Description: Things come to a head between K' and Kyo in the Geese Tower lobby, with life-changing consequences.
Business District
Undoubtedly the most critical district in Southtown, the business district
is where fortunes are made and lost. Wealth permeates just about everything
here. The skyline of the city is located almost exclusively in this area, the
highest of which is Geese Tower, the private bastion of the richest and most
powerful man in the city. The second most distinct building is Howard Arena,
the heart of the martial arts competition in the area. The King of Fighters
tournament is held here, as are many smaller tournaments. Towards the
southeast, a residential area is located, where the city's richest live in
penthouse apartments, and the slightly-less-rich occupy the space below them.
Highways run through this part of town, leading north and west to the outer
edges of Southtown.
[Exits :
[Players : Rolento, Seishirou, Adelheid, and K' ]
The mission was supposed to be a piece of cake. While NESTS can endlessly replicate Kyo Kusanagi's DNA in their endless experiments, it never helps to have some insurance. After all, what if Kusanagi were to somehow unconver their cloning and genetic research facility? In the business of world-conquering one can never be too safe. That's why a small squad of NESTS operatives were assigned to tail the young fighter while he walks through the city in hopes of collecting more "samples" from him: dead skin cells, fallen-off hairs, maybe a wadded-up burger wrapper or kleenex.
The orders were not to engage the subject, simply to observe and capitalize on any opportunities. Faced with such a cakewalk an assignment, these upwardly-mobile NESTS lackies jumped at the opportunity. After all this might be their big break in the organization, a chance to climb the ranks.
What they didn't count on was the fact that Kyo's used to being stalked by all sorts of weird people. You can't just follow him around easily, even in a big city like this. Unfortunately for the dozen-or-so operatives, who now lay in a broken pile on the ground, save for one being held up by his collar against a wall by the very same man they were assigned to follow, their superiors withholded this information from them.
"Tch." Kyo says disdainfully, looking up at the scared guy he's holding aloft, "I guess it figures they'd only send people who don't have any useful information..." the scion of the flames slams the man up against the wall then tosses him on the pile with the rest of his unconcious comrades. "Useless!" He says, shaking his head, and with his unwelcome stalkers taken care of, he begins to trudge out of the alley and onto the street, right in front of the massive Geese Tower.
Geese Tower. A glimmering spire of wh-- wait, no. No, it was just a building. A building that the man who now looked upon it loathed to see. A scar on the skyline in his eyes, purely because the man who sat at the top most levels of it on occasion, when he wasn't off handling something far beyond this young man's scope of understanding, had lied to the Beast. At least that's the way he saw it. He still remembered that conversation... the promise that he'd have a chance to redeem himself in a battle against the blond haired son of the Howard line. It never happened. Then again, to Geese's credit, the Beast never delivered on his end of the bargain either so it wasn't like he was owed anything. But that wasn't the way K' saw things- ever the one sided, bias minded, selfish bastard, he saw in it a form of deceit, their lack of communication. In hindsight though, had he known the true nature of Geese, he probably would have had more respect for the situation... he was better off not communicating with him.
As for the scuffle that went on not two blocks from him, K' wasn't really concerned. When he neared it, he heard the grunts of wounded men, the meaty thud of punishing blows... it wasn't that out of the ordinary in this, the City of Unending Conflict. Southtown had nothing but bad memories for him and it remained a foul taste in his mouth, but somehow he was continually drawn to it, like a turtle to water. Trudging on, the slump-shouldered, steel eyed Beast of Flame stepped down from the curb, crossed the corner of two quiet streets, stopping only to let a car round the corner in front of him- a late nighter headed home, or perhaps someone who'd gotten lost looking for the residential part of town and finding themselves here.
When finally he's so close that he hears Kyo's declaration that the man he held was 'useless', -- only then did he detect the naggging sensation. A second presence... it came alive against his skin, thrumming away at the back of his neck like a pulsing vein that lead to nowhere in particular. It was the fire... it was the awareness of the flame, and it was tapping at him like a hot, hungry serpent tightening around his throat. -- Silver bangs blew as he exhaled upward. Lifting his head, turning, squaring his shoulders and giving the scene before him a crooked smirk, K' sees first the men on the ground, then the feet of the man held -- then thrown aside like Alabama trash... and then the familiar silhouette... the source of the hungry growling that came from The Pit... Kusanagi.
His left eye twitched once... twice.. a third time, and he couldn't stop it. His jawline tightened. He didn't need this right now... didn't need to be near the source of so much conflict in his life. Before he could stop it, the sound came from his mouth- the syllables strung together into a single name. "K...Kusanagi..." He hisses between gritting teeth.
A unfortunate side-effect of being born into the legendary Kusanagi lineage is that certain individuals set off a strange sensation in your blood. While K-Dash doesn't trigger the "blood boiling" reaction as a fighter tainted by the darkness of Orochi does, Kyo can definitely tell when the beast of prey is in proximity to him.
Not that you could tell by the way he responds to the Kusanagi-DNA-infused fighter's hissed greeting. By this time Kyo's hands are shoved into his jean pockets and his generally bored, apathetic expression has settled onto his face. "Oh, it's you." He cranes his head up to look up at the spire of Geese Tower, apparently more interested in the archetecture than the man who shares his bloodline flames but not his last name. "You just missed your buddies..." he says, still looking up at the skyscraper, though he removes one hand to motion at the pile of unconcious NESTS personnel.
The silver-haired head of the beast sags, descending his expression into shadow, his eyes gleaming from the darkness cast over his face, a street lamp peeking out from the sidewalk, spilling down over his leather-clad form, sending dull, diffused reflection off of his body, the moisture in the air clinging to everything nearby in the humid night, creating a kind of aura around everything... even Kay Dash. It almost looked as if he were boiling from the inside and steam had risen to haunt his shoulders... or perhaps that hot rain was falling onto cool metal, like maybe he'd cast himself in steel and been made into the effigy of a young man at that instant consumed by anger, thought and temptation.
He was tempted... already tempted. If he didn't punch him, he'd tear his throat out with his teeth. Funny how time and distance healed some wounds.. and made others still wider, still more swollen and infected. This one was one of those wounds... this one had fested up long ago and now stank of the ire of immature loathing. He'd spent the last few months avoiding NESTS, avoiding Kusanagi as he'd known that NESTS was following him like a foul odor. Now here they both were within thirty feet of one another- he and NESTS- and less than ten between he and his hated enemy...
Often called by Kyo a cheap facimile of himself, K' hated the very air he breathed but had reigned it in in favor of his father, Saisyu. A man of reason and wisdom who had helped him calm the fire... But in days that past, in months that ached by, they had returned to consume him with greater hunger than ever before. Now he wasn't free of the glove as he had been for a brief window of time- no, now he was more dependant on it than he'd ever been. And it weighted on him. He felt it every time he closed his hand around a cup, everytime he tried unsuccessfully to pick up a small object and it slipped past those armored fingers... -- and now he heard it when it slammed into a fist at his side. -- His buddies. Right. "They're no friends of mine.." -- He didn't miss the 'oh its you'.. he knew he'd always been an afterthought to Kyo. "Though if you want to assume we're all the same, you're more than welcome to try the same tack. I don't think it's gonna go quite the same though, Million Dollar Man."
Kyo just smirks while his twisted mirror-image seethes at him, immediately showing the stark difference between these two men. While K' is a smoldering, pent-up fighter who must control his own terrible power with special garments, Kyo Kusanagi is a free-flowing blaze, effortless and confident in his own abilities. He just smirks when K' growls his 'million dollar man' comment at him.
"...If I thought you knew something these guys didn't..." he says, finally looking to K' with that infuriating, superior smirk still plastered all over his visage.
Ticking. Ticking. Ticking. In more ways than one, he was ticking. Every time he drew near this man, only the worst came out of him. Some at NESTS would argue that it was a negative side-effect of being infused with something that wasn't originally your own. They would say that K's anger was a bi-product and nothing more. Like he wasn't real, like he didn't have the right to feel and everytime he did was just some scientific anomaly. Oh he could feel.. it wasn't a bi-product.. it was all real, all one-hundred and fifty percent K', and all about to explode on Kyo in the next thirty-seven seconds. He was so angry he was almost in physical pain because of it.
Perhaps anger was the wrong word for it. It was more like frustration, like something had been corked deep inside of him and locked away and the only key to the lock was walking around in the world, free to bite into him whenever it felt like. And every key had a name. Starting with Kyo Kusanagi and working its way down. -- Ticking... ticking. It got harder to remain calm, he felt his veins swelling to the size of dimes under his flesh and the Beast responded to it with a shrinking snarl, swallowing and stiffling the sound before it gets too carried away with itself. He finally looks up, stares Kyo in the eyes as he makes his assumption of what he knows.
In truth, he really didn't know a thing about what NESTS had going on recently, but far be it from him to admit that- especially in the presence of this one. How could he admit that someone else knew more about his origins than he did? He'd never let Kyo have that belief. When the true owner of the flames K' possessed decided to don him with a look, K' returns it with a sneer, that left eye dancing a series of twitches shortly thereafter. "And who are you to make that assumption, Ass?"
Kyo looks unimpressed.
His head dips slightly bangs falling in front of his face and his shoulders shaking a little as he lets out a chuckle; it seems that no matter how enraged and close to bursting a blood-vessel K' gets, the beast's unquenchable anger only serves to amuse Kyo.
"Geeeeez... do you practice that face in the mirror or something?" the scion of the flames drolls, placing one gloved hand up to his forehead to push aside his bangs as he tilts his head back up to stare at man with the stolen flames. "If you put half as much energy into your fighting as you did into standing around getting pissed off..." He shrugs his shoulders slightly, as if deciding it's not even worth finishing that last statement. His voice turns more serious for his next bit of reparte.
"I don't know what the hell your problem is with me, and to be honest with you, I don't really care. If you wanna test your luck against me again, then I'll fight you with everything I got!"
There was so much things to say in that moment. So much yelling he wanted to do, so much raging and tantrum throwing that he wanted to do. About how Kyo's life was easy and he took it for granted, about how his very existence mocked K's own purely because without Kyo, he probably wouldn't have been. Maybe .. whoever he was before- maybe he'd have died at a young age, or maybe he'd never been born for all he knows. Whatever the reasons for his standing here, in that instant, right in front of Kyo Kusanagi, he knew that no bite could be deep enough, no venom poisonous enough to make Kyo feel the way K' felt every morning. It wasn't a depression, it was an exhaustion... a weighing pressure.
A pressure that was falling down on him- on shoulders too small to hold it and a mind too young to decipher it. He had the kind of woes that people twice his age still didn't have. And frankly... quite honestly- it was too much. Kyo's words hit him like a sack of sand in the face. Did he practice that look in the mirror? Was that supposed to be funny? Did he have any idea just how much that stung? Probably not. Then again, its a lot easier to distance yourself from pain when you're not feeling it. -- K's version of distance was anger. The easy way out.
He was a child. If not physically, then mentally. And not in the whining, crying sense. He was immature to a fault and it started to show when Kyo blatantly challenged him. K's only reply was, "Quit being a cornball and do what you do, asshole." -- Reaching up, the Beast of Flame snatched the sunglasses from his face, folding them away inside of his jumper, his hands slamming into fists at his sides as he stood and stared at Kyo. A hot blast of air blew in through the tightly compressed buildings of the Business District, catching silver strands of hair and tossing them to one side. He waited... waited for the right moment... waited for the lull in the silence. Anticipation was killing him. He had no sense of 'surprise' in that instant.. no real plan. All he kept thinking about was how badly he wanted to make this son of a bitch hurt. He wanted him to hurt and to bleed. It all boils over when a fat, hard-shelled beetle drops to the ground with a loud click, then scuttles away.
K' was in motion before he could catch or even stop himself, rushing Kyo, his body turning to the side as he nears him, one foot stepping over the other, the trailing leg lifting from the ground in place of another step, lunging his entire weight behind a hard, rushing side-kick aimed at his stomach. "... I hate the sound of your VOICE!"
COMBATSYS: K' has started a fight here.
COMBATSYS: Kyo has joined the fight here.
COMBATSYS: Kyo counters Strong Kick from K' with Nue Tsumi.
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Kyo 0/-------/-----==|==-----\-------\0 K'
Kyo stands his ground, watching as K' rips off his sunglasses; it almost looks like the beast of prey's utter rage is going burn through and destroy him before he even gets a chance to attack Kyo. The scion of the flames just doesn't understand it. Like Iori, he feels a bit of pity for the situation of his opponent, as both men were basically born into the roles they serve now, cursed by fate. However, K' has a real opportunity to take ahold of his own destiny and live the life he wants to live, whereas Iori is cursed to a short, violent life of struggle, mandated a 1800-year-old legacy of bloodfeuding.
At least Yagami has somewhat of an excuse. As for Kay-Dash, Kyo doesn't see the excuse for the swealtering depths of rage that positively radiate outwards from the leather-clad fighter. As far as he can tell, it's jealousy, but any further attempts to actually connect with the beast of prey on a more rational level have been met with such resistance that Kyo stopped trying to understand the guy a long time ago.
Whatever the reason is that K' hates Kyo, the scion notices that it makes his opponent's movements telegraphed and slowed. Sloppy. So sloppy that the roundhouse kick is caught at the ankle as if being snatched out of the sky like a mosquito. After that, it's a simple matter to twist the joint and re-direct the momentum to send K' flying off in the different direction. In this case, right through the huge glass panes that line the massive lobby of Geese Tower.
Stop. Rewind. -- Three seconds. Right there. He stepped too far into Kyo. He threw too much weight behind it. His anchoring foot never left the ground. He hadn't even bothered to finish the kick- he'd just lobbed it at Kyo and now he paid for it. -- Return frame, real time, and K' is quite literally launched. He didn't weigh near as much as Kyo and it showed, especially when Kyo more or less shoved him off of his anchored foot and right up and through the air. With a thunk that shouldn't have been allowed for such an attack that, K's grunt follows, his body slamming into the glass first before it breaks and sends him falling inward on a blanket of shards and shattered chunks.
Like pieces of ground ice, K' slams down atop it to a crunching refrain, body rolling across the lobby floor before he manages to slam a hand down into the ground, shoving himself back onto his feet. -- The soles of his rubber shoes slide across the fine marble floor until the momentum of Kyo's throw subsides, he now left to stand on the pieces of glass, at the very center of the lobby, large, square stone pillars jutting upward around him, he feet from the service desk. Huffing a hard breath and tossing his head to one side, ashamed at his lack of grace in the opening attack, he considers his position..
And then he disappears. -- His grunt lets Kyo know just where he was when he steps back into the visual spectrum, his feet pushing off of the ground from a position behind him, launching himself through the air in a streak of black, his foot rocketing towards Kyo's lower back.
COMBATSYS: Kyo blocks K''s Minutes Spike.
Kyo carefully steps over the broken glass window and into the lobby of the skyscraper, the sound of glass crunching under the sole of his boot drowned out by the panicked cries of everyone in the lobby scrambling to get outside, causing a strange scene with bodies packed into the revolving doors like sardines.
Kusanagi watches as foe as best he can until the beast pulls his infamous dissapearing act, the only hint to his location a flickering black shadow. Kyo's used to this trick though; mere fractions of a second before being blindsided, his eyes narrow in realization and he spins to guard his six-o-clock. The kick rockets into defense, impacting with a dull, thunderous noise, while the glass around and underneath the two fighters blows away from them, spraying in every direction.
"It's bothersome enough dealing with ONE psychopath with flames like mine!" Kyo says behind a vicious grin. His counterattack comes simutaneous with his taunt, and may be unconvential enough to catch the beast of prey offguard: his leg shoots straight upwards until it's nearly parallel with his torso, then comes back down, the heel of his foot aimed at K's head or shoulder, whatever works.
COMBATSYS: Kyo successfully hits K' with Light Kick.
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Kyo 0/-------/----===|=====--\-------\0 K'
Elevated from the ground and still moving forward, his foot mounted on Kyo's defense, K' snarls a sound that could have been anger, could have been frustration but was probably just K' being what he was in battle. A beast. He was coming down from his charge but falling has its own rate of speed that can't be increased or decreased unless acted upon by some outside force and thus, while his head was higher than Kyo's heel, his shoulder was not. The foot comes down, slams into his shoulder and sends pain shooting across K's body like a blade slicing from shoulder to kidney on the opposite side. He coughs a bark of pain as his body is tipped to one side, dropping him onto his flank on the glass strewn ground, most of it blown aside from the impact of their previous engagement- foot to defense.
Clenching his teeth, K' shoves his hand against the ground and pushes back up to a standing position. A mere two attacks in and he was already in enough pain to justify the grumbled curse that came from him. Disappointed, not just with this fight but with himself, he could already see and feel the fact that Kusanagi ... had gotten stronger. It never hurt this bad- not this quickly. He'd fought him more times than he probably should have in the past... and out of all of that. All of those attempts to become stronger-- fighting Iori, fighting Kyo, fighting any number of impossible odds- people who attacked him two and three at a time, and Kyo ... still... succeeded. And K' remained the same. Had he reached the ends of his potential?
The snarl on his face falls away as he settles into that familiar stance, not daring to let his hands fall to his sides or his eyes drift closed as he might against someone else. In this instance, he might actually get hurt. Worse than he wanted to admit. Regrouping with a breath, K' launches forward again, rushing Kyo, his body stepping out wide to the left and snapping back forward, twisting at the middle, right hand balling that red glove into a tight fist that comes scorching towards the side of Kyo's head, aiming for the temple.
COMBATSYS: Kyo interrupts Fierce Punch from K' with RED Kick.
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Kyo 0/-------/--=====|=======\=------\1 K'
A solid hit, Kyo's head whips to the side, with his body following, but in an instant Kay-Dash realizes that the impact of the blow felt all wrong, a little like striking a wet noodle. That's because Kyo was moving away from the punch even before it struck him, taking most of the bite out of the attack.
Unfortunately for the beast, Kyo has already taken advantage of the fact that the amount of time he was stunned by the punch is far less than the time it's going to take K' to drop into a defensive position after completely extending himself once again. The next thing the beast realizes, Kyo has skied into the air, head almost touching the elegant marble of the lobby ceiling before gravity drops him, and his foot, again, right into the same shoulder than K' suffered an injury on just seconds before.
"Pathetic!!" Kyo says after landing, "You wanna come at me, repeating all the same shit you usually do, about how I take things for granted, about how I'm arrogant and... WHATEVER." The scion of the flames actually seems to be getting pretty pissed off at the beast's performance in this fight, "You wanna get pissed off at people just because YOUR life didn't turn out the way you wanted it to?!" He kicks the grounded K' in the stomach, making the beast of flame skid across the lobby, "Well tough luck! I thought I'd be the starting right-fielder for the Yomiuri Giants, instead I'm here fighting a loser who doesn't even know how to use his flames, but thinks that because he has them, he can pass judgement on me!"
Rebound. That's the closest word that sums up the next four seconds of K's life. The armored glove over his right hand tears through the air, his fist clenching at the last moment. What should have been impact, what should have been the sound of his fist colliding with Kusanagi's temple, or maybe even jawline is little more than the sound of his fist slamming shut. And in true form, the sound was loud- popping. It was the nature of his style of fighting, the brutality of an attack summed up only in the last seconds before the followthrough. When it misses though, his light weight is thrown completely off, all of his tall yet lean mass pushed behind the fist that was seeking his opponent and now became his undoing in the exchange.
Kyo's kick comes down, bursting little painful, nagging bubbles of searing heat through his shoulder joint as muscles are torn and begin to bleed internally. The blood would coagulate, turn to vicious bruises and eventually heal, but for the hear and now it was the single source of attention drawing inspiration that threw his entire focus its way. K's head snaps to his left, staring at the horrid connection of foot to shoulder that sends him reeling backwards, leaning back on his feet and bending. The second kick explodes into his midsection and drops K' to the ground. Hard. The thud is sickening. Were K' a man of lesser pride, were he not more than the boy he appeared outward, he probably would have cried.
Air blasts its way from his lungs, his diaphragm spasming uncontrollably, threatening to make him wretch as he folds double, slams into the ground and slides away from Kyo, the force of impact rebounding him from the ground, sending him rolling slowly over through the air and into one of the massive marble pillars back first, blood and spittle flinging from his open mouth as he yells out, the sound torn from his refusing lips, body jarred with bone shaking force before he crumples to the ground on hands and knees. -- Were anyone else witnessing this, they'd say he deserved it.. a sound beating for his trangressions against others. Karma was like that.. a frigid son of a bitch. Kyo being the messenger made it all the more humiliating.
The beast coughs barking wheezes, blood dripping to the ground from the corner of his mouth where he'd bitten the inside of his jaw. And he doesn't move. Head hanging, bangs falling over his eyes. He was in so much pain in that moment that he couldn't even force himself to his feet. His lungs refused to inflate, he couldn't get air and it burned, forcing him to exhale what little air remained in a quiet, blood soaked rattle. -- When finally he regains control of his body he sucks in air, desperate, breathing, wheezing... --
What follows was sadomasochistic. He should have stopped, he should have just stayed down. But he didn't. He got back up. Slow and weary, bracing himself against the pillar and crawling back up to his full height, he shoves his thumbs into his pockets, ignoring the pain in his entire left
** side and strolls towards Kyo as if he were victorious. Closing the distance, listening to Kyo's berating, mortifying words, K' anchors his feet and shoves off of the ground, whipping his arm upwards, those flames that Kyo claimed he didn't know how to use ripping to life, tearing the air apart in a deafening roar, the fire expanding much further than it had the last time they fought and he'd used this very maneuver. Whirling about in a short pirouette, he paints the air with orange, glowing fire, lighting the entire lobby as his raking fingers and angry fire sought revenge. "K-KUSANAGI!!!"
COMBATSYS: Kyo counters Claw Bites from K' with Nue Tsumi.
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Kyo 1/-------/=======|=======\==-----\1 K'
Kyo roars his response back, his voice bellowing even beyond that of K-Dash's angry scream and the roaring flames that shoot out of his hand as he excutes his signature technique:
"COME ON THEN!!!"
Glass again sprays everywhere as the sheer impact of the attack blows the shards away from the two fighters, and a large chunk of rock from the pillar K' just slammed into crumbles to the ground. Yet again, however, K' is denied: Kyo holds the armored hand of his opponent by the wrist, the hand, still ablaze mere inches from the scion of the flames' cheek. When he speaks, the beast's flame is reflected in the original's eyes.
"Everybody's got problems, K'" Kyo remarks lowly, using the beast's name in a rare occasion, "The difference between me and you is that you've twisted everything up so much in your head that you just can't deal with them." Kyo keeps the grip on Dash's wrist tight, the material of the armored glove creaking under the strain. He keeps the beast's arm extended, so that he's basically forced to listen to Kyo, if he attacks, he'll likely be countered. Again. "-Maybe if you just chilled out a little you'd be able to focus your energies to fight me, but like you are now, you don't stand a chance."
Determined to beat some sense into the man who shares his flames, Kyo brings up a vicious knee into the beast's midsection, doubling the leather-clad fighter over, then uses his free arm to drop an elbow right into the exposed back. Kyo still hasn't even used his flames yet.
Its hard to scream mayday when you never make it off the ground. In fact, the very instant K' moved to leap, his arm, burning bright, is snatched by the wrist, K's hop turning into a two inch vertical, his elbow bent into an awkward position that prevents him from going too much further. His eyes snap wide, head firing back up to stare Kyo in the face, only shock reflected back, the surprise of what should have been the impossible, stopping the fury of the claw bites, snaps him out of his anger. He stands there for a full twenty seconds, staring Kyo in the eyes, astonished and wounded. That's not right. That's not how it was supposed to happen.
He tugs at his arm, trying to snatch it back. It doesn't budge. Kyo was physically stronger than him before, but it wasn't like this. K' suddenly felt like he was fourteen-years-old again, in this exact same position... only then the person standing there, picking through his brain while he held him, inactive, was Krizaild. In fact, its so familiar that it pisses him off. While Kyo may have made a lot of sense, to K' it was too close to a flashback for comfort. In his memory, what followed was a beating he didn't want to remember, and endless ridicule. Being a failure. Being a lost cause. Being a mistake. Being Kay Dash instead of a person with a name and a family. The only thing Kyo succeeds in doing is reminding K' of just what he was:
A letter and a dash. Not worth naming.
He thought about Kula then, that icy, frigid cow that Krizalid sent to destroy him. Was she a better job then? Was she a success? Did he name her, dote on her and forget about Letter-Dash? Did the K really even mean anything? --- The Beast of Flame desolves. His fire smothers, smoke rising from his fingertips. A snarl rips from his throat and he thrashes, wildly. Tugging, yanking, pulling, trying to rip his arm free, to stop this silent exchange. Now. He pulls fruitlessly and nothing works. The only thing that stops him is the knee that slams into his stomach so hard his feet leave the ground, another horribly rasping cough rattling from his chest after it strikes, his body jarred by the elbow that slams into his back, dropping him to the ground, his arm bent back and up, held in Kyo's hand.
Scrambling back up to his feet, K's eyes snap wide again and fire explodes down his right arm, he shoving through Kyo's hand, pain his only focus, pushing into Kyo and off the ground again, whipping a plume of fire forward, followed by another that takes him only higher. When he flips over in the air, he comes down at an angle, drawing burning fire with him, seeking to slam into Kyo as hard as his light weight will allow. "Shut up.. shut up, SHUT UP. SHUT UP AND DIE, I HATE YOU!"
COMBATSYS: Kyo dodges K''s Heaven Drive.
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Kyo 1/-------/=======|-------\-------\0 K'
The fact that K' still has fight left within isn't surprising to Kyo Kusanagi. After all, the fighters blessed (some say cursed) with the otherworldly flames all have a brightly-buring inner flame, in addition to the ones they use in combat. Kyo expects nothing less than for the beast of prey get back to his feet and give everything he has because that's a stubborn trait that everyone who wields the holy flame of the Kusanagi shares. What he's not prepared for is Kay-Dash's agonized death-threats, reminding the scion of the flames of none other than Iori Yagami.
Though this latest outburst gives Kusanagi more trouble than any of the beast's earlier attacks, he's able to neutralize the attack. This time he swats away the rising arm with an open palm, causing the first gout of flame to veer off-course, he then dives to the side, rolling then coming to his feet, his eyes fixed on K' still going through the motions of his technique. The words still seem to echo through the now nearly-trashed, empty lobby, and reflecting on them further, Kyo realizes that K' didn't actually sound like Yagami then, he sounded like a person who is unequipped to deal with the vast amounts of anger and sadness within them, somebody who hasn't yet learned to control themself, a beast. A creature that, without the guidance of his cherished friends and family, he could have easily become. A twisted mirror-image of himself, as opposed to his polar opposite in Iori Yagami. In order words. A child.
And really, there's nothing as pure and cruel as a child.
Kyo shoves his hands in his pockets, and despite his earlier willingness to beat the tar out of K', for one of the first times in his life, he doesn't feel like fighting right now.
"...It's not worth burning you in the state you're in." He states. In another context, it might be considered another arrow in Kyo's arsenal of smack-talk, but the tone of his voice and the conflicted look in his eye tells a different story. He shoves his hands in his jean pockets and trudges towards the broken window he threw K' through, walking past the beast of prey wordlessly.
COMBATSYS: Kyo takes no action.
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Kyo 1/-------/=======|-------\-------\0 K'
He came down from the air, equilibrium off completely. His hand had been tossed wide by Kyo's shoving hand, all while he moved through the motion of the attack, the whole thing going off wrong. He came down hard, crumbling to his knees and colliding face first with another marble pillar, droplets of blood arching through the air as his head bounced back from the impact. He wanted to get back up and in fact even succeeded. The sadistic ritual continues, he pushes himself back up, refusing to let Kyo see him break up. In truth, the man who, in his mind, would be his enemy forever, saw him break up anyway. He broke and broke hard.
His feet give out from under him, back pressed against the pillar as he all but drips to the ground. "N.. no- no. NO. No, don't you walk awa-- DON'T YOU WALK AWAY FROM ME. Finish it. Fucking FINISH IT.... Kusanagi," he coughs, a little chuckle coming from him between barks- mirthless chuckle. It stops, "... I'm not worth finishing huh...? Is that it? I don't need your pity. I swear to any God that'll listen if I ever-- STOP WALKING AWAY." -- He was up again. He shot up, he shot up and ran. Charging Kyo fast and hard from behind, "STOP WALKING AWAY FROM ME GOD DAMN YOU!" When he anchors his feet, he slides across the marble floor towards Kyo, his right hand snatching upwards, ripping an arching oval of fire towards his back, "I won't be ignored!" And, yes, a child, ignoring him was the worst wound to endure yet.
COMBATSYS: Kyo blocks K''s Second Shell.
Kusanagi just keeps walking while K''s screams beat against his back. He was serious when he said he didn't want to fight anymore, and nothing can change that. However, Kyo's not about to just let K' roast his backside. So when he feels that subtle change in temperature and the snap of holy flame being generated, he spins, one gloved hand whipping around, wreathed in fire, to cut through the beast of prey's own spiral of flame, preventing it from washing over his body.
Kyo just wanted to get the hell out of here, but now he snaps, stomping the remaining distance to K' and grabbing the guy by the lapel of his leather jacket, which he yanks, pulling K''s face close to his own.
"What. Do. You. Want. From me!"
"I beat the tar out of you and you spit out blood and claim I'm some kind of sadist, I -don't- beat the shit out of you and you complain that I'm ignoring you." Kyo growls, practically shaking K' with his grip. "Whatever I do, I can't win. So I don't know what you expect me to do."
The implied meaning of Kyo's last statement is clear: Does K' have a death wish, and if so, is he trying to get Kyo to kill him?
COMBATSYS: Kyo takes no action.
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Kyo 1/-------/=======|=------\-------\0 K'
Doesn't this look familiar. Once before, he'd been right here and Krizalid was where Kyo was standing. -- The fire, his only weapon, his only refuge and it amounted to nothing against someone who wielded them with much more efficiency. They were smothered and K's surprise was matched only by his rage. He wanted to yell some more, wanted to call Kyo the bad guy, even when it made no sense. The only thing he really knew about who he was was that it was Kyo's fault he was standing here, even though the Son of Saisyu had little or nothing to do with the events that took place before the emergence of NESTS as a super power.
So what was he left with? He was programmed not to hate Krizalid. He hated him anyway, but he couldn't acknowledge it. Perhaps that's why it was called brainwashing. Forced thought and action with the reprocussions of such washed away, leaving only confusion. In another life, under different circumstances, Kyo and K' might have been friends, brothers in arms, just two nutty kids in school without a care in the world, seperated only by a handful of years in age. -- But this was the real world, and this is what Kyo had on his plate, the equivilant of a brother whose life had gone all wrong that blamed it all on him, put the responsibility souly on his shoulders.
His leather is caught up in Kyo's stronger grasp and try as he might to pull free he's shaken like a five-year-old at arms length, dizziness from a quick and painful beating dropping him low to his knees, his head hanging, eyes hidden by silver hair, filtered with dust particles and glass. His arms hang at his sides. -- Did he want to die? Did he want Kyo to kill him? Was his survival only a subconcious act of will to make sure no one ended him by Kyo Kusanagi? ... He actually had to consider that question. -- What -did- he want from Kyo Kusanagi.
When his had tips up, the burning amber is gone, reflecting the true color of irises that should have been destined for something else. "... Its your responsibility. Just cus you didn't ask for it doesn't make it any less yours. Just like my responsibilities are mine and I didn't want 'em either..." -- And what passes from his lips next is something his ego, his pride as a fighter and a young man would never allow. "... You're better than me." His head drops again. "And I have to live with that. Its your blood, right? That's what you said. Before. I just stole it. Least you could do is beat it out of me and rid me of it. Cus honestly? I don't even want it anymore..." he looks Kyo in the eyes once again, his head lifting, slow, meaning circling his eyes. "Its too damn heavy."
COMBATSYS: K' takes no action.
Kyo releases K' and stares down at the younger fighter. For a few moments he considers if he really should kill this man, this self-professed abomination of nature. It could be the most merciful thing for Kyo to do; by removing K' of the burden of carrying the Kusanagi flames, he might find the peace he never found in life.
But Kyo isn't about to kill someone in cold blood, especially a man who is, if DNA is to be considered the final arbiter of what a person is at the very core, at least his half-brother. How do you pull the trigger on your half-brother, even when he blames his restless life entirely on your existance?
Kyo doesn't find the answer to that question within himself.
He turns away from K', putting his hands on his hips, "There's always someone stronger." He says, quietly. "It's not my blood. We have the same blood, that's why you can feel it, right? Around Iori and around me. We have completely different histories, that's all." He lets out a long sigh, he's not good at speeches in general, unless it's to make fun of someone, "You're fighting you're blood right now, though. That's why I said in the state you're in now, you'll never beat me, and you won't be able to beat NESTS, either. Your flames won't come out right if you don't accept them."
He thinks for a moment longer, then holds up a hand, igniting his flames and letting them trickle across his knuckles and up over his fingertips, effortlessly. "You've got that thing on your arm, but if you keep on thinking that it's just to protect yourself from your own power, you'll never get stronger."
One side of his mouth quirks upwards with a lopsided smirk, "Maybe you should start thinking that the glove is there to keep you from burning people too badly."
Twenty-five minutes. Its amazing just how much can happen in twenty-five minutes. Kyo's quest, K's unsated vengeance, then violence, then peace. All in twenty-five minutes. For K', it was likely the most defining twenty-five minutes of his life. When you look for answers that no one can give you, eventually you start looking inward, and everything becomes apparent in a single moment of epiphany. And it hits him. Like waves of fire. In some twisted sense of reality-- the twisted version that happened to be the truth- Kyo Kusanagi was right. The pain he could live with, but the revelation was staggering. All of his life he called himself A Beast of Flame.
Until this very moment, he'd never actually lived up to the title. A Beast of Anger, yes. A Beast of Vengeance, certainly. A Beast of Selfishness -- but never quite A Beast of Flame. A Beast of Flame was meant to burn unending, to live to burn and be that, the image of fire in the heart of the animal... to be a whole different kind of animal all together. -- He forces himself up onto his feet, in his mind the last time he would live on his knees. He retrieves the crumpled package of cigarettes from inside of his jumper, procures a lopsided cigarette and places it between his lips, the tip bursting alight all its own in his possession.
Silver hair tickles at his forehead as he starts to move, walking past Kyo even as he speaks. He doesn't go far though, he stops, his back to Kyo, no longer a threat to the other young man's safety, his thumbs tucking into his pockets. -- That endless cool returned, fitting onto his personality like a snug T-shirt, he twisting at the middle, gesturing with a hand to point a thumb at Kyo after he speaks... after a long moment of considering what he said. "... Does it hurt?" A question he'd never asked him before... one he seemed to really want an answer to. "When the fire comes out... does it hurt?"
The original notices the newly reborn Beast of Flame's sudden and rather drastic change in demeanor. Kyo says nothing of it, but obviously something has finally clicked within K'. As for the question posed to him, Kyo closes the flaming hand he's holding up into a fist, the fire briefly shooting between his fingers then extinguishing. "These aren't just for show," he says, referring to the fingerless gloves he wears on each hand that help protect him from his own scorching hot power.
He walks towards K' and the exit for the skyscrapper lobby, keen to get out of here before any of Geese's men arrive looking for those responsible for trashing the entrance to their bosses' headquarters. After passing the Beast of Flame, he looks over his shoulder and confides, "It gets easier. Trust me." That shiteating smirk gets flashed again right before he turns and makes his way out of Geese Tower by the same way he came in, the smashed window.
"See you around," he says, holding a hand up over his shoulder, a sort of lazy wave. Seems friendly enough, but then K' realizes it was probably just because Kyo didn't want K' to be the one to make the cool exit.
COMBATSYS: Kyo has left the fight here.
All this time, he thought quite the opposite. He thought that Kyo didn't feel a thing. Thought he could summon that fire, let it consume his limbs and wield it like a weapon and never bat an eye. The confirmation that yeah... they're meant to hurt... that yeah, they hurt because they're alive in them both.. it makes all the difference in the world. He watches Kyo move to the window, step through it and depart with a smirk and a wave. Being normal wasn't about knowing who your parents were, or growing up in a house down the street from your school. It was about what you did with what you had... maybe that's the thing that had eluded him for so many years.
So much time wasted blaming people. Sure what he was was Kyo's new responsibility. But so what? Did it have to be so bad... was anything ever that bad? -- The elevator gives a small pinging sound, lights flashing as it descends floors, no doubt pregnant with Geese's security response team. K' glances over a shoulder at it ... and for the briefest moment, his lips pull up, hinting at a mischievious smile. That's right... a genuine smile. A new sensation, perhaps a kind of elation, maybe even a showing .. a glimmer or relief. He shifts on a heel, clenches his right hand into a fist, that glove clicking audibly, slowly crackling with a fire that grows larger by the second.
Amber- glowing, living, burning amber overtakes the color of his eyes as the flames come screaming to the surface.
-- And from somewhere down the block where Kyo had gone, there's an unmistakeable sound. A boom. An explosion.... And The Beast of Flame walks cooly away from the busted window, thumbs in his pockets, a cocky smirk on his lips not unlike Kyo's own seconds before a second explosion rocks the lobby, and unconscious bodies in suits flop to the ground. He was A Beast of Flame.
He was the burning center of his own universe.
The Beast was awake.
Log created by Kyo, and last modified on 05:17:39 09/23/2006.