Notes:
Disclaimer - The characters featured in this were created by Akira Toriyama and Kazuki Nakashima. This is an old idea I forgot I had. I absolutely loved it. For anyone that might have read an earlier version, which I think I had up years ago, it will be completely revamped from start to finish.
I didn't like the cliffhanger ending I left it on, so instead of splitting the story into two separate works, I'll just continue it for as long as possible following the end of the first part.
It has an M rating to be on the safe side. Later chapters might feature "lemon" scenes.
Part I - Trinity
The rain cooled as it drizzled. Standing before a marked grave she needed a friend's company. Raindrops dampened her mid-length hair; dark with a single red highlight on her bangs sweeping left. She brushed it from the front of her uniform. Its blue was a shade damper as some seeped into the fabric above her belly. Life Fiber was still a new concept. The mansion was nothing but dust and rubble all but claimed by nature. It was even more meaningless then. She hardly knew it.
"We're gonna find who did this," she swore under her breath.
If the moon wasn't listening, she thought of it anyway, coating everything beneath it in a soft, peaceful glow.
{Ryuko. Son is coming.}
It was strange to hear her top whisper. Stranger still that only she could.
"Ryuko!" a less imposing voice called out.
When he ran up it was with an umbrella and the cheekiest smile. Mud splashed under boots tailored to his preference. He had all but shot up over a few years. He used to be shorter when they were younger. She didn't have the first clue of what to do about his hair. Each strand of it refused to fold even for the rain.
"Don't wanna get soaked, do 'ya?"
"Thanks, Son," she muttered.
Ryuko rose to her feet. Son's looking at her took him aback. He often said it was the blue in her eyes. Her pupils were a gear-shaped mystery with eight grooves around the edges. He thought it was mostly, if it ever happened, her fetching smile. She took the umbrella from him as they turned to face a small pile of dirt.
"I'm just sorry the old timer missed it," he said, putting on regret.
Ryuko tried to ignore it. Her scrutiny remained on the tombstone and its neat engravings.
"You think we'll be alright without him?" Son asked.
"Of course we will. We have to be." She saw his face twisting.
And would until she looked over his arms; bared and muscled through a tight top under something looser.
"You ever get tired of that thing?" she grinned for it.
Son pinched at a rugged undershirt behind a sleeveless layer, curving his lips. He slipped fingers under the tied off sash holding his pants up.
"It's really comfy," he said. "Your dad knew how to make some awesome stuff!"
"Yeah...so awesome." Ryuko shook her head. "We're gonna need it. From what I hear Honnoji Academy is no joke. It's our best bet at finding the other half of this."
Son's attention slipped to a platinum case she usually kept close to her back. Ryuko held it there like putting it down was never an option.
"Your dad took me in. He asked me to watch your back if anything happened...so that's what I'm gonna do," he said with a seriousness she couldn't shake.
That wasn't a norm but it had her attention. His eyes were a deeper brown but unlike reality, she thought them gentle, inviting, and they told the truth. Ryuko's knee quivered but she blamed it on the breeze.
"Why leave me Senketsu? Does Son have anything to do with it?"
She went over it again in silence.
"You all right?" Son asked, hoping to draw it out of her.
"... I will be. C'mon. Honno City's waiting," she said.
Son took hold of a sack swinging its dingy strap above his shoulder. Ryuko tried her best to ignore him, but as some things never changed with time, she snickered that the attempt rarely if ever worked.
x.x.x
"So, she has a Kamui too."
Long, black locks fell as far as her thighs, still wet after her shower. Whether she liked it or not she had her mother's angular profile, thick eyebrows, and a figure coming into its buxom.
"Yes, Lady Satsuki," answered her butler.
She didn't open her eyes to see that his were fully darkened. His hairline receding he was well past getting old with his ghastly complexion. By windows stretching her chamber's length and width she sat before them, hardly clothed. The Manor was too quiet, yet it was loud all the same. The moon's glow illuminated her skin to expose youth. She accepted a tea cup with the saucer to hold it, pleased with the aroma. A berry's sweet, it didn't burn her tongue as it had cooled a bit. She crossed one of her legs over the other.
"I never believed the stories of Matoi's pet," she wanted to scoff. "Granted, his winning martial arts tournaments worldwide is...atypical."
"If I may, Lady Satsuki. Shouldn't we focus on Matoi's daughter? She will be as troublesome, if not more so." Soroi's gaze slightly lowered with his tone.
"... Already considered," Satsuki hesitated.
She narrowed an affecting stare, blue as the light grazing her bedroom. Her deadpan said a great deal more.
"This...Son Goku...is of more use to me. No doubt she will protect him with her life. Testing the notion will have to do for now."
"Of course, Milady," Soroi bowed.
The polish of a wheeled tray moved as fast as he could muster. Satsuki stared off. At her feet, an ivory scabbard shielding her weapon was of no concern. Yet. Her mind set on acquiring a means to an end, one that would serve her purpose and hers only. It was providence.
"Hmph. You can't hide him anymore, Matoi," she whispered.
x.x.x
Tokyo was once a great city...and it was lying in ruin. It was easy to forget her father's "simulations" weren't real. The creatures didn't have faces. They were as cold as freezing alloy, and they tussled with a blade they couldn't knock from her grasp. Its razor sharp edge cleaved through each one as a knife would through butter.
"I owe you for the sucker shots!" she boasted.
Taking hold of a car by the bumper, one swing of the arm slammed it into a pack of them harassing her. She tossed her weapon and didn't think to watch it lop off three heads before returning to her clutch where it was the most useful. The monsters were armed and they fired on her with strange devices. Burning beams bounced from her skin and her armor's resilience. It was different. A rigid molded to her body exposed most of a perky bosom. Legs short and tense, her armor granted her imposing shoulder pieces, and what resembled a cat's ears poking through her bangs.
How she felt with it on mattered the most. She caught a glimpse of her training partner's skill. How he moved took her aback. His strength troubled her as much as she enjoyed seeing it in action. Faster than lightning streams of fire tried to slow him down. He jammed his knuckles through his opponent's face, sending it through stone past the first floor of a vacant bank. Another tried an attack from behind.
He vanished, dropping his elbow into its bumpy scalp with it none the wiser. Anymore attempting to rush him fell to hard blows flicking in and out of their line of sight. He bobbed and he weaved at his own pace, finding an opening, and a hand to smash through another face when the timing was perfect. His companion's blade cut a swath, widening to open her side of the street, reducing it to ash.
"What's the matter, Son?! Tired already?!" she bared her teeth. "Maybe I should finish the rest for you!"
"Oh yeah?! Watch this!"
Anything around them flickered. His effort shimmered from his toes to the tips of his hair. He smiled, speedily striking the last. Twin projectiles left the flick of his wrists and cut any that were left in two, singing their remains. A thought sent him to her in an instant. All of the fire and brimstone flared on...then out. The next thing they could see was an intangible chart with brightened symbols.
{You should take a breather, Ryuko, lest you pass out in two minutes.}
"It's funny you say that. I feel better than ever," she said.
Ryuko's armor changed into something Son could recognize. No longer as revealing, it decided on a skirt connected to her torso by three nicked suspenders.
"Is he talking to you again?" He scratched the side of his head, baffled. "I'll never understand how that works."
Ryuko stabbed the false earth with her blade's sharpest end, leaving it there. Metallic, gleaming red, she took her attention from it. The room blurred, soon forming into the platinum box it really was. Surrounding electronics were the only noises they had to be sure that it could still function. Its numerous lights popped into view.
"Senketsu is linked to you," she said pointing and waiting for the display to change.
As Son was at her side he could see the mock-up of himself a bit higher than they stood.
"See that? The stronger you get the stronger he gets," she said.
"That's weird. I still can't hear him at all," he replied, open-mouthed.
He glanced at her, giving him the eye.
"What?" he said.
"You just...never ask why it looks like a swimsuit now," she said with a furrowed brow.
She blushed, aware of what she had the nerve to say.
"I don't know. I just assumed you like fighting half naked," he said.
She snatched him by the collar and yanked him close.
"Idiot! You think I like training in next to nothing?!"
"No, no, no!" he laughed nervously. "There's nothing wrong with being able to move. Senketsu actually works for mobility. Right?"
{He has a point.}
"Uh huh. Always taking his side! Why don't you ride up the crack of his ass for a change?!" she scoffed, abruptly letting him go.
She quickly crossed her arms and turned her back to him.
"What the hell are we training so hard for anyway?" she huffed.
{Your father told me not to say. That you would know when the time came.}
"Tsk. The jerk leaves a mansion and all of this crap just for us to what? Find ourselves? I'm not buyin' it," she said glaring at the room's many wonders.
Son kept his distance.
"Maybe your dad just wants us to be strong," he said, raising a finger. "Remember? He said sometimes you gotta sacrifice what you want for the greater good. Just like when he cut my tail off and kept it from growing back. "It's for the greater good," he said. We had to trust him then, didn't we?"
Relaxed, slowly sighing, Ryuko turned around.
"... Ever the dork huh?" she said. "You do know we can't stay here, Son?"
Son combed the area like it would one day be a memory. He remembered fonder moments of sweat and pain. Where he tested his limits and then some. He swallowed his pride.
"Yeah," he tried to smile. "It was fun while it lasted."
He soon found the floor, focused on it. Ryuko took the heft of her scissor by its guarded hilt, propping it on her shoulder. She checked for the laces on her sneakers.
"I'm hungry. Let's go upstairs and get some grub. We'll talk about it some more," she said. "Keep that chin up...for me."
"I will," Son nodded.
He straightened himself. Ryuko hated to see him that way. Worrying about it aside, she took on the burden of keeping most of those thoughts to herself.
x.x.x
"Ryuko?"
Ryuko's daydream snatched from her, she remembered they left a cab and were on foot.
"What? Sorry," she said. "It's not much further now."
"Woah. Look at that!" Son gasped.
He pointed to what she already didn't care for. Its highest structure could easily pierce the morning cloud cover. Where they stood bordered slums, rundown and wreaking of refuse, but the sea water next to them helped with the smell. Ryuko slipped her hands into her jacket pockets, indifferent. It was her choice to spot the change in the atmosphere, and the towering visual the further up she looked.
"So. There it is," she mumbled with no enthusiasm.
Son's expression changed her mood. She tapped her knuckles against his shoulder.
"You impressed?" she said, grinning.
"I don't know. You think they'll let me fly us to school everyday?"
"Nice as that sounds, we should keep under the radar. You flying around is the opposite of that."
A packed trolley took its time rolling by but a squeal rang from one of its sides.
"AIIIEEEEEEE!"
"Son!" Ryuko tensed.
"I got her!" Son said as he left his feet.
Hopping the cable car, he dropped ahead of a bike missing its front tire and the noisy girl riding it. He forgot to reach as she hit the sidewalk edge and was thrown from its seat into his arms. His back met the pavement, but she clung on like her life was forfeit, kicking and screaming.
"I'M DEAD! I BROKE MY ANKLE! MY SPLEEN IS PUNCTURED!"
Ryuko stopped just beside it. Tears streaming from the girl's doe eyes, strands of her bowl haircut tossed back and forth. Son spoke into her noticeably ample chest as she refused to let him push himself away.
"You're alive. No broken ankles. No punctured spleens," Ryuko smirked. "Wanna get off of my friend now?"
Any amusement left her face. The Honnoji Academy patch was clear as day: under the girl's neckerchief read "No Star". The girl all but snapped to her feet. Her sudden change in demeanor unsettled, and it didn't stop her from crowding Ryuko's space.
"You're that transfer student," she chirped, wide-eyed. "It's all anyone's been talking about!"
She shot her attention to Son's picking himself up. Brushing bits of her bike from his pants, he coughed lint. Already in his face, she placed a finger over his brow.
"Weird spiky hair. Looks confused a lot of the time. Blue undershirt and wrist bands." She pinched his cheeks and pulled as hard as she could. "It is you two!"
"You two?" he said. "What are you talking about? Who are you?"
"Mako. Mako Mankanshoku!"
Her smile from ear-to-ear, it may have been the small stature, the easygoing, but as he didn't mind, he took the hand she held out for him.
"I'm Son Goku!" he said just as cheerfully. "This is Ryuko Matoi. We grew up together."
"Son!" Ryuko kept her voice down.
"Oh. Right. Sorry."
Before anyone could get in another word Mako took off after the bustle.
"See you guys tomorrow! Sorry to jet! If I'm late again I'll be expelled! HEY! WAIT FOR ME!"
"Wow...she's pretty fast," Son muttered.
They watched Mako chase the trolley, swinging her backpack around the arm a good samaritan tried to lend her. Passersby focused on the commotion. Noticing that they were noticed, Ryuko quickly took Son by the hand.
"Let's go," she said evenly.
Son scooped his sack from the street, sliding it over his shoulder, and quickly followed as she pulled him in a hurry.
x.x.x
Three-inch heels clacked across marble that was always polished. Trip beams sprung from two walls in all directions for exactly three seconds. She moved without a lull, not fully setting off the hallway's traps. The only doors slid up as Student Council President was her designation. In pristine order, he sat among bubbling vats and computational posts. Satsuki carried her sheathed Bakuzan with her uniform. Its ribbed seams and gold trim were as unique as the hair clips above her ears. The hard-at-work looked from their data feeds to bask in her presence.
"Lady Satsuki. My analysis is nearly complete," one of them said in his weaselly way.
It was befitting. The transparent mask hiding his nose and mouth altered his pitch, as unease piqued under a lab coat one size too big for him.
"They will be composed of fifty percent Life Fiber. Much more powerful...but at a cost," he added.
"I only need them to work, Iori. Do they?" Satsuki said.
She eyed a wall long projection at her leisure. Computer generated lines ran up and down to paint the picture of a long-sleeved garment. Surrounding them, as well-lit, mock-ups, prototypes and interfaced designs offered beeps to prove that they were working.
"They will," Iori remarked confidently. "You seem certain that he will see things your way."
"Better to make an honest enemy than a false friend," Satsuki paused. "You would do well to remember that."
Iori's beady eyes narrowed behind his oval-framed glasses.
"... Have I not proven my loyalty?"
"You are still president of the Sewing Club, aren't you? Relax," Satsuki turned as if there was no reason not to. "Begin testing on the first subjects. Keep me posted."
Her legion of soldiers, drab no matter how numerous, moved to allow her perfect gait. The sheen on their grayed helmets and gankuran were a bland trade off. They pumped fists to the single, four-pointed stars on their chests. It was easy to forget to breathe normally. Iori and the rest of them wouldn't dare to think of it until she left.
x.x.x
Their shack wasn't furnished: it was one bed and a couch on the mend. Paint on the walls a chipped beige Ryuko wondered about the plaster. It granted them a space to cook, clean, sleep, or think. Outdoors the harbor kept a swarm of seagulls content with bread crumbs. One window by the front door she could look at them and the water. Any pressing need to continue was trumped by simply standing still.
{Does something trouble you?}
Ryuko swore every time Senketsu spoke the pattern under her collar was his one good eye raising to see if she would react.
"I'll tell you later," she said, holding a dirty curtain open.
Her attention met how browned the dock's boards were. The floor under the carpet she stood on was old and proved as much when it creaked. It took Son's walking to her, him stretching his arms and yawning. Oblivious, the mattress was stiff against his back as he fell into it.
"This is more like it," he smiled, kicking one of his feet up on the other. "The bathroom's not so bad. It could use a new toilet seat."
"Put it on the to-do list," Ryuko leaned against a desk.
She could spot him lifting his hand. He balled it, squeezed his fingers, curious of how hard he could really punch.
"Gotta find new ways to push myself. Now that the mansion's gone," he said. "Your dad sure picked a strange place to lay low."
"It's as far from the academy as we can be," Ryuko replied, eyeing the wall across from her. "Wouldn't have it any other way."
"Yeah," Son nodded.
His head turned to see her on her knees and unzipping a bag. She unpacked it, he watched, so much so that she caught him flicking away his attention.
"You gonna help me unpack or what?" she said.
Son hopped to his feet. He plopped next to her and crossed his legs. Ryuko wasn't shy to comb over his arms, the top of his chest peeking from his undershirt, and any definition his body didn't have when they were children. She cursed herself for looking at all, folding a pair of jeans just as she pulled them out.
"We're here for answers, Son," she said because it changed the subject. "I know it's easy to get distracted."
Son caught her staring. "Don't worry. I haven't forgotten. There're gonna be some tough guys at school. I can't wait to see what they can do!"
"And they say I'm the juvenile delinquent," she scoffed.
She stood, stripping free of her jacket to toss it without a care. Rolling her neck, she did the same with her shoulders.
"I could use a shower," she sighed out.
"You might need these then," he said, lifting something in his hand.
Green-striped underwear matched a bra, but it was his grinning like an idiot that left her speechless.
"Why didn't you tell me earlier?!" she griped, snatching them quickly, her face as red as a beet.
"It must've slipped my mind," he said. "By the way. That's your favorite pair. Does that mean you don't have any on right now?"
Ryuko loomed over him.
"WHY WOULDN'T I HAVE UNDERWEAR ON, SON?!" she hollered. "How the hell do even you know that these are my favorite pair?!"
"Because you told me they were," he said.
She stormed off, slamming the bathroom door so hard rust shook from its knob.
"... Sheesh. She sure is touchy today," Son shrugged.
x.x.x
Hot and wet splashed against her bruises. Ryuko ignored it, her palm against the wall and her head down, letting it hit the back of her neck. Minutes of forgetting herself at an end, she traded one cramped space for another, albeit darker, wringing locks she recently trimmed with a towel. Sprawled out on a pasty sheet and a blanket, her roommate said nothing. Plastic bowls by his pallet on the floor, noodle pieces slipped down the sides and back into the broth. She glanced at the pot on their stove nearly spewing enough of it to feed a family of five.
"We'll call that progress," she said under her voice, thankful that he didn't burn the shack down.
She borrowed one of his shirts, throwing it on and letting it fall just shy of her knees. The thermostat didn't work. Passing trolleys outside weren't louder than the cat cries. She moved in no rush between her sheets and dropped her head into a pillow she forgot to fluff. Above her the shack's one fan was on but its one bulb wasn't.
{You needn't worry about him, Ryuko. I was designed to protect you both.}
She rose without sitting all the way up. Her uniform, on a hanger by the bathroom door, could wait with a patience she considered too uncommon. She almost envied it.
"Did my father really expect me to keep the secret forever?" she asked, pestered by the thought. "The moment's gotta be right but when it is...I'm telling him the truth. All of it. He deserves to know."
{Ryuko.}
"You can't talk me out of it. Goodnight."
She laid on her side if it helped to close her eyes. Son's snoring didn't keep her awake yet it was every reason to get some rest. For the moment, he was safe and sound.