Chapter 11: Steps Back; Steps Forward
Approx. 13 Years Prior
"You look like an old man," Ketsuya pointed out. He had shown up unannounced to Dr. Matoi's laboratory, and was now sitting and drinking tea while holding one of Matoi's new weapons, "What's this thing for?"
"The Needle Blade is designed to target a life fiber being's banshi and remove it," Dr. Matoi explained, ignoring the old man comment, "It will be an invaluable tool to fight against the life fibers."
"Hmm…" Ketsuya replied, giving the garment a few test swings and jabs, "cool. Anything else?"
"Well, I've been busy gathering recruits for Nudist Beach," Matoi pointed out, "In fact, one of them should be stopping by the lab any moment."
"Alright, maybe I'll stick around then," Ketsuya stated. In reality, he didn't really have anything better to do, but he wanted to make it sound like he had other plans prior.
A gentle knock on the door startled the two, and when Dr. Matoi opened the lab door, Ketsuya's eyes widened.
"A school girl? The best you could come up with is a school girl?"
The uniformed girl with short, dark brown hair shot him a stern look, "Matoi-sensei… who might this be?"
"Oh, don't mind him, he's one of my other assistants," Matoi explained.
"Well, tell your assistant that I, Kinagase Kinue, am an accomplished honor student and soon to be high school graduate who refuses to be looked down upon because of my age!" the girl retorted.
"Tempermental…" Ketsuya muttered not quite under his breath.
"Hey! You don't look too much older than me, actually!" Kinue pointed out, "You're like a pot calling the kettle black!"
"I'm older than I look," Ketsuya replied quite bluntly, "Don't bash heads with someone you don't know, you'll be surprised how outclassed you are."
The black-haired man grinned wryly, revealing his two sets of canines, and Kinue crossed her arms, looking ready to say something else.
"Get along, you too," Matoi spoke sternly, "I'm older than both of you, and this is my lab. You will work together nicely."
Ketsuya frowned, but Kinue turned and bowed respectfully to Dr. Matoi. "S-sorry, sir."
As she began talking with Dr. Matoi, Ketsyua sat back, looking over some of the plans the man had. Some were rather ambitious, like a ridiculously oversized battleship, the S.S. Naked Sun, and some needed work, like his plans for the preliminary Senketsu, but a lot of them impressed the life fiber hybrid.
Perhaps with this, Nudist Beach could in fact win against Ragyou.
Satsuki woke up and her eyes widened at the scene.
Nonon was suspended from the ceiling by life fibers, completely bound and seemingly unconscious.
Inumuta was suspended next to her in a similar state, and standing before them was the black-haired guest, gazing at Satsuki with blank eyes.
Satsuki immediately fell into a defensive stance, but without her sword or Junketsu, she felt naked and defenseless against him.
"Mem...memories…" He replied, reaching one strained hand up to his head, "Me...memories… I need… memories…"
Satsuki frowned. Perhaps communicating with him was her only chance of not winding up like her friends, "Memories?"
"Empty… I… can't remember… I need… memories!" He lunged at her and she dodged to the side, barely evading his now clawed hands.
Upon closer inspection, it looked as though the grey fabric that Satsuki had initially thought was clothing he had found was in fact fused to his skin. Thin wisps of steam came off of it, and it actually looked as though his skin was burning and reforming perpetually.
"What, you mean, your memories are gone? Are you looking for your memories?" Satsuki asked. The more information she could find out, the better, though he didn't seem to be in a very coherent state at the moment.
"Gone… gone… need…" Was all he responded. "You… memories… you have…"
He lunged at her once more, but stopped and sniffed the air, as though he were feral, then turned around, "Not right… you're… like them… not right memories."
"You mean…" Satsuki began, "Since we're human, and you're a synthetic life fiber hybrid… you can't steal our memories?"
Before he could answer, however, the man turned his head towards the ceiling and took another big sniff before turning towards the door.
"There… right memories… someone… with right memories… comes," he stated.
"Does that mean… Harime Nui has…?" Satsuki asked, though more to herself than him. It hardly mattered. After she spoke, the man bolted out the door, ready to attack.
Satsuki collapsed soon after, frowning. She was exhausted, and she was defenseless against this threat.
"It's up to you now, Ryuuko…" Satsuki asked, "It's up to you to save us once again."
Approx. 15 Years Ago:
A young, 7-year-old Nui ran up to Ketsuya as he worked in his lab and buried her face in the side of his leg.
"Nui, what's wrong?" Ketsuya asked, bending down and pulling the young girl into a hug.
"Ketsu-nii! Ragyou-sama wouldn't let me out of my room again! It was really dark, and I was scared…" Nui cried.
"How long this time?" Ketsuya asked. He was focused on being comforting, but a silent rage was bubbling inside him.
This hadn't been the first time Ragyou trapped the girl in her room, and Ketsuya knew it wouldn't be the last. She'd do it on a whim. If Nui misbehaved, or broke something important, or even just when Ragyou didn't feel like dealing with the child, she'd keep Nui in her "room", which was a small, unlit room with no purpose. The floor was concrete and the walls were covered in cobwebs. Ragyou had quite intentionally soundproofed it so Nui's sobs couldn't be heard without opening the door.
The room worked exceptionally well at scaring poor Nui, who was afraid of the dark. It was nothing short of torture.
"Uh… maybe two days… it's hard to tell…" Nui replied.
"I'm sorry, Nui…" Ketsuya replied, "It's safe now. You're safe with me, I won't let Ragyou put you back in the room."
"She always does it when you're not around to save me!" Nui complained, wiping the tears from her eyes.
"Then I'll just have to stick around more, won't I?" Ketsuya smiled, patting the girl on the head, "Come on, you must be hungry. Let's get you something to eat."
Nui nodded, a faint smile on her face, as the two made their way to the kitchen.
That bitch Ragyou is going to pay one day. Bear with it a bit longer, Nui. One day her torment will cease, I promise you that.
Ryuuko had planned to find Satsuki, but after seeing the red threads around her room, she had formulated a different plan.
Find Nui. Return to infirmary. Discuss with the others what they should do.
She had accomplished one third of that plan now, but the second third was proving to be rather difficult.
"It's like a spider web," Nui pointed out, "These life fibers are connected to something. I'd be willing to bet if we so much as brushed one, it would give away our exact location."
"Damn," Ryuuko cursed, "This was the quickest way to the infirmary, too."
"Here, come this way!" Nui pointed to a smaller hallway, "We can take some of the lesser-used halls… it'll take more time, but we'll be able to get through without being noticed."
"Wait… how do you…." Ryuuko was about to ask Nui how she knew her way around, but then she realized that of course Nui would know the mansion's layout. She had been an enemy up until now.
Not willingly. She reminded herself. Of course, it was still hard to bring herself to believe that.
"Nevermind," Ryuuko replied, "But if you try anything funny, I still have Senketsu."
She doesn't need to know that I can't actually activate him.
Senketsu gave Ryuuko an unapproving look, but didn't say anything.
Nui nodded, "I'll prove to you that you can trust me, alright!"
There was something in her eyes that made Ryuuko desperately want to trust her, but she just couldn't. Not when she was the person who killed her father.
Approx. 10 Years Ago:
"You're going to leave?" Matoi asked, surprised. The two were in the corner of the lab, talking, while Kinue took notes on a recent experiment they had just finished.
Ketsuya frowned, "Something's happened to Nui. I often scout around the mansion to see what Ragyou's up to, but I haven't seen Nui outside in days. I can't just do nothing about it."
Dr. Matoi frowned and scratched his beard, "Do yoou intend to fight?"
"No," Ketsuya shook his head, "I only plan on rescuing Nui from wherever Ragyou is keeping her. I will only fight if need be."
"We need your assistance, Ketsuya," Dr. Matoi frowned, "You're the only one who's made a kamui before."
"You know more about the nature of life fibers than even I, and I'm made out of them." Ketsuya replied, "Besides, you talk as if I won't return."
Ketsuya flashed Dr. Matoi a toothy grin and grabbed the Needle Blade off of the wall it had been mounted on. As he turned for the door, Kinue looked over at him quizzically.
"And where do you think you're going?" she asked, a hint of amusement in her voice.
"Field testing," Ketsuya lied. Without another word, he left.
Kinue turned to Dr. Matoi, "But haven't we already-"
"That reckless child," Matoi replied, "He's off to the the Kiryuin mansion!"
Kinue's eyes widened, and she rushed out after him, with a "Ketsuya, wait!"
Two thirds of the plan were complete. They had made it to the infirmary.
"Everyone!" Ryuuko shouted as she walked in, "The life fiber hybrid's escaped!"
Gamagori stood up and nearly hit his head on the ceiling, Aikuro looked at Ryuuko with great urgency, and Mako glanced up at all of them with a look on her face that said "I have no idea what's going on."
"What of Satsuki-sama?" Gamagori asked.
"I don't know. The halls leading up to her personal lounge are blocked off by life fibers," Ryuuko explained.
Gamagori puffed out his chest. "That means Satsuki-sama is in trouble! We must aid her!"
"Hold on, Gamagori," Aikuro replied, "Remember, our opponent is a life fiber hybrid. You no longer have your Goku Uniform, and without Senketsu's glove, Ryuuko can't transform."
Nui looked over at Ryuuko, who was whistling innocently.
"We can't just do nothing!" Gamagori shouted.
The door to the infirmary shot open, and Uzu rushed in before collapsing.
"What? Sanageyama-san!?" Mako shouted.
"I made it past the life fibers…" he explained, "I overheard Satsuki talking to the hybrid… he… he lost his memories too… it seems he's looking for them."
At that, Uzu passed out, and Iori frowned, "Perhaps he was attacked too."
"More importantly," Aikuro replied, "I think we just about figured everything out. Our hybrid here lost his memories and seems to be searching for them. Right now, he's like a black hole, with no memories, anyone he attacks loses their own. He's sucking them up, trying to find his own. I guess it doesn't work as well on humans as life fiber beings, since both Nui and Senketsu lost a majority of their memories, whereas Mako only lost a few hours of hers."
"Where do I stand, then?" Ryuuko asked. Aikuro gave a shrug.
"So, what can we do?" Iori asked.
Nui, who had been staring down at the floor for the longest time, stepped forwards.
"I'll fight him!" She declared.
Everyone turned to her at the same time and yelled, "WHAAAAT?"
"Maybe it's risky since he can steal my memories… but it's the only chance we have. Ryuuko's pretty strong too, but she's not used to fighting without Senketsu. I'm the only one accustomed to fighting without a kamui or Goku Uniform who can match the strength of a life fiber hybrid." Nui stated.
Ryuuko wanted to argue with her, but everything she had just said made perfect sense.
"Nui…" Ryuuko looked over at her, yet, even before she could say anything, the door was blown off it's hinges.
It was him. The hybrid.
Nui turned to look at him and gasped, and from her lips came only one word.
"K...Ketsuya…"
To be continued...
