"Listen close Heaven and Hell. My performance can't be stopped just because she can fly now!"
Livid, Nonon could barely trail her target, letting off hot bursts that could melt steel yet not the enemy's shirking every shot.
"Performance my ass! All you're doing is taking potshots with missiles!" Ryuko jerked herself left and right.
A tight grip on her blade Senketsu tickled her skin. He felt warmer.
{Ryuko. Our only option is to get close and attack. We have the edge in maneuverability.}
"Won't hurt to try!" she arched to juke away.
Nonon's airship left rising smoke and no one to set crosshairs on.
"Where'd she go?!" she poked from the cavity.
Appearing suddenly, Ryuko rained, her blade primed for stabbing.
"Senketsu! Let's cut that thing down!" she said.
Turning over her nosedive let coned segments of her armor break free of her legs. Dropping onto her heels ends, momentum kept, she ran carving a line along Nonon's prized possession. Wind blew the sparks hitting her face, it didn't matter. Seeing Nonon hoisted up a whistle blow triggered a woofer. The pitch smacking Ryuko stung on impact as she barreled through it.
"Having trouble with the upkeep bitch?!" she spat carving through what annoyed her.
"You're a sour note alright! I'm going to erase you, transfer skank!" Nonon frowned. "Have a taste of this! Symphony Regalia: Musical Barrage!"
Her airship shook to fire missiles at her behest. New to flying, Ryuko focused on position, relying on not only coordination. Seeing her chance she latched onto one of the weapons she guessed was a massive flute. Parked on the arena that was somehow in one piece her opponent's mind slipped with her guard. Ryuko drew back what easily dwarfed her to hurl it recklessly.
" ... "
Nonon watched, unable to do anything but, frozen in place for the end to her tantrum. It fell like her jaw though much slower. When it hit her brain rattled in her skull. Her tank burst into flames. Instruments joined other tossed up debris to fall against anyone with poor reflexes. She slowly recovered but did so on her knees.
"... Ouch. I can't believe she did that," she rubbed at the throbbing.
Something hard smacked her head again.
"Hey, what's up with your performance? Can't you fly anymore?" Ryuko said able to levitate her brash. "'If you can't...that's gonna be awfully inconvenient for you."
She zipped back and forth a test for Nonon's patience, enjoying nothing more.
"She's all yours, Senketsu!" she said.
The blunt end of her weapon waved in each pass.
{Alright! Leave her to me! Flying through the air is rather fun!}
Nonon threw her hands forward. "Wait! If I can't fly anymore, isn't the cliche that you come down here to challenge me?"
Antsy, harder was seeing her opponent shooting at her as red death in her hands doubled in length.
"Right! 'Cuz you would give me and Son the same leeway?!" Ryuko smirked defiance. "Finishing move: Sen-i-Soshitsu!"
Nonon careened from her setting down just before Son's running up.
"That was awesome!" he said.
Ryuko let herself relax though not fully.
"Senketsu's showing off today huh," she grinned.
{Ryuko. I was unable to absorb her Life Fibers.}
"Underestimate the Elite Four at your peril, Ryuko Matoi!" Satsuki didn't whisper.
"...ENCORE!...ENCORE!...ENCORE!...ENCORE!...," rang from the crowd left to spur it.
The lot of them pumped fists to speed up an answer.
"What the hell?" Ryuko wondered.
Son turned with her to eye the chants. The arena a lifeless chunk hanging on by a thread they couldn't describe the multi-tiered tower formed of a vehicle's remains, its owner riding it, and her uniform a drum major's coat tailed with her new hat, tall as it was mechanical.
"Symphony Regalia: Da Capo!" Nonon said. "For our encore, let's go with one of the standards!"
A fresh conductor baton in hand she pointed for two.
"We'll try a tune known to children everywhere! Beethoven's Symphony Number Five: Fate!"
"Ryuko!" Son jumped to the side surprised she didn't.
The cannon extended from Nonon's hat, fired.
"I'm just getting started, Son Goku! Lady Satsuki doesn't need the headache of you and that ignorant slut!"
Not yet bullied prone Ryuko held herself up on fingertip and toe strength. The heightening force she couldn't see played havoc on her attempt to.
"What's wrong, Senketsu? Your connection is weak!" she felt her voice tremble.
{I don't know. But your sound is faint.}
"My s-sound?" she added. "Where's Son?"
Her nerve ends seared she squinted to see him; not far off with an arm raised and gritting his teeth. Ripples running along his clothes moving him didn't take.
"R-Ryuko!" he struggled to reach for her.
Doing so brought him a painful jolt. Nonon narrowed a harsher glare.
"I see you are confused, transfer student. The rhythm blasted out by my Goku Uniform resonates with the targeted Life Fibers, manipulates them, and inflicts damage. You and your pet have been reduced to wooden dolls that can only sit there and bear the brunt of my baton's attacks!"
"B-Block it out. M-Maybe S-Senketsu can help!" Son dropped to one knee.
"C-Can you do that Senketsu?" Ryuko said.
{Every last Life Fiber in my body is vibrating to that music.}
Wobbled when pulling herself up she ignored what weighed her down. Securing her blade to her lower back, her hands opened. Taking a deep breath despite the noise it was scorching her through to the bone. The pain wouldn't set in. Nonon let a target lens fall over her right eye, temper flared.
"YOU'RE DONE!" she screamed to amplify the effect.
Driven back by her own shot it rushed for its target. Pushed again, standing firm, Ryuko didn't see Son's rising spring from the punishment nor his stop in midair to watch.
"That's it. Just block it out," he said seeing it swirl into itself to bowl her over.
"My music isn't ringing out!" Nonon gasped.
x.x.x
"... It's not that it isn't ringing out," Inumuta deduced.
"Whatwhatwhatwhat?"
"Matoi is taking the rhythm emanated by Jakuzure and using that technique to make it resonate, thus also making it a pure tone," Inumuta said.
"Pure tone?" Mako said.
"She's altering the frequency of the waves Jakuzure is giving off to match her own. Although the sound is muddy on impact, it eventually matches her own natural frequency. Just like a tuning fork."
Mako beamed unable to stay in her seat. "So what you're saying is...Ryuko is really awesome!"
"Mankanshoku has boiled down your complicated information to its essence," Gamagori smirked. "This is what you mean by pure tone?"
"This is what I mean by pure stupidity," Inumuta sighed.
x.x.x
"... Can you hear me now, Senketsu? ..."
... {Yes, loud and clear. This is your heartbeat, Ryuko?} ...
... "Yeah. Son taught me what actual meditation is. It's nothing like that bullshit in infomercials." ...
... {Ah. Perhaps you should let him teach you more often.} ...
... "Just focus on my sound." ...
... {I will. It is most pleasant, your sound.} ...
x.x.x
"This is impossible! My attack isn't working?" Nonon's voice shook to say.
What she could see of Ryuko's eyes was their narrowing to spread open, how she gently brought her palms to her fore, fingers straight.
"Time to send it back!" she loosened her limbs.
The power that had yet to leave her bounced from a wall of no one's imagination. In the distance, Son cracked a smile.
"There you go," he said.
"Senketsu Mubyoshi!" she shouted.
Forced back to whence it came Nonon dug in her heeled boots to protest. Her body clenched, she choked up.
"She's trying to drive me back?! Over my dead body!" she said.
Hectic light tried at blotting out the region.
"What's that?! I can't hear a single note you're playing!" Ryuko mocked.
"J-JUST DIE ALREADY YOU STINKING BITCH!" Nonon snapped.
Her ears ringing she dug in to stay alert.
"Give it a rest already!" Ryuko advanced, palms crossed near the horned clips poking from her streaks fluttering.
It was too much. Nonon yielded to the force that almost snapped her in half. Bent backward she spotted Ryuko's blade drawn from its holster, prepped.
"Scissor Blade: Decapitation Mode!" she pulled her arms back to ready it.
Her ports replied for the charge to come.
"It's curtains for you!"
She surpassed what she generated to swing her weapon. Nonon's uniform puffed loose as it was harshly taken whether she liked it or not. Louder was her enemy's war cry.
"Finishing Move: Sen-i-Soshitsu!" Ryuko paused, eyes closed, close to grateful.
Waiting for the ruckus to cease Son slowly touched down when he could. His foot by Nonon's hat it dispersed as a withered relic missing a wearer.
x.x.x
No one was around to ask her how she got up there. She watched from her post on the academy's fortification. The arena screens intact weren't far away, filling one a scantily clad teenager let her armor drink a glowing thread. When the camera set on the one she spoke with, interest piqued.
"I see. She's wearing a Kamui but he isn't!" she said, wet drops tapping her parasol. "Look at how cute they are!"
x.x.x
"Did you see that, Iori?" Satsuki asked for the one listening.
*I did. I have located the problem areas in the Shackle Regalia and Probe Regalia. Examination of the Symphony Regalia is still underway.*
"Excellent work."
Spotting Son and Ryuko, whom were further down, she couldn't say why their idle chit-chat annoyed her.
"Keep me posted," she said.
*Understood.*
x.x.x
"Let me tell you two useful pieces of information: One. Clothing that develops rips must be taken off. Two. You should take off that depressing getup, the sooner the better!"
Tsumugu flicked a cigarette butt in his approach.
Leaning against a rooftop railing Mikisugi thought it funny. "It's a disguise! If I paraded in front of them in all of my nude glory I'd draw attention."
"Right," Tsumugu snickered.
He sat to open the rifle case he lugged. Packed to the gills with the weapon itself, disassembled, Mikisugi searched for one type of cleaned ammunition.
"Here. This is the item you asked for," Tsumugu held it out.
It had some weight to it, cased in copper and a stringy red.
"And it's the only one so use it carefully," he said.
"Sorry for making you bring it all this way," Mikisugi drooped to rest his forearms.
Tsumugu chose to sit as rain glistened his burlier limbs. Having just smoked nicotine addiction beckoned him to light another.
"They were nervous back at headquarters," he said. "Is Matoi that strong?"
"In mere hours she's absorbed two Goku Uniforms. If not for Son beating Inumuta I'm sure she would've done the same of his."
Mikisugi shared a handheld Tsumugu could scrutinize. Ryuko's efforts on replay it wasn't at all that comforting.
"You might've had a chance against her before," Mikisugi dropped his base. "Not now. And we can't rely on Son to put her down. They're...for lack of a better word...involved."
"Shouldn't we be more worried about him?" Tsumugu asked.
He didn't forget his encounter. Mikisugi not answering right away didn't help.
"I don't know yet," he sighed running a hand against his damp hair to fold it back.
They let shifty weather choose between precipitation or just overcast. Either way the day, like their predicament, remained bleak.
x.x.x
WINNER: RYUKO MATOI!
The billboards weren't lively. They were barely hinged at the stage edges.
"She did it! She did it, she did it, she did did did it!" Mako danced stopping not long after.
Seated beside Inumuta, a crabby Nonon, the latter's hat was less firm and less elongated, her tracksuit missing pants.
"You're here too, Jakuzure!" Mako said.
"I managed to collect some excellent data. Thank you," Inumuta said through his collar just shy of sincere.
"Bite me," Nonon groused. "The next time you butt in I'm gonna switch out the lenses of your glasses for non-prescription ones."
"Excuse me, aren't you going to chew out Jakuzure? Y'know, like, asking her why she has on a tracksuit too?" Mako asked Gamagori.
His glare closed like he took offense. "I'm not that sort of shameless wretch."
"Oh, so, girls get a free pass!" Mako said.
The next round beginning cut off any chatter. Wherever Son went his coming back was on cue. Sanageyama descended stairs free of questions. Ryuko stood close, giving Son his space.
"So, it's finally my turn, is it?" Sanageyama grinned.
"That uniform doesn't look so different. You sure it makes you stronger?" Son said.
Sanageyama slid hands into his slacks, delayed the follow-up.
"That's an understatement," he didn't laugh fully. "I'll take the liberty of putting him down, Lady Satsuki."
"Very well," Satsuki replied. "Round four, begin!"
"I have to say. Matoi's evolution is astonishing," he said curious of Ryuko's Kamui. "It's a shame we've yet to fight."
"Get in my way anymore and we will," Ryuko mouthed off.
She took a grinning step back, sure of herself, sure of Son, and the claim.
"This is the end of the line for you both!" Sanageyama said to spite her.
They had seen his transformation before but the aesthetic was unused. There was still too much jade-gold trapping an otherwise lean upstart. Secure within his mech's husk he disregarded his nerves.
"Three Star Goku Uniform: Blade Regalia Mark Two!"
"Don't go easy on 'em," Ryuko said.
She smiled for Son's flicking his hand from his brow. Sanageyama leaned into a dash when Son brought about one just as swift. It seemed an eternity passed with the rain. Hollering along the charge pink lace dropped like a wayward rose petal. An instant stop at their pace jerked Son's neck and legs ahead of him.
"... W-Who are you?" Sanageyama was first to ask.
She couldn't see him through the patch. Her healthy eye set on Son.
"Sanageyama! Get back!" Satsuki shouted.
"Who the hell is that?" Ryuko chimed in.
Hers was a nagging suspicion that she knew the answer.
"Why have you come here, Nui Harime?!" Satsuki said forgetting everyone else present.
"This isn't fair, Lady Satsuki, doing something fun without telling me!" Nui puckered up.
"I'm not obligated to tell you anything," Satsuki said.
She didn't pay any mind to her pressing at her blade's pommel.
"Gosh, how cold! I thought you and I were two hearts beating as one!"
"Don't be insincere. You associate with no one."
"... You're as breathtaking as ever!" Nui declared. "Your icy stare and icy skin are simply too much!"
Even if she registered the large shinai aimed at the back of her head she would leave them none the wiser.
"Stand aside, woman," Sanageyama warned. "I won't tolerate anymore interference in my fight with Son Goku."
"Sorry. I can't do that!" her unsettling smile spread. "After all. The boy-toy and Matoi's daughter are mine!"
"I told you to get out of the way!"
Sanageyama moved his limbs with the weight of his armor. Swinging a shinai high, it stopped. Nui held his weapon at bay with her parasol quick as he lunged it.
"No way!" Son put on awe.
Ryuko shuffled to join him.
{This is not good.}
"How so?" Ryuko said.
She noticed Senketsu clutching her tighter.
{Just a feeling. If you wish to protect Son then steel yourself.}
"Gosh, this won't do. You're no fun at all," Nui said.
Sanageyama's armor dwarfed her standing there with no filter.
"Eat this! Finishing move: Isshin Zenzanken!"
His right gauntlet merged with his left. Springing free as a mass, the biggest of the bamboo metal he could muster, its spiked hilt coated him to the elbows, he heaved it back for a final strike. He didn't catch Nui's approach with her pinky tip. It slid between a chink in his gear. Whatever she snagged stopped his ability to feel anything.
"Go back to being a naked ape!" she said as she tugged it free.
Pulling it out completely his suit vented exhaust, a death howl, it shattered to pieces leaving him nude and unable to cope.
"What?!" was all he had for it.
"Hup!" she came at him once more.
A tap with her parasol knocked him comatose.
"I've got him!" Son said flinging himself over the arena.
He swooped his catch setting Sanageyama somewhere devoid of peril. There was a ripped, oblong banner to cover his shame though not much else could. Son took his irritation higher biting the words he had for Satsuki. In his ascent he saw Ryuko freezing in place.
"The boy-toy caught him? Oh well!" Nui smiled.
x.x.x
"A Three Star Goku Uniform unraveled by pulling a single thread!" Gamagori raised his voice.
"How can that be?" Inumuta said.
"Isn't it your job to explain exactly this sort of thing!" Nonon fussed.
"Impossible! I cannot analyze something without data."
"It's the red thread of fate!" Mako said believing whatever she believed. "The invisible thread that connects the pinkies of people destined for each other!"
"Where are there pinkies on clothing?" Nonon grumbled.
"But it turned red just now!" Mako said.
"Quit bugging me underachiever!" Nonon leered.
Pouting, Mako shrugged, hiding worry for Ryuko. Current events troubled in a way she had yet to figure out.
"Goku Uniform, was it? Lady Satsuki's vaunted combat uniforms." Nui carelessly rocked back and forth. "The stitching is a bit weak, don't you think?"
When she turned her head the creepy visage unique to her set on Satsuki. Son fell from the sky yet it didn't break her concentration.
"She severed its Banshi?" Satsuki mumbled.
*No one can spot the Banshi at a glance and sever it in an instant!*
Satsuki turned her attention to Son's.
"What is a Banshi? What happened, Iori?" she said.
*A Banshi is a Life Fiber that has been imbued with the will to become clothing. The thread that is the key to creating a Goku Uniform.*
"What does that mean?" Son asked.
Satsuki raised her finger.
*It has multiple layers of defenses to prevent it from feeling the effects of an attack. Even when Matoi's Kamui absorbs Life Fibers, the Banshi is the very last one it takes. It's inconceivable that she could have pulled it out in that instant, and cut it!*
x.x.x
"We have a real big shot on our hands," Mikisugi said.
He could see who and what through an active monocular.
"Nui Harime, the Grand Courtier herself," Tsumugu typed.
The laptop he brought along headquarters tech the rain did little to diminish its function.
"Grand Courtier? Revocs?" Mikisugi pressed for an answer.
"Who else has one?" Tsumugu put it bluntly. "The home office's High Order Tailor is here."
"In other words the one who sent her is none other than Revocs top dog," Mikisugi said because it was a hassle. "Oh man. Things are getting more complicated by the minute."
x.x.x
"You're okay with this, right, Lady Satsuki?" Nui undressed her with a gaze.
Two threats at Satsuki's front, one at her back, it wasn't the best pinch to be in.
"You're asking for my permission?" she deflected the question.
Nui could always appear suddenly before her, ever looming.
"Yes! I've never disobeyed you have I?" she said.
"Whatever, let's just get to it!" Ryuko grumped.
Satsuki's standing so close to Son bugged her. Nui rubbed her in every wrong way she could have. Her pinch was as irksome.
{Ryuko.}
"Satsuki Kiryuin. If I have to go through her to get to you, I don't care who she is," she claimed.
It took Satsuki more than a second to respond. "... Suit yourself."
She led Son to an oval molded chair someone had the nerve to leave and they obviously weren't afraid of heights to do so. Her butler greeted them with a tray.
"Young master," he said politely bowing for Son.
A fresh pot of raspberry tea was for Satsuki.
"Please gather your composure, Milady," he worried.
"Thank you, Soroi," she accepted some.
Both made eyes at the third wheel.
"She is here. That presents a very real problem for us," Satsuki said.
"I'm listening," Son replied.
"My mother sent her. For what purpose, we will have to wait and see."
She sparked memories of yore with her pretty gaze. It was the same one sizing him up as it had when he was thirteen. The same one wiling.
"You always get what you want?" he said not fond of her attitude.
"I am not telling you. I am asking you," she replied wanting to be clear.
"... You've got a funny way of asking," he said.
He wouldn't budge. She failed to make him. Challenged again, much to Soroi's disbelief, she sipped her drink first.
"If it comes to it...would you mind aiding me?" she said.
She could barely look him in the eye. She soon did. Feeling like a spoiled brat scolded for being one ran its course. Mental gymnastics wasn't the cause for one trying to dominate the other. Gullible, if her humility was faked he couldn't tell.
"Fine. But if anything happens to Ryuko all bets are off," he said as sternly.
Eye contact long enough to make both unsure he turned to think it over setting fists against his hips.
"... Why do I feel like this ain't the time to get excited," he asked himself.
x.x.x
"Where's your Goku Uniform?" Ryuko said, blank.
She dropped her shoulders, rolled her neck. Nui was too giddy holding her parasol behind a frilly skirt.
"I don't wear such crude things," she said.
They had free reign over a ruined stage. The mist rising to their knees wispy, the red sky gave no moisture, Nui closed her eye and spread her cheer for someone not afraid of it.
"Enough about me. Show me your Kamui," she said.
Ryuko spun feeling like no matter where she looked Nui crowded her space. She couldn't not smell the candied perfume nearly choking her.
"Are you holding back because I'm dressed like this?" she pressed.
She moved closer as Ryuko backed off.
"Didn't you see? I defeated that Goku Uniform just now, so you can cut loose with your Kamui's power all you want!"
Poking at Ryuko's forehead even her skin felt artificial.
"Having trouble? In that case, I'll show you something neat!" she said.
Reaching into her dress she pulled the impossible from it: unlike Ryuko's half its circular handle and slightly more angular tip meant it was a tad shorter. Its purple was a lie but it shined just as brilliantly.
Spinning around her wrist Nui caught the handle to hold it still. "Ta daaah!"
"Is that?" Son asked not able to look from it.
More unnerving was what he sensed. He could see Ryuko paralyzed at the sight of it.
"That's ...," she started to say leaving her mouth open.
Time stopped.
"Yep. The other half of your Scissor Blade!" Nui admired its glint. "I pulled this out of your dad!"
{R-Ryuko?}
Ryuko felt her body shut down. Everything but her eyes.
"So...it was you?" she asked but it pained her to say it.
"Yep! It was me!" Nui chirped. "I was the one who killed your father!"
"Ryuko!" Son called but it fell on deaf ears.
Nui's smile curved up and out, the pounding in Ryuko's chest was her heart ready to burst from its cavity. She clenched her left hand so hard the hook securing Senketsu's apparatus snapped free.
"... BITCH!" she spat as the alloy beneath her feet caved.
She launched a fiery projectile to swing her blade with reckless abandon not caring what she sliced through. Senketsu scrambled to armor her. Nui stood her ground making every response look easy.
{Ryuko!}
"Ryuko!" Son said, the first to understand something else. "You have to stop! Now!"
His words, Senketsu's words, were muffled clicks at best. Ryuko held her breath through the dizzying motion. Fatigue wasn't fast it set in a painfully slow. She tasted the blood of her gums as she foolishly clenched her teeth too hard.
"WHY DID YOU DO IT?! WHY DID YOU KILL MY FATHER?!" she screamed.
Blades meeting, nothing but opportunity between them if Nui wanted her furious, she succeeded.
"You know why," she said.
"DON'T SCREW WITH ME!" Ryuko drooled wanting to tear her head from her neck.
Blinding swing after swing yet it was denied her.
{R-Ryuko!}
"I said stop!" Son joined the fray.
He thought she would never spin a weapon towards him. Her attempt lacked control. He had to evade another from Nui. A flurry of swipes couldn't cleave him to pieces he then caught two blades that were quick to roast his palms. Blown into a upended spin he fell to his feet with a slide. Nui wagged her finger.
"Stay put boy-toy. I'll play with you next," she said through pursed lips. "You're wearing the reason I came. Bet you don't know who you really are! Bet you don't know what your boy-toy is either!"
"WHAT?!" Ryuko grimaced.
"Your daddy meddled in things that no human should meddle in. One of those taboo deals."
Nui was swifter in ducking a slash fingering Ryuko's armor before she left her.
"But taboos, they feel so good, you know?" she took her time to.
Senektsu's eye distorted, twitching like it was ready to erupt, he flung Ryuko away, for her sake, and his.
{W-What is with that woman's hands? They're cold as ice!}
"It's so silky smooth!" Nui raved. "That's one-hundred percent Life Fiber for sure!"
Son shot to Ryuko's front with a hand out to keep her back and Nui away.
"I'm warning you both!" he said. "Ryuko! You can't feel what I feel! What he feels! Senketsu is in a bad way right now!"
"Awww. Don't be like that boy-toy!" Nui said moving quickly to bash his cheek with her hilt.
Knocked into a spiral he dug through a crevice, man made and recent. Rubbing at it didn't smooth out a bruise.
"She hits hard!" he griped but ignored why.
"YOU'RE DEAD BITCH!" Ryuko lunged.
"We finally get the chance to meet, so let's do something that's more fun!"
"Get real! Why the hell would I play around with the person who killed my father?!"
"Gosh, you're so narrow minded. Hate and love are two sides of the same coin. It's like a finely tailored suit with a good, sturdy lining."
Nui turned away Ryuko's blade to catch Son's charge. A brisk twirl sent him reeling for the bleachers.
"You're so lovely when you're angry Ryuko!" she said letting Ryuko catch herself.
{Calm yourself Ryuko. Son was telling the truth. Your blood is boiling!}
His eye followed the thread pulled from him. He tracked it to Nui's nail.
"I'm just dying to see you naked!" she said.
Yanking it free Ryuko glanced to her folly; Senketsu's pupil, bloodshot, unnatural, shot open. Remaining whole, she caught a break. Not thinking to turned a swing into Nui's.
"Hmm. That's a Kamui for you!" Nui said. "I guess it means that it has more than one Banshi, huh?"
Forced from each other Ryuko tensed her calves sliding to a halt.
"How wonderful! I can't believe he was hiding something like that! Matoi was one sly old dog."
"So it was YOU I saw that day!"
"It was! If I'd known a cute thing like you were coming I would've stayed put instead of running!"
"GET SERIOUS DAMMIT!" Ryuko lost it.
Senketsu's vented frustration swirled from her heels to shroud the arena.
{Stop it, Ryuko! If you continue I won't be able to control myself!}
His perspiration left the parts of her body he lined slick.
"That's enough Ryuko!" Son said at his return.
He wrapped her between his arms and squeezed.
"Keep this up and you'll hurt someone!" he said.
What he couldn't see was Senketsu's eye rolling to the back of the crest it adorned. He felt warm fluid drenching his arms. Ryuko's. Red and bubbly she all but drowned him and anything nearby in it.
x.x.x
"Damn! That's what you were after, Harime?" Satsuki said and had the time to see it. "Where is Son?"
"It seems he is gone." Soroi didn't stand in her way. "Perhaps destroyed in the explosion?"
"Doubtful," she knew better. "I will find him."
"Please keep your wits about you, Milady," Soroi wanted to stop her.
The red haze below wasn't yet a thing of the past. She dropped her boot heel to push a switch, a staircase powered to unfold, she made her way down into the thick of it.