Description: Zach takes a break from the Seiryuu while it is in port, and finds he is scheduled for a Neo-League match-up against Mizuki. (Winner: Zach)
Mizuki has, as of late, fallen off the fighting radar. Though she's put up some impressive showings and some impressive losses, there've been more losses than wins--but that isn't really the only reason she's retreated a bit. As of late she's been contemplating her fighting career--whether she should continue it or not, and what that would mean. Honestly, a part of her wanted to quit.
But... thinking of Alma, of her friends in Glory Hounds and beyond... she knew she couldn't quit. She had to keep going. So, proverbially, she's picked herself up off the ground and started out again--this time, using her Neo League membership for once...
The place: Pacific High's courtyard. The time? High noon. Mizuki's there, wearing her Justice High uniform and getting some dirty looks, waiting for her opponent.
Her opponent does not wear a school uniform; he's too old for that. Instead, the young man shows up wearing black jeans, and a red t-shirt. Worn sneakers and a red, almost Terry-esque ballcap covering mid-back length purple hair complete the look.
Zach took a brief bit of shore time from the Suiryuu, only to find that the Neo League had set up some matches for him. Some phone calls were made, and the first one on the list was arranged. Zach gets a few looks in his own right, but that might come from the the fact that he is something of a gaijin. Then again, this /is/ Pacific High School, so maybe not. The psycho-powered wanderer looks at the young girl in the Justice High uniform, "Mizuki Kamigawa, right?" Zach asks in American-accented Japanese.
Mizuki turns, and gazes upon a young man who looks almost stereotypically like a 'fighter'. And he asks her name, in rather accented Japanese. No matter; it's still understandable. She rises from her seat (the officials thoughtfully brought out a few chairs) and smiles, replying in her own, Japanese-accented English (passable at best), "Yes, I am Mizuki Kamigawa... are you Zach?" No last name--she's heard that Americans are more informal...
As she speaks, she bows, and, seemingly prepatory to actual fighting, slips her baton off the loop it's on around her shoulder, though she doesn't take up any fighting pose. The League officials stay out of the way; they watch the fights, they record them, they don't generally step in until the end.
Zach notes the baton, nodding as Mizuki pulls the weapon. "Zach Glen," he says as he gives a passable bow; he's seen the gesture enough to bring it off in his own right. Zach doesn't take up any real fighting pose either; this is more on account of the fact that he lacks an actual school of combat.
"Let's have a good match," Zach says as he slides his feet apart slightly. He looks at the League officials, giving them a short nod. They stand up, and get back a good distance; they remember Zach's fight against Hotaru.
Mizuki smiles again, and nods. "Let's," she agrees, and then she turns away from Zach. Why? Because she hasn't taken her place in the fighting arena yet--a place, mind you, that is demarcated by tape barriers. The crowd is seated well off, close enough to see good action, far enough to not be endangered. Mizuki herself is the one in danger; she however, faces it cheerfully, as she finds her starting point and raises her baton in a salute to Zach.
At the signal to start, Mizuki... doesn't take up a fighting stance at all. Her center of gravity lowers a little, yes, but mostly she clasps her hands together, the baton dangling from its loop around her wrist, and... well, it kind of looks like she's praying... but the goal is evident soon enough.
That is, blue-silver chi energy starts swirling up around her, obscuring her body slightly, most of it, of course, being drawn in by the miko-slash-baton fighter.
COMBATSYS: Mizuki has started a fight here.
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Mizuki 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Mizuki gathers her will.
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Mizuki 0/-------/---====|
COMBATSYS: Zach has joined the fight here.
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Mizuki 0/-------/---====|-------\-------\0 Zach
Chi, while not a total gap of knowledge thanks to his time in the Suiryuu library, is still not something Zach knows very well. He cannot manipulate it, and it tends to hurt like heck. He decides that allowing this girl to gather it, for whatever purpose, cannot be good for him.
It /looks/ like the young girl has lowered her guard to do this. Mores the pity, then. Zach charges in at a full-sprint, his left hand cloaked in a royal purple sheath. As soon as he skids to a halt in front of her, the Psycho Bomber throws a thunderous left straight that looks vaguely thrust punch-ish. The energy boils around him, augmenting the fairly technical strike.
COMBATSYS: Mizuki blocks Zach's Sting.
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Mizuki 0/-------/-======|-------\-------\0 Zach
That stance of hers is fairly deceptive. Many think that when she's gathering energy she gives up her ability to defend--but she's isn't. She was taught better than that. Feeling that strike coming in, Mizuki's eyes snap open and the energy cuts off abruptly as her right leg slides back and suddenly the baton is in her right hand, held to lay back against her forearm. She snaps baton and arm in the way of the strike--physically blocking the strike and at least some of that odd energy, which... feels very strange yet familiar.
"Ow," she murmurs, shaking out her arm briefly before deciding to engage at close distance--keeping her baton arm up, she fakes a quick strike to the temple, but the real attack comes from her right leg, as she lifts it and snaps a quick kick for Zach's closest thigh.
COMBATSYS: Zach dodges Mizuki's Light Kick.
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Mizuki 0/-------/-======|-------\-------\0 Zach
Zach pivots, allowing the kick to pass by harmlessly. Still balanced on one leg and still pivoting, Glen snaps the raised leg out in a sharp arc. The shoe is aimed at Mizuki's head.
The kick is sloppy, almost amaturish. A trained fighter should not have too much trouble dodging it. Apparently he has not heard the taboo against striking a girl in the head.
COMBATSYS: Mizuki interrupts Heavy Kick from Zach with Koori no Hebi.
- Power hit! -
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Mizuki 0/-------/-======|=====--\-------\0 Zach
Eeeeeeeeveryone tries to hit Mizuki in the head. Ever since her first match with Drake. He's done it several times.. Hotaru did it... countless others. Well sir, NOT THIS TIME. At least not head-on. Mizuki's eyes widen when she sees Zack coming in for that arcing kick and she's preparing herself mentally, physically, and spiritually.
By the time the kick is about three feet from Mizuki's head, she's sweeping her baton upwards, creating a knee-high wave of icy, blue-white chi that starts to engulf Zach's leg. And by the time it's just made contact, Mizuki's snapping her baton arm down, releasing another wave of chi, forming a hissing, waist-high crest-wave of the energy to fly into Zach, blowing him away before that kick can complete.
"Koori no... HEBI!" is the cry that comes from Mizuki's lips during the whole affair, cut short only slightly at the end by the contact of Zach's foot with her head.
OH GOD THAT'S COLD! Zach is sent flying from the icy blast, and thrown to the dirt. He brings himself to his feet slowly. He shakes some ice and more than a few cobwebs loose as he looks across the way.
"Damn. And I thought the Suiryuu's holds were frosty." Zach hops on the balls of his feet for a moment, trying to get himself warmed back up while he regains his bearings.
COMBATSYS: Zach gains composure.
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Mizuki 0/-------/-======|===----\-------\0 Zach
"That's my specialty... well, one of them," she replies, with a smile... but if Zach thinks that just because Mizuki is a nice girl that she'll let up... Zach hops back to his feet and Mizuki is sliding forward, well, shuffle-stepping, really, drawing her baton back and thrusting it forward for Zach's sternum.
It's not a deadly strike--with enough force and placed in the proper location, it could be, of course--but it'll hurt, and possibly knock his breath away from him, should she hit. Of course... he's a fast bugger, it seems, so maybe she's actually trying to think tactically for once...
COMBATSYS: Zach dodges Mizuki's Medium Strike.
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Mizuki 0/-------/-======|===----\-------\0 Zach
Just fast enough, Zach would say. Zach slaps the baton aside with a palm as he spins around the strike. He keeps his eyes on his target, which happens to be the small of Mizuki's back.
"Have another taste of /my/ specialty," Zach quips as a beach-ball sized sphere of Psycho-Power flares to life in the palm of his hand. Glen obligingly slams it towards his target.
COMBATSYS: Mizuki fails to reflect Impulse Flare from Zach with Suishou no Kagami.
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Mizuki 1/----===/=======|=====--\-------\0 Zach
A taste indeed! Mizuki can handle energy--if she's given enough time. And she just didn't have enough time in this case. Her baton is raised, a circle is drawn... but before she can complete the technique, that energy is ripping through her, sending her tumbling along the floor. Ooh, yeah, ow that hurt. Maybe she should be less aggressive...
Mizuki shakes her head as she rises, blinking the lights out of her eyes. "That's pretty good," she admits, sucking in a quick breath and steadying herself.
Zach waits just long enough for Mizuki to regain her footing before closing the gap again. He smiles a bit, "Thanks!"
Zach steps in low, firing off an elbow strike for the Juste High Student's midsection. Not enough to wind her but as she has already seen, Zach has a propensity to hit very hard when he wants to.
COMBATSYS: Zach successfully hits Mizuki with Strong Punch.
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Mizuki 1/--=====/=======|======-\-------\0 Zach
"Gnnf!" Mizuki was going to sidestep--but her heel got caught on a slight rise in the concrete--which grounded her just enough to make her frozen in place for that elbow. God, that hurt kind of bad. Mizuki stumbles back, coughing... but it's not over yet, that's for sure. Soon, perhaps, but not -just- yet... Mizuki stumbles back once more step...
Then lunges forward, her eyes a light. "RANBU!!" she shouts, the word meaning 'Wild Dance', and that's almost exactly what she does--her baton slashing a wild, abstract pattern in the air, blue-green chi flowing around the weapon as she strikes for Zach's torso maybe fifteen times then brings the baton around in a uppercut strike...
COMBATSYS: Mizuki successfully hits Zach with Kouryuu no Ranbu.
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Mizuki 0/-------/-------|=======\======-\1 Zach
... and that uppercut connects straight to Zach's chin, throwing him straight up in the air... and he seems to hang there for a moment. Mizuki gathers herself... then launches straight upwards too, spinning, her baton held out, cutting blue-green swaths through the air, rising up and striking Zach with her spinning baton six more times before a final strike to throw him back to the ground before she lands.
Zach bounces twice when he lands. He is very slow getting up, Mizuki's chi burning and freezing through his systems at the same time. He grunts as he pulls himself up right, his eyes squeezed shut in a rictus of pain. He raises his head, and his eyes snap open.
The green eyes are obscured by the royal purple energy that floods out. Psycho Power floods out of every poer of Zach's body in a torrent of pain and agony as Zach screams to the heavens. The entire ring is engulfed in the mass of energy radiating from the young man.
COMBATSYS: Zach successfully hits Mizuki with Storm Flare.
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Mizuki 0/-------/=======|===----\-------\0 Zach
... Mizuki totally isn't ready for that. The coruscating blast of Psycho Power tears through her, even as she's trying to just hunker down and brace herself... but she isn't quite done yet. Though she tumbles twice, she rises, bracing her left hand on her left knee... panting heavily.
The baton is raised once more; once more that hissing flare of white-blue chi blazes up, that waist-high wave flaring out for Zach, though after it's released, Mizuki finally collapses...
COMBATSYS: Mizuki can no longer fight.
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Zach 0/-------/----===|
COMBATSYS: Zach dodges Mizuki's Koori no Hebi.
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Zach 0/-------/----===|
Zach sees the strike coming this time, and leaps over the wave. His hands are cupped together, focusing more Psycho Power to retaliate...
...but he sees Mizuki collaspe from the abuse. He lands, and focuses for a moment, mentally locking down the power at his command before gasping for breath. He drops to one knee for a moment as he tries to get air into his lungs.
COMBATSYS: Zach gains composure.
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Zach 0/-------/------=|
COMBATSYS: Zach has ended the fight here.
Log created on 14:18:54 09/22/2007 by Zach, and last modified on 19:28:09 09/23/2007.