A/N: Word of warning, this chapter is N.A.S.T.Y.
XXXXXX
Pins & Needles: Part III
Benitsubasa gazed at the needle as Minato approached her, ignoring the feeling of warmth that started to build at the thought of this wimp caring about whether she lived or died. "Damn. That's one big ass needle you got there," she muttered aloud, trying to keep Minato's focus on the main event.
"I'm worried about all of us." He hadn't liked the bitter tone in Benitsu's voice when she asked that last question. As much as they had been at odds, he knew too well how it felt to have someone who should care about you show more affection to the coffee machine in the morning.
He takes a gander at the needle and swallows a huge lump in his throat. He didn't really take a close look at it when he retrieved it along with the other booby-trapped syringes, but Benitsubasa was right. Damn thing was huge, big enough to make his nerves a bit shivery even, especially so in the hand in which he held it.
He sweatdropped at the idea of having to jam this thing into his own flesh without adrenaline to help him along. He couldn't understand how drug addicts work up the nerve to do it and so often for that matter.
Benitsubasa noticed his nervous body language, sending signals of his hesitation as clear as a sunny day with no clouds.
She leaned her face into his until their noses almost touched. "Lose your nerve again I take it?" Ignoring the fear that the needle so close to her was starting to seep into her bones, she kept her gaze fixed on him, searching for...something.
Minato's pupils crawl to the corner. "Well, I've never poked myself with a needle before. Not even the doctors I've been to for flu shots were quite this big…" He hated feeling weak, especially when everyone was counting on him, but he couldn't shake the paralysis that clenched his muscles.
She leans in further, but Minato dodges it by arching his back. "Lemme guess? You want me to do it for you? Is that right?"
She wasn't sure whether she was happier about getting a bit of her own back at the guy who caused her so much hassle (for his own good of course), or annoyed that he was breaking the streak of impressive stunts he was winning her over with.
Minato's frame seemed to shrink in size a bit in shame making Benitsubasa feel a pang of annoyance, hating the idea of him backsliding to the weakling she had met on the bridge. "I-if you wouldn't mind-"
"You fucking pussy." She swiped the needle from his hand. "Give it here!", she tried to remove the sting of the insult with a weak smirk, only for Minato to lower his gaze to the floor.
Her frustration started to get the better of her and her grip on the needle began to get dangerously strong, threatening to shatter it. She looked more ready to stab him past his death with the thing rather than simply inject him with its contents.
"Now give me your arm. This will only take a moment, so no blubbering, okay?" Insulting the pipsqueak after he had proved her wrong felt good. Real good in fact.
Minato presents his arm outward to her and looks away in the other direction, feeling utterly weak and helpless. Benitsubasa takes his extended limb, but before she can act, Kazehana's hand enters her line of sight from above and circumspectly plucks the needle up and away from her.
"Huh?" she takes a step to the side and glances at Kazehana, letting Minato's arm fall.
"I'll take that, thank you." Kazehana said, sticking out her tongue in Benitsubasa's face. She hadn't liked the mixed signals she was starting to pick up from the fist-type Sekirei, and felt now was a good time to reinforce her claim on her darling Mina-tan.
"Hey?! What's the big idea?!" Benitsubasa yelled.
"He's my Ashikabi." she pointed out. "If anyone should nurse him back to health, it should by all rights be me, yes?" she turned attention towards Minato. "You would like that, wouldn't you Minato-kun? For Kazehana-san to be your nurse?"
He lifts his head. A barrage of images featuring Kazehana serving his 'needs' in a fetishy nurse's uniform flood into his mind. Minato's head became a blur as he shook it in an attempt to erase the thoughts, filing them away in a portion of his brain he was starting to label "Motivations to get everyone out alive".
The shaking came to an abrupt end when Kazehana caressed his cheek. He looked up to see her face close enough to kiss, making their gazes meet.
Kazehana winked. "Don't worry, Minato-kun. Head nurse Kazehana will administer the injection with the utmost care! Don't you worry!" she repeated herself as her other hand began stroking his thigh, forcing Minato to start counting in prime numbers to counteract the blood flow going down south.
Minato swallowed another big lump. "Um, okay, if you insist."
Minato rolled up his sleeve and looked away, body tensing at the anticipation of the syringe being pushed through his tender flesh.
Benitsubasa couldn't help but grumble in annoyance at his dickless cowering. With a roll of the eyes, she leaves the room entirely. This mushy gushy shit was just too much for her to take. At least, this is what she told herself as her mind flashed back to the room she had woken up in, needles filled with acid surrounding her. The thought of it all made her queasy. Or was said queasiness a sign of the nerve agent finally starting to take its toll on her?
Kazehana poked a finger at Minato's arm a few times until a vein revealed itself. "Get ready for a big pinch, Minato," she said.
"A-Alright." Man, I must look like such a total wimp right now… No wonder Benitsu left the room... he muttered to himself. He was beyond embarrassed. Kazehana swatted him lightly on the arm, her sincere smile taking the sting from the blow.
He chewed a bit at his bottom lip as the needle slid through the threshold of his flesh and into his bloodstream. Kazehana's thumb pressed down on the plunger, sending the contents inside.
Minato blinked at the anti-climatic nature of the whole thing, feeling both relieved and a bit let down that he had made a fool of himself for nothing. As he perversely fumed about the needle not hurting enough, he missed Kazehana gently slide the now-drained needle out of his arm.
"All done," Kazehana muttered, swabbing her sleeve over the bloody pinprick she left on his arm. She was proud that when it had actually happened, her dear Mina-tan hadn't even flinched.
Minato sighed in relief. "Huh, that wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be." He looked down at Kazehana, kneeling beside him in her usual purple outfit...Love and lust began to surge in his heart the more he stared. Having her here made a huge difference in his outlook on getting out of the "game".
She smiled at him. "It never is." She moved her face to his arm. "Now for the finishing touch."
Kazehana puckers her lips and gives his wound a little kiss. "There you go, sweetheart, as good as new." She rose from her crouch, her eyes never leaving his, soaking in the obvious feelings shining brightly in them.
A hard banging noise came from the hallway outside, likely Benitsubasa banging at the door.
"C'mon, Nurse Slobberknockers!" Benitsubasa growled, breaking the strangely intimate moment. "We don't have all day! Hurry the fuck up!"
"Oh, we're coming Benitsu!" Kazehana groused, as annoyed at the pinkette's timing as the fact that she was right. There would be time enough for tender moments when they were all free, she assured herself. Once they were free, they'd have all the time in the world.
With that, the two left the bathroom and joined Benitsubasa in the room labeled "Biology".
XXXXXX
Dr. Gordon looked on intensely. Minato had just solved Jigsaw's first riddle less than three minutes after tackling it. To say he was impressed with Minato's deductive reasoning would be an understatement. All the kid needed to do to succeed, was forget that he ever thought that he couldn't. Such a pity that the best way to show him was to put the people he loves in danger, including the ones who weren't in the building with him.
He took another sip of his coffee and paused with it at his lips for a moment, a melancholy expression flashing across his face, before setting it back down among the many brown coffee rings on John's desk. He wiped his mouth with his sleeve and continued observing the trio's escapades.
XXXXXX
Spread out from each other, the trio stood before the four body bags with trepidation evident on their faces. The masks and gloves had been distributed amongst themselves accordingly, multiple layers overlapping to provide total protection.
The last thing any of them needed was some diseased blood and guts touching their hands or faces, just the smell from the bag that Benitsubasa had sliced open earlier had been bad enough.
"So," the guilty party in question gulped, looking at the task in front of them. "how should we go about doing this?" her voice was tight and terse, whether from the stress of the situation they were in, or from trying not to vomit was hard to tell.
"Well, we have two options," Minato replied, taking some shallow breaths through his mask. "The three of us can work together and individually search each body one by one, or we can split up and try to hurry things along by searching the bodies individually in an attempt to cover more ground."
Neither prospect was particularly appealing and what was worse there was no real difference in how fast the end result would be in either case. Typical of Jigsaw's puzzles, the most obvious choice was the biggest illusion.
"I say we split up," Benitsubasa said, stepping forward. "There are only four of these things, so I'm pretty sure we'll find my antidote quicker if we do." She had come to the same conclusion as Minato and just wanted to get it all over with. An attitude that extended to the entire "game" they were being forced to play.
She spat the metal taste in her mouth to the side.
Kazehana grumbled a bit at how Benitsubasa put emphasis on the 'my' in her statement, eyes narrowing in suspicion and what looked like a hint of pain or discomfort. She still didn't trust the Discipline Squad member, the bad blood between them almost as thick as the fog winding its way through her mind. Speaking of blood, when her sight aimed towards the saliva Bentsubasa spat up on the floor, she could see a trace amount of red in it. There was no doubt about it now. The poison was taking its effect on them both. Things could only get worse from here on out.
Minato turned to face Kazehana. "What do you say, Kazehana?" concern for her was evident in his voice after her coughing fit earlier.
He knew she was in more discomfort than she was willing to admit, her attempt at stoicism still making him waver between being touched and scared that she'd push herself too far.
She sighed, crossing her arms beneath her 'assets' before sighing, "As much as I hate to admit it, miss daisy clips has a point. I'm with her on this." unable to resist taking a stab at the impatient Disciplinary Squad member.
Benitsu snarled at the jab but said nothing further. She just wanted her fucking cure already.
Minato nodded. "Okay, then it's decided." he touched Kazehana's shoulder for a moment, before turning to watch Benitsubasa.
She's the first to open her bag, her great strength making it a negligible task. She proceeds to rip it open at the hole she left from the knife earlier, and was greeted with another bombardment of flies and an almost physical stench that seemed to fill the room.
This time she made sure to hold her breath and shield her face with her gloved hand, puking would only make the task more of a hassle to complete...not to mention disgusting.
For a moment she felt dizzy, but chalked it up to the nausea making her stomach heave like a fat kid after cake.
Once most of the flies were gone and the miasma retreated upward to the ceiling light, she peeled open the rest of the bag covering the face...except there was no face. The man had evidently been shot at point-blank range with a shotgun, so most of his facial features were gone. He seemed elderly too, with wrinkles all over his body, most predominantly at his chest and bony arms.
Kazehana was the next to pull down the zipper, taking the same precautions as Benitsubasa. Inside was a fully developed female, likely in her mid-30s.
Flies gorged on her exposed innards, with maggots crawling around for food and giving the appearance of a corrupt version of life to the body. Even though she wasn't allowed to use her powers as cited by Jigsaw's rules, her deistic grip over the air kept most of the pungent odor of decay from clogging her sinuses. Though she did get the urge to retch in varying intervals of inhalation and the urge to cough only seemed to increase.
Minato wasn't so lucky, so when he slid the zipper to the halfway point, he was forced to turn away and pull the mask off to the side of his face. The contents of his stomach emptied onto the floor not long after, answering the unasked and unwanted question as to whether or not the smell could get any worse.
"Minato, are you alright?!" Kazehana shouted worryingly, turning towards him and starting forward to help her beloved.
"Yeah," Minato said, coughing up more bile as Kazehana gave him some pats on the back. He attempts to reassure her with a smile even as he waved her away. "Never better."
Kazehana giggled slightly at the rather blatant lie, before turning to hear-
"Hey," Benitsubasa yelled. "Don't worry about him. He's already been cured. Let's just focus on curing me next, okay?" Fear crept into her anger despite her best efforts at control. Damn Minato for making her wonder if she was feeling the effects or not. Now she was over-analyzing everything she did in case it was a symptom.
Kazehana stomps her high heel on the ground, making her wince as it shot pain up her shapely leg. Yep, she was starting to strain herself at this rate. "I'm his Sekirei! I'll worry about him all I want!" her concern shifting to fury with all the speed of her signature winds, finger pointing straight at the smaller Sekirei.
"Enough you two, please!" Minato pleaded, sliding the mask back over his nose and mouth being fairly certain he wasn't going to puke again. "Benitsubasa is right, Kazehana. There is no need to worry about me. As she says, I'm already cured. Let's just concentrate on completing these games so we can get out of here." Both Sekirei stood glaring at each other before nodding grudgingly and turning back to their grotesque scavenger hunt.
He managed to slide the bag's zipper down to its base and coughed a few more times before looking inside to see what the contents were. He really wished he didn't, as his gorge rose in his throat again.
The chest cavity was pried open entirely, exposing the deceased male's internal organs. They shimmered in the fly-dotted light, many having been liquefied. Those that weren't floated like decaying islands, the ubiquitous maggots huddled on them like marooned sailors.
"Wait a second!" Minato took a step back, blinking and freezing in shock.
"What?" Beni glared over.
As did Kazehana. "Yeah what is it?"
"I think-" he swallowed. "I-I think I recognize him!"
"Really? Who is it?" Benitsubasa asked.
Minato did a double take to make absolutely sure. "Mikogami…"
"No way, Ashikabi of the South? Jigsaw got him too?! Lemme take a look." Kazehana made her way over to the body and peered at the young man's face. "Oh my, it is him!"
"I know he was a brat, but he sure as hell didn't deserve to end up like this!"
"Looks like Jigsaw is targeting not just you, but Ashikabi in general." Benitsubasa coughed. "Now quit stalling and let's get this over with."
The tortured trio rolled up their sleeves and determinedly got to work.
It took Benitsubasa no time at all to plunge her hands deep into the organs. Kazehana followed shortly after, although she was a lot more thorough about her methods. Instead of tearing organs out left and right and tossing them all over the place in a panicky fit like Benitsubasa was doing, she took a more subtle approach, studying each organ to see if there may have been stitching in it. For all she knew, Jigsaw may have hidden the antidote in one of them.
Minato had to take several moments to compose himself. The only dead body he had ever been around was that of Kusano's, and the sight of another body so viciously cut open brought back terrible memories. To make matters worse, the most permanent wound on the body seemed to follow the same path Kusano's did, diagonally down from the shoulder through to the solar plexus until it reached the hip on the opposite side.
He swallowed a huge lump in his throat and shot a glance at Kazehana. She was poking at an organ she had harvested as if she were a doctor poking at the placenta of a woman after she had given birth. Then he looked over at Benitsubasa, who was giving him a heated glare as she shoveled out more gory pulp with her hands.
"Well, what are you waiting for?!" Benitsubasa yelled. She crouched down to the floor, snatching up the heart she raked out. Winding her arm, she pitches it at Minato like a tomato at a bad comedian. He ducks to dodge it and it hits and sticks to the wall behind him. It slides down, leaving a bloody smear in its wake, and Minato even more unsettled.
"Benitsu, what in fuck's name was that about?!" Minato yelled, shocked. His jaw hung open and his eye twitched as his eyes wandered between the heart and Benitsu rapidly.
"Get your ass to work, pipsqueak! We don't have all day!" The irony of her latest insult escaped all three of them, although it made Dr. Gordon do a mild spit-take.
"Alright, alright!" he shouted, instinctively diving his hands into the body, his traitorous mind already imagining the sensation of being splattered by rotting organs.
The look on his face the moment he realized what she did was pure terror and revulsion, his skin crawled with the sensation of a thousand millipedes. But after swallowing another lump, his hands began to slowly stir about.
A few moments later, he plucked out an organ, or at least the traces of what could generously be called one. Most of it was liquefied remains of what seemed to be a lung. He tossed it aside like a used condom into the trash with increasing insouciance and continued his search.
None of them made any real progress, Minato and Kazehana's more careful searches actually being matched in effectiveness by Benitsubasa's impatient throwing spree. More because they'd have heard the sound of glass shattering if it was in one of the "plague shots" the pinkette was laying siege to the room with, but that was rather a moot point.
"Fuck! It's not in here." Benitsubasa slammed her hands on the gurney, making the...liquids in the bag jump an inch or so. She hurriedly stepped back to avoid being splashed and turned to the Winged pair, "You two slow pokes have any better luck?"
Kazehana ignored her for a moment, concentrating on keeping herself steady as she combed the bones and viscera in her own body bag...a terminology that felt more ominous than it should to the woman. After she was satisfied that Jigsaw hadn't hidden the cure there, she pulled back and held her hands primly in front of her.
This also had the added bonus of keeping her outfit from getting dirty, would hardly do for her to try to hug Minato later with corpse juice getting on him, "No, and considering you are in the same peril as I am, I would lessen the insults. The longer it takes you to get "your" cure means less time to find mine. So please shut up about how fast we are moving and help if you are that desperate."
Benitsubasa's eyes bugged out a bit at the flat and irritated tone flung at her, but Kazehana was beyond caring. She had been steadily feeling worse, and having trouble hiding it more and more. Listening to this brat whine non-stop about everything under the sun and left of the moon taxed her patience too much.
"Both of you should focus!" Minato's voice rang out, muffled only slightly by the mask. He pointed to the last bag, sitting almost innocently at the end of the room, "If you two have time to argue, you can start on the last one together while I finish up here. I will join you when I'm done."
The arguing ladies blinked at this show of leadership, and despite the glares, they shot at each other and moved to follow his suggestion. Kazehana reached out to caress Minato's arm before remembering she was wearing a glove coated with… fluids. She blushed slightly at her absent-mindedness, only to blush harder when Minato smiled at her, knowing what she meant to do.
Benitsubasa had rushed towards the bag in the meantime, firmly ignoring the tender moment between the lovers. She stumbled slightly, catching herself on the gurney, before reaching for the zipper. Her gloves made it hard to get a grip on the bit of metal and Benitsubasa's efforts began to become more and more frantic the more she failed to catch it.
A slightly larger but still slender hand came to rest on hers, guiding their fingers around the zipper and pulling it down before Benitsubasa figured out what was happening. She looked back to see Kazehana leaning over her shoulder, face serene as she helped the younger woman.
Benitsubasa humphed but didn't argue as they pulled open the bag to reveal the last body they'd be dealing with. Both women staggered back in shock when they discovered it was that of a woman; and a very fat one at that. Lumpy, greasy, flabby all over. Morbidly so. As close to a Left 4 Dead 'Boomer' as reality could possibly get.
Could she have been going through pregnancy at the time of death? No.
Benitsubasa shook her head, having a hard time accepting that Jigsaw would go that far for his "games". If there was one thing most Sekirei agreed on, it was children. For many, it was an extension of their devotion to their Ashikabi. For others, it was a chance of hope should the unthinkable happen. They were to be held as sacred. Something the Black Sekirei obviously couldn't understand.
Kazehana was worse off, however. Even if it was unlikely, she still couldn't shake the thought of "what if?". The mere implication of it had her eyes wide and unblinking, her breath coming in almost panicked gasps. She had nearly forgotten herself and put her bloodied hands to her face in instinctive shock, but caught herself in time. Her hands then went instinctively to her stomach. For her, the need to have Minato's children, to show her love in the ultimate form, was an almost physical sensation at times. The body threw every doubt, every fear, each insecurity she had and was being given in this place into jaggedly sharp relief.
Minato started turning towards the noises but forced himself to keep going. As much as it hurt to ignore them, he couldn't afford any more distractions, he'd wasted enough time puking before.
The Sekirei pair both recovered from their shock and moved back towards the body, taking a better look at its other features.
It was a middle-aged woman's body, in theory. Decay made it hard to tell and neither was that invested in finding out. Her body was...atrophied, even by death's standards.
Benitsubasa started up at the head, leaving Kazehana to begin with the feet. Their search was slow as this body wasn't falling apart as much as the others, leaving them forced to try to feel through rotting flesh and skin.
"Any luck Mina-tan?" Kazehana called out, really hoping she wouldn't have to keep searching through this particular body.
"No, I'm about done too. Another moment and I'll be over there to help." Minato could have ended it a few minutes sooner but could not risk a mistake born of rushing, not with two lives on the line.
Bentisubasa would have been touched that Minato considered her life as important as his Sekirei's, unfortunately, she was rather preoccupied with dealing with her breast complex. There was enough flesh and fatty tissue for her to know that this woman had been fucking stacked in her living existence, which really pissed her off.
A goddamn, fucking CORPSE has better tits than me! she snarled in her mind, taking rather disturbing satisfaction in tearing them apart to "check" for the antidote. A sight that had Kazehana raising an eyebrow that seemed to say, "Really, you are that insecure?" before going back to checking the thighs of the cadaver.
Minato pulled his hands out of the "soup" of liquids, having been most thorough in plumping the depths of the bag.
"Okay, I'm finished here. No antidote whatsoever." He turned to walk over to help the others just in time to see Kazahana and Benitsubasa do a double take at the body's stomach.
"Minato, you studied on this stuff before in school, haven't you?" Kazehana trailed on. "You don't think this woman was…" she swallowed another lump. "pregnant, do you?"
"Oh god, I hope not." His first impression about the body was that Kazehana was right...but as he got closer, he saw the swelling was too high up, too concentrated at the top. "False alarm. Kazehana, that's just built-up gas. Looks disturbing, I know, but it's just bloated. I doubt that Jigsaw would go so far as to do this to someone actually pregnant."
A collective sigh was shared between Benitsubasa and Kazehana upon hearing Minato's deduction. Their fears were gone. The woman wasn't pregnant after all. That, however, didn't keep the disturbing thought from lingering in their hearts and minds.
The Sekirei took a closer look at the body, seeing the differences once they knew they were there. Benitsubasa wasn't that worked up over it, her earlier doubts having been proven right helping her keep focused. Kazehana visibly sagged with relief and didn't even bother tweaking Minato about the dual nature of the corpse.
Minato looked down at the body and noticed a gleam of metal in the hand closest to him. He had to pry the fingers apart but he discovered a scalpel, still clean and razor sharp. He held it up so the others could look at it, "I think I know where to look."
Benitsubasa back-pedaled quickly, "Whoa, whoa, wait a sec. You want to cut open this gas bag? The smell alone will knock us out!" She didn't want to admit it, but she was starting to feel worse and was worried the smell actually would make her pass out.
Kazehana kept herself composed, a small moue of disgust the only reaction to Minato's announcement. She cursed again the "rule" that prevented her from being able to clear the room, let alone deal with the putrid stench no doubt locked in that body, "What happened to your impatience Beni, don't you want your cure?"
Benitsubasa growled at the mocking tone and even more insulting emphasis of her most hated nickname, "Yes I do, and would you stop calling me that?!"
Minato looked around the room, trying to find something that could...Ah! He marched over to a cabinet marked "Biohazard." and opened it. Sure enough, there were several bags in good condition stacked inside.
He pulled out 2 and walked back to the odd couple who had started checking around the body, hoping they wouldn't need to betray their olfactory senses any more than they already had. "Here, you each take one of these bags and open it up. Place them where I tell you and hold them there."
They stared at the biohazard bags for a moment before Kazehana smiled broadly, "You want to use those to capture the gases! Oh Minato, I could kiss you right now!"
"Sure, go right ahead, waste another norito why dontcha?" Groused Benitsubasa, getting tired of Kazehana always guessing what Minato was doing before her. Which led her to wonder why she was caring at all about figuring out how Minato's mind worked. They had to work together sure, but why...
She shook her head and stamped over to yank a bag out of his right hand, a muttered, "Thanks" the only sign that she knew he was trying to help her. She took up position on the side of the body facing the wall, looking right at Minato.
Kazehana glided over to her Ashikabi's side, kissing him on the cheek before smirking triumphantly at the fist-type. (and checking to make sure there wasn't any corpse fluid on the spot she selected.) She took the other bag and stood in front of him, bending over juuust enough to give him a bit of a show.
Now is not the time, now is NOT the time! Minato chanted like a mantra in his mind as Kazehana again played ping-pong with his blood pressure. He followed his Sekirei, eyes firmly NOT examining her plush, and slightly pushed out rump, and took her hands.
Kazehana felt her breath hitch like it always did when he held her and watched as he guided her hands and the bag to a spot just a bit above the hip. He looked at her inquiringly and she nodded to confirm she would keep it there.
Satisfied, he walked over to Benitsubasa's side and saw she had been paying attention and was already pretty close to where he wanted the bag placed. Making some minor adjustments from behind, he didn't notice the faint blush on the Sekirei's face as he leaned over her shoulder, their bodies close to touching.
Kazehana noticed and glared, "What do we do now Minato?"
"Just hold the bags there while I make the...incisions." He gulped, the surgery aspect of his schooling had always been the one he had the most trouble with.
He had been disturbed by the stomach as much as the others, but for different reasons. For one, the body was in much better condition, otherwise, the buildup could never have occurred. For another, the buildup itself shouldn't have occurred at all, not without more significant decay. For it to reach such a volume that it was close to bursting the skin, it had to be induced.
Minato knew his mind was distracting itself from the task at hand, even as he placed his gloved hand on the body and carefully moved the scalpel closer. Ever since Karasuba killed Kusano, he couldn't face surgery, could bear seeing her face any time he watched a medical tape.
He made a light cut, testing his hypothesis. When no gas came out, despite him breaking all the skin layers, he knew Jigsaw had set a trap in this body. He had been counting on them being in a hurry and just tearing apart the body to see if they could find the cure. Minato didn't know what the gas was, but even if the biohazard bags didn't get it all, they would guide it to spread downward and minimize the effect.
Benitsubasa watched him, his body almost vibrating with tension. She almost missed him saying "Now!" as he pierced the abdominal wall, letting out a cloud of fumes into the bag. She began to push down on it, only to have Minato grab one of her wrists.
"Not so hard, let it do the work. More pressure risks us breathing it in."
"What do you mean, I wasn't serious about the whole 'knocking us out' thing ya know?" Benitsubasa was confused again, she didn't understand why she wasn't just tearing the body open and just getting the cure that way.
As Minato walked over to Kazehana's side, he gave a brief summary of his suspicions and observations. By the time he finished, he had cut into the other side as well, giving the gas a crude airway to travel through. The Sekirei were impressed by his deductions, Bentisubasa more so than Kazehana, as there had been nothing in the MBI database to suggest his career path.
Once the body was..deflated, Minato stepped closer to it, "I need you both to do something else for me."
"Of course Mina-tan."
"Sure, just keep it goin."
"I need you to pinch and hold the skin up so I don't risk cutting the antidote. I don't know if Jigsaw used the same syringe-" Benitsubasa cringed inwardly at the idea, "but we can't risk it." They nodded as they set aside the now-filled gas bags, sealing them so that whatever it was wouldn't make it harder to breathe.
Kazehana started, pinching the rotting skin at both ends of her side gingerly and lifting up. With Benitsubasa mirroring her actions they created a flat plain for Minato to cut.
Taking a shallow breath, Minato lowered his scalpel to the top of the skin plateau, just under the ribcage. He pierced the skin and muscle with the point, stopping once the blade was halfway in. Moving very carefully and precisely he continued cutting towards himself, nodding his head to the women on either side to start slowly pulling away.
As the gap widened, the beleaguered trio could see that the liver had been replaced by a sealed bag. Inside was a syringe the same size as before, making Benitsubasa curse mentally, and a small piece of paper.
Minato set aside the surgical tool on the gurney itself before reaching in for the bag. At least he attempted to until the pint-sized fighter grabbed it with frantic desperation, "Final-FUCKING-ly, and I thought the bathroom had been a waste of time."
She ripped open the bag, pulling out the piece of paper first in case it had any instructions on it, "The 'Breathe of Life.' Oh, real funny ass-clown!." Benitsubasa snarled stomping her foot, then crumpling the paper and tossing it over her shoulder.
All three of them moved towards the hallway, eager to get out of the "biology of eternal stench" as Benitsubasa mentally dubbed it. She had picked out the name from the one romantic movie she liked to watch, but only when Haihane was away or else the spacey DS member would tease Benitsubasa mercilessly.
The group roamed back into the bathroom, and Benitsubasa comes before the leaky sink. She unzips the bag and starts running the water. Thankfully there weren't any body fluids on the syringe, but better safe than sorry was best used in this circumstance.
As she held the needle beneath the warm flow, Minato asked her, "How are you feeling?"
"Better now that our hunt is over." she glances over at him, still letting the water cleanse the needle. There wasn't soap, so a thorough rinsing would have to do. Better than nothing. "Why are you so concerned all the time? I'm not somebody who shows weakness."
"That's precisely why. How else would we know if someone as tough as you are ill?"
She blushed a bit. "Fair enough. If you must know, I spat up a bit of blood. It wasn't too much, so don't worry too much. I have the antidote now, don't I?"
"Blood, oh no…"
"I'll be fine now, don't sweat it. She instinctively shut the water off, but after catching herself, turned it back on. "Let's see how your water bill stacks up this month, Pigsaw."