Description: Oro meets his student for the tournament, Shingo, for the first time.
With the tournament schedule and teams having been posted, it isn't long before Shingo finds a note pinned to the door of wherever he's currently staying. The note is a simple one, with 'Meet me in the woods outside Strolheim' written in a scrawl. It looks a little unsteady, as if there was nothing holding the paper down while the note was written.
Of course, there are no further directions, and the forests around Strolheim are quite thick. If Shingo looks hard enough, though, he'll eventually find a clearing near the mountain foothills containing a wizened old man sitting on a tree stump, apparently meditating. Or asleep.
No stranger to awaking early, Shingo finds himself stumbling through the uknown woods searching for whoever put that note on his door. But having seen the tournament postings, he can accurately assume it's his 'teacher' for this particular tourney. Finally, he finds the location. Totally by accident too. And once he sees his aledged 'teacher', however, his happy-go-luck mood almost makes a complete one-eighty. He pauses. oO(This guy is my teacher instead of Kusanagi-san?! What was Mr. Krauser thinking?!)Oo "Ahem. Good morning, sir!"
Oro doesn't move from his spot as Shingo enters the clearing. He doesn't even turn to look at the boy. "I heard you coming a mile away," he responds in a reproachful tone. "Like an elephant." Oro points to the ground in front of his stump, and with that movement the reason for the odd writing becomes clear. Just one arm. "Stand here, child."
Shingo just looks at Oro blankly for but a second from his comment about being like an elephant before complying, "Uh, ok." Once standing at Oro's desired location, he inserts his hands into his pockets while looking around to survey the clearing. Casually kicking a small pebble away the boy speaks, "Wow. This is a beautiful place, mister...uh...Oro was it? So."
Oro snaps his fingers irritably. His piercing red eyes open, staring straight at Shingo. "Pay attention. That overgrown German has given you to me as a student, so you're damn well going to act like it." Oro hops off the stump, standing directly in front of Shingo and peering intently at his face, his one hand to his chin. "So, kid, you got any training already? Or did you just enter in this tournament for the hell of it?"
At the snapping of fingers and the look of those red eyes cause Shingo to straighten up. He maintains the posture even has Oro looks him over. When he deems that the old man has seen enough he answers, "Of course I do! I train with the great Kusanagi-san in the ancient martial arts of Kusanagi kobojutsu!" He poses in a fighting stance as he says this and gets back into standing straight. "And I entered this tournament to fight alongside him."
"Kusanagi, Kusanagi...ah yes!" The name appears to cheer Oro up. He looks up at Shingo with renewed interest. "Very old family, very old. Pretty talented, too." Oro turns, pacing down the clearing a ways. "If you've been training with the Kusanagis, I'm sure you show excellent talent with producing fire." He turns around, hand on hip, to look back at Shingo. "Show me, will you?"
"Well, um, you see the thing is," Shingo lowers his gaze to the ground and shuffles his feet nervously. "My gloves were stolen and without them I can't shoot flames." The teen raises his head up, "Though. I have the technique down pretty well if I do say so myself." He beams with that declaration of his skill. And why shouldn't he? He did pretty well as a single entry in the King of Fighters tournament after all.
Oro's growing interest starts to deflate as quickly as it had begun. "Your gloves were stolen?" His tone is mocking. "Kid, things don't have that capability. Only people do. Your gloves don't matter." He huffs a sigh, blowing the few strands of hair he has left out of his eyes. "If we had more time, I could probably do something with that. No time, though. We'll just have to build on what you've got." He reaches back, scratching idly at his shoulderblade. "Okay, boy. Time for a little sparring session. I want to see how you fight."
Shingo ponders about those words of wisdom but doesn't have the time to fully think them over as Oro suggests a sparring session. He just smiles and nods as the old man talks. At the mention of sparring he nods once more, "Sure thing, Mister Oro. You'll see. I'm the best student of Kusanagi-ryu kobojutsu." Placing a few feet of distance between himself and Oro, Shingo drops into his stance ready.
Oro doesn't bother with anything as silly as a stance. He rubs his nose, eyes focused on Shingo. "Whenever you feel like, c'mon and attack. Don't try to pull punches or anything, I'll notice," he warns. "And I don't appreciate pulling punches." He slouches over, providing an easy wrinkled target for Shingo.
Shingo is wary, of course, at Oro's approach. He shows signs of being a great fighter. But being the way he is, Shingo isn't one to hold back. "Oh, don't worry Mister Oro. I never hold back. Let's go!" The student lunges forward with a powerful right hook shouting out the same words as his idol when performing the same technique, "Body ga...amai ze!" (Your body's not so tough!)
Kusanagi style, huh? Oro squints at Shingo as he leaps into action. It certainly looks probable, just...no flames. Oro leans back a little, casually lifting his arm into place as Shingo jumps toward him. The fist collides with his forearm with a smack...and to Shingo, it's as if he punched the mountainside that looms next to the two. The arm doesn't even shift, merely stops the attack cold. Oro leaps back a few feet, eyes intent on how Shingo moves while attacking.
Being a reasonably experienced fighter, Shingo doesn't show his surprise when the old man's one good arm halts the Aragami Mikensei with a dead stop. But he is surprised by Oro's strength. Strange how he's the aggressor for this match and not the older warrior. oO(But then again, it makes sense. He must be gauging my skills.)Oo Shingo thinks to himself. oO(In that case, I need to give it my all! 110%)Oo Squaring up from his last attack, Shingo closes the gap between the two of them with a forward jump, twisting his body in a fashion to bring all his momentum to his leg in the form of his signature move, "SHINGO KIIIIIIICKU!"
Oro squints. Shingo Kick? Cute. Never saw the need to name anything after himself, of course. It was more than a basic jump kick, of course, so that's something. With a bit of a shrug, Oro leans his head to one side, allowing the kick to land squarely where his shoulder meets his neck. Again, there's the same thud as if striking rock, but a shudder does run through Oro at the impact. He looks thoughtful, before shrugging again. "At least you've got some strength in you." He reaches up, fingers reaching for Shingo's ankle. With a flick of his wrist, if Shingo doesn't move more quickly than he expects, Oro sends the boy flying toward the other side of the clearing. "Reflexes!" he barks at the airborne Shingo.
"Wha'?!"
Shingo has no time to think when his best move is taken with a grain of salt at body point that would crumple a normal man and then used against him. With quickness he would've never figured from a man Oro's age, the teenaged fighter is sent flying through the air and only stops when the undergrowth at the forest's edge breaks his fall. "Ungh." Not down and out, Shingo is quickly on his feet and doesn't even bother to brush himself off when he charges at Oro. Maybe his sudden attack will catch the aging man off guard. "Oriyaaaaa!" He shouts out performing his variation of the Demon Scorcher once within range. Striking with elbows first as typical of the rising, spinning lariat type move.
Oro tch. "You could do better at breaking your fall," he comments as Shingo gets to his feet. "Back in my day, we used to go cliff diving, and there wasn't any water under us. Just trees." His momentary reminiscing does allow Shingo to get through, and the upward strike catches Oro on the chin, even lifting him up into the air a little. He quickly recovers, though, using the momentum to flip backward and land neatly on his feet. "All right, all right. That's enough for now." He flops down on the ground, sitting crosslegged and looking up at Shingo. "Your moves would be better if you could incorporate some chi into them, but they'll hurt another child all right."
Quite pleased with himself and his performance, Shingo lands and bows in respect to Oro, "Thanks Mister Oro. I've been training really hard for this tournament." He rubs the back of his head grinning foolishly thinking he has impressed his current teacher. "So, what's next? Are we gonna work on our strategy for our upcoming match?"
"That's Master Oro. If we're going to do this, we might as well do it right." Oro scratches at his chest, looking off into space for a moment. "Strategy? No, no...we'll cover that when I decide you're good enough to fight with me." He thrusts a bony finger at Shingo, eyes glowing red. "We can't help your lack of chi. It'd probably take us at least a month to get you to where you can light a candle after a lot of heaving and grunting. You do hit hard, which will help. But..." Without warning, Oro flicks his wrist, causing a bright yellow sphere to whip out of his hand, aimed for Shingo's feet.
Though the energy orb may be aimed intentionally to miss the young Yabuki, he still instinctively hops back to avoid it. Looking up at Oro confused, Shingo asks, "What was that for? I thought you said we were done?" He's in a defensive stance just in case smelly over there decides to toss another ball his way.
Oro is not smelly. He bathes every week. "Mm. I guess you're fast enough for now." He still doesn't sound pleased; it's more resigned than anything. "Could stand to be better, but I can't train you properly given only a couple days. I don't want to deal with a dead student. Okay. We're going to focus on what you're good at." He pushes himself to his feet, trundling up the mountainside a little ways. He points at a pile of boulders, the smallest as tall as Shingo, before heading over to them. "Watch carefully." Choosing out the largest one, Oro runs his fingers across the surface for a moment, as if searching for something. Apparently satisfied, he cocks his hand back, and with a single fluid motion drives his fist straight into the rock. With a *thoom*, a circular area around his fist shatters, the rock collapses into shards and dust, leaving only a deep depression. "Pick a stone. For the next hour, I want you to punch it as hard as you can. No breaks."
Shingo stares. Just stares when hearing Oro's method of training for today. "...What do you mean no breaks? Just how long am I supposed to hit rocks for?" You have to excuse Shingo. He's used to Kyo's 'intensive' training as it is. To him, this seems more like Boot Camp. All the while, looking over the rocks for a suitable one. Don't want to seem like more of a wimp than he already appears to be in Oro's eyes after all.
Oro snorts. "So panicked you barely even heard me. One hour, I said. We'll start off light." With that, Oro leaps into the air, landing lightly on one of the midsized rocks. He resumes his cross-legged seat, watching Shingo calmly. "I can't make you good in the time we have, but I'll make you better."
Shingo ohs, thinking how foolish he looks now. Simply nodding and not saying another word, he works his way over to a suitably Shingo-sized rock. Taking a deep breath to focus himself he drops into his fighting stance. Breathing deep once more, he then begins his training. He grits his teeth to get through the pain. He's not going to give Oro the satisfaction. So.
*PUNCH*
He doesn't alternate fists, concentrating on the righ hand for now. And so it continues. Punch, punch, punch. At least it's just for an hour, right?
Log created by Oro, and last modified on 19:20:42 01/05/2005.