It was dark.
A striking observation. How dark? What sort of darkness am I looking at? The shadowy ceiling of an underground room? The claustrophobic tightness of a blindfold over your eyes? The sky at nightfall? Thoughts should only be formed when the immediate facts have been assessed.
The darkness was split up by dots of penetrating light. They could be reflective dust motes, or stitches in fabric, or… stars, they were stars. Stars that twinkled brilliantly in the blurred expanse, reminding her of her life. There had always been something poetic about knowing that the starlight humanity could see from the Earth came from stars that had burnt out before the first tribesmen set up their huts. How limited their vision, when they had always been in the company of one who had drifted among those lights when they burnt bright and alive.
It was night, then, as it had been during her last bout of consciousness, which meant that she had not been losing hours of time. That was good news, for once.
Unless I have been unconscious for days at a time. I cannot know, cannot judge anything I have not personally seen under these circumstances, unless I have been told by the Holy Original. It is yet another way that my mind is held back, yet another way I am still, for all of my efforts and all of His blessings, in touch with humankind.
Now the location.
With her vision clearing, she started to see objects ruffling in the sky, obscuring the starlight. The wind howled, unusually icy against her skin, and the objects began to drift down onto her face.
Leaves. Trees. This is a forest. Logic would dictate the same forest I was in previously, the same forest the mansion resided in. This is not a gigantic area; ergo, either little time has passed or my progress has been made in fits and starts.
Now my condition.
She lifted her head, cracked her neck to both sides, and rose smoothly to her feet without using her hands, her body simply arching up in a practiced motion. Staring down at her torso revealed that her dress was hanging off of her in blood-soaked shreds, but that the only clear marring of her flesh was an irregular lump of darkened scar tissue with seemingly burnt edges, resting dead-center over her heart.
Something the Life Fibers could not completely heal. Some kind of attack that went deliberately for my heart. This is troublesome.
Raising her hands to her head, she blindly scoped out her appearance. Her hair, meticulously done up just that morning, hung in chaotic strands that trailed all over her shoulders and neck, some even drifting into view to cover her face. Her makeup was smeared and splotched away to the point that it only took one swift wipe of her hand to remove what remained. Physically, however, her skull and face seemed perfectly fine.
Ragyo Kiryuin breathed deeply, feeling the air bite at her throat and settle like snow in her chest, and recalled what had happened to her.
"Can you… walk, Mama?"
The wheezing utterances drew her attention, and she glanced over to see Nui leaning up against the side of a tree, evidently bracing herself. She was pale, shaking from what appeared to be a cold sweat; her condition had not changed from their reunion at the mansion. One of her frail hands cradled a wound on her chest, almost identical to Ragyo's but for the fact that it was still open and bleeding.
More importantly, she was still unclothed, and the Life Fibers that made her were still… exposed, beautiful as they were meant to be. Again the hunger twisted in Ragyo's heart, the hunger borne in part from her true love's untouchable holiness and in part from her own animal desires, hot and heavy and frustrating and eternally unquenchable – and still so much lovelier than what she had felt since Nui had gone missing. She missed her daughter's unquestioning, unconditional love. The late Satsuki had a body more suited to her mother's desires, but almost every bath or bedroom visit after those delicious early days of tears and fighting back felt partly like work. By the time of her death, there was no spirit left to be broken, so little to work the constant itch out on. With Nui, there had never been a moment of resistance, no matter how much fun that was.
She smiled, and contemplated letting the remnants of her dress fall.
We were running for a reason. Focus. Suppress the urges for just a while longer and remember. Nui can wait.
And with that thought, like the lights flickering on after a long outage, the desires flushed from her mind with practiced efficiency and everything after Soichiro's glorious karma came rushing back to her.
The form Ryuko had somehow managed to attain – a perfection of her hybrid nature, yet a mockery of everything holy and pure about the Fibers that gave her life.
Feeling those bladed claws slowly compressing her heart, digging into it, snapping Fiber after Fiber, while she watched her husband bleed out on the stairs in what should have been her moment of revenge.
Watching from the corner of her eye as Nui escaped the claws and broke her free like a good little girl.
Ragyo's eyes snapped toward the distant shadows. Somewhere in the distance, she could feel Ryuko's wretched presence writhing and strengthening, absorbing what she'd stolen from her mother and little sister, using it to make herself even more formidable. She was somewhere out there, and she needed to be dealt with quickly and efficiently, for the sake of the Holy Original and His kin.
Before He can ascend, before Nui can sew Shinra-Koketsu and Rei can take her place within it, alas, another daughter must be put to rest.
"Mama… can you…?" Nui wheezed again, more blood dripping out from between her fingers. "We have… a long way…"
Ragyo gave a single nod and held out her hand. As slow and weak as she was, or appeared to be, Nui took it instantly and without hesitation, beaming as widely as if she had just woken up in perfect health. And for just a moment, as long as she would allow it to last, Ragyo felt nothing more than the unbridled joy of seeing her little girl smiling again.
Focus.
She purged the unnecessary thoughts without shifting her expression, and with the first steps toward Kiryuin Manor, she and Nui vanished into the darkness.
- Hours Later; Nudist Beach HQ -
It took some effort, but the bed was finally finished. It was the next best thing to carting over the queen-sized bed Ryuko had used to sleep in, which was something Mako fully planned on doing once she had the time. For now, this would have to make do: the stripped-apart frames of multiple infirmary beds screwed together, supporting two of the best mattresses she could find in the surplus supplies area, all draped in most of the blankets from the mansion bed and one of the pillows from the same.
Mako flopped down onto her handiwork, mindful of the fact that it might collapse underneath her, and found it both sturdy and surprisingly comfortable. She tried to imagine laying in it for weeks, maybe months, with an IV hooked into her arm and these four walls all she had for scenery.
Well, it was better than the standard bed she would have gotten.
She stood up and set immediately back to work, returning to the pile of materials and possessions behind her. She'd had to leave some things behind when the helicopter came to make room for what Aikuro's team had carried out, but she had the essentials and she would make more personal return visits until everything that couldn't be fit into this room was at least in the base.
For now, she carried an armful of books and manga over to the bedside table, and did her best to lay them out. Ryuko had them sorted by genre at the mansion, but Mako didn't remember what order they were in, and she doubted she had enough time left over after the bed assembly to read through each and accurately sort them herself. She set them down instead mostly by title, taking her best rough guess of the contents by their covers, and mostly focusing on making each of them accessible for Ryuko if she was completely bedridden.
If all else failed, she could come in and help her grab what she wanted. She could come in and help with anything.
The reading material in place, Mako grabbed the hook where Senketsu would hang and affixed it to the wall, close to Ryuko's side, but not too close. In case there were tensions between them when Ryuko returned to normal, Mako didn't want to be the accidental instigator of a conflict.
Conflict… Yeah, she would know how that felt. Fighting with Ryuko and pushing her away when they should have been making up and helping each other.
Halfway to the pile, Mako stopped abruptly and sat back down at the foot of the bed. Out of nowhere, she just felt… drained. There wasn't much left to organize – at least some fraction of the remaining things were hers, to be put in place later – and with the planning meeting likely approaching fast, she allowed herself a moment's rest.
And then a moment became two, and three, and so it went.
Mako sleepily crawled up to the pillow and buried herself in the blankets, her strength evaporating, eyelids drooping shut. She tried to remember the last time she'd had a good night's sleep, and the best she could guess was the day just before she'd learned about the Fighting Club, and Ryuko and Mataro had fought for the first time. She'd slept since then – slept just last night to get ready for the battle at Honnouji – but she could hardly call those nights good.
She could recall that night, that last night of ease and mostly worry-free slumber. All of the riots that had been going on at the school since Sanageyama left, Ryuko coming home after having spent the whole day throwing herself in the middle of them. She remembered thinking of her own Fighting Club idea, getting Aikuro on board, and then interrupting Ryuko in the shower… seeing the water cascading over her skin, the muscles sore and rippling beneath the smooth paleness, droplets running out of her hair and sliding off her face when she stepped out…
Mako made a noise halfway between a grunt and a whimper, crossed her legs, and hated herself. This wasn't the time to let herself fantasize, not even a little bit.
But she couldn't help it. A lot of her sensitive skin was bare in the Nudist uniform, and as it rubbed against the silky sheets Ryuko had used to sleep in, she imagined feeling those muscles and that smooth paleness against her body, Ryuko's always-confident voice whispering in her ear that everything was fine. Their hands gliding over each other, Mako finally able to openly express what had been building inside her ever since that first night at the mansion, Ryuko finally opening up about her feelings…
… Ugh.
She knew what this was. This was her mind coping with the day's stress, stretching and almost snapping apart from all of the pressure, and distracting itself by putting her romantic and sexual feelings for Ryuko on overdrive, and tying those feelings up to her basic desire to save her life. The instant she realized it, she clambered out of the bed and braced her head and hand against the wall, trying not to break down, willing herself back into the autopilot mode she'd existed in for so long.
Yes, she'd been attracted to Ryuko since she first strode onto the Honnouji campus, and she'd been in love with her to an escalating degree pretty much since she'd accepted Mako's plea to live with her without a second thought. Yes, she hoped beyond hope that Ryuko really did like girls, and moreover, that Mako was the kind of girl Ryuko wanted to spend the rest of her life with.
But that wasn't the point of all this. That was ancillary. Ryuko wasn't her girlfriend, or her lover; she was her best friend, her only remaining loved one in the entire world, the one person Mako trusted and needed. And right now, she was trapped inside a construct of her own rage, rampaging somewhere out there while everyone else was sitting around deciding what to do next.
And here she was, lazing in a bed, coming close to touching herself at the very thought that Ryuko might want her that way, because she hadn't had anyone to take her anger out on after learning what she'd learned and her mind was literally locking her out of contemplating her problems so she didn't go crazy.
No, that wasn't how this was going to go. She'd let herself keep running on autopilot until Ryuko was safe and sound in that bed. And then, whether she reciprocated Mako's feelings or not, Mako would devote every waking minute of her days to helping Ryuko heal, whatever physical or mental state she might be in. Ryuko was her best friend, first and foremost, and she needed to be back here.
Then, maybe, Mako could start putting herself back together. She still remembered the promise she'd made to herself and Ryuko before unearthing the confession tape, still remembered the unbearable pride she felt realizing that her brother's death hadn't been meaningless. Those were still rattling around inside her, distant echoes of their powerful imprints; she knew, obviously, that she could make new ones that would last this time.
She just hoped Ryuko would, directly or just by being here, show her how to do that.
"How long do we have?"
Grunting under her breath, Jakuzure angled her body up and looked at the display on the wall. "It's a little past midnight, so… probably not too much longer."
Satsuki nodded, cracked her knuckles, and stepped away from what she'd been working on.
The moment they had arrived back at Nudist Headquarters, Satsuki had immediately gone to work mapping out a strategy to subdue and retrieve Ryuko. It was mostly speculative and based on both fragmented observation and total conjecture, but it was all she had to work on in these pressing conditions. She'd expected to be at it until the scheduled emergency meeting, when Aikuro would be finished taking stock of the resources and tactics available to Nudist Beach and triangulating Ryuko's current position. However, she had managed to get something promising polished after around twenty minutes.
That left her to spend the rest of the time keeping her mind occupied, because she knew idleness would lead her to worry about Ryuko and doubt herself, and she could have none of that. Thus, she'd spent these hours reading, giving various other soldiers pep talks at random, trying and failing to get herself in the mood for intimacy, and taking on most of the exercises available in the base's gym – including the punching bag she'd just finished demolishing.
Jakuzure had been sprawling herself over various objects and furniture while she leeringly watched Satsuki sweat, but she was on her feet as soon as Satsuki started making her way toward the door. "Well, that was fun. What's next?"
"A quick shower, and another chance to clean up whatever wounds are still giving me problems," she said, barely panting in spite of her exertion. "Once I've dried off and changed, if there is still time before Aikuro calls the meeting, I will see if Mako is willing to let anyone visit her yet."
The embittered girl had been Satsuki's first priority when the helicopter touched down here, but her attempts at motivation and comfort had been shrugged off more than a few times. The last time she'd tried, one knock on the door of the room she was busying herself with was answered with something like a muffled growl. She couldn't fault Mako for being like this – not after everything she'd endured throughout the week – but she still hoped to get some positive reaction before they set out to save Ryuko.
Satsuki expected Jakuzure to wryly ask whether they could share the shower, or to make a coy remark about how she'd be changing into the revealing Nudist holsters for the time being, but she simply nodded and moved on. "So when the meeting starts, are you sure you're ready to do this? I mean, how are you feeling?"
"I'm as okay as I can possibly be with my sister still in danger and Ragyo and Nui still alive. So yes, I will be able to act as planned."
"Don't worry about them, all right? They're probably still lying broken and bloody somewhere in the woods, waiting for us to come by and finish them off." Jakuzure firmly patted Satsuki's lower back, not even attempting to slide her hand a few centimeters down. "Just do your Lady Satsuki thing, and then when Ryuko is back to her old badger-y self, we can all start brainstorming how to pay them back in full for everything they've done to us. To you."
Satsuki nodded, still refusing to let doubts and fear drift into her mind. "Thank you for the encouragement, Nonon."
"It's what I do."
Smiling, Satsuki knelt down and kissed her. It was nothing more than a quick and soft peck on the lips, but Jakuzure's face flushed a hot pink, and she smiled the way she always smiled when they were intimate.
"Whoa, was I interrupting something?"
The voice made Satsuki bolt upright, almost knocking Jakuzure onto her back; if she hadn't left Bakuzan in her temporary quarters, she would have drawn it on instinct, even though she knew the voice's owner was unlikely to attack at this point. A second later, Jakuzure processed what was going on and took a step forward, baring her teeth.
"Hard to mistake the sound of a kiss, or the air vibrations that tell me you two just reacted like startled rats." The arrival grinned, lifting a hand to casually wave. "Long time no see, Satsuki. Nonon."
"Hey, Monkey," Jakuzure growled under her breath.
Sanageyama stood just inside the doorway, leaning up against the wall with his arms crossed against his bare chest. His blindfold was getting worn out, but his reflexes were clearly still as sharp as the last time they'd met, because he'd slipped inside in the space of a second without either of them seeing or hearing him. Even though Satsuki was struggling to calm herself, she still felt some modicum of respect for his power.
He smirked, confident as ever, and let out a barely-perceptible sigh. "I guess you're still pissed at me for switching sides? I can understand that. But, you know, you two are Nudists too, now, so it seems like it should be water under the bridge. You might also be pissed at me because I walked in on something, which… well, I always guessed Nonon had a thing for you, Satsuki, but I didn't expect-"
Satsuki didn't know what to say, but Jakuzure was happy to make up for her silence. "You mind telling Lady Satsuki exactly where you've been?"
"Well…" He cracked his neck to the side and straightened up. "To make a long story short, I've been training and keeping to myself since Satsuki and Inumuta knocked me out the night of the Naturals Election. And after I heard Nonon almost blew up this place, I wanted to speak to you two even less, so I opted out of the mission today knowing you'd be at the Academy. Then I heard you guys were actually on Nudist Beach's side, and then I overheard what was on the intercom earlier, and then there was screaming and nobody would tell me what was going on… and that about sums it up. I came here as soon as I found someone who knew where you were."
"Y-You…" Jakuzure seemed to be losing as much of her speaking capacity as Satsuki. "You… were sulking all this time?"
"It's only been a couple of days, right? And I wouldn't call it sulking. I did get knocked unconscious by two of the people I used to value and trust most in the world. That isn't something I could just get over."
Silence filled the room. Satsuki clenched and unclenched her fist, the gears in her head turning, and she could see Jakuzure's face steadily reddening.
Oblivious, Sanageyama spread his arms and smiled. "So, I just… thought we should talk. Clearly there's some bad blood between us, but if Ragyo still isn't dead, it's more important than ever that we settle our differences."
Flushed red and shaking, Jakuzure opened her mouth to scream and reeled her fist back...
"Do you expect me to just take you back?"
… But Sanageyama was already on the ground, struggling to recover, blood pouring out of his fractured nose. Satsuki's strike had landed before Jakuzure had even thought to begin hers, and though Sanageyama had been fast enough to intercept it, the force was enough to drive his own hand back into his face. He scrambled upright, disbelief painted over his mouth like the fluid pouring from his nostrils.
Satsuki stepped back and placed her hand on Jakuzure's shoulder, settling her down. "After all of this, Uzu, do you honestly believe that you still have a place beside me?"
"What the hell are you talking about?!"
"Do you have any idea what happened in the days between your departure and the Naturals Election? Do you have any guess as to what happened afterward? What I went through, what every one of us went through while you were opting out because you were too afraid to face me?" Satsuki kept her voice at a flat hush, refusing to expend any of her energy on the fury she felt right now. "Why don't you allow me to make a long story short, as you put it?"
He shook his head, wiping the blood off with his wrist. "Satsuki, whatever this is-"
"Gamagoori's dead."
His expression dropped. "Wh… What?"
"Gamagoori is dead. He attempted to kill Ragyo at the Grand Festival this morning, as had always been my plan. It didn't work, and Ragyo decapitated him for it." Satsuki lined her eye up with where his eyes would have been, even though she knew it was pointless. "There are so many things I could list off, so much I ought to tell you, but I thought you would like to know that first. Perhaps it would have gone differently if another Elite, someone almost equal to my power, was there to back him up."
Now it was Sanageyama's turn to be struck silent.
"What else? While you were still crying over being knocked out, I was being held prisoner by Ragyo because she somehow put together that I was plotting against her, and during that time, I was physically, psychologically, and sexually tortured in far worse ways than I already have been throughout my entire life. I lost an eye to that torture, funnily enough. So far, I haven't gained any enhanced senses from being partially blind; in fact, all it has done is ruin my depth perception."
"Satsuki, I'm-"
"Speaking of my eye, you cannot tell, but I'm wearing a patch over it. I retrieved this patch from the corpse of my father, former Nudist Beach leader Isshin Matoi, whom Ryuko murdered after what you casually overheard on the intercom caused her to go into a berserk rage. And since you heard it, you must know that she is my sister, right? She's still out there somewhere, suffering and unable to control her actions, and I am preparing to take charge on a mission that may or may not successfully bring her back to us."
He tried to sputter something out, but fell silent again.
"So yes, Uzu, you have missed quite a lot, and that isn't even all of what has happened."
"Satsuki…" Sanageyama whispered, his voice flat and muted from shock. "I… I, uh… I just wanted to-"
"Don't. The time you had to come back to me, to repent for your actions and beg for us to be on good terms again, has long passed. It passed because you rejected what I was generous enough to give you, reneged on your supposedly lifelong promise to hold me in your highest regard, and immediately joined up with an organization that – for all you knew – would have eventually tried to kill me along with Ragyo and Nui. And when I defeated you again, rather than take my words to heart, you retreated into your own self-pity and refused even the highest-priority mission Nudist Beach has ever undertaken. People are dead whom you might have saved. You actively refused to be there for me in my time of need.
"Compare and contrast yourself with Nonon, who has done more to help my mind heal than an army of therapists could. With Inumuta, who has steadfastly and unquestioningly put all of his mind and body into everything I've ever needed from him. With Ryuko, your replacement, who plunged into one of the most dangerous places ever to exist on the planet just to save my life, and who then pushed us to help her cut apart a god because she was so furious over my imprisonment and how her own mistakes had helped lead to it.
"Or… with Gamagoori, who, if I somehow brought him back from the dead and told him that staying devoted to me got him killed, would continue to charge at Ragyo over and over because he could not stand to have the woman who made my life so hellish exist on the same plane of reality as him. He was an Elite to his core, and he… he was my friend."
Sanageyama hung his head. "I'm… I'm sorry."
"What are you sorry for?"
"What do you mean, what am I sorry for? Isn't it obvious?"
"I mean…" She stepped forward again, but instead of striking him, she palmed his shoulders and gently shook him once. "What does your apology mean to you, and are you making it because you genuinely wish to make amends, or because you still have some vain hope that I will take you back?"
"I'm… sorry my stupid mistakes had a part in all of this. The only thing I can think right now is that I want to help you make it right, however you'll let me. I don't expect to be forgiven anymore. Not after… Not after all of that."
She lifted his head with the tips of her fingers. "Then do your part as you're told, as a Nudist. Carve your apology into our enemies' bodies. Fill each strike with the knowledge of what the rest of us have suffered. Make every wound you leave, every enemy that falls before you, into a word that speaks for itself. You will make your amends by helping us free the world from the last shackles my mother has placed upon it. You will not be an Elite, and I will never forget your betrayal and its ramifications, but you are still a valuable warrior for our cause and it would be foolish to throw you away."
Sanageyama swallowed and let out a rattling breath he'd been holding. "… Thank you, Satsuki."
"There is nothing to thank me for." Motioning to Jakuzure, she stepped away and started through the door. "I don't have any more time to talk to you. Just keep my words in mind and swing when we need you to swing."
He nodded, and Satsuki exited into the hallway, Jakuzure following practically as her shadow.
"Satsuki!"
She sighed and turned her head; Sanageyama had stepped out into the hall. "What?"
"How did you do that?"
"Again, what?"
"I came in confident and ready to make peace with you, and you just… crushed me, and I deserved every word. But now… I don't feel confident exactly, but it's like you shot me out of a cannon. I want to get out there and fight even more than I already did. It's only been a few minutes! I should be depressed, I should hate myself, and I kind of do, but… I mean…"
Satsuki almost wanted to smirk, but she restrained herself. "You followed me for years, Uzu. Have you forgotten so quickly?"
In the silence, she glanced at Jakuzure, who was grinning at her expectantly, mouthing 'say it say it say it say it say it' over and over again. Satsuki allowed one small corner of her mouth to curl up as she turned away from Sanageyama.
"It's what I do."
- Kiryuin Manor -
We return to our only true home again. We return to the only true home any human has ever been fated for. Bless us our lord, my love, as we prepare to join in your presence once more. Bless us as we return to the light.
The stairway that led down to the Holy Original's bedchamber was too dark to see the bottom of, and mostly undisturbed in its tranquility. The air felt slightly off from how it usually was, and there were scuffs on some of the walls, but that would likely have been down to the COVERS' emergence. All else was as it should have been.
"M-Mama…" Nui whispered, bracing herself against the wall, still dripping her blood on the floor. "Can we… go down now…?"
If the false daughter's presence disturbed you and your children rather than sating your appetites, I offer only my humblest apologies and pray that the others consumed have suited your needs. You are our everything, and all I ask is that we be blessed.
Ragyo inhaled deeply, bracing herself to breathe in the Holy Original's air, and smiled. "Now we can, darling. Your father has doubtlessly missed you."
Nui giggled quietly, and stopped when she violently hacked something up that would have to be cleaned later.
Hand in hand, step-by-step, they began to descend. Ragyo savored every millimeter they sunk into the Earth, waiting for her internal Life Fibers to start tingling pleasantly, breathing heavily and deliberately until she could begin to taste His power.
"Miss Kiryuin!" Someone called behind her. A male. An employee. "Miss Kiryuin, wait a moment!"
She called behind her without taking her eyes off the darkness ahead. "Silence yourself! Whatever business matters there are to tend to, I will be out momentarily! Do not dare follow us!"
"Miss…" The employee called, voluntarily trailing off.
Hand in hand. Step-by-step.
Down and down and down, into His waiting embrace, just as always. She had come back to Him innumerable times throughout her life, but always, always, it felt…
…
It felt not like this.
Ragyo paused, one foot on the landing that led to the second stairway and connected to some of her personal experimentation rooms. By this point, His aura should have been radiating against her skin, tenderly brushing through her body, greeting her like the first faint breath of spring air after an arduous winter. Nui should have been giggling louder in anticipation – being His child, she was even more in tune with him than her mother. But there was nothing more than cold and the scent of circulated air.
She quickened her pace, dragging Nui along with her.
What was wrong? What could possibly be wrong?
Is His energy drained from birthing so many COVERS? No, that is not how it works. I know that is not how it works, that is an idiotic assumption nobody as familiar with Life Fibers as I would make. Did… Did Satsuki's flesh and blood truly upset Him? No. Even for how vile and worthless she was as a human, her body was… exceptional. WHAT, then? What is the answer? My lord, my Holy Original, please, may you reach out and touch our minds and show us what troubles y-
She rounded the corner onto the second stairway, and saw that the darkness below was tinged a dim orange. Her heart skipped a beat, not that it had any trouble doing that after the damage done to it.
If the shadows were broken by light, that meant the Original's bedchamber door was open. If the door was open, that meant somebody had been inside. The COVERS traveled through this passage, of course, but they were supposed to leave when the ceiling crumbled to connect the bedchamber to an otherwise hidden room up on the landing. None of them would go intentionally force their way through the door.
Ragyo quickened her pace again, losing her grip on Nui as she raced down the stairs. Her eyes widened as the light became clearer, and her lips pulled back in a snarl as she realized what else was wrong.
The light is too dim.
The Holy Original glowed brightly, radiantly, and consistently. This light was none of those things – it should have pierced partway up the stairs if the doors were open.
Faster.
Only now, at the foot of the stairs, just around the corner from the Holy Original, could she feel Him within her. The energy was more like a heartbeat than ever; its peaks came in pulses, interrupting a weak and discomforting field with momentary flashes of the power He held. Her own heart ached at the feeling, and she was, for a moment, terrified beyond words at the prospect of looking around the corner.
But she rounded it regardless, and the moment she saw what was on the other side of the wide-open archway, her pace slowed to almost nothing.
What…?
She was able to walk unassisted until she made her way inside the bedchamber, at which point her legs gave out and she found herself prone against the moist floor, with only her arms giving her the support she needed to stare up in uncomprehending horror.
My… My… Holy One…
The Holy Original hung above her, an icy husk of Himself barely supported by His crackling branches. His skin, once so blinding and captivatingly complex, was rendered a dead grey mirror crosshatched with black scars of ice; buried deep beneath it, parts of His glow sporadically shone through, but they were dull and fleeting. Worse, He bore a gaping wound across His front that reached all the way to His core, His miraculous heart, which was the only part of him still radiating and emitting the light of life through the otherwise darkened space.
Who… could have done this to you?
Behind her, she heard a high gasp and a thick, wet thump. It took all of her effort to wrestle her attention away from her Holy One.
"M… Mmm… a…"
Nui was flat on the floor, facedown, entirely motionless and barely making a sound. Ragyo crawled over to her and flipped her onto her back, exposing her wound; through the constant river of blood, her heart was partially exposed, the flesh of it shredded to ribbons and the Life Fibers decaying and grey. It beat unsteadily, pouring out new blood with each faint pulse.
She was not recovering.
"Ma…" Nui's face was frozen in a blank grin of meaningless glee. "I… I'm so… glad. You were… strong enough to… to… heal… fffffro…"
Ragyo frantically pressed her hands into the wound and pumped Life Fibers into it, willing them to go to work. "Nui! Nui, stop talking! You are wasting your energy!"
"Ha… ha… IIiiiieeee…" Her head drooped to the other side, and her smile slacked. "You… caaa… ffffffix… Pa… pa…"
"NUI!"
Her heartbeat slowed, and slowed, and slowed.
Ragyo screamed something she herself could not understand and pumped more inside, as many as she could.
For just a moment, the pulse beneath her hands stopped completely, and time seemed to freeze along with it.
No. No. No. No. This is not happening. This is not reality. This is not my daughter dying with my hands in her chest while my lord and love clings to fading life behind me and I can do nothing and I can do nothing and I can do nothing and I can do nothing and I can do
Then… the faintest beat. And another, slightly stronger.
Ragyo stared numbly down at Nui, that split second of clinical death repeating endlessly in her mind. She was still barely hanging on, but the Life Fibers were sustaining her collapsing heart as well as they could, and she would continue to pump in more until everything was okay again.
Except… things would not be okay again.
Purge the unnecessary thoughts. Take stock of the facts and come up with a solution.
She tried, but all she felt was a sting in her mind and something cold and wet beginning to drip down her cheek.
In the span of less than a minute, she had stumbled into the Holy One's home to find Him twisted and damaged by unknown hands, and then found herself barely able to keep her daughter from slipping away because damn her she hadn't been paying attention to the wound and was only thinking about the COVERS and herself and goals that-
Purge. Think.
And if she was a better person, a more worthy servant, she would have been connected with the Holy One and would have heard when He screamed out in the agony she was feeling right now and-
Purge. Think.
She couldn't, she couldn't, she was slipping, her breaths were too quick, the room was so dark-
"Miss Kiryuin!"
…
Purge.
Back to reality.
Ragyo straightened up. Wiped her face. Dusted herself off. Felt something in her head break, could not tell whether it was a figurative idea or really happening. Pointed her head at where the voice had come from and stared blankly.
She registered a man in an armored guard's uniform in the archway space, and that was it. His face did not matter, his voice pattern did not matter, his height and body type did not matter. He would deliver whatever news he had, and he would disappear.
"Miss Kiryuin," the man continued. "I-I can explain. Ryuko Matoi showed up here shortly after we received word that you started the Grand Festival. She blew through all of us along with her cronies and got inside, no matter how hard we tried to fight her off. Th-They rescued Satsuki and did all of this. My-My squad leader shot himself, and then the COVERS came pouring out and took everyone who was unconscious or dying… I had to hide around the corner."
…
"And, um, I've also received confirmation that Head Secretary Hououmaru was killed at Honnouji Academy. And almost all of the COVERS in that region were somehow slain, Ma'am. I, um…"
…
"We think that-"
Suddenly, he was quiet, slumped against the far wall with his spine folded in on itself. He had delivered his news and disappeared, or at least tried his best.
Ragyo blinked rapidly, trying to clear her mind as she lifted Nui's half-alive body into her arms, and took stock of the facts.
The Holy Original is critically wounded. Nui is barely clinging to life. Rei is… Rei is dead. Satsuki is alive and free, somehow. Ryuko is still out there, likely searching for us, hunting us.
Without Nui, and without Rei to serve as the battery, Shinra-Koketsu cannot be sewn. Without the Holy Original's life essence, there can be no grand ascension, no domination of all Life Fibers on the planet. And I am not strong enough to challenge Ryuko.
Everything I have worked for is pointless. Redundant. Impossible. Every plan must be scrapped. My life's work… done. Right now, Soichiro's goal is realized. I have nothing.
She took a deep breath, extracting what little of His aura she could, and exhaled.
So I will do something different, and my lord and love will ascend, and Nui will live, and my false daughters will die, and everything will be as it should have always been.
Already knowing what she had to do, already quivering in anticipation at the mere concept of it, Ragyo turned and headed back through the archway.
- Fifteen Minutes Later; Nudist Beach HQ
There wasn't a single smile in the room. Jakuzure found that oddly inspiring. She'd been through countless battles in her lifetime enforcing Satsuki's will, and always, always, there was someone with a smile plastered over his or her face as it was kicking into high gear. Sometimes they were genuinely cocky about their chances; other times, it was clearly to psych themselves up for the horrors they were about to partake in. Sometimes she was the one doing it.
Not this time, though. As she scanned the Nudists assembled throughout the commons – every soldier deemed necessary for this undertaking – she didn't see the faintest hints of a single smile. Not a muscle twitched, not a millimeter of skin crinkled up. Everyone stared up at the platform, resolute, waiting to be told what to do.
All to save a woman who, just a week ago, Jakuzure'd wanted to crumple up and spit on.
Her thoughts turned to Satsuki, and what she was about to do. The reunion with Sanageyama had rattled both of them, but Jakuzure was used to getting enraged and settling down in quick succession, and she was back to relative normalcy before Satsuki was out of her shower (though listening to her in the shower helped a lot). Satsuki, on the other hand… she was still in a vulnerable place, even if she sunk herself into her work and projected a bit of her natural charisma to deal with the Sanageyama situation. Jakuzure had absolute faith in her, but the worry still nibbled at the edges of her brain.
Satsuki…
She stealthily entwined her fingers into a good-luck symbol as Aikuro took the platform, looking absolutely disheveled. "Let's get this rolling, everyone! We all know this isn't a standard pre-assignment briefing, and time is of the essence if we want to have any chance of salvaging our victory over the Life Fibers."
Blunt, but effective. Jakuzure almost smiled as she observed everyone's lack of reaction, but she just barely managed to keep her veneer of calm about her.
"We are fighting to recover one of our own," Aikuro continued, the weariness audible in his every syllable. "We are fighting one of our own. This engagement has one goal, and one goal alone: restore Ryuko Matoi from the enraged hybrid state she has entered to the woman we all know and love."
There was a smattering of applause, but when it died down, it took Aikuro much longer than she would have expected to resume his speech.
"We… lack an exact plan to deal with Ryuko's current form, which we've dubbed Ryuketsu until further notice. She is powerful beyond belief, she seems all-but impervious to most forms of attack, and she doesn't recognize us as her friends and allies. We know she can be paralyzed by standard tacking needles under certain circumstances, but we have no data on her otherwise, so we need to do what Ryuko herself would have done: improvise. Find out what works, and go from there. We'll outnumber her several dozen to one, however much that matters, so we shouldn't be at too uneven odds."
Respectful silence filled the air, even as Jakuzure could sense everyone else growing more afraid. She didn't blame them – if she were in their positions, she would likely have been quivering and crying and soiling her holsters.
But she wasn't, and instead, she was keeping her heartbeat in check as she waited.
"But that isn't the only reason I called this emergency meeting. I have a major announcement to make, one that I feel will greatly improve our chances for success, and it-"
"You're wrong, Aikuro. We do have a plan. Why do you think I advised you to round up this many soldiers?"
This is it. Knock 'em, dead, babe.
Gasps rolled through the audience as Satsuki rose into view, striding up to stand beside the visibly perturbed Aikuro. Her sheathed Bakuzan was the last remnant of the visage she'd once projected to her students, for her regal-looking clothes were replaced with the same style of holsters every other female Nudist wore. Jakuzure tried not to squirm in her seat at the sight of all that bare skin, and she kept checking her nose every few seconds for the smallest drop of blood – she couldn't risk distracting the others or Satsuki herself now.
And then the countdown Jakuzure had been running in her head ran out, and the last step of Satsuki's stride came down.
CLACK
Her heel smashed into the platform and sent out that oh-so-familiar sound, the sound that instantly reverberated in its audience's bones and made them realize exactly who they were being granted the privilege of seeing in action. Jakuzure couldn't count the number of times she'd heard it at Honnouji Academy, but she had to grip tightly to her seat to stave off the shiver of nostalgic ecstasy. It seemed to be working wonders on this new audience, too, because she saw mouths going slack and people starting to rise from their seats – some of them probably people Satsuki had given little motivational talks to earlier.
And you little bastards thought she could ever be your enemy.
A mere moment after her heel move, Satsuki brought Bakuzan down onto the platform and braced her palms on its hilt. Her eyes narrowed, her adorable caterpillar brows furrowed, and her mouth formed a hard and flat line that looked like it could cut diamond. She widened her stance slightly, imperceptibly moving her legs in such a way that only those who were looking for it could see it. She threw her head back, and for just a moment, her hair seemed to hang on a stream of wind nobody could feel.
All practiced and routine motions Satsuki was deliberately doing to fit the routine, Jakuzure knew, but they worked so well.
"S-Satsuki, I said I was going to call you up when-!" Aikuro grunted, only to be swiftly silenced.
"We will deploy in four squads of eight soldiers each!" Satsuki shouted, projecting her voice so that people couldn't just hear it – they felt it. "Our helicopters will fly in a stealth formation at long range, one squad to a helicopter, while I and a select few powerful individuals assault Ryuketsu directly! At my first signal…"
Jakuzure watched intently as Satsuki blasted through the points of the plan, hanging on her every word as much as the astounded Nudists were. She'd already heard every beat of this operation from start to finish when she helped Satsuki draft it out, but hearing her speak about it to everyone with its execution on the horizon was another thing entirely. It was captivating. It was hopeful. It was exactly what was needed at exactly the right time.
When she had wrapped up the last step, the Nudists who had risen from their chairs started to applaud, and more of them were standing to join those already up. However, Satsuki held up one hand to silence them, and her expression softened slightly.
"This will be an extremely dangerous operation, and nobody listening to my words is guaranteed to survive. Ryuko may be my sister, and I may love her with all of my heart, but she is not in full control of her own actions, and she will try to kill all of those who stand in her way. She will see us as a roadblock."
Everyone was silent, frozen, enraptured. Jakuzure had slightly more control over herself than these stunned newcomers, but even she felt herself slipping into the flow of Satsuki's magnetic voice. She shivered again, unrestrained this time, but nobody noticed.
"And so," she raised her voice and continued, "we must force ourselves to be the roadblock that brings the car to a permanent stop! No matter what she inflicts on us in retaliation, no matter which among you may be injured or killed in the process, in the end, we will stride back from the battlefield with Ryuko Matoi in our arms and the axe that hangs over Ragyo's and Nui's necks firmly clutched in our grasp! We will FIGHT, and we will SUFFER, but we will feel VICTORY shine down on our faces! Do you all understand?!"
She lifted Bakuzan high in one hand.
"The war is ending soon, and THIS IS OUR KILLING BLOW!"
The effect was immediate, and deafeningly loud even to Jakuzure's toughened eardrums. Every Nudist rose in unison, cheering and applauding, their softened guards at seeing Satsuki on stage having opened them up to the full impact. A few of them were even chanting her name, and Jakuzure realized that she was one of them. Seeing a new audience eagerly fall under Satsuki's grasp almost brought tears to her eyes.
Aikuro looked on, a dorky and resigned smile stretching across his face, before he gave everyone the signal to settle down. Even then, it took a minute for the effect to dissipate.
"Wow. You all really like Satsuki, don't you?"
There were more cheers and whistles, but he held up a hand to cut it off before it got out of control.
"That's wonderful," he continued, awkwardly recovering his track. "That's… perfect timing, actually. Given that I still had to make that other critical announcement I expected her to wait for before coming up here. I would have said the same thing anyway, but her brazen interruption and your reactions have just given me more fuel for it."
Satsuki's expression relaxed as she turned to stare at him, but even from here, Jakuzure could see the faint body signals that meant she was slightly nervous. Aikuro obviously hadn't told her what was going on here, and she didn't have anything planned for it.
Aikuro cleared his throat and took a short step back, putting Satsuki at the very front of the platform. "Satsuki, you're the eldest daughter of our founder. You're a brilliant tactician, as you've so capably demonstrated for us, and one of the best combatants we now have in our ranks save for Ryuko. You have… clearly unmatched skills at rallying people behind whatever cause you need them behind. You're everything a leader needs to be, and you would be wasted in any other position. And while I make a good lieutenant, I don't believe that I have what it takes to steer this whole organization by myself.
"That's why, effective immediately, I am handing over the reins of Nudist Beach to you, for as long as you must hold them to guide us through this war and whatever challenges we face after its conclusion. Will you accept the responsibility?"
Stunned silence washed over the crowd, the perfect company to Satsuki's expression. But Jakuzure knew better, and she was already steeling her ears for the inevitable reaction even as her heart burst with pride.
It happened seconds later.
"I accept."
The reaction was so deafeningly loud, so passionate, so immediately overwhelming, that it almost drowned out what came next.
"And my… my first official order," Satsuki continued unsteadily, lifting her sword again, "is that we stop wasting our time on speeches and admiration, and deploy immediately! If I am truly worth being your commander, then you will all make it back into this base with Ryuko in tow!
"The mission... to retrieve Ryuko… BEGINS NOW!"
- Unspecified Time Later; REVOCS HQ -
Well… that was not good, was it? That is what happens when I let my fears get out of control. When I let my petty emotions get in the way of the primary concern. I become Nui on one of her worse days. I will not be doing that again, will I? No, I will not. I have no reason to, because we may be traveling along a different track now, but the end result will satisfy the same needs. I must remain vigilant. I must be of sounder mind than anyone else.
Ragyo stared down at the entire assembled workforce of REVOCS Headquarters. From the lowliest maintenance crew to the thousands-strong sewing staff, the secretaries and interns to the upper echelons of her corporate board, all gathered in front of the grand presentation stage to hear what this emergency announcement was about. At a glance, she thought the crowd must have numbered in the tens of thousands, perhaps more.
That was good. The more people here, the more efficient her work.
Holy One, I will ensure that no one will interfere with your destiny any further.
No one.
The typical spotlights and fog machines were off, and there was no music to make a show of her arrival – those lovely German singers she often had performing a number for these events were mere faces in the crowd now. She simply stood and gave a casual smile at the front of the long stage, her dress plain and her hair styled as nicely as she had time to style herself.
She could sense the discomfort many of these humans were feeling at the change in routine, and she relished it. They could not adjust their entire lifestyles in the blink of an eye as she had proven herself capable of. None of them could. Luckily, that would cease to matter within minutes.
She began to speak when she felt the humans were ready to hear her.
"Welcome, all of you. I know you have questions, such as why I have gathered you all here at this hour, or how the Life Fibers are doing with the catastrophic damage we have suffered over the course of the last day." She spoke calmly and flatly, but knew that even the dregs at the back of this space could hear her perfectly. "Allow me to explain, and to lay out the REVOCS business plan from now until the day we have always been building toward.
"It is with a heavy heart that I announce that, effective immediately, all of our current long-term initiatives are null and void."
A sharp, worried murmur rippled through the human mass. Ragyo allowed it to pass and waited for silence; she was in no hurry at the moment.
"That shocks many of you, I know. Allow me to explain. At present, the Original Life Fiber – the holy being from which all Life Fibers spawn – is on the brink of death, and his children have been massacred en masse. My daughter, Grand Couturier Nui Harime, is also critically wounded and only clinging to life due to my grace, and Head Secretary Rei Hououmaru is dead."
That prompted a much louder, less controlled reaction that started to grate on Ragyo's nerves. She understood the logic that fueled it, of course: almost none of the people in this room were even aware of the Original Life Fiber's existence, and many of them were openly terrified of her daughter. A small, unfocused part of her wondered whether any of them were shocked over Rei's murder, and curled up in disgust when the small likelihood of that dawned on her.
"Now, due to the crippling and murder of the two individuals most vital to the construction and powering of Shinra-Koketsu, we can no longer continue with that initiative no matter our funding or time. And as Shinra-Koketsu was pivotal to our ultimate goal as a collective, this is a serious blow. Or rather, it would be, if I did not already have a new path for us to follow.
"What this path entails will become clear to you shortly. It is a path that will reenergize my daughter and bring my God back to his rightful place, that will make the Earth tremble and the skies split apart from our power, that will bring this shameful excuse for a nation to its knees and move swiftly on to the rest of the world. And all of you, each and every one, will find yourselves a major part in it."
Total silence this time. They were learning.
"More astute listeners amongst you may be assuming that this plan is to fuse Nui with the Original Life Fiber to create something capable of absorbing all of human civilization. This would be a fair guess, but it is a wrong one, and I would not care for your minds to be clouded by any incorrect assumptions before we all unite to begin our great work. Combining two dying things would be roughly as effective as feeding you all to His lifeless carcass and expecting Him to wake up in perfect health."
A delicious new expression, like self-preservation instincts reawakened amidst pride and admiration, settled over a few of their faces. She smiled at one of them, and watched the man recoil.
"This… is your new goal."
And she told them, in excruciating detail, what they were going to do, how they were going to do it, when it would begin, and what they would do when it was finished.
And by the time the proper neurons in their brains fired and told them to somehow avoid their fates, their destinies mapped out since before their base DNA existed, the Life Fiber webs from her fingertips were already burying themselves in the skulls of those up front and tracing back to those behind.
"Now," she called through the screams as her web expanded, "let us begin!"