Chapter 14: New Fires

Three Months Later:

The fluorescent light cast by the old sign of Kasen's cafe flickered on and off as dark clouds loomed above. A heavy wind blew through the streets, as thunder roared from the clouds above.

Ryuuko stared dully out the window, wondering if it was a coincidence that it was always ready to storm when she came here.

She leaned back with a heavy sigh and took a sip of her tea. She was never really a huge coffee drinker in the first place, and even if she had been, she wouldn't come here to drink it. Tasty cakes, pastries, and tea were their order of business, but their coffee was pretty sub-par.

That fact also explained why Satsuki hadn't touched hers since her first sip. Ryuuko had advised her against it, but Satsuki downright refused to drink tea made by anyone but Soroi. Ryuuko had bitten back a snarky comment for the sake of maintaining the seriousness of why they came here.

"Mikisugi-san tells me he's confirmed the existence of a life fiber object, possibly a ship, headed straight for the planet." she spoke calmly, yet the grave undertones didn't go unnoticed by Ryuuko.

"Man, what a pain!" Ryuuko frowned "Ragyou wasn't lying when she said the life fibers would come for us again… but I thought it was a random thing… if they can literally send life fibers to earth... I guess all the lights in the sky are our enemies now, huh?"

Satsuki gave a wry smile, "That's one way of looking at it… though it's not like we can change anything by complaining about it. We have no choice but to fight."

"Well, at least I have Senketsu back," Ryuuko smiled, looking down at the uniform she was wearing. Senketsu looked up at her, but didn't speak. He didn't need to. She already knew his feelings.

It's good to be back, Ryuuko.

Satsuki nodded, "Iori managed to collect enough life fibers from the… incident three months ago that he may be able to reconstruct Junketsu."

Ryuuko looked down. The "incident", as they had decided to call it, was still a bit of a sore subject for Ryuuko.

"She… she's gone for good this time, isn't she?" Ryuuko asked.

Satsuki looked into the black depths of her very mediocre coffee and sighed, "Ryuuko…"

"I know, I shouldn't be dwelling too much on the past… it's just…" Ryuuko paused, she wasn't sure what she thought of Nui, but she no longer saw the girl as an enemy, "I… I never got to tell her that I forgive her."

Satsuki smiled sadly, "You've… grown up, Ryuuko."

"Shut up, sis…" Ryuuko looked down. Satsuki almost missed the single tear that fell from behind her younger sister's lowered bangs and into the tea she had been drinking.

"Oho, what's the doggie working on this time?" Nonon asked.

"I finally found the full files on Ketsuya… now that I have a name to go off of," Inumuta replied factually, "Not that it matters, who knows where he ran off to?"

Ketsuya had escaped shortly after regaining consciousness, though with his memory back, they weren't exactly worried he'd go around attacking everyone. They did ask Nudist Beach to keep an eye open for him, just in case, but Aikuro had insisted that everything was peachy.

Aside from the confirmed approaching life fiber invasion, that is.

"What did you find?" Nonon asked, she feigned disinterest, but she was genuinely curious.

"Project Eve…" Inumuta replied, "Apparently, Ketsuya's not the only synthetic life fiber hybrid we didn't know about."

"You mean… there's more of them!?" Nonon asked, "Jeez, jeez, and I thought two was more than enough."

"Odd thing is, it doesn't seem like Ragyou was aware of them either before this point," Inumuta replies, "She speaks of Nui as being her creation, Yet while she speaks of 'modifying' Ketsuya in much the same way as Nui… she talks of him as if she had discovered him. In this data entry, she states that- you know what… just read it yourself if you're so curious."

Inumuta turned the monitor towards Nonon and she, with a "hmph", leaned over onto the desk to read the article.

Data Entry: 10487

Please Confirm Authorization

Authorization Code: **********

Checking Authorization…

Authorization Failed

Please Re-Enter Code: ****

Checking Authorization…

Error- Internal Corruption Detected

Error Code 5150

Data Security Breach Detected

Initiate Emergency System Shutdown? Y/N

N

Authorization Confirmed.

Displaying Entry Details:

Author: Kiryuin Ragyou

Subject Matter: Project Eve

Date: 24-7-20XX

The subject, "Ketsuya", as he calls himself, recovered from the modification process at an astonishing rate, and regained consciousness long enough for me to question him. It appears that the subject is a remnant of Project Eve, though my knowledge on the details of this only go as deep as Ketsuya's own.

The boy seems loyal enough. Apparently he's conditioned to follow the orders of the highest ranking human servant of the Primordial Life Fiber, and so far he has followed my instructions unquestioningly thus far. I see no reason to perform a mental refitting, and I will refrain from taking any drastic measures until they are necessary.

While this "Project Eve" puts me at unease, and I will have to research this matter later, If Ketsuya is only a "fragment", then imagine what the extent of "Project Eve" entails. Perhaps I will find not one or two strong soldiers, but an entire army.

Nonon shuddered.

She had always thought that Ragyou was the super-evil mastermind behind the life fiber, but if there was a project that even she didn't know about, who knows how many people in the past tried to do the life fiber's bidding.

Romans, she had recalled, were iconic for their red color scheme, and they had built a pretty expansive empire.

"It appears Ragyou failed to uncover anything else," Inumuta replied, "There are no other entries about Project Eve, and Ketsuya's knowledge was limited as well."

Nonon sighed, "Does that mean there are or aren't more life fiber hybrids running around?"

"Who knows?" Inumuta replied, "I'm looking for more entries about where or how she found Ketsuya, but I haven't found anything of interest yet."

Nonon looked up at the ceiling and threw her arms back behind her head, "This is troublesome… and here I thought I'd actually get some downtime to write a few scores…"

"You just going to sit around flirting with Satsuki most of the time anyway," Inumuta replied as if he were stating a fact. Nonon's face became pinker than her hair as she blushed.

"W-what kind of person do you think I am, stupid dog!?" She turned away, "It's… not like Satsuki feels the same way about me…"

Inumuta frowned but Nonon had already regained face, "T-tell her I said that… nonono… speak of this to anyone at all, and I'll burn your computer!"

"Whatever… whatever…" Inumuta replied, "It's not like I want to get involved with any of your problems anyway."

Nonon sighed and headed out the door, leaving Inumuta to work in peace once again.

The neon bar sign flickered on and off outside the quite infamous Ibuki Bar as the rain drenched the area outside. It was evening on a Friday night, so naturally the bar was packed.

Two cloaked figures sat in the back corner of the bar, though neither were drinking. Instead, they were hunched over a small radio, listening to the news broadcast.

"Earlier today, the Nudist Beach Extraterrestrial Investigation and Defense Corps announced the confirmation of an alien formation approaching the planet. PR Representative Kinagase Tsumugu, didn't go into much details, but he assured that the situation was being monitored carefully and that the public should not be alarmed.

"Let me give you two pieces of information," Quoted Kinagase-san at the emergency conference held earlier today, "One, the situation is entirely within Nudist Beach's capacity to handle, and Two, our organization has faced and dealt with extraterrestrials of this variety before. Panic will only make the situation worse!"

"Nudist Beach refuses to reveal any more details regarding the situation, but they have urged the public to remain calm and not take any drastic measures. We will continue to provide you with regular updates as we get new information."

One of the figures leaned forwards and flicked the radio off, replying in a masculine voice, "Looks like things are about to get hairy…"

the other figure leaned back, and in a feminine voice, answered, "Well, humanity did fight off a Life Fiber invasion before, it's only natural that this planet's a target…"

Suddenly, a large, burly man walked up to the corner table and frowned, "Did I hear ya say "Life Fiber, ya punk?"

"My my, such a temper…" the second figure sighed teasingly, "What if I did?"

"Heh, I want to know exactly how you know that term…" he replied, "And if ya don't want to tell me, I guess I'll just have to beat it out of ya."

"You looking for a bar fight?" the first figure stood up. His cloak still obscured his face, but his lips curled back into a grin, revealing two sets of canine teeth, "I'll be happy to oblige."

The burly man lunged at the cloaked figure, who hit him with a kick strong enough to send him flying through the nearby wall.

"You should've thought twice about underestimating me," the figure replied, grinning.

The burly man rose to his feet and glared at the two cloaked figures before smiling, "That kick… was definitely super human. You're a hybrid, aren't you?"

The cloaked figure's grin immediately turned to a frown and he watched the guy's wounds and scratches heal themselves quickly.

"P...Project Eve…" The cloaked figure muttered. He turned to his partner, "Let's bail before this gets serious."

The second figure nodded and the two fled out the bar and into the rainy night. As they continued running, they ran past a small cafe, with an old, flickering sign that read Kasen's.

-Fin-

AN: Alright, finished (again!). Once again, I don't know how this story got deleted last time, but it was probably my own stupidity (or some other technical problem). This was the part where I offered people to submit OCs for a sequel (that I'm still planning on writing... eventually... so don't worry about that.) but I got enough submissions and I really don't know when I'm even going to write the sequel, so for all intents and purposes, that's closed.

Once again, if you left a review on this story before the accidental deletion, I would appreciate it if you would re-review here, and if you're new to the story, feel free to leave a review anyway!