Many of our escapades are actually started by my stupid impulsiveness and not by Mako's ditzyness. Such was the case with the Fight Club. The day it started, I had been feeling quite well and relaxed, and I enjoyed lunch with Mako, especially when she would feed me a croquet with her own chopsticks. Once again, we were interrupted by fighting, and I decided that my battles with other clubs needed some kind of structure.

I proposed the Fight Club. Satsuki herself improved it, and although it would have been better to ignore her and say nothing, I felt compelled to gaze up at her. Hiding my fascination with rage, I told that bitch I would destroy her little club systems. To my outrage and confusion, Satsuki smiled at me and said to try my best not to let the system get the better of me.

Making Mako be the Fight Club President because I didn't want to do the paperwork was probably unkind of me, but in my defense my blood was still boiling thinking of Satsuki. The arrangement seemed to work out, however. I fought dozens of club leaders while Mako took care of all the required paperwork. As a result of the Club's outstanding successes, the Honnouji system kicked in and began to raise the Mankanshoku's standard of living. You would think during this time I was continually exhausted, and Mako did sometimes push me near my limit, but with the new recognition and living arrangements, I was able to enjoy some of the luxury too.

When we moved into the condo, Mrs. Mankanshoku bought new clothes for everyone. I've never really been into girly stuff like trying on new clothes, but my heart soared to see Mako enjoying it.

"When we're ironing Senketsu," said Mako, dancing around with a ladies' red dress shirt and black blazer, "you can wear this one! Ryuuko-chan, it suits you perfectly! You would look so dashing!"

"What about you?" I asked, ignoring the outfit for me. "Which one suits you best, Mako? The pastel-yellow one is cute."

We soon agreed that Mako's cutest outfit was the collared, pale blue dress with white Kawatte scarf and stockings. It proved difficult to look at Mako in this outfit without beginning to blush profusely. Since we had a small bath now, I felt somewhat tempted to see if Mako wanted to bathe with me, but I didn't know where to start, so I just focused on fighting for the club.

~~~~~

Three weeks later, I had defeated almost every club captain, and Mako petitioned for another increase in the standard of living. The request was granted and we moved into the kind of house usually reserved for people with two-star Uniforms. It had more than enough room and luxury; the dining area was excessively large, and each of the four enormous bedrooms came with a western style bed softer than anything I had ever slept on. However, four bedrooms meant that Mako and I no longer shared a room, let alone the closeness of futons.

"Do you miss having a room with me?" I asked Mako awkwardly one day. "I know I miss sharing space with you. See, the only other time I had my own room was at my Dad's house, and those were terrible memories. So, I was thinking…if we shared…"

"You want to sleep in my room?!" exclaimed Mako. "But we couldn't drag your bed all the way to my room. Wait! Are you saying we should sleep in the same bed? But that would be a scandal!"

"I was going to say that I could just use a futon," I grumbled, "but never mind. Forget it."

Things were like that for the next week. One night, the family was so busy with parties or paperwork that nobody even ate dinner with me, not even Mako. Lively dinners with the Mankanshoku family had become one of the few joys of my life. Now, my sense of belonging was fading away.

~~~~~

I decided to tell Mako I was quitting the Fight Club. This would mean returning to no-star status. I was irritated and Mako was simply furious, but it was Satsuki who made us fight against each other.

"Don't be so hasty," Satsuki smiled as I transformed and prepared to leap up to her. "I am not your opponent today."

The bitch supplied Mako with a two-star Goku Uniform, and with that, my best friend began attacking me. To make things worse, Mako's family arrived and actually cheered her on. Satsuki spouted some crap about people being slaves to greed, but Mako was throwing me around so I could barely hear it.

Now, there was no way in hell I was going to kill Mako, or even give her a clobbering. Furthermore, I could tell Mako was holding back from using the full power of her uniform. So I stopped fighting and began to take her hits, one after another. Once when she charged in ready to smash my face, I just smiled knowingly at her, and she stopped dead in her tracks. Soon she had broken down to tears, voluntarily disbanded the fight club, and screamed that she and her family had been horrible.

"Kiryuuin," I yelled at Satsuki, "People aren't as weak as you think! They can suppress their greed with willpower!"

Mako threw off her uniform and I sliced it to shreds with a few strokes of the scissor blade. The energy release from the destroyed uniform was so powerful, it caused a few explosions that looked just like fireworks. Mako and I stood side by side, watching the crackling, colorful energy.

"Now we're even," I grinned at Mako.

"What do you mean?" the other girl asked anxiously.

"I've seen your face marked with bruises before, and now you can see my ugly mug with its brand new black eye. You've seen me in my underwear probably more times than I want to know, and now I get to see you in yours."

We both laughed, but while Mako looked at the last bit of the fading firework, I decided to look up at Satsuki. To my surprise and puzzlement, a small smile crossed her face. Before I could read into it, she turned away and left. Afterward, Mako's family came rushing down into the fighting arena to apologize.

Before long, Satsuki announced her plan for the "Naturals Election" and Honnou-town became one giant riot of students fighting (and in some cases killing) each other for a chance to earn a higher rank. Regular classes were canceled for the time being. Mako and family were finally satisfied with their poor but lively home, so they didn't enter any kind of competition.

I was glad for the break from my usual club captain fighting, but I didn't know what to do with myself. Mr. Mankanshoku had recently swindled a motor scooter from god-only-knows, so I asked him if I could go for a ride. He told me to help myself. I had learned how to ride scooters and motorcycles from a small bike gang, during my last term at boarding school. So before long, the engine was kicking and ready to go.

Then, as per her custom, Mako came out of nowhere. I told her I wasn't going anywhere in particular, but before I knew it she was seated behind me with her hands on my sides. She said was going too, and when I looked at her in astonishment, she looked drunkenly happy and annoyingly cute.

"Let's gooo!" Mako proclaimed, for some reason in English.

At the same time, she threw her arms around my chest and hugged me tightly.

"I'm not letting go!"

She must have deliberately chose my chest as her hold, because she was definitely touching things a girl doesn't usually doesn't want touched, but when I turned and snapped at her, she looked as innocent as a lamb in the spring. Besides, if it was Mako, I thought, I didn't mind at all if she touched my breasts. I suddenly couldn't help smiling. I must be a lesbian.

"Oh, what the hell," I decided, snuggling back a little on the seat. "Senketsu, you're just gonna have to deal with it for now."

I focused on the road and took off at a good speed. I had decided where to go. It might not be anywhere romantic, but it was nonetheless someplace I wanted Mako to see. We were going to my dad's house, where we had lived together during school breaks, and he had been murdered last year. The place was a burned ruin.

I had sometimes hated my dad for being so distant, I explained to Mako, but deep down I had always loved him. I told Mako about how I saw my father dying with the scissor blade in him, how he wanted to tell me more, and how I had ignored him to pursue the silhouette of the girl with the other half of the scissor blade. Last of all, I told her how the house exploded into roaring flames just seconds after I had left it, burning Dad's body to ashes.

"I wanted to at least find out who killed him and why," I said, and to surprise my voice sounded pained. "I want to know what he was trying to tell me. And why he created Senketsu."

Mako finally seemed to understand somewhat, and stayed respectfully silent as I broke through to the basement and looked around for clues about Senketsu. However, I found nothing that day, so Mako and I hit the road again, and as the sun set, Mako began dozing off behind me. I hoped she would have enough sense to hold on. Then, of course, the scooter broke down.

We were picked up by Gamagori Ira, an interesting member of Satsuki's Elite Four. I had seen him around before, and he was a huge guy, but I had no idea how powerful he was until that night. Gamagori drove and Mako had been singing another nonsensical song when our little Caravan was accosted by two dangerous clubs trying to eliminate this member of the Elites.

His fighting style was embarrassingly and masochistically sexual in nature, but nevertheless Gamagori was strong. His three-star uniform had two powerful transformations. He beat back all the enemies. Then we continued, and Gamagori dropped us girls off at a gas station a half mile from Mako' house. He said he looked forward to battling me in the Sudden Death Election in seven days.

As Mako and I walked the rest of the way home, something was on my mind. I couldn't have helped noticing it. I stopped walking and actually glared at Mako.

"Hold on a minute," I said. "That big masochist is my enemy. Why were you being so friendly with Gamagori?! He wanted to pick YOU up. You obsessed over his car, and you kept checking him out—yes, I could tell."

Mako chuckled. "It's not wrong for a seventeen year old girl to want some eye candy when she's picked up by an eighteen year old guy who's totally fit, big, and strong! But you know, Ryuuko-chan, there's something my mom says whenever dad catches her flirting with a visitor."

"What is it that she'd say?" I asked, walking on and feeling strangely irritated.

"My mom would say, 'Just because you're on a diet doesn't mean you can't still look at the rest of the menu."

It took me a moment to understand, but then I laughed heartily. My irritation, which may have been some kind of jealousy, completely left me.