Chapter Four: It all Started with Senketsu Being an Idiot

The rest of Ryuko's week at Honnouji University had been a disaster to say the least. She'd woken up earlier for her punishments, but that caused her to get less sleep and therefore fall asleep in class which led to more reprimanding. Then she'd gotten in trouble for chewing gum or for breathing too loudly during tests: all small stupid things, which lead her to even more punishments. She'd grit her teeth and accepted it; she wasn't the only one getting in trouble. A lot of her classmates were getting called in for the stupidest stuff too, like being too loud in the hallways. Ryuko found this all very stupid and unfair but didn't say anything out loud about it, just under her breath. And Senketsu only made it worse for her. After he'd attacked her in her dorm, she'd broken the window after throwing him out of it. As punishment she had to go wash all the windows on campus, and there was a shit ton of those. Ryuko felt her arms would fall off her body once she was done. Senketsu had tried to apologize to Ryuko for getting her in trouble but-

"Ryuko I'm sorry that you are in this predicament but if you had just put me on like I told you too…. hey Ryuko what are you doing? Put me down this instant! Hey, keep that dirty water away from me!" Senketsu let out a scream as Ryuko dipped him in the bucket of cleaning fluid and water and began washing windows with him. "All is forgiven," she grinned evilly as she began to scrub back and forth with him.

"Help!" he screamed.

But Senketsu seemed driven to put himself on her. Ryuko had been washing up, lost in her daydreams about wiping the smirks off of everyone's faces in the discipline department, when the shower door creaked open. Ryuko hadn't notcied because she was still absorbed in her thoughts until she felt something cold and leathery on her ankle. Immediately she looked down and saw Senketsu there.

"You pervert!" she screamed, kicking with her other foot. He sailed over the shower door landing on the bathroom floor, but Ryuko didn't stop there. She ripped open the door and pointed her finger accusingly at the offending piece of material.

"You get close to me like that again and I'll use you as a washcloth for my bum next time, ya hear!" then she slammed the shower door close again and resumed her shower.

Senketsu let out a sigh, "Maybe this wasn't the best place to try."

So he tried when Ryuko went to the dining hall, but that just lead to a big disaster. Ryuko looking forward to some homemade croquettes that Mako had left her, brought out the box in which they were and upon opening it Senketsu popped out at her.

"Ahh!" Ryuko let out a surprised scream bolting out of her chair and jolting the tray of a passing by student. The food tipped onto his clothes and he let out an angry growl. "Shit," Ryuko breathed when she'd looked up at him. He was literally a tower of muscle and was very angry now. She did what was best and ran, followed by Senketsu yelling, "now's a good time, put me on!" and a very angry man. Of course Ryuko had gotten in trouble for that too. She was sent to the discipline department for disrupting the peace and for harassing students.

After she'd left she pinched one of Senketsu's lapels and growled at him, "Stay away from me!"

"But Ryuko you don't understand, I'm here to help you not harm you."

"Blah blah blah," Ryuko mimicked a talking mouth with her hand. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have dishes to wash at the dining hall to make up for my disturbance."

But of course Senketsu wasn't put off; he snuck his way into Ryuko's book bag and followed her to class one day.

"Pst, Ryuko," he whispered to her during class. Ryuko looked down at him as he spoke to her from inside her bag. Then with a resigned look on her face she took the bag, opened the window closest to her, grabbed him and threw him out the window before returning to her seat and pretending she didn't hear her jackets cries as he fell down five stories.

"Ryuko, throwing objects out windows is a danger. You could kill someone like that! Detention," the teacher uttered.

"Oh course," Ryuko mumbled dejectedly and left the class.

After that incident Ryuko taped Senketsu up in her closet.

"There," she cried satisfactorily. "Now you can't go anywhere"

"Ryuko don't be absurd," Senketsu tried to say as he struggled in the tape bonds, but because of the tape covering his mouth it just sounded like mumbled words.

"Bye," Ryuko waved, tossing her tape away and heading off to class.

"Come back!" he growled and struggled even harder against the tape.

The day sailed along smoothly and Ryuko felt she could finally relax. Without the worry of Senketsu appearing out of nowhere she could actually pay attention to class. Fight club soon approached and Ryuko felt eager to partake in it. She hadn't had a fight since her first day and was aching for one to relieve all the tension from the week. So it was with great joy that she found out that she was going to fight another match, against a girl with long blonde hair done in two high pigtails.

"Omiko and Ryuko get into your places," the teacher instructed and the whole room around them changed this time. The ground became a tennis court and all the students were forced into spectator boxes around them.

Ryuko glanced over her opponent, analyzing her. She was tall, clad in a gray dress, but lean looking so that meant she'd probably be fast. And what weapon did she specialize in? Given the surroundings, probably something to do with tennis. Ryuko had noticed about these matches that everyone had some special sort of weapon they used and the matches would often take the physical look of whatever these weapons revolved around. For example, her fight with Takaharu lent the space to looking like a boxing ring because of his boxing gloves, and this was a tennis court because of Omiko's –

"-Tennis racket." Ryuko snapped out of her thoughts. Had Omiko just read her mind? No, she was talking and Ryuko hadn't realized it earlier. "I call it the server cause I'm going to use it to serve ya!" Omiko giggled her sharp teeth flashing in the light as she pulled out her racket. It was covered in spikes and big, almost as big as her and Ryuko wondered how she could hold it up without straining herself.

Woah, she has shark teeth, freaky! And that tennis racket looks deadly. Ryuko thought as she pulled out her blade. It instantly grew to its full length. Ryuko had practiced with it so that it was as easy as breathing to transform her blade back and forth.

Giving it a practice swing she took a defensive stance on her end of the field and Omiko mimicked her, holding her tennis racket up.

"First to be pushed outside the lines of the court loses. Remember keep it civil," the teacher reminded before he pressed the buzzer signaling the start of the match. Immediately both girls charged at each other and the crowd cheered as metal clashed against metal. Steel racket huh, Ryuko thought as she pulled away and swung again, better not let that hit me. The two girls went at it back and forth until Ryuko lost count of how many times she had swung. None of them had made any substantial gains in ground. If one girl moved back an inch, she would soon regain it and vice versa.

Ryuko's arms were tired and she cursed the fact that she had to wash so many dishes yesterday. If they didn't hurt she could have easily surpassed her opponent. Sweat was pouring down her back and her face was red. Omiko looked to be in the same condition. Both girls breathing heavily jumped back from each other and appraised each other as they caught their breath.

"I'm surprised that you've managed to make my serving arm tire. Takes a lot to do that," Omiko said as she tried to work out a crick in her right shoulder with her left hand.

"Yea, well if my arms weren't so sore you wouldn't have a serving arm by this point," Ryuko muttered as she eyed her opponent. She couldn't afford to let her guard down once. Omiko frowned, her sharp teeth digging into her bottom lip.

"Since you've continued to try fighting instead of deciding to be a good little loser and falling to my racket, I'm going to have to get ballsy." Omiko giggled at her pun as she reached under her dress.

"Oi- what are you doing?" Ryuko panicked but Omiko just giggled more. "Relax, virgin I'm just pulling these out." She held up a tennis ball in her hand. Oh so that's what she meant by ballsy, Ryuko breathed a sigh of relief which then turned to panic again as suddenly her sword was knocked out of her hands, and spinning through the air lodged itself into the ground just outside of the court. The audience let out a collective ooo, and Ryuko swallowed hard. She had no weapon to fight with now. If she went outside the ring to grab it, she would be disqualified.

Meanwhile Senketsu had finally chewed through all of his wrappings and spitting out the awful taste of tape, hopped out of the room looking for Ryuko. He sensed that she was in danger.

"Don't worry Ryuko you can still do this!" Mako's encouragement came from somewhere in the stands but Ryuko certainly did not feel too optimistic. She had no weapon to defend herself against Omiko's attacks.

"Heh, feeling the burn?" Omiko smiled, her shark toothed grin stretching from ear to ear. "Or more like the bruise?" Omiko pointedly looked at Ryuko's hand which had been holding the sword. Ryuko followed the gaze to find a purple bruise there.

"What did you do," she demanded looking up, her gaze hardening on her opponent before something struck her in her face hard. Grabbing her nose which was now streaming torrents of blood Ryuko tried to hold back a hiss of pain.

"You wanna know what I did? I'm just throwing tennis balls at ya. They don't call me the unstoppable server for nothing." Omiko juggled some more tennis balls in her hands. "And I think it's my time to serve!" Omiko's next movements were a flash of motion. She threw the tennis balls in the air and then hit them with her racket so hard they were practically invisible. They struck Ryuko in the gut and she doubled over breathing hard.

"Let's spice things up shall we?" Omiko sent more balls into the air before connecting her racket with each and every one. A barrage of invisible balls flew at Ryuko and she put her hands up to protect herself grunting in pain as the balls connected with her flesh and bone, sending unpleasant shocks throughout her body.

The crowd was chanting Omiko's name as she sent serve after serve, not that Ryuko could hear anyway. The balls whistled past her, scraping skin and opening gashes, when they didn't hit her direct on.

"Come on guys, root for Ryuko too!" Mako jumped onto the edge of the seating box and raised her hands above her head. "Ryuko's awesome too. She may not have balls, but she has guts and lots of fighting spirit. She's also got a huge rack and who doesn't love that!" Mako yelled at the audience through a megaphone and suddenly some people started cheering for Ryuko too.

Senketsu finally reached the classroom that Ryuko was having her class in. He could heard sounds of battle coming from within and swallowed nervously before pushing the door open.

Ryuko dropped to her knees, blood dripping from multiple gashes on her body and pooling around her, soaking into the discarded tennis balls around her. Bruises dotted her flesh like the stars in the sky and she could barely see out of her left eye. She was breathing heavily, her clothing lying in tatters around her along with the remains of her will.

"Wow, you're still alive- that's crazy. No one's ever stood up to my attack like that before." Omiko's eyes were wide open in shock, but then she shrugged. "Well I'm out of balls now so I'll just have to bludgeon you to finish you off." She gripped her tennis racket and slowly approached the girl.

Ryuko was focusing hard on staying conscious. Everything hurt and she wasn't sure she could do it anymore. She just didn't have the strength to go on and the thought of Omiko finishing her off with the racket just stressed her more. She was deciding if she should take the hits and see how long she could make it or if she should just pass out. But Mako's voice entered her battered ears. "Ryuko!" she could just make out her name and she smiled. Yea, she was Ryuko. She didn't just give up. She had to try. Ryuko took a deep breath and clenched her fists when she felt something hugging her from behind.

"Ryuko, it's me Senketsu." The jacket spoke and Ryuko rolled her eyes. "I don't have time for you now."

"Please just put me on, I can help you," the jacket pleaded and Ryuko sighed; she had nothing left to lose now, there was no harm in trying him on just this once. "Fine let's see if you're actually as good as you say you are." Ryuko stood up slowly and slipped Senketsu onto her shoulders.

"Hey, what's that?" Omiko asked suspiciously.

"Oh, this?" Ryuko asked innocently. "This is just my pain in the ass jacket. My father gave it to me." Senketsu felt warm and just right, like he belonged on Ryuko's shoulders. He whispered to her as she noticed this, "I'm gonna have to drink your blood to work."

And before Ryuko could protest he was doing so and suddenly tightening around her body. Ryuko let out a surprised scream as her jacket seemed to evolve. Fabric shot out this and that way, wrapping around her body and melding into her skin. Wind whipped around her picking up dust. She could feel a tightness gather in her stomach before it exploded outwards, sparks shooting from her fingertips.

"What's going on?" Ryuko asked confused. Don't worry its fine. Senketsu's voice inside her head reassured her. Just let me handle this. At last the transformation was done and Ryuko stood there in her new outfit power surging through her body. All her aches and pains had been separated from her body when those sparks had left her.

"I feel so different," Ryuko muttered clenching and unclenching her now gloved hands. She let her hands explore the rest of her black and red outfit. She had huge shoulder pads, Senketsu's red eyes staring up at her from just underneath, and armor seemed to encase her chest, abdomen and back. But she was wearing a skirt.

"Hey, what is this?" she hissed. "I hate skirts. Everyone's gonna see my underwear when I fight now. And what are these? Heels on knee high boots?! Are you crazy? I look like a stripper. How am I gonna fight in this?" Ryuko pulled at her outfit hurting Senketsu.

"Ryuko, we'll talk about that later for now can you focus on the fight please?"

"Oh right." Ryuko, remembering where she was let go of her outfit and looked at Omiko, who had a confused expression on her face.

"Other people can't hear me, only you can."

"Oh, so now I can look crazy too, that's great. I always wanted people to think I was talking to myself." Ryuko shook her head. Focus, she commanded herself and whispered to Senketsu, "How do I get my sword back?"

"Easy, just don't touch the ground," Senketsu told her and Ryuko shook her head again, how was she to do that? "Can you fly?" she asked.

"No."

"Then don't give me useless suggestions!" Ryuko grabbed at the front of her outfit, which she assumed to be Senketsu's face and yelled at him.

A cough. "Are you done over there? Did the barrage of tennis balls mess with your brain or something?" Omiko asked as she looked confusedly at Ryuko.

"Nope, she's been messed up like that for a while!" Mako chimed in from the stands. "But that's okay because she's Ryuko-chan!"

Ryuko turned to the stands to scold her friend when her eyes zoomed in the proximity of the spectator box's wall and the scissor blade. "Senketsu I sure hope you have the power to do this," Ryuko growled and ran toward the edge of her court. She leapt up just before her toes touched the line and landed on the wall of the stadium box. She ran ignoring the shocked cries of the audience, as she defied gravity, and when she was positioned in front of the blade she leapt hands forward. She grabbed the handle, and flipped over, her heels barely making it inside of the court, before the momentum of her leap dislodged the sword. Straightening up she held the sword in front of her both hands on it, a triumphant smirk on her face.

"That was cool!"

"How'd she do that?" came from the audience and Ryuko just smirked harder. "Not bad Senketsu." His energy filled her limbs with power and ease of movement.

Omiko who had just looked on, in shock, finally shook her head and pointed her racket at Ryuko. "Enough with the fancy footwork, so what if you got your sword back." She took a step forward and Ryuko put out a hand to stop her. "Uh uh. I don't know the rules of tennis, but I'm pretty sure now it's my serve. Stay right there."

Ryuko pulled a fiber from her outfit and wrapped it around the handle of her blade making a makeshift tennis racket. She grabbed one of the tennis balls around her and using her new racket hit it. It hit Omiko right in the forehead with a resounding boom. Omiko's head cracked back at an unnatural angle and Ryuko thought she'd finished her, if not for a low noise that gradually got louder and turned into a shriek of pain. Omiko's head snapped back up and she grabbed her forehead where a welt was already growing, tears in her eyes. "You..you!" she stammered before fixing Ryuko with an evil glare.

"Yes, it's me," Ryuko grabbed another a tennis ball and hit it towards Omiko who managed to raise her racket in time to deflect it, but to her surprise the ball went straight through the racket. Struggling to contain her disbelief, she glanced up at Ryuko who was still smirking. "Revenge is sweet," Ryuko lobbed ball after ball at Omiko who tried dodging them. The balls left steaming craters in the court on Omiko's end and Ryuko just laughed in glee. It was so fun to be this strong; she couldn't believe how much power Senketsu was giving her. And this wasn't even the tip of the iceberg.

"Ryuko hurry up, you already lost a lot of blood and I'm drinking a lot of yours. You'll faint soon if you don't finish this."

"Kill joy," Ryuko muttered. "Then don't drink so much," But she stopped throwing the balls; she'd run out anyways and zoomed over to Omiko's side of the court. Raising her scissor blade high she aimed at her opponent who tried to deflect with her racket only to have it cut in half.

"How is this possible," she sputtered clutching onto the broken ends of the tennis racket.

"Match is over Omiko." Ryuko then punched Omiko in the gut sending her flying past the line and into the wall where she left a dent.

A buzzer sounding, announcing Ryuko's victory. Mako appeared at her friend's side and Ryuko smiled as the audience chanted her name, but then suddenly everything started to get darker and her head felt fuzzy. Senketsu untransformed as Ryuko fell to the ground heavily.

Ryuko woke up in the hospital, an IV bag attached to her hand and bandages wrapped around her arms, legs and head. Her head still felt dizzy and light and she slowly sat up.

"Don't move too much Ryuko, you'll get sick. You lost a lot of blood." Senketsu's voice sounded from where he was slung onto a chair next to her.

"And whose fault is that?" she grumbled her throat parched and she picked at her uncomfortable hospital gown.

"Yours. If you had just worn me from the start…. Admit it I'm pretty cool huh." Senketsu gloated as Ryuko blushed.

"I use you once and now you've got a big head, huh?" Ryuko pinched at his lapel hurting him. He squirmed around in her grip and then he laid flat. Ryuko confused by this didn't have time to question it, when Mako came into the room she was being held in.

"I brought croquettes," she announced pulling a bento box from out of her shirt. The two girls ate in peace, discussing the events of the day, as the sun light behind the window slowly darkened and night fell.