Description: A mere day after his fight with Marisol at the mall, Tenma once again encounters the mysterious Brazilian girl, Pas. More fighting, more flirting, and Tenma comes out on the worse side of both; d'aww, he's got a crush.
Though most people in Southtown probably don't appreciate it at all, it's a lovely Sunday afternoon out. Sunny, warm but not stifling, with a gentle breeze seemingly designed to lull anyone who feels it into a nap. You would never guess, in fact, that there was a war on somewhere not too terribly far away. But that's Thailand, and this is Southtown, and if human beings are good at anything, it's ignoring 'somebody else's problem'. Especially when they have plenty of problems of their own!
For example, Tenma Kiryuu, who had to flee the mall last night with some speed after getting into a fight with one of his eternal rivals, which totally cut short his girl-watching expedition. But at least he got to see Marisol in her underwear.
As it stands then, Tenma is enjoying the lazy Sunday afternoon by being lazy, sitting in the park and having a nap. Of course, he's not sitting on the /ground/ anywhere, oh no. Instead, he's reclining on a thick, low branch in one of the park's many mighty trees, his back up against the trunk and his eyes closed, that cloth-wrapped bundle of his laying across his body. By some miracle, he isn't snoring loud enough to wake the dead for once - that's just how peaceful a day this is.
That's just how peaceful a day it was -- in Southtown, nothing ever gets to last long.
The towering tree mantles the heart of the park, reaching its hundred branches toward the sky, seeming to look like someone straining to touch something impossible and far away. Its limbs twist endlessly, the heavy green boughs so thick that neither the sun nor the wind can part them. It is a shady, solitary Eden hidden within; the world's last paradise garden still under rent control. Not even a single leaf seems out of place.
Until now. Until, out of little nowhere, there is the the most soundless rustle, and a single leaf detaches and falls, fluttering down from a branch above and targetting directly down on Tenma. It circles in an airy, spiralling trajectory for his face--
--When two swift fingers pluck it hot out of thin air. Slowly, they draw it back.
And where that lone leaf had plummetted, daredevilling down and threatening to wake up, a girl inserts herself right into its place. She swings down, upside-down, almost materializing out of the sea of leafy green. There she hangs, swaying a little, no doubt hanging there by her legs from one perch higher. And there, swooped in ever so close, her dark eyes fix on the object of all her attention.
Upside-down in mid-air, Pás crosses both arms. She plongs on her bottom lip with her thumb. She tries on a very thoughtful look. And then she grins.
She knows it's him. She recognized him from the first fleeting glimpse. She fought him. She liked him. She had been waiting for him to find her, just as she had invited him to on her last parting words. But it seems she found him instead. Found him fast asleep, not a worry in the world. Quiet. Unmoving. Peaceful.
Her lips purse. As much as she likes looking at him, she finds even this is getting a little tiresome. She'll just have to wake him the old-fashioned way. And upside-down in mid-air, the dangling Brazilian leans forward to slant her mouth against his.
Meanwhile, inside Tenma's dreamscape... He's actually replaying through his fight with Marisol the evening previous, except it involves a lot more of her losing to his obviously superior skill and strength, blinded by his masculine charm. Also for some reason she's only wearing underwear. IT MAKES SENSE, OKAY? Anyway, this continues on most awesomely until, suddenly, the Marisol in his daydream is apparently overcome by the paragon of sheer unadulterated badassery that is Tenma Kiryuu, and in the way of dreams where often the bits inbetween are cut out, is kissing him.
Wait a minute, that's not right at all.
Slowly, Tenma's eyes flutter open, which is when he realises that someone is, in fact, kissing him. Someone who is hanging upside down from the tree he's sitting in. And you know what? He's not about to complain. So after his eyes widen in surprise and he gives a faint start, Tenma oh so cunningly closes his eyes again in an attempt to feign continued sleep. Maybe she'll keep it up! What further ruins his little ruse, though, is the pressure of his lips against the Brazilian's. He can't help it, he's a teenager!
And for a moment, his ruse almost works.
Because for someone as careless and dismissive as Pás, someone who has carefully buried down any sincere trace of herself under years of infuriating behavior, does something rather strange. She kisses with her eyes closed.
It's not seeing his shocked eyes that tips her off, but the gentlest shift of pressure against her mouth, and her lips briefly press a grin against his. About time.
He only gets a moment of reponse before she giveth and taketh away, ruthlessly ending the kiss like an exorcision. "And no more!" a familiar voice clips up, low and thickly accented. There the Brazilian dangles petulantly, if a little on the theatrical side, her eyes wrung with resignation and her french sofa mouth twisted up. "That is the kiss that says good-bye! They are to be short because they are miserable. You could not even look for me!" She points a finger, also upside-down. "So I give nothing more to you!"
There's a definite hint of disappointment in Tenma's expression when Pas pulls away from him like that, danging in front of him. Slowly, he opens one eye, taking in the sight in front of him, and of course he hears those accented words. Unfortunately it takes him a few seconds to parse them, such is the Brazilian's rather unusual style of speech. Then it hits him: Somehow, he manages to get himself in trouble with women no matter /what/ he does. "Who says I didn't?" Tenma wonders, lifting his chin to gaze down his nose at the inverted girl, both eyes now open. "I bet you just didn't want me t' find you." There, he can turn the situation around on /her/. Or can he?!
Shifting position on the branch, the Gedo swordsman sits up, legs dropping to either side in order to brace himself on his perch. "Maybe worried what'd happen if I found you, huh Dakini?" And therein lies the crux of the problem with his search: He doesn't know anything about the mystery girl except that she's fairly strong, uses Capoeira and looks really good in a bikini. Her identity, where she goes to school - /if/ she goes to school - all these are entirely obfuscated. "But y'know what? Since you're here..." He plants one hand against the branch underneath him, catching his feet to either side of the wooden support, and then he throws himself forward, headfirst, right at the girl's stomach. Oh snap!
COMBATSYS: Tenma has started a fight here.
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Tenma 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Pas has joined the fight here.
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Tenma 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Pas
COMBATSYS: Pas fails to counter Random Weapon from Tenma with Branded Mule.
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Tenma 0/-------/-------|==-----\-------\0 Pas
"Worried? Yes! I will be very frightened for all five seconds." Pás replies wryly, slanting a sharp look down at Tenma.
She begins to shift backwards and up, perhaps making good on her threat, before he recoils back and starts to make it up for putting her off. And a girl who always wants to be shown a good time, she can't help but look instantly and fiercely delighted, a grin sharpening her mouth.
Pás sees the attack coming clear. Even upside-down and dangling out of a tree, she has both her hands free to easily block it. But would that be any fun?
As if her current position isn't reckless enough, she ups her own ante, and unhooks her feet. There, as his attack goes for home, she falls eagerly to receive it, both hands outstretched in what seems to be her intention to grab him by the shoulders, flip herself right over in her fall, and nail him right back.
Pás doesn't even seem to mind when it gets shot to hell. Tenma's skill lays waste to her trajectory, and even then she's grinning, positively radiant with adrenaline. She is hit soundly, right into the stomach, the breath broken out of her as her downward trajectory turns, spilling past the boy. She has time to scramble one fleeting hand against the branch, miss, and say rather thoughtfully, "Whup--" before she falls out of the tree.
Who says Tenma was hoping to make it up to her? Maybe he just felt like beating her up! After all, last time he encountered the mystery Brazilian, he was unable to defeat her... And there's nothing to inspire a guy like Tenma quite like a challenge. Whatever the crazy girl was planning to do, Kiryuu will never know, because after all he headbutted her right out of the tree. The momentum of his lunge, of course, takes Tenma out of the tree as well, an eventuality he was apparently prepared for; he doesn't even try to catch himself, instead falling towards the ground. He lands in a crouch, on one foot and one knee, the impact kicking up a dusty ring of loose earth into the air around him.
As he straightens up, he releases the ties on the cloth sheath of his bokken, pulling the wooden blade free. Biting into his left thumb, he draws blood there, before running his boodied digit down the blade of his sword, painting a crimson stripe along its length. He gives the bokken a single swipe through the air, setting it alight with a violent red aura of mingled blood and chi. "C'mon, Dakini. Don't just lay there," Tenma taunts, grinning smugly, levelling his sword against his shoulder and tucking the bloodied thumb of his free hand into his pants pocket, watching Pas carefully despite his demeanor...
COMBATSYS: Tenma focuses on his next action.
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Tenma 0/-------/-------|==-----\-------\0 Pas
"Psiuuuu, why the rush, pescador?" sulks a voice not too far away from him, the Brazilian sprawled brokenly across the grass. She peels herself free with a sigh, rolling up onto her side, the long fingers of one hand tapping along the curve of her hip. Her dark eyes beam up at them, before they take on a decidedly mischevious edge, her lids drooping as her glance lowers off Tenma's face to other places. Her tongue touches her top lip. "Are we limited by time?"
Broken leaves fall out of her hair and into her eyes. She blows them free. Still lolled there, her chin leaned against her knuckles, a tiny little sigh trickles free from the mysterious Brazilian. "And my hopes were so tall."
With a flicker of movement and a crackle of feet against fallen branches, Pás is good to her word, recovering quick from her fall. She lunges up to her feet, takes two fierce steps, then sends her tricksy body back into the air, twisting her back and arcing both feet upwards to try to plant a hurricane kick straight up into Tenma's jaw.
COMBATSYS: Pas successfully hits Tenma with Medium Kick.
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Tenma 0/-------/-----==|==-----\-------\0 Pas
Of course, Tenma remains standing there as Pas sulks on the ground. He watches her as she lounges on her side, and he studies her intently... But of course, that's for purely strategic reasons! Honest! "Maybe I just can't resist you," he suggests blithely, because it takes two to spar with words. "Never been one for bein' patient, anyway." So she can sigh all she wants to! He won't be stirred by her attempts to mess with his head and cast aspersions on his stamina.
Suddenly, though, Tenma has a crazy Brazilian attacking him again, which is a turn of events he obviously invited, but he doesn't even try to block or avoid that 'hurricane kick', his head snapping harshly to the side as the blow lands, staggering him... And staggering him more than he was anticipating, throwing off his next move. "Y'know," he says, as he recovers from the blow. "I never did find out what your name was, Dakini." Is he going to refer to her by it if she tells him? Prrrrobably not. But that's beside the point!
The Gedo swordsman lunges forward then, snapping his bokken out at the elbow in a quick slash aimed at the girl's face. Tenma probably shouldn't attack girls in the face, but he's never been one to pull his punches based on the gender of the person he's squaring off against; the misty red aura around his sword grows slightly as he attacks, perchance to do the mystery woman some serious harm! "Yaa-!!"
COMBATSYS: Tenma successfully hits Pas with Medium Strike.
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Tenma 0/-------/----===|====---\-------\0 Pas
Snapping off from her kick, vaulting herself back to her feet, the Brazilian stands aside of him, her weight perched on the balls of her feet. With a dismissive sort of vanity, she absently brushes dirt off her white pants, shaking her head to free a few remaining bits of foliage from her hair. Watching Tenma out the corners of her eyes, the ghost of a smile playing along her lips, the girl seems patient enough to wait for his recovery. The heat of a battle never quite seems to touch her. Her expression is saddled with a lazy sort of pleasure.
She flexes her dusty hands and stretches, her back bowing,, her pants riding low off its dangerous curve. A contented murmur hums free of her lips, then twists into a short laugh, catching Tenma's last remark. Pás looks dismissively away from him. "And you will never learn it. That is something earned. You know what you must do."
Pás knows what she wants. And, sensing movement from her peripheral, she seems to be getting it. She whirls back on Tenma, one forearm raised to try to catch the turn of his bokken. But -- again -- she finds her speed wanting. He hits her again, soundly, her face whipped to one side as a painful crack echoes through the park. And just as wildly, she looks back at him, her eyes as bright as the blood rolling down her face. And brighter than both of those is her grin, beaming brilliant and wicked.
"--That is a start," she tells him thickly, her voice dark and rich.
She licks blood off the corner of her mouth before her head smashes forward at his.
COMBATSYS: Tenma endures Pas' Zidane's Revenge.
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Tenma 0/-------/--=====|====---\-------\0 Pas
So, he has to /earn/ the right to know her name? Well, that suits Tenma just fine - he has every intention of defeating the mysterious girl here. He feels the satisfying sensation of his weapon striking flesh and bone as Pas' head snaps back, and once all its momentum is played out, the Gedo boy pulls his arm back in, ready... That wicked grin from the bloodied girl is met with an arrogant, wolfish smirk from the tall Japanese boy, who is /almost/ distracted by her licking blood off of her face when that headbutt snaps him out of it. He hunches down, braces a little, and takes the headbutt cleanly on his own forehead, the force of the blow sending a shudder through his body, and cutting him just below the hairline, leaving blood to mingle with blood.
"Too obvious, Dakini," Tenma says through gritted teeth, reaching with his free hand, thumb still bleeding faintly, to grab her by the hair, and once he's got a fistful of dark curls, he yanks her head down and his leg up, aiming to knee her right in the face. If that goes as planned, he adds as punctuation to the attack a slash from his bokken as he releases her hair and lets her stagger back from the knee lift, aiming right for her side, under the ribs. "C'mon! You beat me before, don't disappoint me now!!"
COMBATSYS: Tenma successfully hits Pas with Fierce Strike.
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Tenma 0/-------/-======|=======\-------\0 Pas
Her face makes a hard collision with his knee, and she has little time to even recover before the second swipe of that brutal bokken whips across her, leaving an abrasion burned across her dark skin. Reeling backward, the girl drops to a crouch to collect herself; she finds it hard to see for a few moments, but even that's not enough to tear her grin away. In fact, the bloodier she gets, the better she looks, that unmoved laziness exchanged for a fierce look of abandon. Apparently, the Brazilian girl likes it rough.
Really, really likes it rough.
"I am sadness you did not find me," she admits between low, shallow breaths, reaching backwards to tie back her hair between those two bleached braids, a gesture of her growing interest in this fight. "I have been missing out, pescador." Standing slowly, the girl then rolls a shoulder, then frowns suddenly, finding the movement tethered by cloth. She fists both hands into her midriff top and pulls. The fabric noisily tears as she lowers its already-low cut. Now it barely serves to cover her. But now she has room to move.
And move, Pás does. In a heartbeat, she is aerial again, flipping upwards and turning weightlessly through the air. Her body corkscrews, twisting to land to the ground just before him, her weight saddled in a one-armed handstand. She turns swiftly, her legs poised, no doubt arming to catch him between the blades of a scissorkick -- but the attack pulls at the last instant.
Amidst all that fool's gold is the hidden gem of a strike, her elbow slipped out to try to nail him square in the crotch.
COMBATSYS: Tenma interrupts Eshu's Hat from Pas with Initial Breaker.
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Tenma 0/-------/=======|=======\=------\1 Pas
"Yeah, you really have," Tenma agrees when the mysterious girl says she's been 'missing out', humble as always. Unfortunately, he has no idea what the significance of Pas' choice to tie back her hair like that is... Though, he can guess it's to keep all that hair out of her way as she fights. But why's she--WHAT THE HELL, IS SHE TEARING HER OWN SHIRT?! Tenma's blue eyes widen faintly in surprise at that, and we can all imagine where his attention goes, his gaze following the deepening neckline. Such is his distraction that he almost doesn't notice when the Brazilian takes to the air.
Lucky for Tenma, though, his body responds almost without his having to tell it to, twisting to one side, pulling his left hand back to level his bokken across his body, horizontal, pointed at the handstanding girl. As her legs come out for the feinting scissor kick, Tenma actually steps /towards/ her with his back leg, thrusting the bokken forward in a stabbing motion, aimed at the Brazilian's torso... So he's rather surprised when, rather than feeling that scissor kick get roughly interrupted, he instead feels an elbow graze his groin, the impact of his own attack saving him from speaking falsetto for a while.
If she were a more sensible person, Pás would be asking herself if she's having a bit of an off day. Everyone has them. But she can't quite seem to care about such trivialities. The world works very simply for her, nothing more than a place of cause and reaction. She can't quite work up the effort to regret any mistakes she's made this fight. She can't even work up the effort to care whether she ever wins or loses. That is not the reason why Pás fights. Successes and failures are meaningless. She fights to feel alive.
And she gets a reinjection of vitality with ever strike of that bokken, its last swipe cutting her along her long waist and leaving more blood in its wake. She is bowled backward by both the force of the strike and the pain of it, landing hard dead onto her spine with a ragged exhale. She has little breath left, and uses what she has to laugh, sheer entertainment tattooing the parts of her face that's not streaked with blood. This isn't an off day. This is the time of her life.
"Pescador," she tells him slowly, her voice a little wet with pain and a theatrical little plea. "Please don't make me fall in love."
The Brazilian flips herself up onto her side, trying to lash out one leg to sweep Tenma up -- she wants to herd him close and bring him down. And catch him between those powerful legs of hers. She winks as she tries to hook her ankles on his neck. If the instant arrives that she gets the littlest chance -- sparks kick free from her bare feet, chi detonating free in a hot blast.
COMBATSYS: Tenma endures Pas' Sanduich de Calabresa.
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Tenma 1/------=/=======|=======\===----\1 Pas
The sheer joy of fighting is something Tenma well understands... Though he's a fan of winning too, you know? He cloaks himself behind reasons and rivalries, hiding it behind his desire to /win/ and to prove himself the stronger, but ultimately it's the blood-pumping excitement of battle, the clash of skill against skill, that he likes the best. But winning? Winning is nice. Makes him feel all tingly in the pit of his stomach. The Brazilian's laughter is met with another of Tenma's arrogant grins, because he's not /quite/ as crazy as Pas is.
"Ain't my fault if you do," Tenma replies, his voice obviously strained. He's putting in a fair bit of effort here!
But when the girl flips up like that and tries to hook his neck with her ankles, he recognises the move. He's been on the bad end of it before. This time, his reaction is rather different, there's no attempt to get free, no attacking Pas in the middle, he just gets caught, feeling those sparks against his neck, burning, and then the explosion staggers him... Marks seared on either side of his neck, but he keeps right on attacking.
Swinging his bokken back behind himself, Tenma lashes out with his free hand balled into a fist, aiming at specific points on the Brazilian's chest and torso to disrupt the flow of chi through her body; the strikes, and the footwork that accompany them, are also careful to herd Pas back, to put her at just the right distance...
COMBATSYS: Pas just-defends Tenma's Flow Breaker!
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Tenma 1/------=/=======|=======\===----\1 Pas
Her ankles crossed, Pás' big toe plays with Tenma's ponytail a moment before she frees him. She twists back up to her feet, preparing to receive whatever he's got ready. She's slowing. She's in pain. But she's far from finished.
Her eyes still haven't failed her. She sees his fist in time, turning her elbow to dissuade it... when her expression contorts with sudden, sincere confusion.
"Do you need help? You do--"
Pás lashes out, ever so rarely, with one of her hands. But she does not contradict her art; instead of striking she merely tries to catch his fist, a fierce push of her knuckle joint against the tendon trying to open his hand. And there she claps it, soundly, right onto her chest.
"--Like this."
Something very dangerous flints to life inside her dark eyes, and staring directly into the boy's face, she leans closer, not yet finished in guiding his hand. She takes it for a little ride, pushing on his wrist to move his palm down her body, gliding along smooth, toned flesh, applying greedy pressure until his fingers hit the belt of her pants.
And she keeps leaning closer. She tries to run her tongue over his bottom lip.
Then her face has suddenly been exchanged for her foot, the girl gone suddenly, wildly inverted, her leg slicing an unnatural arc in the air. And it's not the first. If that first strike hits, it's the initiator for three more to follow, as in a vibrant wreath of movement she aims for his four sides with not even the laws of physics to bind her.
COMBATSYS: Tenma Toughs Out Pas' Devil's Crossroads!
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Tenma 1/----===/=======|=======\====---\1 Pas
From Tenma's past experience, this is a pretty new kind of defense, you know? As his punching hand is caught like that, and forced open to be clapped and squeezed against Pas' chest, his blue eyes widen. It's not like this is the first time he's ever done that, but before it was always him being a jerk! As his hand is guided downwards, something most surprising happens, as a faint blush suffuses his cheeks, his eyes fixed on the all too close face of the Brazilian, and then he gets his lower lip licked, and THEN, he gets kicked in the head.
It's a very good misdirection on Pas' part, isn't it? Playing to her, uh, strengths. Tenma staggers back from the first hit, and the successive ones land, though something seems a bit off about the impact, as they don't hit quite as cleanly as they ought to. Maybe distracting Tenma like that wasn't the best idea ever? As the last kick lands, Tenma is already whirling around to meet it, reaching out to catch Pas by the foot. If he manages that, then his plan is to give it a simple, vicious twist, to wrench the girl's ankle and leg painfully. And as he does that, he says: "Y'know, Dakini, I think I'm startin' to like you."
COMBATSYS: Pas blocks Tenma's Quick Throw.
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Tenma 1/----===/=======|=======\=====--\1 Pas
Don't think Pás didn't miss seeing Tenma blush. And don't think she'll ever forget it.
Nor will she forget how his quick, skillful hands feel, snatching one of her cleans cleanly out of mid-air. She finds that the be the best touch she's had in a long time. Her legs split open at an incredible angle, the Brazilian is pulled to a stop, only her vast flexibility anchoring her to the spot. Somewhere though all her tangled limbs, she peeks up at Tenma, upside-down, her hair dangling past her crooked grin. It only widens.
She replies him sharply, "Prove it, sweetheart."
He twists on her leg, but she seems to be expecting it. The powerful muscles in her ankle tighten down, and her tendons cord like turned violin strings. Instead of moving against his attack, she flips her body in the direction of the wrench, following it with an aerial spin. Up whips the second leg, her heel drawn in and then snapped back out, attempting to plant twin strikes on him. Head and gut.
COMBATSYS: Tenma blocks Pas' Conta e Gorjeta.
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Tenma 1/---====/=======|=======\====---\1 Pas
Alas for Tenma! He saw that going a bit differently, you know; the way the Brazilian flips with his attempt to wrench her leg is pretty impressive though, especially as she spins and aims to kick him twice, but just as she managed to turn the tide because she still had one limb free... Tenma still has another arm, the one holding his bokken. He swings it up, interposing it between the first kick, and then the second. The impact still carries through the sword and his arm, but it's a lot better than, you know, getting kicked. Having been forced to release the Brazilian's ankle, the Gedo swordsman skids back from the impact of the kicks... And his big ol' smarmy grin stays in place.
"Heh... Fine then. I'll show you somethin' good," Tenma says, in a slightly delated response to her challenge.
Standing sidelong, his feet shoulder width apart, he swings his right arm back, holding his bokken raised behind himself, horizontally. His left hand is pushed forward, palm out, digits lightly contorted with his index finger behind his middle, as an aid to concentration. He focuses there, focuses on a single point, and the red glow of energy around his bokken intensifies. In heartbeats, the wooden sword is completely obscured by violent crimson, blood and chi all mingled together, inseperable from one another, and Tenma shifts slightly, skidding his leading foot forward... And then he runs, right at Pas.
"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-!!!" bellows Tenma Kiryuu as he closes with the mysterious Brazilian, a terrible pressure preceeding him as he rushes at her. When he gets close enough, he skids to a stop, twisting, swinging his right arm out in a wide, wild arc, that blade of wood and energy tearing through the air and aimed once more at Pas' perhaps tender side, right under her ribs. If it hits, quite aside from the expected damage the blow would cause, Tenma's chi courses through the young woman's body, disrupting the very flow of life through her, stealing vitality and leaving behind only a chill numbness...
COMBATSYS: Pas counters The Sealing Sword from Tenma with Catherine Wheel.
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Tenma 0/-------/---====|=====--\-------\0 Pas
The Brazilian girl twists back to her feet, landing deftly and thankfully spared a game leg. She stands tall, pushing her heavy hair back, her other hand brushing a hand down her bare midsection. She examines her fingers boredly, and licks blood off the pinky. Her dark eyes then level back on Tenma, looking at him out her peripherals, that infurating smile branded to her mouth.
Pás seems to be waiting. Her brown eyes hood, the look in them promising him things. Until he promises her something right back. She can't help her grin, one that's a little on the giddy side, and she bites her lower lip in anticipation. She's ready for it.
Then Tenma arms that bokken and takes off straight for her. Still facing him sidelong, her profile gentled and playful, she does not move. She simply stands her ground, patient, expecting. He gets closer. She smiles to herself, even though her eyes have shapened, like a tamed animal taken off its bridle, possessed again by a mindless, reckless joy.
It's not until he strikes, that she finally moves. With that last minute abandon of the truly fearless, when he lunges foward she falls back, catching herself and turning, cracking a foot right into his extended elbow. Then she twists, and the second leg whirls upwards, trying to crack against the knuckles and swat that bokken away. Then the third kick -- as she catches herself on her hands, starting now to walk on them -- goes clean for his ribs. Then the fourth. Then the fifth. Then the sixth kick suddenly ignites like a lit firecracker, landing with a tide of sparks. The next follows. And the next.
He's seen this before. He's felt it. Her legs fall open and the Brazilian falls back into her breakneck pinwheeling, hand over hand until she drops into a spin, balancing off the very top of her head as those fiery kicks pound away at him in countless waves. And when it seems to go on and on, merciless, she slips back up to one arm, rears both legs, and plants both of them hard to throw him backward.
And there Pás remains, in the wake of her attack, still inverted and perched on one hand, one foot tapping consideration against her opposite knee. She replies Tenma matter-of-factly, "I've seen better."
At this moment, something that's never happened before happens. Now, it's not that nobody's ever defended against Tenma's strongest attack; Preston blocked it once, Luc almost managed to avoid it on another occasion, and some wrestler dodged it entirely. But this is different. The attack, with all that momentum and terrible power behind it, is deflected with a /foot/. Perhaps, Pas can feel the dispersed energy as it screams past her through the air, but she's probably more busy kicking Tenma a lot. Finally though, the battering combination ends, and Tenma is hurled away by the kick, tumbling end over end for a few feet. That's... Pretty much all he can take. And as he pushes himself up from the ground, his head bowed and face shadowed by the fall of his black hair, his shoulders shake.
Because he's laughing, silently at first, but...
"Ha ha ha ha ha!!" laughs the Gedo swordsman aloud as he straightens up, leaning his head back and covering his face with his free hand, the glow of his sword dying back to normal. "That was great! I can't believe you just... Ha ha ha!" Is he giving up after that? Is he going to just admit defeat? Fat chance! Instead, Tenma runs forward at Pas again, ducking low as he gets closer. twisting around... And then throwing himself into the air, in a rising, whirling strike with which he has every intention of taking the upside-down Pas up with him, knocking her away with brutal force. "RAAAAH!!"
COMBATSYS: Tenma can no longer fight.
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Pas 0/-------/--=====|
COMBATSYS: Pas counters Vajra from Tenma with Branded Mule.
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Pas 0/-------/-======|
And still upside-down, long hair dangling, her legs bent, and her striking face affecting the most guileless of looks, Pás takes in Tenma's second, ruthless charge with a soft, innocent look. She tilts her head.
And wonders to herself if she is able to do the same thing twice. There's only one way to find out.
And inverted Pás is possibly a Pás at her most dangerous; that benign look of hers only goes skin-deep. She beams at him, and then her mouth suddenly razors with a fierce, teethed grin, and she turns off her hands, twisting sharply to try to hook her foot on his elbow as that sword comes in. And, again, with a lash of the second foot, she tries to hit him square as last time, deflecting that bokken as she tightens, throwing herself down into a roll to escape the arc of its swing.
A short, playful whistle sounds up from Tenma's back. There Pás crouches, those familiar sparks lancing from her feet. They strike forward, right for his backside.
The part where his attack is deflected and avoided serves as something of a warning to Tenma. At some point, this fight went from being completely in his control to very much not; at some point, he lost the advantage quite decidedly. And then, he gets whistled at, and kicked in the butt, which sends him sprawling forward, since he was trying to jump into the air. Crashing facefirst onto the ground, he stays like that for a moment, looking quite undignified, as the crimson glow emanating from his bokken fades, the red line he drew on it in his own blood having disappeared. After a few heartbeats, he rolls over onto his back, clearly unable to continue fighting.
That makes twice the mysterious Brazilian has beaten him.
Laughing again, this time more ruefully than uproariously, Tenma shakes his head slowly. Oh, his poor pride. Don't worry though, it's extremely resilient. It'll be horribly overinflated again in no time at all. "Mmph... Well, since you won, I guess I have to be the one who stops bein' mysterious," he declares, starting to sit up. "I'm Tenma Kiryuu," he says, actually introducing himself which is... A rare enough thing. Names are important, you know.
Without invitation or warning, the ground beside him suddenly grows a Brazilian. In that lazy, careless way of hers, Pás collapses happily to the earth but inches away, sprawling over onto her side. There she lazes, her hair winged over the grass, her face gentled with pleasure despite -- or possibly because of -- the bruises, blood, and battery licked across her face and torso. She looks fit to purr.
Exhaling, one hand rested across her stomach, those dark eyes of hers turn on Tenma. They seem to lid in a secret kind of mirth when he finally gives her his name. Names are very important. And that's why--
"And I am still waiting for you to take mine, Tenma Kiryuu." --Pás isn't giving him a damned thing.
She looks up at him, the look on her face every bit gentle that her previous attacks were not. Her mouth will never evict that playful smile. "You were so very close. So close to earning it. I hope you will. I want to hear it spoken off your lips."
But, Tenma wasn't expecting Pas to give her name in return; that wasn't, after all, the assumed 'bet'. He lost, and the fact that he gave her his name is about as close to an actual admission of defeat as one is generally able to pry out of him. Closer, really. "Tch... You're a pretty good challenge, Dakini, an' you sure like messin' with people's heads," he says, because while the Brazilian's teasing nature is a pretty good distraction from moment to moment, in the 'big picture' he's TOTALLY ON TO HER. But rather than trying to sit up fully he just flops onto his back on the grass. It's still a nice day, after all. In fact, it kind of got better!
"But I'll beat ya," he adds, firmly. It's not just because of the implied 'rewards' of doing so, not anymore; Pas is good, to have beaten him twice, and so he wants to find a way to best her. It's the challenge, appealing to his competitive nature and his essentially baseless conviction that he's the best thing to ever walk the earth. It's hard, being as awesome as he is!
It seems the Brazilian cannot go seconds without touching: when Tenma falls back to the earth, she rolls, the length of her body pressing up to his side. She props her head up to one hand to look down at him, her inky hair spilling down her shoulder, her eyes as browned as sunset skies. She seems mollified enough to watch Tenma for a moment, tamed momentarily by their fight, and satisfied just enough to be tender.
Smiling curiously to herself, Pás reaches out to affectionately brush the hair from Tenma's eyes, tracing the knuckle of her thumb down his cheek. She leans in close. But she doesn't kiss him. Instead she imparts, in that sleepy voice of hers, "And I will wait for you."
Pás pauses. She tilts her head. "Unless someone better does it first, I suppose."
Okay, so laying beside him like that is totally not playing fair. Tenma might not have the same aversion to impropriety as many of his countrymen do, but he's still a teenaged boy, and so he's acutely aware of the Brazilian's closeness, which gets all the worse with her laying against his side, where he can feel the warmth of her body and general girly softness. He manages not to blush this time, though, as he turns to look at her as she gazes down at him, and at least for the moment he's not looking all that smug. Especially since the girl is brushing the hair out of his face and stroking his cheek, of all things.
With Pas' face now awfully close to his, which seems to be a common occurrance whenever he encounters her, Tenma's smirk slowly reappears, confidence writ large on his face. "Somebody else might do it first, but they ain't gonna be 'better'," he says, rife with entirely baseless self-assurance. "'course, if you're gonna put me under a time limit like that, I guess I'll havta start stalkin' ya. Ambushes when y'ain't payin' attention." A fair brawl is a myth! But how can he stalk her if he doesn't know who she is or anything about her? "By the way... Th' hell does 'pescador' mean, anyway?"
With gentle hands and a reverent kind of patience, Pás treats Tenma to a few moments of her undivided attention. While she has determined to withhold her name for now, she is satisfied enough to give him this. It's almost as fun as fighting.
That enduring smile of hers goes a little crooked as her opponent speaks, and the Brazilian clicks her tongue, fixing a chiding look across her face. It doesn't fit her and it doesn't last long. "You can't do that," she admonishes playfully, "I might be undressed."
Ever so doting, ever so unable to keep her hands to herself, Pás very tenderly runs her fingers down his face as her head tilts and leans in, those lips of hers following the line of Tenma's jaw. The seems to be the master of imparting a hundred tiny little touches, so many and yet never enough. And all on purpose.
Her tactile appreciation pauses when he asks a question of her. She smiles into his flesh. "Hum," the girl murmurs, in great consideration. Should she tell him? She supposes she can relent that. He may not have earned her name, but he's earned that much.
Pulling back, her face, shuttered eyes, and lips only a breath away, Pás gazes down on Tenma. And she answers him affectionately, "It means... fisherman."
Her right eye winks. Then she pulls off of him, all that tenderness easily abandoned, rising cleanly to her feet and planting one hand to her hip as she peers down. The other wiggles its fingers in a lazy wave. "Tchau, Fisherman Kiryuu."
Is that actually supposed to deter him? Besides, Tenma isn't really of the opinion that the mysterious Brazilian would be discomfited by being caught in the nude. Probably quite the opposite, would be his educated guess. However, his only response to that 'admonishment' is a wry smirk. Besides, Pas is all touching his face like that, with her fingertips and the gentle brush of her lips; it's kind of distracting! And not just because the only physical contact he's used to having with girls is punching and kicking and occasionally throwing. It can be difficult to get used to, you know.
But then, Tenma's given some room to think as Pas pulls her face back a little in order to answer his question, which he might have been happier not having the answer to. All in all, he's not sure he came out the better for getting the answer. "...What," Tenma says a bit flatly, not really a question, as he gets winked at and then the Brazilian is on her feet again abandoning him. Of course, he's left to watch Pas go, before he huffs out an annoyed breath, remaining there on the grass, now glaring up at the sky. "Fisherman," he sulks. "What th' hell is /that/ supposedta mean." Seriously, he doesn't get it at all! Chicks are whack.
Log created on 16:28:50 07/01/2007 by Tenma, and last modified on 04:23:41 07/02/2007.