands, something would eventually bring her down.

The thought of simply coercing Minaka to do as she asked with threats of death and dismemberment had occurred to her, but she'd dismissed it as non-viable. Despite being insane, or maybe because of it, Minaka wouldn't cave to that kind of pressure and he'd used various measures to safeguard himself from that in any case. Clearly though, those measure were being less than effective against these newcomers. Why Minaka hadn't started deactivating Sekirei to prove a point and force them to back off, she didn't know, but she hoped that he couldn't instead of wouldn't.

Seo and Homura winced and exchanged looks, somehow knowing that the other was equally aware of what a disaster waiting to happen that was. Unfortunately, this was noticed.

"What's with the wincing guys? You afraid they're going to get into a fight with Miya?" Uzume asked with a teasing smirk.

Exchanging another long-suffering look, the two men could tell by Miya's prompting expression that they wouldn't get out of answering that one. "We're not afraid that they're going to, we know they are."

"Ara, how can you be so certain?" Miya asked mildly. "Are you implying that this humble landlady would attack visitors?"

Her mild manner and gentle smile was completely at odds with the already forming Hannya mask that demanded that they answer carefully.

"We can't really say anything about his wife." Homura hastened to say. "But Uzumaki is….well.."

"What is he Homura-tan?" Matsu asked eagerly, her glasses gleaming.

"He's a pervert." Seo said flatly, wanting to just get it over with. He'd never admit it, but he was kind of hoping to be there to see the fireworks, even if it was probably going to be dangerous.

"You are a pervert too scum-san, but I still let you live." Miya pointed out with a dangerously pleasant smile.

Seo acquired a deadpan expression, remembering the many hard rocks that had been thrown at his head over the years. Uzumaki didn't strike him as the type to just take that crap without giving something back though.

"I might not have been around him for more than a few minutes, but I could tell that this guy is no ordinary pervert, he's like…..a Super Pervert." Seo explained.

"Ufufufufu." Matsu chuckled, sounding like an old man with her perverse giggles and her glasses fogging up for some reason.

"Oh yeah, he also knows that Matsu is here."

"Of course he does." Homura muttered into the silence that followed, somehow not surprised. The horned blond was entirely too well informed. "Right, I almost forgot. Uzume, he told me to tell you that 'he can also heal', though I'm not sure why he wanted me to tell that to you specifically."

The chesty cloth using Sekirei froze in shock at the implications of that statement. She'd actually had a brief 'encounter', if you could call it that, with the man. Higa's loathsome secretary had sent her to take out another poor Sekirei whose Ashikabi had refused to have anything to do with him, only to be intercepted. No matter how much she tried to will herself to attack the intimidating horned man, she hadn't been able to make the cloth she manipulated move. Not a word had been said but she'd needed to flee, especially since the Sekirei and Ashikabi pair had already left the area.

If he knew of her situation, then that could only mean that he'd either followed her without being seen or straight out read her mind. Either way, it was blatant bait to lure her to him.

Uzume evaded the questions of whether she knew what that meant and ignored the continuing conversation as well as the suspicious looks leveled at her. The only thing on her mind was whether she should risk taking the obvious bait and possibly blunder into some kind of nefarious trap or stay in her current, miserable situation and hope that Higa didn't backstab her in the end.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"I wonder how they can eat so much?" The newly employed female bellhop questioned mostly rhetorically as she continued pushing a table heavily laden down with food.

"Not a clue Yuno, not a clue." Her more experienced colleague, Shou, answered with a wry tone, pushing along his own table.

"We've had to employ two extra chefs just for them." The third member, Naoki, added.

"Seriously?" Shou asked incredulously, having not heard of this before. "Management must have been annoyed by that."

"Oh yeah. They weren't happy about having to pay two extra chefs, especially since all the tips are going into our pockets instead of theirs." Naoki confirmed with a self satisfied smirk.

"None of my friends believe me when I tell them that there just happens to be a super generous rich guy here, they all think I'm providing 'extra service'. And I haven't even told them what he looks like yet." Yuno grumbled sourly. It made her wonder about the quality of her friends if they so easily assumed that she'd sell herself for the right price. The fact that she could fairly easily imagine her 'friends' doing exactly that only made her question it even more.

"Well I'm sure Naruto wouldn't say no to a little 'extra service'." Shou snickered, joined soon by Naoki.

"Assholes." Yuno groused but didn't take offense. Naruto's obviously perverted nature had become something of a running gag for the hotel staff and she knew that the joke was aimed mostly at him rather than at her. "What do you think he's doing with all those strange looking women up there anyway?"

"Maybe he's building up a harem." Shou suggested with a leer.

"That's ridiculous." Yuno scoffed. "He's married."

"Yeah, but that wife of his is anything but normal." Naoki added his own opinion to the discussion. "Maybe they really are demons and they're going to suck the life out of those girls through sex."

"Now you're the one being ridiculous." Shou said. "If Naruto is a demon then he must have gotten kicked out of Hell for being too nice."

"Then what did his wife get kicked out of Hell for?" Yuno asked, smirking.

"Her? Get kicked out of Hell?" Shou scoffed. "If anything, she probably left because it wasn't hardcore enough."

All three of them chuckled at the silly conversation and went silent for a few moments until Yuno asked another question. "What's her name anyway?"

"No idea." Naoki shrugged. "We never heard it and we're not quite willing to ask."

"What brave men you are." Yuno said sarcastically.

Both men shrugged, secure in the knowledge that it was simply better not to rock the boat and risk upsetting someone and thus losing their steady source of income through tips.

"But seriously, if they're not building up some kind of harem up there, then I don't know what they're doing." Shou said pensively.

"Give it a rest with the harems already, you watch too much anime." Yuno said with an eyeroll.

Any further conversation was forestalled ass they had already reached the door to the penthouse.

After knocking and announcing their presence, they were greeted by the usual sight of Naruto's bare chest, much to their relief. Though today it was odd, as he had a little blond girl sleeping on his head.

"Hello minions." He greeted and waved them in so they could drop off the food.

They did so, but could not resist constantly glancing at the young girl on his head, seemingly held there by his hair alone.

"Something on your mind?" Naruto asked amusedly.

"Uh….you've got a little girl on your head." Shou pointed out, internally wincing at how stupid he had just sounded.

Naruto feigned a surprised look and rolled his eyes upwards as if he could somehow see her that way. "So I do! Akitsu, why didn't you alert me to this fact earlier?"

The three bellhops had no idea where the incredibly beautiful, chesty, kimono wearing woman with the perpetually sleepy expression had come from, so they jumped slightly at her sudden appearance and monotonous answer to Naruto's question. "I apologize master, please spank me harder tonight."

"Good thinking Akitsu. I've got a brand new, velvet wrapped paddle with your name on it." Naruto praised.

Akitsu said nothing nor did her expression change in the slightest, making it impossible to guess whether she liked that or not.

The three bellhops all looked stunned at having their joking guesses of a harem confirmed. But then, what was the deal with the kid?

As it turned out, Kusano picked that moment to wake up and rub at her eyes in a cutely childish fashion. "Onii-chan, something smells good." She mumbled sleepily.

"That's right Kuu-chan, it's time to eat."

"Kuu is hungry." The Green Girl mumbled again, accompanied by her rumbling stomach.

Some minutes later, the three bellhops were putting away the standardly huge tips that Naruto handed out and attempting to puzzle out what kind of situation that was.

"So….one of them is some kind of weird S&M slave girl and the other one is a little sister?" Naoki said tentatively.

"What about the others then?" Yuno asked.

"They're probably in on the S&M thing too." Shou said with authority.

"How'd you figure that?" Naoki asked sceptically.

"He must pick them up young and train them."

"Like one of those sex slave operations?" Yuno asked worriedly, starting to think that it was a possibility. She'd heard things on the news.

"You don't think…..that he's been giving us such big tips so that we'd feel like we owe him something, or that we'd be too greedy to report it to the police?" Naoki wondered, his imagination painting a grim picture.

"We should keep our eyes open." Shou determined. "It could be nothing, but we need to pay attention in case it is something. We already know that he's a pervert and all this money has to be coming from somewhere. He could be using the hotel as a cover for some kind of sick slave training operation. I mean, did you see the despondent expression on that girl's face? Maybe that mark on her forehead is given to the ones who've already been trained, like some kind of brand."

"And since it's such a prestigious hotel, people would never think of it." Yuno whispered in realisation.

All three of them nodded grimly, now determined. If Naruto really had pulled the wool over their eyes with his extravagant tips, then they'd expose him to the police. They'd watch carefully for any more signs to make sure that they weren't just jumping at shadows, but it would have to be soon. Just turning a blind eye while innocent young women were being inducted into slavery was not something they could do, no matter how much money they'd make by doing so.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"So you can eat normally." Haihane said with much amusement, observing the much more civilised way that Naruto was eating now that he had Kusano in his lap.

"Of course I can, but I usually don't see the point." Naruto answered. "It gets in the way of my enjoyment of the food."

"So it takes having a little kid in your lap to make you use some manners onii-chan?" Yashima teased.

Kusano made a weird noise of discontent in the back of her throat, swallowed the food in her mouth and addressed the hammer wielding Sekirei. "He's my onii-chan."

Naruto poked the girl lightly in the stomach, making her yelp in ticklish surprise even as he gently rebuked her. "You're both my little sisters, which makes Yashima your big sister, so be nice."

Kusano pouted, which sent Haihane into a short giggling fit at the look.

"What does that make me and Akitsu then?" The bandaged Sekirei asked, much amused.

"You'll be another of my little sisters as soon as I can beat you at Mortal Kombat." Naruto pointed out, eliciting a disbelieving snort from Haihane, who clearly doubted his ability to accomplish such a thing. "And Akitsu is…..complicated."

"Ah…master, that isn't true." The ice Sekirei replied quietly. "I'm very simple, I just want to serve yours and Xanna-sama's needs."

Naruto aimed a wry look at the well concealed pervert, amused at how she'd worded it so that it went right over Kusano's young head.

"Speaking of your scary wife, where is she?"

"Oh, she had something to do." He said noncommittally.

"Why did you order food for her too then?" Yashima asked in confusion.

"We'll be eating it together later, in bed." Though his tone was neutral, the suggestive eyebrow raise made Yashima flush with embarrassment and Haihane smirk.

Akitsu…yanked lightly on his sleeve and aimed a pleading look at him, clearly asking if she could be part of that too.

She'll be busy for a while yet Akitsu, so we'll have time for your spanking before she gets back. He said directly to her mind, not wanting to expose Kusano's virgin ears to that kind of thing.

Akitsu perked up in a very subtle manner. She would have preferred if they could have both been there, as she was equally attracted to both of them, but she'd take one over none any day. She felt fortunate enough that they were even letting her join in on these things to the extent that they were.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Some time earlier.

Minaka woke up feeling confused. From what he could recall he'd just suddenly passed out and now he was waking up on what seemed to be an uncomfortable stone floor. Additionally, the constant ache of his not completely healed castration was gone. The doctors had managed to re-attach his penis, but alas, his testicles had been a lost cause.

"Get on your feet already worm." A commanding female voice echoed out. Apparently he was in some kind of room with good acoustics.

Moreoever, the voice was chillingly familiar.

Getting up, he saw that indeed, it was the horned she-demon that had ripped off his fingers the last time he'd seen her. She was sitting on an expansive throne of black marble that was padded with deep crimson cushions. To enhance the arrogant image even further, she was sitting up on a balcony that overlooked his current position.

His current position being an empty room, whose only features were a portcullis on each side.

"Since you've attempted to continue your idiotic Sekirei Plan despite repeated warnings, you will now serve to amuse me, just as you continue attempting to use the Sekirei for your amusement even after my husband has claimed them."

"I found them first." Minaka argued, rather petulantly at that.

"That matters little when you lack the strength to back up your claim." Xanna pointed out mockingly.

She knew that Naruto hadn't really claimed them as such, but that was just him being human. They were his and if he wished to allow them to leave then that was his prerogative, but he had claimed the Sekirei as far as she was concerned.

"Well I'm not going to play along with your games." Minaka said defiantly. He was the Game Master! He would not be reduced to being someone's plaything! That was the role of others!

"You misunderstand, you will amuse me no matter what you do."

As soon as she said that, Minaka started hearing the disturbing moans of what he instantly identified as a zombie horde, thanks to seeing a great many movies and video games on the subject. Turning to look allowed him to see that they were clamoring in an attempt to breach one of the two entrances to the room.

"Refuse to move and they will tear you apart, or struggle for survival. Either way, you will amuse me."

Minaka was momentarily speechless and Xanna continued her standard Smug Evil Villain Monologue, as was apparently required of anyone that dumped another person into hot water for their amusement. "My husband occasionally comes up with such marvelous ideas. I think I would keep him around just for those even if I didn't love him." She said fondly before continuing. "I know that you enjoyed playing Dungeons and Dragons during your college days and you always insisted on being the Dungeon Master. This time, you will be running through my dungeon."

"But….but you can't do this! I'm the Game Master! If anyone should be the Dungeon Master, it should be me!" Minaka insisted.

"I do believe that you've just failed a diplomacy check." Xanna pointed out, which was immediately followed by the sound of an opening portcullis.

Minaka paled at the sight of the zombie horde approaching and ran for the other portcullis, which had fortunately also opened.

The last thing he heard from behind him was her parting shot.

"Since I am not entirely heartless, you actually have a chance of surviving this mess you've gotten yourself into. Roll the Die of Power…..if you dare."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Minaka took deep breaths, trying to calm down his racing heart. He'd managed to evade the zombies so far, but he didn't delude himself into thinking that he'd be able to do it forever.

This dungeon he was in was a labyrinthine mess and sooner or later the horde would splinter into multiple directions, making it nigh impossible to evade them. They were slow, but he dared not get too far from them out of fear that he would need to double back at some point and find himself between two groups.

This relatively tiny room was the first sanctuary he'd found and he was taking the chance to rest a bit. It was not an empty room however.

There was a dais in the middle and on it was a single, twenty sided die. An easily recognisable sight for anyone that had even a passing knowledge of D&D. This one came with a warning though.

Roll the die if you seek a boon

But be wary of rolling too soon

A high roll turns things in your favor

And a low roll increases the danger.

Apparently the sadistic she-demon had a penchant for tormenting him with bad poetry in addition to the zombies and Minaka felt the sudden urge to yell at the ceiling that her poetry was bad and that she should feel bad. Fortunately, his long ignored common sense smothered that idea by pointing out that it may not be the wisest of decisions to needlessly antagonize the one who held his life in her hands.

He'd already had to revise his opinion on the apparent divinity of the horned duo in light of recent developments and if D&D had taught him anything, it was that you didn't deliberately piss off either the gods or the Dungeon Master and he was dealing with someone who was both.

Judging by her ominous warning and the aforementioned bad poetry, if he rolled above 10, he'd get something helpful and if he rolled below it, he'd get more trouble.

A 50/50 chance of his situation improving was better than mindlessly wandering through the zombie infested maze he was in, so Minaka spared little thought before grabbing the die and rolling it. He was sorely tempted to cheat, but experienced the most curious sense that it wouldn't end well for him if he tried.

He waited in a state of extreme tension as the die kept on rolling longer than strictly needed until it finally stopped on a number that caused him to exhale in relief. The die itself collapsed into dust and spelled out his outcome.

11

Arm yourself!

Along the length of the wall, a weapons rack shimmered into existence, containing all sorts of goodies that would go a long way towards helping him survive.

Gleefully, Minaka took a katana from the rack, having taken some lessons with the weapon during his youth when his interests had been all over the place. He also took a naginata for some range and a couple of daggers just in case things got really hairy. He'd have liked to take a bow as well, but unfortunately, he didn't know how to use it.

Thus armed, Minaka the Zombie Hunter left his safe hidey hole with the intention of poking holes into the brains of the zombies with his polearm and then safely strolling out of the dungeon once they were all dead.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Minaka glared incredulously at the supposed exit.

It was a massive rocky cliff that offered little in the way of handholds and was certainly not safe to be climbing with his fancy dress shoes. Especially without any climbing equipment.

The zombies had been slow and stupid and therefore presented very little danger as long as you didn't allow yourself to get overwhelmed or surrounded, but this cliff would definitely be the death of him.

Oh so innocently, another Die of Power was sitting on a nearby dais, mocking him with the clear offer of aid.

With trepidation, he took the reality altering object and threw it, hoping that his luck would hold and allow him to escape. His blood turned to ice as he beheld the result.

4

Hunted by the Xenomorph!

I took him no more than a few moments to remember what exactly a Xenomorph was, with his realisation being echoed helpfully by the distant screech of the fictional interstellar apex predator.

Instantly, he took off running in the hope of finding another Die of Power to even the odds, not really trusting his ability to fight something like that off with melee weaponry.

He muttered angrily to himself even as he ran. "Xenomorphs are NOT part of the D&D universe!"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Minaka desperately gasped for air and willed his out of control heart to stop attempting to escape from his chest and continue running as the frustrated black carapaced alien clawed at the walls in an attempt to get to him.

He'd only barely escaped it and he'd needed to abandon all his weapons except for the daggers to do so. The thing was big despite its somewhat spindly appearance, bigger than a grown man by a considerable margin, which had been his only saving grace. He most certainly could not have outran it, as it was capable of moving at speeds that would put a cheetah to shame.

He'd found a tiny little opening in the wall and dived in without thought, being rather out of choice in the matter since the Xenomorph had been about to pounce on him from across the hall. He'd just barely gotten out of range of its tail as it was.

At the very end of the tiny hole in the wall was another Die of Power. Seeing as he was in a completely inescapable situation, Minaka grabbed it and rolled without hesitation.

5

The menace is green.

Minaka scratched at his scalp in confusion, both because the newly growing fuzz on it was itchy and because he had no idea what that was supposed to mean. The fact that he'd rolled a 5 was a sign that the situation was definitely bad, but for the life of him he couldn't make sense of that weird message.

"WAAAAAAAGH!"

A memory was sparked by the distant warcry, and it made Minaka curse again at the vagaries of the horned she-demon. Didn't she know anything about D&D?! "Warhammer Orks are not part of the D&D universe either!"

Seeing as his inescapable situation hadn't improved in the slightest, Minaka just rested his head on his hands and hoped that maybe the Xenomorph and the Orks would kill each other.

An absurdly irritating elevator chime made him look at the tiny dais that had been crammed into this dead end tunnel and saw that the Die of Power was whole again. And it had a message written under it this time.

High amounts of bad luck have been observed, would you like to roll again?

Seeing as he still had nothing to lose, Minaka rolled again.

10

Chaotic Teleportation Field!

Oh now that was just wonderful! If the rules of this insane dungeon were to be observed, then this had the potential to be both good and bad. If he got teleported, he could end up right in front of the exit or right in front the Xemomorph's jaws.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Minaka had slightly underestimated just how 'chaotic' this chaotic teleportation field was going to be.

It teleported literally anything and everything. So far he'd seen bicycles, weapons, gerbils, corn, a bean stalk and a winged zebra during his various teleport jaunts through the dungeon.

The Xenomorph was merrily massacring everything that breathed and the Orks were having great fun with 'Da Tellyporta!" as they called it. He'd actually managed to kill one of the green brutes with a broadsword that he'd picked up some time earlier. The brutish creature had been surprised by having a human appear right in front of it and since Minaka had already had his sword ready, he'd just stabbed it in the throat. At the very least, they didn't seem to have any ranged weaponry.

He'd long since started regretting his decision to roll the dice instead of attempting to climb the cliff, but there was nothing to do about it now. Even if he tried to climb up that thing now, he'd either be teleported elsewhere before he made it to the top or the Xenomorph would catch him. And that was assuming that he could even find the damn wall again.

He knew that he needed to get out of this place soon. He was tired, thirsty, hungry and being constantly on edge had reduced him to jumping at shadows.

Having caught his breath as much as he could, Minaka started moving again. From what he was able to figure out, there was a higher chance of getting teleported if kept still for too long.

It didn't take him long to come upon another Die of Power, a sight which caused him no small amounts of trepidation. So far those things had done nothing but make things worse, aside from the first one.

With a sense a fatalism, Minaka took the die and threw it, full expecting it to summon a Balrog or something equally horrible.

18

High power, constant beam laser rifle with infinite ammo!

"Ahaha..MUAHAHAHHAAHAH AAAHAHHAHAHAAAAAA!" Minaka's unhinged laughter echoed through the labyrinth and drew the attention of its predators.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Minaka smiled a smile that only a madman could produce at the collection of half vaporized corpses that used to be Orks and a single Xenomorph.

In the narrow corridors, his new laser rifle was the ultimate weapon. Able to output an unbroken beam of fiery death that was impossible to dodge for more than a few moments. It had allowed him to slaughter everything in his way and he was at long last alone again.

Minaka knew that he was in love. The feelings that he'd once had for Takami were a pale shadow of what he felt for the magnificent weapon in his hands. It's sleek black and grey form roused emotions in him that he'd thought long since gone.

He decided to name it Amaterasu, for surely a weapon that could channel the very power of the sun without limit could only be the embodiment of the Shinto goddess herself.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Several hours and uncountable amounts of teleport jumps later, Minaka ran through the exit of the dungeon.

He'd had the opportunity to roll the Die of Power another four times, but he hadn't dared. It seemed to be inclined towards the lower numbers far too much and if rolling 18 had produced something as wonderful as Amaterasu, he could only shudder in fear of what it might spawn if he rolled 3 or less.

"Well well well, aren't you a lucky one?" Xanna asked rhetorically, lounging on her throne in a room that was otherwise empty. "Hard to believe that you managed to survive that without taking even a single hit."

"I have Amaterasu-chan to thank for that and now that I've arrived at the final boss battle, we will destroy you together." Minaka proclaimed grandiosely and turned the laser rifle at Xanna and pressed the trigger without hesitation.

The lack of fiery death beam froze his face into an expression of glee that was at the point of turning sour.

"That weapon only functions because I will it, it will not fire without my permission. In truth it doesn't even have any internal components." Xanna explained, rather amused by the name that the madman had given to the fake weapon.

Without answering, Minaka turned around and fired at a random wall, unknowingly cackling at the orange beam that spewed forth from the barrel. He tried to bring it around to Xanna, only for the beam to be cut off just before it reached her.

"Well, I suppose that I have to let you leave now, though I have no doubt you will find yourself here again due to some act of stupidity on your part." Xanna mused.

"But….what will happen to Amaterasu-chan?" Minaka asked, hugging the gun as if it was a girl.

"It will cease to exist, obviously." The horned woman answered, raising an eyebrow at the levels of mental anguish the lunatic was experiencing over the thought of losing the weapon.

Deciding to make things even more difficult for him, just for the sake of her demonic heritage, she opened a portal instead of ejecting him from her personal dimension by force.

"Step through here and you will return back to where you came, losing your weapon in the process or stay here and keep fighting with it until you die."

Minaka broke out into a cold sweat at the monstrously difficult decision. He was in serious need of food and water, but there were none to be had here. However, if he left, then he would lose Amaterasu-chan.

Weeping with the weight of his grief, Minaka clutched the laser rifle to himself as he walked through the portal, knowing that he couldn't stay. Maybe, just maybe, he would be able to rebuild her and they could be together again sometime in the future.

As soon as he stepped through the portal and felt her vanish from his arms, Minaka collapsed to his knees and wailed in anguish at his loss.

That was how Takami found him half an hour later and demanded that he explain himself without a shred of sympathy, somehow knowing that it was stupid.

The blubbering explanation of dungeons, aliens, Orks and divine laser rifles that he'd fallen in love with made her want to kick him until he died. She hoped fervently that neither of her children had inherited anything from this lunatic that she'd let between her legs far too many times.