Author's Notes: Hey, I just wanted to apologize for the horrible last chapter. Basically, I was both busy and uninspired, so it ended up being a lot shorter than intended and somewhat uninteresting. I was originally planning to have this chapter and the last one combined, but I eventually decided to end on a cliffhanger, as you can see. Anyway, moving on...
--
"Oh crap, this isn't good..."
For now there were only three fighters left to oppose this monster. All three had watched in horror as their companion had been swallowed whole by the oversized reptile, and all three felt helpless, as if outnumbered, after the loss.
"Well, we can't just stand here," Omitsu yelled, trying her best to appear brave. "L-Let's do this!"
The turtle's shell suddenly lowered with a start. Several holes pointing at an angle opened up on the top of its shell.
--
Saying that Yae was discombobulated by this sudden turn of events would have been an understatement. Tossed repeatedly against the sides of a narrow, slightly curved pipe, she grunted and cursed as she plunged to a quickly approaching metallic floor.
"Ow! Son of a--!" She rubbed and shook her head rapidly before observing her new environment, which she figured to be the "stomach" of the beast. The floor and walls were all made of steel, with wires of various diameters running in every direction. There was also a panel on the wall with the warning "DO NOT OPEN!" painted on it. "Well, what do we have here? Whoever built this clearly isn't too smart...Of course, this IS probably Bismaru's doing." She got up and walked to the panel, but fell back down when the floor dropped without warning.
--
Slowly, the head of the turtle retreated into its shell. Before long, all four of its legs and its tail followed suit. Large missiles rose out of each of the holes on its shell.
By the time this whole sequence had finished, however, Goemon, Sasuke, and Omitsu had all moved closer to their foe. The missiles were lobbed well over their heads, and trees erupted in flames before being reduced to ash when they arrived back to Earth.
"Hey, maybe this won't be too bad..." Goemon mused. A large hole at the front of the shell, right behind Omitsu, opened. "Ack, watch out!" He pulled Omitsu to him by the arm, so that she narrowly avoided being chomped by the turtle's emerging head. It snapped at them, but wasn't able to catch them before they got away.
--
"All right, let's try this again..."
Yae stood up as soon as the ground seemed more stable under her legs, and took a step towards the panel on the wall. Ignoring the command that was sloppily painted on it, she threw the door open and grinned upon seeing what waited for her on the other side. "Bingo."
What she saw inside was some complex circuitry and innumerable wires of all colors stuffed together and running through the entire box and into the wall. Small lights blinked intermittently on the circuit boards, making this a complicated setup. "Well, where to begin?" she wondered aloud. Though Yae wouldn't have considered herself to be much of an expert in mechanics, she grabbed a handful of wires and pulled as hard as she could.
Suddenly, the floor slanted upward sharply. Yae tried her best to hold her footing, but she slipped and slid down what was now a steep hill. She eventually hit the opposite wall with a hushed curse before looking in her hand and seeing some severed sections of wire.
--
The forest battlefield had grown quite a bit within a few seconds. Blackened remains of once tall trees lined the circular border that surrounded the four fighters.
The biggest combatant stood up on two legs for just a second, but quickly came back down on all fours with a screech. The ground shook so hard that Goemon, Sasuke, and Omitsu lost their balance and fell backwards, but they each saw some sparks fly out of the monster's neck.
"Well, that's interesting," Goemon said as he stood up and brushed his rump. The giant turtle shook and emitted smoke from its joints.
"You don't think...Yae?" Omitsu said.
"Omitsu, get down!" Goemon tackled Omitsu to the ground, while the snapping turtle lived up to its name by making another attempt at biting the waitress. The mouth of the beast stayed open in a frightening roar, just long enough for Sasuke to throw one of his Firecracker Bombs inside.
The turtle closed its mouth over the bomb, and stopped suddenly. There was a bang, and the massive reptile hopped as if hiccuping before a small amount of black smoke flowed out.
--
Yae got back to her feet as soon as the floor had once again become the floor. More determined than ever, she dragged herself back to the vulnerable mess of wires in the wall and stared, breathing heavily and waiting a brief moment in case any more surprises would come her way. And though it just so happened that something of the sort did happen, the small bump caused her no severe problems like the first two unexpected events did.
"Third time's the charm!" she told herself as she began furiously ripping at whatever cords and wires she could wrap her hands around. Several seconds of doing this revealed one thick, gray wire hiding behind the mass of smaller ones. Guided by some mysterious hunch that this particular one was of more importance than any of the others, Yae yanked on it with all her might. She pulled as hard as she could, even putting one foot against the wall for extra leverage, but the wire stubbornly remained in the same place. "Come on, you stupid thing, break already!" Frustrated with pulling, she removed her katana from its hilt and cut the thick tube in two.
Nothing happened for a few seconds, which puzzled the kunoichi. After all, she was sure something big would happen with the breaking of this wire. She shrugged before deciding to resume her destructive activities, but stopped before even getting the chance to begin when a blast of steam coming out of the flailing tube hit her face. "Mmph!" She closed her eyes and covered her mouth, backing up as she fanned at the foul-smelling gas. She didn't go very far before the floor suddenly slanted upward again, pushing Yae back and sending her sliding into the wall.
"Ouch! Unn..." Though Yae could feel her eyelids growing heavier and her limbs turning to jelly, she hacked at the nearest wire running along what used to be the floor.
--
Sasuke's attack seemed to set off a chain reaction inside the machine that diminished its violent nature. After swallowing the bomb, its eyes darkened and it simply stood there for some time. "Is it...Is it dead?" Goemon cautiously moved toward it, one step at a time, keeping his trusted pipe at the ready.
Without warning, the eyes of the turtle glowed a bright red and its head shot forward. Goemon barely managed to jump out of the way, while the other two reeled in horror and watched as their foe stood up on its hind legs and stared down at them, the intent to kill obvious now more than ever.
The ninjas took several steps back when their opponent took one giant step towards them, but ran off in all different directions when it opened its mouth and a stream of fire flowed out seconds afterwards. "Well, this is no good. I can't get close enough to attack. Sasuke, throw another one of those bombs in his mouth!" Goemon shouted.
"What?! There's no way I can throw it that far!" Sasuke shouted back.
"All right, come over here, then. I'll help you out by throwing you towards him!"
"Are you serious?!"
All the while, Omitsu, safely behind the turtle, was listening to their conversation and coming up with a plan. "If he can't throw it far enough..." Her mind went back to the encounter with the monkey, and she suddenly had an idea. "Sasuke! Sasuke, over here!" she screamed, waving her arms at the scrambling robot.
Sasuke dodged a fireball before running between the turtle's tree trunk legs, rolling to avoid being hit by its tail. "What is it, Miss Omitsu?"
"Sasuke, do you think your bomb will explode if I hit it with this?" She held up her frying pan for him to see.
"I'm not sure," Sasuke replied before looking back upon hearing a loud roar and seeing their massive opponent moving towards them. "If you hit it too early, it probably won't."
"Perfect!" She held the handle of her frying pan with both hands and the bottom of the pan facing the turtle. "Well, what are you waiting for? Throw one!"
"What?! But you might--"
"We don't have time! Just light one and toss it over here!" Omitsu's arms were shaking, but she couldn't let her nerves get the better of her. Not now.
Sasuke sighed before doing as Omitsu commanded. The waitress swung at the bomb as it came towards her...Swing and a miss, the Firecracker Bomb fell to the floor and both she and Sasuke jumped back with a surprised yelp. "How could you miss?!"
"Instead of yelling, why don't you throw another one?!" Omitsu retorted. This time, she did manage to send the bomb flying, but it ended up missing its target and exploding next to the turtle's head. It screeched and covered its face, but lowered its arms and glared angrily at the duo that was attacking it. It was apparently unharmed by this pathetic assault, but it slowly opened its mouth while lumbering towards them.
"There! Throw it now, Sasuke!" The bomb came, and Omitsu swung and watched it fly, straight and true, right into the mouth of the beast. The bomb exploded as it came into contact with the flames, and the massive turtle fell backwards. It writhed on its back and stretched its limbs for a moment, but soon contracted them once again and remained perfectly still.
Goemon, standing off to its side, just blinked and looked at the motionless enemy. "Is it dead for real this time?" he asked of no one in particular. There was no response from anybody present, so Goemon took it upon himself to find out once again.
Goemon crept forward, as silently as possible. He was now close enough to reach out and touch it, but the mechanical reptile still showed no sign of life. After taking a deep breath, he did reach out and touch it, but there was still no noticeable movement. "Well, it certainly seems about as dead as it's gonna get. Let's get out of here before it changes its mind."
"Wait, what about Yae?" Omitsu asked.
"Oh, Yae...Right, I almost forgot..."
--
It took several minutes of persuasion to convince Goemon to crawl into the turtle's mouth and down its throat. After all, it was too narrow for more than one person, and there was still a chance that the monster could snap back to life at any moment.
"All right, all right, I'll go..." he grumbled as Sasuke and Omitsu practically screamed at him that it was his duty as a friend and the leader to rescue Yae. "Umm...Are you sure you don't want to go instead, Sasuke? Omitsu?"
"Just get in there!" Omitsu said as she pushed Goemon into the turtle's mouth.
--
A foul odor greeted Goemon's nose after crawling through the metallic tunnel for what seemed like hours. "Ugh!" He covered his nose and mouth and looked for any sign of Yae. There were severed wires all along the ceiling, and many of them emitted sparks that caused Goemon to jump. He fanned at the air with his free hand and eventually saw Yae, slumped in a motionless heap against the back wall. Goemon ran towards her, hoisted her over his shoulder, and headed for the exit as quickly as he could.
--
"Is she...going to be okay?"
Goemon and Omitsu stood looking down at Yae's body on the forest floor, while Sasuke knelt closer to examine her and determine how badly she had been injured. Yae looked as if she was in a deep sleep; her eyes were closed peacefully and she made no noticeable breaths or other movements. It had taken several minutes to drag her back to the outside world, and she had been completely still the entire time.
Finally, Sasuke stood up and gave his report. "It looks like she's still alive, but she's hardly breathing, if at all."
"Goemon, can't you do something to help her?" Omitsu begged. Tears were beginning to form in her large brown eyes.
"Me? B-But what am I gonna do?" Goemon asked in return. "If anybody's qualified to save somebody in this condition, it's Yae, and, well..." He motioned towards the kunoichi.
"Well, you've gotta do something! Otherwise, she'll--" Omitsu shook her head to stop herself from finishing the thought. "Don't you know CPR or something?"
"Well, yeah, but..." Goemon looked back and forth between Yae's lips and Omitsu's eyes.
"Goemon, this is no time to be shy about something stupid like that! Just do it!" She smacked him on the arm and frowned.
"All right, all right..." Goemon said as he knelt down over Yae. He stopped suddenly and looked back at Omitsu hopefully. "Say, why don't you do it?"
"No! Now hurry up, Goemon!"
"Sheesh, fine..." Goemon placed the bottom of his palm below Yae's rib cage and his other hand on top of the first. He pushed down forcefully and brought his hands back up, counting with each completion of this motion. "One, two, three, four..." After several of these, Goemon moved his face closer to Yae's, pinched her nose shut with two fingers, and leaned in, opening his mouth and moving his shaking lips closer to hers. Eventually, his lips had touched Yae's. Just as he was about to breathe some air into her mouth, he heard a muffled scream and felt a strong slap to the side of his head, sending him rolling to the side and rubbing his sore temple.
Meanwhile, Yae sat up and coughed violently, deliberately spitting onto the ground as much as she could manage. Finally, the heavily breathing kunoichi glared at Goemon. "And that's why you don't assume the worst."