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The story of Ryūko Matoi from Kill La Kill.
History[]
Ryūko was born to Sōichirō and Ragyō, she has an older sister named Satsuki, bigger than her of one-year.
She never knew her mother, as because Ryūko believed that she died during the childbirth, and her relationship with her father, Isshin Matoi, was strained. It is the half truth however, as while Ragyō indeed is still alive, she had cast aside her humanity to destroy the world since the discovery of the Primordial Life Fiber and even came close in killing baby Ryūko after infusing her with Life Fibers.
Ryūko spent her childhood living in the dorms of Ox Elementary School as her father lived solely for his scientific studies. Six months before enrolling at Honnouji Academy, she received a message from Isshin, and returned to her home, only to find him bleeding to death with a red Scissor Blade plunged into his chest. Isshin removed the blade and offered it to Ryūko, telling her that with the blade she would able to fight in his place and find the killer. Before Isshin could provide Ryūko with further information, she ran off after spotting a shadowy female figure wielding the other half of the Scissor Blade. Ryūko, unable to apprehend the fleeing woman, was left to watch her home burn to the ground and her father with it as the long-haired assailant detonated a previously planted explosive device. Vowing revenge, Ryūko became a vagrant looking for clues behind the woman's identity and whereabouts.
As the series begins, Ryūko arrives at Honno City and Honnouji Academy. Upon seeing the student body president, Satsuki Kiryūin, Ryūko challenges her to answer her questions about her father Isshin's murder. Instead, Satsuki pits Ryūko against the boxing club president and his Two-Star Goku Uniform after she easily takes out several of the One-Star students and their Goku Uniforms. Ryūko loses, and retreats back to the remains of her destroyed home. There, with a little help from her homeroom teacher, Aikurō Mikisugi, she has her first encounter with the Kamui Senketsu. Dawning him against her will, she returns to Honnouji to face the boxing club president again to protect Mako Mankanshoku from being punished with death, and successfully destroys his Goku Uniform. After she defeats another club president in the tennis club president and destroys her Two-Star Goku Uniform, Ryūko has her first fight with Satsuki, who has donned her own Kamui, Junketsu, and their fight ends in a draw after Ryūko gains full synchronization with Senketsu. Satsuki challenges Ryūko to defeat every Honnouji student sent against her if she stands any chance of fighting Satsuki again.
From that point on, Ryūko makes it her top priority to face Satsuki again, even with everything thrown at her and Mako by the Elite Four to potentially expel Ryūko from Honnouji Academy. The first challenge is the "No Late Day", where despite an attempt by Maiko Ogure to steal Senketsu to use herself to try and overthrow Satsuki, only for Senketsu to paralyze her for Ryūko to beat up and take Senketsu back, Ryūko and Mako make it just in time, while Maiko is expelled for treason against Satsuki. It finally culminates in when Ryūko wins a King Of The Hill competition with the Elite Four during the Naturals Election, thus Satsuki puts Ryūko in a gauntlet match against the Elite Four. Defeat Ira Gamagōri, Hōka Inumuta, Nonon Jakuzure, and Uzu Sanageyama, and Satsuki will fight Ryūko again and give her the answers she seeks. Ryūko manages to defeat Ira and Nonon, destroying their Three-Star Goku Uniforms, but Inumuta forfeits after collecting the data he wanted from fighting Ryūko, surrendering his Three-Star Goku Uniform due to losing via forfeit. Before Ryūko could fight Sanageyama, they are interrupted by Nui Harime, Grand Couture for Satsuki's mother's company. After Nui easily takes down Sanageyama by severing the Banshi of his Three-Star Goku Uniform, she then reveals to be in the possession of the other half of the Rending Scissors that Ryūko possessed after being given her half of them by her dying father. With this unforgiving evidence that proves that Nui was Isshin's murderer, Ryūko goes into a blind rage to avenge her father, but this causes Senketsu to undergo a horrific mutation from Ryūko's boiling mad blood, turning her into some sort of monster. After Mako is able to literally slap some sense into Ryūko and calm her down, returning her and Senketsu to normal before Satsuki would have killed Ryūko herself in Junketsu, Ryūko, traumatized by what happened, refuses to wear Senketsu again, even after learning from Satsuki that the information Inumuta got from the battles has allowed Satsuki to have Shirō Iori, the sewing club president, improve the Goku Uniforms as part of her plan to raid the other schools and bring them under the control of Honnouji Academy. When a student who is part of the newspaper club asks Ryūko for help, combined with learning that Mako was conscripted into taking part in Satsuki's raid trip, Ryūko dons Senketsu again, but it was a trap. The student was Nui in disguise, and fearful of losing control of herself again if she gives into her anger, Ryūko is defeated and Senketsu is cut to pieces. Luckily, Satsuki arrives and drives off Nui before she could kill Ryūko under threat of killing her if she didn't leave at once, and takes Senketsu's remains to have woven into the Goku Uniforms for the raid trip.
When Ryūko recovers, armed with only the scarf that contained Senketsu's mind and personality, she sets off to stop the raid trip and recover Senketsu's remains. She recovers all of them except for the glove needed to perform the Life Fiber synchronization, which was in Satsuki's possession. Using her own skin in place of it, Ryūko is able to attain synchronization with Senketsu and recover the glove, and is soon aided by Mikisugi, Tsumugu Kinagase, and their organization, Nudist Beach, but when Ryūko disarms Satsuki of Bakuzan and Junketsu threatens to kill Ryūko if she uses Bakuzan against Satsuki, their match ends in a draw. Ryūko, in a show of honor, gives Bakuzan back to Satsuki, who calls off the raid trip after Nonon destroys the Nudist Beach HQ and returns to Honnouji Academy. After learning about her father Isshin and how he founded Nudist Beach and made Senketsu and the Rending Scissors to stop the Life Fibers, Ryūko temporarily refuses to wear Senketsu any further if it means killing his own kind until Mako convinces her to put him on again. Heading to Honnouji Academy as it was preparing for a big get-together to welcome Satsuki's mother and chairman/CEO of REVOCS Corporation, Ragyo Kiryūin, Ryūko, Mako, and Nudist Beach arrive just in time to witness Satsuki show her true colors as she impales her own mother on Bakuzan and declares Honnouji Academy's rebellion against REVOCS and the Life Fibers, declaring it revenge for the deaths of her father and baby sister. During the battle that follows, Ryūko is affected by Ragyo's Mind Stitching and brainwashed to fight Satsuki, but is able to break free of her own free will. After Satsuki believes she's won after decapitating Ragyo with Bakuzan, she soon discovers that Ragyo is a Life Fiber/human hybrid, where as long as her heart is intact or a single Life Fiber keeps her head on, she's invincible. She soon overpowers Satsuki and strips her of Junketsu, putting it on herself and then capturing Ryūko just after she attained perfect sync with Senketsu, pulling out Ryūko's heart to reveal to all that Ryūko is Ragyo's presumed dead younger daughter and Satsuki's sister. The shock of finding out she's a Life Fiber hybrid causes Ryūko to enter a coma for whole month after Satsuki blows up the stadium, is captured by Ragyo, the Elite Four join Nudist Beach as their Goku Uniforms fall apart without proper maintenance from Iori, and Ragyo's COVERS conquer Japan, despite the Elite Four's best efforts to save as many lives as they could.
When the COVERS unleash a cacophony of bad music against the Elite Four and Nudist Beach, Ryūko awakens from her coma and takes the COVERS out, but haunted by the revelation that she's a Life Fiber hybrid, Ryūko considers herself a monster, refusing to ever wear Senketsu again before being goaded into heading back to Honnouji Academy alone to face Ragyo and Nui. Unfortunately, as she tries to fight Nui with only her half of the Rending Scissors, Nui soon shreds the makeshift cape Ryūko was wearing and subdues her with Life Fibers, leaving her helpless as she's forced to put on Junketsu, who brainwashes her into total loyalty and subservience to Ragyo and Nui, who then send the Junketsu-clad Ryūko to attack Nudist Beach and the Elite Four on their ship, the Naked Sun. Satsuki, having escaped her own imprisonment by Ragyo thanks to her toenails being made of the same metal as Bakuzan, arrives and puts on Senketsu to fight Ryūko with, but the brainwashed Junketsu-wearing Ryūko proves too powerful, forcing Senketsu to turn to protecting Mako from the bloodthirsty beast Ryūko has become thanks to Junketsu. The Elite Four try to help and remove Junketsu from Ryūko, but Nui arrives to taunt them that removing Junketsu from Ryūko could prove fatal from the blood loss and shock she would suffer due to Junketsu being woven right into Ryūko's skin thanks to Nui. In a desperate move to try and free Ryūko from the brainwashing, Satsuki provides an opening for Mako and Senketsu to enter Ryūko's body and attempt to reach her mind, where they find the brainwashed Ryūko about to get married, but when they storm into the chapel to confront her, Ryūko draws her Scissor Blade against them, ordering them to leave and not ruin her special day. Despite Mako and Senketsu's best attempts, it seems Ragyo's brainwashing is unbreakable. Only when Mako dares Ryūko to strike her down in cold blood does it seem like Ryūko is lost forever as she calls Mako's bluff and strikes, causing Ryūko to be drenched head to toe in blood, including her wedding dress, while still having a psychotic look on her face over having to slay her best friend so she would not ruin her big day. After Senketsu and Mako are ejected from Ryūko's body, for a moment, Nui believes they failed and Ryūko is still under Ragyo's control as Ryūko catches her breath following what just happened. At least until Nui decides to try and sink the Naked Sun and turns her half of the Rending Scissors into a scythe. At that point, Nui is skewered from behind by Ryūko and impaled against the conning tower of the ship. As she struggles to look back at Ryūko, it is clear that the Ryūko that was brainwashed by Ragyo is gone, and the real one is back, and she is furious as she opens her eyes to glare at Nui with a look of total berserk fury over the hell Nui and Ragyo just put her through.
| “ | I'm sick and tired OF YOUR YAPPING!! How dare you bastards MAKE ME WEAR THIS!! | „ |
| ~ Ryūko |
Without any care for the danger she was putting herself in, Ryūko begins to rip Junketsu off of herself, despite pleads by Mako, Satsuki, the Elite Four, and Mikisugi that if she does that she'll die. By some miracle, Ryūko does manage to tear Junketsu off of herself, leaving it in ruins, but survives the effort, drenched in her own blood from hair to toes, snarling that she had to take Junketsu off as it was the only way to wear Senketsu again. Admitting afterwards that it hurt like hell, but she deserved it for how much of an idiot she had been behaving lately, she reunites with Senketsu and is able to overpower Nui and reclaim both halves of her father's Rending Scissors, using them to permanently cripple Nui by severing her arms and destroying them, having Senketsu absorb the Life Fibers that they were made of, leaving Nui to collapse into a psychotic breakdown when Ryūko chooses to spare her life instead of taking it to avenge her father, before being rescued by Rei and flown to safety while the COVERS left behind to cover Rei and Nui's escape are destroyed, freeing the student club presidents and the Life Fibers for Iori to use to make new Goku Uniforms. Afterwards, Satsuki allows Ryūko the chance to hit her in revenge for all the trouble she's put her through, only for Ryūko's strikes to be blocked by Ira and Uzu. Joined by Inumuta and Nonon, they make it clear to Ryūko that if she wants to get to Satsuki, she had to go through the Elite Four first, causing Ryūko to realize just how much the Elite Four care for Satsuki like the Mankanshokus do for her. With Satsuki offering her deepest apologies and asking Ryūko to aid her in stopping Ragyo, their mother, from carrying out her master plan, Ryūko agrees.
After, Iori rebuilds Junketsu and infuses it with a mixture of Ryūko and Satsuki's blood along with Senketsu's Life Fibers before using his Three-Star Goku Uniform Tailor's Regalia to begin work on the Goku Uniforms for the Elite Four and club presidents. It is not long before the Naked Sun is attacked by the Primordial Life Fiber. While the Elite Four stay with Nudist Beach to defend the ship while Iori works on their Goku Uniforms with Inumuta, Ryūko and Satsuki will head out to deal with their mother and the Primordial Life Fiber.
| “ | Mitsuzo: Lady Ryūko, look after your sister for me. Ryūko: Will do. Ready si...si...s... Satsuki: You don't have to acknowledge the bond between us. I can feel your blood flowing through Junketsu. I know what you mean. Ryūko: Really? Satsuki: Yes. Senketsu: How touching...(sobs) Ryūko: Not now, Senketsu. Suck it up. Okay, let's go!! |
„ |
Transforming together into their sync modes with Junketsu and Senketsu, Ryūko and Satsuki take off for the Primordial Life Fiber, only to see the Naked Sun under attack from a massive COVERS. Luckily, Mako is granted her Two-Star Goku Uniform again to help defend the ship, while Ryūko and Satsuki go after Ragyo. Though Ragyo puts up a fierce resistance, Ryūko then intentionally gets herself sliced in two by Ragyo and falls underwater, using that time to heal and ambush the Primordial Life Fiber to destroy its core. Aided by Mako and the other club presidents as they provide the power for the Naked Sun to pierce the Primordial Life Fiber and help her sever the core, it looks like they've done it, but Ragyo is not finished yet, especially after Nui finishes her ultimate Kamui for Ragyo, the Shinra-Koketsu. As Satsuki and Ryūko lead the students of Honnouji Academy after Ragyo and Nui to take back their school, Ragyo absorbs Rei to activate her "Absolute Domination" ability, disabling the Goku Uniforms, alongside Senketsu and Junketsu. However, Ryūko and Senketsu attack Ragyo separately, as that rendered them immune to the effects, and Senketsu is able to knock Rei out of Shinra-Koketsu, disabling Absolute Domination and allowing everyone to use their Goku Uniforms and Junketsu again. After Mikisugi and Tsuguru, with help from Ira, destroy the transmitter Ragyo needed to launch her endgame, Ragyo has one last ace up her sleeve, and has Nui commit suicide to provide the fuel needed to revive the Primordial Life Fiber to allow Ragyo to fly into space and activate her satellite personally. As everyone wonders how to stop her now, Ryūko and Senketsu offer to do it. To that end, every student surrenders their Goku Uniform to give Senketsu the power needed to pursue Ragyo. Even Satsuki gives up Junketsu to give Senketsu the power to ascend to his stronger form, Senketsu-Kisagari, and Ryūko flies up to stop her mother.
Once she confronts Ragyo after she's launched her endgame, Ryūko takes multiple hit after hit, but is able to recover from all of them thanks to her hybrid state. After Ragyo skewers her at one point to try and finish her off, Ryūko reveals that all the damage she's sustained was only making Senketsu stronger, to the point he could now absorb Shinra-Koketsu and use its abilities himself, to Ragyo's disbelief and horror. With the power of Absolute Domination, Ryūko orders the Life Fibers to cancel their endgame and disperse, saving the Earth from certain doom. With her plans ruined, Ragyo is convinced by Ryūko to come back to Earth and be her and Satsuki's mother again. Although she seems to consider it, Ragyo instead chooses to take her own life and crushes her heart, committing suicide, but not before taunting Ryūko that the Life Fibers will return one day to finish what she started, but Ryūko retorts that they will be waiting.
After Ragyo dies, Senketsu realizes he's breaking up from an overload of absorbing everyone's Life Fibers and Shinra-Koketsu and moves quickly to get Ryūko back to Earth safely, splitting off from her to protect her from the heat of reentry. Knowing he's about to cease to exist, he convinces Ryūko to let him go and wear her own clothes from now on. After Ryūko promises to wear clothes that will make him jealous, Senketsu releases her to safely fall back to Earth as the last shreds of him burn up and he disappears, to Ryūko's heartbreak. Ryūko is then caught by Satsuki, Mako, the Elite Four, the Mankanshokus, and the other students, landing all of them in a big group hug as Satsuki welcomes her sister home, to everyone's relief.
Some time later, Ryūko is able to live a normal life with Satsuki and Mako, but still remembers Senketsu well after seeing a girl in a sailor uniform that reminded her of him.
In the OVA, taking place two weeks after the events with Ragyo and Nui, Ryūko is preparing for the Honnouji Academy graduation ceremony with Satsuki, the Elite Four, Mako, Iori, and the other students, when the ceremony is crashed by Ragyo's former secretary, Rei, seeking revenge on Satsuki for Ragyo and Nui's deaths, having been unconscious after being removed from Shinra-Koketsu, and unaware of the truth that Nui committed suicide to help Ragyo, and Ragyo committed suicide after her endgame was foiled by Ryūko and Senketsu. Having used some surviving Life Fibers to create dark replicas of Satsuki in Junketsu and the Elite Four in their original Three-Star Goku Uniforms, Rei also is able to use Satsuki and Mako to activate the academy's final defense mechanism that was never used against Ragyo, turning the academy into a giant mech. However, Mako takes temporary control to provide valuable advice to the Elite Four and Ryūko, allowing them to defeat the dark replicas of the Elite Four and Satsuki in Junketsu, and when Ryūko is overpowered trying to stop Rei alone, as a final gift from Senketsu, Ryūko is reunited with the Rending Scissors, allowing her to use their Alumni Mode to destroy the mech, and thus Honnouji Academy and Honno City as well. Rei is later convinced to give up her vendetta by Satsuki, with Ryūko commending her sister on talking Rei down, allowing both sisters to share a warm smile.
| “ | Ryūko: See you around, Satsuki. Satsuki: Till then, take care of yourself, Ryūko. |
„ |
| ~ Satsuki and Ryūko, true sisters, say goodbye for the time being. |
Satsuki evacuates the sinking island with Rei, the Elite Four, Iori, Mitsuzo, and the other students, giving Honnouji Academy one last salute as it sinks into Tokyo Bay, taking the Rending Scissors with it. Meanwhile, Ryūko departs with the Mankanshokus and their house, knowing she'll see Satsuki again down the line, and Mako reminding her that Senketsu still lives on in Ryūko's heart, making Ryūko feel much better regarding what the future holds for her and all her friends from Honnouji Academy.