A/N: So we've finally come to this fic's most infamous arc. Needless to say, a lot has changed from the original. Fans of the previous fic may wish to make note of that going forward.
XXXXXX
Pins & Needles: Part I
3:24:08…3:24:07…3:24:06…
The large metal door lurched its way along the solid ground with a rustic murmur as Kazehana pressed her undamaged arm into it. She stumbled inside and Benitsubasa followed behind not long after, still cradling Minato's body in her arms.
She would have been tempted to call him a big baby had it not been for the situation prior.
Minato may not show his fortitude all that often, but to jab that thug's knife through that pighead's palm the way he did when he was trapped under that huge pipe took testicles the size of grapefruits. That was something everyone had to admit.
"Thanks a bunch, Kazehana," Minato said, with an obvious strain on his vocal cords.
The Wind Sekirei glanced back at Minato, smiling at him. "No problem. How are you holding up, sweetie?"
Minato's face reddened at the word 'sweetie'. "Oh, I'm okay. Should be able to walk again in a few minutes."
"You better be," Benitsubasa loudly declared, casting a heated glare down at him. "If you think I'm gonna lug your frail little ass through all these tests, you got another thing comin'." She then thought, 'Though I have to admit, your ass is quite nice...'
He struggled to force a chuckle up from his bruised ribs. "Hehe, wouldn't dream of it, Benitsu." he grasped at his chest and wailed in pain a bit.
They wandered a little further into the blackness and the door slammed behind them not long after. The sound of a locking mechanism latching was all they had to know that they were once again in Jigsaw's realm. Their fun and games from earlier were now over. Well, minus the 'fun' part.
It was game time once again.
Kazehana gasped in surprise, while a vein popped out in Benitsu's neck as she tensed her fists and groaned in frustration.
"Are doors going to close automatically behind us every time we enter a new room?" Kazehana asked.
"If they lead to a test chamber, yes," Minato confirmed. "It's happened the last three times we took part in a one, so I'm certain a new game awaits us."
"That figures," Kazehana said, bowing her head. She turned around to face the dark hallway before them. A moment later, she pointed to something in the distance. Something glistening. "Hey guys, look over there. Something's hanging on a string."
"What is it? A dead body?" Benitsu scoffed.
The dark sense of humor the Red Sekirei had didn't seem to be shared among her two companions.
"Not funny, Beni." Minato commented.
Kazehana agreed. "Don't even joke like that."
Given their situation though, he wouldn't have been very surprised if it had been a body, especially since he had just aided Benitsubasa in murdering one of those stalkers.
A feeling in his gut told him that that body would be the first of many they would come across, whether they died by their hand or by other means.
Benitsubasa scowls down at him. "What did you call me, pipsqueak?"
"Oh um, Benitsu. I meant Benitsu. Sorry."
"Yeah, you better be."
"No," Kazehana said, shaking her head side to side. Wandering closer to the object in question, she ripped it off the string, and a bulb above her flickered on. "it's a tape. It has the words 'play me' on it."
"Minato," Benitsu asked, "you still have that tape recorder on you from earlier, right?"
"Yeah, I think I do. Set me down for a second so I can fish it out."
Benitsubasa lowered one arm, allowing Minato to roll off onto his feet. He propped himself against a wall and slid down to his hindquarters. After sucking in a few long breaths, he reaches into his back pocket and pulls out the tape recorder.
"Hmm, it looks a bit damaged," Kazehana said, cocking her head to the side.
"It probably happened when that big pipe came crashing down on top of him," Benitsu deducted with folded arms.
In spite of this, Kazehana took the device and slid the tape in. Hoping for the best, she thumbed the play button.
The tape began grinding inside, but a voice soon followed. "Hello, and welcome to you-r second teamwork trial."
"Yes!" Kazehana cheered, pulling down her clenched fist in a triumphant gesture, making her boobs bounce easily. "It still works!"
The tape rolled on, becoming more coherent through the speaker as time progressed. "From where you are now standing, three rooms surround you."
One by one, the room's lights slowly fizzled to life. Their eyes followed in conjunction as the message continued.
"Each room contains an element vital to your survival. To retrieve these items, you must face each challenge awaiting you in them. These chambers will push your wits and senses to their limits. Although the pain to be endured here will not be as prominent as the other tests awaiting you, a powerful mind will serve as your greatest ally. Like the previous teamwork trial, the door leading to your next test will be opened if you chose to wait it out. However, a nerve agent is being vented into the area as we speak. This poison is slow acting and will prove lethal in about two hours if you don't find the tools for your success in time. The catch though, is that this trial only contains two antidotes. If Kazehana and Benitsubasa won the previous games, that means there will be an odd one out. You will need to choose amongst yourselves. Not all hope is lost for the one chosen to endure the poison. A third antidote can be found elsewhere in the building during another lesson. Assuming you're able to get that far in time that is. If not and the sick succumbs to their ailment, you will be granted a by for it so you may proceed to the final game. Given how you're at a bit of a disadvantage here, I'll give you a hint as to where the first two antidotes are: visit the nursing station. You're due for a checkup."
The tape ground to a halt.
"Well," the ronin said, hacking. "I guess that's that then."
"So, what the hell are we all just standing here for?!" Benitsu shouted. "Hurry up! Find the vents and keep the poison from seeping in!"
Minato shook his head and coughed. "That won't do any good," he strained to speak. "We already inhaled the poison the moment we entered the room. We have to find the antidote."
Benitsu planted her fists into her abdomen as she leaned forward. "Ugh, and just how do you know there's an antidote, pipsqueak? All the guy does is speak in riddles!"
"Isn't it obvious, Benitsu? Jigsaw mentioned there being 'elements of survival'. Given how there's a poison being pumped into this place, I can only conclude that he means a cure of some sort."
Benitsu bit her thumbnail. "Yeah, true. But still I don't smell anything. How do we know Jigglypuff isn't bluffing?"
"I can sense it in the air now," Kazehana commented. "It just started swirling around us when that door slammed shut."
Benitsubasa bit her nail harder. "And you choose to not tell us earlier why?"
"Because I wasn't aware it was toxic. This whole building smells funky, and none of us have died yet, so I figured this stuff in the air was par for the course. Plus my senses over the air aren't as high as they once were. I'm still a bit weak from earlier if you haven't noticed."
Benitsu groaned loudly and rolled her eyes. "Great, wonderful. Now what do we do?"
"Easy," Minato pulled himself up off the ground, still clasping a hand on his bruised ribs. "We go to the nursing station and try to find out what it is we're looking for."
Kazehana grinned. "Sounds like a plan."
The trio gathered inside the nursing station. The whole place was boarded up, even the windows were blocked by planks of ancient wood. Slight rays of light beamed through them, signifying it was daytime, perhaps early evening given the hazy orange columns of light bleeding into the station.
Upon noticing this, Benitsubasa took the initiative and approached the window. In spite of Minato's protests, she tore off the boards one by one…only to find iron rails sealed in place over them. They could see outside, but they were still trapped. All there was a vast sea of autumn trees beyond a streak of rural dirt road.
Just what the hell was she trying to do or prove for that matter? Escape? To abandon not only Minato, but her own Ashikabi? But then again trying to talk sense into Benitsubasa when she decides to act out is about as useful as getting into an argument with a brick wall…that insults you back.
Maybe she just wanted to see what the outside looked like one last time?
After that little escapade, the group scattered out to cover more ground, opening cabinets, checking under tables and beds, etc. Other than some rubber gloves and operating masks, nothing of any real use could be found. But chances are that if they were there to take, they'd be useful later on.
"Looks like we need to be a little bit more thorough." Benitsubasa shrugged.
She approaches the beds, dragging the mattresses off their steel frames one by one.
When she got to the last bed, Minato pointed down through a hole in the floor beneath the bed frame.
"Hey look, this part of the floor is covered by a thin sheet of plywood. I think we found what we're looking for."
Kazehana and Benitsu nodded in agreement. The Red Sekirei worked her magic, dragging the bed frame off the secret entrance, while Kazehana and Minato followed up by pulling the plywood out of the way.
The three gathered around the giant hole in the ground and looked inward.
Each let out a collective "Oh, hell no." as an eerie chill crept up their spines.
In the pit were needles, thousands of them. Encrusted with dry blood and who knows how many kinds of diseases.
"So," Benitsubasa gulped. "I take it this means the cure is in there?"
Minato shook his head. "No. I seriously doubt we'll find an antidote down there. There's just too many needles to sort out. We'll never find the proper one in time, and I don't think Jigsaw would risk accidentally contaminating it." An idea came to him. He shifted attention towards Kazehana. "Kazehana, can you flip over that piece of plywood we just moved? I want to check and see something."
"Sure thing." she nodded.
With her fingers fastened beneath it, she hoisted up the piece of wood and flipped it over onto one of the discarded mattresses.
The back of it read: "No cure can be found here; Only freedom."
"Nice call, brainiac," Benitsubasa commented.
"Hmmm," the ronin pondered. "From what I gather from Jigsaw's clue this is likely where the key can be found."
Benitsubasa jumped to conclusions as usual. "Nuh-uh! I ain't going in there and poking myself with one of those nasty-ass needles!"
"You're not going to have to, at least not yet."
"What do you mean, 'not yet?! I'm not going in there, period!"
"Don't mind her, she'll do it for her own good because her life literally depends on it." Kazehana added. "All three of us will, and I really don't like needles." Kazehana hoarsely admitted. "As much as I hate to admit it it's kind of a fear of mine."
"And a common one at that." Minato replied. "I'm not keen on going into that either. We just need to be careful once we do, right Benitsubasa?"
"Benitsu!"
Kazehana grinned, briefly coming to balance on the balls of her feet. "Would it be alright if we call off the key search for now?" Kazehana asked, passively. "I need to mentally prepare for this shit, and I think it would be best to get the antidotes first anyway."
"That seems to be the best course of action, yes, but first let's scout the rooms. Make sure there aren't any booby traps poised to blow our heads off before we take the next plunge."
XXXXXX
The first room they had access to was a women's bathroom. In any other situation that didn't involve life or death, Minato would have been hesitant to set foot in this uncharted territory. But following Benitsubasa and Kazehana's lead, he postured himself and wandered inside.
It was fairly large, though given the fact this was an abandoned university such was par for the course. On the walls and ceiling were a multitude of crudely painted three digit numbers, and stretching out from the three sinks before them were five bathroom stalls.
On the outermost stall facing them, the message "Cloud your senses" had been carved into it, the knife presumably used to etch the message served as the period.
They checked under the sinks and in each stall. In the furthest one, Kazehana had found something.
"Hey guys, come in here, look!"
The three followed the wind Sekirei's call. Inside the stall, a safe sat in place of the usual porcelain throne.
"Good going, Kazehana." Minato complimented.
Benitsu crouched down and took a closer look. "Yeah, but look." She pointed to a set of tumblers sitting perpendicular to the lock. "We need the combination in order to open it." She turns back to the group, sniffing. "Anyone here good at math?"
"I…don't think math has anything to do with this, hun," Kazehana declared, scratching her head.
"Can't say I have any idea as to what the combination can be," Minato huffed. "I'd say the numbers around us have something to do with it, but none of them seem to fine up in any particular order. There aren't any spaces between them wide enough to tell one combination from the next."
"You think Jigsaw got sloppy with this one?" Benitsubasa questioned.
"I doubt that. He's a perfectionist."
"So how do you think we solve it?" Kazehana begged the question.
"Let's keep looking. We still have one more room to search. Something might clue is in there. Better than dilly-dallying."
"Good point. Let's go."
XXXXXX
Benitsubasa uses her talents to stomp the door down much like she did when entering Kazehana's earlier test chamber. The sound could have awoken the dead. They made their way inside and their eyes wandered through the clutter. It was a classroom, albeit a very rundown one. Amidst the piles of rust and dust, a blackboard was hanging off the wall at an angle, and the desks and chairs were thrown all over the damn place. It was like a tornado just rolled by and said I don't give a fuck. Just about everything in it told feng shui to go fuck itself.
"My, how classy of you," Kazehana said with smugness in her expression.
Minato furrowed his eyebrows. "You know, Benitsu, on one occasion you may just trigger a trap by doing that."
"It's a running gag of hers by this point." Minato sighed.
Flailing her gloved hand, she waved him off as she entered. "Oh, quit your blubbering."
In the room were four rust-coated metallic tables, spaced evenly; two horizontal, and two vertical. If one were to look from above, the cluster of tables would form a plus sign.
Upon them were four very large, human-sized bags. They gave off a particularly rancid odor and itty bitty flies were swarming around them trying to gain entry. Off to the right of the entrance of the room, a message was scribbled upon a chalkboard.
"Look deep inside."
Minato gulped at the message. He had a bad feeling about this. In spite of not having seen what was inside the bags, he knew deep down inside what they contained. And given how the room was labeled 'biology'...
Benitsu pulled Minato back with her shoulder, hissing the words. "Behind me, pipsqueak."
He stumbled a bit, groaning from the pain in his midsection. She made her way in towards the objects before her.
Kazehana caught Minato before he fell over. "Hey, what's the big idea?"
"He was in my way. I wanted a closer look. Is that so wrong?" She said, shrugging her shoulders.
Kazehana snarled as she attended to Minato's aid. "Can't you see he's hurt?! We're supposed to be working as a team, remember?"
"Oh, can it," she snapped back. She reached behind her and grasped at the ka-bar knife in her belt. "I'm gonna stab the fuck out of all these bags. This could be another ambush. For all we know there's another one of those pig-headed deadbeats inside one of them and I ain't gonna let 'em get the jump on us again."
Wait, did she just use the word 'us'? As in not only herself? Was she starting to care for them?
After recomposing himself, Minato once again tried to reason with his former enemy. "I understand your concern, Benitsu, but think this through! What if one of those bags contains one of my other Sekirei?!"
"Sweetie's right, hun. What if it's your ashikabi in one of those bags? Then what are you going to do?"
Benitsu tensed for a brief moment before shaking her head left to right. She let out an annoyed gutteral groan. "UUUUGH! FINE! Have it your way! But I'm still checking those bags!"
After a few heavy gasps, Minato spoke up. "Benitsu, what do you think you're doing?"
She pointed to the message on the chalkboard and spoke. "Look at the message, you dingbat! The cure has to be in one of the bags, so I'm going to search them, duh!" she rolled a bag onto its side; a sloppy sloshing from within made Minato's stomach queasy.
Minato swallowed a lump in his throat. "Oh, the sounds I don't like them…"
"Dammit! The zipper's missing! Well then, only one thing I can do now…"
Kazehana's expression soured. "Yeah, I'm going back to the needle pit."
Benitsu readies her knife, and Minato shouts aloud. "Wait, don't cut it open so suddenly-!"
Benitsubasa sliced open the bag. The stench made her gag. She turned away and stumbled back, as a swarm of flies flowed out like blood from a deep wound. She rolled onto her hands and knees choking on the stench of decay.
"Can't say I didn't try to warn her…" Minato commented out loud, having already placed his hands over his mouth and nose. It didn't do much good, but at least he prepared for the worst. Come to think of it, this particular test was likely why they found gloves and masks in the nursing station.
"Shut up, you weakling!" she roared, coughing as she slumped over at the wall. If anyone looked weak now it was her.
"Well what did you expect would be in there, hun?" Kazehana laughed into her elbow. "Candy?"
"Fuck you. Fuck you! FUCK! YOU!" Benitsu shouted through her scowl. "Fuck you, and go get those fucking masks from earlier!"
XXXXXX
As Minato turned on his heel to leave the body bag room along with Kazehana, Benitsu followed shortly behind and grabbed him by the arm once they had gathered in the nurse's station.
"Wait, hold on," she said.
He turned to face his former enemy and said, "What is it?" as Kazehana stuck to his side.
"I think before we find the first cure, the three of us should have a little discussion."
"About what?" Kazehana asked, raising an eyebrow.
"What are you, stupid? About who's going to get first dibs on the antidotes when we find them!"
"Oh, right. Yeah, I suppose that's a good idea to have a plan going forward."
"Let me guess," Kazehana began, shrugging her hands in the air. "You're going to want the first one, aren't you Miss washboard?"
A vein popped in Benitsu's head and neck. She faced Kazehana and clenched her fists. "Call me a washboard again! I dare you!"
Minato tried to intervene. "Settle down, you two! Please! This senseless arguing is just wasting time and making me anxious! We don't need anyone fighting over anything so trivial."
Kazehana stuck out her tongue as Benitsubasa shrugged her off. "Ugh, fine. And to answer your question, boobzilla, you're right. I do want the first antidote to myself." she said. She sighed a moment later and added, "But I'm not going to take it."
Kazehana and Minato said "What?" in unison.
This change of heart stunned Kazehana as well as Minato. For once Benitsubasa was being…generous?
"You heard me." Benitsubasa said after their gasps of shock. "Way I see it, the antidote should go to the pipsqueak first given how we have the most to lose if he ends up dead. From the sounds of things, that little incident with the pipe from earlier has taken its toll on his ability to breathe. But don't get the wrong idea about this. If Minato dies this early, I can pretty much kiss my chances of being with my Ashikabi goodbye. Fact of the matter is that we're going to need more Sekirei in our group if we have any hope of winning this game. If the pipsqueak dies, that means every single one of his Sekirei die as well," she casts an angry glare at Kazehana. "and that includes you, gazonga girl."
"Yeah, what you're saying makes sense," Minato added.
"However," Benitsubasa continued. "I get dibs on the second syringe."
"And for what reason?" Kazehana asked, tilting her head to the side. "It's just to spite me, I bet."
"No! …Well, maybe a little, but I still have good reasoning for it."
Kazehana let her eyes drift upward. "Oh, I'd love to hear this."
Benitsubasa grumbled and continued from where she left off. "We go in order of importance. Minato's the most valuable asset we have in this place, so he should of course go first. Then the next in line should be me since I'm the only one here capable of protecting you guys from danger. Lets say if I were to die here and you and Minato were the only two left. If push comes to shove and you run into one of those pigheaded Jigsaw goons, you'd be sitting ducks."
Kazehana waved off her reasoning. "Excuses, excuses. I can handle myself just fine in a fight, miss daisy clips. You should know this full well since I tossed your ass halfway across the capital."
Bentisubasa groaned. "Ugh, Yeah, when you had your powers at your disposal! Did you forget that little rule Jigsaw has in place? The one where it clearly states if you or his other Sekirei use your powers Minato's collar will detonate? Remember that? Remember when you almost KILLED HIM when you had your little tantrum on that roulette wheel?!"
Kazehana sighed. "Yeah, I suppose you have a point there…"
"But I think it's important to keep in mind that this order of operation is just an extra precaution. None of us are going to die here anyway. We shouldn't even think that way. All we need to focus on now is finding the antidotes and nothing more."
"Benitsubasa's right," Minato added. He reached his hand out to the center of the group. "We're all in this together, so let's work as a team to conquer this obstacle."
Kazehana put her hand on his. "I'm in."
Followed by Benitsubasa's. "Count me in too."