Description: Principal Walter 'Zero' Smith interrupts a fight between Marilda and Sakura--and Tiffany, who is maybe not even supposed to be there! Has he come simply to administer an impromptu lesson, or is there something more to his intrusion...
Marilda, despite the fight posting for a rigorous snow fight on a roof, has no idea why it had to be in Japan. She'd never been to the country, let alone known much about it in her time, and fighting against a schoolgirl (on a roof no less) sounded like a recipe for injury. But, there she is, on a rooftop during the daytime and finding herself surrounded by snow and hoping her opponent makes a timely entrance.
As per norm, she is fully covered, hood up, sunglasses on, and due to the weather, her cithara is resting within a form fitted case of its own to prevent any undue moisture wreaking havoc.
For her own pride as well as that of Pacific, Tiffany has been poking around the schools of Southtown -- looking for some explanation for the growing weirdness. She's been forwarded to Gedo High on a recent tip, and the fight offers a fantastic opportunity... specifically, to take a look at the school's facilities, as well as some of its faculty.
Perhaps it's her poking around that's made her a candidate for this rooftop battle -- or perhaps it's her status as an up-and-coming fighter. Either way... she's found her way to the rooftop, and given her plans for snooping around, is ready to go with her cheerleading uniform and her gloves.
... which are a little cold for a situation like this, admittedly; she's not particularly a fan of the cold, given she's from California. She is /freezing/.
Sakura hasn't been up to the Gedo High roof. Actually, she's never been to Gedo High at all--like most Southtown high school students who don't go to Gedo, she's been warned about the rambunctious, frankly larcenous 'students' that make up the Gedo populace. But when she arrives on this snowy night, well, the school's pretty deserted... at least inside.
Sakura marches up to the roof to find the fight arena laid out there, and that's familiar enough to make her smile. She's wearing her usual school uniform--her fight uniform--but she's got black long johns and a lycra long-sleeved shirt on underneath--and a cute fur pillbox hat on her head.
As she emerges onto the roof, she glances around to see Marilda and Tiffany and she nods to each of them with an open, friendly smile.
Walter Smith's Gedo High isn't so different from before, save for the ubiquitous presence of Principal Smith himself. With his dark brown, elbow-patched, ankle-length coat, he's made a point of poking his nose into conversationsa and fights alike to ask questions, check in on his new charges, or skip right to handing out advice, depending on the situation.
Student fights in particular have generally been an 'advice' situation; there are at least a few sore bodies and salty spirits among those who were on the wrong side of the principal's genorosity.
Today isn't much different, even though it's a snow day: as Sakura steps into the arena, the roof access door is thrown open so hard that it just kind of hangs open afterwards, barely on its hinges; Principal Smith is on the other side, folding his arms over his chest. The long, curved -- charms? blades? -- lining the hem of his coat clink softly as the garment settles into place; the edges seem to have been blunted, at least. Beneath the coat, he is wearing a black sweater vest patterned with diamonds in slightly differing shades of white and grey, a white shirt, and a black tie with a few visible stars tucked into the vest, along with black slacks and brown loafers.
"Hm," he vocalizes as his eyes scan over each of the trio in turn; Pacific High student and "SNOW DAY" wildcard Tiffany gets a few extra moments of study. "Good; I'm glad that you could all make it today. The school may be closed, but it is still my duty to see to it that everyone, student or otherwise -" Zero pointedly focuses on Marilda as he says 'otherwise', and even afterwards. "- who steps foot on its grounds leaves here better for the experience. So!"
He briefly crouches before springing into the air and landing between the three fighters; his arms remain folded over his chest until he lands, at which point he spreads his feet and sinks into a fighting posture. "Today, we'll begin with a lesson on coping with dashed expectations; how a person deals with life's disappointments says quite a lot about who they truly are!"
Marilda gives quiet glances to the other arrivals, though what's visible is only so much as her head turning would hint to. The dark lenses of her sunglasses rather prevent any other giving suggestions as to what her eyes are really doing. That and with her entire body covered, save her nose and mouth, nothing can quite be assumed of her age and status other than pre-middle age. And pale, almost matching in complexion to the snow's colour. But, the principal makes an announcement and an entrance, garnering her attention. "A lesson?" she queries, hoping her japanese is competent. She had to cram everything she could on the trip there, and probably should have just grabbed an interpreter. Her accent is horrible anyway.
COMBATSYS: Zero has started a fight here as a boss!
ZERO
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Though Tiffany isn't quite so friendly with Sakura as the sunny Taiyo student is with her, she at least manages a vaguely friendly smile as the team forms up on the roof. She glances to the hooded-and-glasses'd Marida, looking her over once; she seems kinda... eerie, on balance.
Fortunately, the /real/ problem here -- the principal of Gedo High, in his long coat and with his serious bearing -- draws her attention away from the vampiric lady and up onto him. He starts posturing, and at that, posturing /aggressively/; she's a little surprised at the principal. Aren't people like him supposed to encourage students to think they can do anything, rather than dashing their exxpectations?
Clenching her fists tight and stomping a foot down into the snow, Tiffany says, "You know what -- NO! I'm not gonna let you talk to me like that!" She clenches her fist tight, continuing, "I think ADULTS shouldn't talk quite so much crap!" Her blood's up in a big way, real fast... especially given what she's been hearing about Gedo lately.
COMBATSYS: Tiffany has joined the fight here.
ZERO
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Tiffany 0/-------/-------|
Not much time for Sakura to commiserate and kibutz with her fellow female fighters--the door bangs open and creaks back and then there's... Magnum P.I.? Tom Selleck? No, no, just Zero. Er... 'Principal Walter Smith'. He certainly cuts an impressive figure; Sakura glances to Marilda, then to Tiffany; her expression remains cheerful but changes somehow, becoming a little more firm--more serious. Sakura is a new fighter, an inexperienced one, but her intuition tells her that this man is dangerous.
Besides, Tiffany is right. "You're doing a poor job of leading these students, if that's your attitude," says Sakura, striking a similar stance as to Tiffany, but her voice is a little more measured, a little less outraged. Still, she readily brings her hands up, wearing her prized red fighting gloves, and she thumbs her nose in the way a familiar action star does.
"Maybe it's you who will be disappointed..."
COMBATSYS: Sakura has joined the fight here in the center.
ZERO
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Tiffany 0/-------/-------|
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Sakura 0|-------|-------
COMBATSYS: Marilda has joined the fight here.
ZERO
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0|---------------|---------------
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Tiffany 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Marilda
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Sakura 0|-------|-------
"Is that so?"
The corners of Principal Smith's lips turn up as he gives Sakura and Tiffany another appraising look. Besides the metallic tinkling whenever his jacket shifts, there's a soft humming in the air around him. "Hm; life is full of trials, Miss Sakura. There are obstacles waiting around every corner to bring us low--to keep us from walking whatever path we've chosen for ourselves; would I really be a better teacher for failing to prepare my students for the reality beyond Gedo's walls? By shying away from testing them--/challenging/ them to overcome those obstacles?"
He leaves Sakura with this question to focus his attention - and a slightly larger, entirely goading smile - on Tiffany as he remarks, "Losing your temper is a perfectly natural response to disappointment, but it isn't a very constructive one; this is just the sort of outburst that I'm hoping to teach my students how to avoid in the real world."
Sakura and Marilda, he'd expected, planned for; Tiffany's insertion into the bout is a variable he wasn't so prepared for, but her growing reputation as a new fighter worth watching is enough to inspire the principal to--want to watch her. Which means trying to figure out which buttons to push to get the cheerleader amped up to give it her all.
"Oh well; maybe one of them will see this later and learn from your example...?"
With that, he turns away from Tiffany to both nod and beckon towards Marilda before closing his hand into a fist. "Perhaps you'll be a little more receptive to it than these two," he suggests before briskly rolling his head around on his neck.
COMBATSYS: Tiffany has left the fight here.
ZERO
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Marilda 0/-------/-------|
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Sakura 0|-------|-------
COMBATSYS: Sakura has left the fight here.
ZERO
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Marilda 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Zero has left the fight here.
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Marilda 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Marilda has ended the fight here.
Marilda quietly listens and keeps along with the principal's words the best she can. But once it's all out and she was directly spoken to she shrugs. She begins to undo the zipper on the case of her cithara, sliding it down from top to bottom before she gingerly slides her instriment free and tucks the case just beneath her pants to be held there by her belt.
"Disappointment is something I am largely familiar with. And, perhaps, you are not acquainted with enough." she replies. "If you intend to give a show, then let us not dally, it is the reason we are gathered today." she holds the cithara up in her left arm, hugged to her torso. Her right raises up defensively with her palm exposed and fingers half curled. With a bit of concentration on her part, the air before her palm begins to shimmer and brighten. After a second it forms into a ball of flame, crackling in the cold air and shimmering with heat.
"Don't stall us any longer!" she beckons and draws her arm back, then thrusts it forth and sends the ball whizzing straight for the principal.
If 'Mr. Smith' is good at one thing, it's making teenage girls feel bad about themselves. Tiffany frowns at the chastisement for her mild tantrum, clenching her fists inside her oversized boxing gloves. For a minute, he really does get in her head; is she ready to engage with the real world? Is she sabotaging herself in the long term by just going with the flow from moment to moment, letting her emotions carry her?
Fortunately, Marilda's decisive action takes her out of her brief reverie, and gets her moving again. No -- it is the adults who are wrong, Tiffany tells herself. She's gotten this far just going with her gut; why stop? Why do anything but feel the moment? "The weirdo's right! Enough stalling! LET'S DO THIS!"
Dashing up to the principal, Tiffany ducks low and then springs upward with great force using both feet; she swings both feet around toward the man, doing her best to press Walter with all her strength. She may still be a novice -- but she thinks she can move in behind that ball of energy and take advantage of Marilda's offense in a big way.
It seems as though Sakura and Tiffany are having the same thought. With Marilda flinging a ball of fire and Tiffany coming in low to attack high, Sakura has little tactical choice but to attack low. She sets off just a bit after Tiffany--no more than a second or so, but it's enough to stagger the attack sequence slightly.
Whereas Tiffany follows the fireball straight in, Sakura takes a slightly curving path--moving quickly but not running flat-out, as the snowy ground is able to dissuade her from doing. Her breath hisses from her lips in spurts of white clouds as she moves--coming around to Zero's left, then dropping low and twisting, putting her velocity behind a classic sweep kick, planting her right hand to do so.
It's a kick of remarkably good form, all told, being a kick from a girl who self-taught herself all her skills. Will all three girls be able to overwhelm Zero's defenses?
COMBATSYS: Sakura successfully hits Zero with Medium Kick.
ZERO
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0|---------------|--------------=
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Tiffany 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Marilda
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Sakura 0|-------|-------
COMBATSYS: Zero blocks Tiffany's Groovy Wheel.
ZERO
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0|---------------|--------------=
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Tiffany 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Marilda
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Sakura 0|-------|-------
COMBATSYS: Zero reflects Embers of Tran from Marilda with Hikawa.
ZERO
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0|---------------|-----------====
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Tiffany 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Marilda
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Sakura 0|-------|-------
Principal Smith tucks his readied fist in near his hip while extending his other palm and letting out a calming breath. If he can't gather sufficient data on these three women - Sakura in particular - then this bout will have been in in vain from his perspective; nothing more than an exhibition of three talented new faces' skills.
Not that giving them an opportunity to shine is the /worst/ thing - or even a thing that the shaper of minds would be entirely disinterested in, given lesser stakes - but failure would put a serious crimp in his timetables. And his ability to do something that Igniz himself hasn't quite been able to manage, yet.
"I encounter it daily in my position," he says to Marilda while unclenching that fist to surrepitously grip one side of his coat, "through the trials of my children and their struggles to realize the potential that they themselves have yet to fully grasp." He can feel the heat radiating from the vampire's fireball as he watches it with narrowed eyes. Dealing with it would require a measure of care even if it were all he had to worry about, but he has a pair of kicks to contend with too; in order to buy himself an extra moment, Walter pushes off of his lead leg to both drop back a few feet and shift into a more defensive posture.
He'd intended to slip out of range of Sakura's kick in the process, but the self-taught student lunges further than anticipated; her foot slams into one of his legs as he moves, causing him to buckle as he comes out of his evasive maneuver instead of standing firm. "Hrrgh--!" he grunts as his free hand darts to the ground so he can catch himself. "Good--a very auspicious start, Ms. Kasugano!" he exclaims as his eyes shift towards Tiffany.
In one fluid motion, he rises back to his feet while sweeping the gripped tail of his coat in a vertical arc meant to sweep it /through/ the fire--which would likely be insane, if not for the flare of grayish chi that races along the garment's edge just before contact is made. Instead of incinerating Walter's coat, the fireball is repelled and sent flying in an arc that sends it soaring over Tiffany to fall towards Marilda, and this leaves his arms free. Both come up in a protective cross just in time for Tiffany's feet to crash against them, drawing another grunt of discomfort as pain spreads through his forearms.
"Very good! When faced with an obstacle, meeting it head on, absent of fear is an admirable response indeed!" he exclaims as he sinks back into a martial stance. "There are more /rational/ responses, certainly--and safer ones, at that! But courage in the face of adversity is acceptable, all the same--certainly for fighters so young!" His eyes shift towards Marilda, briefly. "And pale!" he tacks on.
COMBATSYS: Marilda endures Zero's Reflected Embers of Tran.
ZERO
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Tiffany 0/-------/-------|======-\-------\0 Marilda
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Sakura 0|-------|-------
Marilda's small attack did require quite a bit of focus on her part, reflecting her inexperience with the technique. And she hadn't expected her own fireball to be lobbed back at her with the two other women attacking, let alone faster than she had sent it! She doesn't bother striking a defensive stance, instead she grabs the ball in her hand and lets the heat and flame crackle and hiss through her aura. She looks singed at best, a grimace visible beneath her sunglasses. She adjusts her shades as she starts a very fast charge at the principal. The flames persist in her aura and return to the palm of her right hand during her sprint. She jumps up hard, enough lift and an arc suitable to propel her just above the other two girls and aiming her flaming palm at the principal's face. With a sufficient enough angle and hopes of knocking him onto his back and slamming that head to the ground while he's busy breathing flame as well.
She does take a little bit to get herself standing after that attack, and only has one comment. "Playing with fire is a bad example for the impressionable youngsters."
The sheer mastery of self involved in a reflective technique isn't lost on Tiffany; she watches mutely once she lands from her kick, blinking a few times as she watches the projectile get knocked away. It seems almost impossible, to her; is /everyone/ in Japan an incredible fighter? It's downright surreal ... though Gedo in particular would need a fighting principal, wouldn't it? After all -- there are so many fighters sent there for, well, fighting...
Resolving not to be intimidated, Tiffany hangs back from the principal for a moment, once again taking stock of what everyone /else/ is doing and figuring out how best to use it. Her budding tactical sense, though, is damaged by the cold; it's hard to keep track of everything while also bobbing up and down in the vain hope of keeping herself from freezing.
Ducking and weaving back and forth like a boxer to keep her momentum, Tiffany rushes in toward the principal again. "Exactly! Gotta face it HEAD ON!" she declares, proudly; she can't really construct too much more of a thought to meet Walter's with -- she doesn't have his eloquence at all. What she /does/ have, though, is some mighty fists -- one of which she spins around a few times with a "Guru, guru, guru..." and then swings forward mightily, in an explosion of sparkles.
It's probably smarter for Sakura to back off, assess, fight strategically. And she can do that! But the hit emboldens her, and she decides--the hell with it. I'm staying -in-. It looks like Tiffany is having the same idea, too. Sakura backs up a step--just out of arm's reach, really--and starts concentrating.
Chi wells up--appropriate to the setting, as it's pure white, edged with an electric blue. But it isn't a snowball she's got in her hands. Snowballs don't grow to the size of a beach ball just by having a young girl concentrate, her hands forced apart as the mass of energy grows and grows. It takes just seconds--two at most--and then Sakura's thrusting her hands forward, releasing that crackling ball of energy at near point-blank range, her yell wordless but sharp.
The cold of winter is already being forgotten, the heat of battle taking its place in her head and in her heart. "C'mon, girls!" she shouts, "we can -do- this! Let's show this guy what we think of his disappointment!"
COMBATSYS: Zero just-defends Sakura's Medium Hadouken!
ZERO
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Tiffany 0/-------/-------|======-\-------\0 Marilda
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Sakura 0|-------|-------
COMBATSYS: Marilda successfully hits Zero with Heated Encounter.
ZERO
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Tiffany 0/-------/-------|=======\-------\0 Marilda
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Sakura 0|-------|-------
COMBATSYS: Zero blocks Tiffany's Very Groovy Punch EX.
ZERO
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Tiffany 0/-------/------<|=======\-------\0 Marilda
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Sakura 0|-------|-------
Walter flicks his eyes towards the charging - and then soaring - Marilda for just a moment before shifting his gaze towards Tiffany and Sakura. One is winding up, the other is building a fireball; between the three of them, they're threatening to control an awful lot of space. Hoping to make himself a harder target for the Taiyo student and throw off the cithara-player's trajectory all at once, he dashes a few steps towards the cheerboxer, intending to plant himself a few feet in front of the attack he expects to come.
He expects some part of her - a fist carrying sparkling chi that leaves his coat singed, as it turns out - to crash against his forearms, and it does, drawing a rough exhale from him as his arms briefly go numb. He is also expecting Marilda to land somewhere behind him, however, but unfortunately for him, his estimation of her angle was off to the tune of one flaming palm to the face.
"Hoouf--!" Principal Smith exclaims as he is driven backwards, coat flaring out behind him as he slides for a few feet before finally bracing himself. He momentarily touches his fingers to the incomplete, but no less angrily red handprint covering part of his face before croaking out a cackle of genuine joy. By that point, the Hadoken is crackling through the air, so he doesn't exactly have long to make sure his good looks are still intact; still enough time to exclaim, "True enough, Ms. Marilda! You've demonstrated that lesson amply so far, haven't you?" though. Afterwards, he sweeps his hand from his face to the coat, which he briskly wraps around himself with moments to spare. Much like Marilda's fireball, the Hadoken meets a field of chi instead of destroying the garment or searing the man beneath it; instead of a flare that sends the projectile hurtling back towards its owner, though, the Hadoken meets concentric rings of brilliant energy and visibly clashes against them for a few moments before finally being exhausted. Walter's eyebrows shoot up in surprise at the power surging against his barrier, and he spends the time it takes for the fireball to fade studying Sakura curiously.
"I have no doubt that that would have been painful /indeed/," he offers Sakura as the energy fades from the air. With that, he turns his head towards Tiffany, still keeping his jacket wrapped around himself like a vampire or a magician. "Meting adversity without a care for the consequences involved is a noble and courageous thing," he says, "but as I said--"
He finishes his statement by dashing towards Tiffany again--and again he stops well short of getting in punching range of her. This time, though, he flicks the coat across the distance, hoping to slam some of the blades lining its hem into her. Even if they're blunt right now, they're still metal--and he's still whipping them out there pretty hard.
"--there are always risks!"
COMBATSYS: Zero successfully hits Tiffany with Satsuma.
ZERO
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Tiffany 1/-------/<<<<<<<|=======\-------\0 Marilda
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Sakura 0|-------|-------
Marilda is content in the acknowledgement, and connecting her attack. But she isn't going to give him much time to rest, already straightening into another sprint, though a bit slower and without the theatricality of flames at her back. She goes in to grab at the principal from the back of his jacket to pull him back against her and spring herself forward with her facing leg wrapt around his, intending to quickly get him to the ground.
Those blades bite into Tiffany before she even has a chance to form a verbal objection; she bleeds, sure enough -- though she seems like she still has her wits about her, popping out of her agonized position in the air and landing in a neat three-point position...
... except for the fact that she's doing it on /snow/, which means she instead slides into the roof access door with a thud. Her eyes screw shut for a moment, and she tries her best to block out the pain; she now has the absolute certainty that the principal of Gedo is every bit the piece of serious business he seemed like he was.
Drawing herself up into a standing position once again, Tiffany decides to just go for it; tossing her Pacific High cap off the roof and letting her hair fly free, she runs forward, heedless of the danger of the ice and snow. If they're going to defeat the principal before they succumb to the cold, they have to /commit/.
Ducking low, Tiffany lets herself spin and slide across the ice like a car hitting a turn wrong. She whirls in circles, her fists building up bright, sparkling energy; when she slides up close to Walter, she says, "If I wasn't willing to take the risks, I wouldn't be here! Come on -- GET READY!" With her characteristic American bluster, she comes up out of the spin and swings a fist with great force.
Then another. ... and another. ... /and another/. If she can land all four cleanly, she follows up by pinwheeling her arm again, attempting to work out the knots in her back caused by the wintry cold as she starts yet again, "Guru, guru, guru, guru..."
This time, when her fist swings forward, it's in a veritable /explosion/ of stars and sparkles, as she announces proudly, "Groovy Special!" It's a little bit of a last-ditch effort, coming /well/ before any last ditches should be explored... but what choice does she have, really?
To have her Hadouken denied is not... actually all that unusual to Sakura. Certainly it's happened enough times--even having, in her opinion, nearly mastered the technique (of course she really hasn't, but damn is she a talented beginner), there's always been times she just gets... denied. In general, being shut out like that just makes her more determined. The cold? It's gone from her mind now. Adrenaline is pumping through her, driving her eyes wider open, her nostrils to flare, her body to tense.
As Tiffany gets smacked by the (thankfully) dull blades of Zero's coat, Sakura takes a half-step back. That's... that's something she's never heard of before. Fighting with a -coat-? She's seen ribbon sword demonstrations but never anything like that.
Back off? Stay in close? Staying in seems particularly dangerous now, but Sakura's commitment to it is tested and not found wanting. Seeing a teammate--even someone she doesn't know--take a hit like that fires her up. "We knew the risks when we signed up," she says, not quite tartly, then drives forward, looking to get -past- 'Walter', to jump up behind him and loop an arm around his neck--to brace it with the other arm--and to squeeze several times. If she gets that far? She'll disengage with a sharp elbow to the top of the head.
COMBATSYS: Zero dodges Sakura's Sakura Strangle.
ZERO
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0|---------------|===============
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Tiffany 0/-------/------=|=======\-------\0 Marilda
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Sakura 0|-------|------=
COMBATSYS: Marilda successfully hits Zero with Quick Throw.
ZERO
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1|--------------=|===============
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Tiffany 0/-------/------=|=======\-------\0 Marilda
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Sakura 0|-------|------=
COMBATSYS: Tiffany successfully hits Zero with Groovy Special.
ZERO
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Tiffany 0/-------/------=|=======\-------\0 Marilda
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Sakura 0|-------|------=
The snow might've shut down Gedo, and the cold might be biting at the fighters - although Walter seems curiously unbothered so far, so maybe he's just wearing a hell of a coat - but sliding across ice adds just enough unpredictability to Tiffany's attack that the principal can't quite intercept the first punch. Nor the three following it, thanks to the way it causes him to stagger off-balance; each catches him just before he can start to stabilize himself, whiplashing his head right along with their inertia. A trickle of blood begins to drible from his nose after the fourth one; after the star-spangled finishing blow, it begins gushing freely.
Walter crumples to his knees, where he immediately plants a hand on the ground, tries to catch his breath--and grins. He positively beams, in fact, the way that a father looking over his struggling daughter's report card full of 'A's might; even though his nose is probably busted, Tiffany's intrusion has proven most enlightening indeed. He decides to keep the sentiment to himself when lightning seems to shoot through his skull the first time he tries to work his jaw, though.
Marilda actually ends up helping him to his feet--and then driving him right back down after snaring his leg with hers. Hitting the snowy ground face-first does him absolutely zero favors, and while he's pretty quick to push himself up on his hands, there's a puddle of blood spreading out from where his face was. If his nose wasn't broken /before/, it's definitely smashed now.
He catches a blur of blue and white speeding past him as he starts to retake his feet, and a quick glance over his shoulder tells him that pitching his body into a forward roll to create some space between himself and Sakura would be better than trying to stand. He comes up on a knee a few feet away and stays there, breathing heavily and gingerly massaging his jaw.
And studying Sakura, too; she is, after all, why he's here, and giving her an opening might entice her to show him more of her style. If someone were to watch /him/ closely, they might notice a red glint in his eye as the word 'ANALYZING...' flickers across his pupil in tiny letters; if they were listening carefully, they might notice the persistent humming around his body intensifying a little, too.
COMBATSYS: Zero focuses on his next action.
ZERO
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
1|------------===|===============
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////// ]
Tiffany 0/-------/------=|=======\-------\0 Marilda
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
Sakura 0|-------|------=
Marilda, even after the principal gets up, is already headlong in another charge for the man. She moves up close and is about to make a move, but the sun breaks through the clouds in a shining ribbon over the roof. She begins to rapidly backpedal away from the growing stream of light with no short amount of alarm. She rather desperately ends up having to mount the fire escape and use it to, well, escape the approaching sunrays. Apparently she'd said something about forgetting her sunblock this morning before she's out of earshot and fleeing the school in a great hurry.
COMBATSYS: Marilda has left the fight here.
ZERO
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
1|------------===|===============
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Tiffany 0/-------/------=|
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
Sakura 0|-------|------=
COMBATSYS: Tiffany has left the fight here.
ZERO
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
1|------------===|===============
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
Sakura 0|-------|------=
COMBATSYS: Sakura has left the fight here.
ZERO
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
1|------------===|===============
COMBATSYS: Zero has ended the fight here.
COMBATSYS: Sakura has joined the fight here on the right meter side.
ZERO
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
1|------------===|===============
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////////////// ]
Tiffany 0/-------/------=|=------\-------\0 Sakura
As Walter takes a second just to breathe, Tiffany finds herself acutely intimidated -- even moreso when she notices, out of the corner of her eye, that one of their companions has decided to make a break for it. Well, that's shitty, she thinks dimly as she rubs at her earlier wound -- not /so/ bad now that she actually has a chance to assess it. She's been busted open a little, but it's not bleeding /too/ badly, considering the blunt force.
Gnawing at her lip a little bit, she totally misses the opportunity to see anything strange about the Gedo principal; she's too busy focusing on her own wounds. She does glance over to her fellow fighter... but it's only for an instant, to make sure she's still okay and still present. It'd be a hell of a thing to be left /totally/ alone.
With a cunning plan to take to the skies, Tiffany attempts to move around behind the principal while he's focused on Sakura; it's risky and may actually end up drawing more attention to her than if she hadn't bothered, but it's worth the attempt, at least. Once she's gotten herself to the rear of the Gedo principal, she follows up by hopping into the air and then spiking herself straight back down, aiming a vicious divekick for his back. It's a big risk -- but she can see the reward on the other side of it.
"_What_ the--" is Sakura's exclamation as Marilda... abandons ship. She's left momentarily staring out at where Marilda ran out on them, and then she looks at Tiffany. Fine. They'll just have to do this two on one. Once again, Sakura raises her hands. She's discouraged by Marilda's abandonment but she's still got that fire burning in her. It's a metaphorical fire but it has a real component to it, too, if not immediately visible.
Sakura considers her options but only at a subconscious level--attaining a bit of the kind of mastery that Ryu tells her to aspire to. She has his attention, and so she stands strong in the face of that. A swirl of snow kicks up around her feet as she twists and slides her right foot around--and then she kicks up a cloud of snow as she explodes out of her crouch in a whirling, helicoptering kick that would present 'Walter' with a storm of feet to attend to!
COMBATSYS: Tiffany successfully hits Zero with Exciting Kick.
ZERO
[ |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
1|----------=====|===============
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////////////// ]
Tiffany 0/-------/-----==|==-----\-------\0 Sakura
COMBATSYS: Zero just-defends Sakura's Shunpuu Kyaku!
ZERO
[ |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
1|----------=====|===============
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////////////// ]
Tiffany 0/-------/-----==|==-----\-------\0 Sakura
Walter's gaze doesn't shift from Sakura, but he still hears Marilda's retreat. Even though this shifts things more towards his favor, the principal frowns deeply at the fading sound of her footsteps.
"Well," he begins in a sobered tone while rising to his feet; his words are a little muffled to the care he has to take not to open his mouth too much. "It would seem that Ms. Marilda has volunteered to enrich this lesson for the two of you. How... disappointing. And yet--" He makes a mental note to see about tracking her down later as he speaks; he hasn't seen /nearly/ enough yet.
Also, speaking of things that Walter hasn't seen yet:
"-hoouf!" the principal exclaims as Tiffany's feet feet slam into his back. Which seems to be /incredibly/ hard for someone in tweed and broadcloth; maybe he's wearing armor? He /did/ accept a post at Gedo...
Armored or not, though, the kick is still forceful enough to rattle Walter's body and send him staggering several steps forward. Pain shoots along his right as he catches himself, and while he'd like to shake it out some before the encroaching stinger /really/ sets in, Sakura and her kicknado won't let him.
Sucking in a deep breath, he drops back a step to lean on his back leg for support before grunting mightily and thrusting his left palm towards the incoming attack. A field of concentric gray rings flares into being just ahead of his palm, just in time to intercept the Taiyo student's heel; the clash should be relatively painless, if flashy thanks to the gray sparks that leap from the impact point. A stream of new information cascades along the corners of his vision as his systems try to translate what he's seeing of Sakura's style into usable data, and while he is still disappointed in Marilda's exit, this gives him plenty of reason to smile, if only tightly.
"Close, Ms. Kasugano--/so/ close," he offers, trying to reassure the young fighter. Or taunt her. Or both? Either way, he follows that declaration with, "And you--you!" while twisting at the waist to finally spare a glance for the cheerleader. "Your indignation's ignited quite the fire in your belly, hasn't it? I'm impressed!"
He leaves her with that as he then lunges at Sakura, twisting his whole body into a forceful roundhouse kick aimed at her midsection. "Both of you, so unwilling to back down from danger--to give even an inch when pressed! It warms my heart to see such passion in fighters so young!"
Armor under the cloth, hmm? Tiffany's not entirely surprised; she knows Gedo's boss has those huge armored shoulderpads... and even the /teachers/ at Justice are pretty heavily armored. Tiffany makes a note of it and moves on, not wanting to get bogged down with the particulars of fighting the tremendously powerful principal; that's too much thinking for a fight.
Still freezing in the unseasonable cold (this amount of cold is /always/ unseasonable), Tiffany gives Mr. Smith a big smile and a, "Thanks! I like to TRY my best!" ... Except when learning Japanese, evidently. But that is an issue for another time. Weaving back and forth to try to keep herself warm still, Tiffany considers her offense carefully. He's tough, and he's armored to boot; she has to rely on her punches, she thinks. He's too well-armored for any of her other offense to get deep enough to matter.
Ducking low, the young Ms. Lords decides to test if she can, in fact, get her opponent to fall for exactly the same trick twice. She slides across the icy rooftop, whirling around as she comes forward; when she gets close to the principal, she pops her fist up and forward in a sparkling spinning backfist, just as she did when she set up for the Groovy Special. There's no followup this time, though... which might be a nice trick in and of itself.
COMBATSYS: Zero successfully hits Sakura with Strong Kick.
ZERO
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1|-------========|===============
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////// ]
Tiffany 0/-------/-----==|=======\==-----\1 Sakura
He overpowers her. It's as simple as that. She throws her arms up, executing a near-perfect block--and Zero crushes it. It looks effortless; one moment she's standing there, bracing herself for the impact, the next, she's flung halfway across the roof, driving furrows into the snow as she skids to a halt. Her gasp is loud and tortured, and she twitches once before scrambling to her feet. That was a hit of a class she's taken maybe... what, once, twice before. It was an impressive, immense hit.
Even as she rises to her feet, her knees shaking as she tries to process what just happened. That fire's gone, leaving only her own impressive will, but she's starting to doubt the ability for her and Tiffany to do this.
She has to slap her cheeks with her hands to snap herself out of it, along with a shake of her head, and then she closes the distance between her and Zero--but she doesn't attack again. Instead, she settles her stance, arms out to her sides, bent forward, and energy flows up over her, a low, but rising whine audible as she draws energy into her.
COMBATSYS: Sakura taps into her inner strength!
ZERO
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
1|-------========|===============
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////// ]
Tiffany 0/-------/-----==|=======\=======\1 Sakura
COMBATSYS: Zero blocks Tiffany's Groovy Knuckle.
ZERO
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1|------=========|===============
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////// ]
Tiffany 0/-------/-----==|=======\=======\1 Sakura
Rather than observe his handiwork, Principal Smith pushes his striking foot against the ice when it comes down to help him both spin towards Tiffany and glide a short ways away from the her. Since this doesn't put nearly enough distance between the two of them, he has to pull one of his limbs in the way of the blow before it hits him--and since one of his arms is still intermittently tingling and screaming in pain at his side, he goes with bending his striking leg up and deftly twisting a couple inches so that his knee and shin catch Tiffany's face instead of his poor, bloodied face.
Which actually doesn't look quite as bad now as it did a few seconds ago: the old blood's still there, but the flow from his nose seems to have stopped.
Since he's only got one leg to balance on, Tiffany's blow sends him spinning on the ice until he's able to drive a foot against the ground to plant himself solidly. "Feel free to rejoin us when you've gotten your bearings about you again, Ms. Kasugano," he offers through clenched teeth. "I'm intrigued to see how you intend to turn things to your advantage--to persevere!" He lifts and gingerly bends his leg a a little shortly after bracing himself; the leg was his best choice for defense, but that doesn't make the after-effects any less pleasant to deal with.
"Until then--"
Lunging at Tiffany, he thrusts his left hand after one of her biceps, hoping to seize it before another punch can be thrown. "I'll just have to see what else our mystery contender has to show us!" he exclaims while reaching; if he's actually able to grab on, he'll follow this all up by pivoting sharply to hurl her to the ice with a judo-inspired toss.
COMBATSYS: Zero successfully hits Tiffany with Yokoshima Karakui Satsu.
ZERO
[ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
1|-----==========|===============
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////// ]
Tiffany 1/------=/=======|=======\=======\1 Sakura
COMBATSYS: Sakura has left the fight here.
ZERO
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1|-----==========|===============
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Tiffany 1/------=/=======|
COMBATSYS: Zero has left the fight here.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Tiffany 1/------=/=======|
COMBATSYS: Tiffany has ended the fight here.
On the defensive, Tiffany has /no/ luck today. Grabbed forcefully by the arm and hurled down onto the ice, Tiffany thinks she feels a crack, and wonders for an instant if it's one of her ribs. (It's the ice; it's fine.) She does spend a good few moments lying down there, though, staring up at the sky; it'd be easy, she thinks, to just give up at this stage of the game. But then -- isn't that throwing the /good/ components of his lessons in the garbage?
Flexing her back a little, Tiffany manages to kip up with a neat, quick snap of her body, landing with perfect, crisp balance despite the slick footing. Even though she's from somewhere sunny every day, she's pretty rapidly adapted her motions to the cold; she does have to swing her arms a little to keep herself in position, though.
... but that's fine, of course; swinging her arms is how Tiffany gets her strength anyway. The principal has gotten her stuck in a pattern -- get up, and keep swinging. It's because of this that she ends up back to exactly the same offense she was throwing out earlier; it's hard for her to really get the time to consider a better plan against someone like Walter Smith.
Taking a hard step forward, Tiffany ... goes back to the well /again/, ducking low and spinning. Sure enough, she pops up with yet another backfist -- and this time, does indeed go for that whirling combination of swing after swing, punctuating it with a pinwheeling of her arms as energy builds around her fist. Her offense this time, though, is much sloppier; she's had her bell rung pretty roundly by that toss to the ground, and even forgets her usual bit of clever Japanese wordplay about spinning!
Denied, denied, denied. Sakura got in one good hit at the beginning of the fight--since then she's done nothing but be remarkably ineffective. But that doesn't mean she gives up. She -never- gives up until she's downed. So even with Zero denying her last couple of sorties, she doesn't stop.
Zero gave her the chance to pull her energy up, and now she's got to make use of it--and she intends to. That power, built within her, doesn't come out expressed directly. Instead, she just... explodes into motion. From a near-standstill, she just throws herself forward, powering her body forward. Her attack?
It's three running uppercuts, one after the other, each making her rise a little higher, making her move a little more out of position, as she aims the punches for his chin, the last making her thrust her fist upwards as she leaps off the round.
She utters a fierce kiai for each punch, the last being the loudest.
COMBATSYS: Tiffany successfully hits Zero with Groovy Special.
- Power hit! -
ZERO
[ |||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
1|--=============|===============
[ \\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////// ]
Tiffany 0/-------/------=|====---\-------\0 Sakura
COMBATSYS: Sakura successfully hits Zero with Midare Zakura.
ZERO
[ ||||||||||||||||| ]
1|===============|===============
[ \\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////// ]
Tiffany 0/-------/------=|====---\-------\0 Sakura
All of a sudden, there an awful lot of punches towards Walter Smith.
Tiffany's spinning combination hits him first -- she's closer, after all; blow after sparkle-lined blow crashes against the principal's skull, sending him stumbling and skidding across the ice as more and more blood flies from his nose and mouth. His nose was almost beginning to look a little less horrific, too; not so much once it's shattered by a bright red glove, though.
A strand of blood drools from his lips when he finally stumbles his way into a measure of separation from the cheerleader; luckily(?) he is quick to cup his hand over his mouth and catch it before too much of it hits the snow, and quicker still to abandon favoring his wounds to shift his attention to the incoming Sakura.
Too bad his skull's been rattled around almost constantly throughout the fight; he sees her, sure, but while he reels from Tiffany, it's hard to get a solid read on where she's coming from. She's blurry around the edges, her approach is bizarrely askew; the whole world is swaying in the chilly breeze--or maybe that's just his his screwy equilibrium causing his legs to wobble beneath him. His arm comes up protectively, and her fist skids right past it, scoring a resounding hit to his chin.
And then another. And a second, and a third, which sends him flying several feet into the air with flecks of blood trailing after him.
After crashing against the roof access, he slumps to a seated position, where he momentarily rests to try and catch his breath.
Soon enough, though, he's painstakingly pushing himself back to his feet, and once he's upright again he swipes his fist across his bloodied features before cutting loose with a roar of, "MAGNIFICENT!" It hurts even more to smile now than it did before, so he doesn't try; instead, he takes a few shuffling steps towards Sakura before just pushing off to charge, apparently with enough traction to keep his footing despite the treacherous ice. He clutches the tail of his coat along the way, and as he closes in to eventually swipe it vertically up the middle line of the Taiyo student's body, he adds, "Such tenacity! You do your instructors proud--both of you! So: let's see how you handle a pop quiz on the day's lesson, shall we?"
And then, well, he swipes at her. If he connects, he'll follow the first attack by twisting his whole body into a spinning ascent, the metal-lined tail of his coat flaring out around him as he goes, and then he'll do it twice more, with the final leap taking him much higher than the previous ones.
COMBATSYS: Zero successfully hits Sakura with Dakekusari Zanjin.
ZERO
[ ||||||||||||||||| ]
1|--------------=|===============
[ \\\\\\\\\\\ < > //// ]
Tiffany 0/-------/------=|=======\======-\1 Sakura
Things work out for Tiffany much better than expected; it turns out she's actually pretty clutch -- a fact which she can now take a little pride in. She breathes a sigh of relief as she rears back, allowing Walter to take a little space and catch his breath... mostly because she really wants the chance to do the same.
Putting her hands on her knees and panting slightly, Tiffany is totally caught off guard by the principal's roared approval. "Thanks!" Tiffany offers -- before realizing that he's still going after all, with this 'pop quiz' that threatens to take out her ally. Inside her gloves, her fists clench tight; she's starting to run out of options...
... which means it's time to go really, really big, so she doesn't have to go home. Or at least, doesn't have to go home /yet/.
The only shot she can see to get this finished off quickly would be, if not dirty in boxing, in the realm of 'a little much' to go for on purpose... but this isn't boxing, and she knows she's dealing with an armored opponent. The force from the blow /should/ be distributed enough that she won't actually hurt him in the long term. Ducking low, she starts to spin her arm around just as before, this time remembering to go through her pre-swing ritual:
"Guru, guru, guru, guru..."
The sparkles surrounding her fist grow in intensity -- growing from mere motes of light to immense dancing lights. Tiffany leans back a little as she pinwheels, trying to get every last bit of forward swing she can while Walter's attention is elsewhere.
"Guru, guru, guru..."
If he hasn't noticed yet, Walter almost certainly will at this point; the energy rolling off Tiffany is almost blinding now. She shifts her legs a little, getting them good and set --
"Guru--VY PUNCH!"
Her whole body slides across the ice, heading along behind the principal as he swipes with his coat over and over. It's when he comes back /down/ from that assault -- literally the instant -- that she reaches him, skidding across the ground in a haze of sparkly chi with a forceful punch aimed neatly for his right side. Usually, a liver punch is a technical knockout... but Walter Smith is no mere fighter, evidently, so...
The impact. The /impact/. Sakura is caught in nothing less than an absolute storm of pain. She is dazed even with the initial onslaught--as Zero demonstrates a technique similar to hers but in all the important ways, oh, so different. The sweep of that weighted cape carries her up, up, and then she slams into the rooftop, kicking up a cloud of dust.
Unsteadily, she rises to her feet, her legs shaky, bending and twisting at the knee, barely able to hold her up. "I... nnh..." She takes a moment to gather herself.
"I'm not... done... yet..."
She draws in a ragged breath, and... it's her last gasp. Power builds in her hands again, as, in her near-unconscious state, she reaches for the technique she knows best--and builds another Hadouken. It burns brighter, thicker, more solid than the last--and as she flings it forward, she too begins to fall...
COMBATSYS: Sakura can no longer fight.
ZERO
[ ||||||||||||||||| ]
1|--------------=|===============
[ \\\\\\\\\\\ <
Tiffany 0/-------/-------|
...and the Ansatsuken Prodigy falls upon her face, unconscious.
COMBATSYS: Sakura successfully hits Zero with Shinkuu Hadouken.
ZERO
[ ||||||||| ]
1|------------===|===============
[ \\\\\\\\\\\ <
Tiffany 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Zero blocks Tiffany's Very Groovy Punch EX.
ZERO
[ |||||| ]
1|-----------====|===============
[ \\\\\\\\\\\ <
Tiffany 0/-------/------=|
Principal Smith lands in a more or less rigid, standing posture after that last attack, leaving his upper body wide open for several crucial moments as his coat settles around him. Tiffany glides in to drive her fist through the opening just then, and she nearly makes it -- spirited propulsion plus ice equal terrible speed. The energy wreathing her glove betrays her, though: not only is it bright, Walter's become /very/ acquainted with it over the course of the fight.
Or, perhaps more accurately: his concealed exoskeleton's systems have become acquainted with it. Red light momentarily flares in his left eye as those systems relay a last second warning; immediately afterwards, he spins towards her on the ice and pulls his left arm up so that her glove hits his forearm instead--and sends him skidding backwards along the ice.
After so many nasty blows to the head - and spinning through the air over and over, at that - skating backwards is not great for Walter; he is eventually able to grind himself to a near-halt, but he drops to a knee in the process and has to plant a hand on the ice for stability and further braking.
From there, he can hear, see, even feel the attack that Sakura's preparing, and his hidden systems dutifully flash another warning for him. Getting his bearings on the ice while the world is wavering is one thing; getting his bearings /and/ defending against the Hadouken is another matter entirely. If there's one thing about having analyzed the student's style, separate from the Cartel's dreams of using it to crank out unstoppable schoolgirl clones, it's this:
He knows exactly what he's dealing with, and it's probably going to hurt. The energy she's building is well beyond what he'd shut out with his force fields earlier; mustering a powerful enough field to shut it out might not necessarily be out of the question, but it would require that his own senses not be too scrambled to direct the field generator. It would mean jeopardizing the work his repair systems are doing on the injuries he's sustained, and throwing away a chance to test her variation on the famous fireball without a barrier getting in the way.
Also, it would mean not pitching himself into one last attack before the fireball hits: a kick aimed at Tiffany's shins that resembles a baseball slide more than anything else.
"You've proven your mettle today!" he exclaims as he skids across the icy ground, "Congratulations--I can only hope that you'll carry this experience with you through the years to c--ouuagh!"
A wave of punishing blue chi slams into the principal's back when he's moments away from potentially making contact with Tiffany; he is instead thrown head over heels and sent tumbling across the ground. He doesn't really lose speed until he eventually crashes into the little shelves of potted plants some of the students were working on; to his credit, he is at least able to get enough control over himself that he hits it sitting upright, instead of upside down.
This does not stop one of the flower pots from rolling down and hitting him on the head, though.
"Hggh--! Hh... haa..." the principal remains seated and pants heavily, catching his breath; it doesn't look like he's getting back up any time soon.
"You've... passed... for now!" He pauses for a second to grimace and clutch his jaw. "Just... remember: there's /always/... another test... waiting... around the corner..."
COMBATSYS: Zero takes no action.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\ <
Tiffany 0/-------/------=|
COMBATSYS: Zero can no longer fight.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\ <
Tiffany 0/-------/------=|
For an instant, everything feels like it's moving in slow motion; the time it takes her to notice that incoming kick feels like an eternity, and the time it takes to swing toward her even moreso. It doesn't catch her, though -- thanks to a well-timed shot from Sakura, that last-ditch effort that puts Walter off his offense and on his back. Once he lands, she breathes a momentary sigh of relief.
Knees wobbling from exertion, Tiffany glances down at her fallen opponent and her fallen ally; after a little deliberation, she says, "Thanks... and I think I know just where to start looking," in unaccented English. It's a lot more intelligible than her Japanese, at least; her cadence sounds like that of a normal person, for once.
Rather than help a Taiyo student away, Tiffany moves toward the roof access, resolving to go poking around in Gedo High -- at least a /little/ -- before anyone can do anything about it.
Log created on 22:22:48 11/21/2014 by Zero, and last modified on 02:22:23 11/26/2014.