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No Game For Old Men, a Sekirei tale	By : RykOakwine Category: -Misc Anime > Threesomes/Moresomes Views: 6808 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Sekirei, nor the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 6
- 7
No Game For Old Men
Book 2.3 – Ch 7 Adjusting
o.0.O.0.o
o.0.O.0.o
Saturday, December 28th, 2019
Gregory O'Donnell was lying on the floor of his living room, staring at nothing, thinking of nothing. This blank respite had finally come after some unknown time had passed where all he could think about were memories of him and his wife, Karen. The two of them with their newborn son Mark, with their daughter, Mishi. When they bought their first house, when Karen got her first executive position at the Red Cross, when the two of them graduated college in spite of having a two-year-old son to care for. Their first dog they owned together, cute adorable little Benji, who had died of cancer and had devastated Karen so badly, fifteen years ago now.
Now he was tired of thinking. Now he felt empty. And it was good. An empty that is a relief by comparison to being full of pain. Other thoughts than pain were finally being allowed some time in his mind, thoughts like how thirsty he was. Thoughts like "Where is Madoka?"
He then remembered yelling at the girl, telling her to leave him alone, to go away. Empty and emotionally drained or not, he felt shame for having done that, yelling at the young Sekirei girl, who had probably never been yelled at by someone she depended on, someone she trusted. He tried to remember what he had said.
"Just leave me the fuck alone, goddamnit! Go away!"
Gregory sighed, but still did not move from where he lay, on his side, on the floor. Getting up in order to get a drink to soothe his sore throat would mean facing the world. Facing the world meant facing his fuckups and having to try to fix them.
He could ignore being thirsty.
And… now he had to pee.
Gregory sighed again. "Well, damn."
As Gregory washed his face in the sink, he tried to kick-start his brain into working but it wasn't happening. After a drink of water, and relieving the hydrostatic pressure in his bladder, he was starting to feel a bit more human.
He saw the photos on the breakfast bar countertop, from Karen's private investigator. He stacked them all and tossed them into a desk drawer, with the printed note from Karen. He could not do anything about that right now so there was no point in dwelling on it. He had to get ahold of himself, stop dwelling on what he couldn't do anything about, and look at what he might be able to fix, now.
What he needed to do first was find out where Madoka had gone after he had shouted at her. Might she excuse him if he pointed out that he had been in the middle of a breakdown and shouldn't be held accountable?
At least his mind felt clear now. It had gotten pretty bad there for a bit.
Gregory hoped the last few hours represented a unique experience. As opposed to one that might be repeated in any aspect at all.
The rain was still steadily pouring down, giving every hint that it would continue doing so through the rest of the day and on through the night. It was cold, too, though not freezing, thankfully. Gregory was starting to really worry about where Madoka might have gone. She was, no doubt, upset when she left, thanks to him. Well, probably more "madder than hell" than just "upset", but still, it was his fault.
Checking the map app on his phone for where Madoka's phone was, he hoped she'd had it in her pocket when she had left. Gregory noticed that it had been just over two hours since he and Madoka had arrived at the apartment from his Saturday class.
When her phone showed up on the map as being at the apartment, he started worrying a bit more. If she had left her phone with her purse and if she had run off without either of them…
Gregory grabbed the keys to the Jeep, pulled an umbrella from the hall closet, and then headed out to see if he could find his Sekirei.
As soon as he opened the front door he saw the rain-soaked and shivering girl, sitting against the outside wall of the O'Donnell's apartment, a couple of meters from the front door. She looked up as soon as Gregory opened the door, tears streaming down her face, complete misery written in her expression. He did not know how long she'd been there, but she had certainly been weeping for some time, judging by her puffy eyes and red nose.
In a choked and strained voice, she immediately beseeched, "Ashikabi-sama, please do not make me leave. Please! I am so sorry, please forgive me!"
"Say again?"
To Gregory's shock and distress, Madoka turned towards him and knelt dogeza, prostrating herself with her forehead on the wet concrete of the walkway. Her shoulders were shaking from crying and likely from being soaking wet in the cold rain. He tossed the umbrella back into the apartment and hurried over to Madoka, taking her arm with one hand, the other going around her waist as he pulled her to her feet as gently as he could.
"Oh my God… Mado-chan, please, come inside. Come on, inside, I'm not mad at you, you do not need forgiveness for anything. Come on, let's get you out of the cold wind and get you a towel." Gregory practically carried the girl into the apartment; her legs were too shaky to hold her up. He did not want to think how long she had been kneeling next to the wall, but it was at least long enough for her wet jeans to cut off the circulation to her lower legs.
"I am so sorry Ashikabi-sama, I am so sorry, please do not make me leave, please, I will do anything, please do not make me leave, I will be anyone you want me to be, I promise, I swear it, please just do not make me leave…" Madoka kept crying, her normally soft voice was raspy from tears and the cold. Her face was turned up to look at him as he mostly carried her into the apartment; her anguish was so intense and obvious that it broke his heart. Yeah, there was something profoundly evil that had been done to these girls. And if it took the rest of his life, Gregory would find some way to cure them of it.
Gregory shut the apartment door behind him with a foot, and then led Madoka to take a seat on one of the dining table chairs. His heart sunk even lower, tears gathering in his own eyes, self-recrimination managing to find more fuel to burn even after he thought he could not possibly feel any worse.
He wrapped a clean, dry, towel around Madoka's shoulders and handed her another one to dry her face. Dropping to one knee next to the chair, he said, in Japanese in spite of being in the apartment, "I'm going to start a pot of tea, Mado-chan. I'll be right here. It's okay, no one is making you leave, I promise."
When she just started crying harder, Gregory squeezed her shoulder and waited to see if she would say anything. She buried her face in the towel he had handed her, shoulders shaking from sobs.
Gregory could only say, "I'm just going to make some hot tea for you, Mado-chan. Try to dry your hair, okay?"
Gregory stood and went to the kitchen, pouring water into the teapot, looking for the tea strainer. His shoulders were slumped and his head bowed; he felt as though there was a thousand pounds of weight on his back. He had to fix this; it was his fault his Sekirei was crying her heart out at his dining room table.
He was not exactly sure why she was so distraught, but he fully acknowledged it was his fault. She was not in the same condition she was in two weeks ago when he found her. Now she had her ID and MBI card, plus several million yen in cash and a good phone that she knew how to use. And two weeks of education on living in the world of 21st century Japan. But she hadn't grabbed her purse and cash stash and left when he had yelled at her; instead she had huddled outside in the cold, becoming convinced what had happened was her fault.
He knew her situation was his fault. Just as it was his fault that Karen and Mishi were living in a short-term rental apartment across the city until they could return to New Hampshire. It was his fault Mishi was likely cursing his name for being the reason she was going to have to move to the States and transfer to a school she had no friends at, the reason she would have to leave her friends and her boyfriend.
Well, it was MBI's, Hiroto Minaka's, possibly Sekrei 01's, and possibly other agents of MBI's fault first. Then the remaining fault fell to him before any of it touched his Sekirei or his daughter.
Both hands on the stove to hold himself up against the weight he felt pressing him down, Gregory watched the teapot slowly heat up with only the sound of Madoka's crying filling the room. "Mado-chan, you don't have to leave, I promise," Gregory said again, still leaning on the stove and staring at the teapot.
He turned his head to look at the blonde girl, who was still crying her heart out. The sight of her sitting there with her face in her hands, bent over almost in half, the towel he had placed over her shoulders having slid half off onto the floor, tore at him. He did not think he had ever seen anyone so despondent about anything in his whole life.
Straightening his shoulders and shaking off the weariness that was pressing down on him, Gregory closed the couple of meters between the stove and her chair, took a knee in front of her, wrapped her up in his arms, and then hugged the little blonde Sekirei to his chest, murmuring what he hoped were reassuring words. "I'm so sorry Mado-chan. I should not have yelled at you. It was not your fault, I promise. It was my fault, not yours, don't feel like it was your fault, it was mine, I promise. I'm very sorry for yelling at you, and I don't want you to leave."
She clutched at him, her hands gripping his shirt tightly, pressing her face against his chest, as she cried.
"I'll never want you to leave, Mado-chan."
She hiccoughed then asked, through her tears, "Do, do, you promise, Greg…or…ry-kun? You will never want me to leave?"
Gregory kept rubbing circles on her shoulder with the palm of his hands, holding the distraught Sekirei close. He understood now that he had not really appreciated how attached a Sekirei was to their Ashikabi, in spite of Madoka's descriptions of the bond as "lifetime" and "forever". She was easily as distraught, even more so, than he had been when he had realized his wife had left.
It was just starting to dawn on him just exactly how large a bomb had gone off in the middle of his nice, safe, comfortable life, when he had offered a warm donut to a cold, shivering, girl two weeks ago.
Gregory squeezed her against his chest and, in spite of all sanity, replied, "I promise. Forever and ever, Mado-chan."
She started bawling at that, but Gregory suspected these were more tears of relief, even happiness.
He went to fetch tea for both of them, seeing as both were emotionally exhausted now.
o.0.O.0.o
That evening, Gregory sat on the couch, writing in the Notebook. Madoka was lying on the couch, still asleep, under a blanket, as she had been for the last few hours. She was exhausted from the emotional and, Gregory was shocked to found out, physical trauma of the day.
He wrote, "…reported that not only did she suffer from sharing her Ashikabi's emotional reaction through the bond but when she thought she had been ordered away from her Ashikabi, a physical reaction occurred on top of the already significant emotional one.

We are tentatively assigning this phenomenon Crest Rejection Shock. Madoka had actually heard of something vague when she was a child, something about the price a Sekirei pays if their Ashikabi rejects them. And this certainly seems to fit the symptoms the vague story from her childhood described.

She was able to tell me she did not think it was normal for a Sekirei to be hit with Crest Rejection Shock over something like this, so quickly. It should require a far more clear, intentional, unmistakable, rejection of the bonded Sekirei to cause Crest Rejection Shock to start. But, we believe today's situation was aggravated by what she was experiencing through the bond, i.e., her Ashikabi's emotions and feelings of being rejected by his wife.

Until we can interview other Sekirei who have experienced Crest Rejection Shock, we will not know, unfortunately.

She didn't make it five meters from the apartment before the pain, which started high on her back at her Sekirei Crest and went through the center of her torso, put her on her knees. She then crawled back to lean against the apartment wall. This would seem to suggest that 'forever and ever' is not just a fond wish, for the Sekirei, but is, instead, a physiologically enforced mandate. Is this a remnant of their original species? Something designed for their human bodies by their original species, for this colonization effort? Something done to them by MBI?

I don't have any way to know right now, but finding out is critical. This is nothing less than biological slavery; if there is any way at all to reverse and eradicate the threat of this Crest Rejection Shock simple human decency insists it be found."
Gregory stopped writing and leaned back, resting his head against the wall behind the couch. The living room was dimly lit, only the lamp next to the couch providing any illumination to the open central area of the apartment. Gregory's eyes lingered on the bottle of scotch he could just see, sitting alongside a few other bottles of liquor on the sideboard in the dining area.
"No. That's not going to help."
His gaze dropped from the far side of the dining room to the very near person sharing the couch with him. She was sound asleep, thankfully, and looked comfortable, so he hadn't tried to get her to go on and sleep in Mishi's room.
Gregory's thoughts kept running in circles. He tried to reason with himself, "What am I going to do? Sure, maybe Karen and Mishi being in the States will make them safer than remaining here. Maybe a little time and space will allow Karen to cool off; maybe we can patch things up later. She didn't mention divorce, I doubt she would ever suggest it. But living separated from now on might as well be the same thing."
Gregory rubbed his forehead with a hand, trying to work out the tension. "Still, I can't do anything about that right now. Maybe it's a mixed blessing, Karen going back home. This Sekirei Plan thing is going to get dangerous, I know it. But what about when it's over? What's my 'best case' scenario? How can I ever patch things up with Karen if Madoka is…"
Gregory grimaced, watching Madoka sleep, unable to figure out any long-term picture that seemed reasonable or likely.
"Okay, then we put the long term on hold, indefinitely. I cannot waste my time spinning my wheels worrying about what's going to happen a year from now. So, short term plans only, for now."
Gregory nodded to himself and returned his focus to the Notebook. Fixing the Crest Rejection Shock thing was long term too, he knew, but it was absolutely one of the first things he would have at the top of every to-do list he was a part of from now on.
He also needed to work on cleaning up his growing hypothesis concerning the way the Sekirei might adapt themselves to their Ashikabi. Did the Sekirei just pick the most compatible Ashikabi by good luck or psychic intuition? Or did they pick an Ashikabi and then change over time to suit that Ashikabi's nature? Alternatively, perhaps just as bad, were the Sekirei condemned to a literal, physiologically enforced, slavery to a mate they were incompatible with if they happened to pick badly or if they were forced by circumstance to bond with someone who was less than ideal?
Whatever the case, he needed to find ways to define and test the nature of the bond between the Sekirei and the Ashikabi. How did it affect the Sekirei, how did it affect the Ashikabi, if there was any safe way to sever the bond, a safe way to transfer it, maybe even if there was some way to make sure both the Sekirei and the Ashikabi were equally treated by the bond, if nothing else.
Gregory resumed making notes in the Notebook, grimly ignoring the bottle of scotch.
o.0.O.0.o
Sunday, December 29th, 2019
By Sunday afternoon the rain had finally relented, leaving the city washed clean, gleaming in the bright winter sunlight and under a brilliant blue sky, a comfortable 50f. Gregory felt the need to get out of the apartment and find a place where the two of them could clear their heads after the drama of the last 24 hours.
"Mado-chan, we've got that MBI card which can be used for damn near anything. I think it's time you saw some of the nicer things that Shin Tokyo has to offer in the way of hotels and dining. Go put on whatever you have that's nice and I'll do the same and we're going to go check into the," Gregory paused and looked at his tablet, "the Four Seasons. Five minutes away from the Imperial Palace, ten minutes from Ginza. We've got two king-size rooms next door to each other reserved for the next two nights."
Gregory knew it was a good idea when he saw Madoka immediately cheer up. She jumped up from the couch and ran off to Mishi's bedroom, "Okay, Gregory-kun!"
o.0.O.0.o
Gregory and Madoka watched the sun set over Shin Tokyo, the clear sky a startling shade of cobalt blue over their heads, from their vantage on the fifth floor balcony outside Gregory's room. The patio furniture for the "Four Seasons at Marunouchi" rooms was more comfortable than the O'Donnell's dining room furniture, a fact Gregory pointed out to Madoka with some amusement.
Madoka looked out at downtown Shin Tokyo, the lights from the towering skyscrapers unable to compete with the glorious sunset, but she could see that soon the night would be illuminated by the holographics and LED's from nearby Ginza as well as the projections which were so popular among the giant towers of the downtown district. It was an almost breathtaking view, even from only the fifth floor. As the Four Seasons at Marunouchi was what could be called an "intimately sized" 5 star hotel and only occupied the first six floors of the fifty that made up the skyscraper, Madoka felt as though she were among, instead of above, the amazing architecture which made up this border between downtown and the Ginza commercial district.
"Okay, Mado-chan," Gregory's baritone caught her attention back to what they were doing, "the next school semester starts in a week, which means I have to allocate time over the next week to prepare for that. I know my job distracts from our ability to completely commit our attention to MBI and the Sekirei Plan, but outside of just quitting my job with no notice there isn't much I can do about that. So I'm committed to teaching at Tokyo Metro High School through this semester, which concludes on… let's see… Friday, March 27th." Gregory consulted the calendar on his large tablet, and then reached for his bottle of Diet Coke.
"That will occupy a great deal of your time, and be dangerous, right?" Madoka was sitting a quarter around the patio table from Gregory. Her thick blonde hair was pulled up into a high ponytail, a style she had not worn since leaving the MBI Sekirei Labs. From the glances Gregory kept shooting her way, she thought he found it attractive. She was comfortably relaxing in a long wool sweater, which fell to her upper thighs, and blue jeans, and her phone was sitting on the table in front of her in case she needed to make notes or look something up.
Gregory shrugged, "I don't know about dangerous, but it's necessary. I'm not walking away from my teaching position at Tokyo Metro unless I'm given no other options. From our best guesses, it is going to be four months until all of the Sekirei are active and in the city anyway."
Gregory flipped through his notes. "Here, what you said you overheard from MBI's lab techs. The Second Phase of the Sekirei Plan, where MBI is going to, somehow, take control of the entire city and control all traffic in and out, won't start until 90% of the Sekirei are winged. That cannot happen until at least 90% of the Sekirei are released by MBI. If they keep to the schedule of releasing three to five Sekirei a week the earliest we're looking at is April. And by April it will be a new academic year; maybe I can arrange a leave of absence or something, if it's necessary."
Gregory set down his pen and picked up his drink, leaning back in the patio chair, watching her. "I think 'life as usual' can go on through the end of the First Phase, at least."
"Okay, Gregory-san," Madoka agreed, not truly understanding why Gregory would want to risk going back and forth to school every day, but she also didn't want to disagree with him about it.
Gregory gave a small sigh in response. "Mado-chan… you're still feeling bad about yesterday, aren't you."
She could only shrug, then look down and away. She could not help it, even though Gregory said it was his fault, that he was sorry for how he had spoken to her, and that he did not want her to go away, she just could not help but feel like she was standing on a precipice, with just a small breeze needed to push her over. Whatever confidence she had in the relationship between them had been completely shattered yesterday, thanks to the tama pain that had punished her for not doing what her Ashikabi wanted, not being who her Ashikabi needed, not behaving as her Ashikabi expected.
"I guess," Gregory mused out loud, "that I could tell you again that it truly was not your fault and that I am profoundly sorry for my behavior, and that wouldn't do any more good today than it did yesterday."
"Oh no, he thinks I just do not believe him! I am making it worse!"
Madoka looked up at Gregory, her eyes wide, protesting, "No, no, Gregory-kun! I believe you, I am sorry if I made you think I did not believe you!"
He smiled ruefully back at her, reaching out to take one of her hands in his. "It's okay, Mado-chan, it's okay." Gregory looked around the patio, then away from the balcony towards the other tall buildings nearby. He said, "Let's go inside for a minute, I've got an idea that might help." Gregory released her hand and stood from the patio table, gesturing for her to precede him through the door.
Once inside Gregory pulled the glass door shut, the evening twilight combined with the few lights in the luxurious room made the area dim. Madoka could only just make out Gregory's slender, tall, figure in silhouette as he turned back from the glass door to face her.
"Mado-chan," he began, his deep voice sounding uncharacteristically nervous, "I think yesterday, with the way your, ah, tama core, was causing pain when you thought your Ashikabi was rejecting you, I suspect that even after I explained that I didn't really want you to go away that the damage was already done, so to say. The damage to our bond, our connection."
Madoka's eyes widened, "What do you mean? I can still feel it; it is still there, our bond! It is not damaged, Gregory-kun!"
Gregory took both her hands and met her eyes, "Calm, calm, Mado-chan. Of course it is still there, nothing can ever break it, right? What I mean is that the bond… it felt threatened, so now you probably feel like if you do even one wrong thing you'll fall off a cliff or something. Am I right?"
Madoka just stared up at Gregory then nodded. "That is… that is exactly right. How did you know?"
She could just make out his crooked smile in the twilight. He answered, "Eh, I've got some experience with being insecure about things, so it wasn't hard to guess at how you were feeling. So, the problem right now is that our bond is insecure. I've got an idea that might help it a little. Or maybe a lot."
"What is it? I want to go back to the way things were before… yesterday." Madoka squeezed both of Gregory's hands, hard. If there was any way to just make the last 24 hours not have happened she would take it!
"Well, eh," Gregory took a deep breath then continued, "I suspect that if we, eh, kiss, it will reinforce the bond. The bond has only had the one time, two weeks ago, and from what you told me about Sekirei and their larger abilities, what was it called…"
"Norito."
"Yes, Norito, then kissing after the initial winging has a measurable effect on the state of the Sekirei and on their abilities. So, it's highly likely a kiss establishes a metapsychic connection between the Ashikabi and the Sekirei, each time. And, well, if we establish that connection again, that might help with getting past what happened, yesterday."
Madoka felt her cheeks reddening in spite of herself. It was one thing to kiss Gregory when she was about to be captured by Higa's agents, but it was something else to just do it here in a hotel room. She also thought about the experience she'd had through the bond the other night, when Gregory was in the shower and again in the grocery store.
If their bond wasn't secure and strong "that" might not happen again. And she had decided she really wanted that to happen again, scary or not.
Gregory was waiting for her answer. What she could see of his expression in the dim light indicated he was starting to lose his nerve, which, oddly enough, reassured her.
"Yes, Gregory-kun. I think that is a good idea." Madoka nodded her head once, decisively, and kept her voice light. "So, how do we do this?"
She could make out the relief in Gregory's posture; he really had been nervous about suggesting this. Considering the fact that she would probably have done anything he ordered her to do, because of how insecure she felt in their bond right now, she was comforted that he was making such an effort to ask her opinion and get her permission before even kissing her.
"He really is a good guy," Madoka thought to herself.
Standing near each other, the difference in their heights was extremely obvious, even humorous. Gregory was about 1.9 meters tall and she was barely 1.5 meters tall. Which meant the top of her head barely reached Gregory's shoulders if they were standing next to each other. It was almost beyond humorous and into the realm of ridiculous actually.
"Hmmm. I assume you mean the mechanics of dealing with our differing heights. Good question, Mado-chan. It really is probably a good thing we're thinking about this now instead of in the middle of an emergency when you might need your Norito, right?" Gregory's chuckle sounded a bit forced, but he was right. It sure would be a silly way to be terminated, unable to get her Norito from her Ashikabi because the two of them did not know how to kiss.
"I could stand on a chair," Madoka suggested, optimistically. No, kissing someone while standing on a chair would not be awkward at all!
"If you were standing on a chair, I'm afraid you'd be taller than me. Enough taller than me that it would be… incredibly distracting." Gregory gestured vaguely at Madoka's chest while trying not to look at her chest.
It took her a moment, trying to figure out what the problem was and what her chest would have to do with… oh. Yes. Well, yes, if she were standing on a chair her breasts would be right in Gregory's face. Yes, he might find that distracting.
She laughed, once she realized what he was hinting at. "This is silly, Gregory-kun. I do not think it is supposed to be so difficult, just kissing someone!"
Gregory joined in the laughter, and then said, "You're right, you're right. Normally if I was intending to kiss a woman I'd just, well, just kiss her, but… I admit I'm a bit nervous." His thoughts wandered around the subject, "Karen is not as short so it wasn't as awkward… damnit Greg, focus, man, focus."
"It is okay, Gregory-kun. You have done more kissing in your life than I have, so you lead and I will follow and do not worry about, you know, stuff. It is okay, it really is." Madoka looked up at her Ashikabi, giving him 10,000 Watts of Resistance Is Futile® smile.
That seemed to convince him. It always did.
Gregory nodded, took a breath, then stepped close and cupped her face in his right hand, gently stroking the side of his thumb along her cheek. Then he leaned down and kissed her.
She had expected a chaste kiss, maybe at most something sweet and lingering. And, to Gregory's credit, it did start out that way. But after just a moment her lips parted of their own volition, and a small moan escaped her throat. She really had not meant for either to happen, but the way he looked at her before closing the distance between their lips…
She knew that look; she knew what that girl looked like through adoring eyes. She could not help but part her lips, could not help but moan in response.
Her Ashikabi acted as though those two small things flipped some sort of switch in him, washing away whatever reluctance remained.
The hand on her cheek moved to the back of her neck, cradling her head, as Gregory's lips pressed more firmly against hers, their mouths open and his tongue exploring her lips and the tip of her own tongue. He was not suffocating her, but with the way his other arm wrapped around her body and pulled her up against his chest and how he held the back of her head so firmly, she suddenly found herself short of breath. Her heart was hammering and there was a roaring sound in her ears while the rest of her body just melted against Gregory's tall frame. This did not seem awkward or difficult at all! Her eyes, which had closed as soon as their lips touched, opened wide as sunshine-yellow light filled the living room and a jolt of electricity went through her body.
"Ahh!" A gasp that Madoka could not help broke their kiss, as the bright, billowing, wings erupted from high on her back. The light reflected back at her through Gregory's intense green stare, the two of them just looking at each other in silence for a moment. His arms holding her tightly to him and, without her even realizing she'd done it her own hands had locked together behind Gregory's neck to pull him deeper into the kiss.
Madoka wished she could see what Gregory's eyes were seeing at that moment. Looking into the face of that girl, with the ephemeral light of her wings just now slowly fading, the two of them having just broken a surprisingly passionate kiss. She realized how vain that might seem, but the way Gregory saw her was… difficult to resist.
There was nothing in the world that was as beautiful as what she looked like through Gregory O'Donnell's eyes.
"Well," Gregory began, then looked away and cleared his throat. She thought he might actually be blushing! She could also clearly feel his arousal, hard and pressing against her belly through their clothes. Just from kissing her?
Gregory relaxed the hold he had on her, making sure she was steady on her feet before stepping back. "Well, um. That was… very nice. Thank you, Mado-chan."
Madoka had one hand pressed against her chest where her heart was still thumping hard, and reached out with the other to take Gregory's hand. She smiled up at him, "Thank you, Gregory-kun." She paused a moment and thought about how she felt, and then said, "You were right. I do feel much better now. Thank you!"
o.0.O.0.o
Gregory returned to the room's patio with another Diet Coke for himself and one for Madoka. He set hers on the table in front of her and walked on around to his own chair, settling himself and reaching for his cigarettes. After lighting one, he glanced up at Madoka, who was tapping out notes on her phone, and said, "Sorry, they didn't have any Pokka tea in the bar. So, your Norito. When a Sekirei kisses their Ashikabi, they get the wing manifestation again just like their initial winging, and their abilities get a short term across the board boost, plus there is supposed to be a, like, chant or prayer or such which fires off a high powered special attack?"
Madoka nodded, a bit morosely, and answered, "Yes, that is what is supposed to happen."
"And you felt like you have more power now but you don't know what the chant part of your Norito is so you can't use it?" Gregory asked while making more notes in the Notebook. "No one told you what your Norito was, so how do any of you know what to say, how to trigger it?"
With a grimace and a shrug, Madoka set down her phone and looked out at the city from the patio. She said, "I do not know, and it is funny now that we are talking about it, that it never came up in the Labs. No one ever talked about how they would learn what their Norito was. Of course, none of them had the ability to use a Norito in the labs because none of us had Ashikabi yet. And that leads me to another question. I do not even know why MBI or any of us Sekirei know about the Norito. How did MBI even find out to tell us what little they did tell us? Since not one of the Sekirei that I ever heard of had an Ashikabi before they started releasing us at the first of December, at the start of Phase 1, how would any Sekirei or MBI know about things that only happen once a Sekirei has an Ashikabi, like the Norito?"
Gregory answered, "I'd bet a month's salary, at any odds you care to name, that at least one Sekirei was bound to an Ashikabi well before the First Phase began. With MBI's people recording every part of it and studying every effect afterwards." He ignored the shocked look on Madoka's face at the suggestion, and continued, "As far as where they'd get the information? From the records on the ship. Or from 01. But unless there was a record somewhere of what every Sekirei's Norito was going to be, some day in the future, they wouldn't know that specific information. Maybe it just comes to you when you're ready to use it? Inspiration of the moment?"
"Maybe. Still, Gregory-kun, it bothers me that even after we kissed and my wings flared and I can feel the effects of the Norito boost, that I have no idea what my chant is. What if I do not know what it is when I need it?"
"Well, we'll have to see if there are ways we can figure it out. Since your metafaculties are all healing oriented maybe you need a target to heal with your Norito. I tell you what, Mado-chan, I'll think about it and see if we can come up with some way to figure it out, okay? Oh, and we still need to put aside time to test your Farsense metafaculty. How far it works, what it works on, how error free it is, can you evaluate other Sekirei and Ashikabi, how far can you sense them, all that sort of detail."
"Okay, Gregory-kun. Thank you." She smiled across the table at him while she reached for her own drink.
Gregory flipped to another page in the Notebook. "So, let's look at possible strategies, Mado-chan."
His blonde Sekirei, now noticeably more chipper than she had been before the kiss, nodded and set her drink down. She replied, "Okay, Gregory-kun. What is strategy, exactly? It's like a plan, right?"
Gregory shook his head, "Kind of. Strategy is a high-level plan to achieve your goals. It's the big picture, the grand scheme. Many use the word 'tactics' in the same way they use 'strategy' but that is not correct. Tactics are the way you achieve a specific task. Strategy is the entire plan which defines your goals and the broad picture of how you will accomplish them."
He could not tell if she got it or not, so Gregory continued, "Let's see if I can give an example that makes it clear. We are committed to participate in the Sekirei Plan in some way, simply because you are a Sekirei, I am your Ashikabi, and MBI is forcing us to be involved in the Sekirei Plan. Now, our goal might be something like 'survive the Sekirei Plan so we can live our lives afterwards in peace' or it might be 'win the Sekirei Plan and take the reward for ourselves'. If we decided our goal was to win the contest, then we would need to come up with a strategy to deal with the other Sekirei and Ashikabi. That strategy might be to defeat them all in combat one on one," Gregory held up his hand to forestall her protests, "I know that's not likely, I'm just using it as an example. Perhaps our strategy would be to get others to ally themselves with us long enough to defeat all the others. Whatever our overall idea was to 'win the Sekirei Plan' that would be our strategy. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that Higa's strategy is to capture and force wing as many Sekirei to him as he can, building up an irresistible force, and either win the Plan per MBI's rules or bypass them entirely and go after MBI directly. Just as an example of what 'strategy' might be in one specific case, okay?"
Gregory took a drag on his cigarette and blew out the smoke in a long sigh. He continued, "If we encountered a specific challenge, like, say, running into 86 Katsuragi out in the city, we would want to have prepared tactics for how to deal with that challenge. If we had good tactics, a good plan for that specific challenge, then we might do better in that situation than if we were just making up our plan of action as we went along."
"Does that make sense?" He reached for his drink and picked it up.
Madoka nodded, "I think I understand, yes. If our goal was to just survive, our strategy for that might be to escape the city and be far away until the Sekirei Plan was done with. We would need to come up with tactics for overcoming the obstacles that would try to interfere with our strategy, like MBI's security forces and the difficulty of traveling overseas with me not having a visa."
"Right! Just so, Mado-chan." Gregory took a drink and then set the bottle down, picked up his pen, and started making notes in the Notebook. "So, the first thing we need to do is figure out our goal. Then come up with some strategies that will accomplish that goal."
"I do not think there is any way we can win the prize, Gregory-kun." Madoka looked down at her hands in her lap, and then continued, "I am likely the weakest of all the Sekirei. I truly cannot defeat any of the others in combat, especially with the way we are supposed to fight. The rules say we are to fight one on one, we each declare our name and number to our opponent, and then we can fight. The fight continues until one or the other is terminated, by being physically injured so badly she cannot go on, or if one combatant gets such an upper hand that she can place her finger on her opponent's Sekirei Crest and recite her Norito. In either case, the Sekirei is defeated and her Crest disappears. The victor is supposed to stand guard over the fallen until MBI shows up to recover the terminated Sekirei."
Gregory was taking notes, then after a moment remarked, "That sounds like something someone who watched too many cartoons would come up with. Someone who read too much manga. Such ritualized, formal, combat is almost unheard of in the real world. Even the stories of samurai encountering each other on the road and dueling over using a bridge, or European knights in metal armor jousting against each other for the favor of some maiden, these things are the invention of storytellers. Made up stories that were told by professional entertainers to the wealthy, and, usually, the audience they made up the stories for was the wives and other female kin of wealthy and powerful men. So the stories were made up by men who never fought in battles and were tailored to appeal to romantic and naïve views of combat and war held by the women of their patrons, who also never fought or witnessed battle. Which is why so many of the old stories focus on one brave man, the chosen of the gods or blessed by fate, struggling against evil wicked men who do things like kidnap beautiful young maidens and whatnot."
Gregory paused in his note taking and looked up at Madoka, grimacing, "Whoever came up with this Sekirei Plan is an idiot. Someone who wants to see 'battles' but has no actual experience with what battle is. They want to have this controlled little war in the city, with a bunch of rules to make it entertaining for them, and they have nothing but a romantic and naïve view of what war is. I'm only a schoolteacher, but I've at least bothered to educate myself about the uglier, difficult things in this life. Hiroto Minaka seems to be a complete lunatic and a moron."
Madoka frowned and said, "But it is MBI who is doing all of this, so that we Sekirei can ultimately find our Ashikabi and ascend!"
Gregory smiled and shook his head. Maybe it was time to at least start working on tearing down this part of Madoka's conditioning. "Mado, you said yourself you don't know what 'ascend' means, and MBI has never told you. You don't need the Sekirei Plan in order to find your Ashikabi. If MBI had released you all from the imprisonment they kept you in your whole life, you'd have the chance then to explore the city and meet your Ashikabi. Without having Katsuragi chasing you down to take you back to Higa, I'd like to point out."
He paused a moment, tapping his pen on the Notebook. Then he continued, "MBI has set up this dangerous and destructive 'game' for their own reasons, Mado. Likely those reasons are, at least in part, the entertainment of a madman, Hiroto Minaka. Whatever other reasons there are we can't know, but I can guarantee one thing, Mado-chan."
"What is that, Gregory-kun?"
He looked at his pretty Sekirei and answered in as serious a tone as he could, "The one thing we can be sure of is that the Sekirei Plan is not for the benefit of the Sekirei. Whatever MBI claims about the Sekirei Plan is irrelevant; the truth is this whole 'game' is a disaster for the Sekirei. The goal is to kill every other Sekirei that is alive on this world until there is only one left. Think about that for a minute, Mado-chan. Really stop and think about that and ask yourself how that can help the Sekirei? How can genocide help the victims of the genocide?"
"Well, maybe it will not help all the Sekirei but the one who wins will have won and will be safe from any other Sekirei ever trying to kill them, because they would be the only one left." Madoka looked almost angry about the idea that the Sekirei Plan was not good, just, and necessary, Gregory noticed.
"That's true, I suppose. But if there was no Sekirei Plan, why would another Sekirei be trying to kill you?" Gregory waited while Madoka turned that over in her head.
After a moment she answered, "Maybe because they wanted what I had or they just did not like me. Does there have to be a reason? If there is only me and one other Sekirei then one of us would fight the other so they would be safe from the other."
Gregory took another sip of his drink, thinking. "Either the Sekirei are naturally prone to considering each other enemies or MBI has done a very good job with its conditioning program."
Gregory set his drink down and carefully considered his words. "Mado-chan, I've got a hypothetical situation for you. Give me your best answer, it's not right or wrong, just whatever your best answer is for it, okay? So, if there was just you and one other Sekirei on an island and the other Sekirei didn't know you were there, they were asleep, and you were right next to them with, say, a knife in your hand. And they were sound asleep, completely unable to defend themselves. Would you stab them?"
Gregory watched Madoka's expression carefully as she thought about the question. After a moment he realized she was likely trying to come up with an answer he would like instead of answering from her heart. This was, he supposed, its own sort of answer. It sure did seem that either the Sekirei were, by nature, extremely aggressive and territorial or MBI had damaged them profoundly, because the answer to that question would be simple and easy for almost any human. Absent any reason, and it would need to be a good reason with good proof, to think the other person was hostile, most people would not even think about stabbing them in their sleep.
That the moral and ethical answer was not so immediately obvious to Madoka was extremely disturbing.
Gregory was now much happier about the fact that Karen was going to be an ocean and a continent away from Shin Tokyo soon.
Gregory continued writing in his Notebook, until Madoka spoke up.
"I do not know. It would depend on who they were, Gregory-kun. If it was my friend Yosuga, of course I would not. But if it was someone like Katsuragi I would."
Gregory nodded, as though he was agreeing. He did not bother pointing out that in the hypothetical situation he'd set up she was, deliberately, without information about who this other Sekirei was and without information about what their motives or behavior might be. What was important was that her answer was an effort to answer with something she felt Gregory would approve of.
"You've mentioned your friend, Yosuga, before. And others in the MBI Sekirei Labs you grew up with who you were close to, such as 16 Toyotama. Could you and Yosuga get along and cooperate if you had been released at the same time and in the same place?"
Madoka nodded her head, "Yes, of course. It is what we planned on, why I want to find some way to get my phone number or your phone number to her so she can reach us as soon as she is released. When we were younger we agreed that we would help each other, even share the same Ashikabi if we could."
Gregory frowned at that. "I thought you said an Ashikabi having more than one Sekirei was wrong, when you were telling me about what happened with Katsuragi."
"No, Gregory-kun," Madoka corrected, "it was Higa's forcing Katsuragi which was so wrong! If she and Toyotama-onee-sama wished to share their Ashikabi and he wanted it too there would not be anything wrong with that."
Gregory made a few notes and decided to set that subject aside for a bit. "Back to the situation on the island, with no one else around and you had a knife. What if the person asleep in front of you were not a Sekirei, but instead was just a human? No one you know, just some random person?"
This time her answer was immediate. "I would not stab them. There would be no reason to stab a human who was just sleeping."
Gregory continued writing as he nodded to Madoka. She was conditioned to see all other Sekirei as enemies, with only a few exceptions, and those were the result of exposure during the time she was growing up. Humans did not register as automatic enemies, as automatic threats, like Sekirei did. Were the Sekirei so competitive against each other that they couldn't cooperate? No, that couldn't be right, Madoka got along with other girls growing up and even said she could imagine sharing an Ashikabi with another Sekirei.
Gregory wondered what sort of world the Sekirei homeworld was, wondered if the behavior Madoka was demonstrating was native to them instead of a result of MBI's machinations of the Sekirei. It would be a miracle that they had been able to establish any sort of civilization, much less advance to starship interstellar exploration if they were as aggressive, territorial, and suspicious of each other as the Sekirei seemed to be. He made a note on his "Long Term" page about that subject then turned his attention back to Madoka.
"Either way, for now it isn't terribly important. So, the Sekirei Plan and our strategy. We could try to escape the city and MBI's Sekirei Plan, but that is likely impossible. They already know who we are, where we are, what our resources are, and by now they have a list of everyone I have ever met. Running and hiding is almost completely out of the question, so staying and surviving is likely our only real hope for getting through this."
Madoka slumped, discouraged. "You really do not think there is any chance at all we could get away? I had thought that maybe since you know so much about how the world works you might be able to come up with some kind of plan."
"No, I'm afraid not, Mado-chan. And while I appreciate your faith in my experience with the world I'm not really super-secret-agent man, who can elude the security apparatus of a trillion yen multinational corporation like MBI. And who knows what sort of legal and illegal resources they have dedicated specifically to keeping their Sekirei and Ashikabi in Shin Tokyo and participating in the Sekirei Plan." Gregory smiled and tapped her foot with his own. "Hey, it's not that bad. We'll figure out something. It's just that escaping to South America and hiding out in the Amazon isn't going to be the plan."
"Then what can we do, Gregory-kun?"
"Let's keep our heads down, avoid conflicts with other Sekirei and Ashikabi as much as we can for now. We'll reach out, as much as possible, to the Ashikabi and Sekirei who inhabit our part of the city, to see if we can make alliances with them. I already set up a Twitter channel and a Global Homie group for Sekirei and Ashikabi as well as a few other social media groups that are all fed from one main Google+ Group. Nothing specific is given away in the group information so MBI shouldn't complain about violating secrecy but hopefully new Ashikabi searching for information on the internet will find these social network groups and from there maybe we can communicate with them, even arrange to trade information or ally ourselves with them." Gregory waited to hear what his not-terribly-sociable Sekirei thought about that.
"Why would they help us? Would not any Sekirei we meet be more likely to just attack?" Madoka looked genuinely confused by his suggestion, which did not surprise Gregory at this point.
"Well, because some of them might be like you and I. People who would prefer to be able to just live in peace instead of worrying about when someone is going to jump down onto our heads and kill us. And I'm hoping that if we can get ahold of brand new Ashikabi and talk to them, give them a perspective other than the mantra their pretty new girlfriends are chanting in their ears, "Fight, Fight, Fight", maybe even more can be diverted from actively participating in MBI's insanity. Wouldn't it be nice if you didn't have to worry about the other Sekirei?"
Madoka thought about that, looking out at the now nighttime view of Ginza and downtown. The bright projections and holographics from the commercial district made colorful illuminations across her face, which Gregory could not help but smile at as he looked at her.
"I suppose it would be nice. Do you think we could really deviate from the Sekirei Plan like that and not draw even more trouble down on ourselves, Gregory-kun?" Madoka turned to face him, her head tilted the way she did when she was curious about something.
Gregory replied, "Hopefully so. We don't know exactly what MBI has in place to make sure everyone participates in the Sekirei Plan and follows the rules. We don't know how effective their oversight is either. Do they see everything? And can they enforce anything they wish? Those are two separate issues MBI has to address: their intelligence and their effective ability to project force. If they don't know what's going on, then all the force in the world won't help them. If they can't force others to their will then all the awareness in the world won't help them either. We just don't know how effective either of those elements are. We can only hope that one, or both, of those aspects are limited."
Gregory lit another cigarette and took a deep drag of the smoke, then continued, "Because if MBI is both all-knowing and all-powerful, we're pretty much screwed."
o.0.O.0.o
Monday morning, after two very comfortable nights at the Four Seasons, Gregory and Madoka made their way to the desk clerk to check out and pay their room service bill as well as the room bill. Gregory gestured to Madoka to go ahead and pay with the MBI card. He noticed a distinct frown crinkle her brow as she moved up to the clerk and asked for their bill.
Madoka was quiet in the Jeep as Gregory navigated the downtown traffic, making his way towards NR20, the big freeway that would take them all the way home to Shibuya Ward, in the west. Once he merged with the fast flowing traffic on the 10-lane elevated westbound NR20 Gregory turned down the music and asked Madoka, "Can you tell me what made you unhappy back there?"
He saw Madoka turn in her seat a bit to face him more directly, out of the corner of his eye. Her answer was about what he expected. "What do you mean, Gregory-kun?"
He grinned and glanced over at Madoka before returning his attention to the freeway traffic. "I mean, when I indicated for you to use the MBI card to pay the hotel bill and the room service bill. It irritated you and afterwards you were still irritated. Can you tell me what it was about it that got under your skin?"
Gregory had a good idea what it was, and if he was right, he wanted to nip it in the bud, firmly and decisively. This was going to be hard enough without counterproductive cultural crap making them operate at a handicap.
Madoka still had not answered, so Gregory added, "Mado-chan, I really do want to hear exactly what it was that irritated you. No matter if it was something I did, something you felt was wrong, something that you're worried how I will take. I promise I won't get angry about it, I just want to talk about whatever it was and see if we can fix it."
In his peripheral vision, he could see she turned her head and looked out the passenger side window. It reminded him of the night she became his Sekirei; her looking out the passenger window and talking about things she found difficult, he only able to see her face in the reflection of the glass.
After a few more minutes, in which Gregory said nothing, letting her gather her thoughts, Madoka mumbled, "I do not know. I thought you would pay, is not that the way things are supposed to be? The guy pays for the dinners and the stuff? Why make me pay?"
Gregory nodded and inwardly congratulated himself on guessing correctly. Fortunately, he already had some of this discussion planned, in case it came up. And, given the conservative nature of Japanese society and gender roles in that society he had been pretty sure it would, indeed, come up.
"I can understand that, Mado-chan. In normal circumstances and if I were in your shoes, I too would probably have found that irritating."
She turned to look at him, probably surprised at his agreement. "Then why…" she started, but let the question fall, incomplete. Feeling better about their bond or not, she was still reluctant to outright challenge him. A trait that was at the top of his list of "things to work on with Madoka".
"Primarily because it wasn't you paying, Mado-chan. It felt that way to you because you are holding the MBI Platinum Card and it was issued to you. But you aren't the one paying the bill, MBI is. Did they tell you why they are giving all the participants such unlimited cards?"
She took a moment before answering, "So the Sekirei and their Ashikabi could focus on participating in the Plan instead of working. But you are working anyway!"
Gregory smiled, still watching the traffic as he drove, "True, I am. But my salary is going to paying the rent on my family's apartment, paying the expenses of having this Jeep, the things I was already paying for. And even if I were just setting aside all of my salary in savings and we were using the MBI card to pay for everything we possibly could, why would that be a bad thing? It's not our MBI card or your MBI card. It's MBI's card, they get the bill for everything we put on it and neither you or I have to pay them back for any of it."
He could tell this wasn't reaching her past the conservative conditioning she'd been raised with. He tried again. "The MBI card is a resource we have available to us. Us. You and me. Ashikabi and Sekirei. Not 'you', Madoka. But 'we', the two of us. Much like 'we' have this Jeep to get us around the city when we need to drive somewhere. These things are our resources, our assets. We would be foolish to not utilize every resource we have, to the very best of our ability, using it to further our goals, use it as part of our strategy, and include it when planning tactics for overcoming obstacles. Even obstacles as mundane as 'where shall we sleep' and 'what will we eat'. Take a moment and think very carefully about this question before you answer. Is your feeling of being taken advantage of by me because of the MBI card helping us in our goals or hurting us in our goals?"
Gregory waited again, patiently. Years ago, he had found it impossible to just sit and wait for an answer when a younger Karen and a younger he would get into discussions about difficult items. He had learned through fire and blood to give a woman the time she needed to formulate her answers.
Well, maybe not fire and blood. But it sure seemed like it, in retrospect.
"I… I never thought of it that way, Gregory-kun. I guess you're right, it is just… I suppose I did not think things through very clearly. The irritation was a reaction instead of something I thought of. I am sorry." She sounded honestly contrite, which Gregory did not truly want. Feeling bad or shamed would not help.
"No reason to be sorry, Mado-chan. No, really, there isn't. You nailed it right on the head, you reacted instead of behaving in a way that you had previously thought through and decided on. The source of your feeling is that you were told, probably not directly, but you were still told, by someone you believed, that a guy spending money on a girl is one of the ways he proves he cares for her. He insists on providing for her, it's the 'manly' thing to do."
Gregory grinned sardonically and shook his head, then continued, "That's all just bullshit, Mado. It's all just stupid, self-defeating, games that people made up for making drama, with rules for 'this is how guys behave' and 'this is how girls behave'. Girls shouldn't have sex because then they are 'easy', guys should always pay for dinner otherwise they are 'cheap'. More human misery has been caused by these idiotic unwritten rules…"
Gregory kept to himself that 90% of these drama producing, judgmental, behavior-shaming, "rules" were developed by and enforced by the women in almost every culture since Babylon. He didn't think that bit of information would help the current conversation.
Gregory sighed, and then said, "Usually when people react on the spur of the moment they are going to behave according to the cultural traditions and mores they learned growing up. When they were learning what is right and what is wrong, learning what behavior was approved and what was not. As a Sekirei, you didn't get the same sort of deliberate teaching of Japanese cultural behavior a typical Japanese child would get, but you still caught all the same idiotic cultural gender rules present in this country. All of the adults around you, as you were growing up, they were making the rules for what was acceptable behavior and what was not, and they deliberately or incidentally were communicating to you their feelings about proper and improper behavior. You, and probably all the rest of the Sekirei, noticed those things. You had little choice but to notice them, since they were your only clues about how to behave."
"And you think the things we learned were wrong, Gregory-kun?"
He shrugged and replied, "Not in all situations, but a lot of the unwritten rules about gender roles and what is expected behavior for males and expected behavior for females, can be counterproductive, hurtful, and self-limiting. Especially in Japan and much of the rest of the East. The West certainly has its flaws in this regard as well, but women's roles in Japanese culture are particularly… conservative. Hell, just the Japanese fetishization about female virginity alone illustrates the second class status of women…"
Gregory glanced over at Madoka then returned his eyes to the traffic. "Consider this example. Just because someone, an authority figure of some sort, may have indicated to you that only the male scientists in the labs should be working a job and the females should all be properly home raising the children, that doesn't make it right. It just makes it that person's opinion. And if you never heard a different opinion, never heard a counterargument from an equally important authority figure, then that persons opinion about women in the workforce would become the rule in your head for how men and women should behave as regards working. You would, today, see a woman working and as a 'gut reaction' think of it as wrong, that she should be at home raising her children instead of working. It is not necessarily wrong, but it is not necessarily right either. Those rules that we write in our heads as we grow up, that we learn because someone in a position of authority told us 'this is right' or 'this is wrong' when we were children, those rules are very powerful. And that we rarely even remember the learning of these things makes them even more powerful, because we then come to think of them as "instinctive" reactions, right and wrong that is hardwired into us so it must be correct. They affect a great deal of our behavior, and often they affect our behavior in negative ways."
"Then how can I know what is right and wrong?" Madoka sounded frustrated. He could not really blame her for that. Someone telling you that you need to reevaluate all of your preconceived notions about behavior was a hard thing.
"Well, Mado-chan, for now, the best advice I can give you is to try to think things through and judge your behavior, and others, based on how practical the action in question is. Does it help us survive this insane Sekirei Plan? Or does it make things harder? In addition, if you want my personal opinion, I feel it is appropriate to evaluate actions based on how much harm or suffering will be caused by the actions in question. It is my belief that we all should act in ways that causes the least amount of harm to others, whenever it is practical. Or, you know, even when it might be impractical."
Gregory paused, frowning a bit, then concluded, "There's enough unhappiness in this world as it is. Adding to it is… well, adding to it unnecessarily, is the only inarguable sin, in my opinion."
She thought about that for a few minutes. In fact, they were pulling off the NR20 freeway, at the Shibuya Ward exit, before she answered.
"So you would fight or hurt someone, but only when there is no other good options. You might steal from someone but only if it was the only way you could achieve your goals, not just because it was easier? And using the MBI card like we are is not hurting anyone?"
Gregory laughed, "Well, it might hurt Hiroto Minaka a little, but MBI is incredibly wealthy so it's a very small harm. And when it comes to MBI, they've already done great harm to you and to me and to all the other Ashikabi and Sekirei. They've got a lot of karma to pay back before I'd worry too much about how much harm we're doing to them."
"So, I should make sure to think things through before reacting, is what you are saying?"
Gregory nodded as they turned onto the main thoroughfare that led to the apartment. "Yes. Mado-chan, I want you to break free from the restrictions you were clad in by MBI and the people who raised you. Be your own free judge of right and wrong. Decide for yourself what behavior you find good and what you find bad. Don't restrict yourself and your view of the world based on the narrow-minded, conservative views of some crazy scientists at MBI. And don't just replace them with me, either; you are the one who decides what is right and what is wrong for you, not me, not Hiroto Minaka, not Sekirei 01. You."
He glanced over at her, a smile on his face. "Really, what I want? Most of all I just want you to be free, Mado-chan."
o.0.O.0.o
New Year's Eve. Tuesday night found Gregory and Madoka walking together among the visitors to the small Shoun-ji Temple, the nearest Buddhist temple to the apartment. They both wore beautiful new silk yukata, which MBI had so generously paid for earlier in the day.
Madoka was now getting into the spirit of having MBI paying for her and Gregory's entertainments. It was a fun game and the prizes were awesome! Five star hotels, luxurious silk yukata, New Year's Eve at the beautiful Shoun-ji Temple. She was ever so glad Gregory had pointed out how silly her reactions had been concerning the MBI card. They could be sitting at the apartment tonight instead, as Gregory pointed out to her.
She led the way, MBI card in hand, to the Shibuya shopping district's best yukata and kimono store.
Gregory just laughed and went along.
It was good to hear him laugh. Before they'd gone shopping he'd had phone calls from both Mishi and from his son, Mark, who was still in the States. Both phone calls had been very difficult for Gregory, and frustrating for Madoka.
Listening to him let both Mishi and Mark yell at him and say many mean things about how he had supposedly treated Karen was almost impossible for Madoka to tolerate. But he had asked her to not interfere, so she didn't.
As soon as she could distract him with plans for New Year's Eve, she did so.
Now the two of them walked, side by side, along the lovely pathways surrounding the Shoun-ji Temple. Their yukata were warm enough for the chilly weather, since there was little wind. Gregory frequently stopped and took photos, more than a few of them featured his beautiful, silk-garbed, Sekirei.
As midnight grew close, Madoka dragged Gregory to the temple itself, where shrine-maidens, in their traditional wide sleeved garb, drew fortunes for the visitors for a small donation. She and Gregory also took the time to write their private wishes for the upcoming year onto rice paper and tie the wishes to the tree branches of the shrine. Branches that were already bearing hundreds and hundreds of small, meticulously rolled, scrolls containing the New Year's wishes of those who came through earlier.
Madoka finished writing her wish to find and save her friend Yosuga from any evil Ashikabi, then tied it to a branch with the small silken cord provided by the shrine maidens. She waited for Gregory, who seemed lost in thought before he finally wrote his wish on his paper then tied it to the tree. They both stood as the traditional 108 bells rang in the New Year at midnight.
Gregory smiled and said, "Hmm. 108 bells. That's quite the coincidence, isn't it, Mado-chan?"
Madoka could only nod, amazed. "Why is it 108 bells? What does it mean?"
Gregory grinned at her as he answered, "They represent the 108 sins of Buddhist belief. Really, it's more specific than that, it's the 108 earthly temptations of the flesh which in Buddhist belief a person has to resist for their own good."
The grin changing to a leer on his face was unmistakable.
Madoka slapped Gregory on the arm and yelped, "Aw! That is not right! The Sekirei are not sins or temptations of the flesh! No laughing! That is not funny!"
Gregory just laughed in spite of her and put an arm around her to give a one-armed hug.
As the two walked back towards the commuter train stop which would take them the short distance back to the apartment, Madoka slipped her hand into Gregory's and the two of them continued, hand in hand.
"What did you wish, Gregory-kun?" She looked up at her tall Ashikabi, smiling happily. It had been a difficult day but it had ended almost perfectly. Just the two of them, hand in hand, walking in this beautiful garden in this beautiful city.
"Well now," Gregory replied, smiling slightly and keeping his eyes ahead, "if I tell you it won't come true, Mado-chan. It's a secret."
"No fair. Come on!"
Gregory laughed, and then looked down at her with a fond expression on his face. He squeezed her hand and said, "Okay, I'll tell you. Someday. I promise. But not now. For now it's a secret."
Madoka narrowed her eyes but accepted his answer, for now. She leaned her head against Gregory's arm as they walked and she could not remember ever being so content.
o.0.O.0.o
Tied to the shrine tree among the thousand other wishes, one was written in English. It was one line, written in a firm hand.
"May my beautiful little bird find happiness."
o.0.O.0.o
o.0.O.0.o
The End of Book Two

From the Notebooks of Gregory O'Donnell
The Sekirei Plan
From what Hiroto Minaka informed me during our brief videoconference after winging Madoka, and from what Madoka herself has been able to tell me based on what briefings she was part of, and what she was able to overhear during the last years in the MBI Sekirei Labs, this is what we know about the Sekirei Plan.
It was not revealed to the Sekirei (at least Group 11) until they were already at a teenage level of development.
Originally the First Five cooperated with Hiroto Minaka and company as part of the "S Plan" (as distinct from the "Sekirei Plan" but we don't know what the "S Plan" was). As Minaka's intentions either changed or were revealed, as the "S Plan" changed into the "Sekirei Plan", his goals became unacceptable to several of the First Five and all but 04 Karasuba abandoned Minaka and the remaining 103 Sekirei.
What part 01 had in this is unknown entirely. Only rumor and myth speak of this figure, at least for the Group 11 Sekirei.
The remaining 103 Sekirei were raised by MBI and conditioned to participate in Minaka's "Sekirei Plan". How much conditioning was necessary is unknown, as the nature of the Sekirei is unknown. We do know it would take a great deal of effort to condition 103 random human children for the same purpose.
The Sekirei are to be released into Shin Tokyo, Japan, and are under orders to not leave the city, ever. They are released 3 to 5 per week, starting at the beginning of December, 2019. This would mean all would be released by April, 2020.
They are to find their Ashikabi and bond to him.
They are then to seek out the other winged Sekirei and engage them in formalized combat, or duels. The rules for such duels are strongly impressed on the Sekirei. They are:
The Sekirei both announce number and name.
They fight each other until one is damaged so badly their Sekirei Crest disappears from their body or until one gains enough of an upper hand to place their fingers on the opponents Crest and recite the victors Norito. This causes the defeateds Sekirei Crest to disappear as well.
As a 'terminated' Sekirei is completely unable to function, the victor is to stand guard over the defeated until MBI arrives to recover the body.
All bodies of the Sekirei are intended to be recovered by MBI and returned to MBI's facilities.
Sekirei attacking humans or Ashikabi is not permitted. Allowances may be made for collateral, incidental, damage, but the Sekirei are expected to make all reasonable effort to avoid harming bystander humans and are expected to make more than merely reasonable efforts to avoid harming opposing Sekirei's Ashikabi.
Once 90% of the Sekirei are 'winged', MBI is (somehow) going to close the city by force, blocking all traffic in and out of the city for the Sekirei and the Ashikabi, searching every vehicle individually via hand held sensors. (Note: Madoka overheard this description of the "Second Phase" of the Sekirei Plan and the hand held sensors from two careless lab techs a few months before the First Phase began).
What enforcement mechanism MBI has in place to insure the rules of the 'game' are followed is unknown. Madoka says she regularly saw security personnel in military type clothing and bearing assault rifles, as well as what might have been Armored Personnel Carriers, with MBI logos. How many, how well armed, how well trained, is unknown.
Also unknown is what extent MBI's intelligence apparatus functions. It is assumed, by the Sekirei themselves and strongly confirmed by the rules as they were explained, that immediately on the termination of a Sekirei that MBI is aware of this fact. This reveals several disturbing facts about the reach of MBI's awareness. To what degree is MBI aware of the location of each Sekirei? Through what mechanism are they aware? The "Second Phase" plan to stop all vehicular traffic (see below) and search car by car with hand held sensors for any hidden Sekirei would indicate a distinct limit on MBI's awareness of the location of all the Sekirei. However, the expectation that the moment they are terminated in a duel that MBI forces would be dispatched to the exact location of the fallen Sekirei indicates a completely contradictory level of awareness.
We can assume there are additional "Phases" after this "Second Phase". Perhaps the Third Phase would be triggered once 100% of the Sekirei remaining are winged, for instance.
The fact that MBI intends to seize governmental control of Shin Tokyo and engage in martial law control of the capital of Japan is mind-boggling.
How they can expect to get away with such behavior without profound ramifications is utterly beyond me.
Secondly, why would they do this? The Sekirei have already been informed, in the First Phase, they are not allowed to leave the city. The Ashikabi they find for themselves during the First Phase are informed of this as well. Does MBI not have any way to insure the First Phase Sekirei and Ashikabi remain in the city? If not, how can they expect this rule to be followed? If they do have ways to insure this rule is followed in the First Phase, what is the point of seizing control of the city and engaging in illegal martial law, blocking all traffic in and out of the city with, one assumes, vehicular searches and such? Other than drawing the immediate attention of every government of every nation on the planet, for what possible reason would MBI perform such a heavy-handed act?
Surely MBI's Second Phase Plan isn't intended to isolate news and information originating in Shin Tokyo from the rest of the world, some sort of attempt to keep the Sekirei and the Sekirei Plan contained while the Sekirei duel to the death in the streets over the course of, what, weeks? Months? Surely not. With 19 million people in Shin Tokyo and every one of them has a camera phone? With internet access from dozens of services, not to mention satellite communications? No, that would be laughably naïve. You couldn't informationally isolate Kandahar, Afghanistan, these days with such methods, much less try to do so with Shin Tokyo, the technological and information services capital of the entire planet.
The rules of combat themselves are ridiculously formal. It is obvious whoever came up with this is guilty of romanticizing conflict and battle. The delusions of the administrators, assuming that, for example, one Ashikabi would not kill another Ashikabi in order to prevent the loss of their Sekirei in combat, reveals a worrisome level of naiveté on the part of whoever is controlling this multi-trillion yen international megacorp and directing its resources to enforce this "Sekirei Plan". If another Sekirei were about to terminate Madoka I would not hesitate even a second before putting a bullet into the head of the enemy Sekirei's Ashikabi, for example.
That MBI's briefings to the Sekirei and the Ashikabi themselves do not even mention this sort of scenario smacks of incredible naiveté.
The goal of the Plan, that the winner, the sole remaining Sekirei and her/his Ashikabi, will win the "right to ascend" and the "higher sky above" is so vague a goal or prize that it is amazing MBI was able to condition the Sekirei to participate. The proposition that one must engage in the genocide of every other member of one's race in order to win an undefined "right to ascend" is just startlingly ridiculous. Yet Madoka shows every sign of believing in the Sekirei Plan and believing in "the Professor", as is likely for all the Sekirei. Years and years of conditioning… what great effort MBI must have gone through just for that one purpose?
Obviously, any "plan" which features as its core the genocide of a race of intelligent beings is as evil as anything one could imagine. Any decent, moral, person would stand against MBI's "Sekirei Plan", and only the most venal and corrupt, or brainwashed, person would participate willingly.
o.0.O.0.o
o.0.O.0.o

Started Oct 14 2014

Finished Oct 17 2014

Final Edits May 16 2015

Posted May 16 2015

Crossposted to adult-fanfiction.org Oct 1 2015
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No Game For Old Men, a Sekirei tale