Kill la Kill: Again
Chapter Four
Content Warning: Potentially uncomfortable Suggestive Themes. If you were not comfortable with Kill la Kill Episode 16, skip to the first break of the chapter. What happened will be explained in the post-script. Stay well guys.
Ryuko strolled through the hallway from a glass doored elevator, her long black hair waving side and side. Each step echoed with authority that had her habitation not been the sole thing in the floor surely would have awoken guests. The suitcase dragging behind her with a simple scratching backing track that led her to the door of her penthouse suite.
Upon reaching the door she turned the handle, opening into a penthouse that was marked with disorder. Strips of cloth were thrown about the floor and dozens of balled up paper scraps were strewn through the furniture and other amenities that filled the place. Her eyes looked around plagued with tiredness and she stepped into her place of solace with a certain degree of respect and caution.
"Ah, home at last," she smiled dragging the suitcase behind while crossing the threshold. Her blue eyes barely able to stay open as she continued her approach forward.
As she walked the discarded strips of cloth wriggled together halting each footstep from touching the floor. Her tired eyes led her closer and closer to the door to her bed room, the overlook of peaceful Tokyo not even catching her eyes as she approached. In the next step her suitcase became rigid, its latch being undone as the dress within pulled itself and the mannequin free to stand at attention in the center of the living room.
She yawned before stretching. "Was nice to see Satsuki again. She's really doing a lot for the people out there, I just hope my clothes do the same," Ryuko continued to muse aloud.
Her right hand reached out tiredly for the door, shaking in anticipation. Her fingers delicately wrapped around the handle and turned it. When it opened a pale orange light glowed from within the bedroom. Glowing off her eyes.
"Wh-what the hell?" she gasped, the daze leaving her eyes for a moment. "What's this light?! Hey, what the hell are-" she gawked as something within her room writhed.
Thin strands reached from within the room, individual fibers that slowly twisted into each other. A fibrous form closing the several meter gap between the center of the room and her face. As they reached her the crimson cords stretched out to stroke her shocked face.
"What are you? And what are you doing in my house!" Ryuko clenched her fist and teeth, a spitfire of an attitude. Her eyes narrowing on the light as the fibers continued to reach out from her bedroom.
"Now, Ryuko Matoi, do not treat us so coldly," a voice, no hundreds of voices, spoke at once as the fibers began to stretch across her face. Her blue eyes shaking in fear as she attempted to pull away, but her feet did not allow it. "We are helping you achieve your goal of designing clothing greater than your Kamui, don't you remember?" the voices continued as she leaned backward.
"Like hell!" she tried to pulled back, but found her knees already growing weak. The thin fibers stretching their way down her face and across her neck and chest.
"Ah, that's right, you still resist us," the fibers spoke, as more and more poured across Ryuko's body. Her frame stiffening with tensed muscles as air got caught in her throat and a blush crossed her face.
"What even are you?" she ground her teeth, trying to keep her resolve as the fibers continued to explore her body.
"We are the force that drives evolution, we are what drives humanity!" the mass spoke, continuing to wrap and wriggle around her body.
"Bull-" Ryuko paused her neck arching forward while her mouth let out a gasp. "Ahn!" she expressed in surprise. A second tendril extending outward from the mass to stroke the other side of her face.
"There it is, the human desire. The desire to be worn by clothing, is there a greater pleasure, Ryuko?" the voice expressed pulling her forward.
Her feet left the ground, being drawn through the threshold of her bedroom. "Stop it with the bullcrap! I killed you when I killed Ragyo!" Ryuko clenched her fists, the cords wriggling their way across her body, pulling taut. She could not resist falling forward into further and further bindings from the mass.
"Such simple thoughts, you always lead with that whenever you decide to lose your sense. You know that we are not the same," the voices spoke in unison. "You are a such a lost girl, you know exactly what people are to beings like us. Don't you?" they spoke binding her in further and further coils all the while exploring her body with their tendrils.
Ryuko's teeth clenched in an attempt to fend off the pleasure that was rushing through her sense. "People are-" she muttered.
Before she could continue the threads and fibers pulled at the dress she wore. They pulled and twisted until it was taken over her head and absorbed into the mass of thread that surrounded her. Ryuko sat within the nexus of fibers, stark naked aside from the threads that felt their way across her body.
"People are-" her voice cut out a moan following, the threads continuing through her body.
"People are frail, aren't they? When they are naked they get so afraid, they instinctively look for clothing," the threads spoke to her from everywhere as she existed within the confines.
Ryuko looked around, trying to free herself. Each grunt however was followed by a wallowing of pleasure as the fibers continued to writhe about her body, stimulating every aspect of her now nude frame. "You are no different. You want to resist, only because you are afraid of losing yourself to the pleasure. Take your own advice, Ragyo is dead, no one will her hurt. How sad, Ryuko. You should carry no such fear."
"Because we would never do anything to harm you. We just want you to experience true pleasure. True evolution."
"Let me go!" her teeth bit down on a few of the fibers, her face contorting into a grimace of determination. Every part of her body though felt hot and pliable, the pleasure mounting proving astronomical.
"And why should we? You know that you want this, Ryuko. You want to make clothing that drives your precious Kamui Senketsu to jealousy. We are the key to that. Why resist what is natural?" the voices grew together and louder as she lost the strength in her legs.
"Because people are, ahn!" she huffed again, lurching forward losing her own strength. The fiber nebula that surrounded her wreathing and keeping her upright, the heat in her body causing them to glow.
"People are what Ryuko? You can speak your mind to us. We want to aid you, we want to push your goal forward," the whispered in her ears again, causing her to shiver. Her eyes going bleary from the mounting joy within herself.
"What is the natural state of people Ryuko? What do people need to do?" the mass of fibers continued to tease as her head grew foggy and her thoughts slowed. Her resisting hands loosing alongside her clamping teeth.
"Ahha, ahn! Ah! People are-" she wheezed, breaths escaping in heated puffs, barely able to think straight. The pleasure growing further and further, almost numbing her senses entirely.
"Why do people exist, Ryuko? Why do you exist, Ryuko?" the Life Fibers continued to speak as her pleasure reached higher and higher. Euphoria overwhelming all of her senses as she struggled to even muster strength.
"Hnn," she tried to mount a resistance.
"People are-" she winced, her face turning red while her weakening vision grew blurrier and blurrier. "Humanity is-"
"Go, and say it, Ryuko. We will listen," they continued in her ear. Each second causing the threads to pleasure her further as she hung within their clutches.
"The only purpose of humanity is to serve the Life Fibers, people need to be worn by clothing," she spoke in numb pleasure while her body rose further and further into it. Her mind being trapped in a blur of sound and light, pleasure overwhelming every inch of her body.
"Good girl, and what is your purpose?" they questioned her further.
"I am the hand of evolution, moving humanity forward. My designs are to wear the world in service to Life Fibers," Ryuko huffed her head slumping forward before arching backward.
"Good girl, Ryuko. Never forget your purpose, to move humanity toward us! Toward ascension!"
"Aaaahaaaa!" Ryuko reached euphoria, her body shimmering with a brilliant array of lights within the matrix of Life Fibers.
Kiryuin Manor (the next morning)...
Satsuki awoke on her bed, a cold sweat running from her brow. Her breaths escaped heavily as she clutched at the top of her sleeping gown, her heartbeat racing at an uncontrollable rate. 'What? Why is my heart racing still? I have nothing to worry about. Ryuko is...' she looked to the pure white sheets that covered her, panic continuing to settle in.
'Ryuko is...' she pinched the top of her nose. Her dark blue hair falling to frame her face as her head leaned forward.
Her mind traveled back to that daydream. Ryuko shedding the familiar glow of a Kiryuin, her voice speaking so cavalier of Life Fibers, her embrace and how right it felt. That tone of servitude to the Life Fibers. The tone that she was exhilarated and terrified by.
'Ryuko is...Ryuko, she's not that,' Satsuki shook her head. Her heartbeat however continued its erratic beating and her brown stayed dampened by that same cold sweat.
Shakily, Satsuki moved her way off to the side of the bed her feet dangling over the floor. 'Ryuko is herself. I was overthinking things, just because of a panicked phone call. Then, why did I feel so real? Why did I not want to resist that daydream? Was my resistance really just rebellion against Ragyo,' she attempted to rationalize while trying to gather her bearings.
The woman pushed from the bed and her feet touched the soft carpet around her bed. A warmth of contact returning to her as she stood straight. 'Why am I even thinking like that? There are no more Life Fibers, I need to stop dwelling in the past.'
Her feet grazed the carpet as she headed out into the hallway. Standing at the threshold of the door she saw a place of pure brilliance. White marble floor that stretched the entire length of the hallway, polished to perfect. Veins of golden etching filling the crown molding along the top of the tiles while portraits of Kiryuins of the past sat in alcoves along the wall. That was her choice, a reminder of what she was not.
She took her first step onto the tiles, a bitterness of cold marble racing up her spine. It did nothing to slow her advance as she made her way down the hallway wall. The images of her family's forbearers looking at each step in stoicism. Her bobbed blue hair waved gracefully in her steps as she passed grandparents and great grandparents alike. The looming door filling her entire field of view.
The closer she got to the door, the more the relatives blended together. They were all faceless blobs she had only seen in portraits. They did not matter servants to the Primordial Life Fiber that lost their lives in dedication for something that never came. Fools. Fools just like her mother. Her mother. Her mother.
That was the last portrait, across from a commissioned piece of Soichiro, her father in his prime with a huge smile on his face, was the portrait that Ragyo had made of herself. Her crimson eyes, like the flames of hell, leering from the left alcove opposite her husband. The pale alabaster of her skin sheening under the lights along the floor while a smile was permanently drawn over her face. The rainbow of colors, birthed by the Life Fibers, in her hair shimmering out as a sign of her absolute obedience to them. Something Satsuki loathed.
Satsuki looked to this image, her teeth clenching as her fists balled. "We...we are nothing like you! People do not live for the sake of clothing!" she shouted, ten years had passed, and yet her anger continued to mount. Frustration on her face and anger burning in her words she leered forward seething.
"I do not live for the sake of clothing!" she continued to shout, the smugness and silence of her mother's portrait only mounting the anger.
"Do you hear me Ragyo Kiryuin?! You failed! Your company which thrived on preying on the weak is now the greatest humanitarian outreach in the world! The weak are being lifted up and the strong are supporting them! You failed!" she seethed her balled fist raising.
'Do you truly believe that Satsuki?' the smooth velvet that made her mother's voice rang out in her mind.
"Uh, what?!" she stepped back gawking at the portrait which remained unmoving.
'I mean, clearly I have succeeded somewhere. I have been dead for ten years now and you still must rub in the fact that you are a little rebel at heart. You try so hard to be like your sister, but are you really?' Ragyo's voice mused as Satsuki looked around.
"Where are you?" Satsuki growled looking around. "How are you talking?"
'I'm dead, Satsuki. But I do love seeing you squirm like this. Even on the subconscious level you needed me, you redesigned the manor exactly as it was before it was destroyed. You needed the structure, the security, that Life Fibers gave you. And now that they are gone you just cannot think about anything else once the idea of them came back to mind. That is servitude dear.'
"Stop talking!" Satsuki lowered her head, teeth bearing.
'I can't, not when I speak the truth to you. All of the effort you are doing is an attempt to undo what I did, but is it not the same? Clothing, food, water. I did the same thing with Revocs, just to spread the thrill of clothing to the world. Even without Life Fibers, people need to wear clothing, and need to be worn by clothing. You are a scared child in a woman's body running from the truth, you felt the glee at Ryuko's touch, the mere idea of Life Fibers causing your mind to go numb. You know the truths of this world.'
"I said stop talking," Satsuki stepped toward the portrait, face contorting in anger for the first time in years.
'Fear is freedom. Yes, that was one of them, wasn't it? When were you most afraid? While wearing Junketsu, when bound in the wild bliss of Life Fibers. Always holding back on its true potential, yet bearing your breasts to the world.'
Satsuki's fist punched through the portrait and into the wall. Years after giving up the blade her strength was still frightening, the drywall behind it crumbling into a small indentation. "Shut your mouth! Ragyo Kiryuin."
'I already told you that I cannot. Another truth then, subjugation is liberation. You had to subjugate Junketsu's power, the power of the Life Fibers to be free. And yet, you also had to give yourself over to them. Your liberation came from giving freedom to Junketsu, activating it to reach a pinacle of power. To the point where you needed to bathe beyond those doors to restore your body.'
Satsuki's hand crushed further into the wall, her teeth gnashing. "I said, be quiet!"
'You listen so poorly dear. But that does bring me to the last of your facts of the world, doesn't it? Contradiction is truth. Here you are debating with a dead woman and trying to rebuke my points, yet what you are contradicting are just facts my dear, Satsuki. Humans live to serve clothing, you live to be the harbinger of that. Those are truths that you intend on playing contrarian for.'
"You are dead," Satsuki seethed pulling her hand free. "And I refuse to listen to these thoughts of mine. I am not a servant to Life Fibers, they are gone. I do this, not because of you or some encoded nonsense, I do it because it is right!" her hands clutched the frame of the painting, yanking the tattered work from the wall.
'La vie est drole, Satsuki. Are you an enemy to the Life Fibers or just to me? And if you are their enemy, how are you going to get rid of them? How are you going to kill Ryuko Matoi?'
"Be quiet!" Satsuki, seething, crying, slammed the portrait against the marble flooring. Shards of frame and pits of tattered image went scattering about the floor, as tears streaked down her face.
Soroi, having heard the disturbance, made his way post-haste down the hallway. The mess scattered across the floor being the least of his concern as he approached the Revocs CEO.
"Lady Satsuki, are you well? I heard you yelling, did something happen? Are you hurt?" the aged butler questioned reaching an hand down to comfort her as she cried.
"Soroi, my mother's portrait, it was talking to me," she muttered her breath shallow under her breath as shudders moved her shoulders up and down.
"Was it? That's most shameful Lady Satsuki. I told you it was a bad idea to leave it here, but you were the one who insisted," he chuckled placing a second hand on her shoulder.
"But she's dead, milady. Anything you hear in her voice is your own inadequacies, and I know that you do not have any," humbly and with a certain charm, that surely was there in his youth, the butler remarked.
"Soroi, it felt real. I never had that happen with that portrait before, I just ignored it," she continued to cry as he pulled the grown woman into her chest.
His head nodded. "Yes, trauma can be that way, but it builds and builds. I think back to you wearing Junketsu for the same effect, but I know you are so much stronger now."
"She was taunting me, telling me things that I refuse to believe," the woman continued to cry, her face avoiding his gaze.
Soroi nodded once more. "Then, do not believe them, Lady Satsuki. Your kingdom is one made of steel, not of sand."
"Am I a servant to Life Fibers, Soroi? Was I just against them because of her, because of what my mother did?" Satsuki clenched her teeth, tears continuing to roll.
"You are whatever you say you are, Lady Satsuki."
"Soroi," she looked up to him, and his kindly aged face.
"Now, go and bathe, wipe away those tears Satsuki. I will put a pot of tea on for when you emerge."
"T-thank you," she pushed away, her teary eyes having left stains on his tuxedo jacket. She noticed but he did not seem to mind.
"It is no need for thanks, milady. I will always stand by your side," Soroi said. His wrinkled cheeks loosened into a smile, one that carried warmth, greater than any cup of tea he could brew.
"Now, I must get to that tea. If you need anything do not hesitate to shout for my assistance, I will get to your side as soon as I can."
Satsuki looked to him as he moved his hands from her shoulders. "Soroi, thank you."
"Of course," he began to turn and leave before looking back at Satsuki.
"While the tea is brewing, is there anyone you would like me to call for today or would you like the day to yourself? Miss Rei has already gone out for the day, so I will serve as your secretary too."
"No, Soroi, you have done enough."
"Very well," Soroi bowed before turning and walking up the hallway leaving Satsuki to the time being.
Satsuki reached up to her face and wiped the tears from her eyes as Soroi left.
As she opened the doors she nodded her head. 'I am Satsuki Kiryuin,' an assurance to herself upon entering the bathing chamber.
Okay, so something is puppetting Ryuko about using her own insecurities and the promise she made to an old friend. Her resistance still stands however, but for how long? And as Satsuki struggles with the events of the previous day she also finds her mind assaulted by wounds from the past? What does all of this mean for the two of them? For the world?
I'd like to reiterate, the beginning of this chapter is as bad as it gets. I intend on keeping this story rated T, and there is no need for it to go much higher outside of getting that point across.
Stay healthy out there guys, and if you are struggling with anything don't be afraid to find help,
~Dan