Chapter 4 - The Joke, Day Three

After yesterday and the long hours of enforced positions, they'd left her in the same dingy room she'd first been held in nearly two days ago. The room was the same as ever; all they'd done was simply take out the stool and the bar-cuff attachment, replaced with a rickety cot-frame bed. Aigis had manhandled her, though perhaps that word was too strong since she'd been in no position to put up a fight, out of the room she couldn't think of as anything but the 'shock room'. Little troubled Mitsuru's sleep, not even the Shadows could give her nightmares, but she'd been unable to sleep well, still fixated on how they'd played with her; Aigis and her deranged controller, Yukari.

Her cheeks flushed red with anger as she saw the small television they'd left behind, the one which Yukari had gloatingly fed the CCTV of the SEES building to, all to rub the isolation into Mitsuru's face as she watched the others getting on with their day-to-day lives. All that and the indignity of being tied up like a pervert's toy, with her hands behind her and fastened by a taut rope to her bound ankles, still red from the blunted spike-floor of the stock-box she'd been placed in the day before. Even tied up like a farm animal, Aigis had been left behind to watch over her silently, her cold metal fingers stroking up the arch of her soles like clockwork every half-hour, to provoke her into thinking over what was to come, she supposed. Part of her didn't want to admit it, but it had worked.

The door's lock clicked as the handle was pushed downwards. She recoiled at the brightness streaming in from the ceiling-mounted lights, unused to it after so long in the stark darkness, and all she could make out was the hazy outline of a figure. It was the voice that gave away the name of the figure, and she glared at Yukari as the other girl spoke. "I'm glad to see you're awake, Mitsuru. Did you sleep well?" Mitsuru just stared at her tormentor. As if I've had much of a chance to, tied up like a piece of meat and with Aigis watching over me you little cow, she snarled inside her head.

"I'll take that as a yes then," the other girl carried on, stepping inside so Mitsuru could see the smile blossoming on her face. "Come on, let's get her moving," she spoke to Aigis this time as if Mitsuru wasn't even there, and the captive girl could feel the hate for Yukari growing a little more inside. The thoughts of exaggerated revenge left her head just as soon as she felt them grab hold of her, Yukari pinning her shoulders down onto the rough cot-liner while Aigis undid the ropes around her ankles and retied them around her waist. Pulling her up ungently, they guided her off the bed onto shaky legs still red and sore from the bite of the ropes.

Mitsuru's hands crept down towards the knotted rope within easy reach, but Yukari was there in a moment, taking the slack rope and sliding the knot to her captive's exposed stomach, backing away. The rope in her hand acted as a leash and Mitsuru stumbled forwards, biting back a curse as she felt Aigis pull the rope dangling from her wrists up into the air. The girl leading her didn't even look back as she spoke, "You know, I do realise that yesterday wasn't that fun for you, Mitsuru. So today, I thought I'd give you the chance to sit down and relax! It's only fair after yesterday."

What would be fair is if you let me go, you lunatic! her mind screamed, but she knew better than to say it out loud. There was no telling what Yukari would choose to do to her. They led her onwards, past the room where she'd been forced to hold herself into a contorted form or face the indignity of being spanked like an errant child, and she could feel her cheeks heating with anger. She half-imagined the feel of the electric-pads dancing through her skin all over again, and Mitsuru couldn't repress an errant shudder at that.

She was led past another pair of doors, hesitating slightly as she was dragged to a crossroads and saw the corridor in front of her growing darker until it reached the door at the far end, standing shrouded in the shadows. This is ridiculous, she barked at herself, I've stood up to Shadows and now I'm unnerved by a simple door? She couldn't help the reflexive flicker of relief as Yukari instead dragged her down the leftmost branch of the corridor and through a door there. That flicked fled her body when she saw what was waiting for her inside.

Stocks. She'd seen the like before in documentaries from the West, and those had told her they were quaint devices used to hold petty criminals, and looked as petty and ramshackle as their captives themselves. This one didn't, sleek birch wood divided into two halves with a pair of shining steel padlocks sat on the top-most half connecting it to the stands holding the pieces up. She looked on as Yukari let go, pushing forward a lightweight wooden bench forward until it sat just behind the stocks and undid the locks. "Aigis, I'll need a hand over here. Get Mitsuru sorted for a moment, please."

The silent android stalked forward, grabbing hold of Mitsuru and dragging her along to the bench. There Aigis made her lie down, tying the ropes around her waist to the end past Mitsuru's head while the ones around her wrists to the bottom, past her legs. All she could do was turn her head and watch as the android went to help Yukari lift off the top panel, setting it aside on the floor with more care than either had shown when they'd bound and stripped her. She looked up to see Yukari glancing back at her over her shoulder before turning around with a smirk, bending down besides her stretched out body.

The look in her eye was disturbing, and she crouched to her knees like a waiting predator, while her hand roamed over Mitsuru's stomach, gentle fingers drifting over the skin like the breath of a lover, and Mitsuru recoiled at the thought. Surely there was no way Yukari was thinking...well, thinking that. That certainty took a hit as she felt the other hand creep up beneath the torn fragments of her shirt. "You know you're enjoying this, Mitsuru. No need to fight it." She didn't even bother replying to that, just sneering silently at the ceiling. Yukari took the hint, and stood with a sigh.

Mitsuru saw her chance. "Yukari, just think about this," she asked with a calmness she didn't feel. "Let me go and I give you my word you won't suffer any repercussions from it."
Yukari stayed quiet as she and Aigis bent to untie her from the bench, Aigis keeping her pinned while Yukari grabbed her ankles, hauling her round until she could drop them into the two slots at the far end. She expected the top board to be dropped in then, just like the ones in the documentaries, but it wasn't. Instead, she cried out as she was cruelly bent forward, the heavy top piece of wood dropped down to seal her in as soon as her neck touched the padding on the lower half. She felt like she was trapped in a vice, and she could practically hear her muscles screaming in protest at this.

Yukari draped herself over the stocks, arms folded beneath her chin as she gazed down at Mitsuru. "You promise I have your word?"
The other girl could only just turn her head enough to catch a glimpse of her captor, and spoke urgently, "Of course! All you have to do is let me out of here."
Yukari sighed, and nodded as if she hadn't even bothered to listen. "So, I've got your word," she said as she straightened up, hands picking up one of the locks out of her captive's sight. "I'm glad...it's just not going to be the word you thought," she carried on as she sealed it shut through the clasp. Mitsuru just stared at the floor in horror, hearing the twin of the sound coming from near her other foot, and she knew that Aigis had just put the other lock onto the stocks.

She could see Yukari's shoes backpedalling as she made her way backwards, hearing a clink as she picked something up before coming back. Only the glint of metal reflecting the dim ceiling light betrayed any hint of what it was, until Yukari waved it under her face. "Recognise this, dear senpai?" Mitsuru stifled a gasp at the sight. I'd know that anywhere, she thought, and part of her seethed at the thought of Yukari daring to take it for herself. Her captor waved it around again, unable to stop sniggering like a schoolgirl. "Yep. Your favourite foil from the fencing club."

She traced the bulbous foil of the blade over the exposed toes of Mitsuru's right foot, the cold steel lingering enough to send a shiver down the bound girl's body. That foil was her one salvation; the foil as a blade was useless for cutting anything since it was a tool of learning and practise, and that meant Yukari wasn't going to do anything serious. At least, not beyond what the little bitch has already done, she thought. Above her, Yukari was still smiling as she swung the end of the blade against her captive's foot, beaming at the thin yelp that resulted. But she grew serious again. "There's only one word I want to hear from you tonight Mitsuru. I want you to beg me to stop."

That was when it truly began, the foil tracing along her foot as if to tease before being whipped in a snapping arc, over and over. She had no idea what was happening behind her, and would have regretted it if she had. The devilish tendrils, mobile firing pins, that Aigis had extended from her hand on the first day swarmed out of the gun-fingers along with their identical twins from her left hand. They trailed and moved in the air like a swarm of worms, stopping only when she stood before Mitsuru's left foot. Clapping her hands together, the tendrils met and wrapped around each other like a nest of tentacles with half their length left swinging freely. The metal hands swung like a golfer taking a put, and the tendrils lashed against the long arch of her foot.

She whimpered, she shrieked, she screamed for the first two hours. But Mitsuru took heart in the fact that no matter what, she wouldn't say the words Yukari wanted her to say. To beg, to plead, like a misbehaving child. Or a slave, she thought with a wince as the tendrils swept their harsh length onto her sole. She couldn't decide if one was worse than the other; the solid bite of the foil only focused the pain on a single part of her skin, but the tendrils flowed like water all over her feet. But in the end, she couldn't resist, the strain of trying to hold herself back from saying the words she knew Yukari wanted to hear becoming too much for her, and she closed her eyes as she sank into the abyss of sleep.

She woke at the sound of the bird's song. It hung in the sky above, circling in wide, lazy arcs, wings flapping with slow disdain as the same breeze whistling over her skin kept it in the air. Mitsuru smiled as she recognised the shape of a red-crowned crane, and the smile only widened as she kept looking up at it flying high. Ever since she was little, though she'd never told anyone so, she'd loved to watch the birds soaring into the sky from their perches, free to explore as they were borne on the winds. It just brought home the fact that she was bound to become the next leader of the Kirijo Group even more, and that for most of her life she hadn't had that freedom that even Motoko or Yukari had in their lives. As she thought of the last girl, her expression soured a little. Why on earth had she been dreaming such foul things about her friend? She looked back down to the ground she lay on; a field, the grass bending beneath her fingers as she pushed herself up.

She looked to her left, seeing the mountain for the first time. It was only a pile of rock, but she couldn't help but think of it looking just as threatening as Tartarus itself. It looks so grim, she thought to herself, like it doesn't even want anything near it. She couldn't help but shiver, the air suddenly becoming a chill on her skin. A shadow dipped over her face for a moment, and she shielded her eyes as she gazed up at it. It looked like a golden eagle, smaller than the crane but she couldn't help but think it compensated by looking savage. Where the crane flew with bored apathy, the eagle dived with furious precision, wings pummelling the air as it headed straight for the larger bird. Mitsuru shouted, a vain effort to warn the bird, she knew, but still...she had to at least try!

She tried to look away from the inevitable but she couldn't. The eagle snapped at the crane, its yellowed beak snapping at the white flank of the larger bird, and all the crane could do in return was try to buffet the eagle with its broad wings. Still it did nothing but circle about, as if all the crane cared for was to remain trapped in the same figure of eight it had been flying since she'd first seen it, and the eagle kept pecking at it. She stared in horror as the raptor's beak found purchase, and it snapped close on the crane's right leg before she...

...shuddered awake with a short scream, head flailing around inside the stock's constrictive seal before the tip of a foil was brought against her chin. Swallowing instinctively at the touch of the cold metal, she craned her neck to follow its touch until she was looking at Yukari's glaring face. The younger girl's fingers were still pinched around her big toe, still red from the pressure she was exerting. "Am I boring you, Mitsuru?" The older girl just broke down, shying away from the angry gaze of Yukari. So close, she thought, why couldn't this have been the dream?

"I'm so glad to hear it, dear senpai. Here, let me make it...a bit more 'hands-on', yes?" She could hear the awkwardness in Yukari's tone as she stumbled over the unfamiliar English words, one of the few times Mitsuru had ever heard the other girl use a foreign language outside of tutor periods. She stiffened as she realised the other girl was now behind her, leaning over her, one hand slipping to the front of her tattered shirt and reaching inside. She could feel it massaging her breasts, and she bucked as wildly as she could to throw Yukari off. The younger woman just laughed, her free hand reaching over the top of the heavy wooden stock and grasping her captive's hair.

She pulled it then, making it turn back to the left foot where Aigis still stood silently, as imposing in her steady cold gaze as the mountain in Mitsuru's dream had been. "Come on Aigis, let's not let Mitsuru get bored again," she chided. The android said nothing as her eyes turned to the pale sole in front of her, and she extended the dendrites in her hands once more. Clenching them together as if a mass of tentacles belonging to a sea creature, she leant back like a golfer before bringing them down in an almost dainty half-spin that left Mitsuru screaming from the burning trails of the dendrite's wake on her skin. She watched helplessly, the shame from the fact she couldn't stop it burning up inside, as the dendrites fell upon her sole again and again.

She could feel the tracks of her tears making their way down her face, ruining what little was left of her tattered makeup. The pain mingled with shame, and fear, as she tried to drive out the sensations coming from her foot and her breasts where Yukari's hand toyed mercilessly, pinching and groping as she pleased. Yukari bowed her head down towards Mitsuru's own, cooing softly to her, "I'm glad you're enjoying it all, Mitsuru, but I think you're feeling a bit worn out." The redhead tried to repress the look of hope on her face, but inside she felt so conflicted. Is she serious, she thought, it's over? She knew being led back to that room where she'd spent the night tied up and forced to watch her other teammates going about their lives was an awful experience, but it had to be better than this.

Above her, Yukari let go of her hair, waving at Aigis to stop her constant work for a moment. "Well," Yukari asked quietly, "are you feeling a bit worn out?" Mitsuru couldn't bring herself to do anything other than whisper her answer of 'yes', but her captor decided she wasn't going to put up with that. Her hand had stopped roaming, slender fingers resting on one of her teased nipples just before she delicately pinched it between thumb and forefinger. "I can't hear you, Mitsuru. Speak up, why don't you?" she asked, brusquely cutting off Mitsuru's piteous whine.
She gave up. Everything within her burned with the need not to, but in the end she couldn't resist the opportunity dangled before her. "Y...yes, Yukari."
"Yes, what?" the other girl asked with sudden venom in her voice.
"Yes Yukari...I'm feeling worn out."

"Shush..." murmured her captor. "It's alright, I'm glad you said it," she carried on, now stroking the top of Mitsuru's head gently. "Let's give you a break, yes?" Yukari whispered to her. Her hands suddenly kneaded into gripping her captive's red locks, forcing her to stare to the right this time. "Aigis, if you'd be so kind...?"
The bound girl just trembled as the still android moved over, bracing back into that same golfer's swing before lashing out at her so-far untouched sole, and she screamed with the pain. The sensation of the firing pins smacking into her foot was agonising, but still she tried to bite back the howls of suffering.

"Come on, Mitsuru. Tell me you want me to stop it. Beg me to. Plead for mercy," intoned Yukari as solemnly as an executioner. "Come on, Mitsuru. All it takes is that one word. You can end all this pain right now if you just say it." She left her place behind Mitsuru now and strode around the far side of the heavy stocks, hand still gripping her captive's hair. "Well?" she demanded, the impatience in her voice clear now.
Gritting her teeth against the blows Aigis kept inflicting on her now painfully red sole, Mitsuru craned her neck back up into the top half of the stocks, until she could just see Yukari in the corner of her eye, "Not a chance, you little cow."

Yukari's face just grew into a grim smile. "I had a feeling you were going to say that, actually."
Letting her grip on Mitsuru's hair go, she walked around behind her again, bending down to pick up a narrow but long canvas tube that she'd stashed there before picking up Mitsuru from Aigis earlier that day. Plunging her hand in, she managed to extract the two items she wanted before walking back around to Mitsuru's trapped head. There she dangled one of them in front of her captive's face, and waited for Mitsuru to focus on it. The bound girl stared at it; a crimson-dark ball that looked like it was rubber, black straps flapping loose from either side. "Open wide now, Mitsuru," asked Yukari patiently. Mitsuru just shook her head fiercely, determined not to let that thing be put in her mouth.

Yukari just pursed her lips and turned to Aigis. "Persuade her, would you?" The robot nodded once, turning back to that same golfer's swing she'd been using to lash Mitsuru's feet for nearly an hour now, and brought it down twice as hard as any of the ones before. Before her captive could stop herself, she'd opened her mouth in a piercing shriek as the blunt cylinders lashed against her foot, and Yukari feverishly worked the crimson ball into her mouth before strapping the leather straps together around the back of her head. Brushing away any trapped strands of hair, Yukari plucked the other object, a heavy roll of microfoam tape, from where she'd dropped it atop the stocks in her hurry to gag Mitsuru. She ripped a piece off, plastering it over Mitsuru's distorted mouth before hastily tamping it down. Then another piece was ripped off, this one smoothed down over her captive's eyes and another followed it. It may have been pointless given that she couldn't see anything clearly aside from the floor before her, but Yukari felt in the mood for emphasis.

Slipping over to Aigis, she leant over to her compatriot's ear. "Withdraw those firing pins. We'll be using something else now," she said before slipping back around to pick up the canvas bag once more. Here she pulled out ten short lengths of wire, and she handed them to Aigis without a word, pulling out ten lengthy strings for herself. She moved to stand before her captive, hands braced on her hips. "I know we've been spoiling you with our attention for most of the day, Mitsuru, so now I just want you to sit there for a moment while we get you comfortable." The other girl just mewled behind the gag, barely audible to Yukari less than a metre away, whether at what Yukari said, or at the realisation that Aigis was now stood behind her, supple fingers gathering up her hair into strands and wrapping each one with a length of wire, incredibly leaving enough wire in each one free to wrap into a hangman's noose before pulling them all through what little space remained between the bound girl's neck and the stock's headhole itself.

Chiding herself for just watching her companion's work, Yukari crouched down besides Mitsuru's left foot, the red marks that had adorned it now fading, and quickly wrapped a length of string around each long toe. Satisfied with the tautness of each one, she silently passed them around the side of the wood to Aigis' waiting hands before moving off to repeat it on the right foot. Dragging those strings, careful to make sure they went around the stock horizontally rather than coming over the top, she reached out for the nearest strand of hair, tying the free length of the string through the noose before drawing it in tightly and knotting it. She hurried along with the rest, watching Aigis do the same for the left-hand strings she'd passed over, ignoring the babbling grunts and mmphs coming from behind Mitsuru's securely gagged lips.

When they'd finished, they walked back to the front, and Yukari couldn't repress the thin smile of satisfaction on her face as she stared down at her trophy. She bent down quietly besides one foot, her fingers reaching out and drifting down it lighter than a feather, and the smile turned to a beam of joy as she watched the toes start to move, cut short as they pulled on Mitsuru's hair and a thin yelp was muffled behind the gag. She moved quickly then, pulling out a pair of slender willow reeds from the bag, passing one to Aigis delicately before turning back to her captive, one hand lightly caressing Mitsuru's cheek. "I gave you the chance to put an end to it, Mitsuru. Over and over, I said, and did you listen?" she asked, before carrying on. "Of course you didn't, because you're Miss Perfect," she said with a theatrical sigh. "Well you've got what you wanted."

She whipped the thin reed in her hand against the stock, just centimetres from Mitsuru's head, the thin thwish startling the older girl as it lashed into the wood. "That was so you know what's coming," Yukari said in a grim voice. "Aigis, if you'd be so kind?" At that, the artificial girl watched Mitsuru's trapped foot for a moment, most likely using whatever inbuilt combat software she had to judge the best place, before suddenly whipping the mid-part of the reed against Mitsuru's arch, eliciting a muffled grunt from the captive. Sitting back on her crouched knees, Yukari watched her repeat this with a content expression before turning to the untreated foot that lay before her. Here she reached her fingers out, resting them atop the heel before slowly moving them sidewards, wandering them along the skin, her nails skimming the skin and leaving it tingling in their wake.

Enough with subtlety; she put the reed down atop her knees, bracing her thin fingers on either side of Mitsuru's arch before she began to slowly rake her nails up and down, weaving them in and around as intricately as any spider's web. Mitsuru's feet were shaking under the double assault, and Yukari could only dream of how painful it was for the proud redhead. She kept at it for another ten minutes, and by this point sweat was dripping down her captive's face from the strain. Motioning to Aigis, she watched as the robot put her own reed down and unlocked the gunport-fingers of her left hand. She extended the firing pins out, keeping the cable behind them firmly inside before grasping Mitsuru's toes and spreading them with her forceful fingers.

Then they were run between her toes, Aigis moving her hand like a engine, sliding the pins over and against the vulnerable skin without a pause. On the other side, Yukari's reed was in hand, and she rested the paper-thin tip against the inside curve of her arch. There she teased her captive, gently flicking it against her skin, brushing it to the side and lifting it away in a repetitive cycle that amused her. Eventually she broke it, lifting the reed up and then smacking it down as hard as she could, grinning as Mitsuru finally broke into a scream that she could hear, even if it wasn't legible, through the gag. She lifted the reed up again, and brought it down with a meaty slap, and again and again until it broke. Staring at it in annoyance, she shrugged, and reached into the bag for the rest of the bundle she'd left in it.

As she plucked a new one from inside the string-wrapped package, Yukari smiled down at her captive, and bent back to her work eagerly.