Match of the Millennium

Description: A battle in the gift shop, with GUTS. And SPIRIT. And MORE GUTS, followed by ice cream. What? Everyone loves ice cream. (Winner: Makoto Nanaya, eventually)

[SAKURA]
Sakura is... well, she's not UNhappy, but she doesn't look pleased either, as she arrives at the gift shop, only to be briskly whisked behind a curtain. "Hey, what--" is as far as she gets before very efficient, unstoppable attendants have her stripped and sprayed, as they might end up saying amongst themselves. Then they shove Sakura back out from the curtain, where she's revealed to be wearing a racing-style two-piece, golden bandeau top and bikini brief bottoms--and her traditional gloves.

Sakura frowns, then turns back towards the tent. "I asked Alma about COMMENTATING!!" she yells, crossing her arms; in response, a thick sheaf of paper is flung out from behind the curtain, folded back to a page which has a paragraph highlighted. Sakura reads it once, twice, then shakes her head and sighs.

"Fine, fine, you win," she says in a quieter tone of voice, then flings the papers back at the curtain; a gloved hand snaps out and snags it out of the air, then disappears back into the curtain.

It's not far to the gift shop, where Sakura loiters a little, not really sure who to expect as her opponent--after all, she was interested in trying her hand at doing _commentary_...

[MAKOTO NANAYA]
On the other hand, Makoto absolutely signed up for this. 100%. Because of course she did.

Makoto is already in the gift shop when Sakura shows up, which probably makes Sakura even more sure that yes, she's on commentary today. She is eating before a fight, which is probably a bad idea unless you're someone like Makoto and thus can get away with it; she's got a pastry from 'Cafe Angel'.

By the time Sakura comes back /out/, the pastry is gone and Makoto is waiting less patiently. She brightens up as soon as she sees what is clearly her opponent, though; she gives a sudden grin as she looks over the other woman. "Hey!" she says, brightly. "Looking good!"

Makoto is wearing an abbreviated white and slightly frilled skirt that would be both dangerously short and dangerously low on her hips if she didn't have actual swimsuit bottoms under it. Her top is... actually it resembles the skirt-wrap pretty strongly, snug over the top half of her breasts while being loose and frilly over the bottom half. It's a little short. She also has a pair of fancy-looking tonfa on, though not the 'regular' kind you grip; they're more bars strapped along the sides of her arms, adding weight and momentum to blows without being a weapon you'd spin.

She also has a big squirrel tail. It does not appear to be decoration, judging by the way it lazily shifts left to right as she looks at Sakura. "I hope you're ready for a good fight," she says, sounding serious. "I'm Makoto, Makoto Nanaya!"

Makoto actually recognizes Sakura. She's been paying attention to famous fighters, after all. It is unlikely to be mutual, aside from last round's recordings.

[SAKURA]
It's not the outfit that catches Sakura's eye. She's seen enough fighters to not be fazed by anything--after all, she's not wearing much herself, and despite that she's comfortable, both physically and emotionally. It really is the tail, though to Sakura's credit she doesn't bat an eye. Sakura would probably get along well with Makoto--she's been known to down a hasty snack before a fight herself. And she can't help but smile at the other girl's disposition--very much like her own.

And she does recognize her, at least as a visual match--she did watch the match footage from the previous round, or skimmed it at least, and that tail is hard to -not- recognize.

The Ansatsuken Flower bows to her opponent. "Well, I -- I wasn't expecting to fight at all, really, but I'll do my best!" She always does, after all. And, just as she does, she doesn't really beat around the bush. Having not been ready to fight, she makes the switch, mentally, and lays her hands on her thighs, bowing forward, then straightening up and putting herself fists forward.

"So... let's get to it!" she suggests, with a smile.

COMBATSYS: Sakura has started a fight here.

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Sakura           0/-------/-------|

[MAKOTO NANAYA]
There are ears, too, poking out of Makoto's hair. They're just easier to miss at a first glance, while that tail is... well, you /could/ miss it, but you'd have to not actually be looking at her. Or blind. It's not like she's wearing anything she could possibly hide it under or behind.

Makoto is honestly glad that there's an open area in front of the cash and extending out into the foyer where they will be fighting, because if she had to fight in the aisles, there's a good chance she'd knock something over.

Makoto returns the bow before popping back up to a standing position, shaking her hands out. The tonfa-bars must be pretty heavy on her arms, but she doesn't even seem to notice the weight as she gets into position; after bouncing on her toes once or twice to loosen up, she takes an easy stance with her side facing Sakura, back fist raised and forward hand lower, near her hip, to guard her front with the tonfa.

"Well..." Makoto only heard part of the argument with Sakura, when she raised her voice, but it's not like Sakura /can't/ fight and got roped into this. It won't be dangerous, or at least no more dangerous than any more tournament match. "I'm sure you'll do fine, right?"

From the side, the /actual/ commentator rings a bell. Makoto did not expect it, but it doesn't matter; she doesn't plan her approach, she just makes it, charging forward and delivering a left-hand punch at Sakura's midsection. Makoto puts a surprising amount of force behind her blow; she knows Sakura's skilled enough to take it, and she's got a lot of power to give. "Haaa~!"

COMBATSYS: Makoto Nanaya has joined the fight here.

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Sakura           0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0    Makoto Nanaya

COMBATSYS: Makoto Nanaya successfully hits Sakura with Power Strike.

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Sakura           0/-------/--=====|-------\-------\0    Makoto Nanaya

[SAKURA]
Sakura can take it, sure. And... well, she does. Makoto's fast, and Sakura misjudges that--watching video footage is not the same as facing the real thing, after all, and Sakura didn't go into any extensive study of her. She wasn't prepared for that amount of power--the strike lands true and it literally blows Sakura off her feet, a great, involuntary 'UGH' driven from her mouth as the wind is knocked out of her, launched into the air in front of the gift shop.

She recovers her wits in time to recover herself, flipping over and landing on her feet--she's gonna bruise, not that she isn't used to that. "Phew... you hit -hard-," she comments, looking... well, impressed. She's never yet worked out quite how to get that kind of power out of her own body; she has to rely on quick wits and quick limbs. Truthfully, Sakura doesn't have the right physique for the fighting style she's chosen, but... she persists anyways.

But she has to get back to it, really, and so she takes a couple of steps then leaps forward, tumbling forward in midair, curling into a ball--and coming out of it with her legs kicked out, her hands clasped together and slamming downwards straight for Makoto's noggin.

COMBATSYS: Sakura successfully hits Makoto Nanaya with Sakura Otoshi.

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Sakura           0/-------/--=====|===----\-------\0    Makoto Nanaya

[MAKOTO NANAYA]
"People say it's my best feature," Makoto replies, though this is strictly speaking not true.

Unfortunately (for her, not Sakura), while Makoto may have the power of a thousand squirrels, she certainly doesn't have the speed of them. She isn't entirely sure what Sakura is doing and brings her hands high to block the ball that Sakura has rolled up into.

Too high, and too forward - she wasn't expecting the sudden uncurl and the hammerblow. Makoto takes the impact, and it rattles her, leaving her half-dazed; she staggers as Sakura has a moment to land, shaking her head out to try to clear it from the stars she's abruptly seeing. "Whoof... so do you!"

Rather than let Sakura seize the advantage beyond that one hit, Makoto slams her fist forward in front of her. It doesn't hit the other fighter, though; she punches thin air, and a flicker in front of her fist ripples, forming a white-orange point of bright energy. It wavers, forming an almost violet aura of chi around it like a bubble. "Comet... CANNON!"

And that's not all; after retracting her hand slightly, Makoto backhands it, sending it toward Sakura and trying to clear some space until her head stops spinning. "BREAK!"

COMBATSYS: Sakura blocks Makoto Nanaya's Break Shot.

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Sakura           0/-------/<<<<<<<|====---\-------\0    Makoto Nanaya

[SAKURA]
When fighting someone new, as Sakura is, it sometimes behooves her to actually endure some of their attacks. It's a way for her of gauging their strengths and her weaknesses. Of course, sometimes it happens naturally--as it did just a few moments before--but other times, Sakura is prepared. She braces herself against the oncoming sphere of violet chi, raising her arms and focusing herself; the bubble splashes against her, though she doesn't look too much the worse for wear after the dazzle passes.

Lowering her arms slightly, she nods to herself--then bursts forward, looking to make up the distance between the Squirrel Girl and herself, moving into a long, low dash, then planting her feet. It's a momentum-transferring manuever, rather than a stop; gathering her momentum then springing forward and twisting in midair, lashing out with her right leg as she spins like a top, looking to get into and stay in close range with Makoto.

Probably foolish, given just how much Makoto's initial blow hurt, but Sakura isn't ready to give up on her first plan _just_ yet.

COMBATSYS: Makoto Nanaya dodges Sakura's Shunpuu Kyaku.

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Sakura           0/-------/<<<<<<<|====---\-------\0    Makoto Nanaya

[MAKOTO NANAYA]
Makoto's ability to manipulate chi is not quite as good as it could be, as Sakura can judge pretty quickly; Makoto isn't /bad/, but her real power and skill is in her muscle power and her pugilistic skills. That was meant to push Sakura away, keep her off balance rather than let her get to set up against Makoto; it wasn't a knockout blow by any means.

And in that, it worked. Makoto recovered from her moment of dizziness by the time Sakura gets her mighty boot at Makoto, and she's ready to defend herself. She goes low, whirling under the kick as Sakura goes up, slipping forward like a particularly low boxer. She wants to fight in close, and Sakura is giving her that opportunity, which may explain the grin - she's enjoying herself!

Makoto comes up punching, rising into the air in a lifting uppercut. It's familiar in theory to Sakura, if not in precise execution; it's no Shoryuken (of course; that isn't Makoto's style!) but it's a rising uppercut in the same vein. As for what it's called... "Corona... UPPER!"

Well, that gave it away.

COMBATSYS: Sakura dodges Makoto Nanaya's Corona Upper EX.

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Sakura           0/-------/<<<<<<<|===----\-------\0    Makoto Nanaya

[SAKURA]
The good thing about Sakura's Senpuu Kyaku-ish technique is that... well, that it -has- momentum. It's that, and partly luck, that puts Sakura into the position of being able to push forward just as she lands, executing a rather picturesque tuck and roll, Makoto's punch passing through _just_ where Sakura would have been a moment earlier. She slaps her hands down onto the tiled floor, stopping her momentum, and uses them as a point from which to push herself back up, like she were on a springboard, pivoting on her left foot.

No time for a fancy technique--she's still a little off-balance, and she doesn't have anything that she can reliably do from a position like this anyways. But she wants to take advantage of whatever opening there may be, regardless--so she settles for a tried and true tactic, coming around on her left foot, using her hips to add power to a scything roundhouse kick.

Her aim is to catch Makoto right in the breadbasket, hopefully on her way up, but the kick is off-form--she's trying something from this off-balance position and it shows.

COMBATSYS: Makoto Nanaya blocks Sakura's Strong Kick.

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Sakura           0/-------/<<<<<<<|====---\-------\0    Makoto Nanaya

[MAKOTO NANAYA]
When Makoto commits, she /commits/, especially to the leap. She really wants to slug Sakura and her jump is really solid - but she misses by inches. And Makoto is still going upward.

She twists in midair to try to strike Sakura, but her angle is off and she doesn't manage it. What she /does/ manage to do is snap one of her tonfa bars between herself and Sakura, and Sakura kicks that instead rather than connecting with Makoto's stomach. That means that hey, she is still breathing freely.

Unfortunately, it also means that Makoto - off the ground, still - has no leverage to prevent Sakura from kicking her across the battlefield.

Makoto tumbles through the air and comes bare inches from slamming into one of the gift stores' collections of stuffed animals - and she only manages that much by scraping her tonfa against the flooring with an unpleasant screeching noise and an unsightly scrape on the floor. Pushing off the tonfa tip, Makoto vaults through a flip, landing on her feet, and looks a little sour at the floor mess. Are they going to charge her for that??

"Hey, this is a pretty good battle," Makoto says, and means it. She has plans to figure out what the heck Golden Angel is, she had some side plans of her own, but right now? The only thing that's real important to her is the fight. And so it's probably no surprise at all when she decides to keep it going, rushing at Sakura with a fast series of punches that are about half feints, half solid blows, though without the sheer power of the single hit from before.

There's just a lot more of them, this time.

COMBATSYS: Makoto Nanaya successfully hits Sakura with Random Strike.

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Sakura           1/----<<</<<<<<<<|=====--\-------\0    Makoto Nanaya

[SAKURA]
"Yeah, it's not bad--" Sakura automatically goes to reply and that costs her. She tries her best to avoid the flurry of punches and strikes and she manages a few but the flurry tells out--the last blow pushes her back again, stumbling. She's breathing hard, not out of exertion per se, but just from absorbing so many hits. Bruising is already starting to appear, and were she not wearing Golden Angel(tm) brand clothing it's likely she'd be putting on quite a show, but the togs are in perfect shape.

Despite the attacks and the blows, Sakura takes a moment to rustle up a bit of a wry smile. "--but it looks like I need to up the ante a little...!" So saying, she begins concentrating, chi building up between her hands, clasped together until she has to pull them apart, blue-white energy flaring into her hands--growing, and growing, and growing, in the space of seconds, until she's amassed a blinding amount of it. Her voice takes on a strange, almost echo-y quality to it as she sets herself, then flings that mass forward in a torso-sized blast of power.

"Haaaaaaa-DOUKEN!!!"

COMBATSYS: Sakura successfully hits Makoto Nanaya with Large Hadouken.

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Sakura           1/----<<</<<<<<<<|=======\=------\1    Makoto Nanaya

[MAKOTO NANAYA]
Makoto took her biggest hit to her head, where her hair hides the damage - well, that and it's the hardest part of her body.

Just ask anyone she took classes with.

Makoto batters her way forward but eventually has to stop the flurry for a moment, recovering herself instead of wearing herself out uselessly. It's in that moment that Sakura has an opening, and she takes it - not in the way Makoto herself would, but effectively enough.

She empowers a sphere of chi. Makoto knows what's coming, and she has a plan; leap over it, slam Sakura in the face, call it a successful exchange. And it might have worked if Sakura had thrown a smaller Hadouken rather than the huge blast that she did; Makoto doesn't jump over it so much as into the top half of it, sending her away before she ever gets the punch off.

Makoto slides, painfully, and catches herself again with a gasp. "/Nice/." She plants her feet, taking a braced pose - is she charging something up of her own? Well, there's no flicker of chi in her hands (which are still clenched into fists), no sphere forming before her, but there's something; a growing tension as Makoto draws chi and begins to channel it into waiting kinetic power. But for what purpose?

COMBATSYS: Makoto Nanaya charges her next attack!

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Sakura           1/----<<</<<<<<<<|=======\===----\1    Makoto Nanaya

[SAKURA]
A central tenet of Sakura's life--of her philosophy of living--is to always do everything to the maximum extent allowed. Before street fighting, it was manga, and Transformers, and a whole host of other things that seized her attention until she burned out on them. The point is--she never *stops* until she's forced to.

How that translates into her fighting style is that she often forgoes a good pacing to just keep up the pressure, keep up the assault, until she's forced to back off. And so it is here--as Makoto is flung away, Sakura is already chasing after her, running headlong, sneakered feet pelting the tile.

As she runs she drops her right fist to her hip, cocking it back--and as she reaches Makoto she twists and pushes off, turning almost sideways as she hurls herself into a leaping uppercut. Her voice lacks the echo-iness that it had a moment go, but she still shouts anwyays, because it's part of the form for her. "SHOU-OU-KEN!"

COMBATSYS: Makoto Nanaya blocks Sakura's Shou'ou Ken.


[MAKOTO NANAYA]
Braced as she is, Makoto is in a good position to take the blow from Sakura. She actually likes that the girl kept up the attack - under many circumstances, Makoto would have too, and even her brief pause is primarily offensive in nature rather than defensive.

Though it's pretty useful on defense in this case, too.

Bringing up her arms to deflect the uppercut, Makoto slides back a couple feet, her entire body tensed against the blow. She may look pretty, but there's muscle behind those curves, even if it doesn't always show. And Sakura is about to get a demonstration, because as she starts to fall back from her uppercut, Makoto shoves her away to get space. Not a lot. Just enough to get a punch in. An opening is all she needs... she hopes.

"Now it's my turn!" she proclaims. "Special techniiiiique...." Makoto strikes toward Sakura's midsection, windmilling her arm for strength before following it up with a single powerful uppercut. There's not a whole lot of room above, by the standards of some of the places Makoto fights (like, say, outside) but there's enough room to get a good launch as Makoto herself takes to the skies, jumping up after the hopefully launched Sakura.

And then, from just above Sakura, she punches back /down/ - a single strike accompanied by a giant blue chi gauntlet that hits with immense force to slam her back to the ground. "Particle.... FLAAAAARE!"

COMBATSYS: Makoto Nanaya knocks away Sakura with Empowered Particle Flare.
- Power hit! -

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Sakura           2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|==-----\-------\0    Makoto Nanaya

[SAKURA]
Sakura puts her all into her attacks--and she spent a LOT of time trying to figure out the elusive Shoryuken. Just looking at it, one might think it would be easier to imitate what is, at heart, a 'jumping uppercut', to put it so blandly, over the forging of soul and concentration required to create the Hadouken, the truth is... she hasn't quite cracked it yet. She's close, though--a reasonable facsimile.

But... it leaves her open. She isn't even quite down--her shoes about four inches from reaching the flooring--when Makoto strikes. For Sakura, it happens as if in slow motion, that kind of 'horror moment' where you can see what's going to happen but can't stop it. She doesn't even have a chance to make a sound before it hits. Were she not a trained (sort of) fighter, this is the kind of impact that could kill. As it is...

She bounces off a surface from which she shouldn't, flung up into the air as if from a trampoline, arcing gracefully but tumbling, before she slams into the tiling. The crowd gasps, audibly. They go silent. It looked... more than painful. (Sakura will tell anyone who asks, later--it was. It transcended 'pain' as a concept.) And then they cheer--not because they're Sakura partisans, but because the immense grit she shows in rising to her feet is something to be admired. Bloodied, scraped, bent... but not quite broken, not yet.

She wipes her mouth and grins, wobbly. "T--that's a good one," she manages, closing her eyes. Steadying herself. Reaching within for the grit... and then forcing her labored body into moving once more, for the moment as if she didn't have such injuries to worry about, and a whisper of wind kicks up as she begins with a low dash, coming in with her hands in front of her--then spreading them for balance as she lands on her left foot in a deep squat, blue-white blades of wind energy kicking up around her as she begins twirling around in a sweeping motion with her right leg, with enough power and motion behind it to, should she connect, sweep Makoto off her feet--and keep her in the air long enough for Sakura to rise and put all that collected kinetic energy into a vicious back hook kick.

COMBATSYS: Sakura has reached second wind!

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Sakura           0/-------/<<<<<<<|==-----\-------\0    Makoto Nanaya

COMBATSYS: Sakura successfully hits Makoto Nanaya with Haru Ichiban EX.

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Sakura           0/-------/<<<<<<<|======-\-------\0    Makoto Nanaya

[MAKOTO NANAYA]
Makoto would never do such a thing to a non-fighter. To someone who doesn't know how to take it - no. They wouldn't get a blow of that magnitude. But Sakura?

She's pretty sure Sakura can take it.

Makoto lands after her blow, surprisingly lightly in a three-point stance. She rises, uncertain about Sakura's ability to do the same, but she learned long ago to never count a fighter out, and apparently she's being proven right tonight; she doesn't know how much /longer/ Sakura can keep fighting, but apparently she's not hit that limit quite yet.

"I try," Makoto says with that same slightly crooked grin, as Sakura starts to move. Sakura's not that badly hurt, then; even she kind of wants to cheer for her (friendly tournament fights are kind of new on Makoto). Despite that, she underestimates the speed that Sakura can put out, even battered; she tries to leap over the sweeping foot, but it catches her as she starts to bound, sending Makoto tumbling back.

She would have landed on her rear (or on her tail) if Sakura hadn't followed up with that hooking kick. Instead it hits Makoto and sends her rolling, slamming into a display with sufficient force to topple it on herself. Fortunately, it is sunscreen, so nothing in it is particularly heavy - there's just a zillion small bottles rolling around now. None of them seem to have broken or opened, at least - thank goodness for plastic seals!

Makoto's head rises out from the pile, one ear twitching, followed by the rest of her as she practically vaults out of it. She's battered too, if perhaps not quite as badly as Sakura, and her blow lacks a little bit of finesse; a running jab followed by a powerful hook. "That was a real nice hit, but it'll take more than that to stop me! Let's see how much we've got in us!"

COMBATSYS: Sakura instinctively dodges Makoto Nanaya's Fierce Strike.

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Sakura           0/-------/<<<<<<<|======-\-------\0    Makoto Nanaya

[SAKURA]
it's said by some that the best martial artists go into a fight not thinking. Not calculating what their opponents might do, how to counter it, where to move, when to strike. They become the flow of battle; thought and action become one and the same. Some rumors even say they can see into the future. Sakura can reach this state--but it's... unreliable. To say the least. And yet, when she does touch it...

She flows with Makoto's movements, skipping backwards from the running jab, -just- out of reach, and the, when the powerful hook comes, she dodges into it, letting it hit where she was. She isn't even really aware of what she's doing until a moment later, when she comes crashing out of the zone, her body filled with an incredible lightness of being, so to speak. For the moment, she feels no pain.

And then she lunges for Makoto's back, not to hit her in it, but to snake her left arm around the squirrelgirl's windpipe, and lock it into place behind the elbow of her right arm.

She'll give a few good, hard squeezes, and, before it goes on too long, hop off with a crashing elbow to the back of the head--if she gets that far.

COMBATSYS: Sakura successfully hits Makoto Nanaya with Sakura Strangle.

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Sakura           1/-------/=======|=======\=------\1    Makoto Nanaya

[MAKOTO NANAYA]
That's an impressive evasion, by Makoto's standards. It's so close that she actually expects to strike and steps, slightly off-balance, when Sakura slips just perfectly out of and back into range. She's overbalanced from her rush and her strike, and that's when Sakura strikes.

"Hrk...!"

Sakura gets a perfect strangle off, hampered slightly by the fact that Makoto's tail is smacking against her back in an attempt to dislodge her, with more enthusiasm than actual effectiveness; Makoto's tail muscles aren't really set up to let her swing it at her own back with any appreciable force.

So Sakura stays on until the elbow, which unbalances Makoto forward - again! It seems like she's about to drop, but like Sakura, she has reserves of grit, and she forces herself to stay upright even as her head spins and she sees sparks. "Heh... we're both giving it our all... so I won't even try to hold back!"

Makoto whirls, delivering a frenzied series of punches - right, left, right, left... As she punches, her fists begin to build up kinetic energy from the sheer energy of her wild strikes, but eventually she starts to slow, wearing herself down as much as Sakura.

COMBATSYS: Makoto Nanaya knocks away Sakura with Event Horizon.

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Sakura           1/-----==/=======|=====--\-------\0    Makoto Nanaya

[SAKURA]
It's too bad Sakura dropped out of the flow of the zone when she did--she certain could have used it here. Instead, exhausted, the pain starting to come back to her, she finds herself caught wrongfooted, her first attempt at evasion completely mistimed, the first punch from Makoto setting her up for the rest, the final blow once again knocking Sakura away, onto her back.

She's slower to get up, this time--much slower--and seems less eager--or less able--to carry the fight back to the Squirrel That Walks, at least in the matter of range. Still.. she's got that spark still in her, and the outside of herself as well, as blue energy flares up between her hands. This isn't the impressively-sized blast from before--it's worse. Slightly smaller, but... more... concentrated. Almost more tangible. As she builds the energy, cored white, with electric blue playing at the edges, one can sense--even the people in the audience can sense--that she's putting almost all of what she has left into it.

There's no shout--she can't muster up the energy. It's all she can do to make this attack cohesive; she hurls it forward, then drops to her knees immediately thereafter.

COMBATSYS: Sakura has reached third wind!

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Sakura           0/-------/------=|=====--\-------\0    Makoto Nanaya

COMBATSYS: Makoto Nanaya dodges Sakura's Shinkuu Hadouken.

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Sakura           0/-------/------=|=====--\-------\0    Makoto Nanaya

[MAKOTO NANAYA]
The thing about Makoto is that, like Sakura, she has immense reserves.

Makoto has only two real skills; everything she has comes from them. NOL puts up with her because of them, and she's managed to get everything she has in the world on the back of her work. The first is her physical capability, which is unmistakable to anyone who has seen her do anything even vaguely athletic - Sakura has already felt her strength.

The second is her tenacity. Makoto /hates/ to give up. And so she keeps going, whether or not it's a good idea or not.

It is not a good idea to charge toward Sakura, but Makoto does it anyway. She sees the energy build as Sakura struggles to stay up, and Makoto lets out a yell, half in surprise and half just as a kiai from all the effort she's putting in. The audience wants to see a real fight? They'll give it to them.

When the blast is released, Makoto goes low. She almost skids across the flooring, /under/ the Shinkuu Hadouken, and she only vaults back up when it's passed. Her body seems to blur as she comes in for one last punch against Sakura, a straight one and a little less powerful than her last several, but emphasized with a flicker of chi along her fists.

It's not Sakura's eyes playing up, either. Makoto really is blurring, and smears about ten feet away after the strike in a quick backwards hop, hands on her knees as /she/ tries to catch her breath at the same time as Sakura.

COMBATSYS: Makoto Nanaya successfully hits Sakura with Shooting Star EX.

[                                < >  ///////                       ]
Sakura           0/-------/--=====|======-\-------\0    Makoto Nanaya

[SAKURA]
It's true, Sakura is running on fumes. Less than that, really; she's running on just atoms of fuel. Throwing the big attack was... maybe not the smartest thing to do. She's left with nothing, nothing left to attempt to counter, or attempt to evade. Sakura is still recovering when Makoto strikes her with that punch.

And, really, that finally might do it--Sakura chokes, as if her breath were caught somewhere not in her throat, and she falls to one knee, left hand moving instinctively to where she was last punched...

It takes all her concentration, all her willpower remaining, to spark into her hand one more time, probably the last time, that power of hers, barely the size of a softball, and push it out before she's simply just on her hands and knees, trying to breathe. She might get to draw in a breath--she might not. It's hard to say.

COMBATSYS: Sakura has reached fourth wind!

[                           \\\  < >  ///////                       ]
Sakura           0/-------/--=====|======-\-------\0    Makoto Nanaya

COMBATSYS: Makoto Nanaya dodges Sakura's Small Hadouken.

[                           \\\  < >  ///////                       ]
Sakura           0/-------/--=====|======-\-------\0    Makoto Nanaya

[MAKOTO NANAYA]
This Hadouken is going to be small; Makoto can tell it even while Sakura is gathering the power for it. She can feel Sakura weakening, but the problem is so is she; they're both running on the ragged edge and it's down to sheer luck which one of them gets a finishing blow in first. They're pretty evenly matched.

"No matter what," Makoto gasps, "we gave them a good fight. Even over swimsuits!" And then, despite the soreness, she grins.

The small - but still bright - blast of energy whips past Makoto. She'd like to say she evaded it really impressively, but that absolutely isn't true; she just barely moved past it, slipping around the kneeling but still conscious Sakura to get to her from behind.

Earlier, Sakura strangled her, and Makoto isn't willing to return the favour (mostly because she has no idea how you do that properly); what she /is/ willing to do is grab the shorter fighter and spin with her, taking her off her feet and pitching her... well, Makoto is tired too, so it's only two or three yards.

She has also done it into a display of beach blankets. Man, those look good right now, Makoto thinks, with the part of her mind that still works even in the middle of a fight. I wish /I/ could curl up in them.

COMBATSYS: Makoto Nanaya successfully hits Sakura with Medium Throw.

[                                < >  ///////                       ]
Sakura           1/-------/=======|=======\-------\0    Makoto Nanaya

[SAKURA]
Grabbed. Tossed. The pillows are soft, luxurious, even--Sakura will have to thank Makoto properly, later, for not tossing her into the tile flooring, or into a door, or a wall, or any of the kinds of places fighters are far more likely to toss their opponents into. And...

And she just kind of lies there, like Makoto would. Kind of comical, really; the way she landed, she looks almost like she were seated in a recliner, maybe a Barcalounger. She thinks about it a moment, then pushes herself upright, wobbling... and clearly not in any sort of fighting stance. Should she 'fight to the death'? Maybe. But... this isn't that kind of tournament. The competitive fire hasn't burned out in Sakura--but maybe she's just banked it a little. She hobbles over to Makoto and offers a tired, but genuine smile.

Raising her voice, for the benefit of the cameras and the audience and all that, she says, "Great job! You win. I'm..." She pauses, then grins. "I'm gonna go find a jacuzzi and rest. You can join me if you want."

COMBATSYS: Sakura takes no action.

[                       \\\\\\\  <
Makoto Nanaya    0/-------/=======|

COMBATSYS: Sakura can no longer fight.

[                       \\\\\\\  <
Makoto Nanaya    0/-------/=======|

[MAKOTO NANAYA]
Even battered, Makoto can't help but laugh at Sakura just... resting there for a few moments. She does not follow up immediately, or indeed at all, preferring to catch her own breath.

"Deal," she responds to Sakura, as she sinks to her knees when Sakura comes over to her. "I will definitely, one hundred percent do that. I'll even buy you ice cream," she adds, with that same grin. "Just... give me a minute."

COMBATSYS: Makoto Nanaya has ended the fight here.

Log created on 19:53:23 01/25/2018 by Makoto Nanaya, and last modified on 23:32:17 02/02/2018.