Description: Alma, feeling mildly disappointed after Xiangfei fails to reward him for his daring "rescue" of her from Hokutomaru's "evil clutches", finds his day isn't getting better as Gabriel has vengeance on her mind -- and a sword in her hand! Perhaps she just had plans that he accidentally fouled; or maybe... this is something a bit more serious. Alma, though shocked and shaken by the ambush at first, eventually reveals his genuine fearlessness in the face of death, in response to which Gabriel, well, nearly kills him.
He was going to get another cup of green tea ice cream, but it just wouldn't be the same.
Alma Towazu, highly uncharacteristically, is trudging along with his hands dug into his pockets, looking, despite his calm and mild countenance, somehow forlorn. The tall fighting model, on his way home, pauses a moment near a little square of green admist the high-flown buildings and businesses, and walks over to sit quietly on the side of a fountain for a moment.
He manages not to heave a deep meaningful sigh or anything, but he does quirk his mouth to send a puff of air straight up to flutter his bangs, a wry, slightly morose gesture.
~ Why'd she take *him* home? *I* saved the day...
...I really shouldn't be caring about this, should I. I'm gonna convince myself we *are* engaged. ~
`
Somewhere down an alley a cat hisses. A bird over head flutters. A limo pulls up right next to Alma. The driver rolls down the window and with a pair of dark shades, a mustache and a black suit asks,
"Alma? The famous model fighter?"
A reply he doesn't wait for, the back door opens. But before Alma can get in a sense of determined malfeasance. The driver meanwhile simply grins and says, "My work is done." The expression seems to of come from overhead where out of no where a girl in black with a long braid, tied with a lacy black silk ribbon, a black Justice High uniform, but it's warped, the skirt is gone, instead she wears a pair of shorts. Landing down in front of Alma, tights covering the rest of her legs to white boots, a sword at her side.
Kai Gabriel, in her stern, nun-punishing-you voice says,
"Alma-san. Have you seen Hokutomaru-kun?"
`
And he really thought his day couldn't get any weirder. Still, it's important, even in situations like these -- no! especially in situations like these! -- to keep one's cool, go with the flow, relax.
~ ...Kai-san is so *hot*... ~
ERRRRRN. Try again, Alma.
~ I mean. That's a... that's a nice sword. ~
There you go.
"Hokuto..." Alma isn't usually one to repeat what people say, or in fact say anything meaninglessly, but he tries to make up for it by thinking hard, and quickly coming to a conclusion. "Kai-san, you mean that ninja boy that you were fighting the other day?" He smiles a bit, and gradually straightens himself as he speaks. "Hey, yeah, you know, it was funny. I saw he and Xiangfei together not half an hour ago, and she said he was trying to kidnap her, and asked me to help. Seemed like a bit of a joke, but he took it kinda seriously. Still..."
~ Uh, what do I say...? ~
"...we duelled, and he didn't get a single solid hit in." Alma sounds neither proud nor apologetic. It's given gently, but it's the honest trust. "I threw him down. Last I saw, Xiangfei was... carrying him away." He makes a fairly good show of not revealing that he would've much rather been carried away himself.
"Ah..." He tilts his head slightly. "Are you in a play? The sword..."
`
It takes a moment for Gabriel to digest all that is said to her. The eyes, deep green, almost brown, they close. She draws a deep breath, hoping it wouldn't come to that. She draws her sword at one side.
"I am in the world play, the actors are the souls of the world who require that I save them and you.. YOU ARE ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE!"
A clear intent to strike is now displayed in Gabriel. She's going to attack Alma if he doesn't do something, actually she'll probably attack him anyway. " You have interfered with my Goddess' work for the last time, Alma-san!"
Is she a fencer now..?
`
COMBATSYS: Gabriel has started a fight here.
COMBATSYS: Alma has joined the fight here.
COMBATSYS: Gabriel focuses on her next action.
`
In this state, this lost and confused and still feeling those trace effects of mild depression, there's only one thing Alma can say.
"Holy Zen!"
With a quick, fluid movement, Alma twists to the side and rolls on his butt and off the fountain, keeping away from that sword! Unthinkingly, he relaxes his body but keeps his posture straight, in the usual manner of his fighting style, but that's just his body reacting to danger: the look in his eye shows he has absolutely no interest in either hitting Gabriel or getting hit by that sword. It's not clear, though, why he doesn't just run away; maybe it's masculine pride.
He's Alma, though. More likely, he's just worried about her.
"Kai-san, I assure you, it was accidental!" What else can he say? "Ah, but, if I'm going to, ah, learn from my sins, perhaps you could... tell me what they were, first...?"
`
COMBATSYS: Alma focuses on his next action.
`
"Search your soul and you will find the darkness that your heart harbors!" Kai exclaims while jumping back from Alma with a careful control of her body and motions to go with it. When she reaches a fire hydrant, she leaps into a flip in the air and twirls down toward Alma, baring on him with her sword, making a slash rather at the last moment,
"~DIE!" she cries, no question about her attempt.
SWISH! Slassh, the blow is aimed to go right across Alma's chest.
`
COMBATSYS: Gabriel successfully hits Alma with Random Weapon.
-* CRITICAL HIT! *-
`
[...........\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Alma 0/-------/--=====|-------\-------\0 Gabriel
[OOC] You say, "......."
[OOC] You say, "That's one for the books."
`
Alma's heart harbors *something*. But right now, it just looks like blood.
Surely, despite the fact that he just had incredible flow in his last fight and used up most of his energy, Alma would be able to weave out of the way of this. But there's something in him that really doesn't believe Gabriel's actually going to swing that sword at him. And that conscious thought invades his empty mind, and causes him to just stare, wide-eyed, as the blade traces a long, searing gash across his chest.
To his credit, he does not cry out.
With a little cough, sort of, he stumbles back, and hits the ground on his back. Passersby freeze and stop, unable to believe what they'd just seen... and are even more surprised when Alma staggers to his feet, his blood loss astonishingly minimal. Once the passerbys recognize who the people are though, it makes sense, and they're able to go about their business.
Alma's business, sadly, has just gotten tricky.
"...d...die...?" he manages, still looking flustered. "Are... are you serious? Gabriel! That's, that's dangerous! Don't swing that around at people!" The pain registers on his expression, but he's doing a fantastic job of letting it go. His righteous indignation is relatively unsullied by terror.
But she means it, now, and he better get ready to really give his all. He'd better get prepared for this. Gritting his teeth, Alma fully assumes his fighting stance, and lets the Psycho Power come to him again...
`
COMBATSYS: Alma gathers his will.
`
Kai Gabriel withdraws from the slash, anime violence at least lends that there may not be blood on it, but her expression narrow eyed consideration, as though she didn't have a hesitation in her mind about swinging the sword. Then she closes her eyes. A look of tranquility is brought to her face as she makes her next move, a leap into the air toward him, coming down to clasp her knees around his head and if she manages that, to throw her weight forward and bring Alma's head around into the ground.
"Iiii-ya!" she cries, her eyes opening with intensity at the last moments before she would land on him, if he doesn't do something about it.
`
COMBATSYS: Alma blocks Gabriel's Serpent Strangle.
`
[...............\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////////////// ]
Alma 1/-----==/=======|-------\-------\0 Gabriel
`
Alma is clasped, and nearly thrown. But as he is twisted, he reaches up, with hands afire, and wraps his arms around Gabriel's legs with what looks like, frankly, a bit of a snarl. "Uuuurryaaaahh!" he responds, and Psycho Power begins to surge forth around him as he fights, even as he's tossed down, to keep hold of Gabriel's legs and take her down with him.
If he can manage to maintain that grip, he'll hit the ground on his back, grapple the girl more fully by pulling her down on top of him-- and exploding with purple-pink light, unleashing all the power of his frantically gathered battle aura right into her vulnerable ego.
If he can't catch her, well, he'll probably just take out a tree with a Psycho laser beam or something.
`
COMBATSYS: Alma successfully hits Gabriel with Two Heavens Harmony.
`
[ ............\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////////// ]
Alma 0/-------/-----==|====---\-------\0 Gabriel
`
What a scary couple of beams. They certainly take their toll on Gabriel, who is pushed back and then flung onto the ground with a pain that seems to be more to the mind or even spirit than her body. In fact when she gets up, the glare still quite pronounced, it is with out hardly a mark and yet somehow, she seems more drained from it. A lot more drained. Her lips tighten, her eyes narrow, fire within them. A short dart and a sudden thrust - she makes a palm strike toward Alma's face.
"REPENT!" she cries, the strike ending with a snap of energy, purple like a snakes jaw biting where her hand strikes.
`
COMBATSYS: Gabriel successfully hits Alma with Serpent Snap.
`
[ ...............\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////// ]
Alma 0/-------/---====|====---\-------\0 Gabriel
`
Alma ignores it.
"Uuuuryaahhhh!" is, again, his response. Crashing right into her attack, he retaliates with a blurring series of flaming punches, his eyes gleaming with unthinking battle fury. With typhoon force, he attempts to blast his way through her defenses, strike her with multiple images of himself, and then finish with a fierce burning uppercut that will send her right into the fountain.
Belated revenge for the water bottle, perhaps.
"TYPHOON HOWL!!"
There's a certain intensity in Alma's voice that probably hasn't ever been there before.
But no one's ever cut him with a sword before.
His body thinks he's going to die. And his mind is simply empty.
`
COMBATSYS: Gabriel blocks Alma's Sacred Rekka Revelation.
`
[ ............\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////// ]
Alma 0/-------/------=|======-\-------\0 Gabriel
The blows are carefully tended, each one blocked with a critical eye of someone doing her best to avoid well.. Damage. Still it isn't pleasant and when she reaches the edge of the fountain, Kai leaps into a flip away from it's edge. Sailing through the air now, Kai rears back her sword and hurls it, point first at Alma with a exclaimed
"Haaaa!" almost sounding passionate.
"To the depths of hell's fire, I cast the demon!" She lands a few feet away.
`
COMBATSYS: Gabriel successfully hits Alma with Large Thrown Object.
`
[ .................\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////// ]
Alma 0/-------/---====|=====--\-------\0 Gabriel
`
His desperate measures are ineffective. His rage dissipates, and he just watches, looking almost lost, as Gabriel flips back and away from him. His chest heaves as he gasps for breath, and it burns with every movement.
~ What am I doing...? Why am I fighting like this...? ~
Weakness overtakes him. He fought so well before... he can't do it again... he's so tired...
~ She's not my enemy. No one is my enemy. Death is not something I fear. ~
He sees the sword coming a second too late. His body will not move...
Just barely, he twists to the side so he is not impaled, and with a little moan, he slumps to the ground. He coughs and sputters -- Goddess only knows how much that must hurt -- but, after a few seconds respite, he actually starts to try to get to his feet. The brightness in his eyes has faded, but with the last of his resolve, he appears to be trying to struggle out of the darkness he's found himself in, and do what's Right...
~ I've got to find out what's going on! If I can help, I... ~
"Why..." is all he can manage. "Why are you doing this..."
`
Kai Gabriel doesn't wait, when the sword flies she's right behind it, charging along the ground with her hands out at either side. she clasps one hand just then and suddenly chi forms in it, the energy mimicing the sword she was just wielding and had flung away. It's a sword of chi.
"To bring the world revolution, to erase all of the sins! For this future I promise.. I WILL NOT FAIL!"
SWwwwoooiish!" She swings the chi sword image toward Alma. The plus side, instead of slicing it's more like a chi energy cut then actual metal. The downside? Well chi is probably stronger than a sword anyway.
CSYS: Gabriel has attacked you with Mimic. (#2)
`
COMBATSYS: Alma successfully hits Alma with Faith Healing.
`
[ .\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////// ]
Alma 0/-------/---====|====---\-------\0 Gabriel
`
COMBATSYS: Alma blocks Gabriel's Mimic.
`
~ Tch...! ~
As soon as it left, it's back.
He doesn't have any of that True Passion left. He used it all. All he's got now is plain ole fury, and it's what he's going to have to rely on to survive this. At this point, were he his usual self, he would, in fact, get the heck out of Dodge, but looks as though Alma, with his flow gone, isn't really that much more the better man. He's... well, he's a bit pissed off.
"That doesn't make any real sense--" He lashes out with a palm, and Gabriel's energy sword slams against the unyielding energy barrier of his aura, the damage rippling out so as to cause less harm. His eyes, normally just heavy-lidded, have narrowed. "--and you know it!"
Yeah, he's really got no noble cause at *this* point. It's a brawl.
Which might explain why he's just hurled himself at Gabriel with all his might, with the definate intension of punching her right in the noggin.
`
COMBATSYS: Gabriel dodges Alma's Strong Punch.
`
[ ......\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////// ]
Alma 0/-------/--=====|=====--\-------\0 Gabriel
`
Blow for blow as it seems to be going, Kai Gabriel moves to one side, the air generated from Alma's punch moving her bangs in it's wake. She tries to grab his arm as it sails and twist it back to send Alma sailing over her back and onto the ground. The likes of which she'll give a solid cry of,
"CONFESS!" and then dance back a few more steps, that is if she can hit, if not she'll skip straight to the dancing. His words are left unanswered as she finds herself nearby her own sword.
`
COMBATSYS: Alma dodges Gabriel's Strong Throw.
`
"*You* confess!" he retorts, this time able to bob and weave out of the way. "What are you up to *this* time!? I swear, if it's not getting almost assassinated on dinner dates or finding out your schoolmates are trying to kill my friends, it's--" He sees her start to move before she actually does. "--oh *no* you don't!"
With a deft stagger-step movement characteristic of Hiten-ryu, he slips his toe under the hilt of the sword, quickly flips it into the air, and in one fluid motion, catches it and attempts to bring it down right on Gabriel's head.
It's the flat of the blade, of course.
He could never change *that* much.
`
COMBATSYS: Gabriel dodges Alma's Random Weapon.
`
[ .......\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////// ]
Alma 0/-------/-======|=====--\-------\0 Gabriel
`
Kai Gabriel moves out of the way, meanwhile, and up into the air. Don't look up now, she's coming to bare on his shoulders. Move and you might avoid her, if Alma doesn't she'll perch there, like before, but this time instead of throwing him right off, she'll ball a fist full of purple energy and fling it in his face and attempt a flip kick off of him to land a few feet away.
"For the light of the Goddess! JUDGMENT!" she cries.
`
COMBATSYS: Gabriel successfully hits Alma with Serpent Snare.
-* CRITICAL HIT! *-
`
[ .............\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////// ]
Alma 1/------=/=======|======-\-------\0 Gabriel
`
Alma is judged. And found wanting.
"Grfflg," is what he has to say to that, as he gets a face full of chi, followed by a kick that knocks him onto his butt. This is really not his fight. Gabriel most definately has the Goddess on her side, if not an entire pantheon.
~ I... I've got to... to find out... and help... ~
He doesn't have the will or the maturity to back down or know it's time to quit. But he has the iron resolve to, after slumping for another few seconds, struggle to his feet and meet Gabriel's eyes again, still unyielding. What obsessiveness lies within his heart, that makes it so he can't leave well enough alone? What is it about him that makes him think he needs to -- or even can -- help everybody?
"Tell me," he hisses, as, though one eye squints and his face seems a bit blackened, the wound on his chest seems to be a bit smaller than it was a minute ago. "Tell me what you want from me. I can't just leave you like this, Gabriel."
`
Kai Gabriel doesn't exactly respond, she instead charges up to reach and try to grab Alma by the collar, this time in an attempt to fling him into the side of the fountain, if she succeeds, the marble will probably break. Alma is just that HOT. To response to his question though, she just cries,
"This is your END!"
If throw doesn't connect, it will be more like a stern finger pointing and a passionate scream
`
COMBATSYS: Alma successfully hits Alma with Faith Healing.
COMBATSYS: Gabriel successfully hits Alma with Strong Throw.
`
[ ......\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////// ]
Alma 1/--=====/=======|======-\-------\0 Gabriel
`
She won't listen. Why won't she listen? Why won't she listen to him? He's still powerless. No matter how strong you are, sometimes, you just can't protect the people you care--
~ Alma. ~
For a moment, his lips part, and his eyes soften.
Then he's thrown hard against the marble. It does, indeed, break, and it was, in fact, due to his face, though maybe not exactly because of its attractive nature. He slumps there, until finally rolling off and hitting his back. His wound has reopened.
His eyes are pure Psycho Power.
His hand reaches up--
~ Alma. ~
--and drops to his side. His chest heaving as he tries to catch his breath, Alma weakly attemps to raise one hand, showing his palm, as the light fades from his eyes. He lets the power go. He lets something else go, too.
"I give up," he manages, voice slightly hoarse. "You win."
COMBATSYS: Alma takes no action.
`
Kai Gabriel hardly registers this, she somewhat drops her stance, her eyes seem to lose just a fraction of their own color intensity and she fluidly reaches down to pick up her sword.
Click click click. Her feet make their across the ground, the sword point is raised up toward Alma. A protip might now be that yes she seems to be clearly poised, ready to and in fact planning to run him through with it.
Her eyes momentarily narrow,
"This is it, DIE!" she exclaims and makes a lunge with the sword toward the slumped Alma.
`
COMBATSYS: Alma fails to interrupt Random Weapon from Gabriel with The One Strike.
[ .............. < > /////////////////// ]
Alma 0/-------/--=====|======-\-------\0 Gabriel
(oocnote: still alive, at 0%)
`
Alma's raised hand begins to glow.
~ Stop. I'll make you understand me. I'll engrave my self onto your very soul. Then you'll know. Then you'll know the truth. Then you'll stop this. ~
His hand begins to tremble, with all the power he's keeping bottled up inside him, all the energy he should release.
Gabriel comes at him with the sword, and Alma just looks into her eyes. His gaze is soft... but fearless.
~ ...I can't. ~
When she strikes, he does not move. He falls back as the blade pierces his chest for the last time, and slumps against the ground, letting his gaze cloud over.
~ Even if it costs me my life... I just can't. Not like this.
Even if... she never understands. ~
Perhaps he shall die, now.
A ghost of a smile appears on his lips, an angelic radiance touching upon his battered yet still beautiful features, before he begins to drift in a state of semi-consciousness...
`
Kai Gabriel's expression remains stony and impassive. She's clearly steeled herself well in advance and the effects of that only beginning to wear off. Her eyes close but only briefly. There is a tug and the weapon is free. She seems to think him dead. She murmurs a soft prayer, turns, and starts to walk away, the sword point dragged along the ground, leaving a red trail.
The limo driver has long since left and probably phoned the police. Though the fight seemed epic and long, it likely did not go so long after all. After attacks like that her hands are both red, her clothes a little soaked. It's hard to tell whose blood, hers or his, but blood all the same. She leaves somewhat slowly, and by some miracle manages to avoid being arrested.
`
COMBATSYS: Alma has ended the fight here.
Log created by Alma, and last modified on 10:52:30 09/30/2005.