Description: This battle starts on the S.S. SNF and leaves both fighters soaking wet! (Draw Match)
The ninja quietly finishes writing on the scroll.
It was a little difficult making all the neccesary calculations, but it would interesting practice to see if he could actually do it out here. Right now, Seishirou is sitting on the front deck of the S.S. SNF, a small arena yacht commissioned for the occaisional low-damage event like this. It wasn't his first choice for a battleground, but so long as it was anchored, he could deal with the pitch and the yaw. A wide-brimmed rice hat, hung with ceremonial gohei shields Ryouhara's eyes from the setting sun as he rolls up the scroll and idly sticks it in a pocket of his new pants.
He stands up from the crate he'd been cross-legged atop not a moment ago. He'll roll his shoulders in their sockets and quietly ask, "are we ready?"
Mere moments earlier, Sakura Kasugano had hopped onto the yacht, still hurriedly going about her minor preparations for the fight. This was... unconventional, but at least it's not the same old, same old. Pulling her bright red handguards on snugly, the schoolgirl looks across the deck to find Seishirou. She =had= wanted to get here earlier so he wouldn't be able to prepare more of his tricks... but plans fell through, and she's here just a moment or so after the designated start time.
Self-consciously smoothing her skirt as she steps towards Seishirou, she quirks her head to the side at his hat. Then again, the sun's at her back right now, so it's not like she has to squint to see -him-.
The question, and its quiet delivery, makes her even more curious. Lightly clasping her hands, she brings her right leg back, turning her side toward Seishirou. "... is it safe?" she asks in allusion to a popular movie she'd seen just the other day. Adopting a more ebullient grin, she nods her head. "Ready when you are," she claims, a light breeze filtering thrugh the harbor and setting her long white headband into disarray. "Let's do this!"
COMBATSYS: Sakura has started a fight here.
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Sakura 0/-------/-------|
Seishirou tilts his head quizzically at Sakura. Yeah.. obviously he doesn't get out and see a lot of popular movies. So while the idea that she's making a reference isn't lost on him, just what that reference is... well. Regardless, he thinks on it a moment, apparently finding it just worth enough to shrug at. Braced gloves go to the back of him and forward. He quietly unzips a segment of his satchel and faces that hip away from Sakura, his eyes just visible under the shadow of his hat. As if in recognition of that, he zips up the brim, just a bit, til the glint of his forehead protector can be seen.
"I'm ready," he starts. "Gotta love someone punctual.." he says. It's relatively earnest--Sakura /was/ here on time, of course. Seishirou was here early, but.. well. He needed to be. He doesn't quite make a move yet. Seems like he's the sentimental sort, and will let Sakura take her best shot.
COMBATSYS: Seishirou has joined the fight here.
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Sakura 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Seishirou
... come to think of it, it's been almost a year since Sakura first fought Seishirou in Saturday Night Fight. Like then, they're starting the match with a staredown, but unlike then, there are no teammates at their respective backs.
Not like Seishirou gave his teammate a chance to fight or anything, back then.
She seemed to fare somewhat better against Seishirou in Strolheim, at least. But this, a true rematch... this is what the Taiyo schoolgirl's been waiting for!
She has learned a lot in the interim about fighting ninjas. First and foremost -- the only constant is change. So she'll be keeping her eyes open as best she can in this fight, at the very least.
And just to be on the safe side, she's going to stick with one of her more tried and true maneuvers. Nodding back to the ninja, Sakura cups her hands by her sides. A bright plume of blue flame erupts between her palms, spinning rapidly into the form fo a sphere. Nothing unusual, nothing tricksy... just a plain jane ball of flame whirling in her grasp. "... Still don't talk much, do ya?"
And then her hands whip forward, sending the mailbox-sized ball of chi-flame rushing towards Seishirou with a cry of "HADOOOOUKEN!", the boat rocking gently from her sudden shift of weight.
COMBATSYS: Sakura successfully hits Seishirou with Medium Hadouken.
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Sakura 0/-------/-----==|===----\-------\0 Seishirou
Seishirou can tell that. Her intelligence curve was one that was predisposed towards adaptation--he figured that awhile ago, from the style she mimicked. Studying Sakura would in some roundabout ways allow him to analyze this style in a prototypical form. But right now, what this means is that this won't be half the cake walk it was before. He figures this at about the time her attack blazes across him, his attempt to lean himself to the side and just out of the way of the flame blast just a bit slow, giving him fair pause as he goes sliding back across the deck, nailed firmly in the side.
He smirks. "..Heh. As much as you still like to chat."
He's gonna have to work on presenting a smaller target.
"Let's see how we've both done since Strolheim..." he echoes. And walks to the edge of the boat, eyes halfway on the schoolgirl, veiled by his gohei. If nothing else, Seishirou seems a little less critical this time. Oh, he's never the great conversationalist, but since Strolheim, it would seem Seishirou's lost a lot of his contempt for Sakura's style. Now he seems more.. an avid spectator. A connosieur, if you will. He's watching her, quietly.
He's working out everything in his head.
COMBATSYS: Seishirou focuses on his next action.
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Sakura 0/-------/-----==|===----\-------\0 Seishirou
There's no mistaking Sakura's glee at being able to hit the ninja with a straight-out attack. Nothing fancy, just focused and direct like her master told her to. The lesson there was: Seeing an attack doesn't equate to an ability to do something about it.
As pleased as she is with the results, Sakura knows the battle won't be quite that simple.
And while Seishirou walks to the edge of the boat, Sakura takes a few steps forward to follow. Not too close, not too far. Because she =knows= Seishirou's plotting something, and it could very well involve something outside the boat. Or something prominent on the surface of the boat. The way she figures: standing out in the open, away from anything unusual, is probably the safest place to be right now.
And that's what she keeps in mind when she approaches him, keeping her hands balled lightly into fists, side-stepping towards him as per usual.
"Well, yeah... I like talking. It's just a fight, it's not a =war=..." she comments, the memories of Metro City still fresh on her mind. "... Right?" she asks in confirmation, keeping her coffee-colored eyes trained on the ninja for any sign of movement. Particularly that satchel she can't see very much of, and the hand nearest it.
COMBATSYS: Sakura focuses on her next action.
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Sakura 0/-------/-----==|===----\-------\0 Seishirou
He grins.
"S'pose you wouldn't know too much about it.."
He tips up his rice hat. Just a bit more.
"But. For some of us? Living is a war."
He reaches into his bag. There's a familiar glint, just above his headband. His /hat/ has a box built into it. There is metal loaded in that box. And now that Sakura has a direct line of sight to it, it's almost natural that something Seishirou would wear as part of his apparent costume change is an offensive weapon. He pulls the left gohei off his hat, casting it aside the trigger mechanism that pulls a ripstring through the hat and triggers the kunai launcher. Which fires exactly one kunai at Sakura.
Until the kunai splits down the blade into three seperate kunai. And then those fire. Unexpected attack vectors? You bet. Especially considering one explodes into a rough smokescreen over the area. The other two? They just explode.
COMBATSYS: Sakura overcomes Large Thrown Object from Seishirou with Medium Hadouken.
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Sakura 0/-------/-----==|===----\-------\0 Seishirou
Tricky. Sakura didn't know what was headed her way, but she had a reasonable guess that it was gonna hurt if it hit her. Anything requiring multiple stages is going to be heavy and =fast=, after all! The fact that it just happened to come from a little dispensing mechanism inside the technoninja's hat just means even more trouble.
With smoke billowing out every which way, it's hard to tell exactly =where= the true attack will be coming from. Forward, behind, from the side... who knows? So Sakura just places a bet on the last known information -- the kunai coming straight towards her. Another surge of energy comes between her palms, the petals of her blossom of chi becoming indistinct as they whirl into a perfect sphere. The smoke is closing in, but Sakura knows where Seishirou =was=, and thrusts her hands forward again, crying out "HADOOOOUKEN!" as the ball is loosed from her hands. Smoke follows the fireball's wake, a clear path through the smoke carved as the concussive blast rockets forth, churning one of the blades aside with a clatter and continuing on towards the ninja.
Yet Sakura takes immediate action afterwards, diving into the smoke in case any other surprises decide to home in on her. She keeps her mouth shut, despite her desire to fire back a smug retort, the only sign of her passing being a slight listing of the boat to the starboard side.
COMBATSYS: Sakura successfully hits Seishirou with Medium Hadouken.
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Sakura 0/-------/----===|====---\-------\0 Seishirou
As expected.
Seishirou figured she'd know where that was going. And how she might respond. He's not going to panic about it, as a result, when he moves back to one side and notes a clear audio warning as Sakura's glowing projectile comes skirting through his smokescreen, twirling the cloud just a bit as it smashes into the ninja, causing him to fall back.
He could tell she moved by the resonance of the floorbloods underneath him. He didn't have visual on her because she was inside the smokescreen. In essence, using it against him. As expected. He takes a moment to go through a complex series of hand symbols, now that she has other distractions and casts something from his satchel into the air, which makes a loud, jarring sound as it poofs open into a subcloud over the initial screen. He squints carefully and draws the wires secured to his glove taut.
He didn't know /where/ she was in the cloud and homing or saturation devices would probably be stupid. But in this case, he's going to assume she hasn't moved underneath the floorboards (though it'd amuse him if she did) and just attack the entirety of the cloud with a floating coil of wires just around its circumference. He'll look to snare Sakura (low, probably by the legs, if she's standing) and then jump over the cloud, to fish her out of it with his weight and swing her clear into the side of the cabin.
COMBATSYS: Sakura fails to interrupt Leafwalking from Seishirou with Quick Throw.
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Sakura 0/-------/--=====|=====--\-------\0 Seishirou
Mmm. The =waiting=. This is the part of the game Sakura detests. She curses herself for trying to out-strategize Seishirou, the boy who'd put her so deep into hot water the first time they'd fought. She'd thought that hiding in his smokescreen might be a good thing... but then she remembered the creak of the floorboards, and the boat itself. Gaah. Recognizing her mistake, she'd tiptoed forward within the smoke screen, delicately making her way to an alternate position just to ensure she didn't stay an =easy= target.
And then came the wires! She'd heard the telltale whooshing noises, saw the smoke displacing in one fluid movement, and knew =something= was up. A jump... but it was too late, and Sakura's legs are snared in the trap, thin red slivers of red cutting into her bare shins from the thin filaments.
And then the =fun= starts. Kasugano can feel herself get tugged sharply to the side of the cabin. She remembers where it is, even though she can't see it from all the smoke, and she =does= try and pull to the side, so that her hands can land first, and hopefully grab for some kind of handhold on the cabin.
No such luck, as Sakura impacts =hard= into the cabin wall, with nothing to grab onto. She jerks back on her legs sharply, just the same, hoping to present herself as a harder catch to the fisherman, and possibly pull him off balance.
if only the line didn't go slack shortly thereafter, that might have =done= something. "Gnnnnh..." murmurs Sakura, thudding onto the deck and working to free her feet...
He twists his wrist, just a bit, pulling the release on the wires. See, it'd just be stupid to maintain a connection to Sakura after the initial suprise has faded. That's the kind of thing that gets ninjas killed. With a businesslike efficiency to his stride, Seishirou will kick the ripline gohei out of his way roughly as he steps towards Sakura. He'll stop short, pulling the launcher kunai out of the floorboards--the only one other than the bladed segment of the smokescreen miniblade that survived intact.
"Not bad, you almost stopped me," he comments. Ryouhara will pull three more mini-blades out of his satchel and in full view of the dazed Sakura, stick them into the forged weapon's handle. He twists the eyelet and the segments collapse. It almost even looks like a normal kunai, in fact. He looks towards Sakura quietly, sniffing once as he tucks the weapon into his sash. He'll let her get her bearings for a moment, while he assesses the situation.
COMBATSYS: Seishirou focuses on his next action.
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Sakura 0/-------/--=====|=====--\-------\0 Seishirou
Smiling faintly at the compliment, Sakura nods back quietly. One more moment and she's free from the wires -- another, and she's back on her feet, shins still circumscribed with red. Blood's not going to go away on its own, after all. "Tch..." she murmurs, staying light on her feet as she backs away to a safer distance. Luckily... the smokescreen is fading due to the steady breeze.
Well. The wind's about to change anyway. "... Not doin' half bad, keepin' me on my toes and all..." comments Sakura, once more stepping closer to the center of the deck. She knows better than to try and be crafty right now, especially with him knowing at least -one- weak point to nail her right now. And jumping, aerial acrobatics and the like, really aren't a good idea with her legs like they are. So instead... she simply drops her elbows to her waist, fists clenched to either side. Smirking back at Seishirou, a small breeze kicks up around her. A miniature whirlwind, more precisely, with Kasugano at the center. "We've both learned a -lot- in the past year, though, I can tell!" Her skirt and headband kicked into disarray by the blue-tinged wind, she grins back to Seishirou. "... So what's next on the agenda?"
COMBATSYS: Sakura gathers her will.
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Sakura 1/-----==/=======|=====--\-------\0 Seishirou
"Just assessing my options," the ninja comments lightly. He doesn't actually respond to the rest of it--there's little need. And any further appreciation he expressed would be useless in this kind of a situation. He looks a little taken aback by the chi he can so obviously feel--even see--moving around her.
This is gonna be hard.
But. He'll try and make it quick.
The ninja takes a jump back away from Sakura. And from the side of his satchel, he draws.. /one/ kunai. Just one. It's all, as far as he's concerned, he'll need. He's got one eye on Sakura and--well. While it is possible this could be another one of his trick kunai... Seishirou's relatively sure of where he aims. He holds it by the eyelet in one hand, takes an instant to look and throws. Relatively uncharacteristic for Seishirou, it is in fact just a normal kunai in flight, thrown relatively hard. It doesn't do anything, at least? But it's aimed at a point just behind Sakura. Unfortunately, it's probably going to be stopped by a ligament in Sakura's arm along the way. It's an impressive shot, for the distance. But then again.. Seishirou hasn't abandoned his initial training, and he /was/ the top of his class in the single-shot-kunai throw.
COMBATSYS: Sakura blocks Seishirou's Kunai Flight.
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Sakura 1/----===/=======|======-\-------\0 Seishirou
Sakura's not too keen on her arm being used for target practice. With her eyes on Seishirou, and the vortex of energy swirling around her, it's a fairly simple task for her to simply draw her arms inward s as not to be struck by the blade. But, just to be on the safe side, Sakura doesn't exactly want to set herself up for another attack, on the off chance that the blade has a monofilament attached to the trailing eyelet. Accordingly, she twists her hand to the side, taking the blade full on the padded part of her handguard, the point sinking into the flesh beneath as it drives her arm back an inch or two.
Gritting her teeth from the mild pain, she efficiently plucks the blade out, not wanting to hold it very long in the case of an explosion. The fact that it hasn't exploded yet is a =very= good sign.
"Dropped something," notes Sakura, twirling the blade around by its eyelet, before rocketing the blade forward at Seishirou. "Hyaaa!" Straight, direct, and to-the-point, if you'll pardon the pun.
COMBATSYS: Sakura successfully hits Seishirou with Thrown Object.
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Sakura 1/----===/=======|=======\-------\1 Seishirou
Hmph.
Stuck with his own kunai--it's an interesting sensation--Seishirou is only able to catch the weapon after the fact, pulling it roughly with a grimace from his midsection. Hnph. Ryouhara taps the weapon twice against the steel cuff on his glove, before spinning the weapon by its eyelet. "Apparently, I didn't drop it," he remarks, before deciding to get down to business. She's playing smart. Maybe he'll need to take the upper hand, here.
Seishirou takes a step forward.
Then he reverses stance, so Sakura can see his back just briefly. Risky? You bet. But if Sakura even takes an instant to contemplate the situation, Seishirou pulls the other gohei from his hat, tipping it forward from his perspective with his free hand. This fires the /other/ kunai launcher in his hat at Sakura, without Seishirou even looking. This isn't a very good aim, but Seishirou uses the attack to whirl on his heel again, orienting on a location just to the right of the kunai, which is aimed more cabinward. The kunai is still in his hand at this point. And it looks like he's going to slice Sakura neatly if she has too easy a time moving away from the first shot. This will lead into a pronounced backflip away from the girl and back a little ways to where he fired that shot. The exchange is extremely fast. If Sakura doesn't pay attention, she might miss it.
COMBATSYS: Sakura fails to interrupt Jab Punch from Seishirou with Small Hadouken EX.
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Sakura 1/----===/=======|=======\-------\1 Seishirou
Well. Sakura =is= paying attention here, and the fired shot raises her hackles... but she can already guess that the aim is off. Not by -much-, but Seishirou's over-the-shoulderism didn't inspire much faith in her. Something else had to be forthcoming.
But, as before, the knowledge that something's coming isn't the same the ability to deal with it effectively -- otherwise Sakura might have been more prepared. As it is, the fingers of her right hand snap open, a small ball of flame appearing in it for the brief moment she has to prepare herself. Her goal, naturally, is to plant that fireball right in Seishirou's sternum.
He's moving a bit too quickly for that, and the end result is that he gets the slice he wanted -- another thin red line forms, this time upon her shoulder, becoming more visible as the fabric of her sleeve is split in twain. "Gnnh..." murmurs Sakura, briefly forgetting about the fireball in her near-reflexive attempt to just haul off and deck the ninja while he's still close. Forgotten, the half-formed Hadouken spins out of control and dissipates before it hits the deck.
"... Well, no..." murmurs Sakura... but that backflip is pretty easy to spot, just the same. And she takes a few quick steps to advance on his position, balling her right fist in anticipation for what -might- be coming next. "Get back here so I can bust you in the jaw!" Telegraphing her intent? Perhaps overly so...
Rock once said to him that he'd need to fight for real. That he relied on too many toys. Seishirou has and always will disagree. Sakura's playing intelligently. It might just be that she's a better straight-up fighter than Ryouhara. He's prepared to accept that. But one of the points of ninjitsu is knowing you're facing a stronger opponent.... and knowing it doesn't matter.
Landing from his backflip facing Sakura, Seishirou's vision snap-centers on her. As his kunai drips just an ever-faint line of crimson. He is only faintly aware of it. As he smirks. "Getting serious on me, Kasugano?" the ninja asks, quietly. "You're playing cool...thinking if you can wait until I come to you you can beat me.. as a result, you're holding back. In the end.." Seishirou twists his foot onto the gohei he just pulled onto the ground, and then kicks it up into the air, a spread of white paper fluttering before Sakura's eyes, before it lands heavily onto the deck. By that time, Seishirou will have made his move.
Because, as Sakura's closed the distance a bit, Seishirou's only needed to take one step forward and sweep his leg out in a dart. He'll knock Sakura right off her feet, if she isn't mindful of more than the makeshift screen his gohei made.
"..What makes you think I haven't planned for that, too?!"
COMBATSYS: Sakura interrupts Light Kick from Seishirou with Shou'ou Ken.
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Sakura 1/--=====/=======|=======\====---\1 Seishirou
Grr. When Sakura talks to someone in the midst of a fight, it's for one of two purposes. The simplest is camaraderie -- the act of conversation, underscoring her goal of 'street fighting', even in a tournament setting, being a generally fun event. The second is trash talking -- a deliberate psychological tactic used to force people into reacting even when they don't want to.
She was conducting the former -- and she's realized Seishirou was now shifting to the latter. "You're just trying to =confuse me!=" she shouts in response. Realistically... the paper =was= masking his move. Kasugano couldn't rely on sight to save her. She knows this. And to a large extent, what Seishirou says is true.
And yet the boy came in close anyway. And Sakura strikes back at the first target that presents itself -- a bunch of paper. "SHOOOOOOU'OOOOU KEN!" It's pretty simple -- a leaping uppercut, backed by the full momentum of a slight running start.
How was she to know the ninja would be hiding behind it, ready to strike? The sweep kick crashes into her leg, sure... but with her leaping, she's not got any weight on it. Better luck next time?
"Heh... did you plan for =that?=" quips the girl in mid-flight.
"Ngh!!" Ryouhara is knocked back by Sakura's running momentum. The force of this is such that he actually gets rocketed a good few feet off into the air. Most of his momentum is actually horizontal, due to the running start, however. The ninja.. actually doesn't have an effective comeback for that. OR maybe it has something to do with the fact his face is wrapped around Sakura's fist.
He actually falls /off/ the boat during this process, full and away from Sakura, hand going to his pant leg dimly as the blood arcs through the air. But as soon as he disappears over the side, it seems the entire recognizable portion of the sea /pops/ into smoke.
Welcome to Seishirou's latest experimental technique.
Huh. It worked. Seishirou is standing.. well. He's standing on a dinghy just off the SNF, just bobbing above the water. It is, in fact, one of 8 such dinghies floating in the water, all arrayed in very specific points in that water. Apparently summoned out of nowhere. One more handseal, and an array of pops all cause the boats to drop anchor. He wipes off a bit of blood from his lip, sniffing and spitting into the water, past a sinking scroll that is now completely devoid of text. The boat adjacent to him actually has a rather ominous looking giant kunai levelled on Sakura and the SNF.
"Heh.. yeah... I did," Seishirou finally responds.
COMBATSYS: Seishirou focuses on his next action.
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Sakura 1/--=====/=======|=======\====---\1 Seishirou
... Surrounded?! Sakura's eyes widen, at that. Maybe she was wrong in calling this a fight instead of a war!
But after the initial shock of seeing Seishirou's armada appear practically out of nowhere, Sakura flashes a cocky grin back to Seishirou. Thumbing at the kunai, she raises an eyebrow. "Overcompensating for something?"
Mind, she's been able to hold her own against the crafty ninja boy up until this point. She's got an ace up her sleeve. Not the one that was slit by the kunai, the other one. And that ace just happens to be colored blue, and tracing down her arm and into her palms, much like many other rays of energy streaming into her hands as she curls them to her side. "Not a problem, though, really! I'll just have to sink 'em one by one!" Once more, the energy forms a perfect sphere -- though when Sakura fires it forward, it's twice as large as the last, and just as quick! "HADOOOOUKEN!"
And just where is this massive, six-foot-wide fireball headed? Why... to Seishirou, of course -- and the boat he happens to be standing upon. It's all good: it's large enough to handle them both.
COMBATSYS: Sakura successfully hits Seishirou with Large Hadouken EX.
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Sakura 1/-------/=======|>>>>>>>\>>>>>>>\2 Seishirou
"...?" Compensating? --whoah!
That.... is a big hadou.
Seishirou is forced to conclude this as she intends to sink his boat. That was expected enough and is /exactly/ why Seishirou chose not to stand idle on the boat with the kunai on it. Unfortunately, his 'hot' calculations aren't working too well today and he's not able to get out of the way of the Hadouken before it snaps his dinghy into splinters like a twig and plunges the ninja underneath the water. He's gone for a few good moments there, until he breaches the water. Messed up quite thuroughly, he climbs over the side of another one of the small boats, dripping wet like a rat and coughing up water and bits of ninja, finally removing his hat and setting it on the boat so that there isn't a cord choking him while he's trying to catch his breath. Ugh. He's in awful shape. And, like this, he's a sitting duck for further projectile warfare.
Fortunately, he planned for that too.
He makes one hand seal.
And both gohei he left aboard the SS SNF glow briefly, as they catch fire near Sakura. It's only an instant later they'll, popping and hissing, burn through to the packets of explosive inside their ripcords. That's why they hit the ground a little little heavily. Oh sure, they were handy veiled trigger mechanisms and one-time screens against attack... but Seishirou expected Sakura to be wary of them, having fought the ninja up to twice previous, until he A> used them to some end and B> was no where near them. To this end, Seishirou accurately placed them by kicking them around, using them as screens and then promptly got himself off the SNF. Because these gohei.. well. They'll make quite a large explosion.
When Seishirou says he's planned for something, he is, in fact, /not/ just talking trash.
COMBATSYS: Seishirou successfully hits Sakura with Calculated Tactics.
- Power hit! -
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Sakura 0/-------/---====|=======\-------\1 Seishirou
Well... no. Sakura really didn't expect multi-purpose gohei. They tend to be good for warding off evil spirits, not necessarily exploding in a spectacular fashion!
There's one brief instant of warning, between the pops and hisses and the actual explosions that follow. In that brief instant, Sakura glances sharply to the source of the sound, reflexively determines that to be a Bad Thing(tm), and summarily leaps into the air as fast as she can.
Mind, the explosions travel a bit faster than her, and she's caught in between the blast radius of the two detonating gohei. Her uniform catches on fire, at that, but all told... if she didn't summon forth the power of the anime leap, the burns on her skin would a hurt a hell of a lot worse!
And the fire shortly becomes a non-issue, as Sakura splooshes down into the water shortly thereafter. Salt water + burns = YUM! It's not long before she emerges from the water, though, and she just happens to be swimming towards one of Seishirou's dinghys. One that's -not- the kunai-monster, as luck would have it. He wouldn't sink one of his own fleet, would he? ... Please don't answer that.
Regardless, Sakura's gonna have some fun -- she's making handseals of her own! ... wait, those aren't handseals. If Seishirou were up on pop culture, he'd recognize that as the para-para hand movement to a Move song... "Wings of Fire tsubasa ni / koi no honoo nosete / Higher..." Yes, folks, Sakura Kasugano is actually attempting to =sing=, with a wiiiide, smug grin on her face. Never mind the blue aura swirling around her in the meantime.
COMBATSYS: Sakura focuses on her next action.
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Sakura 0/-------/---====|=======\-------\1 Seishirou
.. Seishirou's head tilts quizzically at Sakura's little dance. At first, he leans back, baffled and is about ready to jump /off/ the boat in case Sakura's going to try something. It's actually kind of comical, til Seishirou realizes she's .. well, kind of mocking him, but with a purpose. No, it's now clear that Seishirou doesn't do an awful lot of video gaming. Or watching of TV. It's really kind of sad. Once he figures out her purpose, he smirks faintly. "I'm sorry... your singing is awful." He'll make one handseal. Oh no. The kunai won't orient on Sakura's dinghy. No. See. He doesn't need to sink his own fleet.
They're well equipped to sink themselves.
There's a pop at Sakura's feet and gears spin inside the ship, as, from over the side, a /claw/ activates, not dissimilar to a giant bear trap, attempting to snap shut on Sakura mid-para-para. The boat will whirl thereafter as a weight shifts inside its hull, trying to capsize itself right then and there. Seishirou's not so dumb so as to keep explosives on most of these ships--as we've mentioned before, Seishirou expected Sakura to shoot them down, and he'd rather not be standing on bombs trying to dodge hadoukens by jumping amongst them. Seishirou's already had his backpack explode once.
But nobody's said Seishirou couldn't rig them to spear passengers on command and then hold them underwater for awhile.
COMBATSYS: Sakura fails to interrupt Calculated Tactics from Seishirou with Shou'ou Ken.
- Power hit! -
[ \\\\\\\ < > ////// ]
Sakura 0/-------/=======|=------\-------\0 Seishirou
Clamp. "Uwaa~uh?!" Sakura got a little too caught up in her routine to realize that, um, there's a claw clamping down onto her leg. It doesn't hurt... much. Yet.
Aborting her routine, Sakura shrugs. "Okay, hotshot, what =now?=" She ... only then realizes that the boat has started to sink. "... Crap." she notes, as the water level creeps up upon the boat. But not to worry! Sakura has the perfect plan. She'll just crouch down, blast the claw off with a small-scale Hadouken, and then use the sinking ship and the recoil to rocket her across to Seishirou's boat and knock him off with an uppercut, right?
... Well, that's just one big Wile E. Coyote blueprint right there, and it's all dependent upon breaking free. Sakura does not succeed in that. She crouches down, but the claw doesn't budge when she blasts it the first time -- a small amount still remains to keep her fixed. And blasting =too= hard could take her foot right off!
So she tries again... but by this time the boat's underwater already, and chibi-Hadoukens don't work well with water. It's pretty funny to watch the schoolgirl flail with her left leg clamped tight. If she just calmed down, she could probably focus and break free. As it is, her head sinks below the surface of the water with her kicking and screaming her head off.
Glub, glub. About six seconds after total submersion, Sakura finally kicks herself free, completely drenched and coughing up water... one might think she's a sitting duck, out here in the water without anything substantial to hold on to!
A good plan... it's a pity it didn't work out.
He's feeling a little better now. That doesn't mean he's not close to just giving up and falling down, but it does mean he's able to maintain a good standing, after getting nailed with that big hadouken. That said, the ninja looks down at the water's surface, a little epxectantly. He'll probably go and fish her out if it becomes apparent she's not gonna do anything. He doesn't move from his position, shaking out his wet hair until the bangs work themselves out again. When Sakura breaches the water, he at least has the good wherewithal to nod at her and not.. you know. Directly make an attempt on her life. He could probably hear the screaming through the water and the boat from his feet, but the way he looks at Sakura, it was like he expected her to escape the trap all along.
The best he can do is wait for her, watching carefully.
COMBATSYS: Seishirou focuses on his next action.
[ \\\\\\\ < > ////// ]
Sakura 0/-------/=======|=------\-------\0 Seishirou
Well, Sakura expected to escape the trap too! At least they're both on the same page!
But... she doesn't seem to be doing anything at the moment. She also isn't showing her hands, presumably because she's treading water. The Southtown water doesn't make it any easier to see.
There's a reason, though. There always is. This =particular= reason centers on the fact that Sakura had to rip the metal right off her leg. That's... one reason she'd taken so darn long. And guess what? She's still got the remains of the claw in her hand. "Sei..." she starts, panting for breath as she treads water.
And then she suddenly reels back in the water, before that claw comes hurtling out like an oddly-balanced boomerang. "You dropped something!"
And this time, he did. He gave the command to drop, right?
COMBATSYS: Seishirou overcomes Thrown Object from Sakura with Kunai Flight.
- Power hit! -
[ \\\\\\\ < > //// ]
Sakura 0/-------/=======|=------\-------\0 Seishirou
Ryouhara considers the situation closely. Why isn't she trying to recover? Probably because getting /back/ on one of his boats isn't palatable to her right now, as far as he knows. But that's fine. Because it does give him a certain strategic advantage. Unless she decides to start submarining. And .. well .. forgive Seishirou for being relatively immodest...
But he guesses he probably has more underwater fight-training than Kasugano does. He puts a foot to the side of the boat, leaning forward, and looking at her carefully. He still doesn't say a word. The time for that has past. But he's listening, when she speaks. You can almost hear the ? as he notices she still has a piece of his trap in her hand. He frowns. She's trying to throw it at him. Like the kunai. And.. well.
There's a limit to how much of that Seishirou will stand. Which is why he goes back to his sash--and draws the kunai he stowed there earlier. Well, just before he got up in the boat he landed in anyway, as he actually exchanged it for that normal kunai earlier, in case Sakura tried anything funny. Occaisionally his plans do have to be abandoned as they no longer become pertinent.
But he never overlooks an option. Which is why when he lets the rigged kunai fly--and it splits /again/, this time it's aimed quite specifically. THe lower sub-blade as the weapon launches second stage will neatly *plink* the makeshift boomerang out of the air? The other two? Well, all three are explosive. But the deflecting one explodes underwater. The last two will explode somewhere near Sakura's head.
"Keep it," he replies earnestly.
COMBATSYS: Sakura blocks Seishirou's Kunai Flight.
[ \\\\\\ < > //// ]
Sakura 1/-------/=======|==-----\-------\0 Seishirou
Exploding underwater, exploding above water... bah. Let's not get technical here. The point is, while Sakura may not be proficient in underwater -combat-, she still swims a whole heck of a lot. It's part of her discipline.
That... really doesn't have much to do with Sakura's initial reaction, which would be t duck down, and let those explosions detonate safely above the surface of the water while she swims below it. And she also swims away to the side, having heard the deflecting kunai splash down, and figuring it to explode as well. Explodey is not goody!
So... after a few moments, a white piece of fabric surfaces. Actually, further inspection would show it to be her entire top, sleeve sliced neatly down the side. Then that must mean...
That's right! One moment later, Sakura herself reemerges from the water with a splash, planting her bare foot right on top of Seishirou's aquatic command outpost! "Hi! Miss me?!" And just to show =her= love for Seishirou, Sakura's got a present! That's right -- a ball of blue flame in her hand which she eagerly presents for his approval. "Hadooouken!"
COMBATSYS: Seishirou dodges Sakura's Medium Hadouken EX.
[ \\\\\\ < > //// ]
Sakura 0/-------/------=|==-----\-------\0 Seishirou
Peering through the haze, Seishirou squints carefully. Looks like he succeeded. He had to have done /some/ damage, right? But when the top floats up, the ninja's expression is first once of suprise, then of confusion as he comprehends just what it is he's seeing. Crap. It's a decoy. That means--
Seishirou turns to face Sakura as she boards his dinghy. At the very least, he is relatively thankful she's got an undershirt on underneath her uniform top. He smirks quietly. He's been waiting for this eventuality. He leans his upper body to the side, just /narrowly/ missing being struck by the blue flame that scorches across him, working on variables in his head idly. The dinghy is fairly small, but there's enough room for a pair of fighters to settle their differences on. This is something that Seishirou will reinforce with a single whiplike kick he sketches out aimed at Sakura's face as an extension of that lean, turning his center of gravity back inwards towards the boat, to prevent it capsizing. Normally he wouldn't mind, but he'd rather it not capsize with him on top. Seishirou's fought (and even trained a little) underwater before, but .. in most cases, it's not his /favorite/ option.
If she's good at swimming, maybe he needs to study more.
COMBATSYS: Sakura interrupts Light Kick from Seishirou with Shou'ou Ken.
[ <
Seishirou 0/-------/-======|
COMBATSYS: Sakura can no longer fight.
[ <
Seishirou 0/-------/-======|
Welll.... Sakura's not going down without a fight! Even if it means she, er, has to take a kick to the face in the process!
She's totally unfazed about the twists of gravity. She'd thrown her arms out for balance and whatnot, she can take it! But when that kick comes up to strike her, Sakura senses that maybe it really doesn't matter if she just runs forward and punches the guy!
So that's what she does, leaping off one foot and unloading a leaping uppercut into Seishirou's midsection. "SHOOOU'OUU KEN!"
Well... they don't have to worry about the ship any more, especially since the lycra-clad schoolgirl just leapt off the boat -- Seishirou =with= her.
*sploosh* Sakura lands somewhat close to a piece of floating debris, wrapping her arm about it to stay afloat. Because really...? She's just about tuckered out!
Megumi goes home.
That's.. uh.. that's pretty reckless. Seishirou is, just for a moment, not entirely sure how to handle someone that is clearly acting insane in the clinical fashion. Being struck solidly in the midsection despite his arc ensuring that she gets nailed too, Seishirou gets thrown clear off the boat and into the water, fairly and well barely conscious at this point. Knocked down and back so thuroughly, the ninja doesn't have much left but to release his satchel from his belt before he hits the water, pulling a zipline from a button-up pocket as he does so.
FFSSSZZZZTTZORP. SPLASH.
Inflatable Kawarimi, painted up to look like a comically-proportioned log-shaped leaf ninja wearing a complete headband. That's what Seishirou's just barely keeping afloat on. IT's a wonder how he manages to tie his satchel to it. "Gh... good fight, Kasugano," is about the length of what he says. Though he obviously doesn't sound /too/ pleased with the result.
Flashing a weary smile back to Seishirou, Sakura nods back. Eyes... about to close, even as an official SNF-contracted first aid boat starts making its way towards the two. "Good fight, Ryouhara." Pause. "... good fight..." she echoes, holding on tight. She's not terribly pleased either, but quitting was, and is, a non-option!
Log created by Sakura, and last modified on 13:58:07 11/13/2005.