Description: From high atop the tallest bank in Chinatown, Rock sends Sakura hurtling to her death and causes massive property damage! ... Well, he -coulda-. (Winner: Rock)
The Neo League has been off to a firecracker start. And now? Now, it has its first spectacle. Two young fighters with potential; the prodigies of two of the greatest masters in the world. The two Neo League fighters tied, at present, for the 1st ranking. Rock issued the challenge first. Apparently, he doesn't like having company at the top -- but perhaps that desire will be the impetus to drop him from that top.
The fight is staged on a rooftop -- but not just any rooftop. It's the rooftop of one of Chinatown's biggest banks, and said roof is made up to look up a fancy Chinese pagoda, complete with an arched roof just wide enough to stand on comfortable. That's where Rock is, his hands in his pockets, trying to stay warm while he waits for his opponent to show up to begin.
Chinese banks are -tall-, generally. Really tall. So one would have to be whipping out some major-league badass rooftop leaping to get up here. And who better to come springing up off the nearest rooftop -- despite it being about five stories short -- than Sakura Kasugano, schoolgirl extraordinaire?
... well, no. Sakura just takes the elevator as high up as it'll go, then takes the stairs, then the small ladder that leads to the top, and all that. But as soon as she gets an opportunity for an impressive vertical leap, you'd better believe she takes it!
Landing in a crouch, as the camera crews catch a good shot of her skirt fluttering in the wind, Sakura looks up to Rock with a smirk. Sure, it's cold -- but Sakura has the power of fanservice on her side! Raising her fist at Rock in a pose eerily reminiscent of Saikyo-ryuu, Sakura shouts, "Okay, Rock! You ready for this?!"
Rock runs one hand through his hair, partially because he wants to make sure it looks really good and partially because his head is a whole lot warmer than everything else. Even though he has his gloves on, it's still more than a little rough. And it DOES so look good.
Sakura isn't the only person with fanservice on her side. Rock, also, does -- for the other half of the audience. "Ready? I was born ready -- so bring it on, Sakura. We'll do some more catching up after you're through."
COMBATSYS: Rock has started a fight here.
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Rock 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Sakura has joined the fight here.
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Rock 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Sakura
"Heh..." Scratching her nose with the back of her handguard, she thinks of something else to say: "Oh yeah! I'm still only up to about fifty or so on the upside down sit-ups. Still got a ways to go before I break your record of 125!"
But enough chit-chat! Sakura doesn't waste any further time, curling her hands to one side as a whirlwind of blue petals swirls about in her palms. "But that's not -all- I've been working on..." Shifting her weight forward upon the angled tiles, Kasugano thrusts her hands forward, unleashing a blast of blue flame at Rock! "HADOOOOOUKEN!"
COMBATSYS: Rock overcomes Medium Hadouken from Sakura with Reppuken.
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Rock 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Sakura
"You'll get there," Rock says, "'Cause, believe it or not... I'm pretty sure you're made of even sterner stuff than I am." It's a polite, friendly way of saying 'you are more manly than me'. But, hey, it could be worse either way. Rock waits a few beats as the Hadouken comes his way, eyes fixing on it, red irises following a single blue bolt of power as it careens his way. Waiting. Waiting still -- and then--
WIthin the blink of an eye, Rock snaps one hand into the path of the blast, loosing his own explosion of chi that all but eats Sakura's alive and traces a path through the air, straight towards her. It's funny; with this strange battlefield, it's almost like their fighting on a completely two-dimensional plane. Weird, and unnatural. How could anybody ever do this?
Rugal heads north to the Southtown Village.
COMBATSYS: Sakura overcomes Reppuken from Rock with Medium Hadouken.
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Rock 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Sakura
Eh? The compliment seems a bit odd, but considering Rock's mood the past few times Sakura's met up with him, she realizes it's probably not out-of-place. So she flashes him a reassuring smile. "Nah, not really! Just a little crazy, that's all!"
And when that Reppuken blasts through her own Hadouken, Kasugano comes to a sudden realization: "Whoa, that was -strong!-" She'd thought =she'd= gotten stronger, and yet the Reppuken just whipped through it like it was nothing!
Well... almost nothing. If at first you don't succeed... Sakura pulls her hands back, eyeing the diminished wave as it ripples towards her, conjuring up another burst of =her= blue flame. "Hadoooooouken!" This time, her blast is a bit wider, enveloping what's left of the Reppuken and continuing onward!
COMBATSYS: Rock fails to interrupt Medium Hadouken from Sakura with Quick Throw.
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Rock 0/-------/----===|==-----\-------\0 Sakura
He could get involved in a drawn-out "fireball war" with Sakura, and inevitably get his ass beat up by Hadoukens. Or, he could try to mix up his tactics a little bit. Rock decides to go with the latter, in this case, and breaks off in a sprint across the narrow surface of the rooftop on his way to Sakura's person. His plan is to burst through the Hadouken, weakened as it is by having to press through his Reppuken. Alas, if only things were that simple. The moment the hadouken hits him, he realizes his mistake: He's misjudged the projectile's strength. It throws off his momentum more than enough, slowing him as he slides to a halt, dropping low into a crouch. It wasn't as bad as it could have been, but Rock has undeniably felt that.
Fireball wars are fun! They're also... pretty predictable, as Sakura tends to rely pretty darn heavily upon them -- and considering the fact that she's also panting pretty heavily from the double-attack, maybe it's not viable to keep it up for the full fight.
But that's not to say she doesn't have -more- in store for the boy. Rather that... well, she'd just started off rather quick. No sense in charging in blindly, especially when she knows her opponent can quickly turn that to his advantage. So... she holds her ground, flashing a grin back at the boy. "Almost! I'm over here though." Indeed, she hasn't moved, save for stepping into her usual stance, shielding herself with her left forearm as she focuses upon Rock.
COMBATSYS: Sakura focuses on her next action.
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Rock 0/-------/----===|==-----\-------\0 Sakura
Good. A chance to breathe. That's something Rock's looking for -- something he can use to his advantage, for that matter. When Sakura doesn't press her offensive, Rock does what might seem... counter-intuitive, considering he just abandoned a fireball war: he starts up another fireball war, this time spreading his hands to his sides and rolling straight and, his entire body snapping forward like the jaws of a viper to propel TWO Reppukens across the rooftop at her, one after the other. But that's hardly where he stops.
Once he's done with that, Rock takes off in a sprint, /following/ his Double Reppuken just a few paces behind, plunging right into melee range with Sakura, hopefully to discourage any attempt to pierce the massive wall of fireball that rushes ahead of him as he goes.
COMBATSYS: Sakura blocks Rock's Double Reppuken.
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Rock 0/-------/--=====|====---\-------\0 Sakura
Hrm. Kasugano didn't think he'd resort to another Reppuken so soon... but that's one of the things that makes fighting Rock so interesting! Dropping to one knee, Sakura brings both her arms over her, letting the bulk of the double-impact wash past and around her. Gritting her teeth as the waves pass by, she rises back to her feet, breaking into a run! It's a bit tricky running on the tiles, but that ceases to be an issue as Sakura springs into a leap, aiming one of her Chuck Taylors right for Rock's sternum. "Hyyyyaaa!"
COMBATSYS: Rock blocks Sakura's Light Kick.
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Rock 0/-------/--=====|====---\-------\0 Sakura
Rock shifts his weight to the side, planting both of his feet against the edges of the narrow rooftop-arch in order to keep himself stable. Falling off could make this fight interesting -- and that's potential that Rock wants to tap, but with somebody else doing most of the falling. Rock deflects the brunt of Sakura's kick with a deftly raised forearm, pushing off hard in an attempt to unbalance her, shifting as much of his weight forward as he can before shifting to a quick elbow-strike geared at the chin of his Ansatsuken rival.
COMBATSYS: Sakura fails to interrupt Medium Punch from Rock with Shou'ou Ken EX.
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Rock 0/-------/-======|=====--\-------\0 Sakura
So Rock wants Sakura to fall off the roof? What a nice guy! Sakura's knocked backward after her kick meets a solid guard, landing low and -about- to follow up. When that elbow strike comes hurtling in, Sakura thinks she sees an opening! She's just about to raise her fist up at Rock's ribcage before his elbow slams into her -- if she'd timed it better, it wouldn't have mattered, but she'd underestimated his speed! Staggering backward from the elbow strike, Sakura drops into a low crouch to keep from tumbling off the slanted roof, grinning back at Rock. "You got your game back!" she chirps in allusion to prior conversations. She's happy, really she is!
"Yeah!" Rock announces, apparently pleased with the results of his solid hit as he moves in with two swift paces, looking to close range with his opponent in a heartbeat. Appropriate, too, since the moment he does he swings his leg forward to deliver a light blow to her ankle, clearly just looking to keep the tide of the battle of his side. "And it turns out, all I had to do was walk across a continent to figure some stuff out. Wanna see some of the things I learned while I was over there?"
COMBATSYS: Rock successfully hits Sakura with Jab Punch.
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Rock 0/-------/-======|======-\-------\0 Sakura
Sakura's happy for him, because it's just not the same fighting Rock without his usual cheer! Even though it does, in this case, mean that she has to take a crack to the ankle for her trouble, despite her attempts to get out of the way and all. She starts to tip to one side as a result, but a quick tumble, and a following handspring, mean that Sakura's now about a third of the way down the roof from Rock. Angling her feet, she leans forward as she skids to a halt -- a clear positional disadvantage, but one that's preferable to getting knocked off the -side- of the tall building. "Uh-oh! Is it gonna hurt me a bunch to find out?" Not that she's staying -still-, though... just slowly walking back up -behind- Rock, a decent breeze sending Sakura's skirt and headband a-flutter. The blue tinge to the wind shows it's not -all- due to the altitude.
COMBATSYS: Sakura gathers her will.
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Rock 0/-------/-======|=======\==-----\1 Sakura
Rock takes off like a shot. He's running, it's clear, as hard as he can -- which, for a trained fighter of no small skill, is really quite vast. Cutting the gap between himself and his opponent with a burst of agility, Rock seems as though he's bearing down on Sakura with the speed and fury of... well, something that's really fast and has a great deal of fury.
But instead, when he's just about to make contact, Rock just ceases to exist. Or, not quite. It's a trick he hasn't pulled out of his bag in a long time, but when he puts his mind to it, Rock can move fast. /Really really fast/. Picking up a shot of celerity so great that not even the cameras filming the fight can capture it, Rock whirls himself around Sakura, placing himself right /behind/ her. Not only that, but behind her and launching straight up like an arrow, one foot leading at the way as he angles to take advantage of her charging posture. "Rising... TACKLE!"
COMBATSYS: Sakura blocks Rock's Rising Tackle.
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Rock 0/-------/-======|=====--\-------\0 Sakura
Oddly enough, Sakura's intuition told her Rock would be trying something like that. She's not sure what form his attack would take until it actually happens, but she was... a bit more aware of it than she may have otherwise seemed. Such that when Rock disappears... Sakura somehow knows to turn -behind- her and throw both arms up to take the blow -- partly that intuition, partly the fact that she's fought Rock so much in the past. "Heh..." she notes, leaping in concert with the rising kick and letting it carry her back to the high point of the roof. Landing, she raises her guard again "You're movin' like a ninja, now! But I've been =practicing= against ninjas, too!"
And this time... well, she just holds her ground again -- her stance seems a bit shaky! "So c'mon, you can't keep that up all day, can ya?"
COMBATSYS: Sakura focuses on her next action.
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Rock 0/-------/-======|=====--\-------\0 Sakura
Rock plants his foot on the tile, eyes moving straight for Sakura as he waits, trying to piece together what she might be trying to do as she once again holds her stance. Great. Red eyes lock on Sakura's, waiting for any sign of action as he, too, waits and watches. "I've been practicing against a ninja, too," Rock adds with a grain. "And for a while, I was learning to fight like one. Glad you noticed." Rock says this even as he snaps his wrist, and, emerging from his sleeve, is a thin, iron blade -- a kunai. Seishirou's kunai, in fact, or one of them that Rock's collected and kept. Twirling the blade in his hand, Rock keeps waiting, watching. Tension mounts for a second or so...
And then a tile from the roof /sails/ at Sakura like a gunshot. While Rock was busy with his knife, his foot slid underneath a tile and pulled it up, giving him more than enough time to give it a good solid /kick/, pushing it through the air like a clay frisbee towards his opponent.
COMBATSYS: Sakura dodges Rock's Thrown Object.
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Rock 0/-------/-======|=====--\-------\0 Sakura
Kunai, roof tile, whichever... Sakura knew -something- was coming her way, and she probably would have reacted the same way for -any- sudden blur of motion -- by diving forward and breaking into a roll. It's a bit suicidal -- but she's tumbling downhill at Rock! Well, -kinda- towards him -- she's figuring he'll try and leap over her, but that's why she'd be leaping up from her roll in an attempt to tackle him. Suicidal or not, she's taking a move from Ken's playbook: if she can snare him, she'd plant her feet on his chest, roll backward and slam him back into the rooftop!
COMBATSYS: Sakura successfully hits Rock with Medium Throw.
- Power hit! -
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Rock 1/-------/=======|======-\-------\0 Sakura
"--Fast!" Rock doesn't have much time to react -- only time to get /hit/. Hard. He doesn't typically associate Sakura with feats of remarkably speed... To his downfall, in this case. Or maybe. Rock hits the ground hard after Sakura's onslaught concludes, leaving him to look straight up at his victorious opponent for a moment or two. And then Rock reacts with a surge of movement while he's down here -- He launches himself straight /up/, althought not as before. This time, he's forgone the inversion, instead propelling his elbow up into Sakura's chest with an explosion of speed that sends a shattering ripple of force across the rooftop as he attempts to connect with a heavy hit.
COMBATSYS: Sakura interrupts Hard Edge from Rock with Shou'ou Ken.
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Rock 1/---====/=======|=======\=------\1 Sakura
Landing once more in a low crouch -- it's kinda necessary with the high winds on this rooftop, and the ever-present danger of falling to the ground below -- Sakura keeps her eyes closely attuned to Rock's transit -- and when that elbow comes up for her chest... well, her timing's a bit better this time! She drops a bit lower for a split second, before unloading a rapid uppercut into Rock's torso, short-circuiting his elbow strike into a glancing blow across her upper sternum -- it hurt, sure, but not as much as it -could- have! "SHOOOU'OOU KEN!"
Rock is sent sailing upwards by the punch. Well, that's a little bit of an exaggeration, but it has the power to lift him up off his feet. It's painful, that's for sure... but Rock's far from finished. Even in mid-air, he has enough wherewithall to grab at Sakura while she's off her feet, too, before she can re-anchor herself in the ground after the power of her rising uppercut. "This one," he roars through gritted teeth, "is new, too!" Grabbing at Sakura, Rock attempts to catch her in a bear hug and turn himself upside down, plummeting towards the rooftop and driving Sakura into it headfirst.
COMBATSYS: Sakura fails to interrupt Quick Throw from Rock with Medium Hadouken EX.
- Power hit! -
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Rock 1/--=====/=======|======-\-------\0 Sakura
Sakura is riding a high, here! She'd just nailed Rock but good -- but her good mood is probably her biggest downfall here, as it leaves her with a bit more confidence than needed at this point. In a way, she's curious to see what Rock's doing -- but she's holding a card in her hands here. Namely, a plume of blue-white flame in her hands, that she's just about to slam into Rock's chest.
... Pity, though, that the high winds caused her to underestimate her speed, and her head slams into the rooftop before she's able to finish executing. Oof! Landing headfirst, she tumbles backwards, rubbing her head with her hands... "Oww... I don't think I like that one!" She's still grinning, at least -- that's a good sign!
When Rock lands (on his feet), he's standing basically right next to Sakura, mere inches apart, grinning just the same, even as he seems momentarily relaxed and apart from his typical combat stance. "Yeah," he says, happily. "That's good. I'm glad to see that you're as into this as I am, Sakura--I haven't a fight this good since..." Rock pauses. "Well, yesterday, but before then, months and months!" Rock's red eyes flash with exhiliration as he drops to the ground, momentarily vanishing from Sakura's sight.
"You better move now, Sakura," he roars, "Being the storm's coming!" Already, the tiles have begun to rattle. It won't be long now. Like a dozen tornados, whirling tendrils of chi rise up from Rock's person, swept up in a fierce wind of his own making -- a hurricane in the making, all meant to snare Sakura up while she's at point blank. There's just enough time to give her a recovery, however, to give her a chance; Rock's not hammering away, no, not while he's having fun. That doesn't change the fact that the incredible power of the Raging Storm is ripping apart the rooftop, sending tiles flying in every direction. One of them is flying so fast off the razor wind that it strikes a helicopter, embedding itself in the plexiglass front window before shattering (along with the window), much to the alarm of the news crew within. The roof itself... might not stand much of a chance, either, not under this kind of assault.
COMBATSYS: Rock successfully hits Sakura with Raging Storm'.
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Rock 0/-------/----===|=======\==-----\1 Sakura
Widespread property damage! The possibly-impending destruction of a helicopter would lead to mass devastation in Southtown, and all just because Rock wants to win some fight? Where's the love, man? Sakura's mouth droops wide as the boy starts tearing up the rooftop. There's only one recourse here -- dive to the side of the roof that Rock =isn't= on, to try and save herself! "Rock! Cut it out, you're gonna blow up the--" *WHAM!* She's nailed in the head with a tile propelled about by the furious winds, smacking her to the roof, where she starts rolling back downhill! Oh noes!
Luckily, Sakura's still got a good amount of tread on her Chuck Taylors, and digs her heels in, skidding to a halt on the tiles. "You're =supposed= to be focusing on hurting =me=, Rock!" she shouts, pointing up at the helicopter as she sprints back uphill at him. And while she may not be, y'know, at a good point to do so, she can't let this fight pass without trying another leaping kick at the boy! "HYYYYYAAAA!" Never mind the drag caused by her skirt, or the fact that she's about to keel over...
COMBATSYS: Sakura can no longer fight.
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Rock 0/-------/----===|
COMBATSYS: Rock counters Light Kick from Sakura with Joudan Crack Counter.
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Rock 0/-------/---====|
The collision of many forces -- Rock's startling chi blaze, Sakura's last ditch effort at an attack -- come to a head. The roof just can't take this. But rather than risk /both/ of them falling into the hole that is about to open beneath Rock's feet, the fighter leaps forward even as his footing collapses beneath him, reaching to snag Sakura's coming kick and push her back down -- probably onto back onto the rooftop itself, and not gently. Rock himself hits the roof, too, shattering more than his fair share of tiles until he eventually rolls to a half, huffing for breath as he finds himself prone on his back, exhausted from... well, probably from the tremendous deluge of chi.
The helicopters shine their spotlights down on the fight, and the judges wait, with bated breath, for one of the two fighters to give some sign that they haven't been DKO'd.
Well... here's the sign -- Sakura's head clonking down onto the tiles, her arms outstretched to either side. She'd pushed herself past exhaustion, and that last-ditch effort by Rock was enough to finish her off. She'd probably congratulate him if she were conscious though!
Slowly, Rock climbs to his feet, clearly exhausted. Not only that, is-- is he /steaming/? Maybe. It's a trick of the camera, or Rock's technique takes more of a strain on the body than one might normally think worthwhile. Once he's up on his knees, the fight is called in Rock's favor, and television sets around the world flash the results. Rock, however, is in no condition to do a victory dance. Instead, he's limping Sakura's way, one hand grabbing the other wrist painfully.
Sakura's unconscious! So she stays right where she is.
Log created by Sakura, and last modified on 03:00:57 12/07/2005.