Description: This is Nagare's first Neo League Fight, and he's taking on some one who's made a name for himself. It's Domino versus Nagare up on a forty story building top floor garden. Afterwards, they converse for a short period of time. Hey. Not all Neo Leagues have to end at the fighting. (Winner: Nagare)
A Neo League in Thailand! That was the name of the game, and Nagare has saw it outside posted up on a billboard when he left Taiyo high for the weekend. He needed to get some practice in, what with the Morals Committee seemingly handing him a slip to leave the pool for a while, or at least HE THINKS SO, so Nagare signed up to bring wisdom and his own holding of Taiyo High's reputation!
So here he was, positioned in a park for a fight. It's just a normal park really, albeit that it's forty stories up, being located one of the cities many sky scrapers. This isn't going to stop Nagare from swimming. If anything he'll really get to test out his skills here. So he's going to try that, simple as that.
Getting into position, Nagare begins his stretches, letting the announcer do his job. "Here... on this side is newcomer Nagare Namikawa of Taiyo High! A swim coach that wears nothing other than a speedo and a jacket at all times, he's skilled in... uh... swimming!" The announcer really needs to put zest on that. It's a weird thing to imagine.
Nagare adjusts his fins on his feet, his jacket, only to put on his hand flippers as well. He's all set! Now it's just time to wait for whoever he's going to fight. This'll be interesting!
"And fighting Nagare will be Dominoooo! A well known wrestler from many Neo League's past!" And then the spotlight shifts to Drake. As it should!
Domino, recently recovered from a nasty mauling against a gang leader in Metro City, finds himself in the spotlight. As it should be. He turns to regard the cameras with a bright smile, fists lifted in a clear showing of confidence.
If he wasn't able to take down that gang leader, he's in need of practice and training before trying again. And that's what this is for Domino. The Neo League has become his venue for training, what with his girls being out in the drink somewhere. Sure, there's Mignon... but he's still a little bit afraid of hurting her if he actually goes all out. So he's perfectly ready to fight and train against some newcomer to the League. ...Even if the guy's little more than a swimmer.
Domino's eyes set to Nagare, and an eyebrow quirks. "Man," he murmers to himself. "A dress-code like -that- makes my wrestling outfits feel conservative." The martial artist wrestler shakes his head slowly, then starts towards the center of the park, awaiting the call to fight. Hnn. Surely this guy must have -something- going for him, to be a part of the Neo League. Right?
COMBATSYS: Nagare has started a fight here.
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Nagare 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Drake has joined the fight here.
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Drake 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Nagare
Nagare certainly does have something going for him. But you don't know that. Nobody does! Well, almost nobody. Still, Nagare has no real history of fights in Neo League, or in Saturday Night fight. Nagare is certainly a wild card at this point, but for how long is it going to stay like that? That's the real question.
Facing Drake, Nagare gives him a smile. "Hey hey! I wear this outfit everyday, all the time. They allow it in on school campus so why wouldn't they allow it here? But I imagine you're right there." Nagare chuckles as he puts his hands at his sides and laughs, the flippers clearly making him more encumbered as he's not able to touch his waist fully. But, somehow, looks can be deceiving.
"Here I come!" Nagare warns Domino ahead of time as he he walks forward, literally using his arms to push imaginary water out of the way as he seems to waddle directly towards Drake. It looks... very unprofessional, and how he's acting? Is he TRYING to fight? But it all makes itself clear when he lashes out with a kick out of nowhere, aimed right towards Drake. "Hey!"
COMBATSYS: Nagare successfully hits Drake with Light Kick.
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Drake 0/-------/-----==|-------\-------\0 Nagare
The waddle warrants a moment of confusion. Domino just frowns at Nagare and sighs. "Are you taking this seriously? Come on."
But then a foot comes clean outt'a nowheres. It plants firmly against the seasoned fighter, staggering him back with.. surprising force. "Nnf!" Amethyst eyes widen somewhat, and he's suddenly dashing in towards the swimmer. He attempts to breeze directly past him and hop into the air, right arm reaching back to loop around his neck under his chin. And down Domino falls to a knee, aiming to smash the back of Nagare's head against his shoulder in a stunner.
COMBATSYS: Nagare blocks Drake's Medium Throw.
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Drake 0/-------/----===|=------\-------\0 Nagare
As Drake comes closer for the kill, Nagare's not one to just leave it like that! Instead, Nagare's looking on towards Domino as he comes for him. The seasoned fighter might find something surprising about this swimming. As Domino rushes in, Nagare's not folding that easily. "Hah! Very good spunk!" Nagare admits as he braces himself, so at Domino falls to break again his head, all he ends up doing is pull on his arm.
Slithering his arm from the other fighters grasp, but as the man goes down, well, so does Nagare.
His hands quickly combine on a single point on Drake's chest as he actually aims to push the fighter against the ground with powerful compressions to save his life! Or, uh, okay not really. "Hey hey!"
COMBATSYS: Nagare successfully hits Drake with Artificial Respiration.
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Drake 0/-------/--=====|==-----\-------\0 Nagare
Man, this guy moves fast. Crazy fast. Domino is only just starting to recollect himself when the pressure is put on his chest and he's bared down against the ground, and HARD. He lands, a bit breathless, teeth gritting. Those dark eyes zero on the swimmer though, and he suddenly lashes out with his legs in attempts to lock them around Nagare's throat to begin crushing heavily. This guy's starting to make Domino look like a fool. Can't really have that.
COMBATSYS: Nagare interrupts Strong Throw from Drake with Breast Stroke Kick.
-* CRITICAL HIT! *-
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Drake 1/-----==/=======|===----\-------\0 Nagare
As Drake lashes out with his legs to put them around Nagare's neck, well, Nagare's all for that! "Ohh! That's the spirit! Put all you strength into it and don't look back!" Nagare calls as he can feel the legs begin to squeeze around his neck.
And then, Nagare does something unexpected, twisting and turning to move away from the blow, to escape from the legs as they constrict... and he does! But the legs are still around his neck... which means...
Domino's feeling it. He might be in just a little pain as Nagare begins to swim. That's right, swim, through the air with water chi bleeding from his figure, away from Domino. But Domino's attached to him, which means every kick he does while he's doing the breast stroke nails him in the head with the flipper, and not only that, the water chi thrown by each kick is sent whipping into Domino's head might even make him want to let go more. But the damage, it's already done.
And let go Domino does, complete with a pained cry. He tumbles over and winds up facedown in the ground, eyes squeezed shut.
Man. This..
This is PITIFUL.
Maybe he was right in the hospital room? Maybe he -is- becoming a total failure?
Determined to give it his all, despite, Domino pushes himself back up to his full height and glares at Nagare. He dashes in towards him and suddenly whirls around in a half-spin at Nagare's side. At the end of the spin, the momentum built up from it carries over into Domino's left fist as it snaps up towards Nagare's face in a closed-fisted backhand.
COMBATSYS: Nagare dodges Drake's Crescent Fist.
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Drake 1/------=/=======|===----\-------\0 Nagare
After so long, Nagare drops from the air back down to his feet... er, flippers. He turns around post haste only to see Domino tumbling backwards. "Come on, come on! You're doing fine! You just have to trust the motion of the ocean!" Nagare states almost too easily as he just puts it right out there. He's a coach through and through. Positive reinforcement works. "You're almost there!"
But... actions speak louder than words sometimes. As Drake shoves himself towards Nagare, the half spin at his side never strike, Nagare shifting with a quick flipper flop towards the side, and when the back hand comes, Nagare falls back before backstroking a short distance away, water chi bleeding from him.
Getting up from the backstroke, he shakes a little water out of his ear. "You have spirit, and that's a great quality." Nagare insists as he comes back in towards Drake, the two oar like appendages on his hands being used as tolls of destruction! Each trying to slap Domino rather hard.
COMBATSYS: Nagare successfully hits Drake with Strong Punch.
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Drake 1/--=====/=======|====---\-------\0 Nagare
WHAM.
Domino is knocked back, clean off his feet, and he hits the ground again. Man, is it even worth it getting back up?
...Sure, why not? He may as well go for unconsciousness to not hear the god damned laughter that's going to follow this ridiculous fight.
So with great amounts of effort, Domino pushes himself up to his feet. Unsteadily. He wobbles a little, then exhales a sigh.
He looks.. sober. Almost accepting, one might say. He's been beaten up by some.. freaking streaker.. who fights by flailing his arms. How's he supposed to live this down?
Drawing in a slow breath and exhaling it in a weak sigh, Domino pushes himself forward to attempt grabbing Nagare by the shoulders firmly.
COMBATSYS: Nagare blocks Drake's Total Eclipse.
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Drake 0/-------/------=|======-\-------\0 Nagare
And once grabbed, Domino yanks the man forward to lock his neck between his legs. His arms then hook around Nagare's midsection, and he hoists him into the air in piledrive position. Not really possessing too much strength left, he puts as much pressure as he can into an inverted bearhug.. which lasts only a few seconds. He then springs into the air and pulls into a forward flip, momentum picking up until the two are blurred into an opaque swirl of motion. The speed, momentum, and their combined bodyweights are driven against Nagare's head at the finale of the piledriver.
Or it would be, ideally.
As Drake grasps for his shoulders, Nagare doesn't try to escape. Pulling back out this would make him a very mean person. And Nagare's a nice guy, at least he tries to be. So when Domino grabs, Nagare's aim is just to lessen the blow. But what he's about to be put through is nothing like he would expect.
As he's YANKED forward, his neck is locked between the man's legs. It's oddly familiar, for a moment. He arms up to help pry his legs so they don't choke so much is dampened when Drake grabs them. And then hoisted into the air with a bear hug, he gets swirled up into the air... only to SLAM back down, Nagare's head the pinnacle of the blow...
But something's not right. When Nagare lands, it looks like there was a puddle on the ground of water chi, and being able to curl up into a cannon ball half way through definitely lessened the impact he had though he was going to receive. Either way Nagare gets loose, or even better, let go by Domino at the end of the strike. "Elaborative! That was an excellent dive, and I've seen a few in my time!" Nagare answers as he tries to respond in kind. Unlike Domino, Nagare seems to be still on his first legs.
This doesn't stop him from trying swim at Drake, only to aim to swim between his legs with the water chi, lift up mid way and try to slide him back, up, and down into the ground. "If you keep it up and work hard there's nothing you can't do."
COMBATSYS: Drake fails to counter Strong Throw from Nagare with Blackout.
- Power fail! -
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Nagare 0/-------/=======|
COMBATSYS: Drake can no longer fight.
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Nagare 0/-------/=======|
Domino... really doesn't have a chance against this attack. He just braces himself and prepares to intercept it, if at all possible... but it isn't. He's taken too much of a beating, and this guy has.. well.. completely shattered his hopes of improving himself in the Neo League. Come on, a complete newbie as ridiculous as this guy, and he's been thoroughly...
...crushed.
Both literally and metaphorically.
At least his wish was granted. Domino has found himself facedown in the ground, unconscious, and unmoving.
As Nagare rolls off of Domino... Nagare looks down towards the teen, the kid. The wrestler Domino, laying there unconsciously. His fighter senses tell him he's won. He's done what he had too.
His coach and teacher senses completely override the fighter senses. He doesn't get up to his feet, but he does move quickly over towards the unconscious body of Domino who's just laying there. The first thing he does? Put his ear to his chest.
Good. Still breathing. And then? Nagare begins to do good ol' fashioned CPR. But it's not just any CPR. It's chi CPR. Putting both his hands gently on the teens chest, he begins to help recover the downed teen there and then. "Come on." He says sort of critically as the water chi seems to drip from his hands, slowly expanding out to the teens wounds and healing them slowly. He does at least two cycles, each time listening for a stronger beat.
Nagare is a life guard too, you know.
Nagare also does the compressions, but softly. More much gentle than he did during the fight.
COMBATSYS: Nagare has ended the fight here.
After several seconds of this, Drake groans and shifts a little on the ground. The eyes start to open, then squeeze shut tightly. "Who-..?" The eyes crack open again, model rather pained and everything feeling like a huge strain on his system. Likely a bit from the fight before this one, too. Might not have been a genius idea leaping back into the League so quickly.
But those eyes affix on Nagare, and he glares weakly. "What.. didn't have the decency to kill me?," he asks dryly, voice strained every bit as much as his subtle movements. "Ugh..."
Nagare's eyes, even through the goggles, are critical at the moment. Even if this was a fight, the teacher in Nagare just can't let a teen lay there unconscious. So when he wakes it, Nagare's all smiles.
Until he gets to the part about killing him. "No, no. I'm a coach. A teacher. I never meant to go as hard as I did on you. You seemed to be handling yourself well." Nagare begins as he backs up, letting the teen have is space. He knows he's not really welcome, but he's staying anyways.
"I'm just glad you're doing okay." He begins, and ends there, beginning to sit Indian style. "Don't try to get up yet. You're still pretty hurt."
"Never meant to go as hard...," parrots Drake, sounding even more down on himself. "Do you even have any idea who I am? I'm Domino." Pause. "Or was." Still a teen, and he already feels like a washed-up has-been. The loss to Katana was wretched enough by itself. A sublime chance to see justice done, and he... failed. And against this guy, he failed even harder.
Drake just attempts to roll over, which he succeeds at.. somewhat. He's set on his side, facing away from Nagare. "Your idea of doing okay is kind've screwy..."
Nagare doesn't know who you are. Nor does he care. He wants to help. It's part of who he is. "Well then, you're lucky I did go as hard as I did. You'll only learn to become greater than you already are if you fight tough opponents." Nagare tries to reach out, but he's not as charismatic as some. He's mostly a man of wisdom... and they sometime have no common sense.
"I got lucky." Nagare answers Drake's request, "You we're giving it your all, one hundred and ten percent. Even when you knew you were out of luck. It takes courage to do that."
"I guess," Drake submits. He doesn't react to the extended hand one way or the other. It makes him feel a little more steely, but otherwise he's too weak to really do anything with it. "I don't really believe in luck. I believe in training and skill. And even with my training'n skill, this was.. the worst display I've ever made." He exhales a shallow sigh. "I don't have it in me to withdraw when I can keep fighting. That's all. But... how am I supposed to live this down? I mean.. who're -you- supposed to be?"
Drake's head lifts to peer over his shoulder at Nagare. "I have fans... I'm a worker of justice.. or I'm -supposed- to see justice done. Failed at that pretty hard. And I guess I -used- to have fans. But after -this-?" The head drops to the ground again, scowling off at the distance.
"I'm the swimming coach at Taiyo High, Nagare Namikawa." Nagare states cleanly, "I've been through my own rigorous training sessions, and that's probably the reason I haven't come out lately. Now I'm just trying to draw some attention to Taiyo High." Nagare states, "I... didn't have any idea people were trying to make it as big as you were here." Nagare muddles over a thought for a moment or two. He's thinking, but about what.
"A worker of justice? That's good work Domino. But if fan's can't understand that the one they root doesn't always win... then they're fair weather fans. True fans will follows you, even through a defeat or two as long as you show the same tenacity." Nagare says, in a tone only a coach or a teacher could really manage.
"Use this as a lesson for the future. If you push it away, it'll just haunt you in fights to come."
"Defeat.. this wasn't a defeat, Mr. Nagare Namikawa. This was humiliation," Drake seethes. "How am I supposed to fight after -this-?" He finally rolls over the rest of the way and pushes himself to his knees, peering at Nagare through the corners of his eyes.
"It's only humiliation if you say it's humiliation, Domino. Not everything we do in our lives comes out the way we want it to." Nagare should know. The Morals Committee in Taiyo High? They kicked him out for the weekend. Well, to all he knows. It could be a secret trick.
"The only thing I can advise you to do at them moment is... ahh," Nagare scratches his head, but the fin makes it sort of impossible. He tries anyways, "either get over the loss, or learn to cope with it. A single victory or loss in your career isn't going to make or break it. Just as if you got an F on a test. It doesn't mean you might as well quit the year."
Drake just frowns at this spot of advice. It equates to him as, 'Deal with it'. Not terribly charming. "If I can't beat you, what good am I?," he replies, rather point blank about it. Sure, he's been through Thailand in the wars.. but a defeat like this really makes him question if he even made much of a difference or if his team just didn't do all the work while he innocently batted at the opposition. It's really screwed with his psyche.
"For one, you don't know how strong I am." Which, well, he found out quite readily. "But that doesn't matter. You gave it your all, you stood up to me even if I was unknown. You did everything a great fighter should. However, you're too hard on yourself. Nobody's ever got where they are by winning all their fights." Nagare tries to reason, "It's the ones that they lose that shapes them."
Drake starts to respond, then pauses, and he just exhales a sigh. "Mmh." Another loss, though. Nothing's really going to prevent -that- from coming out. "..So now what?," he finally asks, still very obviously sore about the whole ordeal. And who can blame him? This guy literally wobbled up to him and ripped him apart, damn near flawlessly.
Nagare's had a lot of built up tension.
"Get some rest, wake up, meet the new day and swim in its rays." Nagare's no sage, but he tries to give advice anyways. And that? Yes. Nagare did rather pummel Drake, but this is the worst case scenario. Drake could turn it around if Nagare was to have that as well.
Standing up, Nagare looks towards Domino again. "If you ever need help or want to fight, look for me at Taiyo High. I'll be happy to see you." Nagare begins, stretching once more. He's not taking off the flippers.
"Strength isn't only muscle. You have to believe in yourself." The Taiyo coach states as he turns to leave. He's less gracefully, and he's not good at keeping up appearances. Especially if you're walking, and you looking like a waddling duck.
Log created on 00:09:23 10/13/2007 by Nagare, and last modified on 09:50:42 10/13/2007.