On the surface it was a heavily influential textile company owned by the Kiryuin conglomerate. She could see the reflection of her flawless, mocha skin, the lavender styling of curly locs on a hallway wall. The floor clacking against white pumps everything she donned was white save for the aviator sunglasses she pulled from her blazer. She put them on before stepping to a door fit for a castle. Not nervous when her hand wrapped around diamond, she turned it. Once inside her boss's desk seemed so far away. Dresses spread out over crystal, bustiers, gowns, all framed like they were her latest trophies. Her feathered hair drenched the room in light silver topped as an array of colors.
"You've brought the best of news, I trust, Rei?" she said in a timbre as elegant as her designer sheath dress.
Thirty of her security stayed attentive, lusting.
"Only the best for you ma'am," Rei bent forward.
She pulled out flat glass, compact, keeping its digital display in hand for the latest.
"The company, as of today, accounts for ninety percent of global apparel industry sales," she said used to images forming with the code bordering each.
"While expected it is something to applaud," her boss eyeballed her. "Harime has been briefed?"
"Yes, Mistress Ragyo. To say she is eager would be pointless," Rei said.
There was but one step leading to Ragyo's chair, her strapless heels resting at its edge. She crossed her long legs, arched her back, letting too much cleavage stretch at her top. Her chin high the wine glass in her hand held the finest recently chilled.
"Give her one more instruction from me," she said, slow to. "Tell her to make it loud."
"... You're a scamp of the highest order, ma'am," Rei replied, leaning her dimpled grin down with her head.
x.x.x
{Ryuko! Tell this deranged girl not to rub so hard!}
"Rubbing hard's the only way to get you clean, right Mako?" Ryuko said joining Son on their sofa to poke at his gi lining.
"That's right!" Mako frowned.
On her knees soap suds splashed with water from a bucket. She doused and rung, again and again.
"I may not hear your complaining but you're gonna get cleaned whether you want it or not mister!" she said.
A full shack it wasn't so late that she had to leave lest she miss her curfew. As often as she thought to visit Ryuko wondered how home life for her really took. She focused on Son. He focused on her pajamas.
"Dad really made this thing a pain to tinker with didn't he?" she said to say anything.
"It's no big deal. I feel great," he said curious of her smaller hands.
Her face close brought the other day to the forefront. She thought he would break that eye contact, but he just stared, thinking doing so was no mistake.
"It's supposed to accelerate your healing. Maximize your output. Blah, blah, blah," she gave up searching. "Like we'd know that without a guide! Sheesh."
Son pat at his first layer, then the one beneath it, then his obi for anything off.
"Senketsu's a hundred percent Life Fiber," he said. "Maybe this is too."
He glanced to her kicking back, one hand over the other to pad the drop of her head into the cushion.
"Not likely," she sighed in a hurry.
"Sleeves, lapels, scarf, skirt! One scrub! Two scrub! Red rub! Blue rub!" Mako prattled in the background.
"That broad and her prick brigade are all talk," Ryuko said.
Her glare could have burned a hole in the ceiling. A plate of croquettes in his lap, not much on his mind, Son paid attention.
"She say anything else? Anything at all that could help us?" Ryuko asked.
"Nuh uh. I would've told you," he gulped first.
She didn't believe him. "Got a reason for the sappy face?"
He wanted to answer but couldn't as Mako hopped to her feet. Holding out Senketsu she struck a pose fit for a battle.
"He's ready to be ironed!" she said serious as a heart attack.
"Go easy on him," Ryuko smirked for it. "Ironing board's in the bathroom."
{Wait! Don't let her take me in there by herself! Assist her!}
"Hang tough, Senketsu. You just might enjoy it," she smiled all about the trouble.
She could see her uniform's panic but none of the harm in it. She chuckled at Mako's march off. Left alone with Son was a different story.
"Son...about the other day," she didn't mean to say.
"What about it?" he said through a full mouth.
He didn't have to move. She slid closer taking a croquette from his plate. Scarfing it down was his thing so she only took small bites. Their light bulb was new. She thanked its giving off a warmer glow to fight a draft.
"Do you understand what we did?" she said.
"What we did?" he repeated.
"Yeah. When my mouth touched yours. You know there's a term for what that is?" her brow furrowed.
"Sure. Kissing. Old Turtle Hermit said he kissed lotsa girls. Kuririn always talked about wanting a girlfriend. I asked if a girlfriend makes you stronger, and if you kiss 'em, if that's a special training exercise. Is it?"
"Uhhhh...depends on the scenario," Ryuko hesitated.
Suddenly her chin itched. She pinched the bridge of her nose. Not upset with him choking those whom were a bad influence crossed her mind.
"It's not about labels," she said. "If you like someone and they like you, you can...ummm...yeah this might take all night."
Only she could hear Senketsu's enjoying a hot iron, moans of something or the other through the bathroom door. Nothing but crumbs left on Son's plate she took it to set it by their feet.
"It's like this. What we did might make things weirder," she gently punched his knee. "I just wanted us on the same page so it doesn't get in the way later."
"We are on the same page," he wanted to grasp it. "You and Kuririn are my best friends, but I knew you first. That's really important. Mako's nice too! Friends look out for friends."
"... You're right. They do," Ryuko slid a bit closer.
He allowed her taking his hand into hers. Her red lock fell over her eyes with the rest of her bangs. She flipped them left, raised his touch, squeezed it, stopped until he noticed.
"If anything happens keep what you said in mind, okay? It is important," she said.
"... We'll get through whatever's thrown our way," he promised. "We have so far."
Ryuko leaned her response at a snail's pace. Following her lead Son hoped she would be fine with his attempt. Bursting into what almost happened Mako stopped front and center, Senketsu dazed and in tow.
"Clean, dry, and ready to take on the Elite Four!" she said. "... Oops. We'll wait in the bathroom!"
She shot out of sight before anyone could object.
"I wonder what that's about," Son said.
Titillated, somewhat embarrassed, Ryuko hushed her laugh. She stood without a knife to cut the tension. There were few places she could go. She chose her bed's side.
"It's not like you need the thing to work. We're good," she changed the subject but didn't want to. "We got a few more days. You think we should take the fight to them for a change?"
"I sure do! Hopefully Sanageyama is even stronger!" he said offering two clenched hands and enthusiasm.
Ryuko's stare tilted slightly. "You're a lost cause. Help me sort the place out."
x.x.x
Everyone had to listen for her heel. As it fell emotions ran the gamut. Satsuki's grandstanding on display she could spot the finalists. Her Elite Four found success. So did a certain two.
"You've made it...Matoi," she thought aloud.
Gathered among the schoolyard it would be rude to keep them in suspense.
"Fellow comrades of Honnoji Academy!" she barked. "You have done well to struggle through seven days of mortal combat. Worthiness is why you will take part in the Sudden Death Runoff Election!"
Son turned a glance to stiff competition.
"However, your battle has only just begun!" Satsuki finished.
The academy's entrance high as it was sturdy flooding from it were losers and No Stars. Mako tried to follow what she could from so far back. Mikisugi in his classroom, the spectacle beyond appeared all the same.
"It seems I've got no other choice here," he regretted to say. "Sorry, Ryuko."
x.x.x
An uproar from the crowd didn't rumble as much as the ground they stood on. There were two options: brace themselves or face plant. Ryuko gave Son a nod for readiness. The dirt opened to allow massive pillars, easily seven stories high, on the rise with jutting spikes. Carved into each stairs with no railings spiraled to allow anyone brave enough to try climbing.
"There are five towers in the schoolyard! Those standing atop of them will be considered front runner candidates, and the election will be conducted!" Satsuki kept her pride in the event.
"Ever with the underhanded crap!" Ryuko scoffed, a tighter grip on her scissor. "Suits me just fine!"
She spat then took off with a sprint Son had to chase. Swipes with her blade moved around swings from his fists and feet dropping those of their peers in the way. It was no chore to watch for Nonon, Inumuta, Gamagori and Sanageyama, whom already took their place among the heavens. Students fell by the wayside as Ryuko ran a pillar's length, eating up the distance like her life depended on it. Son caught some of the lost from plunging to certain death leaving them hanging on spike tips by the waistband.
"Raahhhhhhhhh!" Ryuko hollered pushing her body into a jump.
She eventually touched her feet flat. A couple of her opponents saw better results, propped higher.
"Well, well...the Elite Four was an apt name," Satsuki didn't rush to smile.
"You expected anything else?" Nonon said as full of herself.
"Lady Satsuki!" Gamagori narrowed his bushy eyebrows. "We propose a new rule for the Sudden Death Runoff Election."
"We choose who we'd like to fight. Wouldn't mind another shot at Son Goku," Sanageyama chimed in.
His new trenchcoat had all of the bells and whistles. Cries of uncertainty from the swarm watching filled the air. It seemed no one, down or up, minded the cold.
"We're going to fight them anyway. This grand stage is the perfect place for it," Nonon said, prim and proper, her baton held at her back.
"It would be the perfect climax to the Naturals Election," Inumuta added in agreement.
"... At the very least," Satsuki said.
And as if to set a stage for her the last pillar all but ruined her campus. An imposing mass every eye rose with it. Its design a contemporary steel, less archaic, it proved a fitting arena indeed.
"This is a king of the hill final battle. Matoi! Son Goku! Battle my Elite Four and emerge victorious! Do that and I shall tell you the details of your father's death," she claimed.
"Tsk. You would say as much," Ryuko said to no one. "Son. You cool with this?"
"Yep," he said, with her, arms at his sides, a confident gaze up.
Gamagori brandished a maroon bullwhip. Latching it to the pillar he needed to reach he slung himself dropping like a mortar fired, his heft digging into where he landed.
"Do not interfere Son Goku! Inumuta will be your first opponent!" he said.
Wind pushed at Son's locks not able to move the firm arms crossing over his chest.
"I can wait. There's no way you're gonna beat Ryuko," he said.
"Hmph! I am Lady Satsuki's impenetrable shield! Your disobedient comrade falls here!" Gamagori glanced for the one in question.
She kept fingers on her glove hook. Letting it rip let her relax. The treat was Son's seeing her armor give her a lighter pick me up. Senketsu configured with her fearlessness slapping some of her skin to coat it. Its razor ends poked out to shield her shoulders.
"Life Fiber Synchronize, Kamui Senketsu!"
Scissor kept to her front for defense Gamagori was unmoved. No one moved for several seconds too long.
"... Hey! What's the hold up?! Let's get to it already!" Ryuko griped.
"The first round begins in three hours! Unlike you, we follow the academy's rules! THIS IS WHAT DISCIPLINE IS ALL ABOUT!" Gamagori said, a vein just about ready to pop free of his thick neck.
"The round structure has been set. As Gamagori and Inumuta defeated the least number of students, they will face you and Son first," Satsuki imparted.
"My, my. Mister wild monkey's new uniform must really be the bees knees," Nonon slyly eyed Sanageyama, straightening the brim of her hat.
"Of course it is," he gave his coat a once over. "And here I thought I'd get the first crack at them."
"I only defended myself from attacks with nothing to prove," Gamagori said to save face. "This just means you won't get a chance to fight her, Jakuzure."
"Hmph. Big talk...for a half witted toad," Nonon retorted.
"Enough!" Satsuki put her foot down. "Son. Matoi. Round one will begin shortly. If need be make peace with your gods."
"Tell it to your lackeys. When I'm done with 'em, you're next!" Ryuko leered.
Son followed their exchange, not unaware of the gist, but keeping anything else he had to say to himself.
x.x.x
Nothing beat fresh air and the open road. His hog rode low to the pavement. He had a hand in its design, the matte olive paint job. Secret compartments remained closed his bluetooth earpiece vibrated. He swerved over disregarding that there weren't any cars on the thoroughfare. Parked, determined, he tapped it.
"You're the last person I expected a call from. Is this about the girl in the Kamui?" Tsumugu asked, attentive to scorched red in the sky.
It was a telling omen.
*... Yeah. I guess you could say that. She's going to fight them. There's no telling how it will adapt to suit her needs. Son is there, should things go left, but ...*
"You're telling me to assume a worst-case scenario, is that it?"
*I suppose I am.*
Tsumugu's blank staring narrowed. "Understood."
He disengaged rocket launchers built to armor his bike's back wheel. All power reverted to speed enhancements, hands on the grips, he kicked at the stand, wheeled a u-turn from his spot. In the distance an irritating monument embodied everything wrong. Speeding towards it was suicide, but he revved the engine, getting the job done on his brain. There was no in between.
x.x.x
Spectator seats held plenty of butts to warm them. It circled the pillars, the arena with students boisterous for violence. Mako's fierce resolve wasn't so noisy. Pouty faced, all about Ryuko and Son's victories, she could see their standing together on a pillar not unlike the others a stone's throw from the arena.
"Begin!" Satsuki stood by her lonesome.
Body language hers to see Ryuko's mimicked Son's. Stairs such as she preferred unraveled from two pillars, a way for Gamagori and Ryuko to find their way to the stage. The arena's sides dazzled with large portraits of the two combatants, stats relevant to anyone who cared. Ryuko felt as if she was walking a tightrope. She turned a glance but kept on moving. Son scrutinized like he knew what she didn't. It kept her amped. She then looked to her opponent matching her pace.
"Be careful Senketsu. We don't know what this guy can do," she said at her top.
Her uniform's eye jumped to meet hers.
{I will remain focused.}
"I know," she grinned. "Ready?"
She grasped her hook between three fingers.
{Absolutely!}
"Then let's do it!" she snatched if free, her transforming no less glittery.
"Consider that your last transformation Matoi!" Gamagori threatened.
The stars lining his collar flashed. Ryuko could have done without the nudity yet his was broadcast for anyone within or outside of the academy's walls. Shirking metal ugly straps wrapped him from head-to-toe, a sheen to a cloth that wouldn't grant him comfort nor let him slacken. His head piece molded with a ball gag of the same hard substance. His suit's spikes found areas of a harness to shoot from.
"Three Star Goku Uniform: Shackle Regalia!"
"Jeez you guys are unreal. What kind of s-and-m getup is that supposed to be?" Ryuko mocked holding her blade steady near her middle.
"Hmph. Asked the juvenile delinquent. Mock at your own peril!" Gamagori didn't budge an inch.
He stood a towering mummy chipping away at her tolerance. Son, at a safe distance, picked up on it first.
"... Ryuko wait!" he cried out too late.
She pushed from the ball of her foot, and when close, slashed down then away. One attempt wasn't cutting it so she moved her arms left and right as fast as she could.
"Wanna get sliced up?! Fine! It's your funeral!" she went to town on it.
Every attempt cut open the air, but not her opponent.
"Yes! Mmmhmm! YES! Discipline me, Ryuko Matoi! Punish and punish and punish me until I climax!" Gamagori's voice quivered.
His suit's expanding slapped her back, in league with the elongated limbs springing from it, each like a tendril with its own intelligence striking his body and hers, driving her off. Gamagori's bursting at the seams was no jest.
"You really are a fool!" he said.
Beat into the honeycomb layered stage Ryuko pushed her chest from it smacked by a tendril on every soft place. She could feel fresh bruises setting beneath her skin. In spite of it being whipped, over and over, she raised her head through the pain to see the source.
"And now witness something few have!" Gamagori mouthed past the ball gag.
His cocoon wriggled like it was set aflame.
"Three Star Goku Uniform: Scourge Regalia!" he cried when it ripped apart.
"A second transformation?!" Son gasped and like the other Elite Four he needed to dodge a whip to the face ever so often.
He tensed, for her sake, though acting on it wouldn't happen.
"No one said you could use two forms!" he didn't wait to say.
"All is fair in love and war Son Goku!" Gamagori relished the change.
Spiked whips wouldn't quit as the deadlier chakram his suit summoned was ready. It set at his back a hard cased gift like the segments latching to his body. Cloth turned to rubbery metal, his mask hardened, his wraps taking on a slimmer build for completion.
"My whips are of that very love. The love of discipline! I WILL MOLD MATOI INTO THE PROPER STUDENT EVEN IF IT KILLS HER!" he shouted.
"Like...hell...you will!" Ryuko resisted.
Smacks stung the most on the plump curve of her bottom. Every one received a flinch.
"Why the stalling?! Fall out of this battle area and you lose! GET UP SO I CAN SHOW YOU!"
"You...idiots...love...making up rules on the fly!" she winced struggling to shove from a prone position, slowly but surely.
Scissor handle unfolding, the end of her blade doing the same, she strained into an end of desperation and little tact. Able to lunge it struck her opponent. She found a glimmer of hope.
"Sen-i-Soshitsu!" she yelled.
Gamagori's turn like a lumbering carapace shattered that hope. She spun in place frustration.
{His uniform has no Life Fibers on the surface. I cannot absorb what isn't there!}
"You've gotta be kidding me!" she huffed.
"Cloth, Matoi. My armor is reinforced by special powers," Gamagori needled settling on his suit's initial form. "Piercing it is the only way to absorb its Life Fibers!"
"He's right Ryuko!" Son shouted through cupped hands.
"Teh. Guess I'm digging my way in then!" she lowered herself to move again.
"Don't attack him anymore!" Son warned.
His voice stopping her effort, she listened for another's.
"Come on, transfer student. I'm the one that's supposed to do you in," Nonon mocked.
"The Disciplinary Chair's head is a bit swollen, isn't it? Impressing his empress must be priority number one," Inumuta said.
"That was your first mistake, Matoi. Disregarding Gamagori's resolve," Satsuki joined in.
For her, Son's wanting to act was as entertaining to watch as her enemy's torment.
x.x.x
Ryuko finding better luck at slicing off appendages, where one fell another grew.
"Here and now, Matoi, is where I crush you!" Gamagori barked.
"I ain't losin' to some perv in a bondage suit!" Ryuko said.
She wasn't fast enough to dodge the next. It smacked the taste from her mouth sending her into a careen over the stage edge. A quick spin of her hip with an arm thrust stabbed her blade into its side. Hanging by the straps clutching her breasts spurred up louder chants from the crowd, mostly from horny teenage boys, and Mako, in awe of how perky they were.
{Ryuko. Are you all right?}
"I've been better. We're not giving up here," she grimaced.
She could only see what was directly above her. Son's face was no mirage. He stood looking over where she fell, keeping out of it.
"You enjoying the view?" she made light of it.
"Just making sure you're okay," he grinned, hands on his hips. "You've got a fight to win. Get your head in the game."
"On it, smart ass," one corner of her mouth rose.
She tugged her weight up by one of two flexible bands. He backed to let her pull herself over the edge.
"You don't know when to submit. Misfortune favors you, Matoi!" Gamagori said.
He made his post the stage's center. Ryuko took her time to study his suit for anything out of the ordinary.
"I've got your misfortune right here!" she extended her blade, cocky, willing.
Unable to move four chakram trapping her were a cause she didn't see coming. Either she was getting bigger or they were shrinking.
"Squirm all you want! You'll never break free!" Gamagori claimed.
Gauntlets outstretched he let both morph into heavy traps akin to a stranger iron maiden, uncomfortable as they looked oversized. Ryuko leered at its inner mold of a sailor fuku minus the soul to fill it.
"This mold is of the ideal, proper female high school student! You're in sore need of it!"
Crushing her between it and what already squeezed her wasn't her choice. Son glanced to Satsuki not smiling, not perturbed, though he wore his emotion on his sleeveless top.
"Reflect on your ill temperaments, Matoi! Let me mold you into the proper student!" Gamagori continued.
He didn't kick up the sparks his trap would. Ryuko's skin burned at its touch, but she resisted, not letting it close her within with what little of the reserves she had left.
{You want to win, Ryuko?}
"You're...asking me...that of all things?!" she cringed and it took everything to stay conscious. "Of course I...do!"
{Then I have something in mind. Leave it to me.}
"I'm not...ack...goin' anywhere!" she coughed.
"Hang tough Ryuko!" Son lost his cool.
He heard Mako's high pitch from the stadium. "Listen to Son, Ryuko! You don't wanna wind up like a human taiyaki!"
Ryuko strained to spin free of the trap, the chakrams thrown from her body. Senketsu lost his luster, his steel. She controlled ragged breathing with no blade to wield and no armor to speak of.
"Ryuko!" Son hurried ready to take her place.
"Don't!" she shouted to stop him, her top and skirt on the mend.
"Proper enough, Matoi. An appearance suitable of a disciplined student!" Gamagori said.
He let his tendrils whip back and forth but not at her.
"Now that my words have sunk in, taste the ultimate whip of love!"
It was the biggest he could conjure. It launched from his pelvis but was stopped by Senketsu's middle dislodging to sharpen at several points above and below. Ryuko had no words for its biting into Gamagori's waiting cloth. Wraps of it smothered her entirely. Son's patience was done.
"Let her go!" he inched forward.
"Stay your hand, Son Goku! Lady Satsuki has forbidden your interference!" Gamagori prepped several options just in case.
"Stand and watch! Watch and learn why Lady Satsuki is superior to your friend in every way! Watch as I strangle her BEFORE YOUR VERY EYES!"
" ... "
Everything he was said to hell with the rules but he remembered: she told him to stop. Son scooped up her Scissor Blade to almost grip any durability it had left from it.
"Without her weapon she has no way to fight back! YOU CAN BURY IT WITH HER WHEN I FINISH!"
"... That was foolish, Gamagori," Satsuki whispered.
Red sharp ruptured Gamagori's rags. Excited sparkles chased his frantic running back and forth. It tickled as much as it felt like he was being stabbed repeatedly.
"Ahn! Ahhnnhh! AHNNAAHHN!" he bellowed yet he couldn't escape the piercing.
It cut through his suit to reveal the one gaining the upper hand. Ryuko burst free with shiny new means for her motive.
"Senketsu Senjin!" she cried out spreading lengthy claws jutting from her gauntlets, three on each wrist, as rigid as what sprouted the ends of her heels, chest straps, skirt and breastplate.
"You might need this!" Son gladly tossed her weapon.
Upturned into her twist she snatched her blade from the sky, grill ports flaring bright to zip her back at Gamagori's shock.
"You've had it! Your Life Fibers are totally exposed now!" she burst forward along the metal coating her feet.
Two hands to swing it out she brought her arms down and across.
"Finishing Move: Sen-i-Soshitsu!"
"I-IMPOSSIBLLLEEE!"
Saliva left Gamagori's mouth, veins etched along the white of his eyes. It took a moment for him to hit the stage but when he did he hit it hard. Buried beneath pieces of his uniform Ryuko stood tall with fresh potential to keep her eye on him. Senketsu blew off steam. She felt him wriggle hungrily to take in a new fiber whilst Satsuki's Elite Four had no insults.
"Become obsessed with resolve and even that can turn to arrogance. A shame," Satsuki had the gall to utter.
ROUND ONE VICTOR: RYUKO MATOI!, flashed on and off as four scoreboards displayed the outcome.
"Ryuko's so cool!" Mako tried her hand at outcheering everyone.
"Nice thinking Senketsu," Ryuko wanted to grin.
{If Goku Uniforms can transform twice, I saw no reason why I couldn't.}
"Always on your toes. That's the best thing about you, y'know," she playfully brushed at her scarf.
The next to approach meant her no harm. He rushed to lift her from her feet with goofy laughing to prompt hers.
"I knew you'd do it!" he spun with her.
Dropped to her shoes she swiped her knuckles along his jaw.
"Thanks for the alley oop," she flashed her teeth.
They weren't hidden by the dust blocking much of the stage. It dispersed when it did for all she cared. Enjoying their embrace kept her occupied, and content.