So here is Chapter 29 and I must say things are beginning to reach a crescendo. I would like to mention that there is a potential time error. In the original anime, the first fight against Gamagori took place at 1:00 PM sharp while Ryuko was ready at 8:55 AM. Since Inumuta went first (and he doesn't care about such things as a schedule), the entire fight sequence has been moved to the morning. Several things have been changed, all of which are good or bad for the various protagonists and antagonists. This chapter also starts off with another Isshin flashback so enjoy and don't forget to read and review!
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Chapter 29 – God Save the Queen
Twenty Years Ago
Consciousness returned slowly to Ragyo Kiryuin. As her eyes slowly opened and her pupils adjusted to the lighting in her bedroom, Ragyo thought back on everything that happened prior to her regaining consciousness. Out of all the events of the night the only things that she remembered with distinct clarity were a soothing voice drawing her to the Original Life Fiber that promised the world and wanted nothing in exchange and Isshin Shiba at her side. When she tried to recall what may have happened in the intervening time or why Isshin was at her home, Ragyo found her mind drawing a blank.
"What happened last night?" she wondered with a lack of emotions in her temporarily weak voice. Ragyo knew she should be more worried about her lack of memories but some small part of her mind was telling her that it wasn't prudent to press the issue for the time being. That same voice, in the soothing tone Ragyo had herself used years ago when Revocs was just starting out as a major player, was saying that she shouldn't be so worried since she was alive and uninjured.
"Thank the stars you're awake, Milady," Soroi Mitsuzou breathed a loud sigh of relief as he quickly entered Ragyo's bedroom. He had been in and out of the bedroom several dozen times in the hours between Isshin storming out of the basement with Ragyo in his arms and Ragyo waking up in her bed. As he walked past the large windows where the first traces of dawn were already beginning to break over the eastern horizon, Soroi put the phone back down onto its receiver. He had mentally vowed that he would respect Master Isshin's wishes to not call the hospital unless Lady Ragyo did not wake up for eight hours.
"Is that you, Soroi?" Ragyo turned her eyes towards her servant before focusing her attention once more on the ceiling. Thoughts were beginning to swirl inside her head and she was starting to have difficulty differentiating what was real and in front of her from the things she was seeing in her mind.
"If you were expecting Miss Hououmaru, I'm afraid you are going to have to wait until the afternoon," Soroi explained in his characteristically calm tone of voice. As he began pouring a cup of tea, bitter like Ragyo preferred, he noticed Ragyo's attention had drifted away from him and towards the sun rising over the horizon. Picking up the tray and walking over to Ragyo's bedside, Soroi continued speaking as he prepared everything, "Miss Hououmaru was so worried about you that she drove all the way to Karakura Town and informed Master Isshin. I dare say from the way his car was parked half on the front lawn, the news must have been quite dire."
"Isshin is here?"
Ragyo's mind was beginning to pull itself together and things were starting to become a lot clearer than they ever have before. She now remembered Isshin accompanying her down to the lowest level of the basement housing the Original Life Fiber and trying to tell her something. Ragyo's eyes narrowed imperceptibly as she tried to remember what Isshin might have said but it was just no use. As much as she knew she should be at least a little worried about what may have happened to her, Ragyo felt absolutely no sense of worry or nervousness. In fact, she felt nothing but a sense of serenity and calmness that would have caused her to pause and take notice any other day.
"Last I checked Master Isshin is pacing back and forth in the front foyer. He will be happy to hear that you've recovered from your ordeal," Soroi explained to his mistress as he handed Ragyo her tea.
The beginning of a smile adorned her face upon hearing of Isshin's worry for her. As Ragyo sat up to take the cup of tea, a bright rainbow light immediately filled the room. The light permeating every shadowy corner of the room was so intense that Soroi involuntarily let go of the tray in order to cover his eyes lest he go blind. Even as the sterling silver tray clattered noisily to the ground, hot tea soaking into the sheets near her body from Soroi dropping the tray, Ragyo seemed strangely unconcerned about the accident. Instead, as her eyes stared at the rainbow light emanating from somewhere behind her with admiration, she pulled the blankets and sheets off her body and stood up.
"Please forgive me, Milady," Soroi apologized profusely as he tried to look up at Ragyo but was constantly forced to avert his gaze.
"There is nothing for you to be sorry for, Soroi," Ragyo calmly stated as she walked completely naked across her room until she was standing in front of a full length mirror. For a long time Ragyo stared at her reflection, her mind examining and investigating every aspect of her new body. Her once beautiful and silky black hair that Isshin joked must take her hours every morning to get just right, now shone with a lustrous silver color but it was the rainbow undertone that her once sapphire blue, now maroon, eyes focused intently on. Curling a finger inside the locks and watching the rainbow coloring shifting and morphing around as she did so, Ragyo let her arm drop down to her side.
"Where is Isshin, Soroi?"
Ragyo hadn't meant it, in fact she couldn't understand why she did it, but her tone towards Soroi had been cold and demanding, which was completely unlike how she usually was. Immediately regretting it upon seeing her friend and servant flinch away, she ignored the voice telling her not to worry about what other people thought of her and asked, "I'm sorry Soroi. I must still be exhausted after what happened. You said that Isshin was in the foyer. Do you think he is still down there? I would like to find out what happened to me and it seems like he's the only one that knows."
"Yes. The entire time that you have been resting Master Isshin has not left the confines of the foyer apart from checking up on you approximately every hour," Soroi explained with a slight nod. For just a second, when Ragyo asked him where Isshin was, Soroi was convinced that someone else was talking. The sheer coldness and callousness in Ragyo's voice was like nothing he'd ever heard from her.
"I see…" Ragyo's eyes dropped down away from the mirror towards her hands.
There was something different about her body despite its nearly identical appearance to how it used to look. As she clenched her fist, careful not to hurt herself, Ragyo felt power course through her limb. She could not explain how she knew, but some small part of her mind was whispering to her that the Original Life Fiber had imparted into her a small piece of itself. Unclear as to what that meant, Ragyo made a mental effort to turn her gaze away from the mirror in order to get dressed. As she slipped the simple robe over her nude form Ragyo experienced a moment of clarity, the first one since she regained consciousness. She needed to speak to Isshin as soon as possible and for some odd reason the voice in her head was in complete agreement with her.
As her delicate hand clasped the door to her bedroom, Ragyo paused in mid-step, "Soroi, let Rei know that if the trip back to the manor is too taxing at the moment, she can spend the night at Isshin's house. I'm sure Masaki would be more than willing to let her stay for the night."
"I'll do so right away. I'm sure Miss Hououmaru will be most pleased to hear the news of your hasty recovery."
As Ragyo left her bedroom, and Soroi, behind to search for Isshin, she could not explain the feeling of anger welling up in her chest after mentioning Masaki. She had no qualms with the woman. They were friends after all and while she would always be upset that she lost Isshin to Masaki, Ragyo was not angry about it in the slightest. So why did the thought of harming Masaki for daring to touch Isshin pass briefly through her mind?
While Ragyo was coming to terms with what happened to her, a worried Isshin Shiba was pacing in the front foyer of the Kiryuin Manor. He did not know how long he had been walking back and forth but his feet were beginning to leave wear marks in the ornate rug and Ragyo was sure to be upset about that. Letting out a loud sigh, a sign of the annoyance he felt at the situation he was currently in, Isshin looked at his cell phone held gingerly in his palm before clenching his hand around it. He and Masaki had agreed to buy one of the expensive devices, which Kisuke offered to pay entirely for, so that if an emergency came up he could call Masaki and tell her what has happened. Given the connection between his gigai and the hollow inside Masaki's soul, it seemed like a rather sound idea at the time.
"What should I do?" Isshin muttered to himself as he ran a hand through his new silver hair for what seemed like the hundredth time.
Isshin had no idea how or why it happened. After he regained consciousness from whatever the big ball of yarn downstairs did to him, Isshin carried Ragyo upstairs as quickly as he could. That should have been the first sign something was wrong. Even though he was in a special gigai with enhanced strength and endurance, running up the enormous flight of steps with Ragyo on his back should have left him winded at best, but when he escaped from the basement he wasn't tired at all. He would have chalked it up to the adrenaline coursing through his body but when Soroi brought out a mirror to show him his new appearance, Isshin's skin nearly went as white as his new hair.
The black hair that Masaki always said was too oily and needed a good scrubbing was now completely silver like Toshiro's. When Isshin saw what his hair became, he fell to his knees and pounded the floor in despair, completely unaware that he was causing the wood to crack and buckle. Isshin knew that if Toshiro, or even Ryuken, saw his newly silver hair they would either laugh at him or welcome him to their little club.
"That's not the worst part," Isshin mumbled as he looked into a mirror and stared at the rainbow light shining out. Grabbing one of the glowing locks, he pressed his face against the polished surface and groaned, "I look like a freaking Christmas tree! I don't know what the hell the Original Life Fiber did to my hair, but why on Earth would it think making my hair glow in the dark like a rainbow was a good idea? I need to tell Kisuke what happened but how?"
When he had been dragged into the Original Life Fiber alongside Ragyo, visions of what that thing intended to do to humanity and the planet were seared into Isshin's memory. He could not allow any of what he saw to happen. Isshin needed to tell someone like Kisuke what he saw so that some sort of countermeasure could be created. The Original Life Fiber needed to be destroyed at all costs or, if that was impossible based on what he saw, sealed away for all eternity. The only problem with Isshin's fool-proof plan was that he literally could not tell anyone of what the Original Life Fiber had planned.
At first he tried to call Kisuke up to tell the former captain what happened to him but as soon as he grabbed his phone to dial Kisuke's number, something within Isshin's mind blanked out and he completely forgot Kisuke's number. Worried slightly at that point, he remembered that he had Kisuke's number in his list of contacts but just as he selected the number and pressed to call, Isshin found his hand completely unresponsive. It was only after he tried to write down what happened down in the basement and what he saw that Isshin realized that the Original Life Fiber was insidiously clever. It put some sort of failsafe into his body that prevented him from doing anything against it. Isshin realized that as soon as he picked up a pen and immediately forgot how to read or write. It was only when he dropped the pen on the floor that he remembered he was literate.
"Ok, let's think this through," Isshin collapsed onto a couch and placed his cellphone on the table in front of him. He needed to think things over and he didn't need the Original Life Fiber to get involved. Remembering a trick Kisuke taught him about how he once bought Yoruichi a birthday present without the sneaky captain catching on, Isshin said out loud, "Apparently I cannot mention or communicate anything about a…certain activity…to anyone else. I'm going to need to be extremely clever about this if I'm going to get anything done."
Frowning when a lock of silver hair fell in front of his eyes, Isshin was just about to blow it out of his face when the room he was in was illuminated by a rainbow light that was, for once, not coming from his own hair. Realizing that Ragyo must have awakened, he turned around and quickly blushed when he saw her in nothing but a thin silk robe that hugged her body way too much.
"Hello Isshin."
Ragyo ignored Isshin's embarrassed sputtering as she walked past the man and sat down next to him. After a couple of seconds of awkward silence, she turned to him and asked, "Do you remember what happened to us?"
Isshin blinked and scratched his chin, "You mean before or after we were eaten by the living ball of thread downstairs?"
"Its name is the Original Life Fiber! You will address it by its proper name!" Ragyo snapped fanatically before immediately calming down. Staring at her trembling hands, when she spoke again her voice came out in a whisper, "I'm sorry for that Isshin. I'm just confused by what's happened to us. Our hair and eyes have both changed color but it was the things I remember dreaming about that envelop the entirely of my attention."
"So you saw the visions as well?" Isshin asked carefully. He did not why Ragyo snapped at him about his casual nickname for the Original Life Fiber but it was best that he not antagonize her until he's figured out what happened.
"Yeah," Ragyo refused to look at Isshin, instead keeping the sole focus of her now maroon eyes on her hands clasped firmly together on her lap. She did not know why she snapped at him for what he called the Original Life Fiber, but for some reason as soon as he mocked it an intense feeling of rage welled up inside her. She was angry that he was desecrating its greatness and he needed to know that.
"So what do we do now?" Isshin leaned back and blew a strand of silver hair out of his eyes. The fact that he could mention the visions to Ragyo implied that he could communicate the Original Life Fiber's plans and motives to anyone that already knows about them. That might make things easier in the long run, "You said the Original Life Fiber has been downstairs for generations, right? I'm starting to wonder just how old that thing actually is. Do Life Fibers even age?"
"The Original Life Fiber's mortality cannot be measured by humans," Ragyo answered stoically as the knowledge of what Isshin sought suddenly appeared in her mind. She knew of where the Original Life Fiber came from and how long it has been around. Compared to humans Life Fibers were effectively immortal, which caused a feeling of awe to well up deep inside Ragyo, "What are we going to do, Isshin? Rei and Masaki are going to ask questions about our change in appearance and that's not mentioning the world at large."
Even though he was slightly worried about Ragyo's quick and abrupt changes in persona, Isshin nevertheless kept a straight face, "Well, the first thing I'm going to do is figure out a way to dye my hair and dim my newly discovered headlights. I'm way too young to have silver hair and I would rather go bald than look anything like Ryuken. Once that's taken care of we can figure out what to do about the Original Life Fiber. That thing's been down there forever so I don't think a few more days are going to bother it too much. Now come on, you shouldn't be walking around right after waking up. I'm sure Soroi is worrying his head off."
Ragyo nodded as she allowed Isshin to wrap her arm gently around his shoulder. As he helped her walk back to her room, Isshin was unaware of the sly smile beginning to spread across Ragyo's face. He was equally unaware of the way her hand was slowly caressing his shoulder.
...
"Getsuga Tenshou!"
It was the utterance of those two words that ended the fight between Ichigo Kurosaki and Uzu Sanageyama. As the former substitute shinigami seemed to teleport inside the Athletic Committee Chair's guard and carved a deep gash in his opponent's Blade Regalia Mark II, the energy being fed through Tournesol's Life Fibers exploded outwards in a titanic explosion on a scale not unlike Ryuko's Niban Genkai and put Sanageyama's Hissatsu: Isshin Zenzanken to shame. It was no small wonder why Sanageyama, who was unable to react in time to the attack even with his Shingantsu, wasn't able to dodge the Getsuga Tenshou or even mitigate the damage.
While the attack's name was unfamiliar to every observer apart from a select few, Ichigo's new Getsuga Tenshou, even though it shared the same name, was inherently different from what stemmed forth from his shinigami powers. While it seemed like both attacks released a crescent arc of energy that enveloped anything they hit in a massive explosion that could only be mitigated by a superior defense, Mugetsu's Getsuga Tenshou was actually an attack that combined the Life Fiber severing power of Tournesol with the Ichigo's blood and energy that coursed through Mugetsu's Life Fibers.
When Mugetsu's Getsuga Tenshou manages to connect with a target, the massive wave of energy will split apart into thousands of smaller blades too small for the eye to see. Each of these smaller attacks will then instantaneously strike every exposed surface on Ichigo's opponent's body before going critical and exploding in a massive eruption powerful enough to create a mushroom cloud tinted deep blue and large enough to cover nearly the entire battle arena in the explosion.
"How did Strawberry manage to hide something this powerful up his sleeves?" Nonon Jakuzure growled as she watched the explosion through squinted eyes. Tilting her drum major's hat downwards until it covered her pink eyes, Nonon seethed as she realized Ichigo was still stronger than her. If Ichigo was capable of unleashing an attack like that, which most likely obliterated Sanageyama, than her Symphony Regalia Mark III wouldn't fare much better.
"God damn you, Strawberry!" Nonon stomped her foot angrily on the ground as her face flushed from embarrassment at being shown up. Pointing her baton at where she assumed Ichigo was standing, she shouted, "Don't think this changes anything! Even with your strength I'm still going to kick your sorry ass!"
Subtly listening to Nonon's angry rambling, Satsuki Kiryuin stared at the ever expanding cloud of dust and smoke on the battle arena in front of her with a mixture of wonder and interest. For barely a second, just when Ichigo's Tournesol connected with Sanageyama's Blade Regalia, Satsuki felt his power skyrocket until it eclipsed what she was capable with Junketsu. Looking sparingly down at her Kamui, she saw Junketsu's eyes focused on where Ichigo had last been seen.
"So even Junketsu is aware of the power Ichigo's Kamui possesses," Satsuki turned her attention back to the battle arena before glancing over at Matoi. Ryuko was staring at the fight, most likely enraptured with what Ichigo had just down, and Satsuki could not blame her. If she was a woman with less self-control, her mouth would be agape and she would be wondering out loud the full extent of Ichigo's powers.
"It is not just Ichigo, but also Matoi," Satsuki corrected her line of thinking as she recalled watching Ryuko's Senkou configuration. While her plan had always been to push Ryuko along so that she would be strong enough for the fights to come, Satsuki did not appreciate being left behind. Configurations like Senkou and Zangetsu were powerful but Satsuki knew that ingenuity could win out over raw power and speed given the right environment and intelligence. She had even begun to contemplate the drawbacks to Ichigo and Ryuko's powerful attacks. The problem Satsuki was facing was not as complicated as Life Fiber attacks. It had to do with her inability to force Junketsu to adapt and evolve into similar fighting configurations.
"What do Ichigo and Matoi possess that allow them to order their Kamui to transform?" Satsuki's eyes refocused as the dust began to clear and two figures emerged, "I am aware they can mentally listen to their Kamui and communicate with both their own Kamui as well as each other's. I've tried asking Ichigo to listen to Junketsu but he's said my Kamui does not talk. Could there be something wrong with Junketsu?"
As the smoke and debris from the Getsuga Tenshou began dissipating into the surrounding environment, two figures began to emerge with the first being Ichigo. Knocked out of Mugetsu's Zangetsu configuration by the amount of energy the Getsuga Tenshou required, Ichigo barely took three steps before he began stumbling forward.
"Like hell I'm going to lose!" Ichigo grit his teeth as he stabbed Tournesol deep into the arena's floor to keep himself from collapsing to the ground, "I'm not going to fall here!"
"I'm sorry, Ichigo," Mugetsu's apologetic voice reached Ichigo moments before he was surrounded by blue stars and realized Mugetsu had transformed back to her normal uniform. Turning her tired eyes up to her wearer, the Kamui said, "That Getsuga Tenshou used up most of my stored blood and energy. If I had remained transformed for a few more seconds I risked sucking your blood dry. I'm sorry."
Ichigo didn't respond to Mugetsu's apology as a series of wracking coughs tore forth from his chest and spittle mixed with blood sprayed on the floor in front of him. His Getsuga Tenshou, which he somehow instinctively knew was designed to destroy Life Fibers, had only scraped him when it connected with Sanageyama. Mugetsu hadn't complained about the hit apart from a slight muttering of pain so why the hell did he feel like crap?
"…Ichigo…"
Sanageyama's pain-filled voice tore Ichigo's attention away from his own problems. Twisting his head around, his eyes wide in shock at the fact his opponent was still conscious after being hit point blank by his Getsuga Tenshou, Ichigo saw Sanageyama still standing in the midst of his attack. The Athletic Committee Chair's body was covered in cuts and bruises and aside from several stubborn pieces his Blade Regalia was virtually destroyed. Taking in a ragged breath as his senses returned to him Sanageyama managed a single step towards Ichigo before another piece of his green armor cracked apart, fell to the ground and dissipating into its component Life Fibers.
"What…" The green-haired swordsman took another step and his bandanna, already burnt and frayed by the power of Ichigo's Getsuga Tenshou, split apart, showing his scarred eyes for all the world to see. Unconcerned about his appearance Sanageyama raised his shinai, the wooden weapon torn off roughly halfway up the blade, and raised a shaking arm at Ichigo. Taking a moment to steady himself on his feet, Sanageyama stared at Ichigo and asked, "…what…was that attack?"
Feeling the pain in his own body beginning to abate, Ichigo pushed himself back onto his feet and said, "It's called Getsuga Tenshou."
"Moon Fang Heaven-Piercer, huh?" Sanageyama grinned as he collapsed to his knees. Now completely naked as the last of his Blade Regalia dissipated into nothingness, Sanageyama had a satisfied look on his face as he fell backwards into unconsciousness.
Ichigo continued to stare at Sanageyama's unconscious form before a loud buzzer rang through the stadium, signaling that the match was over and he had won. As several One-Star students associated with the Medical Relief Club appeared on the battle arena to check on Sanageyama, Ichigo turned towards Satsuki with a look of annoyance on his face. The Student Council President stared directly back at him, never lowering her gaze or showing a single emotion on her face. Eventually Ichigo turned away and walked back to his pillar to rest for his second fight against Nonon Jakuzure. Sanageyama was a difficult opponent but at least he was honorable. Nonon, on the other hand, had a grudge against him and Ichigo knew that would carry over into their battle.
Satsuki watched Ichigo for a few seconds, her hands tightening around Bakuzan's hilt as she beheld the accusatory stare returned to her. Expressing not a single emotion on her face, she turned her gaze to Gamagori and spoke, "Gamagori, due to necessary repairs your match against Matoi will be delayed one hour. It shall begin in ninety minutes instead of thirty. Prepare yourself accordingly."
"Understood, Lady Satsuki," Gamagori respectfully bowed to Satsuki before sitting down on his pillar. Folding his arms across his massive chest, a frown of displeased seemingly etched on his face, Gamagori was not pleased with how the Sudden Death Runoff was proceeding. The matches were supposed to begin at 1:00 PM sharp but Inumuta had the nerve to start his fight against Matoi at 8:55 AM. Did the former member of the Elite Four not realize that schedules and rules were put in place to keep order amongst the chaos? Gamagori wanted to protest to Lady Satsuki about the changed time but when Satsuki allowed the first fight to commence, he knew his words would have no weight. If Satsuki thought Inumuta's fight should begin early in the morning than he would stand aside and respect her verdict.
Gamagori took a calming breath as he mentally prepared his mind and body for his match. Ignoring Inumuta disregarding the established venue time for the moment, he focused on the true purpose of the matches against Matoi and Ichigo Kurosaki. The Three-Star Goku Uniforms of the Elite Four may be more powerful than anything else at Honnouji Academy barring the Kamui wearers and Ururu Tsumugiya, but there were those out there with more power. The true purpose of the Sudden Death Runoff was for their Goku Uniforms to be tested for flaws and weaknesses in the stitching. Apart from the unintended destruction of his Probe Regalia, it was expected for Matoi to defeat Inumuta in battle but none of them expected Ichigo to win the way he did.
The simulations Inumuta had shown to the rest of the Elite Four indicated Ichigo would beat Sanageyama, much to the Athletic Committee Chair's irritation. It was predicted based on his Kamui's known strength, as well as the recordings of his fight against Satsuki, that Ichigo would win but only after a long and brutal battle that would allow valuable information and data to be collected on his Kamui. Sanageyama's new Blade Regalia Mark II in conjunction with his Shingantsu was supposed to be able to stand up against the phenomenal speed of Ichigo long enough for Inumuta and Iori to collect what was needed, yet Ichigo not only managed to win but he also completed destroyed Sanageyama's Blade Regalia with a previously unseen attack.
"I should have fought Matoi first! Rules are meant to be enforced, not disregarded at the first sign of trouble! Inumuta should have known better!" Gamagori snorted at the cowardly way Inumuta tried to back out of his fight against Ryuko. The king of the hill battles were designed to be fought until one opponent falls unconscious or has their uniform destroyed, neither of which happened to Inumuta. Gamagori would never say it, but the Disciplinary Committee Chair was satisfied when Ryuko ignored Inumuta's surrender.
"Unfortunately the data Inumuta's Probe Regalia collected about Matoi's Senkou mode was lost when his Goku Uniform was destroyed," Gamagori noted in dissatisfaction, "His Goku Uniform's power would have been valuable in figuring out just what Ichigo Kurosaki did to defeat Sanageyama. The way Ichigo moves and fights cannot be explained by what Inumuta dug up on him. Where did he receive such advanced training?"
"Way to go!" Mako Mankanshoku cheered jubilantly from the stands, "You're number one, Ichigo!"
Mako was ecstatic throughout Ichigo's entire fight against Sanageyama and even Orihime joined in towards the end. That final super awesome attack Ichigo used to create the picturesque blue mushroom cloud was cool and all but it would always be second to the enormous blade of energy Ryuko used against Inumuta.
"Please lower your voice," a snobbish voice sarcastically said, "Even though it is impossible, your shrilling tone is actually interfering with my sensors."
Sitting in the stands right next to Orihime was Houka Inumuta, the now former Information and Strategy Committee Chair. Clad in a spar red tracksuit with a high collar that rose until just above his nose, Inumuta looked a little worse for wear after his fight against Ryuko. His face, at least what could be seen above the zipped up tracksuit, was covered in small bandaged and he was currently forced to wear his second pair of glasses after Ryuko destroyed his favorites.
"So you are the one that Ichigo Kurosaki was talking to before my fight against Ryuko Matoi," Inumuta mumbled as he fervently typed on his laptop. The loss of his Probe Regalia and all the data held within it was staggering and Inumuta hoped Iori was able to salvage something from the security feeds of the fight. Pressing one key before reaching up and unzipping the collar of his tracksuit so he could speak, Inumuta turned his attention to Orihime sitting next to him, "The colors and style of your uniform indicate you go to Karakura High School. Just how well do you know Ichigo Kurosaki?"
"Oh…well…" Orihime tapped her fingers together in embarrassment and looked away from Inumuta, "Ichigo is my friend and since I had some time off from school I thought I should come by and cheer him on. His dad said Ichigo would benefit from having a friend here to cheer him on and that I was the best person to go."
"I see," Inumuta rapidly typed in what Orihime was saying into Ichigo's profile in the Honnouji Academy database. After seeing Ichigo demolish Sanageyama and his Blade Regalia, Inumuta was starting to believe the history he gathered on Ichigo was woefully lacking in detail and substance, "Please go on. The data I'm gathering from this conversation is most enlightening. I would prefer if you could tell me where Ichigo might have obtained his fighting skills and instincts. Please do not skimp out on the details and be as specific as you can."
"You want to know about Ichigo?" Orihime hummed quietly to herself as she thought about Inumuta's question. It wasn't like she could tell him about Ichigo being a shinigami and fighting supernatural villains bent on becoming a god, but then again Orihime never expected Life Fibers to be able to grant people superpowers. Still, Orihime didn't think Ichigo would appreciate her talking about him behind his back, "Actually, it's very complicated. You see it all started when – "
"Hang on just a minute!"
Mako suddenly appeared between Inumuta and Orihime, causing the latter to nearly fall off her seat in surprise. As Orihime managed to regain her composure, Mako crossed her arms over her chest and gave the teal haired teen a piercing stare, "It's wrong to ask a girl you just met such personal questions! You need to go on a date first and get to know here before even thinking about asking her stuff like that. I've known Ryuko for a while know and there are still things she won't tell me about herself despite my best attempts at bribing her with food and affection! Besides, have you even stopped to consider how your philandering ways are hurting Jakuzure's feelings?"
"Like I care what Jakuzure thinks," Inumuta scoffed and adjusted his glasses with the tip of a finger. Rolling his eyes as Mako stared at him with her cheeks puffed out, he turned back to his laptop, "I have a lot to do and your rambling is beginning to get on my nerves. Why don't you go annoy your other friends and leave me in peace?"
When he still felt Mako's gaze lingering on him, Inumuta turned to chastise her again but froze when he saw who was on the other side of Orihime. Sitting happily with her hands clasped on her lap was a very familiar blonde haired girl.
"The Grand Couturier is here?" Inumuta thought in a subdued panic while relieved Mako had turned to blabber to Orihime, "I thought Lady Satsuki said Nui Harime was forbidden from returning to Honnouji Academy by her very mother? This is not good. I need to tell Lady Satsuki."
Inumuta moved his finger to press the hidden emergency signal on the bottom of his laptop when Nui, without turning her attention away from the battle arena, stared at him with her single sapphire eye. As the smile on her face widened every so softly upon noticing his panic, Inumuta fully comprehended what Nui was telling him. If he tried to so much as warn Satsuki about her presence, Nui would cleave a path through as many humans as necessary to kill him.
"Damn."
Inumuta gripped his laptop to steady his shaking hands. Risking a glance back at the Grand Couturier, Inumuta noticed that Nui was no longer looking at him but he did not think for a second that her attention had moved on. He knew without a doubt that the Grand Couturier was still paying close attention to his every move.
"Ok, think carefully," Inumuta took a second to calm his racing heart, causing Orihime to glance over the top of Mako's head. Ignoring her question of whether he was feeling alright or not, Inumuta closed his eyes and thought carefully on what he should do, "Ururu Tsumugiya is the key to telling Lady Satsuki. She seems to be able to keep up with the Grand Couturier in terms of strength and speed. If I set up the board just right I could force Nui Harime to deal with Ururu's interference while I make a break for Satsuki."
"Planning things behind my back isn't very nice, you know," Nui's childish and happy voice cut through Inumuta's line of thought like a sharp blade, "That's the sort of thing that can get people into all sorts of trouble!"
As his heart pounded against his chest, Inumuta turned his head and saw that Nui was not speaking directly at him. Ururu had noticed Nui focused completely on Inumuta for some reason and tried to take advantage of her lapse of attention and steal the purple Scissor Blade away from the Grand Couturier. Although she did not understand how she knew, Ururu could sense where Nui was hiding the hardened Life Fiber blade and knew just what to do to steal it away from her twin sister.
"That was a nice attempt. Really, it was!" Nui laughed and stuck out her tongue as her hand grasped tightly around Ururu's wrist. As she stared into a pair of blue eyes that were so familiar to her own, Nui pouted cutely and giggled, "I love how you're trying to bond and all that, but we can always do that later when we get to know each other a bit more."
"You're planning something," Ururu accused stoically as she tore her wrist free from Nui's grip.
"You give me far too much credit," Nui closed her eye and looked up at where Ichigo was standing. It was almost time for the big surprise and she couldn't wait to see the look on everyone's faces. Giving her twin another glance, Nui continued, "I already gave my promise to not touch Ichigo and I always keep my promises, you know. So why are you all hot and bothered, Amu?"
Ururu saw Orihime had turned away from Mako towards them as soon as Ichigo's name was mentioned. In an uncharacteristically emotional outburst Ururu's eyes narrowed and she said, "I know you are planning something. If you try to hurt any of my friends I will make you suffer."
Nui was about to respond with a childish laugh at Ururu's threat but stopped as she realized just how familiar her twin's tone of voice was to her own on the rare occasions when things did not go her way. The Grand Couturier locked gazes with Ururu's sapphire eyes and saw the same look of promised rage her own eye had possessed after the man who called himself Isshin Matoi destroyed her left eye. Easily hiding the foreign feeling of nervousness deep beneath layers of saccharine joy and psychosis, Nui sighed dramatically and huffed.
"You sure do like to talk!" Nui glanced over at Inumuta and giggled when the teal haired teen flinched, "But talking is talking and fighting is fighting! Our hearts may be like two peas in a pod but I would never do anything to hurt my favorite cousin. You can count on that!"
...
"My, my," Aikuro Mikisugi muttered to himself as he ran a hand through his shaggy blue hair, "Things are really starting to get interesting down there."
Aikuro leaned over the railing far above the crowd of spectators below as he watched Ichigo demolish Uzu Sanageyama and his Blade Regalia with a single attack. That last attack Ichigo used, the Getsuga Tenshou, seemed extremely powerful and something Aikuro needed to be wary of in the future. All the experiments and tests Nudist Beach did on Danketsu's Life Fibers, with Kinue's consent of course, indicated that when a Kamui evolves too quickly it's stitching can become unstable, which can lead to the wearer losing control over the Kamui's power. Senketsu and Mugetsu's powers were increasing too quickly for their own good. If either of them were to lose control, it would be a repeat of what happened ten years ago.
"Well, I don't ever want that to happen again," Aikuro quietly scoffed. Peering at the arena through a set of binoculars, Aikuro zoomed in on Ryuko and then Ichigo before scratching at his hair. Truth be told, he found Ryuko's Senkou attacks fascinating from a scientific point of view. It was quite ingenious of her to use her imagination to shift the outputted power of Senkou into various powerful attacks.
"Ryuko could stand to learn some self-control, especially with the Grand Couturier focused on her," Aikuro concluded with a sigh as he lowered the binoculars. Leaning over the railing and looking at Satsuki Kiryuin across the stadium, he asked, "Shouldn't you be hiding? The last time I checked little Miss Satsuki was still trying to catch and dissect you."
"Humph!"
Kon stepped out of the shadows where he was most definitely not hiding from Satsuki Kiryuin. Walking over to Aikuro, the disguised nudist sparing the mod soul a quick glance, Kon leaned against the railing and scoffed, "Ichigo's dad sent me here to keep an eye on him. How can I do that when I'm certainly not hiding from Satsuki? Besides, there's no way I can enjoy the view of Ryuko's fine body from inside the air ducts!"
"Please consider what you say about Ryuko," Aikuro's voice was cold as ice as he menacingly waved several needles at Kon, "She is the daughter of a dearly departed friend, so if you keep trying to sneak glances at her I will be forced to do something terribly nightmarish to you."
"You don't need to worry about doing anything to my vulnerable body. I've already learned my lesson," Kon shivered as he recalled how Ryuko hunted him down and almost killed him three times already. The first time he thought she was just overreacting but after the next two times Kon concluded Ryuko was going to kill him if he tried again so he made sure that he was never in a place where she could think he was peeping on her. If he was sitting on the floor when Ryuko walked into a room, Kon would quickly get up and move out of the way.
Jumping up onto the railing and wiping dust off his plushie body, Kon pointed his stub of an arm at Aikuro and asked, "Anyway, Ryuko's going to fight next, right? That means she's going to be up against that large and scary man sitting down way over there. Ichigo's fight was fun to watch and all but it was just so predictable. I knew he was going to kick Sanageyama's ass from the moment the fight started. You know anything about that Gamagori bastard?"
Aikuro shifted his eyes to look at Kon. He was still trying to get used to the idea of conversing with a Life Fiber being that was not trying to assimilate him as a power source. Professor Matoi notes and Isshin's information about Ragyo's plans indicated that Life Fibers needed a living human to function as a mobile power source, but Kon was able to function and move around on his own. It was a fascinating subject that Aikuro would have preferred to learn more about but Isshin had personally vouched for Kon's loyalty and so he was forced to push away any disgust he had for Kon in order to focus on the matter at hand.
"It's hard for me to say," Aikuro shrugged and sighed lazily, "I'm just a lowly teacher so I really haven't been able to see any of the Elite Four's Goku Uniforms apart from when they fought Ryuko or Ichigo. First there was Jakuzure's Symphony Regalia, then there was Sanageyama's Blade Regalia and we both just saw Inumuta's Probe Regalia. Truth be told, I don't even know what Gamagori's Goku Uniform looks like."
"Goku Uniforms are really strange," Kon's beady eyes focused on Satsuki Kiryuin before he looked away. He didn't want that ruthless woman finding him again.
"Every Goku Uniform is stitched by the President of the Sewing Club, Iori Shirou, to match the inherent qualities and abilities of the student," Aikuro explained, "Going by his self-proclaimed title of Satsuki's impenetrable shield, Gamagori's Goku Uniform must have something to do with defense or protection. Ryuko's going to need to think on her feet if she wants to win. Raw power might not cut it this time."
Kon tapped his head in thought as he walked back and forth on the railing. Ever since he woke up he'd been having a really bad feeling that something was going to go wrong. His encounter with Nui Harime was still giving him nightmares. Despite her outward appearance as a relatively normal-looking teenage girl Kon was able to see that she wasn't human and that scared him more than any hollow or arrancar. How anyone could look that cute and be that psychotic boggled Kon's mind but the mod soul wasn't about to go ask Nui why she was insane. If he ever saw the Grand Couturier again in his long lifetime it would be too soon.
"There's nothing to be worried about," Kon spun around and pointed at Aikuro, "Ryuko is plenty strong and way too stubborn to give up. If she could chase me down for over ten minutes just for accidentally peaking up her skirt than she should have no trouble taking on this Gamagori guy!"
"I've been looking everyone for you, Aikuro. I even checked the teacher's break room for you but they said you weren't there all day."
Aikuro chuckled at the gruff voice as its owner made his way towards the undercover Nudist Beach operative. Lighting a cigarette and taking a deep drag, Tsumugu Kinagase paused as he let smoke drift out of his mouth before speaking, "Let me tell you two pieces of useful information. The first is that you should take off that depressing outfit as soon as possible. It's making me feel suicidal just by looking at it."
"Hey now, I made this disguise myself! It's not that bad, is it?" Aikuro let out a nervous chuckle as Tsumugu mocked his getup. He needed to go undercover at Honnouji Academy for Nudist Beach so what better way to do so than as a lazy and scruffy teacher? Rubbing the back of his neck, Aikuro muttered, "Besides, I'm undercover, remember? It wouldn't be good for everyone to see my full nude glory."
Tsumugu purposely avoided answering Aikuro's rhetorical question as he noticed Kon watching their conversation. He had been briefed about the Life Fiber plushie's loyalty to Isshin and his son and thus had not immediately pumped it so full of needles that he resembled a pincushion. Clenching the cigarette between his teeth, Tsumugu said, "The second is that I do not trust the creature standing beside you. Even though Isshin vouched for its loyalty, I will be keeping a close eye on it."
"Yeah, well, I don't like you either," Kon grumbled and hopped onto the ground accompanied by a soft squeak.
Kon had only the faintest of ideas why everyone thought just because there were Life Fibers in his plushie that he was dangerous. Life Fibers really didn't stack up compared to some of the things he's witnessed in the last few years. That did not mean the mod soul wasn't thinking about them. Life Fibers were what made Senketsu and Mugetsu powerful and sentient so Life Fibers must somehow be alive, which made Kon wonder how something that was essential yarn be alive in the first place. There was something the mod soul was missing and Kon had a strange feeling Isshin sent him here knowing full well what was going on. This was the last time Kon was going to do Ichigo's dad any favors even if there were hot girls involved!
"Boy would I love to just tell these people that I'm a mod soul and not a Life Fiber creature or whatever. The looks on their faces would be priceless but why did Ichigo's dad have to stitch my pill into this body?"
Tsumugu gave the mod soul another glare before reaching up and clicking on the buckle holding the large silver case on his back. As the case crashed to the ground with a soft thud, Tsumugu turned around and undid the latches holding it closed. Flipping the lid up with one hand and flicking his cigarette away with the other, Tsumugu began assembling his customized M-98 Window Anti-Life Fiber Model Type-3. While clicking the various components into place, Tsumugu began talking to Aikuro, "Headquarters got your request yesterday. They were not pleased with what you were asking, especially since Isshin's forbidden us from going after Masaki's son."
Aikuro reached into his pocket and handed Tsumugu a recording of Ryuko's fight against Inumuta, "Ichigo's power concerns me but it's Ryuko that I'm worried about. I'm certain if push came to shove Ichigo could control his Kamui but Ryuko is still holding onto a lot of pent up anger and emotions. I would have warned her against participating in the king of the hill battles but little Miss Satsuki had to push up the time from 1:00 PM to 9:00 AM. If Gamagori's fight was first, it's likely he would have forestalled the first fight, allowing me a chance to talk to Ryuko."
"You don't need to say any more," Tsumugu cut in as he finished assembling the sniper rifle. Leaning his forehead against the Anti-Life Fiber weapon, he reached inside his shirt and pulled out a simple necklace with a familiar bullet hanging gently off it. Staring at the bullet that nearly ended everything a decade ago, Tsumugu said, "I promised Kinue I would save this special adhesive bullet for the time when she finally lost control of her Kamui and went on another rampage. If anyone was going to finally give my sister the rest she deserved it was going to be me. Even though Kinue's no longer in danger of losing control to her Kamui, I'm still wary about letting you use this bullet."
"Think of it as a precaution in case anything goes wrong," Aikuro said with a shrug, "If it makes you feel any better, I'm sure we won't end up having to use it."
"Let's hope not. Tell me, have Matoi and Kurosaki gotten that strong that even someone like you is worried?" Tsumugu growled.
Aikuro leaned back on the railing, "Both of them managed to easily secure wins against Three-Star Goku Uniforms using attacks that concentrated all the energy in their Kamui into one massive strike. Ryuko's was called Niban Genkai and Ichigo called his Getsuga Tenshou. You didn't see the attacks completely destroy a Three-Star Goku Uniform in one swing. Not even little Miss Satsuki could do something like that while wearing Junketsu. You remember your fight against Ryuko, right? Now imagine fighting her again but this time your needles have a quarter of their suppressing effect while her strength and speed are twice what they were. Could you beat her?"
"No, I could not," Tsumugu admitted without hesitation. Grabbing the scope off his M-98 Widow, he handed the magnifying device to Aikuro and continued, "Kinue said that I would be unable to stand up to the likes of a Raiment so what chance do I have against Matoi after she's gained experience using her Kamui?"
Aikuro gave his friend a light chuckle out of amusement, "It's not like you to admit your weakness. Kinue's return really must have affected you."
Without looking Tsumugu reached over and grabbed the undercover nudist's shirt in his hand, "If you so much as tell anyone that I'm getting soft I'm going to publically humiliate you in the worst possible way."
"Now hang on a minute!" Aikuro was beginning to sweat at the threatening aura surrounding Tsumugu, "There's no need for violence. No one here said you were getting soft! I sure as heck didn't say anything like that!"
There was a pregnant pause as both Aikuro and Tsumugu looked down at Kon. The mod soul plushie was reading a comic book he pulled out of nowhere and had stopped paying attention to their conversation ages ago. Noticing the stares from the two men, Kon looked up and bluntly asked, "What the hell are you two looking at? Can't you see I'm busy reading my articles?"
...
Ryuko sat in a relaxed crouch as she waiting for the clock beneath the battle arena to read 11:00 PM. It was only a few minutes until her fight against Gamagori and she was starting to feel the initially effects of anxiety. The sight of Gamagori transforming into his Shackle Regalia the other night was still ingrained in her memory and it was making her wonder just how powerful the Disciplinary Committee Chair actually was.
"Ryuko, your heart rate and blood pressure are rising. Are you nervous about the upcoming fight?" Senketsu's familiar voice asked, cutting through Ryuko's reminiscing.
Giving an exasperated huff of annoyance, Ryuko propped her chin on her fist and sighed dramatically, "It's nothing to worry about, Senketsu. I'm just thinking about how strong Gamagori was the other night. His Shackle Regalia may look downright ridiculous but there's no getting around how powerful it is."
"Yes," Senketsu agreed, turning his eye toward the still sitting large teen. The male Kamui had been concerned about Gamagori's power as an indication of the strength of the rest of the Elite Four but Ryuko's battle against Inumuta hadn't been that troublesome, "He seems to be the only one to possess a secondary transformation like Mugetsu and myself. You should keep your guard up against him. There's no reason to take unnecessary risks at this point."
"Who do you think I am? I'm all about safety, Senketsu!" Ryuko boasted proudly. When she heard Senketsu growling at her, Ryuko rolled her eyes, "Ok, fine. I'll be careful against Gamagori, but you know, I thought these Elite Four jerks would be stronger."
"What do you mean?"
Ryuko stood up and stretched her legs before she let out a sigh of contentment as her muscles and joints popped back into place, "Inumuta wasn't that tough. If his Probe Regalia didn't have that optical camouflage ability we could have beaten him without using Niban Genkai. Sanageyama has his Shingantsu but we both watched Ichigo wipe the floor with him by moving too fast for Sanageyama to keep up with. I'm starting to get the feeling that we're being played."
"Nonsense," Senketsu shook his body around Ryuko in order to show his displeasure at such a stupid notion, "Why would Satsuki Kiryuin throw her most powerful followers at us just so they could take a dive? It makes no sense."
Ryuko grinned at Senketsu's reaction. Turning her eyes towards the battle arena, she noticed the clock read 10:59 AM and let out a confident smirk, "Well, it's almost time Senketsu. Just one more fight and we get to find out from Satsuki why Nui Harime had to kill my dad. I'm kind of hoping she tries to resist just so I can beat the smug look off her face with your power. We never did get to have our rematch against Satsuki, did we?"
"No, we did not. Ichigo and Mugetsu saved our lives that morning and managed to beat Satsuki Kiryuin before we could do so," Senketsu answered as a set of red steps extended down from the pillar Ryuko was standing on. As she calmly walked down the steps, her gaze never leaving Gamagori, Senketsu turned his eye upwards, "Please don't tell Mugetsu this, but I really do want to fight Satsuki Kiryuin and Junketsu. My Life Fibers are highly dissatisfied with that mockery of a battle you had against her before our proper synchronization."
"You don't need to tell me that," Ryuko boasted as her hand reached for the pin on the Seki Tekkou, "It would be really annoying to never have a proper battle against Satsuki. It might just drive me crazy. Let's go, Senketsu! Life Fiber Synchronization: Kamui Senketsu!"
Fully clad in Senketsu's transformed state and with her energy replenished after her usage of Niban Genkai, Ryuko stared across the battle arena at the stoic Gamagori. Hefting her red Scissor Blade onto her shoulder, Ryuko smirked at the Disciplinary Committee Chair, "Yo, Gamagori, don't expect me to go easy on you just because you helped us the other night!"
Gamagori gave Ryuko a sly grin of his own before his expression hardened. Smashing his gauntlet-covered fists together before spreading his arms wide, he shouted, "I would not expect any less from the likes of you, Matoi! You might as well consider this your final transformation! Your ascent towards Lady Satsuki ends here! Three-Star Goku Uniform: Shackle Regalia!"
Ryuko narrowed her eyes as Gamagori transformed into the familiar bondage uniform she saw the other night. Even though his appearance and inability to move his arms or legs made Gamagori seem like an easy target, Ryuko knew better than to attack him. The memory of the entire AAA Club unloading everything they had against Gamagori's Shackle Regalia only to be completely and utterly destroyed remained at the forefront of her mind. Deciding against doing anything stupid, like attacking him, Ryuko planted her Scissor Blade into the arena and sat down on the handle, all the while giving her opponent the meanest glare she could muster.
"What are you doing?"
The calm and blunt question caused Ryuko to tilt her head to the side in confusion, "Huh?"
"This is a fight," Gamagori's muffled voice was audible to Ryuko despite being all the way across the battle arena, "Is a fight not what you wanted, Matoi?"
Ryuko locked her right heel inside the handle of her Scissor Blade and propped her arm on her knee, "That's a dumb question. Of course I wanted to fight you."
"If that is the case then you should be attacking me instead of sitting around doing nothing."
"Do you really think I'm going to fall for something like that?" Ryuko chuckled to herself as she hopped off her Scissor Blade and pulled the Life Fiber weapon out of the ground. Walking back and forth on the arena, her Scissor Blade perched lazily on her shoulder, Ryuko gave Gamagori and knowing stare, "I remember watching your Goku Uniform absorb the power of anything thrown at you. Do you honestly expect me to go charging at you with my Scissor Blade? I'm just going to stand way over here out of range of whatever you may be planning until I can think of something."
"It appears I overestimated your intellect, Matoi. I thought you were surely smarter than this!"
Gamagori's Shackle Regalia began to shift and contort as several strips of the cloth armor composing the outer layers of the Goku Uniform began peeling off and twisted into whips. Ryuko stared in stunned surprise as nearly a dozen whips hovered in the air around Gamagori and gripped her Scissor Blade tightly in preparation for the attack that was sure to come. She was thus shocked when Gamagori, instead of attacking her, turned his whips on himself.
"What the hell are you doing?" Ryuko asked as she watched Gamagori flagellate himself with his own attack.
"Did you not consider I might have anticipated your actions?" Gamagori shouted as his body began to bloat menacingly. As he continued to whip himself, using the power of his Goku Uniform to reach the level of power needed, he stared at Ryuko and said, "I knew after my display the other night that you would no doubt come to understand the power of my Shackle Regalia. That is why if there is no one to discipline me, I am able to discipline myself!"
"What are you talking about?" Ryuko grit her teeth and leapt back as Gamagori expanded to triple his initial size. His secondary transformation was about to appear and she did not want to be anywhere near him when he brought out his Scourge Regalia, "Using your power to discipline yourself makes no sense! Where does the damn power come from?"
"The power comes from my punishment!" Gamagori declared as his body swelled to near the critical point, "As I use my own technique to punish myself, I quickly bring myself to the climax. That is the power of my Higi Jijo-Jibaku, Matoi! Now witness my true power and realize your weakness! Three-Star Goku Uniform: Scourge Regalia!"
In a burst of power, the cloth armor of Gamagori's Shackle Regalia tore apart to reveal the Scourge Regalia waiting underneath. As a flurry of spiked tentacles and whips crackled around Gamagori, slamming into the arena hard enough to crack the stone tiles, Ryuko spun her Scissor Blade around her wrist and let out a shout as he did her best to deflect as many attacks as possible. While Ryuko was pushing Senketsu and her body to their limits to deflect the multitude of attacks, a different story was going on for the other two remaining contestants. Nonon had a smug grin on her face as she casually dodged and ducked out of the way of Gamagori's errant attacks while Ichigo was using Tournesol to cut and deflect any that strayed too close to him.
"Hey!" Ryuko shouted as one of Gamagori's whips twisted around her guard and smacked her butt. Spinning around and using her Scissor Blade to sever the offending whip, she felt her back arch forward as Gamagori took advantage of her lapse of concentration and proceeded to pummel her over and over again before slammed her body down to the ground right near the edge of the arena.
"You better not fall out of the battle arena, Matoi!" Gamagori shouted boisterously as he continued to smack Ryuko's body with his whips, "If you fall off the edge, you will automatically lose the battle!"
"I know that!" Ryuko shouted as she quickly rolled to the side before flipping to her feet as one of Gamagori's whips came crashing down on to the ground. Deftly leaping and dodging around the spiked tentacles chasing after her, she nevertheless answered, "I kind of figured that out when Inumuta tried to kick me off the edge. You Elite Four bastards sure do like to not tell all the rules, don't you?"
"It was an unspoken rule!" Gamagori announced as all the whips flailing through the air suddenly retracted back, hiding his Scourge Regalia inside his Shackle Regalia once more.
"Huh?" Ryuko spit on the ground as he cautiously observed her opponent, "Hey, Gamagori bastard, why did you go back to your stupid Shackle Regalia?"
Gamagori seethed at the lack of respect Ryuko was giving him but knew that the perpetrator of such an obnoxious nickname was Ichigo Kurosaki. He had been the one to first come up with it and he was no doubt the one to pass it on to Ryuko, "Did I not explain myself to you already, Matoi? All the power I collect from being punished and disciplined is released in my Scourge Regalia. Do you see the futility of attacking me? You must realize that in a contest of pure endurance and stamina I can outlast you, so I must ask what your next move is. Are you going to give up or would you like to continue being punished?"
"I don't know about you, but I'm not the kind of girl who goes for the kinky stuff you're into. All this discipline and punishment talk is starting to make me feel nauseous. As for your question…" Ryuko gave Gamagori a menacing smirk as she sprinted across the battle arena with her Scissor Blade held to her side, "…I'm going to give you your answer right now! Senketsu Senkou! Your Shackle Regalia is history! Seni-Soshitsu!"
Ryuko felt the Senkou enhanced Seni-Soshitsu slice across Gamagori's Shackle Regalia without hitting any form of defense but she was shocked when Gamagori did not so much as move. As Gamagori turned around to face her, an almost impossible task given his current state, Ryuko saw that all her Senkou-empowered Seni-Soshitsu managed to do was leave a small tear across the width of Gamagori's chest.
"His Goku Uniform does not have any Life Fibers on its surface," Senketsu explained to a stunned Ryuko, "What concerns me is that even if there was nothing for me to absorb using Seni-Soshitsu, Senkou should have still been enough to cut through it. His Shackle Regalia's defenses are indeed formidable."
"Impressive. I did not expect you to actually damage my Shackle Regalia," Gamagori admitted as his form began to bloat and expand once more, "My Shackle Regalia is covered in specialized cloth armor, forged and reinforced secretly to increase its power! If you have any chance of defeating me, you'll have to pierce through it and stab your Scissor Blade directly into my proper uniform!"
"That's not a problem," Ryuko motioned with her hand to her transformed state, "I've already proven Senkou can cut through your stupid cloth armor. So all I need to do is cut you a few more times and it's game over for you!"
"Indeed, your Senkou attacks are most formidable," Gamagori's body continued to swell as he resumed hitting himself while Ryuko stood by waiting, "In most cases increased cutting power and range would be a dangerous combination."
Ryuko was blown off her feet as Gamagori's Shackle Regalia exploded outwards once more. As she felt the many spiked whips and tentacles slap every exposed part of her body, Ryuko heard Gamagori shouting, "But in this case it is not true whatsoever! I am Lady Satsuki's ultimate shield. I will withstand the attacks and punishments from anyone daring to stand against her without fail! Even if I have to discipline myself, I will not allow you to stand in Lady Satsuki's presence. My tenacity and determination knows no bounds, Ryuko Matoi! I am going to crush you right here and now!"
"You must be out of your mind if you think I'm going to lose to the likes of you!" Ryuko shouted back as she spun her Scissor Blade around and destroyed any whips that tried to attack her. Rushing towards Gamagori, her Scissor Blade glowing red from the power she was feeding it, Ryuko leapt into the air as Gamagori reached onto his back and pulled out two spiked chakram.
"What is it you truly fight for, Matoi?"
"What kind of question is that?" Ryuko seethed as Gamagori's chakram stopped her Scissor Blade. Noticing the Disciplinary Committee Chair's weapons cracking under the superior power of her Senkou-enhanced Scissor Blade, Ryuko ducked back and swung her weapon through the air. Growling when Gamagori dodged to the side to avoid the invisible blade, she shouted at him, "Why do you even care what I'm fighting for? Aren't you only fighting because your precious 'Lady Satsuki' ordered you to? I'm surprised you can even dress yourself without Satsuki Kiryuin telling you what to do!"
Instead of taking the bait as she hoped, Gamagori pressed his offense. As she was constantly forced to dodge and avoid his whips while clashing with his seemingly infinite supply of chakram, Ryuko realized that although Senketsu's Senkou configuration gave her greater power and speed it did not help if she was overwhelmed by too many attacks.
"Do you truly believe finding out who murdered your father will get you anywhere in life? If you fight solely for personal vengeance, then you are not worthy of Lady Satsuki's attention!" Gamagori let out a righteous roar as he hit Ryuko with everything he had. Even with her Scissor Blade Ryuko found herself quickly tumbling through the air towards the edge of the arena platform. As she tried desperately to stab her Scissor Blade into the ground to stop her momentum, she felt one last whip smack the bottom of her chin and send her careening over the edge.
"But you will never get that chance, Matoi, because your hopes of defeating me end here!"
"Ryuko!"
"Damn that bastard!" Ryuko spun her body around and tried to stab her Scissor Blade into the side of the battle arena. As glowing sparks briefly flashed into existence when the tip of her weapon barely touched the surface of the arena, Ryuko realized she was just a few inches too far away. With blue eyes widening in fear as she continued to fall away from the platform, Ryuko let out a wordless shout as she disappeared into the smoke obscuring the ground below.
"Is this truly all you can muster, Matoi?"
Satsuki watched the perturbed smoke where Ryuko had fallen for several seconds before closing her eyes and scoffing. For a while she had been under the belief Ryuko would use her anger and tenacity to force herself back to her feet time and time again. These matches were not just designed to pick out the flaws of her Elite Four's Goku Uniforms but also grant Ryuko and Ichigo experience with fighting those that expertly wield Life Fiber. Matoi's fall here, while unfortunate, did not have any long or short-term ramifications on her plans. The School Raid Trip would proceed on schedule whether Ryuko got her answers or not.
"Oh? Is this all the Transfer Student can do? This is such a disappointment, wouldn't you agree Strawberry?" Nonon had a haughty smirk on her face as she turned to face Ichigo, but that look quickly fell when she saw Ichigo lightly dozing off with his head leaning on his fist. Growling and grinding her teeth together, Nonon stomped her foot angrily and shouted loudly, "What are you doing, Strawberry? The Transfer Student just lost her fight so why the hell are you taking a nap?"
Ichigo opened one eye and scoffed in annoyance, "I wasn't sleeping, damn it."
Nonon's glare intensified at Ichigo's dismissal of her question, "Why aren't you worried about Gamagori winning? You should be screaming out the Transfer Student's name in fear or something by now!"
"What makes you think I'll do something stupid like that?" Ichigo argued angrily before turning his attention to the battle arena below, "Besides, Ryuko hasn't lost the fight yet."
"Of course she's lost the fight, Strawberry!" Nonon growled and pointed down at the arena with her baton, "The Transfer Student fell all the way down to the ground! There's nothing – "
Nonon's sarcasm was cut off midsentence when a loud boom exploded from within the dust and smoke obscuring the ground. Stepping to the edge of her pillar to see what was making all the noise, Nonon was blow backwards onto her ass as Ryuko rocketed upwards into the sky just a few feet away from her.
"This is great!" Ryuko darted and soared through the air above Honnouji Academy. Senketsu's flight configuration was truly amazing. Unlike Mugetsu's Gufū, Senketsu's Shippu merged her lower body into one solid rocket that gave her more power and speed but at the cost of decreased maneuverability. Turning her head toward the swept-back wing where Senketsu's eye had shifted to, Ryuko gave her Kamui a smirk, "I didn't know you were this reckless, Senketsu."
Senketsu shivered from the praise, "Anything Mugetsu can do I can do as well. It is as simple as that. I was not about to let her hold something over me."
"I knew you could do it, Senketsu!" Ryuko grinned savagely as she hovered a few feet over the arena floor. Holding her Scissor Blade against the back of her neck, she stared confidently down at the waiting Gamagori, "I bet you're wondering what form this is. It's called Senketsu Shippu! Your stupid rule about falling off the arena doesn't matter anymore now that I can fly, Gamagori bastard!"
Gamagori was insulted by what Ryuko was insinuating. How dare she presume that just because she can fly that he cannot defeat her with technicalities! Pulling out several chakram from his back, he threw the spiked weapons at Ryuko while his whips crackled through the air towards her, "I've put up with your presumptuous attitude long enough, Matoi! You continue to refuse my generosity? Your rebellious attitude ends here!"
"Generosity?"
Ryuko looked at the Disciplinary Committee Chair in confusion with her head cocked to the side. She had no idea what Gamagori was talking about but if it was anything like what he said the other night, she really didn't want to know. Dodging around a thrown chakram, Ryuko grinned as she began flying away, "You can take your generosity and shove it! As if I would even consider losing to someone like you! I have questions for your precious Satsuki Kiryuin about my dad's killer and nothing's going to stop me from getting them!"
"Your petty vengeance is not worth Lady Satsuki's time, Matoi!" Gamagori screamed as he doubled his assault, "Have you refused to even think about what you're doing? You have no chance of defeating me! NO CHANCE AT ALL!"
"That's a load of crap!"
Ryuko boosted beneath the arena, ducking down as a chakram passed dangerously close to her head, before flying back up on the other side behind Gamagori with her Scissor Blade at the ready. Rocketing towards Gamagori with her Scissor Blade held out to the side, she was just about to pierce through his Scourge Regalia when all of his whips suddenly retracted back around his body. As her Scissor Blade ricocheted off the cloth armor surrounding his Shackle Regalia, Ryuko temporarily lost control of her motion and was forced to drag her blade across the arena floor to regain her balance.
"Damn, I was so close," Ryuko wiped the side of her mouth off on the back of her hand and spat on the ground, "I almost had him that time. Just one more second and this fight would have been over."
"That cloth armor is really tough. Even Senkou was barely enough to cut through it. It seems that unless you can somehow get inside of his Shackle Regalia, Gamagori is going to continue to hide whenever you go on the offensive."
"How do you suppose I do that? Should I bite one of his whips before he pulls them back in?" Ryuko rolled her eyes and glanced up into the reddening sky, "I have an idea and it requires Shippu. Ready for the most reckless thing you've ever done, Senketsu?"
"I grow tired of your insubordination, Matoi!" Gamagori finally finished whipping himself and burst out of his bindings clad in his Scourge Regalia once more. Reaching onto his back and pulling out half a dozen chakram, three per hand, he shot his whips at Ryuko and shouted, "I thought that if I shackled and whipped myself, my fellow students would see my righteous behavior and correct their own in the process. I hoped they would mend their own ways and not require my direct intervention for that is my goal as the Disciplinary Committee Chair – to lay down the law of Honnouji Academy and impose order and uniformity on the students!"
"You're still going on about that?" Ryuko rolled her eyes as she darted through the air while using her Scissor Blade to cut any whips she could not avoid. Ducking beneath an expertly thrown chakram, she shouted, "I already know all this so why the hell are you explaining it to me again!"
"YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND, MATOI!"
Gamagori threw his arms out and Ryuko tensed as every single one of his spiked whips grabbed a chakram, "The Shackle Regalia is the beating heart of my hopes and desires but despite all my hard work students like you remain out there that refuse to learn and mend their rebellious ways! It is with a heavy heart and tear-filled eyes that I use the cleansing whip that is Scourge Regalia! Now face the true horror of the Scourge Regalia, Ryuko Matoi, and despair!"
Ryuko swung her Scissor Blade as the whips shot towards her, "Get ready, Senketsu."
Senketsu stared at Ryuko suspiciously, "Ryuko, you never told me your plan."
Ryuko grinned, "You'll see."
"Have you finally learned your lesson, Matoi?" Gamagori asked as Ryuko was pummeled with his whips. Despite her newfound ability to fly, Ryuko did not know Gamagori was used to fighting an opponent that could maneuver in three dimensions. Jakuzure had required a lot of practice to get used to her Symphony Regalia Mark III and Gamagori had been the one to offer his assistance.
"Like hell I have!" Ryuko roared as she swung her Scissor Blade rapidly in front of her body and destroyed all the whips surrounding her. Glaring at Gamagori, Ryuko spun around before the jets beneath her legs flared to life and she rocketed high into the skies above Honnouji Academy before disappearing into the clouds.
For over a minute everyone, from the audience of students in the stadium to Aikuro watching from high above, stared at the trail of exhaust leading into the sky in anticipation for Ryuko's attack. When nothing happened and there was no sign of Ryuko, angry mutterings could be heard being whispered in the stands. Huffing in annoyance with his eyes locked on the red skies above, Gamagori shouted, "Have you fled like a coward, Matoi?"
Satsuki did not share Gamagori's outburst of anger but she did not say anything to the contrary. It took a clear mind and a sharp intellect to realize that Ryuko Matoi had not, in fact, fled the battle as so many people were beginning to suspect. Such an act of cowardice was against Matoi's nature and Satsuki would be stunned if that was indeed what happened. Casting her gaze on Ichigo, who seemed just as unworried about Ryuko as she was, Satsuki tightened her grip on Bakuzan and muttered, "It is unfortunate that your mind has become obsessed with resolve, Gamagori, for if you aren't careful it shall turn into arrogance."
"Lady Satsuki!" Satsuki glanced down at the battle arena and saw Gamagori turned to face her. With his loud voice reverberating throughout the stadium, he declared, "Since Ryuko Matoi has fled the field of combat I am requesting that you declare me the winner!"
"You should be cautious with what you say, Gamagori," Satsuki replied evenly, "For the match is not as over as you think."
Gamagori gave Satsuki a questioning look and was about to ask her what she was talking about when a bright flash of red light pierced through the thick clouds covering Honnouji Academy. Peering up into the sky, he was shocked to see Ryuko blasting down towards him at a speed he didn't think possible. Realizing that if Ryuko's Scissor blade hit his Scourge Regalia at that speed the match would be over Gamagori rapidly retracted all his whips and tentacles and formed his Shackle Regalia once more.
"That's not going to work this time!" Ryuko shouted as a loud crackle of thunder echoed through the stadium as she broke through the sound barrier. As her velocity continued to increase, no small thanks to the large thrust from Shippu, Ryuko quickly shifted out of her flight configuration into Senkou and shouted over the roaring wind, "If my Scissor Blade isn't sharp enough to cut through your stupid cloth armor on its own then I'm going need to improvise! Try to withstand this! Seni-Soshitsu!"
Making a turn sharp enough to kill a normal human just as she was about to hit the arena, Ryuko blasted across the stage and sliced through the cloth armor composing Gamagori's Shackle Regalia like it was tissue paper. Before the Disciplinary Committee Chair could even think of moving, Ryuko spun around and slashed him again with enough force to propel him several feet into the air.
"I-Impossible!" Gamagori spat out as he was stripped of his Goku Uniform, "My cloth armor!"
"Humph," Ryuko grinned as the Banshi from Gamagori's Shackle Regalia were absorbed by Senketsu, "Your cloth armor may not have any Life Fibers but my Senkou attacks can still cut through it. All I needed was a running start and your cloth armor was history! This match is over, Ira Gamagori!"
Turning away from Gamagori, who was beginning to get back onto his feet while completely naked, Ryuko gave Senketsu a pleased smile, "You're one hell of a Kamui, Senketsu."
Senketsu's eye closed in happiness at the praise, "It was your idea that won the match, Ryuko."
"But I couldn't have done it without you," Ryuko answered and gave Senketsu's collar a light dusting off. As her Kamui shook around her body, she said, "That's two wins. Now we just need to wait for Ichigo to kick Nonon's ass and I'll finally get Satsuki Kiryuin to tell me what she knows."
"Disgraceful!"
Ryuko's ears picked up the sound of a blade being drawn. Turning around, she saw Gamagori had a dagger in his hands and was about to stab himself in the stomach, "H-Hey! What are you doing?"
Before Gamagori could lower his arms, there was a light laugher as a pink boot lightly tapped him in his massive stomach and sent him bouncing along the battle arena. With her leg still raised in the air, one hand propped against her cheek and the other holding down her pink dress so that humans didn't see anything they should not see, Nui Harime dragged out her words as she spoke, "I'm sure Satsuki wanted to say something like 'wipe away your own tears' or something but it's just so annoying to see naked apes just refuse to lay down, you know. Wouldn't you agree, Ryuko?"
Ryuko stared in stunned surprise at who was standing right in front of her without a care in the world. As her face contorted in anger at seeing the person who killed her dad acting normally, she shouted, "Nui Harime!"
"Huh?" Nui tilted her head to the side and blinked owlishly as Ryuko shouted her name. She was sure Ryuko didn't know about her since she was very careful when it came to secrets. That meant someone must have been very naughty and told Ryuko and ruined the surprise. Spinning around on her heel and holding her pink parasol on her shoulder, Nui giggled and stared at Ichigo, "Did you have to spoil the big surprise, Ichigo? I wanted Ryuko to be really shocked by my cute and amazing reveal! It's just not the same if she already knows all about me, you know!"
Ichigo locked gazes with the Grand Couturier without flinching. Nui's power may be greater than his own but Ichigo was not about to show any nervousness around her, "Of course I told her all I knew. You not only killed Ryuko's dad but you also attacked Kisuke."
"Attacked?" Nui seemed confused by Ichigo's choice of words before she remembered who Ichigo was referring to, "Are you talking about Mr. Urahara? I'm surprised that you know about that, but then again you are my favorite cousin! Of course I attacked him! He committed the ultimate taboo of creating a Kamui. Humans aren't supposed to go to certain places, you know, but that shopkeeper was really strange. He actually gave me a difficult time before I finally managed to kill him! Although by the end he was bleeding just like any other human."
Ichigo gripped Tournesol and stood up but was stopped when Satsuki appeared before him. Holding Bakuzan toward Nui, Satsuki narrowed her eyes and asked, "Why are you here?"
"That's such a silly question, Lady Satsuki!" Nui huffed and leaned onto her pink parasol. As her body was floating sideways in the air, she giggled and added, "You know that I couldn't stay away from all the fun you were having!"
Satsuki stared coldly at the Grand Couturier, who returned the favor with a pleased expression in her single sapphire eye, before she slowly began unsheathing Bakuzan from its scabbard, "My mother has expressively forbidden you from stepping foot within Honnouji Academy after Parent Student Day. You might not care about what I say but even someone like you will listen to my mother."
Nui's face seemed to show just the tiniest amount of worry before it quickly disappeared and was replaced by a smile, "Nope! I'll have you know Lady Ragyo changed her mind! She said that if I was a good girl and didn't go near Ichigo I could stay for as long as I wanted! While I would love to do nothing more than play with my cousin and bond as a family I made a promise and you're supposed to keep your promises, you know."
Satsuki opened her mouth to respond but stopped when Ichigo stepped in front of her, "Tell me something, Nui Harime. Mugetsu is the Kamui that Kisuke created so why did you kill him and not me?"
"Don't be silly and ask such ridiculous questions Ichigo!" Nui chirped as she felt Ryuko's anger rising by the second. The Grand Couturier loved when a plan came together but any interference would ruin everything. Leaning forward, her chin propped on the top of her pink parasol, Nui puffed her cheeks out and explained, "You're my cousin so I could never do anything to hurt you, Ichigo! Mr. Urahara was nothing but a lowly human who thought he could hide something as high-class as a Kamui from me. Mugetsu is a true Kamui so if it's worn by someone like you then I have no problems with you!"
"Hey!" Ryuko raised her voice to gain Nui Harime's attention, "So you must be Nui Harime. Tell me something. Why did you kill my dad?"
"Why indeed," Nui spun around comically before she suddenly appeared right next to Ryuko, "It's really strange that you want to ask something you already know the answer to!"
Ryuko leapt away from Nui and raised her Scissor Blade, "What are you talking about?"
"You know so much about me and yet I care so little about you!" Nui smiled and reached into her dress before pulling out a familiar purple Scissor Blade. Spinning the blade around her wrist while making cute grunts, Nui pointed her own Scissor Blade at Ryuko and giggled, "See this? I pulled it out of your dad's body! Doesn't that just make you really mad? We should fight and have lots of fun!"
The look on Ryuko's face brought a smile to Nui's face. The look of sheer hate and loathing was perfect for what she had planned for that man's daughter, but when Ryuko bit her lip hard enough to draw blood instead of attacking her, Nui had a look of genuine surprise etched on her face.
"You must think I'm stupid or something," Ryuko spat out a glob of blood as she forced herself to calm down. She could tell Nui was intentionally baiting her but Ryuko was too smart for that. Giving the surprised Grand Couturier a cocky grin, she said, "Did you honestly think I would just attack you because I'm pissed off at you? I sure as hell want to smash your face into the ground and beat you until you're a bloody pulp but Ichigo's told me all about you. You're stronger and faster than Satsuki Kiryuin. If Ichigo can't beat you on his own than anything I do will be pointless!"
Nui leaned sadly on her Scissor Blade, "Gosh, you really know how to ruin someone's fun, don't you? I thought that I would surprise you with this Scissor Blade and then have a fun battle that we could both enjoy, but it seems my big plan has failed. Months of planning against you foiled by your newly acquired self-control. What am I going to do with my life now that my plan's fallen apart?"
Turning to walk away, Nui took three steps before she suddenly turned around, clapped her hands and winked at Ryuko, "Ah! That's why it is always a good idea to have a Plan B!"
"Plan B?" Ryuko glared heatedly at Nui as she raised her Scissor Blade, "What the hell are you talking about now?"
"Not going to tell you!" Nui giggled childishly as she spun around once and clapped her hands excitedly, "Just wait right here! I'll be back in just a second!"
When Nui vanished from sight, Ryuko thought the Grand Couturier's immense speed would be the biggest shock of the day. She had been able to somewhat keep up with Ichigo's speed when he fought Sanageyama up until the very end but she hadn't even seen Nui take a single step. How the hell was she going to fight if Nui actually tried to attack her? As the gears in her mind spun rapidly in order to come up with a plan, Ryuko heard a loud commotion coming from the stands before Nui reappeared in front of her. What Ryuko saw held firmly in her grasp caused her breath to hitch in her throat.
"M-Mako!"
Held above the ground in Nui's left hand was Mako, who was trying fervently to get free of the Grand Couturier's grip, "Ryuko! This strange girl who showed up before is trying to kidnap me! I'm too young for an arranged marriage to an old, rich man!"
"Your voice is really annoying," Nui told Mako as she held her purple Scissor Blade in her right hand, "If you don't be quiet, something really bad might just happen to you!"
"Wait!" Ryuko sprinted towards Nui, pulling the pin out of her Seki Tekkou and transforming wordlessly as she raced towards Nui.
"Nope, it's too late, Ryuko!" Nui giggled as she held her Scissor Blade behind Mako, "Say bye!"
Without a single shred of hesitation Nui plunged the Scissor Blade into Mako's chest and directly through her heart, causing the girl squirming her in hand to spasm in pain before quickly going still without saying another word. Flicking the body off her Scissor Blade, Nui watched Mako roll to a stop several feet away from Ryuko with a pool of blood beginning to form underneath her body. Lightly giggling, Nui stabbed her blade into the ground and sighed, "Gosh! That was a lot of fun! So do you want to fight me yet, Ryuko? If you don't, I still have Plan C, you know, but it's going to require that I get a few things!"
Ryuko didn't hear a word Nui was saying as she knelt in horror next to Mako's lifeless body. Raising a shaking hand towards her best friends face, tears streaming down her cheeks as she wished this were nothing but a nightmare, Ryuko turned to Nui with a dead look in her eyes when she felt something snap inside her chest. With red steam wafting off her body, Ryuko staggered back to her feet, heedless of Senketsu's voice screaming at her to calm down, and roared as everything seemed to become covered in a boiling red haze. As she felt her body contort and warp painfully, Ryuko only had a single thought on her mind – kill Nui Harime.
"Golly, now that you're all dressed up, Ryuko, the fun can begin!" Nui cheerfully explained. She could sense both Satsuki and Ichigo rushing towards her back, both of them already clad in their respective Kamui, but Nui didn't really care about them. She was going to have lots of fun and no one was going to stop her. As a berserk roar filled with both fury and lamentation pierced through the air, Nui giggled softly and held up her Scissor Blade. She loved it when a plan came together.
...
Kamui Tales #17 – It's Just Acting
Mako was running around in a full-blown panic after watching Nui impale her on the large screen that took up an entire wall of the room, "Eh, I'm dead? I can't be dead! If I'm dead, does that mean everyone else is dead as well? Have I joined a cult? I don't remember drinking any fruit punch!"
Ryuko ignored Mako's rambling in order to focus on memorized the lines for the next episode. Unlike most of her fellow actors, she dedicates a lot of time to her character's emotions and passions. That was the downside of playing a character that was constantly annoyed and angry at everything around her. If Ryuko didn't act perfectly then they would have to redo the whole scene again.
"Let's see here…" Ryuko mumbled as she turned the page in her script and realized she was going to need a lot of cough drops for all the growling and roaring she was going to have to do in the next episode. Banging her head against the table, she muttered, "Damn it, my throat is going to kill me tomorrow. I just know it."
"I don't know why you're so upset, Ryuko," Nui Harime blew a strand of her blonde hair out of her eyes, "You're not the one that has to act all sugary and sweet with one of your eyes covered. Do you know how many times I run into things every day?"
"I know, Nui, I know," Ryuko sighed and turned her head towards Satsuki. Her fellow actress has her face buried nose-deep into the script and was doing her best not to make eye contact with any of them. Ryuko thought it was extremely ironic that Satsuki, who played someone that was pompous and overbearing, was extremely shy off set. Ryuko could count the number of times Satsuki actually talked to them without having her face buried behind a book.
"Please calm down, Mako," Ururu said politely from right next to Nui. The two sisters, who ironically were twins that played twin sisters, looked nothing alike but had nearly identical personalities off set, "I'm trying to memorize my upcoming fight and I don't want to mess it up."
"Oh, sorry Ururu," Mako apologized and sat down, "You know how my imagination gets!"
"Tell me about it," Nui rolled her eyes and leaned on her arm, "Half the fandom already hates me and they haven't even seen this episode yet. I bet that once this episode airs everyone will want to murder me. Do they even realize how hard it is to constantly troll all you guys while breaking the fourth wall? Even the readers don't notice half the stuff I say. Perhaps the director should just flash a sign whether I troll someone."
"That would be too obvious," Ururu commented.
"Hey, where's Ichigo?" Ryuko looked around for her fellow actor, "He was supposed to be here ten minutes ago."
"Ichigo got called on set at the last minute," Nui answered stoically as she texted on her phone, "Apparently the director wants to try something new in the next episode and wanted Ichigo's opinion on it. I saw Ragyo there so it must be an important scene."
"Ragyo was there?" Ryuko sighed and turned her attention back to her script. Ragyo was a great person to work with but the amount of time the woman needed to get her silver and rainbow hair to look the way it did was simply astonishing. Ryuko's single red bang only needed a twenty minute touch up every day but Ragyo's hair alone required two hours of work. Leaning back in her chair, Ryuko said, "Glad I'm not her. I would hate to have to walk around with glowing hair all day."
"You should turn to page seventy one, Ryuko," Satsuki muttered quietly from behind her own script, "When you put on Junketsu, your hair is supposed to become just like Ragyo's."
"Wait. What?" Ryuko tore through her own script until she saw what Satsuki was saying. Staring down at the offending words in the hopes her glare would delete them, Ryuko said the only word that could come to mind.
"…fuck."
