Description: Tired of all this whining on the internet about who's better than who, Yamazaki begins his own personal crusade to get these damned internet kids to shut their mouths and say it in person if they've got something to say. The first target? Kurow Kirishima.
It is the end of the school day (in Japan, there is no Labor Day!) and Kurow Kirishima is taking advantage of just that. The young man has put his daily work into school-related business, and now he really just wants to get /out/ of school. (After all -- who /doesn't/ after English? That's a terrible course.)
For once, Kurow is not expecting any sort of comeuppance for anything he's done, in the most immediate sense. He trouced Rock, probably bad enough to put him into the hospital for a couple of days; he hasn't managed to irritate any of the major crime syndicates /recently/, either. Sure, he might have to deal with someone from Taiyo or Seijyun who's just now getting caught up with the situation with Sakura and Akira, but that's hardly a real /problem/.
So he just walks toward the nearest sushi place, from Justice. Life is, for once, normal-ish.
Statements like that just beg for our old friend Irony to step on and redirect things in the direction completely opposite that one may have planned.
When the school bell rings to signal the end of the day, a long Lincoln-style town car has managed to perfect its timing by pulling right up to the curb in front of Justice High. The back door swings open, and a rather large, annoyed-looking blonde Asian man slides out of his seat and out of the car. And as our friend timing would make appropriate, Ryuji Yamazaki has stepped out of the car just in time for Kurow to be walking past. While largely unfamiliar with the Darkside ninja in the first place, his being clad in a normal school uniform is going to make this even harder.
What's a guy to do? Grab the nearest person and scare the shit out of them.
One big, meaty hand reaches out and snatches a student by the shirt-collar, who is quite promptly yanked from his feet and into the air. There's a brief yelp as he's pulled face to face with the Syndicate enforcer, who leans down just a little. "Kirishima Kurow. NOW." The student, legs kicking and flailing, points back over his shoulder towards the crowd in no particular direction.
However, the crowd has also heard this. Murmurs start to pass their way from person to person until they reach the ears of someone who actually knows Kurow, who gets tapped on the shoulder soon after. "Kirishima-san. There's a very large, very angry-looking man looking for you at the entrance.
"It's Ryuji Yamazaki."
Well, there went that free night. But then, it could be worse -- at least it's 'only' Ryuji Yamazaki, Kurow reminds himself. After all, while the man is a threat, he isn't exactly Grant. This could be problematic, especially with how unhinged Yamazaki is -- but it doesn't quite register too high on Kirishima's threat rating.
So rather than run, which many would consider to be the smart thing, he starts to weave his way back through the crowd, toward the entrance to Justice High. Yamazaki is here for a fight, Kurow thinks to himself. (How does he know? He knows because Yamazaki is never anywhere for anything /but/ a fight.) His hands stray down to his pockets briefly, taking up those clawed gloves that are usually the hallmarks of his fighting style (until Rock Howard complains about foreign objects) and slipping them on.
It doesn't take him long to get back to the entrance -- he knows Justice High intimately. It is his domain; not as much as it is Hyo's or Raizo's, perhaps, but he is definitely one of Justice's major players, and definitely knows it better than most. Eventually, he finds himself face to face with Ryuji Yamazaki.
"You wanted something?" he asks, tone firm and even, not too different from how he'd deal with anyone else.
Well, he pointed into the crowds. That would help. There were only several dozen students all milling around to escape the tedium of the school day. The useless teenager was dropped without another word, and Yamazaki was just about to start into the business of mowing people down until he found one that could put up a fight... and Kurow puts himself face to face with the Enforcer. "Fuckin' finally. Christ." Yamazaki cocks his head off to one side, then spits back towards the curb before he reaches into his pocket. He pulls out a piece of paper, and has a brief look over it. "Kurow Kirishima." He looks from the paper to the person in front of him. He looks to the paper again, then his shoulders roll in a brief shrug. "Guess that fuckin' settles that little scavenger hunt, then."
The paper is tossed away in front of him, and it takes him all of a moment to straighten up before the left hand suddenly explodes into motion. Not even bothering with the typical near-trademarked dead-limb preparation, Ryuji's left arm snaps up from his side. The strike tears right through the fluttering paper as he lashes out, and the limb seems to both stretch beyond normal capacity and blur at the same time as it weaves through the air in an attempt to bring the back of his hand across Kurow's face, whipping his hand across with all the force of an angry truck.
COMBATSYS: Yamazaki has started a fight here.
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Yamazaki 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Kurow has joined the fight here.
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Yamazaki 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Kurow
COMBATSYS: Yamazaki successfully hits Kurow with Snake Tamer.
- Power hit! -
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Yamazaki 0/-------/------=|===----\-------\0 Kurow
The raw speed of Yamazaki's attack, more than anything, is what nails Kurow; he wasn't expecting Yamazaki to lash out so immediately. Usually there's at least a little posturing before the first shot -- so when Yamazaki's hand lashes out immediately, giving Kurow the ultimate five across the face, it catches him hard. He staggers back a little, glaring at Yamazaki.
Gritting his teeth, he finally asks the obvious question: "So what's your interest in me today? Or did Geese Howard just get up on the wrong side of the bed?" For all he knows, Geese might actually be /irritated/ at the beating his son received. The reason admittedly doesn't /matter/ that much, especially in a situation like this, though -- so Kurow refocuses on the fight.
Yamazaki is big. /Everyone/ Kurow seems to fight lately, with the exceptions of girls and Rock, is pretty big. He's starting to reevaluate his tactics entirely for this sort of situation; adaptability, with Kurow Kirishima, is the name of the game, within reason. So when he comes back in, he looks to grab Yamazaki by one arm, whirl around behind him, and then give him a hard toss down to the ground. If nothing else, it's a very /straightforward/ tactic.
COMBATSYS: Yamazaki blocks Kurow's Strong Throw.
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Yamazaki 0/-------/-----==|===----\-------\0 Kurow
"Interest? You talk too goddamn much." He pulls back, straightening up and leaning back a little as his arm retracts back to normal capacity, and a moment is taken to flex his fingers, popping his knuckles in the process. "This isn't a business call; I'm just goddamn tired of stupid little shit kids like you and that little bastard Rock that can't come up and talk shit to my face." When Kurow comes back towards him, he knows what's coming when the grab is made for his arm. He turns his body as he's going through mid-air, and he rolls into the throw well enough that it absorbs a fair portion of the impact. He hops back up to his feet a moment later, then brushes himself off. "You got a fuckin' problem with me, you come and you bring the problem to my face. Fuckin' internet nerds."
He pushes forward again, surging straight at Kurow with a fairly straight-forward strike. His left hand comes up in what looks to be a jab towards the side of the face, but right before the jab might have connected, there's a faint shift in Yamazaki's shoulders as he brings the momentum to his other side, right arm belaying the feint just a moment before he tries to bury the knuckles of his right hand right into Kurow's gutmeat.
COMBATSYS: Kurow dodges Yamazaki's Strong Punch.
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Yamazaki 0/-------/-----==|===----\-------\0 Kurow
Oh, so that's the game, Kurow thinks -- Yamazaki is tired of being called on the topic of his championship. Understandable, but ultimately kind of petty, he thinks to himself; he doesn't get too much time to ruminate, though, as he is forced to give his body a quick whirl to the left in the name of avoiding Yamazaki's forceful fists. "If you want to hear it 'to your face,' I'm fine with that," he says, starting to build up a little grin on his face. Perhaps he thinks he can throw Ryuji /off/ his game rather than put him /on/ it by insulting him. (Youth occasionally gives way to bad decisions.)
"Your reign as champion was rather pathetic. Rock's was better, though honestly you probably deserved /that/ period more than he did, anyway." As soon as he says that, he slides forward, trying to bury /his/ hand in Yamazaki's gutmeats. His tactic, while perhaps a little slower than Yamazaki's, has two advantages over the raw power that Yamazaki brings forth. The first obvious advantage is that his hand has taken on a sickly purple glow somewhere in mid-flight; the second, more obvious one is that his hand is very pointy. (That's what happens when you have claws.)
COMBATSYS: Yamazaki interrupts Roppu Zuki from Kurow with Bomb Headbutt.
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Yamazaki 0/-------/--=====|=======\-------\0 Kurow
You can call Yamazaki on the title reign itself all you want; in the end, he doesn't give two shits about a shiny belt. That's all it really is. Perhaps he let the fact that it is a title belt get away from him for a bit, but in the end, no title really changes the fact that his primary pleasure in life involves putting his knuckles and/or knives into someone else's face.
"Belt doesn't mean shit. You want it?" A brief little smirk pulls at the Syndicate enforcer's face as Kurow starts to slide forward. "If you think that--.." He stops for a moment as he gets the pointy end of Kurow's claws into his guts, but then, the grin just gets even wider on his face. ".. retarded belt makes you fight any better.." With the teenage ninja so close, it's an easy reach to snag him by the hair while he's still anchored by the claws in flesh. He tangles his fingers into Kurow's hair, and his voice shifts from that angry, gravelly growl to a higher pitch, almost like a hyena's laugh in tone. He pulls Kurow face to face, nose to nose just before he starts yelling, "THEN YOU'RE A GODDAMN FOOL! AAAAHAHAHAHAHA!" And he's still laughing as he brings his head back, right as he yanks Kurow's head back. He throws himself forward as he pulls his hand in, head ducking down as he slams his forehead right into the middle of Kurow's face, decades of trauma-hardened skull crashing dead-center into the bridge of Kurow's nose. Right at the moment of impact, the thug's energy manifests itself in the form of a fiery explosion that ignites right in the teen's face.
What Kurow doesn't say to Yamazaki is that he doesn't want the title belt to prove anything. He doesn't want it to 'make him a better fighter'. He just wants the belt so he can say to people, 'I'm Kurow Kirishima, SNF's upper-league champion,' and have them react accordingly. After all -- even if it is just a shiny belt, it's a shiny belt with a lot of prestige.
Prestige doesn't matter, however, when one is being grabbed and headbutted; the explosive headbutt lands clean on Kurow's head, and sends him sprawling. He pulls himself up off the ground, clenching one fist and using the other hand to remove his Justice uniform's jacket, leaving himself with only the far less restrictive undershirt. "How little you know..." he groans, placing his hand on the ground for a second, bracing himself as he gets back up.
For a second, it looks like that's all the fight Kurow has in him. However, both parties involved no doubt know better, and Kirishima leaps up, twisting as he brings a leg down forcefully toward Yamazaki's blunt-impact-hardened face, crying out the name of a move that no one would ever have expected in this fight.
"SHINGO KIIIICKU!"
COMBATSYS: Yamazaki interrupts Strong Kick from Kurow with Guillotine.
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Yamazaki 0/-------/------=|=======\====---\1 Kurow
The glove-clad hand releases after the impact, leaving Kurow to scatter away as he sees fit. The laughter fades to an idle little chuckle as he watches the other person staggering a bit to regain his footing. The comment, however, starts the laughter right back up again. "How little /I/ know!? You talk too goddamn much. Spend all your goddamn time talking on the internet because the only person you can beat up is that little pissant Rock Howard." The loud, cackling laughter continues even when Kurow starts to stand... then launches himself airborne into a mockery of the Shingo Kick. Yamazaki just stands there, laughing more and more as Kurow closes in... then he just stops dead.
"NOT ENOUGH!"
The twist in the kick is met by the Syndicate thug going from a dead stop to launching himself into the air. The foot slams across his left shoulder as his right hand snaps up and closes right over Kurow's face. The arc in the jump continues, even with the additional dead weight of the ninja, and as he comes down, so does his arm, and the first thing to hit is the back of Kurow's head. "NOT ENOUGH!" He slams the student down headfirst, and his feet hit soon after. He starts to drag him head-first across the concrete, letting the back of his head catch on any sharp rocks or debris for the five or six feet that he decides to run, then he suddenly arches back, bringing his arm around and tossing the human baggage into the air just before bringing one massive leg up and around to drive his shoe-heel into Kurow's stomach as he comes back down again, kicking him in the gut with enough force to send him back and away when it's all said and done.
"NOT. FUCKING. ENOUGH!"
So Yamazaki likes to plow right into and through attacks, Kurow thinks to himself as he sees Yamazaki start coming up toward him. That's the last chance he gets to think out Yamazaki's strategy, though, as the man catches him right out of the air, dragging him headfist across the sidewalk and then pounding him down hard, all the while telling him how it's not enough. Even as Yamazaki's shoe comes down, even as he's kicked away, though... he's already planning his next move. It might be the only edge Kurow /has/ over Ryuji.
When he pulls himself back up from the ground again, Kirishima's hands are already glowing with a familiar light -- not the deep purple of the Roppu Zuki, but rather, a bright golden light that most would associate more with Rock Howard than Kurow Kirishima. He advances toward Yamazaki, placing one hand over the other, rearing his body back --
Yamazaki has been around the Howard family long enough to know exactly what's coming, of course. The whirling pillar of golden light is much the same from Kurow as it is from Rock or Geese, the one difference being the focus -- while Geese and Rock seek to simply overwhelm with the power of their life force, Kurow instead tries to cleave /through/ his opponents with a sharper, crueler sort of energy.
There is no scream of the attack name, this time. No 'Raging Storm!,' not even a 'Shinkuu Yamiarashi!' Only one word escapes Kurow's lips: "Enough."
COMBATSYS: Kurow successfully hits Yamazaki with Kirishima Shinkuu Yamiarashi.
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Yamazaki 0/-------/---====|====---\-------\0 Kurow
Hmm, what to do. The form and technique looks familiar, but honestly, it's not a connection that Yamazaki would have placed. The lack of a mental connection ends up proving his undoing soon enough, though, as the pillar comes up from the ground and starts to slice right into him. Visible slash-wounds show in his arms, torso, along his legs, drawing blood in a few places and cutting up his clothes in a good few more. But when it fades, the former Yakuza strongarm is still standing. Cut up? Check. Angry as hell? Check. Down? Not so much. He's hunched over a bit, breathing heavily, and when the energy fades off, his hands both clench into fists, with both sets of knuckles popping in the process.
"Heh. Enough?" Slowly, he starts to straighten up, and as he raises to his full height, the chuckling starts to lift in pitch, slowly rolling into laughter. "ENOUGH!? BULLSHIT!" He throws his head back, arms going wide, blood streaming down one side of his face as cackling starts to get loud enough that some of the more easily frightened students start to back away from the impromptu arena. "BULL. SHIT!" Then just as quickly, his body throws itself forward again in a sudden forward charge. No finesse behind it, he simply rushes straight for Kurow in an attempt to bury his knee at high velocity into his ribcage.
COMBATSYS: Kurow interrupts Light Kick from Yamazaki with Kirishima Kyoujuu Reppa.
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Yamazaki 1/-------/=======|
COMBATSYS: Kurow can no longer fight.
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Yamazaki 1/-------/=======|
When Yamazaki comes in with that quick knee, Kurow knows that, either way, he's done for. He knows that no matter how much he tries he's not going to get out of the way, isn't going to tough through it. He's doomed. May as well make the best of it. And what better way than to borrow a different tactic -- one used by a man known for his pyrrhic victories?
Yamazaki is likely to know what's coming as soon as Kurow starts to run /toward/ the attack, yelling out five familiar words. They're not his words. It isn't even, entirely, his voice -- it's obvious that he's borrowing them from another, just from the way he says them. But they're enough. "IT'S ALL OVER FOR YOU!" comes his cry as he plows through the kick, tackling through Yamazaki, dragging him to the ground with a series of chi claws left in the air.
If this were the traditional version of the Kyoujuu Reppa, it'd be over, but Kurow is just getting started. When Yamazaki hits the ground, Kurow pulls him up -- only to slam clawed hand after clawed hand into his chest, over and over. The assault seems endless for a few moments, probably even giving Yamazaki something to worry about... until Kirishima just slumps to the side, completely spent.
He wouldn't have thought the little bastard would have come at him like that. He hadn't prepared alternatives, and the collision in the middle ends up with him slammed into the ground. The shirt and vest get ripped up in the blink of an eye, and Yamazaki will probably need to take a day to heal from the slash wounds that now liberally cover his chest. Blood is all but streaming over his torso now, but when Kurow ends up slumping over, Ryuji still has the energy to climb back up to his feet. It's a wobbly stance for a moment, but his knees find their purchase, and he remains standing. "Feh. All fuckin' talk." While Kurow is down, one foot comes around for an insult-kick to the rib cage. "Who's it all over for now, motherfucker!? Go back to the fucking internet, you sackless little bastard!" Another kick to the ribs. "Go post on your fucking nancy-boy message boards about how you fucking pussyfoot around with your cocksucking internet nerds and tell those stupid bastards what happens when you're too much of a pussy to say it to Ryuji Yamazaki's face." One final kick to the ribs, and Yamazaki turns back to face his car. "DRIVER. We're leaving." The car's engine revs up almost immediately, and the back door opens seemingly of its own volition. An unfortunate student happens to be standing near Yamazaki's car, who promptly finds one large, gloved hand gripping the back of his head just in time to be slammed face-first into the hard metal exterior. The student crumples to the sidewalk, and the thug climbs into the car. Once the door shuts, the car speeds off.
COMBATSYS: Yamazaki has ended the fight here.
Log created on 17:15:38 09/03/2007 by Yamazaki, and last modified on 19:43:42 09/03/2007.