Description: Hotaru once again plays King of the Hill in Chinatown. Aranha decides give the game a try and even if he doesn't manage to win the game, he still makes a bit of money. No he didn't throw the fight.
The time is late afternoon. Time for tired, worn out students, teachers, and employees to make their way home after a hard way of work, learning, or teaching. Many might be inclined to just head straight home, but for a fair number of people in Chinatown, there's another option. The location is the outskirts of Chinatown, where paved roads give way to dust covered dirt lanes, and the streets are lined with shops, street venders, and the like.
A small crowd is gathered around one location where the sound of cheering, laughing, and just general commotion can be heard. In the middle of the crowd is Hotaru Futaba, something of a local favorite. With her Chinese styled attire, she fits right here. She has a history of playing King of the Hill with people, which many in the area regularly enjoy watching.
But today is a little different. It seems the girl is play-sparing with folks who want a shot at showing off their 'cool moves' during their brief moment in the spotlight. No one expects to really actually be able to beat up the highly skilled Kenpo artist, but it's fun to try all the same, and Hotaru is playing along with light attacks that do more to just knock people around without hurting them much.
It seems the contest right now is to see if anyone can land a clean hit on her at all. One lanky fellow tries his luck, charging the girl and jumping at her with a clumsy jump kick. It's nothing for Hotaru to put her hands up and deftly redirect his momentum to send him tumbling right back out of the makeshift circle of people. There is some cheering and laughing, people patting the guy on the back for giving it a shot. Hotaru grins a little after him, "Nice attempt though!" she offers as consolation solace.
Aranha has been both watching carefully though he's fairly sure he's not seeing the whole story even still he's been taking bets off on the side saying that not only will he land one shot he'll land three. Unless he gets more information, he won't be able to tell whether or not he could beat her or not.
He moves slowly towards where Hotaru had just dealt with the fellow. He bows with a smile. "Not bad." He stretches a bit and pulls out his Oakley Thumps and puts them on. With a click of a button his music begins playing in the earbuds that are part of the sunglasses.
Aranha goes into a swaying dancing motion, which would be somewhat familiar to Hotaru since she has faced Elena, another capoeirista, before. "I'm Aranha. Care to dance?" With a playful smile he's dancing and waiting for her to come in.
The young man that steps into the circle now appears to be a foreigner. Not that that's unusual these days, with Southtown being effectively the fighting capital of the world. It's not strange for those who have learned techniques in other countries to come here and try their stuff out against those who actually grew up in this environment.
Hotaru's eyes focus on him - her expression still friendly. She isn't aware of the bets being made by or with the atheletic looking young man. All she knows is that someone else wants his shot trying to get a hit in against her swift reflexes and well honed timing. "Hello," speaks the girl, her tone friendly as she takes in his style, starting to slip into a more serious fighting stance herself. She can tell that this isn't some inexperienced novice like most of the locals she plays with.
"My name is Hotaru Futaba. I don't know about dancing, but you're welcome to a turn in our game like anyone else." she grins. She can tell that he's setting up for her to come at him first, and initially she ponders just holding back. After all, she always let the other people go first on their turns to get a hit in before she carefully escorted them out of the ring. Buuuut... maybe she can play his game and catch him offguard anyway.
She waits a few more seconds, trying to guage his movements carefully even though it is pretty difficult to do so. In the end, she decides to play it safe, stepping forward and trying to tap him in the chest with the tip of her foot. He's taller than she is, and has longer legs, so that might not end up being as safe as she is hoping for it to be. "Watch yourself!" she warns with a grin.
COMBATSYS: Hotaru has started a fight here.
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Hotaru 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Aranha has joined the fight here.
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Hotaru 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Aranha
COMBATSYS: Hotaru successfully hits Aranha with Light Kick.
- Power hit! -
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Hotaru 0/-------/-------|===----\-------\0 Aranha
Normally a fighter is undone when he reacts too late to a kick, Aranha was undone when he reacted too early. He attempts to weave out of the way of the kick at first but it doesn't come quite quickly enough and so he figures he has time to move in closer to set up for a more punishing attack. Of course that's when the kick finally comes. Realizing his mistake mid movement he tries to correct it by catching the impact on his forearm but too little, too late. He takes a lot more punishment than he probably would've had he stayed back, and slides backwards for his troubles.
After a lack of success with a defensive tactic he decides to change tactics to be more aggressive throwing a blue glowing roundhouse kick followed by a spinning jump kick, also glowing blue, to be finished a glowing back flip kick driving downwards on top of the other fighter.
COMBATSYS: Hotaru dodges Aranha's Aggressive Dance.
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Hotaru 0/-------/-------|====---\-------\0 Aranha
Her foot planting harder into him than she had intended, Hotaru frowns a bit, sliding to a stop in order to no longer press her attack. The goal is simply to knock the young man back out of the makeshift circle of onlookers... it's kind of an informal game, really. Even now the circle grows wider as the audience begins to give the fighters some more space to work with. They can tell when someone is more likely to give their local champ a much better challenge than they can, and Aranha seems to be getting regarded in that way so far with his fluid movements and agile manipulations of his body.
Hotaru isn't taking him lightly either. She has a little bit of time to focus after her first kick failed to end this exchange. Some of the people that had been placing bets against Aranha begin to feel pretty confident right now. Will he be able to pull this challenge off?
When he goes on the offense, he has a very squirrely target to go for. Hotaru ducks under the roundhouse and leans out of the way of the spinning jump kick. When the backflip comes, she stops playing an inclose game and hops back out of range completely, managing to not be where he lands by a fraction of a second. "Whew," the girl replies. "This is serious!"
But the game goes on and Hotaru attempts to keep the pressure up, stepping forward to try and snag him while he recovers from that flip kick. Hand reaching out, she tries to snag hold of his wrist. If she can get a tight enough grip, she'll pull him forward while also trying to bend his arm behind his back while hugging in close behind him. From there tripping him to the dirt will be easy. This isn't going to get him out the circle, but it is probably going to make him realize how tough of a fight he's picked if she can pull it off. "Ya!"
COMBATSYS: Aranha fails to interrupt Quick Throw from Hotaru with Vingativa.
- Power fail! -
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Hotaru 0/-------/------=|======-\-------\0 Aranha
Aranha notices the hands grabbing for his wrist and with his back presented for just an instant as a result of his Aggressive Dance. It's a simple matter for Hotaru to grab ahold of it. He planned on making sure she didn't get a chance to make something out of it by spinning around and getting behind her. She's just a bit faster in applying the hold and the attempt to spin around causing his arm twist more violently than she intended before being forced to kiss the ground. "Ouch."
Unfortunately for Aranha, the encounter is going much like most of the people watching expected. Hotaru isn't the local favorite for nothing. Hotaru knows better. She's getting by with some close calls. A fraction off in her footing, or a split second slow in her timing and she'd be the one struggling here. But such is the nature of a fight against someone who actually knows a thing or two. It isn't so easy as it might look on the outside.
Still, Hotaru has a very long resume of circuit fighting under her belt now, and she's seen a wide variety of styles at play in her life and she's trying her best to see through the tricky Capoeira this young man utilizes. "Not quite," she states with a faint smile before hopping back to let him get up to his feet. There's a hint in her tone that suggests she believes there's more to him than she's seen so far.
COMBATSYS: Hotaru takes no action.
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Hotaru 0/-------/------=|======-\-------\0 Aranha
The problem with fights like this he'd try to fall back on his Parkour to change his situation but such is the nature of the battle. There are no walls and jumping off of people would give him a loss instantly. So he has to adapt to the situation.
With a moment to study the situation he decides on a course of action. He needs to gain more information about the fighter. Defense didn't work and offense didn't work. Perhaps this situation demands that he be balanced in his approach. Somewhat defensive, somewhat aggressive, he whips his foot around in a series of outside crescent kicks as feints moving forwards as he does so before inserting a short pause in the series and dropping to touch the ground before throwing the real attack. A roundhouse-like kick while both of his hands are on the ground.
COMBATSYS: Aranha successfully hits Hotaru with Light Kick.
Glancing Blow
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Hotaru 0/-------/-----==|======-\-------\0 Aranha
As each of the successive kicks comes at her, Hotaru waves and sways to avoid them... even though they're feints. Which she begins to realize after the first couple. She really needs to quit being so flighty... learn to hold her ground a little. The only attack that needs to be avoided is the one that's for real, right? Dodging stuff that isn't going to hit her is just going to wear herself out for nothing.
Which is why she's a little slow to react when the real kicker comes, the young man demonstrating incredible dexerity with the handstand kick. Hotaru puts her stature to use as she crouches down to avoid the incoming roundhouse. His foot grazes the top of her head just barely, but it was such a light hit that most of the people watching immediately begin debating as to whether or not he connected with her at all.
The pig-tailed girl knows better though. It wasn't a clean hit by any means, but he did hit her when she tried to keep him from doing so. Not quite a victory condition in anyone's mind, but an indication that he's definitely getting close. When the girl comes at him again, she takes to the air, demonstrating an acrobatic flip of her own. She comes out of the flip and attempts to plant her heel on the young man's shoulder, "Yaa!" If she pulls it off, she'll flip forward to land behind him, setting her up for another attack immediately after it would seem. That wasn't going to get him out of the circle either. It seems like she's setting him up though.
COMBATSYS: Aranha dodges Hotaru's Koushuu Da.
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Hotaru 0/-------/-----==|======-\-------\0 Aranha
Aranha knows a set up when he sees one. Part of capoeira is in the mental game. In seeing traps and recognizing when he's being herded. He hasn't shown that fact until just now due to making judgement mistakes and getting himself punished on situations where he go with the responses that have the highest probabilities. He is good at seeing tells and he's reading a major tell out of Hotaru. Just something about her eyes tells him he doesn't want to be there.
He practically dives out of the way of the attempt to plant her heel on his shoulder but when he lands gracefully drops down to the ground with both hands planted on the ground and his head just barely avoids touching the ground with his head and elbow is pressed against his side. He considers snapping out a kick to punish the miss but he thinks better of it, instead he decides to put his energy into making sure the next attack lands. To finish the fight respectably will require perfection from him the rest of the fight.
COMBATSYS: Aranha focuses on his next action.
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Hotaru 0/-------/-----==|======-\-------\0 Aranha
The young man avoids her heel kick with perfection and while Hotaru is forced to touch down without having connected with an attack, she's still light on her feet, hopping forward again, whirling around in mid air to land back down still facing him, hands already bracing as if she was prepared to dish something out if he had followed up after her.
But Aranha holds his ground, perhaps correctly avoiding whatever setup the smaller fighter had in mind. It's almost as if she realizes she got read because the smile she gives him becomes a little wry and she shakes her head. She must have broadcasted something too readily, she chides herself. The people in the audience are practically holding their breaths now. Hotaru has managed to hold her own very well without eating a clean hit. But she hasn't taken down the foreign boy either, which means the chance for him to succeed still exists in this exchange of extremely fast attacks.
"You're pretty good," the Kenpo artist states with a bit of a grin. "I think I recognize you from somewhere... have you fought professionally?" She pauses for a moment - long enough to give an answer, before she runs forward and leaps into a lateral jump kick, slamming out with one leg directly for the boy's chest intending to deliver a strike decisive enough to end this little contest. If her first kick connects, her other leg will swing around and kick him as well, before she backflips off of him, having delivered her own powerful version of the Kyokugen Hien Shippu Kyaku!
COMBATSYS: Aranha interrupts Heavy Kick from Hotaru with Change-Up Kick.
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Hotaru 0/-------/--=====|=======\-------\1 Aranha
He rises from the from the unorthodox position he was in but he seems to rise right into the first kick. The position didn't quite lend itself to avoiding the Hien Shippu Kyaku but he still can minimize how much damage he can take from it and while a Capoeirista doesn't like making conflicting attacks the street hustler, street fighter acknowledges that sometimes it can't be avoided.
Aranha goes into the attack off center which causes the attack to not connect as cleanly as it should have but also in turn, allowing him to spin with it catching her in the air with first a spinning back heel to catch her in the air first before the second part of the kick can be brought to bear and then following it up with a roundhouse to knock her away.
It seems King of the Hill has a lot in common with a capoeira roda. In both cases, it's about controlling the ground and now that he's recovered from the bout of mishaps at the beginning, he's now beginning his fight for the center.
The first kicks stops her foreward momentum, pending the light weight fighter over his foot, lining her up easily for the second kick that comes in to finish the job, knocking the girl back the way she came. "Ermph!" Hotaru squeaks as the second blow lands. As she falls, she twists swiftly, hands slamming down to catch her fall so that she lands on her toes and palms rather than on her back, and then she's back up to her feet, twirling around in mid-air to land facing Aranha again, arms already moving to a ready position to defend against any follow up attack.
"That's pretty good," she grins. "I recognize you now. You've been showing up in some broadcasted fights lately." Heh! No wonder he managed to strike her like that. He does have professional experience in the big leagues.
"Yeah, but he can hit her again I bet!" someone calls from the audience, no doubt one of the few willing to bet that Aranha can actually land a series of attacks on the Kung Fu fighting girl. Hotaru glances at the crowd, an amused look on her face, before focusing back on Aranha. Hnn...
When the lithe fighter takes off toward him again, she goes for a more brazen attack in order to try and settle this. This time the girl runs forward, attempting to snag a hold of one of those fast moving ankles of his. If she can get a grip, she's going to crouch down a little then leap up into the air into an arc over him while pulling his leg up with her... It's going to end up flipping him over on his back completely if she pulls it off, perhaps trying to flip him over on his back.
COMBATSYS: Aranha blocks Hotaru's Ten Ranku-Tou.
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Hotaru 0/-------/---====|=======\=------\1 Aranha
"Yeah, I was in the Neo League and in SNF," he says as he gets his ankles grabbed. He probably shouldn't have started flapping his gums but he knew didn't have much of a chance at avoiding the grab but he knew he can at least do a bit of damage control.
He's silently grateful he managed to get back some ground as he's launched up and back but instead of landing on his back or his head, he catches himself in a handstand and performs a handspin which while it looks flashy it also has the effect of allowing him to turn so that he can watch Hotaru from a handstand position.
Aranha marches on his hands right up to the teenager and delivers a barrage of handstand kicks at her to get her off balance and back her off once again.
COMBATSYS: Hotaru dodges Aranha's Inverted Flurry.
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Hotaru 0/-------/---====|=======\==-----\1 Aranha
Flipping over him all in an attempt to flip HIM over, Hotaru is surprised to find that the young man not only caught himself to prevent a damaging landing, but manages to stay like that even after recovering from the impact. The girl slides to a stop, feet kicking up dust as she turns around back toward Aranha, brow furrowing a little at the handstand position he's taken.
No time to puzzle about it too long as he advances back on her. From an outside perspective, it looks kind of funny. Young man walking upside down on his hands, swinging his legs out to try and strike the nimble girl. But to Hotaru's perspective it's no laughing matter. Step by step she backs up as he advances, leaning to each side to avoid the incoming foot or sweeping leg. In fact, she starts to get backed over to the edge of the circle, the crowd beginning to draw in their breath as they wonder if Hotaru is about to get chased right out of the ring.
It's then that she decides to attack back, ducking low into a crouch, trying to be too low for his legs to hit her while she charges up a brilliant, rich blue glow in the palm of her right hand. Turning around to roll her arm forward, she lobs the little chi sphere at Aranha while he's upsidedown and close at her, perhaps attempting to take advantage of his position and proximity to deal a decisive blow. "HA!"
COMBATSYS: Aranha dodges Hotaru's Hakki Shou EX.
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Hotaru 0/-------/----===|=======\==-----\1 Aranha
Aranha lets out a joyful shout of, "YEEEEEEEEEEEOW!!!!" There's a large smile on his face as he leans out of the way as if finishing a cartwheel before performing a quick shuffle step to get himself into a good position and whipping out a pair of outside crescent kicks, the first from his front leg before placing it in the back and whipping it around again for another outside crescent kick. He still has some ground to make up.
COMBATSYS: Hotaru interrupts Change-Up Kick from Aranha with Hakki Shou.
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Hotaru 0/-------/-======|=======\=======\1 Aranha
Unfortunately, the first fireball Hotaru threw was just to get the young man moving. He has longer range than she does, especially with all those crazy sweeping kicks of his. But lobbing the little projectile made up for her lack of range, forcing him to move in order to avoid it. Controlling the ground in her own way, it seems.
The girl rolls her arm back, however, bathing her hand in a blue, shimmering light a second time as Aranha comes in kicking again. If she wants to make this one count, however, she has to wait until he's too committed to the attack to slip away with that agile speed of his. And... unfortunately, that means waiting until the first crescent kick comes in and strikes her in the side. "Erph," the girl grunts, but her feet hold true and she keeps from being bowled over.
As his other leg comes in to deliver another blow, the girl finally swings her arm forward, discharging the blue energy she had built up at almost point blank range, "HA!" The projectile itself will splash against him with pure force, leaving no other negative side-effects other than the sense ofhaving been struck by something hard. The residue of the Hakki Shou vaporizes quickly, as if it had never existed in the first place.
Struck by something hard indeed. Aranha's hit the by energy the at the point where it's hardest to maintain his balance. The impact sends him flying backwards in a crazy spin that to the outsider must seem somewhat comical. He does several flips in the air before coming to a skid outside of the circle. It's obvious he lost but had this been an SNF or a NL match he might've given a final gasp just so she'd have something to remember him by but it's probably for the best that Aranha keeps that under his hat just incase he has to fight her again.
Instead he takes off his sunglasses and pockets them and approaches Hotaru to shake her hand his left hand moving to guard his face. He says almost in a whisper, "Thanks for the dance, little one." After the handshake whether or not it's taken he'll head off to collect his money. He did bet on three hits landing after all and he landed three... Of course he's not even going debate the glancing blow one since even he knew it landed he knows it was hard for others to tell that he landed it... sorta.
COMBATSYS: Aranha takes no action.
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Hotaru 0/-------/-======|
COMBATSYS: Aranha can no longer fight.
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Hotaru 0/-------/-======|
Of course, Hotaru knew nothing of the wager on the line, or she might have tried to avoid a few more of his attacks. But three hits did land, and the contest Aranha was hoping to win for money ends up work out his way even though the Kenpo artist was the victor in thes of most of the audience. She shakes his hand, offering a firm grip and a grin, even though being called little one makes her wince a little, she isn't annoyed to say anything about it for now. The crowd doesn't even hear him though because they're too busy clapping and cheering. Aranha may not have won, but he gave them a chance to see Hotaru in action against a real, respectable opponent. And it's always so much better to see it happen in person rather than watching via the TV.
"Any time. Thanks for playing, Aranha," Hotaru smiles back as he takes his leave to go claim his money. The girl stretches her arms a little at her sides then rests her hands at her hips while she looks around, "I think that's all for tonight everyone. Thanks, it was fun as always!"
The audience makes room for the pig-tailed girl to slip off. There will be time for fun and games another day. For right now, she's feeling a bit tired from the frantic pace Aranha made her maintain just in order to keep up with him.
COMBATSYS: Hotaru has ended the fight here.
Log created on 13:47:15 08/16/2007 by Aranha, and last modified on 09:59:43 08/18/2007.