Truth' Revealed
Blackness soon shifted into a grayish scale and drips of water slowly fell from the ceiling and hit the floor. The mist of said drops splashing on bare skin slowly making the figure shiver. Something twitched as eyes closed and opened again clearing the gray scale away to reveal a concrete prison that had been a personal office or classroom of some sort.
He felt constricted and cold, his black eyes shaking with the fatigue of something paining him. Feeling trapped he looked down to find out exactly where he was.' Honnoji? Am I still in Honnoji?' he asked, body still heavy with sleep.
A shiver coursed through his body as another cold drip of water splashed onto his feet.' She got me that fast?' Shinko's eyes closed with the cold feeling. When he shut his eyes he saw everything that occurred his last time being conscious. Ragyo's rearing punch, his frame struggling to recover before fading out entirely.
Feeling stressed he tried to move his hands, but they did not budge. Surprised the teenager, looked down to see long red coils wrapping his arms at the shoulder and elbow to his body in large coils, which was completely looped around his torso. They were Life Fibers, ones that were probably feeding on him, he knew now that Ragyo had defeated him, proving that sight was no dream, and he failed to escape.' Trapped?' he thought before closing his eyes in pain.
"No, Sento..." his pain had briefly turned to glee, he could break out of it with his Kamui's help." Wait," then it hit him the Life Fibers were on his skin not his Kamui. He was alone, there was nothing to help him out of it; his struggles was worthless considering the difference in power between Life Fibers and people.
Through the ventilation he heard moans and groans. Something was happening near enough to him but there was no way to tell what aside from it had an element of what could have been interpreted as pleasure.
Then he recognized it, the weakening scream of 'Stop!' flowing through the air duct. It was a female's voice, more importantly a teenaged females voice, that once carried the strength of a lion now screaming out like a rabbit.
'Satsuki? Ragyo didn't kill you?' he thought trying to pry himself free again. Shinko heard the struggle in the girl's voice, the fright that was being brought upon her made a shiver flow up his spine. A need to help boiled in his belly, rebellion to rise against the machine.' Come on you're only fabric? Damn it, snap! Snap already!' he hissed keeping quiet while trying to free himself.
Satsuki screamed and everything went silent. That silence though only made him him even more uncomfortable.' Did that just happen? What the hell is Ragyo's problem?' he winced hearing the footsteps of the mother exiting the room as if nothing had happened.
Osaka...
"More refugees!" a cry from a very surprised Uzu Sanageyama came through the somewhat crowed entrance of Nudist Beach. These refugees though were ones that were very friendly and had a very close to the Elite Four.
Shiro Iori was standing beside his uncle Soroi, Satsuki's butler, covered in mud and debris from trudging through combat zones to get there. Behind them some members of Honnoji's Sewing Club. They had lost nearly two dozen on the way there to hostile COVERs which simply scooped them up and left.
"I am sorry for coming so late but the raw Life Fiber reserves have been dwindled down to nothing," Iori sighed pulling out a small sewing kit with a few loose red threads inside. His uncle shook his head silently before pulling out a tea set with several cups, a pot, and a thermos filled with the last remnants of his prepared tea, along with nearly two small boxes of tea leaves.
Sanageyama smiled and placed a hand on the blonde's shoulder, feeling the discomfort on his face." Hey, you tried we did not expect you to come here and patch up our Goku Uniforms. We need your expertise because aside from Inumuta you know the most about Life Fibers," the green haired teenager smiled his dirty Goku Uniform showing that it had not been easy for them.
"How kind," Iori said sarcastically before continuing into the hideout. The past three days had been hell for everyone within the compound and clearly for everyone on the outside as well.
Soroi watched as his nephew descended into he crowd to look for the common ground with Inumuta." Sanageyama, has Lady Satsuki been brought here yet or found?" the aged man asked the teenager standing beside him.
A gulp caught in the young man's throat as he flashed imaged of the worst case scenarios in his head. He shuddered slightly before letting out a sigh of how uncomfortable this whole thing was." I believe she is captured somewhere in the Honnoji Stronghold. Though her being dead is pretty possible too," the former chair of athletics remarked quickly and concisely to the butler.
"I see. Then, I will prepare tea for her return," the graying man smiled before exiting. Sanageyama smiled hearing those words showed how much trust there was in his gut feeling. She was still kicking somewhere or another.
The Next Day...
Even though he had faded quickly Shinko had found it troublesome to return to sleep that night. Something was off about the entire ordeal. The silence was too eerie to trust and the wind only foreboded another rainstorm to come, sleeping would prove worthless. Blustering gales often flew in his shattered window chilling the room and making his naked frame tremble, the past twelve conscious hours had been a freezing hell.
It was bound to get worst though as the door to his hell was opened with a rainbow colored fanfare. The sleek outline of a towering woman became plainly clear against it, all of the colors merging to form her white frame. Glowing ruby rings for eyes burrowed into him almost as if he was nothing more than a window or mirror for her to look through or at.
"Where is he you bitch?" Shinko growled beneath his breath, both hands clenching though being unable to move.
Ragyo did not respond, choosing to watch as he struggled slightly against the confines that held him there.
"Where is my Kamui, Ragyo?" he snapped weakly. Ragyo's presence, like Satsuki's aura, was an imposing force the struck through sheer brilliance, Satsuki's aura did not truly compare.
She smiled coldly before stepping further into the room. The door shut behind the REVOCs executive, almost at command, leaving the teenager alone in the chilled room with the vicious woman who sold her soul to the devilish Life Fibers.
"That dishrag? Your father's last ditch effort at revenge? It is not here," she smiled staring down at him coldly. His heart sank with those words, everything he had been building up to with it, all of the training and battles wasted in the span of a few hours? Days?
Shinko's head slumped down and his hands clenched tightly drawing blood from the palms as the nails bit in." You are lying, you bitch. You have to be lying! My Kamui can't be gone!" he growled tears rolling down his face.
"My poor confused boy, it is gone for now. In fact, it had no real purpose anyway," Ragyo chided as if the teenager was a child, who had just lost a prized toy.
Shinko's sniveling rage built up more and more as his muscles began to tense stressing against the fibers wrapped around him.' You heartless monster,' Shinko's teeth grit, he did not say that aloud.
"You though, Shinko. Did have a purpose. One that cost me a prized scientist and an even brighter young woman," she chuckled at the triviality of the entire thing.
Shinko looked up an angry vein running across his forehead his eyes going bloodshot with sheer aggression." You better shut your fucking mouth before I close if for you, Ragyo. Your experiments killed my mother and my father. That happened when you hunted him down to finish the job after he wised up and left," he shuddered with rage, his face was seething in the hatred.
"Ah, the lies of the father often befall the son don't they," Ragyo looked at him bitterly before gaining that ever cold smile that seemed to never leave. Her red eyes narrowed on his body and a shiver ran through him.
"In reality, you belong on the my side rather than theirs. Though, you are just another impudent teenager so I cannot assume anything," she sighed staring down at him as the Life Fibers clutched tightly with her gaze.
"What are you talking about?! You're just plain crazy!" he hissed angrily.
"Sit back and listen for once," Ragyo chided.
Over Seventeen Years Ago...
A tall, well-built man with a mess of black spiky haired stood with a firm right hand on the shoulder of a woman a year younger than him. Her hair was a light blondish-brown with dark roots, she was born to an American father and Japanese mother, and her cool blue eyes were looking on the screen.
A small image, that of a sonogram, was on monitor, a video of the earliest stages of human life. The unborn child that they had been striving for was laying there calmly, almost pacified even when compared to others end of the first trimester youths.
Then, a presence cast itself upon both of them and quickly made the two parent's turn around to pay attention. There Ragyo Kiryuin stood slightly younger in appearance and dressed more correctly to that of a proper director.
"Director Kiryuin," the both acknowledged together knowing that the woman easily had the power to fire them. Two of REVOCs top scientist knew when to cower even when they were considered close enough to the upper echelon to not be fired.
"How is the child?" Ragyo questioned coldly eyes, then a lighter brown, scanning the video on the screen. It was curious to see the reactions of the parents at question. They quickly though looked up at her.
"They are doing well. Their heart rate is average and their development is coming along faster than expected," Atticus Kurosaki fumbled over his words. Nervousness was a default in the face of the white hair woman
"Do you believe you will be strong enough for the experiments to be conducted?" she asked curiously staring down at the blonde haired woman. She twitched slightly before looking up knowing that the answer was vital.
"Yes, all of the Life Fiber affinity test have come back positively. Even if the results cost this child his life they will help with our future endeavors," she nodded and assured seeing the discomfort on Atticus' face. He however remained silent as Ragyo looked down at the woman like a hawk.
"Very well come with me then dear,," Ragyo led and Shinko's mother soon followed standing up and exiting.
"Fusing humans and Life Fibers like this just is not right," Atticus complained aloud as the door shut behind them. That was when the seed of discord had been sewn and where they were bound to grow.
Six Months Later...
"Come on stay with me!" Atticus gripped his wives hand as tightly as possible. She was in the birthing room and her features had grown painfully pale, red appeared in her veins as he energy was being drawn away." Please Vea! Stay here!" he shouted again shaking her hand as the cries of a baby filled the room.
The heart monitor was starting to spike rapidly as the doctor cut the umbilical cord. The struggling woman was having the equivalent of a heart attack there on the delivery table.
"Atticus, tell Director Ragyo I'm sorry," she smiled patting him on the cheek. The weak woman was starting to fade as the heart monitor flattened before spiking in tiny pulses up and down slowly.
"Don't talk like that you are going to make it out of this just fine," the large man shouted his whole frame shaking as their son was taken a way into the infant care center though he was perfectly healthy. He felt the energy being drawn out from the still young woman's body as she fought on to those last moments of consciousness and life.
"Keep him, Atticus. Keep our 'truth' to bear witness to the world as the first enlightened one, like Director Ragyo," she shivered spouting non-sense or so he thought. Then it dawned on him exactly what she had meant.
"He's not like Ragyo. There is no way any other human could be like Ragyo," he mumbled to himself as Vea Kurosaki began to lose her will to go on. A smile parted her pink lips as her eyes closed ever so slowly." He's our son, you can't just up an leave him."
"Report back to Ragyo about this and that I am sorry," she failed herself and passed on. The life of a young woman sent away for the birth of her child and that was what had been written down as her cause of death. No one really knew except for the other one in that room.
Present...
"Your mother willingly sacrificed herself for you to live on boy. You were only able to come this far because of the Life Fibers," Ragyo strutted across the room have told him her side of the story. His eyes were closed and his teeth were grit tightly to prevent him from lashing out too suddenly and end up dead or dying.
"You do see the truth now do you not? You should serve the very thing that saved your life not lash at it like a spoiled child," the white haired woman laughed as if Shinko was a dog that she had drawn up from a sewer hole or something.
"You took everything away from me you disco haired bitch!" Shinko growled.
"The Life Fibers saved my life, you say? According to that little story I was fine without them before my mother infused herself with them," Shinko snickered feeling the heat and pain running through his entire body, it was no longer centered to his back and head.
"If anything introducing me to Life Fibers made my life worse. My father and mother both died because of them. Hundreds of thousands of people are being consumed by them now," he felt the heat and pain grow worst.
"And even if your experiments worked and I was infused with Life Fibers there is no chance in hell I would ever work with you!" tears were rolling down Shinko's face as his hands tried to wriggle free.
"You poor confused child," Ragyo leaned in and looked at him boldly in the face with the cold eyes of ruby color." The experiment worked perfectly, your father's reports were easily proven false when you survived from my initial strike to your body. You are infused with Life Fibers through and through. Have you ever noticed fatigue and stress just melt away? The sheer pleasure of donning clothing? You are an enlightened one," she strutted away leaving him to think about it.
Just before she exited from the door she turned around and looked at the teenager, whose features were downcast towards the floor and body was shivering in the cold." Your very name is a testament to your merger with the Life Fibers. Consider that in your testosterone fueled anger then you can see our point of view," the door shut and was shut with heavy bolts leaving him in complete silence.
North Kanto( 17 days removed from Honnoji's Fall)...
Sanageyama stood firmly in his footfalls both hands still grasping tightly at the kendo stick within his hands. His old stomping grounds had been the only area left that even tried to stand against the COVERs and because of that Nudist Beach unloaded resources to get as many people as possible out.
Uzu had a very clear mission, though after nearly two weeks of fighting COVERs was grizzled and dirty. His Goku Uniform was steaming in some places and patched up with a stretch of Life Fibers in others." Get out while you still can!" he shouted swinging the kendo stick with enough speed to tear through the COVERs as the five helicopters they had brought were loading up with people.
"You bastards aren't going to get away with eating everyone I hold close," he leered at the horde of incoming COVERs as his frame tensed. The stars on the sleeves sparkled lightly their glow obviously dulled from constant use.
In a single motion he was transformed from head to toe in the Goku Uniform which he announced with a loud and proud: "Three Star Goku Uniform! Blade Regalia Mark Three!" followed by elaborate motions.
"MEN!" the cloth form COVERs were all swatted to one side their frames exploding with ferocity of the strike ripping through their sides. an afterimage faded as their frames fell away with it.
"DOU!" from over head several impact blurs struck out against dozens more COVERs bisecting them and leaving a cloud of debris in the way. A spinning kick off showed Sanageyama heading for more his hands already blurring around to strike.
"KOTE!" the last strike, a diagonal slash, caused a whirling of slashes to run through the nearest COVER forces. He landed on the ground as they exploded but something else followed in the wake of that explosion.
Steam, a lot of steam, poured out of his frame from the joints and chest. On the fiber level the connections slowly snapped apart though their were many of which that had already gone missing. A constriction slammed into his frame and blood began to spew from the wounds it caused as the fabric crumbled away and left him panting and naked on the ground.
"Damn it!" he threw the kendo stick forward and jabbed into the nearest COVER it did nothing much considering the beating he had taken.
"Boss get everyone else outta here," a voice familiar to him echoed out. A chainsaw revving up also signified the arrival of a few old friends that were not just going to roll over, the only ones that helped much of North Kanto to survive this long.
"You guys?" he asked feeling the crimson blood of his own rolling down over his frame. One of the goons kicked him into the helicopter and nodded at Gamagori, the last of the people had squeezed in to where they needed to be.
"Raise some hell! Gut 'em from the inside!" they all cheered as the helicopters began to take away.
"Your miscreant comrades are doing a brave thing," the blonde said handing his green haired compatriot a towel to sap up some of the blood that was on his body.
"That is just who they are, doing what I would want from them," Sanageyama sighed as their screams died down in a losing effort.
Honnoji Academy...
'She killed you Sentokitsu,' Shinko hummed the same thought that had bombarded his mind for the past several days. Every time her picked up on the woman's steps by his door or the faint slapping sounds that found their way down the ventilation shaft he cast them out of his mind with the sole thought on his Kamui.' I was too weak to help you. Its just like always, my confidence is as false as ever. Someone had to suffer for my arrogance, my human arrogance,' he whined.
'Why though? I'm supposedly the wonder kid or something stupid like that. Just an experiment right? One that is some great bearer of fortune to the world,' he teared up staring intently at the concrete that boxed him in. Shinko's every muscle began to tense as his anger built up the confining threads keeping him stationary.
'I should be able to do what Ryuko does on her own! I should stop being held back by my fears and compassion, I'm a Life Fiber,' he pouted in a growling stare.
'Instead I hid behind your power. I was the reason why we got captured!' the teenager was talking more or less to an illusion of his Kamui that had formed in his mind.
'You were strong dad imbued you with that power to protect people. Yet he made me to trap them. You received the worst of it but I am chained in the very hell I wished to destroy!' Shinko looked down at the damped concrete the moss starting to grow.
"My son. The truth is often scarier when you run from it it but that is is merely one way of handling it. Take yourself and hide or rise to the occasion and harness that truth, use it as fuel. The choice is yours," the words of Atticus Kurosaki repeated in his mind. Memories buried from his youth a grave marker that had been set up so far away.
"I am not human. I never was. Maybe, I should accept my role," he glared at the door and sighed. His hands released their tension and his head rocked back and sat against the wall as his blue eyes looked out at the gray rainy sky above.
Then he felt the threads fade away and fall loosely to the floor around his body. Their glowing color was still there but it was as if they had found their source to lose its potency or realized they were predating on their own.
Shinko though did not move instead choosing to look at the gray world outside and the white suits that roamed down below. He was trapped even if it was only by his mind alone.
"The strong have two purposes. Protect the weak or devour them," Shinko repeated another helpful tip his father had left to him. The man that was Atticus Kurosaki really was a wild card with morbid tones in every tale and lesson. He never swayed the boy one way or another leaving only tidbits of fact to give him guidance.
"Clothing are the same. They either protect their host like Senketsu, or devour them like Junketsu," his blue eyes began to tint a reddish hue. He was losing grasp on everything that had made him sane.
"The only purpose of the weak is to feed the strong," he said again, spinning the opposite of his father's tales.
"Teehee..." the laugh of the psychotic blonde Grand Couturier. Ragyo must have had something else to do after violating her daughter for the near thirtieth time in the short two weeks they had been there.
"Hey Shinkii~chan guess what time it is?" the voice was bubbling through the door as she arrived there. He was in for a terrible time.
He remained silent in her presence as a strand of Life Fiber reached from the ceiling to pull him from the ground.
Two weeks after that...
Nearly all of Japan had encountered the monsters known as COVERs. The business suits had one mission and one only to assimilate the human race into their power source and grow in power. This left towns and cities in shambles as their last survivors struggled to move on past the vicious creatures, the damp typhoon front rolling by did not help their situation as any fire or earthen barriers they attempted to raise would fall.
Honno Town was no different. Though it was under the exact location of the first COVER's appearance the durable citizens had found away to scrounge up survival. Those that did often wandered through the shadows cast by the empty houses and sewer system that was overrun with rats and other pest of the urban landscape.
One of these Honno Town rebels was the every durable and long lasting Makanshoku boy, Mataro. The small thief had grown into something of a savior for those that dwell in the darkness beneath the accursed place. His thievery was ever impressive and the ability to keep things quiet made him as their easiest recover of whatever food was left.
Mataro and his dog, Guts, were hurrying their way through the streets with a sack made out of burlap. They stopped by a fruit stand and grabbed whatever was left, a few rain drenched tomatoes and some oranges that were barely on the good side of spoiling. It was not a lot but considering what they had been eating it was going to be something like a five star meal.
"Come on Guts let's get back quick," Mataro said in hushed tones before running through the streets. Unfortunately this time his right foot stepped on something was was not concrete but far worst.
The COVER, a cloth form, turned around and towards the youth its chest starting to release small tendrils that were meant to engulf anything that was close enough to work a source of energy." Ehhee!" he went to run away.
This running though resulted in the instant meeting with another COVER on the prowl just as the one in front of the child had been." Shit! Get away you creepy bastard!" he reached in the bag and grabbed a tomato tightly within his hand. A swift hurl splashed the red-orange fruit over the chest of the creature doing nothing more than slightly staining the fabric.
"Damn it!" he winced turning to run away. Then a slashing glimmer of light ran by his face and the two COVERs fell to the ground in piles of deactivated Life Fibers, a figure descending behind the tomato stained one.
"Turn back to cheap dust cloth," the figure said her voice squeaky and slightly high-pitched. Pink hair hung out from a black beret, black gloves covered the hand holding the blade and the one that matched it balancing her on the ground. Black boots just below knee high were strapped around her legs followed by a garter on the left side where the dagger had been held. Black panties matched by a black vest that covered her chest finished the outfit.
The scruff however ended up drawing the attention of more COVERs all of which moving forward like ghost to their location." Hey you are that Elite Four chick!" Mataro pointed out as Nonon spun the dagger around rather majestically in her hands.
"And you're the slacker's little brother. Do you know anyway out of here?" she asked as the COVERs drew closer. Jakuzure had hardened herself to be like steel as Satsuki had once said to do, fighting off a horde of COVERs though was something best left to Sanageyama as he was the only one that had a Goku Uniform.
"This way," Mataro ran swiftly followed by the petite but athletic young woman. He lifted up the sewer cap and dove in followed swiftly by Guts landing on the side of storm drain.
She peered out with pink eyes before pulling the lid down. The COVERs did not try to follow so clearly they ignored the rustling in the streets.
What Jakuzure saw upon landing beneath the surface of the town was a bustling little realm for the sole No Stars that had no real means of leaving the place. Small tents made of blankets and tarp were lining the wall all held up by planks of wood or flatten trashcans. Small fire pits all more from rocks and wood burned with spits above them holding meat of what one could assume was rats and other urban game.
Easily two dozen people were down there all struggling to survive against the oppression of the Life Fibers. It was a crude but incredible display of human toughness and ingenuity even under the nose of the one that wants to crush it.
"You have been living down here for so long?" Nonon questioned seeing the faces of the No Stars as they saw her standing there.
"Yep, though we can't make it for too much longer. Those things are showing up more and more often up there," Mataro complained.
"You'll be fine, this sewer system should let us out close enough to Kansai to make it by night fall. All of you follow me!" she shouted starting to run in the direction of the Nudist Beach Headquarters.
Initially, he had backed the protector role for the weak and the same, for clothing to their host. Day by day though that resolve slowly grated away, Satsuki's cries for help did nothing for strengthening it either, no one was going to save her. She was so powerful and demanding, but now she was just another person scared and worn away by the beating that Ragyo often cast upon her.
"I'm done being the protector," his final decision or so it appeared to be. He lost everything because of his humanity: his father's life due to human weakness, his Kamui due to the stupidity of being a teenager, his friends because of his emotions.
His hands hit the ground and he pushed up straightening his stiffened frame. Everything quickly adjusted back into place and Shinki walked over to the sole desk in the room its covering that of a red dust cover that was going to function as a waist cloth for now.
A long lonesome highway east of Osaka...
Hundreds of COVERs exploded in a single red whirlwind that ripped through the area a motorcycle following behind it. Upon it a black haired girl with feather-like hair wrapped in a cloth of a brown bed sheet and nothing else.
Her goal was simple to kill the bitch that happened to wake her up, this of course also meant anyone else in her way be it man, woman, or child.
No! Our heroes have all fallen into a sense of deprivation of what they need the most. Shinko of his sanity and will to protect and Ryuko of her tolerance for humanity and anything else that was not her. What does this really mean for the fate of the human race? And more importantly the world at large?
Thanks for reading,
~Herodan