"Father. Forgive me," she said through the prickling in her cheeks.
Opening her eyes fuzzed her vision. She could make out the flakes touching her disheveled hair, her skin, smelling like sulfur burned until it crisped. She was on her back. The gaping hole in the ceiling she crashed through remained a window to the world ending. She felt the campus grounds shaking with pebbles of plaster on her and her office's ruined carpet. Clenching her eyes couldn't hold them in any longer. Tears glistened her face as she sobbed in the dark, cold, and alone.
"... You think all is lost Satsuki Kiryuin? ... You think I have erred in my decision in choosing you? ... Your paramour? ... Your sister? ..."
The voice in her head held base, a confident, yet kind timbre, willing her to be still. Satsuki realized she was naked and beaten. Stripped of everything that, to her, she needed to win.
"Who are you?" she whispered not pleased at someone interrupting her misery.
"... This world existed long before you, Satsuki ... Know that it is no mistake that even now you refuse to yield ..."
Satsuki wanted to move. Her muscles screamed a sharp that told her to remain still lest it hurt worse if she tried again. Her vision cleared. But it was dark. Any power in the building had been lost days ago.
"I...cannot move," she winced sucking her teeth.
The wounds on her flat belly closing scared her. Though she wanted to hear it the soothing voice in her head was gone. She didn't wonder why she expected an orb she thought pure radiance falling gently through the ceiling. It swayed a bit like the ash it touched, turning it to dust, then to nothing. It stopped over the fingertip she struggled to lift. As she was holding her breath she forced herself to exhale. The orb changed. Lengthening, white dropping from a dove's feathers that disappeared it hardened into something she recognized. It hurt to watch through her squinting yet she didn't dare close her eyes. She recognized the ivory ray skin wrapping the handle embroidered in gold.
The black of the blade was no more, instead the same milky gleam giving it shape. She closed her bruised fingers under the guard feeling that it was warmer than her Bakuzan normally would be. She felt her back leave the floor. Her strength returning. Her blood warming in her veins with new vitality running from the base of her scalp until it tickled her toes. She held herself half an inch over the floor. She felt something thin and light baring her legs and arms but not her torso, as it armored her stomach and chest, her hands, and finally her legs all the way to the heights of her tall thighs. It was too bright to see what, her eyes shining when they opened to blind her from how good it felt. Her lengthy hair swaying above her shoulders, splitting at its ends rubbing together, she leaned her head back to savor it for however long it lasted.
x.x.x
Kuririn moved at a pace that wouldn't unsettle the injured Rei. Leaving the academy he faced a legion waiting for him beyond doors he barged his way through. They dropped into formation like mortars not a help in mending the nearly destroyed premises. Mako left his back to stand at his front aiming her weapon at the COVERS easily dwarfing her play at courage.
"Step any closer and you're toast!" she said able to steady her hands.
"Take her and run, Mako," Kuririn said careful to swing one of Rei's limp arms around Mako's shoulders.
"What about you?" Mako dropped her gun to hold Rei up.
"I'll cut you a path," he said.
"Nuh uh. Ryuko would never bail on someone she liked!" she blurted out, leaving little room to disagree.
The COVERS, already airborne, fashioned their hands into knives cresting to a point at their edges. Kuririn slid his foot back through the dirt to harden the stance he dropped his knees into. Mako caught it first. A shine she often would see as a student in days gone. Only it was falling from its place on high. Kuririn didn't get the chance. The wind shifting tore at the sea of monstrous white flattening everything but the two of them. He watched in astonishment at their bursting open to release their captives, one after the other, some driven back abruptly to puncture more holes through the schoolyard walls. The shine set itself down. Mako poked her head from behind Kuririn's tensing. She could make out the silhouette.
"L-Lady S-Satsuki!?" she perked up.
Kuririn kept his guard hand raised able to see her also. Her sword sparkling, swaying with the sheen of her dark hair on par with her change in garb. Not so bulky at her new layered, white-blue shoulder pauldrons, an opening above her golden breastplate to reveal plentiful cleavage, the rest silken, form fitting, showing the renewal of flawless skin.
"Kuririn," she didn't turn to say. "There is a button beneath the arm of the chair in my office. I will take Rei some place safe, for now."
Mako hesitated to place Rei at the backs of Satsuki's heels. Satsuki turned the warmth in her smile.
"Thank you," she said puzzling those watching further.
Kuririn, mouth parted, began a response that went unanswered at her sudden disappearing as Rei vanished with her.
"This day just keeps getting weirder," he sighed.
He saw Mako toss her gun aside. He caught her legs as they wrapped around his hips, leaving his feet. Glancing down as he rose he looked over the quick end to so many. Stranger were the white feathers settling over the only half of the schoolyard still in one piece.
x.x.x
Son leaned his head left, hitting up, catching Turles under his arm to swing him around and around as fast as he could. Letting go sent him off though he returned as quickly stopped at the fore of Son's fist to arch in the ground they held themselves over. Son thought to swing a free hand but Turles caught it, struggling to push back the other and smiling for the attempt.
"Atta' boy," he said. "Let's give them a show."
Son knew what wasn't far from where they were. People. He put it out of his mind. Flurrying the hands he closed missed their target, Turles crossing his arms, appearing as if his head never moved from being knocked in. He caught Son's gut with a raised knee. A hard elbow sent him into the ground, head first. Turles stomped down, pulled his leg back and swung his foot forward. Kicked like he was nothing Son couldn't control how far. He felt himself ripping through plaster, glass, screams from those not expecting a flying object moving so swiftly through their place of safety. He opened the building's opposing end turning over, flexed. His eyes darted for anywhere his opponent might appear. He felt the cold sifting through the torn flaps of his gi and pants making the wounds that were bleeding more of a bother.
"C'mon...C'MON!" he barked, all adrenaline.
Radiance fell for a busied street.
"No!" he took off.
Taking the brunt of it forced him down.
"Arggn!" he shouted for it burning to light into him instead of them, his back opening the pavement he was forced through.
As the trembling lessened anyone could hear a cackle from too far up.
"You debase yourself? For worms!? Cutting your tail off is the final insult!" Turles spat. "It's sickening Kaka ... "
His teeth clicked from the sudden hand knocking spittle from his mouth. Thrown across the sky he strained himself to a stop. His eyes widened, his hand jittery for the sudden pain in his cheek as he reached for it. Son raised his in the distance not minding the blood dripping from his split lips.
"Struck a nerve, did I?" Turles smirked.
Son left his line of sight.
"There!" Turles tossed loud and destructive catching him square in the chest.
He barreled around its scorching his skin, stress in his face, darting through the four spiraling after him to crash as they met. Violently blown from the result he turned over quick to stop Turles against his neck, punched in the chest. Both lost focus for a moment's breath. Flaring the current around their bodies as erratically to respond with another Son met Turles in the face, socking him, leaning to evade the hardened hand sliding by his. Turles threw his head back to cup his broken nose.
"Arrhn!" he lost his cool pressing out the hand he opened.
"Wah!" Son smacked the colorful beam away, tackled and driven down.
Turles kept an elbow to his throat frenzied to push regardless of how much he pawed at him. Hitting the grass ripped it with flipping chunks of sod made to move away from their landing. Turles snatched the air from lungs Son thought would pop. Swinging his legs back, shoving from his palms created distance from his driving a fist through where they sat and watching it divide several feet in jagged cracks. Son returned to thrust the hand he squeezed past Turles' stomach.
"Bwah!" Turles threw up a puff of soggy, red string.
He didn't see Son backing his somersaults until he plopped on his feet, readied, breathing heavily. Turles felt his knees shaking, like the disbelief in his eyes, and touching his stomach rewarded him with a jolt of a sensation he had long forgotten.
"W-What is this!?" he steadied the quiver in his legs.
He glanced for Son in the distance; how the light emanating from what was left of his uniform surprised him also.
"Huh?" Son was curious of his hands.
His worth slowed to a soft shimmer keeping him warm. He looked up to see the darkness leaving the region to brighten where they stood. Turles in the distance gathering it and nearby COVERS taken out of commission swirling into him. Son chose concentration over where the source gifting him came from.
"T-that...hurt. IT HURT!" Turles hurled himself into the air. "To hell with you Kakarot! Your precious backwater planet can suffer in your place!"
"What?!" Son didn't follow.
He froze to watch Turles pressure the arms he kept raised over his head, his chin held high. The crazed smile as what he absorbed formed into a sphere of turning onyx quickening to expand.
x.x.x
Ryuko huffed for the thick tendrils being a hassle. She rolled her way outside of their reach, stopping Ragyo's arm, breaking one of her needlelike weapons in half. She arched the purple blade in her left hand where her mother's forearm met her elbow, angling to slice her head off. Ragyo's skull joined her limb in quickly reattaching as she continued a one handed assault. The Life Fibers wrapping Ryuko's waist yanked her back as Ragyo caught the blade she lost her hold on.
{My skirt Ryuko!}
"Got it!" Ryuko acted quickly.
She pulled the lining free to tie the ones that snagged her in a bunch, tugging hard, ripping them free. The Primordial Life Fiber writhed from the frustration of not easily taking what it wanted. It grew a slew of appendages wagging them out to capture her by the wrists and ankles. It held her still as her mother carefully pressed one of her scissors sharp ends to her neck.
"Resist. Fight me for an eternity. It changes nothing. You and that Kamui of yours belong to ME, Ryuko," she assured her.
The collection of color in her feathered hair twinkled with her eyes.
"... Senketsu," Ryuko had no choice but to raise her chin at Ragyo's prodding.
{I know. I will try.}
Ragyo took her hand from Ryuko's beginning to burn red with her highlights. The fibers weren't able to keep a hold of her worth flaring as a sparkled fire blown by a gale neither of them could see. Beads of sweat ran across her forehead. She felt as if she was being burned alive. She welcomed it. Holding her hand out the red half of her scissor flew into her grasp taking on the heat she swung over her shoulder. It seared a path along the air hitting the Primordial Life Fiber and burning one side of its always wriggling reds to a motionless black.
x.x.x
"Woowww. It must've been reeaaal swanky!" Mako marveled at a nearly ruined office.
The smell of cherries was still faint. She thought it a small apartment that even though blackened had the luster of expensive. She remembered Kuririn was searching near the head of it. He found a fancy chair with a glossy finish, fit for a queen, though vacant and needing a complete rework of its near shredded design.
"Ah. Right here," he said pressing what he hoped was the hidden pad under one of its arms.
'... SELF DESTRUCT SEQUENCE INITIATED. EVACUATION ORDERS ISSUED TO PROVINCES A, B, C, AND D. PLEASE VACATE HONNO CITY AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE. DETONATION WILL COMMENCE IN T-MINUS THREE MINUTES AND THIRTY-FIVE SECONDS'
x.x.x
Ryuko held herself between a rock and a hard place. Ragyo moved at her leisure keeping her one half from her. The Primordial Life Fiber took on a less circular form choosing massive limbs resembling a person's, drifting. She didn't understand the crimson fire surrounding her. It no longer hurt. When it flashed out gave her greater pause.
"Interesting," Ragyo ogled her. "Latent potential, perhaps?"
Ryuko glared until she felt it; her connection to Senketsu was no longer intimate.
"Senketsu? Where are you?" she glanced down to see that her scarf was gone.
Darkened armor felt like she wore nothing at all; a leotard instead of the skirt that was so familiar, bangled neck shielding adjoined to the breastplate instead of shoulder pads, cool air against her thighs and arms as they were no longer fully covered. Her red scissor no longer matching the purple one her mother held, its edges slightly straightened, saw toothed. She couldn't tell if she was still holding it.
{You know what you have to do.}
She felt her eyes suddenly welling up. Pressure building in her chest. She swallowed, shaking her head.
"No. I won't...I can't lose you," her voice trembled. "... Please, Senketsu. Please don't make me do that."
{It is the only way you will be free.}
She didn't like the calm in his voice. The acceptance. A brisk stroke of current opening where Ragyo's arms met their sockets went unheard. It wasn't until they weren't returning to her body that she cared to notice. Carefully spinning her surprise, Satsuki lingered in the distance, her gift matching her younger sister's, if not in shine, the horns clipping some of her locks and her weapon of choice. She held what those watching thought was her famed Bakuzan to her side as if the danger was gone.
"Defiant to your bitter end," Ragyo cut eyes at her and hissed.
"Not my end mother," Satsuki said, steadfast. "Ryuko. Listen to Senketsu. He's right. You are the only one who can. I will deal with her."
"Oh?" Ragyo turned her limbless torso.
The sudden destruction beneath them wasn't as loud as the veil being drawn into a nearby location. The three glanced down to see Honno City...blown from the foundation and up. The blast reaching as a plume not able to touch their altitude. They could hear the quakes having a hard time in evening out to let the area finally know peace. The smoke rising for a sunny day wanting so badly to reveal itself, getting higher. Ragyo winced. Her smile dropped with her eyes. Glancing down she could see her dress torn, splattered with red, her legs missing. Anguish replaced her not thinking it could ever happen. Satsuki, having left her back, remained a barrier between her and Ryuko's too stunned to do anything. She flicked the stains from her sword.
*I got it done.*
"It is appreciated, Kuririn. Get Mako to safety," Satsuki said not letting her eyes abandon Ragyo's. "You must hurry Ryuko!"
Snapping her out of it Ryuko hesitated, then shot off for the Primordial Life Fiber. Ragyo thought to chase paused by Satsuki slicing her in half at the middle.
"ACKNNRN!" she shrieked feeling the uncomfortable singe left on her skin. "Traitorous wretch! Attacking your defenseless mother!"
Red strands wriggled from her braiding to form limbs she could use. What were hands sprung out as claws in the dash to tear Satsuki apart.
x.x.x
"I said stop it Turles!" Son clenched his teeth to bear it. "STOP!"
"Never! Stand there and watch your precious world BURN!" Turles spat on the verge of drooling.
The dark above him grew bigger taking in not just the wayward fibers finding their way to it. It took any scurrying thing not strong enough to run and hide. The naked souls freed from the COVERS, still breathing. Son watched in horror at any flesh gathered above drained of all that they were to grant it a boost in vigor. His feet sunk deeper into the dirt as he stood helpless. He stopped his wrists from slamming together, cupping his fingers as he tensed his arms ahead of him.
"Gnnh," he huffed a grunt when pulling them back as he spread his feet apart, lowered. "Tssk...Gnh...Gnnnh!"
Part of him thought restraint wouldn't work. Part of him wanted Turles blown to smithereens. His body bulked at his shoulders. The veins in his neck and arms throbbed. His heart raced. The shimmer around him flashed a brighter tint for a second making his ears pop when it jumped. Behind a boiling rage at the total disregard for life his hair didn't straighten completely and wouldn't, swaying like a lit match. He lost the tranquil browns that were his eyes whiting out. A chill ran the length of his spine and he couldn't stop shaking. He kept his attention on Turles. Not the bluish shine rolling under his palms ever so often touching his skin the bigger it flared. Not his mess of a uniform ripping the more he taxed his body to brace itself.
"Tsskhss!" his teeth grinded together to the point his gums started bleeding.
He could hear nothing over his own fluctuating prep nor his enemy's. He could only see red.