Kill la Kill: Again
Chapter Two
A white limousine drove along the round, the styled golden "R" for the Revocs corporation plain to sea on the rear doors while dark glass fenced what was inside. Just on the other side of that glass was Satsuki Kiryuin, who looked over Tokyo Harbor with a fondness for an era long past. As they passed a lone bridge she could almost imagine it, the towering city on an island. The fortress she had made to overthrow her mother, Honnoji Academy, which now laid within the harbor's cold aquatic embrace.
Rei Hououmaru looked to her curiously, seeing the smile return to her face. "Waxing wistfully, Lady Satsuki? Has it been ten years yet?" she inquired adjusting her aviators from the other side of the lofty backseat. Her feelings about the Academy were far less fond, it was a site of her greatest desperation and most foolish following of a nonsensical doctrine.
Satsuki looked to her assistance, her bobbed hair waving. "Yes, and that is already hard to believe. My entire life was dedicated to Honnoji Academy and now it is just a memory of the past. That's probably for the best though, we have helped a lot of people, and I hope that those ten years have also been kind to the students that left its halls."
"You have only kept in touch with Gamagori, correct?" Rei looked to the tablet in her hands quickly, an email of some kind momentarily distracting her.
"From his own requests yes. He wanted to be on our security detail while we went about on our relief efforts, but I could not put him in that line of service again. His family had its own matters that needed their son to attend to.," she replied casually, her legs crossing one over the other. "I am sure you are aware he calls weekly to continue his line of questioning about our safety."
"Yes, I think it is nice that you had such an impact on someone," Rei nodded her head.
"You can say that certainly," Satsuki nodded harkening back to her first encounter with the mountain of man. Which then took her to the familiar image of a friend she had known since kindergarten.
Satsuki then looked to the ground, her eyes closing. "And Jakuzure is off being herself as well. I would have liked to speak with her again, but our schedules do not appear to be compatible," a chuckle parted her lips.
"I see, and the other two were just for fighting, Ragyo then?" Rei asked, adjusting her glasses.
"Sanageyama and Inumuta both had their own values beyond fighting my mother, but they just live their own lives. I honestly saw no value in involving any of the Elite Four with our current Revocs operations. That would be a disservice to the lives they could cultivate on their own."
Rei raised her hand to her mouth and coughed, catching Satsuki's attention. "I see, not to change the topic too much, but what do you think Ryuko Matoi was trying to tell you over the phone? I did not hear the panic that you did in her call, it seems more like a mistake or nerves."
"That is exactly why. My sister rarely is nervous, even when talking to me. Awkward yes, it is hard to blame her honestly, after what she and I had been through, but never nervous. Her lack of nervousness while talking to me is the reason that she was so much of a thorn in my side. The only time I heard her panicked was when Ragyo ripped her heart out, this situation felt like that," Satsuki replied keeping her eyes closed and head down as they approached Tokyo proper.
"You know her that well? Your perception is frightening Lady Satsuki."
"It needed to be for what I was planning to do, Rei. And that intuition has been a great benefit to everyone we have met thus far," Satsuki continued in her relaxed meditation.
Rei was going to reply when she looked forward through the limousine, and into the looming Tokyo Skyline. In the center, a winding building reached to the sky bounding in twisting cords of steel and tapering at the top like a dress. A familiar sight to her eyes that had gone black ten years ago, now however it was alight and radiant. A new logo situated over where the previous one had been.
"Lady Satsuki, that building, it is Revocs' former Headquarters, correct?" Re asked snapping from her momentary haze.
Satsuki's head lifted and her blue eyes immediately focused. "Yes, you would know that as well as I would. But the building was abandoned, did the government allow someone to move in? And who exactly could afford it?" her eyes narrowed further, a pause catching in her throat.
Rei looked at the building and its new logo, just as Satsuki's eyes found the same point. The emblem over where the Revocs logo had hung was replaced to be a left eye that Satsuki found unmistakable. A yellow pupil situated in a tangerine iris which sat in a field of yellow serving as the sclera. It has stared her down numerous times, with the same vigor. There was no doubt in her mind: this logo was inspired by Senketsu's own.
"Ryuko?" Satsuki muttered, her voice shaking at the thought.
"Your sister took over the old Revocs building? But wasn't the Touru firm in Kobe?" Rei seemed flabbergasted at the thought.
Satsuki nodded her head. "Yes, it was, and the Touru firm did not have a logo that looked like Senketsu's eye. What has my sister been up to since that last time we were here?" she reached to the purse at her side, pulling a phone free.
"Lady Satsuki?" Rei looked as Satsuki scrolled through her contacts. "What are you getting at?"
Ryuko once more stood in her office, surrounded by the mannequins outfitted in such strange clothing. Motifs with loose flowing scarves and jagged fabric sweeps like a scythe around the neck. Each bearing colors that struck in brilliant contrast with their accents, each seeming to have its own life and story etched into it. They were beautiful and her eyes noted that.
She herself was donning something different then previous days, a long sweeping ashen gray gown that struck out to the side. A slit in its skirt reaching from the middle of her left thigh to the ankle while a hooped belt of silver reached from her right hip to a band of crimson across the bodice. Her arms were adorned with long armlets that reached from her hands to the middle of each bicep while her long black hair was left to sweep about her shoulders.
"These designs are beautiful, Lady Ryuko," the familiar sweet voice of her attendant echoed through the office as Ryuko went about feeling the fabric. The girl with the single pale silver ponytail looking at her arms held behind her back.
Ryuko swept back to her a confidence upon her face. "Why of course they are, these designs are my heart and soul, my desire to make the most fashionable clothes possible. I want to make all of my older clothing would be jealous," she cheered to herself, a grand sweeping of her arms filling the room.
"Of course! That is the entire purpose of Isshin! You are so great, Lady Ryuko!" Amu, the assistant, replied back with glee swept into the personality of the woman speaking.
Then, Ryuko paused her cell phone sitting upon her desk vibrating. "Who is calling me now of all times?"
She walked and picked the phone free from the desk. The name across the top "Satsuki Kiryuin", and suddenly she froze up a breath catching in her throat before escaping from her mouth.
"Amu, could you please leave for a minute? I have to take this," Ryuko said calmly, while looking at the screen as the phone continued to ring.
"Right away, Lady Ryuko!" she quickly stepped through the glass doors and into the hall, vanishing as if she was never there to begin with.
She cleared her throat and answered the phone. "Hey, Satsuki, longtime since we last talked, eh?" confidently and with typical sass, Ryuko spoke to her sister.
'Hello, Ryuko, I did get your phone call yesterday, however I was otherwise occupied. What is it that you wanted to talk about?' Satsuki's voice returned, calm and cool as ever.
"Oh nothing in particular, it had just been a little while since we last talked figured I'd give you a ring. Out saving the world though, huh Satsuki, I saw your award ceremony. It's been all over the news for the past couple of days," Ryuko mused into the phone stepping behind her desk to overlook Tokyo.
"I gotta say it's not too surprising for me, I knew you'd go all out with the humanitarian outreach. That's just who Satsuki Kiryuin is," Ryuko continued.
Satsuki was silent on the other end before chuckling. 'Well, I can say the same to you, Ryuko. After all, you pursued your own dreams."
Ryuko noted the pause, as if Satsuki adjusted to look out a window on the other end of the line. 'How has your position with the Touru Brand been treating you? I have quite a full closet, so I have not been able to get any of your designs. Though I am sure you could point me in the right direction.'
"I am not longer an employee of Touru, I actually went and became owner. We rebranded about a year ago, right after I took charge. Now, my fashion is all over the world: Paris, New York, Moscow. I have to say, it is exciting to see so many people wearing my clothing."
'By rebranding, did you perhaps change the name to Isshin Brand Apparel? It is hard to miss the massive headquarters in the center of Tokyo if that is the case,' Satsuki spoke from the other side of the line.
Ryuko's features changed to a panicked shake for a moment but her voice came out normally. "Yes, actually. How'd you guess that one?"
'I decided to come back to Tokyo for a while, after receiving an award I wanted to return home to reapply myself before returning to my duties. Perhaps you can stop by the Manor and we can have tea?' Satsuki's voice came condescending, if only faintly.
"I can make room in my schedule for that. Had I known you were coming I would have prepared somethin' we haven't seen each other in years now."
'There is no need for that, just seeing my sister again is more than enough.'
Ryuko caught of guard blushed before stuttering out. "Hey, now don't go saying that Satsuki," she then looked around the room about her and gained some composure. "How about this, I bring some of my designs over? I want your opinion on some of it, have to see if it's cuter than Senketsu y'know as the only other person to wear him I figured you'd have some insight."
'Well, if you insist.'
"It'll be my treat Satsuki, a welcome back showing, y'know?" Ryuko answered as the call ended.
Satsuki placed her phone back in her purse and shook her head. "What's the matter Lady Satsuki? That call was not very long."
"That is because there was not much to talk about," Satsuki said uncrossing her left leg from her right and leaning forward.
"She seems to be enjoying her new role as CEO though. Perhaps a little too much."
"Years have gone by Lady Satsuki, perhaps she is just happy that she can finally make strides to make clothing that would make her Kamui jealous?" Rei seemed puzzled by Satsuki's reaction.
"That could be true, she has been working very hard. I may just be anxious considering the parallels."
Rei looked to her tablet again and shook her head. "Well, perhaps when you meet her over a cup of tea that anxiety will be relieved? Soroi is brewing a fresh pot now."
"Perhaps," Satsuki's right heel clacked against the interior of the limousine.
Ryuko placed her phone down and strolled to the window, a frown crossing her face. "Amu, expedite the shipment from the Takaradas I want it all here by this time tomorrow. I will be stepping out for the rest of the evening to have a personal meeting."
Amu seemed to rise from behind the CEO and nod her head. "Right away Lady Ryuko, is this another meeting like the one with Takarada? Should I prepare the helicopter?"
"No, I am just meeting someone for tea," Ryuko smiled tracing her eyes over the numerous dresses and gowns upon their mannequins.
"Okay, toodles!" Amu once more seemed to vanish.
A suspicious Satsuki invites her sister for tea upon seeing the wide birth her organization has over Tokyo. Is Satsuki's suspicion founded and what parallels are she drawing?
I managed to touch some of that 2013 energy I had for my first fanfiction, (I don't know how I feel about that being almost 10 years ago now). Getting this chapter done between my college classes and recording sessions, crazy honestly. Anyway, keep an eye out for chapter three for whenever I can get it together no promises on a quick turnaround this time. Stay healthy and happy out there folks, don't forget to smile every once in a while!
~Dan