A/N: For those wondering why I decided to change the name of the story to Twisted Wings, I felt that I'd try and see if it would attract more readers. Figured if I took 'Saw' out of the title that potential new fans wouldn't be scared off by the implications. If the experiment fails or demand is high enough to change it back to the old name though, I will do so. Can at any time.

Quite a bit of changes and retcoms from the original fic are in this chapter too. You may notice that the Purgatory story arc that was in the original has been relegated to one chapter. This new arc builds off it but also adds something I didn't plan to showcase until much later in the story. Not going to spoil anything, but those familiar with Saw III might feel some nostalgia by the end.

Do Unto Others: Part I

"Alright, sweetheart~," Junichi Tanegawa spoke maliciously, licking his perverted devil-slasher-smile lips as he took slow steps towards his helpless female victim in the dark alley, switchblade springing its deadly edge in hand. "Better hand over every last dime in that purse of yours, or else things will get really ugly…"

"No, don't do this… someone, please, help me..." The vulnerable brunette peeped as she shivered, frozen with fear. She was too frightened to move a muscle.

Junichi closed in more, putting the tip of the blade to her cleavage and unbuttoning her shirt with it. She began to hyperventilate. "Now that I think about it, why not just start the fun right now?"

As he reached out to grope her breast, a cloaked figure descended from the roof above the blackened corridor to his left, then another to his right. Before he could mumble the word "ambush", a fiery fist collided with his jaw and an icy elbow sank into his abdomen, knocking him out instantly.

Junichi collapsed in a heap at his victim's shrunken body, causing her to wince from the sudden 'thunk'. As she gradually opened her eyes and gaped at the fallen mugger, she inhaled and exhaled deeply as she replayed every event that had just happened in her head. Once she realized that she was in the clear, she took a few more hasty breaths of relief and ran off without a trace like a bat out of hell. An enthusiastic "Thank you!" forced up from her lungs as she rounded the corner of the alley.

After quickly scanning the area once the young girl was gone, the two unknown characters hoisted the thug's body. One grabbed the arms, the other encircled the legs, then dragged him off to a darker intersection of the gloomy passageway. After setting down the dead weight behind a garbage can, one of the robed saviors pulled down its hood and peeled off its mask to reveal its true identity. It was Homura.

As he wiped some of the perspiring droplets that dampened his brow, Homura fumbled around in his pocket and pulled out his phone to make a brief call as the other figure stood guard like a soldier at attention.

The fire Sekirei speed dialed Takami and put the phone to his ear. "Takami, the passenger needs a ride asap."

"Got him already, did you?"

"Yes, but make it quick. The degenerate was harassing a defenseless girl when we got here. Cops will show up shortly."

"I'm on it."

With that short exchange, Homura shut the phone and approached the body. The other figure joined him as he crouched down to examine Junichi's pulse.

"How is he?" the second hooded person asked, voiced deepened and scrambled by the mask.

"He's alive, if that's what you mean."

"Good." The figure's voice seemed to become clearer and feminine as it pulled down its mask, a wave of peach-colored hair escaping from its prison as the strange individual also removed its hood. It was Akitsu. "Master John will be pleased to have another subject to rehabilitate."

XXXXXX

Homura ambled along into the test chamber, hobbling in with the wheelbarrow containing Junichi Tanegawa's unconscious body.

He squeaked to a stop, releasing his grasp from the wheelbarrow immediately and shoving it aside without a care. The shrill bang sent a shiver throughout the dust-clouded room, prompting Karasuba to stop what she was doing; sharpening a crescent blade upon a blacksmith's wheel.

"It's about time you arrived." Karasuba murmured, eyes glazing in sparkly shavings of metal.

"Don't talk to me, you filthy beast." Homura spat in disdain.

She arose from her seat, setting the gigantic blade aside on an iron slab, but not before taking in the reflection of her scarred face again. She had grown very fond of her new look, and every time she peered at her own reflection, her ravenous appetite for blood strengthened.

"Are you trying to wake him or something? John had strict orders to keep the boy asleep." With a shaft head-tilt, she glanced at Homura and raised her crooked eyebrow mockingly. "Wouldn't want to spoil him of our surprise, would we?"

"Perplexing," Akitsu said, sauntering into view from the blackened corridor Homura emerged from. "I was under the impression John banned you from being near his test subjects, let alone touching his equipment."

She flared her nostrils and flashed a devilish smirk towards the pair. "Relax, Ice Queen. I'm not going to tamper with anything, the trap isn't even built yet. John simply wanted me to sharpen his pendulum blade, that's all." She leisurely walked past them towards the exit with her head bowed and hand on her nodachi's handle, then snuck a satanic look over her shoulder before leaving. "Have fun you two…"

Akitsu inhaled sharply. This was the first test John had advised her to overlook on his behalf. She wanted to do her best to impress him, to help his subjects like he believed she could. This was to be her new purpose in life; helping people, and she was determined to do her best.

"Well," she began, cracking her vertebrae in place with swift curls of the neck. "Shall we?"

"Yeah, let's prepare this scumbag and strap him in."

While Akitsu did agree that the term 'scumbag' did best describe the individual in question, she felt deep down there had to be something salvageable from Junichi. He just needed a little assistance finding it. Sometimes being put in the shoes of one's own victims can make someone realize the errors of their ways and change them for the better. According to her mentor at least.

The directions on the scrolled parchment were easy enough to follow. First, connect the pendulum's shaft to the ceiling, then once hooked perpendicularly and fastened to the timer, slide the crescent blade through the groove beneath it, making sure the two stone slabs the subject is to be laid out on are spaced enough to allow the blade to cut through without scraping against them.

With the two of them working together in unison, the game was prepared in less than fifteen minutes.

Akitsu and Homura each encircled one of Junichi's arms and hauled him out of the wheelbarrow, then slid him onto the two black slabs. Akitsu clicked a metal choker in place around his throat and waist, all the while Homura chained his upper arms and legs to his sides, making him spread eagle. Now that he was locked in, the only way he could free himself would be to press the buttons next to his hands. In doing so, he would also crush them, thus destroying the weapons that he used so wickedly upon others during his lifetime.

Now all they had to do was exit the room and anticipate his awakening.

Once on the observation deck, they stood silently, observing the monitors in the next room while simply waiting for movement on the subject's part.

As they waited, Homura begged the question. "Akitsu?"

She glimpsed over at him from the corners of her eyes. "Yes?"

"Why don't we just activate the trap now and be done with it?"

She let out a questioning hum.

"You heard me," he said with fury in his voice. "That asshole has done nothing good in his life. Well shit, if it weren't for us, that poor woman in the alleyway would have been raped, or even killed! I say we-"

"No." she said sternly, taking Homura aback with her sudden variation in tone. "John's orders are absolute."

"Akitsu, that guy's an animal! A bloodthirsty sex predator! That bastard doesn't deserve a chance! Period!"

Akitsu's hand sailed across Homura's face, a plump red hand streak now imprinted on his cheek. "Everybody deserves a chance."

The staggered Sekirei of Flame rubbed his ripened cheek with a scowl. Akitsu packed quite a wallop. "Fine. But I'm telling you right now that if he does live, he's just going to be an even bigger menace to society. Just watch and see. Jigsaw's method does not work. The man is insane."

Turning on his heel, he began walking to the exit.

"Where are you going?" she asked, calmly.

He waved her off. "I'd prefer to keep Yukari and the others company than watch this sleazeball squirm. There's no point in it. I'm out of here."

As Homura's silhouette disappeared down the hallway, subconscious groans were heard on the monitor. Junichi had awakened. Akitsu immediately turned back to the video feeds.

He tried getting up, but the straps coiling his body held him down tight. All he could do was look at his hands before his face, and peer up at his reflection in the menacing pendulum blade that hung ominously above him ready to rip open his body.

"Where the fuck am I?!" he screamed with an enormous hint of fear in his voice, constantly lurching upward to break away from the metal capsules that held him against his will. No freedom could be wrenched away from them. "Rrrragh! The fuck is this?! Someone help me!"

This stilled Akitsu momentarily, but then she remembered what Jigsaw told her.

"The moment your subject awakens, give them a moment to assess their situation. They must be fully awake before they can follow any orders you give them."

After waiting for about twenty seconds, she came to the conclusion that he was fully alert. He had to be, with the way he squirmed and his wailing pleas for help, much like the woman he was taking advantage of earlier.

Just the thought of that poor woman's suffering made her feel...something. Irony?

Akitsu seated herself before the keyboard in front of her and put in the commands to activate the subject's test briefing video. Once the Billy puppet was on screen, the pendulum was set to begin its descent once it was over. All she had to do now was to sit and make herself comfortable. The test would do the work for her from this point on.

Yet… something wasn't right about all this. Junichi wasn't paying attention to the directions at all. Instead, he was shrieking his head off like a blithering idiot, blinded by his bloodthirsty rage. She started to take some pity on the thug as he lay there screeching. He was making himself out to be a victim with the way he hollered, cursed, and writhed around.

At last, the message ended, the TV buzzed off, and the pendulum unhooked from the ceiling. A loud "WHOOSH" coming through on the speakers made Akitsu jump a bit, then she gasped again when it swung across the room once more. The simple notion of hearing the weight of the bladed swing was enough to startle her greatly; she could only imagine the horror going on inside Junichi's head as he lay there helpless and vulnerable.

It was surreal. Almost gave her a rush of adrenaline.

"What are you waiting for? Free yourself and be done with this nightmare." Akitsu said to herself, dumbfounded.

At the fifteen-second mark, the pendulum dropped a bit lower. Only centimeters separated flesh from cold, unforgiving steel. The thug's stomach pulled inward with deep wheezes as the heavy swing of the blade cut through the air above him.

Before long, the blade made a clean swipe across Junichi's stomach. Ribbons of blood and what would soon be entrails unfurled from the wound and splattered from left to right as the pendulum cut through him over and over.

Akitsu felt a slight churning in her stomach. Nothing extreme, but enough to know it wasn't something she felt before. She closed her eyes for a brief moment and shook her head then felt some wetness sliding down her face. She wiped it from her cheek. Tears? Emotion? Was she feeling something?

Turning back to the feeds she saw the game was over. Junichi was dead.

She then dialed John. "It's done. He failed."

"Unfortunate. Return to base."

"I'll be there soon, but what of the body?"

"Leave him."

"Very well."

XXXXXX

Akitsu sat idly in the room John had assigned to her. For hours she just sat there before the window, burning a hole through the clouds at the full moon looming above in the storm, unsure what these feelings in her belly were.

She had just assisted in murder. She knew she had to feel something, but the trigger to whatever that feeling was was missing. Pushed back to the far reaches of her mind by her adjuster along with everything else that could make her feel the way others do. Perhaps he was right in trying to kill her before her escape. Maybe she was just defective and destined for a hopeless future and he was simply doing her a favor.

Then she remembered the tears she shed, both during her game and the aftermath of Junichi's test.

No.

This meant John saw something in her.

Something she had yet to discover.

Something she needed guidance from him to find.

Akitsu anticipated a scathing rant when she got back to John's workshop, but to her surprise, his reaction was neutral, for there was no hint of hate or disdain in his voice when she let John know Junichi had perished. He simply accepted it, like it was all in a day's work. John even put his arms around her, telling her that everything was alright and that what she did was good. He was so calm and forgiving. Whenever she was in the vicinity of his voice, she felt wanted. Even more so than when she was with her supposed Ashikabi Mikogami when he was alive.

Then it hit her… could John be her true Ashikabi? Could he possibly be able to unbreak her?

She put her hands close to her heart as she leaned into them. Was it her destiny, to be with John? Maybe, but she felt she needed to somehow earn him. To impress him.

Then she recalled something. Before heading off to her bedside, Akitsu had been informed of a meeting in the morning regarding the next targets on John's rehabilitation list. The way she felt now given what happened to Junichi, it felt more like a hit list, to be honest. Understandable, but she was determined now more than ever to help John's subjects in one way or another. Just like he helped her.

…

The next morning, everyone gathered about the large table in Jigsaw's conference room waiting for the man of the hour to arrive.

Everyone was dressed in the trademark robes which John had assigned to them, including Akitsu. She had dark circles under her eyes and her right hand was numb to the bone. She worked all night jotting down information regarding her idea of how to go about capturing the two next subjects.

Everyone around her other than Mr. Mathis who was, of course, sharpening that knife in that lonely corner of his while the others were engaging in senseless chatter with each other.

As Akitsu lay in wait, Yukari pulled back her hood and approached her.

"Hey, Akitsu."

Akitsu's jaw swung to meet the demon Ashikabi's greeting. "Yes? Who might you be?"

"I'm Yukari, Yukari Sahashi. I've been here with my mother helping John end the Sekirei Plan for the last few days. I just wanted to say that, for what it's worth, I'm glad to have you on board with us."

The youthful girl offered Akitsu her hand as a pure declaration of friendship. Yukari felt absolutely horrible for the poor soul in front of her. She knew she had to make things right after inadvertently putting events in motion that resulted in her making an attempt on her life, and she had full intention to follow up on it. Her guilty conscience would accept nothing less.

After a moment of hesitation on Akitsu's part, she accepted the gesture but didn't bother to shake. "Likewise."

"You're a strong woman, Akitsu. Don't ever forget that."

"How can you say that? We've only just met."

"Sure, but I know the hardships you've dealt with. Homura informed all of us about how you've been mistreated in your life. You deserve better."

"All I want is purpose, Yukari. John offered to find me purpose, so here I am."

"If you ever need anyone to talk to, I'll be here for you. We can be gal pals."

This made Akitsu crack a weak smile. Come to think of it, John would certainly approve of her making friends with his subordinates. "We can become more acquainted if you like. I appreciate the sentiment."

Yukari smiled, joyful at Akitsu's acceptance. She had a feeling that at some point she would catch wind of her killing Mikogami, but she didn't want to focus on that now let alone bring it up. Akitsu still needed to recover from her game mentally and that news would no doubt make it more difficult. Akitsu might even become homicidal about it, and right now dissension in the group would put Minato at more risk than he was.

But she would tell her eventually. Even if it did put her at risk. She deserved to know the truth but now wasn't the time.

A moment later, John walked through the door.

"I guess it's time to cut the chitter chatter," Yukari said. She walked away, taking her usual spot at the table. "Nice speaking with you."

John removed his hood and leaned his gloved hands into the table. "Let's get to work, shall we? Our next subjects will be a rather difficult acquisition, but I'm certain with proper preparation we can subdue them all."

XXXXXX

6 Days Prior to Minato's trials...

"C'mon, Ichiya, wake up!"

A multitude of water droplets from the storm outside dripped from the moist ceiling as Toyotama pleaded with her fallen comrade desperately. She slapped the brunette's face over and over while shaking her at the shoulders. Drool spilled from her mouth and she slumped over, just like all the others the greenette had attempted to revive since she woke up in this small prison cell a few minutes ago. Each had their ankles shackled with their backs to the wall, almost lifeless.

Including Toyotama, there were nine of them, all Sekirei, and each associated with Higa Izumi whether through being winged by him or otherwise. She felt ill, and extreme spells of vertigo were frequent. Whatever was in her system, it was strong enough to weaken her to the point of being incapable of using her powers to free herself.

"Dammit, don't just fall over on me now!" she groaned, giving up on her fellow enforcer.

"Ugh, my head…"

Toyotama's ears perk as someone finally came to. "Kochou?!" she weakly hustles over to the brain type as she groaned awake. She comes to a knee to inspect her.

Kochou's lilac uniform was shredded all over much like hers and everyone else she examined up to this point, and what little that was on her body was caked in dirt and filth...and some splotches of blood. Not hers, as she didn't have wounds. Or at least none that were that deep. It was as if she was close to a murder victim just before the killer slashed their throat open.

"Uhn, wha- what happened? Whe-where are my glasses?"

Toyotama looks down, seeing the frames that once adorned her dainty nose on the floor with cracks in several places. She picks them up and goes to outfit Kochou with them. "Here you are. Hey, how you feeling?"

"Sick, very sick." She replies, clearly exhausted from the toxicity flowing in her veins. "Where are we?"

"I don't know. I can't remember anything. I woke up here feeling just like you a few minutes ago. The others look a lot worse off. I tried slapping some life into them but they're completely unresponsive."

"What are you saying? That we were drugged and kidnapped?"

"I don't know! Like I said I only just came to a few minutes ago. Can you move?"

"I don't know. Can you help me up?"

"Sure."

Toyotama grabs Kochou's outstretched hand. By the look on her face, it seemed as if she hadn't eaten in days. Like she was withering, though it was more than likely the drugs in her system. She helps pull Kochou to her feet, both of them staggering to stand and nearly doubling over from the numb gait in their knees.

A dim bulb then illuminates the dark, rust-laden chamber as their voices echo off the metal walls surrounding them. The two decide to investigate further, their feeble footfalls being drawn to the light hanging just outside the bars of their cell. Gripping the bars, they look over to the other side, where yet another cell was. Though this one was different in the sense that as opposed to metal bars, a large glass pane adorned it, stretching from the floor all the way to the ceiling. It was also completely dark inside.

The two glance then down, eyes honing immediately on the occupants of the large vat between both cells. They gasp in horror, realizing who they were.

"Master Higa!"

"Master Kakizaki!"

They yank and pull at the bars to no avail. They didn't budge at all. The trapped subject's helpless screams pay off within moments, as their Ashikabis stirred awake from the sound of their cries. Their heads were inches apart, throats interlocked by a lone restraint clamping them to the bottom of the vat.

Following some groans and paltry attempts to wiggle themselves free, the two begin screaming and kicking wildly, flailing about in the cylinder.

"Gah! Someone help! Get me out of here!" Higa shouts, panicking.

"Mister Higa, wh-what's going on?! Where are we? What is all this?!"

"Don't worry, Master Higa!" Toyotama calls out to them. "I'll help get you out of there!"

The two look to the voice of the dreary greenette, and Higa speaks. "Toyotama? What the fuck is going on?!"

"I have no clue! Kochou and I just woke up a few minutes ago. The other Sekirei are here with us too, but they're all completely out of it!"

"Help us, please!" Kakizaki begged.

The other prison cell outfitted with glass then illuminated, revealing a quartette of robed figures inside observing them in silence.

Three remained still, while one came forward to face the accused. Once at the glass, the individual looked across at the helpless Sekirei for but a moment, then down at their Ashikabis with scorn.

"You…" the female uttered, pulling the hood from over her head. "You're the ones who took my Uzume from me…"

A/N: Yep, Higa and Kakizaki are next on the chopping block and it's no other than Chiho who gets to see it all play out. As I mentioned in the note at the start, I made a lot of changes, one of which being a total retcon of the Lightning Twin's test. I'm...not proud of what I did to them in the original fic's prologue chapter, so to make up for it while I try to bat around ideas for a more fitting game for them to partake in, I'm wiping it from the record and expediting Higa's test to remedy matters. This of course means there are some inconsistencies in the narrative of some of the previous chapters, but I'll go back and touch them up once I finish the fic.

Be sure to let me know how you feel about this chapter in a review, and if you want to join a Sekirei Discord server I'm a part of, DM me and I'll invite you to join.