Description: SNF! Conclusion: The sword is mightier, despite the purse. (Winner: Raizo)
Until a few months ago, Raizo Imawano seemed to be a man fully retired from the fighting ring - aside from occasionally altercations and throwing of innocent adolescents through windows, Raizo had retired pretty much entirely to administrate his beloved Justice High School.
But things change, and although the exact reason for his return to the public eye remains something of a mystery, the fact that he's here is unquestionable. He emerges onto the main stage of Howard Arena, to all the ludicrous fanfare and crowd reaction one might expect from a main match at the Arena, and true to form Raizo seems completely uninterested in the whole business. He's dressed as ever - a tan suit, white shirt, red tie, comically minute monocle glimmering in his eye, and one fingerless leather glove covering his left hand.
But he is grinning. Despite his strictly professional manner, it's hard for even a man like him to ignore the fact that this should be an interesting fight. No hated personal adversaries or troubling (and troubled) youths to smack around - he can focus on enjoying the sport of it, such as it is.
Rose walks from the other end of the ring, still holding a wine glass in one hand. (Actually, it has cranberry juice in it. She was handed it by a technician who said that it would look good, and she has to admit she knows how to hold one.) As she walks, she swirls the red fluid within it, once, twice - and then downs it as she climbs the staircase up into the ring itself, kneeling briefly to place it on the topmost step.
She tosses her hair back and steps onto the arena floor, folding her arms in front of her. Her expression is inscrutable for a moment as she sizes up the old, burly man. It lasts for several seconds - and then a smile breaks, her head tilting slightly forwards for a moment. She chuckles, shaking her head once, and steps forwards the rest of the way, extending her right hand towards Raizo.
"I wish that we had met under brighter circumstances, Mr. Imawano," she says, "but perhaps this is a better way than most to get to know one another. I trust you will do your best, and I will do mine?" Not much of a heel-turn here, is there?
Raizo's eyes turn to Rose with a similar intensity, watching her thoughtfully even as she does the same. His eyes may be old, but they're certainly not dull - there is a dangerous acuity to that gaze, a cunning analytical awareness.
And as Rose puts her hand forward, Raizo allows his grin to broaden (though it's not a wholly pleasant expression - Raizo as ever bears a more than passing resemblance to a wild animal), and he extends his own gloved hand to meet Rose's, shaking with a businesslike manner. "I can think of better places, but this is itself far better than others," Raizo admits. He is, as usual, a little wordy for someone who looks that much like he's about to eat a child. Stepping back, Raizo nods, and says, "Indeed. I would expect nothing less."
Normally, Raizo can be slightly crazed, but he's pretty composed tonight - partly, perhaps, because he is fighting an equal, rather than a gaggle of students who need the fear of bear put into them. The introductions out of the way, Raizo turns and takes a few steps toward the other end of the ring, then drops into his fighting stance - which admittedly looks like nothing so much as a brawler's posture, albeit with the long, razor-edged fingernails extended for full display. "Ready when you are."
Rose's handshake is firm, if not nearly as brutely powerful as Raizo's. She smiles, then, and turns to step a few paces away as Raizo assumes his fighting stance. She chuckles, then, and dips her head once more, arms folding beneath her breasts. "Well then. In just a few moments --"
And then the announcer shouts, "FIGHT!", and the crowd goes wild - or at least cheers the impending beginning of the action! As the announcer trails off into commentary for the sake of the DVD track, Rose smiles at Raizo again.
She also doesn't move - not yet. She remains still, although she breathes in, light shimmering around her. It seems to follow a pattern like a mandala, coalesceing at her sides about two feet away and then fading to absorb back into her body, accompanied by deep, almost yoga-like breathing on Rose's part. "And so," she says, looking up towards Raizo, "it begins!"
COMBATSYS: Rose has started a fight here.
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Rose 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Raizo has joined the fight here.
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Rose 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Raizo
COMBATSYS: Rose gathers her will.
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Rose 0/-------/---====|-------\-------\0 Raizo
Raizo hears 'FIGHT!' and...
...does not actually leap directly to the attack, this time. She's doing something unusual, he can already tell, and the light beginning to glow confirms it. He clenches his hands, momentarily, debating simply walking over there and decking her, but...
...no. For the moment, rather than charge in head first, Raizo plays it smart, focusing his attention on Rose. He tightens his stance in preparation for SOMETHING, but rather than bombard Rose with fists and pray something lands, the bear watches her move - monitoring her breaths, the light around her, anything that might give him a clue of what she intends - or where an opening might lie.
COMBATSYS: Raizo focuses on his next action.
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Rose 0/-------/---====|-------\-------\0 Raizo
Rose chuckles to herself. Good, she thinks, he's not taking the bait so easily. But it would be rude of them to stand there and give each other the hairy eyeball until striking a single, near-invisible blow that might fell the other. She steps forwards, legs moving cautiously, raising up her scarf...
Then she's falling, but only to her side, the scarf billowing out beneath her to provide a transient cushion! She slides forwards with a kick from the ground, aiming one spiked heel up towards Raizo's shin, her free arm also wrapped in shimmering yellow cloth and raised up to guard her face and upper body. Shortly after she seems to rise without contact with the ground, but there IS that transient moment of disconnected motion...
That said, of course, Raizo has an Italian woman sliding at him heel first, and may be mildly surprised by this fact.
COMBATSYS: Raizo endures Rose's Sliding.
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Rose 0/-------/--=====|=------\-------\0 Raizo
She's moving - Raizo can't totally predict everything she'll do, of course, and the way she moves is /very/ strange, difficult to read in the extreme, yet...
Raizo stands his ground, for a moment, taking one more step forward to allow Rose to come crashing down upon him, sliding along the ground toward him in her almost ghastly way. He's seen her fighting before in the various circuits, but still, it's a little unusual seeing it first-hand - a strange thing. Raizo doesn't get out of the way, strangely enough. Rather, he simply allows her to come sliding in, and smash her foot into his mighty, mighty shins.
It hurts a bit, but certainly not as much as what happens next - as Raizo spies an opening in Rose's guard in that instant of contact, Raizo raises up his free foot and brings it down hard in the direction of Rose's midsection.
COMBATSYS: Rose dodges Raizo's Heavy Kick.
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Rose 0/-------/--=====|=------\-------\0 Raizo
Rose looks up at Raizo as he raises his other leg, lowering one vast bear-like leg towards her, and she breathes in. There is a moment of peculiar tension, and then -
She isn't there any more, instead she's a foot to the side and standing fully upright. Her hair moves as gravity reasserts itself, and she raises a fingertip to waggle, briefly, as if silently chiding for that sort of a maneuver. Hardly sporting, even if it would have likely been extremely effective!
She lunges forwards, then; her fist slams towards Raizo's midsection, the scarf swirling around it in a flourishing spark of green light. She would normally crouch to perform this sort of a strike - but with Raizo... well, she is, in essence, /already/ crouching, relatively speaking.
COMBATSYS: Rose successfully hits Raizo with Medium Punch.
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Rose 0/-------/-======|====---\-------\0 Raizo
She's /fast/ - as he expected, of course, but more to the point she can apparently /teleport/, which is...
...well, not /new/, Raizo Imawano has seen a great deal over his many years, but it's certainly troublesome because he is not really equipped to deal with that in an expedient manner. Simply put, she is fast, and he is slow, and in a battle of power versus speed, power loses all too readily.
But Raizo's not done yet. Raizo smirks a little at her chiding look, and is about to muse on the sad nature of combat when holy cow she's coming REALLY FAST - Raizo moves to evade, but fails rather spectacularly, receiving a blow to the belly for his efforts.
But, at least this puts him at something of an advantage. Because being here, up close, where he can use the full force of his mass to his advantage, is exactly where Raizo is strongest.
Which is why Raizo rears back with his hands, bares the claws at the end of each finger, and leaning into the blow, growls a kiai and exerts all of his force on a crushing slash across Rose's body. The move is fast - damn fast, so perhaps even she will have difficulty evading it.
COMBATSYS: Rose endures Raizo's Claw Stab.
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Rose 1/------=/=======|======-\-------\0 Raizo
Rose does something which is likely going to look retarded, considering her relative lack of mass and muscle power compared to Raizo. She leaps /towards/ the claw, the crushing strike going down - in fact, it wraps AROUND her, the claw bending slightly to dig into her back hard enough to make her cry out in pain, reflexively.
Raizo can hear, from this short range, Rose mutter to herself, "Just a moment --" And then as she keeps moving forwards, one arm slides out, the scarf and Rose's shoulders and arms erupting in blue light, like cold flame! It burns, though in a way that doesn't touch the body --
Raizo may have to take evasive maneuvers. Can he bring himself to? If not, the flames roar to burning blue life, surrounding him as Rose moves almost imperceptibly, some mysterious mental force sending Raizo back and over to the hard, cold stone!
COMBATSYS: Raizo fails to interrupt Aura Soul Throw from Rose with Yasha Guruma.
-* CRITICAL FAIL! *-
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Rose 0/-------/---====|=======\==-----\1 Raizo
Just a moment? Raizo doesn't want any part of THAT.
The mighty Principal Bear moves quickly - first bracing himself as best he can, and then shifting his stance enough to prepare a savage LEAP right at Rose, preparing to savagely maul her poor body in a very thorough and painful way...
...except the cannonraizo is intercepted by Rose's strange assault, sending him hurtling away, where he rolls and rolls end over end until he impacts something hard.
"...golly," he mutters. "That didn't work."
He doesn't actually stand up just yet - taking his time to rise, breathing ragged, eyes not entirely focused. This isn't going well at all. He's making amateur mistakes - what's wrong? He hasn't faired this badly in a bout since...
Rose is breathing heavily too when she lands, although to be fair, she seems to be merely somewhat bloodied, not... agonized, the way that Raizo is. She pushes a lock of her hair back and smiles with something resembling apology. "The pain will pass," she explains. "Most of it is purely mental. You might be able to burn past it with your own power..." He IS, after all, a great warrior.
And a great warrior, Rose reasons, can defend himself well. She takes one step forwards and then leans ahead, the scarf whirling around to form a glowing structure - like some sort of modern piece of chair-craft, but it supports her quite well for the moment.
Her heels sparkle as she twists them up, the dress tight enough to not slide down her legs as she aims a cartwheeling kick up at Raizo's midsection. He can likely see the trails of turquoise-blue and sunlight-yellow light along her toes and heels, and he will find them dismayingly familiar if his speed isn't up to the task!
COMBATSYS: Raizo dodges Rose's Strong Kick.
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Rose 0/-------/--=====|=======\==-----\1 Raizo
Raizo looks up to spy Rose coming. And it seems his speed is more than up to the task: the mountainous man throws himself aside as Rose lashes out with her feet, landing on his hands and descending into a quick roll away from Rose. Eventually he comes up out of it, turning quickly to face the woman again. Is she expecting that kind of agility? His /speed/ is often his greatest weapon - nobody expects a man of Raizo's size to be capable of the speeds he is, after all. But Rose is so much faster still, so it doesn't really help much...
No time.
Raizo takes a few steps forward, then plants one foot and uses it as a pivot, shifting his full weight around and forward, growling a roar as he unleashes a crushing blow that Rose will find quite capable of blowing a hole right through her guard, if it hits.
COMBATSYS: Rose fails to interrupt Roppu Zuki from Raizo with Soul Spiral.
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Rose 0/-------/=======|=======\====---\1 Raizo
Rose acts on her instinct again, and in this case, it doesn't work out. She dashes forwards, one arm raising up as she feels her scarf wrap around her arm, spinning up like a sparkling drill powered by the power that inhabits her! It glows, spiralling into the heavens, and her fist contacts Raizo's...
Physics takes over. Rose is significantly shorter than Raizo and weighs approximately three-tenths what he does. Her fist hits his for a fleeting moment, the light and power sparkling around it.
The shock echoes up her arm, sending her twisting and sprawling to the ground. She goes hard enough to bounce, once, landing on her side and skidding to a halt, twitching slightly. She pushes herself to her feet, groaning; maybe she dislocated her shoulder.
Raizo takes a moment to just watch Rose's ricochet downrange. That was not quite the expected reaction, but then...well, in a fight like this, that's to be expected. One is huge, easy to hit, and built like a tank; the other is tiny, faster than lightning, and if struck even once by their foe, liable to shatter like fine china. It is the nature of battles like this, and to be candid, wasn't that the entire premise?
Raizo has no time for musings like that. As Rose bounces away, Raizo takes a few steps after, and figuring she won't be particularly averse to a taste of her own medicine, moves to attack this time - not allowing her to get a chance to breathe, and potentially cause him quite a bit of pain.
He doesn't mock her, though - far from the laughing jeers often exchanged by combatants in the ring, this has been a strictly professional fight, a weighty occasion indeed between two quite powerful warriors. And Raizo moves to add more weight to it - his own, to be precise. He cannot do anything as fancy as Rose's scarf tricks or glowing fists; he simply rears back and, quickly but with all of the power usually bound up in his frame, aims a kick at her as she rises.
COMBATSYS: Rose blocks Raizo's Light Kick.
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Rose 1/-------/=======|=======\====---\1 Raizo
The twisting around gives Rose enough time to watch the foot draw back. She doesn't have it in her to leap, twist, or vanish from sight, and so instead she crouches and raises one arm, the scarf whirling around it. Raizo may feel transient stings as Soul Power flicks through his nerves and mind, the billowing cloth acting as a cushion...
But not a perfect one. She grunts and staggers back, breathing in through her nose and straightening. "Well," she declares, taking one step back and spreading her arms. "Shall we keep going? You are, I think, holding back a little bit - please don't feel you have to. I'm tougher than I look, I assure you!" Even if she isn't made of thighs, like certain other women warriors.
Light glows around her, shimmering and coruscating, but it seems to be resorbed almost immediately rather than forming ornate patterns first. She must be rather strained.
COMBATSYS: Rose gathers her will.
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Rose 1/---====/=======|=======\====---\1 Raizo
Holding back!? Hardly! But, he can certainly feel his blood up - his energy is high, and if he chooses the right moment, he may just be able to snake in a blow that will completely blow through her defense.
But recent fights with Kurow and Rugal have taught Raizo that the old method of simply punching a hole in the other guy's lungs isn't always the way to go. It can be predicted, countered.
Besides, people who ask other people to go all out are usually preparing to kick them in the jimmies for their trouble.
Still...it might be interesting to see just what she's got in her pocket. And the fans want a show. Raizo takes a moment, grinning to himself and shaking his head in an all but paternal manner. "Well," Raizo laughs. "You want me to go all out, eh?"
He plants a foot, and holds one of his hands up, gathering all of his power there, focusing all of his spirit and chi into that hand. "I suppose I can give you a demonstration, then," he rumbles, and then sets his other foot. He's not really in punching range...
Raizo thunders, "BUT DON'T LAMENT YOUR CHOICE! IMAWANO ROPPU ZUKI!!" and then shifts the entire mass of his body, every kilogram, pound, and muscle, throwing the entire force of his body behind a straight-arm punch wreathed in shining blue-white chi. His claws are bared - even disregarding the chi aspect, if that thing hits cleanly it is going to be like getting run over by a train.
COMBATSYS: Rose stops Imawano Roppu Zuki from Raizo with Soul Reflect.
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Rose 1/-------/=======|-------\-------\0 Raizo
Rose's eyes narrow as she breathes in deeply, then back out, her hands seeming to twist in the air through a variety of positions, scarf trailing after the left. She doesn't move. Instead, she feels, and one leg shifts imperceptibly backwards as she senses the path that the future may be taking. But that's only half of it.
The other half is all skill. Wrapped in the yellow cloth, Rose's fingers curl and that enormous fist comes right at her; she raises it, her hand cupping that brutal fist for a single shining instant before the force can translate into her body. "Ha-"
The burst of light is like lightning, if silent lightning, right in the middle of the arena. Enormous quantities of incoming force are dumped temporarily into a harmless light display; Rose's head lolls back with the sheer effort of it, the chi and momentum all sublimating out, exchanges into a harmless, if enormous, flare of light... and something else.
The burst of silent thunder fades, leaving searing marks in vision that will take a day or more to fade out completely. Where the jagged arcing sunlight-yellow lines had been, sparkles of pink and green and blue and turquoise and magenta flutter, intense but fading as the particulates sublimate, leaving the arena faintly but perceptibly warmer.
Rose breathes out. "Thank you," she says, and then she smiles, before taking a step to the side - she's not collapsing yet!
Raizo was somewhat expecting something like that.
...that doesn't make it less annoying, however.
Raizo pushes hard against the resistant thunder, trying with every ounce of power in him to /break through/. Just a litle - smash through it!
But it's no good. His assault fails, and Rose is untouched - but weaker, at least.
Weaker is a start. Weaker is something he can live with.
"You're quite welcome," Raizo rumbles, taking two deep breaths to cleanse his lungs. "Quite a trick of your own," he prompts, but then it's back to business - as he lunges toward Rose, both hands extended, and this time, not at all intending to punch her - but rather, grip her by the shoulders.
COMBATSYS: Rose fails to interrupt Sekisaiga from Raizo with Soul Illusion.
- Power fail! -
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Rose 0/-------/-======|===----\-------\0 Raizo
Rose closes her eyes, seeming to concentrate even as Raizo grasps her. He may have a faint tingling sensation of SOMETHING happening behind him, something that is coming from nothing and is a split-second away from taking place. And in that moment of awareness--
--he strikes.
Hard.
Gripping Rose by the shoulders, the beastial Principal heaves her downward with all his strength, slamming her into the ground. Then he drops right down to his knees, straddling Rose's body and bearing his claws. He slashes at her several times, three, four, five - and then bringing both hands down on her skull, before shoving off with all the strength he has left in one leg, pushing him away before Rose can recover enough to smash his face in.
Nobody said Imawano style was a /soft/ art.
Rose manages to gasp while the attack pattern commences. She doesn't cry out, otherwise. This is about the limit of her superhuman feats at present. She does seem to /glow/ slightly where cut, although her dress suffers greatly; there is blood, quite a bit of it, but not a constant gush. It stops and slows to a leak, even after Rose says "Ungk" from having her face slammed into the stone.
She lays there for a few seconds. She doesn't stand up; rather, she translates herself to a standing position, nose bleeding. It may be broken. She looks at Raizo steadily, if with obvious pain, and raises an eyebrow rather than say anything meaningful.
Raizo rolls to his feet, taking a few steps in Rose's direction. The producers won't be happy if they just give up, after all, although with a fight this brutal, perhaps it wouldn't be entirely unexpected. But either way - Raizo's not ready to throw in the towel yet, despite the sweat curling down his face, the traceries of mental pain arcing across his neurons, his ragged breathing.
"I should've warned you," Raizo muses, quietly. "Imawano-ryuu is not a gentle art." But then - one supposes that no matter how nice Raizo may be, there is only so nice a man can be when he fights using the claws he has formed out of his /fingernails./
Perhaps taking pity - or perhaps simply /tired/ - Raizo then charges in again, slower this time, but still quite fast - his aim is to quite simplyp lant his fist in Rose's face, perhaps hoping the quick but relatively weak assault will topple her after that last savage attack.
COMBATSYS: Rose dodges Raizo's Quick Punch.
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Rose 0/-------/-======|===----\-------\0 Raizo
Rose smiles at the statement but still doesn't speak. Perhaps she's got blood in her throat or something. When Raizo does dash in, however, swinging his fist, Rose ducks down low and quick, sinking to one knee (and oh, what a relief it is) - but she's not done yet. No; she raises one hand, striking out towards Raizo's midsection once again. The scarf whirls around her arm, green light flashing as the strike moves home - can Raizo's own momentum work against him?!
COMBATSYS: Raizo dodges Rose's Medium Punch.
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Rose 0/-------/-======|===----\-------\0 Raizo
Not today. Raizo's tired, but his reflexes aren't dulled by it anyway; the mammoth principal of Justice High sees the attack coming and moves against it. In actuality, he leaps up, somersaults in midair - and comes out of the flip with both feet descending, aimed squarely at Rose's body with enough force to crush her underfoot.
He dimly hopes he hasn't hurt the woman too badly - but then, given her level of power, he's also quite confident she'd have called a halt if she detected she were in fact /badly/ wounded.
COMBATSYS: Raizo successfully hits Rose with Heavy Kick.
Glancing Blow
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Rose 1/-------/=======|====---\-------\0 Raizo
As the kick strikes Rose in the shoulder and upper chest, she groans in a way that indicates that perhaps she HAS had enough. Her eyes get glassier and she staggers back, but before she falls, before the day is won, she has one last card, perhaps, to play.
It has been neatly parked over her shoulder, the strap secured and the entire accessory easy to miss in the heat of battle. But between claws and that kick, the front strap comes loose, and Rose realizes she has a weighted object on a natural leather strap in her hand.
She draws back, breathing in as she swings the suddenly-glowing piece of personal transportation equipment like a whip at Raizo's side! After this, she staggers, sinking to one knee; the brutal light that went through the leather may or may not have brought the matter to, at least, a draw.
COMBATSYS: Rose can no longer fight.
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Raizo 0/-------/---====|
COMBATSYS: Rose successfully hits Raizo with Soul Purse.
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Raizo 0/-------/=======|
Raizo feels his feet connect, and flips away as soon as he can, landing in a crouch, breathing ragged. Staying back from using his more powerful attacks has helped him recuperate somewhat, but still, this fight is brutal. Sensing more than hearing Rose prepare her retaliation, Raizo shifts around, rising quickly to see what she's planning, and..
...huh. He forgot she had that thing.
Raizo moves, but his exhausted body is not nearly fast enough, and he takes the purse square in the gut, sending him toppling backward, perhaps defeated at last?
...no, it seems - Raizo heaves himself up, rising unsteadily to his feet after about ten seconds.
Perhaps sensing her submission, Raizo nods, quietly. "A magnificent duel, madam," he offers, stepping over to, if she so desires, help Rose to stand.
The fight seems to be over, after all.
COMBATSYS: Raizo has ended the fight here.
Log created on 19:38:36 12/14/2007 by Rose, and last modified on 13:06:08 12/17/2007.