Match of the Millennium

Description: Before an arena with dozens of fans, Ichika comes to the end of one stage of her journey as Rei considers what his next will be. There's an eerie synchronicity with the past, and much pondering of what will come in the future, during a fight with no stakes that still means the world.

[FREI]
He'd stayed until the end -- making sure he was lost and undiscernible in the crowd -- because he wanted to see how Chevy had grown, after running into her shortly before the final round of the NFG season began.

In Rei Hazuki's estimation, the answer is: considerably.

Blessedly, his time abroad in the Caribbean, and then South America, was not plagued by the same disquieting dreams that had spurred him to head to the States from Japan however many weeks hence in the first place. From his point of view, that's good; part of why he agreed to be a mentor in the back half of the first NFG was because of his own long experience with fighting tournaments, and more specifically just what they can -- and often DO -- turn into.

NESTS already had their sticky claws in the Golden Angel tournament way back when, for example, and if he can spare any of his former Team Thunder mentees the experience of, for example, being forced to kill clones of themselves, then that feels like a useful expenditure of his time and energy.

But the remainder of the tournament seemed to go without incident. Through fire and (especially) flood, Chevy emerged the winner. With that, from Rei's point of view, there was little to do but... well, what WAS there to do? It's a question that had been bothering him ever since achieving the new level of awareness that characterizes his current state. 'Training' takes on a different dimension at this stage, after all. It's thinking about what various masters would say that he remembers: there's a sennin who trains and lives in the Amazon Basin. It could be that Oro might be able to provide... if not direction, then at the very least inspiration, for a newbie xian's training regimen.

Thus began a trip by boat, foot, and occasional hitchhiking through the very heart of Brasil, starting from the finals location in Rio and... well. It takes well over a month, so to call the path 'meandering' is the understatement of the decade, but it's not as if he has anything else to do. Oro never appears during said trip, but Rei hardly finds that surprising; as he joked to Nakoruru, at a certain point, sagacious immortals feel almost required to seclude themselves from society and get on with being sagely. But the trip IS his first time going through the path of the Amazon jungle itself, and that is enlightening in its own right; observing dragon lines -- ley lines -- is new to him, but it is no wonder the Amazon teems with life; the river and is tributaries teem with similar flows of life beneath the surface.

They provide a weirdly peaceful feeling that he suspects is what brought Oro here to begin with.

Eventually, his path takes him into the Colombian highlands, across the Andes, and eventually to, ironically enough, Cartagena, where only a few months prior, the NFG was also present.

It's well into dusk hours right now, and the starry sky overhead is starting to shine through the fading purple-blue haze at the horizon of a rapidly departing sun. He merely sits in the seats of the arena, leaning forward, elbows on knees and chin in his hands, thinking about the potential significance of this return trip of his.

[ICHIKA]
By contrast... Ichika had felt an almost magnetic -repulsion- to stay away from the finals herself. She had kept many of her thoughts to herself during her meeting with Chevy; her distress at the permanent scar that Hawksley had carved into her, the fear she felt in her heart for flames to play such a prominent role in the final round of the tournament, as they had during the island stage. There was synchronicity, there. And whilst Ichika might -want- to help her friend... Chevy hadn't asked for it. Ichika's path had divurged starkly from the commercial aspirations of the New Fighting Generation project almost immediately from the moment she awoke in her recovery bed after her own tournament.

It would not have been proper for her to be there. She knows herself well enough to know that the temptation to act would be too great.

Not that she hadn't smiled to herself and cheered for Team Thunder's Strongest, she had just done so in a coffee house here in Colombia, where she has been for some time now. Today, she thinks, it will be time to move on. Time to let them see who it is that has been working quietly in the background, scrubbing the floors and selling peanuts whilst the local fighters strut their stuff in the arena below. Today, she will show them what she has learned.

And so it is a very familiar young woman who walks out onto the arena floor. With her impressive boots, studded jacket, wild crop of spiked hair, shining blue eyes and all. It's not a particularly special day in the Plaza de Todos. Just some sleepy Wednesday. There aren't many people in the arena at all, but Ichika can still feel an excitement in the air. For them, it is an exotic fighter, an unfamiliar face - or, a familiar face they are now slowly drawing the dots to connect with the *very* familiar face from the original New Fighting Generation.

"CARTAGENA!" She calls; and somehow, her voice seems pitched to ring through the arena without sounding like a yell - it is a challenge, but not a bellow. Her feet plant. She raises her head high, to greet the setting sun.

"This shall be my final night in your fair city! Is there none among you who will give me a final /fight/ to send me off?"

[FREI]
It's a tourist attraction! People are here in the evenings. None of this is particularly unexpec--

'a final /fight/ to send me off?!'

--ted.

Whatever reverie the xian was in, Ichika's bold declaration of absolute war (war! war!) snaps Rei out of it like a foghorn which, to be fair, it sort of is. His hands come down to his sides, and he blinks in recognition at the figure who basically just asked an entire town of soccer fans if they're hard enough, which is pretty impressive all on its own. His only actual response, in a voice only someone within mere inches of him is likely to hear, would be: "What are the odds?"

What ARE the odds? Not infintessimal -- they're both professional fighters -- but you would probably have better luck with a lottery scratch off ticket, all told.

In Rei's experience, coincidences are real, but you don't overlook them simply because they're coincidences.

He gets up, nonchalantly, and begins the walk down the aisle, then the stairs, then the covered passageway that allows access to the bullring (or, well, former bullring in this case) itself. The black clothes and faded jeans are not easy to see, but the red hair is a dead giveaway... and this is certainly not the sort of figure you encounter in an average spot in Colombia, even a tourist-y one.

The secret to the arena is that the structure actually encourages audibility of what's going on in the center, so when he speaks, Rei is perfectly easy to hear: "I gotta ask... has that line worked elsewhere?"

[ICHIKA]
"It hasn't failed yet."

Ichika grins as Rei approaches, those bright of hers practically sparkling as she takes in the familiar figure of her mentor approaching. It's true - of all the people to answer her challenge, she wouldn't have put money on Rei. But now that he's here, it does seem... right, somehow. She couldn't explain why, but it makes sense, doesn't it? Soon, she'll be heading back to Southtown to participate in her first professional fighting competition - not because she is particularly interested in the sporting aspect of things any longer, but because she needed to test herself against better fighters than the ones she had found in her random travels, and the Neo League certainly hadn't proven to be a great source of them.

This is merely confirmation that she is on the right path; that theirs should cross again, at this critical juncture.

"It is good to see you again, Rei." She says, more formally, as she sketches a bow. Low, but not -as- low as it might have been, a year or two ago. "There are a thousand things we should talk about, and we have time for only a handful of them... but, I've always found that the best way to communicate is to do so with as few words as possible."

Which is, a very wordy way of asking the question she reiterates, as she takes up her stance - feet planted apart, hand resting on the hilt of that old, well-traveled blade of hers.

"Shall we?"

[FREI]
For just a moment, Rei is transported back years... many, MANY years. The Neo League of his own, home timeline -- the excuse for many beginning fighters to do exactly what is happening right now: it didn't matter where you were, or who it was, or even how improbably you were meeting. As long as you were both in the league, a fight was on, functionally *anywhere*. It was like being in a worldwide sport populated by NPC Pokemon trainers.

Bringing a hand up and rubbing it against the back of his neck, giving a sheepish little smile. He'd say 'not so long ago I was you in this equation' but it WAS so long ago. Before the young woman before him was likely even born, in fact, though certain circumstances here make establishing the truth of that statement murky at best. But early on in his own career, Rei -- Frei, that is -- had been all too willing to do exactly what's happening now: test his strength and his techniques against others who'd decided to do the same.

Well, you were looking for where to go, a little internal voice says. Why not go back to the beginning?

"Well... I did say, I seem to recall, that next we met, it would be as peers and not mentor and mentee," the red-haired xian says, brinigng his arm back down and rolling his shoulder a little bit. "Still, you can't turn that old teacher instinct off entirely, you know... wanting to see how someone's improved or grown. And you did ask... nicely? Loudly? One of the two."

It can often be very difficult for him to take things seriously, at least on the surface. But the stance he drops into -- a relaxed Wing Chun-esque situation -- bespeaks experience Rei's seemingly frivolous personality masks.

"Alright then," he says, making no moves and obviously leaving the opening salvo to her. "En garde."

COMBATSYS: Frei has started a fight here.

[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Frei             0/-------/-------|

[ICHIKA]
The first time that Ichika had grasped her sword, she had been frightened by the intensity of it. The possibility that it represented. As so many people have pointed out to her, the katana is a tool that was designed for killing. That it can also be a tool for defense is almost incidental. There are countless weapons that she could have chosen if she wanted to dedicate herself to the art of fighting and do so without the risk of injuring her opponents; heck, she could even have picked up a martial art like Rei's own. At the time, she had told herself that she chose the sword to compensate for her physical weakness. Nobody looking at Ichika today would mistake her for anything less than the fighter that she is, though. She is many things, but she is no frail child any longer.

But the sword remains.

"You did." She says, with the slightest nod of her head, "I don't have any illusion that I've managed to catch you on the path just yet, but... I haven't been idle. Hopefully, I can show you that I'm hot on your heels."

There have been a lot of discussions about the other differences between them, too; Rei's more detached view (amusing, given his magnetic pull -towards- the action) compared to Ichika's stubborn insistence that it is their duty to drag the world forward. The impetuousness of Ichika's youth, versus the world-weariness of a man who, by all appearances, isn't THAT much older than her... but whose soul is certainly much more aged, compared to the shining newness of Ichika's potential.

She would never have existed in the old world. There was no room for her in it. No leylines for her to touch, quieter Gods that did not whisper so much as they do here. The world has become infinitely more complicated...

Ironic, that a soul as simple as Ichika's - a girl who just loudly, brashly, confidently wants to carve a path towards a brighter future - could never have found voice there.

"Quiet women never make history, neh, Rei-sama?"

A cheeky grin. That's mean! The -sama can ONLY be there to try and throw him off, because in the very next moment Ichika is coming forward fast, the blade flashing out in a bright arc which aims to probe at her mentor's defenses - but this time she stays in close, daring, intent. There's no hesitation in her at all. She wants to see whether she can deal with the response head-on.

COMBATSYS: Ichika has joined the fight here.

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Frei             0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0           Ichika

COMBATSYS: Ichika successfully hits Frei with Quick Strike.

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

[FREI]
Did it work? Well.

Another of the xian's deceptive qualities is that Rei's approach to fighting is far more defensive than one might expect; he is much tougher (and slower) than his appearance belies. That doesn't necessarily mean it's all that pleasant to take hits, however, especially from a sword. In truth, though, the '-sama' DOES make him pause, enough that what should be a not too difficult turn around the arc of Ichika's blade makes it cut an even line across his midsection instead, a little flicker of flesh and a line of red somewhat visible beneath the cloth of his shirt.

Despite this, however, he doesn't seem perturbed, beyond a quick hiss of unavoidable pain. "Have never and will never be a -sama," he says, with audible airquotes clanging around the honorific like a pair of copper bells. But Rei's lips curl a little in a faint smile as he continues. "I wouldn't object to a -dono now and then, though." A beat. "Smartass."

Miss Kasumoto took her turn testing the waters; it is Rei's chance to do the same. Stepping forward, he snaps a quick upper kick toward the young woman's shoulder; perhaps out of a residual show of respect to Chevy, a swirl of flowing, pale blue water spirals around the blow, adding a little extra spice if it connects!

COMBATSYS: Ichika endures Frei's Light Kick.

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

[ICHIKA]
There's a delighted laugh from Ichika at the rejoinder. It is the kind of interaction that would have been unthinkable between the two when they -were- Master and student. Rei might not like being referred to as a Sensei, but Ichika had thought of him as such; still does, to some degree. But she's so much more comfortable in her own skin now, than she was then. A year and change of travel on the road has done wonders to assist the girl in overcoming those lingering fears. People... are people, the whole world over. In contrast to the nightmarish view she had gotten of Metro City, and the rose-tinted one she held of Southtown, the truth she has discovered on the road is that there are good and bad people everywhere and though there are differences - particularly when it comes to those who pursue the art of fighting - there are more things that bind them together than drive them apart.

"Noted. I -- HOOF!"

The kick connects solidly with Ichika's shoulder, and the young woman spins. The blow hits -hard-, especially for something with as little apparent effort behind it as it appears. Her intuition about the relative level of strength between them seems accurate, then.

But, she is not thrown off by this. The whole point of the opening exchange was to gauge this relative level - and when has Ichika ever backed down from a fight? She allows the momentum of the blow to send her up and into the air. The blade, still extended, draws through the linger motes of energy that splashed out from the point of impact as she does...

And when she lands, it is with a sharp, horizontal motion and a loud: "KIYAH!"

Rei must recognise the attack; it is the very first one he had her demonstrate for him... but more polished, more flexible, horizontal, rather than vertical. The brilliant blue spark shoots out at the mid-point of the slash, zipping towards Rei's midsection, and...

*click*

The blade slots back into place at her side, ready to be drawn again.

COMBATSYS: Ichika successfully hits Frei with Brilliant Spark EX.

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

[FREI]
It's likely *because* this is something Rei's seen Ichika use before that it works as well it does, ironically; the arc slightly different, but the nature of the attack being the same either way. Perhaps instinctively, the xian relies on that memory to gauge how much counterforce and effort is required... but Ichika has grown preciptiously since that last meeting, which was in fact the very first time they met at all.

Practically forever ago.

The result is that Rei's attempt to intercept the energy blade -- his own forearm, sheathed in a vaguely pearlescent silver-gold glow -- isn't quite effective; there's not enough energy on HIS end to blunt the attack enough to have any sort of real impact. The strike makes him exhale his own quick "Oof!" of pain and, admittedly, a little bit of surprise, before he gets back into stance. Two clean hits she's landed on him, now!

"Well, you've clearly come a long way," he says, grinning a little. "But if you want to take a win off me, I'm going to make you earn it each step of the way. I assume you'd want no less than that."

His stance, much as the elemental display he showed Ichika back on Catalina Island, shifts; a harder, more aggressive kung fu approach. Breathing out slowly, Rei dips forward in a quick, lunging palm strike toward Ichika's midsection... but as he does so, a fiery red-orange aura builds around his body until it literally leaps into life as a vaguely Rei-shaped being of fire, which attempts to sweep its blazing leg -- entirely capable of bowling her over -- through Ichika's own legs, a third, downward-pinwheeling pair of hand strikes from the xian finishing up the tidy little combination.

COMBATSYS: Ichika blocks Frei's Sekkashu.

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

[ICHIKA]
"That is... one of the main things I have come to really understand."

They are fighting in an arena; there are people here who have worked alongside Ichika for some time now, more who recognise her from her time in the spotlight, they are getting quite the show from the pair. But for all that, it is as though the battle were an intimate, private affair. There had been a little flicker of embarrassment from Rei when he realised that his words to Honoka had been broadcast and Ichika had picked up on them; if Ichika is afraid of the shaky cellphone footage that might make its way onto the internet later, there is absolutely no sign of it in her as she draws the blade again.

Flame crashes against steel and Ichika stands firm against it, the flat of her blade turning aside heat as she twists and turns with each step of the combination.

"There are two kinds of fighting. There is that where we must stand firm for what we believe in, and drive back those who would do real harm. There is fighting where there are -winners- and -losers-. And the losers are lucky, if they get to live with the consequences of their failure..."

She exhales, and the tip of her sword draws a shallow line in the ground between herself and her mentor.

"... and there is fighting that is a conversation." She flashes a brighter smile. "Two friends, in conversation? Neither of us -can- lose."

And then, as though to prove her own words false, she steps forward with intent. Her feet plant heavily onto the line she had just drawn, and then her sword is not just a sword, or a shield, but a wall of shining steel - a dazzling barrier she aims to carve into the space between herself and Rei in countless rapid-fire cuts, so that it is ready to catch any return fire on its gleaming edge.

The evolution of her style, to go with the development of her perspective.

COMBATSYS: Frei blocks Ichika's Eye of the Storm.

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

[FREI]
Because Rei is who he is, and he simply cannot help himself in these situations, which Ichika may have picked up on by now, the laying out of a philosophy of battle -- the difference between 'fighting to win' and 'fighting to understand' -- demands a response. Or, if not 'demands', then perhaps 'deserves' is a fairer term.

Either way.

"An interesting point of view," the red-haired xian says, watching the young woman carefully as she prepares her attack. "And I mean that, by the way. I know how often people use 'interesting' to... well."

As Ichika raises her blade, Rei brings his closed fists together, then opens his right hand and, for lack of a better word, 'pulls' his left fist away. In the path of the motion, a blade of energy -- the same silver-gold pearlescent light from before -- about the length of a wakizashi, perhaps shorter, appears in his right hand, which he closes around an imaginary 'hilt'.

"My mistake... for saying... 'win' just now..." Rei says, as he dives forward into the shining wall of steel, his own hastily-forged defense in hand. The cuts are too numerous, too quick, to be caught in their entirety, but a surprising number find themselves striking not Rei's hand or arm, but the 'blade' he's holding. Each strike makes a different tone, as if Ichika were striking a series of tuning forks, the sound resonating in the otherwise sparsely-populated arena floor. Still, lines of red and grey make it obvious that a fair share of those strikes made it through this defense.

"But really... what does it mean... to win?" Rei continues, bizarrely calm, as Ichika's attack comes to an end. "In that first type of fight, I mean."

Bringing his hands up, Rei collapses the 'blade' of his defense into a shining orb, that hovers between his palms for a moment before, with a flick of the hand, he sends it tumbling toward Ichika; in the wu xing, after all, even metal has a sort of elemental energy to it, though the orb doesn't cut like a blade.

"What's the essence of winning, there, I suppose is my question."

COMBATSYS: Ichika blocks Frei's Gensoudama.

[        \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////////////////////         ]
Frei             1/-------/=======|=======\==-----\1           Ichika

[ICHIKA]
*ting*
*TING*
*ring*
*SHING!*

The unexpectedly musical counter to her attack catches Ichika by surprise. There's real joy in the discovery of it, though. Each blocked strike is a different, pleasing note to her ear - and when Rei switches it up and drives the sphere home, Ichika is forced to let the 'wall' she has made collapse entirely, so that she can brace the flat of her sword with one hand and catch the energy on it. There's a loud, somehow harmonious, cymbal-CLASH of sound - and then she is skidding backwards, her hands ringing with pain from the effort.

"Haaaaa...."

The blade slides back home into her saya, and the girl flexes both her hands - palms raw and tender despite all the training and practice she has had in this very art.

Those eyes of hers meet Rei's, though. Like burning sapphires, they are alive with the moment - not at all ready to call it after these few exchanges. She still has a lot more fight left in her, and she knows that he does, as well.

"There is only one thing it can mean." She says, with all the confidence a teenager her age -should- have. As though she really does know this to be true; that there is only one, singular answer to a question that must, surely, have thousands more.

"To win is to change the world."

COMBATSYS: Ichika calculates her next move.

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Frei             1/-------/=======|=======\==-----\1           Ichika

[FREI]
That the previous exchange should end in a torrent of sound seems fitting, in the sense that what follows -- exchanging of words aside -- is the silence before the storm, the blanketing quiet that rides ahead of thunderclouds like a blanket of wool across the landscape. The people in the arena watching this fight are, momentarily, something close to 'spellbound'; Ichika's intensity, on its own, demands no less. In a curious way, though, Rei's seemingly imperturbable calm is much the same, on one level.

Nobody knows what these two are talking about, but *everybody* knows it's important.

Rei makes no obvious offensive move, here; instead he calmly slips back into the more fluid, soft-style kung fu stance from before. "The world is always changing, though. In a thousand little ways, it changes every second. That's what makes it interesting!"

The green eyes close; a breath taken in, and then exhaled, palms facing out. A seemingly simple gesture... but Ichika, with her particular attunement to energy, can feel the gathering power swirling invisibly behind it. If she plans to bring something serious to bear, then Rei can do no less.

"Or do you mean, to win is to change the world *to your own desire*?"

The question is asked without rancor, without apparent judgment, as if he were asking what her favorite color is. But the question IS asked.

COMBATSYS: Frei gathers his will.

[       \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////////////////////         ]
Frei             1/---====/=======|=======\==-----\1           Ichika

[ICHIKA]
"Yes, exactly that." Ichika says, with a small nod. She is grateful for the moment of respite - the oasis of calm, within the tumult of the battle. It gives her a moment to gather her thoughts. "Victory, is not a moral thing in itself. It is not that strength makes one -right-. Strength only makes one -victorious-. We must have virtue, and strength, to forge a world worth living in!"

It is something that Ichika had struggled with a lot, that distinction. If to fight is to clash ones ideals against anothers, then how is it that she could be defeated by those who seemingly had no ideals? Or others, whose ideals were so very counter to her own? There is a tendency to believe that might makes right; all fighters seek to become mighty, after all. The pursuit of strength came from a variety of desires, but the common path that all fighters walk is the Warrior's Road, the development of their style and their power so that they can claim victory. It is a road paved with intention and the will to act...

But advancing down it did not, inherently, mean that the destination that a traveler sought was the right one - or even the one that would lead to the change in the world they might hope to bring about. History is littered with those who had all the power, but none of the virtue they needed to craft the world they hoped to make.

"Show me, Rei." She urges, "What is the world that -you- envision?"

The question is asked in all earnestness, and ... it's such a vast one, isn't it? One that it is hard to capture in words.

So how about in actions?

All at once, Ichika is closing the gap. She can -feel- the energy surrounding her mentor, she knows that he is dangerous, but she faces him head on. The storm of power is gathering for him, and she aims to break it - her sword lashes out, three quick strikes towards his shoulders and upper body in a criss-cross trail, each one leaving a shimmering arc of crystal blue in the air-

And then in a blur of motion, her teeth clenched tight, Ichika is suddenly behind him, and slashing with a singular, hard downwards diagonal and a gleaming path of shining, pure blue light.

"Ki-YAAAAAAAAAH!"

COMBATSYS: Frei endures Ichika's Future Perfect!!

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Frei             2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|-------\-------\0           Ichika

[FREI]
It is like he's hearing someone else, all over again.

Every word out of Ichika's mouth... it's both distinctly hers, uniquely hers, and yet, the overlap is so profound -- perhaps, given the nature of Rei's grief, it could only ever be so -- that it is quite literally as if he's hearing both Ichika's voice, and Alma's. There is no shame-faced admission of ambition, which is as it should be; he didn't ask Ichika that question to trick her into admitting he was right. He asked her because Rei genuinely and truly wanted to know the answer.

Power -- strength being one form of it, but not the only one -- is a neutral thing. It merely exists. It's will that matters: the ability to act, to use power for certain ends. This is a thing Rei has believed, always. But...

-----

'Do you... think I am doing the right thing?', Alma had asked.

'I have no idea,' had been Frei's response. 'That presupposes there's a right thing at all, you know? I think the only person who's ever judged you that way... is you.'

-----

This fight has been so few exchanges, physically. He'd expected a little light sparring, some banter about how she's doing, what she's doing. But Kasumoto Ichika took the dial to 11, as she often does, and then broke it right the hell off. Just like he used to. 0 or 100, and nothing else. For both Alma and Ichika, it was because anything less than 100 felt like a waste. For Alma, it was his harrowing early loss that fueled his passion. For Ichika, it feels like the passion came first. In both cases, there is a hunger, a *need* there, that Rei does not feel... but which he has come to appreciate.

'What is the world you envision?!'

A fair question... but it's not the ENTIRE question. The rest of it, the unspoken part, lies in Ichika's blade. In the blue-glowing steel that seeks to open a path to the future. And you can't answer a question completely unless you've heard all of it.

It's not as if he is stoic; this is still a sword, and Ichika's furious energy burns behind it like a beacon. But Rei does not move, despite slash after slash landing cleanly, the xian looking more and more damaged as this furious combination plays out.

When Ichika is suddenly behind him, she may have the surprise of seeing that *he turned with her*, despite the sudden and unbelievable speed.

In the end, the two are left in close proximity. Rei's green eyes are wide, luminous; his clothing is holding on, but there is blood everywhere. How could there not be? A sword is a tool for killing, no matter how you look at it. But still, the freckled face wears a serene smile.

So much of his pain has been in knowing all that was lost to him. Right now, though, Rei can only think about what he has gained. And as he had said, on the eve of destruction: 'The memory of us... it's still out there. Somewhere.'

"Alright," he says quietly, to Ichika. "This is my answer."

Streamers of light, every color conceivable, trail behind the xian as if he were standing in a strong wind, though it's as if the world itself is silent. Much has been made of Rei's ability to seemingly manipulate all the elements of the world; the few who've asked him how have not received answers that would satisfy anyone. His talent, always, has simply been to listen. The world is there, singing a maddening and beautiful chorus, every second of every day. The trick is to know when and how to sing along.

And every now and then, to take the melody line, so the chorus falls in behind you.

He reaches out a hand, glowing with a nimbus of prismatic light, and simply looks to place it on her chest, just below her neckline, releasing the energy all in a single, harmonious burst. There is, surprisingly, no sound, but the air itself ripples, as if reality itself is momentarily... softened.

It's the music of the spheres; the harmonious choir of all life, singing one pure note, together.

COMBATSYS: Frei successfully hits Ichika with #Shinra Banshou ES#.

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Frei             0/-------/-------|=======\=------\1           Ichika

[ICHIKA]
Future Perfect - the path towards the world she wants to build, carved in steel and passion. Ichika doesn't talk about her own moves very often, either, but each one -means- something to her. They hadn't, at first. In the beginning, they were all just instinct. But as she honed them, perfected them, learned the shape of the motions that came to her from that strange place beyond conscious thought, she had given them names. When you name a thing, you give it meaning, you give it -history-.

Nobody has -ever- been able to follow her along that road before.

That Rei can makes those shining blue eyes widen all the further, and she sucks in the smallest breath; a tiny gasp. Those eyes of hers see so much more than they should be able to. For a moment, she can see it all; all of him. When Ichika calls, the world answers. She might not fully understand it yet, but in this moment, she is certain that for him, it is the exact opposite. That when he listens, he hears the world. For her... those moments come so briefly, flashes, instants, visions, in the hidden and most sacred parts of the world.

"Oh."

He touches her, and the world protects her - but only barely. It isn't something that she asks for, not consciously, but a barrier of crystal blue meets his hand. It shatters into diamond dust, swirls, melts away with the rest of that beautiful energy - but it does cushion her, just enough, so that when she falls to the ground, she is not at her end.

Not quite.

"Haaaa..." She exhales, one knee braced to the floor, sword point-down. There is a part of her that wants to stop. That was, incredible. Awe-inspiring. This -is- just a spar. There -is- no victory here, nor defeat. But... but she can still fight. If she were to stop now, wouldn't that undermine the very point that they were making.

"The world that I will build." She says, "Is worth suffering for."

It isn't to Rei. Not really. It is to -herself-. To remind her, now, at this time, when that little traitorous part of her wants to stop, that there is a higher purpose. No, victory or defeat here will not, can not, build the world she wants. It can't even contribute to it, not really. But. She has shown him the path: Now she will show him the price.

There's no chi in this. No extra call from the world. When she erupts from her kneeling position, it is Ichika Kasumoto who rises, not the world. When she propels herself through the corkscrew slash, twisting her blade up and around to carry Rei up high, high into the air of the arena, it is Ichika Kasumoto's muscles which tear. It is Ichika Kasumoto's voice which screams.

This time, when she blitzes behind him, it is Ichika Kasumoto that carries out the act of impossible speed - made possible at a very real cost to her body.

And when she tries to slam into him from behind with the hilt of her sword, it is Ichika Kasumoto who intends to make a very literal impact on Colombia.

COMBATSYS: Ichika successfully hits Frei with Price of Progress EX.

[                   \\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////                      ]
Frei             0/-------/----<<<|-------\-------\0           Ichika

[FREI]
Before you can perceive the world, you have to perceive yourself.

In a perfect world, Rei has an answer to this technique of Ichika's; in truth, wading through one of her strongest attacks without so much as a remote attempt to protect himself has a cost even for him. However, Ichika will probably notice it, right before her blow connects; a shimmery return of that metal-aspected chi, the barest layer, limning Rei's body like faerie fire. Enough to turn aside her strike? No, but it certainly makes the pain of enduring back-to-back powerful techniques from the young woman more bearable.

It does take a second, once Rei's body slams into the dirt arena floor, for him to get to his feet, but there is... something, flowing into him, from somewhere. Perhaps just a residual harmonic of the technique he just used, some final coda playing out its last echoes, but get up he does, one green eye squinted shut, but smiling tightly as he looks at Ichika. Her skill and resilience are impressive, for certain. But there's... well.

If we're talking about her parallel figure in his memories, it took a while for that heavenly messenger to be reminded of earthly humanity sometimes, too.

"I hope it is," he says in response to the declaration Ichika made, before attacking. That the world she envisions is worth suffering for. "But 'the world' is a big word. You might end up hating me after a while, you know," he says, suddenly reflective. "But it's my job -- actually, no, not my job. My responsibility, but also my pleasure, to remind you just how big that word 'world' is, sometimes."

He takes a step toward her, groggily. Then another, and then finally one fierce, full step forward, palms out, the air around Ichika blossoming into scattering petals of scarlet flame as he does so. She wouldn't stop until she can't, and so he won't either.

COMBATSYS: Ichika breaks through Kourengen from Frei with Bleeding Edge EX!

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

[ICHIKA]
"Hate... I find that hard, to imagine." Ichika says, rising, herself. She has given so much of herself to this fight already - the stunned onlookers have certainly gotten more than they bargained for - and still, she pushes further. She flicks the sword to the side before returning it to its sheathe. She hurts. But she is smiling, still. "There aren't many that I can truly say I hate. Daidoji-chan, once. And Maclanky-san. But in time, even that has cooled. In the moment, yes, but... in both cases, hate, has turned to pity. I hope that they find peace."

There's something genuine in that. Each of those had done more than enough to earn her ire, and she may never -like- them, but... if Chevy was to be believed, Junko was hurt by her actions at least as much as everyone else, and Buford...

Well, who could do anything other than pity Buford, really?

"I hope we, can find the future."

Scarlet flames. It's a horrible echo of that most terrifying moment for her, when she truly -had- feared that Junko intended to end her career, her life. It hadn't happened then. She knows it will not happen now. The sword is drawn, and this time, there is no yell. There is only the motion, so fluid and trained that she must have done it ten thousand times.

Steel parts flame, and for a moment, Ichika and Rei ascend towards those heavens she wishes so dearly to reach...

And when they land, Ichika is sheathing her sword. The girl's knees tremble. She staggers. But she does not fall. Not, yet.

[FREI]
"You never know," is Rei's only cryptic response to the idea that she could never hate him. Certainly, it's not as if he thinks it's *likely*. But the more he comes to know Ichika, the more he has to keep in his heart the feeling that someday, they may be on opposite sides of something. In at least one way, they already were; her opinion of what should happen to Junko after the first NFG season and his opinion of what that situation demanded were very, very different, after all.

"And as for the future... it comes whether we want it to or not," the xian adds, afterwards, voice surprisingly quiet.

She's got bravado, diving through a field of flame to make her defiant final stand that turns out to be not so final after all, the duo taking another trip skyward and then back down to earth. That much is clear. The getting up is... a little slower, this time; Rei's not as young as he used to be, or as he appears to be, either. There's... some rolling of the shoulders, a little of the head on his neck, too, but Rei doesn't push the fight any farther. For him, it's over; his question to Ichika -- "So... a satisfactory answer?" -- indicates as much. He seems amused, but tired; of course, it's clear some of that energy is going into what Ichika can see going on if she bothers to look: wounds slowly closing and mending themselves, fast enough so that it's visible to an onlooker.

COMBATSYS: Frei takes no action.

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

COMBATSYS: Frei can no longer fight.

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

[ICHIKA]
"If the future comes, whether we want it or not, then why are so many, stuck in the past?"

The words come laboured, as Ichika turns to face Rei. She is barely hanging on by a thread; by less than that, really. It is only the girl's stubborn tenacity which keeps her upright. She is exhausted. She gave that fight -everything- that she had, and ... this time, she is surprised to find, it is enough. So often it has proven not to be. But, that's what it means to carry on down the road - when she looks back at where she started, it is difficult to imagine the girl who had been intimidated by the bus ride to find Rei.

Ichika -is- as young as Rei might wish he were, and she's still in obvious pain as she walks the few paces to offer him his hand, and help on the way up. "To some questions." She says, "So, of course, there are more questions which arise from that... but, one more pressing than all the rest." There is a level of sincerity in the young woman's voice; a seriousness, as intense as she has been about anything else in the time she has known Rei:

"I... am going to go and get empanadas at this place, not far from here, before I work out how I am returning to Southtown. Would you like to join me?"

COMBATSYS: Ichika takes no action.

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

COMBATSYS: Ichika has ended the fight here.


[FREI]
"Because change is painful," is Rei's direct, immediate, and unambiguous answer to Ichika's question, as he gets up -- not too proud to accept an offered hand, either. He dusts off his jacket, which has seen better days considering he just fought someone who uses a live blade, as he continues that line of thought. "But that struggle to go back to the way things USED to be isn't all that different from yours to create the way you WANT things to be."

He feels like he's been in this position so many times, and not just with people like Ichika... or other past acquaintances. Compared to most of the people he's met in his life -- *lives* -- Rei is a very moderated personality, for all his not-exactly-whimsy. A great believer in balance is, understandably, not someone who typically goes too far to either extreme.

But, as far as he's concerned, he's fine with the social niche of 'person who reminds the folks at the extremes that they ARE at the extremes'. It doesn't always make him popular, but it does mean he sleeps soundly at night, all things considered.

Dusting off his hands at last, he grins faintly at the notion of food. "How about you text me the address and I'll meet you there," he offers, spreading both hands slightly to the side around chest-height. "Empanadas sound wonderful but I'd rather not walk into a restaurant looking like I just tried to suplex a combine harvester."

Log created on 13:09:52 02/19/2025 by Ichika, and last modified on 14:45:21 02/20/2025.