Twelve \\ Scheming - 機構 - At the End of Days
A/N: Warning: mentions of past abuse.
Disclaimer: I don't own Kill la Kill!
Scheming at the End of Days
Satsuki rose before Ryuuko, that morning.
It had been a cold night on dry leaves they'd gathered to spread on the tile floor. In the course of it, one or both of them had unconsciously maximized contact – though Satsuki had instinctively kept the hand that grasped the unsheathed Bakuzan Gako away from the embrace. That hand was cold.
Gently Satsuki extricated herself from her sister's clinging limbs, and shifted away from her side with a light yawn. Little fool… Ryuuko would swear up and down that she'd never been the cuddly type, never liked to cling. Even when she had lived with the Mankanshoku girl, who apparently had been far more keen on such tendencies, Ryuuko claimed she had never picked up the habit.
Would she purport Satsuki was responsible for their frequent entanglement, then? The Kiryuuin snorted good-naturedly at the thought.
Looking back, she reached to push a lock of dark hair from across the sleeping girl's face, and paused.
Sighing, she grasped the Bakuzan Kouryuu, and walked from the station.
–"You want to try on Junketsu…? Dear girl… you will not be able to wear something named 'Purity' properly until you have become a fully realized Kiryuuin – perfected, as am I."–
Before the dawn sun, feet splashing through puddles and dewy grass, Satsuki moved slowly, smoothly through sword forms. It was not often that she voluntarily dwelled on thoughts of Kiryuuin Ragyou.
What did she mean? She thought, as a blade sliced a falling leaf in two, then four. What did she mean?
She must have said something useful. But when…? Think…!
But all she could think of was a putridly bright smile, a sultry voice, and zealous eyes dark with greed.
–"You are an imperfect being… and so, must be purified."–
It had been said so simply, as if it were natural.
–Merciless eyes, picking her apart. Icy hands, everywhere she didn't want them–
She stumbled; eyes wide, she caught her footing and lashed out before her, savage. Panting, she held the position.
–"'Stop,' you say?" A sneeringly scandalized tone, the feigned indignation raking. "Silly girl…"
"P-p-please, no! What are– y-you d-doing?" That voice – once, it really had been capable of being reduced to such a frail, pitiful squeak–
Not that. Forget that and focus!
There must be a clue somewhere. If anyone would have known a way to defeat the Life Fibers… it would have been the one tasked and trusted with protecting them. She would have known every secret.
Her hand shook; the obsidian blade glinted in the light.
…Did I miscalculate? If I had continued the ruse, let her complete the experiment at the Culture and Sports Grand Festival, would I have gotten more information, with her trust…?
No. That was never an option–
CLANG!
She had whirled, squarely blocking the strike of a scissor blade at her head. Her shocked eyes narrowed in annoyance, hair dancing as a resounding, metallic clang of collision rang in the air around them.
"'Morning," Ryuuko said with a grin, feet falling to the earth.
Satsuki raised a brow at the cheerfully combative girl, irksome as she found her blades held off but the rounded, outer edge of a scissor. "Soft."
"You know me!" Ryuuko said, miniaturizing the scissor again. "But you seemed a little spaced out. And have you even given your arm enough time to heal…? You barely blocked in time, to boot. If I'd been using the sharp edge, I'd have started pulling the hit by then."
Satsuki sheathed her weapons, unruffled. "The sharper the threat, the sharper my defense. Your attack was lukewarm, and so I was delayed in detecting it; if you had struck with the sharp edge, and smelled of the intent to kill, my counter would have been flawless."
"Well, excuse me for comin' atcha' with half-assed sneak attacks!" Ryuuko groaned in mock lament. Arms crossed, she leapt well over Satsuki, flipping in the air to wind up dropping neatly to seat herself on a large stone.
"Someone slept well," Satsuki remarked. "With that much energy of your own, this trip should go without incident."
"We haven't been there in a while…" Ryuuko said, sobering. "I wonder if anything's changed…"
"As do I…"
Ryuuko was lifting her sullen gaze on the ground, as if remembering something. "Hey… I never asked, I guess – when I soaked up your power that time, what was it like? It didn't hurt you, did it?"
Satsuki stiffened a moment. Her gaze concerned itself with some stone or other on the ground. "No, it did not cause pain."
Some relief came to Ryuuko's face, though she hadn't missed her tensing. "What, then?" she said, curious.
The older sister's arms folded across herself. That's…
–"A species that defies its instincts faces only… extinction."–
Ryuuko frowned in concern as Satsuki's teeth clenched.
Satsuki glared suddenly at her, quietly distraught and as angry to be caught displaying it. She took in the younger woman's inquisitive eyes and caring face.
Ryuuko's lips were slightly parted, not to freely spew the crassness they were partial to, but caught on the brink of speech. Ryuuko was considering diverting the conversation; the 'never mind' wilting in her eyes would probably be chased out, given a few more moments.
The older sister broke the tension before she could. "How to explain this…" she murmured, relaxing a bit. "You remember what I said last night – about the Kiryuuin being bred more carefully than the rest of humankind?"
"Yeah. We're mutants."
Satsuki began to pace. "Humans instinctively cover themselves with clothing. Kiryuuin, by a quirk of our breeding and close contact with Life Fibers, are a step beyond this. We physically desire to be worn by Life Fibers."
"Then… that'd be the 'flaw,' wouldn't it?!"
"I suppose so… Ryuuko." Satsuki stopped in front of her, meeting her eyes. "We have a genetically ingrained, physical response encouraging us to submit to them."
"How? How would that even work?"
"It is not so extraordinary, aside from its potency. Nature has simple mechanisms for encouraging useful, evolved behaviors. Stimulus…"
Her hand, resting one moment idly on the Bakuzan Gako, jabbed the hilt without warning below Ryuuko's kneecap, eliciting a yelp.
"…And response," Satsuki finished, releasing the ankle of the foot that had kicked automatically forward at her. "Some actions – reflexes – are involuntary. It's the same if you press your hand to something hot enough to burn, and snap it away without thinking. You learned how this works in grade school, I'm sure?"
Ryuuko rubbed her knee with a huff, but remained attentive as Satsuki continued.
"Now, if the Life Fibers were playing programmer to our evolution, tailoring our genetic makeup to respond to theirs, how do you suppose they might secure dominance over their host species, and ensure unconditional obedience?"
A questioning look. Satsuki sighed.
"You share the gene as well, even if yours has never been…" She trailed off – a bit too sharply, in Ryuuko's eyes. But after the pause, she went on without explanation. "Do you remember how it felt to let yourself be worn by Junketsu? To give yourself over, body and soul?"
Ryuuko's raised brow dropped at the sudden question, and she blushed uncomfortably. "W-well… yeah, I do. Kinda' hard to forget. I mean, I ain't proud of it, but…"
Satsuki put a sympathetic hand on her shoulder. "It's an Achilles' Heel that only Life Fibers can strike. That feeling was hardwired into us – into human, and especially Kiryuuin, blood – with one of nature's simplest, most effective motivators."
Eyes dispassionate, voice monotonously bleak, she met Ryuuko's eyes and shrugged.
"To give in feels wonderful."
Ryuuko's face went pale as she pieced it together. "S-so, when I…?"
"It felt good." Though her face was pointedly composed, Satsuki forced back a growl that threatened at the edge of her tone as discomfort flashed in her eyes. "Obscenely so."
"…I'm sorry. I–!"
"I do what I must to win," Satsuki said, firm. "Or have you so swiftly forgotten that about me? If humanity's triumph could hinge on letting you use my power, so be it."
"I knew somethin' was wrong!" Ryuuko cried, regardless. She felt sickness nipping its way into the edges of her gut as she remembered. "When it happened… you were begging me to quit it, weren't you? But I didn't listen… I just took what I needed–!"
"Ryuuko!" Satsuki shouted suddenly, causing her to flinch away. The scowl that she'd been fighting, no longer checked, had grown fierce. "Do you know what sort of thought really frightens me? If Ragyou had discovered the power to directly absorb my energy, and freely trigger the submission gene with it, she would have broken me at her leisure – driven me mad! She would have made me a slave to her will! But you're not Ragyou!" she said, drawing out the words. She grasped Ryuuko's shoulders. "You're Ryuuko! You jump like a stray cat. You swear far too much, and you still fight like a ruffian, and you can wear on my last nerve, but for the vulgar little savage you are, you've a good heart. You're my little sister!"
"Nee-san…"
"So I will feel no shame, even at your mercy. I won't resent you, no matter how much you must use me. Because I can trust you not to destroy me!"
"Sis, I…" Ryuuko looked down, a knot in her throat. Her voice was quiet. "I appreciate all that. I really do…"
"So if you must draw on my power, you will, correct?" Satsuki said, stern.
"Yeah."
"Say you will."
"I will, alright?" Ryuuko snapped. "If the enemy's too strong, I'll use you."
"What if I cry?" Satsuki asked next. "If I should panic, and beg you to stop?"
"That's…!"
"Oh? You would let us die over a lapse in rationality?"
"Fuck this," Ryuuko snarled. "No. Happy? I wouldn't let us die. I'd use you anyway."
Satsuki nodded approvingly. "Prove it." Releasing her sister's shoulders, she offered a slender hand. "Steal my energy, right now."
Ryuuko eyed her. She hopped down from her seat on the stone, and reached out to clasp the hand. She took a deep breath.
"Do it," Satsuki said, eyes as ice.
Ryuuko's teeth clenched. "I don't want to. Not if you really can't stop me."
"Ryuuko!" the long-haired woman said again, in exasperation. "If the fate of the world rested on it, what would you do–?!"
The headbutt, sudden, nearly sent Satsuki off her feet. She brought a hand to her forehead, reeling, and straightened with a scowl.
Ryuuko was fuming. "I don't wanna mess you up to protect us. Just because you been through worse doesn't mean I can feel just fine causing you distress! What're you trying to get me to prove?! It must be pretty damn easy for you to sit there and make me promise I'll hurt you, huh?!" She dropped her head, panting a moment. "…I'm not just thinking about us, either. Contrary to popular belief, I've got a functioning brain up here, and it trusts you with your power a hell of a lot more'n it trusts the threads living in my goddamned body!"
Satsuki shut her eyes. "…Very well," she said finally. "If such insurance will put your conscience at ease, let us practice."
"Practice?"
Satsuki offered her hand again, and smirked with suave confidence. "Try to steal my power. I will repulse you."
"You can do that?"
"I am Kiryuuin Satsuki."
鬼龍院皐月
(きりゅういんさつき)
[KIRYUUIN SATSUKI]
Ryuuko couldn't very well argue with that. In a moment, she nodded. She took Satsuki's hand again, turning it palm-down; then Ryuuko held up one of her own fingers, for Satsuki's curious look. "Like the idea behind the kamui," she said. "We'll start with minimum skin contact."
You… Satsuki thought, suppressing an involuntary shudder as Ryuuko's reddening hand neared. Your body, that's capable of this… No. Our bodies, that are capable of such an exchange… were uneventfully in such close contact, when I awoke.
Ryuuko's finger met the back of Satsuki's hand.
Even expecting it, Satsuki gasped when the pull came. It snuck into her like a powerful suggestion, but she was prepared, and forcefully inhibited the obvious response. Ryuuko could extract no ki from her. "Next," she said quietly, nodding.
Ryuuko watched Satsuki's jaw tense as she lowered another finger onto her hand. This was just unfair. She herself barely needed to exert any effort to give a steady pull, and reduce Kiryuuin Satsuki to this state of shivering concentration to resist her. The mechanism was this inordinately slanted in her favor… "Ready?" she asked softly, and lowered a third finger.
Satsuki panted on shallow breaths, but still surrendered nothing. Cold sweat slipped down her face as she withheld her power. At the fourth, she began to feel physically ill. Even if she had tamed Junketsu, she had never thought to attempt to block the kamui's basic interaction of drawing on her power with her blood; if she had, she imagined it might have felt this way.
Ryuuko saw her turning blue. "Sis…"
"Go on!" Satsuki said, glowering. "We'll get nowhere if we don't at least push my limit."
That said, by the time Ryuuko pressed her thumb down to her hand, Satsuki felt as if her senses were inverting on themselves, in the face of the urge; her resistance, like pressing a hand firmly to a hot stovetop, or voluntarily holding one's breath in clean air. Her throat tightened; pressure throbbed behind her eyes. She wanted to give in. How she wanted to. But soon the response would remove itself from her voluntary control.
She watched, in a confused daze of fascination, as Ryuuko began to lay her fingers flat.
I– w-wonder–
She struggled to breathe.
Has such a l-limit – been – t-tested – before?
Bright spots seared at the edges of her vision.
Even should you – bear the will – hold your b-breath long enough – and you – pass out–
The most basic sense of terror constricted on her heart, as white noise rattled and intensified between her ears.
And so the b-body – will force you to br–
Ryuuko's palm lay flat.
The younger woman felt the inrush of power, like strength condensed into an electric charge – and saw Satsuki's eyes go dim. In the same moment, all the tension in the long-haired woman dissolved; her jaw slackened, her knees dropped her, and her hand dropped away from beneath Ryuuko's palm. Contact broken, Ryuuko snapped her hand back.
The sensation of invincibility simmered in Ryuuko's skull, crackled hotly to her fingertips and lightening feet, setting Life Fibers throughout her body gleefully abuzz with intoxicating power. The line of her mouth wriggled before a lofty smile sprawled jaggedly across her face; she breathed in, and in, until strong lungs seemed to strain at a steel ribcage, and for a mad and exhilarating instant, she wanted to laugh aloud.
Then Satsuki's slumping form fell against her, and she swore.
"Sis?! Oh, shit! You ain't dead, are you?!" she cried, lowering her limp body in her arms. Unfocused eyes listed about blankly as Ryuuko shook her a bit; she slapped her cheek lightly, then much less lightly, and Satsuki returned to wakefulness with a thrash and a gasp. Ryuuko watched her, so weary and weak, and didn't even complain when the long-haired woman tugged Ryuuko's sleeve to clear a trail of drool from her chin.
You're… stronger than me, aren't you, sis? If I were stronger… If I'd just done like you said to begin with, and was strong enough to know I wouldn't lose to my Life Fibers… would that have been better?
"Stop looking like that," Satsuki grumbled, causing her to start.
"I knocked you out," Ryuuko said. "You should've told me if it was hurting you!"
"If I'd told you," Satsuki said simply, "you would have faltered, and we wouldn't have ascertained my limit."
"So…" Ryuuko said, still sore, "with what it's like… do you think that limit's something that can be extended?"
"…Maybe," Satsuki said honestly. "But I am capable of blocking you, to a point. I am not altogether powerless. Will this assuage your misgivings, for now?"
"I guess," Ryuuko said, "but I'm still not gonna like it."
Satsuki gave a chortle. "And the way you feel now…" She reached upward, stroking hair that had flared in a manner almost reminiscent of the Ryuuko who had donned Senketsu so long ago. Slipping her fingers behind the familiar red streak and bangs, she exposed vibrantly blue accents to the sunlight. "With my power running through you… Do you like it?"
Ryuuko squeezed the shoulder she held. "Yeah. This feels… right." Still kneeling, she stretched a hand upward, examining it as bright red veins spread with a soft crackling of power toward her fingertips.
'Of course it feels right, Matoi Ryuuko. How else ought it feel, to utilize something for the proper purpose of its design?'
At the knowing voice, Ryuuko's sharp teeth clenched.
'It will feel even better… when the time comes to grasp this world's fate in your fumbling hands, and wrest it onto its proper course.'
"I'll do right," Ryuuko muttered surely, voice low. Satsuki's eyes narrowed in question; she looked to the younger girl's still-luminous eyes as the area fell under a blanket of thick shadow.
Ryuuko wore a cool glower as her hand flexed, fingers spreading as she thrust a sparking palm toward the sky.
A thunderous crack of power. Far overhead, a great cloud was pierced, and then dissipated in a starburst of violently scattered mist.
世界の果てに
-Scheming-
End
A/N: Sub-title literal meaning: 機構 - mechanism.
-Kurouga
