Match of the Millennium

Description: Secrets are revealed as Marz springs upon Koto the greater reality of his situation and the of the presence of Psycho Power in the world. But with each truth comes deeper obfuscation as the machinations of the Shadaloo Doll continue to play at creating a new series of sleepers for the power of Lord Vega.

[MARZ]
The sun is shining, seabirds cry on the not-too-distant shores. The salt air from the ocean rolls in thick from the morning. School is in session, and as Pacific High is wont to do, attendance is a little lax. On a day like today, many a student has taken to enrichment beyond the confines of a classroom. The school is an elite one, after all, and the student body can be trusted with itself.

One young student, Yayoi Fischer to the student body, is pacing back and forth on the grounds of the school. Her lavender hair is held in place with an alice band to play up the innocent schoolgirl routine. She wears a big, heavy military grade laptop around her neck, held open and propped by a set of straps around her neck and back to suspend it for typing. On the screen is a series of windows showing data plots and video of the KoF tournament; specifically the matches of Team Twilight Stars.

She's made a call to Koto, she wants to gush to her friend about the amazing fighting he's done, and to ask him all about that impressive fighter he was teamed up with. Her pinch lipped, stern expression is her real one, locked in as she's deep in thought. Time to time, she adjusts her black framed glasses. The intense look of Marz isn't her Yayoi playact. She's trying to suss out details, and to know just what Koto has learned from their shared associate. And just how close he might be to being her newest 'hundchen' in service to Lord Vega.

[KOTO]
Koto had finally made it back to classes, and well... there's the phone call! While he was practically 'carried' most of the way by Honoka, he still put up some impressive fights and showy abilities among other things. Like the last one actually had a video of him going full out on a racing circuit on a motorcycle before the match.

Probably the most impressive was his battle against Abigail that he used a flurry of moves that were a bit more powerful, as if he had grown by that point as opposed to his SNF fight against him if she bothered to compare. Not enough to overcome the unstoppable force of Abigail, but still impressive! He'd definitely grown a bit in power there.

But, the KOF was over now. And so he was back to square one as he made his way to the meeting place with Yayoi. He's still dressed in his school outfit, too, and he was looking around for her as he approached. Plenty of time for her to get into Yayoi mode. The young man looks a bit pleased, as well as a bit sad at the same time.

[MARZ]
Marz is always into comparative analysis. And she's been tracking Koto's progress for some time. Any potential source of Psycho Power is something to investigate. Of course, none of this can be known, for at best it makes Yayoi look like a stalker. But sure enough, among the impossible number of tabs and windows running on Marz's brick of a laptop, there is any available footage and record of Koto's history since his first noted appearance as a masked hero.

Marz has her own masks, as well. She wears the trappings of young Yayoi, and when she spies the school uniform-ed Koto, she wrenches her usual smug intensity off of her face to greet the boy with a slightly shrill cheer.

"Oh, Koto, I was just watching your matches!" she beams at him, clicking shut her laptop and swinging it down to hang from her side like a messenger bag. She's all bounces around the young hero. Doing her best to copy video she's seen. And then it stops immediately in front of him. "You were amazing. I know you didn't win, but I've seen some of those people you were up against. That big guy has a long, long record." she pauses, knowing that Koto's fought Abigail in the SNF matches, "But I guess you must remember him, don't you?"

Still, she fires off once more to keep the flow in her favor. Every extra word to people verbally pains her, but after the Rashid incidents, she knows she needs to work on her in person weaknesses. "But what about that girl you were fighting with? That was, wow."

[KOTO]
Koto rubs his shoulder, "Well, yeah, kinda hard to forget that big guy." He replies as he gets closer. He turns to keep an eye on the bouncing young girl. "Well, you fight all kinds of people all the time. I think he's the toughest one I've ever faced, really. The guy's just like... all muscles?"

The mention of Honoka has him scratching his cheek a bit. He grins at her, "I'll have to see if I can introduce you sometime? Her name's Honoka. She works for the Twilight Circus normally. Ah... and well, she's like us. The whole not-chi power and stuff?"

Koto shakes his head, looking at the bubbly excited looking fellow student. "I guess I did pretty good overall? I don't know if I could've done better, but well... Honoka's the real reason we made it so far." He sighs, looking thoughtful. "Just wish I had more power, you know? More technique or something?"

[MARZ]
Really, Koto doesn't say? Honoka is like them. Marz really must try to keep her eyes straight and not rolling, but she does well enough at swallowing that impulse down so she can keep being the innocent Yayoi.

She turns and covers her mouth with her hand. Murmuring to herself for a moment. It's not saying anything, all a matter of show, some postures and behaviors she's mimicking from shows she's "researched" to play this roll. "I think I would like that. It would be interesting to learn more about people like us. I mean, I do know a few, but to see how different we are. . ."

Letting that hang in the air, her ears virtually perk at the openings that Koto presents to her. She twists on him and nods with his wish. "But that." she pauses, thinks. This is more tactics than strategy, Marz thinks to herself as she runs possibilities through her head. "I have been doing research, and I think that there might be a way to unlock potential in people like us. But it's all maybe too dangerous."

[KOTO]
Koto looks thoughtful. Dangerous? The heroic teen looks at Yayoi, considering. "Tell me more about it?" He shrugs, "Honestly, I'm getting tired of my butt being handed to me again and again. Honoka could, Abigail definitely can... shoot, I'm probably at the lower end of the totem pole. Baiken even could whenever I faced her and had Morrigan intercepting attacks."

The teenager sighs, "I don't often say this, but... what's good the power we have, if I can't actually use it to defend people or beat them just because of what I can or can not do?" He looks a bit upset at that.

"I know I'm plenty powerful on my own, but there's definitely just... something missing, something more perhaps that I can do I keep telling myself. So far, other than my encounter with you and a few in the League... I've more woke up from the ground than standing tall." He voices, looking unsure of himself. "Even the KOF was like that."

[MARZ]
If Marz's glasses could take on an unsettling shine, now is the moment they would. "If you really, truly are interested in gaining strength, then I know a way," she tells him, her real self slipping through. The more pronounced accent, the more clipped tones come in to play.

"If I don't have to keep up a ruse any longer," she pushes her glasses up her nose by the bridge and looks at Koto with a set of cunning eyes. "You are very special, Koto, unique, and people are watching you. There are people like us out there. But we have to be very secret."

She takes off the alice band and twirls it around her finger, this does little to actually affect her already short hair, but she needed something to do a reveal and her glasses are legit. "You've done wonderful, but I am supposed to give you one more test to determine your parameters. If you pass, you will be part of something bigger. You will have the chance to be stronger."

The moment is now, Marz unfolds her strategy. Swap one lie for another, being 'honest' about a lie to cement the much more important one.

[KOTO]
Koto blinks, then looks at her carefully. "... so... wait, chance? No definite?" He looks considerate of it, obviously looking at her a bit better. Reveals are something he knows from tokusatsu. That's something that has him slightly on edge perhaps. But... he does have his interest in getting stronger. Becoming the hero he could be.

A lot of ideas run through his head, ideas that could have him doing all kinds of things. From evil experiments to who knows what. But now? Well, he's had a taste of the big leagues. And he wants more. To see more. His eyes look at her carefully.

"You're not really a student, are you?" The deduction is a bit obvious. "What does this test entitle if you're really offering a way for me to better myself?" The curiousity is there, but also... perhaps a bit of mistrust? Then again, considering what he grew up on and what seems to be the source of his strength...

[MARZ]
"I'm going to be honest, I wouldn't have wasted effort on you if you weren't going to pass," Marz admits in her most real moment yet. "The type of power we wield, Psych power, is a rare thing indeed and it takes time to ascertain if someone both uses it and can wield it properly."

She pats her laptop. "I've been watching, and I've seen the power of your heroics. But I need to see what you can do up close. It's the best way to get data."


t a press of her glasses and she looks past the school. "I've fought alongside you, but I want to see what you can do personally, against me."

"I'm going to be honest, I wouldn't have wasted effort on you if you weren't going to pass," Marz admits in her most real moment yet. "The type of power we wield, Psych power, is a rare thing indeed and it takes time to ascertain if someone both uses it and can wield it properly."

She pats her laptop. "I've been watching, and I've seen the power of your heroics. But I need to see what you can do up close. It's the best way to get data."

This is not the way she really wants to do things. But it's a matter of course and her job and honestly this whole game is one of greater strategy than simply bumping off nuisance military assets. So as she thinks about the appropriate venue, she tries to consider where the hero would be most comfortable.

She presses her glasses and she looks past the school. "I've fought alongside you, but I want to see what you can do personally, against me."

[KOTO]
Koto looks considerate, he rubs the back of his head. "So, wait, you want to fight me? All for some data or something?"

That definitely has Koto looking a bit curious, then he shrugs, "Eh... fine. I'm game. When and where?"

Then it occurs to him, "Wait, how much were you holding back against the bee girls?" He looks confused about that one.

[MARZ]
Marz nods. Her posture now is more straight, despite her schoolgirl outfit and presentation, she's a soldier for Shadaloo under all of it. She looks over the potential battlefield and then, she comes to the conclusion that is really the obvious one.

"We can fight here. This is Pacific High. There will be little question to fighting here. It's a school activity," she says with a shift of her glasses. "Unless you are protective of your unmasked self."

There's a small smirk of a challenge on Marz's face. One that doesn't do much to hide the sharp edge that exists to the Doll.

[KOTO]
Koto shakes his head, "Nah. Everyone knows who I am. I'm not that careful."

The young hero moves back a few paces, then assumes his usual transformation pose. An almost karate like stance with his front knee bent forward, the left hand in front of him as he slides it across. A new feature is that the 'belt' appears first in a prismatic display of light. "Henshin!"

And then he's envelopped in that same prismatic light. Psychic power. The reason he's been on her radar perhaps. When it fades, he's in that combat suit and settling himself into a combative stance. "Ready when you are. If you don't mind, what's your real name? Yayoi has to be an alias, right?"

[MARZ]
A sweeping hand that checks back at her hip. Her other hand set out in front of her, a leaning back stance. Though not nearly an expert as Killer Bee, or even most of her other sisters among the Dolls, Marz is still trained in the same combat special operations style as the others. And there it shows with the precision of her posture and the challenging, cold look behind her glasses.

"I am Marz," she states, "And today is the first day of becoming someone stronger, hundchen."

COMBATSYS: Marz has started a fight here.

[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Marz             0/-------/-------|

COMBATSYS: Koto has joined the fight here.

[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////////////]
Marz             0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0             Koto

And the Shadaloo Doll bursts off the block. She slips forward, twisting sideways, feinting one way, but it's all a showcase to give herself more of a position to torque. And from it comes a swiftly spinning backfist as she rolls on her heel. The backside of her fist bursts into an iridescent glimmer of pure Psycho Power.

COMBATSYS: Koto blocks Marz's Axle Spin Knuckle.

[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////////////  ]
Marz             0/-------/-------|=------\-------\0             Koto

[KOTO]
Finding himself facing someone with similar powers, Koto can only bring up an arm to block. That's obviously not what's on his mind as he asks a question specifically, "What's a 'hundchen'? I swear that sounds like henchman." Yep. That got through to him at least. Now he's questioning that. But first...
He answers the back fist with a hard kick of his own. A snap of his knee up, twist to the side and another shooting it straight out, "J-Kick!" The call comes out. There's no psych energy around it, but it's still a very hard kick aimed at her midsection.

COMBATSYS: Marz blocks Koto's J-Kick.

[   \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////////////   ]
Marz             0/-------/-----==|=------\-------\0             Koto

[MARZ]
Urge to roll eyes is damned difficult, but Marz fights it. "It means 'puppy'," she tells him. "Because you are learning," she explains half of what the comment means. It would so have been easier to just chip this boy, but after the Mint debacle there was hesitation on that strategy for being too blunt force.

Still, maybe Aprile should've been doing these kinds of jobs, or Enero. But Marz is here, the only Doll that does anything - in her own mind at least. Her checking hand snaps down. It clashes with the knee that rises up, enough to push Marz up into the air, and the sound of Koto's second kick smacking into the mitts of her open palms cracks out into the air of the school's lawn.

With the sudden aerial, Marz goes into her strike, turning inward toward Koto, reaching to grab his foot, to pull herself in and to wrap her thighs around his masked face. Going for the perch, she aims to twist downward and spike Koto square into the ground with a turning hurricanrana.

COMBATSYS: Koto interrupts Gyro Clipper EX from Marz with Crane Swipes Fish.

[        \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////////       ]
Marz             0/-------/--=====|====---\-------\0             Koto

[KOTO]
The incoming hurricanrana is met by one hand, then the other as Koto attempts to twist it the other way and away from his masked head. It's a bit of grunt of effort, and he still takes that kick upside the head initially as he swipes his hands around, twisting to get away from the throw portion of the move. And he doesn't look happy from body posture alone.

"'Puppy', huh?" He settles himself into the different style she may have noticed. The one that he tends to use the psychic power more in. The stance is wider now, and his hands are in open knife hands. There's even a faint glow of that prismatic light of his visible. She may have made him angry.

[MARZ]
Slammed to the ground, Marz plants her mary jane shoes, not as useful as the boots she normally wears, and kicks herself away after the bounce off the ground. She skids, dirt kicking up, turning into a reverse somersault until she's back onto her feet.

"Did you prefer the fawning?" Marz asks. She adjusts her glasses, studying, considering her opponent. Nodding slowly and humming to herself. "Would you then prefer the pet name? Or are you unfamiliar with the concept?"

She talks, because talking allows her to think. And thinking is where Marz holds preference.

COMBATSYS: Marz calculates her next move.

[        \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////////       ]
Marz             0/-------/--=====|====---\-------\0             Koto

[KOTO]
"Nah, I tend to respect my opponents. Win or lose, it's just the way I do things. Even the DarkStalkers get some respect from me to a degree." With her having some distance... well, Koto takes the advantage he has. The flare of psych power as it coalesces around his back hand that comes downwards to his hip is rather obvious.

And then he's swinging his hand upwards with a curve to it as a prismatic dragon flies out, coiling in a roiling, spiralling wave at her. "DRAGON EMPEROR!" The attack is rather awe inspiring to see up close, rather than in video. It's definitely not a beginner's technique, and it just shows with the physical form of the dragon that perhaps Koto has grown quite a bit as it lashes out at Marz herself.

COMBATSYS: Koto successfully hits Marz with Dragon Emperor.

[             \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////////       ]
Marz             1/------=/=======|=====--\-------\0             Koto

[MARZ]
Marz tilts her head. "I feel we are not having the same conversation," she says. "Never the mind. Let us continue. Impress me, hundchen."

And impressed she is in short order. The fiery dragon rises and roars. She's fast, she did read the motions of the young fighter. But he's grown since the fight's she's studied. Things have changed. He has progressed. In a way, it is exactly what she has wanted to see. After all, she does aim to cultivate the boy. But in others, she really really really does not want to feel this.

It really is a moment where she thinks one of the other Dolls should be doing this and not her.

The blast tears her down, she lands, clacking, off her laptop. Turning as she lands, she pushes up from her hip and rolls to her feet. There, she's already tearing toward Koto. A ducking twist and when she comes back up, her outfit is torn, her glasses are skewed, but this is a soldier that fought, she has taken worse batterings, and now, she's swinging deep for the fences using her psyco power infused laptop as a bat.

COMBATSYS: Marz successfully hits Koto with Command and Control.

[              \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////            ]
Marz             1/----===/=======|=======\=------\1             Koto

[KOTO]
Coming down off of the high of the Dragon Emperor, Koto shifts his stance again as he sees her coming in close, and doing something with the psychic power.

He's obviously expecting a punch or a kick or something, but... the laptop actually smacks him pretty good and he ends up stumbling back a step or two from that. Shaking his head, there's something else that she might be familiar with from watching his fights.
That prismatic glow under him that goes to one of his legs before he unleashes what has to be a favorite, signature, or something. "THUNDER KICK!" The snapping roundhouse kick is aimed at her side with a force like it's name as he tries to get some breathing room after being hit so hard. By a laptop.

That was definitely a move that surprised him a bit.

COMBATSYS: Marz dodges Koto's Thunder Kick.

[              \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////////////////             ]
Marz             1/----===/=======|=======\=------\1             Koto

[MARZ]
A move she has seen many a time. The thunder kick. Hammering, swift, but this one has been developed so well as the Emperor has. She can read this one coming and when it does, she's already cutting aside and moving with the swiftness her relatively small stature allows.

"So far, impressive. I can see why you done well. But yes, there is room for improvement," Marz states. "I am the least of my sisters, you should know." A short laugh and amending words, "Physically."

And with those words of what might possibly be encouragement, at least hope for a better Koto, Marz remains unrelenting in her assault. The twist away from Koto's kick gives her a moment to move. And once more the laptop comes into play. It swings, the strap that holds it acting like a handle. A flail that bursts with Psycho Power and a crippling intention to undercut Koto's gut by smashing into his breadbasket.

COMBATSYS: Koto endures Marz's Crash To Desktop EX.

[              \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////                        ]
Marz             0/-------/-------|=======\===----\1             Koto

[KOTO]
The impact is hard enough that Koto does go back a few feet from the attack. Perhaps setting up something else as there's a glow of psychic power again under him. The Thunder Kick was just the start, it seems, as he leaps upwards despite the painful blow to his gut. Perhaps she may have scouted out the Raijin Ryu as well, but it's worth a shot at the moment.

But, Koto does show his inventiveness. Instead of going fully upwards, he suddenly flips forward. Instead of the straight up axe kick, the move comes down with a flip for the initial one followed by his flipping backwards just as quickly. A variation of the move he definitely hasn't seen before.

Gasping for breath afterwards, he comments, "Always room... for improvement... so when do I get to meet... these sisters of yours?"

COMBATSYS: Koto successfully hits Marz with Raijin Ryu.

[                       \\\\\\\  < >  ///////                       ]
Marz             0/-------/-======|=====--\-------\0             Koto

[MARZ]
Chaging things up. The smartest approach to a tactician that prides herself on information gathering and study. She looks for the angles she knows she has to take. She follows the patterns, but the patterns have changed. She cuts one way when she should have gone the other. The strikes hit, they drill the Doll into the ground.

This was beginning to feel worse than the sun god. "You will meet them soon enough," Marz speaks through gritted teeth. She thinks for a moment about Koto and the way he seems to take words, so she amends. "Not threat. My ribs hurt."

She has to think. She could bide her time, but what she's seen of Koto tells her that isn't always the best course of action. Instead, she presses. One more desperation strike. A hurling forward, spinning kick in defiance of gravity itself. She strikes with a drilling, heel out, driving kick to clear out Koto's legs in a last ditch effort of her own.

COMBATSYS: Koto blocks Marz's Cannon Spike.

[                       \\\\\\\  < >  /////                         ]
Marz             0/-------/=======|======-\-------\0             Koto

[KOTO]
Instead of trying to get away, Koto shows that at least he can anticipate an attack to a degree. Or perhaps he was trying to get out of the way? It's hard to say whenever he's suddenly crouching down and blocking both of her feet with his forearms. The only sign that it should be something impossible is the prismatic glow that's keeping his arms in one piece. Apparently he's gotten good at reinforcement there.

Instead of remaining in that crouched position, he suddenly spins as his leg becomes wreathed in psychic energy again. A wave of the force travelling outwards as the hero spins upwards in an attempt to take Marz with him literally by tossing her into the air. The follow up of a second kick is well known from videos as well. "Dragon Swings Tail!"

Oddly, it seems that his growth has changed it a bit as well. It's almost like he is the dragon, spinning into the air faintly with his leg being the tail for the wheel kick like maneuver.

COMBATSYS: Marz blocks Koto's Dragon Swings Tail.

[                         \\\\\  < >  /////                         ]
Marz             1/-------/=======|=======\-------\1             Koto

[MARZ]
The wheel of the beast. Crashing down and meeting Marz on the ground. She grapples in, rolls with the force, not fighting the blow, keeping with it to keep herself tumbling through the toss so that she takes as little of the blow as possible. And now there wasn't words, not beyond his shouts of his intentions.

Rolling along the ground, Marz, covered in grass stain, scratched and battered and burdened. She pants, heaving on one knee and having to fix her glasses' position on her face. "This is a decent start," she breathes out before one final go. A short armed, knife edged strike of her hand. From it lances out a sharp, sickling, cut of pure Psycho Power that cleaves the air and leaves a strange sound in its wake as it cleaves for Koto.

COMBATSYS: Koto blocks Marz's Cascade Failure.

[                         \\\\\  < >  ///                           ]
Marz             0/-------/-------|=======\=------\1             Koto

[KOTO]
Feeling the sting of... whatever that was, Koto blinks a few times as he feels a bit... weaker, perhaps? It's an odd feeling. Instead of relying on his own psychic power, he switches back to something more normal as he moves into the approach.

Like a typical rushing punch combination, even if he tries to curve it around to her right as he seems to go back to movements that have him circling her slowly.

COMBATSYS: Marz parries Koto's Dash Punch!!

[                         \\\\\  < >  /////                         ]
Marz             0/-------/------=|=======\===----\1             Koto

[MARZ]
Koto closes the gap. Marz still hasn't moved from her position on the grass. Each breath she takes shows the burning exhaustion coming upon her. And there she is when his fists come for her.

But with each one, Marz reveals a little more of her honed skill. Strike meets arm, twisted away, another turn and another twist. Each swing met with the precision of her keen mind. The two are flashes of strikes and deflections. A dance on the lawn of the elite school. Two students proving to those that have started to gather just what the student body is capable of in the highly popular, world renowned sport of fighting. One of those from the King of Fighters itself no less.

And it's in this close moment that Marz springs her attack. A rising, rocketing upward kneestrike. Fired like a shot from a cannon to Koto's heart.

COMBATSYS: Koto barely endures Marz's Knee Bullet EX.

[                         \\\\\  < >  /                             ]
Marz             0/-------/----===|=======\======-\1             Koto

[KOTO]
Koto moves to take the hit, despite it nearly being on the heart. He manages to at least avoid that kind of blow instead taking it to the other side as he endures it. The main question is why?

With the lack of words on her part, it's obvious that she has more skill than some high school student. And it's while Koto is in close that he can see that. She's not one obviously. Still, there is a look in his visored gaze. One that speaks of his determination to prove himself. To prove that he's not just learning, but growing.

That may be whenever the obvious intent of taking that incoming blow starts to become rather too obvious. He coughs, "You know... calling someone a puppy or that they are still learning... kinda makes my blood boil, Marz."

Then comes the sign of real danger as he swings a hard fist at her. A straight punch. With a dragon's head around it in a prismatic display, "DRAGON PUNCH!" That has to be one hell of a thing to see up close, and it's a rarely used move at that.

COMBATSYS: Koto keeps on fighting!

[                         \\\\\  < >  ///                           ]
Marz             0/-------/----===|======-\-------\0             Koto

COMBATSYS: Koto successfully hits Marz with Dragon Punch.

[                                < >  ///                           ]
Marz             1/-------/=======|======-\-------\0             Koto

[MARZ]
Such an arrogant, prideful, angry young man, thinks Marz. Battered, broken as she is, she is still planning. This isn't the so-called god. This isn't even Sergei Dragunov. This is a boy who is wondering where he belongs and one with a penchant for denying reality.

He can be made to serve Lord Vega well.

She clucks her tongue at the raging fist. She's seen what she needs to. The blast connects. A flaring, draconic visage that bites through her, sends her back, knocks the air from her lungs. Back she goes and down she falls.

Disheveled, worn, the crowd that's gathered watch with somewhat of a surprise as the schoolgirl is beaten down by the hero. But they also watch her pick herself back up and stagger step forward.

"You are more perfect for this than you know," she says. "But there is one more thing." She surges forward, a sharp jab to the belly bursting with Psycho Power, and one that serves as an opening for a second strike with her laptop once more serving as a charged up flail.

COMBATSYS: Marz can no longer fight.

[                           \\\  <
Koto             0/-------/-======|

COMBATSYS: Koto blocks Marz's Denial of Service.

[                                <
Koto             1/-------/=======|

[KOTO]
Koto for his part is already moving again, despite having been proverbially struck down once. Really, he probably shouldn't be standing. But the teen is what most call hot blooded. A fighter through and through willing to put his all into it. Even if it's a test, he's not going to deny being able to do that. And the incoming jab to his stomach and flail of a laptop are at least taken on the back of his bracered forearms.

Still, it's enough that he staggers. Almost falling it seems before he finally stops a few steps away from her. Definitely tired, his suit finally fades away into psychic energy. Apparently the test is done. And Koto bends over at the knees, breathing heavily from the exertions. Or just the multiple strikes to his midsection from a laptop. Hard to tell which in this case.

It takes him a few moments before he asks, "One thing? What's that?" He gasps out, moving to hold his probably bruised ribs.

COMBATSYS: Koto takes no action.

[                                <
Koto             1/-------/=======|

COMBATSYS: Koto can no longer fight.


[MARZ]
Stumbling, staggering, stopping, settling to the ground. Marz breathes deeply, hands splaying on the grasses. She reaches to push her glasses back up her nose, and to check on the state of her laptop's reinforcement. She exhales, lowering her guard and turning back to a calm, hip sit.

"It was hitting you with the laptop. I was prefacing that," Marz mutters, having explained her dramatics to Koto. "You are appealingly dense," she adds, still getting the focus on the glasses just right. "I will pass word upward to the others and tell them you will be an asset."

She looks to Pacific High and the students that have started to gather. "Too many people. Will see you later about this," she mutters barely above of her own breath. And then the shift of her posture and she's on her knees, bowing. "Thank you for showing me your powers. I hope one day to be as strong as you!" she squeaks, using the tone of voice she used for Yayoi.

[KOTO]
Standing a bit taller for getting an idea of what is going on. But that he was 'dense' so much? Well, comes with the territory. The young man looks considerate as he watches her before giving a bow as well, "You are welcome, Yayoi." He smiles, then turns to go as he comments to the crowd, "What? Never seen two get into a sparring match before?"

That at least has the crowd of students shake their heads and start to disperse. Koto meanwhile, rubs his side a bit where the laptop hit. That definitely hurt him a bit as he moves off, saying towards Yayoi, "Well, nice spar. I'm off to class!"

Yep, way too many people to be talking about it out there. Especially as he wants to make sure he keeps the hero image perhaps.

[MARZ]
Marz is generally of the disposition that everyone is dense until well and truly proven otherwise. However, Koto has proven his utility and that goes a long way in Marz's eyes. She may be standing there, arm over her stomach, eyes dark with the intent of Lord Vega's will behind them, but she is approving of the hero boy and his ability to finally read a crowd once they've made themselves known.

"It was wonderful!" she says, not quite able to subsume her accent in her condition, but still mimicking the cutesy bow and demureness that she's certain the people here demand of their intellectuals.

And as she stands, adjusting her glasses, observing her target, she makes a mental note to converse with her other contact in the area about moving forward with a more grand stage 2 of the program.

Log created on 12:02:09 10/17/2019 by Marz, and last modified on 12:00:46 11/09/2019.