"Man, you know who would love this?"

Katniss had more pressing concerns than who would 'love' the current situation. She was tucked on the back of a thin, growling machine made of hot metal, leaning back and forth at terrifying angles to round corners, and being forced to cling to the operator of said machine for dear life. It was not something she could imagine anyone 'loving', even though Ryuko really did seem to be enjoying herself.

"NO," she shouted over the roar of the air travelling past and the scream of the motorcycle beneath. "WHO?"

"Mikasa," replied Ryuko. "I mean, recon is her thing. If she were here, she'd… she'd say something like, 'Kill all Titans', or 'If you don't fight, you die', or 'lacerations', or something. That Mikasa, what a riot."

Katniss would have laughed, but the bike picked that exact moment to stop working, catastrophically. The front tire suddenly burst, and the bike began to swerve out of control.

"Hold on!" urged Ryuko, which was exactly what Katniss was already doing. Ryuko drew her Scissor Blade from a pocket on her skirt, and the tiny half-scissor grew into its normal, sword-like size. She jammed the weapon into the street below, which prompted the bike to stop instantaneously. Katniss, on the other hand, did not, and flipped over Ryuko's back to faceplant in the street.

"Are you OK?" shouted Ryuko to her comrade. Katniss dusted herself off, scrambling back to Ryuko and the bike.

"I'm fine. The armor took most of the impact."

"Good," replied Ryuko as she drew the bolt across her glove, causing her outfit to transform into its unpractical-looking combat mode. "Whoever did this is nearby. Get ready."

Katniss unlocked the bow that was collapsed on the back of her armor, and it unfolded automatically in her hand. Another panel on the armor unfolded, and her quiver of standard arrows rotated into place along her back. She strung one and began to scan for targets. They were in what would have equated to a bad part of town, but since the city was empty, it was just a patch of tightly-packed, cheap-looking apartments, huddled on the edges of a winding road. Street lamps coated the area in a dull yellow light, turning the crumbling sidewalks and sketchy buildings into shoddy-looking gold ingots.

"Hey!" shouted Ryuko. "I know you're out there somewhere! You want to own up for wrecking my bike? I don't have any extra tires, so the whole thing's useless now!"

"Don't bother," whispered Katniss. "They're not just going to show themselves."

"I know that. But you'd feel really stupid if they got the drop on you, and you didn't say anything to 'em first, you know?"

"Um… sure?"

Ryuko knelt down by her ruined front tire, examining the damage.

"Oh, hell," she said, removing something from the shredded tire. She held it up for Katniss to see- it was an ornately-carved knife that was all too familiar.

"Did someone say, 'useless'?" said Dio, appearing out of thin air to snatch the knife from Ryuko's hand. The girl jumped backwards, as Katniss trained her sights on the vampire.

"Dio, you bastard!" roared Ryuko, literally glowing with anger. The red lining on Senketsu began to pulsate with bright pink. "I haven't forgotten how you used me!"

"Is that so?" said Dio, twirling the knife in his hand.

"Yeah," Ryuko snapped. "I'm sensitive about people poking about in my head!"

"And I suppose you want to settle it here?" he replied, grinning.

Ryuko, calm down. There's no need to get so worked up over him, said Senketsu.

"Yeah, yeah, you're right," exhaled the girl to her outfit. "Dio, maybe I don't need to settle anything with you. But if you try anything right now, Katniss and I will rip you to shreds."

"That's fine," chuckled Dio. "I'm not here to fight you. I have a more important mission. No, I'm here to give an exam."

"An… exam?" asked Katniss, still aiming an arrow at Dio's face.

"That's right," oozed the vampire. "I've got a new… apprentice. And she's just dying to meet you, Ryuko."

A small figure leapt from a nearby rooftop, landing next to Dio. It was a girl, seemingly around the same age as Ryuko or Katniss. She, too wore a school uniform, though one of a distinctly more western origin, complete with a beige blouse and neatly-cinched tie. She rubbed her hands together excitedly, eyeing Ryuko and Katniss more like puppies than potential threats.

"So you're Ryuko, huh?" she giggled, biting her lip in an awkward manner.

"Well, who else would I be?"

"No- it's just- I figured you'd look a little more threatening. Not like a wardrobe malfunction that crashed into a hair dye store."

Katniss re-trained her bow on the newcomer as Ryuko's outfit began to vent steam and glow again.

"I'll leave you girls to settle things. Filia, you'll pass the exam if you can get back to me alive. Take care," smirked the vampire, disappearing the same way he had appeared. Ryuko lowered the tip of her Scissor blade in the direction of the girl.

"You're gonna be sorry that you said that," growled the wearer of Senketsu, wreathed in vapor. She indicated with her free hand that Katniss should leave. "Get out of here. This just became my fight, and I don't want you getting caught in the crossfire."

Katniss made a displeased-sounding grunt. "It'll be easier to fight her together, you know."

"I don't care. I've had enough of people making fun of my best friend, and I'm going to make sure he never has to take that kind of crap again!"

"Your… best friend?" said Katniss, confused.

"I'll explain later, after I RIP THIS BITCH'S HEAD OFF!" roared Ryuko, leaping toward her opponent. Katniss knew better than to stand too close when the Scissor Blade was swinging, and promptly turned tail and ran. She aimed for a particularly-nasty looking apartment building a block away, which she considered a safe distance.

Ryuko swung the Scissor Blade toward the girl's neck, propelling it with all of her rage. The weapon travelled fast enough to whip the surrounding air particles into a high-velocity stream, which itself was sharp enough to remove Filia's head cleanly- if she had not jumped over Ryuko's telegraphed attack. Filia landed with particular grace, and ripped the half-scissor from Ryuko's hand. Or rather, her hair did. Her black locks had lengthened into a prehensile appendage, snagged the weapon at the end of its swing, and snapped it away. The hair dangled the Scissor Blade in front of her face. She examined it briefly, rolled her eyes, and tossed it away, over the rooftops.

"Oh, look at that," said Filia, her hair settling back into a shape resembling an overturned insect. "I pushed the right buttons, and you snapped, just like Dio told me. I guess I'm a little more level-headed."

Ryuko stared in shock at her empty hand, and back at Filia. "Y-you just-"

"You see, Lord Dio doesn't seem to think I can replace you," continued Filia. "So I need to prove my worth by killing you. It's nothing personal, really. I don't even think your outfit looks that bad- perhaps too risqué for my taste, but certainly not-"

A punch to the gut sent Filia crashing into the wall of the apartment across the street, shattering the dull, worn bricks.

"SHUT UP!" screamed Ryuko. "JUST! STOP! TALKING!"

Filia fell from the wall to the ground, coughing up a mouthful of blood. "That's… that's an organ," she wheezed, bringing herself to her feet. She nearly fell over again when she found Ryuko standing directly in front of her.

"Do you know what it feels like," Ryuko seethed, grabbing Filia by the neck and hoisting her into the air, "to stick up for someone, through thick and thin, to always have their back?" She shoved the girl back into the wall, and her hair began to hang more limply. "And then, when you've finally gone through hell and back with them, they're gone?!"

Filia made a sound halfway between a squeal and a gasp before she managed to form the word "No."

Her grip around the girl's neck tightened. "Then let me teach you some sympathy!" She drove a knee into Filia's stomach, which forced the wall behind her to give out. She fell back into an empty flat, the floor now covered with bricks and drywall.

"Senketsu Senjin!" hissed Ryuko, and her outfit grew a multitude of blades and spikes. She picked up her foe again and placed her wrist blades- three bright-red razors- underneath Filia's chin.

"When you get the chance, tell Dio that studying for the test doesn't always help!" she screamed, and drove the blades up through Filia's jaw. Ryuko breathed in deeply, then exhaled slowly, removing the blades from the dead girl. Senketsu returned to his normal combat state, and turned a concerned eye to Ryuko from his collar-crest.

That was close. You almost lost it.

"I know. I'm glad it's over, though."

She stepped through the hole Filia had made in the wall and back out into the street. In the glow of the streetlamps, she could make out Katniss on the roof of a building across the way.

"Ryuko! I've got your sword!" shouted the archer, waving the Scissor Blade above her head.

"Good!" yelled Ryuko in reply. "Send it over!"

Katniss awkwardly strung the oversized scissor on her bow, firing just above and to the right of her ally. Ryuko caught the blade by the handle as it passed, spun it around her wrist a few times, and lodged it in the ground. Katniss flung herself over the edge of the roof, catching a windowsill to slow her descent before landing. She crossed the street, examining the damage Ryuko had done.

"Was all of this…" she said, observing the hole in the wall, "necessary?"

"Maybe not, but… I felt like I had to. For Senketsu."

"You really care about that outfit, huh?"

"He's more than an outfit. He's my best friend."

Katniss collapsed her bow and slung it over her back. "Forgive me, but that's a little hard to believe."

"No, it's true. He's a living thing, with a soul and feelings. He can talk, too, but no one can hear him but me."

"You're not really helping your case."

Ryuko let out a half-laugh-half-sigh. "I guess it sounds pretty crazy to you. It sounded pretty crazy to me, too- when all of it was happening. To make a long story short, I was trying to track down my father's killer, ended up at a seriously screwy school, and got my ass handed to me. That's when I found him, or he found me, or we found each other, or some sort of that sentimental bullshit. With him, I could fight back- and I ended up fighting myself into a mess. I found out a little more than I wanted to about who killed my father, and way more than I wanted to know about myself. But in the end, we pulled through. Senketsu was with me that whole time- even when I didn't think I needed him, even when I didn't want him around. He always had my back. Until-" her voice broke a little.

A gentle hand was placed on her shoulder. Katniss noticed immediately that the fabric- if it could be called that- was hot to the touch. While it certainly surprised her, pulling her hand back would be rude. She kept it planted.

"Don't worry. Go on. I'm listening."

"I…I lost him," Ryuko sobbed. "There… wasn't anything I could do. He knew he had done what he had to, you know? But… It hurt. Without him. So that's why I'm fighting. I don't care if everything else has to be the same… I want him back."

Katniss instantly thought of her father. He could side with scum lower than dirt in order to improve his chances of winning- just to have his little girls back. She knew that love drove people to do things they shouldn't.

"But-" Katniss said gently, "what about now? You have him here. You can talk to him here. Even if you lose, you'll have spent time with him, right?"

"Have you ever thought about what happens if we lose?" sniffled Ryuko. "We could have no memory of what happened. Or we could be killed! No one knows! Why would you ever even consider…" she broke into more bawling. Katniss realized she hadn't really given it too much thought- not for a long while. Since she had met Holly, they had done little other than win, and by impressive margins. Before that, she had been a wreck- but because it was all too familiar. Consequences were an afterthought- the Grand Combat itself was the hateful thing she had screamed herself to sleep about. But… what would happen to the losers? Or would there ever be ones? Katniss couldn't tell how long anyone had been there- the events all seemed clear, but the time between them was a blur. For all she knew, there could be no losers or winners, and it could just go on indefinitely- endless fighting, endless death.

"I'm sorry, I just-"

"No, it's… it's okay," she said, wiping her nose with her Kamui's sleeve. Katniss had to wonder what it thought about that. "I've just got to have hope… that we can win… and when we do, he'll be back. And he'll learn what peace is. Do you know that? He never… ever… knew what it was."

"You're right," Katniss whispered. "We all need something to fight for."

"Awww," said a familiar voice from the rubble. "That's really sweet."

Katniss and Ryuko turned, watching in horror as Filia lifted herself off the ground by her hair, and set her feet on the pavement gently. She ran a hand under her chin, bringing it away smeared in blood. She looked down at it, blinked slowly, and flicked it away.

"That you would do all that for your friend, really sweet. I mean it," she continued, choosing an odd time to try and make amends.

"Don't tell me you're one of those guys who just keep on healing," groaned Katniss.

"Oh, no. I'm not," she chuckled with something between a grin and a grimace. "I can only do this once. Or once per round? I'm not too sure. God does this hurt, though." Filia shivered a little, and made small whimpering noises.

Ryuko pulled her Scissor Blade out of the ground, pointing the tip at the girl who should have been dead. "You're going to explain what you're doing. Right now."

"Well, if you really want to know- I was holding back earlier. Not just a little, a lot. I had to, otherwise this would happen."

"Okay, what's this then?" growled Ryuko as Katniss knocked an arrow.

The pallor sweeping over the girl's face would have made sense if she was dead like she ought to have been. Her hair began to grow- more than it did before, until the twitching strands began to pile up on the ground. The long locks that curled back like a bug's legs lengthened as well, twisting themselves down, drilling holes into the street. They hoisted Filia upward, her body hanging delicately from the spidery hair-limbs.

"Before I got here, I had the misfortune- heheh- of finding something called the 'Skull Heart'. To make things simple, it's a source of unlimited power and evil. Those who find it end up like this."

"What? With permanent bad-hair days?" snarled Ryuko.

"No, no, no," chuckled Filia with a frown. "Samson is my Parasite. I had him before. No, the Skull Heart turns you into a Skullgirl. I was able to restrain my transformation until you knocked me out… but now you've made things worse for yourself. I've completely absorbed Samson into my physiology now, and I have access to all of his power and more."

"That's all well and good, but at the end of the day, you still fight with hair, and I fight with a scissor."

Filia made a face as though she was about to make a witty retort, paused, shook her head slightly, and released a storm of hair-tendrils toward Ryuko. The Kamui wearer responded by swinging her sword ahead, cutting through several sharply-tipped strands before they could do any damage. But before Ryuko could perform another swing, several snake-like locks curled around the blade, wrenching it from her hands again.

"Sorry," smiled the Skullgirl, her eyes burning red in the dim light. "It's just not fair to let you have that. I'm taking it back." The hair twisted around the blade began to pull it closer, but something caught the weapon, halting the hair's progress. It then jumped backward, slipping out of Filia's grasp and slicing through more hair on its flight back into Ryuko's waiting hand.

"While you were giving your dramatic origin story, I took the time to run one of Senketsu's threads around my Scissor Blade's handle. I'm not going to lose it again." Ryuko took a careful step back, adjusting her stance. She slowly lowered her free hand, and subtly gave Katniss a hand signal. The archer began to back up, toggling a switch between her armor's various quivers.

"I see," noted Filia. "Well, this will really prove my worth for Dio. I guess sometimes you have to do things the hard way." She unleashed another barrage of sharpened hair-serpents, and Ryuko responded with uncountable swings of her scissor blade, easily slicing each strand of hair as it approached, only to be replaced by another lock, and then for the replacement to be sliced, and then for the replacement to be replaced…

Katniss was confident that she was out of range of any of Filia's attacks. Not that it mattered, as she seemed fairly distracted by Ryuko- and that was the plan. While their little group had sat idly at their table watching other matches, Holly had devised a standardized set of gesture commands for use in the rounds. Not everyone paid much attention, but evidently Ryuko had. She had flashed the "I'll Distract" sign, which was a complex wiggling of the index and ring fingers, vaguely evocative of someone flailing their arms and yelling. So Ryuko was distracting- her distraction was creating quite a large pile of trimmed hair- and Katniss would deal damage. Filia, whoever she was, should have known better to expect a fair fight when cornering any member of their team. Katniss drew an arrow from the quiver that had rotated up from its locked-and-sealed position on her back. She examined the tip, confirming that it was what she needed. She strung the arrow, aiming down the bow's flip-up telescopic sight. The shot, as always, met its mark, the arrow lodging itself above the doorframe of the apartment that Filia and Ryuko stood in front of dueling.

"It's over, Filia!" shouted Ryuko above the roaring wind produced by her Scissor Blade's slashes.

"Why would it be over? I could keep this up all day."

"Because detonate," replied Katniss, as the tiny package of thermite located behind the Skullgirl's head promptly did exactly that. Ryuko had a split second to leap back to avoid being consumed by the inferno that had just claimed their opponent. Filia writhed, screaming as her hair was vaporized by the intense heat- the flames themselves didn't need to touch anything to do their damage, but they went ahead and did so anyway.

"Whoa," gasped Ryuko, shielding her face from the heat. "That's impressive." Katniss did not acknowledge her friend, and instead stared sullenly into the flames.

"It's done," she muttered.

"No… it's… not," coughed Filia from within the blaze. Somehow, she staggered forward, finding the energy to propel herself out of the fire, a stumbling mess of scorched flesh. One last strand of hair was left on her blackened head, trailing limply over her forehead. It slowly stood up, curling itself into a tightly-wound spiral, and shot toward Katniss like an uncoiling spring. The razor-sharp tip dove toward the girl's face, reached the bridge of her nose, and fell away harmlessly. Ryuko pulled her Scissor Blade back to her side, having cleaved Filia's final weapon in twain. Filia, out of options, succumbed to her injuries and collapsed. The two paused, catching their breath as the flames from the incendiary arrow died down.

"We've got to get back," whispered Katniss, looking around as if some solution was nearby. "If we were attacked, the others could be, too. And the bike's ruined, and we're miles away-"

Ryuko wagged a finger. "Chill out. I've got it covered. SENKETSU SHIPPU!"

With those words, her outfit changed forms again. The ridiculously short skirt lengthened into a full- fledged dress, but instead of frills and folds, the pleats now concealed rocket boosters. Senketsu's collar extended out even further into a pair of ailerons. Ryuko hovered steadily over the ground on a jet of energy produced by the multitude of vernier thrusters that poked out underneath her outfit.

"Wait… you can turn into an airplane… but you insisted we use a motorcycle for reconnaissance?" Katniss was puzzled and a little frustrated.

"It was a nice motorcycle," explained Ryuko. She picked up Katniss in the least-awkward manner possible (it was still pretty awkward), and blasted off into the night sky.

Dio stepped out of his hiding spot, and knelt next to Filia's corpse.

A shame she couldn't pull it off. But she did put up a pretty good fight.

He dragged a nail across his arm, and a thin stream of blood trickled out, dripping onto the dead girl's body. Slowly, her burns began to soften back into pink, living flesh; her seared bald head began to produce hair once more. She coughed, sputtered, and was soon on her feet, failing to form sentences.

"How? What? When? This! Alive!"

"Calm down," said the vampire. "Looks like you weren't completely dead after all. Well, not that that matters now."

"I- I- I- I failed," she whimpered, still staring at her suddenly-unburned hands.

"Yes you did. But as I've learned, sometimes it's best to work with what you have. You're in, Filia. Welcome to the King's League."

"That's great, Lord Dio… but what did you do? To me, that is?"

"I poured my blood into your open wounds. You're a vampire like me now."

Filia fell back to the ground, feeling faint.

"You mean… I'm going to be like this forever?"

"Oh, no," chuckled Dio. "No, it would take really powerful unholy magic to maintain changes like that between rounds. No, you'll just be a vampire for the rest of this one. "

"Oh! Well, that's not so bad, I suppose."

"Not bad at all. And we'll need your new powers as well as your old ones for our mission."

"What new powers do I have, exactly?"

Dio counted them out on his fingers. "Super strength and speed, regeneration, those eye-beams…"

"Eye… beams?"

"It's very painful. You get used to it after a while."

Filia seemed a little discouraged. "That doesn't sound… wait a second. I'm not a Skullgirl anymore!"

"Well, no," scoffed Dio. "You're a vampire now. That's how these things work. Also, turning people to ice."

"No, this is great! I'm not a Skullgirl anymore! Do you know what this means?"

"And sometimes," continued Dio, not listening. "You go, 'wryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy'."

"The curse is broken! I'm freeeeeeeeee!"

"Kind of like that."