Description: Hyo says, "Iori beat me up and threw a hotdog at me." Hyo says, "KOBUN LEAVE THAT OUT OF THE LOG." Yeah, this is what happens when you don't log/desc. XD (Winner: Hyo)
HIMEJI CASTLE
A historic location. Known as Shirasagijo by some, the brilliant white castle looms high overhead as the collected cameras and various other rigors and circumstance associated with the infamous World Warrior tournnament are collected at its very base, in a flat, grassy area with assorted trees and monuments.
http://www.japaneselifestyle.com.au/travel/images/DSC05892.jpg
The emperor was quite nervous about letting a battle, especially one so potentially damaging, occur in such a historic landscape, but was eventually swayed by simple facts. If the scion of Justice High--council head of a student body collectively seeking to better the world by example--could not be trusted with a national monument, who could?
Of course, given Hyo's spotty history.. well. There will always be disbelief.
As far as Imawano is concerned, it's fine. Disbelief is the first step towards change. A chance to genuinely work towards the betterment of society cannot come without some risk of anything less.
The student council head carefully straightens his gloves and uniform jacket, dusting fastidiously. As always, his blade is mounted at his hip, sheathed. As always, he is exactly on time. As always, he is in impeccable repair. Aw always, he waits patiently, without any visible impatience or excitement. He settles in the shadow of branches reaching overhead. He shuts his eyes in contemplative thought.
For a minute or three, Hyo remains alone, and then from between a few of the distant onlookers, Shinobu bursts out admist a clattering sound which is the duffel bag at her side. Loaded down with bokkens, shinais, and some sort of long pole, she nearly veers to the side as she runs with the heavy load. In her other hand is a plastic bottle, as she manages to scarf down a manufactured smoothie on her way to the fight.
Slowing to a stop, she puts her hands to her knees, the bag clattering down beside her, but she catches her breath quickly, throwing the bottle towards the crowd. A pigtailed child hops up, bouncing the bottle before catching it as she calls out, "Ah, Shinobu! Hey, Shinobu!", waving a hand. A wavy-haired boy stands beside her, and they both wave to Shinobu. The young fighter waves back cheerily, before then ducking down to pick up a shinai.
Looking up, she catches Hyo's eye, and then rests the practice sword over her shoulder. "Oh, hi! Are you supposed to be the judge for this event?", she asks cheerfully, if cluelessly. "I'm supposed to be fighting some Inamawo guy...", she adds, putting her hand to her brow as she scans the area.
For Shinobu's benefit, Hyo does step forward at her arrival, but his eyes are half-lidded, only so fixed on her. Though it hardly would take a elite of elite to peg her as his opponent, it's hardly that which garners the other student recognition. Her manner of movement gives it away to his trained eye. Further, his precursory research had turned up the identity of course. Fight records, and the like.
"Shinobu Ootsuka," he greets levelly in the same fashion an American military official might address a civilian named 'Oliver Manheim.' Unflinching, but at once critical of her equipment, he looks her over once. "Unlikely. Unfortunately," Hyo decides, "I, am your opponent." He has only taken the liberty to skim her file--his battle with Ash has proven information in this context to be less useful than raw experience--but he has learned enough.
"If you're ready, we'll begin. Come. I'll see how Seijyun High is producing talent lately."
There is just a tint of distaste in his voice--hardly towards Shinobu or even her lack of comprehension--it seems as if Hyo expected it--but there is something about Seijyun High itself that Hyo apparently finds difficult to remain objective towards. Regardless, his free hand comes to rest on the kashira ornamentation of his katana, as if to prove his identity more surely than any verbal introduction.
That blade is not a toy.
COMBATSYS: Hyo has started a fight here.
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Hyo 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Shinobu has joined the fight here.
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Shinobu 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Hyo
"Whaaaat!", Shinobu says as she leans forward in shock. "You're dressed so fancy for a fight... I mean, won't you get your clothes all messed up?" She looks a little skeptical, and then shrugs, shaking her head as she points the "sword" towards Hyo. "Well, I won't hold back just because of that, you know!" She looks decidedly sincere about the whole matter, watching Hyo carefully as she lets the shinai fall so the tip rests against the ground.
She then drops to a crouch, one hand high on the hilt on the standing sword as her hand goes to her chin, rubbing it as she looks up to the older student. "Man, who cares about my school?...", she muses softly as she knits her brow, apparently quietly taking Hyo's measure. "... worry more about me, okay?", she says, and looks away a little, scratching her head. "Man, I knew this was gonna be annoying."
COMBATSYS: Shinobu focuses on her next action.
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Shinobu 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Hyo
"I wouldn't expect you to," comes the dry response. Placidly, he explains, "Above all else we must be prepared to represent our ideals. At all times." For Hyo.. his school and his ideals are often one and the same. It's hardly something that he expects others to 'get'.
"Very well," he concedes. "If you do not have pride in your school, then on these historic grounds.. I'll evaluate the strength of your true ideals."
Almost 3 feet square of even steel hisses from his sword sheathe.
Bearing the weapon on Shinobu, Hyo nods once. "Let's begin."
And like that, he moves forward. He moves extremely quickly--as may have been expected of Justice High, they do not take half-measures in anything. He will immediately close the distance to Shinobu and against her practice blade, he will put to bear his own steel. He will not make false assumptions or harbor preconceptions against her. He explodes forward, a silent mass of blade and winds of glowing sakura petals. He is going to try and rocket straight up through Ootsuka with a critical slash.
COMBATSYS: Shinobu counters Ouryuuzan from Hyo with Spin Crasher.
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Shinobu 0/-------/------=|=------\-------\0 Hyo
"Man, you think you've got everything figured out, don't you?", Shinobu says as she remains crouched, loosing her hand to rest on one knee.
As Hyo rushes at her, she narrows her eyes, and springs forward like a striking snake, putting a hand on Hyo's hands and wrist, and vaults around the blade in a spinning motion. Lashing out with her leg, she kicks out at Hyo's face with a flying turn kick, and then around the blade to skid to a halt, her own sword hanging behind her as she partially exposes her back to Hyo, looking over her shoulder. "If you think like complicated stuff like that in a fight, you might lose, you know!", she says with a cheery grin.
"Hardly," the Imawano ninja responds coolly.
Oh, he felt that kick--yes, the strike across the face scored a deep mark which will eventually revela a bruise. But for all the way Hyo carries himself, he was just assaulted with a small wad of feathers.
"Making final judgments about someone before your observations are complete is only rote foolishness," he mentions, whirling on Shinobu. His boot snaps out instantly--a military style straight kick aimed low and straight into the back of her leg. That will open up her defense for his blade while keeping his own blade turned in his hand for defense. against her inevitable attack.
The lower angle of attack allows him to target a critical location without opening up his weak points. Presenting your back to someone can be a very obvious trap for some higher-minded strategists and though Hyo would be a fool not to capitalize on it, he would be doubly the fool to go full force to capitalize on an opening he didn't create so soon. Especially when the other person is clearly armed.
Only common sense drives Hyo at this early juncture.
"This is," Hyo puts it with a brutal simplicity, "only the test!"
COMBATSYS: Shinobu blocks Hyo's Light Kick.
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Shinobu 0/-------/-----==|=------\-------\0 Hyo
Standing up quickly, Shinobu swings the sword behind her in a motion that /can't/ be intended as a block, but it manages to intercept Hyo's foot. However, the bamboo shatters under the force of his kick, and he manages to tap her as she springs away... but hardly a clear hit. Dropping the broken sword without even looking at it, she dives to the bag, grabbing a bokken from it as she rolls and then slips back up to her feet, turning to face Hyo comes more.
"Eh? Test? You're not my sensei, you know!", she says, brandishing the bokken. She swipes with it a couple of times, though it's more a flailing about to any skilled swordsman. Resting it over her shoulder, she raises her hand in a "c'mere" gesture, a fire burning in her eyes. "C'mon, show me something cooler than that!"
COMBATSYS: Shinobu gathers her will.
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Shinobu 0/-------/-======|=------\-------\0 Hyo
Hyo does have to mention that the unintended block is mildly impressive. Is it merely luck? Does shei ntend to appear the fool? Hyo is intimately familiar with the type, however rendering a judgment at this point would be premature at best. It's simply too early to say.
Click.
With one smooth, practiced motion, Hyo's sword is sheathed as he considers Ootsuka and the crowd collected around them. His initial measurements of her capacity have turned up faintly inconclusive. Hyo is content to move at his own pace for this, but to properly determine her ability...
Hyo frowns, his side facing the younger student. "In a perfect world, every man and every woman would act according to a true righteousness. Failing to assess your peers with the excuse of a lack of a perceived authority is the sign of a morally negligent society. To self-police and self-compose is the modern goal of a superior nation, with pride in itself and its peoples."
He gestures, to the grounds around them.
"Do you honestly think that we would do battle perched on the epochs of generations merely as an excuse for a pretty site to draw one another's blood? Wars have been waged here, Ootsuka. History is at your feet. You merely have to contemplate it."
He slides back, his hands forward and low and high and back in a very level and collected, crisp-cut military fighting stance. Despite the mark across his face, pain does not register to him as easily as it might others. He centers his mind, and focuses on the task at hand.
He can see. To properly determine her true ability...
It will require nothing less than his utmost concentration.
COMBATSYS: Hyo focuses on his next action.
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Shinobu 0/-------/-======|=------\-------\0 Hyo
Lowering her sword a little, Shinobu blinks, and then gapes a little before then straightening up. "I really don't understand what you're saying at all..." She takes a couple of steps forward, and then raises her blade. "... but if it makes you feel better to talk about stuff like that, that's okay!" She grins with that, shrugging it off.
But then, she slides her foot rapidly, tracing an arc across the ground. As dust flickers about her shoe, she then kicks off, catching the pommel end of the broken shinai with her toe. Following through, she sends the broken piece wobbling through the air at Hyo as she brings her leg back, readying her sword with both hands.
Too bad she's holding it the wrong way - in the reversed position - but her attention is solely focused on her foe, it seems.
COMBATSYS: Hyo blocks Shinobu's Thrown Object.
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Shinobu 0/-------/-======|=------\-------\0 Hyo
"Hmph. I thought your school was supposed to teach national pride."
He supposes it's to be expected. Seijyun High can hardly teach what it's never known.
He won't waste too many more words now. The Justice High student steps forward into the oncoming shinai fragment with full authority and knocks it aside with his ornate shoulder epaulets. Save for the time needed to deal with it, Hyo seems very little at all broken for absorbing the attack.
Of course, that's the point, isn't it?
Though he has very little love for Seijyun High and its false pretenses, Imawano is careful not to underestimate his opponent. To have made it into World Warrior speaks enough that Hyo has reason to be wary that has not yet been explicitly disproven. He moves quickly.
A hiss of the blade as it leaves saya and cuts air.
One stroke. Down the middle of Shinobu's center of gravity. If one were to take a level and measure his hand positions and the blade at all points through the stroke, one would find it to be unerringly, perfectly vertical in relation to the ground.
COMBATSYS: Hyo successfully hits Shinobu with Ichimonji Giri.
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Shinobu 1/-----==/=======|==-----\-------\0 Hyo
Raising the bokken, Shinobi performs a clumsy block - and a useless one. Hyo's sword goes right through her own, and it's only her spastic sidestep that means the blade catches her shoulder with a small spurt of blood, causing her to stumble back and trip right over her own bag of swords, falling back on her butt. She winces, but she rolls back, getting back to her feet... with a replacment bokken in hand. Yes, it looks like she anticipated, at least, what a real sword would do a practice one. Then, she grins suddenly.
"That was cool! See what happens when you stop talking?"
Crouching again, she puts her hands on the pommel as she rests the sword vertically again, watching Hyo. Of course, one hand is a little shakier than the other, on account of a certain cut. "But... ah... we don't really have a National Pride class, sorry!", she says, loosing her other hand to scratch her cheek. "So I haven't learned much about it."
COMBATSYS: Shinobu focuses on her next action.
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Shinobu 1/-----==/=======|==-----\-------\0 Hyo
His expression tilts in disappointment.
By this point, Hyo has ceased to be surprised by inane commentary. ...Even as stunning as the particular example might be. When his blade bites home, he turns it slightly to the side, his pattern of footwork changing for an instant before Shinobu pulls a faintly impressive ... trip backwards to put some space between the two.
And she's re-armed herself.
A very faint expression that may have once been good humor etches across his face.
In the silence, the creak of his leather gloves can be heard clearly as he raises a hand and taps his left temple twice.
Don't spend too long thinking about the meaning. The silence also harbors easily the weight of the air breaking against Hyo's sudden approach. Hyo's forward boot braces into the grass as the ninja bears forward on Shinobu with full intent and authority. From his right hand, he fires off a swift stab, his sword and arm little more than a grey and red blur, whose point is converging quite swiftly on Shinobu's side.
He asks a question without saying a word.
COMBATSYS: Shinobu fails to interrupt Fierce Strike from Hyo with Shinobu Rocket.
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Shinobu 1/----===/=======|===----\-------\0 Hyo
Shinobu crouches back, starting to launch... but she anticipates badly, and Hyo comes from an entirely different angle than she expected. Slashed in the side, she almost falls forward, but just manages to stumble instead and turn about, narrowing her eyes. "Man, annoying...", she says under her breath, looking rather less good-natured than before. But then, being stabbed repeatedly will do that.
The blood spreads on her sweater, and she exhales. At the very least, her motion kept the blade from going too deep... but it's unlikely she can take more slashes like that. Raising her fist, she finally takes something akin to a proper guard position, but she keeps the bokken hanging more loosely at her side.
That was the point of Imawano-ryuu.
Subtly changing his rhythm, pacing and range, Hyo will capitalize on his opponent's weak points as he allows them to present themselves. Reading Shinobu's motions, it's no hard thing to land a stab on her. Despite her insistence on doing things her own way, the river bends to those not seeking to break it.
Hyo, despite his good fortune, is hardly jovial or even mocking.
When Hyo says something, no matter how sarcastic it might appear, the student is always perfectly literal. As far as Justice High's ideals are concerned, the truth of the affair speaks for itself.
To try and use that truth in any other context is only foolishness that is preparing itself for a loss.
As Shinobu turns about, Hyo actually kicks off the ground. He rises, the point of his blade turning down and to the earth. And then, suddenly, with very little assistance from gravity, Hyo drops in a wind of pink petals upon Shinobu. He is going to run her straight through--in a very specific location meant to grieviously injure but hardly to threaten life--on his sword if he succeeds.
If he does not.. well. His blade /will/ bind in the earth.
It is another mutli-tiered test, in many ways.
If Shinobu acts as he is beginning to hypothesize, she may understand the meaning of his earlier gesture.
It is not a battle solely of blades and fists.
COMBATSYS: Hyo successfully hits Shinobu with Tenraizan.
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Shinobu 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|====---\-------\0 Hyo
Shinobu's not looking well-balanced, and so she only manages a step back as she's run through... before completing the rest of her steps and pulling free with a spurt of blood. There's a call of "Shinobu!", from the crowd from the young girl as Shinobu struggles to stay on her feet. "You can do it, big sis!", calls out the boy, and she manages to pull herself up, gritting her teeth as she grips the wound.
She closes her eyes, and then opens them slowly, throwing the sword down. Pulling her feet together, she raises a hand, giving another "c'mere" gesture as she holds on to her wound with the other. She gives a more flat expression, apparently taking her time as she has been... and trying to find an opening. It isn't easy with the older student, but... she's turned around worse situations before.
COMBATSYS: Shinobu gathers her will.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////// ]
Shinobu 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|====---\-------\0 Hyo
There is an audible swish as Hyo executes a blade shake, to clear the blood from his weapon after Shinobu retreats from his impaling move, considering the situation. That flowing quality to her step, that tempo she values, has been disrupted, as has her foolishness. By now, the wounds he was able to inflict are surely taking their toll in blood loss alone.
"...To cut away deception," Hyo murmurs, more to himself than Shinobu.
He looks to the side, to the people cheering Shinobu on. Oh, he has his own section from Justice High, all sitting together in an eerily simialr fashion, but he is hardly interested in comparing totals.
No.
"I can read you now," Hyo states levelly, "You'll need to work roughly three times as hard to defeat me from this position." It's a comment without ego--Hyo merely says what is true. He points the tip of his blade at Shinobu. "So. For your friends. For your family. For your ideals. Do your best. I will expect nothing less!"
He cannot overcommit himself--Ootsuka is weakened, yes, but still able to stand and far from withour will. From his understanding, an overcommitted attack at this point would not do much but leave him open for retaliation, and the time has passed for testing. Now, he simply whips his blade around in a diagonal slash across the younger student's torso.
From only a few moments ago, the battle began in earnest.
COMBATSYS: Shinobu counters Medium Strike from Hyo with Final Finish.
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Shinobu 0/-------/----===|======-\-------\0 Hyo
Bringing her hand inward quickly, Shinobu brings it back towards the other, and then as the blade comes about, she moves both hands towards the blade as if to close her palms over it. But she's clearly not going to make it in time...
... at least until strands of blue energy slip between her fingers, and the result is too fast for most of the spectators to clearly see. In a moment, she leans forward, and a large bubble appears in her hands, a swirling mass of chi flickering like a small tempest for a moment.
But it doesn't last long, as the swirling motion bends the stroke away from Shinobu entirely, giving a good wrench on Hyo's grasp. That's about a tenth of a second long, though, before the whole thing detonates, sending Shinobu flying away, and scattering dust, leaves, dirt, bokken, and sword fragments flying every which way. Though the pressure blows her away, she manages to roll over and over, coming to a crouch but wincing and holding her side as she tries to keep the focus on the fighter before her. Mist covers the battlefield where the explosion went off, and Hyo's exact fate is something of a mystery - at least to her.
And if for an instant, Hyo is genuinely knocked flat by the technique, the suction cathching him and then he in response registering a note of pain for the first time since the battle began, being knocked back and away in the process of the huge explosion.
For a time, all is silent as Shinobu is given a chance to recover.
"An impressive technique," comments a voice from the mists.
There is a series of hisses, then a series of crosses and slashes appear over the midst, and in a burst of wind, it is gone, dissipated and turned to more petals underneath a dizzying variety of cuts all mode in the same instant. He stares from behind the edge of his blade in the center of that wind.
His uniform is rumpled and scarred in several places, even torn. His arm hurts, though this is not something that is evident from a cursory examination. His face is marked with several cuts from the explosion, but he himself stands tall. "For someone of your ability to be able to inflict such damage, with the proper motivation. It makes me hopeful for the future of our nation.... but the play is hardly finished."
A wind cuts through the small area between the first wall and castle case, tugging at the edges of his coat, and carrying away the winds of petals into the sky.
One petal passes close to Shinobu.
An instant later, it is sheared in half right up the center by Hyo's rising slash to Shinobu, following the wind up the base of that castle, moving as the wind once again.
COMBATSYS: Hyo successfully hits Shinobu with Ouryuuzan.
[ \\\\\\ < > /////////////////// ]
Shinobu 1/-------/=======|=======\-------\1 Hyo
Shinobu tries to catch the sword with her hand... only to get a bad slash across her arm and side, and she is launched up into the air. Like a cat trying to scramble for footing in midair, she flails about. But she's not so lucky to land on her feet, only managing to get one knee under herself in a rather painful position. It seems she might be out for good.
But then, she swings her arm, punching the ground hard enough to shove herself up... and actually flip in midair, aiming to slam into Hyo with a powerful punch! It's clearly an attack out of desperation than any sense or tactics, as she tries to give Hyo another good bruise to remember her by. "Here I... come!"
COMBATSYS: Shinobu has reached second wind!
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Shinobu 1/-------/=======|=======\-------\1 Hyo
COMBATSYS: Hyo interrupts Strong Punch from Shinobu with Swift Blade.
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Shinobu 1/-----==/=======|=======\=------\1 Hyo
That should have been it..
When Hyo lands, he doesn't drop his guard for an instant. As far as he was able to calculate, taking into account pain, their relative skill levels and the sustained blood loss from the younger student, the landed Ouryuuzan technique should have decided the match. But she seemed.. stronger when she rose. An unexpected turn of events.
When she throws that level aerial haymaker, however, Hyo simply frowns. As far as he was concerned, it was merely another opening presented to him. With the benefits of context and experience he has behind him now, he can now capitalize on it freely. Imawano turns a shielded epaulet on Shinobu's fist, letting it crack into the steel surfaces, and allowing the force to dissipate somewhere on his shoulders. This frees up both his hands. Through the space between his left thumb and finger, Hyo drives his blade. When she lands, he aims to hit her like nothing less than lightning, his point accurate to within a centimeter on her body. His aim is to drive the point of his blade directly into her stomach.
Exactly three inches in.
His grip on the flat of his blade tenses exactly there and he will allow it to pierce no further into her unless she decides to somehow fall onto his blade. The intent is actually less to harm than to get her attention.
If he can hook her in these close quarters..
"It's wise to know when you are beaten," Hyo points out placidly, if not a little worse for wear. "If you use that failure to improve yourself in the future.."
After another ungainly crash, Shinobu looks just about down. Coughing up a bit of blood, somehow Shinobu gets an arm underneath her, though, as her siblings call out to her. She can't hear far on account of the past, and looks up to Hyo with dead, blank eyes. She then grins a tiny bit. "I'm not beaten yet..." She raises her hand to put her fingers on the blade, and try and prevent it from going it farther... easily, anyway. She grins more widely, and laughs a little before wincing with a bit of blood from the stab wound.
"You're really good, like they said! This is pretty cool... but... I can't give up just because of a little thing like this!" Managing to get her feet under her, she backs up to a crouch, at least, pulling free of the blade with a small yelp.
COMBATSYS: Shinobu gathers her will.
[ \\\\ < > //////////////// ]
Shinobu 1/=======/=======|=======\=------\1 Hyo
"Hm."
Hyo almost immediately follows up on his stab, but.. well. Something about that exhcange got his attention. He almost discounted it again. That cheering, those who support Ootsuka. That 'friendship'. It increases her strength, and powers her spirit. She has an inner strength that for, if only for a moment, he recognizes.
This is something he wants to see.
"All this time.." Hyo wonders.
He shakes it off, his long silver hair tail drifting with the motion. He keeps his blade in his hands exactly as he last had it, grasped in both hands, but now the weapon lay at his waist, edge level with the ground.
"Very well," he assents.
Hyo meets Ootsuka calmly. But in doing so, he is attempting to fight her on almost a willpower level. Her mind will begin to fog and cloud rapidly if she looks him in the eyes for even an instant. That piercing icy determination dwelling deep in his spirit. This is his technique, his true strength of which he has elected to display the slightest taste of. Likely, attempting to stall further in this kind of a situation would only mean Hyo would grow ever stronger for the effort.
It is hardly mind control--the technique Hyo has sworn never to use freely again. This is a pure battle of wills. He will attempt to suppress Shinobu's spirit in this fashion, using his full strength against her to decide this match.
COMBATSYS: Hyo focuses on his next action.
[ \\\\ < > //////////////// ]
Shinobu 1/=======/=======|=======\=------\1 Hyo
"Come at will," he resolves.
Shinobu stumbles in a daze, seemingly proving easily prey to the technique. Her eyes dull and glaze over, and she seems distinctly puzzled. But there's something else going on... as her stance suddenly stiffens, and she brings up her hands, heedless of her own injuries. She blinks slowly, but then just bows her head a little, her hair falling over her eyes.
Shinobu has always maintained she doesn't think hard about how she fights, but that isn't quite true. More, her fighting "genius" is not entirely deliberate - instead, it's always been somewhat subconscious. And without her forebrain getting in the way, the sharper, less fierce part of her mind starts to focus even as her will to fight flags.
She doesn't reply to Hyo's goading as her muscles loosen, and she goes a little lax, as if freeing her body of tension. Then, she raises a single hand, and flexes her fingers, popping a knuckle as she does so, and breathes softly, deliberately. It's not that the mental assault has no effect; but rather that her mind is a bit sideways of your average person.
COMBATSYS: Shinobu focuses on her next action.
[ \\\\ < > //////////////// ]
Shinobu 1/=======/=======|=======\=------\1 Hyo
Still critical, still quiet, so goes the battle in the mental plane. She is suppressed, but her ability does not quite fade as much as he suspected. It's an interesting insight for him to retain. Unfortunately, these efforts are only but the briefest of interests to Hyo in this context. In this battle of wills, a cold wind blows, shot through with embers of Justice High's ideals.
Regardless, he is faintly irritated, irritated and enticed at once. "Your talent is commendable to combat my weakest level this way," Hyo comments blandly. "I am impressed that a Seijyun student could handle it at all. Unfortunately your defenses are at best a minor diversion, even for someone of your talent."
"Before our school.. geniuses are as banal and common as our daily bread. If there is nothing else you remember, remember this: You would do well to transfer there... if you think you could handle it. You could contribute much to society."
He is again, not mocking.
He speaks directly to that primal mind. Beyond the foolishness, beyond the act.
"Let me show you the skill of this Justice High."
He raises his blade above his head, cutting edge to the skies above.
In Shinobu's mind, that primal part, the focused part that lay underneath all the suppression, may find itself stunned that Hyo exhibits many of the same traits it does--that and more. Many more. With this influence Hyo's technique holds, he will confuse that second strength at it's most base. With the possibly of so many angles, so many things to respond to..
And in an instant, he will strike. If Shinobu can follow it, it is a single cutting thrust right past her. It inflicts a lot of damage to the midsection, but it is at best subdermal. Hyo has to be careful. Challenge lay in not destroying her completely. If that mind cannot follow it, Hyo is always past and behind her before she can blink.
With a slow hiss, a *perfect*, almost photographic reproduction of the Justice High logo will be cut neatly into her sweater. Without disrupting any of his prior slashes. Or even her uniform underneath.
The attack? Only a single, simple thrust, right in the center of that logo.
COMBATSYS: Hyo successfully hits Shinobu with Weapon Jab.
[ \ < > //////////////// ]
Shinobu 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|=======\=------\1 Hyo
Shinobu's hand lashes out towards the blade, but it goes a bit wide instead to being too short, and her body stumbles back, caught by the cuts... and then just swings to the side, away from the blow, and throws out a fierce backhand aimed at knocking Hyo away. Throwing her knuckles out at his solar plexus, the attack is more straightforward than her previous moves. Without her spirit, though, her body starts to crumple over, her knees buckling.
Is Shinobu finally finished this time?
COMBATSYS: Shinobu has reached third wind!
[ \\\\ < > //////////////// ]
Shinobu 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|=======\=------\1 Hyo
COMBATSYS: Hyo counters Strong Punch from Shinobu with Medium Strike.
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Shinobu 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|==-----\-------\0 Hyo
The exchange is wickedly fast.
Hyo had not expected Ootsuka simply to go down. That was only part of the plan. The second part was to turn the blade reverse in his hands once again. Behind Shinobu, he hooks a thumb behind his nameless blade's guard. When she moves around to backhand him, that strange power, that icy force--it's strength floods through Hyo unabated. For quite some time it will might in fact be unclear as to what exactly happened from Shinobu's point of view--it may in fact appear as if her backhand simply passed around his head harmlessly. Such is the mentalist's ability. However, a review of the tapes will make things much clearer.
Hyo simply directs her fist away from him with the flat of his blade, using it as a control to deflect her attack, hook it aside and throw her guard wide open.
An instant later, he will attempt to drive his blade's cap fitting right into the middle of thel ogo he put in her, a point just in the solar plexus she was targetting on him. Though the attack takes a nondescript form, the aim is exact and the force is immeasurable.
Barely on her feet at all, Shinobu gets stuck pretty badly, but as Hyo retracts, she falls with the blade, crashing against him. An attack? A stealthy technique? No, really, it's mostly just her teetering over. Between the mind tricks and repeated stabbings, Shinobu's looking pretty unconscious. But, of course, appearances have been deceiving.
It's all the organizers can do to keep her poor siblings from charging into the ring after her at this point. She may be stalwart, but this is just an /ugly/ loss, considering the copious amounts of blood. Thankfully, it seems most fighters have a certain amount of reserve gore to work with.
COMBATSYS: Shinobu can no longer fight.
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Hyo 0/-------/-----==|
COMBATSYS: Hyo blocks Shinobu's Quick Punch.
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Hyo 0/-------/----===|
Despite the blood loss, Hyo wasn't aiming for any critical locations. Even if Shinobu were merely a normal person, Hyo probably would not have been in any serious danger. The blunt force blow to the solar plexus would seal it, Hyo's solution that he had retained since initially asking her to come to him. He turns away and draws the hilt of his blade back away from Shinobu as she crashes against him, instinctively turning his critical points away from her.
"It's over," he says, decisively.
He'll let Shinobu fall, before shaking the blood off his blade and wiping it clean with a soft colth from his jacket. Sheathing the sword, he then.. fastidiously works on dabbing up the blood staining his white gloves from touching and cleaning his nameless sword.
"It's a shame," he remarks. "That Seijyun is a worthless school. At Justice High, you would be pressed to excel beyond your own limits." Regardless, he elects not to leave an invitation.
He already left one.
Hyo will make his way out of the arena, a brief wind of those sakura petals in his wake, pretty glowing things, rendered of nothing but his own will and mind. He begins to recover from the beating Ootsuka gave him. Despite all circumstance, she was a good fighter.
By most's standards.
COMBATSYS: Hyo gathers his will.
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Hyo 0/-------/=======|
COMBATSYS: Hyo has ended the fight here.
Log created by Hyo, and last modified on 06:09:53 03/15/2007.