He reached the point where muscle fatigue was setting in. Angling himself he pushed again from one finger. The harder part was keeping his back straight, toes stiff, his focus wasn't on the exercise but his roommate's taking up half their couch, legs folded with her bare feet tucked next to her bottom. Receipts and other papers her obsessions of choice she treated it as such, her red lock tickling her jowl, not gathered to the back of her head and tied like the rest.
"Eyes on the work," she teased without looking.
"I'm focused. Just wrapping up one more, hnnh, set," he grunted at the floor, lowering and raising. "You heal really fast. Maybe Senketsu's not the only reason."
Ryuko tore up a receipt and swiped it against her pajamas. She could care less for numbers glancing to her pants as if something else clung to her knee. She remembered hanging her sailor uniform across the room but the scarf that was its eye offered nothing.
"Can't say I don't feel like a million bucks," she said in one breath. "You keep eating us out of house and home and we'll need to blow another million bucks."
"I'm still thinking over what happened," he said.
"Oh yeah?" she said.
"Yeah. That Sanageyama guy really got under my skin," Son hopped to his feet, boxing the air.
Attention on his fist he grinned like he meant to.
"Fifteen hundred in four minutes. That's a new record!" he chirped.
By the time he turned Ryuko joined him. She stepped closer to try. Plucking his nose she remembered doing so as a joke in days gone.
"We'll have to spar again soon. You were amazing today!" he said happy to be happy.
Ryuko took a step back, content, but not. It bugged her.
"... What's your take on all this?" she thought against asking.
"This what?" he furrowed his brow.
"This. What we're doing," she said. "You think I'm different?"
Son followed her to their couch to think on it. Ryuko slid closer than expected. It remained comfortable. Ignoring the flutter in her stomach was as real as the wait for his opinion.
"You're the same to me. Mako really likes you. I understand why that is," he said simply.
Ryuko smirked at the need to explain further.
She propped her elbow on her side of the sofa's cushion. "I meant are we the same? Like the same as when we were growing up."
Making her hand a headrest, she scrutinized.
"Can we be? I guess in some ways we are," Son said, at a loss. "Is something the matter?"
"... Nah," she lied, eyes falling to the flannel of her partially unbuttoned shirt.
When she looked up to his watching her like she was a diamond in the rough, it stuck.
"Okay. New topic. Satsuki. What's the story there? You and her had a moment," she said.
"I don't know what you mean," Son said. "Like I mentioned. She's different. I'm not sensing anything out of the ordinary. Nothing bad, I think."
Ryuko picked lint from her pants, nervous, wanting to press him.
"So that's it. You're not feeling anything...I don't know...else, for her?" she boldly asked.
"Why would I feel something else?" Son said genuinely curious.
Ryuko let her gaze drop with her pride a second time. She let it die. To do away with the awkward her fist nudged at his jaw. Trading smiles, they waited.
"You can sleep on the couch, you know," she replied in standing.
The mattress was a step or two away and she climbed onto its warmth in no hurry. Son glanced to an active space heater by her bed, the case for her weapon, then back to her lying down, watching him.
"Goodnight dummy," she nearly whispered.
"Goodnight," he chuckled for it.
She was out cold before he stood to walk up. Lifting her blanket to her neck he made sure he didn't wake her. She needed the rest. He needed a moment to admire.
x.x.x
"Let me fight him," Sanageyama bowed ignoring Satsuki's office.
It wasn't her bed chamber at the Manor but could have doubled as such. She sat enjoying Soroi's tea and little else.
"So be it," she nodded for her butler to refill her cup. "It will be interesting to see his abilities against your regalia at its strongest."
Sanageyama hoped for more than just talk of what another could do. Taking his leave the other of her Elites watched him like a hawk, ashamed, or something similar. At their leave Satsuki found peace. She kept her legs crossed, her mind set. Basked in the ruby lighting of her space she felt for what some would say was the first time in her life a tad foolish.
"Matoi's pet. How ignorant some are. Son is much more than the sum of his parts," she scoffed.
"He seems a person of principle. At least we now know he honors his word," Soroi remarked.
He wouldn't speak out of turn again.
"... I appreciate your preparing this, Soroi. It's delicious," she lightly smiled.
"Of...course, Milady," he lowered his head, not expecting it . "If I may be so bold. It seems the young man has a positive effect on others, as well."
Satsuki brought her tea cup to her mouth; in part to hide what she wanted to wipe from her face. She hated how giddy talk of the subject made her. Taking another sip she shut her eyes.
"Yes. It would seem," she replied in earnest. "Contact my mother. Tell her we will arrive at the Manor in one hour. Not before."
"At once, Milady."
x.x.x
"... Senketsu's eyes, the right and the left, are a scarf. And this? It's not a glove. Not really."
"So he uses that to suck your blood?! Neat, neat, neat!"
That weekend they had to hop a bus to Tokyo if it meant not being harassed, if it meant Mako's not being kidnapped by the less stable of their peers. Only a bridge away an indoor mall housed a wide range of retailers. Men walked by. Some with women clinging to their arms. Others were in groups with children. Wayward attention no less slipped to their youth and allure.
"That's one way to put it," Ryuko smiled sheepishly.
She caught wind of a store's decorative sign. Tracing the line of a silky wedding dress she wondered how soft it would feel on her skin. Mako knowingly shoved her inside to see. Perusing other stores like it Ryuko lost track of the time. When she remembered herself they were seated with something hot to eat and cold to drink. Surrounding noise couldn't muffle what she needed to hear herself say.
"So good! They have the best dango at this mall!" Mako chewed the sweetened balls as fast as she talked.
"I wouldn't know. Never had 'em before," Ryuko replied, not sure she was hungry.
"You two are inseparable, aren't you?" Mako asked with a full mouth.
The glossy brown in her eyes were still.
"... My father split us up on our eleventh birthday. I had the pleasure of being shipped off to boarding school. Son was sent somewhere near Sado Island. Dad had this bright idea to have him trained by one of his buddies. Some alleged martial arts guru ..."
Ryuko thought of said times with a carefree smirk.
"Master Roshi, or, something, but it was all bull," she shrugged. "I hated him for making us go through that. Looking back though...it was just another reminder that he had the best intentions and I was a selfish brat. Hated that too."
Slurping noodles Mako watched her like she fed her the greatest fable.
"What happened next?" she said gulping a wad after.
Ryuko leaned into her side of their booth. She watched for anything around her as if the question wanted attention she wouldn't give it.
"It's crazy. We both knew to come back. Eventually. That's when we found him. My dad," she said.
She held back the tears. Her eyes narrowed as the discomfort of truth was replaced with bitterness.
"He left us money. A roof over our heads. Didn't care about any of it. The only thing that mattered were the instructions. I was a wreck for a while but it worked out, 'cuz, that's when I found Senketsu. Him and Son...without them I mean...things might've taken the worst turn. I never really knew dad. Son forgave him. He always forgave him no matter what. A lot of what happened should rub him the wrong way, but, it just, doesn't. Anyway. Saying we were raised in a broken home is an understatement."
The silence sat. Because of it Ryuko glanced to Mako's at the point of bawling. She wore her upset face, however ridiculous, and listened.
"That's the saddest thing I've ever heard!" she wept so loud anyone close by flinched.
Scrambled over the table to knock anything down she wrapped her arms around Ryuko's neck as tight as she could.
"You're such a trooper, Ryuko!" she cried.
"Hey! Relax! Ahn!" Ryuko gasped for the air choked from her.
When she could, if she could, she chuckled.
"It wasn't all bad," she said.
"Good!" Mako smiled.
There was still food to eat as one of them didn't make a complete mess. Hearing her stomach growl Ryuko chose lunch over talk of a past she wanted to forget.
x.x.x
Anything between a made-up mind and the objective were fair game. He clung to the side of a rusting warehouse with his high-collared vest, pants a darker green, both draped with belts hoisting the ammunition he needed. Buzzed cut black save for some of it dyed red he felt a chilly wind ruffling his hair. No sweat was on his muscled build despite the effort. He climbed higher, well aware that Honno City's ruler deployed slum enforcers to keep the impoverished in line.
Not spotted yet by the snipers positioned on neighboring rooftops the barbed wire on a perimeter fence wasn't an issue. He touched down after a fall within a shipping yard. Two targets with their backs to him weren't aware. Aiming a modified automatic, it let off a needle burst, dropping the first with the pain of his One Star armor torn from his flesh. His legs were around the second's neck before a count to five.
Eventually prone, the heft of a rifle not weighing him down, he unfolded it, steadily gazing at the harbor's breadth. Looking through the scope he tagged a target, and watched. His being there wasn't an order. He thought of it as he changed a magazine causing a change of the ammo to be used. A suppressor rolled within his grip followed by careful aiming: it would only take one bullet for one man. If anything he wanted to make it quick.
x.x.x
Living right off of the harbor had its benefits. It went over Son's thinking as he sprung from the ocean. Hitting a paved road, something wriggling and large at his back, passersby closed the eyes of adolescents screaming and wide eyed at his wearing no clothing.
"I know. It's huge huh?!" he said, cheerful, pep in his step.
Its abnormally big head dragged along the walk towards a shack by its lonesome. Just before it happened he snatched something hot between his fingertips, losing his smile. Where the shot rang from wasn't seen but he could smell how unpleasant smoking copper could be. He dropped the bullet on the way up. It didn't take him long to find someone not perturbed by his sudden arrival.
"Hey! You shot at me!" he griped.
His query didn't bat an eye. He took a puff of a lit cigarette, faced his target's nakedness, hover, and scowl.
"Let me tell you two things. One. You're gonna convince your friend to get rid of her Kamui. Two. I'll be sure to make her if she doesn't," he said colder in disposition.
Son let his uncooked dinner go.
"What's that supposed to mean?!" he said closing his hand to lift it.
The shooter remained indifferent. Son set his feet flat. The stare down went the distance even if neither made a move. Raindrops weren't so heavy as they took their time to form, the only noise made.
"Exactly what it sounds like," the shooter said flicking his smoke.
He upturned his dive from where they stood never looking away to do it. Son jogged for the edge but stopped, attention down. Far below he could see a dirty alley, the trash strewed all over it. The shooter was gone with the downpour making it even harder to see.
"... That was weird," he said soaked to the bone.
His senses were keener. Littering the slums rooftops he glanced for the armed unconscious. He recognized their padded, vestlike uniforms. It wasn't hard to discern that the one he let get away was responsible.
x.x.x
Making her way for the company's helipad she was only too glad to leave. Revocs Corporation was a gleaming monument; pellucid in its bid to outshine the cleanest layered jewel as it curved as high as Honnoji Academy. Soroi close at her back with an umbrella, she almost made it.
"Leaving so soon, Lady Satsuki?" rang a deceiving chirp.
It was the blonde, drill-like pigtails, with smaller locks framing her sapphire eye, highlights akin to a smiling face. Too much pink for her lolita dress, hair bow, but not her purplish eyepatch she kept the rain at bay with a parasol's heart motif. Satsuki bought into nothing.
"How is that any of your business?" she dully replied.
Her mother's Grand Couturier needled her taking pleasure in it.
"Don't be such a sour puss! It does a pretty face like yours no good." She crept to her side. "Your mommy said to see you off. Wouldn't miss the chance for anything."
Satsuki's hand tighter around her scabbard wasn't her choice. She fought with impatience.
"What do you really want, Nui?" she asked not yet opening her eyes.
Nui ogled her uniform as if she was the reason for its existence. "Lady Ragyo doesn't appreciate your being a bad girl. Junketsu was made for your wedding day. And what's this we hear about you engaging the boy? That's a no-no sweetie! We don't play with our food. We devour it utterly."
Soroi didn't need to understand his Lady's silence. It said what her frown wouldn't. Satsuki listened to her chopper's rotor blades beating the wind. The storm picking up with a howl. She walked toward the door held open for her and climbed aboard, she and Junketsu, all of dry thanks to Soroi.
"It was necessary. Tell her I have everything under control," she said.
She took her seat before her pilot shut her inside. When she opened her eyes, there Nui was, just beyond her private vehicle with her disturbing glee and Revocs security numbering in the dozens. Her little admirer's mocking wave made her skin crawl. The chopper taking she and Soroi from the company of killers was a godsend. They weren't her ilk.
x.x.x
There wasn't room inside of the shack. Blowing off steam happened outdoors in the alleyway behind it. It was wide, emptied, the cover of night brightened by flickering street lamps. The smell of rotten eggs was hard to shirk. Ryuko didn't care for odors. Son's attacker pissed her off. Other frustrations pissed her off. Venting in one of the only ways she knew helped. Son didn't mind. She held nothing back like he asked her to.
Her bangs waved after her motion. Allowing freedom of movement a midriff-showing top, tighter leggings, slipped against her skin to catch sweat. He kept his smile, his eyes up, impressed with her composure. Her right hook to his ribs missed as did the straight to his chin. He pushed off the kick she jumped into aware of the the second she was quicker to spin. Her knuckles met his forearms three times and raising her foot into his face stopped an inch from his nose.
"Nice!" he glanced from her shoe to how she winked to throw him off.
Ryuko held her leg up to demonstrate limberness.
"You don't gotta tell me," she said, cocksure.
His grin broad she lowered into her footing amused at the sight of his garb.
"The white's starting to wear it's been washed so much," she said with eyes on his chest.
He shot a look at it hoping her words weren't true.
"You're too cool about what happened," she added.
"Can't change it so why worry? If he comes back we'll be ready," he said for wisdom's sake.
It wasn't expected. Ryuko clenched a rag to wipe her face and neck.
"... We should be. Dukes up loser," she said.
Son exposed his palms for her jabs; fast, hard, she had a knack for fighting that only enhanced her pull.
"Tell me...what you're...thinking," she said through breaths.
"Maybe I can train you!" he said like it was some exciting notion. "Old Turtle Hermit taught me a lot when we were kids."
Ryuko snickered. "Your...one track mind ain't always a good thing Son. We barely have time for this."
She swung another foot he swiped left.
"So you say," he said. "I kinda think we can manage."
"Of course you do," she hopped up and down in place punching the air to loosen up.
He was attractive. She thought as much for a while and tired of biting her tongue.
"Where is there time for more than fighting?" she thought. "We find out what happened to dad and then...yeah. Not one-hundred percent on then yet."
Son kept his hands open.
"That's fair," he said, dropping it.
"... Tell you what. We'll hang out this weekend," she said keeping her tone even.
"Sure. You, me, and Mako?" he said.
Ryuko slammed her left into his palm.
"Wow. That one stung! You're hitting harder these days!" he perked up.
"Here's hoping. Now. Where was I? Oh yeah. Didn't mean you, me and Mako. I meant just you and me," she said matter of factly.
Son said nothing else. Ryuko replied with a trying grin. She wasn't one to bat her eyes. He never took in the view of her tight, nubile figure, it angling toward his. He could have stolen a glance at her shapelier backside when they walked for the shack but didn't. Beating around the bush ran its circles. If it was up to her, for two days at least, people wanting her dead could wait.
x.x.x
It was run down, a watering hole he favored. Mikisugi didn't drown his sorrows with sake. He didn't need any disguise as it was well past midnight. He knocked back another shot to dry his throat. Vapor and the sound of merriment was invasive. A drinking buddy arrived late.
"First round's on me," he didn't look up to greet him.
He slid something towards a fingerless glove dressing a rougher hand.
"It won't work, you know," his colleague said, his voice gruff.
Mikisugi had to laugh as it was typical.
"If I recall you owe me one, Tsumugu," he said.
Tsumugu watched the bar counter of polished wood and not the bandage making his nose itch. Mikisugi placed his shot glass before him. Cozy within his unbuttoned dress shirt he scratched his chin.
"Leave Matoi and Son alone and we'll call it even," he said plainly.
"Hmph. So that's it?" Tsumugu didn't smile. "Let her run free wearing that thing and forget what could happen. What will happen."
It was a moment for Mikisugi to sober up. The fuzz in his vision couldn't dim multicolored lights above their talk.
"Yes. That's it," he said.
Tsumugu's bulk didn't intimidate him. He was used to it. He smirked again, turning in his seat to nurse his drink.
"We have to give her that chance," he added to make his case. "Besides. We both know to get to her you have to go through him. Them, frankly. Have any hardware up for the challenge?"
His mocking wasn't intentional. It got under Tsumugu's tanned skin anyway. The latter stood, a cigarette already lit but he took a slower drag of it. On his way out he imparted a known.
"I owe you a favor," he said like he hated to. "This time...I'll honor it. For how long I can't say."
He didn't pause for goodbyes.
"Why does that not surprise me?" Mikisugi chuckled under his breath.
The bartender returned with more for him to guzzle. He gained the freedom to think over the week to come, and indulged.
x.x.x
Ryuko wondered if Satsuki's sway extended to that part of the Kansai region. She hoped not. The cherry blossoms grew early that year, lush pinks for every tree they could see on both sides of the path they walked. It was a first. Her scissor, normal sized as she willed it to be, twirled around her finger to keep Son invested.
"You can control how small or big it gets now?! Awesome!" he raised his voice.
"Won't need to lug around the case so much, you mean," she smirked.
Their morning couldn't have played out in her head better. She had their only cell phone, thumbing its screen to take pictures of nature. She grinned until her face hurt at his lame jokes as they passed freshwater lakes, monuments, the like. Son's seeing her in such good spirits was his first. Black skirt grazing her thighs her top was too tight under her jacket with its rolled up sleeves and for such a short-statured woman, she was well endowed. He felt his heart beating faster. How she looked at him was the dare.
"It's real sunny today," he tried to relax.
"You see me complaining?" she replied. "It's definitely got the Honno City harbor beat. Screw that place."
"... Yeah," Son smiled in agreement. "What if we lived somewhere like this one day?"
The question hit her too hard.
"You tell me. What's our situation in say...ten years?" she said to go there.
To her surprise he answered evenly. "In a house somewhere like this. Lotsa' space so we can train everyday. I can teach you whatever you wanna learn!"
Ryuko's giggle wasn't like her. Son thought on it until she lightly socked his shoulder.
"Wear me out on the regular? I don't think so jerk," she said like she meant it.
Wry when grinning she took a gander at what he would do next. His gi smelled like he gave it a good scrub the day before. He didn't need to flex. Constant exercise molded the man when the downtime couldn't. She wiped the side of his mouth with a thumb, wanting to touch him, a stain from breakfast not as important. Looks of longing followed but the time for it wouldn't last. Pedestrians ran. Their state panicked others into frantic sprints. Son let Ryuko place her back to his. They listened for the tactical trucks rolling up to sound like tanks. Men put boots to the ground to form a wall of opposition. Standing tall on the lead vehicle's hood was worse news.
"Sorry to cut the date short, Matoi. I've got a bone to pick with your boyfriend," Sanageyama sneered.
Ryuko moved to shield Son without thinking, her scissor big again to ward off anything.
"We're not on a date jackass!" she replied, flustered.
She didn't realize how close she was to Son until she felt his warm breath on the back of her head.
"I'll give you ten seconds to get lost," she said.
"Oh? Ultimatums now?" Sanageyama shared a laugh with his followers. "What happened to strike first without mercy? I can help you with that."
A second from charging Son walked in her way. He turned a glance that spoke volumes, a light smile to settle her. His attention moved for Sanageyama's approach.
"Your problem's with me," he remarked. "Leave her out of it."
"Son," she said quietly.
His head turned, his back to her wouldn't, he made his point a second time.
"Take a break for once," he grinned. "This is your weekend."
To the point she aimed her blade at the one ahead of him.
"... You know what. Watching Son kick your ass might just make my day," she sassed. "If we win you let us know what your bitch for a boss has up her sleeve."
"Heh. You're on," Sanageyama encouraged it.
Son leaned down and left, then right to stretch his legs. His neck rolled with his smile. He closed his hand curling that arm to his waist. His second blocked the other side of his body he refused to leave open. Knees bent, like his fingers but not too much, the stance was learned. It brought a disbelieving grin to his opponent's good looking face.
"Let's do this!" Sanageyama extended his arms.
Three stars on his collar flashed to trigger the change. He let chainmail harden to become steel as it shined over his skin by the segment. Arms first as the shell covering them grew three times his normal size. His head coated with a helmet better served on a mech, golds meshed with matte greens, shiny to boot. Shoulder cannons lurched over the sides of his throat his transformation finished as the man was trapped within the machine.
"Three Star Goku Uniform: Blade Regalia Mark One!"
"So you just get bigger?" Son said. "I hope it means what I think it means."
"It does, freak. No more cheap shots. Come at me like you mean it!" Sanageyama replied, his voice blaring from the helmet mic projecting it.
Son left his footing to dart at the sky. A fist tossed, he hit nothing.
"Huh?" he stayed afloat, baffled.
At his back his opponent fired a much larger shinai swatted away at his faster spin. Moving too swiftly left his at-attention image with little else to track. There were several Sons enclosing Sanageyama's bid at keeping calm. His secret was his finding the only one he needed to. He smashed the summoned bamboo against his scalp stopping him in his tracks.
"Ow ow ow ow!" Son winced rubbing the sting from his head. "That was a good one!"
"You've got the speed. No doubt about that. But I see faster!" Sanageyama readied something else. "Tengatsu!"
What Son could view of his artificially supported vision was there jumping back and forth, up and down.
"With these eyes I see it all! Any move you make!" Sanageyama boasted.
He wasn't lying. An assault on Son's limbs followed. It took focus beyond normal to shift his wrists, knees, to move his head from being knocked in. Too many large objects snapped at him from every direction.
"C'mon, Son!" Ryuko shouted. "You got it locked!"
"This guy...sure is quick!" Son huffed.
He shot up and away doubling back to lob two burning spheres.
"Daa, daaa!" he tensed to shout.
Projectiles met his blasts filling the sky with flame and thicker smoke. Sanageyama caught him slipping, appearing above his hover to bash a sword against his head again. Two more left his hand cannons for good measure aiding his fall whilst speeding it up. Son met the ground skull first, unsettling the trees, uprooting grass.
"Son!" Ryuko took off running.
Sanageyama's mech fell like a lightning bolt to change her mind.
"Stay out of it, Matoi!" he yelled at her fore.
She brandished her blade intent on cutting him to pieces. She and Sanageyama's men nearly losing their balance a white blur burst from the earth. It fell to her front with the biggest smile.
"Son!" Ryuko said as she stayed her hand and her feet.
"He's tough," he said.
Dirty, lowering, an arm symmetrical to his leading leg, there was more to read.
"I'm ready to keep going," he said.
"I was hoping you'd say that," Sanageyama's gaze lit up under his helmet.
His hands rotors, heavy shinai attaching to fingertip sockets the lot of them rushed to spin.
"Try this on for size! Senbonzuki!" he hollered.
A legion shot at Son's swipes smacking them back. Hard metal versus his skin and bones he shrugged the maelstrom off as Sanageyama's unit, close to losing their lunch at watching the dizzying pace, didn't possess Ryuko's pride in a friend.
"Yaaahhhhhh!" he strained as long as Sanageyama tried.
"Drop!" his opponent spat. "DROP, DAMN YOU!"
"Doiyaa!" Son threw his arms out.
Shinai shattered against his effort scattering as bits, helpless to do anything but. When Sanageyama blinked Son was close enough to touch with fingers spread to his brow. Everything paused. Dead silence was a burden to wait on and it took its time to pass.
"Taiyokeeeennnn!" Son snapped his eyes shut.
A star's brilliance left his hands to widen. Sanageyama's vision was fire. It burned as quickly as it closed but to no avail.
"Ahhnhnn!" he bellowed sharply.
He wouldn't see his regalia's shutter. Off in the distance Ryuko counted, knowing how long to wait, then opened her sight to catch it. Sanageyama's men blinded by the brightest display they would ever witness only she was privy to Son's cupping his hands.
"Kame...hameeee..," he pulled to set both at his side.
It was always a play at control; too much would ruin the park, too little wouldn't strip away Sanageyama's Three Star weapon. Pure light, Ryuko thought it, grew in size between his palms, at his mercy. Son dug his feet through the dirt to brace himself.
"Haaaaaa!" he outyelled the noise.
Thrusting the shine in his hands basked everything in its glow, he wasn't pushed from his boots, hard as it was to remain firm. It meeting Sanageyama burned the mechanical of his uniform to a crisp revealing nothing but the fighter it was made for. Some of it scorched his skin. Some of it snuffed his scream. The sensation wasn't harsher than defeat as ruckus had yet to settle. Son thanked years of practice mindful of the birds flitting above it all. He only felt sorry for the plant life. One wayward fiber danced left, then right. As Ryuko wasn't wearing Senketsu, nor did she notice, she never asked why it drifted for her.