A/N
The concepts featured in this story are of Akira Toriyama and Kazuki Nakashima's creativity. The premise, backstories, character motivations, setting, and overall direction are reimagined. For those that may have read an earlier version of it this version is a complete rework of the original content. While keeping the original concept intact there will be a few idea changes, some new additions, and more!
The story's rating is M to be on the safe side as later chapters may feature adult themes.
Cool rain drizzled. Grounds they were fond of remained deserted, save for two. Standing before one marked grave she needed a friend's company that night. Droplets dampened her mid-length hair; dark with a single red highlight on her bangs sweeping left. She brushed it from her sailor uniform's front. Its navy blue was a shade damper as some seeped into the fabric above her toned belly. Life Fiber was still a new concept. The mansion was nothing but dust, rubble all but claimed by nature. It was even more meaningless now. She hardly knew it.
"We're gonna find who did this," she swore under her breath.
If the moon wasn't listening she felt its presence anyway. It was the only light source.
{Son's coming, Ryuko.}
It was strange to hear her attire whisper. Stranger still that only she could.
"Ryuko!" a masculine voice called out.
When he ran up it was with an umbrella and the cheekiest smile. Mud splashed under boots tailored to his preference. He had all but shot up over a few years. He used to be shorter when they were younger. She didn't have the first clue of what to do about his hair. Each dark strand of it refused to fold even for the rain.
"Don't wanna get soaked do 'ya?" he said glad he made it in time.
"Thanks, Son," she muttered.
Ryuko rose from a crouch. Son's looking at her eyes brought him ease. He often said it was how blue they were, or that her pupils were a peculiar, gear-shaped mystery with eight grooves around the edges. He thought it mostly, if it happened, her fetching smile. She took the umbrella from him as they both faced a dirt mound.
"I'm just sorry the old timer missed my progress," he said putting on regret.
Ryuko tried to ignore it. Her scrutiny remained on a tombstone, its neat engravings.
"You think we'll be alright without him?" he asked.
"Of course we will. We have to be," she glanced to his confusion.
She did until she looked for his arms; bare and muscled through a tight top beneath something looser.
"You ever get tired of that look?" she grinned.
Son pat at a rugged undershirt behind a sleeveless layer, curving his lips. He slipped fingers under the tied off sash holding his baggy pants up.
"It's really comfy," he said. "Your dad knew how to make some awesome stuff!"
"Yeah...right," Ryuko shook her head. "We're gonna need awesome. From what I hear Honnoji Academy is no joke. It's our best bet at finding the other half of this."
Son's attention slipped to a platinum case she kept close to her back. Ryuko held it there like putting it down was no option.
"Your dad took me in. I ain't gonna forget it. He asked me to watch your back if anything happened...that's what I'm gonna do," he conveyed with a seriousness that wasn't his norm.
It got her attention. His eyes were a deeper brown but unlike harsh reality, she thought them gentle, inviting, they told the truth. Ryuko's knee quivered but she blamed the breeze being cool.
"Why leave me Senketsu? Does Son have anything to do with it?" she asked herself.
She went over it again in silence.
"You all right?" Son asked hoping to draw it from her.
"... I will be. C'mon. Honno City's waiting," she said.
Son took hold of his own sack swinging its dingy strap over his shoulder. Ryuko tried her best to ignore him, snickering at the idea.
x.x.x
"So...she has a Kamui too," rang a silky smooth voice.
Long locks tinted black fell as far as her thighs, still damp from her shower. Whether she liked it or not she had her mother's pale angular profile, thick eyebrows, and buxom figure.
"Yes, Lady Satsuki," answered her butler.
She didn't open her upturned eyes to see how his were fully dark. A receding hairline he was well past getting old with his ghastly complexion. By windows stretching her chamber's length and width she sat before them, barely clothed. The Manor was too quiet that evening, yet loud all the same. The moon's glow illuminated her skin to expose her youth. She accepted a tea cup with the saucer to hold it, pleased with the aroma. A berry sweet it didn't burn her tongue as it had cooled a bit. She crossed one flawless leg over the other.
"I never believed the stories of Matoi's pet," she partly scoffed. "Granted, his winning martial arts tournaments worldwide cannot be ignored."
"If I may, Lady Satsuki. Shouldn't we focus on Matoi's daughter? She will be as troublesome, if not more so," Soroi's gaze slightly lowered.
"... Already considered," Satsuki hesitated.
She narrowed her affecting stare, blue as the light grazing her bedroom, but her deadpan said a great deal more.
"This...Son Goku...is of more use in the grand scheme of things. No doubt she will protect him with her life. Testing the notion will have to do for now," she said.
"Of course, Milady," Soroi bowed.
The polish of a wheeled tray moved as fast as he could muster. Satsuki stared off. At her feet an ivory scabbard shielding her weapon of choice wasn't her concern yet. Her mind set on acquiring a means to an end, one that would serve her purpose and hers only. It was providence.
"... Hmph. You can't hide him anymore, Matoi," she whispered.
x.x.x
Tokyo was once a great city...but it was lying in ruin. It was easy to forget her father's simulations weren't real. The creatures were without faces, they were cold as freezing alloy, and they tussled with a blade they couldn't get a bead on. Its razor sharp edge cleaved through each as a knife through butter.
"I owe you for the sucker shots!" she said loudly.
Taking hold of a car by the bumper one swing of the arm slammed its weight into the pack harassing her. She tossed her weapon as one would a frisbee and didn't think to watch it lop off heads before returning to her clutch where it was the most useful. The monsters were armed and fired on her with strange rifles. Burning beams bounced from her will, her armor's resilience. It was different. A rigid molded to her body it exposed most of her perky bosom. Thighs tensed her garb granted her imposing shoulder pieces and what resembled a cat's ears poking through her bangs. How invigorated she felt with it on mattered the most. She glanced to her training partner's skill when she could. How he moved took her back. His strength scared her as much as she enjoyed seeing it. Faster than lightning streams of fire tried to end him. His raised fist met his opponent's face sending it through stone past the first floor of a vacant bank. Another tried an attack from behind. He vanished, dropping an elbow into its bumpy scalp with it none the wiser. Anymore attempting to rush fell to blows blinking in and out of their line of sight. He bobbed and weaved like a madman, finding an opening, and a counter to smash through another face was his follow-up. His companion's blade carved a swath widening to outstretch her side of the street reducing it to ash.
"What's the matter, Son?! Tired already?!" she flashed clenched teeth. "Maybe I should finish the rest for you!"
"Oh yeah?! Watch this!" he barked.
Their enclosure flickered, it shook, it reacted. Conjured vigor shimmered about him. She compared it to a moth trapped between flame. He smiled, speedily striking the last. Intense projectiles left the flick of his wrists to cut any left in two singing their remains. Tapping into his speed sent him to her instantly. Fire and brimstone around them flared on...then out. The next display was a chart listing brightened symbols they could read.
{You should take a breather, Ryuko, lest you pass out in two minutes.}
"That's funny. I feel better than ever," she said.
Ryuko's armor changed to something Son recognized. No longer revealing, it decided on a skirt connected to her torso by three nicked suspenders.
"He talking to you again?" Son scratched his head, baffled. "I'll never understand how that works."
Ryuko stabbed false earth with her blade's sharpest end, leaving it. A metallic, gleaming red, she took her attention from it. Eyes up the room keeping them became the platinum box it was. Surrounding electronics were the only noises they had to know its power could still function. Multiple lights and the like were near blinding.
"Senketsu is linked to you," she said pointing and waiting for the display to change.
As Son was at her side he could see what appeared a mock-up of himself a bit higher than they stood.
"See that? The stronger you get the stronger he gets," she said.
"That's weird. I still can't hear him," he replied, open-mouthed.
He glanced to her giving him the eye.
"What?" he said.
"You just...never ask why it looks like a swimsuit now," she said, her brow furrowing.
She blushed aware of what she had the nerve to say.
"I don't know. I just assumed you like fighting half naked," he said earnestly.
She snatched him by the collar and yanked him close.
"Idiot! You think I like training in next to nothing?!" she yelled.
"No, no, no!" Son laughed nervously. "There's nothing wrong with being able to move. Senketsu actually works for mobility."
{He has a point.}
"Uh huh. Always taking his side! Why don't you ride up the crack of his ass for a change?!" she scoffed, letting him go.
She crossed her arms and turned her back, irritated.
"What the hell are we training so hard for anyway?" she huffed.
{Your father told me not to say. That you would know when the time came.}
"Tsk. The jerk leaves a mansion and all of this crap just for us to what? Find ourselves? I'm not buyin' it," she said glancing to the room's many wonders.
Son kept his distance.
"Maybe your dad just wants us to be strong," he said, raising a finger. "Remember? He said sometimes you gotta sacrifice what you want for the greater good. Just like when he cut my tail off and kept it from growing back. "It's for the greater good," he said. We had to trust him then, didn't we?"
Relaxed, slowly sighing, Ryuko turned to face him. Calm, she let her guard down.
"Always a dork huh?" she said softly. "You do know we can't stay here?"
Son combed the area like it would one day be a memory. He remembered fonder moments of bettering himself where they stood. He swallowed his pride.
"Yeah," he tried to smile. "It was fun while it lasted."
He soon found the floor, focused on it. Ryuko took the heft of her scissor by its guarded hilt propping it on her shoulder. She checked for the laces of her sneakers.
"Let's go upstairs and get some grub. We'll talk about it some more," she said. "Chin up. For me."
"... Okay," Son nodded.
He straightened up. Ryuko hated to see him bothered. Anxiety aside she took on the burden of keeping most of her thoughts to herself.
Prologue End...
