Description: *Season Three, Episode Fourteen Part 1* Next time on "Shamanic Princess Todoh" after weeks of catastrophic disasters plaguing the country side, an answer is finally found in the form of 'The clapper' but can Princess Todoh properly discover how to use it in time or will the evil witch discover its secrets first? The first part of the two part special is a must see!
The Todoh dojo has seen better days. This is usually the case every day someone looks at it from the outside - for a short time, the Todoh style was a hit thanks to SNF promotion! But with the poor performance versus Kain and the Pacific Resistence, it's gone back down to normal levels. "Normal," of course, meaning "desperate for more students!"
It's a clear evening out in the Karuta district of Southtown, so nature has decided not to weep for the fall, the short rise, and the fall of Ryuhaku Todoh and instead illuminates the night with a waning full moon. It is very quiet out in the nearby park that could almost be considered the very back yard of the Todoh dojo.
Its master, true to form, has inexplicably decided that tonight is a very good night to take a nap in the grass somewhere. The local night watch hasn't bothered to try and chase him out yet, given it appears as though someone's taped a loitering ticket to his head in his sleep.
One would think he has quite the collection of those.
It was on this particular moment that someone decided to come pay the dojo a visit, someone in red on a scooter, a vespa scooter. She literally rides the front door down. She's a witch! Or at least someone cosplainy as one. She has a witches hat on, conical only bent at the top, red of course, black round shades, a red dress with some lace (it might almost have a vaguely gothic look), knee high boots and a broom. After riding over the door she dismounts and kicks her kickstand up, the scooter meanwhile falls over. She looks around.
"So ... er.. your door.. Yeah, well I'm an eager student!" She says while reaching into her hat to pull out a business card.
"And er.. Business proposition.. so whose the sensei here?" The dust clears,
"Hallo? Anyone home? At all?"
The dojo is empty. Too empty... where's Ryuhaku Todoh? His daughter and up-and-coming fighting superstar (or so Ryuhaku believes) Kasumi? What about his lovely wife, whom must be among the most patient of wives this side of Marge Simpson? Nowhere to be found within the confines of the dojo.
It's dark inside, but as far as one can tell, things seem... almost in order. Someone was cleaning in here earlier. It smells like dinner was had here recently, at that. By Elle's instructions (or anyone else's), this is the place. There's no mistake on Naerose's behalf about the location. After all, the name is proudly displayed on the building.
She'll be able to hear some rustling from far behind her that leads around to the side of the building. If she doesn't, there's a loud "THUD" that shakes the building before someone, or /something/, clumsily hoists themselves up through a side window.
"Nnngh." Quoth the stranger with an apparent failure to perform a dramatic entrance, nnngh.
The witch adjusts her shades. This place was.. DEAD. But hey, food? She starts to follow her nose and is totally ready to find whatever food there might be anywhere in the house when. . Enter stranger A.
"Right, hey ahh, if you're a thief or something I totally got here first, so you can have everything else, but I get the food, cause I don't think there is any money to be had, unless of course you actually live here?" She can hardly see him given the time of day and that she insists on wearing dark shades, but you wouldn't know that looking at the woman, except that she wasn't exactly looking at the fellow, just sort of toward them.
Whoever or whatever it is, it is clearly here and does not seem to care for the small talk given it slowly stirs to a stand. Long hair. Flowing clothes. There's a small breeze that carries through the window they just entered, which accent these features nice and... well, maybe even dramatically if it could even be /seen./ Moving on.
"BAH! If you were a thief you'd have already found a way to turn on these damn lights!" So says a voice that could only belong to an older man as he then flows gracefully into the fine art of the slapstick. Which is to say, he walks into one of the indoor wooden support beams with a 'bump.'
"AAAGH! That electrician was a sham! A sham!!" This could probably go on a while if their rants were left uninterrupted.
Welcome to the home life of one Ryuhaku Todoh(?), he whom seemingly does not like electricians as opposed to rude witches that drive things through his front doors.
"Ah, I dunno.. I mean electric bills are kinda expensive.." she begins and scratches her cheek.
"Wait hold on, is this a sushi bar? I could totally go for some grub, and if not? We wondder why not and .." she ran out of questions and just gets off her scooter and takes a few steps into the place before asking,
"Is this place even accepting students? And quick talking talent agents and fight promoters?" She wonders if such an investment could even make her money without doing much work.
Just then she finds just what she was looking for, her bunny whom had fallen out of her hat at the time of the crash. She picks him up, dusts him off. The poor thing is all tuckered out and @@ eyed.
"Well.. at least I won't starve."
"Expensive?! Ha! Ooooh, they said it would be cheap and that I'd like it! But do I? No I don't!" He complains on top of Naerose's muttering as he continues to stumble about inexpertly for a man that, supposedly, spends a lot of time here. "Baaaaaaaaaaah FORGET IT! Now!"
The mysterious man claps his hands above his head loudly. All of a sudden, the overhead lights come on. This is indeed Ryuhaku Todoh! He stares forward with a look of sahrp evaluation, which deteriorates very quickly into confusion and curiosity alike. He claps his hands above him again, it goes off. Once more, on. Off, on, off, on. Lo and behold, this dojo has been introduced to the amazing engineering marvel that is the Clapper.
"What kind of crazy thing is this?!" Lo and behold, this dojo is headed by a man who has issues with technology even from quite a few years ago. Maybe he started going senile pretty early. He loers his hands down in front of his chest. Most notably, he hasn't yet removed the lotering ticket from his forehead yet. "Ahem! You are at the premiere fighting school of Southtown!" Did Naerose want to hear sales pitches?
Too bad. "We are accepting students, no, trailblazers for the future of the fighting world as we know it!" Then, in a lower voice, "and as gamblers predict it, but, you know, you didn't hear that from me."
He clears up his voice after those words that his wife would have slapped him for.
It's like a strobe effect, that's gonna be so awesome when actual training begins. This doesn't occur to the witch though, she just marvels at the masterpiece light contraption. She's so totally sold.
"Hey, that's like that G-dog person from the clouds right? Let there be light and then there was? Really neat, I have got to sign up for this school." The witch says brightly then adds,
"And umm, I need to represent this school as part of my agency *in a lower voice* which hasn't got a name yet."
she beams all around, just imaging the money she could bring in once she stole that crazy contraption that made the lights come on and off.
The Clapper captivates all. It leads all to salvation for total convenience and hilarious frustration. One day it will once again make a bid to rule all of Southtown. But this whole affair isn't just about the Clapper.
"If you seek to master the art of fighting, you have come to the right place!" The master(?) crosses his arms and nods approvingly. Whether he sees Naerose as an interested student, income, or any of the above, one may never know. Suddenly, he draws one of his trademark fans and opens it with a simple flick of the wrist, as if he were posing for a television ad of sorts.
"Whatever that thing was you just said, you can count on what you learn here to see you to the top! The top!" He puts plenty of emphasis on that last bit, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary if that carnival SNF was any indication. "First lessons are free!"
This is either a good deal or soon to be vengeance for the door.
So far Naerose is impressed, she claps and stuff and then realizes she doesn't know what actually comes with the whole, lesson thing. So she sort of stares dumbfounded at the fan, and well she's not Japanese so the symbolism is lost totally on her.
"Wait, okay, lets begin, except, what am I supposed to do? I don't have one of those nifty pap- wait hold on here.." She reaches into her hat and pulls out a flyer she found conveniently nearby on her way in. She begins to fold it in rows until it makes a cheap paper fan and then holds it up with a broad smile.
"Wow, I really am getting the hang of this. So when do we get the contract signing?"
When Naerose claps, the Clapper responds. On, off, on, off, on, off. It stops on off, which Todoh quickly corrects with another clap of hands above his own head. He still hasn't taken the ticket off his forehead.
"The contract signing?! Hm, hm," he starts to rub his hands together after the fact, the fan properly deposited back into.. um, hey, where did it go, anyway? "Eager! Spirited! That is what I like in a prospective student! But first maybe you will like your free lesson! And then, then! Then we'll talk about signing contracts!"
The fan he was holding at some point earlier suddenly falls out of his sleeve and hits the floor with such a loud 'CLACK' that it causes the dojo to go dark again.
She doesn't seem to of realized she can make the lights come back on yet and instead turns the headlights on of her scooter.
"That's better," she murmurs and then looks around in alarm.
"wait, where did you go and by free lesson you don't mean..."
Images flash through her head, shown only to outside observers by looks of HORROR on her face. She is clearly not game for what she thinks is gonna happen here.
"Umm on second thought.."
"I mean free lesson! Free! Free!" You heard Ryuhaku Todoh. Free, free, free! He pauses in his long-winded self-promoting ways to do the clapping thing again. Whose idea was this to install a Clapper here anyway?
"Don't be shy! Why, you weren't when you came in here, now were you?!" This trails off into manly giggling, a paradoxical sound in itself as the dropped fan is not-so-lovingly brushed aside with a foot as to not trip over it.
"Now! Let us be--" With a clap of his hands somewhere around chin length, the lights go out again which bring about a pause. He claps once more the same way. "Ahem! As I was saying, now! Let us begin." He quickly drops into a ready stance, legs apart, both arms forward at varying lengths. "Show me with your power! Then I will show you what you once could only dream of!"
...If Naerose were to dream of throwing segmented short-ranged descending energy waves, maybe this promise would hold water.
COMBATSYS: Todoh has started a fight here.
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Todoh 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Naerose has joined the fight here.
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Naerose 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Todoh
"Okay!" She cries, and decides to get into the groove, cause afterall, his energy was totally infectious!
"Here I come!"
And the witch does come, she makes a biiig sweeping motion with her broom and tries to sweep up Todoh with it.
What does it look like? Well.. Imagine someone trying to sweep the floor with a big grin on her face. Then of course the lights well.. hopefully they stay on.
COMBATSYS: Todoh endures Naerose's Clean Sweep!
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Naerose 0/-------/------=|=------\-------\0 Todoh
The broom sweeps up at the floor around Todoh's lower leg. For all intents and purposes, he seems to stand there and take it as it smacks up against the trousers with such force and vigor that it makes a powerful 'SLAP' noise that would have made lesser men fear for the health of their knees!
It also turns the lights off. Given that there's no softer thud of the taller, older man hitting the ground, it probably didn't work exactly as well as hoped despite the hit landing... clean.
"Gaaah!" Pain, or frustration? Whatever the case is, it would be difficult to see any strike coming, a considerable disadvantage to those not used to fighting in this condition! "Now witness the first of the many noble, sure-fire techniques of the Todoh way!" Oooh, a secret from the start? Naerose might be fortunate to see and maybe learn this for free!
His arms seem to go up in the darkness, but right around then a formation of three segments of brightly-colored, somewhat blocky energy form in a row between her and Todoh, its descent quickly guided downwards with his arms and the spirited call of "HEEYAH!"
It is bright enough to briefly illuminate a significant portion of the dojo, the headlights of Naerose's vehicle notwithstanding. In fact, maybe it's about to steal credit for illuminating the darkness from said vehicle. You can't put anything like that past Todoh, these days.
COMBATSYS: Todoh successfully hits Naerose with Kasane Ate.
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Naerose 0/-------/--=====|===----\-------\0 Todoh
Naerose meanwhile is totally blinded by the lack of light! It kills her perception and then there is a flash, she has shades on and it reflects in their depths, but she can't really react in time and gets knocked back consideration. The lights flicker too as she staggers.
"Youre kidding me!" she eclaims, totally not expecting to be doing a disco battle.
"Okay, that's it, if you wanna dance, lets do it."
She begins to dance and tries to hit her opponent with a killer move, except she is still not clear where he is or if the lights are even on. Darned shades.
COMBATSYS: Todoh dodges Naerose's Strong Kick.
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Naerose 0/-------/--=====|===----\-------\0 Todoh
"This is but the first of many of our great techniques that we pass from the ages long past to the present daa-YYEAARGH!" Suddenly, there is the sound of him collapsing onto the floor. There is something strange about this. Naerose may find that her dancing about has not led to a collision with the elderly fighter, or anything. So what is he yelling over?
A split second later, there's another loud 'CLACK' as the fan he thought he had kicked aside instead happens to get in his way in the movement. The lights come back on again, showing Ryuhaku Todoh on his back in a harder part of the floor.
"Ach." He grimaces as he sits up and rubs his back. "Oooh." Grimace. "Aaaaah." Grimace again. "Argh! My back!" But, is he really that hurt? He rubs at it with his right hand gingerly.
"Master! " Cries the witch, totally taking her part and looking all concerned and stuff, well not terribly concerned, actually doing a pretty good job of acting, I mean she looks like she's playing a game.
She goes to help the old timer with the care you might give a pet.
"I'll help you to the kitchen!" she exclaims, no alterior motives there.
"Ooogh." He replies in a groan as he rubs at his back and stands back up. "Errr... yes, yes, that would be good, very good, I mean, AAAAGH," and clearly he is not the most convincing actor as he ambles up against the wall. Hey, that ticket is still on his head, too. Is he some crazy blind guy, or does he simply just not care for it?
When/if Naerose invades the kitchen, she'll find a strangely bountiful supply of things to cook yakisoba noodles with. Strangely bountiful, along the lines of 'is this /all/ they plan to eat?' It is fairly fresh from the markets, however. He must've bought a whole bunch of it today for whatever reason.
Company? Ensuring that the Sakizakis go hungry when Takuma can't cook his favorite dish? A great love for yakisoba noodles? The world will never know.
But they'll know where the ticket goes as Todoh eyes the little vehicle that Naerose came in here on.
Log created on 23:19:34 07/30/2007 by Naerose, and last modified on 10:23:52 08/19/2007.