Killa Kill

For all of Mia's request to simply spend hours on shitty African internet searching for a design, she sure did little to protect Yuruko's laptop when she was forced to bring it. Last week it would've been destroyed with her finished presentation inside if Serena hadn't reacted in time, but no matter, she made the brightness tester anyway.

She had heard Matoi was a radical feminist and decided it best to ignore her as much as she could. She thought that feminism was merely a feminine desire to claim victimhood yet free oneself of scrutiny: the power to abuse others and avoid self-examination. Vaguely, she would ascribe adherence to it as a trait of those who had wronged her in the past, as if to better delineate her mental landscape among quite arbitrary fractures.

The earliest time she could remember it starting was when she was in late middle-school. She had been bullied by a group of pretty girls, the type she despised throughout her entire life and oft saw multiplied in other faces at Urasaria. And by this point she knew she would never receive love or sympathy from her mother; so she confided in her father.

But he soon told Tammy about this in private, for he was not home often and felt she could better understand the troubles of a teenage girl. Tammy thought over this, and with some sympathy had decided to talk to Yuruko herself when she came home from school one day.

"Yuruko, come here and talk to me. I know you're about to go off to your room, but come talk to me first."

Yuruko shuffled over to the dining table where her mom was sitting. "What?"

"Your father's told me that you've been getting bullied at school lately. Is that true?"

"Yeah." she muttered.

"Well, honey, can you talk to me a bit about it? I know I haven't always been the most open to you. And neither have you to me, sometimes, but I think we can both do better. Come sit down and talk to me about what's been going on."

Yuruko sat down. "…umm... It's just this group of girls being mean to me, lately. It's fine."

"No, it's not fine, Yuruko. Bullying isn't right. What do they say? Do they make fun of you?"

"Yeah, they make fun of me, 'cuz of how I look. They make fun of my eyes and tell me I'm ugly, o-or they put notes in my locker saying they hope I die and all that. But my teachers don't care. I mean, one of them always get special attention from Mr. Wahlberg just because she's pretty. Being pretty is like living on Easy mode, since if I did anything, I'd get punished just because p-people look at me like I'm ugly."

Tammy frowned. "Oh, honey. I've always offered to help teach you makeup. Would that help?"

Yuruko stood up and swiped one of the China plates they kept on the dish cabinet, and threw it at her mother. This was a week after her Revenant activated, so it would have killed her had it hit. It missed and hit the wall, where it shattered into shards, as she went to her room and left her mother flabbergasted.

So no matter what she did or who she dated, Yuruko thought she would always be despised by other women, so unconsciously, it was better that she preemptively hate them and become impervious to their opinions. They were worse than men in her view, because they not only knew how to fuck with her head, but could deny their abuse and make her doubt what they had done. It was why she had handled her former mentor sexually harassing her nonchalantly: it was nothing by comparison.

This denial of abuse was a tactic well-used by her mother, for any resistance Yuruko built always ended in another guilt trip over her supposed cruelty to her own mother, who by virtue of having birthed her felt entitled to her spirit & praise. She came to dread days when her mother would be kind to her, even more than the abusive days, for she always felt like shit afterwards and like she could not trust her own mind. And in her perceptions of other women, oftentimes she was not really viewing them but her mother -- she had still not shed these many inherited burdens of anger and shame.

Presently Serena glanced back in the middle of a Mali village. "Um, try south?"

Matoi held the brightness tester to her scar. "…it was higher earlier, yes."

Yuruko had allowed Samuel to take her laptop today, on the condition he not leave his room. The three started walking back. Serena thought Matoi as much of a domineering presence as her anime doppelganger, but felt a need now to make conversation.

"So, um… What's Japan's academy like?"

'I can't believe she stuck me with two fucking otaku.' thought Matoi. "They don't have legal immunity and they're not allowed to kill."

Serena paused, then said: "Oh. That sucks."

"Precisely."

Her interest in Ueno gone, Serena nodded. "Um, what's the brightness say?"

"85."

"It was 120 earlier." muttered Yuruko. "Bit further back."

"Um, what's working at Timepact like?" said Serena and Matoi shrugged.

"It's the same as working at Urasaria, with better pay but more difficult Revenants."

"Least I can be done with fighting this year." muttered Yuruko. "Lab work forever."

"You're studying to be a researcher?"

"Yeah, she is." Serena smiled. "Doesn't - does your girlfriend work at Timepact?"

Matoi knew she must've learned that from Mia. She loved Rin, but spoke little of their relationship compared to her girlfriend, who would've broadcasted their dates over national television if she could. "No, she works for Ueno - Japan's academy."

"She's, uh, cool with you working for Timepact?" said Yuruko. "Since you said they don't kill, right?"

Matoi shrugged. "Nobody at Ueno that cares about that - it's simply a law they have to follow."

Serena smiled. Ueno sounded interesting again. "Wait, they don't have legal immunity?"

"They don't."

Serena frowned, her interest in Ueno gone.

"Something else besides Ueno." said Matoi evenly.

"We buried a Nazi alive last month." shrugged Yuruko, relevantly.

Matoi laughed. The three spoke for a while about the hosts they'd fought recently, and she enjoyed the violent emphasis Serena placed on her own stories.

At Timepact, Matoi generally preferred fighting with Marisa, though Aimee had hired Matoi's former mentor Gamage at her recommendation - not for any particular skill, but because she doubted any other agency would take him. Next year, the Elite Four would be four again if Mia hadn't become as boring to fight alongside as her wife.

Matoi turned east in to an alley of mud huts, checking her brightness. The sun was shining on an escarpment beyond the trees hundreds of feet away. "It's brightening again."

Serena & Yuruko nodded as they caught up beside, and in the next instant -

- the three hit the ground just as a scorching wind flew over them from behind, and as Serena shot back up -

- she shrieked as her hair burst in to flames -

- but a swift massage from her girlfriend doused the fire as the three stood, Matoi glancing behind to find nothing but the rest of the village, and as her eyes turned ahead -

- she saw a mudhut ahead & left burst in to flames, and in the next instant -

- she yanked Serena & Yuruko with her as she hit the ground -

- just in time to dodge another scorching wind from a hut of mud at their left & thirty feet away, immense heating setting the walls melting & molten as the three stepped right -

- and Serena shrieked as her hair burst in to flames -

- but another massage from her girlfriend doused it, Yuruko sighing - " - did you refill it with gel -"

" - maybe." winced Serena, streams of fog unspiking her hair. (Privately, Yuruko thought her haircut was one of her worse decisions.)

Mud bubbling at their lefts, another scorching wind hit the ground at their rights -

- and yanked three geysers of molten mud on to their legs, immense heat charring their skin as it dripped -

- but streams of fog filled it with ice and set it solid as another scorching wind flew towards them -

- but the next scene was instant. A dozen missiles erupted out of Wedding's shoulders and flew to meet it -

- but the explosive projectiles smashed in to each other like they'd been pulled together by a magnet, minor breeze surviving as Matoi frowned. Yuruko stomped on their muddy legs and set them free, three staggering ahead as Matoi pointed to a mudhut fifty feet away, speaking -

" - the winds are magnetic."

Otaku couple nodding, the three started rushing forward, heat in the ground growing as they approached 30ft within. Yuruko took up the lead and set her step wide -

- and a plastic bridge formed under her boots as the three ran forward & up; another scorching wind burst out of the house & towards them -

- but the next scene was instant.

"Medicinal!" "Blackburn!" "Wedding!"

Yuruko ripped her labcoat off as Serena ripped her jacket off, shirts underneath & streams of fog filling their coats as they threw them left & right -

- and the magnets within dispersed the scorching wind east & west, one opening left that a megamissile flew through -

- and the explosion blasted the roof clear off the home and sent it in to the sky, teenage & gloved boy they knew was their foe shrieking inside; Yuruko leaped down first and watched him run to the other end of the room, shouting "Solaire!" as he set his hands to the wall -

- and a hot wind disintegrated it dry; out through the sudden hole he swept, Matoi & Serena landing behind Yuruko was her revolver formed. She set her finger near the barrel and took aim, one slice of sun hitting her sight -

- and she shrieked in agony as it melted both of her eyes in to white smoke -

- but streams of fog let there be light again as the three kept their rush going, foe escaping the village now with the trees up ahead.

"P-Praise the sun." winced Yuruko, relevantly. "Solar winds."

Solar winds hit the dirt ahead and pulled up walls of soil to stop them, but missiles blasted them away and they kept their pursuit. Serena muttered to Matoi as they entered the trees, their foe fleeing 50ft ahead.

"Hey!" shouted Serena as they ran, " - you think we won't turn you in to red mist just because your balls haven't dropped?!"

"Think again, asshole!" shouted Yuruko. "Snip, snip!"

"I doubt he knows English." muttered Matoi. "Is it worth shittalking someone if they don't understand it?"

Serena nodded sagely. "Yes."

"Yep." muttered Yuruko. "Watch. For-Medicinal-Use-Only!"

- and the three burst in to laughter as their foe glanced back -

- just in time for a shockwave to blast a tree towards him; he swept his palms towards it and a scorching wind burst out of it -

- but as he saw the magnets within the roots absorb it, he was doomed and he -

- and the keen wooden projectile ripped his right arm off and sent it flying across the trees; a geyser of blood erupted from him as he staggered out of the forest, throwing the glove off of his left hand as his fingers turned to glass. Yuruko watched him hold his hand up to the sun -

- and another two rays of sunlight melted Yuruko's eyes in to two white clouds; sudden sight lost again, over one root she tripped -

- and in to one tree smashed her face and sent her groaning to the ground, still hearing Serena & Matoi running ahead.

"If you ever saw what a real Solar Beam was like, you'd - I - oh fuck -"

- and Yuruko grimaced as Serena rushed back to her and refilled her sight.

Matoi was alone up ahead, foe having reached the escarpment now; he threw his left hand to the wall -

- and miniscule scorching wind morphed the metallic rock in to handholds for him as he climbed, Matoi stopping ten feet away & below. She glanced up and saw his scarred left hand was glowing, but knew she couldn't follow; he'd turn the cliff-face spiked if she did. Glancing back, she saw the sun hit Yuruko's face as she came out of the trees -

" - Wedding!" shouted Matoi, and an explosive barrage hit the cliff -

- sending a dozen massive rocks sailing overhead, blocking the sun as Yuruko took aim -

- but another solar wind yanked them back to the climbing boy -

- and a single gasp escaped him as Wedding's metal blade burst through his back and impaled him to the cliff. He looked down at Matoi, who pulled her glove off and revealed her scar -

- and an expression of unholy terror arose in his face as soon as he saw it, stopping for a second -

- just in time for one bullet to shoot through his scar and burst out the palm in a cloud of red. He went limp in a second, then convulsed, screaming as the three caught up below -

- and every pore on his body leaked blood as he fell off of Matoi's sword; they knew he was dead before he hit the ground.

"What t-the fuck?" panted Yuruko.

"Something in Xenocyclin reacts with Sharp's Revenant." muttered Matoi, unsummoning Wedding's katana. "We'll have to find some other method if we fight another host like that."

"…yeah." winced Yuruko. "…maybe Penxeno, but… fuck."

"We'll check the brightness more here and return back to Mia." said Matoi, already walking off.

Yuruko grinned behind her back at Serena, who put her posture up like an aristocratic student body president, and the three met up with Mia & Samuel back in the city.

"Did you finish searching?" said Mia.

Matoi nodded, relieved to find the otakus could talk about something besides anime. If they could keep like that, she might've begun to like them. "We have - we should have enough to know where to travel next now."

Serena had made a bet with Junpei for this, and said looking at Matoi: "Um, just so long as we … don't lose your way."

Matoi closed her eyes. Her expression terrified Serena. "Serena, you have left me no choice. I have tried to be cordial and fair with you, but a pig in human clothing like you must be punished."

"What?" said Mia, relevantly.

"Junketsu."

Wedding's eyes formed and aimed towards Serena.

Yuruko started cackling. "Y-You watched it?!"

Matoi put her chin up and her eyes shot open. "I lived in Japan while it was airing. I had an entire semester where my class nickname was Kiryuin-domo."

Mia blinked. Later there would be time to figure out this Japanese foolishness. Right now they needed to follow Sharp's trail. "…what did you find?"

"It's pointing south-east." said Yuruko. "Uh, I can check the log, but it doesn't look like it's… moving, anyway. And, um…"

She trailed off for a few seconds, hands scrunching. She would do so occasionally, and become agitated if anyone were to interrupt her.

"We fought a host who had the same scar." said Satsuki, Junketsu's eyes still aiming at Serena. "Yuruko tried to use her Xenocyclin bullets on him, but he died instantly. Something in Sharp's Revenant reacts with Xenocyclin."

Mia frowned. "And he's infected others to force them into fighting us, then."

"Precisely, although I might have expected such: a few hosts Rin and myself fought also had similar scars."

"Uh, are we still killing them or not?" said Serena.

Mia looked at Satsuki, then nodded. "Yes. We can't risk one of them ambushing us later. Interrogate them if possible, but use your discretion."

"Okay." said Serena, knowing she would just murder them anyhow.