Kiri la Kill - Chapter 18

No more chapters for this week, gonna be settling back to my college dorms in anticipation for college classes starting back up on Monday. Live schedule should not be affected, but I don’t want to give anyone false hope.

Which is also why you haven’t been seeing the ‘what quest goes live for thursday’ polls this week and the last, the one prior not having a poll was because I was having issues with Avatar Quest… which I’m still not so sure about continuing as is, but we shall see.

Maybe I’ll just cut it off where I feel and turn it into a fic… Eh, we’ll see.

Regardless.

I am very thankful for you guys’ support, especially considering that all of my patreon money is sunk into paying for the aforementioned dorms. Now, a shorter chapter meant to send us off on a myriad of Slice of Life chapters before we finally welcome Ryuko.

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Kirishima Eijiro had the feeling that he was not a person easily surprised by strange events.

He had taken a lot of rather strange things in stride, even with his memories being locked away. Which implied that he was familiar enough with the inherent strangeness of the world around him that he simply registered it without delay, formed an opinion, and moved on.

Which spoke to the outlandishness of Kiryuin Satsuki’s story, that Kiri would have been floored with a particularly bad headache, had he not been chained down on his bed, which itself had been bolted to the ground.

Who wouldn’t be?!

Aliens from outer space having been a part of humanity since they were primitives dwelling in caves, having guided the development of the young race to their own designs from the very beginning. Oh, and they took the form of clothes of all things.

And who happened to be their biggest and most influential supporter?

Kiryuin Ragyo, Satsuki’s mother and the head of REVOCS, which… was a rather mind-boggling anagram for ‘COVERS’. And all of the wretched plans she had to finally reveal the endgame of a conspiracy millenia in the making.

With Honnouji Academy serving as her testing ground for synergy between humans and the ‘Life Fibers’ as they were called… it would only be a matter of time until she was ready to unleash the moment where the humans would be worn by their clothes, instead of the other way around.

Of course, that was if Ragyo had her way.

Because what sane human would allow those plans to go on, when they would almost certainly end the world as we know it, causing who knows how many people to die… Kiryuin Satsuki, despite having grown under that woman’s thumb, seemed to think so.

It seemed she had been planning on rebelling for some time now… and she did not hide it from Kiri. Saying that she had built Honnouji as it was, strictly to grow a military force strong enough to oppose her while flying under her radar as a loyal subject complicit in her plans.

“A plan that I destroyed.” Kiri murmured when Satsuki finally finished speaking.

“There would be no chance of winning if I were to try now.” Satsuki responded promptly, her severe expression not slipping for even a second. “It is doubtful we’ll even be able to complete the subjugation of Japan’s schools.”

“You’re still on about that?” Kiri asked, his tone incredulous. “Would it not have been better to ask for their help and receive it willingly then to do…” He tried to find the words for it, only to settle. “Whatever you’re planning?”

“They’re but pigs in human clothing, to be given the carrot or the stick.” Satsuki scoffed dismissively. “If they won’t agree that my guidance is the one that is superior, I would be better off without their help..”

“I won’t pretend to agree with that.” Kiri said, shaking his head at her stubbornness and… perhaps even narcissism.

“Even if it means the end of the world?” She asked, before cocking a single fine eyebrow high. “Or perhaps…” She enunciated. “If you are indeed the selfish sort, even if it means you’ll never get your memories back?”

Kiri would have scowled at the implication, had he not been given something to fixate his attention on… An enemy capable of bringing an end to the world was one that he could not afford to slip up against.

Satsuki had given him doubts about the person locked away behind his memories, and whether he was truly a Hero or not… but he knew, even if that man was motivated by selfish things, he would have taken a stand if it meant saving what was his.

So he would reach for those instincts for now, and strike a deal.

“Your plan as it is, is repulsive to me.” He said. “I don’t see the value in saving the world, only to subject it to more tyranny.” What he saw down there… even if the person he had been would have ignored it, this Kiri would not.

“You expect compromises?”

“You said it yourself.” Kiri said with a huff. “If I had been at my best, your school wouldn’t have stood a chance.” He rolled his shoulders, and grinned as he was finally able to move his fingers enough to reach and grasp the chains that were holding him.

He called on his conviction, and shattered the chains in his hands, those that had covered his body falling slack as alarms blared.

Kiri stood, until he was staring down at Kiryuin Satsuki, who met his gaze with one of her own.

“Push me to my best, and I will make up for all that you lost several times over.”

“And in return?”

“Raise your people up with you.”