Description: Two Capoeiristas square off in a fight to the sounds of berimbaus and drums. At the end of the fight the audience can't tell if it was the Fourth of July fireworks or these two fighters' acrobatic displays that was the most impressive! (Draw Match)
It's a cheerful summer July 4th in Southtown! It's Independence Day for the Americans, but the day's also celebrated by some weirdoes in Japan -- any reason to set off firecrackers, sparklers, and noisemakers is appreciated! Right now, the sun's approaching the horizon line, painting the sky with a full palette of yellows, oranges, and pinks. Here at the Southtown Boardwalk, some fireworks arrays are readying final preparations for the show, but the main event in the meantime is an impromptu Neo League battle between two rising capoeira stars: Aranha and Momoko!
... And it's a pretty weird matchup, really. They may wear the same kind of pants, and they're both somewhat short representatives of their respective genders, but the similarities pretty much end there -- Momoko looks about as durable as a wooden No.2 pencil after the family dog gets hold of it. One would figure Aranha has a bit more meat on dem bones!
... What's more, Momoko looks like she's having more fun mugging for the camera than anything else, waving excitedly to the onlookers as she stands just on the opposite side of a long rope barrier, separating her and her fight opponent from the audience. "Hi! Please watch us fight, okay! We'll give you the best capoeira fight we can, and if you want to find out more, just look 'Momoko' up on Goodle!"
"That's 'Google!'" some audience member shouts.
Momoko blinks, then bobs her head! "Right! Google! Heh-heh!"
And after a few moments Aranha arrives carrying a boombox instead of those Oakley thumps he usually wears. That's partially because he knows he'll be fighting an opponent who can appreciate the sound of the berimbau and partially because he had trouble finding people who could play the music who reside in Southtown.
He slips under the rope partition with the boombox and sets it off to the side. "Ah... So you're the capoeirista I've been hearing about. They call me Aranha." He presses play and the sounds of music begin to play. "Let's try to get some good energy going and give 'em a good show." He steps away from the boombox and then stretches a moment before walking back to where the boombox is located.
Aranha's ready to go and to show it, he kneels down by the boombox as if that would be where the foot of the makeshift roda would be, and finally touches the ground. He holds his left hand up as if to protect his face, and the right hand extended as a handshake.
Momoko has met plenty of fighters before, but it's been a long time since Momoko has fought a capoeirista that hasn't been part of her own school! So this will be a bit invigorating for her, she feels.
The audience notices when Aranha walks up, which leads Momoko to look back with an enthusiastic smile! Waving at him with both hands, the excitable twelve-year-old pauses a moment to bow to her audience, before rushing over to him, cheerfully! "Aranha, it's very nice to meet you! I'm Momoko!" She would have probably -liked- to flip over to him, but there's no sense in being showy -before- the show. She's pretty sure Aranha's capable of the same feats, really!
So instead, she bobs her head to the beat, dropping low to touch the ground, and then adopting the same pose as Aranha... while shaking his extended hand. Her cheeks redden, but her smile is huge! "This will be fun!"
COMBATSYS: Momoko has started a fight here.
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Momoko 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Aranha has joined the fight here.
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Momoko 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Aranha
Aranha made sure to start out with fast music because he was just as eager to open up with the flashier moves as well. He allows for the music to fill him with energy as he suddenly launches himself into back handspring and follows it up with a back flip. Before landing on his feet.
He does give Momoko time for her do her acrobatics as the fight begins. When she's in the upright position he drops his body low as he touches a hand down to the ground and swings out his heel right for Momoko's head.
COMBATSYS: Momoko dodges Aranha's Medium Kick.
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Momoko 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Aranha
Momoko, also, leaps into a back handspring, though after the first full revolution, she scissors her feet to either side, just for flash, before landing with both hands high! Cheerfully, she rocks her hips to the beat of the music -- to which she notes, "I love this CD already! I've got to find some more music..."
She won't get to comment too much though, as Aranha's already closing in. As he's aiming high, Momoko repeats the move she'd just done -- reverse handspring, with her feet scissoring to either side so as not to get clipped by the kick!
The trick is, though, she doesn't totally =flip= -- but rather stays right there, twisting about to helicopter her feet at Aranha, about waist-level! "Haaaaaaa!"
COMBATSYS: Aranha dodges Momoko's Change-Up Kick.
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Momoko 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Aranha
When Momoko begins spinning, Aranha drops backwards on his hands with butt just barely off of the ground as he slides under the spinning kick a giant smile on his face as he does this. He then inches in just enough that his waist is past her arms and then he swings his foot up at the younger capoeirista hoping to catch her shoulder and knock her off balance.
Regardless of whether or not the kick lands, he spins on the ground with one leg extended before rising back up to his feet. "I can already tell this dance is going to be fun!" It will be for him. The only thing that could possibly ruin it now for him is the appearance of the red witch.
COMBATSYS: Momoko interrupts Light Kick from Aranha with Medium Kick.
- Power hit! -
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Momoko 0/-------/------=|=------\-------\0 Aranha
"Yeah!" That's one of Momoko's favorite words, much to her parent's dismay. She's just so excitable!
After her kicks, though, the girl bounds back to her feet, swaying to the beat as she brings her shoulders back up to their usual height. It's then that she finds Aranha swinging his own feet in close to her -- which could be a bit of a problem! So the girl keeps twisting about with the circular momentum from just before... only she swings it into a armada baixa, her knee slamming into Aranha's and knocking it aside, just before she drops low to the ground and brings her heel crashing into the man himself. "Haaaa!" That one =is= Momoko's favorite word.
"Oomph!" Aranha didn't expect for the kick to be dealt with in that fashion to be honest. "Nice!" He spins away from the blow, a little too late to save him from the attack but it would allow him to get himself away from any subsequent attacks. There's a large smile on his face as he brings himself up into a one handed handstand.
It may look to the rest of the world as though he's just showing off. However the people are paying attention to the act. What's really going on can be seen in his eyes. He's studying the other capoeirista for a weakness or something to take advantage of.
COMBATSYS: Aranha focuses on his next action.
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Momoko 0/-------/------=|=------\-------\0 Aranha
Momoko's got plenty of weaknesses! Her noodly arms, her weak twelve-year-old body, her face, her pride, her emotions... but failing to keep the beat is not one of them. The girl prodigy's got plenty of rhythm, which she makes very obvious from the way she raises her leg from Aranha's fallen form, stops on a beat, and then rolls longitudinally to a side to bring herself back to a standing position. "Thanks!" Hopping once to keep the beat, she resumes her rocking and swaying about -- that's what she's doing while Aranha's standing back and watching, see. Rolling her neck to one side, then the other, she takes the moment to show off as well, listening a bit more intently to the beat. "You didn't get this music here in Southtown? You didn't, right? Didn't? I haven't heard anything this good here, nope..." Bobbing and swaying, she soon ducks in low for a corta capim: kicking once with a low right sweep, balancing with her hands low, then sweeping in with her left as a follow-up. "Ha! Ha!"
COMBATSYS: Aranha interrupts Light Kick from Momoko with Rasteira.
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Momoko 0/-------/-----==|==-----\-------\0 Aranha
"Actually I got it back in America." He isn't given enough time to enjoy it though. He drops his other hand down on the opposite side of that first kicking foot just as the kick comes. The hand he originally had on the ground gets clipped and had he didn't get that second hand down, he'd end up dropping on his head but his positioning allows for him to go into a more controlled drop and he swings his leg around to hook it around the left leg before she can bring it around and pulls her leg from under her and manages to pull her so she falls flat on her face.
Oof! All's fair in love, war, and Neo League battles -- if Momoko can interrupt Aranha in the midst of one of =his= moves, turnabout's fair play! With her momentum stopped sharply, the girl shifts her weight back to her upper torso... well, kinda. She overdoes it, because that's what Aranha's doing too, and lands flat on her face. Yum, boardwalk crud!
Still, you can't keep Momoko down long -- she rolls with that, planting her hand down, and then palming herself right back to her feet.
But with Aranha getting flighty again, the girl starts getting a bit more... bouncy. Most opponents, if you jump around too much, they start punching you in the face or something. Here... she's willing to have a bit of fun with the battle! "Cool! I might have to share some of the music I got from Brazil the other day!" She knows from the earlier song chorus that there's a fast sequence, so just as it starts, she begins an au confusado, leaping into a no-hands cartwheel while bringing both legs high. When she snaps out, she lands on one foot -- but just then, she casts herself backwards into a folha secca, launching herself into a backsault and delivering three quick airborne kicks at Aranha before landing. "Ha... ha... haaa!"
COMBATSYS: Aranha blocks Momoko's Folha.
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Momoko 0/-------/-----==|===----\-------\0 Aranha
Aranha raises an arm as he leans backwards allowing for the first two strike his arm. The third one misses because of the leaning motion away from the impact. "Okay! You want to take this to the air, huh?" He twists himself around with the impact and leaps up high into the air, two legs held tightly together as he tucks his body so the legs and his chest are close to each other. When the twist finally ends, he'll drop two feet down upon Momoko. Normally this move is done as an evasion but he's got enough hang time on it that he can make use of it as an attack.
COMBATSYS: Momoko dodges Aranha's Armada Dupla.
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Momoko 0/-------/-----==|==-----\-------\0 Aranha
With Aranha leaping up into the air, Momoko makes an overly slanted cartwheel to the side, low to keep from getting armada-dupla'd! Landing once more on her feet, the girl rocks sideways once, then twice, her hands swaying to the beat of the music!
She gives Aranha a moment to recover -- the whole ginga is about sharing the stage with the opponent, after all! "I like aerial moves! They're fun!!" But also, her rhythmic bobbing back and forth is a preparatory measure: she needs to be able to fling her upper torso in one sudden motion, and she's testing as she hasn't done this in a while.
What she manages to execute is an aerial au chibata -- keeping her center of gravity about where her heart is, flipping about to whirl her left leg around in a wild overhead whipcrack, heel swinging about like a scythe onto Aranha!
COMBATSYS: Momoko successfully hits Aranha with Strong Kick.
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Momoko 0/-------/----===|=====--\-------\0 Aranha
Aranha tries to perform a quick side step towards the kick and lean backwards to get under the kick allowing it to pass over him in what one would call a somewhat gutsy evasion. But then he botches it. He doesn't drop down quickly enough and he ends up still catching the impact on his body.
He still continues to spin with the attack and comes out of the spin with his left leg folded under him so he's seated on his heel and right leg folded around the left knee. With a quick snapping motion he kicks his right leg(which won't make contact) out to spin him around and generate momentum for his left leg to strike Momoko in a variation of the S-dobrado.
COMBATSYS: Momoko blocks Aranha's Strong Kick.
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Momoko 0/-------/---====|=====--\-------\0 Aranha
Momoko may not be sure =which= kind of kick Aranha has in store for her, but she can tell it'll probably hurt just the same! Rolling her shoulders back to recover from her overhead kick, she soon finds that she'll need to =step= backwards as well to keep from getting clobbered! She raises her knee, letting her leg bear the burden of Aranha's sudden impact instead of something more delicate. Hopping backwards once from the momentum, she then performs a one-handed macaco, backspringing to a safer distance. "Have you ever been to Brazil, though? It's so exciting. Especially Rio! People are so happy and full of energy, it's really amazing!" She seems to be taking a break from the fighting to get more thoroughly wrapped up in the music, but like Aranha, she's not just wasting time -- she's watching his moves, and trying to figure out what she'll do next!
COMBATSYS: Momoko focuses on her next action.
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Momoko 0/-------/---====|=====--\-------\0 Aranha
Normally in a situation like this, he'd back off a bit if he got the feeling that he was being studied and set up for a trap. But lately he's been realizing sometimes it's best to push through the trap instead of waiting for the trap to go off.
With this in mind, he lashes out with a spinning kick engulfed with blue energy as it comes around and then follows it with a glowing blue spinning jump kick and then lands with his back towards her but he looks under his armpit just before flipping backwards to bring down a third and final glowing blue kick down upon the little girl.
COMBATSYS: Momoko dodges Aranha's Aggressive Dance EX.
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Momoko 0/-------/---====|=====--\-------\0 Aranha
It's only a trap if you get caught entering it, really. But no, Momoko's not the type to do that ... she's geniuinely interested in seeing how Aranha plays this out! ... The energy is an interesting addition, though, one which causes some rather unnecessary hesitation on the younger capoeirista's part! Gawking with her mouth agape, she almost doesn't cartwheel away from the energy-sheathed kick in time -- but she just *barely* manages to!
Once she's righted herself though, she doesn't stay upright for long -- dropping to one hand, she sweeps low for a sweeping heel kick. Should that land, she'd swing her legs around in the start of an S-Dobrado, using those hands as a pivot for a helicoptering blow ... and then =right= herself into an inverted handstand, kicking high now for a bananeira dois golpes! But that would seem to be it for her custom combination, as she would then jacknife and pivot about to bring herself back to a full standing position.
COMBATSYS: Aranha endures Momoko's Momokonba.
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Momoko 0/-------/-======|=======\-------\1 Aranha
Aranha sees the kick coming but he just knows he's not fast enough to avoid it. This forces him to do something that is decidedly un-capoeira like. He takes it. He takes each and every one of those attacks until he's backed into the railing where he pretty much has nowhere to go and then hoping to catch her before she completely recovers he thrusts his foot forward in what other styles would call a front kick. In Capoeira it's a Benção.
COMBATSYS: Momoko interrupts Strong Kick from Aranha with Momokonba.
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Momoko 1/-------/=======|=======\====---\1 Aranha
Miraculously, Momoko's =not= caught flat-footed here -- her moment of gathering focus seems to have been critical! As that thrust kick comes in, Momoko drops to the ground, curling up into a ball and taking the kick on a forearm. She yelps in pain, but continues her role forward, putting most of her weight on her other hand. But with that there, she swings her legs around for a sideways walkover, tagging him twice in the knees with light kicks. More or less upright again, she advances with a series of three crescent kicks, before leaping at him once again, aiming to plant her heels on the young man's torso, and practically walk right up him into a backflip to safety. "Yaa! Yaa! Heyaaaaaa!"
Even if the kick didn't land in it's intended location, he could see that she only barely got the advantage in the exchange. Of course he also realizes that she has all but won the battle which means he better do something drastic if he wants to turn the fight around.
Aranha performs an outside crescent kick from his front leg which then drops to his rear leg. He shifts back and swings his leg around in a rear leg outside crescent kick which is quickly followed up by a trio of kicks where he touches the ground as he swings the heel of his rear leg towards his opponent's head. On the third of those particular kicks he cuts short and turns his foot as he drops it down on the ground before swinging his other foot at the head in a roundhouse kick-like motion though it's also done with both hands on the ground as well. The spider then shifts his weight over to the side swinging the unplanted foot up and over which though it doesn't hit, it generates momentum for the other foot to come back across and slam into his opponent's side. He performs a handstand and performs a series of rapid spinning handstand kicks. All kicks in this sequence are engulfed in blue chi. He calls this move the Royal Flush it's the best move he can offer up and because he pretty much floods his opponents in kicks.
COMBATSYS: Momoko has saved the state of this fight.
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Momoko 1/-------/=======|=------\-------\0 Aranha
COMBATSYS: Momoko blocks Aranha's Royal Flush.
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Momoko 1/-----==/=======|=------\-------\0 Aranha
Momoko isn't built to withstand a whole lot of damage -- but she =is= capable of remarkable feats of adaptation! The twelve-year-old leans back out of the way of the opening kick, bracing it with both arms. But when the surge of chi flares up, she can tell her arms aren't going to be enough -- and she dodges with the best of them! Swinging to the side, back, and left, she keeps pace with Aranha's strikes in nearly every fashion -- though when he swings around, she chooses to perform a 'role' to the side, dropping low to the ground and scooting out of his way, only narrowly evadign his do-or-die kickfest!
Panting, she looks up, wiping her brow with a forearm. "Whew! You're pretty strong, you know that? You are, you are!" Ever cheerful, the girl leaps forward with an opening crescent of her own -- timing her kick to match the beat of Aranha's music. "Do!" Should she land that, two =fists= would follow, pounding motions intended to shake the capoeirista up -- "Re! Me!" before she follows with two quick bumps of her hip. "Fa! So!" A backflip kick would come next, before the girl surges forward into a cabecada headbutt -- "La!" -- all finished off with another crescent, "Ti!" and then leaping split kick intended to knock her opponent to the ground! "Daaa!"
COMBATSYS: Aranha dodges Momoko's Momoko no Do-Re-Mi Canto.
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Momoko 0/-------/------=|=------\-------\0 Aranha
"I don't think, I've had as much fun in a fight for a long time." It's then when Luta e Brincadeira begins playing and he draws energy from the song even though his body is screaming that he can't go on. The music pushes him to feats that shouldn't even be possible for him.
Likewise matching the beat, he leans backwards pushing his knees forward then he's about to rise back to his feet to duck back under the two fisted blow singing the chorus as he evades the attacks, "Laaa-ue Laaa-ue Laaa Laaaaaaa.... Laaaaueee Laue Laue Laaaaa Laaaaaa...." He continues evading by side stepping the hip bumps, spins out of the way of the flip kick, shifts out of the way of the headbutt, Cartwheels along the path of the final crescent kick before using the Armada Dupla the way it was meant to be used. To lift him up and over the split kick. Even still he might land on Momoko if she's not careful.
COMBATSYS: Aranha successfully hits Momoko with Armada Dupla.
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Momoko 0/-------/---====|==-----\-------\0 Aranha
Well... it would seem the Armada Dupla's the perfect thing to do here! Momoko's still a bit winded from throwing out numerous attacks, and yet landing none! It =is= the perfect fight for a capoeirista, considering... but Momoko's already approaching naptime!
Winded, she twists back to face Aranha -- though she doesn't see him there! "Aaaah? Where'd you--" And right then, that's when Aranha's double kick comes crashing down onto her shoulders! "AAAH!" BAM! The girl folds like a paper airplane, crumpling to the ground!
But... when she rises, it's onto one hand, her legs whirling as if a cartwheel -- but instead she stops, just tagging him with one foot in the traditional Au Batido... "Ya!"
COMBATSYS: Momoko successfully hits Aranha with Au Batido.
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Momoko 0/-------/---====|===----\-------\0 Aranha
After that kick lands he attempts to perform an aerial to set himself up for his next attack however he didn't expect for Momoko to cartwheel with him and he barely lands before Momoko tags him with the snapping kick right on his head. In a somewhat ungraceful spin backwards, he tries to get his bearings back before launching an attack.
He goes into ginga letting his body relax and then he launches his body forward whipping off that same glowing roundhouse, followed by that same glowing spinning jump kick which is then followed by a backflip kick. This combo usually sees him through tough times and it's his hope it will see him through this one.
COMBATSYS: Momoko interrupts Aggressive Dance from Aranha with Bananeira Dois Golpes.
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Momoko 0/-------/-======|======-\-------\0 Aranha
Momoko grins, nodding slightly as she tags him with that kick. She springs back to her feet, rolling her head about to the music. "I like this song too!" she notes with a cheerful grin, even swinging her hands about to the motion.
When the spider comes flying at her, though, the girl backflips out of the way to avoid it. It's 1 1/2 backflips and a twist, actually -- by the time she's on her hands the second time, she's flipped around to face him, inverted. Aranha's able to land his jump kick on one of her legs, but it's her other leg kicking him out of it! "Ya!" She follows with a second kick, knocking him away before she jacknifes, springing back to her feet with another twist. "Ya!"
But then she stoops over, rubbing her leg lightly. "What kind of energy is that, anyway? I've never seen the blue before... it's your own, right? Right?"
"I... I..." Between him being out of breath and just being busted up in this fight he's in he has trouble getting the words out. "I think it's called chi. To be honest..." He pauses to catch his breath as he drops to one knee. "I don't really understand it. I wish I did."
His lungs begin to burn and then he starts running and then runs into the space between funnel cake store and arcade. He kicks off the funnel cake store taking him upwards where he kicks off the arcade alternating back and forth until he was able to get himself up on the roof of the arcade. He takes a running leap off the roof top to drop foot first on top of Momoko. Regardless of whether he lands it or not, he's going to be laying down for awhile. It wasn't Capoeira but it should be pretty damn impressive.
COMBATSYS: Aranha can no longer fight.
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Momoko 0/-------/-======|
COMBATSYS: Aranha successfully hits Momoko with Sky's the Limit.
- Power hit! -
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Momoko 1/------=/=======|
Momoko is left scratching her head as Aranha explains the source of his power. Chi? Well, sure, that works, but it's not =totally= what Momoko expected. "Huh! There must be all kinds..."
She's left even more astounded as the young man runs off. He's going to the funnel cake store? ... Or the arcade? He wants to play video games? "... Anooooo..." she starts, raising a finger. That's bad form, right? Leaving the fight? Does that mean she wins? She looks to the fight officials -- who shrug. He's still standing, right?
Of course, when she looks back up, she finds this guy leaping right off the building at her. He's =quick!= The girl leaps back, but it's much too late -- the girl is crushed to the ground, leaving a faint trail of blood on the boards as she's knocked backwards, along her back, for a good ten, fifteen feet or so!
"Nngggyaaa..." she mumbles, pushing herself up from the boards. "That was weird!" she protests, even pouting just a moment. It =wasn't= capoeira, no! But she smiles soon afterwards. "But thank you very much for the fight!" She rubs her shoulders, bleeding from the cheese-grater effect of being run across the boards, but she seems... mostly okay! ... Aside from the not-standing up part, anyway!
COMBATSYS: Momoko takes no action.
COMBATSYS: Momoko can no longer fight.
Aranha's on his back right next to Momoko, laughing loudly. "HAHAHA!! Hurk! Owww..." He turns towards the other Capoeirista and smiles. "I wish I was as good as you when I was your age." He hisses for a moment from the pain of most of impacts delivered throughout the course of the fight.
Then again the fact that a twelve year old actually gave him work probably did a lot to decrease his street cred but as far as they're concerned he'll just tell them to go a few rounds with her and see how they do. They probably wouldn't have done nearly as well.
Winning or losing doesn't really matter to the girl -- Momoko's happy as long as she gets a good fight out of it! Laughing, she nods back in reply to Aranha! "Haha! You've got to show me how you hop up buildings like that, that was crazy! It was, it was!"
But... the talking won't last forever -- with the battle concluded, the Neo League announcer butts his way in, announcing the draw... and the medics swoop in to make their assessments on the pair! Will there be a rematch between these two capoeiristas? Oh, you better believe it!
Log created on 18:42:29 07/04/2007 by Aranha, and last modified on 05:40:57 07/10/2007.