It's raining heavily. Stiletto and an old man in a butler's clothes are walking from a helicopter launchpad to the entrance of a tall tower; both of them carrying umbrellas. Awaiting them by the entrance is a man on his hands and knees. He's half-naked, upper half of his body bandaged here and there. Judging by how soaked he is, he's been here for a while.
Stiletto notices him and stops.
"I've no time for losers, ██████████."
"I was overconfident in my eyesight," the man confesses, head still bowed. "Give me another chance! I'll defeat Matoi for certain next time!"
There is quite a lot of emotion in his words, but Stiletto only scoffs without looking at him, ready to move on to the tower.
"Pathetic. I don't need subordinates who lack resolve."
"Resolve I have. Here is the proof!"
The man finally raises his head as a bolt of lightning strikes. Stiletto turns to look at him... and gives an approving, pleasantly surprised hum.
The scene opens on a kindergarten. A tiny girl with pink hair stands in front of a grand sand castle, laughing happily if nefariously.
"This sandbox belongs to me! I won't let the other kids use it!"
Her voice changes from smug to eager as she turns to another girl - Stiletto, looking to be about 5 years old but just as serious as she is as an adult.
"Except for you, ███████! We've been best friends since forever! I'll make a castle for you, too!"
Stiletto shakes her head and raises her hand, a handful of sand in it.
"No. My sand is right here."
"Is that all?"
"This sand was left over from that." Stiletto turns to look at a skyscraper towering over the city. "My sand became concrete and was transformed into that skyscraper. From the top, even a child can look down on any adult."
A sudden gust of wind blows, bringing down the sand castle. Stiletto, who stands firm in face of the wind, turns to her friend - fallen to her knees, rubbing sand out of her eyes.
"A castle that vanishes at the first gust of wind is worthless. Don't you agree, █████?"
Stiletto is standing on a platform high above what seems to be a stadium... with several pillars erected within it. On the middle pillar, a battle seems ready to unfold - from this distance the figures are indistinct, one seemingly a girl in strange and somewhat skimpy red-and-black clothing, wielding some manner of a red blade; her opponent looks to be a green armored robot. They charge at each other, blades drawn, about to collide--
--but almost by magic, someone else appears between them: a smiling girl with long blond hair in two pigtails, wearing a cute pink dress and holding a pink parasol. Both fighters nearly trip over their feet, gaping at the new arrival. She looks very sweet, really... but Stiletto, watching over the fight with a steely expression until then, looks utterly shocked at this development, loses her cool, lunges forward to shout.
"██████████! Get back!"
It's more than an order, the fury in it propelled by genuine worry.
An elegant room decorated in red velvet, background to the sound of strikes, someone's whimpering and angry shouting.
"You! Stupid fool!"
The bamboo sword used to deliver the blows finally breaks.
"I have no excuses to offer," croaks out the recipient, a short man wearing giant boxing gloves, standing on one knee, head bent.
Stiletto is sitting cross-legged in an exquisite chair, not even observing the scene. An old man in a butler's clothing is pouring her tea. Eyes closed, Stiletto raises her cup, takes a sip as the dressing-down continues.
A muscular, blond man in white clothes roars at the green-haired man from the first memory, wielder of the now-broken bamboo sword.
"Not only did you allow that transfer student who mocked Lady ███████ to escape, you failed to confiscate that scissor as ordered! Mistakes made by the club you run are your mistakes, ██████████!"
The green-haired man answers annoyedly, throwing himself into a chair, legs on a table before him, drapes his arms on the back of the chair. His manner overall is very cocky and irreverent.
"That's why I'm disciplinin' him!"
He throws the remnant of the sword at the wall, then lounges back in the chair, smirking smugly.
"If so, your Disciplinary Committee's mistake in allowing Lady ███████ to be mocked is yours then, █████████."
The green-haired man from earlier memories is back, and he's not happy. His eye twitches as he barely manages to hold himself back; in front of him is a girl wearing an... outfit... She's glaring at him in kind, when suddenly--
"Wait, ██████████. The victor of the match is that girl."
Stiletto steps from a staircase onto a makeshift tennis court. At noticing her both the green-haired man and everyone else retreats to a respectful distance; the man himself falling to one knee and bowing his head.
"Lady ███████!"
The red-and-black girl glares at Stiletto instead, her blade - which is actually half a giant scissors - drawn back.
"So, are you going to tell me? Are you the Scissor Blade Woman?"
Before she can finish, Stiletto draws her sword and slashes along the girl's shoulder - one smooth, barely noticeable movement, the gash in the armor appearing before she can react. She reels back.
"What?"
Stiletto lowers her sword to the side, its scabbard held in her other hand.
"If you wish to know the answer, ask the question with your skill!"
As her opponent mumbles something to herself, Stiletto slowly raises the sword, still to the side.
"Secret Sword Bakuzan. This blade can cut even a Kamui. Its edge is even keener than that scissor's."
In a sweeping arc, Stiletto brings the blade forward, seemingly slowly - but as it clashes against the girl's scissor, the impact is enough to send people around them flying. Stiletto seems to have little trouble pressing her opponent's weapon down - and hums amusedly, noting that the girl is barely holding it together. Her armor begins to steam - enough to create a cloud that lets the girl jump back.
"Mark my words! Next time, I'll finish this once and for all! Let's go, Mako!"
In another flash of steam, the scissor girl grabs her friend and makes her escape.
There's a brief moment of the black-and-red girl from most of Stiletto's memories crossing blades - scissorblades, to be precise, a half of a giant scissors each, - with another girl, long blond hair in over-the-top pigtails and a cute pink dress. Something seems to be going on, though, because Red practically explodes in a shower of blood, her clothes seemingly transforming into a giant monster that wastes no time in swallowing her up. Pink only laughs happily, her parasol opened to shield her from the rain of blood, though her manner suggests that she doesn't care that it's blood, it's the general idea of ruining her clothes that would upset her.
When the picture grows clear again, Red herself has turned into a monster, fused with both her clothes and her blade - her left arm disproportionately giant, like a square column sliced into sections, right arm now the half of scissors, spikes and teeth throughout her body, a giant bloodshot eye for her left shoulder, with her head growing out of it. It's certainly a sight, accompanied by the wheezing and groaning of the creature.
Stiletto stands on a platform high above some manner of a square, perhaps - a circle of desolate earth surrounded by incredibly tall and thick walls that stretch from a central building. There is a certain prison-like air about the place, probably not helped by the hundreds of youths in unremarkable grey uniforms around.
Together with Stiletto are the green-haired man from the earlier memories and her pink-haired childhood friend. Silently, they watch some manner of execution below: a giant, muscular man, spikes on the shoulders of his uniform, beating and whipping another youth across the entire yard, slamming him into walls.
"What were you planning, sneaking out a Goku Uniform?! You must be a spy from around Kobe! But it's wasted on the likes of you!"
One final smack into the wall, the young man seemingly having lost consciousness.
"You aren't cut out for a Goku Uniform. Take it off!"
The giant man's whips that seem to obey his will strip off the youth's uniform, leaving him to fall into the dust, and also seemingly fold the uniform neatly before returning it to the giant's hands. After dusting it off he hands it over to a lackey and turns around.
"Listen up, students of Honnouji Academy! As long as Ira Gamagoori draws breath, this academy's rules will stand firm! The ironclad rules created by Student Council President ███████ ███████!"
In something of an optical improbability, light seems to emanate from Stiletto, illuminating the yard and everyone in it as she gazes down disdainfully. Gamagoori puts a hand to his chest, bowing his head before glancing up with reverence.
"Lady ███████..."
Having allowed himself that moment of emotion, he whips back into the role of the terrible enforcer, roaring at the crowd that hurriedly lines up to follow the order.
"Students! All salute Student Council President ███████ ███████!"
Stiletto's childhood friend is rubbing sand out of her eyes - it seems to be a continuation of the earlier memory about the two of them.
"But all buildings fall down eventually!" she announces peevishly, but has to cringe back again as sun shines down on her... and on Stiletto, who is now standing on top of the monkey bars on the playground.
"Then you should build it inside your own mind! A skyscraper built within your mind will never fall down."
Stiletto announces it with great solemnity and seriousness, still holding her handful of sand... until the other girl, her eyes aglow with adoration, smacks it out of Stiletto's hand to grip it instead.
"You don't need any dumb sand! I'll hold your hand, forever and ever!"
Stiletto walks down the halls of a luxurious building - two good dozen of maids greet her appearance, rows of bent backs and words of welcome sounded in one breath. She does not seem to acknowledge them, going on - deeper down, to a basement hangar of sorts covered in KEEP OUT signs. At her heel is her butler.
"Please wait, Milady! I can't allow anyone past here, even you!"
"Stand aside."
"We can't do that, Milady."
Two guards stand before Stiletto, trying to talk her out of entering - but not for long, as she knocks them both out with just two swings of her sheathed sword and strides on.
"I don't have time to waste speaking to fools."
Another, inner set of doors opens, revealing some sort of box up a flight of steps - that inexplicably look reminiscent of a wardrobe. Stiletto ascends them easily and presses a hand to a scanner nearby. The box slides open, and inside is... a uniform, it looks like, hanged with hazard signs and caution yellow-and-black tape, not to mention bound up with other means. It's almost as though they didn't want it to... escape? It's just a piece of clothing!
A child Stiletto stands before a display window, showcasing a white uniform - a high collar, epaulettes, long sleeves, details in gold, red, blue. It's a thing of beauty, and the adoration is reflected in Stiletto's eyes as she gazes up at it.
Next to her is a man, though his face is unclear - perhaps she does not remember him well. He pats the girl on the head and says with a smile:
"This will be your wedding dress."
Excited, Stiletto runs up to the outfit, looking up at it again. Somehow, what was a red scarf around it becomes a pair of cruel eyes that peer down at the girl. Unabashed, the man continues.
"But when you put it on, you'll become a slave to clothing."
As she turns around, her father goes on to talk...
...about how he was taken into her mother's family out of recognition for his skills as a scientist.
About Life Fibers, parasitic alien organisms that arrived on Earth one day.
About the ultimate goal of their family: taking care of the Original Life Fiber, a giant specimen that is kept under their mansion, and orchestrating the day when Life Fibers can consume all of humanity and go on to conquer other planets.
About how Stiletto was born only to be used as a test subject in experiments with Life Fibers.
About how that was a failure, and her mother used her next child, Stiletto's barely born sister, in another attempt to fuse the Fibers and humans.
About how that, too, was a failure. About how she was discarded without ever having been given a name.
About how he resolved to rise up against the Life Fibers and Stiletto's mother.
About how she would come after him one day, and it would be up to Stiletto to carry on the fight.
The excited fire drains out of Stiletto's eyes as the reality of her existence and the world's fate should she fail floods in. Maybe it's a cruel heap of expectations to place on a child, but Stiletto isn't concerned about that. She must help. She must save everyone. She will.
The scene opens up to a burning, ruined city, nothing but tainted red everywhere. Stiletto herself is standing on the back of a girl wearing some manner of jetpack armor, the flames speeding her onward as they soar through the sky. Stiletto is wearing... some kind of outfit, but doesn't seem fazed by it in the slightest. The target of Stiletto and her friend is the black-and-red girl from her earlier memories, also using her transformed outfit to fly - but she doesn't seem to expect the chase, her expression shocked as she turns around at the sound of Stiletto's voice.
"Ryuko Matoi!"
It's almost a snarl, and Stiletto has her sword drawn already - and swings it in a wide arc, sending a blast of energy towards the girl - Ryuko? It catches her across her midsection, catapulting the girl into an iron tower with enough force to break off a part of it. That's nowhere near the end, though: Stiletto's friend continues the assault, blasting Ryuko with more rays of energy. The girl growls, transforming her outfit again, this time armed with long red claws that she uses to scramble around the collapsing tower, dodging the rays.
As the debris falls, Ryuko almost manages to ambush Stiletto and her friend, dropping from a falling beam, slashing at Stiletto - who dodges to the side just in time, even if it means she has to jump off her friend's back.
"Lady Satsuki!"
Her friend's voice is full of fear and concern, but even as Stiletto falls she only frowns, gripping her sword tighter, changing position, and--
"How impertinent!"
She barks the words out as one of her pauldrons shoots off, trailing a rope, and bites into the steel of the tower. Stiletto - Satsuki - pulls herself up by reeling the rope back rapidly, using the additional great momentum it gives her to aim for Ryuko again, delivering a savage kick to her midsection, sending the other girl flying until she slams into another section of the tower again. While she's still shocked from the collision, Stiletto lunges at her, sword drawn.
But - perhaps surprisingly - she doesn't go for the kill, although her strike is still brutal, enough to collapse the rest of the tower. But Ryuko, seemingly unconscious, is only left to fall - likely to her death, of course, should she fail to wake up in time. It's a long way to the ground, after all.
This seems to be a continuation of an earlier memory - it's the same underground bunker as before, Stiletto standing before the box holding Junketsu. Her eyes are fixed on the outfit, and she doesn't turn around even as there are voices behind her.
"Soroi! How could you stand there and allow this to happen?!"
It's an unfamiliar voice, huffy with indignation. In contrast, Soroi - Stiletto's butler, it appears, - responds calmly.
"Well, well, if it isn't Master Kuroido."
Kuroido tries to address Satsuki directly.
"Lady Satsuki, your mother has expressly forbidden the removal of that outfit. Please return it at once." Though his manner of speech is technically polite, there is a condescension in Kuroido's voice, as though he's still talking to the little girl Satsuki had once been.
It grates on her nerves.
"I can't do that." Her reply is dismissive, as befits the difference in their standing.
"This won't do at all. I am Takiji Kuroido, steward to the Kiryuin family, and have been entrusted with the care of this manor in their absence. Even if you are the young lady of the house, I cannot allow such willful behaviour."
Again, there's that arrogance and self-importance, as though the fool really thinks he could stop her.
"'Cannot allow it'?" Satsuki's voice is pure ice, uncaring as the chill of winter before she allows anger to rise in it. "Who do you think you are talking to?"
Unabashed, she undoes her clothes, starting to slip them off her shoulders, finally slightly turning her head back to glare at Kuroido.
"It's time for the lady of the house to get changed. Leave me, you shameless fool!"
Her tone is like delivering a blow, and it's perhaps unsurprising that Kuroido cringes back, covering his eyes. Soroi, too, delicately raises his arm with the ever-present towel on it. But Kuroido remains a fool, perhaps, because he continues to speak.
"Lady Satsuki, surely you don't meant to try to wear the Kamui!"
"For me, there is no 'try'." There is determination and pride, almost a hint of a smile in Satsuki's voice as she reaches out to take Junketsu. "All that I do is an inevitable step to fulfill my ambition."
"But if you put that on now, there is no guarantee you will be able to survive it!"
"Calm yourself. Clothing exists to be worn." There's almost excitement in her voice now, as Satsuki draws a finger along the edge of her blade, letting beads of blood well up, then fall onto Junketsu.
"Come, Junketsu. This red blood is the eternal vow between you and I. The red thread of our covenant!"
Surprisingly, the blood doesn't seem to stain the white cloth, instead disappearing as though it's absorbed, drunk up. For a moment, there is no reaction, and then... suddenly, Junketsu comes to life, the eye-like decorations becoming bloodshot eyes as it lunges at Satsuki, forcibly wrapping itself around her. She growls and groans in pain, barely managing to stay upright - and given her usual icy demeanour, this certainly must be the kind of pain few can stand.
"Lady Satsuki!" Kuroido and Soroi both exclaim in concern, but she refuses to have any of that.
"Hold your tongues and watch!" It's almost a furious scream as Satsuki braces herself with her arms, holding fast against Junketsu's onslaught. "Ask not the sparrow how the eagle soars! All you do is nothing more than the shallow thinking of little people!"
It's almost taking the breath out of her, but with a growl Satsuki continues, energy starting to crackle around her, gathering into a sphere, lancing out into the edges of the bunker.
"No one on this Earth can do something before Satsuki Kiryuin! Even a Kamui is a mere garment! And I... will make it bow to my will!"
Her words end in a scream of angry, stubborn determination, one last effort to beat Junketsu into submission, master the ridiculously destructive power. The walls, floor, ceiling of the bunker crack, a shower of stone fragments, but at the end of it all Satsuki is left standing, wearing Junketsu in its full battle form. She won, just as she'd said.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
memory #1 (sanageyama's resolve)
Date: 2021-03-26 03:41 pm (UTC)Stiletto notices him and stops.
"I've no time for losers, ██████████."
"I was overconfident in my eyesight," the man confesses, head still bowed. "Give me another chance! I'll defeat Matoi for certain next time!"
There is quite a lot of emotion in his words, but Stiletto only scoffs without looking at him, ready to move on to the tower.
"Pathetic. I don't need subordinates who lack resolve."
"Resolve I have. Here is the proof!"
The man finally raises his head as a bolt of lightning strikes. Stiletto turns to look at him... and gives an approving, pleasantly surprised hum.
The man's eyes are sewn shut.
memory #2 (nonon and satsuki baby time)
Date: 2021-03-26 04:12 pm (UTC)"This sandbox belongs to me! I won't let the other kids use it!"
Her voice changes from smug to eager as she turns to another girl - Stiletto, looking to be about 5 years old but just as serious as she is as an adult.
"Except for you, ███████! We've been best friends since forever! I'll make a castle for you, too!"
Stiletto shakes her head and raises her hand, a handful of sand in it.
"No. My sand is right here."
"Is that all?"
"This sand was left over from that." Stiletto turns to look at a skyscraper towering over the city. "My sand became concrete and was transformed into that skyscraper. From the top, even a child can look down on any adult."
A sudden gust of wind blows, bringing down the sand castle. Stiletto, who stands firm in face of the wind, turns to her friend - fallen to her knees, rubbing sand out of her eyes.
"A castle that vanishes at the first gust of wind is worthless. Don't you agree, █████?"
memory #3 (arrival of harime nui)
Date: 2021-03-26 04:24 pm (UTC)--but almost by magic, someone else appears between them: a smiling girl with long blond hair in two pigtails, wearing a cute pink dress and holding a pink parasol. Both fighters nearly trip over their feet, gaping at the new arrival. She looks very sweet, really... but Stiletto, watching over the fight with a steely expression until then, looks utterly shocked at this development, loses her cool, lunges forward to shout.
"██████████! Get back!"
It's more than an order, the fury in it propelled by genuine worry.
The new arrival is still smiling.
memory #4 (fukuroda's punishment)
Date: 2021-03-26 04:38 pm (UTC)"You! Stupid fool!"
The bamboo sword used to deliver the blows finally breaks.
"I have no excuses to offer," croaks out the recipient, a short man wearing giant boxing gloves, standing on one knee, head bent.
Stiletto is sitting cross-legged in an exquisite chair, not even observing the scene. An old man in a butler's clothing is pouring her tea. Eyes closed, Stiletto raises her cup, takes a sip as the dressing-down continues.
A muscular, blond man in white clothes roars at the green-haired man from the first memory, wielder of the now-broken bamboo sword.
"Not only did you allow that transfer student who mocked Lady ███████ to escape, you failed to confiscate that scissor as ordered! Mistakes made by the club you run are your mistakes, ██████████!"
The green-haired man answers annoyedly, throwing himself into a chair, legs on a table before him, drapes his arms on the back of the chair. His manner overall is very cocky and irreverent.
"That's why I'm disciplinin' him!"
He throws the remnant of the sword at the wall, then lounges back in the chair, smirking smugly.
"If so, your Disciplinary Committee's mistake in allowing Lady ███████ to be mocked is yours then, █████████."
memory #5 (bakuzan)
Date: 2021-03-26 05:01 pm (UTC)The green-haired man from earlier memories is back, and he's not happy. His eye twitches as he barely manages to hold himself back; in front of him is a girl wearing an... outfit... She's glaring at him in kind, when suddenly--
"Wait, ██████████. The victor of the match is that girl."
Stiletto steps from a staircase onto a makeshift tennis court. At noticing her both the green-haired man and everyone else retreats to a respectful distance; the man himself falling to one knee and bowing his head.
"Lady ███████!"
The red-and-black girl glares at Stiletto instead, her blade - which is actually half a giant scissors - drawn back.
"So, are you going to tell me? Are you the Scissor Blade Woman?"
Before she can finish, Stiletto draws her sword and slashes along the girl's shoulder - one smooth, barely noticeable movement, the gash in the armor appearing before she can react. She reels back.
"What?"
Stiletto lowers her sword to the side, its scabbard held in her other hand.
"If you wish to know the answer, ask the question with your skill!"
As her opponent mumbles something to herself, Stiletto slowly raises the sword, still to the side.
"Secret Sword Bakuzan. This blade can cut even a Kamui. Its edge is even keener than that scissor's."
In a sweeping arc, Stiletto brings the blade forward, seemingly slowly - but as it clashes against the girl's scissor, the impact is enough to send people around them flying. Stiletto seems to have little trouble pressing her opponent's weapon down - and hums amusedly, noting that the girl is barely holding it together. Her armor begins to steam - enough to create a cloud that lets the girl jump back.
"Mark my words! Next time, I'll finish this once and for all! Let's go, Mako!"
In another flash of steam, the scissor girl grabs her friend and makes her escape.
memory #6 (ryuko goes berserk)
Date: 2021-05-13 03:30 am (UTC)When the picture grows clear again, Red herself has turned into a monster, fused with both her clothes and her blade - her left arm disproportionately giant, like a square column sliced into sections, right arm now the half of scissors, spikes and teeth throughout her body, a giant bloodshot eye for her left shoulder, with her head growing out of it. It's certainly a sight, accompanied by the wheezing and groaning of the creature.
memory #7 (gamagoori intro)
Date: 2021-05-13 03:54 am (UTC)Together with Stiletto are the green-haired man from the earlier memories and her pink-haired childhood friend. Silently, they watch some manner of execution below: a giant, muscular man, spikes on the shoulders of his uniform, beating and whipping another youth across the entire yard, slamming him into walls.
"What were you planning, sneaking out a Goku Uniform?! You must be a spy from around Kobe! But it's wasted on the likes of you!"
One final smack into the wall, the young man seemingly having lost consciousness.
"You aren't cut out for a Goku Uniform. Take it off!"
The giant man's whips that seem to obey his will strip off the youth's uniform, leaving him to fall into the dust, and also seemingly fold the uniform neatly before returning it to the giant's hands. After dusting it off he hands it over to a lackey and turns around.
"Listen up, students of Honnouji Academy! As long as Ira Gamagoori draws breath, this academy's rules will stand firm! The ironclad rules created by Student Council President ███████ ███████!"
In something of an optical improbability, light seems to emanate from Stiletto, illuminating the yard and everyone in it as she gazes down disdainfully. Gamagoori puts a hand to his chest, bowing his head before glancing up with reverence.
"Lady ███████..."
Having allowed himself that moment of emotion, he whips back into the role of the terrible enforcer, roaring at the crowd that hurriedly lines up to follow the order.
"Students! All salute Student Council President ███████ ███████!"
memory #8 (satsuki and nonon baby time.......... 2!)
Date: 2021-05-13 04:16 am (UTC)"But all buildings fall down eventually!" she announces peevishly, but has to cringe back again as sun shines down on her... and on Stiletto, who is now standing on top of the monkey bars on the playground.
"Then you should build it inside your own mind! A skyscraper built within your mind will never fall down."
Stiletto announces it with great solemnity and seriousness, still holding her handful of sand... until the other girl, her eyes aglow with adoration, smacks it out of Stiletto's hand to grip it instead.
"You don't need any dumb sand! I'll hold your hand, forever and ever!"
memory #9 (going after junketsu)
Date: 2021-05-13 04:30 am (UTC)"Please wait, Milady! I can't allow anyone past here, even you!"
"Stand aside."
"We can't do that, Milady."
Two guards stand before Stiletto, trying to talk her out of entering - but not for long, as she knocks them both out with just two swings of her sheathed sword and strides on.
"I don't have time to waste speaking to fools."
Another, inner set of doors opens, revealing some sort of box up a flight of steps - that inexplicably look reminiscent of a wardrobe. Stiletto ascends them easily and presses a hand to a scanner nearby. The box slides open, and inside is... a uniform, it looks like, hanged with hazard signs and caution yellow-and-black tape, not to mention bound up with other means. It's almost as though they didn't want it to... escape? It's just a piece of clothing!
"I've come for you, Junketsu."
memory #10 (getting the talk from dad)
Date: 2021-05-13 05:00 am (UTC)Next to her is a man, though his face is unclear - perhaps she does not remember him well. He pats the girl on the head and says with a smile:
"This will be your wedding dress."
Excited, Stiletto runs up to the outfit, looking up at it again. Somehow, what was a red scarf around it becomes a pair of cruel eyes that peer down at the girl. Unabashed, the man continues.
"But when you put it on, you'll become a slave to clothing."
As she turns around, her father goes on to talk...
...about how he was taken into her mother's family out of recognition for his skills as a scientist.
About Life Fibers, parasitic alien organisms that arrived on Earth one day.
About the ultimate goal of their family: taking care of the Original Life Fiber, a giant specimen that is kept under their mansion, and orchestrating the day when Life Fibers can consume all of humanity and go on to conquer other planets.
About how Stiletto was born only to be used as a test subject in experiments with Life Fibers.
About how that was a failure, and her mother used her next child, Stiletto's barely born sister, in another attempt to fuse the Fibers and humans.
About how that, too, was a failure. About how she was discarded without ever having been given a name.
About how he resolved to rise up against the Life Fibers and Stiletto's mother.
About how she would come after him one day, and it would be up to Stiletto to carry on the fight.
The excited fire drains out of Stiletto's eyes as the reality of her existence and the world's fate should she fail floods in. Maybe it's a cruel heap of expectations to place on a child, but Stiletto isn't concerned about that. She must help. She must save everyone. She will.
memory #11 (action sequence at Osaka, one of many)
Date: 2021-06-24 02:55 am (UTC)"Ryuko Matoi!"
It's almost a snarl, and Stiletto has her sword drawn already - and swings it in a wide arc, sending a blast of energy towards the girl - Ryuko? It catches her across her midsection, catapulting the girl into an iron tower with enough force to break off a part of it. That's nowhere near the end, though: Stiletto's friend continues the assault, blasting Ryuko with more rays of energy. The girl growls, transforming her outfit again, this time armed with long red claws that she uses to scramble around the collapsing tower, dodging the rays.
As the debris falls, Ryuko almost manages to ambush Stiletto and her friend, dropping from a falling beam, slashing at Stiletto - who dodges to the side just in time, even if it means she has to jump off her friend's back.
"Lady Satsuki!"
Her friend's voice is full of fear and concern, but even as Stiletto falls she only frowns, gripping her sword tighter, changing position, and--
"How impertinent!"
She barks the words out as one of her pauldrons shoots off, trailing a rope, and bites into the steel of the tower. Stiletto - Satsuki - pulls herself up by reeling the rope back rapidly, using the additional great momentum it gives her to aim for Ryuko again, delivering a savage kick to her midsection, sending the other girl flying until she slams into another section of the tower again. While she's still shocked from the collision, Stiletto lunges at her, sword drawn.
But - perhaps surprisingly - she doesn't go for the kill, although her strike is still brutal, enough to collapse the rest of the tower. But Ryuko, seemingly unconscious, is only left to fall - likely to her death, of course, should she fail to wake up in time. It's a long way to the ground, after all.
memory #12 (wearing junketsu for the first time)
Date: 2021-06-24 03:26 am (UTC)"Soroi! How could you stand there and allow this to happen?!"
It's an unfamiliar voice, huffy with indignation. In contrast, Soroi - Stiletto's butler, it appears, - responds calmly.
"Well, well, if it isn't Master Kuroido."
Kuroido tries to address Satsuki directly.
"Lady Satsuki, your mother has expressly forbidden the removal of that outfit. Please return it at once." Though his manner of speech is technically polite, there is a condescension in Kuroido's voice, as though he's still talking to the little girl Satsuki had once been.
It grates on her nerves.
"I can't do that." Her reply is dismissive, as befits the difference in their standing.
"This won't do at all. I am Takiji Kuroido, steward to the Kiryuin family, and have been entrusted with the care of this manor in their absence. Even if you are the young lady of the house, I cannot allow such willful behaviour."
Again, there's that arrogance and self-importance, as though the fool really thinks he could stop her.
"'Cannot allow it'?" Satsuki's voice is pure ice, uncaring as the chill of winter before she allows anger to rise in it. "Who do you think you are talking to?"
Unabashed, she undoes her clothes, starting to slip them off her shoulders, finally slightly turning her head back to glare at Kuroido.
"It's time for the lady of the house to get changed. Leave me, you shameless fool!"
Her tone is like delivering a blow, and it's perhaps unsurprising that Kuroido cringes back, covering his eyes. Soroi, too, delicately raises his arm with the ever-present towel on it. But Kuroido remains a fool, perhaps, because he continues to speak.
"Lady Satsuki, surely you don't meant to try to wear the Kamui!"
"For me, there is no 'try'." There is determination and pride, almost a hint of a smile in Satsuki's voice as she reaches out to take Junketsu. "All that I do is an inevitable step to fulfill my ambition."
"But if you put that on now, there is no guarantee you will be able to survive it!"
"Calm yourself. Clothing exists to be worn." There's almost excitement in her voice now, as Satsuki draws a finger along the edge of her blade, letting beads of blood well up, then fall onto Junketsu.
"Come, Junketsu. This red blood is the eternal vow between you and I. The red thread of our covenant!"
Surprisingly, the blood doesn't seem to stain the white cloth, instead disappearing as though it's absorbed, drunk up. For a moment, there is no reaction, and then... suddenly, Junketsu comes to life, the eye-like decorations becoming bloodshot eyes as it lunges at Satsuki, forcibly wrapping itself around her. She growls and groans in pain, barely managing to stay upright - and given her usual icy demeanour, this certainly must be the kind of pain few can stand.
"Lady Satsuki!" Kuroido and Soroi both exclaim in concern, but she refuses to have any of that.
"Hold your tongues and watch!" It's almost a furious scream as Satsuki braces herself with her arms, holding fast against Junketsu's onslaught. "Ask not the sparrow how the eagle soars! All you do is nothing more than the shallow thinking of little people!"
It's almost taking the breath out of her, but with a growl Satsuki continues, energy starting to crackle around her, gathering into a sphere, lancing out into the edges of the bunker.
"No one on this Earth can do something before Satsuki Kiryuin! Even a Kamui is a mere garment! And I... will make it bow to my will!"
Her words end in a scream of angry, stubborn determination, one last effort to beat Junketsu into submission, master the ridiculously destructive power. The walls, floor, ceiling of the bunker crack, a shower of stone fragments, but at the end of it all Satsuki is left standing, wearing Junketsu in its full battle form. She won, just as she'd said.