"Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Honnouji Monster visits the Philippines! Pastor set on fire! Director Ragyo comforts families by giving them new clothes!" A paper boy said as he delivered copies of the daily Honnouji Academy newspaper to students.
Aikuro and Tsumugu then picked up a paper and read the story. Their eyes were gazed at the report of Ragyo's clothing giveaway in the Philippines, and at how SenRyuu burned down a church pastor.
"Oh great! Now the Kiryuins are taking Matoi overseas!" Tsumugu grunted. "What'll we do now?"
Aikuro looked on and thought about what they could do. All of Nudist Beach's attempts at trying to revert SenRyuu back into Ryuko ended in failure, as well as their fair share of bruised and broken bodies. Then something came to mind. He then thought it was time to call on the one remaining group who could possibly help them in their mission.
"Wait a minute...sometimes when a threat is great enough, you have to turn to your enemies for help..."
"What the hell are you saying?" Tsumugu asked.
"We could team up with Satsuki Kiryuin and her Student Council." Aikuro said.
Tsumugu's face then lit up in both shock and disgust. "You're actually suggesting we team up with that queen bitch? For all we know, Kiryuin might be the one pulling Matoi and Harime's strings!"
"I have my doubts about that. Satsuki seemed rather displeased at Nui Harime's unexpected arrival. So perhaps she isn't her partner." Aikuro said sternly.
"Even so, I still don't want to team up with her!" Tsumugu argued.
"And why not? Like Kinue said, humans and clothing don't have to be enemies!" Aikuro said.
Tsumugu froze for a moment, as uncomfortable memories flashed before his eyes, once again remembering when he saw his sister Kinue die from the very same fate as Ryuko, being consumed by her kamui and turning into a monster. Tears pricked his eyes for a moment, but he cleared his throat, and blinked to hold back the waterworks.
"Yes, but she was still a fool for thinking that and taking on that kamui..." Tsumugu mumbled.
"She wasn't Tsumugu." Aikuro said while patting Tsumugu's back. "Otherwise, Dr. Matoi wouldn't have hired her..."
He also remembered that he originally had wanted to stop Ryuko from wearing her kamui so that the same fate Kinue faced wouldn't happen to her. But then he let his guard down, and what he had been trying to prevent from happening eventually happened.
"Oh, okay..." Tsumugu growled.. "Maybe we should team with Kiryuin, but just this once!"
Aikuro nodded in agreement. "Admit it. You saw a lot of Kinue's qualities in Ryuko." Aikuro said. "I know I certainly did..."
Meanwhile, in Satsuki's student council office, she and the elites were speculating on what Ragyo had planned to do to turn Japan into berserker monsters like SenRyuu. They were also monitoring Ragyo's giveaway of the berserker clothing, following the clothing being given to all of the No-Stars.
"Anything yet on potential moves by mother and Nui, Inumuta?" Satsuki asked.
"I found out that Ragyo and Nui took Matoi to the Philippines yesterday to give out more berserker clothing. And while they were there, Matoi apparently burned a local pastor to death." Houka said while typing information on his computer.
"I certainly hope that Ragyo isn't going international in her clothing brigade..." Uzu said.
"Excuse me Lady Satsuki..." A nasally male voice said. Satsuki and the elites looked and saw Aikuro, in his disguise as Honnouji world history teacher Mr. Mikisugi, standing in front of them alongside Tsumugu.
"Look Lady Satsuki! It's that world history teacher who helped Matoi get her kamui!" Uzu said.
"And he's with that ripped mohawk guy too!" Nonon added.
"Mr. Mikisugi? What are you doing here?" Satsuki said while raising her magnificent eyebrows.
"I'm going to be completely honest with you, Lady Satsuki. I'm not really who you think I am. I only came to Honnouji Academy as the new World History teacher to gather up information on your school and the life fibers for our rebellion against you." Aikuro said.
"Whose rebellion against us?" Satsuki asked.
"Why that of Dr. Isshin Matoi of course!" Aikuro said as he returned his hair and voice back to his normal style, revealing his true identity for Satsuki and the entire student council to see.
"I'm actually Nudist Beach's Splendid Naked Officer, Aikuro Mikisugi!"
"You mean, you worked for Dr. Matoi?" Satsuki said in surprise.
"Yes I did. He sent me undercover as a History teacher at Honnouji Academy about a year ago. I was never intending on revealing my true form to you, but after what happened to Matoi…."
"I was joking. Me and the Elite 4 had always known you worked for him." Satsuki grinned. "And I always knew why you really came to Honnouji Academy."
"Goodness, you saw through me? That's impressive!" Aikuro said in pride.
Tsumugu then grunted at Aikuro, telling him to go back to telling Satsuki why he was really here.
"Please, Lady Satsuki, Elite 4. Our recent attempts by Nudist Beach to try and tame SenRyuu have failed." Aikuro said, on his knees. "You five are the only ones who can help us turn SenRyuu back into Ryuko."
"And why do you want to tame Matoi?" Satsuki asked while raising her eyebrows. "I honestly believe that she is beyond repair."
Aikuro and Tsumugu knew that Satsuki wouldn't listen to them by just asking them politely. So now they decided to bring out the big guns.
"There are two things you need to know. One: There once was a woman. She believed people and clothes weren't enemies. But she was a fool. And in the end, she was betrayed by clothing. Two: The road Ryuko Matoi and her kamui went down led to the same fate." Tsumugu said with a serious tone.
"What are you talking about?" Satsuki asked.
"The truth is, about a year ago, Tsumugu's older sister Kinue suffered the very same fate as Ryuko." Aikuro said, with a gloomy look on his face. "That is, she became a blood thirsty monster like Ryuko is now..."
"Oh geez.." Nonon said. Now she felt awful for sending her music club troops after Tsumugu when he first showed up at the academy.
"Before Dr. Matoi made Senketsu, he created an earlier kamui that could obey a human's will. And Kinue, his top assistant, volunteered to be the test subject to equip Nudist Beach's prototype Kamui." Aikuro stated.
Both of them then took out from their pockets some scraps of white fabric and put them in Satsuki's hands.
"What is this?" Satsuki asked, holding the fabric scraps.
"These are all that remains of Kinue's kamui, which she named Seiketsu." Aikuro said. "Like Senketsu, Seiketsu evolved and learned new techniques as we conducted more experiments."
"But little did we know that the kamui was a ticking time bomb towards self destruction..." Tsumugu said.
"What are you talking about?" Satsuki asked.
"During one of the experiments, my sister's kamui lost control of itself. It then consumed her and turned her into a blood-thirsty monster, just like what Matoi became." Tsumugu said solemnly.
"Unfortunately, there was no way to change her back, so we shot her with Nudist Beach's Special Adhesive Bullet." Aikuro added. "It stopped the kamui's rage, but it unfortunately cost Kinue her life..."
"Oh my goodness." Satsuki mumbled. The other elites just looked on in shock and pity.
"Yikes..." Uzu said.
"Kinue's last words to us were, 'whatever you do, don't stop the work. So Dr. Matoi kept going with the experiments. His breakthrough came when he spliced his next kamui with DNA from Ryuko's central nervous system, allowing it to communicate with its wearer. That's how Senketsu was created."
Satsuki felt a wave of empathy wash over her, she suddenly felt sympathetic for Ryuko, and how she was forced to become a monster like Kinue did a year ago. And she also understood why Tsumugu was so hostile towards life fibers. The rest of the elites also felt the same way.
"Why are you telling me this?"
"We wanted to tell you this, because we tried hard to have Ryuko avoid the same fate. As we watched over her in the Naturals Election, we saw how quickly Senketsu had evolved in battle, how it got stronger with every victory. I even warned Ryuko before the final battle not to fight the Elite 4. We were afraid that the same thing that happened to Kinue would happen to Ryuko after her kamui kept evolving. And we were right."
"Then why don't you just knock her out with your bullet like you did with Kinue?"
"We tried to when she first mutated, but now we're honestly afraid to do it. If we ended up killing Ryuko, then Nudist Beach would lose our best chance of stopping you and the life fibers."
Satsuki looked on at Aikuro and Tsumugu and then at her council. "I'm sorry Mr. Mikisugi. But we do not need your assistance in trying to finish off Matoi. My elite 4 and I will handle it."
"I understand. But if you still need us, you know who to call on now..." Aikuro said.
Satsuki nodded in approval. Hopefully they wouldn't need the help of Nudist Beach, but still, it was nice to know that they also felt sorry for Ryuko's mutation into SenRyuu.
"Oh, here." Satsuki said, as she handed Aikuro & Tsumugu their scraps of Seiketsu. They both smiled at Satsuki and just walked away.
"Nah, you can keep them…." Aikuro said as he headed off.
When the school day was over, Satsuki walked through the outside courtyard of Honnouji Academy thinking more and more about what had happened to Tsumugus' sister and it's similarities to what happened with Ryuko.
"What are you thinking about m'lady?" Nonon asked.
"It's just, I get what Mikisugi told me out of my head….." Satsuki said.
As she and her student council continued to walk back to the academy, they were then suddenly greeted by Ragyo, Nui, and SenRyuu, who had all just come back from another clothes giveaway (and also a scarring of the students for Nui and SenRyuu) in the one-star district. The elites grew nervous at the sight of SenRyuu, even though she didn't look like she was in kill mode.
"And just where have you been, Satsuki?" Ragyo asked with a glare in her ruby eyes.
"I've been out talking to some friends of Dr. Matoi." Satsuki said back.
"Really? What about?" Ragyo asked.
"Oh, just the normal studies of fibers….." Satsuki lied. It was best if Ragyo didn't know that Nudist Beach forces had infiltrated Honnouji.
"Anyhow, I hope preparations for the Raid Trips are going well." Ragyo told her while touching SenRyuu's scissor blade arm. "We're bound to cover a lot more territory thanks to our little monster here."
"You mean, Matoi's coming with us?" Satsuki said with a shocked look in her eyes.
"Why of course she is! With your brains and her brawn, we'll be able to conquer all of Japan's schools with ease, maybe even South Korea and Eastern China too!"
Just then, a feeling started buzzing throughout Satsuki's body. Like Kinue before her, Ryuko was a woman who had been betrayed by her kamui and forced into a path of malice and destruction. And by using Ryuko's mutation on the raid trips, it was just adding gasoline to the proverbial fire. If Satsuki didn't feel awful now, she now felt even worse. Rage began to boil within her, a feeling of anger towards Ragyo and Nui using SenRyuu for destructive purposes.
It was as if Aikuro and Tsumugu's cautionary tale really resonated with her. She now knew what she had to do.
"I'm sorry, mother. But I will not be joining the raid trips." she said, with her head drooped down and voice low.
Nui just laughed at what Satsuki had said. "Good one Lady Satsuki! You almost had me and Lady Ragyo fooled there!"
"I wasn't joking. Ryuko is being held prisoner by the life fibers urge to destroy, and by holding her captive and using her mutation as a weapon, that is absolutely diabolical."
While SenRyuu's brain didn't register that Satsuki was talking about her, Ragyo looked at her eldest daughter in both shock and curiosity. She had never expected those kinds of words to ever come out of her mouth. Even the elites didn't expect her to say something like that.
"Talk about a drama bomb..." Nui said.
"And mother, I know that you have been purposely giving new REVOCS clothes with heated life fibers to force more people to become like Matoi." Satsuki said with a look of shame in her eyes.
"Wha? Where in the world did you hear that?" Ragyo said, her eyes widening upon hearing that her oldest daughter knew her secret plans.
"Sanageyama told me about it after his fight with Matoi three days ago. He had overheard you and Nui telling your workers about the plans when you thought you were alone." Satsuki declared.
"That's a shame. I was intending on keeping the new clothes a secret from you till you and the elites put them on." Ragyo said, looking at Satsuki with fake pity.
"Don't you know anything about personal space, Lady Satsuki?" Nui said.
"I thought your plans for life fiber domination were simply going to be rolling the life fiber wearers into cocoons using them to turn the planet into a Starseed Cocoon Sphere!"
"At least I'm being generous and sparing humanity and the world from annihilation this way!" Ragyo argued.
"Either way, that is just despicable. I will never follow the orders of a mad woman, especially one who turns humanity into pigs powered by human clothing!" Satsuki declared in her bravado tone.
Ragyo just stood there, stunned at everything Satsuki had told her. She had never expected such words to come from her own daughter. She then gave out a disappointed sigh upon knowing what had to be done.
"Very well. I'm afraid I have no other choice. I never thought I would say this to my own daughter, but Satsuki Kiryuin, you are hereby removed from your position as Honnouji Academy's Student Council President."
Ragyo and Nui then expected Satsuki to be all in tears after being ousted from her own school, but instead, she just smiled.
"Why are you smiling?" Ragyo asked.
"I had planned to tell you two this when the right time came, but since I'm no longer part of Honnouji Academy, I might as well tell you now!" Satsuki said with a defiant smile on her face.
"Tell me what?" Ragyo said while raising an eyebrow.
"I never truly stuck to your side. I only pretended to follow your marching orders like the loving daughter you thought I was. Then once we had taken over all of Japan's schools, I'd stab you and free humanity from the life fibers tyranny. It was all because my father told me the truth behind the life fibers right before his murder 13 years ago."
Ragyo's eyes widened at that statement. She knew that her former husband Souichiro was a fool for secretly starting a rebellion against her, but she never expected that he'd tell their own daughter about it.
"You mean, Souichiro told you about his secret little anti-life fiber organization that ended up costing him his life?" Ragyo said in disgust.
"Yes he did! And even if I'm no longer Student Council President, I will still have thousands and thousands of students in Honnouji Academy to continue my cause, because I made this school not for you, but to destroy you!"
"Who cares?" Ragyo said while crossing her arms. "With you no longer being president, they'll never believe you! And they especially won't believe you after the way you've treated them over the years!"
Satsuki went silent, taking and and trying to contemplate what Ragyo said, she had a point.
She had spent the last 13 years setting up her students for a battle that absolutely no one knew they were fighting. And in exchange, there had been a fair share of deaths and many injuries in the process. The guilt of her life's actions quickly dissipated and she turned back to Ragyo.
"You do have a point. But once I set things right and end your reign of terror, it will all balance out!" Satsuki said.
Ragyo just guffawed at the comment. "Go ahead and do it! But don't expect your precious student council to help you out!"
"If Lady Satsuki is quitting, I'm quitting too!" Uzu declared.
"Me too!" Ira added.
"Here here!" Houka added.
"As am I!" Nonon said. "My dad may be your brother, but frankly, I'm ashamed to have called you my Aunt!"
Ragyo was shocked, but not surprised, that the Elite 4 would also resign along with Satsuki. "Hmph. Go ahead and leave. I've still got Shiro here to make the goku uniforms!" she said.
All of sudden, Shiro came out from behind Ragyo and Nui, and looked on at them in disgust. "Think again Director Ragyo! If Lady Satsuki and the Elite 4 are leaving Honnouji, then so am I! She also told me what you plan on doing with the life fibers and how you plan to make everyone be consumed by them like Matoi! Find someone else to make your monster clothes!"
"Very well. I guess all 6 of you are banned from Honnouji Academy, and will not be invited to the Cultural and Sports Grand Festival where I will officially unveil the new line of Revocs clothes."
Satsuki, the elites and Shiro all just nodded in approval. They all knew their plans for rebellion against Ragyo and the Life Fibers were working, even if they had to announce it much earlier than intended.
"I suggest you all leave before I send Han-I mean Ryuko, to kill you all."
From that comment, the rage that SenRyuu lacked immediately came back. And right on cue, the group all ran out, wanting to avoid the wrath of SenRyuu. As they left, Nui watched on at them with a curious look in her eye.
"Lady Ragyo, why didn't you just have Hanako kill them all right then and there?" Nui asked.
"It wouldn't be as fun for both of us in the long-term…." Ragyo mused. "Now then, you better get started on your work, Honnouji Sewing Club President!"
"Really?" Nui said in awe. "You want me to take over?"
"Of course!" Ragyo nodded. "It'll be our next step into having Honnouji switch over to the new clothes!"
Notes:
Never expected Satsuki and crew to announce their rebellion this early, huh? If you liked that, wait until next chapter, when the replacement Elite 4 are introduced!