"That's right the Earth will never become a Cocoon Planet. Surrender and we can go back together," Ryuko said calmly and serenely knowing the battle was over.
"Ridiculous," Ragyo purged her heart from her chest holding her life source calmly in her right hand." I decide my own fate! Sound familiar dear? Well, now is as good a time as any!"
"Don't! You're crazy!" Ryuko shouted body glowing with the crimson hue of Senketsu.
"Hardly! This is not the end Ryuko, Life Fibers are still spreading throughout the Universe. It is only a matter of time before they find their way back here onto the Earth, count on it," Ragyo pointed out very factually. She was right as well there was no way the Earth had been the only inhabited world that they had stumbled upon.
"Even so, humans will stay being human. You can count on that!" Ryuko shouted as her mother merely grinned.
"We shall see," the woman said almost foreboding before crushing the pulsating heart in her hand. Her body fading away in a whip of Life Fibers and stars.
Kill la Kill: Again
"Miss Matoi, if you insist on day-dreaming please do not do so in the middle of this presentation!" a man's voice snapped the dreaming woman back from her daze. He was an older gentleman in a drab brown suit with a white shirt and dark black tie. His beady eyes looked on from behind a pair of glasses that were chic, if not a bit outdated, while his hands were adorned with a series of rings and trinkets.
"Right, yes, I'm sorry. What were we doing here again?" the woman looked up, her loose crimson bang dangling in front of her blue eyes, the gear-shape to her irises twisting slightly as she yawned.
The man sighed, his balding head gleaming under the light overhead. His bushy mustache raising as he looked to her again. "We are discussing the procurement of the raw materials you asked for. Our Chief Financial Officer has been trying to present the best loaning for your extravagant designs! Please tell me you at least remember that much!" the man's voice grew louder.
"Extravagant de-what now? Where am I?" she adjusted her bangs back to a more suitable position. Her hand brushed against hair that was longer than she remembered and softer too. A furrow coming to her brow as she looked down to find herself in a dark blue business suit at a table made of purple polished marble.
"President Matoi, now is not the time for jokes, please do focus. Our sales figures have only been increasing the only thing remotely close to this progress was the REVOCs clothing from ten years ago. It is astounding, your Isshin Brand clothing is set to become the most worn clothing in history!" the chief financial officer, a lithe man in a black tuxedo explained adjusting his glasses while also looking back at his projection on the wall.
"Now, then, this synthetic fiber from our distributor in Osaka, how to expect to pay for it? The Takarada conglomerate have always been willing to accept any arrangement but recently they have grown stingy. The prices are up over 500% from this time last year," the CFO clacked his fingers together with a nervous whir, almost expecting something from the young woman.
"Well, just pay for the materials and ship them to the factories I suppose. I need to get some fresh air," Ryuko winced pushing up from the table with a shaking of her head, long strands of black fading from her periphery.
"Wait, President Matoi! That is falling to their demands you nev-" the shrewd money man raised a hand as she walked to the door.
'Slam' the door opened and closed swiftly, Ryuko exiting with it.
She found herself wandering down a hallway lined with pure white tiles that reflected the beautiful lights of Tokyo outside of it. Steel, like the weave of silk, stretched along the glass that she walked alongside weaving and tapering ever upward. Each door she passed was another office, where another employee waited and watched almost at attention as she streaked past.
Her heels, the soles of which were crimson, clacked against the ground causing an echo that sounded like a drum beat in her head. Faint dances of red light appeared in the corners of her vision, her gaits growing and her steps getting faster and more erratic as she kept walking along. She hardly halted with each step unknowing of where she was or what she was doing there. Her blue eyes shaking as sweat coldly dripped down her face.
She did not know where she was going, but she was going there with purpose, after several minutes of hurried walking she came to a large office with a wrap around window that saw the entirety of the city before her. Pinks, purples, yellows, blues, they all seems to stretch out infinitely across the city skyline as she approached a pair of double doors behind the polished ebony desk.
The corner of her eyes noted dozens of mannequins aligned with further and further esoteric designs and colorations. Patterning that even at passing was familiar to her, as if by her own hands. Her mind though was racing too much to think of that as she pushed through the doors and out onto the balcony, the doors she pushed through giving her the first reflection of herself.
Her black hair, which had been just beneath her ears in youth now hung over her shoulders curled at the ends and tapered with streaks of red. Her bangs of that same red hue, were held back by a golden clip shaped like a four pointed star, an inlaid topaz shimmering in the reflection. Her features were those of a woman well into her twenties now, her suit with extravagant shoulder pauldrons and dramatic swoops of plaid throughout.
She fiddled at her sides as she stepped onto the balcony, struggling for air. Her hand found the familiar square shape of her cellphone, a symbol at the top like the star clip in her hair. "What the hell is goin' on here Ryuko? Gotta call Satsuki or Mako or someone. They'd know better than me," she growled to herself, her chest heaved impatiently as she unlocked the phone with a glare from her eyes.
The first number she saw was that of her sister, Satsuki Kiryuin, who had turned REVOCs into a humanitarian outreach. That much she remembered from just after her graduation from college. "Satsuki'll know, bushy brows always knows. How the hell did I end up here?!" she murmured to herself before pressing the call button.
She put the phone up to her ear and gave it a moment. A ring echoed out the first time, then the second time, and then the third time. All the while there was no reply, her foot began tapping impatiently. Her free left hand clutched tightly and she ground her teeth together.
'I am sorry, I cannot answer the phone right now. Please leave a message and I will try to return the call,' Satsuki's voice, matured if that was even possible, from what Ryuko had remembered greeted her in the form of an answering machine.
"Hey Satsuki-" then her thumb hit the red "end call" button. Her message being cut off by herself as she paused before a moment.
"Wait, why am I calling her?" Ryuko paused letting a breath out. "That's right, that is what I've been doing. I need to produce clothing for these people. Clothing that would make even Senketsu jealous," she returned her phone to her pocket and stepped to the edge of her balcony.
"The world needs my clothing," she cracked a smile as a crimson fan of light exploded from her back, bathing the city in its glow.
Footsteps echoed from behind her, the door swinging open. "Lady Ryuko, I heard there was distress in the boardroom, are you doing okay?" a cute, young voice echoed from behind her. An outline with a side ponytail and a tilted head resisting the grand influence of her light.
"Yes, I'm doing fine, how is the latest stock coming along?" she let out a breath and smiled looking over the city.
The figure raised her head and giggled. "It is going amazing! I can't believe the designs you make, Lady Ryuko. It's a great pleasure to make them! Now, Mister Kawasaki wanted to make sure you were okay with the request of the Takarada's to raise the import cost of their synthetic fiber, is that really what you want to do?"
"Of course not, Amu, tell him that I will meet with Takarada myself and to prepare the helicopter," Ryuko spoke to the outlined figure.
"Good choice Lady Ryuko, right away," the younger girl bowed stepping away from the light and disappearing back into the office.
Singapore...
A woman with bob cut bluish black hair bearing a white dress and large hat looked at her phone, returning to her hotel room. Her blue eyes, bearing a kind authority, looked to it with a raised brow.
"Is something the matter, Lady Satsuki?" her aide, Rei Hououmaru, looked to her in confusion shutting the door behind the woman.
Satsuki looked at the name again and shook her head. "I am not sure, my sister called me this evening while we were at the global conference."
"Ryuko Matoi? When was the last time she called?" Rei asked cupping her chin beneath her darkened sunglasses.
"Three years ago, when she was accepted by the Touru Clothing Firm after her internship there. She was so happy, her degree in fashion and business having paid off. She left only a short message knowing Ryuko seems a bit odd."
"Perhaps it was a buttdial?" the white clad aide remarked arms clutching at a tablet.
Satsuki did not reply instead sitting on the edge of her bed with a narrowed gaze. "She only left a short message, which does seem like something she would do, but she sounded panicked. Perhaps we should return to Tokyo as soon as possible Rei."
"With the global peace conference done, I see no reason we cannot leave tomorrow morning. It has been sometime since you have been home."
"Yes it has been, the tea we have here is much too sweet. It will be nice to see Soroi again," Satsuki smiled crossing her right leg over her left.
Rei nodded. "I will arrange the tickets for the both of us. Do not worry, Lady Satsuki."
"Thank you Rei."
Greetings, and salutations. I haven't done anything on this site in a while, but it's nice to know that it is still here. Likewise, it is nice to know I can still put some what-if out there in the Universe. This story is one such What-If.
10 years have passed since the finale of Kill la Kill and our characters have gone on to live normal lives. That is until Ryuko Matoi awakes in the middle of a board meeting she had no intention of attending. What exactly is happening?
Tell me what you think,
~Dan