Kiryuin Manor kept only the finest decor. The corridor of that wing was no exception. She felt as if she had walked a mile it was so long.
"Milady. Are you certain you are ready?" an unsure Soroi asked.
He followed closely lest Satsuki leave him trailing.
"Have you ever known me to not be? The time for prolonging the inevitable is at an end," Satsuki replied not engaging a line of the hired help on their hands and knees.
She walked the red carpet through them with but one care in the world. Stepping into an elevator it took too long for her tastes. She ignored the ride down. She didn't open her eyes again until its doors parted to let her go. Though they stood afar off the last obstacles in her way only aggravated.
"Lady Satsuki. We cannot allow anyone through these doors. That applies to even you," one of two hulking security guards said.
"I haven't the time for short-sighted fools," Satsuki said blankly. "Move or you will be moved."
As they were a floor down the rich colors of the Manor's interior were traded for platinum; a laboratory which could serve as any military's research and development center. What rested behind towering barriers with too many electric locks was a proof of concept. She moved her wrist dropping the guards with scabbard strikes Soroi couldn't follow. Pressing her palm against an interface to watch it trace each line the doors slid aside. It could overshadow a stadium. One light kept the one item in its space heated. It sat in its center raised by a steeled staircase with the plexiglass container to preserve it. It opened, daring her. Colorless vapor rose to her heels. She felt seven again, yearning to put it on. Her mouth nearly watered at the chance.
"Wearing it could kill you!" Soroi insisted.
It took another entering the debate to try and stop her.
"Lady Satsuki! You mustn't! Your mother forbids it!" he slipped past a thick mustache.
Portlier than Soroi, shorter, his as neat attire denoted he was the Manor's steward. Satsuki's tune didn't change.
"Takiji Kuroido. I do not remember my mother allowing you to speak to me in that tone of voice," she said taking her time to climb the steps. "Tend to things only pigs in human clothing can fathom. This is beyond your comprehension."
"M-Milady?!"
Soroi placed a hand to Takiji's chest.
"Leave her be," he relented.
Nervous, sweating bullets, Takiji could only gape as Satsuki stripped free of her bath robe. She ripped the plastic cover from a uniform's perfection. Light captured the gleam of its high collar, shoulder epaulets, gold adornments along the sides. Her skin quivered as the chamber was forty degrees less than room temperature. Drawing her Bakuzan the blade's metal was as stark as her resolve. She slid its sharpest end along her thumb paying no mind to the sting.
"My will is absolute," she told no one. "I will not wait until my wedding day to claim what is rightfully mine!"
She flicked blood onto its chest. Two eyes shot open on the neck's lapel as it savored her warmth for the first time. It snarled, or sounded like it, anxious to devour anything.
"Awaken, Junketsu! Your one and only master beckons!" she said, nearly crazed.
"Lady Satsuki!"
"Lady Satsuki!"
"Hold your tongues and watch!" she yelled so loud a chill ran the spines of Soroi and Takiji.
It leapt at her as if to swallow her, pride and all, squeezing tight enough to cut off her circulation. More of her blood tapped her painted toenails but she stood her ground in defiance.
"I will let...no mere garment...wither my ambition! Commoners understand nothing save for foolish gains and simple pleasures! It calls itself Purity! I am purity personified! This Kamui is mine to conquer! Mine to...beat into submission! MINE TO DO WITH AS I SO CHOOSE!"
Sparks jumped from the vibrant sphere trapping her. Soroi and Takiji were pushed by nothing they could see, as was anything else loose on them. Both raised crossed wrists unable to cease what was started. The ground trembled beneath their shoes ready to give way. The ceiling separated to let heavy metal free fall where it would. Satsuki vanished. Something else, when they could see her, was left to keep them in awe of the impossible.
x.x.x
"Hello?" she said, apprehensive.
When she called out she expected to hear nothing. Why he wanted to meet in the sewers, and why she even bothered, was beyond her. Ryuko carried the case for her weapon but didn't wonder of its weight. It smelled of rat carcasses, thousands of them. She was sure feces stained the white of her shoes with every other step. A railing to her left the water below flowed without her say so.
The whistleblower poked his head from a door she nearly opened. "You're late."
"Tsk," she scoffed walking in.
Wherever they were it was homey. She assumed it a leisure room that could have been an office or someone's private getaway. Mr. Mikisugi stared through dusty blinds as the river was close. In the distance he could see his place of employment being a proverbial thorn in the city's side. Ryuko's plopping onto an old sofa got his attention.
"What the hell was so important that you asked to meet here?" she watched him closely.
"You know so much about Son but so little about yourself. And that Kamui. The irony is astounding," he laughed but not overdoing it.
Ryuko found nothing funny. He took a seat to her right, sliding closer, slowly, as if to rile her up.
"What's with you?" she tensed. "If you know something spit it out already."
His cologne was cheap. That close to her she couldn't not get a whiff of it. Mr. Mikisugi removed his shades and swept his hair back. His blue eyes struck a chord. She had to admit he was handsome, younger looking without specs, but wouldn't. Believing he was who he pretended to be was a harder sell.
"So pent up, Ryuko. It's no wonder you haven't mastered Senketsu's capabilities," he stood amused at her blushing.
She shot upright, still shorter by comparison, yet when he turned the end of her scissor set just before his nose.
"Get to the damn point! I didn't come here for some underhanded take on browbeating!" she said ignoring how the button on his shirt had a mind of its own.
It fell open with his tie knot. Pink popping in and out of sight pissed her off, often doing so while he stripped.
"When I'm not undercover, I'm Aikuro Mikisugi. A long time friend of your father's. He's been preparing you for what's to come. Preparing Son," he revealed.
"Yeah? And what of it?" Ryuko pressed.
Mikisugi was careful in touching her blade's tip. As her shoulders relaxed, she let it fall.
"The organization I represent has been working this case for months. We believe the CEO of Revocs Corporation has something in store for the world. What that is, and what Satsuki's involvement entails, are under investigation. I do know you and Son are key players. Your importance is tantamount to what you choose to do from here on out. I'm afraid that's all you'll get from me."
"Bastard. You brought me down here to tell me that you can't tell me anything?!" she complained turning her back to him.
When she glanced again her homeroom teacher was standing idle, completely aloof.
"I'm telling you to find the answers you seek yourself," his voice dropped to its fake scratchy. "You've got two things going for you: limitless potential and allies with the same grit. Shouldn't that be enough?"
"Just worry about your shitty investigation. I'll deal. Always have," Ryuko said closing her weapon between its sheath.
It was too quiet so both wondered who would speak first.
"By the by...are you and Son...an item?" Mikisugi carefully grinned.
Ryuko tightly closed her hand.
"Yes! I mean, no! Look, that's, off limits! Got it?!" she snapped.
She could almost feel his sizing her up through his shades.
"So you're available," he smiled again. "Of course student-teacher fraternization is a no no at the academy. But, we can meet here if it suits you."
"You gotta death wish or something?" she said drawing her blade a second time.
"Heh. Seventeen and can't take a joke to save her life. You're gonna do just fine, Matoi," he said nonchalantly throwing up his hands.
He kept them up as he made his way from what was really a cluttered break room.
"That Kamui is important," he said in parting. "Take care of it and it'll take care of you. See you tomorrow."
Ryuko glanced to her top for confirmation. Senketsu's eye rose to grant some.
{We can trust him.}
"Can we?" she doubted, by herself. "Did you know if my father had friends like him or not?"
She abruptly sat back on the sofa not sneezing from the dust tossed. The room was stuffy, far from easy on the eyes.
{I have, what you would normally call anyway, memory gaps. Whom your father knew is beyond me as well.}
"Apparently I'm not using you to your fullest," she said.
{You aren't. You've yet to truly put me on.}
"Fantastic. Then we're back at square one," she sassed.
A heaviness left her chest when she closed her eyes.
"Whatever. I'll kick Satsuki's ass and get the truth. Nothing else matters," she said convincingly.
{Perhaps you should also get around to telling him.}
"... Senketsu," she sighed not wanting to hear it anymore.
{I'm not talking about what Son is. I'm talking about what you feel for him.}
"What are you, my therapist? Since when do you care?" she smart mouthed her lap.
Embarrassed, she realized it was harsh.
"Sorry...you didn't deserve that," she said.
Senketsu could see her face. It was hard to miss. Behind the tough facade was a beautiful girl whom denied herself. The sun was setting outside as the room dimmed. She didn't sleep a wink the night before. As Senketsu could sense her dozing off his keeping quiet was the gift he didn't mind giving.
x.x.x
"... Are you...sure Son is okay?" she said, groggy, aching.
She yawned to stretch it out of her limbs. She was late to class and could care less. That morning's being so bright didn't help her migraine.
{I am just as attuned to him as I am to you. He's fine.}
"How the hell could I be so stupid?!" she cursed.
The clack of a heel preceded someone's keeping watch.
"An apt question, Matoi," she said in jest.
Her men appeared in droves to test Ryuko's mood though they stood at her sides instead of lining a circle.
"Well, well, well. Just the buzzkill I needed to choke," she sneered. "The view up there must be nice. You certainly get off to keeping your distance!"
"Ryuko Matoi!"
She spun her gaze to see another; his hair just as mid-length, a tint of green, his eyes were a shade of fierce, like his demeanor. More urgent was the long white coat and high collar adorned with three, polished stars.
"You'll have to answer for Hiryu Sukamoda. I regulate all of the athletic clubs, you see," he claimed snide in how he said it.
"I'll bet. Let me guess. You're...what? His bosom buddy?" Ryuko lifted one end of her lips. "You shine his leotard on the weekends?"
"That mouth is gonna bite off more than it can chew one day bitch," he grit his teeth, reaching for a wooden katana he always carried.
"Stand down Sanageyama," Satsuki ordered, her voice finally at eye level.
Sanageyama quickly dropped to one knee with his unit.
"Forgive me, Lady Satsuki," he panicked lowering his chin to his chest.
A burgundy staircase folded into itself as it returned to the sky.
"Where are Son and Mako?" Ryuko said impatiently. "If you did something to them."
"Take comfort, Matoi. He's sickeningly loyal to you. As is Mankanshoku. I had word sent that their attendance was not required today. He's under the impression you will meet him at your home in twenty minutes," Satsuki said.
Ryuko chose to ogle her enemy's new uniform.
"Good girl, Kiryuin," she grinned drawing her scissor and chucking its case with her jacket. "That just means you and I can chat about my father. We don't have to make this difficult."
"Oh?" Satsuki replied squeezing the grip of her sword. "Difficulty is one of life's many blessings."
"Ugh! Will you shut your grandstanding shit up?!" Ryuko lunged hoping to kill.
It met Satsuki's scabbard shifting the air between them. Anything close hurled from an unwillingness to yield.
"Hmph. Too slow, Matoi," Satsuki boasted.
She hopped back snatching her blade from its sheath. Ryuko didn't know if she blinked or not. She no less felt an immense heft stopped by her scissor. The edges of where she stood slid apart to veer off with the schoolyard's walls. She couldn't stop the widening of her disbelief.
"Let me show you something else," Satsuki said running fingers along three clasps of a blue metal band.
She closed each, activating three syringes. Anyone else stood aghast. Blood taken from her body conjured next to no protection for it. Large pointed shoulder pads popped free. White-orange scleras changed to black. Both set on fresh prey.
"Life Fiber Override: Kamui Junketsu!" they all heard her chant.
The light show died down but wouldn't snuff out as she was still in view, fervent claps from sycophants for her moment. Her toes tapped the dirt swirling around her long legs to join the steam leaving the shiniest ports on her gear.
{Be careful, Ryuko. She is more powerful than you are.}
"Well aren't you just a ray of sunshine today," Ryuko cracked wise pulling the hook from her glove. "Let's go!"
Senketsu took to protecting her body, lifting her breasts with her hair, clutching, lining her skin with its own. Anyone admiring had no words to describe the two wrapped in powerful objects able to illuminate as much as they perplexed. She was ready.
"Hold it!" a voice dropped from the sky.
Ryuko turned to see Son's quick landing.
"I had a funny feeling something was up. What's the big idea, Satsuki?" his eyes narrowed at one of them.
"Idiot! Learn your place! No one addresses Lady Satsuki so informally!" Sanageyama lost it. "Surround him!"
"Sanageyama!" Satsuki shouted louder.
Her soldiers feared she would have them all executed for another of her Elite's outbursts.
"I told you to stand down!" she repeated.
"... As you will it, Milady," Sanageyama bowed.
Unable to bear the waiting it nearly brought about his trembling. Son stood as if nothing could bother his want for the point. His was an agitation Ryuko had seldom seen.
"Son?" she whispered.
She returned her focus to her opponent's playing it cooler.
"Now you can witness the difference between she and I," Satsuki smirked, lifting her chin. "Interfere if you must...though I don't think you mean to."
Son said nothing. Though he wouldn't, Satsuki carried herself with fearlessness. His expression softened.
"I don't have to interfere," he said hushing the power he could call upon.
Pebbles no longer orbiting him fell for the rope lacing his boots.
"Ryuko's got this," he believed.
"What the hell is he? There's no way that gi is a Goku Uniform," Sanageyama asked no one.
Some ways away he stared Son down and clenched his shinai's grip so tightly it gave.
"Anytime you're ready," Ryuko cut in, steadfast.
Satsuki took her time to approach. Her steps were light in her walk on air. She held her sword at her thigh longing to cut loose with it.
"Try not to disappoint me," she calmly retorted.
It was so quiet they could hear a pin drop, before, and after Ryuko made the first move. Where she swung her arms she felt the jerk of them being blocked. She tried every angle. Went for every opening, if there was one, which there wasn't.
"You fear the lusting of fools! Remove that Kamui! You aren't worthy of it! You aren't strong enough to stand at Son's side!" Satsuki sliced up sparks from her scissor.
"The way you talk pisses me off!" she said, moving her weapon in a dazed frenzy.
She dragged it across the ground for a final attempt lifting it to rip through Satsuki's cleavage. Her surprise wasn't faked as her opponent barely moved to stop it with her back turned and her blade low, dirt scorched to vapor when it burst. Satsuki's soldiers tossed this way and that, keeping their balance next to impossible she balled her hand, opened it, and took a moment to savor the boost.
"Impressive," her thin lips curved. "What else can we do, Junketsu?"
Ryuko ignored the gash on her thigh bleeding profusely, though not as much as the one burning her cheek. She felt like she just finished a triathlon.
{Put me on, Ryuko. You will pass out in five minutes if you keep with the denial.}
"How many times do I have to say it? I'm NOT denying you!" she gulped struggling to breathe. "Drink anymore blood and this wearing you crap won't matter, will it?"
{I'm consuming more than is needed because you will not put me on!}
Her opponent appeared from thin air. Hardly tapping the pommel of her sword to Ryuko's chest knocked her from her feet and across the sky, leveling the school's wall some ways higher.
"Ryuko!" Son had enough.
"Where do you think you're going?!" Sanageyama slammed his shinai to the wrist the former raised. "You said you wouldn't interfere!"
He protested, in quiet, remembering not to. His springing back created space. Sanageyama enjoyed an attractive grin as his unit scrambled to shield him. Son shot a glance to Satsuki's defying gravity.
"What is the matter, Matoi?! Is this your best?! Pathetic!" she needled breezing through a crumbling hole.
Buried under desks cluttering a hallway Ryuko burst free, keeping it together.
"You're real mouthy in that exhibitionist getup! Stop yappin' and fight!" she spat.
She tried a downward slash only to have it parried by Satsuki's. Knocked into something hard again she bounced from it banging her head into the floor and sliding along it so far her chin opened.
{Ryuko. You have to accept it. You cannot hope to be a match for her until you put me on!}
"How the...hell am I supposed to do that?!" she winced.
Leaning from being cut in two where she laid snapped to pieces.
x.x.x
"What's wrong freak?! Cat got your tongue!" Sanageyama pressed his luck. "It's good you came. You and that No Star bitch can finally come to grips with the truth!"
" ... "
Son kept his gaze high. If his jaw clenched any tighter he would have shattered his teeth.
"Submission. That's your only choice. Lady Satsuki is all that matters in Honno City. You don't. And neither does Matoi's slut for a daught ..."
Sanageyama felt a hard heaviness knock the taste from his mouth. Punched the yard's length he tore cleanly through wide flags in a tumble he couldn't slow. His roll ceased against a stone wall snatching free segments of the end he struck.
"STOP saying mean things about Ryuko!" Son hollered, fists upturned at his waist.
His feet dug into the dirt as if he was sinking. Fervent gusts swept through his top and hair to sway both. Whatever his worth it shimmered around him as long as he could manage. He took a deep breath to let it flare out. Several remained perturbed beneath their One Star uniforms, awaiting their superior's return, awaiting any sign that Sanageyama was still alive in the distance. The dust plume had yet to clear.
"Soooonnnnnnn!" rang a sweet voice from the main entrance.
Son relaxed to allow Mako's homing in.
"You have to tell her to get naked!" she said like she meant it.
"Huh? Naked?" he wondered. "Why would I do that?"
"YAHHHNNHNNN!" Ryuko burst from a window into a fifty foot plunge, her sailor uniform packed with shards of it. Son jumped supporting his levitation, her weight with a catch, he was slow to float back for a place to stand. Setting her down brazen was on the menu. He softly slid fingers along her cut open cheek.
"Hey you. Hang in there," he lowered his voice as he helped her stand.
Ryuko supported herself with her scissor, wobbling at the knees, unsure if she felt his touch or not. She looked a mess, bloodied and beaten.
"Get back," she said angrily.
Satsuki touched down more than pleased with results.
"Do you see it now, Son? She cannot measure up," she said to rub it in.
Brandishing her stained katana once more she held it out. Her eyes moved to her soldiers bringing a stunned Sanageyama to her back. He shook loose of the help furious at being bested by a single blow.
"That's not true!" Mako stole everyone's attention. "Ryuko is better than you know! She goes big or she goes home! She's a sweetheart! Not the butch chick she pretends to be! Her boyfriend's super hot! I mean, if she doesn't make a move soon I will!"
"Boyfriend?" Son muttered.
"She's got way bigger boobs than Lady Satsuki's! WAY BIGGER! Just ask Son! All she's gotta do is get naked and she'll win! Get naked Ryuko! DO THAT AND YOU'LL WIN FOR SURE!"
As Mako's rambling climaxed there wasn't anything to listen for. The quiet lingered.
"... What nonsense is this?!" Satsuki impatiently barked. "Your embarrassing display makes imbeciles of your so-called friends. You've utterly disappointed me, Ryuko Matoi!"
She rained her blade meaning to carve through flesh, not metal, as Ryuko mustered the spirit to hold her back.
"It ain't nonsense," she struggled, biting her glove's hook to yank it free.
Senketsu took whatever shape he willed, any shape she willed, she loosened every fiber of her being, allowing it to squeeze whatever part of her it needed to.
"... I get it now. Wearing you is becoming one with you. Casting aside any doubt or shame. If I do that, I put you on, right Senketsu?!"
{Exactly right!}
Senketsu molded her lapels forming both a darker rigid more imposing at the higher ends. She felt lighter, durable, her arms flexing though the sudden change brought her verve.
"Life Fiber Synchronize: Kamui Senketsu!" she cried for the rush being new again.
Her ventilation grill a thruster, it shot her toward an astonished Satsuki.
"What?!" Satsuki remembered to act, parrying the swipes she could as they were harder to gauge.
Ryuko drove her along her heels.
"This is the real you, isn't it Senketsu?!" she felt so good she smirked. "You can finally go all out!"
{We are responsible for this power, Ryuko. You and I. Together.}
"Well I won't be embarrassed anymore! There's no need to be!" she spun, swing after swing, whirling along the dirt. "We've got this! Scissor Blade! Decapitation Mode!"
{Scissor Blade! Decapitation Mode!}
"Haaaaahhhhhhhh!" her voice strained.
Pulling her extended tool over her shoulder it sliced by Satsuki's swerve tearing through anything around, no matter how big, to arch it. Son shielded Mako from flung chunks barely feeling their shatter against his back. Sanageyama raised his coat to block debris thrown his away, his men running for cover. Blades locked, thrusters engaged, Ryuko played her hand.
"You're gonna tell me what I wanna know, Satsuki Kiryuin!" she shouted over the racket. "Who killed my father?!"
"What would telling you now accomplish?!" Satsuki replied in kind.
If she pushed, Ryuko pushed, snapping the current against their skin.
"No aspirations! Incompetent! That's what you are, Ryuko Matoi!"
"And I'll wear it like a badge of honor bitch!"
Ryuko leaned her last response. Her blade met Satsuki's forming the light that grazed its edgings. If they survived the detonation was anyone's guess. Mako's ears rung as Son soared her away from it all. He stayed himself. Dry particles masked the ground below as smoke would a burning room. He couldn't see anything. He didn't need to. Ryuko and Satsuki were alive. He knew to grin. Mako woke to notice his feet weren't flat on anything. She squirmed up a fit closing arms about his neck.
"Awesome! She's going all in down there!" she beamed.
"Hehe. I guess you were right. She just needed to get naked," Son agreed, slowly dropping.
He needed to make sure they were right about something else.
x.x.x
"We were fools to doubt her," a younger man with a stronger jawline concluded.
He dwarfed his fellow Elites, darker complected, his mass a leg up in most battles. Holding his giant hands at his back current events were troubling.
"The raw power. The unyielding merit. She was right," he said.
"Of course she was," a higher timbre replied.
It wasn't her pink hued hair, nor her angular face, but her caustic wit, the skull-marked hat she rarely took off.
"It'll take more than a toad, a monkey and a dog to beat them," she mocked making herself comfortable on a maroon, leather sectional, twirling her baton.
The third's collar wasn't more important than the laptop he pecked away at. It opened whenever he said anything. He turned on a bar stool to reply.
"Miss Snake is quite spirited today. Maybe a bit on edge at knowing she could be bested?" he said not as baritone a speaker.
The one he dissed raised her middle finger. Seeing it he didn't adjust tinted glasses behind the neat fringes falling to them.
"I've saved any relevant data," he said.
"Lady Satsuki will be pleased," the first remarked.
He kept watch of a monitor above any bickering. Each of them had no more words for what it meant.
x.x.x
"I'll bring this place down around your ankles if it means loosening those lips," Ryuko promised, on the cusp of fainting.
On her knees she watched Satsuki's standing like nothing happened on her fold out staircase.
"I accept your challenge." she replied playing off her soreness.
Her scabbard, her will, kept her taut.
"Beginning tomorrow, every club will be after your head!" she assured her.
Until Son walked into the picture. She made sure to set eyes on his.
"Why don't I sense anything wrong? Shouldn't I be mad at what she did," he said quietly.
Neither voiced intention until Ryuko's murderous stare was the focus. She stood having the strength to still lift her scissor, and train it.
"Suits me just fine. Bring on everyone you've got!" she huffed rearing to go again.
"That's it! Take her down a notch, Ryuko!" Mako cheered.
"Leave us," Satsuki ordered.
Sanageyama and her legion left without so much as a peep. The school grounds a wreck it served a battered stage for the four present.
"Defeat each and every student that comes after you. If you do, Junketsu and I will face you again," Satsuki remained resolute.
"And when we win you're telling me everything," Ryuko said with a narrowed leer.
"We're agreed, then," Satsuki nodded. "Son. I want you to show me more of that indomitable spirit."
"I will. Make sure your guys give their all or it won't be fun," he grinned.
"... Noted," she tried to hide hers.
Flipping her hair on the turn around stairs followed after her boot heels, the switch of her agreeable hips. Sheathing her sword she disappeared into the overcast.