Snipe
Three days passed between the No-Tardy Day and the present and yet it felt like forever. Every time Shinko would even attempt to approach Ryuko, even now that he was not wearing the Goku Uniform, she would push away, say an obscenity, and then disappear into the faceless horde.
'You are sullen, your blood has less carbohydrates in it,' Sentokitsu noted as they prepared to leave the mansion established for Two Star students.
"A little bit yeah. I'm trying to do the right thing and yet Ryuko is just not getting it!" he sighed readying to leave out of the door. When it opened a needle shot down barely missing his Kamui sleeve and more importantly his hand.
'Left rooftop, three o'clock,' the Kamui informed having seen the trajectory of the needle as it fired from the gun.
Shinko grabbed at the stud in his glove pressing it in swiftly. As per the first few transformation he stood cloaked in a mystical light that hid the rather private parts of his naked frame all the while fresh blood traveled through every thread. A beast of pure green fire rose up from the depths behind him and gorged, red threads tying around his frame.
"Life Fiber: Fusion! Kamui Sentokitsu!" and with that he was transformed and already bolting through the Two Star district towards the rooftop opposite.
'Crud,' the shooter hissed internally rushing across the roofs with sniper rifle in hands. A mowhawk raised above his head but other than that not much more could be made out aside from the leather jacket covering his shoulders.' I can't outrun a Kamui but anyone wearing one is threat to themselves and everyone else,' he turned and fired out another round the muzzle flare hiding his face.
"No!" the green bladed katana upon Shinko's back blurred through the air meeting the round in a clash that did not cut through. The needle in fact provided enough time for the fleeing gunman to throw a thimble that detonated three times over.
'He's getting away,' Sentokitsu said, narrowing his eyes through the thick smog that had come across the rooftop where they stood.
"Damn!" a wide slash sent a green wall of energy forward but there was nothing the sniper was already gone. Shinko slumped down against the chimney of the house they were resting on." He got away," Shinko sighed as the Kamui deactivated sensing the urgency in his wearer's blood.
'Yes but not for a lack of trying that detonation provided a great smokescreen. If it had hit directly we would have been far worst off,' Sentokitsu said with optimism.
"Doesn't matter I was too slow. We need to start training more if we are going to fight against some Shooting Club goof," the teen descended from the roof with a hop both feet kicking up what littler dust the well maintained street had left.
Honnoji Academy(Three hours later)
"Sen-i-Soshitsu!" the red Scissor Sword had bisected the Biology Club in one fell swing. Attached to a wall in thick metal chains sat Mako Makanshoku, who was wide-eyed at the display. To her right and left the two vice-captains of the Biology Club both of which had been stripped of their Goku Uniforms by the all important swing of the red highlighted girl in the doorway.
"Woah, Ryuko you really are something!" Mako laughed now freed from the chains by Senketsu's wearer. Ryuko turned in the doorway with a broad smile on her face as if to point out it was nothing really.
"Don't worry about it Mako. You'd do the same for me," Ryuko laughed before exiting the small lab where her best friend had been chained up like some sort of test animal.' Satsuki, you are sick bitch. Trying to gut Mako like that! I swear that I'll enjoy beating the answers out of you!' she gripped both hands as Senketsu deactivated.
'You used our power very well in there Ryuko. You and Mako surely have bonded,' Senketsu had tried, and failed, to get Ryuko to put a spin on the events surrounding the other Kamui wearer on their side but she did not.
"The Makanshoku's and you are all I have. Protecting that and finding out who killed dad are my biggest drives here," she smiled as Mako rushed out of the door having been distracted by the gerbils and such that were resting within the lab." Hey, Mako guess we should head back to class now," Ryuko laughed again as they stepped out into the main hall.
They walked past a series of plate glass windows failing to see the muzzle aimed at them from the other side of the building.
From a rooftop...
"Two things you should know about me. One: I never miss my mark. Two: I hate to be disturbed," it was the mowhawked man from before this time with the cross hairs lined on Ryuko Matoi's chest, more specifically on Senketsu's scarf. Behind him a group of Honnoji Students, all One Stars trying to repair the damage his combat boots had done to the flowerbed from which he took aim.
"You should know something 'bout us too! We don't like trespassers in our garden!" someone important strolled out casually arms tucked behind the strange box on his back two stars gleaming along his chest and a rainbow of color reflecting in the blue lensed glasses upon his face. This was the Gardening Club head:" Name's Kusanosuke Yaguruma! And you don't belong here!" he shouted as the One Stars rushed in.
The sniper seemed to be peeved, but yet he remained still as the horde encroached. Two guns were kicked up from two holsters around his waist each in the shape of mini-sewing machine, their butts slammed hard into every students face. The sniper turned and fired behind his back at the wall of now angry students dozens of tiny needles ringing around the stars on their chest destroying the uniforms like Swiss cheese.
"Tsumugu Kinagase not that you are going to remember it," the two guns were aimed and fired but a wall of plants reached up and deflected the two rounds dying in the process. Tsumugu dodged left as a giant hydrangea sprouted from the ground brought by the green thumbs of the Goku Uniform, which quite litterally had green thumbs. He turned throwing a lighter forward from his left jacket pocket burning it to the ground." I don't care how many plants you have, my matches and lighters aren't going to run out anytime soon," Kinagase sneered drawing a cigarette from his pocket and lighting it with the lighter he used to burn the plant.
"Why you!" the Two Star charged.
One minute later...
He laid there unconscious Goku Uniform pinned down by the strange ammunition launched from the guns. Kinagase laid back onto his belly taking aim now at the courtyard which was filled with faceless One Stars and Ryuko Matoi, who was strolling with best friend Mako towards a different part of the building.
'Here she comes,' he twisted his right index finger around the trigger carefully not trying to push it in. Kinagase made sure that his open eyes looked dead center down the scope and at his target, the cross-hairs locking onto Senketsu's scarf.' If she wants to fight I'll have no other choice than to finish this,' the end of the barrel gleamed in a ray of the sun.
The sound of a bullet or the substitute of one rocketed out from an opposing rooftop its gleaming end heading forward.
'Twing!' a sword sung out and blocked it, a red glimmer appearing from the end of the blade. Ryuko turned and pushed Mako behind her instantly grabbing the clip on her left hand and pulling.
"-Kamui Senketsu!" she charged forward Scissor Blade drawn back and body now clothed in the Kamui. Several rounds fired from the building top but they were all slashed or batted away without effort as Ryuko pressed onto the ground and sprung up. With a leap of sheer volume she soared to the edge of the roof heel drilling through the end of the gun.
"You aren't to smart are you," she remarked kicking the gun off of the rooftop and down to the courtyard below where it broke. The sniper however smiled taking out a lighter and cigarette. Unnerved she raised the blade and aimed it at the man's nose, he simply shrugged and lit the cigarette.
"Neither are you," a left knee rose and threw the blade out of place giving Kinagase time to swing a right forearm into Ryuko's chin stunning her and providing the space needed. He rolled, pulled out two handguns, and fired both until their barrels no longer could flash with ammunition. To his surprise the red blade had every single needle jabbed into it which with a light tap fell out.
'You're precision has gotten better,' Senketsu noted having seen this capability for the first time.
"I need to keep everyone safe," Ryuko noted that the gun had been aimed at where her and Mako were standing. Tsumugu smiled flicking the ash away from the cigarette before taking another inhale.
"With a Kamui? Ain't happening," he charged. She swung the blade but with the accuracy of a true marksmen he slid under it and drove a right hand into her face stumbling the girl to the edge of the building. With a left hand he tried to toss her from the building but two hands wrapped around his arm and a knee got him in the midsection, rather close to below the belt.
"How do you know about Senketsu?" Ryuko inquired, bringing the sword back from the crook of her right elbow and pointing it at the man. He smiled faintly before throwing a another left hand forward this time it was blocked by the broad sword and a right of Ryuko's own threw him through the air.
"None of your business. All I know is you should take it off," he charged two new magazines filling the empty guns at his waist.
The rounds cut through the air at almost ludicrous speed some caught Ryuko across the face, others glanced off of Senketsu, and others still were outright misses. Whenever Ryuko would throw a hand a needle would aim at it forcing her to retreat while the opposition took full stride and drove a right or left into her abdomen. When she would swing the blade it seemed to late as a knee or boot had already caught her cheek, either left or right.
Kinagase spun and threw the butt of his gun into her face before aiming the second at Senketsu's eye. The Kamui watched as the trigger clutched but nothing came out instead it looked as if a round had slipped through it and jammed up the mechanism.
'Damn it! Aikuro!' he hissed flipping back all the while taking aim at Ryuko with the other gun which also was jammed, but she did not know that. Ryuko's blade double in size a razor's gleam of light filtering across the sharp side of it.
"Scissor Sword: Decapitation Mode!" she rushed forward readying to bring the weapon forward through what she thought was a Goku Uniform. Tsumugu grinned grabbing what looked like a spool of thread from his waist its fuse sparking to life instantly.
'Ready Ryuko?' Senketsu questioned sensing the rapidness in his wearer's heart. This battle was intense for its brevity and the fact the human was not wearing any enhancement proved even more puzzling.
"Finishing Move: Sen-i-Soshitsu!" the blade almost struck him when the explosion went off.
When the sword lashed through the cloud vanished, but so had the opposition. Ryuko looked for any sign of the fighter that had matched her, it was not there not even the spool had remained its detonation functioned perfectly.
'Got away,' Senketsu noted staring at the certain window of a very certain teacher. Inside was a mowhawked man with a cigarette lit, definitely the same guy.
"No, just slipped into a teacher's room," Ryuko had also seen that the fighter was right there but by the time she'd get there even by jumping from the rooftop Kinagase would be gone." We kept Mako safe," she smiled taking the small victory for what it was.
'That we did,' though outright happy, Senketsu knew deep down that they were the targets. Ryuko did too, even her blood said that an excess amount of adrenaline flowing through it.
Satsuki's Chamber...
"That sniper showed up again this time he got one of the Gardening Club chairs," Inumuta remarked bringing up the security footage on the gigantic screen that sat behind Satsuki's chair. It was green tinted but it had value as it showed Kinagase litterally burning down the garden.
"Hey, its mowhawk again. Why'd he do that to my garden? The monkey is the only one that tried to fight him last time," Jakuzure sighed staring at the burned and trampled flowerbed on the screen. It truly was her job to care about things like this but seeing her garden, which had been tended to for over a year now, burned to a crisp infuriated her.
"These nudist fools are getting more and more bold," Satsuki remarked staring as Ryuko came up to the rooftop. The red-highlighted teen had spunk but this opponent was no less than extraordinary, managing to get her on the ropes.' Interesting. Capable of fighting a Kamui without the need of a Goku Uniform,' Satsuki noted as Sanageyama stood up.
"Ya know Lady Satsuki, Kurosaki has nothing better to do I can send him out there to try and find this guy," the Athletic Club director yawned stretching, even at noon tiredness of doing nothing but training could get to one.
"No, you and your little tricks haven't worked monkey," Nonon stuck out her tongue and stood up, large white boots clicking against the floor. She bowed before her queen and then looked up again a totally different look of respect and admiration on her face." I will send the Art and Origami Clubs out to find him," she said respectively.
"You little snake! How can you send paper and paint to stop someone that lit up the garden like a candle? Every heard of burning paper?" Sanageyama snapped angrily. He was normally pretty cool but Nonon Jakuzure knew how to pluck his nerves in all the wrong ways, enough to make him lash out angrily.
"Both of you quiet down! Lady Satsuki is trying to think!" Gamagori yelled, an irony that had yet to fall upon him. Both sat down sticking tongues out at one another before glaring away at opposite sides of the room.
"Jakuzure, send them out at once. Sanageyama patrol the outer perimeter of the school and make sure that if he is still here that there is not way out," the heiress to the entirety of REVOCs Corps informed. She truly was a prodigy in everything including planning, which made the head of Research and Strategy rather peeved.
"Yes, Lady Satsuki," they both bowed before leaving albeit still angry at one another.
"What the hell are you doing with the sniper?" Ryuko burst through the door to find a certain Fencing Club captain yelling the same thing. Shinko was peeved it was ridiculous, once he was told by one of his No Star students what they saw.
"I hope you can understand I am the only reason either of you are still alive," the teacher sighed grabbing a book from his desk casually as if the students were not even there. Both of them growled as Mako came rushing down the hall sliding by the door on the polished floor.
"I don't give a damn he was trying to shoot me!" once again both teenager's were on the same track yelling the same thing. Aikuro smiled flipping past the first page of the book reading its characters carefully.
"Hey wait!" a 'Hallelujah' echoed through the room. Mako stepped up into the room arms held above her head pointing towards the heavens." Whatcha guys talking about?" she smiled dumbly.
"Just some rogue someone that tried to shoot me!" Shinko shouted loudly directed at his teacher.' Ryuko's still tense over there? Does she really think I a traitor?' he thought inwardly as Mikisugi gave them another glance.
"We'll discuss this later. I presume at your place mister Kurosaki after all four, or was it five, thousand square feet are pretty lonely for a teenager alone," Aikuro remarked staring through the book's pages. Ryuko's jaw nearly floored, four thousand square feet more than enough for every member of the Makanshoku family to have their own room and everything.
"Four thousand square feet huh. Selling out must have its perks," Ryuko turned her nose up at him as if he smelled bad. Shinko looked down at his Kamui.
"If you gave me a minute to explain everything!" he growled as Mako looked at both of them with curious glances.
"Whatever," she went to walk away only for a long green blade to stop her.
"I know you want to kill me right now. But it'd be wise for the three of us to go together after all you got messed up more than you are letting on against him," he smiled lightly.
'It will also give you-him-time to explain things,' both Sentokitsu and Senketsu said simultaneously using the right pronoun.
"Fine. If you try anything I swear I'll cut you in half," Ryuko grit angrily shoulder slumping sadly.
The three of them started to walk down the hallway where they quickly walked into walls that had been painted like those of the hall.
"Damn those freaking Two Stars," Shinko frowned staring out at the wall a man dressed in artist smock and white clothes beneath it. Two stars shined out in a rainbow hue from his top and danced briefly before fading away.
"Friend of yours?" Ryuko asked drawing up the Scissor Sword from the case on her back. Ryuko kept Mako between her and Shinko who had drawn the sword from his sheath.
"Not at all he's the reason why you hate me so much now," those words filled the air briefly before a dozen razor sharp origami swans shot through the window each cutting their exposed flesh." And this one I've never seen before," Shinko turned and looked at the green suited paper person, who was currently folded up into one of the green paper swans.
"Whatever. I'm going to shred both of them now!" she yanked at the cord on the red glove and the syringe bored into her skin.
'Here we go again Ryuko,' Senketsu spoke all the while being cloaked in a field of small red stars that twinkled brightly like rubies.
Blood lit up every thread, stitching its way up and down the length of her body. A light boomed beneath these threads a Life Fiber power flooded out in a spiral of light that matched that of flames.
"Life Fiber: Synchronize!" she shouted, the voice of Senketsu echoing the words behind her
She stood there cloaked in white light as a red thread twisted its way around her body. Flames breached from behind her in the form a grand orange monster with a single eye. It clamped down upon her in a massive roar of fire and sound covering her in the flames.
"Kamui Senketsu!" both of her gear shaped eyes open their blue burning with power and pride. The revealing attire did not bother her anymore, instead she went straight for a slash to find that it cut through canvas.
"Tsk tsk. Cutting up art is not allowed her," a large glob of paint came her way but a blade harmonized in green stars butchered it before it could reached her.
Shinko stood there pressing the stud in transforming. Stars of green reached up and down him swirling like a tornado as his clothes changed into a combat form. Red thread took place of black jeans and loose red top. Two burning eyes of fire appearing wider now on his chest as fiery pillar boomed out behind him.
"Life Fiber: Fusion!" the flames completely consumed him as the clothing beneath changed into something better.
Green eyes opened wide upon his chest and a flare of light rocketed out from him.
"Kamui Sentokitsu!" Shinko's words roared out like a pack of wolves before the blade's harmonized flames shattered the paint.
"It would be nice for a little help here! Tatamu!" the Art Club leader shouted as a hundred paper swans rushed forward at insane speed. The two opposing teen's shredded them before they could even get close.
"It would also be nice if you helped," Tatamu Otte shouted form returning to that of a human, green switching for purple colored paper. Two blades of folded paper emerged from his uniform drifting down to his sides sharpening at the end.
"Look I'll take Picasso over there. You can handle the human paper," Shinko charged eyes narrowing on his target. Paint red, white, black, and yellow all sprouted up from the ground in blades that stabbed at the teenager but failed to touch him. The last ditch was a wall of paint that hardened into what it was drawn to be, a boulder.
Shinko flipped down as Ryuko slashed clean through her opponent's Goku Uniform with ease. Sentokitsu's wearer flinched at the sound of the Nexus Thread being absorbed it made, him feel weaker now than ever thanks to the fact he was still fighting.
'She's far more proficient than you are,' the Kamui reminded staring at the way she handled the Scissor Blade.
"Shut up! I get that much, she doesn't have that much experience either," his nose crinkled as a boulder of black paint was drawn over his head by the Two Star-emblazoned paintbrush in his opponent's hand.' He's right she has so much more technique than I do. The worst part is I actually took something to learn how to wield a sword while she just swung it without training,' he dashed forward dodging the boulder and aiming for his opponent's chest.
A suit of armor appeared around him the blade glancing off as if it had struck steel. Shinko rolled as a mace was painted upon the Art Club leader's hand. It smashed down to the tiled floor and broke it but it missed Atticus' son by a few feet. The green sword sung up to meet the mace which stopped it entirely.
"My Michelangelo Spec is far more useful than the Van Gogh don't you think?" Nichi laughed drawing a blade three times as long as the Murasama upon the ground where it became solid, its glow as shiny silver." I was going for the sniper. But I think I'll shred you first!" he charged and swung only to find it stopped by a very ticked off right hand off his opponent.
"Funny but the thing is wielding a sword in one thing using it correctly is another," Shinko's left hand arced up Murasama splitting the painted sword apart like it was nothing. The right hand that had guarded now punched through the face mask, the Kamui's strength boosted somehow.
"Aren't you going to help him?" Mako asked wide-eyes as Shinko's next punch hit a solid shield, bouncing off with a cry of pain.
'She is not wrong Ryuko. You may be angry at him but he is fighting for our cause. Unless you did not take what he said earlier as fact,' Senketsu remarked as Shinko's right hand met that of a large metal boxing glove-like shape throwing him backward.
"No, he can handle himself. Look at what he did to the Fencing Club captain, something is slowing him down," Ryuko answered quickly to both the Kamui and her best friend.
'Are you sure?' Senketsu was worried.
"Really is he that strong?" Mako looked at him differently, as a right hand threw the Kamui and its black haired wearer into a wall the drywall falling away.
"Yeah, watch this," Ryuko cupped both hands around her mouth. She had seen the carnage he caused in the gymnasium and the damage against Sanageyama even though that was probably a fluke." Stop trying and head back to you little mansion on the hill it suits you better! Guess you are spineless, just how Satsuki likes 'em," Ryuko's bang dangled over her left eye as the Two Star Art Club captain was pushed across the hallway armor falling apart.
"Spineless!" Shinko sat up hand still extended from where it had broke clean through the armor." I am not spineless!" star of green light raced up and down along the young warrior's entire Kamui finally bursting out of the wall in a beam of light.
'What are you doing? Our power has gone up substantially!' Sentokitsu looked stunned as the Murasama morphed from a katana into a broad sword with a long chain extending from the hilt.
"I don't know but it sure as hell is for the best!" he charged in a blur from the hole in the wall and brought the chained sword down upon his foe's armor, which in reality was paint, it shattered in a green blur. Nichi Masuda turned and tried to paint something else but a foot covered in a black boot stomped it into dust." Not today!" the chain wrapped around the Two Star's right wrist and drew him back to his feet.
It extended as Shinko flipped over his foe the sword's green edge igniting with stars. It sharpened as the chain began to reel in the opposing Two Star club captain.
'I see. We've adapted to the situation. Your father truly was a genius,' Sentokitsu remarked as the blade, three feet plus of solid green metal-like Life Fibers spun around in its wielder's hand.
"And now let's show them all the proof of it!" he yanked on the chain and drew his foe in faster than the retracting the sword arcing forward in a shimmering star." Finishing Move!" it slashed horizontally across the club captain's back and then vertically down the front." Murasama!" the slashed morphed into a triad one either side before the Goku Uniform exploded into cloth shreds leaving the captain there naked.
Nichi's Nexus Thread swam through the air towards Ryuko. It melted into Senketsu a moment later a pressure of power riding through that Kamui as well. Shinko turned and walked towards her broad sword: Murasama draped over his shoulder in a new scabbard.
"I'm not spineless Matoi got that?" Shinko carried a determination in his words that hit Ryuko like a raging semi. She smiled at him as both of their Kamui deactivated, the Murasama remaining in broad sword form.
"Always have, but I needed something to snap you out of that routine of yours," she laughed.
'As I speculated her Kamui can talk with her as well. It must have told her that your body was actually weaker now than just few days ago even if you have eaten better food,' Sentokitsu noted as Ryuko and Mako began to walk.
"You think so?" Shinko said noticing the Ryuko was looking down at Senketsu like he usually looked down upon Sentokitsu.
Of course that was until all of the windows along the hall burst and it filled with smoke.
What a clincher there at the end! This chapter was really fun to write because it was inspired by my favorite episode in the early parts of Kill la Kill of course now we move into the second half of that episode next chapter so buckle up!
~Herodan3