I own nothing in the sekirei universe.

FFNet didn't seem to want to save my formatting the first time I uploaded this. Sorry to all those that were put off by the wall of text

"regular speech"

"thoughts"

-[Story Start]-

"Sooo… you're seriously not going through with it?"

"Mom, why do we need to go through this every time we talk?!"

"Minato that's not fair, you know I just want the best for you."

"I know mom… but I had enough time abroad to figure out school isn't for me. Besides, I've got a stable job that's going good for me, which I enjoy, and I don't want to screw it up."

"… fine…. I don't see why you're so worried about money, it's not like I wouldn't just give you what you need to get by."

"Yea well unlike Yukari I'd like to earn my money"

"Oh son, you've got so much potential… I just wish you'd consider it…"

"Good bye mother." With a click the line went dead "sheesh, it's getting to be every other day now…" Minato looked down to his watch; the time read 7:48AM "crap, I should've been out the door 10 minutes ago. Now I'm gonna be late!"

The run, which felt more like a sprint, to work was unpleasant; holding a spilling coffee and crumbling biscuit in one hand and his cell phone in the other attempting to text "stop calling me in the morning" to his mother. She never read them, Minato wasn't even sure she fully knew how texting worked yet, but there was always hope.

As he rounded the corner he saw his destination, coworkers waiting for him impatiently.

"Hello "mister" Sahashi! Too much foot traffic?" A short stocky man by the name of Arata Hokaido yelled with a snort. Hokaido was the office troll, moreover he was Minato's long-time friend in the company, and had been working there only slightly longer than himself. The diminutive middle-aged man made a habit of harassing him daily, he was joking of course, mostly.

"ahaha Hokaido-san, yes I had a bit of a personal matter this morning, sorry to keep you all waiting." Rubbing the back of his head had always been a nervous twitch of his; getting real world experience hadn't changed that. In all Minato had five people under his supervision, three of which were here currently, with two others working the evenings with him. His other two subordinates stood to the side; the first being Goro Ibaraki, which leaned against the metal sheet protecting the door from attempted break-ins, and Chizu Yamagata who leaned against the smooth stone brickwork staring off into space.

Minato fumbled with his left hand for a moment, stuffing his phone away while clumsily pulling out his keys, after which Goro was pushed aside, it wasn't something Minato liked to do, but when the man simply doesn't want to move you either back down or you move him yourself. Minato had learned this within the first few weeks of work. Goro had an attitude, but respected attitude in turn, so usually they got along fine so long as Minato remembered to give him a shove if he decided he didn't want to listen.

"Mornin' Sahashi-san" mumbled the lanky punk as he took a slow step back. Minato always considered himself tall, but this guy made globe trotters seem more like toddlers.

"There we go! You three get to work, I just need a second" with the lock tossed to Hokaido for storage and the doors opened they all proceeded. Minato rushed to his office in the corner of the shipping area in the back. After having downed his coffee and devoured the last few crumbs of breakfast treat still remaining in his hand he proceeded to the bathroom to clean up.

"It's alright Sahashi; deep breath buddy..." In and out. His reflection stared back in the bathroom mirror as he inspected his appearance. His hair was spiked and sculpted the way he preferred, with a fair, clean shaven face. His leather shoes held a mirror like shine that he was particularly proud of, even with the dust along the sides from running. His black slacks and button up shirt were ironed to perfection, with a leather belt adorned with a gold-bronze buckle lashed around his waist. Golden collar dogs were pinned to his shirt, along with a name tag. Manager : Sahashi Minato.

He smiled to himself as he retreated to his office to get to work, he had just been promoted to manager of receiving yesterday, and while it wasn't the greatest thing in the world it was still HIS accomplishment. He knew how the job worked, the manager before him had trained him off and on for the last few months to take over the job. The company he worked for specialized in shipping, the large building held three sections; the upstairs was offices, with anywhere from a dozen to thirty people working in them at any given time, while the downstairs was shipping/receiving area and the front counter where orders and packages were processed by his three subordinates. The company went by the name "Uniformico – a uniform vision of service". Sure the name was dinky, but the company had been fairly good to him in the last year and a half. Minato snickered to himself, barely 20 and he was already in charge. His mother never thought he'd applied himself to anything worthwhile. Yet here he was, top of the food chain, respected, no financial worries and possessing worldly knowledge. He had everything he needed as far as he was concerned.

His day went by with a smile spread across his face, but as packages came and went, and files passed through his office his smile slowly faded. Something seemed off, nothing was wrong, it just felt like a weird, awkward day. Like something was missing.

4:30 rolled around, and Minato decided to take one of his common walk and talks; strolling through the offices, loading areas and front end and chatting up his fellow employees, Hokaido manned the counter, collecting information from a man to label a box he was sending out, that was by far the most tedious part of the job. So he continued on, not wanting to get caught in the depravity that was his former position of box handler, instead finding Chizu in the employees lounge. Alone. She was rummaging through her locker; it was the end of her day, soon to be replaced by an evening worker. Minato cocked his head, eyeing her up and down, realizing she hadn't heard his clacking footsteps as he entered the room. Her blonde hair hung down in a medium length curtain, with a white shirt, beige khakis and high heels. She was certainly attractive, but nowhere near appealing. To put it bluntly she was slow, absent-minded and overly religious. The only reason she was hired was because Minato had put in a good word for her with the previous boss, at the request of his little sister of course. They were school mates, and she desperately needed a job.

"Heading out Yamagata-san?" the young woman squeaked and hit her head on the ceiling of the locker in shock. Minato's eyes rolled as he remained in the doorway. He wanted to find a reason to let her go, but as annoying as she was she wasn't a bad employee.

"Ow ow ow" the blonde whimpered as she pulled free from the metal confines with her jacket, rubbing a bump on her head "Yes sir, finished those shipping receipts like you said yesterday. Already clocked out and everything"

"hmm… ok, good job" Minato feigned a smile as he stepped aside, ignoring the irritating woman. He had more important things to worry about right now, like his parched throat.

With a coke in one hand and his cellphone in the other Minato collapsed into one of the leather chairs.

"Sure is good to be the boss!" Minato exclaimed with a sigh as he stretched. He felt Tired, which was strange; he slept a healthy amount the night before. The young manager's lethargy grew as he sipped his soft drink and clicked through his phone, somewhere while reading a text from his sister he started to nod off, his body going limp in its seat.

A spotlight in the dark came on above him. Figures stood all around like shades; watching, waiting.

"Hello?" his own voice came out hoarse. A handful of the silhouettes took a few paces forward in response.

"YOU KNOW NOT OF WHAT YOU ARE!" boomed a voice in Minato's ear.

"Hello?! Who are you?! Where am I?!" the spotlight expanded, reaching out to either side, like wings.

"WHO ARE YOU THAT KNOWS NOT OF WHAT YOU POSSES!" the light was the source of the voice, but hard as he tried Minato couldn't keep his eyes on the intense light. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a smaller number of the shadows step forward.

"JUST AS THOSE BEFORE, AND ALONG SIDE, YOU ARE PREDISPOSED TO US. THE AGE OF INHERITANCE IS AT HAND. I, AM YOUR BIRTHRIGHT."

One figure stepped forward; it was within arm's reach now, but still pitch black. A panting emitted from the figure and Minato didn't know whether to demand answers again or back away. Not that there was anywhere to back up to. He was surrounded.

"Whats all this about? Who are you?!" the blazing light dimmed to a faint spotlight.

The figure in front of him stopped panting momentarily to lean forward clutching their chest. A warbling groan resonated from the apparition before him, and slowly turned into the sound of laughter. The confused young man suddenly felt a chill down his legs, like liquid running down them. Liquid was running down his leg. Had he pissed himself? Why was it cold?

"Wait a minute!"

Minato's eyes shot open; in his stupor his soda had spilled its icy contents all over his slacks and into his shoes. More importantly someone was there. Someone was laughing at him. A GIRL was laughing at HIM!

"Who the fuck are!..." agitated and soaked Minato shot from his chair towards the window, but saw only a crop of blonde hair before he could reach it. Outside the ground floor window of the employees lounge was long empty alleyways in either directions. Far too long a stretch for someone to run away unless you were dealing with the Asian Usain Bolt. No one was below the window sill and there was no sign of the ladders on the apartment fire escapes next door being tampered with.

"Hey Sahashi!" shouted Arata, causing Minato to crack his head on the top of the window sill.

"oh uh… hey Hokaido-san… whats up?" he responded back as he returned his attention to the alley.

"night guy is here, so I'm out. Something wrong?" the dwarf waddled to stand next to Minato and join him looking out the window. "err… looking for something?"

"hmm?..." thoughts weren't forming correctly. He saw blonde hair sticking up over the window ledge, could it have been Chizu? He absent mindedly checked his watch, noting the darker tones of the sky "How is it almost 8PM already?!" it couldn't have been Chizu, she should have left hours ago. "Um… no… just… getting some fresh air…"

Minato's stout friend shrugged, and proceeded to gather his belongings to leave. Minato left for his office, but shot a look over his shoulder as he left the lounge.