Kill la Kill: Again
Chapter Eight
A bright pink mo-ped sat in front of a ram-shackled building in the rundown part of town. Wooden planks covered the windows, and a piece of aluminum siding was perched up in the doorway, albeit creaked to the side as if opened. A series of cans sat strung from the top of the frame to function as a bell while a sleepy pug in a hoodie laid just in the threshold. Pale light flitted from the inside extending out into the street and dancing in front of visor.
"Wahaha! What happened to him?" a young woman with shoulder length brown hair shouted rocking back and forth from her chair. Her brown eyes were the size of saucers while her mouth hung equally open.
"Your friend Matoi did it. Slackerdoodle, we need you to check him over," Jakuzure commented looking to the taller woman with a furrowed brow and defiantly placed hands on her hips.
"Ryuko did this? What are you talkin' about? Ryuko wouldn't do this!" Doctor Mako Mankanshoku remarked moving her arms about wildly. Amid her flurry of gestures, she looked about the battered frame of Uzu Sanageyama, as he placed himself to sit on the table
Sanageyama reached for his shirt with a wince and slung it over his shoulder, where a thick band of gauze rested. "Well, she did. I've been knocked out for the past five days because of it. The only reason we came here is because you don't ask too many questions, so can you just believe us when we say Matoi is the one that did this?"
"Well, no duh I refuse to believe it! I had lunch with Ryuko just yesterday and she was the same Ryuko I've always known!" Mako proudly said puffing out her cheeks and looking at the pair of former schoolmates. Her hand was poised across her chest as she confidently held her ground.
"I told you we should have just gone straight to Satsuki, five days is a long time to keep her waiting," Jakuzure huffed, looking to the side.
"Let me handle this," Sanageyama huffed, placing his hands on the table he was sat upon. "Mankanshoku, I know you believe Ryuko is the same, but she isn't. She attacked Gamagori and is going just as crazy as Ragyo," Sanageyama sighed with a wince, the effort of breathing was still proving rough.
Mako once more stood her ground and shook her head, puffing out her cheeks. "No, no, no, I don't believe that. Ryuko's not like Ragyo at all! At all!" she began to bluster until her eyes met Sanageyama's and she saw herself in them.
"Take a look at this then," Sanageyama pulled out his cell phone where a message from Gamagori was displayed.
"You're serious...but Ryuko," Mako trailed off, a ripple crossing her lips while the scantest sign of tears began to form along the corners of her eyes. "Ryuko wouldn't do this on her own. She's not Ragyo. She's not."
Sanageyama reached up and placed a hand on the woman's shoulder. "If you still don't want to believe me that's fine. I just need you to patch me up."
"Okay, slacker, you heard him," Jakuzure sighed looking to Uzu with a furrowed brow, while Mako continued to shake her head.
"I'll do my best, but this is the worst I've seen you, Mister Sanageyama," Mako huffed grabbing a tray of bandages and surgical tools, alongside other medical equipment.
Uzu chuckled placing his shirt on the table to his side. "Well, I'm usually a lot better at not getting hit."
"You've been here before? What exactly was he here for?" Nonon asked looking at the rather dingy back-alley doctor's office.
"He's been here plenty of times. He usually comes in after one of his gang things. One time he dragged himself here with a broken jaw and a knife stabbed into his stomach," Mako gossiped while slowly undoing his bandages.
"What about patient confidentiality?" Sanageyama shouted, before wincing in pain.
"Considering the two of you came in together, I thought she was y'know-" Mako said almost absent mindedly.
"What?! Her?"
"Him?"
The two said in unison shouting at one another, before looking away.
"Well, either way, this may take a while, so tell me really what happened, Mister Sanageyama," respectfully, and as a medical professional, Mako spoke beginning to work on her consistent patient.
"It's a long story," he slouched forward as the white bandages gave way to crimson, and then a gaping wound.
Isshin Brand HQ...
Ryuko sat her desk with a menacing smile, the Tailor's Blade resting on it as she looked at a screen. Her blue eyes were focusing on a screen that showed a back alley with a pink mo-ped outside of a rather dingy looking building.
"Lady Ryuko? Whatcha looking at?" he assistant, Amu poked her head over the desk with a curiousness on her young face. A curiousness that was rewarded with a zoom in on the pink mo-ped and its pair of riders as they exited the building.
"Oh? Those are the two from the other day! We're following them. Whatcha plannin' to do, Lady Ryuko?" her pale green eyes traced over to the deep blue of her boss and mentor. A certain degree of worship dangling on every word.
'They went to Mako, huh? Wonder how much they told her?' Ryuko seemed to pause for a moment, a quiver appearing in her eye. A faint breath leaving her mouth while her hand shook. A bit of Ryuko's normal self-showing briefly before being devoured.
Ryuko leaned back and chuckled. "I want to see what our new security is capable of. All of you hard work can just be left just to display, you make practical fashion. Right Amu?" she turned her gaze, a malice unbefitting of Ryuko resting there.
"Yes, ma'am!" she smiled leaning back and nodding her head.
Sometime later that same pink mo-ped was speeding down the road, the blue-sky overhead streaming by. Nonon sat in the front driving her vehicle while Uzu sat on the back looking over at their tagalong, a small blue car with Mako driving it her face stern.
"The slacker didn't have to tag along," Nonon huffed as she continued to drive along, her eyes catching in the rear view.
"She wanted to, Matoi's her friend, remember? She thinks maybe we can snap her out of it," Sanageyama remarked, looking back as the car kept pace.
"But what's she even going to do if we go headlong against Matoi?" the pink haired producer said continuing down the road.
Sanageyama chuckled. "About as much as you I guess, Nonon. We're really gambling everything on Satsuki still being Satsuki and having a plan for everything."
"What do you mean by that, monkey?!" she hissed looking at him.
"I'm just saying, we need all the help we can get. It's not like we have Goku Uniforms, and we're going to be dumping all of this on Satsuki anyway. I couldn't beat Ryuko alone, and that was with the drop on her."
"Unbelievable," Nonon sighed continuing along the roadway with a scowl on her face. Destination the Kiryuin Manor.
That was when something caught Sanageyama's inescapable eyes.
Lights, a pale orange stream of lights, reflected off Sanageyama's eyes as shape leapt from the side of the road. He placed a hand on Nonon's back and pushed off the mo-ped rolling into the road and parrying backward. A crack spreading across the roadway flinging Mako's car on its continued path. Both vehicles spun to a quick and sudden stop as Uzu pulled up into a vertical base.
"What the hell is that?" Nonon shouted from across the broken roadway as Sanageyama stood firm in the middle of the street, his duster being torn at the fringes.
"Mister Sanageyama, what's going on?" Mako leaned out her window in surprise as the man stood opposite what had crashed into the road.
"Take a look for yourselves," he grimaced, raising his right and left hands into a defensive fighting stance. His gray eyes focusing intently on the figure that appeared opposite on the road.
"Is that-" Nonon gawked at the sight.
The figure dwarfed Sanageyama, in height and width. A sleek, almost metallic, white sheen covered the oppositions body as did three large glowing stars of orange that rested across its chest. A huge domed helmet sat upon the figures head allowing only the glow of two crimson eyes to escape through it violently. Spikes extended from the figure's armored knuckles and shoulders while restricting bands of a pale gray0silver clamped on their wrists and biceps.
"A Goku Uniform?" she finished as Sanageyama tensed up.
Mako once more flipped out, her years of being away from the madness seemingly melting away. "Gah! What? A Goku Uniform? How?" she shouted.
Sanageyama undid the strap at his waist, allowing the empty scabbard he used to carry the Tailor's Blade fall into his hand. "One guess, your buddy Matoi. She must have eyes on us," he looked around carefully before adjusting into a stance.
"Jakuzure, get Mankanshoku out of here. I'll catch up to you at Satsuki's," he grit his teeth, his left hand reaching to the freshly stitched wound on his side. 'Good thing we brought Mankanshoku, she can patch me up. I think more than few stitches are going to be pulled,' his eyes moved only for a moment to the wound and in that moment, there was a burst of sound and speed.
"What do you mean leave you behind?" Nonon managed to say in that same colossal movement. "Sanageyama! Watch out!" she barked as the juggernaut came crashing down.
Sanageyama's eyes moved up, to him it was slow motion, just barely. His right foot pushing off the ground for a moment before kicking away, the impact hammering a divot into the ground with explosive force. A gust of asphalt and dust spiraled out from the impact forcing winds through his hair and jostling both Mako's care and Nonon's mo-ped from their positions several feet.
He landed and his opposition was there, bear-like. A huge clubbing blow from the side arching down toward him with vicious intent. Sanageyama threw his left forearm up to meet it, flipping the scabbard into his right hand. The blow struck and his arm crumpled immediately the hand hammering into his face with a vicious efficiency. A thunderclap rang out and he was sent careening down the road on his shoulder.
The charging opponent rushed down as he continued to speed to a stop, compartments opening at the wrist to reveal barbed whips that dug into the ground. Sanageyama picked himself up in time to watch the whips come tearing down the street toward him.
'Can't dodge like this!' he winced crossing his arms as the whips made contact.
The sound of fabric splitting rang out and his sleeves were split open by the cracking of the whips. His feet moved back several feet as the goliath brought the weapons around once again. They slithered along the ground before snapping at him like snakes that were prone to bite. And bite they did, slapping into his right thigh and the left side of his chest with a sickening snap.
He was pushed back by this as well and barely managed to keep balance, the juggernaut moving forward for another pair of swings. 'This seems familiar,' he thought while managing to bring the scabbard around. The two whips being deflected off to the sides in the swipe, a snapping sound following suit.
"Monkey, what are you doing getting slapped around like that?!" Jakuzure shouted as Uzu readied the scabbard.
"Just drive to Satsuki's Jakuzure! I'll be-" he shouted as the whips came rushing backward toward him. His eyes moved left, then right, and he strafed to the side, avoiding the attacks as a light pole was flung from the roadside. "Fine! This guy's big but his whips only sting. It's not like he's going to punch me!" he sprang back as the whips continued to snap out at him.
"Gah, not again! I'm not going to listen to your dumb plans a second time!" Jakuzure shouted, standing up in the vehicle and opening the seat. Inside she pulled out a megaphone, branded for her band Twelfth Overture as many things in the seat compartment were.
"Hey, jackass! I'm here too!" she shouted rudely into the device pushing it to its loudest volume and releasing a terrifying shriek alongside her crassness.
The juggernaut turned his heel and looked over. "You shouldn't take your eyes off me!"
Sanageyama's voice rose as he leapt into the air. His hands firmly grasped his scabbard and he twisted through the air. His rotations blended almost into a single one, the edge of the weapon being the only thing that remained constantly in the motion. His hands then let loose with the full ferocity of that momentum, bringing the attack out against the side of the opposition's head.
'WHACK!' the blow hit with great force, the momentum spinning out in a spiraling force about the helmet. The force proved so great it lifted the opposition's right foot from the ground and made him stagger a few feet backward before regaining balance a moment later.
The goliath hurled his right hand forward with all the momentum that he could muster. It crashed down past a dodging Sanageyama's torso and into the ground. Cracks exploded out in a ring from the point of impact, jostling the roadway with the impact. Debris streamed into the air and the towering foe pulled his hand free, shedding debris from the palm as Sanageyama took back to the middle of the road.
"Nonon get out of here!" he winced bringing the scabbard back around.
"No! Hey, over here!" she shouted in the megaphone again, her voice screeching out toward the titan.
His head turned, the glow of light from his eyes growing more intense. "ORAAH!" his voice, a booming thunder, rolled out and he came hurtling forward. Each step seemed to cave into the roadway as he rushed toward the far smaller person.
'Hey, wait, that voice it sounds familiar!' Jakuzure, pitch perfect as she was, knew the voice, from somewhere. That thought though quickly retreated into the back of her mind as the walking freight train rushed at her.
"MEN!" Uzu broke through into the adversary's path with a vicious overhead swing. Air broke around it with a vicious snapping sound as the scabbard hammered into the opposition. Winds churned out and the giant seemed to stutter in his forward progress.
"DOU!" Sanageyama sprung from the momentum of the downward strike and whipped in from the right side. The scabbard bent nearly in half on the collision with the goliath's right arm, but it folded him as well, knocking the colossus from the ground. Sanageyama planted his foot and dashed to the other side, eyes dancing along the giant's frame looking for an opening.
"KOTE!" the strike was an uppercut. The air split with its contact upon the attacker's chin. His Goku Uniform wavering in the impact as his titanic from lifted from the ground. The helmet atop his head shuddered as the kendo master forced him higher into the air with the viciousness of his attack.
Uzu then nodded his head and hopped into the air. His hands moved viciously fast, cutting almost like afterimages while hammering out against the Goku Uniform wearer. "MEN! DOU! KOTE! MEN! DOU! KOTE! MEN! DOU! KOTE!"
His voice repeated over and over again. The scabbard striking from the right, then the left, then from above, then from below. Impacts hammered into the air like bombs going off. Each blast of air throwing the goliath further and further back, seemingly unable to retort as the scabbard unloaded with vicious ferocity. Each swing sending a sick cracking sound out as Sanageyama hurled out everything he could.
"MEN! DOU! KOTE! MEN!" four more strikes thrashing the attacker back further and further. Asphalt tore as did the concrete wall he had pinned his foe against. Every attack planned and strong. Cracks spread through the road with the assault, the strength of the man behind the attacks growing more and more fierce with each successive hit.
"MEN!" an uppercut that smashed the opponent skyward. "DOU!" he ran along and sprang from the ground, a side strike hurling their titanic opponent back toward the ground. With cunning and cat-like grace he landed first and brought around the scabbard for another attack. "KOTE!" the crushing blow rippled out, folding the titan.
Sanageyama's teeth ground together as he put everything he could into this strike. The scabbard in his grasp creaking and groaning from the beating it had laid out. Cracks splintered through its wooden frame, and shudders raced through the man's tattooed arms. His fully strength pouring into the attack and stressing the scabbard's foundation even more. Until...
'SNAP!' the blow became a finishing one. The scabbard shattered into thousands of splinters while the air behind the brute failed to hold him. Sound burst out and the giant was flung down the road, Sanageyama pitching forward from the impact.
"Heh, that'll teach you to go-" Sanageyama started until his gray eyes picked up on it, the juggernaut raising back to a vertical base. "You're kidding me! Nonon! Mankanshoku! Put your feet on the gas, change of plans!" he went running toward Nonon.
"He's getting up after all of that?!" Nonon shouted with gawk, her pink eyes shuttering as the green haired man hopped onto the back of her mo-ped.
"Floor it!" Sanageyama shouted, as Mako's tires revved and began to peel away.
"Already ahead of you!" Mako shouted panicked while driving away down the road.
"Hold on tight!" the mo-ped hitched a moment, as she revved its engine.
It folded in on itself before arching away at speed, kicking a cloud of dust up as Sanageyama sat on the back.
He saw something the other two did not, the juggernaut rising to his feet. Then, taking forward, running after their vehicles with reckless abandon. Each step shook the ground, and each footfall made the Goku Uniform wearer grow larger or seemed to. His body closing the distance rapidly as they carted their way down the road.
"We're really going to be banking everything on Satsuki," Sanageyama huffed.
"Doesn't this guy remind you of someone?" Nonon asked, continuing to push forward.
The road wavered beneath them as their foe grew nearer and nearer with each passing second.
"Now, that you mention it, I thought he looked familiar," Uzu replied, looking at his foe. His heart thundered in his chest with each second, their foe was gaining and gaining on them quickly.
"Yeah, he looks a lot like Gamagori did in his Goku Uniform," Mako added from her wound down car window. Her face still keenly shaken while looking at the road. Peeling rubber as she attempted to keep from being caught.
"It is Gamagori!" Sanageyama and Jakuzure said simultaneously.
"Matoi made him a Goku Uniform and then sent him after us? Talk about ironic," Uzu shook his head, the charging foe getting closer and closer.
"It'd be better if he wasn't right on our tails trying to kill us!" Jakuzure shouted, pushing her mo-ped to its limit.
As they continued forward with their opposition gaining and gaining, a white manor with an iron gate became visible just on the horizon. Salvation. At least they hoped.
Gamagori proves to be Ryuko's newest weapon as her mind continues to be haunted by the Life Fibers. As they approach Satsuki Kiryuin what is going to happen?
Hey folks, hope you're doing well. Stay safe out there,
~Dan