Ever since Ryuko was young, she'd loved roller skating. Her dad used to take her to the skating parties her insane orthodontist used to throw for all his patients, and though it was a poor excuse for an apology on the part of the man who tortured her face for money, she couldn't help looking forward to them every year.
Her dad wouldn't dish out the extra few dollars for in-line skates, but Ryuko didn't care. She loved the classic skates, with their smell of leather and their funny four-wheeled look. She would zoom through herds of younger kids drooling under the weight of the metric ton of metal in their mouths as they shuffled hopelessly over the polished floor. She didn't mind them. She remembered with great clarity the exhilaration of taking a wild leap over a sprawling turtleneck-wearing goon and drifting around the corner as parents, turned fierce with care, shouted angrily at her.
When she picked up a job in high school, she blew a significant amount of her money on skating passes. The rinks now free of kindergarteners, she threw her energies into learning to trick-skate. There was something about hurtling at high speeds towards a wall a mere fifty yards away, yet still knowing that all she needed to do was casually flick her heels or shift her weight to keep her from her fate that made her feel exquisitely alive.
It looked like walking, but felt like flying. She walked on the edge of death without realizing or acknowledging it.
Ryuko thought herself well-acquainted with this raw feeling of speed and unrealized danger, but the few moments she had felt so faded into insignificance as she came face-to-face with a woman who apparently lived her whole life on wheels.
She was utterly out of control, and yet so calm it made Ryuko's vision blur.
She had knocked on the door, hands clutching a bag of Jolly Ranchers (Nonon had insisted she bring them with her to appease what she called "the beast.") And, after a long interval, it was thrown open with such violence that wood dust was spattered out of the doorframe and onto Ryuko's jacket. A smallish woman stood before her, her hands crossed and thrown over her head in a gesture of haphazard indignation. She was wearing a crisp blue blazer over a white blouse, and she would've looked very professional if it hadn't been for the patterned pajama bottoms and bed-head.
"Mankanshoku Mako" she shouted, her cheeks puffed out in an attempt to set her mouth into a firm line. "Is no one's booty call!"
"I'm sorry, I just..."
"No!" She slammed her fist down into her open palm, coconut-shaped hair flying in a brown halo around her head. "People coming every which way, all times of day and night. Over here, over there. Everywhere! They want me for my body, my sweet, sweet body! How's a girl supposed to get any sleep? Oh, I'll be old and tired without my beauty sleep. Whoe- O...M...G!"
The girl's face lit up at the sight of the Jolly Ranchers clutched by a poor, slack-jawed Ryuko. Shouting out her delight, she grabbed them and pulled them inside, taking Ryuko with her.
Ryuko gasped in surprise as she was twirled into a chair. She sat down heavily, her hands frantically gripping the armrests, as she watched Mako eat the candy like sunflower seeds; a handful was thrown in and rolled around a bit before the wrappers came flying back out again in bullets of spitty cellophane. Nervously, she looked around the room. It was ill-lit and cluttered, but it looked like it could be homey with a little cleaning.
Mako, her ecstasy in the candy subsiding a bit, resumed her pseudo-frown, (though her mouth was still full and bulging) and pointed a finger at Ryuko.
"Who are you and who sent you here!?" she boomed with surprising depth. Ryuko blinked.
"I'm... uh... Matoi Ryuko... Jakuzure Nonon. I called earlier...?" The round-headed girl's face softened so suddenly it reminded Ryuko of butter in a microwave. Mako jumped into her lap and wrapped her arms around her neck and squeezed so tightly Ryuko thought she was going to die right then and there.
"Ohhh, yeah," Mako sighed happily, throwing her weight back so suddenly that they were both catapulted out of the chair and onto the carpet. Mako almost hit her head against the coffee table but paid it no mind, releasing Ryuko to roll to a sitting on her knees. "Ryuko, I remember! I can help you with the thing for your thing! Miss Nonon said that deal with the biz... I don't..." she looked confused for a moment, waving a hand over her face as if dispelling a cloud of uncertainty before hopping up and smacking her hands together with a resounding clap.
Ryuko sat huddled on the floor with her mouth open and her eyebrow raised.
This kid must be on... something.
Her mind suddenly flashed to several moments that she sewed impulsively together. The insane, clearly (so she thought) drug-induced behavior, the glitter on the business card, and the remark Mako made about people wanting her for "her body." Ryuko went bright red as she juggled with the thought.
If Jakuzure set me up with some... hooker to get me out of the office I will gut her like a-
"Mako!" She shouted suddenly, getting the attention of the girl who had begun amusing herself by twirling on sock-feet on the glass top of an end table. Her focus broken, she almost careened into a grandfather clock before diverting at the last minute to twist into a salute.
"Yes, ma'am?"
"Why did you say people wanted you for your body?"
Mako relaxed again and took Ryuko familiarly by the hand, leading her into a back room.
"Because they do."
Ryuko gulped nervously, starting to tug at the hand on hers.
"But what you mean?"
To her great relief, the small, dark room was full to the bursting with computer monitors, some flickering out their lines of white code, others with paused internet games and movies. Mako let go of her hand to smash a pair of headphones over her own ears.
"They want me..." she lowered her voice to a whisper, looking around furtively as she conked herself on the head with her knuckles, making a sound not unlike a coconut. "for my brain."
"But..." weakly, Ryuko raised a finger. "You said body..."
"Heh?" Mako looked confused, cocking her head to one side. "My brain is part of my body, you big dumb!"
For the first time in a good while, Ryuko laughed. Partly from surprise, mostly from relief, but all the same it was a good, heavy, gut-twisting laugh that until that point she didn't know she desperately needed. Good-naturedly, Mako joined in, spinning a few times in her swivel chair and wrapping herself up in the cord on her headphones.
Ryuko wiped her face, her mouth still open in the laugh though the noise had receded.
This won't be too bad.
xxx
She didn't remember her first time. Or her second, really. There was a hazy, indeterminate period where all she remembered was abstract dread as she came to understand her fate, what it mean when her mother said,
"Satsuki, wait for me outside my room."
She remembered with great clarity, however, the day she said "no." It hadn't been a haphazard rebellion, a desperate shriek for mercy. No, even as young as she was, then, she already had the will to make a proper defiance.
She had stood outside the door to her mother's room, nervously clutching her clammy hands together. Fidgeting in a desperate attempt not to start pacing, she set her small mind to the task at hand.
I'll just say "no." I mustn't cry. I'll just say it...and, she struggled with the idea of whether she should run away afterwards. While her conscious knowledge of the appropriate gestures for a power-struggle were as yet underdeveloped, her instincts told her not to flee. No, I won't run, I'll just stand there and say it... besides, she'd just catch me...
Satsuki couldn't bring herself to think of what would happen after she said the forbidden word. All she knew was that she needed to say it, to set herself apart from her mother's lewd activity. She shuddered violently at the sudden remembrance of the hands prickling over her skin, of her mother slowly introducing her to the sexuality she was much too young for.
She knew she didn't deserve it.
Father told me she was evil. This is what evil people do. Satsuki set her mouth into a firm line. I won't let her make me evil, too.
A sudden brush of white past her downcast eyes startled her, then, and her stomach convulsed as she realized her mother had swept past her into the room beyond, leaving the door open in a silent, deliberate command.
Come in.
Satsuki forced her hands down to her sides, taking a slow breath. She stepped into the room, her feet, bare underneath her dress, feeling the thick white carpet. The room was lit only by the light from the bathroom, where Ragyo attended to her nightly toiletries.
"Undress," she said, their eyes meeting in the mirror, "And get into bed."
Glancing at the neatly made bed in the middle of the room, Satsuki wrestled with herself, making sure her voice wouldn't come out as a raw squeak. She set her legs, forcing them to stop trembling, and balled her fists.
"No."
"No?" Ragyo set down the washcloth she was using to wash her face and turned towards the main room, the brilliant radiance of her hair filling the poorly-lit space. Satsuki gulped, but held firm. To her great surprise, her mother chuckled.
Languidly, Ragyo reached out a hand and flicked off the bathroom light so that only her own luminescence lit the room. Walking slowly and in deathly silence, she approached her daughter, slowly stripping off her own clothes. Forcing her expression to go dead, Satsuki neither broke eye contact nor moved an inch, though as her mother approached and began to tower over her, her animal instincts begged her to look away, to smile her submission, and hopefully slink away unharmed.
No, she admonished herself even as fear threatened to make her blood boil. I have to see this through.
Ragyo stopped suddenly before her, now completely naked as she looked down on her daughter with a crooked grin. At best, Satsuki came up to her bellybutton, so she had to crane her head back to continue to defiantly meet her mother's eyes.
"No." Satsuki said again, for good measure, her voice booming even in its unbroken youth. Ragyo took her suddenly by the jaw, tilting her head farther back and brushing her fingers against her throat. Resisting the unbearable urge to flinch and shudder, Satsuki held her gaze as she breathed unsteadily through her nose.
"You've made yourself weak, you know." Ragyo stated coolly, suddenly shifting her grip so she held Satsuki by the top of the head. Swiftly, she drove her knee into her daughter's chest, forcing her to double over as her body trembled with the coughs she couldn't release. Softly, her mother brushed the hair away from her back to get at the buttons that held her dress around her. Satsuki heard rather than felt the garment drift to the floor.
"You said no, you won't undress, but here you are," Ragyo purred as she slipped off the last of her daughter's clothes. "Undressed." Biting her lip, Satsuki held a hand over the bruise forming over the bone of her sternum. Her mind was screaming with panic and pain but all she could do was stare blankly at her mother.
"You said you won't go to bed." Taking a fistful of soft black hair, her mother picked her up and tossed her easily onto the mattress. "But look at you, in bed. You've made your intentions clear, but you've also made it clear how utterly weak and pathetic you are. You said 'no,' but you can't stop me. Sad."
Satsuki whimpered a little as her mother straddled her and pinned her arms over her head. Lightly, her mother scraped her nails down the girl's heaving stomach as she leaned in to whisper,
"Next time you tell me 'no,' make sure you're strong enough to follow through."
xxx
Satsuki gasped as the bindings over her face were roughly removed, shaking her from her half-conscious state of hallucination. The light blinded her, but instead of squinting, she kept her eyes shut. Despite the tactic, she couldn't help feeling disoriented as the cuffs around her limbs clicked open successively.
"I see I'm not getting through to you." Her mother's voice shrieked in her ears after hours of perfect silence. Her hands jumped a little as she went to cover her ears, but they stilled shakily as she forcibly kept them down. After a short while, Satsuki opened her eyes, struggling to focus on the blinding white blur before her.
Ragyo sat beside the bed, fingers steepled as she frowned. Satsuki was not responding as well as she should. The sensory deprivation, instead of filling her with fear and making her unbearably sensitive, had somehow made it easier for Satsuki to take her mind away and drift out of reach. Despite her disdain for the human breed, Ragyo couldn't help but be impressed with her daughter's force of will. A lesser creature would be crying in her lap by now.
Loosening her frown a little, Ragyo took pleasure in the thought of her child sniveling for comfort in her arms, but in the meantime she was frustrated.
And bored.
There's only so much fun you can have with someone who can't see or hear you, someone who is so clearly not paying any attention. Kiryuin Ragyo was not a creature to be ignored. She needed to be seen, for her power to be felt.
She needed time to devise a new tactic. Ragyo moved to the bed and took Satsuki's head, levering it forcefully down onto her lap. Satsuki stared back at her with utter disdain, her eyes a very pale blue. Her pupils had shrunk so small that they were mere pinpricks of black in the center of her irises, giving her a weird, alien look.
"What a failure you are, Satsuki," her mother murmured, running her hands through Satsuki's bangs, smoothing her eyebrows with her thumbs. "What am I going to do with you?" Drunk with power, Ragyo suddenly flipped her over and pressed her face into the mattress, effectively smothering her. Satsuki didn't bother to squirm. Her defiance, her refusal to allow her own mother to feel her writhing under her grip, enraged Ragyo. Her lips pulled back over her teeth and her breathing grew ragged before she suddenly snapped out of her delirium and sat back, folding her arms over her chest. Satsuki moved her face to the side to breathe and appraised her with one expressionless eye.
"Well, we'll see when I get back." Ragyo sighed, her voice suddenly light, airy. With incongruous playfulness, she gave Satsuki gentle spanking before rising and sweeping out of the room.
Sighing in relief, Satsuki sat up and raked her fingers through her hair. Despite her mother's conviction that the past few days had done nothing to wear her down, she was feeling exceptionally fragile. Her mind felt flaky and crusty, like the top of old baklava. She had receded into her memories to avoid the prison of the black box, but the pain her mother had inflicted had forced her mind to synch with reality such that she could only relive the worst experiences of her life. She swung her legs over the edge of the bed and almost casually considered her body. She was badly bruised and her breathing was tight over her ribs, but she deemed herself fit for action and stood slowly, fighting off the sparks that began to float at the edges of her vision.
I need food. And tea.
She wrenched the door open and slid out into the hallway, heading towards her room. She ignored the mousy-looking maid who squeaked and held the linens in her arms over her face when she walked by.
And clothes, I suppose.
Somehow, she got into the kitchen sometime later and sat at the counter nursing her tea, trying to kick-start her brain back into action. She was struck with how incredibly random her mother's attack had been.
Have I been careless? Does she know?
She shook her head and formulated her next move. Gritting her teeth, she sat up suddenly as she remembered in a flash what she had been doing the day before.
Matoi!
Genuine fear flooded her veins as she remembered Nui's hunt and the vulnerable state Satsuki had left Ryuko in.
Good God, she may already be dead. I have to find her.
In the back of her mind, Satsuki knew she was acting uncharacteristically, that regularly she would constrain her search to a few discreet phone calls; but the thought of Ryuko dying in Harime's cruel hands dried her mouth and set her head spinning. She consoled herself with the notion that going out for a brisk walk would do her good, and that she wasn't merely indulging herself.
Everything is still in place. I can afford a side-interest.
She pushed down the sudden bloom of heat in her chest and strode hastily to the foyer, pausing to snatch Bakuzan out of the umbrella stand.
She chose a pea-coat with a deep inside pocket to shove her sheathed blade into and was struggling into it with tight, sore muscles when Kuroido suddenly appeared in the doorway.
"Miss Satsuki," he announced, his small mustache bristling, "Your mother has informed me that you are not to leave the house in her absence." Annoyed, Satsuki drew herself up to her full height and turned to face him.
"Oh?" she sneered, her haste giving her bile. "Are you going to stop me?"
"No, silly." Nui called from her seat on the stairway banister, swinging her legs carelessly. "I am."
Harime Nui closed her one eye and giggled.
xxx
Okaaaaaaay, way too many character expo chapters in succession. I swear there'll be actual plot in the next chapter, bear with me!
Anyway, I'm sorry if my Mako is an abomination unto the Lord. I understand her the least out of everyone, but I'm working on it!