A.N. = Get ready guys because from now on, things will get different! Let me know what you think with a review please.
Ryuko slowly opened her eyes. It was a somewhat hard task as she felt herself completely devoid of strenght. The daylight was hurting her eyes a little, but after a minute she got used to it. Her sight was still a little blurry, but she managed to understand what she was looking at: Her lower and fiddle field of view was filled by the ceiling of what she recognized to be Mako's room, while her upper field of view was filled by Daniel's chest, shoulders and face, as well as the upper part of his arms. Slowly recovering her senses, she realized that she was laying in her futon wearing her pajama. Her mouth was dry, as well as her throat, so when she couldn't speak well. When she tried to get Daniel's attention, she just let out a small groan.
"Ehy there." Daniel whispered. "Welcome back to the living world." He chuckled. "Are you thirsty?"
Ryuko smiled, while a little shadow of blush covered her face, and nodded. As always, Daniel already knew what she needed.
"Alright. Here, let me help you. Just don't move." He slowly placed his left hand on the back of his head, gently pushing upwards, and took a glass of water with his right one. Carefully bringing its edge to Ryuko's mouth, he slowly poured some water into her mouth. When she finished drinking, Daniel put aside the glass and layed her head back on the pillow. Then he placed his right hand on the side of her head, slowly caressing her. He was sitting with his legs crossed and the pillow was placed on his legs.
"Thank you." Ryuko said weakly.
"You are welcome." Daniel answered.
"What's that?" She asked. Her voice come out weak again. Even if she drank some water, she felt her throat dry still, but it was better than before. When he rose her head, however, she saw that a small IV was connecting her left arm with his left one.
"You lost a lot of blood back there, Ryuko." He explained as her memories resurfaced. "You needed a transfusion, but Barazo didn't know what your blood type is. We opted for a O negative, but he didn't have it. Luckily, I'm O negative, so there were no problems. This is a particular IV. With this, I can give you my blood without worring about a possible back-flow. In other words, my blood will flow inside you while your blood will remain in your body."
Ryuko's blush became slightly more visible. "Th… Thank you…" She blurted out.
"No need to thank me." Daniel chuckled once again. "You should get some rest now." He said without stopping the small, gentle caresses he was doing. "I bet you are quite sore."
Once again, he was right. When Ryuko tried to move even a little her arms or her legs, she thought that 'sore' was quite an understatement: She was utterly exhausted. "You are right." She chuckled, slowly closing her eyes. However, when Daniel inadvertently caressed behind her right ear scratching the spot a little, she let out a small moan. Ryuko immediately blushed like a mad, while Daniel just laughed quietly.
"I think I found your weak spot." He said. Ryuko however was too embarrassed to speak. She really liked it. Of course, it wasn't a moan of sexual pleasure. It was a simple moan of something she enjoyed, but she was embarrassed since it happened so suddenly.
Embarrass or not, she didn't want something so enjoyable to stop, so she leaned her head on the side a little, nudging it on Daniel's hand. "Do… Do you think… You can…" She tried to say, stumbling on every word.
"Of course." He whispered with a smile, scratching again that spot. Ryuko let out a small sigh and groaned, enjoying Daniel's caresses. She relaxed under his watch, a feeling of protection coursing through her body. She slowly slipped into a half-sleep half-awake state. She was unaware of her surroundings, but well aware of herself and Daniel. It didn't take long for her to completely fell asleep with a small smile on her face.
Daniel chuckled again at Ryuko's light snorting. Never stopping the small scratches behind her right ear, he slowly averted his gaze on Senketsu, who was hanging outside the wardrobe, looking at him with his eye.
"Don't worry, Senketsu." Daniel said quietly to not wake up the girl, but loud enough to be heard. "She will be fine."
Senketsu closed his eye, thinking about him for a while. Then, he re-opened it. "Thank you for taking care of Ryuko. She won't be here if it wasn't for you." However, his eye widened in surprise when he saw Daniel nodding at him. "Wait… Can you hear me?" He asked.
"I always could." Daniel answered. Since he couldn't anymore hid in the shadows, there was no reason to keep this secret. He chuckled seeing Senketsu's reaction. He expected him to be surprised, but he was even more than what he thought. "You should see your face, Senketsu. It's priceless."
"But… How… How can you hear me?" Senketsu asked, ignoring his last sentence. At this, Daniel suddenly became serious and Senketsu could feel it. He didn't expected a sudden change of behavior from him. He thought that, as Mikisugi, he would have tried to avoid the question with a dumb behavior. Instead, he was quite surprised, as well as glad, to see that Daniel was willing to answer his question.
"I was there when your life fibers were sew togheter." He explained. "I know a lot about you, Senketsu. Maybe even more than what you think to know about yourself. This is even about Ryuko: I know some things about her that she can't even imagine." He paused, letting out a tired sigh. "I'm willing to answer your questions, Senketsu, as well as Ryuko's. But if you are going to ask about something both of you are not ready to hear, then I'm afraid I will have to ask you to change question. Forgive me about this."
"I see…" Senketsu said. His eye was closed, as he let Daniel's words sink in his mind. When he opened his eye once again, he decided that, even if he wanted to know a lot of things, he would have started with something easy. "I have a few questions if you don't mind."
"Don't worry. Just ask. I already told you that I will answer if I can."
"Why my right eye is sewn close?" Senketsu asked.
"To seal a portion of your strenght." Daniel answered. "You are much stronger than what you think Senketsu. When you were created, Isshin was afraid that you were too powerful. Sealing in your right eye a large part of your power level, he reduced your overall strenght to the total of ten percent of your real level. I think he did the right choice: If it wasn't for this, probably Ryuko would have died the first time she wore you."
Senketsu stood there breathless, a noticeable feat for a living begin that didn't need to breath. "Am I really… That powerful?" He muttered.
"Yeah." Daniel answered. "And this lead to another question: Is it safe for Ryuko to wear me? First I need to explain you about those glowing fibers that you absorb whenever Ryuko destroy a ultima uniform. They are the nexus threads."
"Nexus… Threads?" Senketsu asked.
"Exactly. It's a special fiber, imbued by the so called 'will to be clothing'. Every ultima uniform has one of these. Kamui, however, have more of them, but that's not the point. Whenever you absorb one of them, a portion of your sealed power is freed. I can't give you a precise information, but I think to be accurate enough when I say that you are round the fifty percent of your overall strenght."
"Fifty percent…" Senketsu repeated. While he was glad to hear that both he and Ryuko could become stronger, there was something bothering him. "You said that the first time Ryuko wore me, she would have died if I hadn't my power sealed, but from the way you speaking about these threads, I suppose something changed, isn't it?"
"Exactly. While at her actual level she still won't be able to stand your full strenght without side effects, when you absorb the nexus thread of a uniform the change in your power level isn't high enough to cause problems. She will just have to get a little used to it."
"That's why Mikisugi asked us to get stronger fighting the club presidents…" Senketsu realized. Thinking about it for a while, he decided to raise the bet just a bit. "Who am I?"
Daniel sighed. "I'm afraid I can't answer this question yet. You are not ready for this. I'm sorry." He lowered his gaze to the sleeping Ryuko. Her small smile on her face and the look of peace she had while he was slowly scratching behind her right ear made him smile too. "The only thing I can say for now is that you are her friend. And for this, I'm really grateful."
"Grateful?" Senketsu asked.
"Yeah. You heard whole story when I explained it to Mako."
"Yes… I remember…" Senketsu's eye closed once again, recollecting his words back at Mikisugi's place. It was an habit he developed when he went into a state of deep and serious thinking. And since Daniel was giving him enough informations to think about, he found himself closing and opening his eye quite a lot of times. "Changing the topic… When you fought Harime Nui, you attached her with a very fast attack…"
"Shadow strike." Daniel interrupted him. "It's nothing special, trust me." Daniel admitted. "I just dash towards the enemy before he realize my move."
"That's not what I'm asking." The kamui stated. "I understood that the main and only advantage of such technique is the great speed. What I was asking is something that left me a bit confuse: Before unleashing that strike, you said something like… How was it… Inhibitor disabled?"
Daniel sighed tiredly once again. He remained silent for a minute, recalling his memories about his trainings and about Isshin injecting the life fibers inside his body. Senketsu waited patiently, sensing that Daniel needed a small amount of time to recollect himself.
"I exchanged part of my humanity for this power, Senketsu." He explained. "While someone could blame fate for making such an event necessary, I won't. I was given the chance to reject, but I accepted it. I felt that I needed to do this in order to better fulfill my task and I still belive it. However, there were some… Drawbacks… I don't think it is the right word, since there wasn't any problem. Truth to be told, everything went fine. Everything was perfect. Maybe too much. That's what I mean with drawbacks."
"If I may ask, what did you do?" While Senketsu was asking it out of curiosity, he wasn't unaware of Daniel's uneasiness.
"I fused my body with life fibers." Daniel waited for a minute, letting Senketsu to overcome the shock. "Usually, to achive my actual level, a human begin need to be merged with life fibers in the first four weeks of life. The only living exceptions about this fact are me and Satsuki's mother, Kyruin Ragyo, with living being the key word. I was granted a huge amount of power. Maybe too much. Eventually, Ryuko's father, who was the person injecting the life fibers in my body, told me that I needed to install some inhibitors to reduce my power. Since then, I trained as much as I could to be finally able to hold back by myself, but still I find it a hard task." Daniel then shook his head. He was trailing off from the topic the kamui wanted to hear. "Shadow strike is a very powerful, and yet simple, technique. I'm able to use it releasing the inhibitor that reduce my overall speed, but I need to unlock my strength too in order to achive its full potential."
Senketsu nodded, understanding why Daniel changed the topic from his past to his shadow strike technique. "I'm quite interested in your capabilities, Daniel. May I ask you to tell me more? I would like to see if there's something I can learn."
Daniel chuckled. He was smiling again, much to Senketsu's relief. "Perhaps, Senketsu..." He then mumbled lowly something. He was trying to think something that could be useful for the kamui. "Maybe it will be easier for me if you tell me your strengths and weaknesses. Obviously, I won't force you about it, it's just a thought of mine."
Senketsu thought about it for a moment. Strenghts and weaknesses were two dangerous topics to talk about. If someone was eavesdropping the conversation, troubles were sure to find them. Of course, that couldn't be said for them, since there were only two people able to hear him and one of them was sleeping in front of him, gently cuddled by the second one. In case he needed a proof about his loyalty, a quick glance towards a certain IV slowly transfusing his blood inside Ryuko's body was proof enough.
"Alright. For what concern my strengths, I think my raw force is the main feat, followed by my defensive capabilities. I won't hide my pride in saying that very few attacks manage to hurt Ryuko when she is fighting. Then, there are speed and endurance. I don't excel in both of them, but my actual level seems to be enough. About my weaknesses, I'm still lacking any kind of ranged attack, but I really don't care about this: Ryuko seems to be more inclined for the melee and I agree with her. However, something that I think I could find useful is a more advanced healing ability: When Ryuko fought against Junketsu and the three stars ultima uniforms, she got seriously injured. Being able to heal her during the fight will greatly increase her chance of success. I think these are the main problems for now. If I am to pinpoint another weakness, I would ask you to think about my fight with Harime Nui. Even if it was a small exchange of blows, she utterly outmatched us." Senketsu explained. While he found easy to describe his strengths, he found quite hard to describe his weaknesses.
Daniel listened to everything the kamui said before thinking about it. "I don't think that developing an healing configuration is a bad idea, but you need to be careful since it will reduce both speed and power. However, if you manage to buy enough time, it can become really helpful." He adviced. "Maybe it's better if you learn to heal Ryuko better while fighting in other configurations. I think you need something to increase your actual abilities. I already have an idea for a new configuration, but first I need you to unlock some of your power…" As he said this, he slowly took reverse knife. "As I told you before, when you absorb the nexus threads a portion of your sealed power is unlocked. It works with other types of life fibers too…" With this, he suddenly stabbed his left shoulder. "Of course, the nexus threads give you more power than standard life fibers, but I think that you will find these quite stronger…" Daniel slowly took out his knife from his shoulder and, before the wound closed, he tore away from his muscle some life fibers. Averting his gaze once more towards Senketsu, while his wound healed and the life fibers inside him stitched back as if nothing happened, he rose his right arm towards him. Letting the life fibers go, he watched as Senketsu absorbed them.
When Senketsu absorbed the nexus threads, he always released a small pink light. With time he got used to it. As he saw Daniel letting go that small amount of life fibers, he expected to feel a different feeling. He didn't expected it, however, to be so different.