Match of the Millennium

Description: An eagle scout tells ghost stories in the woods. But real ghosts are worse.

[AARON]
There was a strangeness about one fighter in the Rising Star Tournament. Finding the fighter was just as much part of the strangeness. To record the fight, a team of paranormal investigators had to be hired. The team had already spent the better part of two days wandering about in the dark old growth forests of Japan. At the close of the second day, the expedition team had made a fire. Dinner eaten and cleaned, tents set, and cameras perpetually at the ready. They had gathered around the fire to tell stories, with the current focus all drawn around the most frightful of story tellers yet, Aaron Fang.

"-that's when the dog pealed itself open, revealing the..."

The scout had the team of professionals in the paranormal peaked with fear. He used the eerily silent hum of the forest, the minimal light of the fire, and detailed gestures of his hand and walking stick the paint well these tales of woe. This night was to be that of terror, and Aaron was prepared and preparing.

[HISAKO]
The darkness of the woods meant it was easy to see something that wasn't there. From above in the trees, the yellow eyes of an owl look on intently at the forest fire, that flame bathing the blue and black with brilliant orange illumination.

Until the very moment it didn't, until a half gallon of mud fell from...somewhere, and instantly snuffed out the flame and subjecting everyone around the fire to pitch blackness, yet again. Here and there old dead leaves were seen in the mud, and some of them...twitching. What was in this mud patch? Were there a bunch of bugs in here? Or was this just a reaction to putting out a fire?

[AARON]
"AAAAAAAAAAAHHH"

A scream pierced the night, sourced from the film crew who panicked at the sudden envelopment of darkness. Aaron jumped to, but not out of the terror his companions were feeling. He was not the one who snuffed out the fire, despite the irritated swears quickly being tossed at him. He tried to pin down what human could have put out the flame, trying desperately to prove his faint fear wrong.

Aaron silently strung his bow while the screams died down in the camp. "Get the cameras ready, remember to use infrared." The Eagle ordered as he turned on his headlamp. He put upon his back his quiver, filled with a special set of arrows tonight. Sensing what he would be facing, he spent a pretty penny for a set of turquoise arrowheads to ensure he might strike what he might be facing.

Though it could have just been George... Right?

COMBATSYS: Hisako has started a fight here.

[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Hisako           0/-------/-------|

COMBATSYS: Aaron has joined the fight here.

[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////////////]
Aaron            0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0           Hisako

[HISAKO]
It could have just been George...

But it wasn't. As soon as Aaron turns around, there she is. The ghostly, otherworldly girl in the red kimono standing with her naginata held lazily in her hand. Every step she takes is soft, slow, she gradually makes her way toward the eagle scout with shuffling steps.

But the thing about her weapon, is she doesn't have to be very close to use it. Suddenly she's swinging that spear by the very end like it's a baseball bat, that gleaming blade threatening to dig in to Aaron if he's not careful!

COMBATSYS: Hisako successfully hits Aaron with Fierce Strike.

[      \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////////////]
Aaron            0/-------/---====|=------\-------\0           Hisako

[AARON]
If only it were George.

The blade swings a great wide arc as Aaron's mind tries to determine what he was looking at. By the time a thought enters his head, it said to run. Had his legs or mind been quicker he might have avoided that blade. Cutting into him he tried to stumble out of the ghost's deathly wrath.

He would try and pierce the darkness and the monster, blinding light to make sure it would stay at bay. He drew back his bowstring, but left the turquoise arrows in his quiver. In the shadows a point of light paired the one upon his head, then overpowered it. An arrow of pure shimmering light was fired at the sprit.

COMBATSYS: Aaron successfully hits Hisako with Arrow of Light.
- Power hit! -

[       \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////////////////////////     ]
Aaron            0/-------/--=====|===----\-------\0           Hisako

[HISAKO]
Hisako is shot with a beam of light, and gives a roaring shriek as she flies backward, falling into a pit of mud and vanishing completely. It's not that easy, is it?

No, because she comes BLITZING out of the trees, slashing wildly with that weapon of hers as she hits the ground harder than a jumper hitting a sidewalk. She recovers much faster, though, lunging forward and swinging another attack, howling in rage and frustration all the while. As she acts, the arrow, still lodged in her torso, snaps and breaks all its own, seemingly because something inside her has changed.

COMBATSYS: Hisako blitzes into action and acts again!

[       \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////////      ]
Aaron            0/-------/--=====|===----\-------\0           Hisako

COMBATSYS: Hisako enters a meditative state.

[       \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////////    ]
Aaron            0/-------/--=====|====---\-------\0           Hisako

COMBATSYS: Aaron blocks Hisako's Air On Ryo Zan.

[            \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////////    ]
Aaron            1/-------/=======|=====--\-------\0           Hisako

[AARON]
When the blast of light hits, there is a sigh of relief. Perhaps it was banished, perhaps it was gone. Perhaps it was bolting out of the trees like crashing meteor of madman's nightmare.

The ghost swung her blade wildly, and Aaron tried to block as many strikes of the polearm as he could. In such a storm of blows only so many could be stopped. By the time the blitz ends, the ground was soaked further by a boy's blood.

Holding still, the Scout sought to strike back as best he could. From his blood soaked hands a red glow formed. He tried to think of peace. Rain misting a forest, birds singing in the mountains, the smooth contours of stone. He would try to fill all such peace into his hands, causing them to overflow with sprit. So long as she was holding still, he would attempt to force that glob of peace into the ghost in an attempt to appease it.

COMBATSYS: Hisako interrupts Eagle Palm from Aaron with Descent.
-* CRITICAL HIT! *-

[                  \\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////////       ]
Aaron            1/----===/=======|=======\-------\1           Hisako

[HISAKO]
The good news, is Aaron shoves that sphere of pure positivity into the torso of Hisako, his fingers moving past where a sternum should be and for a moment, the look on the ghost's face is one of...confusion, one of calm. The naginata is dropped, and Aaron would be able to see all around them, pink petals falling even as Hisako falls while clutching the eagle scout's wrist, bringing him with her.

They descend into a black sky, a black sky that turns red like the blood that falls as rain. Around them cicadas drone their endless song and the calm, the peace that surrounds them is replaced by violence, by pain, by the cracking of bones and the smell of bubbling burning skin and hair

and Hisako is screaming a roar of warning at Aaron, who now is lying on the ground, her lurching over him menacingly, her eyes awash in rage and anger. It seems whatever he did have a real effect on her. Perhaps not the effect that Aaron wanted...

[AARON]
The appeasement.. turns poorly. A city suffering is nothing new but yet the pain within is still so strong, tumbling forever, burning forever. By the time it stops he finds himself atop hot coals put out by the earlier mud. He scrambled out of the ring to try and get away from the ghost, but he knew he still needed to defeat it.

Covered in dirt, ash, and blood, Aaron turned right back at the monster he was fighting. If he could not use peace, then he would have to use war against it. He took out one of the turquoise arrows and notched it. He would strike back at this thing like a monster. He sensed the old suffering that hid under these trees. Rabbits caught by foxes, foxes caught by hunters, hunted slain by brothers. He pulled back the arrow so he might add one more suffering to these roots.

COMBATSYS: Aaron takes aim.

[                 \\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////////       ]
Aaron            1/--=====/=======|=======\-------\1           Hisako

[HISAKO]
Hisako watches the scout scramble and gather his wits, and even with her hair in her face, even in darkness and shadow, it's impossible not to see those eyes glaring unblinkingly. But the second her opponent grabs one of those arrows, she drops to her hands and scrambles along the ground like a spider, changing direction randomly until she's closing the distance and pulling back up that ancient Japanese spear as if she'd always been holding on to it. She stabs it at his left shoulder, perhaps trying to make it harder for him to use that bow against her. Or perhaps she's just going for what will draw the most blood.

COMBATSYS: Aaron blocks Hisako's Evasive Strike.

[                   \\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////////      ]
Aaron            1/=======/=======|=======\-------\1           Hisako

[AARON]
The ghost moved all so like that spider, there were horrific stories about the spider. As she neared, Aaron once again felt the knife unfold. Rather than disrupting him, he decided to use the knife. When the blade was coming for his shoulder, he would parry it with his own. He brought the arrow up against the blade of that naginata, and around the shaft formed a long red blade of chi. Had any been alive to recognize it, it would seem a short sword for a brother's back. With it, he parried the blade's blow away from his shoulder... only to have it continue its upward journey and slice across his face.

By the time the spear stops, the arrow was already back to the string. The chi sword about the turquoise arrow was let fly at it's wrath stricken target.
And then another.
and another
and yet another.

Twelve of the arrows would fly, each one bright blue in its stone core, surrounded about it with a knife or sword of times long past.

COMBATSYS: Hisako blocks Aaron's Empowered Scout's Law EX.

[                   \\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////           ]
Aaron            0/-------/-----==|=======\===----\1           Hisako

[HISAKO]
Thus far, Hisako's movements have been wild and erratic, the actions of a savage creature running on instinct and emotion. But there's training within her. When her strike is parried, she brings that bladed spear back towards herself, and when the barrage of arrows start, she swings and bats and slices many of them away. But she doesn't get all of them, and before long there are arrows along her arms and shoulders, along her legs, and black sludge trickles from the wounds even as the girl looks down almost dispassionately at the damage. When she eventually turns her attention back toward Aaron, she tilts her head and leans closer toward him, her fanged teeth bared and barred. Was this a challenge? Was this a threat?

It was impossible to tell, but one thing was for sure: She was still in this fight.

COMBATSYS: Hisako enters a trance-like state.

[                   \\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////            ]
Aaron            0/-------/-----==|=======\=====--\1           Hisako

[AARON]
A thirteenth arrow was in his hand. He was almost ignoring the challenge of the ghost in front of him, focusing upon the blade of chi emerging from the arrow. With one hand he pressed into the back of the blade. It spung about the head of the arrow as he pushed it. He folded the blade back into the shaft of the arrow. Folded, the new light formed. The Scout shined with all the luminosity that would make the campfire envy. The darkness of the forest was replaced with a fire within.

This fire would refuse to be put out.

COMBATSYS: Aaron gathers the Spirit of Scouting.

[                  \\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////            ]
Aaron            0/-------/=======|=======\=====--\1           Hisako

[HISAKO]
Within Hisako, there is a rage that burns cold. A deep grudge held with everyone and everything, and suddenly, the girl cannot contain it anymore, and lunges at the eagle scout even as she drops her naginata and lets it collapse into the earth somewhere, where it vanishes. When she is upon Aaron again, she swings what can only be described as a Japanese war club, looking like something between a baseball bat and a sledgehammer, the actual 'club' itself carved out of stone and wood, and resembling a collection of oni faces, with jutting stone horns and protruding onyx 'fangs'. She swings this club with abandon overhead, trying to bludgeon Aaron again, and again, and again and again. Every single swing full of her hatred, with every single one the eyes of that club light up malevolently.

Something foul was at play here...

COMBATSYS: Hisako successfully hits Aaron with Crushing Strike.

[                         \\\\\  < >  //////////////////            ]
Aaron            1/---====/=======|=======\=====--\1           Hisako

[AARON]
Oh the eyes. There were saying of fire in your eyes, but that strike of the club was sending eyes into the fire. Aaron tried as he could stop them, but gaze of the eyes was piercing. He put his stave up to stop it as best as he could, but his arms collapsed under the force. The faces of evil tore into him, he could almost feel them laughing. By the time the blows ended, Aaron was leaning on a log bleeding out.

He looked at the monster with his one working eye and 13th arrow in his hand. He spat his mouthful of blood out at the ghost. He spun about his feet with an unrestrained and uncontrolled force that would mirror his opponent. Hoping whatever passed for a ghost's sight would be inhibited by the blood, he would fire that last arrow right into the center of whatever passed for a ghost's heart. By the end of that arc, he would just as easily pass through whatever that ghost was, passed out.

COMBATSYS: Aaron can no longer fight.

[            \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Hisako           1/--=====/=======|

COMBATSYS: Hisako endures Aaron's Leave No Trace EX.

[                   \\\\\\\\\\\  <
Hisako           2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|

[HISAKO]
The ghost is standing over a bleeding, injured boy with blood splattered everywhere. And it's the closest she's been to standing upright since she was a human, but it doesn't last as her attention moves from the battered scout to the weapon in her hand. For the first time this fight, her attention isn't one hundred percent on her opponent, isn't devoted entirely toward vengeance and violence. For the moment, an expression approaching confusion washes over her face as she studies the war club. It dissolves in a cloud of red mist, evaporating into the sky while the blood that was staining it now falls upon the fresh earth.

Here Hisako stands as an arrow plunges into her chest and pierces through her heart, and she howls in fury and unexpected torment, head whipping back around at her enemy, her hands clutching at the arrow instinctively. Staring Aaron face to face, the ghost pulls the arrow slowly out of herself, the weapon coated with black material, there was no other word for it. Something between tree sap, tar and the blood of a corpse was dripping from the point before the arrow itself was dropped on Aaron's lap.

Hisako stare at the bleeding child for a long while, before turning her head, and starting to shamble slowly into the dark mist of the forest. In the blink of an eye, she was gone.

COMBATSYS: Hisako has ended the fight here.


[AARON]
It takes a moment for the silence to return, and the silence stays for only a moment. The noise of the camera team is a near cacophony. They were two days from the last known sight of civilization and Aaron was bleeding badly. George needed to stop the blood, so much blood. The boy needed a surgeon, not a medic with some sticks. Radioing a chopper would solve the issue if maybe a few hours and Lindsey had A- if need be...

The panic was stopped when Aaron once again stirred. He pulled himself up by his walking stick and looked back at the crew as best he could. He could barely see through the scabs that were trying to form over his eyes. He spoke with a faint voice dripping with fear and worry, but not for himself.

"are you guys all right?"

Log created on 19:40:34 04/18/2021 by Hisako, and last modified on 00:02:26 04/19/2021.