The chase kept going and going throughout the empty halls, which seemed like they had no end. Then, Mako was suddenly stopped by a towering tanned figure.
"Halt!"
"Oh! Gamagori sir! What do you want from me?" Mako asked in surprise of his presence. She could sense Ryuko s presence getting closer and closer.
"Mankanshoku, did you stain the halls with this blood?" Ira yelled while his hands were soaked in Ryuko's boiling blood.
"No, Gamagori! It was from Ryuko! She was chasing me through the halls!" Mako yelled in objection, while also cowering at his size and anger.
"You liar! This mess was your doing!" Ira yelled in disgust, his gray eyes bulging at Mako's brown ones.
Mako took a few steps back in fear. She already had one big problem up her sleeves, and she surely didn t need another.
"Are you gonna make me clean Ryuko's blood up?" Mako said in fear.
"No, in fact, Lady Satsuki has something else in mind..." Ira said as he pointed to an unlit hall.
All of a sudden, from out of the shadows behind him came Satsuki, with a glare in her eyes and another figure behind her in the shadows. The figure then walked out and revealed herself to be Ryuko. Mako gulped in shock and fear at the sight of Ryuko's bloodshot yellow eyes.
"Now Matoi, destroy that No-Star underachiever!" Satsuki yelled.
Ryuko then unleashed a nightmarish roar, her teeth filled mouth widening to a frighteningly large size, and charged at Mako.
Mako then started running as quickly as her feet could allow, with Ryuko's eyes glowing brighter and her teeth getting bigger with every step. Ryuko tried to close the gap by grabbing the floor with the left arm and pulling herself up like a frog.
Knowing that she couldn't chase Ryuko forever, Mako decided to hide in a classroom, only to find that every single door she tried to open was locked. And as this was happening, Ryuko had become more horrifying, with more spikes covering her body.
"Come on! Let me in! I'm too young to die!" Mako cried in fear as she desperately banged on the locked doors.
Suddenly, the nightmarish creature that used to be her friend appeared right behind her, with boiling blood oozing from her multi-fanged maw.
She then cruelly bent her body back with a horrific crunching sound. And then, she then craned her body forward, her scissor blade arm growing and getting sharper, and then aimed the blade at Mako's chest. Mako closed her eyes, unwilling to see her life end as Ryuko drew her blade arm closer and closer to her.
And just as the blade touched her, Mako then woke up in a cold sweat, surrounded by darkness. "Where am I?" she asked herself. As the moonlight filtered through and her eyes adjusted, she realized that she was back in her house. That vision of Ryuko chasing her through Honnouji was just that, a vision. Then she suddenly remembered. Ryuko was not with them because Ragyo and Nui took her hostage. But Mako had assumed that the capturing was all Satsuki's doing, even though it wasn't.
All of a sudden, tears formed in her eyes and her bowl cut hair turned flat. She gently made her way over to the door, so as not to wake her parents or Mataro, and walked out into the slums.
After walking for five minutes, she sat next to a tree and began to cry in earnest, her whole body wracking with uncontrollable sobs. She then sat there for the next ten minutes, her eyes still letting out bitter tears, until she heard a noise from behind. Mako turned around, her hair curled up again.
Who's there?
It's just us, sis. Mataro said as he appeared out of the darkness, with their parents and Guts following.
Mako looked down at her family as they saw her face shed additional tears. How long have you all been there?
The last five minutes. Sukuyo said.
Why didn't you say anything? Mako said.
"We just wanted you to let out all of your bad feelings over what happened to Ryuko yesterday!" Sukuyo added. In her arms were a plate full of heated up croquettes.
Guts walked up and nuzzled the sobbing Mako. He also licked her cheeks, which made her giggle a bit.
Barazo then sat down next to Mako and she immediately rested his head on his daughter's shoulder. He looks down at her and gently starts putting his arm around her shoulder, moving hesitantly in case she tells him to back off. After receiving no objection, he puts his arm completely around her.
Are you feeling better Mako? he asks.
A little... Mako said softly.
Do you wanna tell us what was wrong? Sukuyo asked.
Mako then snuggled close to her father. Just a dream about Ryuko. I'm just worried that Lady Satsuki is going to do bad things to Ryuko now that she's been captured by her...
Oh, Barazo said, trying to think of what to say. Finally he settles with the words, I'm sorry about what happened to her.
It's not your fault. Mako added.
I know. It's just, our loss is your loss too. We all loved having Ryuko in our home just as much as you did. Barazo added.
"You did?"
"Of course we did!" Sukuyo added. "Ryuko was the first person besides you and Mataro who loved my croquettes! Speaking of which, I brought some with me to help you perk up!"
Mako took a bite out of one of the croquettes, and like magic, her sadness slowly began to fade away.
Thank you Mom. I still just can t fathom what Lady Satsuki is going to do to Ryuko... Mako mumbled. And I m also worried that she ll die of blood loss before I can get to her...
Yeah, but what if her monster brain doesn t remember us anymore... Mataro noted.
Don t say that! Even as a monster, Ryuko is still Ryuko! And I know she still remembers me, even if she s being forced to obey Lady Satsuki! Mako said, her mood returning to her regular self with every word.
Her parents smiled, glad to see Mako turning back to her usual self. Sukuyo then looked at the watch on her wrist and saw how late the time was.
Oh my! It s 3:32 in the morning! We should all get back to bed... Sukuyo said.
As the Mankanshoku family headed back home, Mako glanced up at the night sky and the full moon illuminating in the clouds.
Don t worry Ryuko, I ll get you back to normal, someway, somehow, I ll do it! Mako thought.
Ryuko slowly walked with a zombie-like limp through the halls of her new home, the Kiryuin Manor. Although she was rather unfamiliar with the new surroundings, her feral kill-or-be-killed mindset was looking for someone, anyone, to fight with.
With every step, she spilled her boiling blood onto the shadowed floors, and she glanced up and saw a nearby figure, who happened to be the Manor's butler, Takiji Kuroido.
As soon as he saw Ryuko's contorted bleeding figure, Takiji began shaking in fear at the sight of her sharp fangs and blood stained body. He then pulled out a gun from his pocket and attempted shooting at the monster.
"Don't make me shoot you!" he yelled.
Ryuko slowly stepped closer to him with an annoyed snarl, and then, by simply touching it with her massive red colored left hand, the gun began to melt. As the gun melted in his hand, scorching it in the process, he glanced up and looked Ryuko right in her glowing eyes, and gave a nervous chuckle.
"Nice monster! Nice monster!" Takiji said reluctantly.
He slowly began backing away from the beast, and he couldn't help but look at her torso of fangs, and he was worried as to whether that was real or not. He then took out his cane and decided to poke the teeth with it.
There was an eerie sound of crunching as something horrific happened that he didn't expect. Ryuko suddenly bent backwards, and her maw of fangs opened wide, revealing it had the glow of unstable life fibers.
He glanced around and realized that he was now cornered, upon seeing a nearby exit, he tried to make a desperate move; he charged and ducked below her torso of fangs. Takiji briefly wretched as he saw something shocking underneath Ryuko's teeth, but he then was picked up by the shirt and pinned to a wall by her blade arm.
"W..Wait, You wouldn't hurt a guy with glasses, would ya? Especially one who's only this heavy because of a thyroid problem!"
Ryuko slowly leaned closer to him, and opened her fanged maw wide, and unleashed a loud blood-curdling roar right in his face. Takiji then pressed a button in his pocket, summoning back-up in the form of other stewards and stewardesses in the manor.
"Unhand Kuroido at once, you foul beast!" one of the stewards yelled.
Ryuko charged at that steward and managed to slice open his stomach with a slice of her blade arm, leading him to let out a blood curdling cry.
Some of the stewardesses turned and ran off down the halls as Ryuko started to chase them. As she headed off, Takiji breathed a sigh of relief that Ryuko wasn't after him anymore, but he was still greatly disturbed by what he saw of her earlier. He knew he would have to tell someone about his discovery later.
Meanwhile, Ryuko was continuing her chase of the manor's stewards and stewardesses. One of the stewardesses stopped running and tried to distract her.
"Look, it's Nui Harime!" she shouted, pointing to one of the windows.
With a growl. Ryuko glanced up to where she pointed, and she took this as an advantage to try the old 'kick in the crotch and run' trick, and gave her a karate kick right below her torso of fangs. Ryuko let out a gurgling sound and spit up a bit of her blood from the shock of the kick.
The stewardess then blew a raspberry at her and charged off at full speed down the hall, and tried to not look back, only to then suddenly get a sharp stabbing sensation in her crotch.
She let out a yelp of shock and pain as the scissor blade part of Ryuko's left arm went through her flower of fertility. The stewardess felt her cheeks turn rather red, and she soon locked eyes with Ryuko's glowing ones.
"Wha...what are you?" she gasped.
Ryuko's eyes narrowed as she bent and leaned closer to her, her fanged maw opened, and a long forked tongue, which was glowing like life fibers, slipped through her fangs. With an eerie licking sound, she then began to lick the tears that were streaming down the stewardesses face, prompting her to let out frightened whimpers.
"P..Please don't kill me!"
Ryuko then flexed her massive left arm back, ready to lay a fatal punch onto her, when she suddenly heard a familiar voice.
"See you later Lady Ragyo!"
Ryuko soon recognized it to be Nui Harime, and her feral mind instantly shifted gears, and turned her attention to her.
As she left, the stewardess then breathed a sigh of relief for dodging a rather bloody death. She gritted her teeth as she felt the blade be removed from her flower, which then led her to pee out blood. But the fact that she was alive was more important than bleeding out of her flower of fertility.
The feral form of Ryuko then approached the nearby figure of Nui, which greeted her with a giggle. "Hi, Ryuko! It's so nice to see you again!"
Obviously Ryuko did not want any of that smiling facade Nui was pulling. A gurgling snarl rumbled in Ryuko's throat as she slowly bent down and began dashing on all fours towards Nui. Due to her body being contorted and mutated, along with her larger left arm, her movements on all fours were rather awkward, with her blade scratching the floor with each step. She now also used her large left arm like an ape, the knuckles of her large hand scraping the floor.
"Come on Ryuko! Kill me and avenge your daddy's death!" Nui teased while also waving her purple scissor blade in her blood and teeth filled face.
Ryuko snapped her head at her blade like an upset crocodile, unleashing a feral screech at her and making a few leapfrog-like bounces towards her.
Ryuko and Nui's chase soon led back to the padded cell Ragyo had constructed for her.
With a furious roar, Ryuko then plunged her blade through Nui's chest, only for her form to crumple up and turn into paper, revealing that it was a fake made by Nui's Mon Mignon Pret a Portier power.
Ryuko was now officially pissed off beyond belief, and furiously began smashing and slashing the padded walls of her cell, forcing the cotton insulation to come apart. She also picked up one of the mannequins inside the cell and tore it in half, and she continued smashing and stabbing them with both her arms, including jabbing with the sharp spikes of her heels.
After a while, Rei and Ragyo showed up to check upon Ryuko, and saw that Ryuko had made a bloodstained, tattered mess of her padded cell. There seemed to be no end to Ryuko's rage.
By all means Lady Ragyo, I m not sure this being will obey our will! Rei said while watching over Ryuko punch and slash the walls. "It seems like it's only dead set on killing the Grand Couturier!"
Don t worry. I ve got a solution. Ragyo said.
Ragyo then held up a small gun towards Ryuko, and her bloody yellow eyes narrowed at it. She let out a hiss before letting out a yelp as Ragyo pulled the trigger, and something hit Ryuko in her leg. Seconds later, Ryuko's body started feeling heavy, and her feral rage started to disappear. As her vision went black, Ryuko collapsed to the ground with a heavy thump as she went unconscious.
"Lady Ragyo, what do you shoot the Matoi girl with?" Rei asked.
"A tranquilizer dart, laced with some life fibers from it's mighty Primordial origin." Ragyo said.
"Fascinating..."
"And while she's asleep, I'll mind stitch her to convince her that Nui wasn't her father's killer after all!"
Rei looked at Ragyo as she went in the opposite direction of her. Some kind of feeling was buzzing inside of her concerning Ryuko, but she decided to just ignore it and go back to work.
As she was heading out, Ragyo's eyes caught Satsuki, who had a stern and serious look on her face.
What's wrong, daughter dear? Ragyo asked, her ruby red eyes gazing at Satsuki s sapphire ones.
I know you're holding Matoi captive in your manor. Satsuki said with a stern look in her eyes.
Quoi? Where did you hear that? Ragyo said in shock.
I was there when she was taken by Hououmaru yesterday.
Ragyo's eyes narrowed, she felt rather disappointed, but not surprised at Satsuki knowing that she had Ryuko in her possession. I guess she would've found out sooner or later... she thought.
What do you plan on doing with Matoi? Satsuki asked.
Ragyo then approached Satsuki's face up close and looked at her with fake curiosity.
Oh, just the normal kinds of life fiber experiments. Ragyo said in front of her face. You don t have a problem with that, do you?
Satsuki was less than amused, she looked at her mother dead in the eyes with a serious look. "N-No...I don't."
"Good. Now run along. You've got a school to run, after all!" Ragyo said.
"Yes, of course." Satsuki said. She then started making her way out of the manor and back to the academy.
Oh, and Satsuki. I hope you don't plan to try and release Matoi when I'm not looking. I have the Grand Couturier and my entire team of scientists keeping an eye on her around the clock. Ragyo said from a distance.
And what if I do? Satsuki asked.
"Then I'll have no choice but to "purify you", if you know what I mean." Ragyo said, winking at her daughter.
Satsuki grimaced in shock at that comment. She knew that being "purified by her mother" meant that she would cuddle with her naked in the manor's grand bathroom. And Satsuki sure as hell didn't want to go through that again, especially after the last purification session got a little rough...
"You look very good in Junketsu. It would be such a shame if it lost control and turned you into a monster just like Ryuko..." Ragyo said with a glare at Satsuki's kamui.
Notes:
Another rather short one, this shows more of the fics influence from old monster movies. Simply put, don't mess with Berserk Ryuko, or you'll really get it!