Concentration: Part I
3:59:21…3:59:20…3:59:19…
"How much farther d'ya think we have to keep walking in circles?" Benitsubasa asked following a brief period of awkward silence. Only a few minutes had ticked away from the timer, but she was still irritated by this game of hide and seek. Not to mention the ambush hogs she'd been keeping an eye out for.
"I don't know," Minato muttered, wincing from the cuts that littered his body. Drops of blood fell to the floor from his dangling arm every now and then, but even though the lacerations weren't too deep, they stung like a motherfucker. "Gah, damn…"
Benitsu groaned and rolled her eyes at him upon noticing this. "Would you like some cheese with that WHINE?" she grumbled, stomping her crimson boot through a loose board, snapping it like the vertebrae of whoever would be dumb enough to attack them first. "Quit acting like a wimpy virgin. For fuck's sake…"
"They hurt!" Minato insisted. "A lot more than I'm letting on too!"
"Oh, lemme see," she said, rolling her eyes once more. Bending her knees to a bouncing crouch, she rolled up one of his pant legs. She reached out and ran her hands down his leg, unknowingly eliciting a blush from the hapless ronin. Her eyelids thinned to focus, scrutinizing the lacerations before standing back up to inspect the rest of his body. For a Sekirei focused on such barbaric means of confrontation, her hands were really soft…when they weren't colliding with one's face or nether regions at the speed of sound, of course.
Flicking her bright pink hair back, she sneered. "Ugh, they're not that bad." She turned back towards the path. "The salt shouldn't irritate them for much longer, so stop blubbering. You're so damn squishy."
She turned back around in a huff…but a brief blush bloomed over her cheeks as well. …really…REALLY squishy…
Despite himself, Minato managed to glare at his pink-haired companion and muttered. "I'm only human."
She shook her head to do away with that redness on her face. She motioned to snort a reply but a distinct thumping halted the action. Had she stepped through another board? No. They veered their heads to their left. Standing in the corridor opposite them, peering with empty eyes was a towering figure, his frame smothered in a black cloak splattered with blood and the familiar swine mask peeling over his identity.
This one was…bigger than the others they had come across. Not just in his eclipsing stature, but also in muscle mass and limb length. The sight of the masked maniac was enough to make Minato stagger back several steps. Benitsubasa on the other hand, had other plans.
She grabbed the ronin's shoulder, shoving him behind her with the swipe of her arm.
"Get behind me! Now!"
"Why?!" he gasped, wincing as she brushed his cuts. "What are you going to do?!"
He knew why; she needed to protect him. But the question derived more from fear on how she was going to handle said situation, which he was positive would involve her fists.
"What I do best, of course!" she boasted with snide confidence, pounding a fist into her palm. This is gonna be fun.
Amidst Minato's protest, she pulled back her arm with a balled fist; a globe of pink energy expanded from her palm to encompass her entire hand as the grip intensified. Heels springing beneath her, she vaulted into the air and threw her arm forward with all the grace of a derailed freight train.
*CRACK!*
The right hook echoed; a spiderweb of fissures branched out through the glass. Instead of the towering meat puppet, her fist collided with an invisible barrier. The figure didn't even flinch.
"What fucking gives?" Mounting her boot on the glass, she backflipped away and drew back her hand, clenching it in her free one.
Shit, she muttered internally, spitting to the side.Having to hold that bar up for so long to keep the pipsqueak from drowning fucked my biceps good…the glass would have been shattered along with that ugly boar's jaw if Minato would have shown just a little bit of trust on his end. But nooo, he just had to dive back down, didn't he? If he pulls that shit again, I swear I'll…
Her teeth grind in a gnashing snarl. "Coward," she spat again. "Come out and fight!"
"Benitsu, please!" the ronin pleaded. "You're making things worse…! Your muscles are still weary! You need to recoup!"
"Shut up!"
The motionless figure maintained dominance over its territory; its glove crept into the smothered innards of the gore-smeared robe. With a slow, methodical tug, he withdraws a spiked baseball bat, curling his wrists as he intensifies his grip. The stuttering ronin's pupils shrunk as he lifted it overhead, like an axeman at an execution.
"See what you did, Benitsu…?" he muttered. "Y-You done pissed him off…"
With a hard, downward swing, the pig mask imbeds the spike through the barrier and the bat snaps in two at the handle, leaving the upper portion lodged in the glass. Minato yelped and lurched back at the moment of impact, but Benitsu wasn't fazed in the slightest.
She smirked in fact. "Hmpf; Am I supposed to be impressed?" Gripping the spike, she bent it into the glass. "Aww, did your toy get stuck…?"
"Stop egging him on!" Minato pleaded.
"Ignore him! Now come out and fight!"
"I-Ignore me?!"
"Shut up! Before I feed you to him!"
The figure surrendered its hold of the now splintered bat's handle, letting the base drop to his feet. Benitsubasa's lips opened to make a scathing taunt, but before her insults could come about, the figure unsheathed the Ka-Bar knife from its garbed sleeve and sank the ebony tusk into the glass upon slamming the back of his camouflaged fist into it. It hadn't fully penetrated as the spike did, though it appeared that wasn't the intention.
If it had, Benitsubasa would have lost an eye. The jab was just so quick and unexpected.
"Come on," Minato shouted, grasping her hand, shaking the Red Sekirei from concentration. "Let's go before he cuts through it!"
A slight redness swelled over her face on the moment of their palm-brush. Benitsubasa wanted to argue, tear his arm off and serve it to the beast as a temptation to come out and play, but reluctantly nodded and followed her companion. Why? Something wasn't allowing her to do it...even if she wanted to, and not just her Ashikabi.
As the floor flew beneath their feet, Benitsubasa heard an eerie scratching - maybe scraping - sound against the glass. After a moment of hesitation, she halted her footing and tightened her grip on Minato's hand as he continued to run off. The pull almost tore a tendon.
"Agh!" he shrieked as he regained his balance. "What's wrong? Why did we stop?"
As opposed to an immediate response, Benitsubasa turned to see the figure, casually dragging the ebony-stained fang along the glass wall in the opposite direction from where they were running. He wasn't trying to cut a hole or anything…just dragging it. Like a bored child dragging a stick along a chain-link fence.
"…Benitsu?" he said, tilting his head.
"I-I think he wants us to follow him," she whispered, releasing his palm.
"A-are you nuts?!" Minato replied in a high pitch peep, twirling his aching wrist in his free hand. "If you want to get us killed that badly, why not just rip my arm off all the way while you're at it?!"
"That can be arranged, you know?!" She showed him her fist and he of course backed down. "And, hey, remember what we said about trust?"
Minato's eyes wandered to the sides of his eyes in realization. "Mhm."
"Come on," she urged. "We're gonna get into another trap either way. Besides, I got your back."
"But your arms are…"
"Feeling like jelly, I know, no thanks to you. But I can still break bones, pipsqueak. He won't be a problem."
Minato stayed silent and grumbled a nod.
As the beast's fang seared across the glassy armor of the walls, sparks pooled around the floor. Honing their eyes at the shadowy golem, Benitsubasa kept a firm posture all the while Minato nibbled at the dead skin flaking off the nail of his fingers.
After a few yards, he paused his passage and yanked the tip from the carving. A reddened hue hissed along the blade's jagged edge, which he wiped against a smooth stone acquired from his pocket. The youth peeked his shaky sight from the refuge of cover, then dipped away, his wounded palms warmed with the greased lightning in his heart. Benitsubasa glanced at Minato, rolled her eyes, and continued her surveillance on the figure.
Twirling the blade in his wrist for a moment, he slid the newly forged Ka-Bar back into his garbs. Angling his sight amid the dilapidated, urine-scented room of barbed-wire festoons, the hulking blacksmith trudged away and clawed the serrated edge of a sliding door. Taking one last long glance behind him, he aimed his dim pupils towards Minato, his middle finger flicked a rusty switch. Once the light beams clicked to black, the figure's eyes briefly went crimson and vanished in an instant…and his heavy boot clomps faded to obscurity soon after.
"That was…" A wide-eyed Minato swallowed through his gaping throat. "I have no idea what that was...certainly wasn't human..."
"Another Sekirei perhaps? Or freak genetic experiment gone horribly wrong thanks to MBI?"
Amid the blackened obstacle course, sword-etched kanji bled with ultraviolet rays now that the lights were out. The pinkette crept close to the message, and read it aloud. "FRIENDS COME IN ALL SHAPES AND SIZES."
"Friend?" Minato did a double take. "He's not our friend."
"Perhaps not but…" She peeked over his shoulder at the hall aligned directly with the blade carving's final resting place. "…I'd be damned if he didn't give us a clear indication as to where we had to go."
The two exited the room and skulked down the creaky, alloy-clouded corridor the figure led them to. Static gurgled through the vents, while the whiffs of rust and musty dust strangled their shadows mid-step. Benitsubasa shut her pupils, while Minato squinted and pointed to a distant, blade-ridged kanji etched upon the double doors. A single word rustled through his cerebral folds:
CONCENTRATION
"I-I guess that's our next test," Minato said.
"No shit?" was the crude reply.
"Judging by the vagueness of the title, I'm betting that we'll need to jump through more mental gymnastics than the previous room."
"Fine by me, my muscles need a rest." Why did she openly admit weakness to him there?
Minato went to push the door open. A tight grip seized his shoulder and Benitsubasa pulled him back. A gasp squeezed the air from his throat.
"What the hell are you doing?! Don't scare me like that!" he said in a concerned whispery voice.
"I'll take care of it," she said, cracking her knuckles one at a time. "Who knows what's behind it? Opening it could set off another trap."
"A-alright, good point…" Minato said, nodding. "…just…don't do anything reckless."
"Don't worry," she reassured him, twisting her neck to a cracking pop. "I know exactly what I'm doing."
She clears her throat.
Pulling her leg back, the Red Sekirei huffed forth a strong high kick; the doors swung open with a loud, whooshing bang. Benitsubasa's thigh fell to a graceful hook; Minato's jaw nearly fell from his skull.
"ARE YOU INSANE?!" he shrieked.
"Oh shut up," she said, dusting off her hands despite having not used them. Her voice echoed. "Let's go in already; and stay close."
"Err-r-right…" This girl is gonna get me killed, I know it…
Cameras followed as the participants entered the new playground. Minato coughed as he inhaled the dirt-tinted cloud of dust particles scattered when Benitsubasa kicked the door open. It was bright at least; fluorescent tubes hummed overhead. There was also a lack of craftsmanship; copper pipes streaked up through the ceiling, thin wafts of white-hot steam hissed from the many which had burst open long ago. The walls and floors were especially ugly. Other than being jizzed over with a thick layer of graffiti-caked dirt and grime, the upper drywall bled a depressing shade of grey, sloping into an even more murky and bumpy concrete foundation.
Was this once a maintenance area? Boiler room perhaps?
A portion of the room was caged off by a grid of metallic bars, stretching from one end of the room to the next in tightly packed columns and rows spaced just enough to make out the pitch black void beyond them. Minato slowly motioned to approach the grid and the double doors they entered through slammed shut behind them. Benitsubasa jerked her neck at the noise just as a steel barrier came crashing down before the doors a short moment later. Jigsaw's lab rats were trapped again. It was game time.
Benitsubasa rushed back to the door, grasping, tearing, and pulling at the steel framework, adrenaline not even making her strained biceps register in her nerves.
"Not this shit again!" A shuddering shatter vibrated through the air as she slammed the toe of her boot into the bottom of the steel gate. "Fuck!"
"C'mon," Minato urged, resting a palm on her clothed shoulder. "There's nothing back there for us anyway. We gotta keep moving forward. Now we know we're on the right track."
A sneering grumble gargled through her gnashing teeth. She shrugged him off. "I do not like being caged like an animal!"
"I know," he said, turning focus back to the grid. A groan was heard beyond it. They were not alone. "And I'm sure whatever's behind that gate isn't too fond of it either."
The shattering rattle coupled with their echoing voices and footsteps then drew a weary hum from the awakening inhabitant, swallowed whole by the dark.
"-uungh…whe-where am I?" the distinctly female occupant uttered.
Minato's body froze for a split second; his heart had just missed a beat. One could have sworn he had just stared into the eyes of Miya's mask. The ronin's thoughts scurried behind his eyes as he scanned the darkness in a frantic effort to locate the damsel he needed to free. He knew exactly who was in the room with them.
"K-Kazehana?! I-Is that you?!"
"-ughhh…M-Minato…is that you?" the wind Sekirei mumbled, confirming her identity. But something was off about her voice…she sounded weak, like her throat was strained.
He glanced back at Benitsubasa. "It is her!"
She crossed her arms beneath her cleavage with a pouty 'hmph'. "Well, then go save her!"
He paid no mind to her. He was too overjoyed. One of his Sekirei was right here in the room with him! "Kazehana, just stay calm. Can you tell me where you are?!"
XXX-Kazehana's Perspective-XXX
Beyond the grid, a steady flow of blood to the brain reinvigorated Kazehana's senses to a degree. It was slight, as she still didn't fully know where she was. She contorted her body, straining her muscles as she pulled at her restraints. They wouldn't budge. She heard mumbling, the sound of her Ashikabi's voice; that much she was sure of, but it sounded…drowned out; Bubbly; Oily. Like that underwater effect you hear when your cell phone has a bad connection.
"What did I do last night…?" she murmured. Even her own voice was gurgling in her eardrums. Was she drugged or something? "Was it at least human?"
Nope. She was just drunk.
A ray of light booming from above pierced into the violet windows of her mind. She flinched away, clamping her eyes shut. As the sharp pinching in her pupils lessened, the blurring filter clouding her vision slowly crinkled to focus. In a semi-circle she surveyed her predicament starting from her bare feet.
Upon the roulette-like device's burnt, ebony craftsmanship, a blood-red spiral mirroring the Jigsaw puppet's swirling cheeks corkscrewed out from the object's central mass.
Like a tapestry of vines, rusty shackles coiled her wilted limbs and torso; each joint bound to the carousel, spaced evenly, and suspending outward. All she could do was curl her fingers and squeeze her hands.
When she did so, she felt something…stuck to her right palm. She took a glance at the object, finding what appeared to be a plastic cylinder with a button on top, one she could easily press at will with her free thumb, tightly adhered to her hand by several rolls of duct tape.
A sharp glinting from directly across from her then dragged #03's curiosity away from the button. Her pupils dilated as her heart sank to her digestive system. A dozen shurikens were pointed directly at her, some were closer to the center of her body than others.
What the fuck is going on?
Where am I?!
XXX-Minato's Perspective-XXX
"Kazehana!"
Screaming out her name, Minato charges forward.
"Wait, you idiot!" Benitsubasa shouted, reaching to grab him by the shoulder. Her fingertips brushed his clothed shoulder, but a grip was unattained.
Logic had taken a backseat to panic. At the climax of his charge, he grasps at the gridlocked barrier. A shriek vomits from his abdomen as an electric pulse fries his fingers and discharges, sending him flying back into Benitsu's arms where they both tumbled to the floor on top of each other...in a more than objectionable position.
Benitsubasa scolded him as he shook the cobwebs and shoved him hard from her crotch. "And you call me the insane one?! Stop trying to get yourself fucking killed! I told you to stay close, but not that fucking close you pervert!"
"Benitsubasa I'm sorry!"
XXX-Kazehana's Perspective-XXX
The spark of electricity seized the wind Sekirei's attention. Kazehana tilted her neck as far as it would go, and let her pupils do the rest of the work. Her sunken heart missed a beat. Her Ashikabi was here, and was scuffed up a great degree. His clothes were torn, and all over his visible body, cuts were prominent. The Red Sekirei was also there with him, screaming obscenities.
XXX-Minato's Perspective-XXX
"…Idiot!" The Red Sekirei groaned. Minato had just called her by her full name again. "It's Benitsu! I told you to call me Benitsu from now on!"
"Ergh…" he sighed as he corrected himself. "I'm sorry, 'Benitsu'."
"You better be sorry," she shoved him off in a huff, the hardened vein ascending her brow moments from bursting. He staggered as he regained balance. "I didn't pull your ass out of that tank for nothing!"
Kazehana took exception to this. "Keep your hands off my Ashikabi!" She jerked and tugged her figure more to no avail. Her intoxicated vision made her see triple. "Just because there are" *hiccup* "three of you now doesn't mean I can't" *hiccup* "back up my words!"
"Hey quit blowing all that hot air in my direction!" The hot-tempered Sekirei boorishly remarked. "In case you haven't noticed, you're in no position to be giving anyone orders!"
"The only ones who can talk to me like that are my Ashikabi, #01, *hic* and The Game Master!" the bound flower declared as she sobered. "I'm not going to say this again; Get away from him, NOW!" A zephyr of wind wafts through her prison; the strong gust staggered Benitsubasa's steps.
The quartet of bright red lights flared at the apex of Minato's collar; a steady beep shortly followed.
Benitsubasa released grip of the ronin without warning or hesitation. He dropped to the floor and she backed away.
"Well, it was nice knowing you kid…sorta..."
Oh no…not now! It's too soon! He thought as his mind raced to an inevitable train wreck. "Kazehana, please stop! Don't use your powers!"
"Listen to the kid!" Benitsubasa lashed out. "That collar goes off, you can kiss your Ashikabi goodbye, you hear me?!"
"What the hell are you talking about?! What did you do to him?!" her anger intensified; the collar's beeping escalated in pace and noise.
"Benitsu is right! Please, listen to her!" Minato begged. "I know it's hard to believe, but she's on our side!"
"I'm on no one's side, twerp!"
"Shut up! Shut your goddamn mouth! Don't you forget it was me who let you live in the first place and you need me if you want to see Natsuo again!"
Benitsu lurched to make a snide comeback but bit her tongue, knowing he was right. She had to do something to stop the beeping...say something.
Eyes surveying Kazehana, Benitsu aimed a finger at the ronin. "See that big hunk of metal choking your Ashikabi's neck?" she began. "That thing is set to explode if one of his Sekirei, YOU, decide to get clever and use their powers to escape and cheat their way out. So if you want Minato's head to not be blown into chunks of pulpy hamburger meat by heated shrapnel, I suggest you calm your fucking tits and listen to him!"
"Don't talk to her like that!" Minato snapped back. "Can't you see she needs our help?! She's scared out of her mind!"
"YEAH, WELL YOU'RE WELCOME!"
Kazehana began to calm her storm. Was what the washboard saying true? She waited; The blaring siren lessened, and the collar's lights dimmed to where they had just been a moment ago.
Minato huffed out the biggest sigh of relief he ever released. Bile almost squeezed out his esophagus. He could taste it on the back of his throat. "Oh thank God. Thank God it was just a warning…"
With the danger gone, the intoxicated Sekirei opened her mouth again. "…at least I have tits to calm."
Benitsu clenched her fist at the remark. "What was that?!"
"Oh nothing." *hiccup*
"Please stop arguing; both of you," Minato asked. He looked at Benitsubasa. "Can't we all just get along now?"
Crossing her arms, Benitsubasa shrugged it off. "Hmph, well she started it! If anything she should be thanking me!"
"Thanking you? What for?"
"Oh I dunno; For saving your Ashikabi's life not once, but twice within the last half hour? With just now being the second instance?"
"Enough," he interrupted.
"Can someone please tell me what's going on? Why am I chained up?" The drunken blush on her cheeks sank back into her skin. "If Minato wants to get kinky all hes has to do is ask~."
"K-Kinky?! No that's not it at all! We were all kidnapped I swear!"
"Why do you say that as if it's a better...never mind, you're hopeless." Benitsu sighed, facepalming.
"Hey, what the-"
The lights overhead began to strobe at a seizure-inducing pace. The intense flashing escalated to the fixtures shattering as the power supply malfunctioned. The participants took cover as the scalding hot fluorescent fragments rained down and crinkled upon them. Like a black fog, darkness bathed the test chamber.
"What just happened?" Kazehana yelped. "Is everything alright?! Minato? Talk to me!"
"I'm fine, Kazehana, just a bit burnt- GAH!"
A searing scraping scratch akin to nails on a chalkboard accompanied the power outage. The noise was unbearable.
*SHKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EEEEEKKK
Then…there was silence. Silence that became so suddenly deafening that Minato's breakneck pulse may as well have become a subwoofer.
The greased lightning in Minato's constricted heart was all he could hear and feel as he wheezed in the stale draft…
Hissing steam vaporized from the frothing pipes…
…and a foreign whisper exhaled onto the tiny hairs of his inner ear…
"…Vidi te dormierunt…"
The ronin's pupils shrunk; One last static shaving sparked from above. The vivid image of a colossal shadow materialized at the ronin's feet. It faded not a split second later, but he knew it was standing right next to him, and Benitsubasa 's presence had all but vanished. Despite being frozen in fear, he tilted his neck to see if it were simply an illusion. A red iris pierced through the eye socket of its swine veneer…and into Minato's cerebral folds. It wasn't.
"…Ronin."