It wasn’t so much a throw as a drop with a repulsor-swat added. It worked.
Shield on head made a very satisfying thump.
Or it would have been. Except Haihane was still standing, blinking a little, as her terrified opponents took the chance to scramble back out of reach. The bandaged Sekirei turned to glance at Steve, surprised. And giggled.
Oh, that’s never good….
He’d really rather not hit a girl. But fighting the Sekirei was more like tangling with a particular bad-tempered Canadian he’d fought with – and alongside – during the War. Only she had metal claws.
Doesn’t stick to the ground, either, Steve thought, in the moment between Haihane vanishing upward and the impact of her feet against his braced shield.
He grinned, sidestepped right, and smashed a punch where he knew her ribs would be.
Bruises my knuckles like James, too. Ow.
Impact was weird, though. Like she was lighter than a woman her size should be-
Claws slashed reflexively across; screeched off his shield. Under gray hair, eyes widened in surprise.
I don’t care what energy you throw at it. Vibranium doesn’t cut.
Come to think of it, that little fact of the universe had made James blink, too.
But he got over it fast – so move faster!
He didn’t like remembering the war. Or Red Skull. Or – well, a lot of things that had happened to the Howling Commandos. But damned if they hadn’t taught him how to fight.
He started by grabbing a knee.
Behind him, an exasperated screech, punctuated by repulsor blasts. “Stay down here, you monkey!”
“Do I look like an idiot?” The helmet speakers rendered Tony’s sarcasm perfectly. “No, never mind, I’m asking the wrong person. Who dresses you funny, anyway?”
“Natsuo likes this!”
Even clawing at Steve to get him loose before he tore something important, Haihane still snickered. “Natsuo doesn’t like you in anything. Gay, remem- oof!”
A/N: The bad-tempered Canadian is currently out on a beer run with a certain Ashikabi biker and his Lovelies. 😉
Crossover Queen's Creative Chaos 
the similarity between the canadian and Haihane is so spot on.
LikeLiked by 2 people
>Avengers and Disciplinary Squad throwing down.>
Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the main event.
Let’s get ready to Rumble!
>Only she had metal claws.>
Yeah about that Steve…..
Though as a Canuck I admit that the entire BS of Department K, Project X and so on makes me want to hurt something.
>The bad-tempered Canadian is currently out on a beer run with a certain Ashikabi biker and his Lovelies. >
And probably causing enough insanity that they have more cops after them then the Blues Brothers ever managed.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Logan: Grins.
LikeLiked by 1 person
>Logan: Grins.>
Xavier: “Logan, why?”
Logan: “Four reasons Chuck. 1, I liked the kid’s style. 2, do you know how long it’s been since I had a proper chance to cut loose and have a good beer run to boot? 3, wanted to find out just what those girls were. Because they sure weren’t mutants. Finally 4, With the alien invasion and those nut-balls fighting it off in broad daylight, people are going to be a lot more willing to believe in mutants. And when they form first impressions, better people think of the crazy Canuck biker instead of the genocidal Jewish Nazi.”
Xavier: “I need more aspirin.”
Because yeah, having your sub-species be ultimately defined (since from what I recall, Magneto is the one to break the Masquerade in nearly every continuity) by the guy saying “We are the superior race. It is our destiny to rule/replace you lesser creatures.” doesn’t end well.
And despite Logan often being portrayed as the straight forward fighter-hungry brawler, he is far from stupid or naive.
LikeLiked by 3 people
That would be an awesome first introduction to mutants. Especially if they’re mutant bikers joining up with the Marines for the Toys for Tots program or such-like; Prof, why didn’t you think of that?
LikeLiked by 2 people
>Prof, why didn’t you think of that? >
Because he was too busy training his private army in his secret compound to be ready to protect the poor, helpless and foolish humans from forces they cannot possibly stand against.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Kind of makes a potential Captain America vs. Prof X talk interesting, doesn’t it?
LikeLiked by 2 people
…aaaaand there’s my cue to break out the fortified bunkers! Because “interesting” in such a context is always only interesting if you’re observing from a distance.
Like from the moon.
LikeLiked by 2 people
*EG*
LikeLike
>Kind of makes a potential Captain America vs. Prof X talk interesting, doesn’t it?>
Might be my prejudice against the Prof’s overall game-plan/actions but I see it probably resulting in Steve wanting to beat his head (instead of somebody’s head in) against a wall, Logan wanting to go an another beer run NOW and Xaver thinking they had a very productive discussion.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Xavier’s problem is, in part, not recognizing that “we must protect the poor humans” can be just as totalitarian an impulse as “we must rule over them”. It’s just dressed up prettier.
LikeLiked by 1 person
>It’s just dressed up prettier. >
For the world’s most powerful telepath he sure has trouble figuring out how people think doesn’t he?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Why think about what you already know?
LikeLiked by 1 person
At least Steve got to have some practice at fighting tough, quick, and clawed before today?
And I think Benitsubasa might have another person on her I Hate THEM! I hate them FOREVER! list. In a situation, I can see her being conflicted about which one to smash first – Minato or Tony.
Through one wonders if the side omake is going to be the only appearance of said Canadian in this verse. Might be nice for Steve to meet someone from the war that ISN’T dead, old, evil, or brainwashed / mind-controlled by evil people.
Who dresses you funny, anyway?”
Have to agree with Tony that most of the Sekirei uniforms are . . . odd. There is a lot of fetish costuming. To the point that I’m positive that whoever picked out / designed those costumes was either a bit of pervert themselves, wanted to appeal to said perverts, and allowed the Sekirei to pick their clothes and didn’t bother to explain to them what those clothes might say to someone outside of MBI. Or some combination of all three.
I’m also at least half positive that Minaka was involved somewhere.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Definitely. Minaka was definitely involved. 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
>Have to agree with Tony that most of the Sekirei uniforms are . . . odd.>
Hey they are birds and the plumage/decorations of some species can get rather exotic. Granted that’s normally the for the guys attempting to impress the ladies, but just sticking to traditional gender roles is boring. 😛
LikeLiked by 2 people
Perhaps.
I still think someone at MBI was being a pervert.
Also ridiculous costumes fits with Minaka’s game aesthetic.
Side Thought: I wonder what miracle technology is used to make sure that Tsukiumi’s breasts stay in her top in the non-fan service moments of the show.
Minor Genre Grip: Why does no one in the animation staff understands that it is very uncomfortable for breasts to bounce that much? (They also aren’t perfectly spherical and don’t move with the wind) And well-endowed women tend to wear bust-support of some kind. Especially if they are going to be doing something active like fighting or sparring. (Probably because most of the people involved are men.)
I can usually ignore that nonsense and limit my reaction to the occasional eye roll but sometimes my brain does mutter under its breath about it. It helps when I really like the characters.
Further side note: Just looking at most of the flock’s breasts makes my back hurt.
LikeLiked by 2 people
My bunnies suspect Super Duck Tape.
And yes. Ow.
LikeLiked by 1 person
>Minor Genre Grip: Why does no one in the animation staff understands that it is very uncomfortable for breasts to bounce that much?
I can usually ignore that nonsense and limit my reaction to the occasional eye roll but sometimes my brain does mutter under its breath about it. It helps when I really like the characters.
Further side note: Just looking at most of the flock’s breasts makes my back hurt.>
Then you really don’t want to watch High-school of the Dead. I’ve only seen a couple of clips but the gainexing of the main female cast is……impressive I think is the most polite word.
>Also ridiculous costumes fits with Minaka’s game aesthetic.>
Fits his aesthetic in general you mean. I mean look at the outfits he wears.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Must we? I want to hit Minaka with paint spatter. 😉 Exploding paint would be even better!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Why does no one in the animation staff understands that it is very uncomfortable for breasts to bounce that much?
Item: The sensory properties of breasts may not be intuitively obvious to men. A man’s reaction is more likely to be taste/aesthetics based than ‘that would hurt’ or a discussion of support.
Item: How many women on the staff are going to be Japanese, Korean, etc… 1) Genetic difference between populations may play a difference. 2) If genetics plays no roll, then known differences in breast size between populations are probably due to diet, etc. 3) Pregnancy apparently increases size. Women working in an animation staff may be heavily young and before birth of first child. It isn’t obvious to me what the size distribution and hence personal practical experience must be.
Item: Sekirei is one of many animes that were first developed as manga. In many cases, the manga’s character design drives the anime’s, and the animation staff has little choice. Manga have much fewer creators than anime.
Item: Even without the manga factor, those decisions may be made by a relatively small number of character designers working with marketeers. Their decisions do have to get approved, and used as part of the background when the head honcho makes the decision based on finances to go ahead with the project. ‘It happens because it sells well some of the time’ is a lousy theory of literary analysis, but it may be sufficient truth.
LikeLike
Oh I know – I get, logically, why that trope exists.
But understanding why the silly or eye-roll worth thing happens doesn’t stop it from being silly or eye-rolling.
Sekirei is actually fairly reasonably about the breast bouncing thing for this genre.
I saw a clip from a series where the animators had the character’s METAL breastplate bounce with her breasts like it was tee shirt.
LikeLiked by 1 person
…Sometimes you have to laugh at the breaks from reality. *Wry G*
LikeLiked by 1 person
Every time I despair about animators, I remember the neat magazine story about the French high fashion bra designer. She makes them to order, worries about fitting the individual shape of a woman’s breasts (a few are actually round, others are more cone or tube), and takes care that everything is fully supported. Unfortunately, you also have to pay a few hundred bucks per bra… but I’m sure that many ladies could live with that. High heels and purses can cost that much, and they’re not nearly as functional.
Anyway, the humorous part is that she has a long rant about what bras shouldn’t do, and it includes pretty much everything you see them do in anime.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Oh wow, yes, something like that would be so worth it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
> I still think someone at MBI was being a pervert.
> Also ridiculous costumes fits with Minaka’s game aesthetic.
Hey, be thankful the designs are only Japanese.
I remember more than a few manhwa and Korean-created games, where the costumes are/were downright ornate!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Impossibly Cool Clothes is a trope all on its own. 😉
LikeLiked by 2 people
“Further side note: Just looking at most of the flock’s breasts makes my back hurt.”
“Then you really don’t want to watch High-school of the Dead. I’ve only seen a couple of clips but the gainexing of the main female cast is……impressive I think is the most polite word.”
I’ll just leave this here: https://imgur.com/gallery/lMmjAmf
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m going to just leave this here.
I’d have tried to look for a higher quality version, but that promises to make for a little bit too interesting a Google search.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Haihane is my favorite member of the Dicipline Squad. Period.
LikeLiked by 2 people
*G*
LikeLike
I’m impressed how quickly Steve noticed the difference in bone structure with just one hit, though I would have thought that Sekirei would have a more dense muscular system to allow the feats of strength that they do. Unless these attributes are related to the Sekirei cores.
The less dense skeletons would explain why Minato didn’t suffer bodily harm when Musubi landed on him in the beginning of the Sekirei plan. Though the weights on the Sekirei wiki for the Sekirei don’t deviate far from the average weights of a Japanese female. Unless in this universe Takami has already started altering/experimenting on Minato.
One thing that I don’t like about Hiahane’s claw weapons is the impracticality of their design. They are essentially gloves/gauntlets with knives on the end of each finger point. There’s nothing preventing someone from grabbing a finger/claw and breaking attached finger. There is also the fact that the claw extends down to the second joint of each finger and past the joint on the thumb limiting the flexibility of her fingers.
There was a fanfic that went more in-depth on this topic which included a breakdown of the lack of functionality of some of the Sekirei weapons (ie. Yomi and Haihane as prime examples) and that they were using them incorrectly. Found it, the story is Shattered Blade by DrakeValkyr on FF. Specifically chapter 8 where it breaks it down. Short version is that the weapons appeared to be designed with the thought “this is how a weapon should look like” and not with “this is how a weapon should function”.
LikeLiked by 2 people
The bruising-knuckles came from “my hand just stopped hard”, not from bones.
And huh! Will have to look for that one.
LikeLiked by 1 person