Senketsu was gone, like his wearer, replaced by the deformed creature leaking red from malleable slits. The thing filling it of dried skin, googly eyed, jagged toothed, it swung an arm bigger than three of her put together like it was a mallet to bash Nui's brain in. Heaviness met the arena breaking the last of it with a thunderous pop. Blood stained earth waited to catch them.
"Yay, that's more like it! Now things have gotten fun!" Nui gracefully flitted from harm's way.
Scissor in hand, the beast carried its own, nearly tripping over its crooked legs to chase her.
x.x.x
Her boots pressed the academy grounds. What was left of it. Satsuki wasn't knocked from her footing as the trembling was sporadic. She put enough space between herself and the twelve-foot monster intent on maiming whatever it could sink its fangs into. Three of her Elite Four lined at her back resolute and as ready to do as she asked.
"Lady Satsuki. Are you all right?" Gamagori stepped to her.
"The destruction of the polling place can no longer be prevented," she ignored drifting rubble. "I want you three to collect Sanageyama and evacuate the students."
Unsurprisingly, there was no alarm in her tone.
"If Son has truly perished...I will stop her," she said. "Go."
"Yes, Lady Satsuki!"
"Yes, Lady Satsuki!"
"Yes, Lady Satsuki!"
x.x.x
A fifty caliber rifle primed it was heavier than he recalled. It had been a while since he held one. Mikisugi glanced to Tsumugu's sliding magazines into his twin-smgs.
"Do yourself a favor. Don't get too close," he said to joke, if it helped.
"You're not talking to some fresh faced recruit," Tsumugu had to smirk.
Weighed down by his gear couldn't slow him he ran off to chip in. Mikisugi kept an eye on anything below, but took his time. He didn't want to rush the inevitable.
x.x.x
When she found him it was because of the tattered fabric hugging his wrist. His hand poked from plaster past the iron mingling with the earth to bury him. She grabbed it, feeling how tightly it could wrap hers, she pulled.
"Whew! That was a close one!" Son exhaled shaking off the dizzy spell.
Satsuki's smile, however faint, didn't force itself.
"There's no stopping you, is there?" she said.
She put on serious.
"I ain't sure what she is now, but, Ryuko's still in there. If you're gonna ask me to kill her then the answer's no," he said dutifully.
"Deciding here and now is pointless," Satsuki touched her sleeve's bands, closing them.
Son never bothered to notice that the metal spine protecting her back ran straight to the cleft of her plentiful buttocks. The shoulder pads were still imposing. Loose flaps were still silky.
"Life Fiber Override: Kamui Junketsu!" she said for anyone to hear.
"Let's go!" he said, in a hurry.
When they left their feet it was side by side.
x.x.x
She had no Kamui to juice up her running. She had no unearthly powers to heighten her stamina. Mako was alone, cold, doing her best to see through the dreariness.
"Wait Ryuko!" she cried out.
Mayhem didn't slow her, nor did it slow for her.
"Don't waste it! Blood is worth lots of money!" she said.
Of all the times to spot one the moped lying flat on its side had a key in the ignition. When she could breathe again, she pulled, but it was heavy, eventually getting it to rest on its narrow tires.
"Wait for me, Ryuko! You've got someone else who'll always have your back," she told herself.
Foot pressing the peddle it jittered before speeding in one direction.
x.x.x
It slammed its giant club of a fist into sod tossing up a heap. Nui spun like a thrown top. To her, there was nothing at all disturbing about its bloodlust, nor its drooling and wheezing.
"Keep it up!" she grinned. "You're turning more and more into a monster! This is how Life Fibers ought to be!"
Wherever she flew it followed. The beast was no strategist. It stopped because there was something else to murder behind it. Tsumugu scrutinized the midnight blues joining dark reds, how jagged areas of the armor morphed when they were once smooth. Worse was the acrid smell.
"As I feared. You've been swallowed up by your clothing too," he regretted to say.
"And what are you?" Nui asked.
She took a place nearby. He trained one of his weapons without looking, a trigger squeezed to blast another problem for another day. Automatic fire didn't hit her yet he extended the second for the beast. Swinging both to his front emptied clips, the shots barely nicking it. The Scissor Blade serving as its right arm almost took his head off. Nui waited for his rolled evade to end.
"You're in my way," she waved, preening.
Keeping his distance, getting her attention and keeping it, it worked like a charm.
x.x.x
Prone, rifle loaded and cocked, Mikisugi couldn't follow through. He blamed the churn of his stomach. The bad taste in his mouth that kind of discomfort left.
"C'mon, Ryuko. Show me a sign that you're still you," he said.
The brightened crosshair filled with its portrait he gently fingered the trigger. Its veiny eye flick changed his mind.
"She spotted me? At this range?!" he tensed.
Leaning his sight to the scope again proved the truth. The beast was gone. It scraped its spiky thighs together, on the move.
"Damn it!" he scrambled to get a bead on it.
He had to find another spot.
x.x.x
What she called a filthy human hard to pin down Nui found a post on high to bask in her work. Her part played another on the prowl offered no quarter.
"What's your game, Harime?" Satsuki asked, a hand hovered over her blade grip.
"I want to see just how powerful the Kamui Dr. Isshin Matoi created is. Don't you?"
Satsuki could see Son with their dilemma, matching it blow for blow. If ever they met it was in booms to further upset her city.
"This is not curiosity. It is revenge against Matoi completely fooling you," she dared. "Your mistake was focusing on the Rending Scissors. A Kamui developed in secret slipped your mind. For that miscalculation, he took your left eye."
She made progress in getting her point across. The subject was a sore one.
"... That side of you is less than charming," Nui muttered coldly.
"I'm fine with that. When you consider something charming, it never ends well."
Satsuki didn't enjoy her academy's smolders. She dropped her heel.
"Snap out of it, Ryuko Matoi!"
Son caught its slimy mitt pulling it over his shoulder to slam its spine into the dirt. Quick handsprings back he fell from the last into a bent-knee stance. It lunged at his avoiding its right and left arm, both weapons able to cut through anything. Satsuki tired of the sideline.
"Stand back." She drew her blade to Nui's throat. "Son and I may have to put her down. Get in our way at your own peril!"
Nui watched her dive head first with nothing but stone and dust to catch her. Bringing her blade back she curved it into the beast's, detonating a burst to shift the region.
*Fall back, Tsumugu! It's not safe there!*
Behind a brittle partition Tsumugu hated running. Mikisugi was right; Satsuki and Son's combined effort was loud, radiant, utterly inhuman.
"Understood!" he made a break for it.
x.x.x
"I'm gonna make you stop if it's the last thing I do!"
Son tossed the verve he could summon like a professional pitcher. He saw it blow away the last of the pillar's still upright. Satsuki followed it with a dropped slash. A break in the action, he arrived to sweep the beast from its feet. Cooperation in play her spinning cut ripped it into a rapid twirl. Slapping her away it kicked him square in the chest ahead of hitting the ground. Her back met the closest wall, shattering it, with him violently tumbling onto his feet as he pushed from the flat of his hands. He raised an arm to stop sudden pressure, then another for ten hard to see blows. Its knuckles were bigger than the arena piece he jumped from. There was no reasoning with it. As much as it twisted his stomach he would have to make a choice.
"No...that's not gonna happen. I promised the old timer I'd look after her," he told himself.
Satsuki's return happened instantly.
"Oh wow!" Nui chirped like the nuisance she was. "You three are in your own world! I could never intrude!"
Two unstoppable forces, one immovable object, only Satsuki decided to speak.
"And it would be amusing if we happened to kill each other," she hissed through grit teeth, her blade locked to the beast's, hands shaking. "That's what you're thinking, isn't it?!"
"No, not at all!" Nui shouted.
"I refuse to let it...happen!" Satsuki flexed.
In its roar Son was thrown, as she was, both landing on their toes with yards of separation between them.
"A girl who is merely being worn by her Kamui is no match for Satsuki Kiryuin!" Satsuki held her head high.
She centered her blade, a palm at its blunt end for self control. Bending her knees she brought it to her right, its tip directed straight and sure. Though not as close Son could witness the intricacies of her form. Sifting through her long hair was her worth. It grazed her clips, it matched his, it matched the beast's. When they left their toes they did so as a trio. As they met anyone in Honno City endured the quake. Anyone for miles heard a crackling sky as if bombs dropped and the source went unseen. The exchange tore up whatever crossed its path and the verdict was in: Honnoji Academy, once the finest of brick and mortar, was reduced to ash.
x.x.x
No one spoke of the faded scars along her back. Rei could see them anyway. She followed closely. Walking to her stretch limousine Ragyo gleamed more than her silvered choker and the mansion she stepped from. An afternoon gown kissed her heels.
"We've received word from the Grand Courtier, Mistress Ragyo," Rei said as she tapped her pad.
"Just now?" Ragyo stopped at the door opened for her. "Is it true then?"
"Yes. As you predicted. The boy is in fact a member of the race in question. No relation to, him, though."
"... Excellent," Ragyo smiled, then bit her lower lip. "It will have to wait until after the worldwide branch meeting."
Her security guards wouldn't dare gripe of back pain, they stayed bent over, and would until she left. Current ruffled the feathers of a short cape draping around her arms, not that she felt it. Her resolve was chillier.
"Take us to the home office," she commanded.
"At once, Mistress Ragyo."
Her driver waited for she and Rei to enter what would take them there.
x.x.x
"Guess there's no calming you down," Son huffed, catching his breath.
Everywhere he looked was burning or burnt, all of it enclosed within walls meant to keep invaders out and students in. He thought of her alluring face instead of the one bleeding from each orifice. Why it stopped attacking went unanswered.
"We are out of options," Satsuki already knew. "Your kamehameha wave could end this."
"... It could," Son mumbled to eye the ground.
He opened his hands. Bruises weren't as important as hearing it shriek. He couldn't swallow the lump in his throat. He could keep it together. For her.
"Sorry old timer. I tried," he said.
Feet spread apart he joined his hands at the wrists. It took him forever to tighten his muscles, bringing them back, cupped. There was strength to call upon, more than he expected, he wasn't so worn out. Satsuki marveled at the orb intensely flashing until it was made whole. Its sound akin to an intense whistle getting louder it grew with each breath he took.
"Ryuko!" rang the only pitch that could douse it. "Ryuko, Ryuko, Ryuko, Ryuko, Ryuko, Ryuko, Ryuko, Ryuko!"
Running through the dust and mud, scraping tooth and nail to reach her, Mako's uniform needed a deep clean. She slid down a crater's edge nearly falling on her face.
"Mako wait!" Son reached but by then she was hugging it.
Touching it singed her skin, yet she refused to let go.
"Don't do this, Ryuko!" she winced at the pain of her action. "This isn't like you!"
It froze at her weeping shaking like the weather had a say in how it should react.
"What's the big idea, interfering like that?" Nui entered the picture.
She brandished her half of the blade. The cold metal against her neck gave her pause.
"Stand and watch," Satsuki warned.
She focused on Son's attempt to rub Mako's back.
"It's okay, Mako. Don't cry," he said.
"No! It's not okay!" Mako tightened her hold. "She told me she didn't even want to avenge her father. She wanted you two to know him better. To be a real family!"
It squirmed and she squeezed unsettling Son the most as he was the closest to it. The glance he shared with Satsuki lasted.
"The way she's acting now, she's just a rampaging monster! Howling and destroying and wrecking up the school!"
It stopped its fidgeting to hear Mako's sob story.
"What kind of person attacks the only one they have left?! Son is your only family and you're treating him like he doesn't matter! If you won't listen to him then listen to me!" she bawled.
Jumping back she raised her arms and crossed her wrists.
"Fon Son...for Senketsu...I'M GONNA BRING YOU BACK, RYUKO!"
She straightened her hand to swing it like her life depended on it. Disbelieving, those more durable saw her smack the blood from the beast's snarl. She hit it so hard its neck snapped back. The clap of flesh on flesh traveled the air. The result, a painfully slow, its limbs lost their dimensions. Bow legged, long armed no more, it shrank, making it even harder to see through the fog. Mako took to slapping it again except the it was then a she.
"... Hey! It's me! Cut it out!" Ryuko's voice cracked.
Losing willpower, Mako gave, beating a living horse. They fell as a pair.
"R-Ryuko!" she gasped, her face a mess.
Looking back at her she could see that her bestie was put through the ringer.
"Thanks," Ryuko lightly smiled even though it burned to.
She glanced to her left crest's watching her.
"I'm sorry for dragging you into my drama, Senketsu."
{I'm just glad you are all right...though I think you owe someone else an apology.}
A dreaded moment climaxed, there he stood, entering the mist with his stupid grin.
"Welcome back," he said like nothing happened.
He was kind, always kind, it couldn't stop her eyes from welling up. Ryuko couldn't move a screaming muscle. She wouldn't. Mako on top of her overall exhaustion sucked the words she wanted to say from her split lips. She fainted.
"Ryuko! Ryuko! Is she dead?!" Mako exclaimed next to Son's crouch.
"She just passed out, is all," he scooped her up.
Cradling her and the armor she donned reminded him of their first kiss. He ran a finger through her bangs and couldn't help himself. Hearing Satsuki's blade slide into its scabbard her approach slowed.
"Mankanshoku. She survived thanks to you," she said, taking into account the burns on Mako's skin.
"L-Lady Satsuki? What're you doing here?" Mako gasped. "I mean you know my name? I mean, Ryuko, talk to me!"
Mako kept at Son's side anxious for anything. Ryuko wouldn't budge. Looking to her tan it finally gained an audience.
"I-I've got a perfect all over tan!" Mako set hands on her cheeks. "Wow, it's like I got a salon session for free!"
"Hehe. C'mon Mako. We better get her home," Son chuckled.
When he glanced for Satsuki again, she was gone.
x.x.x
"The ending turned out to be a real letdown."
Nui was the opposite of dismayed. Seated on her blade's blunt end the only thing that could make it better was the one she annoyed.
"Nui Harime," Satsuki walked without a lull in her stride, until she paused. "You are hereby banned from Honnoji Academy. I will deal with Son Goku, Ryuko Matoi, and her Kamui. Meddle in my affairs again, Grand Courtier or not, I will show you no mercy."
"Aw don't be mean!" Nui grinned for it.
"Leave. Now," Satsuki didn't.
"Fine, fine, you've made your point!"
Satsuki had to disappear entirely first. Nui kept two fingers crossed behind her back. She brought them by the tongue she poked out.
"As if," she whispered.
x.x.x
"That was a close one," Mikisugi leaned against the rifle he didn't fire.
Tsumugu factored in as he took a seat next to him. Time to unwind was then, or never.
"Sorry about that, Tsumugu. We managed to get by without using this."
"... I couldn't lay a hand on them," Tsumugu wrestled with new insecurities. "I couldn't so much as touch any of those three women. And don't even get me started on the other kid."
Mikisugi let himself smile. "What else did you expect? When they get like that, they're monsters that become more than human."
The sun being low in the sky left it a pleasant tint. Taking a breath was easy, the sight, like the one below, soothed, no matter what the future held.
"Shit. Now I have to switch up my training regimen," Tsumugu slapped his knee and complained.
Mikisugi didn't. He thanked his students ability to bring things to a head without destroying Japan in the process. He thought they were ready.
x.x.x
. . . ONE WEEK LATER . . .
She would have preferred if the dual-rotor chopper turned around and took her back. Her seat was comfortable. She had plenty of privacy in her half of it. A fully charged tablet a window to progress private contractors left the central building alone, the academy's loftiest, and home to her office. It was the only one not touched by recent woes.
"Iori. Are the Special Goku Uniforms ready?" Satsuki asked needing a nap.
The Sewing Club president's image enlarged at her stroke.
*Yes, Milady. Development and production of the Anti-Osaka, Anti-Kyoto, and Anti-Kobe Combat-Spec Uniforms are complete. They are being distributed to the Raid Trip Brigades.*
"And the Elite Four?"
*New Three Star Goku Uniforms are also in production. However, owing to the fact that final adjustments will take some time, they will have to set out with the same uniforms as other students.*
She enjoyed the view of a megalopolis on par with hers. For a while. Revocs getting closer spurred her tightening up as it always had. No matter how storied her mother's company was, how attractive, she knew the darkness plaguing the jewel. Forgetting that she had Iori on hold she snapped out of it.
"I will return shortly," she said, no more confidence in her tone to end their discussion.
One swipe faded her screen to black. She casually swung her thigh over the other. Wanting to contact someone else she had no number and no reason to. It was a shame. She could use his awkwardness to calm her nerves.
x.x.x
Her mattress had no frame, sat directly on a clean, tatami mat. Cash was no object but she didn't want to spend any on beachwood nor bamboo flooring. Her pajamas smelled of cinnamon, they were worn, and changing from them was no option. She would have to get up to do that. Hanging on a closet's handle a constant reminder Senketsu said all of two words.
{... Are you afraid of me, Ryuko?}
Ryuko pulled a blanket to her chin, glanced for nothing. The day was bright. She aimlessly watched it find its way in through broken blinds. Her mattress decorated the shack's warm spot. She sat up bringing the sheets with her.
"... No. It's me I'm afraid of," she replied as she searched her knees. "What Son meant to say was you were crying while it happened. He could feel it."
She picked a piece of lint from her lip, flicking it.
"All of that power pulled out of you, and for what? Just my acting on impulse instead of keeping cool?"
She had no reason to glance for the front door. It didn't open.
"I could sense something too. How bitter your tears were. In spite of it I still couldn't control myself. Maybe Mako should've let Son blow me away."
{He would never ...}
"But maybe he should've," she said abruptly. "How could I put you two through that? After everything that's happened."
{... Do not reject me, Ryuko.}
Ryuko's troubled gaze rose to her scarf's.
{I want to be worn by you. I was likely born for the express purpose of being worn by you.}
"So you remember something about why dad made you?"
{No. We will call it a...belief.}
The fan on its lowest setting she didn't remember turning it on. She blamed being in bed for a week. Fighting stiffness guilt kept her put.
{He feels as you do.}
"What do you mean?" she said.
{I recognize that Dr. Matoi's intentions were twofold. Son can feel me, as I can him. I do not have to draw his blood to understand his sentiments.}
Ryuko's too small top matched the flannel of her bottoms. A cool flow of air worked its way through her cleavage to her belly button.
"Maybe I'll talk to him," she sighed softly, and wanted to change the subject.
{It would be best.}
She was slow to lay down thankful that Son's time away lasted. They did need to talk. What to suggest when he returned somewhat freed her of misery.
x.x.x
On its last leg Mako's bike wiggled to a stop. That fish market wasn't a market. A select few peddlers waved the day's catch at the harbor's boardwalk. Her eyes wandered the colors, her nose, washed off scales and lemon with salty sea air. Pronouncing the name of whatever she poked at could wait as a young man burst from the water. She spun to his near nudity as he wore drenched briefs with nothing else.
"Mako!" Son didn't miss a beat.
"You've got underwear on?!" Mako said looking from his crotch to a net filled with floppy specimens.
How he could carry so many escaped her.
"Yep! Ryuko said I have to so the cops won't arrest me for, uhh, what's it called? Skinny dipping? Then there's something else about exposure indecent? I forget," he dropped what he pulled.
He went from stand to stand giving what he could to those wanting to pay him. He got away with taking whatever he thought looked tasty.
"That looks like a good one!"
"It's eyes are big as my head!" Mako agreed.
"So. Whaddya doing here?" he said.
She scooped her bike by the handles jogging to catch up.
"Checking to see if Ryuko's done being mopey dopey. The Tri-City Schools Raid Trip is this week but us short bus students can't go." She paid no mind to passersby. "I wanna go, but I can't! I hate fighting, but it's free! Life's so unfair! Here."
Handing him a soggy grocery bag put an extra bounce in his step.
"Croquettes!" he smiled holding it to his nose.
He clutched it with his net.
"This should cheer her up," he said.
"Tell her I'm coming by later! With chocolates and dandelions! I'll leave it by the door if you guys are gone!" Mako waved, scampering off.
Son grinned and saw to it, stopped by a wet barrier. Water drops fell from ducts lining the shack roof. He assumed it was open, turning the knob, he stepped on old newspaper like she knew he would come back soaked.
"Ryuko?" he closed the door behind him. "Oh...she's in the shower."
Steam leaving the bathroom door slits it was proof that she finally got out of bed. Glancing at Senketsu missing from his hangar, he smiled like it was a much needed miracle.
x.x.x
An auditorium enclosed a runway for all intents and purposes. The audience were her lackeys on the clock. An onyx suited legion. She had the entire planet, a stable hologram at her back, Rei holding a kanji marked datapad to her right, and her hair's glow trying to burn past the shades everyone had on.
"I put this question to you, gentlemen!" she said proudly, and they listened. "What is clothing?!"
"Clothing is sin! Man's original sin!"
Her four-inch heel tapped porcelain. "Indeed. Clothing is sin. From the time humanity first gained free will as human beings, it has been his fate to cover his body in the clothing called sin. Clothing made by Revocs is sold in ninety percent of the world's countries and controls an overwhelming share of the market. Why is that?"
The crowd froze as drones awaiting their queen's sway.
"Because we alone know man's sin and create clothing for clothing's sake!" she answered for them. "I put the question to you again! What is clothing?!"
Ragyo and her lot received a second heel fall. A second light source forced its way through hers.
"Clothing is the world!" a fresher voice rang. "The grand will that binds the heavens, the earth, and mankind, covering all."
She sneered to welcome her daughter. Two platforms separated whomever had more tenacity.
"... Right you are," Ragyo said. "This is exactly the intent of COVERS."
x.x.x
She could say nothing of her mother working long fingers along her uniform. Ragyo touched where she pleased. The daunting of her office did nothing to make it less unpleasant.
"How does Junketsu feel on you?" she groped.
Working a hand around Satsuki's breast, she knew.
"A rather powerful article of clothing, isn't it? You wear it well."
"Thank you mother," Satsuki mumbled to shut it out.
Thinking of another did what a lot couldn't.
"Rei," Ragyo called.
"Yes, ma'am," Rei watched from the shadows.
Tapping her pad forced free a widened projection. It was footage of the one Satsuki used as her escape. His battle with the impossible.
"Is this what brings you here today?" Ragyo sleazed.
She approached the display finally giving her daughter some space.
"Kamui Senketsu, eh? La vie est drôle."
"I have already filed a report regarding that incident. You said that it would be left to my discretion," Satsuki put on proud.
She had to, for dignity's sake.
"Of course." Ragyo found her desk chair. "Matters should be settled youth against youth. Kamui against Kamui. I think it's a fine thing."
Satsuki didn't let anything expensive distract her; not the modified crystal and not the sunshine pouring through it.
"Why, then, was the High Order Tailor sent to Honnoji Academy?" she said boldly.
Ragyo eyed her like she spewed a viler insult. Satsuki chose against batting hers.
"High Order Tailor?" Ragyo's face scrunched. "Oh, you mean Nui? I had no choice. Not even a CEO can rein in the whims of an artiste."
"I see," Satsuki doubted. "However, if someone should interfere with my plan, I will deal with them via my own terms."
"... Do as you wish," her mother conceded with a winning smile. "As long as you continue to act as a child of COVERS, the world will remain your ally."
Satsuki had a moment to follow the projection. Statistics reaffirmed that her mother's guile did influence the world over.
"I may or may not set out on the Tri-City Schools Raid Trip," she mentioned.
"May or may not? Your report indicated you would. How many days will it take?"
"One day will be sufficient," Satsuki was certain.
"Magnificent." Ragyo leaned into costly leather. "With this, Honnoji Academy's rule over all the academies in the country will be absolute."
She and Rei's scrutiny pressed the want to leave. Instinct, not anyone's say so, moved Satsuki's feet.
"Satsuki," Ragyo called before she could. "Force the Nudist apes out of hiding. Best the girl with the Kamui. But Son Goku is to be left unspoiled. We have learned a rather, juicy, tidbit about his role in what is to come."
"... As you wish."
Satsuki didn't let the door hit her on the way out. Waiting among a warmer hallway her manservant could see it. As it was written all over her scowl Soroi never bothered to ask.