This is an old project which I had written two chapters of a while back and since my manga-reading database decided to shoot ELEVEN chapterss of Sekirei in a row after a while of nothing and I found the category, I said "Why not?" So, treat this as a simple pet project. Of course, constructive criticism is ALWAYS appreciated.

I must apologize if you were expecting an update on Redemption or Shadow of Self. My muse and plot bunny decided to elope together some months ago and my keyboard is the same as typing into a log. Once I get my hands on a softer one, I'm sure I'll deliver Redemption 18 and Sos 3 as well as this story's second chapter.

Apologies and vain explanations aside, read on, my dear reader!

There are many trajectories in which a plan or design can deviate. Many theories have been created in concordance to predict such things and preventing from happening. However, one of those theories in particular, negates itself. Most humans know it by the name of Murphy's Laws, which state that in case something can go wrong, it will wrong in the worst possible way.

Today's dilemma revolves around a teenager, very close to his twentieth summer. His name is Sahashi Minato, a man you would discard as an everyday person and never look at him twice. His black messy hair combined with the standard clothes contradict impossibly the fate that was written for him a long time ago. The same fate will be changed by playing with words set in stone.

This is the story of this young project of a man who was fate's plaything and how he managed to pay Lady Destiny with the same coin by having the doom of the world in his hands.

*****

The second day of spring, when the Sakura blossoms are barely coming in sight, many students gather together in front of a certain college's front, so as to know their results in the entrance exam. Their cheers of success or their sighs of depression were inevitable in such circumstances. Of course, being the prestigious college it was, the majority of the outbursts were of a dark nature.

One of the belonging to the last group, is our man in question. Minato, clad in a warm red jacket, classic blue jeans and white with red sneakers, checked the list for the fourth time. Just in case his sadness was misstated. It proved futile, no matter how many times he looked, he wouldn't find his number on the list of people who were accepted.

Resigning himself to his fate and dreading having to face the music, he pulled his cell-phone and made the call while walking towards the train station not far away. As the phone rang, he closed his eyes and prayed for a swift death. "Hello? This is the Sahashi residence." Her mother's voice came from the other side.

"Hey, mom. It's me." He replied in a defeated tone. She seemed to have caught to what was happening and refrained from saying anything. "…Sorry, mom. I failed this year too."

An understanding sigh filled his ear. "…So, what are you going to do? Are you coming back to your hometown?"

Just as he stepped into the station, he replied. "Give me some time to think about it. I'll call you back in a bit."

"Alright, dear. Be safe."

His spirits rose to the concerned phrase and smile almost unnoticeably. "Ok, then. Bye." He ceased the call and pocketed the phone just in time to enter the train. Not having the mood for sitting, he decided to remain standing against one of the vertical rails near the door he came through.

Another year lost. I hope next year's things won't look so bleak. What would I give for a change of pace for a while… He thought grimly. I'll go take a walk around to clear my head and see what will be my next move.

Little did he know that his wish was about to be granted.

*****

Another man, sitting high on the border of a skyscraper's roof, gazed down at the bustling town examining carefully the happenings and discarding many of which he didn't care about. Due to the self-accepted duty of protector, he always had to be on guard in case someone needed his services in a rush.

His ashen hair flowed lazily in the soft breeze of the heights. Most of his face covered by a black mask more becoming of ninja than a modern man, only added to the mysterious aura his dark trench coat and garments gave. His eyes slanted slightly as his gaze was poised on a specific place, but quickly dismissed it as a false alarm.

The other presence rapidly incoming from his side though, was not. Mentally sighing, he also prepared for a talk he didn't want to partake in. Rapidly hopping to his feet, he leaped across the street to another lower building. Of course, it only made his persecutor come closer.

"Homura!" She called commandingly. Landing adroitly, he looked at her. Her beautiful face was framed with blond locks flowing in the wind carelessly while her eyes, sharing a darker shade of his hair colour, were shrunk by her frown. Her exposing clothes were basically a black open dress, regarding more a very long and tight around-her-body coat, barely covering her lower underwear and another frilly white dress clearly visible from the lack of chest and abdomen coverage the black one had. Both main pieces of clothing were long sleeved with a high neck, the white peering out from inside the black like a cold girl not wanting to shed the warmth but looking through it. The last pieces of garment were a pair of onyx stockings reaching half her thigh with obsidian stileto heel boots.

"Tsukiumi!" He acted surprised. It went without saying he refrained from mentioning a specific fact that riled her up every single time. This being her panties being seen by anyone who simply took a peek down since the wind moved the only coverage they had, her dresses.

The overproportionate blond beauty pointed an accusing finger in his direction. "Let's settle this today, who is stronger." She challenged with a deepening frown.

Raising a finger, he lit it with his own innate power, Fire. "…Well, well. I got business to take care of, so…" Without adding another thing, the flame suddenly exploded harmlessly, only blocking her sight for several seconds.

"Wait, coward!!" She bellowed into the smokescreen. "Stop playing around, you find an owner too!" When the smoke cleared, Homura was nowhere to be seen. "Homura!" She yelled in frustration, clenching tightly her fists. "Unacceptable! I can't accept it!" She continued in a monologue style, hoping her rival was still close to hear her rant. "Aren't Ashikabis low-grade humans?" Stepping to the border of the roof, she placed a foot over it as her sight peered around the vicinity. It was obvious she was alone now. Letting her frustrations out with a growl, she sat down calmly with her legs over the void, like it was an everyday occurrence to be sitting some twenty floors over the ground.

"Rather than getting swept up in that…" She kept on a few minutes later. The topic she was touching now incited an embarrassed blush on her face. "I'm going to kill that guy even if this body breaks down!" The sudden surge in drive made her hop again to her feet, being unable to keep in such position.

"Who will you kill?" Another feminine voice called from behind her, halting her thought processes for an instant before turning around. The source of such a death wish was a pair of onyx-haired women. Their clothing was what one would call "S&M", resembling a dominatrix type of woman. The busty one of the pair was clad in a blue themed one, while the other had a much lighter shade.

"You're a Sekirei that has not been winged yet," The buxom one continued. "Shall we make you retire before you do anything dangerous?"

Tsukiumi's responsive frown didn't go unnoticed by the offending pair. "I've heard about you. Sekireis who only target Sekireis that haven't been winged." Her visage turned to a furious one as she pointed the same accusing finger at them and shouted. "You craven bitches, you want to win so badly?!"

The sapphire garbed one gritted her teeth in fury and mumbled something offensive, but the other gave a more intelligent response. "No, we are not interested in such things as winning. We just want to eliminate the chicks that have not been winged out of the "Game"."

"However," the other took the podium, a tick evident on her cheek. "We still haven't succeeded even once. There is someone who keeps interrupting us." Unknown to the blonde, the two were referring to her rival and how his altruistic attitude botched several of their plans to reduce the number of competitors.

"Fine." She agreed to the unspoken challenge. "Just when I was feeling irritated." Getting into position, she let out a battle-cry. "Let's begin this!!"

The battle soon became epic in its own reasons, since the trio wasn't composed of common girls at all. Clutching their hands, the offending duo created massive sparks around their free hands. "Why are you so full of yourself?" The busty one taunted before the two yelled in unison:

"Thunder!"

Sparks soon turned into a full-fledged storm-like thunder of great destructive power, flying from high above at an astounding speed towards the blonde. A wall of water appeared by an instant condensation of the atmosphere's humidity, and, contrary to all laws of physics, the water nullified all power the bolt had.

Below the mass of water, Tsukiumi was floating a few feet over the roof with an arm raised high over her head; another great amount of water circling at her feet, waiting at her every whim. The pretentious smirk on the gray-eyed blonde sent a light chill down the lightning duo's spines. "You… Think you can beat me with that level?"

The light-blue clad one spoke first. "Hikari, did you go easy on her?"

The other, now known as Hikari, replied with an intimidated tone. "That was my full power. She really is suitable."

Changing her pose to an offensive one, the water mistress took the lead.

"Water Festival!"

In opposite to the name of her technique, this one gave the receiver any sense of fun at all. Using humongous amounts of water, the pressure pushed the victim away while constantly dealing heavy blunt damage all over their bodies. In this instance, since they battling trio were on the top of a building, Hikari and her companion were ironically blown out of the water with water.

Looking at them fall, the blonde let out a dismissing comment. "You are not worthy of my time."

Meanwhile, some ten stories below, the duo were reaching a sudden epiphany. "Hikari! Isn't she number 09, "Tsukiumi"?"

"She's a single number?" The busty one shouted back over the roar of the falling water. "That's bad, we might get involved with her…"

*****

Not too far away, some blocks away from the hidden heat of the battle, Minato went out of the pastry shop, trying to lift his spirits by eating something sweet. Of course, it wasn't a common habit, but he read in a magazine that most of the time it worked. In his case, it helped, but not so noticeably. At least he was back to his normal self-imposed lone wolf attitude.

Shouldering his backpack, he decided to sit at a nearby bench and take his mind off of his most recent worry by reading something more worthwhile. At least for the time being. He knew that if his mind wasn't so hyper with the results, he would have reached a solution already. So, sitting with the last bites of a sweet delicacy and a mind-distracting book, he disconnected from the world for a few hours.

Life has a beautiful way of knocking on your door. But when you refuse to open it, life resorts to its most brutal measures to have her way. For Minato, life had knocked when he had decided at first to go back to his temporal home. Since he hadn't gone to his home yet and probably wouldn't for a few more hours, life decided enough was enough and pulled a few strings.

A different noise from the usual street outbursts caused him to connect back to his surroundings just in time to have a cat land on his head. "What the…?" He began, putting the book back in his backpack and placing the cat from the sky carefully on his lap. The white feline seemed at peace were he was and meowed contentedly.

Everything went to hell when an exhausted man stopped called from his side. "You've done well, young man! Don't let go of him." Minato looked at the man, at the same time he stopped in front of the teen. His raven hair was cut in a similar style to his own, but more messy. Not taking into account the jean jacket or pants, the man looked an overall of around thirty and bits.

The cat, though, didn't react well to the newcomer's presence and his mood did a one-eighty when he began scratching furiously at the teen. A minute later, the man was holding the cat tightly against his chest in a clear image of not wanting to run after it again. "Well, you saved me. Thanks for catching him, young man. My name is Kaoru Seo." He introduced himself with a smile.

"I'm Sahashi Minato. Is it your cat?" He asked more out of the need to make chit chat than wanting to know.

Seo took no notice of his possible intentions and replied. "He's a stray cat, I've been chasing it for three days now. With it I can get the money from the client."

"Client?" The teen asked confusedly.

"Yes. I take all kind of jobs, as long as there's a neat payment between. Do you want a business card? I have many!" He said excitedly and fished one out of his jacket and handled it to him. It was a simple card, stating his name, what he did and his phone number. Overall, it looked fishy. Minato once again shouldered his backpack and motioned for Seo to start walking. He nodded and the two set off. "You're a university student?" He tried to guess.

"Well…I'm a repeater." He replied ashamedly, the memory of his failure still fresh in his mind. "How did you know?"

"You don't have the eyes of someone who has been around here all his life. More like someone from the countryside, perhaps?" Minato nodded and Seo immediately smiled. "An outsider, then. Perhaps-"

He was interrupted by a feminine yell. "Seo!" Looking back, the two took notice of Hikari and her companion landing a few steps away.

Minato looked downright shocked at the lack of clothing the pair had, but Seo didn't seem phased by it in the least. "Hey! You girls, look I caught our money maker. With this we don't need to worry about meals." The younger man couldn't help it but sweat-drop at Seo's proud exclamation of his lack of economy.

"There's no time to talk about that. We were found by a bad woman." One of them informed, seconds before another yell, this time from above Minato interrupted their conversation.

"Hey! You over there!!" Looking up, the first thing Minato thought he saw was a white, black and yellow blur. It quickly became clear that it was a rather well endowed woman falling at breakneck speed, her dresses flying high and doing nothing to hide her underwear. This small fact was not taken into account by Minato's mind as it froze down to the fact that a girl was going to fall on him. First a cat, and now a-

"You're interfering. Get out of the way!!" The teen's stupidly response of a "heh?" did nothing to move himself out of the trajectory, resulting in a painful crash. The upside, being her fall was cushioned by his body.

Looking up from the floor and ignoring the painful feelings from all over, he was brought out of his reverie by her yelling. "You…Monkey! Although I told you you're interfering, you…" She bellowed grabbing him by the neck of his shirt. Her glare only made him sweat profusely. Never before had he seen a girl this pissed off, except when he insulted his younger sister's underdeveloped chest.

The girl reared up her fist to give him a well deserved punishment and he closed his eyes in view of what was to come. However, the only thing that happened was her letting go of his shirt. Opening his eyes warily, he found her in a very compromising position. She was on all fours and her face was red as a tomato.

Wha…What is this? She mentally analysed This fear…no. It's a sensation. Like a burning demon is moving within my body..!! WHAT'S HAPPENING TO MY BODY?

One thought run through his mind at the same instant. Who is this girl?

She recomposed herself back, but the reddening of her face did not lessen at all. Though her glare was easily comparable to a glacier. "You bastard…?! You bastard… You are… my…" Mentally, she finished her phrase. Is this guy my Ashikabi?

"I'm your…what?" He asked, his curiosity overwhelming his sense of fear for the passing time. "I haven't met you before…"

Her water-controlling powers soon sprang to surface when water came around her to take care of the obnoxious Ashikabi-wannabe. "We meet here, but I'll kill you before I let my body be taken!!" The whole image of her yelling a death promise with the dangerously spinning water only made Minato sweat even more than when she was going to punch him. Retracting slightly with his arm in front of his chest, he prepared for the worst.

Fully rising to her feet, the liquid did the same, dancing merrily around its mistress. "Prepare yourself, monkey!"

The state of the situation prevented him from doing the only logical thing to do in such a place. Pray.

But life decided to spare him in favour of him finally receiving his fate. Slightly changed from the original intentions of the Plan, but at least he was well on his way now. His salvation came in the way of the two Lightning users.

"Wait!" Hikari cut. "We are your opponents, no?"

Tsukiumi spared them only a phrase. "What's that? After what I've done, you still haven't learned?"

Hikari's chuckle did nothing to ease the slowly growing concern in the blonde's heart. "A Sekirei that is not winged doesn't really understand anything." Looking at the other forgotten male, she called. "Seo!"

His half-hearted response incited their anger. "Damn… It can't be helped." He admitted defeat and walked over to them, the cat tightly under his arm. When he was close, he passed an arm around each of their waists in preparation of what was to come.

Tsukiumi's supposition was correct. Seo was Hikari and Hibiki's Ashikabi. However, she couldn't for the life of her understand what the hell was going on between the three.

Some light was shed when Seo proceeded to kiss the two girls, a few seconds each.

The blonde's outrage knew no bounds. "What are you doing, bastard!"

Hikari was the first to reply. "You ask what…"

"…On the way Sekirei fight." Hibiki finished.

Minato's confusion over what happened with Tsukiumi was thrown another bone with this new concept. What the hell was a Sekirei? His thoughts were halted when something else happened. The lightning mistresses joined one of their hands and began chanting.

"We're the pledged thunderclap." Energy soon became visible around their bodies. "No disaster will hit our Ashikabi!" The energy turned to milllions of small lightning bolts reaching around them in quick succession. When one disappeared, another took place instantly. Minato sensed trouble the second the light began to take shape.

"This is…" Tsukiumi began, transfixed on the ritual happening before her very eyes. "The thing that can only be used by those who are winged…" The lightning around them disappeared in the blink of an eye, only to be transformed into a gargantuan blast of electricity, heading towards Tsukiumi's shocked face.

"KAMINARI!"

"Watch out!" Minato called running to her side. "It's dangerous!" He called and stood in front of her, fixed on receiving the damage than seeing a girl being fried in front of his eyes. His mother would be very displeased with him if she knew he could have saved a girl and did nothing about it.

The lightning showered all around them, the deafening roar of the thunder made them dizzy while the cloud of smoke cleared.

"He interrupted…" Hikari groaned. This was most unexpected.

When the blonde came to, the first thing she noticed was the unconscious face of her saviour, the monkey that dared to be her Ashikabi. Normally, one would be grateful when they were saved by such a blast, taking the brunt of the attack, but her logic didn't function well after so many things happened and her brain was still buzzing with the noise of the blast. "You…bastard…" Her blush returned full force a second later.

Looking around, she saw a huge crater between them and the lightning duo. It was shaped in a "U", with the only remnant of untouched ground being where he had stepped forward. His groans informed her that he was still alive, whether that was good or bad.

Giving an apologetic smile, he faced her with closed eyes. "You okay?" The true intentions of his actions shook her foundations of what Ashikabis were, but it did not take it down. Her respect for him, though, soared the skies.

"The next one won't miss." She heard from over the fading buzz and looked at the initiators of such an attack. "Be prepared."

If she had to fall, she would do it with dignity! Rapidly creating a wave of water, she launched it towards the duo, who sidestepped it with ease. The blast, however, hit Seo full on. His concentration being broken, his grip on the cat faltered and it soon ran away at full speed. The lightning duo looked on as it made its escape steadily. "It ran away…"

A raging aura of hatred diverted the attention of the onlookers back towards Seo, who was barely refraining from killing everything in sight. "I've been chasing it for three days until I finally found it..." He grumbled acidly, stepping slowly towards the culprit of the cat's runaway. She would pay dearly.

"Se... Seo-san." Minato tried to defuse the situation with his hands in front of him in a soothing manner. "Ca...calm, calm down."

It was useless. The older man reached Tsukiumi and grabbed her neck tightly, his eyes sparkling with anger. "Why did you do that? Huh?" The blonde gulped laboriously due to his hand tightening her trachea. Aside from them, Minato was eating his nails in desperation since he didn't know what to do. This was a first in his life! How was he supposed to save a girl from being beaten aside from taking the hit, which he already did.

"Weren't you lovely with my girls? You have to pay the debt somehow." The hand applied a little more force. She took notice that her energy was being halted from reaching all over her body, ceasing her capability of escaping. Struggling as much as her remaining strength allowed, she heard him chuckle and let go of her. "It's useless. My powers as an Ashikabi were recognized by a dear friend of mine. It's quite special."

The implications of what he said slowly ebbed their way into her brain, but he didn't cease his speech there, like he had noticed she understood fully what he meant. "That's right... I'll wing you like that and then you'll become my servant, how about that?"

Mentally refusing to have any connection with this man, she closed her eyes in resignation of what was to come, embracing her fate. For a sudden instant, she recognized the other male as what she was feeling he was to her. Her Ashikabi.

It wouldn't do for life to have things so close to completion and now crumbling down in that instant. So she forced Minato to take action. "Se...Seo-san." He let out weakly, still shaking over what transpired a few minutes before. His hands, held in a tight fist, shook impossibly to miss. The man in question looked at him. "That girl... Please leave her alone."

"What's it to you, young man? This girl owes me..." Seo replied, showing his teeth slightly. It was because of this girl that he would be in trouble with eating for at least two weeks.

"I...I can't let you harm her, Seo-san!" He shot back, this time more confidently, knowing he was at least buying some time. He even stepped forward. All weirdness aside from the last half an hour, his chivalrous attitude by what he was so admired by her mother and younger sister didn't let him do any less.

"You bastard, Seo!" Hikari's exclamation was accompanied with a lightning falling not two feet away from him, the threat of being fried ever present. "Are you so unfaithful that you would do it in front of our eyes? You're kind of brave." Her Ashikabi began to sweat like there was no tomorrow. "Didn't you say that we're your only Sekireis?"

Seo thrust a hand in her direction, trying to cease her rant. "Wait! Time out. I didn't do anything yet!" He let go in his defence. It only added fuel to the fire, as Hikari, and in no small amount Hibiki, got to him with clenched fists.

"Didn't you say something about slaves or something?!" Hikari recalled his approximate wording, getting ready to punch him into oblivion. Seo's pitiful attempts at asking for forgiveness went unheard.

"You..." A few meters away from the horribly one-sided fight, Minato's attention was once again brought back to the girl on the floor. "Why did you protect me?" Never in her even lowest moments did she consider that someday in her life she would be saying something alike to that.

"It...It was the most normal thing to do, I guess..." He replied scratching the back of his head embarrassedly. Tsukiumi's eyes narrowed slightly in a relenting manner. "Are you alright?" He added.

"I...am..." She said weakly. The waste of energy for chasing those two across town and having most of it drained by that now pulp of bloody meat left her unable to keep standing. Falling to the floor from her knees like a sack of potatoes, the last thing her consciousness took notice of was that guy's concerned face as he ran towards her.

Any Tsukiumi fans out there besides me? I simply cannot stand the klutzy-type nor the shy-type. In any case, I'm leaning more towards the Tsundere-style, but writing Tsukiumi as the FIRST Sekirei IS a pain. Remember that she enters the group already having someone to compete (Losing most of the time) and argue with. Now she gets the spot-light. Let's see how well I can do this...

Regarding the future chapters, if you think Tsukiumi's already powerful, just wait until I get her up to Yume's level when she realizes a simple fact of physics, aided by Minato himself! Maybe I'll boost her up more by having her train with God-like Miya! Also, expect some Ecchi scenes! (Come on! This is Sekirei! This series was famous BECAUSE of these scenes! If you write a Seki FF and don't write a ecchi scene, it's like writing Naruto without ninjas or Bleach without swords...)

Last topic to touch, and not a small one. What to do with the rest of the group of his Sekireis? Of course, Matsu is a sure thing, seeing he already winged Tsukiumi and he WILL need the info she can provide. I'm doubting Kusano, but she is needed for the Shiina act. Musubi is out, will only consider her as a support, remember this is AU. I MIGHT go full blown AU and get Miya... What say you?

Anyways, if other topics rise, they will be discussed in later chapters.

Later,

Soulcry.