Kiri la Kill - Chapter 30

Only 20 more chapters to go before we reach the end guys! I hope you’re excited for everything that’ll come next!

The Godrobe Senketsu was a powerful weapon.

The sheer potential of the power that it granted Matoi Ryuko was unimaginable, a scale that would boggle the minds of anyone that were to behold it. Truly, if she grasped Senketsu’s true potential, Matoi Ryuko would have been an unbeatable opponent.

To Kiri, who had finally begun encountering a challenge when faced with a Goku Uniform with a ratio of thirty life fibers to seventy percent regular fabric, the jump to facing off against an outfit made entirely out of Life Fibers should have been a troublesome affair.

That is, in terms of sheer power. It was undeniable that he was more talented and experienced than Ryuko, in terms of instinct if not in amount of memories. His body had been honed into a machine that had turned combatants stronger than him into bloody messes after all.

But there was also another thing that gave him an edge.

His opponent was holding back to a lethal degree.

Of course, their fight was still immense in scale. Tearing chunks out of concrete, collapsing the walls of the school, and sending unfortunate bystanders flying about whenever they happened to get in front of it. If they were allowed to go on forever, they would have surely destroyed the whole school.

But again, it could have been so much more.

If only Matoi Ryuko didn’t yelp and scramble away whenever Kiri grabbed her in a wrestling hold, if only she didn’t distract from the fight with how quick she was to shout obscenities at him, obscenities that had very little to do with her original grievance in the first place, and the way she couldn’t look at his whole body in order to predict his strikes.

And of course, not to forget. The way her face burned a constant cherry red…

Something was holding her back from going all out against him, which more than proved to be a detriment to her ability to fight back. She took hits that she shouldn’t be taking, and overall displayed a lot more clumsiness than she had shown against everyone else.

Just what could be the cause of that..?

The obvious finally occurred to Kiri after a full five minutes of fighting.

And when it did, the fight suddenly came to a stop at the doors of Honnouji, in a very abrupt and unceremonious matter. A bewildered Kiri looking no worse for the wear as he looked at his opponent, a battered and bruised Matoi Ryuko, who looked to be on the verge of passing out as she heaved breaths of life granting oxygen.

“Are you… embarrassed?” He asked, incredulously, like the idea that a half naked girl would be embarrassed when fighting a fully naked boy was an alien concept to him, something that Ryuko was very quick to point out.

“O-OF COURSE I AM! WHO WOULDN’T BE?” She pointed her sword at him, flushing a deeper red before she angled her sword in a way that would hide his privates from her. “YOU’VE NOT EVEN COVERED UP, A-AND I’M LIKE THIS, YOU IDIOT!”

“But it’s making you lose the fight.” Kiri pointed out, still more confused than anything else, and frankly looking at Ryuko like she was an idiot. “Half the hits I get on you are because you’re trying to cover yourself up…”

‘Ryuko… he’s right.’ Senketsu was quick to point out, immediately receiving a mortified gasp from his wearer at the perceived betrayal. ‘And more than that, it’s preventing you from accessing my full abilities.’

“S-shut it!” She whisper-yelled to her… closest comrade. “You try wearing this tiny little number everywhere and not get embarrassed, couldn’t there have been a better design?!” A vain hope to be sure, and one that Senketsu could only sigh at.

Of course, it was rather difficult for Ryuko to hide her conversation with Senketsu from Kiri… though not being able to hear the Godrobe meant that he thought she was talking to him, and answered appropriately.

“You’re really hopeless.” He spoke. “Is that really how you hope to get your answers?”

“Y-you stop making it worse!” She said, having to change the angle of her sword so that he was once again obscured. “And stop talking about things you know nothing about!”

“I’m doing nothing, but fighting.” He pointed out. “I’m doing everything I can to survive against an opponent who wishes me harm.”

“That’s exactly the problem, idiot!”

“You’re the idiot.” Kiri grumbled. “That ‘Godrobe’ of yours is your only hope of taking on Honnouji, and you’re still going on about how it makes you look?” He scoffed. “What’s more important? Your shame, or your desire for answers?!”

The words hit Ryuko like a thunderbolt, and she could only stare slack-jawed.

“What did you say?” She demanded, as if in a trance.

It was a look that Kiri recognized in an instant.

A turning point was incoming, and it was up to him to steer that in the right direction, to finally begin teaching Matoi Ryuko the lessons she would need to become that would help them survive against the upcoming storm.

And really, he was sure she would grasp the logic the moment it hit her.

Because it was that simple.

“In a life or death situation, how does nakedness matter?” He asked. “If I’d been someone who wanted to kill you, how would you showing a little skin matter?” He delivered the final blow. “Kill your shame, it’s only holding you back.

And immediately, Matoi Ryuko was enlightened.

What a smart girl, really.

Her flush slowly began dying down, and she lowered her sword and took in Kiri’s fighting stance… and though she still felt more than a bit out of her depth when she took in a particular part of his body, her head spinning whenever she did.

Of course, in that instant, it only made her realize how lightheaded she was feeling after having Senketsu feasting on her blood for more than ten minutes… which meant continuing this battle was suddenly made impossible for her.

So she promptly turned on her heel, and used that as an excuse to run away as fast as possible.

Baby steps, she told herself, baby steps.