Match of the Millennium

Description: Unfortunately, Illyria doesn't have malls. Ky Kiske must face Baiken as they travel to Toys 'R Us (RIP...) on Black Friday to obtain the expensive and highly sought after 12" Special Edition Poseable My Size Leo Whitefang Action Figure, complete with dual blade accessories and real working royal teacup set (now with 20% LESS burn risk in small children)! Can these two tough customers take on an entire store filled with mad shoppers and out-of-control toys, and come out on top with the prize?!

[KY KISKE]
The dreaded post-American holiday capitalism frenzy. Black Friday. The day in which mortals risk life and limb to go save twenty bucks on a TV. The day in which housewives fight like seasoned brawlers to get the last tupperware set. The day when sense and reason collapse in a brutal orgy of greed backed violence.

Ky hates this day. Ky Kiske, First King of Illyria, commander of the Sacred Order, honorable, kind and just, this is the ''last'' place he would have thought he would end up.

Somehow, the fact that he is struggling to get through a toy store on this hellish, greedy day is Sol's fault. Or maybe it's Leo's this time, considering what he was told to get. Of course, he had initially refused, until they wielded the second most potent weapon against him.

It's for the children.

Thusly, we find Ky, struggling through the store to buy something modeled after Leo.

Yeah, this is Leo's fault.

[BAIKEN]
It might be Leo's fault. It certainly isn't Baiken's.

All Baiken asked for - all she ever asks for from SNF - is a fight. She needs money to get around and do the things she actually wants to do (this week: a trip to Japan), and she depends on it for practice, because it's as good a way to find people who are challenges for her as any other.

Black Friday sales are absolutely not her fault. She doesn't even celebrate Christmas. (That would imply she had someone to give gifts to, or someone who would want to give her a gift.)

But she's here anyway, adding to the problems of the crowd by sheer presence; Baiken doesn't really like people next to her, and she's managed to intimidate people into giving her some space - though not very much space, honestly. She wants her pipe, but the Thank You For Not Smoking sign is taunting her.

So when Ky finds her nearish the place where the action figure would be on the shelf, she is in a bad mood, scowling as she looks up at him. She's a lot shorter than the photos make her look; she looks up at everyone. There are no action figures left on the shelf.

"About time," she says, as she gives Ky the once-over. She lets him past until he can see that there are, in fact, no Special Edition Leo Whitefang Poseable Action Figures on the shelf, waits about five seconds more, and holds up the item she was hiding in her sleeve.

"Looking for this?"

[KY KISKE]
Ky's mood is the foul resignedness of a man doing something he needs to, but who isn't really happy about it. Unlike Baiken, he is a people person, and the crowd doesn't really bother him, though there are probably a few ladies in the bunch giving him the old heart eyes.

It's not his fault that he's pretty.

As he arrives on location, his head sags at the giant empty space where the toy should have been. He's at least a little heartened that ''his'' figure is also out of stock. He starts when Baiken talks to him, jolted back to reality. His ego is stoked just a little more because now it's obvious that his figure sold out before Leo's did.

"I see I am too late. Pity, I was sent here to procure that specificly for a child in need. Could I convince you to let me take it instead?"

He's aware that this whole thing is a setup for a fight, but he lets himself forget sometimes. After all, words are always the first recourse. The Thunderseal on his hip should always be an afterthought. He's hardly ever ''right'' about it, but a good man must try.

[BAIKEN]
Baiken honestly doesn't care where the figure ends up. She doesn't want it, and even if she did she wouldn't have anywhere to put it; she travels light. But she does care about today, and today she has a hook she can use. Even if the SNF crew practically handed her the damn thing.

"No."

Baiken's single word is pretty decisive as she walks away from Ky, making it three steps. The area right in front of where the action figures is pretty clear of people because there's nothing here to take, and also because of the one guy with a half-concealed camera making sure it stays that way.

She sets the figure down on a section of shelf that it doesn't even belong in and turns toward Ky again, resting one hand on her sword's hilt. Ky might think of Thunderseal as a last resort; Baiken tends to go for her blade early and often. "Unless you can take it from me, anyway."

Might as well hand him the straight line.

COMBATSYS: Baiken has started a fight here on the right meter side.

                                  >  //////////////////////////////]
                                  |=------\-------\0           Baiken

COMBATSYS: Ky Kiske has joined the fight here.

[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////////////]
Ky Kiske         0/-------/-------|=------\-------\0           Baiken

[KY KISKE]
Ky grinds his teeth. No one ever stops these things before ridiculous violence begins, and it is ''annoying''. Especially since he didn't even sign himself up for it! He's here on the whims of somebody else, ostensably to do something that will make a needy child happy but the reality is he's here to get in a fight that can be recorded and broadcast to make someone else rich. This makes him angry. Electricity begins to crackle up and down the length of his arms.

He is, after all, more heart than brains sometimes. Angry about being exploited, so he gives the exploiter what they want. It's the height of foolishness, but he can't help it. At least Sol is more honest about it.

Ky moves after Baike, drawing the Thunderseal in a flourish. "As you insist." He moves, well, like lightning. Electricity pops as it arcs from his body and weapon into the metal shelves, the stench of ozone wafting in his wake. He hops at Baiken in a short arc, the Thunderseal rippling with blue lightning as he swings it up and over in a downward arc at the one-armed woman.

COMBATSYS: Ky Kiske successfully hits Baiken with Stun Dipper.

[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////////////   ]
Ky Kiske         0/-------/------=|====---\-------\0           Baiken

[BAIKEN]
Baiken is at least consistent: she doesn't care about the money either, beyond the amount she needs to get around and do what she needs to.

But hey. She is getting what she wants.

Ky comes in fast. Baiken, too, is fast, but she was deliberately not drawing her sword until Ky did, and she pays for it; she has it most of the way toward guard when Ky strikes, and though she manages to parry enough to make the ringing sound of steel on steel, it only skips off her defense and against her shoulder as she gives ground.

It hurts, but pain is good. Pain means she's getting a workout. And it's not enough injury or pain to stop her forward movement; she feints a slash at Ky's upper body with her blade, but pulls back short and stomp her foot, causing a vertical eruption of pink chi from the floor. It leaves little sparkles behind that drift like cherry blossoms, probably completely unintentionally. She aimed it away from the figure back on the shelf, though, and that was intentional.

"Come on, then! Show me what you've got, 'King'."

COMBATSYS: Baiken successfully hits Ky Kiske with Tetsuzansen.

[     \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////////////   ]
Ky Kiske         0/-------/----===|=====--\-------\0           Baiken

[KY KISKE]
Ky is fast and agile, but he is not amazing in the air. His blow lands and almost immediately after, so does he. He starts to skip backwards, but he doesn't quite get clear of Baiken's pillar of raw chi. It catches him mid-hop and throws him further than he wants, messing with his rhythm. The leftover feeling from the chi is tingly and unpleasant, possibly resembling what electricity does to other people. Still, he straightens his coat and levers himself into a stance, Thunderseal held high and parallel to the floor in one hand.

"As you wish, madam."

Electricity roars around the blade and once more Ky throws himself at Baiken. Thunderseal flickers as he brings it to bear, but at the last instant, the electric field likely causing the raising of hair, Ky goes wide, instead pivoting close and driving his elbow at the samurai's(?) nose.

COMBATSYS: Ky Kiske successfully hits Baiken with Medium Strike.

[     \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////        ]
Ky Kiske         0/-------/---====|=======\-------\1           Baiken

[BAIKEN]
Baiken never takes her eye off Ky as he goes up and then down, even as she feels her enormous mane of hair shift from the electric field; her blade lets out a little spark of electricity as she taps its hilt against the metal shelving to ground it. She's ... professional probably isn't the right word for it; professionals don't let emotions get involved, and though Baiken isn't showing too much at the moment, that only means she's good at bottling up her rage when the situation doesn't touch her too strongly.

Skilled, then. Practiced. She knows how to fight and she's not going to give him any advantage he hasn't earned.

Say what you want about Ky, though, he is very skilled; there's probably less than a dozen people as skilled with a sword as Ky is and Baiken knows most of them. Depending on who you ask, she *is* one of them - but being evenly matched only means that tiny mistakes can cause big problems.

Baiken's tiny mistake was an overcorrection toward Thunderseal, which she rightly has determined is the bulk of Ky's offensive power. She was not expecting him to fight dirty and smack her in the face; he missed her nose but only because she let herself flinch at the last moment, taking the blow on her cheek under her missing eye instead. It still hurts but nothing breaks, which is all she was hoping for.

Damn, she thinks to herself, and that anger flares, though at herself more than at Ky. Too slow. She's out of practice. How is she going to beat Jedah - or That Man - if she can't get past Ky? And what's with him being so damned polite to her?

Baiken's attack is more aggressive the second time, and it comes from her sword. She strikes out with it as she presses forward, not letting the impact stop her for more than a split second; pink chi flares along the blade and leaves a trail in the air as she closes the distance between them, staying close to Ky. It's not like there's a whole lot of room to move in the store anyway, not between the aisle and the crowd that's gathered at its ends, but Baiken wants him *close*.

COMBATSYS: Ky Kiske instinctively blocks Baiken's Rokkonsogi.

[       \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////////////////////         ]
Ky Kiske         0/-------/--=====|=======\=------\1           Baiken

[KY KISKE]
Baiken rushes, leading with her sword wreathed in pink power. Ky reacts, seemingly without thinking as the Thunderseal sweeps down to intercept. Lightning crackles as he is forced back, boots scraping across the floor, his shoulder and elbow jarred from the raw force in the blow. Now that she's close, he really has to move more quickly, there isn't a lot of reaction space.

The First King forces a charge of power into the Thunderseal, lightning twirling up and down the blade in a double helix as he concentrates the magic. He snaps a leg out, faking a kick to Baiken's shin, but uses the momentum to spin almost like a dancer. As he comes around, both hands are brough to grip the hilt of his weapon and he drives it down in an elegant show of force. As the blade hits the ground, thunder ''roars'' through the store, the shockwave probably blasting racks of shelving and unattended displays away and to the floor.

Oops.

COMBATSYS: Baiken interrupts Lightning Edge from Ky Kiske with Sakura.

[            \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////            ]
Ky Kiske         1/------=/=======|=======\====---\1           Baiken

[BAIKEN]
Ky spins around Baiken, ending up behind her as her dash carries her past him; he's looking at her back, and there's no way she can turn in time to deal with an attack from behind if he's quick.

Perfect, Baiken thinks.

Baiken has shifted her grip on her blade somewhere along the way, holding it reversed. Her custom-made blade is short for a katana, because Baiken has no need or ability to ever use a two-handed grip on it, but it makes a very long knife indeed for the downward-pointed grip.

She stabs backwards, trusting to intuition and practice to get it where it needs to go, the blade still trailing a line of pink chi behind it. It's not enough to completely stop Ky's attack, but it's enough to knock it off-balance; the roaring thunder takes out part of a shelving rack, part of a *different* shelving rack, and an endcap, scattering Christmas decorations all over the floor. (Sorry, retail workers.)

It only clips Baiken in the arm that isn't there. She uses the impact to spin her back around, toward Ky, though truthfully that hurt and in a completely unpleasant way; she has a lot of metal hidden up that sleeve, and presumably (though nobody has ever seen to verify) it attaches to her shoulder in some way. Judging by the lurch in her step from the shock, it seems likely that he managed to shock her without ever quite touching her body.

Damn, Baiken thinks, but in a different mental tone from before as she flips her sword back to a standard one-handed grip. He is good.

[KY KISKE]
Ky is thoughtless, his mind floating in the roar of thunder and the flash of blades. His swing does ''not'' do what he intended, and he pays dearly for it. Baiken's counter hits home, scoring along his side deep enough to cut through his coat and into flesh, the bright white staining red. He pulls back, staggered slightly. Ignoring the wound, he narrows his eyes.

Thunder roars around Ky's whole body as he wraps himself in lightning, bolts arcing off to strike at the floor, the shelves and even up into the lights, blowing some flourescent bulbs in a shower of sparks and the smell of burned ballast. The next time he moves, it's hard to follow.

A ring of lightning appears in front of Ky, and he jams his hand towards it, a blade of lightning materializing from it and starting to streak towards Baiken. Somehow, he moves even faster than the magic he's throwing.

As it's still materializing, Ky streaks towards Baiken, trying to catch her off guard by his raw, inhuman speed. He lashes out with his free hand to grab at a handful of kimono, only to pivot and try to wrench her along into a shoulder throw. The trajectory is, of course, right into his projectile.

COMBATSYS: Ky Kiske blitzes into action and acts again!

[            \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////            ]
Ky Kiske         1/------=/=======|=======\====---\1           Baiken

COMBATSYS: Baiken dodges Ky Kiske's Medium Throw.

[             \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////            ]
Ky Kiske         1/------=/=======|=======\====---\1           Baiken

COMBATSYS: Ky Kiske successfully hits Baiken with Split Ciel.
- Power hit! -

[             \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////                  ]
Ky Kiske         1/----===/=======|>>>>>>>\>>>>>>>\2           Baiken

[BAIKEN]
Better. Baiken isn't going to rest on her laurels, though; it'll take work to finish taking down Ky, even if she's managed to connect with a powerful blow.

And Ky is fast. Like, *fast*. It makes it hard for her to easily follow through. If he was a big slow target, she'd already be going for a follow-up, but with the rain of lightning, she can't just do that. At least Baiken is not the tallest object around and is not likely to be zapped without him actually aiming at her.

Which she assumes he can do, so she can't rely on it.

She's already moving by the time he is, and Baiken literally swats away the hand Ky is using to reach for her - not with her sword but with the scabbard, a strange twist of her body and some pressure on the top with the hilt of her sword causing the sturdy wooden scabbard to flip upward and smack him in the underside of the wrist. It stings but does not do more than that - just pushes his hand out of line.

But the blade of magic is harder to dodge and impossible to swat away with a hollow length of lacquered wood. It strikes Baiken with enough force to throw her back, tumbling end over end until she lands on her feet and skids the last four feet or so. Little sparks dance off her to land on the ground, and they're not her pink chi sparks; her hair, always big, is frizzier than it was mere moments ago. Everything hurts.

But she's still standing. And as long as she's standing, she can win.

Baiken flips up the scabbard off her belt entirely, catching it as it descends in an arc. But her hand is full of sword, and so she ends up catching it *in her teeth*, holding it horizontally; her blade braces behind it vertically, forming an X-shaped guard as she runs at Ky. It's less of a visible run and more of a blur; she streaks at him, past him, without slowing down more than a single instant as she detours around him to not run him over.

Once past Ky, Baiken comes to a complete stop. Her scabbard is still in her teeth, but she turns her head to one side and very deliberately sheathes her blade in it with a click.

The entire line of shelves she ran by slides apart, cut into two pieces cleanly. (She missed the toy by cutting just above it; it's fine. The price tag for the shelf is not; she went right through it.) Part of one empty cardboard display topples over, also sheared in half, and she wasn't even that close to that one. Ky had better hope he was good at not being where the blade of skill was.

COMBATSYS: Ky Kiske dodges Baiken's #Garyou Tensei#.

[             \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////////////                 ]
Ky Kiske         1/----===/=======|-------\-------\0           Baiken

[KY KISKE]
So the throw didn't catch, but the thrown lightning sword did. So far, so good. Ky is immediately on edge, still shaking his wrist off when Baiken gets up and catches her scabbard in her teeth. This woman might be crazy. The buildup of chi is almost tangible, and Ky makes ready to move. She streaks in his direction, and Ky ... charges her?

The King rushes to meet his opponent, only breaking into a picture perfect rockstar powerslide, leaning almost all the way back, his sword throwing sparks as her ridiculous cutting power goes clean over his head like some morbid game of limbo. In an instant, he's back on his feet, making ready for this to continue. Power builds in Ky, lightning starting to arc between his body and Thunderseal, his body and the ground. His body and everything conductive. Ozone washes through the store, the sickly sweet smell rolling like a wave as the charge buildup becomes excessive.

Lightning begins to arc down from lighting fixtures as they burst across the store, one after another, plunging the building into an eerie twilight. Well, except for the combat arema. The electricity wreathing the knight casts a harsh and almost blinding blue glow, the angry hiss and buzz of electricity washing out even the gasps of the crowd.

Ky ascends, hovering in what must be an electromagnetic wave. His free hand raises, much of the lightning coalescing into a concave magic circle. His eyes, usually the blue-green of a calm sea now literally glow electric blue. He begins to race forward, skimming over the ground in what is obviously some form of charge.

"Embrace the light. RIDE THE LIGHTNING!"

COMBATSYS: Baiken dodges Ky Kiske's Ride the Lightning.

[             \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////////////                 ]
Ky Kiske         0/-------/-----==|-------\-------\0           Baiken

[BAIKEN]
Hopefully this store is getting paid well for their trouble, or is at least racking up lots and lots of free advertising - because if there's one thing that's for sure, it's that Baiken and Ky are making one hell of a mess.

Ignore the normal mess that any sort of scuffle would make - things knocked off shelves, maybe an endcap pushed over. So far, there's electrical damage to a whole bunch of lights, at least a couple racks completely sheared apart, some char marks from more lightning - it's bad.

Nobody's hurt except the fighters though. Baiken is taking pains to not slash in a direction a bystander might be (except the cameraman, who is more accustomed to dodging fighters in close quarters), and Ky is ... well, he's Ky; he's not going to go around shocking random people. There are spectators, but they're awed or cheering, not fleeing.

Baiken seems to have been expecting Ky to pull this stunt, or something similar. She's already seen he doesn't care about shocking *himself* and this is the next obvious step. Maybe not the gliding, though. The gliding is new.

She sidesteps, swerving like a bullfighter; Ky is so close that he'd run into her hair like a capote if she hadn't just snapped her head to keep it away from him, because the last thing she wants is a lightning discharge through that. "I'll pass," she says, raising her voice to make it audible over the thunder. "You'll have to do more than that to shock me!"

Hmm. Phrasing.

Regardless, Baiken lets Ky ground himself out post-dash before she follows up: a length of segmented metal that moves like a cable lashes out from her 'empty' sleeve. She tries to wrap it around Ky's arm and yank sharply, sending him tumbling into the already-broken shelves; Baiken works on the principle that they can't get any worse than they already are, and she's probably right. The length of metal slides back up her sleeve afterwards, snakelike.

COMBATSYS: Baiken successfully hits Ky Kiske with Medium Throw.

[                 \\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////                ]
Ky Kiske         0/-------/---====|-------\-------\0           Baiken

[KY KISKE]
Ky is fast, he is loaded down with ridiculous amounts of high voltage, but The Arm is still fast enough to catch him. Mostly because he's busy making sure that no one beyond who he is intending to is getting blasted with lightning. After his mighty whiff and grounding out, he takes a split second to survey the crowd, and that proves painful.

Baiken's chain claw rockets free and tangles him up, sending him sailing through the air and into yet more shelves before retracting. He impacts with a grunt, a cascade of stuffed animals waterfalling down atop his head. The last to fall, a stuffed T-Rex the size of a small dog bops him on the head, a tinny roar resounding from the little box inside. Ky looks chagrined as he pries himself free of the avalanche of plushies.

"I feel like the end grows close. You are strong. I salute you."

Ky once more draws upon his power, thunder roaring as lightning manifests and bends to his will. The Thunderseal blazes like a thunderbolt in his hand, and once again, he charges for what may be the last time in this encounter. The knight dips low as he closes, knees bending to throw himself forward and up, sweeping the Thunderseal in a wide vertical arc, blue lightning trailing from his body and blade to ground out in the blasted shelves.

COMBATSYS: Baiken just-defends Ky Kiske's Greed Sever!

[                  \\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////////////////             ]
Ky Kiske         0/-------/----===|-------\-------\0           Baiken

[BAIKEN]
No claw this time; Baiken just used raw cable. There's a question lots of people have asked before: how many things *does* she have up that sleeve? It's a question that Baiken has, as of yet, never deigned to answer.

Baiken does not respond immediately to Ky's words. But she knows a good match when she fights one, and this is a good match. She needed this; the excitement of battle, the thrill of success - or even the pain of defeat - is pretty much where she's at her best, and she knows it.

The expression on her face isn't a scowl. By Baiken standards that's high praise.

Ky comes at her, and this time Baiken doesn't move to dodge. She does move, though; she whips her sword around to hold it horizontally across her body, raised high, and shifts her legs to brace herself just so. When Ky comes down in a vertical slash, Baiken is there to meet it, her sword ringing with the force of impact.

"Don't let it end before it has to."

With those words, Baiken stomps her foot. From underneath Ky flips a green tablet of chi that resembles nothing so much as a tatami mat; it flips upward, threatening to strike from below and catapult him right up to the ceiling. "TATAMI GAESHI!" Baiken roars, as if it was necessary. Maybe it is.

COMBATSYS: Ky Kiske just-defends Baiken's Tatami Gaeshi!

[                \\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////////////////             ]
Ky Kiske         0/-------/----===|-------\-------\0           Baiken

[KY KISKE]
Ky is apparently not finished. Baiken flawlessly defends against his brutal overhand and counters almost immediately. Ky manages to twist himself in midair as the chi mat comes spiralling up. He thrusts his free hand down, discharging a blast of lightning at the projectile. The impact throws him up and he whips his body end over end, flipping backwards and coming down lightly on his feet.

The knight hefts Thunderseal and rolls his shoulders. He draws a deep breath, throwing yet more power into the Thunderseal, looping it in with its own. Crackling like a Jacob's Ladder, the sacred relic burns white like the sun. He briefly lifts it in a salute before he hurls himself into the breech once more.

He goes low this time, sweeping the Thunderseal in a wide horizontal arc, lightning discharging in crackling pops as he goes.

COMBATSYS: Ky Kiske successfully hits Baiken with Lightning Javelin.

[                 \\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////                    ]
Ky Kiske         0/-------/---====|=====--\-------\0           Baiken

[BAIKEN]
Baiken doesn't want this to end. For this instant, she is in her zone, right where she wants to be; it's a pure, direct battle, with little to distract her (not striking in such a way as to injure audience members isn't really a distraction anymore).

But all good things come to an end, and this time it looks like she might be coming to the end of hers.

The crackling, thunderous sweep of the Thunderseal catches her low. It discharges with an audible clap of thunder, sending her tumbling away until she catches herself on the ground with a squealing sound; she's driven the pronged points of her claw into the flooring to arrest her backwards momentum, before she gets thrown all the way down the aisle.

Baiken snaps her claw to the side, freeing it from the floor in a smooth, practiced movement despite the pain she must be in. She's only remaining in the fight by sheer will; someone normal would have given up after that strike, but she's not exactly normal.

Baiken throws the claw forward with an almost dismissive snap of her armless sleeve. She tries to catch Ky with it, the four prongs of the weapon closing like a claw game's grabber as she literally yanks him closer, aiming to position him just in front of her.

COMBATSYS: Baiken successfully hits Ky Kiske with Kabari.

[                    \\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////                    ]
Ky Kiske         0/-------/-======|=======\-------\0           Baiken

[KY KISKE]
After his strike hits home, Ky straightens, flicking the tip of the Thunderseal towards the floor. For a moment, he thinks he might have just finished this, so like a moron, he lets his guard down. This is a mistake. Not a super costly mistake (yet), but a mistake. With a yelp, Baiken nabs him with The Claw and drags him close.

The knight struggles, building a charge again across his body in an attempt to make the samurai release her grip. Metal is awfully conductive after all. Tired and battered but still not done, he manages to free an arm. Gritting his teeth, he channels his magic into his hand, an orb of ball lightning growing in his palm. Shining like the sun and buzzing like a substation, he clenches his hand before driving the overcharged fist in a wicked haymaker at the side of Baiken's face.

COMBATSYS: Baiken interrupts Crushing Strike from Ky Kiske with Baku.

[                           \\\  < >  //////////                    ]
Ky Kiske         0/-------/---====|==-----\-------\0           Baiken

[BAIKEN]
The claw really isn't big enough to trap everything on Ky - it's enough for Baiken to get leverage and pull him closer, but he still has arms free. And metal is indeed conductive; Baiken feels the sparking sensation of too-close electricity in her shoulder, where (presumably; nobody has seen it) the chain connects to whatever she actually has up there.

And indeed Ky does free himself... but not before he's pulled, with effort and the aid of Baiken's actual hand on the chain, most of the way to her.

Baiken is expecting an attack out of the grab. Almost everybody does it; they take advantage of the momentum she's so kindly provided to deliver a fast-moving blow. She's learned to adapt to it, and that's why she's moving forward, into the strike. She takes a clubbing hit to the side of her head and shoulder, but she's so hopped up on adrenaline that she doesn't even feel it... well, under normal circumstances she wouldn't feel it; Ky damn near broke her cheek earlier and so she actually does flinch away from the sudden spike of pain.

But though her head flinches, her arm does not slow as she strikes, an open-palm blow at Ky's chest. Pink chi builds around the hand, rippling around it, forming a symbol. Kanji, actually, if Ky can read it, though it's so old-fashioned and personalized that it's actually quite difficult for a modern reader to make sense of.

"BAKU!" Restraint, binding... a seal.

The blow is not powerful in a purely impactful way, but Ky finds his energy sapped by Baiken's pink-glowing hand - physically, magically, and spiritually. It's not a permanent lock, as such a thing would be impossible for Baiken to do in the middle of a battle, but it doesn't have to be; the sudden sap is often enough to knock someone out.

[KY KISKE]
Ky has never had his powers sealed. Supressed, but not completely blocked. The physical blow is hard, but as a guy who fights Sol Badguy on the regular ostensably for fun, it's barely on the radar. The ruthless intrusion into his body and soul are what cause him to stagger back, dazed. It ''hurts'', but he doesn't cry out. The knight stiffens, gritting his teeth as the binding chi burns his flesh and, at least for the moment, locks him away from his magic. For the moment, it's gone.

It's a horrifying sensation.

It's only because of his iron will that he doesn't lose his poise. He wants to lash out. To, in common terms, freak the hell out, but he doesn't. Instead, his muscles just give out and he sags to his knees, breathing raggedly. Staring at the blasted floor blankly. His words are quiet, but Baiken can hear him.

"I yield."

[BAIKEN]
Ky can already feel the seal start to degrade. No way can Baiken lock him down for more than a few moments.

But in a battle, a few moments is an eternity.

Baiken keeps her hand out. (Somewhere along the way the sword ended up back in her scabbard.) She only lowers it when Ky yields. "Deal," she says, her voice ragged and a little shifted from her cheek, which she is trying not to move very much. It hurts every time she does.

Baiken turns away. She makes it three steps before she stops. The shelf she's by is broken in more than one way and partially tipped over, but it still has one thing on it - the toy she put there in the first place, before the match started. She lifts it up, spending a moment looking at it...

...and then slides it backwards, across the floor, to Ky. It's right-way-up in the box, even. "For the kid," she says, before she continues to walk away, the tip of the scabbard swaying with her movements as she does.

[KY KISKE]
Ky's breathing regulates as the seal degrades, bringing his lightnings back to his control. He lets a few sparks dance across his hands, just to make sure everything is working properly. He sighs in relief, only to look a bit startled as the package skids across the floor to stop right in front of him.

The knight looks up, half-bowing from his knees. "Your kindness does you credit," he says, scooping up the toy before he stands. Sheathing the Thunderseal, he adds, "Happy holidays, miss." Then he too turns to walk away.

Probably to write an Illyria sized check for the damage. Or to shakedown the SNF people to do it.

COMBATSYS: Ky Kiske takes no action.

                                  >  //////////                    ]
                                  |==-----\-------\0           Baiken

COMBATSYS: Ky Kiske can no longer fight.

                                  >  //////////                    ]
                                  |==-----\-------\0           Baiken

COMBATSYS: Baiken has ended the fight here.

Log created on 19:32:13 12/04/2018 by Baiken, and last modified on 14:44:38 12/09/2018.