What's this? She actually posted something? What's this? It's not an update to her other UzuRyu story? What's this? A brand new story?
You better believe it.
Well, technically, it's not Brand New.
This story will be based off of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. I went to go see the movie way back two months ago right when it came out and fell in love with it, thinking it would make a GREAT UzuRyu story. So, it's more like a heavily influenced fanfiction off of a movie adaption to a fanfiction of the original content. Even though I saw the movie two months ago and the idea for this story came almost instantly, I apologize for having posted anything for it for so long. I've been working on other things so just writing the outline for this fic had to take a back seat and even then, whenever I had a chance to work on this, I could only do it by parts.
I'm glad to say though, that this is probably (most definitely) the longest piece of writing I've done EVER. I'm actually pretty proud of myself for pulling it off! I didn't realize just how long it can take to write a chapter this long and some authors can bring out multiple ones in a couple of weeks like nothing! My hats off to you!
As I've said, this fanfiction is heavily based off the Pride and Prejudice and Zombies movie that came out back in February, so if you haven't seen it, you've been warned so don't be mad about spoilers.
This is Part 1 out of a 3 Part story.
Please enjoy.
Disclaimers galore.
PPZ
1.
The splash of water against the wet pavement echoed through the quiet street as tires ran through into the Osaka territory. The car's engine gave a low hum as its driver, with a scowl on his face, steadily pressed harder on the gas, making his way up the street towards the mansion.
It was a damp morning after a heavy rainfall the night before, and Uzu Sanageyama was anything but chipper about his (very) early order to investigate the rumor of a zombie roaming about.
Finally arriving at the front gates to the Manor, Sanageyama stepped out of his car and was approached by two guards, each wielding a long range weapon.
"Halt!" the first guard ordered stepping closer "Who goes there?"
"Uzu Sanageyama" he introduced himself.
"That's Sanageyama-san" the other guard said, recognizing the name and lowered his weapon as he turned towards his partner "He's an elite of Lady Satsuki's personal combat team"
"The Lady Satsuki?" the first guard said "Forgive us Sanageyama-san. We've been on duty since last night, you see, and it's always a little more stressful during the night watch since we can't see as well"
Sanageyama sighed and nodded in understanding.
"Don't worry about it. I'm here on official business and need to speak to the owner of this place"
"Of course!" the guards said and went to grab a butler to escort him into the mansion.
When a butler finally did come, he led him down a long hallway and turned to a set of double doors. The faint thumping of music could be heard from the other side and Sanageyama could only guess the room was sound proof. The butler opened the doors for him and he was instantly greeted by the loud music attacking his ear drums. He walked into the large dark room with neon lights going every which way and looked around to see people drinking, dancing and generally having a good time. There was a DJ in the corner playing a techno beat and hyping people up, but once he looked up at the sudden light and saw Sanageyama walk in, he immediately stopped the music. Everyone stopped once the music died and looked around wondering what happened. All the chatter died down as the group of people looked towards Sanageyama, recognizing him and wondering about his presence. Sanageyma paid them no mind and stared directly at the man in charge of the party who was making his way towards him.
"Well if it isn't Satsuki's monkey!"
"Takarada"
The young man stepped up to Sanageyama and gave him a once over, a smug grin and leer etched onto his face.
"Now I'm sure you know that at this OG's house that "he pointed at Sanageyama's goku uniform, "is in strict violation of dress code! We ain't here to learn, son! We're here to party till we can't party no more! Know what I'm sayin?"
"Yeah, well, there's rumors going around of a potential zombie roaming somewhere in the area" Sanageyama said, completely disregarding the jab at his clothing. "Lady Satsuki sent me here to investigate"
The crowd of people instantly looked around at hearing his words, wondering if they were true. Takarada glanced behind him at all the nervous murmurs and his grin slid off his face as he turned back to Sanageyama.
"You think a lil 'ol zombie can scare me, the great Takarada? Boy, I got this place heavily guarded!" he then turned to the crowd "Ain't no sorry ass zombie comin in here and ruining this party!"
The people looked to be reassured and started talking to each other. Takarada turned back to Sanageyama.
"If there were any zombie up in this shit, the grannies upstairs woulda notified me the moment 'dis here rumor reached their gossip cravin ears" he said smugly "You ain't gotta worry 'bout a thing. But hey, since you came all this way, why don't you have a drink? Then you can go back to your lil Satsuki 'n tell her ain't no monsters at ma place. I know the only rumor y'all heard was that I was turnin up! She don't need no excuse to send someone. She can come on her own! That ma future baby mama! She welcome here anyday!" he finished with a smirk.
Sanageyama swallowed down the bile that tried to come up along with his outrage at Takarada's view on Lady Satsuki and gave Takarada a blank stare.
"Yeah" he said after a beat "I think I just might need that drink"
"Aww yeah!" Takarada said and turned towards the DJ in the corner "Yo DJ! Who said you could stop the party? Drop a beat!"
At the go ahead, the DJ started to play a mix and soon the room was back to the way it was when Sanageyama first walked in. Sanageyama walked towards the open bar and leaned against it, looking in disgust at all the clubbing activity. One of the bartenders approached him and asked if he wanted anything. He gave him a once over and ordered a soda, taking a gulp when it came. A pretty brown haired girl sashayed up to him and propped up on the bar stool next to him. She batted her eyelashes to catch his attention but instead, her attention was caught at the small vial he pulled out of his coat pocket.
"What's that?" she asked.
He glanced at her before going back to the vial and taking the cork out, letting a couple of flies out.
"Flies" he said and continued at her confused look "They're special flies that can detect rotting flesh"
"They're a real bother flying around" she said and swatted at one that got too close.
"Trust me, they're more of a bother when they stop" he said and took another sip.
Almost instantly, the girl froze as she saw the flies land on top of the head of the bartender who served Sanageyama. He was hunched over and breathing heavily, looking up when he felt the flies crawling on his head and turned to them. His eyes were red.
"Oh shit" the girl said.
Sanageyama finished his soda. The next instant, the soda bottle was smashed onto the table and Sanageyama was over the counter, lunging the broken piece in his hand into the bartender's neck. He then took out his wooden sword stashed in the sheath on his back inside his coat and stabbed the tip into the zombie's head, killing it. The crashing sound got the attention of people close by and when they saw what happened, they screamed. That got everyone else to turn around and look at the scene as the DJ turned the music off again. A female bartender looked on at the body of her friend in shock and ran out of the room.
Sanageyama took his sword out and cleaned it before putting it back away and making his way out of the room. He passed by Takarada who was nearby and had his mouth agape. He patted his shoulder as he walked by.
"Thanks for the drink" he said and left.
A quiet murmur started up again and Takarada was quick to try and calm his guests down.
"Alright now, y'all. He left so problem solved, right?"
The brown haired girl looked with concern towards where the girl bartender ran off too and followed her. She came to a room with a slightly open door and peaked in and she heard a faint crying. The girl was hunched over something and was shaking.
"Hey" the brown haired girl said and opened the door wider to let herself in "I'm sorry about your friend, but I promise, it'll be OK"
The bartender stopped shaking and slowly lifted her head as if she was transfixed by something. Then she quickly turned her head to face the brown haired girl. Half of her face was missing and a snot bubble blew out from where her nose should have been.
She charged her.
The brown haired girl let out a shriek.
"Ryuko!"
Upon hearing the sudden call, Ryuko quickly stepped to the side and dodged an incoming tackle from Mako. Once she recovered from her crash, Mako slumped over to stand next to her friend.
"Aww Ryuko~ why'd you avoid me?" she asked.
"What kind of person would just stand there and take the hit?" Ryuko replied.
"That's half the fun!" Mako chirped and they started to walk down the street they were currently on. It was on the shady part of town and they were just finishing the errands Mako's father sent them on and were on their way back home.
"Maybe for a crazy like you" Ryuko teased. "Come on, it's starting to get dark. We better pick up the pace"
"I wouldn't worry about a thing!" Mako said confidently "We've both got our uniforms on and with you around, I'll always be safe!"
Ryuko, touched by Mako's declaration, smiled at her.
"I'm glad you feel that way. But what I meant to say is that it's almost dinner time"
"Oh My Gosh you're right!" Mako gasped and grabbing Ryuko's hand, she started to sprint "We can't miss the mystery croquettes!"
They made it back to their underground home in record time and slammed the door open, signaling to all the inhabitants they were home. When nobody answered, they went searching around and found Mataro and his dog, Guts leaning their faces close to a slightly opened door.
Ryuko opened her mouth to ask what they were doing, but before a sound could come out, Mataro was already shushing her with Gut imitating his actions. He signaled them to come closer and Ryuko and Mako obeyed out of curiosity. Inside the room were the Mankanshoku parents having a mature, private conversation.
"Honey, did you hear about the new boy who just moved in to the neighborhood?" the mother, Sukuyo, asked.
"Yeah!", Barazo exclaimed excitedly from his desk "Did you hear how rich he is?! I mean! Not that money has any effect on me! I am a back alley doctor after all!"
Sukuyo gave a whimsical sigh and sat down on a nearby sofa.
"I heard he was quite a man. Wouldn't it be lovely if he would marry one of our girls?"
Hearing that, Mako freaked and barged into the room despite the protests from the others hiding.
"We have a new neighbor?!" she asked excitedly, completely missing the part of her mother wanting to marry her or Ryuko off. Ryuko calmly walked in as Mataro and Guts ran inside.
"And he's stinkin rich!" Mataro happily said.
"Honey!" Sukuyo said "You have to go meet him! Invite him over and introduce Mako and Ryuko to him!"
Mako was spinning around in a circle, excitedly chatting about the 'new mystery neighbor' and Ryuko winced at the inclination of Sukuyo's words.
"You can't really expect us to meet him and get married, can you?" she said "I mean, sure we might not be living the life here, but the money can't be the only thing you guys are after?"
"Oh nonsense Ryuko! I care more about you two finding happiness, but with the way things are lately, you never know when…things come up. The sooner you get married, the better if you ask me! Right, sweetie?" her mother turned to her husband who was pulling up math calculations with a calculator in his hand. Mataro was standing beside him looking over his shoulder.
"Let's see, you add a decimal here and—oh my god! Our grandchildren's grandchildren will still be loaded!...Huh? Did you say something?"
Sukuyo sighed and looked back to Ryuko.
"I know boys are the last thing on your mind, sweetie, but don't be too against the idea. You never know, you might meet the man of your dreams and you wouldn't even realize it" she giggled.
"You better believe you'll meet the man of your dreams! Tonight!" Bazaro suddenly yelled "There's going to be a ball! And the new neighbor, Gamagoori's his name, will be there! So we will too!"
"Really dad?" Mataro asked. Guts barked happily beside him.
Mako stopped twirling around the room and jumped on Ryuko's back.
"A ball! We've never been to a ball! It sounds so exciting…"
Ryuko sighed at the family's antics as Mako began to drag her to their room to get dressed.
One hour later, everyone was dressed and ready for their first night at a ball. Bazaro and Mataro threw some black clothes together to pass for tuxedos. They even found a small black shirt of Guts. Sukuyo was glad to find some old dresses for her and the girls. They weren't dressed to the nines, but it would pass for the night.
"Let's go Family Unit!"
"Stop being so stiff Gamagoori" Sanageyama said.
"I can't help it. I'm currently surrounded by all of my new neighbors. I can't afford to make a bad first impression" Gamagoori said.
They were standing against one of the far walls away from the dance floor and by the buffet table, watching people dancing and socializing. It had been a couple of hours since the ball began and Gamagoori made sure to bring himself and his good friend right on time and not a minute late. Everyone knew about his reputation as the head of law enforcement throughout the city and those who didn't and tried to cross the law, he made sure to educate. He served directly under Her Ladyship and upheld order of the citizens to keep as many possible from turning.
He was a man to be both feared and respected. But that was all people knew of him. Moving into the neighborhood, Gamagoori was determined to have his new neighbors see past that and welcome him as a regular person, but any attempts to start a friendly conversation were shattered one after another solely after eye contact.
"Well you can't make a good impression until you lighten up and relax a bit" Uzu took a drink from a passing waiter with a 'thank you'
"Easy for you to say. People don't run away at the sight of you" Gamagoori muttered and just as he spoke that, he made eye contact with a group of women. As soon as he opened his mouth to greet them, they scurried away with pale faces. Gamagoori slumped further against the wall with a defeated sigh.
Sanageyama took a sip of his drink.
"Look man" he began "you give up way too easily"
He looked around and spotted someone.
"Hey" he said to get Gamagoori's attention. When he lifted his head to look at him, he pointed to a group of people consuming the buffet table and smirked.
"Now's your chance to talk to someone. They look a little too busy to see you coming, so they won't have time to run away"
Gamagoori followed his finger and true enough, the group of people were indeed heavily focused on the food. He straightened up quickly and began to walk over. Sanageyama quickly finished his drink and put it down on a nearby table, walking after his friend.
"This I have to see" he smirked.
Once they arrived to the table, much to Gamagoori's relief and Sanageyama's amusement, most of the group of people still hadn't noticed them. All except for one who looked over at them curiously. Sanageyama took note that she looked nothing like the rest of the people who seemed to be a family, what with her pale skin, blue eyes and blue hair with a bright red streak in her bangs.
Gamagoori politely cleared his throat to get their attention, but it was all for not.
"Hello" he said, thinking it was the next best step.
The girl with a bowl cut hairstyle turned to him with food halfway sticking out of her mouth. She quickly finished it off and happily replied back.
"Well hi there! My name's Mako Mankanshoku! Wow, you're so big, I've never seen you before!"
Gamagoori was slightly taken back by the greeting and inwardly smiled, happy and by this point late in the night, touched that she hadn't run away.
"Erm yes. I'm new to the neighborho—"
"Ryuko come over here! Look at this guy, he's huge! Have you seen him before? 'Cus I haven't!" Mako cut off Gamagoori by waving Ryuko over to her side to meet her new friend. Ryuko walked the few steps over from the other side of the family and looked both of the men over.
"Hey there. I'm Ryuko Matio" she greeted.
"Hello" Gamagoori politely replied and cleared his throat again "Yes, as I was saying, my name is Iwa Gamagoori and this is my friend Uzu Sanageyama" he gestured to him.
"'Sup" he said.
"I'm new to the neighborhood. Since I see that you two are the only ones not running away, I was hoping to become well acquainted as your new neighbor" Gamagoori finished.
"Wait, did you say Gamagoori?!" the man at the table suddenly yelled and look to him, followed by the rest of the family. Uzu noted that the mother looked positively happy and the little boy's eyes were shaped like dollar signs.
The family quickly stepped up to Gamagoori.
"My name is Bazaro Mankanshoku!" the man said.
"I'm his wife, Sukuyo!"
"Mataro's the name!"
"Bark! Bark!"
Gamagoori looked them over and spoke with a sudden voice of authority.
"A family unit where even the dog introduces himself. You have my respect"
"I see you've already met our girls" Sukuyo smiled up at him. "Tell me, aren't they just lovely?"
This caused both Ryuko and Gamagoori to blush out of embarrassment at the sheer implication while Mako smiled innocently at her mother and Sanageyama choked back a laugh. Before they had a chance to recover, a new song started to play.
"Oh my gosh!" Mako gasped "I love this song!"
She quickly grabbed Gamagoori's hand and started trying to drag the massive body of muscle to the dance floor.
"Come on! Let's dance it'll be fun!" she said excitedly. Gamagoori blushed brighter, not quite over the earlier embarrassment and quietly nodded his head.
They quickly left to the dance floor where Gamagoori started to spin Mako around in circles.
"That's my Mako!" Bazaro grinned victoriously and Ryuko just sighed at their antics. She looked to her side and was ready to ask Sanageyama to dance as well, but noticed he had already disappeared. She shrugged her shoulders not bothering to wonder why she thought he would stick around after his friend left and went to grab a cup of fruit punch.
Walking around for a bit, Ryuko ran into her friend, Nonon.
"Who let a little grass snake into this party?" she teased when she approached her. Nonon looked over to see who was talking to her and saw Ryuko standing next to her.
"Funny. I'd say the same for the new girl" she smirked.
"Come on" Ryuko joked "I've been here for a couple of years already now. Gamagoori's the new neighbor"
"I've already known that toad for years now" Nonon bragged "Besides, you'll always be the new girl to me"
Ryuko sucked her teeth.
"Whatever"
"Wait here. I'm going to the bathroom. I'll be right back"
Nonon quickly left and Ryuko did as she asked and waited for her friend to come back when Gamagoori and Sanageyama walked past her without noticing and stood nearby.
'Huh. He must have finished dancing with Mako' she thought.
"You know, you looked pretty cute out there twirling that Mankanshoku girl around" Sanageyama smirked.
Gamagoori blushed.
"We did have fun out there, I'll admit. But she is too out of control!" he yelled and held a fist up in the air "She kept trying to lead and we almost crashed into other dancers several times!"
Ryuko sighed hearing that comment. Sounds like Mako alright, she thought.
"Anyway what about you? I trust you were a gentleman and entertained Miss Ryuko while her sister was away?"
The mention of Ryuko caught her attention again.
"What? No, I left her as soon as you did"
"What! Why would you do that? She seemed like a lovely lady to have company with"
"She seemed ok. I mean she's average, but I've seen better. If you know what I mean"
Before, Ryuko would have thought nothing of Uzu Sanageyama. She didn't know him and therefore, she didn't feel the need to have any opinion of him whatsoever. But hearing him say such a thing. Hearing him rate her, it struck something.
"Well well well, the monkey's here too" Nonon said approaching Ryuko and spotting Sanageyama and Gamagoori in the distance. They heard her and looked over, noticing Ryuko standing right beside her, giving a fierce glare their way. Or more specifically, Sanageyama's way. Before anyone could ask her what was wrong, she stormed off without a word.
"Freaking egotistical, monkey faced…rating my looks…the nerve...stupid" Ryuko muttered as she walked along the garden outside the mansion. Any people walking would scurry in the opposite direction at the look on her face.
"Who's the one with stupid green hair?!" she angrily yelled, plopping herself down on a bench.
She let out a sigh to try and calm down her nerves and looked around, relieved to find not a single soul out in the garden with her to hear her angrily shouting out at nothing. It was dark outside with only the moonlight and a couple of lamps to help see through the darkness.
Ryuko let out a small chuckle.
"Man, I must have sounded crazy just now. Who am I even talking to?" she wondered out loud.
"Ya best believe ya sound crazy" a sudden voice said from behind.
Ryuko jumped up from her seat and turned around, startled, at the zombified version of Takarada Kaneo. His face was half eaten while the skin on the other half was peeling off. One of his arms was missing and a part of his lower jaw could be seen. He swaggered himself up to her until he was only a couple of feet from arms reach.
"Takarada?" Ryuko said bewildered at the appearance of the arrogant boy she met only once.
"The one and only!" he proudly stated.
"What happened to you?" she asked.
"More like, what happened to you!" he said eyeing her up and down "Damn girl! If I knew you cleaned up like this, I woulda hollad at you a long time ago!"
Ryuko shivered at the thought.
"But if you must know" he continued "The weirdest shit happened! You see…"
He wasn't able to finish. At that moment, a gunshot was heard and in the next, his head was blown off.
Ryuko gave a started cry at the scene and turned around to see Sanageyama standing behind her with a small pistol in his hand. He slowly lowered it after assessing that Takarada wasn't going to get back up and walked up to Ryuko.
"Didn't think I'd ever have to deal with him again…" he muttered to himself and then turned to Ryuko "Are you alright?"
Instead of the relieved 'thank you' he was expecting, he was greeted with punch to the gut. He gasped and doubled over from the hit.
"You asshole!" Ryuko yelled "What were you thinking?!"
"I was thinking that I was trying to save your life!" he choked out.
"He was going to tell me what happened when you came along!"
"What did you need to know?! He's a mindless zombie! Emphasis on the mindless since he was like that even before he turned!"
"He wasn't mindless!" Ryuko argued "He spoke to me! He was…normal"
"Well he's not speaking now" Sanageyama smirked after he finally caught his breath back and stood up.
"Because you shot him you—!"
A scream was heard from inside the house followed by a crash and more screaming.
"You know what? Forget you!" Ryuko said and started running towards the building.
"Where do you think you're going?!" Sanageyama said following her.
"To handle this mess!"
Sanageyama chased after Ryuko towards the cries in the house, but other sudden cries for help nearby reached his ears. He took a chance to look around his surroundings to find out that there were monsters everywhere and not just coming from the house.
'How did I let this happen?' he thought.
He stopped, pulling out his wooden sword from his back and ran towards the nearest zombies. After he was finished with them, he looked up to find Ryuko missing, but he didn't dwell on it long before another scream reached his ears.
'Guess I'll clean up here first'
Reaching the house, Ryuko ran into the main area where the lobby was and saw bodies everywhere. Some were running away as fast as they could while some were on the ground being eaten, and others were doing the eating.
"Ryuko!" she turned and saw Mako being cornered by a zombie. Ryuko reached around her neck and yanked the necklace she had on only to have it transform into one half of a scissor blade. She ran towards the zombie, effectively slicing its head clean off its shoulders and rescuing her.
Ryuko brought up her hand to help Mako up off the floor and asked her if she was ok.
"I'm better now that you're here!" she happily said.
"Good" Ryuko sighed and turned back to the chaos that was ensuing.
"Come on. Let's get rid of these guys" she said.
They both threw off their dresses to reveal sailor uniforms underneath.
"Life Fiber synchronize: Kamui Senketsu!"
"Two star goku uniform! Fight Club President Mako!"
They leapt towards the attacking horde and smashed dead in the center of them, causing the ones they hit to fly in the air.
Uzu Sanageyama wasn't expecting this. Upon meeting the two girls, his eyes were quick to tell him they were a bit different. Strange, but different. He could tell they were both quite head strong, so he wasn't all that surprised when Ryuko ran into the mansion to no doubt look for her sister. He ran after her, expecting his assistance needed. So when he was finally done ridding the garden of monsters and came to check on the girls inside, he was not expecting to just stand there staring and completely useless in the fight.
Ryuko was wearing a strange outfit. Definitely not the gown she was wearing only minutes ago and was holding one half of a giant pair of scissors. With her scissor, she was slashing away at the zombies, while Mako, also not in her dress, pulled out a nailed bat from God knows where and covered Ryuko's back. One zombie thought it could get them by surprise and started to charge them from a distance, but was quickly stopped when Mako pulled out her bazooka and fired at it.
Sanageyama stood there completely flabbergasted and before he even had a chance to blink and think his eyes were playing with him, the two girls had the entire ballroom completely cleared out.
Gamagoori chose that time to appear and run up to Sanageyama, also witnessing the end of the brawl and standing there, shocked that such an overly hyper, klutzy girl like Mako wielded that much of power. He was first to recover and turned to Sanageyama.
"Are you alright?" he asked.
He continued staring at Ryuko as she transformed back and went to grab a rag to clean her blade.
"…I think I'm in love…"
"You should've seen them! Ryuko and Mako were all like wham! And the zombies were splattering all over the place! It was amazing!" Mataro spoke from his perch on a chair in the dinner table.
It was a two days since 'the incident' and he was still reeling from the excitement. When the zombies attacked the ball room, the majority of the guests, along with himself and his parents were quick to escape. It was only a couple of moments later that he and Guts crept back in to see if it was safe to swipe whatever was left of the food for the trip home when he saw his sisters transform and get rid of the remaining monsters.
Guts barked happily at his feet in agreement.
"Those sons of bitches never saw it coming!"
"Language Mataro" his mother scolded.
He flinched at her subtle threat and shot her a sheepish grin.
"I still can't believe you guys were somehow able to hide yourselves so well. Like a couple of rats" Ryuko joked.
"Oh yeah? Just you wait! When I'm older, I'm gonna be a badass zombie slayer!"
"Yeah, when pigs fly"
"You'll see!"
"Now son" Bazaro interrupted before a fight broke out. With everyone's attention on him, he took a moment to bask in it, taking a large bite from his croquette before speaking again.
"I'm sure you'll be a wonderful zombie slayer—"
"Hah!" Mataro laughed at Ryuko.
"As long as you're with you sisters and do what they say, you'll do just great"
The family broke out into little fits of laughter at Mataro's face hearing that.
"Don't worry little brother!" Mako giggled "We won't let anything happen to you!"
Mataro blushed, feeling angry, embarrassed and utterly underestimated.
"Just you all wait!" he yelled "I'm gonna be a badass! A badass!"
A knock came on the door and Guts was quick to run to the sound, barking like a mad dog. Everyone in the dining room watched him run out and heard the opening and closing of the door. He came back a couple of minutes later with a letter in his mouth and handed it to Mako.
"A letter for me?!" she squealed and ripped it open to read the contents. Everyone quickly gathered behind her to read over her shoulder, but Mako was too excited to notice and quickly read it, squealing once more before the rest of her family had any chance to really skim it over.
"I got invited to tea!" she said excitedly holding the letter high in the air.
"From who?" her father asked.
"I don't know!" she said and looked at the letter again "it says it's from someone named Maiku Ogure"
"Isn't that the name of Gamagoori's cousin?" Sukuyo gasped.
"Is it?" Ryuko wondered.
"Oh Mako! They live together! This is your chance to get closer to Gamagoori!" her mother said excitedly.
"Mako! You have to go!" her father with a sudden serious look on his face that just as quickly turned to mush "Come back and tell us what tea with rich people is like!"
"I'm going!" Mako said with determination and headed for the door.
"Wait, now?" Ryuko asked "We just ate!"
"Ryuko!" she turned around to face her "Tea waits for no man!"
Ryuko gave a nervous laugh
"Right…"
Soon, Mako was dressed and the family went out to see her off.
"Well I'm off!" she said
"Walk straight over there" her mother told her "It looks like it'll rain soon, so try not to take any detours"
"Don't worry about me!" Mako casually waved off and ran towards the trolley a few feet away.
Three quarters of the ride through, the trolley made a brief stop to let some passengers on and, unsurprisingly, Mako jumped off at the sight of an exotic stall a few yards away. When she turned back around, the trolley was nowhere in sight. Not letting the minor setback get the best of Mako Mankanshoku, she continued the rest of the way on foot, thankful she didn't have much farther to walk.
It wasn't long before the rain started to come down and Mako quickly ran under an abandoned stall to get dry.
"Man, I was almost there too" she sighed and looked around, spotting someone in the distance walking towards her direction. Maybe they were also trying to escape the rain, Mako thought, but soon she noticed that the closer they got, the more she was able to make them out through the heavy rainfall. They weren't walking like a normal person. In fact, they seemed to have a very bad limp in their left leg that looked almost as if they were dragging their foot instead of trying to walk with it. And they weren't just walking in her direction for shelter; they were walking straight towards her.
Mako ran out from under the shelter, quickly transforming into her two star goku uniform and pulled out a small missile launcher. She took careful aim and pulled the trigger. It fired, but didn't hit the zombie, the soaking rain getting its way into the launcher and making it malfunction. The unexpectedly huge backlash caused Mako's aim to jerk to the left, just barely missing its target and giving her a nice bruise on her left shoulder where she held the weapon. She dropped her missile launcher and gripped her shoulder in pain.
The zombie treaded closer while making gurgling noises, excited at the potential meal. It tackled Mako just as she pulled out her nailed bat. Mako was able to shove her bat in the monster's mouth before it had a chance to take a bite out of her, but it was persistant. With Mako's weakened state, it was able to wrestle her to the ground.
There was a sharp rock near where they fell that ended up tearing at Mako's hand. She hissed in pain and took her bat out of the zombie's mouth, rolling to the side. She stood up quickly and brought the bat down on its head, effectively saving herself. The body fell limp and she slowly leaned on the bat, catching her breath.
"That was close" she breathed out and looked around for any more dangers.
She took her bat out from the zombie's head and transformed back.
"I better hurry. I don't feel so good right now…"
"Miss, please! It isn't proper to barge in to other people's homes…"
"Shaddup! Don't tell me what to do!"
Sanageyama, Gamagoori and Ogure looked up from their spots at the table to the sound of commotion just as the doors to the room burst open, letting in a very frustrated looking Ryuko. Gamagoori was quick to stand and properly greet Ryuko to his home, but she held her hand up as a sign of silence before he could utter a word.
"Where's Mako?" she asked.
Silently, they both left the room and he led her down a long hallway to a small room. Opening the door, Ryuko was greeted to her sister half sprawled on a bed, snoring loudly. Ryuko gave a heavy sigh of relief to see her sister alright and thanked Gamagoori for taking care of her. He blushed, stuttering that it was only natural to help a neighbor in need especially since they were the cause of her getting sick. He excused himself and left Ryuko to wake Mako on her own.
Ryuko carefully made her way towards Mako, being well used to her jump start tendencies at waking up, and spoke softly.
"Mako" she said "Hey, Mako, wake up"
True to her predictions, Mako jolted at the sound, and looked up groggily at Ryuko.
"Ryuko?" she slurred and her eyes shot open at the realization "Ryuko!"
She lifted herself into a sitting position and Ryuko went to sit down beside her.
"Hey" she smiled "heard you got sick"
"Yeah…But I'm better now! I just have a small fever, that's all! You wouldn't believe it, Ryuko. They've been giving me medicine, even though it tastes nasty, and treating me like a queen and everything!" Mako said.
"I hope so. We were worried when you didn't come back home and your dad thought the worse…thankfully we got a call from Gamagoori saying you were here and got sick"
"Oh yeah! He said he didn't want you guys to worry and asked for our number to call! His face was red when he asked though. I hope I didn't make him sick too!" Mako gasped at her own conclusions.
"Heh, yeah, maybe" Ryuko smirked.
A small knock was heard on the door and Sanageyama walked in, followed by a doctor.
"Time for your checkup" he lazily said and noticed Ryuko. He remained quiet as the doctor approached Mako and asked her to show her the cut on her hand.
The doctor looked at Mako's cut for a second and pulled out some balm to help heal it faster, before he brought out the medicine for her fever which resulted in the routine fight to make her drink it. Sanageyama stared hard at the exposed cut on Mako's hand, suspicious of any other bruises or cuts she might be hiding, willing something to happen before Ryuko's face blocked his view.
"Is there something the matter?" she asked sternly, challenging him to say something.
He caught himself noticing the unique shaped of her irises before averting his stare somewhere to the right. The doctor finally forced the medicine down Mako's throat and soon enough, the drowsy effects knocked her out.
"Nothing wrong" Sanageyama said and left the room.
The doctor gave Ryuko some orders to follow and encouraged her to leave her sister to rest in the meantime. They both walked down the hall and separated near the front door when the doctor left. She headed down the rest of the way to where a passing maid pointed to and came back to the first room she barged into earlier, which happened to be a game room she noticed. Everyone was already inside and they, minus Sanageyama, looked up when she walked in.
"How's your sister?" Gamagoori was the first to speak.
"She's OK" Ryuko said.
"Oh thank goodness!" She heard the girl, Ogure proclaim sarcastically. Ryuko tried to glare at her but was ignored in favor of turning a sweet look towards Sanageyama.
"Isn't that just great, Sanageyama-sama?" Ryuko noted that she looked at him like someone looking for approval. Why look toward someone like him for that, she didn't understand.
He was laying very relaxed on one of the sofas with his feet kicked up on a small coffee table in front of him. He looked up at the mention of his name and made eye contact with Ryuko.
"Yeah…" he said slowly "fantastic"
Gamagoori cleared his throat, effectively catching the attention of everyone in the room.
"The weather hasn't exactly been pretty lately. Matio, how did you get here?" he asked.
"I walked" she said simply, finding a comfy chair to sit in.
"Walked?" he asked incredulously.
"Yeah, walked" she repeated like it was no big deal.
"Don't you have like a car or something?" Sanageyama asked.
"I have a scooter, but it's not working right now, Mako's dad is fixing it. Besides, walking is good for you. Zombie slaying isn't the only way to get some exercise" she smirked.
Sanageyama smirked, feeling like he finally found level ground with the girl, but before the conversation could continue any further, a loud crash was heard. Gamagoori sprang to his feet to investigate, followed by Sanageyama and the rest of the occupants in the room. They followed the sounds of commotion near the front and froze at what they saw.
Standing before the broken down door was the Mankanshoku family.
"Where's Mako?!" Bazaro yelled.
Ryuko slapped a hand to her face in shame. Gamagoori quickly recovered from the shock and called over a servant to quickly escort the family to Mako's room. A small team of servants ran to go clean the mess of the broken down door.
"What a family…." Ogure said with a hidden undertone of disdain. Ryuko ignored her and they went back to the entertainment room.
"Oh boy!" Bazaro exclaimed, latching an arm around Gamagoori who shot him an uncomfortable glare.
"I can't thank you enough for helping my little girl!" he continued.
It had been around half an hour when the Mankanshoku family finished fussing around the still sleeping Mako and found their way to the game room. They immediately fell in love with the room and quickly made themselves comfortable as Mataro and Guts were running around the room excitedly, going from one game to another.
"She was in need of medical help. It was nothing" Gamagoori said.
"My, you were just like a knight in shining armor" Sukuyo smiled and sipped her tea.
"I-It was nothing like that ma'am" Gamagoori stuttered, blushing at the knight comment.
"Listen here boy" Bazaro turned serious and tightened the arm around Gamagoori's shoulder "if you want to be Mako's knight in shining armor…you can go ahead!" he smiled and relaxed again, making Gamagoori stare at him in shock.
"Yeah, totally hook up with my sis!" Mataro said playing foosball with Guts, "I wouldn't mind coming over here every day!"
Sanageyama listened to the one sided conversation, but made no comment, Ogure glared and Ryuko gave an audible sigh at the family's commodities.
The door opened and Mako walked in, looking refreshed. She looked to see both of her parents giving Gamagoori a look of admiration.
"What's going on?" she asked innocently.
"Nothing!" Ryuko said and quickly stood up, walking towards her.
"Well, looks like Mako's finally back on her feet so I guess that means we can go home" she continued.
"Mako!" her mother cheerfully exclaimed looking up at her, glad to see her daughter was better.
"Aww do we have to?" Bazaro and Mataro asked simultaneously.
"Yes" Ryuko glared.
They sighed and got up, walking out of the room. Reaching the entrance way, the servants still reparing the hole in the wall, flinched seeing the Manakanshokus coming their way, but released a sigh of relief after seeing the massive body of Gamagoori followed by Sanageyama and Ogure escorting them.
"How did you guys get here anyway?" Ryuko asked.
"I fixed your scooter!" Bazaro proudly exclaimed.
They made it outside and walked over to the scooter a few feet away, left standing on its kick stand.
"I'll drive" Bazaro said getting onto the seat and helping his wife sit behind him. Sukuyo turned to Gamagoori.
"It was nice seeing you again. Maybe in the next dance, you could do the honor of letting Mako have another dance with her knight in shining armor"
"A dance?" Gamagoori said incredulous.
"A dance? What a great idea, son!" Bazaro said as Mataro and Guts squeezed into the small space between the seat and the gas pedal. "When will it be?"
"Uhh…" Gamagoori was shocked, but before he could turn them down, he made the mistake of glancing at Mako. The stars in her eyes were shining and he opened his mouth before he could think.
"Soon" he said with finality "I will alert you when"
The Mankanshoku's cheered and Mako tried to wrap her arms around the massive build of a blushing Gamagoori.
He helped her onto her dad's shoulders which she insisted was fine despite her father's protests. Ogure shook her head at her cousin's behavior.
"So another dance, huh? Nice" Sanageyama mused walking up to Ryuko who moved to squeeze herself in the tiny space left behind Sukuyo. She turned around to face him, ready to ask what he meant by that but her grip slipped, causing her to lose her balance on the seat and fall to the side. Before she got too far in the fall though, Sanageyama's hand shot out and grabbed onto her arm, pulling Ryuko up and steadying her back on the seat. Ryuko looked up at him surprised by his actions only to find him facing the opposite direction from her so she couldn't see his face. Just as she opened her mouth to call him, Bazaro revved the scooter's engine and had them shooting down the road with a shout.
Ryuko sat backwards on the scooter, gripping the sides of the seat. She watched as the house and its occupants who saw them off got smaller and smaller as she and the Mankanshokus got further and further, trying to ignore the burning in her arm where Sanageyama caught her.
That was good, I hope?
Now as any Kill la Kill and Pride and Prejudice fan can tell, I'm sure, I had to do some minor changes to character relationships to better blend the two stories together. Ryuko is kinda sorta already adopted into the Mankanshoku family so there wasn't too much for me to change around in that.
To Pride and Prejudice fans out there, for the sake of there being a 'Miss Bingley', I gave that role to a minor character like Ogure, but I didn't like the potential brother/sister relationship she would have with Gamagoori, so I made them cousins instead. Mataro, of course, isn't some tweenage girl looking to get married, but I did drop a hint of foreshadowing somewhere in here.
As I've said already, I have an outline written out so I know exactly how this is going to play out. The only issues that might come up is time management and prioritizing. Because of school and work, I'll be lucky to pull up my word document and work on just a section every other day or so, but it will get done, so please don't feel discouraged if the other two parts feel like they're taking forever to come out!
Love it? Hate it? Leave a comment!
On a side note. For those who have me under author alerts and are waiting for me to start up 'Nothing to Doubt' again, I have an ending. I'm just working my way backwards and figuring out the hazy, less detailed parts that need help transitioning from one part of the story to the next.