#maybe even clear both shiro and Isshin all at once

[black--sun]

He’s not expecting that. He didn’t think Shiro would hand out private details, but he really didn’t expect him to ever date a cop either. Or sleep with. Ichigo only recalls Shiro scorning any kind of authority, especially the few times they’ve interacted with law enforcement. Ichigo’s never had any real animosity toward the police until they put his dad away. And it doesn’t matter that he knows Shiro dating a cop isn’t related to his situation at all, it still feels like a stab in the back. “You’re right. Why would he try to kill you? You probably pay him well.” 

Ichigo crosses his arms, tempted to roll over. That might’ve been a little low. But also a little deserved. 

Back to flirting. Ichigo ignores it the same way he used to back when they first met. Only, now he knows it’s not just suggestive banter to throw him off balance. Shiro is probably serious. “I’d like it if you got back in the car, yeah. But I’d settle for you wearing protection and not standing out in front.” It’s not like he’s being paid to be agreeable. Not like Shiro’s boyfriend. 

He huffs an almost laugh. “Not a chance.” Shiro already has enough money and power to wreak havoc, as if Ichigo would introduce him to a small, private army. 

He isn’t quite grinding his teeth yet, but he also doesn’t have to keep Shiro happy anymore. “Like you need to remind me. That’s just about your life motto, isn’t it?” Now he does roll onto his opposite side.

His eyes coast to the side to find Ichigo, but he doesn't actually turn his head. He can't tell if Ichigo is genuinely asking, or if he's implying he thinks Shiro's wrong. Or maybe he's just trying to figure out who Shiro's screwing around with... Except that implies jealousy and Ichigo wants nothing to do with him.

He shrugs. "He's a cop." Not that he'd succeed if he tried to arrest Shiro. Shiro's pockets run deep and so do his connections. He sells to half the force. "I didn't know that when we first met, but I figured it out quick." And he chose to see him again anyway.

There's enough alcohol buzzing in his system that he catches that ire, but in a lazy, mostly unbothered sort of way. He's usually a pretty happy drunk, as long as he's not too drunk, and right now he's hovered right on that perfect plane. "I'm already a target. I'm gonna be a target the moment we roll up. Unless you thought you'd hide me in your car the whole time. Only way that's happening is if you're in my lap to keep me there."

Ichigo sounds so exasperated already and it hasn't even happened. He snorts. "Good, it sounds fun. I love a good mess. You'll have to introduce me to 'em when we're done." He highly doubts Ichigo has any intention of damage control, let alone damage control that stays out of the way. Ichigo has always enjoyed a good fight and being right in the middle of everything. "I'll jump in where I see fit, if I see fit." It's his nice way of saying no one can tell him what to do.

[marshmallowgoop]

do you have any SatsuRyu head canons~? Or even some with just Satsuki herself? Thx!

Well, I headcanon Satsuki and Ryuko’s relationship as never being anything other than platonic, but I certainly have headcanons about them as sisters and friends.

✄ Ryuko’s a sweet girl under the angry exterior, but she’s slow to open up to others. Judging by Ryuko’s failed (but utterly adorable) attempt at calling Satsuki “Sis” in episode 22, it’s clear that she wants to be close to Satsuki, but she struggles. Like the disc art for volume 8 of the series suggests, Ryuko might need a little push to really start to connect with her sister. 

✄ Satsuki, meanwhile, has little trouble opening up to Ryuko. She’s spent her whole life pretending to be this cruel, cold, heartless dictator—largely for Ryuko’s sake! It must be such a relief to finally, finally reveal the truth, especially when I’d argue that Satsuki did sincerely care about Ryuko even before knowing about their blood relation. To harbor such genuine concern for a person but feel too unsafe to express it must be absolutely suffocating. It’s really no wonder that Satsuki bares her entire heart to Ryuko in the end, when she’s finally freed from her own lies.

✄ On a similar note, though the blatancy of Satsuki’s hurt feelings was ultimately discarded in the final cut, I do believe that Satsuki is saddened by how Ryuko struggles to express herself to her. To have devoted so much of your life to fighting for someone, only to unwittingly manipulate and turn them against you… it’s the definition of tragedy. There’s no way it doesn’t sting when the sister you’ve loved for so long can’t even call you “Sis.”

✄ I also feel that Satsuki has to work through some of her own biases when it comes to Ryuko, though. For just about as long as she can remember, Satsuki has known Life Fibers only as evil, despicable creatures. She flat-out calls Ragyo a “monster” in episode 18… and cites the fact that Ragyo can be stabbed in the heart and perfectly okay for it as justification for that title:

Satsuki: I’ll use any means necessary to defeat a monster like you!

Ragyo: You call your own mother a monster?

Satsuki: A woman who is unfazed by being stabbed through the heart shouldn’t be saying that.

But… Ryuko can be stabbed through the heart and perfectly okay for it, too. Though Satsuki of course understands that her sister is nothing like Ragyo, the ugly truth is that prejudice doesn’t just go away that easily. No matter how much Satsuki might dislike it about herself, seeing Ryuko’s superhuman healing abilities must bother her and remind her of her mother—and I’m sure that Ryuko senses this. I think both sisters will have to spend a lot of time working through their feelings, especially since there’s no way Satsuki could know about Ryuko’s heartbreaking desperation to prove to herself that she’s still human upon realizing the truth of her birth. Ryuko was taken advantage of by Ragyo and Junketsu precisely because she’s so afraid of being the monster that Satsuki describes, and I definitely think that’s something she and Satsuki need to discuss.

✄It’s probably fair to say that Satsuki warms up to Ryuko much more quickly than Ryuko warms up to Satsuki, but Ryuko certainly trusts Satsuki sooner. Even if Satsuki totally pisses Ryuko off initially, Ryuko shows in episode 15 that she trusts Satsuki to be true to her word:

Ryuko: The Satsuki Kiryuin I know isn’t so petty a woman that she’d change an order she’d given just because she got her sword back.

Especially after Ryuko learns that Satsuki didn’t kill her father, I feel like Ryuko has at least an unconscious sense that Satsuki’s not as villainous as she might appear. In contrast, Satsuki is extremely hesitant to trust or believe in Ryuko until the Reveal, at which point they have a very mutually respectful, trusting relationship.

✄ Maybe related: comments that praise the idea of Ryuko and Satsuki as a romantic pairing but absolutely mock and deride the prospect of a romance between Ryuko and Senketsu have always baffled me. Satsuki and Senketsu are actually quite alike! The dynamic both characters have with Ryuko is remarkably similar!

Like Senketsu, Satsuki is the cool, level-headed “Blue Oni” to Ryuko’s fiery, reckless “Red Oni.” Like Senketsu, Satsuki’s relationship with Ryuko is one that comes to be clearly defined as being between two equals who have mutual respect for each other. Like Senketsu, Satsuki helps Ryuko become stronger, but she—also like Senketsu—grows and learns and changes from knowing Ryuko, too. Like Senketsu, Satsuki never idolizes or puts Ryuko up on a pedestal as Mako can veer into, and similarly, Ryuko never does the same for either Senketsu or Satsuki—something that is perhaps especially notable when it comes to Satsuki, since Satsuki’s Elite Four (and particularly Ira) tend to treat her as something greater than human. Like Senketsu, Ryuko fully trusts Satsuki as a battle partner once they finally work together, and, like Senketsu, Satsuki certainly worries about Ryuko, but she also wholly believes and has faith in her sister in the end.

I mean, c’mon, Senketsu and Satsuki are so in sync that Satsuki’s the only one besides Ryuko who actually gets to talk to him in the anime!

Needless to say, I greatly disagree with the ridiculing of Ryuko/Senketsu fans for being uncomfortable with the incest in a Ryuko/Satsuki romance because Senketsu is allegedly Ryuko’s “cloth father.” Senketsu is as much of a parental figure to Ryuko as Satsuki is—not at all. The relationships between Ryuko and Satsuki and Ryuko and Senketsu are both immensely crucial to Kill la Kill, and they’re also both ultimately emphasized to be respectful relationships among equals and peers.

✄ Maybe on a similar vein, Ryuko would be just as protective over Satsuki as Satsuki is over her! Ryuko is a highly protective person, and there’s absolutely no way she wouldn’t be protective over her older sister.

✄As for headcanons about Satsuki herself, I’ll keep this post from getting too terribly long and just point to some I already wrote a while back:

Now, I 1000% see Satsuki as the studious type. When it’s canon that she has the highest grades in Honnouji Academy, I can completely see her as the kind of girl who spends practically all of her free time with her nose in a book, just trying to understand and learn everything she can.

Before and during the events of the series, I’d also imagine that Satsuki devotes an incredible amount of time to learning combat. She’d probably read on the subject and train with sword masters to the point of total exhaustion. While I’m sure that Satsuki has a boatload of natural talents and skills, given how alarmingly prepared she is for everything, I figure she’d still go completely overboard in her training and studies. While it’s a sad comparison, I could see her as being a bit like Azula from Avatar: The Last Airbender: immensely talented but still hard working and utterly determined to not let even a single hair be out of place.

The light novel reveals that Satsuki used to be a happy and bubbly girl before her father literally put the entire world on her shoulders and abandoned her, so as a child, I’d imagine that Satsuki would partake in more… light-hearted hobbies. Maybe she’d beg her dad to read fairytales to her or make her own clothes for her dolls. In fact, Shiro is playing with a string doll he made himself when he meets Satsuki, and when Soroi introduced Shiro to Satsuki in the first place so that she could have someone to play with, I don’t think it’s too outlandish to consider that they played with dolls together as kids. At least a little bit!

Plus, when Soichiro/Isshin clearly has some sewing and crafting skills—he made Senketsu and the Scissor Blades, after all—I could imagine these father-daughter projects where Satsuki and her dad would make things together. Maybe Soichiro would even nerd out about science with her! And unlike Ryuko, who’s not exactly the most studious and doesn’t really seem to have an interest in science, I could definitely see Satsuki being inspired by it.

After the events of the series, I’d like to think that Satsuki would finally be able to relax and return to doing what she loved as a child, such as reading stories just for fun and pleasure. Like with Ryuko, Sushio has also drawn fanart of Satsuki seemingly doing just that:

[Source]

✄If you’re looking for more writing on Satsuki, I can also point to these posts of mine, too:

Character Meme: Satsuki

Deliberate Choice to Be Cruel?, Did Satsuki Manipulate Uzu into Blinding Himself?, More, Satsuki’s Influence on Uzu, Satsuki Can’t Be Soft

Episode 20 Cut Lines: “Please, wear me.”

Episode 21: “Don’t hold back!”

Episode 22: Satsuki’s Realization 

Episode 23: “All you can do is go keep your little sister from being lonely.”

How Would Satsuki React to Ryuko Being Her Sister Before Episode 18?

Satsuki: Admitting Wrong

Satsuki and Junketsu: Not a “Relationship”

Satsuki and Senketsu: Friendship that Should Have Been 

Satsuki Calling Ryuko “Ryuko”

Satsuki Entrusting Ryuko with Bakuzan

Satsuki: “I can’t get through…”