Kill la Kill: Again

Chapter Five

A man in a leather apron and thick working gloves looked up from his work, the welder in his hand being lowered carefully and safely to the side. The man is an absolute unit of a man, towering well over six feet tall with a barrel chest and broad shoulders. His short cut blonde hair poking through from the back of the welding mask that he had covering his face. His attention immediately turning to the door of the work room.

"Ira, someone is out in the parking lot waiting for you! She says she's a friend from your high school days?" an older man, hunched, shorter, and with graying hair shouted again from the doorway. His hands resting on the doorframe, burned and calloused from years of tireless steelworking.

The blonde man reached up and removed his welder's mask, setting it on a nearby hook. "Alright uncle, I'm coming," his voice boomed even in the casualty of his speaking. His footsteps seeming to rattle the ground as he drew his gloves from his hands and placed them in his apron's pockets.

"She's quite the looker too, Ira. Did you have a girlfriend that you broke up with?" the man joked to his nephew, a broad smile upon his face as the goliath began to pass by.

"Haha, very funny. No, I didn't have room for romantic relationships during my time at Honnoji Academy, I was the head of the Disciplinary Committee," he shook his head barely acknowledging his uncle's attempt. The blush on his face however showed his embarrassment.

"Well then, that's a new one to me. She's a looker though, maybe you should give her a chance," the old man scratched his chin.

Gamagori, Ira, rolled his eyes as he passed by. "I don't think so. But if it's some important to stop business, I probably need to take this."

"Take as long as you need, I can get one of the others to pick up the slack," his uncle patted him across the back as he walked by.

'I'm curious though, Mankanshoku has come by here numerous times. He'd know her by name by now, and Jakuzure has no need of talking to me. Who exactly is this? Satsuki would have surely called,' Gamagori continued to think while walking through the front of their steelworker's warehouse. His frame seemed to loom larger than everything around him as he continued to parking lot.

As he stepped out, he saw a long black limousine sitting amid the towering steel beams that were resting, awaiting pick up. At the hood of the limousine a woman sat with long black hair and a crimson bang over her left eye. She wore a tasteful, if not strange, navy blue gown with crimson piping along the sides and a scarf of a pale yellow and orange color that draped down over her bosom.

The towering man paused, a breath stopping in his mouth at the sight. "Matoi?"

"Yo, Gamagori, long time no see," Ryuko said with a casual smile.

Her features and demeanor felt wrong, Gamagori failed to put a finger on it though. "What do want? Shouldn't you be working on new clothing? That's what you're doing now right?"

"Yes actually, I was just thinking that things have been getting a bit more difficult in terms of my safety. And since Satsuki doesn't want you as a guard, I was wonderin' if you want to be mine?" she asked, looking at him with a firm stare. A smile kept on her face, but Ira felt a strange reactive twinge to the way she asked. Some time had passed since their last encounter, but he knew there was something fundamentally different.

"In terms of your safety, Matoi? I don't believe that. You should know that my loyalty still lies with your sister, Satsuki Kiryuin. I'm rather comfortable working with my uncle forever if she does not want me to be beside her," Ira spoke adjusting and rolling his shoulders, preparing to turn away.

"It was nice to see you again, Ryuko, but I have business to attend to," he turned his back and began approaching the building once more.

Ryuko's head lowered and a smile crossed her face. A faint laugh parting her lips as her body lurched forward into a bow. "Is that right? Did you think you actually had a choice in this matter? I can't just let someone like you walk!"

"What?!" Gamagori turned his head, to see Ryuko's right hand sweeping through the air.

A web of thin rainbow hued fibers stretched through the air reaching out toward him. His right hand snapped out of the air and grabbed the fibers tightly, wrapping them around his hand in a single motion. "What are trying to pull Matoi? This looks more like one of Ragyo's tricks. You lose a screw?" his heels dug in as his muscles tensed.

"No, I didn't. I'm just not letting someone so attuned with their will, go anywhere! Get over here!" she yanked back on her hand, tightening the fibers at the man's arm.

Gamagori, mountain of a man that he was, planted his feet. This motion halted the pull for the most part, his body seemingly dwarfing everything around him providing extra weight. But the pulling was still ongoing and his heels started to pick up the gravel. His clenched teeth and tensed arms only providing so much resistance to the will of the woman pulling on him.

"Matoi, stop this immediately," he grunted through clenched teeth. His feet were trudging ever deeper into the parking lot while his arm was being pulled forward. "I'll let this pass as a practical joke if you do."

Ryuko's hand yanked further, ripping Gamagori from the ground. He came flying through the as the fibers retracted a crazed smile appearing on her face. "No, Gamagori. I don't think so. This isn't a joke!" her voice escaped madly, her left hand plucking the giant from the air by his chin.

"I am serious, you have too great an affinity to just let go. Join me," she grinned, a thin fiber stretching from her left index finger toward his temple.

"Nonsense, Matoi!" Ira shouted, his head rushing forward. It met Ryuko's forehead with a brutal snapping sound of force. Her head was knocked back slightly with enough surprise to let him carry backward with the momentum.

Digging his hand into the ground, Gamagori looked at her. "I don't know what got knocked loose, but I will knock it back. What would Satsuki think if you saw you like this? What type of look is this for you?" he huffed, feeling crimson run down from his brow.

Ryuko cackled, her head leaning back. "This is the look of pure ecstasy! The look of being one with the Life Fibers will!" it was uncanny, the sheer joy she felt.

Gamagori wanted to have a retort, but before he could she was in front of him. Her right leg raising, the heel gleaming as it cut through the air toward his forehead. His mouth tried to let loose a word but only pain followed as his face was pressed in by the attack. The air rippled with the attack, his hue frame buckling off the ground. Dust kicked up like an explosion went off and he was thrown across the parking lot.

He tumbled across the air for a moment before striking the ground in a roll. Gravel went tumbling until the sound of his back denting a steel beam followed. Pain rushed from his senses while his mouth gawked open. Ryuko's cold blue eyes looking at him from across the parking lot with a shrewd pleasure. His vision then began to go blurry from there as she approached so casually.

'What the hell, right, she can move like that because she has Life Fibers, just like Ragyo. Damn it,' he growled clenching onto the bar with a tight grasp. His hand denting the metal slightly in the process, no where near the degree of the attack had to take.

"Matoi! Snap out of it, I don't know why you're spouting the same nonsense as Ragyo Kiryuin, but it isn't you," he grunted, blood escaping down his chin. His eyes growing blurrier as she stumbled to his feet.

She was right in front of him again, his eyes unable to follow. A hand grabbing him by the chin and lifting him from the ground in the same movement, the several inches in height meaningless against her strength. "Don't go comparing me to that bitch. I am just pushing the hands of evolution forward!" coldly, venomously she retorted before pushing him back down into the steel.

It clanged and knocked look, breaking the chain link fence as the several tons of steel were pushed back like a pebble, Gamagori's body folding within them. "And you are going to help me, Gamagori. Stop resistin' I need a shield just like Satsuki did," Ryuko commented keeping her hand against his chin in the bent steel bars.

Gamagori's back arched and he pushed his left foot into the gravel. "Matoi, I am not a servant to clothing!" he stood up, his impressive height growing more impressive, or perhaps from perspective. He loomed like a mountain above her while her hand kept a firm grasp on his chin with a delicate strength.

His right and left hands reached around her shoulders and to her face, engulfing it in their massiveness. "And neither are you?! Snap out of it!" he twisted with all of his strength and a sickening popping sound followed.

Instantly, Ryuko's arm fell limp and her knees grew weak. The dress she worn dropped as her legs gave out, but her body remained supported in Gamagori's grasp. "Do you hear me? Snap out of it!" he charged forward, hurtling toward her limousine.

The collision was like that of a car striking another car, the back of the vehicle crumpling as he rammed her back into it. The rear glass shattered and the front end of the car nearly dug into the ground before recoiling back. The juggernaut pressing her so far back she was folded over the rear seats of the vehicle. His huge frame slumping equally overtop, blood running from his face.

'She's still human, that trauma might snap her out of it, whatever it is,' Gamagori huffed, teeth clenching as he stumbled back. Blood ran down the side of his face as his blurry vision continued to grow more so.

As he wandered backward, his vision picked up on movement. A pulsating twitch in the folded over body that pulled it up from the broken rear of the limousine. Her mangled arms and legs, which had been twisted by the collision, slowly twisted and pulled themselves back into place. The wounds that had opened from meeting the broken glass stitching shut. Her wobbly knees stabling as she walked from the indentation.

'Cracksnap!' a sickening sound of bones and vertebrae being linked back together followed. Ryuko's bent neck and reversed head snapping itself around and down with a popping and unnatural popping.

Her eyes, with her head still cocked to the side, locked onto Gamagori while a smile came across her face. "Okay, that really freaking hurt, for just a person you really are something else. But come on, outside of getting a kink out of my neck what was that going to really do?"

Gamagori slumped over onto a knee, blood continuing from his face as his aching back pained him further. His left hand fiddling in his pocket for something or another. "Matoi, what you're doing, it isn't you. Please come you your senses," he gulped trying to get what little breath he could get back..

"You done fightin' already? Whatever. I wanted that "I'm Ira Gamagori" shtick you used to do since you wanted to fight," Ryuko shrugged as a rainbow hued thread left her pinkie finger.

Gamagori shook his head, in defiance. "Done fighting? Don't think so little of me," his left hand reached out and pulled thread from the air. His wrist snapped and once again he began drawing the Life Fiber in, repeatedly drawing more and more of it to him.

Ryuko found her heels being dug as he kept reeling. 'What are you planning there Gamagori?' she smirked feeling the thread continue to pull while the goliath pulled and pulled, drawing her closer.

"Matoi, I may not be able to move as fast as you can," Gamagori stopped pulling, with Ryuko resting five feet away. He pulled himself up on the tension to return to his towering stature. "I know I'm not as strong as someone that is merged with Life Fibers," his heels dug into the ground. His blonde hair, now bearing streaks of red from the blood that trickled from his brow, drooped and waved. "But this is one thing I do know-"

"I can throw one hell of a punch!" he threw his fist forward, crossing his right hand into Ryuko's cheek.

The force rang out and Ryuko's head snapped to the side again, the skin on her cheek riding up. His blue eyes looked to the side for a moment, not surprised at the effort but taken by the fact she had been punched. They slowly lost their shudder before switching back to the juggernaut with a coldness and serpentine demeanor.

Ryuko's head tilted slowly, turning the fist back slightly with it. "You call that a punch? You know your place already, why not just evolve with me? Why keep fightin' Gamagori? You're not going to like what happens if you keep this up."

Gamagori's fist drew back, the fibers coiled around it retreating back to Ryuko. 'Damn, she's a real monster. Even Satsuki won't be able to fight her like this.'

"Still standing, huh? Alrighty then, I'll just have to make you submit!" Ryuko laughed before rushing forward, her hands stretching out to her sides like claws.

'Bam!' Gamagori's left cheek was slashed upward, throwing his head back and making his towering frame stumble. Blood ran from the corner of his mouth while swelling began to set in.

'Swat!' a second, lightning quick slap to the right side of his face sent him head tipping downward. His eyes grew blurry as tears filled them for only the briefest of moment, the blur that was Ryuko's blue garment moving for another attack.

'Slap!' another blow, this one to the left side of the face again, lifting his feet from the ground.

"Hahaha! What's the big idea Gamagori? Ain't you going to say something about being a shield?!" Ryuko laughed, manically slapping him around again, and again.

His head and body twisted and turned, his feet now well off the ground as the barrage of attacks continued. "Don't worry I'll get you back into fightin' shape! Just keep doin' nothing and evolution'll take its course!" she continued to berate him. The attacks growing fiercer and fiercer as she was thrown across the parking lot.

After a vicious slap his body began to hunch and it dropped downward. Blood running from his temple and brow down over his chin as he started to fall forward. Ryuko midstride stopped and reached out with her hand to cup his chin. The blood trickled down her open palm and fell to the ground, where the juggernaut's knees soon followed, his heft planting downward.

"And that's it, you're done, aren't you Gamagori?" Ryuko leered forward, the swelling and bruises already starting to form along his face accentuating the vicious beating she had given him.

"Ma-" Gamagori tried to speak, a cough filled with blood stopping him.

"Matoi-" he gasped afterward, the leer of Ryuko continuing to match his gaze.

"You...are stronger than this..." he winced, his arms shaking with pain trying to lift up. "You are...Ryuko Matoi...People are..." he wheezed his hands attempting to reach up to her wrist as she looked at him.

"People...are..." he grabbed hold of her wrist with both of his massive hands, fatigued muscles shaking and quivering as he attempted to pull her hand back. His blue eyes, bloodshot, looked at her in sorrow and agony.

"People are...people, Ryuko," Gamagori huffed, trying to pull her hand away. It had no effect the grip on his chin while dainty was far too strong.

"You...said that yourself...so go back to being...a..." the former Disciplinary Chair of Honnoji Academy wheezed, his head lurching forward into her grasp.

"Person...it isn't too late for you...don't be a slave..." Ira grunted looking at her in the eyes, noticing just how cold they had become on the once fiery young woman's features.

Ryuko's crazed look turned cold again, the glee was received still showing on her face as a cruel smile replaced a manic grin. "That's all you have to say? Sentimental crap? What did I expect from you though? Strong as an ox and dumb as a brick, that's why you made such a good shield. You lapped up everything you were told like some sorta dog. And you say people are people," she snickered.

"People are livestock that Life Fibers help evolve," she remarked lowering his head down to a bow, at her knees. "That is what my purpose is, I am the hand of evolution, Gamagori. So how about you start seeing the world through that same light?" Ryuko snickered looking at him coldly, a thin thread of rainbow hued fiber once more escaping from his pinkie finger.

"Matoi..." Gamagori huffed, his weakened frame slouching at her feet.

Ryuko looked to her limousine and shook her head. "You just had to ruin my ride, didn't you?"

An Elite Four member falls? What's Ryuko's endgame here? And more importantly what is this evolution she is referring to?

Thanks for reading, stay healthy, stay safe out there,

~Dan

Shibuya...

A green haired man sitting at a bench and watching the wave of bustling life in front of him picks up his phone, which just let out a ding. His right forearm marked with a series of intricate tattoo work as his black jacket crumpled with the motion.

"Gamagori? Haven't talked to him in years? A text message?" the man wondered, his green eyes travelling up to the countless people walking along the streets.

"Huh, guess I'm going to your concert after all Jakuzure," he sighed standing up, the scabbard at his side clinking against the bench as he did so.