As Ryuko had expected, she found herself slumped over her desk barely staying awake as the days passed. In addition to it proving difficult to focus on classwork for classwork's sake, Mako was managing to focus quite well on it...possibly trying to be good enough for both of them. This wasn't to say Mako was always getting the right answers, but she was certainly putting more effort into it then Ryuko herself was. Admittedly, Motohama was always happy to share notes with the pair - probably just happy that a pair of 'hot girls' was willing to talk to him without hostility or trying to bash his skull in - so Ryuko's academics weren't exactly suffering...
But normal school was just so dull! Everyone else seemed to be doing a good job adapting to a normal high school setting, to the point there weren't even any interesting conflicts to pay attention to. Houka kept mostly to himself, and as such had no existing personality conflicts...aside from the girls who tried to pierce his 'mysterious exterior' for whatever reason. Satsuki had forbidden Nonon from engaging in a physical contest with Koneko Toujou, and their interests outside of classwork differed too greatly for any other sort of competition to take place, leaving that situation in an uneasy cease fire. Even Satsuki's conflict with Rias Gremory - the undisputed idol of the school, according to Matsuda - had cooled when Uzu and Akeno Himejima had attempted disarming flirting with each other simultaneously in an attempt to throw the other off, leading to what witnesses described as an 'aggressive flirt off' as each tried to unnerve the other with their playful flirting skirting the edges of appropriateness without breaching what was okay in school. Satsuki and Rias had caught each other concealing a resigned eye roll at their underling's antics, leading to a shared understanding smile and an uneasy peace...not unlike two tigers who have decided the single hill isn't worth fighting over just yet.
All this left Ryuko with nothing to catch her attention and excite her, but with the constant sense at the edge of her awareness that something was just waiting to explode in major conflict. This left Ryuko coming to a rather unwelcome conclusion. Despite her avowed desire to just have a normal life and determination to avoid conflict, deep down she yearned for an intense battle that got her blood flowing again. Her time at Honnoji Academy had simply been too intense, and left her body needing that adrenaline spike to get herself going and focused. Despite her desires to enjoy simply being a normal schoolgirl...she was an incurable battle junkie.
Which was why her eyes lit up in the way most schoolgirls would on finding a love letter in their shoe locker when in hers she discovered an envelope with the Tarot card Death attached to it. Carefully concealing it, she opened it up and read the letter inside.
Ryuko Matoi
I hereby challenge you. Come alone to the fountain square at the location detailed here this Sunday at sunset, and meet your fate. Make peace with your God before you come, as you are unlikely to have a chance to after.
Yuma Amano
Ryuko quickly hid the letter, not wanting anyone - especially not Mako or Satsuki - to see it. If Mako saw it, she'd insist on going to cheer her on, only to draw the attention of everyone else. If Satsuki saw it, she'd insist on investigating whoever this was, and the fight would probably never happen. Ryuko was desperate for a fight, something to get her blood pumping...so she would go to the location marked in the letter and meet this Yuma for a fight without telling anyone. It probably wasn't the sensible thing to do...but since when had she been sensible?
It wasn't that difficult to get away from everyone on Sunday. All it had taken was wrapping a sleeping Mako in her pajamas and slipping out before noon, and no one even noticed her departure. She had her uniform on, the closed eyes staring out ahead of her as she made her way towards the location marked on the map that had been in the letter. She'd managed to find out the general area without drawing too much attention, and half for the fun of it had leapt from rooftop to rooftop until she got close enough she needed to search by street signs.
As she hopped down into an intersection to look around, a nearby voice spoke up. "Please check us out!"
In surprise, Ryuko caught the flier that was handed to her, turning to see a rather fetching looking brown haired girl in a somewhat skimpy red, white, and black dress that somehow seemed to carry an innocently devilish implication in its design. As the girl smiled at her, Ryuko could tell there was something...off...about the girl, but she turned and walked off before Ryuko could say anything.
Idly, Ryuko glanced down at the flier. It had some sort of stylish circle design on it she didn't recognize, artistic representations of naked women in the upper right and lower left corners, and an inscription on the bottom that read, We Grant Your Wish. Ryuko couldn't help but chuckle at that. "I think they handed me the flier for the wrong demographic," she joked as she slipped it into her pocket. "Eh, Mako might get a laugh out of it, then I can give it to Mataro...or maybe Motohama as thanks for sharing his notes." Giving it no more thought than that, she pulled out the map with the letter and proceeded to search for the fountain square.
Due to her unfamiliarity with the area, it took Ryuko quite some time to find her way to the square, to the point it was close to sunset by the time she got there. She grit her teeth as she saw that. "So much for having time to brace myself and check out the competition," she grumbled under her breath as she stepped into the square, glancing around.
The large fountain in the center of the square was rather simple, being a small basin raised over a large pool, spraying water up and out at various levels to cascade down in a miniature waterfall. The square itself was surrounded by trees, and was empty save for a single individual. She appeared to be a girl about Ryuko's age with violet eyes and long black hair, dressed in tight fitting gym clothes that outlined her rather shapely figure, along with thick padded gloves on her clenched fists...though Ryuko was able to spot the hidden spikes that could pop out of the outer pads at a moment's notice. That put a grin on her face. "Well, this is going to be interesting," she offered cockily. "Yuma Amano, I presume?"
"Ryuko Matoi," Yuma greeted, her voice calmly energetic and almost friendly. "I'm going to enjoy taking you apart." She lifted her fists and shifted her stance, taking a classic boxing pose.
Ryuko let out a laugh as she shifted herself in a relaxed pose, head down slightly as she looked up at Yuma through her bangs, the streak of red at her brow seeming to glow in the light of the slowly setting sun, standing out against her black hair. "I'd like to see you try."
Yuma immediately charged forward, alternating strikes between punches and kicks aimed at Ryuko's head and core. Ryuko didn't bother pulling her hands out of her pockets as she easily swayed back and forth around each one until Yuma overextened slightly on a punch, turning the last sway into a spin as she slammed her hell into Yuma's back, sending her flying into the nearest tree. She then leaned back with a smirk as she waited for Yuma to get back up.
Yuma pushed herself off the tree and glowered at Ryuko. "You struck me," she snarled, her voice much less friendly now, and somewhat deeper. "You'll regret that."
This charge came much faster, as did the blows. They were also a bit more varied, including a few chops and thrusting blows. Ryuko continued to evade with ease as she increased her own effort, feeling her blood starting to pump. However, she wasn't about to let Yuma get ahead on the taunts. "You're starting to bore me," she quipped as she leapt up, bracing one foot on Yuma's extended leg while slamming the other into her chin to slam her into the fountain, flipping back to lightly land on her feet. "You're going to have to do better than that."
Yuma got to her feet, shaking off water and stone dust as she stepped out of the hole in the fountain's side. "You're going to regret taking me so lightly," she snarled out as she charged in, the blows now coming too fast for a normal person to see.
"I should say the same to you!" Ryuko snapped as she continued to evade each one. Finally pushed beyond her patience, she brought one arm up and seized Yuma's extended wrist, spinning and pulling the girl over her shoulder to slam her into the pavement hard enough to crater just as the sun touched the horizon. "I've yet to see anything worth bothering a god over, so if you really think you're going to give me a hard time, then stop holding back so I can cut loose already!"
"H-holding back?" Yuma stammered as she pushed herself one armed out of the pavement, the other still held in Ryuko's grip.
"I could see how much power you had in you from the moment I first saw you!" Ryuko declared excitedly. "It's why I'm enjoying this so much...but not if you don't show me!" Turning, she pulled Yuma out of the pavement and hurled her into the air.
In mid-flight, Yuma changed. Her clothes burst off her body as she expanded, seeming to grow older by a decade or two in the blink of an eye. Black feathered wings spread from her back as her more mature body became bound in a minimalist outfit composed of a few leather straps that just barely concealed her private parts, with matching leather gloves and knee-high heeled boots. With a flap of her wings, she corrected her flight to land lightly at the top of the water spraying up out of the fountain. "I thought you deserved a bit of fun before you died," the woman purred wickedly, her voice much more mature now. "But it seems you're in a rush to die, so I'll happily oblige." Holding out her hand, a spear of concentrated light that glowed pink took shape in her grip. "So die." She hurled the spear at Ryuko.
"Now that's more like it!" Ryuko screamed out as she leapt into the air, kicking off the thrown spear mid-way to the winged woman before flipping into an ax kick that was just barely dodged. The strike slammed into the top of the fountain, shattering the entire structure down to the piping under the ground and unleashing a torrent of water mixed with chunks of stone and metal.
The winged woman barely dodged out of the way of the torrent, a few fragments of stone and metal zipping past and gashing her face. "W-what are you?" she gasped in shock as she moved back out of the way, only for Ryuko to come launching out of the water to slam into her chin head first.
"That's a long story!" Ryuko declared excitedly as she dropped, grabbing hold of the woman's legs to drag her back to Earth with her weight. Before the woman could get her bearings, Ryuko delivered a strong kick to her gut, grinning as she heard and felt the snap of rib bones. "What's yours-"
An explosion of energy sent Ryuko back through the water, leaving her dodging more light spears as they flew rapidly at her, their approach concealed by the water. "You will regret daring to trod upon the Fallen Angel Raynare!" the woman's voice shrieked in rage.
"Oh, is that your real name?" Ryuko taunted as she tracked the pattern of the spears and began to leap from one to the other through the water towards their source. "I'll remem-ERK!"
Raynare grinned viciously as she stood to the side of the water, a spear held in her hands driven through Ryuko's leg causing her to tumble over that fulcrum. "Remember who sent you to hell!" she snarled as she pulled another spear out to strike at Ryuko's gut.
To Raynare's stunned amazement, Ryuko deliberately caught the point of that spear with her palm, impaling her hand on it as her flesh sizzled before spinning, using that new point of balance to rip the other spear from the fallen angel's grip, using the force of her leg to drive the other end of the spear into the woman's gut from where it was embedded in her own leg. "They'll be seeing you there first!" Ryuko snarled out as the pain and intensity of the fight pushed her to new heights. Jerking her leg back, she pulled it off the spear and left it embedded in her foe. Blood gushed from the wound, but she ignored it as she pulled her hand off the other spear, grasped the shaft, and slammed it backward into Raynare's face, making her stagger back. She'd have time to focus her Fibers on sealing the wounds when there was a lull in the fight...or when she took enough damage to trigger her absorption and stole her foe's powers.
Raynare, however, wasn't going to go down without a serious fight. Conjuring more light spears, she sent them flying at Ryuko while keeping one back in each hand as she tried to weave magic to patch her wounds. Ryuko did her best to dodge between the spears, but Raynare was going much faster now and there were simply too many. While none were impaling her, the hole in her leg slowed her down enough that she was being sliced by their passage. Lunging in, she got close enough to deliver a spinning kick to her right shin, grinning as a snap and a cry of pain told her she'd delivered a particularly intense blow.
She let out a grunting gasp of her own, however, when she felt the familiar sensation of a bladed weapon penetrating her torso. Staring down, she saw the spear of light driven through her own chest...and felt where her heart had shifted out of the way of the strike. I did not know it could do that, she thought to herself as she delivered a punch to the arm not holding that spear, and heard the snap as she shattered Raynare's shoulder.
"You bitch!" Raynare shrieked out as she lunged in to drive another spear of light into Ryuko's belly with her only working arm.
Ryuko coughed up blood as she felt the blow, but grinned. "You shouldn't have done that," she laughed as she grasped hold of Raynare by her wings, shocking the Fallen Angel. "Now your power's-" Her words cut off in an inarticulate scream of agony. She could feel her Fibers trying to feed on the power in the spears, and it burned. She could barely think as her entire body convulsed, blood spurting out of her even in spots where she wasn't cut.
Raynare pulled back as she felt feathers torn from her wings, her own scream of pain intense. "Die!" she screamed out as she pulled out more spears of light, driving them repeatedly into Ryuko's body and leaving them there. "Die! Die! Die! Die! Die!" A spear was left in each limb, another opposite the one in Ryuko's chest...and the last striking Ryuko right between the eyes and driving straight out the back of her head.
Ryuko lay back on the pavement, trying to scream as her body alternately tore itself apart and burned up as it tried and failed to absorb the light energy. "Make...it...stop!" she just barely managed to gasp out as the flier she'd gotten earlier fell out of her pocket, and a spurt of blood landed on it...making the circle on it blaze.
Seeing that, Raynare cursed. "No!" she snarled, and - to Ryuko's surprise - took wing and fled.
Just as Raynare vanished from sight, a glowing crimson circle appeared in the air near where Ryuko lay, identical to the one on the flier but much larger. As it descended towards the ground, two familiar figures appeared.