Match of the Millennium

Description: Last time, on the Warrior's Road: Ichika says, "Maybe when we do have the opportunity to work together, it will be as equals, rather than teacher and student. I will certainly be striving to make it happen!" Mint extends her hand outward to Ichika: "We'll work together sooner or later. I got a feelin' you are only goin' up from here." The story picks up from here in Hokkaido, at the tail end of the cherry-blossom season.

[ICHIKA]
There is something poetic about making a pilgrimmage just to see the last few cherry blossoms that will grace Japan before this year's bloom is done. Ichika had been quite taken with the thought after Mint's message had reached her. Sapporo hadn't been an impossible journey from her little island getaway, and so she had packed up her tent and her things, and simply changed the planned itinery.

How freeing it is to be working to her own schedule. For the first time in her life, she has nobody else telling her where she needs to go, what she needs to do. It's... liberating, in a way that nothing else has been. And though there are times it gets lonely, she has been surprised by how comfortable she is with her own company.

Her parents are only a phonecall away. The exploits of her friends fill more FightTube videos and social media posts than she could ever hope to keep up with. It will be good to see everyone again; but as she comes to find herself, it is good to meet that person as well.

Ichika's response to Mint's message had been brief - a thumbsup, and a 'I will be there until the last blossom falls'. Which is maybe more dramatic than she intended it to sound. But she's not lying, either. The cherry blossom trees are holding on as best they can, but the little park is already fairly blanketed with petals - and among them, this bright and clear day, sits Ichika.

The girl still wears her Team Thunder uniform. It is a beautiful thing and something she is not yet ready to leave behind. And she sits with her sword across her lap, her eyes closed, beneath the boughs of the gently-swaying trees. It is a good place to meditate and think; a park in the middle of a city, a blending of the natural world and civilisation.

She's been coming here for a few days now, with her little pack lunch and flask of tea, to contemplate. Enough so that there are a few people who have taken to lingering and snapping shots on their phones, waiting for -something- to happen. It is amusing.

Perhaps today will be the day they are no longer disappointed.

[MINT]
Minal Panesh isn't an overtly religious person. Her adherence to the Veda would likely rank in the bottom 50th percentile -- and that's likely only if she can get extra credit for meritorious deeds. She follows the faith in her own way -- and she feels that her independent, free spirit leaves her more receptive to seeing how other people follow their own paths in life. There's just no cumbersome baggage to get in the way.

Similarly, she's missing some baggage here in Hokkaido, due to a logistics failure on the airline's part. Her custom, giant-sized KNUCKS were fine -- they were checked at the gate -- but she'd used the loss to justify some local purchases. If she were in the States it might be tough to find an outfit sized appropriately for the fun-sized Marine, but here in Japan, she'd managed to find a layered outfit within the light green hues she's known to favor. She'd chosen a loose spring jacket made of ribbed, light green cotton, worn over top of a dark grey camisole-style shirt. Probably the -biggest- tell that the khaki trousers she's wearing aren't the ideal fit for the tomboy is the noticeable lack of pockets.

None of the locals would be gawking at that though. They'd be staring at the hulking monstrosities in the rucksack frame on her shoulders -- or the fact that the micro-Marine is jaunting along as if they don't weigh more than a pound apiece. Or maybe they'd be staring at her translucent prosthetic hands. Or perhaps the cheery smile on her face that could rival the sun for brightness. After all -- one couldn't ask for a nicer day.

She's also carrying a small box wrapped up with a bow, toting it before her with great care as if it's got something delicate inside.

It wouldn't take her long to spot the girl with a spiked jacket sitting with a sword across her lap. As soon as she does, Mint hastens her pace to make the anticipated meeting happen that much sooner. Her eyes glint with good cheer as she approaches, one lime green hand rising in a wave.

"Kasumoto-san! Helloooooo!"

The dark-skinned Marine slows to a stop just before Ichika, bowing slightly -- though, she's also holding the box out to Ichika.

"Thanks for waiting around for me! It's been one adventure after another... Oh! This is for you!"

Closer inspection would show that it's a gift box from a bakery in Metro City. "Biscotti from one of my favorite bakeries! They're sweet, but not -too- sweet. I figured you might like them!"

Once the gift is delivered, she seems to be positively ecstatic. "How've you been?"

[ICHIKA]
Ichika's eyes open as Mint gets closer, and she smiles to see her friend approach. She really is a completely different girl to the nervous teenager who had so anxiously met Mint in the hotel lobby all those months ago. She rises to her feet and sheathes her sword in one smooth motion, "Panesh-san, it is good to see you again!" She says, brightly, dipping in a quick bow to greet the diminutive marine.

"Oh that's, so kind of you. Thank you." She says, taking the treats and setting them down with her pack lunch. "I ah. Feel a little guilty now that I didn't think to find you anything. I shall have to make up for it next time!" There's a laugh, and the teenager scratches behind the back of her head, before she turns to gesture to the cherry blossoms, all around.

"They are magnificent, aren't they?" She says, "It has been a pleasant place to rest. As you say, one adventure after another..."

She is still smiling when she turns back to face Mint more fully, "I am doing great. After spending so much time in America, it has been wonderful to reconnect with my home. The world is a beautiful place, and there's so much of it to see, but I think here, Japan, will always have a special place in my heart."

She gives a small shake of her head, then. "It has also been nice to just... take things at my own pace, for a little while. I don't know how much longer the world will let me keep doing that, but for now, I have no obligations to anyone but myself. It's, freeing. I don't think I understood the weight that I was carrying for others until I set it down."

There's certainly truth to that; throughout the entirety of the NFG, Ichika had striven not only to prove herself, but to carry the expectations of her team, her mentors, her school, her family... aside from a small blip with the family, they had always been supportive, but there were obviously times when it had all felt like it was getting on top of the girl. Now, she is free from that, and it sure looks like she is flourishing.

"How have you been? You must be very proud to have coached the fighter who proved herself the best among us!"

[MINT]
"Nah, seein' you is treat enough! You look great!" Her smile is positively radiant -- right up until it isn't, when she oversells the disgust she purportedly feels towards the outfit's branding. "Aside from, you know, -Thunder-, ughhhh... " Mint squelches those bad vibes after a moment, replacing her expression with a teasing smile. "Kidding, of course. I just figured you could use somethin' sweet after all your time in the wilderness and whatnot!"

She... Doesn't seem like she's in any great hurry for Ichika to 'make up for it'. Feels rude to ask, since the sixteen-year-old is traveling out-of-pocket all by her lonesome. Would have felt even weirder to the Marine if Ichika -did- have something to give her. She shuffles her feet lightly -- though once she realizes that Ichika's actually out-professionalling her, Mint lets out a small chuckle.

"I'm really glad you're able to connect with home like this. Japan's got... So many nooks and crannies to it, and it's fantastic that you're taking the time to explore it all!"

Humor is never far from Mint's expression, and as Ichika takes about carrying weight...

"Yeah, you deserve a break. You worked hard to figure out every one of your challengers and it really did pay off. Not just for you, but I could see traces of your guidance in Chevy and Buck too."

She can't really say much for the -rest- of the team -- considering that it didn't seem like they'd spent any appreciable amounts of time together. So she doesn't say anything there.

How has -Mint- been though? The micro-Marine laughs. Partly because a more petty person might think Mint came to -gloat- about the issue Ichika brings to light. As it is, Mint's smile dims a smidgen at that.

"She... did good -- and I'm glad I was there for her when she really needed the support."

Mint's smile is guarded, as she laces her prosthetic fingers together before her.

"Haven't kept up with her lately though. She's kinda gone on her own way. Hope she's finding herself now, coming to the same kind of discoveries you are."

There was a time in which Mint would have taken the opportunity to voice the things Djamila did that aggravated her to no end. But... Ichika -had- reminded her to be tactful, so she's keeping that in mind.

"Me, though? I'm doin' great! We've been drillin' down into engineering for work, so I'm grateful for any chance I can get where I can surface for some fresh air. I still pop into Southtown whenever I can, too."

She scratches her cheek. Maybe she doesn't need to get into specifics there, either.

"Mostly just keeping my head down." She raises her hand, parallel to the ground, to indicate her short stature. "I mean, not that's -tough-" she admits, barking out a laugh.

[ICHIKA]
There's a soft laugh from Ichika at the faux-disgust that Mint shows, regarding her uniform. "It could have been Metal." She teases right back, but she doesn't linger on that; the fact that she can poke fun at something which had caused a serious rift is probably a good sign of the girl's growing emotional intelligence. "Team Thunder... will always be a part of me, and I am very grateful for the lessons that they taught. That's why I am still choosing to carry this with me. I want them to know that if they ever need me, I will answer."

There is another smile brought to her lips as her homeland is mentioned, and she nods her head. "I realised, I hadn't seen very much of Japan at all." She says, "I climbed Mount Fuji, but otherwise, it was all Southtown. And what I had seen in books. One of the most valuable lessons that the New Fighting Generation proved to me was that books can only contain a small piece of a thing. The lessons that really stick with a person... cannot be written down."

So very different to the kind of sentiment she would have expressed at the start of her journey, but it is true; and not something a person can understand, until they have lived it. Seen the sight that cannot be pinned with words, experienced the emotion that eludes the poet's pen. It was the folly and naivety of youth to think that everything worth knowing she had learned from her studies. Her studies had provided a frame; it was the journey that provided the painting to go inside it.

The smile does dim, just a little, when her one-time rival is mentioned. Especially that Mint doesn't know where she is. She only nods her head. "I hope." Ichika says, after some thought, "That victory brought her everything she wished that it would." It did seem to be such an important thing to her fellow fighter, didn't it?

"Engineering!" She exclaims, though, and brightens even further at that. "Does that mean that you've been working on upgrades?" She asks, which, given the prosthetics in question - those massively oversized knucks for the undersized fighter - is probably not an unreasonable assumption to make. The smile becomes more of a -grin- when the self-effacing joke comes... and perhaps it is inevitable, what the girl says next.

"I did promise myself." She says, "That I would challenge you to a fight, when I felt I was no longer just a student. And I have made... considerable, progress, since the finals. My return to Mount Fuji and across the rest of Japan has given me... context, that I was definitely lacking in Metro City. Would you like to see?"

[MINT]
Mint wobbles sideways as if Ichika had served her a right hook instead of a verbal jab. Baring her teeth for an expression that's equal parts chastened and amused, the New Jerseyan nonetheless sticks to her script.

"Yeah, maybe you did alright, kid -- all our branding was designed by AI. I mean, heck, I'm lucky to only have -five- fingers right now." She wiggles her prosthetic hands with a glint of good cheer in her eyes.

She seems to be more or less on-board with the lessons Ichika has picked up for herself. Resting one hand on her hip, Mint nods along in concert. "Yeah, that's the truth. You're seein' the world in a whole new light now. I think back to what -my- scrub-ass life was like at sixteen and it just don't *even*."

Her face betrays a brief flicker of shame for using such coarse language in front of Ichika -- but she hopes the sentiment makes up for her loose phrasing.

Though, Mint is left even more impressed at how succinctly Ichika's able to compliment her rival. It's enough to stave off an immediate joke from the fast-talking New Jerseyan, which may be saying something.

"Yeah, I'd like to think so! Djamila had a lot goin' on when she started NFG, and... I hope the path is a little clearer for her now." Mint leaves it at that with an open-ended grin.

"Always!" she answers, swinging her shoulders. She hooks her thumbs under the shoulder straps; her overstuffed rucksack frame seems practically weightless as she sways side to side. "Most of 'em have been small tweaks though -- fine tuning to adjust the shock mounting, smoothing out the thrust vectoring. It's pretty much dialed in nowadays -- I don't need to bust out a new kit every few months like I used to, thankfully!"

Ichika's question seems to be a deliberate pivot -- and it's one that draws a big smile from Mint. "Sure!"

Mint lets that thought linger in the air for a moment, before feigning surprise. "... Oh, wait. Do you mean that -this- is the challenge?"

Of course, the engineer had anticipated the challenge for quite some time; she wouldn't have brought her battle gauntlets along otherwise. And as she slips out of one of her shoulder straps, and lets the rucksack frame thud into the dirt, there's just one more reminder of how -heavy- those gauntlets really are. Thankfully the ground won't divot -too- much from that...

She winks back to Ichika, as she pops a safety switch on her left gauntlet, and starts to shove her left hand inside. "Are you -sure- you're ready for me to go full-throttle though? I'd hate to put you in the hospital after all that time you'd spent self-reflecting..."

Metal plates shift. Servo-powered clamps latch closed. And Mint lifts her left gauntlet up, clenching her heavy metal hand into a satisfied fist.

"Or do you want me to go easy on you for old times' sake?"

Her teeth shine back at Ichika as she starts the suit-up process for her right hand. She already knows the answer -- but there's still the trash-talking motions to go through, first. It's just how things go!

[ICHIKA]
Ichika doesn't seem offended in the least by the course language. It actually draws a small laugh from her; it's not the first time she's been complimented for her apparent maturity, and to the extent that is true... it definitely comes down to her having stopped sweating the small stuff quite so much as she used to. If Mint was cussing up a storm full-Marine style, it'd probably be a different story! But the one word only makes the Japanese teenager grin.

"It has been very liberating to realise that... the choice is mine." Ichika says, by way of explanation. Something that a lot of children her age can probably relate to. All the expectations that had weighed so heavily on her for so long had come to a head in the tournament - she'd needed to directly disobey her parents, and stop fearing about the reputation of her school, and in both instances... the world hadn't come to an end. Her life had continued on.

This most definitely is the challenge, and the pivot definitely is deliberate. Ichika's smile only grows wider when the heavy gauntlets crash into the ground at Mint's feet. "They really are very impressive pieces of engineering." The girl says, marveling. "I'm glad that you've dialed them in, as well. I imagine it would be very frustrating to have to keep tinkering with them. Upkeep on my sword is time-consuming enough, and that is... a far simpler weapon." To say the very least! It's difficult not to be amused by the difference in technology; Mint's gauntlets are state-of-the-art, custom designed and tailored to give her optimal punching power...

When Ichika draws her sword, it is the absolute opposite. A simple length of steel, never designed for anyone in particular least of all a sixteen year old girl. But it is well-cared for. As much as she had put it through over the last year, she has never let the edge dull, and hanging from the old leather scabbard there remains the bucket charm that her dearest friend had gifted her, another small reminder to carry with her about the connections made and bonds forged.

"I have learned a lot more from my losses than I have from my victories, Panesh-san. A concussion would be a small price to pay for what you can show me." The teenager says, as she takes a few paces back - framing herself against the falling cherry blossoms as the wind picks up. "I would never ask you to hold back. I will give you everything that I have in turn! Besides. I am the one with the home-field advantage, here. I hope you won't take me too lightly."

Those bright blue eyes of hers are alive with excitement, now; and a little amusement, too. She hadn't actually drawn her blade against another fighter since the end of the tournament. She had thought about it a lot, trained a lot, honed her skills and techniques to - what she thought - was the highest level they had ever been...

But there is only ever one way to prove these things, and she is eager to see how all of that effort will pay off in practice!

[MINT]
"Frustrating? Heh... Not really! I like to think of it more like a fun puzzle!"

When her gauntlets malfunctioned, sure, it -was- disheartening to be unable to deal with that right then and there. Still preferential to taking damage to her actual body -- which has happened more times than she'd liked, of course.

"Upkeep gets... easier, actually, the more iterations I go through. There's too many things for -me- to keep track of, so I just made the gauntlets to where they tell me themselves when something's out of whack!"

As opposed to, well, a sword. It's easy to tell when it's in need of maintenance. Even if it may be, well, time-consuming.

"Simple though it may be, Kasumoto-san, you know how to use it. It's a mark of your talent and skill that folks walk away without losing limbs. I can't say the same would be true if I had to use your sword."

Of course, when the praise is put on the other foot, Mint shakes her head with a grin. "I aim for zero concussions when I fight people, just as a general rule. But we'll see how it goes!"

The latching sequence completes for her right gauntlet. Mint rises up, elbows lifting to either side of her hips as her wrists rotate slightly through pre-fight checklists. She spares a glance to either side to confirm the proper operation, before turning her gaze to Ichika.

There are, well, a -few- observers starting to take notice. It's a public place, after all.

"Nah. I've seen what you can do. You're gettin' me at a hundred percent, Ichika -- nothing less'll do."

Mint gives Ichika a quick wink, before taking a few steps away from her rucksack -- she's positioning herself so that she can react safely no matter what Ichika has in store.

The turbines in her gauntlets start whirring to life -- the intakes start to take on a gentle orange hue. They're noticeable, but not -loud-; perhaps that's due to the tuning she's been carrying out.

She lifts her fists into a boxer's ready stance -- modified, of course, for the gauntlets' gargantuan size.

"Whenever you're ready to light this off, of course!"

COMBATSYS: Mint has started a fight here.

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

[ICHIKA]
Ichika smiles at the compliment she's paid, and gives a small nod of her head in turn. It's... true enough. There certainly are a lot of people who would hurt themselves or others trying to use the sword. The deadly nature of it is, in fact, something she has spent an awful lot of time mulling over recently. But... "A sword can be many things." She says, softly, "An instrument of war. A bringer of death. Or, a shield, as well. I try to use it as an instrument... through which I can show my Truth."

As the conversation takes on this more serious turn, people definitely are starting to take notice. Ichika's presence here these past few days has had rumours swirling, and now it seems that those rumours are going to turn into something material. No doubt there'll be more than a few social media posts about this! Mint's humming fists and Ichika's blade, clashing against the last cherry blossoms in Japan? It's a very dramatic image.

The smile becomes a broader grin still with the promise that Mint won't hold back. "Excellent." She says, "Let's take out next step down the Warrior's Road... together!"

That seems to be all the warning that Ichika is inclined to give Mint. The girl falls into her stance; sword raised in both hands, pointing directly towards the marine - and then she is springing forwards, a coil of cherry blossoms trailing out behind her as she makes her approach.

It's a simple attack; a feint to the left, and then Ichika is coming in fast to try and slash the blade down the inside of Mint's right prosthetic elbow. Those massive oversized gauntlets definitely command respect - but at the same time, Ichika is hoping that once the marine has committed herself to a direction, they'll prove unwieldy when it comes to trying to correct her guard!

COMBATSYS: Ichika has joined the fight here.

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Mint             0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0           Ichika

COMBATSYS: Ichika successfully hits Mint with Quick Strike.

[    \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////////////]
Mint             0/-------/---====|=------\-------\0           Ichika

[MINT]
When Mint first signed up to help sponsor the inaugural NFG season, her actual experience with swords was practically non-existent. She'd fought people who wielded swords, to be sure, but actually wielding the weapons just wasn't something she had been interested in.

Things changed when the unusual confluence of talents in Team Metal forced her to take a more critical look. They used weapons she wasn't familiar with; she'd have to get familiar in order to provide actionable feedback. And now, she understands the sword a little better: particularly the textbook manners in which a master of kenjutsu or iaijutsu would be likely to swing.

"Mm, right! If you can make your weapon act as a shield, a separate shield is just dead weight." It's clear that the corporal is familiar with the application of weapons in warfare, even beyond having watched the battles Ichika has fought.

However, as she raises her gauntlets, there is a slight problem.
The technique Ichika uses was not in any of the textbooks she researched.

Granted, there -isn't- really a textbook approach to dealing with someone with gauntlets comparable in size to a medium dog -- but analogs exist, and none of the study cases matched. If Mint has her hands -up-, then swinging the blade -down- doesn't seem like it'd be a good plan.

But Ichika knows that Mint isn't a robot, but a flesh-and-blood person, and subject to misjudging a feint. Plus -- Mint is facing a home-team advantage without the benefit of a warmup -- all due to her own hotheaded nature. So when Ichika swings one way, Mint sways sideways to adapt to the katana's new position.

And when the sword suddenly moves in an unexpected fashion, Corporal Panesh jerks her head to the side in avoidance of the sword. Her right hand is a -bit- slow to adjust -- and a crimson ribbon spirals out from the injured flesh of her unprotected forearm.

"Geh..." Ichika's not aiming to dismember, so with that -very- intense flash of pain serving as warning she's able to pivot out of the path of further harm. But in the wake of that attack, it becomes clear -- from the sudden ramp-up of throttle, and the cherry blossoms suddenly fluttering away with a violent gust from the inside surface of her gauntlet -- that her gauntlets have their own thrust vectoring system.

"N-not bad..!" stammers the corporal as she demonstrates her fleet footwork in a quick sideways pivot. "That's one way to get my blood pumpin'..." she adds with a determined smile.

The turbines are both spinning up now, though. And Ichika will want to move fast if she wants to avoid Mint's response. She steps in with a quick left jab to the collarbones, huffing out a small breath. There's a small groan as she fires off a solid right cross as a follow-up -- the slice to her inner arm hurting just a smidge more than she would have liked. The engines -really- roar though as she lets out her remaining breath, thundering forward with a low body blow to Ichika's resolve!

COMBATSYS: Mint successfully hits Ichika with Knuckle Dragger.
- Power hit! -

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Mint             0/-------/---====|=====--\-------\0           Ichika

[ICHIKA]
There are a lot of things you can't learn from books. Like how to take a full-power punch from a pair of thrust-enhanced gauntlets.

Ichika's attempt to let her momentum keep her moving out of the way of the counterattack winds up leaving her completely open, and the punch slams into the teenager, sending her staggering back. "Not, bad yourself." She replies, grinning, as she lets the sword slip back into the saya at her side with a gentle 'click'. The first exchange, Ichika had found, was often the one which set the tempo for the fight - but here, both blows had landed clean. Neither had a clear technical advantage... excepting the fact that, unsurprisingly, Mint hit harder than she did.

Exciting.

She did remember, though, the conversation that they'd had before - about the pint-sized marine's difficulty with chi, where studying that aspect of her art was something that Ichika had dedicated a great deal of time to. The girl takes a deep breath, those bright blue eyes of hers focusing intently on the woman with her roaring gauntlets.

"Haa... alright, you're stronger, so let's see if I can be faster!"

And with that, Ichika explodes from her standing start. The chi she had been gathering since she sheathed her weapon is unleashed in a shining azure arc of energy that slashes out for Mint's midsection - but she doesn't stop there, following up with a series of three more brilliant sapphire slashes, hoping that she can recapture the momentum of this fight through weight of attacks alone!

COMBATSYS: Mint blocks Ichika's Lambent Assault EX.

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Mint             0/-------/--=====|======-\-------\0           Ichika

[MINT]
Mint grins as her attacks land against the teenage prodigy. The corporal's fought trainees in the Marines -- trainees with a lot more fire than common sense. Not that Ichika fits in that category of course! But, with them, a series of bread-and-butter attacks can serve as a reminder of the stakes involved in a real fight -- a signal that it's time to punch things up a notch or two.

The fact that Ichika's taking it with a grin is, of course, the sign that it's not the -end- of the spar, but just a beginning. The corporal answers Ichika and her clicking says with a grin. Shuttling her fists up and down past one another, she shuffles her feet backwards into a safer position to better observe the sword technique.

"Wouldn't want'cha to think I'm goin' easy on ya..."

The pint-sized pugilist's experiences as a mentor for the NFG sparked an interest in finding out more about chi. Her laconic boyfriend may not have had much to say about it -- but the sparring session that followed afterwards was worth much more than a thousand words. Chi hurts, sometimes a *lot*, but once one gets over the fear of not knowing, it's really just another flavor of pain for someone to get used to.

So, when Ichika explodes forward, Mint doesn't look away. It's just pain! She steps backwards, interposing her armored gauntlet into the path of the attack; the collision erupts in a fountain of sparks. Mint grits her teeth as the heat from the blade manages to work its way through the armor into what's left of her right arm -- but she holds fast, focusing on her footwork rather than relying too heavily on the metal plating.

The second and third strike are met in similar fashion: footwork resulting in a withdrawal timed with a well-placed gauntlet. Lest she be too predictable, though, she turns into a pivot for the fourth slash -- one which causes the slowed and redirected blade to bite into her thigh. "Nnngh..." she laments, hopping backwards to safety. "Close!" she notes with a pained grin.

Ichika might be starting to wear her down though. Which means Mint needs to renew her assault. Stutter-stepping backwards, she raises her gauntlets again, rolling her neck to one side then the other. Her metal fingertips flex a bit. "'course, I can be pretty speedy myself, sometimes!"

Her fingers snap into a fist in a slightly unusual sequence -- ring finger, then her index, then her middle.

And then in the next moment, Mint suddenly rushes forward. She leans forward, telegraphing a wide left hook to the ribcage -- but a sudden roar of her right gauntlet's engine propels her into an unlikely high-angle attack, aimed at subverting expectations with a power straight to the upper chest. Something that'd -normally- be off-limits for someone with merely weighted gauntlets, but a move that's perfectly attainable with variable thrusters!

COMBATSYS: Ichika instinctively blocks Mint's Mix-Up Combo.

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Mint             0/-------/---====|=======\-------\0           Ichika

[ICHIKA]
There are moments in fighting where Ichika touches something greater than herself. As Mint attempts a similar feint to the one she had opened the spar with, the synchronicity of the moment has her moving even before the pint-sized pugilist's right fist is coming in for the real blow.

*CLANG*

The impact of fist against the flat of her blade sends a heavy reverberation rolling through Ichika's arms, right the way up to her shoulders. The force of it has those heavy boots of hers digging deep into the earth, an explosion of cherry blossoms rolling out from the pair as she takes the strike on the shield she has made of her sword.

"You really do pack a punch!"

There's real admiration in Ichika's voice for that. Sure, there are people who might think that it is the prosthetics that do all the work here; but the young prodigy knows better. Those fists are an expression of Mint's Truth - lovingly crafted and made just for her. It's not as though anyone else could strap them on and get the same results. She'd forged them herself, from her own determination and ingenuity, and it was those qualities that Ichika would need to overcome if she was going to claim a victory in this battle!

Locked in close range, the girl twists suddenly - very often it is the blade of the katana that opponents see as the threat. And that's understandable! It is the most obvious and dangerous part of the weapon, and one that is most often central to her attacks.

But it isn't the only part of the sword that can be used to strike, and Ichika demonstrates this as she aims to bring the hilt crashing into the marine's solar plexus, hoping to force her to double over before she lunges upwards to crash it again into the older fighter's jaw with a burst of strength far beyond anything her slight figure ought to be able to muster up so quickly.

This is, definitely, an expansion of Ichika's technique; the girl has thought a very great deal about how she can improve upon her technique... and now, in the heat of battle, she's far less predictable than she ever was before.

COMBATSYS: Mint interrupts Innovation Drive from Ichika with Attack of Opportunity EX.

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Mint             0/-------/=======|=======\-------\0           Ichika

[MINT]
The left side is usually a -bit- harder for right-handed folks to defend against. Mint had been counting on that, along with her higher vaulting approach, to ensure success. So when her formidable fist slams into the blade, it's a bit of a surprise.

"Whoa!" exclaims Mint, pleasantly surprised. She throws her left shoulder and arm backwards, using the momentum shift to bring her back down to the ground safely. While the weight of her gauntlets is necessary to stand up to the corporal's punching power, it's also convenient in balancing herself for stability.

Sweat beads at her brow as she grins back at Ichika. "You're just full of surprises!" But she can already tell that something else is in store for her, even as she starts to bring her shoulders back to their former altitude...

All of a sudden, there it is -- the hilt of the sword slamming forward. Mint draws in her breath as she prepares to propose a trade.

The hilt slams towards her chest. And she brings her hand forward. Normally, it'd be -really- dumb- to grab the live steel of a katana. But Mint doesn't have to worry about that with her gigantic gauntlets. She wheezes as the hilt slams into her solar plexus -- and one moment later, the fingers of her left gauntlet wrap securely around Ichika's leading hand.

Mint exhales her breath -- as boxers tend to do -- while hooking her right fist into Ichika's jaw, popping -her- one before she gets a chance to get socked in the jaw herself! While the pugilist extends her arm into the blow, she also twists free of the grapple, shoving the hilt of Ichika's sword downward as she reaches over it. After all, the Marine wouldn't want Ichika to cut herself in the process!

Coughing once more as she pads backwards to disentangle herself, Mint nods in fervent approval. "Good, good! You came -real- close, there...!"

[ICHIKA]
Ichika certainly hadn't seen the grab coming. When the hilt strikes home, she has a momentary thrill of thinking that she has gotten one over on the more experienced fighter - only to find herself brought to a sudden and very firm stop by the gauntlet holding her tight. The blow that follows it up isn't as surprising; but there's very little she can do about it in this position, unless she wants to abandon her sword - something that might as well signal the end of the fight right then and there.

The precocious prodigy isn't about to go down so easily.

The clean blow still sends her sprawling, despite all her determination. Ichika's smile remains unbroken despite the need to repair her stance, however. Those brilliant blue eyes of hers have remained locked on the boxer the entire time; this fight is proving much closer than she had expected! And at last, she lets out the breath she had been holding, brings the katana back up between herself and the marine, as the small crowd watch on, delighted.

"But not close enough." Ichika says, a small laugh in her voice as she shakes her head. "Surprise is an important part of the art, isn't it? If your opponent knows what you are doing, you have to be much, much more skilled than them to succeed regardless. Predicting where an attack is coming from, what form it will take... that is so much of what determines victory."

A slow, steady breath and the girl slides the katana carefully back into place in its saya. Her hand drifts down, briefly, to set the bucket charm jangling, before she replaces her grip on her sword, and her intense gaze settles firmly on the Marine's eyes.

"I think we're both properly warmed up now, don't you, Panesh-san?" She asks, as her knees flex to bend down low. "Now, it is time to take that step forward along the Warrior's Road! Show me what your gauntlets can really do, and I will show you everything I have learned. The world is listening to us! It is time we gave it something to hear!"

COMBATSYS: Ichika issues a challenge!!

[           \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////          ]
Mint             0/-------/=======|=======\-------\0           Ichika

COMBATSYS: Ichika calculates her next move.

[           \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////          ]
Mint             0/-------/=======|=======\-------\0           Ichika

[MINT]
Mint offers a reassuring smile, punctuated by a faint, easily-missable shrug in response to the 'not close enough' comment. Earlier in Ichika's career, the statement might have merited a full response from Mint, striking down the destructive nature of self-doubt. But now, it's plain to see the humility and honesty that Ichika chooses to display; the statement is merely the door opening to a much broader, much -deeper- perspective on the strech of the Warrior's Road that she happens to be walking along.

The Marine nods back with a smile, and another light cough. She thumps the tender bruise on her chest -- hidden from view though it may be -- where the katana hilt had scored the hit just moments before.

"Heh. You -did- surprise me with it, so it wasn't for nothin'!"

Mint raises her guard again afterwards -- with Ichika, the re-sheathing of the sword can just as easily be the prelude for a fresh attack. Her eyes glance down at the sword for a moment before snapping back to meet Ichika's gaze.

But... then she's invited to take a step down the Warrior's Road. Which... says a lot about how far Ichika's assessment of her own skills has advanced in the previous months. Mint gives a lopsided grin -- which, as responses go, is a -bit- of a mercy considering the Marine's tendency to tease.

Mechanical hands open and close, clenching back into fists. Metal grinds; polymer braids buckle against one another.

"Yeah, I'd say we're both warmed up. Time for the next stage, Miss Kasumoto!"

Mint winks an eye at the precocious prodigy.

The intakes of her engines glow a fiery yellow-orange as the compressor blades within roar to life.

Suddenly, Mint takes one giant step forward, borne aloft with the power of her forearm-mounted jet engines!

"Here's one--"

In two blinks of an eye she crosses the distance to Ichika, meeting her challenge with a riotously fast hook punch at shoulder height, aimed at testing the swordswoman's mettle...

But then the whine of the engines takes on a much -higher- pitch, as Mint suddenly angles her thrust nozzles in a different direction! Cherry blossoms scatter from the sudden shift of turbine-heated air, as Mint is suddenly improbably hurled into the air to Ichika's right...

What started as a hook punch from her right hand has transitioned into a punch from -both- hands, as the pint-sized pugilist drops twin hammers onto Ichika from above!

"-- and two!"

Pneumatic pistons fire in tandem to propel her knuckles forward, giving her another two inches of reach. Mint has no illusions that Ichika's skilled enough to react to -one-, but... the girl -did- ask for a demonstration of her unique thrust-vectoring skills, right?

COMBATSYS: Mint blitzes into action and acts again!

[           \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////          ]
Mint             0/-------/=======|=======\-------\0           Ichika

COMBATSYS: Ichika blocks Mint's Hook Punch.

[            \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////            ]
Mint             0/-------/=======|=======\===----\1           Ichika

COMBATSYS: Ichika interrupts BFH from Mint with Price of Progress EX.

[                   \\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////               ]
Mint             1/-======/=======|===----\-------\0           Ichika

[ICHIKA]
Ichika returns the smile, which definitely confirms that Mint's assessment is correct. Not so long ago, 'not enough' would have hinted at the deep doubts and insecurities the girl faced. Now, it is a simple statement of fact. She has accepted that she doesn't need to be perfect in every way; that the skill of others does not diminish her own. And the fact that she sheathes her sword and settles into that lower stance is indeed something that someone who was less familiar with Ichika's style might assume leaves her more open to attack - but Mint can see the truth, of course. The girl is ready to attack, and react, at any moment.

"--Fast!"

Ichika's earlier assessment, that she might be the faster one, is certainly put to the test in that moment. As cherry blosoms swirl around the pair, the girl calls upon that World she had been referring to. Bright blue energy bursts around her in all directions, meeting the hooked punch as the younger fighter tightens her grip on the hilt of her sword.

The impromptu shield bursts in a shower of sparks, filling the world with pink petals and shimmering blue light, as the first hammerblow crashes into her shoulder. Her knee buckles, driving her to the ground--

And then she shows what she is capable of.

"Another step...!"

The pain in the girl's voice is obvious; even with the protection offered by the shield of chi, she wasn't joking about how far they've come. But pain is a temporary thing. Something she can measure and account for. By now, Ichika knows the limits of her body very, very well indeed - she's extremely aware of just how much punishment she can take, how to manage the connection she has to the flow of the world, and the limits of her own endurance.

She also knows how to push beyond those physical limits.

The second hammerblow starts, and Ichika rises to meet the marine as she descends. Like a tiny, corkscrewing rocket she crashes into Mint's descent, sending those petals and sparks scattering in all directions as she takes her up, up, up to the very tops of the trees.

"... towards the Heavens!"

And in an impossible blur of motion, the girl is suddenly behind Mint, and crashing into her with equal force to ride her back to the ground. The impact crashes heavily into the earth, and Ichika steps back, sword trembling just a little bit in her grasp. She doesn't trust for a moment that Mint is going to stay down, but the trouble with pushing past your limits is... you've /pushed past them/, and it obviously took a great deal from the girl to do so.

"Haaa...!"

[MINT]
A lot of things happen in rapid succession. A punch, a shield, a leap, a turn, a twin hammer punch. And then a rising corkscrew slash, and a cursed piggyback ride right back to ground level.

Let's start with the surprise on Mint's face at the sudden manifestation of the shield. It's one thing to witness on camera -- but it's something else entirely to feel her punch connect not with flesh and blood but with a sort of bubble, with elasticity and some sense of -mass-. Mint has experienced the dubious and worrying 'pleasure' of manifesting cold throughout some of her attacks, but when that happened, it was just a temperature shift. This... is a new and unfamiliar thing, which takes her a few moments to consider.

As luck would have it, she's got a bit of time to process the revelation on the trip upwards to the level of tree boughs. But, downside: she's also grimacing in pain from the searing slash that's propelling her upwards. Bit of a problem there!

By the time she feels Ichika's insistence upon her back, she's pretty much shelved the plan to figure out what's up with that chi shield, and returned herself entirely to the panic-inducing fear of the ground racing up to meet her.

"-- Oh, for the--"

Which is a good thing: she's able to bring both gauntlets up to defend her head. Which means the crater thoughtfully left in the grounds of the park is -mostly- dug up by heated metal and not something more sensitive like Mint's -face-. And it also means that she can gun the throttle of her turbines a bit so that some of the force is delivered into rolling down the lightly-graded hill, rather than directing it all downwards at ground zero!

So, she tumbles to a low crouch. But it's very clear from the sweat on her brow and soaking her shirt, and the tufts of muddy grass plastered to her pant legs and gauntlets, that she's gone through a few revolutions. One -- obviously -- the physical experience. But also, her understanding of how far the Thunder-themed swordswoman has evolved her style.

"Haa... haa... "

Mint's forehead creases for a moment. There's a brief instant where it looks like she might be considering: do I really want to do this??

But that instant passes. And Mint leaps right back to her feet with the aid of a small burst of gauntlet-mounted turbines.

"Okay, Miss Kasumoto, welcome to the endgame!"

There's a look of intensity on the Marine's face that... Ichika might not have seen before. And yet somehow she's still... Grinning ear to ear?!

"Just remember -- keep your arms and legs inside the car at all times." The roar of her engines gets louder and louder. "It's gonna be a bumpy ride!"

And then, in the blink of an eye, Mint races towards Ichika again! This time, her left gauntlet is raised to shield her head as she sweeps in low. Two rapid fire punches are fired off -- one at Ichika's knee, and one at her hip -- like all of Mint's attacks, tempered to bruise but stop short of breaking bone. Assisted with the pressure of her turbines, she fires off a third punch to the abdomen...

But if she's allowed to continue, her next attack wouldn't be a punch, but a hard shoulder check driven by a sudden change in her turbine thrust! The move is meant to knock Ichika backwards to give Mint room for a fully extended straight punch to the upper torso, followed by a one-two combo! Her engines would then flare, once again, as she vaults suddenly to Ichika's left, where her treads churn up soil as she builds the traction to deliver a powerful rising uppercut with her left gauntlet!

COMBATSYS: Ichika just-defends Mint's Alpha Mike Foxtrot!

[                    \\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////////////////             ]
Mint             0/-------/-----==|===----\-------\0           Ichika

[ICHIKA]
The world is listening, Ichika had said.

Mint's rough and tumble approach is something that the girl had really admired; when she'd done her research on the various potential sponsors, she'd admired the marine's tenacity and ingenuity in equal measure. She notes the moment where the woman considers holding back - and she only returns the smile when it is clear that she's not going to do that. She understands the impulse - but as that last attack had demonstrated, Ichika is certainly giving it everything that she has. She'd be disappointed if Mint did anything else.

The Endgame.

Ichika takes the sword in both hands. It stops shaking. Steady as a rock. "Yes." She says, quietly, to the roar of Mint's powered gauntlets. "A very bumpy ride."

And then Mint is on her, and Ichika just - reacts.

She twists to the left. Sparks fly as the blow meant for her knee finds the shield that her sword has become, the blow to her hip passing within an inch. The blade moves smoothly with the drawing back of Mint's fist, guiding it up and away as the girl jumps backwards.

Her left hand moves from the hilt of the sword to hold Mint's shoulder, using the momentum to twist and renew her grasp upon her katana. The old, mass-produced weapon has never looked as beautiful as it does in that moment; a shimmering arc of safety that she draws neatly across the final, one-

*CLANG*

Two-

*CLANG*

Three--!

And as the uppercut connects with the flat of the sword, Ichika's palm finds the back of it, using the steel as a point of leverage to sail high, high into the air.

She lands so lightly in those metalhead boots of hers, she doesn't disturb a single petal. Those bright blue eyes of hers, unblinking, remain focused entirely on her opponent - there isn't even a whisper from the small, gathered crowd. As though any further noise at all would somehow be disrespectful to the pair of fighters, entwined in their dance.

"Incredible." Ichika says, softly. "You feel it as well, don't you, Minal?" The smile returns, bright and dazzling. "As we walk down this Warrior's Road, we see glimpses of how far yet we can go. Thank you, for sharing this with me."

No sheathing of the blade this time. No careful gathering of energy. It's all so close to the surface, Ichika can practically feel it buzzing on her skin. All at once, the katana ignites in that brilliant, shocking sapphire hue. And then - Ichika has crossed the ground to resume the attack.

It's similar to the assault she had launched earlier; the sword flashes with trails of shining cerulean left with each cross, but it is *so* much faster than before. Her blood is pumping, her determination to show just what she can do on full display as each slash is meted out - left, right, right, high, low. With her usual precision, Ichika avoids targeting anywhere that could be truly /dangerous/ to Mint - but the pattern she carves in the air is a beautiful thing in its own right.

COMBATSYS: Ichika successfully hits Mint with Future Perfect EX.

[                          \\\\  < >  ///////////////               ]
Mint             0/-------/=======|-------\-------\0           Ichika

[MINT]
Trying to catch someone as nimble as Ichika is exhausting work! It's even more exhausting when Mint's dedicated strikes -- each one powerful enough to down a regular high-schooler on their own -- find their progress blocked by a simple metal blade, resulting in little more than a pretty show of sparks for the speechless observers!

She -had- expected that uppercut to land, though -- so it's something of a surprise when her punch ends up being the launcher that sends Ichika high into the sky! Only then, left panting from the exertion of her string of attacks, does Mint resign herself to the knowledge that Ichika has sprung out of reach -- and she brings both fists up to guard her face as she waits for the shoe(s) to drop.

"Of course..." Mint answers with a grin. The Marine's hot blood is apparently burning more fiercely than her New Jerseyan impulse to talk sass -- for she just nods in agreement, and nothing more. She's glad that Ichika can 'feel' the same sort of feeling that she does -- and that is a warmth that goes far beyond words.

What happens next, though, is a burst of speed that catches even Mint by surprise. The micro-Marine was prepared to dash sideways. But Ichika's cerulean assault gives her no time to execute that escape. There are no sparks, no sounds of collision with metal gauntlets. Even with Mint twisting and turning to make contact difficult, each sword strike is delivered unerringly to its intended target. When it's all done, Mint staggers backwards in dumbfounded amazement, her face a rictus mask of pain she's trying her damndest not to voice.

She'd appreciate the patterning more if she could look outside herself -- but as it is, she feels more like a pincushion than an art aficionado. The fact of the matter is: Ichika's pleased, so this makes her happy to some degree.

What does not make Minal Panesh happy: the wave of nausea that's beginning to overtake her. Mint is in many ways like a shark, in that if she stops moving, she feels like she might stop -living-. So she does what she can to pull her out of that nausea! Screwing her eyes shut for a moment, she draws in a big gulp of air.

"I... I hear ya, Ichika, but... Just lemme figure this out real quick, will ya...?"

Eyelids shoot open. And Mint focuses all of her attention on Ichika, shutting out the cherry blossoms, the bystanders, the pain wracking her system -- everything.

And she surges forward with a twin roar of engine thrust, closing the gap once again. Before, she was technical -- but this time, she's a dynamo of raw power, blasting forward to deliver punch after punch, one after another into the same perfect area -- her own shoulder height, which ought to plant her punches right around Ichika's center mass!

As she teeters on the verge of unconsciousness, the crayons do the Marine's speaking for her: "OOORAAAH!"

COMBATSYS: Mint has reached second wind!

[                          \\\\  < >  ///////////////               ]
Mint             0/-------/--=====|-------\-------\0           Ichika

COMBATSYS: Mint successfully hits Ichika with Foxtrot Oscar EX.

[                          \\\\  < >  //////////                    ]
Mint             0/-------/=======|===----\-------\0           Ichika

[ICHIKA]
Ichika gives a small nod, as Mint closes her eyes and tries to gather herself. There's no attempt to further push the advantage. This isn't that kind of fight. She knows how hard she has hit the other fighter; if her judgement isn't entirely wrong, Mint is running on fumes... these are the moments where things get most exciting. She's already seen one intense display of pugilistic skill. Will Mint be able to provide another?

The rather serious look on the younger fighter's face breaks into another wide smile as Mint demonstrates that - yes - she can indeed go further. Each has pushed themselves beyond what they should be able to endure, and Ichika couldn't be happier to see it. In the moments before Mint is on her, she flicks her sword to the side, slides it into her saya -

And her attempt to twist around the first punch goes horribly wrong. The blow strikes true, and the girl grunts. Cherry blossoms skid beneath her heels as she loses her balance, opening her up for the remainder of Mint's heavy punches, pushing her back, and back, and back, until her heel brush up against one of the trees. Her hand remains stubbornly locked around the hilt of her katana, the girl's teeth grit.

The last of the cherry blossoms from this particular tree fall, a pretty swirl of pink that leaves only bare branches in its wake.

And then, she strikes back. All at once, the sword is out, and Mint will have only a moment to defend herself before the entire world around Ichika becomes a storm of steel and perfectly bisected petals.

The tension that had been rising in Ichika is released in this explosion of sudden razor-sharp retaliation. Her jaw unclenches, her breathing steadies and returns to a calm, steady rate. When she is finished, assuming a lack of interruptions, her feet are once again planted steadily and her sword is slid back into its proper place at her side with a gentle.

*click*

COMBATSYS: Mint dodges Ichika's Eye of the Storm.

[                          \\\\  < >  //////////                    ]
Mint             0/-------/=======|===----\-------\0           Ichika

[MINT]
In her first professional fighting tournament -- ill-fated though it may have been -- Minal Panesh was nicknamed 'The Mind.' She'd always tried to downplay that title for herself, both out of humility and from her self-image (at the time) as a grunt first and foremost. A number of sparring sessions with Clio St Jeanne and Katashi Tairyu had helped her to understand that there's much more to her fighting style than that.

Most of the times, anyway.
Sometimes she likes to bust out with raw fury.
It's a good change of pace.

After backing Ichika against the tree, Mint backs off a moment -- opting to give the younger fighter a bit of breathing room. It isn't -just- politeness: a cornered opponent is much more apt to become a -desperate- opponent, and anything can happen then. Plus -- it gives the Marine a chance to deal with the dizziness brought on by tugging herself back from the verge of unconsciousness. There's a moment where Mint's focus seems glazed over; that moment passes with the falling of the cherry blossom. And it's all but -vanished- the instant Ichika starts to surge forward.

And the panic that jolts through her system makes her -wide- awake!

To the layperson, boxing is all about punching. But experienced boxers know that footwork matters a lot more than the actual punching: staying -out- of harm's way is the key to victory.

Turbines flare to life -- but rather than propelling Mint forward, small hatches that pop open from the sides of her gauntlets redirect the heated airflow towards Ichika instead. Keeping her gauntlets parallel to the ground, Mint's barely able to keep pace with Ichika's advancing strides -- close enough that she can feel the miniature shockwaves of Ichika's katana slicing past at supersonic speeds, but far enough to not -actually- be kissed by live steel. Wide-eyed from her sudden panic, Mint's bared teeth show that she understands -precisely- how close she is to getting sliced to ribbons in her hurried retreat!

All good things must come to an end though, and as fun as it may have been to run backwards without fear of slamming into something, Mint is grateful for the chance to stop. "I think you almost lopped my nose off!" she exclaims -- knowing that Ichika has more control than that, but driven by enough adrenaline that she feels the need to say -something- snappy to acknowledge the moment!

But ... she also says this while lurching forward into a Dempsey roll, moving her head and shoulders in a figure-eight pattern to avoid any immediate counterattacks. She throws out a fast-paced flurry of punches -- but the first three are meant to fall short, being simple momentum builders to establish timing and pacing, as she breathes out a small breath with each swing.

The true attack is as straightforward as it gets -- a cross punch aimed at slugging Ichika just above center mass!

COMBATSYS: Ichika blocks Mint's Cross Punch.

[                         \\\\\  < >  /////////                     ]
Mint             0/-------/=======|====---\-------\0           Ichika

[ICHIKA]
Ichika almost wants to laugh. The technique, in her mind, had been designed to try and make exactly what Mint does as difficult as possible; the flight back out of range of the dazzling swordwork is impressive, thwarting her efforts to land even a single cut out of the dozens that might have been delivered in that instant. Nevertheless, the blade is still brought back to bear, ready to block - and that is precisely what she does, when the Marine launches her counterattack. Those bright blue eyes of hers are utterly focused - the strikes that fall short do not make her move even a hair's breadth--

*CLANG*

The final blow is met by the flat of the blade, and even that is enough to send shockwaves reverberating up Ichika's arms. The spar has taken a heavy toll on them both. Whilst Ichika isn't breathing particularly hard just yet, she knows the limits of her body, and her weapon. The palms of her hands, even beneath the protective leather gloves, are red raw from the effort of holding the sword steady through the assault that Mint has laid upon it. One more solid blow, from either of them, will end this. She is absolutely certain of that.

She breathes in.

"Twice, I've escaped by the narrowest of margins." She says, "Now let's see... which of us is left standing, at the end!"

A final burst of speed, and -now- her lungs are starting to complain. She really has had to give this her all. Perhaps it is fitting, then, that she goes for the moves she has practiced the most; the attacks that became her signature through much of the New Fighting Generation. It's true that predictability can be a flaw, but equally, to capitalise on that you actually have to be capable of answering the techniques that your opponent is showing - and she knows that Mint is no better off right now than she is.

The blade comes down in a single slash the moment that she is within striking distance, aiming to carve a perfect line from shoulder to hip. Ichika's legs flex, the hilt already reversing in her grip. This is her Genius Loci - the moment where she plants herself and declares that this ground is -hers-.

Even the wind seems to hold its breath...

COMBATSYS: Ichika successfully hits Mint with Genius Loci.

[                                < >  ////////                      ]
Mint             1/-----==/=======|==-----\-------\0           Ichika

[MINT]
Minal's been impressed with Ichika's drive since their very first meeting. She's no less impressed now, to see her fist thwarted by the prodigy's blade, to -hear- it reverberating from the impact. The brawler might not have devoted as much time to her studies as Ichika -- but she can tell, similarly, that the next blow could very well put a stop to this friendly challenge.

Who will be left standing?
Mint chuckles.
"Regardless, I'd say both of us are gonna need a break!"
Backing away, the boxer shuffles her fists and feet in opposite directions, willing her muscles to remain nimble and flexible even as weariness may be starting to set in. Her eyes stare back at Ichika's, as the younger taps even further into her wellspring of energy.

Mint doesn't know what's coming. She -expects- it to be a big strike, and raises her gauntlets to defend. But when the sword whistles forward -- it's faster than she expects. She brings her gauntlets back down -- but it's too late. She feels the sting of cold steel before she even hears the whistling blade. She looks down, expecting to see a perfect cut -- but the slice was so clean, physics haven't even caught wise to what's happened yet.

But she knows, somehow, that the blow could have been the one that spelled her doom. And Mint is bound and determined to give Ichika the pulse-pounding finale she seems to have been wanting for practically a year now.

"I mean, even if it's you. You should rest!"

She winks back -- knowing that saying any more would be meaningless as her turbines roar to life, spinning to a nice cherry red. Her metal hands clench into fists, as she brings both her forearms to shoulder level. Blue flame begins to spout out the back of the nozzles.

A half-second later, Mint streaks forward, borne aloft by the thrust of her turbines. She doesn't take half-measures in this -- she aims to give Ichika all she's got, slamming both hands forward in a tandem strike, as she seeks to overwhelm the last of Ichika's defenses -- to tie a bow on this fateful match!

"OOO-RAAAH!"

COMBATSYS: Mint can no longer fight.

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

COMBATSYS: Ichika fails to interrupt MOAB from Mint with Bleeding Edge EX.


COMBATSYS: Ichika can no longer fight.


[ICHIKA]
"That... is a given."

Ichika's first blow lands true. And Mint's retaliation is as ferocious as she had expected - the roaring engines, the glow of metal pushed to the point where she can feel the heat radiating off it. She is committed, now. There is only one route forward. Both gauntlets crash down. A single sword rises to meet them.

In that moment, Ichika really does give it everything she has. A second shield of sapphire energy bursts to life to defend her, and undoubtedly that will help her with the recovery in the aftermath of this clash, as Mint's ORAAAAA is met with a thundering:

"KIYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

The blade carves a corkscrewing path upwards as Ichika throws everything she has into this. Chi-enhanced muscles tear under the strain, her teeth clench, and the heavy blow shatters her shield - that, was expected. Unfortunately, for her at least, the hammering that her grip has taken over the course of the fight proves too great for everything else to go to plan.

Sword meets fists, and in this instance, fists win. The katana springs out of Ichika's grasp, cartwheeling through the air to land, embedded halfway into the earth, at the foot of the cherry blossom tree that she had earlier nearly been pinned against. With no obstacle to their progress, the fists carry on, and this time it is the prodigy's turn to be born back to the earth underneath the assault of her training partner.

Ichika winds up splayed, starfish style, with Mint atop her. The girl's chest is heaving like a bellows now, and her earlier words were prophetic - she will, definitely, need a break to recover from all of that. With her sword out of reach, there's certainly no way she can carry on the fight - even if her body was willing to be more cooperative... which right now, it doesn't seem inclined to be.

"Haaaa... magnificent." She manages, her eyes half-lidding as she looks up, past Mint, to the sky, the clouds, the few, last, drifting blossoms of the season.

"Not, at the summit yet, but... we're getting closer, don't, you think?"

[MINT]
Mint's had to keep her eyes on her students. It's easier when she's not actually -fighting- them, of course. But generally, even without the aid of combat optics like Kuroiwa Kenzo had, the Marine had been able to keep up.

It's... a bit tougher now, when the corkscrew is coming up towards her. She knows -something- happens -- the clash of metal against metal, the sparks flying every which way -- but one big downside of extreme thrust is the extreme visual distortion that comes along with that. The human brain is not built to make sense of things moving that fast, and ends up blurring everything together into a formless milkshake of desaturated color.

And then, for a moment, her vision turns black.

What she does know, of course, is that a few moments later... She has the sudden urge to draw in her breath. In one rush, the colors are back, the same vivid blue she'd seen a moment before blacking out -- only, it's expanded to fill her entire field of vision, save for the high-rises of Sapporo in the distance.

She starts to reorient herself -- and realizes she's pretty much lying on top of Ichika. Biting her lip with a startle, she throws herself to her right side, falling onto her back alongside the wandering swordswoman. And then... She has the moment or two it takes to resequenced those scrambled thoughts and words back into a semblance of order.

"Oh. Y-yeah!" Startled by the raspy sound of her own voice, she finds herself looking up into the sky, to find the same sight Ichika did. She draws in her breath -- and nods.

A loose cherry blossom flutters into view. With Mint's gauntlets powered down to a purring idle, there's no cross-winds to disturb its path, as it flutters down towards Ichika's nose.

"Heh. ... Sorry. You kinda did the impossible there, kiddo."

She flicks her thumb for a moment, and the turbines finally power down completely. She smiles up into the sky, content to soak in its warmth for a few moments before continuing.

"You got a New Jersey girl to stop runnin' her damn mouth. So -- good job on that!"

Breaking into a gentle laugh, she then realizes how bad of an idea that is when she fights back a coughing spasm.

"... We should probably move, eventually. But right now -- I think the world just wants us to sit and enjoy the vibe for a moment. Y'think so?"

Log created on 12:14:08 05/17/2024 by Mint, and last modified on 10:15:50 07/05/2024.