Description: Hotaru finds that not every student at Seiyjun is the same as she first thought in this chance encounter with the powerful gang leader, Zaki.
While Hotaru has been back in Southtown for a couple months now, it's only been about four weeks that she has been back in school. And so far? She doesn't much care for it. While the student base of Seiyjun High is right where she belongs financially and social class-wise, the young Futaba heiress just doesn't feel like she fits in with most of the girls here.
Not that she's rude. In fact, she's very much polite as always with her interactions with other students. But when it comes time to gossip over a cup of tea, discuss fashion trends, or brag about who has the most expensive taste in jewelry... Hotaru finds herself slipping off campus to the Kyokugen Dojo where she can engage in a rousing set of grueling exercises, lose herself in chores, or engage in a spar that leaves her bruised or bleeding. She'll take that any day over what passes as 'fun' for most of the students. Girls know she's a fighter as she's made at least a small name for herself in circuits lately, but well meaning students still treat her just like 'one of the girls,' even though she feels like she just isn't like them.
And thus began her crusade to find another school. The executor of her estate would have a fit if he knew she was considering other schools, like the blandly normal Taiyo or utterly beneath her campus of Gedo High, but Hotaru is convinced that her place is somewhere else.
The time now is late afternoon on a weekend. The girl has taken to the flower garden, one of the few places she really enjoys being on Seiyjun's campus. She maintains a flower garden of her own on another piece of property offcampus, and sometimes she likes to get ideas from this upscale cultivation to apply to her own humbler garden. Since it's the weekend, she's dressed in what she likes to wear all the time - her traditional Chinese styled outfit. She wears the Seiyjun uniform on weekdays for class, but come weekends she'll have nothing to do with it. Clasping her hands behind her back, Hotaru meanders along one of the footpaths between a bed of multi-colored roses and a row of thick, shady willow trees.
Well, as normal as the girls around here may seem, for several thousand of them? It's just an act. They're gang members, and they all report to Zaki. Report things like, 'what the new girl has been up to'. They just love telling her about stuff like that. And well, she may not have all the details yet, but she has some idea simply because she's seen it before. This is the kind of thing that might happen if, say, Sakura had somehow ended up at Seijyun first. She would've been dying to get out! Thankfully though it doesn't seem quite as bad in Ms. Futaba's case.
The point is, though, that such things are already on Aoi's mind at this very moment, and she's on her way out to see if Yurika is in the place she most often finds her. The flower garden. Seeing Hotaru there is of course a bit of a surprise. Her own approach, however, shouldn't be much of one. She jingles when she walks, what with the chain that hangs from her neck, and this is on purpose, just as her illegally-modified school uniform is. They're both there to send a message, to students and teachers alike.
There's nothing easy to miss about the approach of this other student. The metallic ringing of links moving against each other catches Hotaru's attention initially, the girl glancing Zaki's way only out of idle curiosity. But when her blue eyes come to rest on the fellow student, she becomes anything but 'idly curious.'
It's not that the girl has managed to be here for this many weeks without hearing about the likes of certain students who either skirt the rules or step right over them all together. And it's not like she blames them. It's just that she isn't enough of a rebel in her own right to fight the system for as long as she's actually in it.
The initial glance turns into a longer, considering gaze. She felt like a lot of the students of Seiyjun High lacked any real 'fighting spirit.' But this student looks like she might have a good idea about such things. In fact, she looks down right tough. But staring is rude and Hotaru doesn't do it for long. Instead she raises one of her hands from behind her back to wave once, "Hello," she offers, her tone friendly. But there's something about the way her eyes keep moving over the other student, as if maybe she's sizing her up. Maybe she hasn't seen Seiyjun's fighting spirit because she hasn't been looking in the right places, she muses.
Zaki inclines her head slightly in a somewhat cruder manner of greeting as she's waved to, still walking. "Evening." she replies coolly, when she finally stops some several feet apart from the other girl. Her eyes are slightly narrowed, and she crosses her arms after a brief moment.
"Hotaru, right? Seems kinda like you're waiting for someone. Or maybe just for something to happen. You wouldn't be feeling like a fight, would you?" No, she can't read minds, but if you ask Akira she can certainly confirm just how good the redhead is at guessing what a person is thinking about. Hearsay or no, she's pretty empathic in most cases. That, or maybe she just has perfect timing for popping that question, because she can't ever recall someone saying no!
There's a couple names that rise to the top of Hotaru's mind that might belong to this girl. Akira... or Zaki... She's heard of both, but never seen either of them herself. Zaki identifies the pig-tailed girl correctly, which wouldn't have been hard to do with her resources, and Hotaru nods slightly in acknowledgement.
Zaki's questions seem to be equally accurate as Hotaru blinks, her mouth curling into a bit of a smile. Was it that obvious? she wonders. "I have been here for a month and still have yet to feel this school's fighting spirit," Hotaru states finally. That isn't to say the girls around here aren't fighters... they just don't really /look/ like it much. One would be hard pressed to convince Hotaru that Yurika can handle herself in a fight, for example.
"But you're different," she says, straightening up a little now, her mood seeming to brighten a bit at the prospects of seeing another side of Seiyjun High's student body. "If you would do me the honor, I would like to see how different." she states, turning such that her side faces toward Zaki now. Not quite a fighting stance, but clearly ready to adjust into one at a split second's notice. "Zaki is it? ... or Akira?" she asks, quite certain that the girl standing in front of her /must/ be one of the two she's heard mention of.
Zaki nods her head a bit, and raises a hand to her chin so she can hold it between thumb and forefinger a moment in consideration. The mask makes it a bit awkward, but she manages, and thankfully without ending up making a sour face at it that might give the unfamiliar student the wrong impression.
"I suppose no one around here really *has* been showing any, lately. No one who stands out very much, anyway. They probably just need a good kick in the ass, or someone to threaten their school. Who knows." the gangster says with a shrug, putting her hands up behind her head and lacing her gloved fingers together.
"You're right, though. And I'll be happy to show you why it is I put up with this place, and why it needs me. Before Akira transferred here, I was probably the *only* one with the kind of spirit you're talking about. And obviously that'd make me Zaki." she finishes, dropping her hands back down to her sides and starting to tap her foot as she in turn takes up her usual stance and beckons with a hand, popping her neck on one side.
COMBATSYS: Zaki has started a fight here.
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Zaki 0/-------/-------|
She does wonder at the mask a bit. The modified uniform she can understand. It isn't unusual for girls to struggle with trying to stand out when forced to attend school in a wash of blazers and skirts. Even if Zaki's 'customizations' are rather extreme as such things go, Hotaru gets the idea. The mask she doesn't get. But she also doesn't feel it her place to inquire. Not right now.
As the taller red-headed girl talks about her place at Seiyjun, Hotaru gets the feeling that even though she comes off as a rebel, she also cares about this place. 'Hnm,' she muses internally. Maybe if she knew what someone like Zaki saw here, she would understand better. "Zaki then," she states, her smile warming now that the issue of identities is out of the way. She hopes it's okay to call her that... she does remember one thing she overheard about the taller girl being particular about how others address her, but the specifics escape her at the moment. "Thank you." she then offers, thankful for this moment, regardless of how the fight itself goes.
But for now, she'll get to know this girl in the most efficient way possible - face her in a fight. As Zaki begins to tap her foot, Hotaru nods, a smile still on her lips, but it's a fainter now as she becomes more focused on Zaki as a fighter than a mystery to solve. At the beckon, Hotaru switches from a dead stop to a rapid sprint forward, brazenly trying to catch her offguard in an attempt to grab hold of her arm with her small hands. If she manages to get a grip on her, she'll use the leverage to mount a sequence of kicks, each one higher than the last, practically running right up the front of her opponent before trying to leap off her shoulders in the end.
COMBATSYS: Hotaru has joined the fight here.
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Hotaru 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Zaki
COMBATSYS: Zaki full-parries Hotaru's Shin-Jou Tai!
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Hotaru 0/-------/-------|=------\-------\0 Zaki
It's kind of odd, but, it seems like one can always tell when Zaki is smiling even with the mask in the way. And even though it may not happen all that often, because she tries not to let it, the simple fact is that she really is the friendly type deep down. But yes, now would be one of those times. After all, it'd been a while since she'd sparred anyone new around the school. Aislinn had been the last, and unlike her Hotaru had yet to call her by that *name*.
"Heh. Not bad, Futaba. You're pretty fast, huh?" Aoi remarks idly as she begins to step back and twist that forearm so that it not only makes it tough to grab her loose sleeve when it shifts, but makes a sudden burst of unseen chi flare out to repel the girl. It's just like, an invisible wall of force, which doesn't seem to cause any damage, but there's no doubt that it came from the movement of the taller young woman's fist either way.
It's the other fist that Hotaru soon has to worry about, though, as Zaki comes in and tries to close the distance in something of a crouching dash, attempting to deliver an uppercut that might otherwise be known as Seijyun's Iron Fist, if there were other girls here to drag her opponent into it.
COMBATSYS: Zaki successfully hits Hotaru with Kokou no Pride EX.
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Hotaru 0/-------/---====|==-----\-------\0 Zaki
Grab, kick, then- Wait, no grab. Hotaru's hand slips loose and she stumbles half a step to recover. She had invested a lot in her dashing attack and getting her balance back costs her the chance to recover as she finds herself knocked back a little by something Zaki did in a blink of an eye.
While she raises her hands to try and stop the incoming uppercut, Zaki's fist powers right through her attempt and Hotaru is sent reeling back several steps as a result, feet sliding against the loose dirt of the footpath.
One hand comes up to rub her chin when she finally gets her footing back and she looks back at Zaki with a bit of awe, "Not fast enough," she murmurs quietly, still struggling to figure out the sequence of events that just played out all in an instant.
Charing right for Zaki doesn't seem like a good idea to her all the sudden, so she opts to try something a little different. Rolling her arm back, her forearm begins to glow with a blue, water-like aura as she quickly collects enough power in the palm of her hand to fling forward a small blue sphere of force back toward Zaki, "Ya!"
COMBATSYS: Hotaru successfully hits Zaki with Hakki Shou.
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Hotaru 0/-------/---====|=====--\-------\0 Zaki
The gang leader gives slightly-less-than-modest shrug of her shoulders toward Hotaru's reply. "Maybe not that time, though I can't exactly say I'm slow either." But when one doesn't know what to expect, one's speed isn't really all that matters! You can have the quickest reflexes in the West and still get shot if you're not expecting it.
And that's exactly what happens to Zaki here. She waits a moment too late to try and hop out of the blue orb's path, and ends up taking a direct hit, skidding back a few feet from the force and just barely managing not to fall into one of the flowerbeds. "Ohoho, that's a pretty good amount of chi. And kinda flashy too." Checking to make sure there are no aftereffects like blue flames or the like left behind where she was struck, the redhead wipes a glove at the front of her dress turning and trying to spin up into a descending scissorkick that crackles with electricity and leaves a trail of bluish sparkles as first one heel and then the other seeks to strike Hotaru in one shoulder, the kick hopefully carrying her far enough away from the flowers that she won't have to trample them anytime soon.
COMBATSYS: Hotaru interrupts Gankou Geri from Zaki with Tenshin Shou EX.
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Hotaru 0/-------/=======|=======\=------\1 Zaki
Fortunately, Hotaru's little projectile appears to be nothing but pure force, leaving no effects besides the sense of having been punched hard... from a distance. Hotaru almost laughs as Zaki talks about the amount of chi that went into that attack because frankly, she's /very/ right. It took a lot out of the girl to lob that little fireball, as harmless as it may look to some. Even as she lowers her arm from having thrown it, the blue aura on her arm gradually fades back into her skin and she exhales a little from the effort expended.
Then when Zaki comes into attack her, Hotaru braces herself, gritting her teeth. She's going to draw upon some of her Kyokugen training now. The part of the training about 'not being afraid to get hit really really hard'. And so it is that she crouches a little, trying to set aside her fear of how much this is going to hurt even if she /does/ succeed, and then leaps directly into Zaki, probably striking her in the side, with a rising, spinning shoulder tackle that will liekly send the two of them into the air a little distance.
Extending her arms, Hotaru drops back to the ground, landing in a half crouch. She still ate the momentum of Zaki's incoming attack, and as she shakes her head to clear her mind, it's evident that the impact was pretty rough for her.
Well, such a thing is likely to pay off under the current circumstances. For one, Zaki is actually a little tender in the spot Hotaru does her spinning leap toward, and for another, she and Kyokugen just don't seem to mix! That same tactic is why she did so poorly against Takuma in her mind, and Akira being a student of Kyokugen was certainly making it harder for her to take her on just the other day at SNF.
"Whff--!!" Yeah, she's still pretty bruised from Akira's Cyclone Kicks, just about all over her abs and all the way down to her diaphragm. That's pain. But the redhead still seems to find it funny afterward somehow, as she sits there in the middle of the flowerbed she was thoughtfully attempting to stay out of. "Hahaha, that was brave! I can see why you'd be finding some of the other here to be lacking in spirit if you're willing to take that kind punishment just to land a good attack from in close." She's not completely ignoring the pain, though. It's causing her to squint a bit, if just for a moment.
And it would seem that maybe the kid gloves are coming off now, since she's pulling the chain free of the padlock on her neck as she kicks back to her feet and twirls it around in the air a few times before swinging it at the pig-tailed girl, looking to slam as many of its links as she can into her chest and knock her back with the sheer force, all while she hops forward in an attempt to get off the poor flowers.
COMBATSYS: Hotaru reflects Hakai no Tessa from Zaki with Kobi Kyaku EX.
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Hotaru 0/-------/-----==|=======\=------\1 Zaki
As Zaki gets back up out of the flowers, Hotaru looks apologetic. She can only imagine the distress the caretaker is going to have when coming in Monday morning and finding the flower garden has been the sight of another destructive fight. Hotaru's already fought here once before, and the results weren't pretty.
As Zaki talks about how the girl is willing to chance pain in order to land a hit, the Kyokugen student actually blushes just a little. Normally she tries to keep compliments from sinking in due to how distracting they can be, but coming from someone like Zaki, it's hard to just brush it off. "Thank you," she finally replies, her tone soft, almost ironically so after the brute force style attack she just died, "It's something I've gained from my training as of late..." She rubs her shoulder tenderly, shaking her head with a half grin, "It sometimes works out, but a lot of times I think I got hurt just as bad in return."
She then braces herself as the taller girl removes the chain. Huh, so that /isn't/ just for decoration. Her blue eyes widen slightly, as if surprised at the change in tactics. But she gives Zaki a nod, eyes narrowing a little with focused determination. She's glad to have her opponent take her seriously.
At the wind up and then lashing out of the chain, Hotaru kicks right back at it, risking injury to limb if her timing is only slightly off. Behind her foot trails a swath of blue energy that intersects the chain and sends it careening off at a different angle, perhaps right back toward Zaki herself. Hotaru completes the kick and snaps her leg back down, turning back around to face Zaki while she has to deal with the whipping chain.
COMBATSYS: Zaki blocks Hotaru's Reflected Hakai no Tessa.
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Hotaru 0/-------/-----==|=======\==-----\1 Zaki
Hm, it's not so much that she wasn't taking Hotaru seriously before now. Just more that Hotaru asked to see her fighting spirit. Or as Akira and her brother liked to say, she wanted to 'speak with fists'. A chain isn't really a fist, so swinging it at the Kenpo girl from the very start would have just felt wrong to her, having had it explained to her in such a way by Akira not long ago.
But yes, regardless of that, Zaki was wielding her chain now, and she wasn't holding anything back. Which is why it's a bit of a shock to see it thrown right back in her face by what looks like a simple kick, even with the obvious field of chi that forms from it just in time to make her chain go bouncing off and taking a new path which sends it at her own face.
Thankfully her arm comes up in time and she's able to catch the tip of it just after it bounces off the back of her wrist, the thing not having quite as much power behind it after unloading some of the momentum into the little blue wall of energy. But this still makes her want to think about her next move just a little bit more than she has been up to now. "Those really are some nice tricks. I'm impressed so far."
COMBATSYS: Zaki focuses on her next action.
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Hotaru 0/-------/-----==|=======\==-----\1 Zaki
Hotaru's eyes sparkle a bit at the compliment. She's managing to keep up now, after her initial problems with getting up to speed. But she's also been pushing pretty hard to maintain this momentum and she's starting to feel the cost of doing so, both in the pain from what attacks did land, as well as the ache in her muscles.
As Zaki gains control over her chain again, Hotaru grins a bit at the compliment. "I'm giving it my all. Thank you for doing likewise." Then she clenches her fists and takes off running toward Zaki as the red-headed girl takes a moment to concentrate. A few yards out, she leaps into a very low jump kick, her leg extending out horizontally in front of her as she attempts to clock Zaki right in the shoulder with an attack strong enough to possibly knock her over if it connects.
COMBATSYS: Zaki fails to interrupt Heavy Kick from Hotaru with Chain Strangler.
- Power fail! -
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Hotaru 0/-------/---====|=======\===----\1 Zaki
And, ah, maybe this is *why* Zaki and Kyokugen don't mix. They succeed with a tactic that, whenever she tries it, it screws her up royally. It's not just when they use it against her! And she will no doubt take this as a prime example of that when her plan goes horribly wrong.
See, what happens is she tries to pull her chain taut in front of herself, catch Hotaru on it, and then start to choke her into submission with it. She means to take the kick to her shoulder of course, but she greatly underestimates the power of the kick itself and very nearly gets her shoulder popped out of its socket in the process. And there's really no hiding how much it hurts, with the way she all but drops her chain and just starts rubbing at the struck shoulder, arm hanging limp simply because she doesn't want to try and move it, hissing and stomping her foot once. "Keep it up. You're doing a lot better than most of the girls here did the first time they fought with me." Akira and Yurika included!
And yes, that kick was Hotaru's first attempt at something not unlike Master Ryo's own flying kick attack, Hien Shippuu Kyaku. Hotaru knows her arm and upper body strength aren't up to part to deliver attacks like she sees Ryo do with his fists. But kicking is something she's very confident in. And it seems to pay off here as she barrels through Zaki's attempt to catch her in mid-air, landing a few yards beyond the girl, her feet slipping over the surface as she comes to a stop /just/ shy of plowing right into a large rose bush. That woulda hurt.
Turning around, she braces herself, taking a second to assess the situation. She ended up clocking Zaki a lot harder than she had expected... Ryo-sensei's lessons are really paying off! she thinks exuberantly to herself. She nods at the encouragement, blue eyes once again narrowing with concentration. But she doesn't press her attack just now, taking a moment to catch her breath and reflect on the exchange that just happened. Besides, Zaki dropped her chain, and while Hotaru isn't sure how dependant she is on it, she is going to give her a second to pick it back up again if she wants.
COMBATSYS: Hotaru focuses on her next action.
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Hotaru 0/-------/---====|=======\===----\1 Zaki
Oh, Zaki isn't so much dependent on *that* chain in particular. In face, with the way her arm is hanging down like that momentarily, one of the smaller chains she keeps hidden inside of sleeve begins to fall out, and it's only that which makes her finally start to try and move that arm again, even though she ends up cradling it a bit after tucking the spare weapon back in.
As if just to prove how tough she is though, and to regain a bit of her lost pride in the process? She decides to punch herself right in that same shoulder and then gives a sudden breathy shout of "Orrrrraaaaaa!!!"
A bright red aura begins shoot up around her then, and without so much as a glance toward her fallen chain she lunges right at Hotaru and does her best to kick the other girl high up into the air. Should she get this far, she's ready to leap up and throw several more scissor kicks at the falling student and finish with a lightning-charged bullet kick to power her all the way back to the tiled path below.
COMBATSYS: Hotaru endures Zaki's Hissatsu Inazuma Gankou Geri.
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Hotaru 1/---====/=======|-------\-------\0 Zaki
Watching Zaki get ready for her next attack fills Hotaru with a certain sense of wonder. How many weapons IS she armed with anyway? The girl focuses on Zaki's arm, paying attention to how she handles it, trying to get a feel for how hurt she might actually be... and as the red-headed student punches herself in the very shoulder Hotaru wounded, the Kenpo artist's eyes widen a little. Usually she only sees such actions from the likes of Joe Higashi, a man who's fighting habits she's /never/ been able to grasp.
When Zaki comes in, Hotaru is focused on her new weapon and her arm so much that she really doesn't take the incoming kick too seriously. She'll trade hits, she figures, leaning into the kick with the intent being to get in close enough to make the chain ineffective due to proximity.
What she didn't expect was the kick to land so hard that it sends her up into the air, arms flailing as Zaki launches up to meet her at the height of the arch. The sequence of kicks are painful enough, the smaller girl unable to do a lot to defend herself against them like this. As much time as she spends in the air in combat, she's not really good at dealing with actually being /attacked/ back while in the air.
The diving kick drives her into the tiles below and Hotaru curls up upon inpact for a second. No. Shake it off, she tells herself. Ryo could take hits like that and keep going, and so can you. Gritting her teeth, Hotaru rolls over and gets back up, her outfit now quite dirty and torn in places after having spent some time being ground into the walkway.
But the look in her eyes indicates that while she's physically beat to a pulp, she's enjoying this fight on a level that transcends pain, "All right!" she calls out, "This is the spirit I was looking for!" And then she's charging back toward Zaki, hopping once when she's a few yards a way, turning her body around in mid-air to give herself more momentum. As she lands, she unleashes two windmilling strikes with her arms, then begins to swing rapidly to deliver several more blows, one after the other. She's attempting to break through any attempt at defense in order to continue on into even stronger attacks.
COMBATSYS: Hotaru successfully hits Zaki with Sou-shou Tenrenge.
-* CRITICAL HIT! *-
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Hotaru 0/-------/-----==|======-\-------\0 Zaki
The second there is an opening, Hotaru presses on it, striking faster and harder, small flashes of blue energy appearing in her palms with each strike. Finally she barrels into Zaki with a rising tackle like the one she caught her in the air with earlier. Finally she flips in mid air, diving back into her, surrounded by a blue aura, driving her back to the ground with a kick much like Zaki did to her moments ago.
The thing is that there is no attempt at defense. Zaki is enjoying herself as well, no matter how much pain she's in, and no matter how much effort she put into that last series of kicks. And it's also the fact that she wants to continue to act tough even now. Nevermind that blocking all of that with just one good arm would have been crazy in the first place, or that there way way too much to try and get out of the way of. She *wanted* to be hit.
But she overestimates her own body, and just how much punishment it can take so soon after her last SNF, and gets pummeled, and then kicked right in the same spot Akira bruised the hell out of her *twice*.
"OH MOTHERFFFF-" She doesn't even have the air left to finish screaming obscenities at all the intense pain in her midsection right now, but, with the one arm that it doesn't hurt like hell to swing out, she thrusts a hand at Hotaru and fires out what seems like it must be a *spring-loaded* chain to move as fast as it does without her physically throwing it.
After that point though, she really can't see herself going any further. She's pretty sure something ruptured. Maybe her spleen. So she just kind of rolls over onto her stomach. "Ugh... I rrrreeeeeaaalllly wasn't expecting that. I didn't think I was in this bad of shape. I mean, you'd already won anyway, but I think I really hurt myself... " she grumbles.
COMBATSYS: Zaki can no longer fight.
[ \\\\\\ <
Hotaru 0/-------/-----==|
COMBATSYS: Zaki successfully hits Hotaru with Kuuha no Tessa.
[ <
Hotaru 0/-------/=======|
While Zaki clearly got the worst end of the deal, Hotaru was pouring everything she could into that attack and by the time she slides to a stop after the dive back to the ground, she just sort've leans forward on her knees, propping herself up with her hands.
Thus it is that she's really in no position to avoid the last ditch spring-launched chain that flies at her and clocks her right in the forehead. "Ah-! Ow!" she exclaims, falling over backward and lying on the ground a bit, arms sprawled out at her sides. She blinks a little, staring up at the late afternoon sky as a rose petal comes to rest on her forehead, right on top of the spot that is going to bruise from that chain that just clocked her. "Ah haha." the girl laughs, rolling onto her side and brushing the blossom away. That was /some/ fight. Finally she pushes herself up to her feet, weaving a little as she feels the exhaustion from the effort of such a battle kicking in.
Feeling a little wobbly, she makes her way over to Zaki and crouches down next to her, her arms resting on her knees, her expression becoming more serious now, "Are you going to be okay? Do you need help getting to the nurse's station?" It's a well known fact that the medical facilities at all of the High Schools are staffed all day, every day... such is the costs of trying to educate such combat-hungry teenagers! "Thank you, by the way. You showed me there is another side to this place that I didn't know about. If not for this, I never would have taken a closer look."
COMBATSYS: Hotaru takes no action.
COMBATSYS: Hotaru can no longer fight.
That much Zaki doesn't even see. Sure, she may have *felt* the vibration when the chain connected, but that could just have well have been a block. It's really only the sound of Hotaru falling that tells the gangster otherwise. Maybe she might laugh if she were able, but right now a thing like that would probably feel like getting kicked in the stomach again.
Nah, she'll have to laugh about it later, over tea or something. All she wants to do right now is lie there with her head down and breathe as shallowly as is possible without making herself suffocate inside her mask. There's a dismissive wave of the arm nearest to Hotaru after a while, and she begins to slowly roll herself back over, unfastening the buckle at the front of her mask to open a little slot in it and give her mouth a little bit more room. "Haahhh... I don't really think so. I've been getting hit in the stomach a lot lately and I think that was probably.. one time too ma- Or however many times it was you hit me. You don't have to put yourself out, though. I mean, you're tired too, right? I've got friends I can whistle for." Which, would be why she opened up the front of her mask. So she can get her fingers to her lips and do one of those really loud whistles. And it's not but seconds after that a couple of girls comes bursting out of one of the side doors and into the gardens, one of which is impossible to miss with her silly blonde afro and 3-d glasses. "Boss! Wha...?"
Tired to the extreme, yes. And somewhat dirty. Cleaning up and getting into a change of clothes seems like a nice idea right now. As the two girls come running in response to the whistle, Hotaru smiles in their direction. As one calls Zaki boss, her expression doesn't waver, though she begins to contemplate the respect the students here have for the red-haired girl.
"Hello," Hotaru says in their direction, her voice calm now as she straightens back into a standing position, one hand idly rubbing her forehead where that last chain plucked her. She ponders the other girls at the school, weighing how she's felt about them the last few weeks. Maybe she needs to see another side of /them/ too.
"I think we'll see each other again sometime," the pig-tailed girl states, waving her hand at the new arrivals, then bowing toward Zaki, drawing upon more traditional methods of demonstrating respect to an opponent that literally drove her to the line.
But now that she knows the gang leader has friends to help her, Hotaru turns to walk out of the garden, hands once again clasped behind her back. She bows her head, eyes to the ground, a thoughtful expression on her face.
There's a respectful nod from Zaki soon after she's been helped up to what's as close to a standing position as she can manage right now. She's just way too exhausted, and her abdomen is killing her. Thank god they were able to get her off the ground without making her do any kind of sitting up first.
"Evenin'. You did this to the boss, huh? You're so small, though!" the afrohead exclaims. It's clear that she at least recognizes you as a student, though, and so doesn't see it as any kind of malicious act. Aoi challenges the uninitiated pretty regularly afterall, whether it be for the hell of it like this was or to welcome somebody into her gang. And as for the other girl helping to hold Zaki up and pull her back toward the school halls, she's way too plain and old-fashioned to have anything to say. Probably why she's paired up with the loud obnoxious one there.
"Hey, hey, infirmary. No time for this. Let's go!" the redhead finally grunts, smacking blondie in the head to make her stop staring off after the Futaba girl.
Log created on 19:34:40 05/27/2007 by Hotaru, and last modified on 02:16:54 05/28/2007.