Match of the Millennium

Description: In the remote Koku An dojo, the exiled ninja of the Mugen Tenshin faces off against the fiery tempered young woman with formidable powers.

[KASUMI]
To fight at the Koku An again... The location is of special significance to Kasumi. She had found herself here to participate in one of her earliest public matches following her victory at the Dead or Alive tournament. She had faced another youth - one who focused on an unorthodox style utilizing volleyballs as a core component. Standing here again now, the Mugen Tenshin exile smiles as she lingers near the edge of the elevated wood deck to gaze at the rock garden featured in the center of the remote structure.

Like then, she is prepared for the match in her training outfit - a wrap style dress of azure and white, a stylized pattern of flying swans visible on the skirt. The sleeves don't quite reach her elbows, leaving her arms bare but for the matching rich blue arm guards with a subtle floral pattern in the fabric. Pausing she reaches down to tug her right thigh-high taut, its white color matching the white choker around her neck. Hair the color of dark copper is tied back into a loose ponytail by a blue ribbon and her shins are protected by the same hardened azure material as her forearms.

Looking at the rock garden while taking in a deep breath of the mountain air serves to center her thoughts. She had enjoyed her last match against the Hong Kong legend, but she could not disagree with the judges' call that between the two he had been the victor by a margin... She would need to do better if she hoped to have a good showing in this global tournament. Or at least focus on giving it her all that she could leave the event with no regrets, no thought that she had let herself down.

That was the promise found in challenges like this after all - the chance to face new opponents, encounter new styles, refine her skill to a razor's edge of efficiency, to continue forging herself into the best she can be. Her clan may not accept her among their own, but she still carried the pride of the Mugen Tenshin on her shoulders whenever she fought - a pride she would not fall short of deserving.

Turning from the rock garden, she takes a few steps further under the roof of the isolated structure. She put the last match out of her mind, the aches and bruises of that bout having faded since then. Time to face someone new, to see hwo they right, to discover what more she can learn by pushing herself to her limits. The young shinobi's expression becomes somber without becoming hard, focused without becoming harsh, honey brown eyes finally finding their focus in the here and now.

[NAGI]
Koku An means very little to Nagi.

She has never been here before; never had any kind of proper training, never had any kind of major tournament. She's only been involved in little things, and the match against Sagat; for all intents and purposes she came out of nowhere for the World Warrior matches and it's a wonder she qualified at all.

Or it would be, except for the whole 'monster' thing, which anyone who watched her match with Sagat would know about. But, well. Besides that!

Nagi is easy to miss when she's not trying to be obtrusive, so Kasumi might not even realize that she's here until she steps out from one of the corners. Kasumi might be well-dressed, but Nagi looks more like a ruffian than anything else, with her spiked jacket and studded skirt.

She also happens to look an awful lot like Kasumi, which draws a slightly perplexed eyebrow furrow when she sees the other woman. It's like looking into a mirror... if the mirror completely changed your outfit and attitude, anyway!

"Hmm," Nagi says. "So you're my opponent. I wouldn't want to be the one fighting in that dress, but you do you." She tilts her head left, then right, shaking out her arms to loosen up a little bit.

[KASUMI]
Under the roof of the Koku An, the shinobi in blue comes to a stop, her back toward the corner occupied by her opponent. As Nagi moves out into the open, however, Kasumi turns her head slightly, clearly listening without fully spinning around to face her. On the back of the young woman's kunoichi attire is emblazoned a golden circle with her name - 'Kasumi' - represented in ornately styled kanji.

After Nagi takes a few more steps, her opponent turns to face her, eyes coming to rest on someone who looks... not terribly unlike herself. It hadn't stuck out to her quite so much when watching her opponent's battle against Sagat, but now that she can see her clearly face to face, the similarities are far easier to detect. Given the Mugen Tenshin exile's unpleasant encounters with unbounded, amoral science, alarm bells immediately go off in her head. She had seen the transformation against the Titan of Muay Thai. It could be some kind of darkstalker influence... but something about it was just 'off', seeming more like the tampering of science unchecked than demonic influence...

She knew beneath the young woman's skin lived a weapon. Was she designed that way?

Looking curious, Kasumi opens her mouth, about to put into the open the question on her mind, only for Nagi to cut her off with her own form of 'greeting'. Blinking with a hint of surprise, the shinobi glances down at herself then back up at her opponent, curiosity replaced with an amused grin. Her traditional fighting attire might be quite revealing, but it's also easy to move in and has established a style that is uniquely her own for her public fight appearances.

"I am."

A moment later, she adds, tone easy going for now.

"And... it works for me."

She cants her head to the right slightly.

"I hope it doesn't bother you."

The statement is no doubt a bit of light ribbing. One need only take in Nagi's own choice of combat attire to confidently conclude that she isn't concerned about exposure.

Questions still burning in her mind, Kasumi's posture shifts, one foot sliding forward a little, her arms lifting with her left arm forward and raised a bit more than the right, both bent at the elbows, fingers extended.

"When you're ready."

COMBATSYS: Kasumi has started a fight here.

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Kasumi           0/-------/-------|

[NAGI]
Nagi doesn't look identical to Kasumi, of course. Their build is a little different; Nagi tends toward the slender. They don't have the same eyes; disregarding the difference in their resting expression, Nagi's are more angled, a slightly sharper face. But there's something there.

Of course, it could be (and, in fact, is) just random chance. But it's always a little surprising when you run into someone who looks close to you at all.

Whatever Nagi's objection to Kasumi's outfit, it clearly isn't the exposure part. Maybe she's just not a ninja sort of girl. It's hard to imagine Nagi going through shinobi training, though that might just be a difference in attitude and posture.

"Nope. It's all the same to me," Nagi says, finishing stretching out her arms and moving into a more obviously combative position, left side forward and fist raised. She's expecting the two of them to get at it as soon as official time begins - but Kasumi gives her the opportunity to lead it off!

What is it with people giving her the first shot in this tournament? Is it some kind of statement she's not aware of? Are they saying they're better than her, that they don't need to take the initiative - or are they just offering it to her because she's the new fighter?

It annoys her, and Nagi's scowl deepens - but she still takes advantage of being given the initiative! Her eyes narrow as she considers Kasumi's stance for a moment - and then she rushes forward, planting one foot at the last moment and turning her momentum into a kick with her planted foot as the pivot! She follows it up by leaping, kicking downward at Kasumi to try to keep her off balance.

If Kasumi was expecting a transformation into a monster, she gets to be disappointed, at least for now. Nagi is, to all appearances, a perfectly normal human fighter - and even if she does hit pretty hard for her size, that's not something that's all that unusual at this level of talent!

COMBATSYS: Nagi has joined the fight here.

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Nagi             0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0           Kasumi

COMBATSYS: Kasumi blocks Nagi's Combination Break.

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Nagi             0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0           Kasumi

[KASUMI]
The Koku An's curious design affords it the benefits of having three inner walls open to the crisp mountain air, while the outer walls ward off the stiffer breeze flowing through the valley. The effect is a refreshingly cool interior with only gentle air currents swirling through the interior to toy with the women's hair as the seconds before violence initiates tick by.

Is waiting for her to make the first move a courtesy afforded out of politeness? Is it pity? Or a mind game contrived to invite the very questions the fierce young woman wrestles with in those passing seconds? The shinobi's expression gives away nothing as her quiet smile lingers without visible change.

But when Nagi makes her move, Kasumi reacts swiftly, planting one foot and turning to the right slightly, forcing her guarded left forearm into the path of the kick to blunt the impact against her arm guard, the semi-rigid material yielding slightly. She then swiftly pivots to the right, her other arm slamming upward, so that her other forearm can be driven against the overhead kick, absorbing its force along that arm guard as well, a soft grunt escaping Kasumi's lips as her knees bend in an effort to distribute the impact.

It may not have been clean hits, but there's no denying the power behind the strikes. Her aggressive mitigation allows her to avoid losing too much ground in defending herself, but there's no denying the striking power of her opponent.

Gritting her teeth, she transitions instantly from defense to offense, left hand snapping up to join her right in attempt to secure a grip on Nagi's forward leg. If successful, the shinobi will try to adjust the other fighter's ankle to the side just enough that it will end up braced against Kasumi's shoulder, forcing Nagi to land on one foot while her other leg is forced high.

If successful, the ninja will follow up with a hard kick to Nagi's planted knee in order to deny her of all balance so that she can finish by letting her opponent fall to the ground on her back.

"I saw your last fight," Kasumi mentions mid-exchange, her voice neutral, making it clear that she knows something of Nagi's hidden side. Like her invitation to go first, she offers no follow up, no explanation to the comment, no further context as to why made that statement.

COMBATSYS: Kasumi successfully hits Nagi with Combo Grapple.
- Power hit! -

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Nagi             0/-------/---====|=------\-------\0           Kasumi

[NAGI]
That particular kind of mind game are where Nagi is weakest. She hasn't done enough tournaments to get over it. In a match is one thing, where she's not particularly vulnerable to tricks and conversation, but the protocol of *starting* a tournament match is still new! At least she isn't really holding it against Kasumi - not until and unless she figures out it *was* an insult.

Nagi hops backwards after her leaping attack - only to find her leg snagged by Kasumi somewhere in the exchange and unable to move the way she wants it to. She tries, mostly by raw strength - once she's touched down, she pulls, braced only on her other foot - but Kasumi's leverage is such that she can't break the grip!

Hopping on her foot, Nagi does her best to avoid what she knows is coming - but no, Kasumi knows what she's doing. The kick doesn't quite sweep her leg out from under her, but the finish of the throw certainly does, sending her to land hard on her back.

It knocks the air out of Nagi, but she tries to not let that stop her, rolling away to avoid getting kicked while she's down and beginning to rise. "Half the world saw my last fight." That may be an exaggeration, but World Warrior *is* popular and it's not like it was a dark match. It's not like dark matches exist, at this sort of tournament.

Direct as Nagi is, there's an undertone of 'say what you mean'. Though of course she doesn't actually say that, so perhaps it's not quite that direct after all... It mostly comes out as a muted irritation in her voice, slightly hard to make out because she's still trying to catch her breath after that drop.

Nagi is looking for a way in, and she sees it. A sudden lunge as she tries to get one hand on Kasumi's shoulder, pulling her in, while at the same time raising one leg (the one that got kicked) into a sudden knee strike. That's bad enough, but there is a faintest crackle of chi along her leg, amplifying the strike! And, also, a hint of something red beneath the skin that fades quickly, easy to miss.

COMBATSYS: Kasumi full-parries Nagi's Charge Kick ES!!

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Nagi             0/-------/--=====|=====--\-------\0           Kasumi

[KASUMI]
Nagi rolls out of the way just in time to narrowly avoid Kasumi's heel impacting the wooden floor with a resounding thud, the ninja having flipped forward into a splits kick landing as a follow up to her throw. The shinobi in blue recovers quickly, pushing off with her back foot up to an easy standing, though she doesn't pursue just yet now that her opponent has regained her footing.

The way she watches Nagi, the hesitation to press her momentary advantage in momentum to keep her target on the defensive... they combined to form an impression that Kasumi is wary of the other fighter even though her expression maintains hints of a soft smile. Maybe she thinks there's more tricks hidden away than were revealed in the battle against the Titan of Muay Thai? Or is it something else?

Nagi responds, attitude in her voice, and the Mugen Tenshin prodigy's smile warms a touch more though the shift is accompanied by an almost wistful look to her eyes. The standoffish attitude... a bit like her sister Ayane who was never not armed with an acerbic remark at the ready.

Kasumi blinks once, her expression becoming more focused. Nagi is on the offense again and she can't let her guard down for an instant. The direct aggression is a style she is used to contending with and one she is quick to respond to. The reach for her shoulder is successful, but Kasumi is already in motion the moment Nagi's hand touches her, sweeping her opposing up in a circular motion from inside, up, and then out, both serving to deflect aside the grasping arm but then, an instant later, secure it under her own arm, once again locking Nagi in place for a brief moment.

The threatening knee isn't ignored either as Kasumi's foot snaps up to meet it, the rising chi infused knee cracking against the bottom of the ninja's sole as she uses it to launch herself into a backflip while releasing Nagi's captured arm. Her other foot targets the young woman's jaw as Kasumi flips up and back into what looks like it will be a graceful escaping arc...

Only for the ninja to vanish at the apex of her flip, leaving behind a swirling fluffy of pink blossoms and the lingering scent of cherry trees on the cool mountain air.

The exile would reappear behind Nagi in that instant with a second swirling cloud of sakura petals accompanying her. Clearly hoping to catch her mid-stagger from the kick to her jaw, Kasumi surges forward into a strong dashing right elbow to the upper spine of the more instinctual fighter.

For all her quiet mannerisms, it's clear that when it comes to striking, the shinobi aims to win as fiercely and efficiently as possible. There's no time for words now, the entire exchange taking place in under a second!

COMBATSYS: Nagi blocks Kasumi's Oboro Zukiyo EX.

[         \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////////////  ]
Nagi             0/-------/=======|=====--\-------\0           Kasumi

[NAGI]
Nagi's style seems to put her on the offense more often than not. Oh, she's hardly helpless defensively - she wouldn't have gotten this far if she was! - but her preference is for being on the attack and seizing the initiative, not waiting around to deal with whatever is thrown at her.

So her plan is to keep Kasumi off-balance and unable to capitalize on whatever weakness she herself shows, but this time it does not work. Kasumi keeps *Nagi* off-balance instead, leaping off her knee and using it for momentum. Nagi uses her arm to absorb the worst of the impact rather than taking it on her chin, and is about to strike back - when Kasumi disappears completely!

Nagi has never fought someone who teleports like that, but she knows what *she* would do, and she whirls. The elbow gets caught in her cupped palms by bare inches as she lets out a breath out, a hissing sound of impact through her teeth.

Damn, Nagi thinks to herself. She's all speed. How is she going to deal with that?

Nagi could let herself change. Her body wants to. She can feel it as the adrenaline rises; what starts out as a comfortable warmth is turning into an unpleasant heat, not yet painful but harder to push down. She does anyway, as much to prove to herself that she *can* as anything else. It's visible as a tension in her stance, and a bit of a rising flush in her cheeks as it keeps building within her, burning power that wants to get out.

Nagi goes for a jabbing strike with her left hand, but it's a feint and she turns it into a pair of more powerful hooks, one after another, to try to keep Kasumi moving in the way *she* wants her to instead of zipping all over the place, like - well, like a ninja!

COMBATSYS: Nagi successfully hits Kasumi with Fierce Strike.
- Power hit! -

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Nagi             1/-------/=======|=======\=------\1           Kasumi

[KASUMI]
Driving her elbow against Nagi's palms, Kasumi is forced to a stop, leaning against the guard before flexing her forward leg to correct for the successful defense. Drawing her arms up and pivoting to turn her left shoulder back toward Nagi, she's caught mid-transition by the swift jab.

Not anticipating it for the feint that it is, she adjusts her recovery to lean out of its anticipated path, already preparing to take advantage for what she expects to be a new opening in which to counter attack. But doing so has her stepping right into the first strong hook that hammers her in the temple, sending her reeling, defenses shattered for a brief moment of seeing stars.

Catching herself, she tries to pull out of the stagger, turning back in to once again insert her own counter strike into the middle of the exchange, but Nagi's momentum delivers the second hook right between the shinobi's eyes, sending Kasumi sliding back without control this time.

Coming to rest, eyes squinted shut, she forces them open with a quick shake of her head as she tries to blink her vision clear.

"Good one," she admits ruefully, already back on the attack, fully cognizant of what kind of striking power her opponent is able to dish out now.

Once more she'll aim to get close, moving as a blur of blue and white, sweeping up with her left arm in an attempt to hook Nagi's foreward most limb and pull her off balance by it.

At the same time, she's twisting to the left, bringing her right elbow forward, then launching herself forward from point blank range, aiming to deliver a crushing elbow strike toward the other young woman's stomach through a potentially destabilized guard.

As with the previous attacks, she's fiercely fast, but Nagi has proven that she won't be so easily overwhelmed by speed alone!

COMBATSYS: Kasumi successfully hits Nagi with Oboro Gake.

[             \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////////////////////         ]
Nagi             1/---====/=======|=======\==-----\1           Kasumi

[NAGI]
Nagi knows it's a solid hit as soon as she connects, and she presses her advantage by leaning into the second blow, amplifying the pushback as Kasumi slides to a stop.

And at the 'good one', Nagi grins. It's a fierce grin, sure - but it's better humor than she's shown so far! "I try," she says. Though she's not so easygoing as to lower her guard after one successful strike - Kasumi's already shown her that she can turn it around in an instant.

And she makes a pretty good try at it! Coming in as fast as she does - well, it's faster than Nagi is. Though Nagi might have the head on raw power, speed is Kasumi's advantage and she uses it well. It's fast enough that Nagi's own evasion of the blow is lagging behind.

The elbow strikes right into Nagi's stomach, and it's half like hitting flesh, half something closer to a shell as light dances along Nagi's body! This time she doesn't force it down - either she can't or she chooses not to, and the light fully surrounds her for a heartbeat or two as it hides her from view. Not even a silhouette.

And then it clears, leaving her transformed. Some red material like chitin or shell covers her body in random patches, most obvious on her lower legs - which are completely covered from the knee down, and ridges of it formed above the knee too. Her arms are even more dramatically transformed, shaped more like gauntlets than hands in an unnatural-looking red with white patterns, a blade extending from her right arm. She lost a boot again, and her top is missing - she's covered only with chitin across her chest.

Her mismatched eyes focus on Kasumi, one white and red and one red and white. She meets her gaze, for a moment, and nods -

And then goes on the attack! Nagi rushes forward, faster than she was before at a short dash. She isn't charging quite at Kasumi, but alongside next to her - not that it makes a difference, because her blade lashes out as she rushes, using it like a sword as she sweeps it with all her momentum behind it before slowing to a stop.

Of course, by that point, Kasumi may already be cut.

COMBATSYS: Kasumi instinctively blocks Nagi's Final Farewell ES.

[             \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////           ]
Nagi             0/-------/----===|=======\===----\1           Kasumi

[KASUMI]
She feels the difference immediately, as her elbow strikes 'cleanly'. Dermal armament? Is it always active? Or is it something she can target on demand to specific locations of her body? She'd seen the full transformation in Nagi's inaugural World Warrior appearance, but hadn't picked up on the more subtle uses of what she can do. Now she's getting to experience it first hand and it leaves her wondering more about what degree of control her potentially temperamental opponent has over it.

But more of personal interest to the shinobi in blue is... how did she get these powers? She doesn't seem like a darkstalker, but rather a human with something supernatural going on with them... Super natural, or mad science perhaps?

Now is hardly the time to ask, however, as she disengages following her elbow strike, taking a couple steps back. She feels it before she sees it - that surge in power, that manifestation of whatever energy is responsible for the extreme alterations to her opponent's physique.

If she had not been mentally prepared for it prior to the match, it might have been more alarming to see in person. She'll need to be even more on her toes in light of this transformation. She felt from two solid punches alone what Nagi's striking power was capable of after all. And of course there's... the blade. That's what Kasumi was watching out for more than anything.

Nagi dashes forward, closing the distance between them before gliding past, executing a vicious swipe that threatens to dig deep with all that momentum behind it.

There's a sound of slashing as Kasumi staggers away following Nagi's strike, releasing a pent up breath as she glances down at her left arm. Slowly, the azure armguard on that arm splits in half and falls to the floor with a clack, and a shallow line of red traces up her arm to a slash through her left sleeve, thin beads of blood seeping to the surface of cut skin.

Pivoting to Nagi to avoid taking her eyes off her, Kasumi's expression is somber now, jaw set, lips pressed tightly. The ringing in her ears from the earlier hooks is starting to fade now, but now the threat she faces has amplified just as she suspected it would.

Ignoring the pain in her left arm, she returns to her ready stance to center herself.

"Who did that to you?"

Her tone carries with it a certain level of threat - not for her opponent, but for whoever supposedly made her this way.

"Was it Ultratech? DOATech?"

Those would be possible explanations if super science was to blame. Or maybe it's genetic manipulation?

"NESTS?"

She shakes her head. She can't relax her offense now. She needs to keep the pressure on.

Surging forward, she closes the distance in a blur, leaning in low with a backhanded knife hand toward Nagi's more guarded knee. But it's a feint as an instant later, Kasumi launches herself into a rising strike with her left knee, only for her right knee to slam up as a follow-up blow.

Her ascent isn't enough to take her over her opponent's head, so if she fails to knock her back, she'll be stuck landing pretty much point blank in front of her... but she'll cross that road when she gets there!

COMBATSYS: Nagi endures Kasumi's Reppu Renkyaku.

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Nagi             0/-------/--=====|=======\====---\1           Kasumi

[NAGI]
Honestly, it's less that Nagi is capable of subtle nuances in the use of her power and more that her attempts to hold it back are not entirely successful. But it *looks* like she knows what she's doing, and she's certainly not going to say otherwise!

How would you? Just walk up and say 'by the way, I'm only about half under control, but I probably won't kill you by mistake'? Somehow Nagi doesn't think that would go over well at all!

Nagi flicks the tiny bit of blood off her blade. It doesn't seem to adhere at all to the weapon; it looks as clean as when it appeared on her arm. She just *looks* at Kasumi with her mismatched eyes, waiting for the assault.

It doesn't come immediately. Questions, instead!

"Why?" she asks, slightly sharp. "Don't worry. It's not contagious. But if you just want to goggle at the poor mutant, do it somewhere else. Or take a picture; it'll last longer." Not contagious past her, anyway. She remembers being attacked before she changed, but she's never done it to anyone else, and on her more depressive days, she isn't sure if she was infected or if she'd always had this inside her.

But no. She has to think it was that one Gear. Which is is not an organization at all, as far as she knows - she wouldn't know if they worked for one. Though Nagi has never heard of NESTS before. Something for later.

Kasumi comes in hard and fast, and this time Nagi trusts to her armor to take some of it. She twists to take the impacts on plate and not bare skin, a series of crunching thumps that hurt a lot more than she wants to admit right through it; sure, it disperses the impact a bit, but the whole under-plate area is going to bruise, worst around the edges where it digs in. The human body - or the Gear body, for that matter - isn't really meant to be patchwork like this...

But it does mean that Nagi doesn't go back more than a step, and with a quick shove of her own, forces Kasumi to land in front of her. It puts Nagi in a good position, and she takes advantage of it. Without using the blade, even; a powerful punch with her gauntleted left hand is followed up with by kicks, using the solid impact of armored legs and feet rather than any blade. It's accompanied with a roar, somewhere between frustration and stress relief. It feels good to fight, after all... at least for Nagi it does!

COMBATSYS: Nagi successfully hits Kasumi with Massacre.

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Nagi             0/-------/=======|>>>>>>>\>>>>>>>\2           Kasumi

[KASUMI]
Nagi's heated response doesn't initially draw a strong reaction from the Tenshin Mugen exile, Kasumi regarding her levelly - and perhaps even with a touch of concern that might just aggravate her more. But as she finishes with her acerbic response, the inquisitive shinobi actually responds with a wistful smile. Something about this girl with the chip on her shoulder reminds her of her own half-sister. Every exchange a landmine, every comment a weapon.

But then she's moving to land her attack, taking no more time to speak, successfully connecting with the blow even if does leave her landing in front of Nagi with almost no space between them. Perhaps she had hoped to knock her back further, not realizing the resilience the partial transformation would give her opponent.

Trying to retreat quickly, Kasumi isn't able to get more than a half-step back before the altered young woman swings her heavy looking left hand. An attempt to slip around it is far from successful and the fist slams into the side of the young ninja's head, staggering her and leaving her an easy target for the kicks that follow.

The impacts send her spinning on her feet, tripping away from Nagi, though she does manage to keep from falling outright. Catching herself, she turns toward Nagi, eyes narrowed a little as blood seeps down along her temple on the side of her head.

"No," she replies, the hurt in her voice more likely from the blows she just took than the rejection from the fiery half-Gear. "But I've never seen anything quite like it. If someone did this to you against your will and-" She blinks then shakes her head, perhaps realizing now wasn't a time to get answers out of Nagi.

"Nevermind," Kasumi states. "I understand."

She slips easily back into her ready stance, forcing herself to ignore the pain throbbing in the side of her head, her sides, her cut arm. She needs to end this fast now that Nagi has tapped into that more dangerous side of her.

"Perhaps another time."

Kasumi leans forward, knees bending, feet planted, with her rear foot bent so that she braces against her toes. And then she rockets at Nagi, a streak of blue and white. From two meters out, the ninja hops into a spin kick that has her slamming her heel out at head level. She'd continue the spin as she lands, turning around into a follow up strike at chest level. Feet on the ground, she lunges forward with a right elbow strike designed to bring her in close enough and stagger Nagi enough that she gets a grip on one of Nagi's arms in the aftermath. Twisting it to leave her opponent open, Kasumi follows up up with driving her knee upward, looking ready to follow it up with another strike but simply... vanishes instead, relaxing Nagi and leaving behind only swirling sakura petals.

She reappears at Nagi's side, left leg planted, right leg already chambered to deliver a flurry of kicks, each blurring into the next as she targets any unguarded points she can.

Trying to defend against the ninja might prove tricky as Kasumi spins on her left foot again, vanishing for an instant and appearing on Nagi's side, left leg planted again, right leg already slamming out with a crushing side kick meant to knock her opponent clear away and potentially right off the raised platform of the Koku An dojo!

In the aftermath, Kasumi slides to a stop. Standing upright, she turns around once, expression somber, eyes sweeping over the dojo to take in the results of the battle. The Koku An seems to have weathered this battle well enough with minimal collateral damage inflicted by the two combatants. The questions in the Mugen Tenshin exile's mind were hardly satisfied by her fiery opponent. But that doesn't mean she's given up on discovering more eventually into the secret behind the other young woman's monstrous transformation...

Quietly, Kasumi exhales, rubbing her sliced arm with a slow shake of her head. She needs to get better. To come this close... how can she hope to take down the corporations that cause so much harm if she can't even defeat the byproducts of their mad science?

Shaking her head one last time, she turns and with her next step, vanishes into a swirling cloud of drifting sakura petals, the lingering scent of spring left in her wake.

COMBATSYS: Kasumi has left the fight here.

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

Log created on 23:29:58 09/26/2023 by Kasumi, and last modified on 12:48:56 10/15/2023.