Chapter One: It all Started with a Letter
Ryuko had barely managed to graduate from high school, so it came as a surprise when she received an acceptance letter to a college, one that she had never applied to or heard of. Ryuko's first thought was oh shit, I'm going to college, quickly followed by a less pleasant second thought, this is probably fake. Ryuko had planned to get a job right after high school graduation; she deemed herself not smart enough to pursue a higher education, all she was really good at involved using her fists. Besides, she didn't have the money to pay for a college, even a community one and she didn't want to burden the Mankankshoku's more than she already had. They were her adoptive family ever since her place had burned down, practically raising her despite the fact that they could barely support themselves. So Ryuko had decided to do what was best and what made sense, and stick to helping repay the family for their kindness in keeping her feed and clothed. That's why Ryuko, despite her original hype, barely spared a second glance at the pamphlet before going to toss it out, when she was intercepted by Mako, her best friend and adopted sister.
"Stop right there Ryuko-chan!" she exclaimed as she flung herself at Ryuko. Ryuko easily sidestepped, letting Mako crash into the living room couch.
"Why?" Ryuko asked scratching her short unruly hair. "It's probably a scheme to get me to go to this college and then they'll charge me hella money and stuff. It has to be a sham."
"But Ryuko! I got the same thing!" Mako picked herself up, unfazed with crashing face first into the couch and pulled out the same shiny pamphlet that Ryuko had received, before waving it around. "You know what this means! It means it must be fate the both of us got into the same college and for free! We have to go, we have to!" Mako's hands went above her head as she began her speech, moving around and taking up weird poses. "What would your dad say? He'd want you to go to college! I want you to go to college! My family wants you to go to college! So you better do it!" Ryuko let out a sigh at the end of Mako's impassioned speech. She hated when Mako did these speeches because they were so damn embarrassing to watch, but because she was also so damn good at convincing people when she did them.
Still Ryuko wouldn't cave in that easily. "Look, like I said before it's probably some scam or something. I'm not smart enough to get a college to even accept me." Then Ryuko's eyes widened a bit, "Wait did you say it's a full ride?"
"Yup" Mako nodded her head crazy fast, her coconut hair cut flopping around. "The school gave us both a full ride."
"Huh, you don't say" Ryuko muttered. A full ride-for the both of them. Wow, this had to be a dream of some sort. But Ryuko shook her head. Mako was making it harder for her to accept the facts that she couldn't afford to go to college. "I didn't even apply to this school; I don't know anything about it."
"But Ryuko, you're plenty smart! And pretty! It's perfectly normal for colleges to send letters to great students! You just gotta believe. Remember that time that you got into that fight with the guy who had that gun! Everyone thought you would lose but you were like wham and bam and ka-pow, you outsmarted him and escaped alive!" Mako smiled at Ryuko as if that were something to be proud of.
"Mako, that's not exactly being smart, it's called being lucky. Colleges look for book smarts and I barely managed to graduate on time." Ryuko let out a huff as she recalled her high school years. She'd hated high school so much. She couldn't for the life of her focus on the lessons; everything went in through one ear and out the other. The only thing she excelled at, she soon realized, was to be disrespectful to the teachers and to pick fights with the students. The only good thing that came out of the four years was meeting Mako there. They'd bonded on the first day right off the bat. Ryuko had left her lunch at home when Mako shared her's. She was the only girl to still bring lunchboxes to school, and they were full of mystery croquettes. Ryuko had been reluctant to try them as they looked and smelled weird but soon found they were tastier than anything else and filled her with warmth and energy. That was also when Ryuko noticed that Mako ate a lot a lot of food.
"Pleaseeeeeee?" Mako's whining brought Ryuko out of her memories. "Please can you do this for me?" Mako grabbed both of Ryuko's hands and looked at her with such expectation and hope that Ryuko felt her last wall of resolve crumble.
"Fine" Ryuko grumbled, "But if it's anything shady, we leave alright?"
"Yay!" Mako let go of Ryuko's hands and started twirling around excitedly around the room. Ryuko let out a chuckle as she watched Mako stumble and fall onto the carpet. Mako was the person she held most dearly and she owed her to at least try.
Later after the family had all gone to sleep, Ryuko sat propped up in her bed with the pamphlet she had received. Honnouji University was written on it in big fancy letters, below it pictures of a campus comprised of gray steel buildings. Well the campus sure looks cheery, Ryuko thought sarcastically. She opened it up and started reading the programs list. It turned out there was a bunch of academic buildings and such that a normal college would have. Ryuko did notice, however, that a lot of the programs were focused on the martial arts, or some form of fighting or sport. Huh, that's weird. Then Ryuko looked through her acceptance letter.
Dear Matoi,
We at Honnouji University are pleased to provide you with the opportunity to have the college experience for free. Your combat skills precede you and it would be our greatest honor if we could assist in helping them grow. Our University prides itself on taking the best fighters from around the globe and teaching them how to increase the potential they already have. Our students will be raised to bars they've never been raised to before, but not just physically. We also have a great academic program that will help you learn and overcome your mental barriers. With students as talented as you, it would be a waste to not have you attend college, so from the bottom of our hearts we implore you to take this opportunity and become someone.
Sincerely, Lady Kiryuin Satsuki, President of Honnouji University
Ryuko thought for a moment on what she had just read. It all sounded too good to be true. A school that would help her academically, as well as with her martial arts? How did they even know about her? Was her reputation for being a delinquent really that well-known? And how did Mako get an invitation as well? She wasn't a fighter and she actually tried in school. But she did win the Underachiever of the Year award in their high school so maybe that counted against her. Ryuko shook her head. She still had a week before having to send in her reply to the school. Maybe she'd think about it then. For now she was tired. She put the papers back where they belonged and then turned off the lights to go to sleep.
Two months later and Ryuko found herself standing in front of her old home. The place hadn't been touched in all the years it stood here, charred wood and the smell of ash as poignant as the day it had happened. Tomorrow, Ryuko would be leaving to college with Mako, all of their measly belongings packed into one large suitcase. Ryuko still couldn't believe it was happening. It all seemed so surreal. She had thought she would stay in this town, working three jobs trying to make ends meet until the day she died, but now it looked like grander things awaited her future. And for that she was pleased.
"Hey dad" she greeted as she entered the ruins of the house. She clenched a handful of daisies she had plucked before coming here and placed it on the burned remains of a chair- the only furniture that was still intact.
"Guess what?" she prompted to the empty house. Flies lazily flew around her as she continued walking around, soot rubbing off on her ratty white shoes. "I'm on my way to college. Seems pretty crazy, huh? I'd never thought I would go y' know but it's happening and I feel kind of...glad and maybe even scared." Ryuko confessed as she stopped and let her fingers trace a jutting piece of wood that used to belong to the doorframe of her father's room. "But I'll be back, don't worry. And I'll make sure to visit ya. I know how lonely you can get." Ryuko smirked before shoving her hands into her black jersey jacket and continuing to walk around. She wanted to memorize this place, to etch it into her bones. While most people would have found visiting the scene of an accident or horrible event even traumatizing, Ryuko didn't. Instead she loved visiting here because it was where she'd had good memories, it was where she had grown up, and most importantly it was where her father had been.
Ryuko lost in her thoughts, didn't notice the creaking of wood underneath her feet or the slight shifting of the ground before it was too late. The floor ripped open underneath her and she let out a scream that was cut short by her impact with the ground. Sitting up slowly and coughing hard to try and breathe, she noticed through all the dust she had unsettled, that she was in a basement of shorts. Junk littered the ground and she had fallen into a particularly big pile of it. The hole she had fallen through wasn't too far out of reach and she could probably reach it if she stood on something tall. Relieved that she wouldn't be stuck here Ryuko took to exploring the place she had fallen into. It must've been her father's lab because Ryuko had never been inside it. Most of the stuff here had survived in better condition than what was upstairs. She walked around in the dim light making out the shapes of various chemist sets, mechanical gizmos and her father's desk. On it she found something that made her heart skip a beat. There was a big box on top that had the letters Ryuko printed on it. Cautiously wiping the cobwebs from it, she opened the lid. Inside there was one half of a pair of red scissors, gleaming in the darkness and underneath there was a leather jacket. Ryuko picked both items up her breath coming in small gasps. In red lettering Senketsu was spelled out on the jackets back. The jacket looked to be about her size now and Ryuko swallowed angrily. This, this was what her father had died for? For a stupid jacket and pair of scissors?!
Memories flashed in Ryuko's eyes. She had been twelve at the time, back home on a break from boarding school when it had all happened. The fire had started and spread so quickly. Her father had carried her out of the house across the block where people were starting to gather.
"Dad, what's going on?" Ryuko asked confused and horrified as the house she had grown up in incinerated before her eyes.
"Don't worry, you'll be fine" Her father had reassured her before he straightened up his face frozen in horrid realization. "Oh no, your birthday gifts!" with that he hobbled over to the house whose angry flames greeted him eagerly.
"No dad, stop!" Ryuko howled as a neighbor held her back from following her father. "Dad, I don't care about the stupid presents, I don't care! Just come back!"
But her father had disappeared into the blaze and even once the firefighters had arrived, he hadn't remerged.
As the memories faded from her vision Ryuko threw down the jacket with flourish. "Stupid, stupid, stupid!" She growled as she stomped the jacket over and over again. "Why'd dad have to go back for you, huh? You're just a stupid, stupid, stupid fucking jacket!" Ryuko screamed, her echoes ringing off the stone walls.
She stood over the jacket, breathing hard. She felt a stinging in her hand and realized that she had been clenching her hand so hard that she'd cut herself with the small blade. She stood staring at the cut in her hand as fresh blood pooled up and fell off her hand onto the jacket. The pain brought clarity to her head and she calmed down. There was no point in continuing her rant or else she'd only get worse and feel the need to start beating something or someone up, and she didn't want to ruin her first day of college. Ryuko tossed the blade aside and was about to leave when she realized she couldn't move. The jacket underneath her feet had wrapped itself around her legs and was writhing uncontrollably. The fuck- Ryuko thought before the jacket burst into life and tackled her.
"Ahhh! Get off!" Ryuko yelled as she tried to peel the offending article of clothing off of her. But the jacket just wrapped its arms around her tighter and screamed at her, "Why'd you have to stomp me for? You know how much that hurts? Why did you have to be so cruel, master?"
Master? Ryuko thought confusedly. "I'm no master of yours" she grunted as she finally flung the article of clothing away. But that didn't stop it. It tried to launch its self at her again so she dove for the nearest weapon she could think of and pulled up the small scissor blade. The jacket stopped short at this and stood in front of Ryuko, sleeves up in surrender, as she slowly stood up from where she had slide onto the floor to get the blade.
"But you are my master. Now at least" The jacket said in a subdued tone.
"What's going on?" Ryuko stammered. Was she going crazy? Had she inhaled the smell of smoke for too long? Had it all been a dream, yes it would make sense. After all, getting into college for free-psh when would that ever happen. But if this was a dream why hadn't she woken up when she'd cut herself? The pain would have been enough to jar her awake.
"Ryuko," the jacket started to which Ryuko groaned and covered her eyes with her free hand temporarily, muttering out, "How do you know my name" which the jacket ignored before continuing. "Your father created me in order to help you. I'm not sure what for, maybe he wants to me to protect you, but I promise you I mean you no harm."
Ryuko swallowed hard. "My father died to save a talking jacket that was meant to protect me. Well that's something you don't see every day."
"Please Ryuko, I'm here to help you", the jacket pleaded as she looked down upon it with cold hard eyes. No one moved for what felt like ages while Ryuko made her decision. At last her cold gaze softened and she put away the scissor blade she had been holding. Senketsu was the only physical remaining thing she had from her father and no matter how odd it was, she couldn't give up on it.
"You're coming with me" she grunted to which Senketsu moved to go towards her, "Uh uh, you keep your distance. Don't go touching me." With that she marched off and the jacket followed. It surely was going to be a weird way to start off college.