Description: A remarkably brutal fight as Kurow is pitted against two high-powered schoolgirls (or at least school-aged girls) in a remarkable display of SNF unfairness. (Winners: Makoto and Hotaru)
It'd be a lie to say that Kurow Kirishima was completely pleased with his booking for the week; after last week's main event, by all appearances a #1 contender match, fizzled entirely, getting two opponents that he's had a lot of trouble with in the past /individually/ thrown at him is not exactly Kurow's idea of a good time; however, it /is/ an opportunity, and as much as he'd like to, he's not going to let himself get psyched out thinking about his somewhat unlucky booking. After all, he at least knows their /styles/ fairly well (extremely well, in the case of young Futaba).
He walks out to the hard, rock stage of Howard Arena with a slow, even gait, flanked today by some students from Pacific High (the same that put on his birthday barbecue -- they're good for /something/, it seems), in his full Justice High uniform, to a cacophonous roar of cheers and boos from the fans who've been following recent weeks' events. He hands the blue jacket over to one of them immediately, leaving only the more form-fitting modification of the outfit on his person; climbing up onto the hard stone, he slips his claws onto each hand and waits, letting the crowd's reaction die down a little.
If nothing else, he thinks, it'll be interesting to see if young Futaba's improved at all since that last fateful encounter in Thailand. (Makoto gets little consideration; after all, all Kurow's interaction with her has been is the Neo League.)
Two main events in just three weeks? It seems Hotaru's consistant appearances must be getting someone's attention, because they sure like throwing her against the hard hitters lately. To the event organizers this might just be a match of two fighting girls picked at random to face off against the more established young fighting prodigy, Kurow Kirishima. It has draw. It'll get ratings. They can drum up some kind of silly premise about how it's a test of his metel or whatnot. They can trumpet up how he may or may not be on the road toward a title shot.
Hotaru doesn't care about any of those things, however. This may very well be the first time a SNF fight has been 'personal'. The chance to fight the young man again. To see if she can best him. Having a partner does change things up a little and from what she's seen of Makoto's fight videos, the girl at her side for this match is extremely capable. And the help is appreciated to be sure. But she wants to get her hits in on the young man, herself. And this may be the best opportunity to do so for some time.
Clad in her usual blue and white fighting outfit, the girl is easy to distinguish even from a distance. Standing on the side of the stage opposite from Kurow as he steps out, she glances around at the crowd, a slight shake of her head at the cheers mixed with the boos. The thought that he has curried favor with the masses in spite all she knows about him is, well, upsetting. It goes against all she thinks is right in the world. Someone like Kurow deserves nothing less than to be despised. Her hands are busy, tightening the hair ribbons that keep her pig tails in place. The Justice High student has a penchant for snatching them from her when the chance presents itself and she doesn't find that amusing at all.
Makoto, compared to Hotaru, looks downright drab. She wears a plain white gi, with only the black belt and yellow scarf to break it up, and she doesn't even have interesting hair or anything. Unless 'messy' is now interesting, of course.
She is looking forward to this fight for other reasons. It's not personal for her - she doesn't know Kurow well, and can't recall ever meeting Hotaru - but it is a chance for her to challenge herself again. The two previous times she's fought Kurow, she's come so close to beating him. This time, with help, she expects no difficulty at all. Maybe she'll challenge Hotaru for an encore.
Makoto stops her stretching to enter the field just behind Hotaru, ignoring the crowd as she always does. Maybe that's why Rindoukan isn't a big hit; Makoto doesn't play to the crowd. She doesn't know how. All she knows how to do is fight, and do it well.
As both Hotaru and Makoto place themselves in the ring, Kurow instantly tenses up. The young man has never had much success with Saturday Night Fight's two-on-one matches, but he reasons that that's mostly because of other circumstances -- closed quarters, for example. He'll just have to be twice as focused, he reasons -- and twice as dirty.
No toying around this time, Kirishima, he tells himself. No games. "Hotaru, Makoto... it's been some time since I've seen either of you," he says, with a bit of a wry smile. "I wonder if you've actually improved at all." He may not be able to throw Makoto off of her game with petty words, but he thinks he /might/ be able to do it to Hotaru... and any edge, in a situation like this, is necessary.
And with that, the battle is on -- after all, all participants are in the ring... and in Saturday Night Fight, there's little that can actually cause a disqualification. Bounding forward with remarkable speed, Kirishima locks eyes on Hotaru, rushing toward the closer girl to strike with a vicious series of slashes...
... but that becomes an obvious feint as he blows past her, heading toward Makoto and jumping up into the air a short distance and rolling into a ball. Vicious claws of chi start to whirl around Kurow's entire body, seeking to rip through Makoto. He's going right for the jugular today, it looks like, not pulling even the smallest punch.
COMBATSYS: Kurow has started a fight here.
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Kurow 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Hotaru has joined the fight here on the right meter side.
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Kurow 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Hotaru
COMBATSYS: Makoto has joined the fight here on the right meter side.
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Kurow 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Hotaru
> //////////////////////////////]
|-------\-------\0 Makoto
As he addresses the two of them there is a slight twitch in Hotaru's expression. It seems striking a nerve with her verbally might not be that hard to do. That's the challenge of a fight like this for the girl. Too much baggage. Try as she might, she can't just look at the clawed fighter as simply another combatant deserving of respectful treatment like any other.
"I can't believe you're able to move around so freely after all you did," the Kenpo artist replies, breathing in then exhaling as she tries to focus, tries to bleed off some of that quiet, distracting ire. A glance toward Makoto is offered and she manages a smile, "It is an honor to fight alongside you today." Her voice is more calm now. She can't leave Makoto hanging by giving in to her own temper at Kurow's audacity.
A glance back toward Kirishima only to see that he is already in motion, wasting no time in trying to dig into his opponents with those claws of his. Hotaru braces, meeting his eyes and... misreading his intention as she tries to see the attack coming only to have him fly right past her. Clothing ruffled in the wake of Kurow-bullet, she whirls around to see him barreling in on Makoto.
All she can do at that point is pursue rather than divert and thus it is that she takes off running after him. The intent is simple enough - a swift jump kick toward his back, trying to target him some distance beyond Makoto as if predicting his own trajectory whether or not he is successful in striking the other girl. "HA!"
COMBATSYS: Makoto Toughs Out Kurow's Yasha Guruma!
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Kurow 0/-------/-======|-------\-------\0 Hotaru
> //////////////////////// ]
|=======\-------\1 Makoto
Makoto actually grins when she sees Kurow is coming right at her. She's seen this one before; she plants her bare feet, bracing against the ground, and grits her teeth while simultaneously yelling through them.
The whirling storm of chi surrounding Kurow lashes at Makoto, sending her scarf fluttering and drawing blood across her arms and front while the actual /force/ of Kurow's blow sends her sliding back to the wall. This is what Makoto was counting on; she actually breaks her brace to plant one foot on that back wall and send herself rushing forward, back toward Kurow.
Makoto's fist strikes out, mid-level, with shattering force, aided by her forward sprint; she skids to a stop, transferring all her momentum to that one blow. Still yelling that same battle cry, Makoto follows it up with a trio of strikes toward Kurow's chest -
- and then she stops yelling, winding up for an enormous uppercut which she delivers at the middle of Kurow's chin. Makoto is breathing hard from the sudden exertion, running on pure adrenaline. "I told you last time - " she says, not quite gasping. "I'm improving."
COMBATSYS: Kurow dodges Hotaru's Light Kick.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Kurow 0/-------/-======|-------\-------\0 Hotaru
> //////////////////////// ]
|-------\-------\0 Makoto
COMBATSYS: Makoto successfully hits Kurow with Seichuusen Godanzuki.
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Kurow 1/-----==/=======|-------\-------\0 Hotaru
> //////////////////////// ]
|-------\-------\0 Makoto
Kirishima dives out of the way of Hotaru's little kick, but gets caught by Makoto's sudden punches -- and that's when things start hurting. The youth takes each hit in the chest hard, gritting his teeth as he tries to catch each successive blow with an arm -- only to have each plow through his defensive attempts, and then have the uppercut carry him cleanly into the air and then back down. Fortunately, there's one small thing that works to Kurow's advantage -- and he intends to use it for everything it's worth: The two of them are extremely close together still.
Slowly prying himself off the ground from that massive, instantaneous show of power, Kirishima takes a deep breath in. "I'm able to move around freely," he hisses, quietly, to Hotaru, "because I have the strength to make what I want a reality. You don't." Slowly pulling himself up, he walks with slow, pounding steps toward both of the young ladies...
... and tries to skewer them cleanly through with the claws of each hand, tossing them into the air if he can catch hold of them.
COMBATSYS: Hotaru parries Kurow's Kirishima Kyoujuu Reppa!
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Kurow 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 Hotaru
> //////////////////////// ]
|-------\-------\0 Makoto
COMBATSYS: Kurow successfully hits Makoto with Kirishima Kyoujuu Reppa.
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Kurow 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 Hotaru
> ///////////// ]
|=======\=------\1 Makoto
While he doesn't get a grip on Hotaru, Makoto, unfortunately, takes the full force of the attack. Flinging Makoto up into the air, Kirishima whirls around once, gathering a vicious ball of chi into his hand... and then swinging forward, extending his claws with the force of that chi and skewering Makoto cleanly through, slamming her down into the ground before pulling back away.
Landing from her jump kick, Hotaru is practically stunned into inaction at the exchange of insanely powerful attacks back and forth between Kurow and Makoto. The magnitude of raw force that the gi-clad fighter is able to dish out is pretty much staggering, leaving Hotaru avoiding either of them until the dust settles.
And when it does, Kurow is lashing out for the two of them. That extending claw of his certainly encourages the swift burst of speed as Hotaru turns around the attack only to see the pain he goes on to dish out against her partner in this match. She's never quite felt the excent of the prodigy's power from that attack, but just seeing what he does to Makoto would cause her to wince were she not so intent on taking advantage of the attention he's spending on her to speed in toward his back.
Improved? Perhaps. A little bit more combat savy. A bit more willing to play vicious when the opportunity presents itself. There are changes in the girl from their last fight, and right now he might be introduced to a world of pain as a result as she tries to grab a quick hold of his shoulders from behind before launching an escallating sequence of rapid stomps right up his back before leaping off his shoulders into a backflip. "Ya, ya, ya!"
Makoto's eyes widen as the claw first comes at her, and she twists aside to avoid it - but fails. All she manages to do is get it to scrape along her side rather than pierce entirely through her midsection, and that isn't much of a benefit. When she goes up, she struggles to free herself, and almost looks like she might for a moment before Kurow smashes her to the ground, which she hits with a heavy thud. At first, she does not get up; perhaps this is a very early loss?
Several long moments later, Makoto pushes herself back up to her feet, face set in a highly focused expression. One hand stays near the new wound in her side where the claw struck her, but she moves forward surprisingly quickly and reaches for Kurow's throat with the other, attempting to hold tight while Hotaru kicks up his back, then throw Kurow to the side.
COMBATSYS: Hotaru successfully hits Kurow with Shin-Jou Tai EX.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Kurow 0/-------/---====|=------\-------\0 Hotaru
> //////////// ]
|=======\=------\1 Makoto
COMBATSYS: Kurow dodges Makoto's Karakusa.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Kurow 0/-------/---====|=------\-------\0 Hotaru
> //////////// ]
|=======\=------\1 Makoto
When Hotaru comes in toward Kirishima, he doesn't see her until she's already almost upon him -- after all, he was mostly busy with Makoto. So while he ducks handily out of the way of Makoto's forceful grab, Hotaru gets a good, solid grip on him and actually runs up his back, sending him sprawling a second time.
Getting back to his feet, Kirishima decides to stick to the strategy he has from the start -- keep pressure on the Rindoukan master. Not necessarily /just/ her, but keep it on her -- after all, getting one opponent out of the way means an easier time, drastically, with the second one.
Looking to put Makoto down hard and fast, Kirishima assesses the strength of the stone with a quick tap of his foot; good enough, he thinks, as he leaps toward the Rindoukan master and decides to try, yet again, one of the Imawano-ryu techniques he's usually neglected, trying to put her in a quick facelock and then leap. The tactic behind it is a fairly simple one -- slam Makoto's face into both Kirishima's arm and the hard stone ground.
Hotaru's acrobatic backflip comes to an and with her landing back on the ground after sending the Kirishima boy sprawling. There's a taste of satisfaction in her success. Though on the other hand it didn't quite her the sense of vindication she was hoping for. Striking him when he isn't even paying attention to her is probably just what he, of all people, deserves. But playing his game - blind striking without warning, just doesn't set as well with her as she thought it would.
She needs to quit making this personal, she tells herself, shaking her head a little as she tries to clear her mind. Her tactics against him have been moderately effective this fight, but she can also tell that it's Makoto that has dished out the majority of the pain here. How can she tell to what degree she has improved compared to the student ninja if another is handling both the damage dealing and the attack absorbing for her? Hands tighten a little as Hotaru hesitates, taking in a deep breath, then exhales.
From her perspective she can see Kurow going after Makoto again. It's tactically sound on one level. But it makes her feel rather dismissed as not being a threat worth taking down first. Then again, considering how Makoto is measuring up against him, that might be a perfectly valid assessment. "Keep your head in this," she tells herself, trying to keep from second guessing everything. Her hands come up to slap her cheeks; a sharp pain to get her focus back on their clawed opponent, then she slips back into her ready stance with a slow exhale.
COMBATSYS: Hotaru focuses on her next action.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Kurow 0/-------/---====|=------\-------\0 Hotaru
> //////////// ]
|=======\=------\1 Makoto
COMBATSYS: Makoto interrupts Strong Throw from Kurow with Hayate.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Kurow 0/-------/-======|=------\-------\0 Hotaru
> /////// ]
|=======\====---\1 Makoto
Makoto is not particularly durable even if she is tenacious. It doesn't take much more to take her out than many fighters of her caliber, especially when one can use chi. She also isn't very fast, really, either with her attacks or with her body.
What she is is strong, and she's trained to apply every bit of that force exactly where she wants it. She hits like a truck, and that's what makes her a threat.
Makoto applies this force now, bringing her arm back and then slamming it straight forward in a low punch for Kurow's midsection. At least she doesn't follow it up with the rest of the traditional attack - although part of that may be because the new proximity allowed Kurow to throw her to the ground, albeit not as hard as he might have been hoping for.
It takes her a while to get up again. Makoto doesn't even seem to realize where Hotaru is; all her attention is on Kurow.
When Hotaru lays off, Kurow gets overconfident -- and that overconfidence costs him greatly, as Makoto's punch plows right through his attempt to slam the young woman into the ground. He's already been run pretty ragged -- and Hotaru's still more than ready to go! It almost feels futile at this point, but Kirishima decides to stick it out; even taking /one/ of them out in a match this stacked is something to brag about.
His tactics get a lot more straightforward when he's losing, as the Rindoukan heiress is about to find out firsthand. He doesn't even bother getting all the way back up before striking out at Makoto, trying to slide right into her legs and send her down to the hard, stone ground a second time.
No words are spared at this point. The time has long passed for them.
Again he sticks to Makoto. His game plan is pretty evident at this point. Given the attacks he's been struck with so far, he might as well aim to take down one of them and right now it seems that girl utilizing a very hard hitting variety of karate has become his mark for better or for worse.
Well, it may be a rather petty thing in some sense to feel that just stopping him from obtaining that singular objective would be worth it, but there's not a lot of love lost between her and Kurow anyway. When Hotaru enters the fray a second time, she is moving extremely fast, taking to the air like before where she usually feels more comfortable.
The apex of the leap becomes a flip as she adjusts her trajectory into a sharp angled knee dive back down toward Kurow, aiming to strike him in the back of his head first, then swing her leg around with a follow up blow to his shoulder before back flipping away once again, sticking to her hit and run tactics like usual.
COMBATSYS: Kurow successfully hits Makoto with Light Kick.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////////////// ]
Kurow 0/-------/=======|-------\-------\0 Hotaru
> //// ]
|=======\======-\1 Makoto
The foot strikes Makoto solidly, as she's too tired and too pained to actually manage to get out of the way. It almost bends one of her knees the wrong way; it does send her down to her knee, gasping.
Her eyes close as she sits there, resting on her knee, and Makoto takes three precise, careful breaths. Getting to her feet despite her injuries, Makoto takes an awkward step forward, toward Kurow, before lashing out with three straight punches - two from her left hand, one from her right.
She takes a second step forward, but this puts pressure on her possibly-broken and definitely-hurt leg, and Makoto collapses instead with a muffled yell. Her focus broken, she is unable to rise up again.
COMBATSYS: Makoto can no longer fight.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////////////// ]
Kurow 0/-------/=======|-------\-------\0 Hotaru
COMBATSYS: Kurow dodges Hotaru's Rengeki Shuu.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////////////// ]
Kurow 0/-------/=======|=------\-------\0 Hotaru
COMBATSYS: Makoto successfully hits Kurow with Tanden Renki.
[ \\\\ < > ///////////////////////////// ]
Kurow 1/-----==/=======|=------\-------\0 Hotaru
Staying on the ground still, Kirishima rolls out of the path of that knee dive, but once again, Makoto catches him right where she wants him -- the punches rain down on him, crunching ribs. He rolls over onto his stomach as Makoto falls downward, letting her hit the cold stone. He knows he's running out of gas -- but then, he's got one final shot in him, and he intends to use it for all it's worth.
He finally turns his attention toward Hotaru, barely standing up; he takes one last, ragged breath, as he gets into a track star's starting position, bolting forward with the less injured of his two shoulders leaned forward as hard as possible -- and tries to knock Hotaru right over his back, upon which time things may get... interesting, at long last, for the young Chinese boxer.
COMBATSYS: Kurow can no longer fight.
> ///////////////////////////// ]
|=------\-------\0 Hotaru
COMBATSYS: Hotaru stops Kirishima Kyoujuu Reppa from Kurow with Kobi Kyaku EX.
> ///////////////////////////// ]
|=------\-------\0 Hotaru
The fight just wasn't there for Kurow. In the scheme of things, maybe Howard had his men set this match up with malicious intent. Perhaps he wanted to knock Bernstein's pupil down a peg just out of spite. Or maybe it was just a quirky error in combatant potential analysis that pit the young man against these two particular opponents at once.
Whatever it may be, when Kurow finally turns his attention to Hotaru, advancing on her with the last of her strength, she correctly surmises that all she need to do is stop his assault and the fight will have worked itself out. There isn't much satisfaction in denying him this last ditch chance to exchange in a direct fight with her. On some levels she wishes he would have focused on her more, just so she could really see how she compared, regarding the talented, if also disliked, fighter a measuring stick for her own abilities.
But for now all she need to is put a block in his way and that will end this. A swift, energy-laden kick to create a wall of chi in front of her, followed by her leaning forward to press her hands against it, "KYA!" It shimmers for an instance, becoming in that brief moment harder than steel for the boy to collide with, before becoming little more than harmless mist and evaporating.
Shaking her head, the girl turns toward the fallen Makoto, quietly considering the abilities of her partner for this match. That's someone she is definitely going to have to pit herself against some day. For the benefit of the crowd she presses her hands together and offers a polite, traditional bow in one direction and then the opposite, then slips from the stage and out of the limelight.
COMBATSYS: Hotaru has ended the fight here.
Log created on 18:11:50 09/15/2007 by Makoto, and last modified on 07:33:26 09/16/2007.