A/N: Apologies in advance for Akitsu's dialogue. I never really could quite grasp her character beats, much like with Tsukiumi's Shakespearean. In the end I decided to press forward so I could accelerate the fic to its climax. I'll have it fixed once my editor gets around to it.
XXXXXX
Road Trip
The dimly lit room echoed with a haunting silence, broken only by the occasional rattling of chains and shallow breaths. Akitsu's grey eyes glinted with an unsettling mix of determination and remorse as she meticulously wrapped chains around Benitsubasa's slumping form. Yukari and Shiina needed to hold her aloft, but it was almost done. With each link securely fastened, the discarded one stepped back to admire her work, satisfied with the intricate web of steel that held her captive.
Benitsubasa, her fiery pink hair disheveled and sweat-soaked, dangled in mid-air, her body contorted and limbs stretched to their limits. The chains mercilessly constricted her, digging into her flesh with unforgiving resolve. She gasped for air, her voice reduced to a mere whisper of pain. It looked as if she were coming to.
Beside Akitsu, Takami watched the spectacle unfold with a mixture of fear and fascination, as well as hard liquor. She downed a gulp from her flask.
Akitsu glanced at Karasuba and the crow feather subsequently nodded, hitting a button on the wall. The web of chains began to ascend to the ceiling in an arc until the mechanism reached its apex where a well of needles was waiting. Yukari and Shiina winced away as they pierced through Benitsubasa's body.
"Are you sure about this, Akitsu?" Yukari's voice quivered, carrying an undercurrent of unease. "This seems... too cruel."
"Is it now?" Karasuba mocked them. "Is it really?"
Yukari sneered. She wanted to forget MBI's dog was even here, to begin with. "Comeuppance is one thing, but being dissolved from the inside out isn't something I'd wish on anybody, save for you of course."
"It's not up to us to decide." Akitsu's gaze never wavered as she adjusted the chains, ensuring Benitsubasa remained trapped and not likely to fall, or at least not before her game had a chance to begin. "The choice falls upon your brother." she replied, her voice as icy as her stare. "This is what John wills. How to make her understand the pain she has inflicted on others."
"Just where were the Red and Blue Sekirei being kept all this time?" Yukari questioned.
"Convenient little pods Doctor Gordon retrieved from an old forgotten MBI storage unit." explained her mother as she ashed her cigarette, letting the embers speckle to the concrete at her feet. "They were prototypes. When I saw them I was surprised they were even functional. Everything but the life support systems were offline though."
"How did you get them to agree to go inside them?" Chiho asked. She had kept out of everyone's way for the most part but wanted to know.
Takami shrugged, "According to the doc, they were both unconscious at the time from some experimental toxin Natsuo was exposed to during a doctor's appointment they had. It was just a ruse to get him and the discipline squad out of the way."
"Yeah, but Karasuba was awake during almost all of that. Why weren't the other two awoken to help us out?"
"John didn't think they were needed," she explained. "Keeping Karasuba on a leash would be difficult in and of itself let alone with her other subordinates causing a ruckus on top of that."
"So he just kept them on standby until a use for them popped up?"
"Yep, hence why they're both here now," Takami said, looking up at the dangling Sekirei. "Sure she's all secure, Akitsu?"
"Positive. We best move on before the Red Sekirei awakens fully." she glanced at Karasuba. "Do you have the needles for the safe?"
Karasuba reached to her hip and pulled them out from her belt. All but one was empty. "That I do."
"Hand me the empty ones." the ice Sekirei instructed. "I need to fill them with acid from this vat before we leave."
"Why didn't you just fill them before coming here?" Yukari asked.
"Safety precaution," Akitsu said, taking the syringe and dipping the long needle into the noxious substance. She pressed down on the plunger and slowly pulled it up until the fluid completely filled it. "The glass on them is solid and won't break too easily, but Master John says you can never be too careful."
Yukari blinked as Akitsu handed the full syringe to the Black Sekirei and readied the empty one with a careful dip of the tip.
"What's in the full one?" Shiina asked.
"An antidote." Akitsu replied.
"For what?"
"The nerve agent the players will be exposed to."
"Nerve agent?! John never mentioned anything about a nerve agent!" Takami yelled.
Akitsu bowed her chin. "It's extra motivation for the group to press forward."
"Yeah, if they don't tear themselves apart for the cure!" Yukari argued.
"There are two more antidotes in the building," Akitsu reassured her. "so that shouldn't be a problem. The second one is inside one of the corpses."
"Corpses?!" Yukari and Shiina shrieked. "Not of anyone we know I hope." Yukari swallowed.
"You're familiar with two of them."
"What, who?"
"Higa and Kakizaki. Remember them?"
Vietnam flashbacks to that game came flooding back to Yukari. "Oh God, please don't remind me of that!"
Karasuba snickered, "Here, piggy piggy piggy piggy…"
Yukari doubled over following a loud gag. "Fuck you!" she yelled, which was quickly followed by her stomach emptying on the floor.
XXXXXX
"You're really okay with this design, Minaka?" John asked, looking ahead to the doors in front of them as the duo marched forward. As the men approached, the doors unlatched and allowed them both through.
The room was a sinister blend of menace and spectacle. Bathed in a sickly green light, it resembled a miniature coliseum, its towering cylindrical walls lined with rows upon rows of pods. Each pod contained a Sekirei, their bodies suspended in an unnatural slumber, waiting for their fates to be decided. On the stone floor, a giant red and black spiral corkscrewed out from the room's center where a nude Sekirei loosely hung with her wagtail tattoo turned to them. She was dangling by the wrists at the end of an enormous chain stretching well over thirty feet to the ceiling. The cuffs binding her were glowing and a pig mask was over her head. She stood upon a wooden platform by the tips of her toes.
"Why wouldn't I be Johnny-boy?" Minaka laughed, "It's only befitting to have the final game feel all the more climactic, wouldn't you agree?"
"I've designed some elaborate tests in my time, but this is just you showing off. Your men had to gut three entire levels of the building just to fit this battleground here." John exhaled, frustrated. "And will you please stop calling me 'Johnny-boy'?"
"That depends: will you please stop speaking in italics?" Minaka countered.
John grumbled through his grit teeth and his eyes narrowed. "When Tsukiumi decides to stop speaking in Shakespearean."
"Thought so."
John really had it up to here with this lunatic's nonsense.
"Don't you just love it, Johnny-boy?!" Minaka continued, flourishing in their surroundings. Minaka leaped forward from red spiral to black and did a little twirl like a ballerina to take it all in, his creation. "I call it the twisted hexagon!"
"I call it overkill."
The air was thick with an unsettling mixture of apprehension and excitement. More lights buzzed on in the room's six corners, each set alight in a hazy yellow. Said beacons were screwed into the sides of six corresponding machinations that resembled woodchippers. A conveyor line snaking the walls high above them loomed above each, positioned to deposit whatever twisted thing Minaka could think up to utilize. In the front of the devices was a wide opening, and each was directed toward the prone damsel. She was in their line of fire on all six sides.
John inspected the woman, top to bottom, eyes finally fixating on the glowing cuffs on her wrists. "Are you certain these will prevent Yume's interference?"
"More than just that, Johnny-boy. Musubi won't even have her own strength to rely on while they're on."
"So she'll hang here all night then?"
"Guaranteed!" Minaka gave him a thumbs up not unlike a shady used-car salesman.
John bowed his head and walked past Minaka, treading deeper into the spacious underground coliseum. He approached a wall and hit a button hidden as a protruding rock. The wall pulled apart, revealing an elevator shaft and Natsuo Ichinomi. Several meters above the elevator car was a throne overlooking the battlefield. "Hiding this man should no longer be an issue now that your men are gassed." John turned back to him. "And speaking of which…" he brought out his phone and gave his muscle a ring, "Are all the subjects in the library now?"
"..."
"...excellent." he pocketed the device and turned to Minaka. "Dr. Gordon is about to get Matsu prepared."
"Wonderful news! And it's all coated with gas too, right?"
"Yes. And that too." John crossed his wrists behind his spine.
"And the javelins are all installed?"
"Yes."
"And the racks upon racks of medieval weaponry?"
"Yes."
"And the dildos?"
"Everything is just as you requested, mercifully."
"Even the hacked-up dead bodies I had so kindly donated to you so the place would look like a slaughterhouse?"
"That one was just weird…but yes. Mind reminding me why they were needed?"
"Why, to scare the ever living daylights out of everyone, of course!" Minaka let out a roaring laugh.
"That doesn't explain why they had to be shared in the same room with the…phallic instruments."
"Hey, we gotta really sell how fucked up the fight club can get, right?"
"Don't you feel ten trials are a bit excessive? That's more than twice what I'd normally consider."
"Ten sounds official! Definitive!" Minaka reasoned. "Doesn't your Bible have ten commandments?"
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"You're always so preachy normally. Can't get over the fact that your game and mine are now intertwined, and I'm the one in control of it?"
To this, John raised a gray brow. "You think you're in control?"
Minaka confidently shrugged. "They say imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, right? And I'm not just the right kind of crazy for the job, I funded it and provided my own men as laborers and slaves to a greater cause. For once your method of therapy through near-certain death may work and it's all because of me. And that just burns you, doesn't it, Johnny-boy?"
"Having this many games would require inhuman levels of endurance from your son is what I'm getting at, Minaka."
"You say that as if he'll be alone."
"I simply want them to be fair."
"Really? Is that why you only gave a police informant one minute to cut out his eye to get the key behind it?"
"..."
"I'm confident part of the reason most if not all of your subjects fail is because you simply don't give them enough time to solve a riddle, which is a shame because I see all the time and effort you go through to build these things." A cocky grin formed on Minaka's lips. "It's almost like you want to see them go off in your subject's faces just so you can see the splattered results."
"Are you insinuating something? What do you want out of this? Do you want them to appreciate their lives?"
"I want them to craft a love story like none other or die trying."
"We aren't cut from the same cloth. The suffering you inflict upon others is not for their enlightenment but for your twisted amusement. You're beyond a menace."
"If you think I'm bad you should see what the twisted surprises the CCG donated to me during my shady dealings with them." Minaka pocketed his hands. "But, perhaps you are right, Johnny-boy. We revel in the chaos we create, the webs of fate we spin. And now, in this grand spectacle, we shall witness the intertwining of our dark visions!"
A pair of red eyes then bled through the darkness beyond Minaka's turned shoulder.
"What's this 'we' business?"
With stealthy precision, the figure lunged forth, propelled by a haunting determination. Like a predator springing from the shadows, it released a guttural squeal as it nabbed the game master from behind. A rag dripping in chloroform then clamped over Minaka's airways.
There was no struggle on his part.
Just blackness.
XXXXXX
"Thank you for letting me handle the needles and not the bodies." Yukari thanked Akitsu as she dragged over the first bucket of used syringes to dump inside the pit.
"Same here, Akitsu." Chiho replied.
"It's no issue." The ice Sekirei responded.
"Shame Shiina had to get stuck with it though."
"They only did so because you didn't have the guts." Karasuba mocked them. "I wonder if Mikogami's among the dead?"
"Probably not," Akitsu said. "He's been missing for the last two weeks. Why would Jigsaw have him?"
The Black Sekirei cackled. "Seriously? Even after all this time you didn't put the pieces together."
"What pieces? Do you know what happened to him? Please tell me."
Karasuba dipped her chin and sniffed. Standing up, she glanced at Yukari. "Monkey," she addressed her. "Why don't you fill her in on the details?"
"Karasuba!" Chiho yelled, "Now's not the time!"
Yukari's eyes flared as she felt her heart splatter into her belly.
Akitsu turned her head to the side, "Yukari? Do you know something?"
Yukari stumbled over her words, doing her best to put her thoughts together and find a way out of this mess. She was not expecting this. In her frenzied mind, she blanked out and leaned over the pit's edge too far. She went tumbling in.
"Yukari!" Akitsu yelped. She lunged forward to catch her and lost her footing, the two crashing onto the mercifully unfull floor.
Yukari and Akitsu rubbed their heads as they came to their wobbly knees. Both looked concussed.
Chiho came to her feet. "I'll go get help!" she said before running out of the room.
"Are you alright, Akitsu?" Yukari asked, holding an eye shut.
"Fine." she responded flatly. "So tell me, what became of Mikogami?"
Yukari sat on her knees and sighed. "Alright, but you're not going to like what I have to say."
"I figured as much. Did you play a role in this?"
"Shiina and I both woke up in a Jigsaw game. Mikogami was there too."
"Master John targeted you all and put you in the same test? But if Mikogami didn't pass, why did you?"
Yukari paused, considering her words carefully. "We tried to save him."
"And you failed?"
"We actually did rescue him. But he freaked out and attacked us."
"Why would he attack you if you saved his life?"
"It was part of the rules he was given. Another test, and he failed."
"Why?"
"Because I wanted to live. I wanted Shiina to live." Yukari closed her eyes and then gazed at the floor. "I killed him."
"Why didn't you tell me about this before?!"
"I didn't feel bringing it up when we first met would be smart considering the state of mind you were in. I swear I wasn't trying to dodge the issue and just hope you didn't find out! I fully intended to let you know, but I was waiting for a proper opportunity when we were alone."
"You mean like now?"
"Well, yeah…I guess…"
"Tell me, did you genuinely want to be my friend, or was it all an act?"
"I just wanted to make things right with you because you deserve better. So much better."
"Better than Mikogami could have given me?"
"What do you mean?"
"He gave me food and shelter, more than anyone ever has."
"Is there anything else?"
"What else is there?"
"Oh there is so much more, Akitsu." Tears began to leak from Yukari's eyes. "So much more."
"Like what?"
"Love, for one thing."
"Mikogami provided that though."
"He provided what even prisoners are entitled to. That's not love. That's just providing a life-sustaining need. Love is emotional."
"Are you insinuating he did not love me?"
"According to Jigsaw, yes."
"I want proof he said this."
"He has it all recorded. He and Karasuba watched us all suffer before enlisting me into his killing spree. He has no reason not to show it to you."
"I will keep that in mind once your brother completes his trials and undoes my curse." The two rose to their feet, and Akitsu walked over to Yukari. "Tell me, do you have faith in your brother?"
Yukari looked away. She was glad to have gotten the burden of her chest even though she wasn't counting on it being here and now. She was thrilled Akitsu didn't resort to making an ice dagger and going for her jugular. She took the news better than she ever expected. "I really don't want to see him need to make a choice like this."
"Do you think he'll do it?"
To that, Yukari sighed and fell silent.
"I'll take that as a no."
A rope then unfurled from over the pit's edge and hung swaying between Akitsu and Yukari. They looked skyward.
"Use this to pull yourselves up!" Chiho called down to them.
"Thanks, Chiho." Yukari said, grabbing the rope. "Let's get out of here, Akitsu."
The two grunted and groaned as they climbed and spilled over the edge.
"Thanks again." Yukari panted. Then she realized something. "Hey, you're a Sekirei. Why didn't you just jump out with me?"
"Oh. I must have forgotten I could."
"At least you remembered your underwear…"
"There's been a change of plans," Takami spoke, walking into the needle pit room. Everyone turned to look at her. "Jigsaw's setting us free."
"What? For real?"
"It would appear so. I just spoke with him. He has a car and everything ready." Karasuba clarified. "Finish filling the pit and I'll lead you to it."
"As if we have a choice?" Yukari countered.
XXXXXX
After traversing several winding paths, the group finally came to their destination: a parked limousine conveniently stowed away in a garage. Strangely, this place was right next to the room Minato was poised to wake up in.
Inside, John and Dr. Gordon were waiting for them.
The doc went for the back door and clicked it open, chauffeuring them inside. The group had an unnerving feeling about all this, but what choice did they have? Bowing their heads, they all went inside.
"Who's going to be driving us? Where are we going?" Takami asked.
The door's locks latched and the cabin window then rolled down. An unconscious Minaka was laid out in the driver's seat. A jolt of electricity woke him from his slumber.
"Augh! Agh, what?!" Minaka yelped.
The driver's window rolled down and John approached, putting his hands atop the vehicle and leaning forward. "I want to play a game."
"What's the meaning of this, Johnny-boy?! I thought we were partners?!"
John ignored him and continued explaining. "The rules are simple. This vehicle is packed with explosives that will detonate if anyone were to leave it until a condition is met."
"Fuck!" Yukari yelled. "I knew it! It is a game!"
"The first scenario: If Minato chooses not to partake in his test, they will disarm, and no further harm will befall you. You may leave and authorities will be notified to bring you all home. However, if he chooses to rescue his flock, a five-hour timer will activate. It is linked to both your game and his simultaneously." he points to a GPS on the dashboard. "In order for you to escape your predicament and disarm the explosives in this case would be to travel three hundred miles outside of this city's radius. You can go in any direction you wish. You have a full tank of gas to accomplish this goal. However, if that timer reaches zero before reaching your chosen destination, the bombs will explode, resulting in not only your death but also the lives of your passengers and your very family."
"This isn't fair, Jigsaw!" Minaka screamed. "We had a deal! I wanted to see my creation in action! You can't do this to me!"
"What's more important, Minaka? Witnessing your dreams become reality or the lives of you and your loved ones? The choice is yours."
The window rolled up and John reached into his robe, pulling out a spray can. After giving it a good shake he carefully sprayed the red mist over the car in the form of the kanji characters for 'HELP US!' then mosied to the back and sprayed the kanji for 'STAY BACK!'
He tossed the can aside once it was empty and approached Karasuba. "Dr. Gordon and I are going to the observation deck. Keep watch over them. Then let me know once they're on their way once the boy makes his decision."
Karasuba nodded. "I'll let you know when she's ready."
…
A third voice, feminine yet apathetic calls out from behind them, "She's ready."
John and Dr. Gordon slowly turn their heads towards the source, one man calm and the other suppressing the urge to run.
John commended the woman, "Excellent..." Her long, silver hair glistened in the light as she stepped out into view with a blood-thirsty grin, one gray heel in front of the other. Horizontal burns and deep lacerations form tiger-like stripes down her permanently scarred visage. The pupils peeping through her tightly-clamped, yet slightly cracked eyelids lusting for murder. "...Karasuba."
…
Once John and Dr. Gordon took their leave, a monitor on the wall just below the cabin window buzzed on. On-screen was a ceiling view of the room where Minato was left in. He was still asleep.
…
"Yeah, about that..." Matsu mumbled over the radio. "I wasn't originally going to tell you this, but...the games are being live-streamed on the dark web, and Raid: Shadow Legends is sponsoring it...somehow."
…
About twenty minutes of them went by before he stirred awake and fell flat on his face ripping the ropes off his body. The four pairs of eyes in the back seat remained glued to the monitor in horror and fascination.
Minato looked up at the camera for a moment realizing he was being watched.
…
'Yes, that makes sense. Why risk letting your victim know your face or voice when they could simply watch your actions from a distance?'
…
He then played the tape recorder and looked through the documents that had polaroids of his Sekirei contorted in their devices.
The group watched helplessly as the ronin considered his moves, and dealt with what looked to be a panic attack. Then he took steps toward the shotgun collar on the wall.
"Oh my God, Minato!" Yukari cried.
"He's actually going to do it?!" Takami hissed in horrified disbelief. She was not expecting this.
"Don't do it, Minato!" Yukari screamed. "Just come home with us! No one will blame you! Please!"
…
The ronin took a few deep breaths, exhaling through his mouth after each inhalation through his nose. He decided his course of action, and swept his gaze towards the camera once more, "Fine." He snarled with unusual heat as he hoisted the collar up over his head and brings it down onto his shoulder, being as gentle as possible despite the urge to slam it down in anger. As he adjusted its straps, a buzzer on the contraption goes off and the four lights come to life, indicating that there was now no turning back. "I'll play your game."
…
A timer above the cabin window then began counting down from a five-hour mark, just as John said it would. The engine of the limo then revved to life automatically and the garage door in front of them granted them all their path to earn their freedom back.
"Punch it, Minaka!" Takami shouted in outrage. "Of all the times Minato had to decide to be the hero, this was when he chose?!"
"Ragh! Fine!" Minaka hissed much the same before flooring the gas pedal. In moments they were outside and speeding down the dirt road. "I knew it! I knew Johnny-boy would pull a stunt like this..." Minaka growled behind clenched teeth as his foot depressed the gas pedal to the floor.
"And yet, you did nothing." Takami would have rolled her eyes but forced her focus to be undivided on the road. "That really is your motif, isn't it? If it doesn't concern your precious Plans, it's all dirt under your heel."
"You know," Chiho said calmly, with the slightest hint of sarcasm, "for a 'genius,' you're very bad at understanding people."
Karasuba sniffed in the dust left in the limo's wake and softly blinked. "Let the games begin."
Akitsu stepped outside, watching mournfully as the vehicle sped off before disappearing beneath the horizon line. "Good luck, Yukari."
