Description: Hotaru finds out what happened to Sakura, as well as another fellow student. She also finds out Kurow's role in brainwashing the girls. She also fights the dangerous young man. And in the end, she escapes, taking with her precious information that might be the first step in accomplishing her mission in Thailand.
Twenty-four hours in Thailand and Hotaru is well on her way to regretting this whole idea. It was her plan to come out here in the first place. The reasons were many, but it was learning that a friend had gone missing that served as the catalyst to put the trip in motion.
But since arriving, she's been shot at by tanks, had to swim to shore due to her boat exploding, spent the night sleeping on the rocky floor of a cave, watched a tank brigade plow under a town... All she wants to do right now is retrieve something she left at the beach yesterday when her plucky gang battled their way to shore.
Her style of clothing is as always, but the colors are a dark green, with a red-brown vest. The dark colors help conceal a lot of the dirt smudges caused by the proximity of rocket detonation and exploding tanks. But they also make it easy to see where they're torn, Hotaru's fairer skin showing through the rips. Somewhere along the line she lost one of her hair ribbons, and she hasn't taken the time to do anything about it. So while one of her pigtails is still in place, the other half of her hair is just hanging loosely, often framing the side of her face until she brushes it back over her ear in annoyance.
This very moment she's trudging along the beach after a long walk back from the cave. The wreckage of two tanks lies here, evidence of the fight it took just to get inside this country. The item she seeks is a travel bag that she stashed within a bush during the fight. It contains useful items, like maps, a compass, some survival items. But it also contains comfort items. Clothing, a brush, more hair ribbons. Personal things! It's the latter that she has on her mind at the moment. The girl who had only ever had one campout in her life before is finding the 'roughing it' say of life a lot less fun than she envisioned it. A change of clothing might improve her disposition significantly.
The beach where this tank battle took place not too long ago is something of a place of interest -- not for the actual Shadaloo troops, of course, who have no doubt written it off as a failure and moved on to bigger and better things. For Kurow Kirishima, however, it's fascinating -- though some of the evidence of the battle has evaporated even in this short time, he can still trace out some of the fine details of the fight. A crumpled armor plate tells him where some monstrous energy blast might have struck. Internal blast scoring very clearly marks a self-destruct or an engine failure. It's fascinating, he thinks, how much you can tell about a battle if you just look at what's left over.
He hasn't bothered to disguise himself, and still wears his usual dark, specially-tailored Justice High uniform as he looks through the wreckage. Indeed, he seems as though he's probably just come from somewhere /full/ of creature comforts -- he seems as though he's in the best condition he's ever been. A happy little smile rests squarely on his face even though he's surveying a war zone, and the way he walks radiates the confidence of a man who's just received exactly the opportunity he's always wanted, and has come through on that opportunity with grace and flair. He's so engrossed in himself and his study of the battlefield that it takes him a minute to register the presence of another human being; not recognizing her at first, he just calls, "Are you sure you're in the right place, young lady?"
No, she is very much not in the right place she thinks to herself as a reflex to the question posed. Not with respect to this specific location, as she did intend to come here. But in this country at all. She doesn't belong in a war zone. She belongs back home, where the hardest thing she has to think about is picking the right school to finish out her Senior year. Not wandering through hot, humid jungles, wondering when she'll ever see running water again.
But her mental rant ends abruptly as she takes a second look at the young man posing the question. Blue eyes blink slowly as she lifts a hand to smear some of the dirt off her face. As hard as it would be to recognize her at first, it's easy to recognize him as he looks absolutely no worse for the wear in spite the surroundings. "Kurow Kirishima..." the girl murmurs, pausing in her steps now to look the young man over.
She has no reason to believe that he's here for anything different than she is. Perhaps he has friends that have come here only to go missing, and he wants to find them, helping in his own way. Maybe he just had a lot better luck getting /in/ than she did. Like, maybe two fewer tanks in the welcoming party for starters. "What an amazing surprise!"
/Her/? Here? Well well -- this /is/ a surprise, Kurow thinks to himself, as she brushes herself off and looks to him. "... Ah, it was... Hotaru Futaba, correct?" the youth says, giving the young woman he'd traded blows with some time ago a respectful bow. He begins to walk toward her, still pleased as can be, still savoring whatever small victory he must have found.
Kurow is not a stupid man; he knows full well why most have come here. "... So, did you come after that call to Daigo Kazama and Ryu on the world networks by Shadaloo, or are you here for personal reasons?" A pause, as he glances out toward the waters of the Gulf of Thailand, then back to the young woman who's his more immediate concern. "It's a pleasure to see you have your priorities correct, in any case -- some with your... excellent performance lately," likely referring to Hotaru's top-ten Neo League status, since he follows the school-age competitors' records with the tenacity of a dog chasing a car, "would be content to pursue /that/."
Even as he makes relatively pleasant conversation, his mind is firing with nothing but possibilities -- should he ignore her for now? Should he leave her to make her own way? Should he capture her for the Doll Program -- maybe even for his own ends instead? He has an impossible number of concepts to entertain... and yet, for now, he restrains himself from acting on any of them.
As he repeats her name correctly, the girl replies with a smile and a slight nod, confirming her identity. She returns his bow a moment later with one of her own, staying put as he walks closer. After a moment, she starts to look sheepish, most likely with regards to her appearance. Lifting her hand, she brushes her hair over her ear again, then runs her fingers once through the hair on the top of her head, a hopeless attempt at unsnarling it a little. In the end, she just lowers her arm and wraps it behind her back, clasping her opposite arm near the wrist.
"Personal reasons," she states. "To find a friend gone missing." She grins slightly at the reference to her performance. She had gotten the phone call while on the plane to Malaysia to inform her of the new standings after the weekend update. Top of the charts in the Neo League and sustaining a winning average in the Saturday Night Fights, the young fighter has been making a name for herself. Much to her chagrin at times - the constant harassment from potential sponsors has made her begin to wonder if she might need an agent after all.
"Y-yes. Well, the leagues will still be there when I get home. Besides, it's Sakura." she says, offering only the first name of the most famous teenaged fighter there is. "She came over here as part of a humanatarian project, I believe. But there was something in the news about her having gone missing. I asked around to find out as much about it as I could, but in the end, I felt like I had to come and try to help somehow. Even if there's nothing I can do about this war, if I can just help her get home safely then... well, I'll have done something, I guess."
The girl's eyes lose focus a little as she looks away, taking her own turn to gaze over the ocean that brought her here. "I wish I could say that we're best friends, but it isn't like that. She has been an inspiration for me for years. In a way, my successes are just following the example she's already made for any fighter my age."
She's here for Sakura. 'Why don't you help her find her,' Mugen Imawano's voice -- the voice of his mentor -- resounds in his head. Sometimes, the best thing to do is give someone what they want, and show them why they probably shouldn't have asked in the first place. Another thought tells him not to gloat, not to bite off more than he can chew and admit to what he's done, but Kurow is sixteen and on an enormous power trip right now. That is not a voice that factors in.
"About Sakura..." Kurow says, looking Hotaru over carefully -- she's suffered a lot to look for her, he thinks. She's sacrificed for her. That makes admitting to it all the more attractive. "As much as I loathe to tell you this, I must admit, I hate to see you hold such... impossible hopes. She's a lost cause. She's not dead but she may as well be. She got captured not a week ago by Shadaloo forces; on the ninth, she woke up in a laboratory in the main Shadaloo base alongside Akira Kazama, both of them disoriented and weak, but certainly still themselves." That is an ominous note, and one which he decides to stop for a few seconds on, seeing if Hotaru puts together what he told her before the details and the details themselves.
He might be surprised to find he's not the first to tell her that Sakura has been captured, taken by the other side. But the last person to provide that information was an agent of Shadaloo... and she had been a lot more vague. Kurow's information comes with a lot more details. Dates, descriptions, names. How could he know all that? She looks away from the water, her eyes focusing on him as he speaks, a faint drop in color from her cheeks at the confirmation of something that had already been alluded to by another.
There is suspicion in her eyes, but it isn't written on her face. As if she's second guessing her own doubts this very moment. "Yes..." the girl replies, shoulders slouching slightly. "Some of that I had already managed to find out." She's been busy during her single day in Thailand! "I... I still have to try though. But I must admit I'm not sure what to do now."
She doesn't look crushed by the news, having heard at least a rough idea of it earlier had prepared her for it, perhaps. In spite her ragged appearance, young Futaba still seems to be clinging to some hope, impossible as it may be.
Taking a breath, Kurow himself tries to figure out how to advise her. It's near-impossible; anything he could say at this point would tip his hand. But then -- can he afford that? He continues to bat that question around in his head. It's a tough question at first, but the answer, when it comes, is simple: Yes, definitely. Everythin gthat's been happening lately has told him that for the first time, he's in control of everything -- and if he has that, Hotaru is surely /no problem whatsoever/, right? (This is, of course, another in a long line of /stellar/ thought processes on Kurow's part.)
That unhappiness of Hotaru's, too, tells Kurow he should proceed -- after all, no use letting her get down in the dumps /repeatedly/ even in the best case scenario for her, the one where she gets away free due to some quirk of fate, right? "Are you really sure you have to try?" he asks, shaking his head at her. "You can't save her. I know you want to, because everyone always does -- it's a pity you all have so much /drive/." He's leading up to something. The way his voice sounds, he's building up to something; as he speaks, he grows in volume, oh so slightly. It's barely noticeable, but it's something. "You probably saw how Akira behaved on television, and Akira, in my opinion, is a failure. Too willful -- too resistant. Even after I played for her --" here, he pauses, as he realizes he's definitely passed the point of no return, "-- she's been much like her old self in all the wrong ways."
That confidence in his demeanor is building. It's like he /enjoys/ talking about this. "Sakura... Vega has her mind, and I have her soul. The Psycho Drive -- that blasted out her resistance, after eleven hours, but didn't finish it." He takes his eyes off her, likely a terrible move by this point, and looks out toward the ocean again. "That took something more delicate. Isn't it an excellent feeling, having just what you wanted given directly to you?"
It's an awful experience discovering that you are standing next to a monster. To an outside observer, Kurow would have undergone no physical metamorphosis. He is still the same young man he was before he spoke, taking the conversation beyond Hotaru could have ever imagined.
As he admonishes her from trying, Hotaru shakes her head, a few strands of hair slipping free of their place behind her ear to fall into her face once more. Everyone tells her that she should't try, under the guise of it being for her own good. But she's never let that define her actions before.
It's what comes after the pause that stops her breath, making the girl sick to her stomach. "N-no..." Hotaru gasps as Kurow's role in all of this becomes undeniably clear. She takes a step backward, shaking her head, for an entirely different reason this time. He speaks of Akira, then of Sakura. To the blond, braided agent she spoke to before, she was only speaking to someone who seemed more like a bystander of whatever happened to the missing girl.
But now, she's next to one actually responsible. And to make it worse, it's a student. A peer. That a young man her age could sink to such levels of depravity is stunning to the female fighter. She had pictured the faces behind the walls of Shadaloo as twisted scientists, older, dark men, consumed by years of evil misdeeds to become the betrayers of men that they are now. But even if such mad doctors exist with their maniacle laughs and secret labs, it's clear that among their ranks are young men like Kurow Kirishima.
"How could you..." Hotaru sounds horified as she takes another step back, looking at him like she had never seen him before.
Sometimes, those years of misdeeds don't have to be your own. Sometimes they can be passed down from generation to generation. What each generation does with them, of course, varies. Some, like Mugen Imawano, take the Darkside Society Organization's endless cascade of cruelty and focus it on remaking the world into a better place, in some twisted way. Some, like Kyosuke Kagami and Hyo Imawano, break from it. For others -- others like Kurow Kirishima -- it's just an excuse to sink deeper into the pit of selfishness that any human being can dig.
"How could I? That's the first stupid question I've heard you ask," Kurow says, with a smirk. "I took out a flute -- like this one," here, he pulls out his weathered and worn flute that's seen at least two partial reconstructions, "and I played them a little song. In their injured, diminished state, they listened quite well -- and of course, some of their basic psychological defenses shut off. From there it was a little foundation work; I left some of the technicians to do the rest. Some of that is beneath me. They seemed uncontrollable afterward, though, too much like their old selves."
Hotaru's fearful step back is met with another step forward from Kurow, as if nothing had ever happened; he's always the same person he has been, and she's always the same person she has been. The situation, for him, hasn't changed. "So I had to ask myself, then -- who would set the best example for the group as a whole? I made the offer to Akira, but Akira remembers too much -- and, frankly, disliked me too much."
A wide smile comes as he finishes, "Sakura, however, proved quite malleable under the right circumstances. It was probably for the best -- after all, everyone looks up to Sakura, don't they? No matter what else might happen to young female fighters your age, they all want to follow in Kasugano's footsteps, don't they?"
When you hit the point where 'monster' is the most common piece of discourse about you among those who know the full extent of the things you've done, you have the right to engaging in a little exposition.
Her eyes lock on the flute as he pulls it out, looking at the seemingly innocuous instrument like it's a snake that could lash out at any moment. She shifts her eyes between it and the young man as he continues speaking, gloating at his victory of the minds of the two captive girls.
"Then you're the reason I'm here," Hotaru finally replies through gritted teeth, leaning forward a little now, one hand raised in a tightly clenched fist. No more backstepping. She had come seeking to find a friend gone missing. If she had to defeat a few faceless Shadaloo minions in order to pull it off, then so be it. But in the process of searching, she's discovered not a nameless minion but the one responsible for breaking the mind of the very girl she's looking for.
The thoughts tearing through her mind are difficult to sort out at this crucial moment of indecision. She should run. She's seen him fight - he was good enough while just toying with her, using the moves of others not his own, to push her to her limits. What could she hope to do were he to go all out from the beginning with those claws of his?
But the picture in her mind of him playing his dainty instrument, of making the spirited Sakura bow to his whims with his manipulations... It makes her angry, clouding her judgement. And the next instant, Hotaru launches a quick snap kick, her shoe-clad foot aiming for the hand that bears the flute, attacking the first thing in sight that seems to be part of the problems she's trying to solve here. "Ha!"
COMBATSYS: Hotaru has started a fight here.
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Hotaru 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Kurow has joined the fight here.
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Hotaru 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Kurow
COMBATSYS: Hotaru successfully hits Kurow with Light Kick.
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Hotaru 0/-------/-------|=------\-------\0 Kurow
While Kurow is no slouch with speed, his first priority is not to get out of the way of Hotaru's kick but to keep the flute from getting damaged. As such, he slips the tool into his pocket again as Hotaru comes in, /then/ tries to pry himself to the side... but it's too little too late, and the kick knocks his shoulder. It doesn't hurt too badly, but it hurts. "Well well! I was wondering when you'd show a little spirit," Kurow says, with a cruel, sadistic little smile. "You'll make an /excellent/ ally!"
There's no going back anymore, Kurow reminds himself -- you've committed to neutralizing this girl as a threat, one way or another. Rather than trying to buy himself some distance with which to move around, Kurow commits himself to staying right in the thick of things; not having bothered to put his claws on, he has fewer recourses. He goes right for the jugular, thus -- or, more accurately, right for the head.
He lunges forward in a hard tackle, but what he's seeking isn't to injure her back and shoulders with the force of the fall; indeed, he's almost gentle with that. The real pain comes when he tries to lay a palm over her face, and then begins to slam her head down onto the nearest piece of debris repeatedly, with as much force as he can bring forth. It lacks technique, certainly, but then, there are some maneuvers that defy needing technique at all. If he can get /that/ to work, he also has one other advantage -- he can start fumbling, with his other hand, for his claws.
COMBATSYS: Hotaru dodges Kurow's Fierce Strike.
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Hotaru 0/-------/-------|=------\-------\0 Kurow
She isn't even really sure why she struck out at the flute after the fact, when her foot collides lightly with his shoulder. Surely breaking the tool would do nothing to save her friend or the any number of other victims his abilities have claimed. The idea that the flute itself has magical mind controlling powers is dismissed even as she pulls her foot back, realizing that she just initiated combat with someone she really shouldn't have if she was interested in self-preservation.
When he moves forward to try and wrest her into a vicious hold, Hotaru steps to the side, avoiding the headbashing he had in mind at that very moment, buying her a brief window of time. "So tell me," she asks, bracing her foot in the sand of the beach. "Does it work like it does in the movies? Take out the one doing the controlling and the victims are saved?" It's actually an honest question, though it may come across as somewhat taunting as well - not entirely by accident.
She'll notice an attempt to go for his claws, however, and sprint to interfer, trying to take hold of his arm and use the leverage to launch a series of stomping kicks, using him as a ramp to leap into the air and land on what's left of the main body of one of the wrecked tanks.
COMBATSYS: Kurow dodges Hotaru's Shin-Jou Tai.
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Hotaru 0/-------/-------|=------\-------\0 Kurow
The question prompts a laugh from Kurow. "That has to be the most naive question I've heard in days," the youth declares, before whirling such that his arm goes out of her reach, and then rolling backward so the series of kicks just goes over him. "No, it doesn't work that way. It's not /magic/ -- all it is is a sort of... new perspective, I suppose you could call it. They see things more clearly now."
Kurow pulls himself to his feet, pulling his claws onto his hands; excellent, he thinks -- now I can really, genuinely /fight/. "Why are you so scared of it, anyway? We've fought before -- it's not as though I don't know what you need out of life, Hotaru. Wouldn't it just be easier for both of us if you stopped with this little fight and just gave up?"
After he says this, he decides to hang back; he doesn't want to immediately rip through Hotaru, after all! He wants her to tire herself out a little, maybe, before he starts to aggress in earnest -- that way she won't be able to meet his strikes as well. "If you /really/ insist, though -- the only way you're getting out of here is if you leave me broken and bloodied on the ground." ... At least he admits the possibility?
COMBATSYS: Kurow focuses on his next action.
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Hotaru 0/-------/-------|=------\-------\0 Kurow
Her aggressive charge results in her jumping up onto the tank wreckage in the end, though she missed landing any kicks against the young man. Turning around, she listens from her altitude at his mocking reply. Unfortunately, as poorly as informed as she is on such things, the only way she can learn anything at all is by asking the naive questions that fill her mind. That, and admittedly, she did kind of hope it would be that simple in concept. Pour everything she had into defeating Kurow and Sakura and anyone else he's played for would be freed. It would be nice it worked that way.
"What I need out of life is for me to decide," she replies, brow furrowing at the audacity of his offer to take care of her needs himself. "Just like it is for Sakura, Akira, and anyone else you have here. What are you even doing this for anyway? Is it money? Did they promise you something? Maybe your own little city?"
Watching him equip his claws, she shudders inwardly slightly, but seems to make a good show of hiding it outwardly. She leaps into the air then, a high, predictable jump, resulting in a flip forward as she tries to drive both of her feet into his chest, lending leg strength and what momentum she picked up from the acrobatics to the attack.
Lykaio heads northeast.
Lykaio comes from the southwest.
Lykaio heads into Bangkok.
Lykaio heads into Bangkok.
Roberto heads into Bangkok.
COMBATSYS: Kurow parries Hotaru's Heavy Kick!
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Hotaru 0/-------/-------|==-----\-------\0 Kurow
If he's already told her this much, he thinks, he may as well go all out. "Shadaloo isn't going to be content with Thailand, you know," Kurow says, with a little smirk; he continues, "What I want is Japan, when the world is finally ours. Let Vega have Thailand, have America -- let them rot. I want my country." There's a strangely nationalistic tone to Kurow's words -- it would seem he does share at least a few similarities with Hyo Imawano, unfortunately. Two apples from the same tree (at least in schooling, if not by birth) rarely fall too far apart.
Once he finishes speaking, he looks up to see that vicious two-footed kick -- and doesn't flinch as he redirects the momentum of Hotaru's legs downward, letting her come in right up next to him, but with the actual force of her attack directed not at him but the ground. "And as for you... no, it's not your place to decide, if someone else can wrest it from you," he says, pulling himself up and forward, toward Hotaru's chest, with extreme force. As his body curls into a ball, a nearly perfect /wall/ of claws of chi begins to surround his form, barreling into the Futaba heiress at this close range, threatening to tear her apart if she doesn't move decisively.
COMBATSYS: Kurow successfully hits Hotaru with Yasha Guruma EX.
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Hotaru 1/-----==/=======|==-----\-------\0 Kurow
She lands hard, a lot harder than she had intended due to his re-direction. It doesn't quite put her off balance, but it does make her slower to react than she would normally have been. His retaliation comes so swiftly that she doesn't even have the chance to attempt a defense in return.
The stun of his entire body plowing into her shatters any hope she had in trying to guard against the rest of the attack - the claws of chi that slash and tear skin and cloth with impunity several times before the force of his own momentum sends her flying off her feet several yards until she finally crashes down into the sand on her back with enough horizontal force to leave a small trench behind her.
Bending her legs, Hotaru forces herself to situp by pressing her arms against the loose sand. She struggles for a moment to take the next step and get back up onto her feet, looking a little unsteady even as she manages to stay upright. The red-brown vest she arrived in has finally had it, the article of clothing little more than tattered ribbons hanging over her shoulders, leaving the green blouse she had on beneath it. And even that is showing gashes in places, cuts with thin lines of red in her skin visible beneath.
The wide eyed way she looks back at him now is the first sign of the panic indicitive of one that realizes they're in way over their head. Frozen for a moment, she looks torn between testing her odds of escaping or fighting back against that human cuisinart.
COMBATSYS: Hotaru gains composure.
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Hotaru 1/------=/=======|==-----\-------\0 Kurow
As Hotaru flies back, Kurow comes out of that whirling ball of claw strikes gracefully, landing neatly on his feet as easily as if he'd just gotten out of a particularly comfortable chair. Seeing her so badly hurt actually makes him strangely worried -- as though he might hurt her too much, perhaps, and delay her conversion into something more useful.
"It hasn't been a minute," Kurow says, with a laugh almost coming out in the midst of addressing her, "and you're /scared/! Where's that spirit you showed me last time, Futaba?! Do you only have any guts when there's nothing at stake?! /Pitiful/!" At this point, he almost wants to verbally beat her rather than physically beating her -- he wants to see her crumple under his words, sobbing, and just give up. "And you thought you were going to fight Shadaloo and find Sakura, and just -- leave, when you can't even handle dealing with one of Vega's lieutenants?!"
Suddenly lunging forward toward her again with speed that seems almost like some wretched beast, Kurow tries to catch her by the arm and -- a split second decision has to be made, as he actually, for once, didn't think his assault out before going through with it. Take her down quickly, or whirl her around and fling her, full-bore, at a tree?
What wins out is a desire to keep her close in; after all, he can't see how she feels if he tosses her away. If he catches that arm, he uses it to drag her down to the ground with him. That's not the end of the assault, though -- the Kirishima scion then strikes directly at that loose piece of cartilage at the very bottom of the typical human breastbone with his elbow, trying to knock the wind out of her as forcefully as possible.
COMBATSYS: Hotaru blocks Kurow's Medium Throw.
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Hotaru 1/----===/=======|==-----\-------\0 Kurow
She pants for a moment, breathinng faster, adrenaline spawned by pain and fear causing her body to react to everything faster. As he mocks her again, Hotaru slowly tightens one of her hands, her lips pressed into a thin line as she watches him back. Her mind wanders back on the times she's fought for something other than sport. When she stood between Dante and Jiro when it mattered most. When she struggled against the Martyr of Might, desperately hoping for the knowledge he used as bait. When she attacked Elle's gang of trouble and felled two of the trio before being taken down herself. She has fought when everything was on the line before. She /can/ pull herself together. "No... no, I won't quite like that."
The frantic urge to flee vanishes as Kurow comes for her a second time. She attempts to pull to the side before he can even get a grip, but her arm is stopped short by his hold. There is a split second of hesitation on his part, and the girl strikes out with her other arm, aiming for his inner elbow - an attempt to severely weaken his grasp, but before she can land the attack she finds herself on her back once again.
Managing to keep her wits about her, the girl moves both of her hands in to cup his elbow as he attempts to drive it into her stomach. Eyes widen a little as she gasps slightly, but she clearly spared herself the worst of what he had in mind.
It's from this position that she strikes next, kicking sideways with her foot while pushing him up with her two hands in an attempt to get a bit of space. The kick itself is only meant as a delivery mechanism for the swath of blue chi that trails behind it. The energy itself expands outward into a small explosion at close range, hopefully enough to knock him away so that she can continue with the motion to spin back up to her feet swiftly.
COMBATSYS: Kurow dodges Hotaru's Kobi Kyaku.
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Hotaru 1/----===/=======|==-----\-------\0 Kurow
Dealing with Hotaru's sudden explosion of energy is a close call at best and nigh on impossible at worst, but Kurow forces himself just barely out of the way of the explosion of energy with a hard backward jump using the momentum Hotaru's shove gave him. "... well well," he says, with a grin. "Perhaps I was mistaken! But I suppose I can accept that -- I'll break you of these delusions soon enough."
How to deal with her, Kurow thinks -- he knows he has the advantage, but maintaining it is tricky sometimes. To close for the finish now, or to stick to more conservative measures, ones that aren't as effective in the long term but will definitely work out for the best in the short term?
For now, he decides that the conservative approach is the ideal one, coming back in close to Hotaru again and feinting as if to go for a hard punch to her stomach... but only really trying to sweep her legs out from under her with a sudden whirling kick that appears to come from nowhere, with that apparent punch mere seconds before. Kurow, it seems, is downright relentless -- he really is a monster.
COMBATSYS: Kurow successfully hits Hotaru with Light Kick.
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Hotaru 1/=======/=======|===----\-------\0 Kurow
Having gotten back up to her feet as he avoided her last attack, Hotaru advances on him this time, perhaps hoping to try and turn the tide by being the aggressor for a moment. When he fakes with his punch, she slams her arm down even as she takes a hard step in closer, intending to take the punch, just not right into her stomach. Realizing that she just took the bait comes too late for her to avoid the kick though. "A-ah!" she gasps, finding her feet swept out from under her, sending her back to the ground.
Getting knocked down over and over is starting to take its toll, though the actual hit itself clearly wasn't as devastating as some of his other attacks. The girl reacts from her prone position. Pressing down with her hands she sweeps her own feet back under her, putting her immediately into a crouching position. The next attack comes instantly, accompanied by another flare of blue chi, this time way more than the lsat kick.
The attempt is a powerful flip kick, the momentum of which is enough to launch her from her crouching position into a moderately high trajectory into the air. It's something he's seen before though, so he might be able to react to it effectively relying on prior experience.
COMBATSYS: Hotaru successfully hits Kurow with Ten-shou Ranki EX.
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Hotaru 0/-------/----===|======-\-------\0 Kurow
The kick itself is just the setup, though the blow is powerful in its own right, considering the source. Coming out of the flip at the apex of her leap, the girl seems to hover for a second as if gauging the next move with a remarkable degree of presence of mind, given the situation.
When gravity begins to take its toll, she flips, diving directly back into the young man, driving him to the sandy beach, the two sliding to a stop with a shallow splash where the waves come to crash against the shore. As the most recent wave recedes, the girl is sitting on Kurow's chest, her knees pinning his arms, both of her hands gripped tightly around his throat.
The glare with which she stares into Kirishima's eyes is unlike any of the expressions he had seen on the girl before. Anger at his words, at his deeds; frustration with her inability to keep up with him, to deal with someone as powerful as he; but behind the ire is regret. She knows everything she has won't fell him. It just won't enough. Which is why even as a visible vortext of blue and yellow energy begins to whirl up around the two fighters, powerful energy subject to the girl's control, Hotaru regrets all the things she may never have the chance to set right. "You disgrace the very nation you claim to hold dear with your betrayal, Kurow Kirishima. You serve the whims of Shadaloo so that you can be handed Japan like a breadcrumb, like a tasty treat for good behavior. It makes me sick." she practically spits the words between her teeth as she looks right into his face.
The explosion comes at last, when the girl can build it up no further, having poured everything she had into this attack. Channeling it back into her all at once, she funnels it directly into his throat through her tightly gripping hands. There is a blinding flash, the culmination of all of young Futaba's strength, and then a sighing exhale, the girl all but falling forward on him, her grip at his neck finally loosening.
The kick catches Kurow in spite of a leap; he tries to vault himself /over/ the attack, but ends up simply making himself a more ideal target and gets caught squarely in the stomach, sent flying up by the kick. As usual, though, the kick isn't the end -- her strike puts him in almost perfect position to get grabbed by Hotaru's dive, landing just as she intends him to. The waves recede and come back, recede and come back, each time engulfing Kurow's head just a little bit more or less.
He looks up into her eyes as she starts to speak to him, hands wrapped around his throat and making it difficult to breathe; for a second, she comes dangerously close to making him feel guilt. But as always, that potential is buried under layer upon layer of selfishness and greed. In the end, he feels nothing new -- it must be something of a disappointment for Hotaru, who seems so furious at everything she now knows he's done.
When the explosion finally comes, Kurow's body spasms; for the first time, the young Futaba may -- if she isn't careful -- end up feeling some joy at the pain of another as he actually /cries out/ from the hurt. Even if the young woman doesn't defeat him, she's caused him real, significant pain -- which might be a joy, in a strange way.
All he has the strength to do, at first, is try to pry himself out from under her; he shoves a hand up toward her stomach, attempting to push her off and roll away. He's still going, evidently, but needs time to try to summon up some semblance of strength again. "You..." he hisses, trying to respond to her but finding himself too tired and hurt to summon up all the words he needs.
COMBATSYS: Kurow takes no action.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////// ]
Hotaru 0/-------/----===|======-\-------\0 Kurow
She lacks the strength to keep him from pushing her off, the girl rolling to the side to sit in the risidual water of the next wave to rush in around the two. The contact with the cool liquid shocks her awake, giving her enough awareness to look around her and get back to her feet, eyes snapping open as if awakening from a vivid daydream or chilling nightmare.
When she brings her attention back to Kurow as he gets back up as well, she looks unsettled, the details of the last several seconds filling her mind. It's a disturbing feeling to have lost control, even if for an instant. The anger, the frustration, the knowledge of what he is... She realizes that if she had had the strength, she would have very likely strangled him unconcious. Or even beyond. And worse, she realizes this isn't the first time she's felt that way.
Whether she felt joy at his pain in the moment is hard to say, for any such euphoria is lost in fear she holds now. This time the fear is not of him. She's afraid of herself. What she would have done if she could.
Eventually her eyes focus on the young man again and the girl rolls her arm behind her, attempting to form one of the projectiles she launched at him the last time they fought. It takes a long time though, plenty long for him to get his bearings. When she finally flings her arm forward, slinging the shimmering sphere of force his way, she follows it by falling forward herself. But not quite. She's still standing for now. "Ya!"
COMBATSYS: Hotaru successfully hits Kurow with Hakki Shou.
[ \\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////// ]
Hotaru 0/-------/----===|=======\-------\0 Kurow
That time the Kirishima ninja is given by Hotaru is plenty for what he needs it for; pulling himself back to his feet, he tries to get his bearings -- and finds that Hotaru appears to be... hanging back? Curious. Kurow tries to advance forward toward the young woman, and it's too late that he notices what she was gearing up to do; he gets blasted back, skidding across the sandy beach but not /quite/ falling.
If there's one thing Kurow can notice /very/ readily, it's when someone is unsettled. Part of him wants to ask her why she feels as such when she's started to get the situation under her control -- he doesn't understand it. It's something that his worldview just can't make sense of -- Hotaru is starting to take the situation into her own hands, and yet, she's /bothered/?
Whatever, he thinks, a second after. He can deal with such a thing later; what he has to focus on now is keeping Hotaru from getting out of here, from warning others. Reaching down and picking up a shard of armor plating from one of the piles of tank debris that litters the area, he rears his arm back and gives it a hard toss at the young woman's leg. Somewhere during the process, though, he notices something that clearly doesn't sit quite right with him; his expression sours, but he gives no indication of just what might have soured it.
COMBATSYS: Hotaru dodges Kurow's Thrown Object.
[ \\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////// ]
Hotaru 0/-------/----===|=======\-------\0 Kurow
Even though her projectile caught him off guard, the girl is too slow to take advantage of the impact, either too tired or hampered by an inner turmoil he may never be able to guess at. This gives him plenty of time to grasp and throw the piece fragment of what was a machine for dolling out death and terror only twenty-four hours ago.
She turns in place, allowing it to thunk into the sand right next to her foot as she stands for a moment with her back to him, looking at him over her shoulder, studying him, catching a glimpse of a different expression on his face though she can't begin to imagine what would cause him to look that way. For him there are no more words. All of her questions about him have been answered as far as what she needs to know. And after her scathing words just inches from her face, she really doesn't have anything left in her to express what she thinks about him.
Holding that pose for a moment, she finally finishes turning around to face him. No more distance game now, she doesn't have it in her to create another chi ball, and playing catch with wreckage has never been Hotaru's way. When she moves from standing to sprinting, it is still very fast, in spite all she's survived thus far.
Leaping from a couple yards out, she snaps out her foot for his chest with a simple, horizontal jump kick. Such a thing would have no prayer of knocking him down normally, but she saw the effect her chiball had on him. She can tell he's wearing down a little too.
Vendredi heads northeast.
Vendredi comes from the southwest.
Frida heads northeast.
Frida comes from the southwest.
Fio heads northeast.
Fio comes from the southwest.
Cody heads northeast.
Cody comes from the southwest.
COMBATSYS: Hotaru successfully hits Kurow with Light Kick.
- Power hit! -
[ \\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////// ]
Hotaru 0/-------/---====|=======\=------\1 Kurow
Gonzales heads northeast.
Gonzales comes from the southwest.
COMBATSYS: Kurow has saved the state of this fight.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////// ]
Hotaru 0/-------/---====|=======\=------\1 Kurow
COMBATSYS: Gonzales restarts a saved fight.
COMBATSYS: Gonzales restarts a saved fight.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////// ]
Hotaru 0/-------/---====|=======\=------\1 Kurow
Perhaps it's Kurow's realization that he doesn't outclass the young woman from Seijyun as much as he thought he did that doesh im in. Perhaps it's her own fury. Whatever it is, something about that quick jump kick is more than he can handle -- it actually sends him down, not just away from her but full-on down into the sand, and knocks his head against a piece of another tank. He got cocky, he realizes -- he counted the chickens before there were even eggs, let alone before they hatched.
He gets up, narrowing his eyes at Hotaru, furious with her. He can't even find words for it -- he, like her, is nearly out of things he can say. There's only one thing he wants to do here, now, and it's hurt her as much as he can.
He doesn't make any sudden moves this time. Indeed, there's something slow and methodical about how he advances toward her, taking that first, important step. His feet fall evenly on the sand of the beach, bringing him the three steps closer he needs -- and /then/, only then, does he bolt forward, keeping low to the ground, trying to catch Hotaru's legs with a quick dash toward them, arms extended out to either side.
COMBATSYS: Hotaru stops Kirishima Kyoujuu Reppa from Kurow with Kobi Kyaku.
[ \\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////// ]
Hotaru 0/-------/---====|=------\-------\0 Kurow
[ \\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////// ]
Hotaru 0/-------/---====|=------\-------\0 Kurow
Landing after her jump kick, Hotaru actually seems to be getting her breath back. Not that she's any less torn or battered than she had been since his catastrophic attack worked her over early in the fight, but she is more confident now. Nerves that were coming undone at first have steeled, her expression becoming somber. The ire from before has burned out of her, and the doubts she has about her own nature have been shelved for now.
It is with perhaps zen-level calmness that she waits for Kurow to approach her again, eyes fixed on his, as if she was reading him back every bit as much as he was reading her. When he finally makes his lunge to grab hold of her legs, she reacts with extremely fast, but very deliberate timing. Her foot comes up as if to kick him in return, but it's way too early, she's mistimed. "NO!"
It's the swath of blue chi that manifests itself as a secondary pass that ends up being the real attack. As it balloons out, it shimmers for a split second - and for that instant, it is as solid as brick, stopping any attempt to reach the girl behind the energy manifestation. As Hotaru beings her leg back down, completing the reverse-roundhouse style of attack, the energy loses its rock-solid nature and is scattered by the offshore breeze that blows past the two fighters now. Raising her arms, she stares back at Kurow, once again at the ready.
The momentum Kurow had just stops as he hits that solid wall of chi. It's not a painful stop, the way a car hitting a tree is -- but it's a full stop, one which forces him to back off and look Hotaru's blue eyes straight on with his own intense grey ones. "... well done," he spits. He's as much frustrated as he is intrigued, and it definitely shows.
Gritting his teeth, he comes in toward Hotaru again -- but this time, it's not with the full force of his chi raging, with everything he has at the ready. It's something simpler, something, perhaps, more cruel and more simple. Something's managed to push him beyond the point of a strictly clinical interest in the fight -- perhaps it's his mounting wounds, or perhaps it's how furious he is at being in such a state when, previously, he'd had such a solid grip on the battle.
Whatever the case may be, this rage comes out in the form of simple, abject brutality -- he doesn't try anything with much finesse this time, instead just lashing out at the young woman with his foot, bringing it up in a fierce roundhouse aimed, once again, at her head.
COMBATSYS: Hotaru fails to interrupt Strong Kick from Kurow with Tenshin Shou.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Kurow 0/-------/-----==|
COMBATSYS: Hotaru can no longer fight.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Kurow 0/-------/-----==|
COMBATSYS: Kurow has ended the fight here.
When he comes at her the second time, Hotaru braces herself. A very accurate self evaluation tells her that she can't stop him the same way a second time. She can feel the cost of her attacks adding up, leaving her options limited.
When he swings out with that powerful kick, simple yet vicious for the smaller framed fighter to deal with, Hotaru attempts to intersect his attack with her entire body, willing to take the kick if only to land deliver a shoulder slam into Kurow Kirishima's chest. But this time, she doesn't quite make it. His foot finds its mark right into the side of Hotaru's head. It's obvious the fight is out of her as she gets literally spun to the side. "Ah-!" All the pain, all the effort, everything she had endured for the space of the fight catches up with her now as her legs give out and the girl collapses into the wet sand.
The lone hair ribbon that had held her remaining pigtail in place was knocked free by the blow. With ironic laziness, it slowly falls to the ground.
Kirishima looks down toward the floating ribbon, and tilts his head momentarily in consideration; he ends up deciding to snap it up with a quick hand motion, pocketing it for reasons he doesn't declare. Perhaps Kirishima's done with exposition tonight.
He walks toward the collapsed girl, reaching into his pocket, the same one he hastily shoved the flute into not minutes ago. Well, Hotaru -- it was an excellent run. But it looks like, right now, evil has pulled out some narrow victory, and your chance at doing what you set out to is...
... perhaps not as bad as you thought? When his hand comes out, what follows it out is not an intact flute, but a pile of wooden splinters and chips. Nothing more. Somewhere in the midst of Hotaru's explosion of chi, or perhaps the kick not long before, things got jostled around... and that's the end result.
Kurow sneers at his fallen opponent, and lets the pile of wooden splinters fall from his hand, onto her fallen body. "You..." he pants, "... managed something... at least. Perhaps... you've got the strength... to enforce your will... after all." Kurow slumps down next to her, quite tired at this point. One thing occurs to him, though, /after/ he's said all that; he checks, quite simply, to see if the young woman is /awake/.
When his foot struck her head, all she saw was blinding colors followed by blackness. Her mind unable to keep her body going, she had collapsed, spun around on her feet before finally falling onto her back, eyes closed, one arm resting over her stomach, her other arm stretched at her side. Her hair, now completely freed from the constraints that normally bind it is splayed out over the sand beneath her back.
The wooden fragments that fall on her don't cause her to stir in the slightest. She hears his voice, but it is as if far away, as if he spoke from across a vast chasm. In her mind, she thinks herself perhaps already dead. Maybe that was to be her final fight, her last stand.
A slow trickle of blood works its way along the skin of her forehead, finally spilling over her brow and into her eyesocket. This she feels; the moistness on her eyelid, working its way through her lashes. In feeling, she cannot be dead, she reasons. And in that moment both of her blue eyes open slowly. She ends up squinting the blood-stained eye closed again while her other eye finally locks on the young man next to her.
For a moment it seems like she's having a hard time focusing on him, maybe not even aware of where she is or why. But recognition sets in and she exhales slowly. The hand on her stomach clasps ahold of one of the flute's splinters and she lifts it, shifting her open eye to focus on it. "Too bad... it doesn't work like in the fairy tales," she mumbles sullenly before letting it slip out of her fingers.
On the one hand, Kurow thinks he can still salvage this situation. Bring her back, lock her in a cell with only bread and water and white noise that makes it all but impossible to sleep for a few days, make her situation intolerable enough that when he's finally constructed a new flute she'll /beg/ him to take her will away, just so her situation becomes tolerable again. After all, as a Seijyun student, she's likely a creature of -- well -- creature comforts, and enough time without them might at least disquiet her. ... on the other hand, he'd need to be able to bring her back.
Pulling himself back up, he tries to pull Hotaru away with a hard yank on her extended arm -- but loses his grip before getting any actual distance, staggering back and almost falling. "... Wretched..." he mutters, trying again, this time attempting to use his claws as a way to maintain his grip. This likely gives the young lady some nasty gashes, but does nothing for the grip itself at this point -- no matter how hard he tries, he can't quite muster the strength to drag Hotaru away anymore.
As his second attempt fails, he forgets to break his fall, and his back hits the sand hard; he stays there, rolling over to look at the young lady across from him. Only then does he address her actual statement. "... so it doesn't," he starts. "And just what are you... going to do about it, then?"
The first time he takes hold of her arm, she's barely conscious enough to even realize it, her arm dropping limply back down to the ground. But the second time definitely causes her to cry out, her body's slow recovery spurred on quickly by the sudden pain in her arm. Her other hand lashes out, clawing into the sand at her side while she attempts to dig her heels into the surface as well.
When her arm finally slips through his claws, she gasps, folding it over her chest as she curls onto her side a bit as a precursor to trying to test her ability to get up. But in rolling to her side, her eye comes to rest on Kurow, realizing that he's not doing remarkably better than she is right now.
Shifting a little so that she can prop herself up on her elbow, she hangs her head down, her lengthy hair draping over her face. She tries rubbing the back of her forearm against her closed eye, trying to wipe away enough blood that she can open it without stinging. But with the arm bloodied itself, it's a rather futile effort.
"I'm going to find them and I'm going to take them home." Hotaru replies, summarizing her brilliant master plan in all of one sentence. She doesn't know what to do about their minds, their souls. She can't answer that. But maybe someone back home can. "I might not save them all, but I will keep trying, one by one, until I am stopped. That is what I am going to do about it." She had planned to stay long enough to find Sakura. Rescue the girl that had been her inspiration, then go home. But now - now she can't bear the thought of leaving any of them behind. She can't leave now.
It's almost too strange, Kurow thinks, as he looks to the beaten, bloodied Hotaru, then tries in turn to get a feel for his own (mostly far more blunt, less visible) wounds. Just moments ago, they were fighting for, if not their lives, their souls... and here they are, adrenaline faded too far and bruised too much to keep going, simply talking. Conversing about their future plans. There's a certain eerie feeling that sets over even Kurow, here.
The young man stretches, trying to keep from giving in to pain and just slumping over. He's been hurt worse than this, but not when he had an objective to carry out beyond 'finish the battle' -- this isn't a good position, he realizes. There's one thing he knows he can do, though -- even if he can't sink those claws into her and make her bleed, even if he can't force her out of that futile little quest of hers with those fists.
He can try with his words. Taking a long, deep breath, Kurow locks eyes with Hotaru again, and grins the kind of grin that, under many circumstances, would be a prelude to a cruel laugh. "And what if you can't save them? There's always a chance, of course, that the brainwashing is flawed, that their willpower can be coaxed to win through, certainly." For all his posturing, Kurow at least makes room for the -possibility- of things going wrong. "But that's only a chance. What are you going to do, Hotaru Futaba, if the way they are now is the way they'll be forever?"
It's pretty clear when he treads into territory that the hopeful heroine is completely clueless about. Mind control? Powers of persuasion that go far beyond just being a stubborn debater? Labs and brain washing... all she knows is what she's seen in movies or anime, and she already knows that hasn't counted for a whole lot at this point. All she can hope for is that there's doctors or /someone/ who can reverses what's been done to the girls.
"I... I don't know." she finally admits, looking back into his face now, feeling her strength slowly return even as her certainty wanes. "But I know that underneath whatever you've done to them, the real person would never want to be doing the things you'll make them. They might say otherwise. Because of what you've done. But... that isn't who they really are. I'll take them home. I may not be able to do anything more than that, but perhaps others can."
Shifting her position slightly, Hotaru presses her other hand down into the sand, managing to force herself up onto her knees, her arms trembling to support her now. "I didn't come all the way here by myself, you know. Others came too. And more will come. It's only a matter of time. What you have is only for a little while. I'm sure you'll enjoy it - while it lasts." And with that, the girl pushes off with her hands, forcing herself back to her feet, one hand coming to press against the side of her head where he kicked her in the end.
What Kurow wants right now is simply to grab Hotaru and beat that strength out of her again, to demand the real answer to his question -- not heroic posturing, not vows of success, but what she'd really do if there was nothing that could be done for them. That bottomless pool of hope infuriates him, in his injured state, more than anything else -- not simply because of its existence, but because he can't summon the strength to reach up, to grab her, to wound her until even she'd be willing to make a bargain worthy of Faust to just make it stop.
She's faster at getting up than he is. He rolls onto his side, slamming a clawed fist into the ground, pushing up with what little force his body can muster now that he's no longer in quite as threatening a situation. "Just don't get too overconfident," he hisses. It's at this point that he finally gets up completely, bracing himself on the wreckage of a tank. Slow, deep breaths follow, giving Hotaru a head start if she wants to get away. Even if she bolts right away, though, she may still hear his chilling last warning: "... After all, their newfound strength is immense, and I doubt they're afraid to kill -- I wonder what you'll do if it becomes a question of you or them?"
She backs away this time as Kurow gets to his feet. Cautious steps, testing her own ability to balance tenderly. Bloodied and injured, she absolutely doesn't have it in her to go another round with the Shadaloo Lieutenant. Not running away in the first place was a mistake to begin with, but one she'll live to regret at least. She won't chance a second shot at it.
She can see the anger in his eyes - it's different than the man she attacked, her foot striking out at his flute holding hand so many minutes ago. He was calm then, in charge. Now she sees rage barely contained burning in his eyes.
She backs away as he leans against the edge of the tank, shaking her head, his words engraved upon her mind. What if it does happen like that? What if it does come down to her or them? How can she even hope to make a decision like that? The doubt is written on her face, even if he doesn't get the satisfaction of a verbal admission from the hopeful girl. When she turns for the last time, it is to lean forward into a run. Hardly a mad dash, but she's moving fast enough to get away.
Hotaru's eyes water, the pain of forcing herself to move coupled with the distress coursing through her mind adding up to be too much for the girl to cope with after all this. She's forced to keep squinting her eyes to keep her vision from going blurry. She knows the way back to the cave where her little group is holed up though, and she'll go straight there, for better or for worse. She'll forgo gathering her things for now, she can always come back later...
While she's smart not to give him a verbal admission, Kurow is a perceptive young man. He can see that fear, that doubt in her eyes -- he knows that she can't find an answer, and knows how scary that must be for someone unenlightened. The great weakness of allowing someone else to hold your feelings in your hand, he's reminded, is that it induces indecision. It makes it impossible to make what, for him, is the most obvious of choices: one's own life over another's.
Kirishima steps forward after her, but she's too fast for him in this state, a fact which only makes him more furious with the entire situation. Indeed, it's this that prompts him to waste energy -- energy that could probably have been used to start catching up with Hotaru, if he really wanted to -- on a surprisingly forceful kick at a piece of debris.
That's all he has the strength for, however, at least in terms of violent outbursts; once Hotaru disappears from his sight, Kurow, frustrated at the result of this fight (in a bizarre way, one which has ended on as hopeless a note for him as for Hotaru, though of a different sort), starts to trudge slowly back toward one of the myriad Shadaloo outposts that dot the nation. He'll have a tough time explaining this one.
Log created on 02:56:31 06/13/2007 by Hotaru, and last modified on 02:37:43 06/15/2007.