Match of the Millennium

Description: The second rounds of the Rising Star tournament sees Yuri Sakazaki bringing the awesomeness of Kyokugen Karate up against the mysterious(?) masked fighter Blazing Panther and his bursts of blazing energy.

[DAISUKE]
The second rounds of the Rising Star Tournament come with all the same fanfare as the first. The combatants gathered from across the world may not have been drawn to the Kanzuki Centre for Excellence yet, but organizers payrolled by the Kanzuki family have made arrangements to secure fighting areas all over.

And one of these today is in the ve yrcenter of Southtown. The central street of Southtown has been cordoned off to keep pedestrians and vehicles out -- though the barriers used have more than the fair share of spectators lined up along them, waiting for the promised fighters to show up.

Up on a rooftop nearby, Daisuke Kubo peers down at the street in question, with a vaguely nervous expression. "... Maybe I should have just walked down there like normal people... Ah, hell..." In an effort to force his nervousness away, he tugs the dark-red half-face mask bunched down to his neck up to covering his lower face from the middle of the bridge of his nose down-- and he leaps.

With a flutter of a long, red scarf behind him, the fighter signed onto the tournament under the name 'Blazing Panther' descends upon the street-- a figure in black cargo pants, surplus military boots and a tight black leather jacket, with a red scarf coiled around his neck and a mask of similiar color pulled over to conceal his lower face. His initial plummeting is halted by a burst of blue-green energy at the bottoms of his feet, slowing him to a halt a foot or so above the curb before they die down and let him hit the ground gracefully.

...Almost gracefully, anyway. The instant he does, he's wobbling and bouncing along the curb before he fully regains his balance. Going to take a while to get used to *that* particular entrance method.

[YURI]
Yuri Sakazaki is happy to be here today. After what happened with Kelly trying to keep her from boasting about Kyokugen, she's thinking that this fight will be different. Unlike Daisuke, who's coming in from above, Yuri's more direct in her arrival, waving to those who have gathered for the Rising Star Tournament. "Heeeeelllloooooooo everybooooooody!" Yuri beams. "I'm Yuri Sakazaki, and once again I'm here to show off the awesomeness of Kyokugen Karate! I hope you're all ready for a great show, because I'm gonna give it to you!"

Yuri rolls her arms around and starts jumping in place to warm herself up, but the warm-ups are interrupted by Daisuke dropping to the ground, and she jumps back a little. "Whoa! What was that?" It's then that it occurs to Yuri that this is her opponent. "Well, talk about dropping in, huh?" Yuri says with a slight smirk. "I'll give you this, it was pretty cool, but not as cool as introducing everyone to Kyokugen!"

With that, Yuri turns to face the crowd and says, "All righty, everyone! It's time for a great show! Be ready for awesomeness like nothing else!" And then Yuri steps back to get into her fighting position, waiting for the battle to begin.

[DAISUKE]
The masked fighter jolts up straight the instant he hears Yuri's voice, and sloooowly turns to peer back to her over his shoulder, with green eyes widened out above the mask. Oh. He didn't realize it at first, but he *thinks* he actually recognizes her. He must have seen her at Taiyo at some point or another.

...Even more reason to make sure the mask stays on, then.

"U-uh... sure..." He mumbles out first, before turning himself to fully facing her. Straightening up in his posture, he draws one fist up - held with knuckles facing downwards - to be pointed at the girl while he shifts his feet slightly to guide himself into a slightly more prepared stance.

"Blazing Panther will be your opponent, then."

COMBATSYS: Daisuke has started a fight here.

[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Daisuke          0/-------/-------|

COMBATSYS: Yuri has joined the fight here.

[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////////////]
Daisuke          0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0             Yuri

[YURI]
"Blazing Panther, hmmm?" Yuri puts her head in her hand for a moment and seems to think things over before shrugging. "Not a bad name, but not too awesome either." She shrugs. "But that's aside from the point! The point is we're here to fight... and I'm going to show you and everyone else just how truly awesome I am at my style!" She steps back a couple steps to put some room between herself and her opponent. "So be ready, because I'm holding nothing back!"

Tapping her fists together a couple of times, Yuri waits for the signal to begin, and then she's off quickly, going towards the Blazing Panther quickly, before attempting to strike with a sudden left out of seemingly nowhere.

COMBATSYS: Yuri successfully hits Daisuke with Medium Punch.

[   \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////////////]
Daisuke          0/-------/-----==|-------\-------\0             Yuri

[DAISUKE]
"Whu--" The red-haired fighter blinks his eyes rapidly over the commentary on his name. "I... guess that's something...?" Oh great. He's feeling self-conscious about that again. Maybe he needs to work on a rebranding or something...

But while he's ruminating over that, the signal hits off, and Yuri's already moved in, faster than he could have noticed. "Wh--?"

He manages to whip his head to the side just quick enough to see the punch coming... and take it right against his cheek. The blow sends him recoiling back-- only to suddenly stomp his foot down to forcefully bring his body swinging back forward, leading the motion with his head, of all things; aiming to smash his forehead against hers. "Haaaah!!"

COMBATSYS: Yuri blocks Daisuke's Spirited Headbutt.

[    \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////////////  ]
Daisuke          0/-------/-----==|=------\-------\0             Yuri

[YURI]
Pulling back from her punch, Yuri is already on the lookout for the next attack. And it seems that Daisuke wants to use his head... in more ways than one. Yuri's been the victim of headbutts before, and they are not pleasant. Not in the head, not in the stomach, not anywhere at all.

"Yah!" Yuri cries out an improvised reaction to the incoming attack as she brings her arms up to protect herself against being butted in the head by Daisuke's head.

"I see you've got a few tricks up your sleeve," Yuri comments as she rubs at her forearms a little before getting back into her fighting stance. "I like that in an opponent, but nothing can live up to the surprises Kyokugen Karate provides for their opponents!" She then proceeds to launch a small, but noticeable, fireball projectile at Daisuke. "Here's an example!"

COMBATSYS: Daisuke dodges Yuri's Ko'ou Ken.

[    \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////////////   ]
Daisuke          0/-------/-----==|==-----\-------\0             Yuri

[DAISUKE]
"Hhh--!" The masked boy's forehead collides with Yuri's forearm, and he immediately rebounds back off of it with a faint hint of a wince. Wobbling back some as a result, it takes a split second for him to refocus his eyes on his opponent. Though he does hear her speaking, at least!

"T-...thanks, I guess..." He mumbles, just before his eyes snap to the incoming fireball. Oh great.

With a small sound of surprise, the boy instinctively ducks down just enough that the fireball just singes at the tips of his spiky hair. As surprised as he might be that he managed to evade it, he decides to take his opportunity to advance then. Leaping up into forward motion before stamping one foot down to the ground right before her to use as an anchor point as he turns over with a quick back kick aimed for her gut.

COMBATSYS: Yuri dodges Daisuke's Medium Kick.

[    \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////////////   ]
Daisuke          0/-------/-----==|==-----\-------\0             Yuri

[YURI]
"Ooops, I missed!" Yuri says with a slight shrug. "Oh well, I'll do better next time, because Kyokugen Karate is so awesome like that!" She chuckles a bit, but the smile fades when she sees Daisuke coming at her with a kick at her stomach. Again, not a spot that's good to be attacked. Thinking quickly, Yuri twists to the side and steps back as she avoids being kicked. "Well, that was pretty good, but not good enough for me!" She shakes her head a little. "You're gonna have to do better than that!"

Rolling backwards, it looks like Yuri's trying to give herself space... or is she setting up for a feint?

As soon as she rolls onto her feet again, Yuri suddenly dashes towards Daisuke, attempting to launch him into the air with her own variant of the Dragon Punch styled attack. The Kyokugen Karate style has their own version of it, but Yuri's given it her own twist so that it's truly her own!

COMBATSYS: Yuri successfully hits Daisuke with Yuri Chou Upper.
-* WILD HIT! *-

[           \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////////    ]
Daisuke          0/-------/=======|==-----\-------\0             Yuri

[DAISUKE]
Expecting his foot to have actually landed on something, Daisuke ends up, unfortunately, with his weight following too much along with his leg, leaving him stumbling over some again. Is he... practiced with these things at all?

In the wake of that, he just barely has time to see Yuri redirecting her direction of movement back to him. And just barely enough time to even *try* to bring up his arms to shield himself--

It doesn't do much good.

Her fist slips right in between his arms and strikes into the underside of his jaw. "Hrk--!"

It's powerful enough to not only send his eyes rolling up in their sockets but tos end the boy flying up into the air entirely, sailing through it like a limp ragdoll. It hurts. God it hurts so much. IT takes a good second or so before he gets any focus back to the point he can see himself flipping around in the air.

"--!"

At the end of that uncontrolled somersault, he suddenly snaps his eyes down at Yuri. Still in the air, he extends his right arm to the side, while blue-green energy crackles along it like arcs of uncontrolled electricity. His teeth grit together under that mask. This always *hurts*. But he already almost blacked out from that punch so he can't hold back.

A burst of energy explodes at his feet again, solely for the purpose of launching him back towards his opponent -- while a mass of it forms out from his extended hand, like the blazing flame from a jet engine. Just held as if though it was a sword.

"Hhaaaa--!!"

And at the apex of that plummeting flight, he swings that searing blade of energy at Yuri!

COMBATSYS: Daisuke successfully hits Yuri with Soul Blade EX.
- Power hit! -

[            \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////            ]
Daisuke          1/-------/=======|=======\-------\0             Yuri

[YURI]
Yuri smiles as her attack lands, but as she pulls back, it seems she might be getting a bit too confident for her own good. Stepping back another step, she doesn't realize there's something coming at her... until it's too late.

And down Yuri goes, rolling on the ground and landing in a heap, wincing a little before getting back onto her feet again and dusting herself off. "Oww, that's gonna leave a mark," Yuri says as she rubs her left shoulder a little before looking at Daisuke again. "Still, don't think you've won just yet. Even the best of the best make a few mistakes. Not that it's cool or anything, but it happens."

There's a pause as Yuri rubs her shoulder once again before continuing. "So let's keep things rolling!" Yuri steps towards Daisuke, then attempts to grab his shoulders and, from there, roll onto her back and then throw him backwards.

COMBATSYS: Yuri successfully hits Daisuke with Quick Throw.

[                \\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////           ]
Daisuke          1/-----==/=======|=======\-------\1             Yuri

[DAISUKE]
After the mass of energy has slammed against Yuri, the masked fighter ends up slamming into a roll along the ground himself with a quiet groan slipping out of him before he manages to get himself up to one knee. One hand rubbing at the arm he'd used to swing the 'sword' out, gritting his teeth tightly underneath the mask.

And then he's caught by his shoulders. And pulled back with YUri's own roll-- "Hey wait wait wai-"

Sailing through the air again. Daisuke's getting a bit of a feel of deja vu by now. It's only by luck that he ends up landing on his shoulders rather than on his head, but it still jolts tight pain through his spine. "Hnnh--!"

He doesn't even get himself up to his feet fully before the counterattack begins. Rolling over to his front with hands slapping down onto the ground to start pushing himself up, something else is happening above him. Four masses of energy form in the air above him, taking the shapes of... discs? Or portals? Something like that.

And they all face Yuri.

When Daisuke's eyes snap up to focus on Yuri herself, one of them flashes with a visible glow -- and dozens of bolts of energy fire off rapidly from the 'discs' at her.

COMBATSYS: Yuri fails to reflect Soul Arrow Storm from Daisuke with Saiha.

[                 \\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////                      ]
Daisuke          0/-------/-----==|=======\=====--\1             Yuri

[YURI]
Yuri unfortunately loses her cool and tries to stop those discs from hitting her. The shield comes up but it's not in time. She goes down harder than she should... but then gets back up, albeit after some effort.

"Whoa... not cool... who put me on the carousel?" Yuri says before shaking her head a couple of times. It's obvious she's in a bit of pain, but she doesn't want to show it too much, even though she's hunched over. "Nnngh... not cool... not gonna lose easily!"

[DAISUKE]
While the energy projectiles rain down upon Yuri, Daisuke's pushing himself up to his feet. THere's the briefest wobble and a groan of pain, before he snaps his eyes up again to level on his opponent. Though he may be breathing heavily under that mask, he still makes the effort of closing in on her, one step at a time.

And once she's fully up, those slow steps turn into a run. He ends up skidding right past her first, but when he turns -- the arm outward from her has another jet engine -like burst of energy blazing out from it's elbow, adding momentum to his turn, and the vicious hook aimed for her.

"Let's go!!"

COMBATSYS: Yuri blocks Daisuke's Soul Cutter EX.

[                  \\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////                         ]
Daisuke          0/-------/------=|=======\=======\1             Yuri

[YURI]
Sometimes the only thing one can do is use their defenses, which means blocking the incoming attack. Unfortunately, the attack still penetrates Yuri's defenses and hits her, sending her staggering backwards and leaving her wobbling around as she tries to keep herself steady. She begins to lose herself and drops to one knee...

Then lets out a yell as she stops and then brings her arms back. "Consider this a parting gift!" She yells before sending forth three large fireballs at Daisuke...

Before falling to the ground.

COMBATSYS: Yuri can no longer fight.

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

COMBATSYS: Daisuke blocks Yuri's Denjin Haoh Sho Ko Ken.

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

[DAISUKE]
The speed at which Daisuke's 'rocket punch' came with does leave him wobbling forward at the end of it, too -- maybe it actually wasn't something he so much lead as something he let himself be lead along *by*.

"Hhhaaahh-... You..." He starts to groan out between panting breaths. But then he sees the fireballs coming his way.

Oh no.

A panicked leap backwards and arms brought up is about all he can do. Without even realizing it, his arms take on a blue-green glow to them just before the fireballs collide with him, dissipating them to a small extent... but only small. The flames still lick past his arms and burn at his jacket, and the impact alone is enough to send him flying through the air again in a high, wide arc that ends with him landing on his back on the street.

"Hhhhgghh... Damnit..." In a further fit of panic, he pushes himself, in pain, up to his elbows, with intent to force himself further up from there while one open eye tries to lock onto Yuri.

...And then stopping when he sees her laying on the ground.

"...Did I... win...?"

Log created on 20:55:58 04/09/2021 by Daisuke, and last modified on 22:29:34 04/10/2021.