Shadows Of Our Past - a KILL la KILL story

Chapter 19/2: Facing Darkness, With A Brave Heart

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"Ryuko!" she can hear Satsuki yell.

"RYUKO!"

"Satsuki!"

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Again, the world around Ryuko changes. She lands in front of the old Honnouji-Academy, around the students, the Elite-Four, and above all, Satsuki Kiryuin, who stands with pride and resolve above everyone else, looking down to Ryuko with an uppish gaze. Time has stopped, but Ryuko can move. White Fibers seem to be in the sky. They move slowly, yet they are gigantic and massive, and somewhat thin as paper. Ryuko can't get rid of the feeling they are more than just simple Fibers - she never saw those. Not even when she destroyed Junketsu and almost died due to the blood loss.

As Ryuko tries to find a way up to the White Fibers...

"Ryuko!" she can hear weak.

The world disappears once more, Ryuko falls into a black hole, then into the white Light she saw, and there, she finds herself back in the real world, where Nui shakes Ryuko awake.

"Would you stop sleeping already, Ryuko, you ain't going to die, YOU HEARD ME!?" Nui yells at Ryuko. Ryuko seems to exhausted, so tired, so helpless, next to the murderer of her dad, and she just looks at Nui with an hopeless, empty gaze, that's how much of her power is gone. She can't even move her hand properly anymore.

"Wha... what happened..."

"You've been sleeping for four hours!" Senketsu replies "... and Nui is taking a shortcut to Neo-REVOCS! She's driving even through the fields and forests!"

"...M-Mako..."

"Nui, what do we do with Mako?" Senketsu asks worried.

"I don't know, you tell me." Nui answers without any sign of participation. In the end, she does not care for Mako. All that counts is Ryuko's health.

"You don't care for her?"

"Until Ryuko says otherwise." Nui answers. Ryuko tries to sit more properly.

"This... stupid... Dir-director... can hear us, can he?" the dying woman mumbles. Senketsu look at Ryuko.

"Hey... you... son of a... bitch. Bet'cha super... interested in what I wanna... talk about?"

Nui smiles briefly.

"But... heh... should have given that Fiber the... ability to watch and hear... what I do... you loser." Ryuko grins as blood leaves her mouth.

"Just... you wait..."

"Don't annoy him too much, mon chér." Nui mentions. Ryuko tries to stay awake as Nui navigates through a dark forest. The group has passed Ôsaka, Nagoya and Shizouka. Yet Ryuko falls back unconscious once more.

Ryuko lands again into a dark hall in which a few Life Fibers hover around, and around her are people that are or were close to her, or who had an significant impact to her life. Satsuki. Mikisugi. Nui. Mako. Her father Isshin. Her mother Ragyo. But as Ryuko approaches them, they suddenly dissolve into White Fibers, and briefly after, Ryuko dissolves as well... but it doesn't feel like she did. In fact, it rather feels like she would leave trails of herself. Memories, feelings, thoughts, dreams, wishes... all those things that are in her head. As if one Ryuko became many, and out of the many Ryuko's became an nearly infinite amount, split into smaller and larger White Fibers that fill up the otherwise cold and dark room.

And then, she is drawn out of this dream and lands back inside the car with Senketsu and Nui, in the darkness of the night, and the moon shines, and the snow falls from the sky. Christmas is coming soon. Ryuko notices the streets she and her companions are. Neo-REVOCS signs hang around here and there. Tokyo changed due to Neo-REVOCS influence as more days pass... as if they would build a second Nagoya. Wherever Ryuko looks at, Ashigaru and Samurai patrol the city at the evening, and she notices the building Satsuki used to live in.