Lockdown: Part II

XXX-Flashback-XXX

"Musubi, Musubi!" "Homura patted the fallen brunette's face a few times before trying shaking her. "Dammit, it's no use, she's out cold!"

"Um, if I may inquire but for a moment…" Tsukiumi made herself heard through the cuff of her dress, pointing towards a darkened corner of the living room with her free hand. "I think I hath found our Ashikabi…"

Hunched into a ball there and facing the wall, the figure of a young man wept, grimy sprinkles of dirt all over his characteristic dark hair.

"Stay behind me." The landlady instructed her tenants, reaching for her sword as she approached the crying Minato to tap his shoulder.

Nothing.

Another tap.

Still nothing.

Frowning worriedly, she leaned in for a closer examination.

With a sudden, wooden snap, the head turned around like the child of The Exorcist. Instead of Minato's familiar face, it was the visage of Jigsaw's puppet that met Miya's gaze with an infantile cackle. Before she could back off, it exploded into bits of white shrapnel. More nerve agent geysered outward through the exposed funnel in its trachea. The landlady, eyes filled with allergy-drawn tears, collapsed to her knees in a hacking fit.

Tsukiumi and Kazehana hurried to drag her away before she could inhale any more of the noxious fumes or taint the air bubble, crouching down to check her condition.

"I'm fine." She waved them off stubbornly, only to immediately vomit into her palm. "Oh no, my rug!"

"Dammit, we have to get out of here!" Homura drawled, eyes beginning to glaze over under the effect of the gas as he stumbled over to the porch exit. "The wood here is the weakest. I may be able to burn a small hole for us to crawl through before it's too late..."

"Absolutely not!" Miya flailed her puke-slobbered hand in protest before heaving up even more chunks of her cooking from earlier. Whatever was in that doll's neck must have been FAR more potent than what they were breathing in earlier. Miya never was one to get sick, much less so deathly ill. One could only imagine what that miasma was doing to her insides. "I will not have you do ANY damage to this house!"

"Damn it, Miya!" Homura snapped. It was like HIga's ambush all over again. "You're choking up vomit, and all you care about is this damn house?! We can fix the hole later! Your stupid pride in this place nearly got us killed once! I'm not gonna let it happen again!"

"How dare you!" Miya snarled, her Hannya Mask emerging full blast someone someone having the nerve to question her like that. "This house is my husband's legacy and I will have no one besmirch it in any way whatsoever! What if the gas is flammable?! The whole inn will go up in flames!"

"Calm thyself Miya, we're Sekirei! I have power over water, remember?! We'll survive!"

"Our clothes sure as hell won't…" Kazehana added softly.

"Your dead husband's legacy can kiss my ass!" Homura shouted as he drank in the poisonous zephyrs. In any other situation, he'd have held his tongue, but with Musubi and Matsu already out, he wasn't going to tolerate bullshit from anybody, not even her. "I've had it up to here with your high and mighty attitude! If he were still alive, what do you think Takehito would say about putting our lives in jeopardy for the sake of this shithole inn of yours?! He would be ashamed of you!"

The embers in Miya's eyes raged like furies of ancient myth. Even the hannya mask itself cowered off in the distance. "I should kill you right now for saying that!"

Homura looked at the abomination for a couple of seconds...then moved back toward the wall, a small ember coming to life at the end of his right index finger.

"Then kill me." He said, his voice carrying not a hint of hesitation. "With all due respect Miya, up yours. I care more about saving lives than this inn or the tyrannical rules you set for it."

He placed his hands upon the paneling and began to ignite the wall bit by bit. As his flames painted across the structure, the landlady went to draw her blade. Tsukiumi and Kazehana reached to stop her when Homura suddenly collapsed in a heap.

XXX-End Flashback-XXX

Kazehana continues on with her story…

"Poor Homura…"

Kazehana hung her head. "I have to give him credit though, standing up to the landlady. Not even I'd have the nerve to do something that ballsy…"

"He is the guardian of Sekirei, after all."

"Even if we did escape, the landlady probably would have hunted him down for talking down to her." Kazehana sighed. "She was that livid."

"Wait, hold on," Benitsu interrupted all of a sudden. "Is this the same killer landlady the pipsqueak mentioned before he took his little bath?"

"I guess 'killer landlady' defines her well enough." Kazehana confirmed with a nod. "She's the sole reason I or any of the other feisty tenants haven't pounced on him yet."

Minato's pupils shrunk. "Hold on, wait a sec-"

"So he IS a virgin, then?!" Benitsu cackled gleefully. "And here I thought he was just bullshitting!"

"Unfortunately…"

Dammit, not this again…

"Can we save this discussion for another time, please?!" Minato whimpered, begging to get back on topic. "Is there anything else you can recall after that?"

"It's a bit hazy…" Kazehana trailed off, holding her head as if feeling dizzy. "But I think Tsukiumi was the next to challenge Miya…"

XXX-Flashback-XXX

"Homura?!" Tsukiumi wrenched at the garbs of her rival's fallen body and shook him by his collar furiously. "Homura!"

"It's no use." Kazehana shook her head. "He's out just like Musubi and Matsu. You're just wasting energy."

"Silence!" She demanded, tears glazing over her moistened eyes. "Homura is our only chance of escaping! He must be awakened! He must!"

"If he knows what's best for him, he'd stay down," Miya choked grimly through her own vomit.

"Hold thy tongue, wench!" The Water Sekirei shot back. "You may have no regard for the lives of thy tenants, but I DO! Kazehana, leadest me to the kitchen at once! If luck befalls us, we mayhap coud break the water pipes so I can use the water to make us an exit!"

"Right!"

As they turned to rush away, Miya cropped her clean hand on Kazehana's shoulder. "Don't even think about it…"

"Fine!" Tsukiumi's browline curved downward as she snarled, not even waiting Kazehana to respond. "If that's the way thou wants it, I'll fare the miasma myself with or without thy help!"

"Tsukiumi wait!" Kazehana called in horror as Tsukiumi backed into the kitchen...and into the grasp of the pighead that bursted from the darkness on the other side to welcome her. She screamed in shock as it pulled her in with its almighty strength.

Moments later, they heard her howl in pain and then… nothing.

"Stay here, Kazehana," Miya commanded.

"Fuck you, MIya! I'm not going to let her die!"

XXX-Flashback End-XXX

"After that, I guess instinct took over." Kazehana recollected. "I left Miya behind, and went into the kitchen to help Tsukiumi deal with…whatever was attacking her."

"Who attacked her?"

"You know, it's the strangest thing. There seems to be a gap in my memory right after I went inside. The next thing I remember after that is briefly opening my eyes, and seeing #09 lying in a heap by the sink motionless. I couldn't move anything but my head. I turned to look behind me, and Miya was being dragged away by people in shrouded hoods. Last thing I recall before waking up here and nearly becoming a Sekirei pincushion is a huge metal boot slamming down next to my face. I looked up and saw this lumbering giant wearing a pig mask. He reached for my face, and after that everything went black."

"So who do you think is behind all this, Kazehana?" The eternal ronin asked. "Do you recall anyone who could have infiltrated the inn without anyone knowing?"

"In my honest opinion, Minato…" Hanging her head, the wind maiden let out a tired sigh. "I think this was all Matsu's doing."

Minato took a step back in shock. The thought of one of his own Sekirei betraying them never crossed his mind. "What? Why would you say tha-"

"Think about it; Matsu is the only one who has the mind and means to accomplish something like this. Ever since you went missing, she locked herself up in her room, refusing to come out or to speak with anyone. For all we know, she could have been secretly contacting Jigsaw and putting together plans to capture us all."

"Don't say something like that, Kazehana! Matsu would never do something so deceptive! If she were the culprit, why would she just let herself be exposed to the gas like that?! I mean, someone had to have rigged it?"

"Perhaps Jigsaw didn't tell her. He did intend on capturing all of us in the end…"

"Hate to break this to ya, pipsqueak but Miss cannon-tits has a point." Benitsu added her two cents. "You can't argue that the evidence points the bookworm's direction."

"But if that's true then, all of this… all of this is her fault!" He fell silent for a moment before shaking his head in denial, eyes filled with determination.. "No. I refuse to believe she would do such a thing."

"Now, now, Minato, it's all just speculation." Kazehana spoke up in a conciliatory manner. "Even if my fears are true, I doubt she had a choice in the matter."

"Yeah, r-right." Minato slumped right back again. "Best just keep looking ahead."

The path diverged on the next impasse; one route was blocked off by a fence webbed over in electricity, the other narrowed by the debris of a collapsed ceiling. There was hardly enough room to squeeze even one person through at a time. Even more so for Kazehana than the other two, for obvious reasons.

Benitsu crouched upon the rubble, pulling some aside to take a peek into the other side. Upon the distance, a column could be seen, with steps caked over in rust-jizzed concrete and ascending towards lord knows what horror.

"How much do you want to bet that our next test is just up those steps?" She asked, gesturing for the other two to look through the debris.

"I'd bet my left arm." Minato joked darkly.

"I'll go first." Flattening her frame against the wall, Benitsu took the initiative and crept into the crevice. "There are a couple of heavy pipes in the way on the other side. You two won't be able to get through unless I move them."

"We'll be right behind you." Minato nodded.

"And I'll be behind you, Minato." Kazehana added with a wink.

"Oh I don't think so, Miss Jigglesworth." Benitsu argued. "The passage goes low at about halfway through, and I don't want your pervert Ashikabi's face all up in my goods while I'm on my knees bent over. You stay behind me, you got that?!"

"Benitsu, we've been through this already with the lightbulb test!" Minato facepalmed. "How can I peek at anything if you're wearing shorts?!"

"I don't care! Cannon-tits goes second, virgin goes third! End of story!"

"Yeah, whatever…"

Spaced apart by mere inches, the three made their way through the crack. As they approached the center, they were forced to drop to their knees and continue on all fours. Benitsubasa was about to have a thought when a firm swat to her rear caught her off guard.

"Agh-!"

Deep crimson bloomed over the Red Sekirei's cheeks as her face flushed. Did the wind slut let that pervert in front of her without looking? If so, there would be hell to pay! She lowered her head and peeked through her legs. Kazehana's mocking grin met her embarrassed blush. Sticking her tongue out, she gave her rear another love tap.

"Just what the fuck do you think you're doing you pervert?!" She screamed indignantly.

"Giving you some encouragement, silly girl." The slut giggled. "Now hurry up!"

*Pat pat*

"Well knock it off!" Benitsu snarled. "You wanna spank somebody, then spank your Ashikabi."

Minato blushed and Kazehana smirked.

"I already have," The Wind Sekirei boasted sultrily. "A few times, actually. Would've gone further if Miya hadn't interrupted."

Minato's blush deepened as he remembered those 'sessions' with Kazehana. He was ill one day with fever and hallucinating due to the high temperature. Kazehana took advantage of this and talked him into crawling over her lap to help 'break the fever with her body heat'. He was groggy and not in his right mind at the time! He couldn't think properly!

She then removed his pants and underwear before proceeding to spank the hell out of him, calling him 'a naughty, sick little boy'. Miya had nearly skinned them both alive when she found them, but that didn't stop Kazehana from doing it another times, leading to Miya banning her from alcohol until that fight with Higa's Sekirei.

"And I'll be giving him an extra hard spanking after we get out of this," Kazehana declared while wiggling her own rear sensually at her now atomically red-faced Ashikabi. "I'll paint your cute little ass red, Minato-kun."

"Enough with the pervy lovey-dovey crap! Can't you gag on your Ashikabi's flute some other time?!"

Minato, who'd had his head hung down to keep his eyes from drifting where they shouldn't, came to an abrupt halt when the top of his cranium bumped into the skirt that was barely covering Kazehana's backside. This made #03 gasp and lurch forward in shock, ending up with her face pressed into Benitsu's derriére.

There was a moment of awkward silence. One could be excused to think the three of them had been sucked out into the vacuum of space. It wasn't long though, until a hissing like a boiling teakettle could be heard. Following the cherrying of her face, vortexes of steam bursted from Benitsu's ears as the temperature reached critical.

Minato gulped. Oh shit…what have I done?!

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

An inarticulate scream of rage, indignation and embarrassment echoing through the place was the only warning before the sole of Benitsu's boot was repeatedly introduced to Kazehana's face until the entire group was pushed out of the tight crevice and back to the starting point.

"Ow!," *kick* "hey!" *kick* "Stop it!"

"GET BACK!" Beintisu demanded between kicks. "GET BACK, I SAY!"

Emerging from the crack, Benitsu grasped the ronin by the collar and dragged him behind her.

"Change of plans, twerp! You keep that wind slut as far from my crack as possible,"She demanded, gripping at the knife tucked in her belt threateningly. "YOU GOT IT?!"

"I GOT IT I GOT IT I GOT IT!" He hurried to agree, holding his hands up in surrender.

Kazehana exploded into cackles, incapable of holding her laughter any longer.

Still flushed with a mix of wrath and embarrassment, Benitsubasa shoved him off and dragged her way back through the rubble with Minato in tow. At the end of the tunnel, she slipped her arms beneath the bronze pipe and began hoisting it, squeezing her petite body under it little by little and relinquishing the work to her bent knees and legs once she was far enough. After rolling to the other side, she started to lift the pipe and began to hoist once more.

"C'mon, you two." She grunted as she kept holding it up. "My muscles are still aching from that sink or swim test. I can't keep it up for very long."

"I'm coming, Benitsubasa."

"Benitsu!" She loudly corrected him.

"Err, right. Sorry."

The ronin's messy hair soon emerged, forearms leveraging against the ground to drag himself out from the debris.

"Thank you, Beni-"

His words suddenly cut off as he looked up and past the strained crimson bird, pupils shrinking to dots as his slight smile froze on his lips. Mere feet behind her, a pig headed figure was raising a crowbar above his head with both hands.

Benitsu grimaced, unaware of the danger looming behind her.

"Well what are you waiting for?! Get moving! I can't hold this thing up forev-!"

"Benitsu, behind you!"

"Huh?!"

The Red Sekirei had time for a quick glance, but was incapable of defending herself from the brutal blow. Releasing the pipe, she collapsed to the ground, down for the count.

Kazehana lurched forward, yanking at her Ashikabi's feet in hopes of pulling him away from the falling pipe, but she wasn't quick enough. The Minato howled in agony as the mass of metal squashed and pinned him to the floor, air squeezing from his lungs like deflating balloons. All he could do was gag helplessly as the pressure sank in.

"Minato!"

Minato struggled to crawl forward, but…

*Crick!

"Oh, god!..." The ronin gritted his teeth to keep even more precious air from leaving his lungs. "I-I c-can't..." His words came out slowly and painfully as he felt himself collapse. "…breathe."

"Stop struggling Minato, let me help you!"

Kazehana crawled over his back and wrapped her arms under the pipe, pulling it up with all her might to hoist it up ever so lightly. It may have just been a few inches, but it meant a world of difference for her Ashikabi as he finally could breathe again.

Kazehana could feel her arms arching, but didn't dare try to shift around to push her beloved forward in fear of losing what little balance and leverage she had at the moment. She would need the washboard girl's help for this.

Benitsu's assailant inspected her body, and retrieved the pitch-black knife tucked in her belt.

"Our leader doesn't take kindly to those who take what isn't rightfully theirs…" The pighead knelt down in front of Minato, pulling his hair back and putting the knife to his throat. "Especially if said item happens to be a prized possession…"

The Red Sekirei was beginning to regain herself, slowly regaining her balance even as the world around her continued spinning. What had just happened? Putting her hand to her head, she found it slicked with what could only be her own blood. Hurt like a motherfucker, but most certainly not as bad as what she wanted to do to the guy that blindsided her.

"Now…" Said guy mused, tilting his head to the side. The knife's edge aimed directly at Minato's jugular as he let out a distorted chuckle and drew the knife closer. hat to do with you?..."

Kazehana's pleas for her Ashikabi's life fell deaf on the pighead...but not on Benitsubasa.

The downed Disciplinary Squad member lunged at his arm, making him lose his grip on the knife and tumbling to the ground. The two rolled about with Benitsu gaining the upper hand after a brief struggle.

"Think I'd go down that fucking easy, did you?!" She taunted fiercely, accentuating her words with a couple of left hooks that smashed into the pig mask's jawline.
He managed to shove her off with a boot to the gut and roll over on his belly, scrambling on his hands and knees to get to the knife. Unfortunately for him, Minato managed to pull it away from reach.

"You should have gone down with that first punch," Benitsu said slowly, a cruel grin spreading across her bloodied face as she yanked at his garbs to pull the freak back to his feet and clasped her fingers around his thick, beefy neck. "Now I have to hurt you more."

Before she could make good of her promise, the henchman shoved her away and sent a fist of his own sail towards her.

Benitsubasa easily ducked the pig mask's barbed fist to bury her knee into its abdomen. The beast let out a shrill squeal as it roiled in guttural agony, but she would have no mercy on the swine brute. Balling up her fist, she jacked the boar's jaw with an uppercut that shattered teeth and sent it crashing into the wall.

Benitsubasa followed up by grabbing the henchman's wrist and slamming her palm into its elbow, snapping the ligament before throwing the carcass down to the floor in an arm-crunching judo toss. The henchman was defeated, but she didn't even register it. Eye twisting and teeth gnashing through an expanding snarl, she leapt into his form and began pounding his head into ruin..

The helpless animal weakly reached for the crowbar it had used earlier, only to be denied when Minato drove the tip of the ebony knife through his palm, pinning the limb to the floor with his bodyweight and ensuring his grim fate.

"End it, Benitsu!"

After giving his command, born more of adrenaline rush and channeled terror than any real deliberation, Minato immediately had to clamp his eyes shut and turn his head away away. Benitsubasa tore into the fallen pigface with gleeful abandon, savagely beating the boar's face into a pulpy mass of fractured skull and meat. His heart sank and eyes tightened with every violent thumping contact her fist made. Even when it was clear he was dead, she just kept laying into its unresisting body until she was finally satisfied.

When her anger finally subsided, the unknown man's head was almost completely flat and Benitsubasa was panting wildly at the exertion. Minato could only thank God that the mask was still intact…he could only imagine what gory horror lay beneath it.

Temper slowly cooling between seething snarls, Benitsu let the man's collar go and pulled herself to her feet. With an amount of vigor that surprised even her, she lifted the accursed tube off the young ronin, body, allowing him to finally crawl out of the narrow space with Kazehana close behind, the Wind Sekirei's arms falling almost limply to the ground around her Ashikabi.

In normal circumstances, Minato would have felt sick after heling put an end to a man's life, but the pain throbbing through his lungs kept him from caring much. He had been around enough death already since the loss of Kusano to dwell on the life of someone who had tried to end theirs.

Struggling to get up, he turned a concerned glance at Benitsu. "Are you okay?"

"That…" She trailed off before unceremoniously letting the pipe fall back on the dead pighead's carcass once everyone was out and safe. "That felt…good."

She turned to face the path forward, she angled her eyes up the steps. As suspected, their next test was just ahead.

Lending a final kick to her fallen foe's abdomen she hawked hawking a phlegmy loogie onto the corpse. "Welp, let's get going."

Minato started to stand, but then collapsed to one knee, arm embracing his ribcage.

Kazehana knelt and rested her palms on his shoulders. "Are you alright, Minato?"

"I...I think some of my ribs are broken...it hurts to breathe in too much." He coughed a bit while clutching his side.

"Let me see." Without waiting for a reply, Kazehana pulled open his ripped shirt and gently probed his chest, making him wince a bit. "I think they're just bruised and overstrained." She finally announced. "Don't overdo yourself."

"Come on," Benitsubasa snapped. "We don't have time for this."

"I don't know if I can walk too far without hunching over…"

"Then I'll carry you," the Red Sekirei huffed impatiently, scooping him into her arms bridal style after a brief moment of hesitation. He blushed as she lifted him, and she turned her head away presumably to hide her own. "Don't get the wrong idea about this, I'm the strongest here, and letting you walk will only serve to slow us down."

"For what it's worth…" The pinkette heard in a whisper as the trio continued their journey towards the unknown. , "Thank you for saving him."

Feeling strangely touched by these words and unsure of how to answer, Benitsu pretended not to have heard them and kept walking on.

As they climbed the steps, Minato couldn't help but think of the landlady. She was taken just like everyone else, but her game was separate from his. He couldn't do anything to help her like he could with his Sekirei.

He closed his eyes, and whispered inside, I hope Miya gets out of this alright…

3:24:21...3:24:20...3:24:19...

XXX-FLASHBACK-XXX

8 hours after Isumo abduction…

Enclosed by the holy walls etched in her sin, an orange haze bled through the many cracks peppered throughout the stony interior of the sealed chamber. Swathe between twin rows of ebony-shrouded hardwood seating, crimson carpeting unfurled over a dozen graphite steps that overflowed with the warm shadow of bronze candelabra. Stained glass wept multicolored beams upon her cerebral folds as the sun began to rise. The gleaming light orbited the silhouette of a wagtail in the stained glass, cascading its umbra upon the church's crimson carpet below.

A single ivory throne laced in golden thread sat perched atop the steps, its height dominating the ground shared by the seated replicas of the fallen Sekirei. Dewy dandruff dripped from the greasy lavender strands dribbling down the landlady's violet crown and sleepy visage; lap collecting sweat droplets from her chin. As the rising sun grew more brilliant, the mystifying heat aiding her slumber loosened its grip on her consciousness; her eyes loosened from her glazed pupils. After many flickering relapses, they finally allowed her awareness to pass through.

The exhausted woman bobbed her head from left to right as her sight crinkled to focus, flame permeating from cinnamon-tinted candles making her eyes tear up. She shook her head and motioned to stand but was yanked back by the garrote looping her throat; her cranium ricocheting off the throne as it pulled her back as punishment. A startled gasp erupted from her stomach as she hacked up many coughs. She was fully awake now.

She reached for her neck and pulled at the cable. The cable's material must have been made of some of the strongest steel in existence as she couldn't break it.

What sort of MBI trickery was this?

"Where am I?"

*Bzzzzztttt!

The landlady jerked her head towards the rippling static of a busted old television set. In moments she was staring into the eyes of the dreaded Jigsaw doll.

"Rise and shine, Asama Miya. I want to play a game…"