Description: Kurow and Azrael meet on Taiyo rooftop for a Neo League fight. What results is no less then a savage beatdown. (Winner: Kurow)
It seems Kurow has started to make his presence known in the Neo League, as he's issued his second challenge in as many days; what he's /really/ doing is feeling out the talent in Seijyun and in Taiyo, since those are the two schools he has his eye on the most. But this looks pretty, and besides -- it provides a good show, and establishes Kurow a little more as -- if a heel -- at least a /respectable/ heel who plays by the rules.
He strides out onto the roof, looking down briefly to a piece of fabric in his hands. He's heard about how some of the other more powerful fighters have been fighting blindfolded lately, to try to demonstrate their skill in public fights; not a bad idea, he thinks, and so he ties it around his eyes, blinding himself to the rooftop once he has a basic idea of its size. He can /hopefully/ keep track of his own movements.
Azrael was already present when Kurow came up the steps that led to the roof, back turned to the door that hides the staircase. He's been here a while, about half an hour, thinking and gathering his wits about himself. He's studied extensive videos of tournament, league, and other sponsored fights, so he has a pretty good idea of how strong Kurow is. That is, way stronger than himself. That isn't a problem for him, however, as he's dealt with this sort of thing before.
In fact, he's fought more people that are way above his fighting level than those that aren't, so in truth he doesn't have too much to worry about. He doesn't fight to win; he really can't, he fights to impress, to learn, and to refine his techniques. When the door opens he turns around slowly, reaching behind himself and removing his weapon from it's harness, twirling it around slightly. He takes a quick look at the blindfold in Kurow's hand. Well, at least he knows he's fighting an inferior opponent.
This is not unlike Kurow's methodology -- he doesn't challenge 'below' himself unless he has a clear, firm purpose in his head. Really, he'd just as soon fight Kain again or perhaps spar with his new associate as fight Azrael; the Heinlein man was an excellent learning experience, and his new associate is every bit as accomplished a move-thief as Kurow himself is.
With a quick tightening of the blindfold, Kurow asks, "Are you ready?" and slips into his tall, defensive stance, arms partially 'wrapped' in front of himself. He can track Azrael by voice and footsteps, if nothing else; the Kirishima family does have particularly acute hearing, after all. Yurika's is better, but Kurow's isn't exactly /bad/ -- after all, he can do brainwashing with tones.
COMBATSYS: Kurow has started a fight here.
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Kurow 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Azrael has joined the fight here.
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Azrael 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Kurow
COMBATSYS: Kurow takes no action.
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Azrael 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Kurow
Azrael spins his weapon around slowly, being careful to watch Kurow despite the blindfold, "I'm ready, yes." He doesn't know Yurika, or anything about the Kirishima, but he does realize that if he's going to fight with a blindfold he's going to have some idea how to manage it. Rushing in is still going to be stupid. So rather than attacking, he's going to take the time to try and recall exactly how Kurow moves, how he fights. He hasn't seen a terribly large amount of footage with him in it, but knowing anything will be better than not knowing at all. "You may begin."
COMBATSYS: Azrael focuses on his next action.
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Azrael 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Kurow
It seems the two are, on a strictly personal level, mostly unaware of each other; the Kirishima boy likewise has no idea about Azrael's ties to NESTS or anything like that, having simply picked the man out of a cross-referenced Taiyo yearbook and Neo League fighter list. Kurow decides to start simply enough -- rather than show his full hand this early, he decides to start with something straightforward, quick, and vicious.
Leaping in at Azrael, or more accurately at the location of Azrael's voice, he swipes horizontally with one of his clawed hands. He continues to push forward toward that voice, doing an uppercut slash toward the Taiyo student's chest and then a quick jab for his legs. The goal, of course, is to at least hit him with /something/, if not /everything/.
COMBATSYS: Kurow successfully hits Azrael with Yami Kagura.
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Azrael 0/-------/---====|=------\-------\0 Kurow
Okay, so lets remind everyone how much of a mismatch this fight really is. Kurow comes in and strikes for Azrael, who seeing the speed of the attack, decides that rather than using a conventional defense he's going to try and simply stand there and take it, and then try to reciprocate with a powerful strike of his own. This proves to be a mistake, as when he gets hit he goes stumbling backwards, the claws digging into him. The final jab for the legs manages to completely blow him off of his feet, and he hits the ground hard.
Not a glamorous start. "Shit..." He picks himself up slowly and then shakes his head, moving around slowly to hopefully throw Kurow off a little. He remembers his previous Neo League fight against Hotaru, and decides to see if he can use a similar strategy against Kurow. Instead of attacking outright, as might be expected, he hunkers down into a defensible position and begins channeling energy, black chi(not that Kurow can see the color), swirling up around his form and forming a small barrier of wispy energy around him.
COMBATSYS: Azrael gathers his will.
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Azrael 1/------=/=======|=------\-------\0 Kurow
Even though Kurow can't see the color, he can sense that darkness, a little; it's not unfamiliar to him, given that his own is at least somewhat similar. Taking a step back, the youth tries to make sure that he stays /on/ the roof -- it'd be embarassing to fall off the arena, after all. No matter how much he may run around pretending to be Rock Howard, he has not yet developed the Howard family weakness to tall buildings. (Give it time.)
Stepping back a little too far, Kurow finds himself stepping back into a trash can; this seems like it could have potentially remarkable ramifications. Focusing on that sense of Azrael's chi, Kurow picks up the rubbish bin and hefts it back across the roof toward that flaring energy. Hopefully that's still where Azrael is when the bin /lands/!
COMBATSYS: Azrael interrupts Large Thrown Object from Kurow with Morbid Massacre.
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Azrael 1/------=/=======|====---\-------\0 Kurow
It's somewhat odd, trying to work out how to manage his intended strategy when Kurow goes to pick up a trash can and throw something at him. Azrael sees him move to pick it up, and immediately charges, lifting his weapon and holding it like a spear or lance. Kurow throws it, but Azrael's already really, really close. It smashes into him and causes him to stagger... but he's within striking distance. He shoves his weapon forward, and imbeds it into the ninja, negative energy flowing through the weapon from Azrael to him with enough power to momentarily stun him, feeling ice cold as if it's draining the very life out of him. Using this time he picks his weapon up and slashes three times across his body, and hard, one at the stomach, one at the chest, and then a vertical axe chop. With the attack complete he backs off, spinning his weapon around quickly and doing his damnedest to try and ignore the pain that that dumpster laid on him.
This is all familiar to Kurow -- weapons, life drain, that terrible cold... it's someone who fights like he does. Another disciple of Mugen Imawano, he wonders, even as the weapon starts to slice through him over and over again. After the third strike, he refocuses on the match -- just because the youth landed a lucky shot on him doesn't mean that he has to suddenly consign himself to the scrapheap. That felt like it was everything he could muster -- and it hurt only as much as a given attack from Akira or Ryo.
He focuses on the sound of the youth's footsteps, rather than anything else; they're the only way he can track him. Folding his body inward with a cry of "Yasha Guruma!", he levitates toward the other youth -- or at least where he presumes the youth is -- with his own black chi gathering around him, creating a whirlwind of claws that are added to Kurow's own vicious ones lashing out in all directions, trying to catch anything nearby. Kurow shows no signs of tiring or stopping yet; he's clearly worthy of his reputation.
COMBATSYS: Kurow successfully hits Azrael with Yasha Guruma.
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Azrael 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|=====--\-------\0 Kurow
Azrael has a choice to make here. Again, he can try to go with the power of the hit and use it against Kurow, or he can try to block it with his weapon. Blocking... well, it's probably the smart choice, but if you think about it, it's really only delaying the inevitable. And so he'll do his best to try and just take the shock of the blow, and actually step forward through the whirlwind of energy and claws... only to fail miserably once more, and get thrown backwards, shirt now sliced to ribbons as he's bombarded by the energy.
The redhead picks himself off the ground and does his best to work through the pain. He moves forward towards Kurow and then tries to reach forward and just barely touch his forehead. With that is a whispered voice, "Embrace the power of death..."
COMBATSYS: Azrael successfully hits Kurow with Desolate Annihilation.
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Azrael 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|======-\-------\0 Kurow
With the light touch comes a massive surge of power from the young man, the 'energy of death' welling up inside of him and suddenly completely wreathing Kurow, lighting him up like a christmass tree with an eerie black glow.
As Kurow feels Azrael's hand touch him oh-so-gently, he starts to analyze -- even as the youth starts to cloak him in the energy of death, visiting all that pain on his body, he can at least figure out just what his enemy /is/. He's not a student of Mugen, no -- Mugen wasn't about death, he was about control. This diminishes Azrael, in his eyes; this is not someone he can learn what he must from, and so once that negative chi stops ripping him apart, he steps back just slightly.
"... Pathetic," Kurow says, taking somewhat labored breaths. Azrael's hurting him, and he can't let that stand. "You call that death? Why -- that's pitiful! Absolutely pitiful!" Gathering deep red chi -- not quite the power of /death/, but visually impressive just the same -- in a pool just beneath his legs, the youth gets ready to defend against another vicious assault. "You can't even begin to hurt one such as I!"
COMBATSYS: Kurow gathers his will.
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Azrael 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|=======\==-----\1 Kurow
Pathetic? Compared to the power of Kurow, that is very possibly true. "You're right. Right now, I can't begin to compare to you, but you should have known that when you issued your challenge." Azrael remains calm, not giving in to taunting, whether or not that was Kurow's purpose. "I may not be able to kill with a single blow, but I can tell you with certainty that what I harness is the power of death." And without further ado he walks over to a nearby garbage can, the one thrown by Kurow before, and pulls out a bag of that very garbage, and hurls it at him.
COMBATSYS: Kurow interrupts Thrown Object from Azrael with Weapon Jab.
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Azrael 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|=======\-------\1 Kurow
The Justice High student has already made his choice to strike well before Azrael picked his own option; he runs toward the youth's voice and footsteps, dashing in at full speed, undeterred by the bag of garbage that strikes him in the stomach. It barely stings, and even then mostly due to a piece of glass that catches him in the gut before he whirls and goes for a quick little jab at Azrael's center of mass. "... interesting, but can you harness it for more than just /pain/?" he asks of his opponent as his claws make their mark.
Perhaps it's funny, or ironic. Kurow got stabbed by Azrael when he threw a trash bin at Azrael, and Azrael got stabbed by Kurow when he threw a garbage bag at Kurow. Whatever humor might be in it, the redhead doesn't see it. Instead he simply winces in pain as the claws dig into him. At the moment, he must admit. "No..." His fist grips around his weapon and then loosens. He takes in a breath and then lets it out. "But harnessing for pain is plenty!" He stands up and swings his left arm out, a 'blade' of black energy suddenly forming out the end of his hand and slashing through the area where Kurow currently stands.
COMBATSYS: Azrael has reached second wind!
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Azrael 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|=======\-------\1 Kurow
COMBATSYS: Kurow dodges Azrael's Grim Eradication.
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Azrael 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|=======\-------\1 Kurow
But Kurow's a ninja, and knows that the first thing one needs to do to succeed in a fight is never stop moving; as such, he's gone by the time the blade comes out, having stepped to the side. "There's more to such power than you can imagine -- power over death is power over life... indeed, if what you say is true, you could have immortality," the Justice student says; part of him wonders if this other boy could help him take that next step toward perfecting Mugen's forbidden gift.
Even if said gift is imperfect, though, Kurow has it in his repertoire, and he is more than happy to put its weaker form to its full use. He steps in toward the still-moving Azrael, not knowing just how bad of shape his opponent is in, and reaches for the height of his breastbone, trying to dig those claws in as deeply as possible. The Kirishima boy has to do this before he can give his little... demonstration.
COMBATSYS: Azrael fails to counter Kinki Chikarasui from Kurow with Jubilant Inhumation.
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Kurow 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Azrael can no longer fight.
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Kurow 0/-------/-------|
Azrael can't win, but he can at least try to pull off something impressive. Kurow comes forward and moves to stab him in the chest, and when he does the redhead chokes back on his weapon and swipes towards his feet, trying to knock them out from under him. Before the weapon even gets there, however... the claws sink in.
And find purchase, he does. Kurow digs those claws deeper and deeper in, lifting Azrael up off the ground with a sadistic little smile. Jolts start to course through Azrael's entire body as all of his chi focuses on the point of impact, entering Kurow's body through his arm. He glances down toward the moving weapon, and begins to speak. "You don't know what power you're playing with. I do. You don't have the experience to handle it. I do." The chi vents out of Kurow's body through his other arm, and he says, "And this... is over."
Turning toward where he believes the center of the roof to be, he hurls the young man away. He doesn't want to /kill/ someone like the Taiyo student -- especially when he could be much more useful in other ways.
Azrael hits the ground when he's thrown, collapsing when he tries to pick himself back up again. He... just doesn't have the strength to do it, again. Perhaps he doesn't have the experience to use the energy perfectly... but he imagines that eventually, he will. He only began fighting /after/ the energy had manifested in him, so he's not going to give fighting up simply because someone better trained than he is tells him to. ...even if that person is quite a bit younger.
Give up fighting? Perish the thought. At this point, Kurow has /plans/, and Azrael giving up fighting just wouldn't do for those plans to work out.
The youth walks over to the American, looking his weakened body over. He makes a brief 'cut the cameras' gesture, perhaps to preserve his 'heel' image, and then starts talking as if he has full authority over the match. "I'll take him to the nurse's office. He's not moving. Like I said -- it's over." He reaches down, picking Azrael up.
Log created by Azrael, and last modified on 10:27:56 04/28/2007.