Description: Objective: Training alone. Obstacle: One determined future friend. Alias: Ayame. Summary: Checking on a bit of ruckus outside of her training ground, Ayame comes across a girl she's met more than once in rather unpleasant circumstances. This time promises to be different, however, or Kiyoko will die trying!
It's been quite a while since Kiyoko had seen Ayame. Some people would probably consider this a blessing, but the Justice student wanted to see the scarlet haired delinquent. The truth of the matter is that she's been looking for quite some time, ever since a week after they last 'met' in the halls of the Justice girls dormitory. Ayame is a rather hard girl to track down, and Kiyoko isn't exactly the greatest sleuth in Southtown, so it's no surprise that she hasn't found her yet.
Still, she's not allowed herself to get discouraged, and somehow she's actually managed to stumble onto a lead. Someone had placed wanted posters with Ayame's face on them all over the Taiyo campus, and while Kiyoko doesn't go there often she happened to see them. What she's done is to rip one of these down from the wall and take it around with her and ask people if they've seen her. Most people haven't, though when walking down the streets by Gedo one day someone said they recognized her. ...ok, so it's not -much- of a lead, but it's better than sitting around and hoping Ayame will just show up.
Following this clue Kiyoko is currently heading into the back alleyways near Gedo. It's true that Daigo has done a great job of organizing and unifying the Gedo gangs, but there are always going to be a few who spurn his rule. The purple haired girl has had the misfortune of running into a three of these.
"Excuse me, have any of you seen this person?" Kiyoko holds up the poster.
"Ehh?" One of them, a boy with messy hair and a scar on his cheek, replies. "What's it to you?" A moment from telling her to buzz off and mind her own damn business, he recognizes her school uniform. He pushes off of the wall he was leaning against. "Hey, richie, you're an awful far away from Justice ground, don't you think?" The other two who weren't even paying attention hear this and suddenly take interest. One of them smirks and takes a few steps forward, moving slightly behind Kiyoko.
"Um... sorry to bother you." She turns to leave, only to have the third person suddenly standing there blocking her path.
"Where do you think you're going? You don't think you can just invade our turf and get away with it, do you?" He smirks.
Kiyoko frowns, and looks between the three of them. "You'd better back off! I know how to defend myself, you know!" They all laugh, and she looks slightly less confident.
If Ayame had any idea Kiyoko was looking for her all this time... she'd probably assume the violet haired student was on some kind of self-righteous vendetta mission, intent on tracking down the hooligan in hopes of bringing the ne'er-do-well to justice. And then she would laugh.
But Ayame knows nothing of the sort. Between fighting in the 7C arena, doing missions for Elle, and pursuing some of her less... federal-offense-centric hobbies, she's been a bit scarce in the area. She still has a run down studio in an old building in south Southtown. As far as she knows, not even nigh omniscient Elle is aware of where it is exactly. Ayame likes that. It's comforting to have secrets, even from the extremely few people she's come to trust just a little in her life.
At the end of the alleyway Kiyoko has wandered into is a rotted fence cutting off any further travel in that direction. It is on the other side of that fence that an empty lot can be found. Covered with weeds and rubble, the site used to have a building that was condemned to make room for better housing... but investors backed out and the project was never pursued. With nothing but blocks of busted concrete covering the abandoned lot, the parcel of land is a perfect place for Ayame to hone her skills. Rope darting bricks, slamming two-by-fours with her staff, throwing knives at makeshift targets... it's the closet thing to a dojo the girl has to train in besides the pit of the Seventh Circle arena.
Of course, paranoid as always, she doesn't leave herself vulnerable to being caught off guard when she comes out in the open to train like this. Concealed on some of the nearby roofs and beneath piles of tires are a few surveillance cameras filming the nearby approaches and allyways, feeding a constant stream of information into a video iPod the girl has clipped to one of her belts. Checking it periodically lets her see what's going on in the vicinity...
Spying a couple of thugs up to no good isn't really cause for her to care much. The picture is too small to make out many details, but Ayame is a curious and territorial sort, so eventually she decides to go check out what's going on for herself.
Vaulting over the fence is accomplished easily with the aid of her six foot long staff, the girl landing on the other side in a crouch, facing the small gathering. "Well, well, what do we have here. I know we discussed turf boundaries before," the wirey girl states, standing up straight, her left hand gripping her staff, her right hand coming up to brush her hair back over her ear... "And you three are on my side of the line."
There's a small blur of motion, too fast for the untrained eye to follow, as a small throwing knife is hurled, aiming to pin one of the gangster's bright colored hats to the wall behind him. Who their victim is has gone unnoticed by Ayame thus far... in truth, she just wants to claim her piece of the prize if there's something worth her time.
The situation deteriorates even further, both a simple attempt at walking away and a threat of violence having failed to get Kiyoko out of her predicament. She looks between her three assailants and once again attempts to simply leave, only to have one of them step and shove her back in the middle of the three who have now decided to encircle her. "I don't think so. You must be real stupid if you think you're getting out of this that easily. Hey Kanji, what do you think this oughta cost her?"
One of the others speaks up, "For this? I'd say a hundred would do if she were just walkin past, but to actually walk up to us? Five. At least."
"Five hundred dollars?!" She exclaims, "I don't have that kind of money!"
"That's too bad, I guess we'll have to get it out of you some other way, then." He starts to take a step towards her, suddenly freezing in place when a familiar voice is heard. "...shit," he mutters under his breath. He starts to hold his arms wide and turn towards Ayame to explain to her the situation, when the knife comes out of nowhere and takes his hat right off his head. The other two back off, and he stays right where he is for a long moment, paled slightly. "Tch. Fine." He finally says, "You deal with her." He starts backing off and looks to Kiyoko, "You've been better off paying us off, now you're in for some real trouble." The three of them laugh it up again, and start getting the hell out of there.
Kiyoko watches them leave for a moment, and turns to look at the new threat, body posture showing that she's ready to defend herself. However a change comes upon her when she actually sets her eyes upon the familiar figure of Ayame. First of all is shock, which is probably par for the course. The next change is the confusing part. Where there should be fear or anger, instead a look of happiness spreads on her face.
Wait, what? Yes, it appears that Kiyoko is indeed very happy to see Ayame, her 'quest' to search her out finally having come to an end. "Ayame!" She runs towards the other girl, but not at the breakneck speeds attack she's capable of when fighting, but instead at what would probably be considered a jog. And when she gets close? She's going to try to hug her. "I found you!"
Ayame has carved out her little zone in this neighborhood through threats, being a menace, tagging intruders with unpleasant, sometimes embarrassing traps... Needless to say, her borders are known by those who like to keep their hats on. The three turn to high tail it out of the alley and Ayame starts to stride forward, paying less attention to Kiyoko and more attention to the hat pegged to the wall with her knife. She wants her knife back.
Though thoughts of the stuck blade quickly dim when her soon to be next victim sounds awfully familiar. Ayame freezes in her tracks at the sound of her most common alias being shouted out, brown eyes fixing back on Kiyoko, brow furrowing just a little as her left hand tightens on her staff, legs bending a little as she shifts for a moment into a defensive posture, much like a cat that's just been startled.
"What in the world do you-" she starts to stammer out a retort as the Justice student jogs up to her. She's been looking for her? Is this her chance for revenge? Is she here to serve papers for a lawsuit for putting her in the hospital?! So confused by this completely unexpected reaction, Ayame ends up not striking back with her staff when the taller girl wraps her arms around her neck, though her weapon is stuck between them at her waist as she just sort've stands there dumbfounded, blinking twice.
"W-what?!" She finally tenses, pushing out with her weapon horizontally to try and shove Kiyoko away a bit while simultaneoulsy backpeddling until her back hits the fence she just hopped over. "Look, I wasn't saving you from them!" she protests, her right hand coming up, palm forward. "In fact I'm going to-" ...
"Wait a second. What's a girl like you doing around here? You get lost or something? I swear, you have the survival instincts of a puppy."
It doesn't take much to actually pry Kiyoko off with the pole, and she doesn't even resist. Nor has this managed to deflate the sudden upswing in her mood. Backing off to a now respectable distance and giving Ayame her personal space, the taller girl smiles down to her. "I was looking for you. I have been for a while but you're really hard to find." She looks down to the paper in her hand and holds it up, "I found this, so I just asked around if anyone had seen you, someone said they saw you near Gedo so I looked here. And I found you, finally!"
Oh, right, those three thugs. "I could probably have gotten away if they tried anything. Luckily I didn't have to, since you showed up!" Didn't Ayame just say she hadn't intended to save her? Yeah, she's ignoring that. "I'm so happy I found you, though."
If things were weird before, they're going to get even crazier now. Kiyoko takes a step forward, not close enough to try and hug again, but get just a little closer. "I... I wanted to thank you. When I found you and Justice and- Well, that part doesn't really matter, you were just being yourself." The purple haired girl looks downright embarrassed, now, "What does matter is that when I was hurt, you called the ambulance for me. Since the doctors saw me right away it didn't end up hurting me that bad in the end, but I don't know what might have happened if you would've just left me there." She reaches up and rubs the back of her head, "I know that some of the things you do are wrong, but to me what matters more is that you were willing to put yourself at risk to help me. Both times, really..."
With Kiyoko off of her, Ayame relaxes just a little, even if her back is to the wall. The paper receives her attention and the long haired girl squints at it before rolling her eyes, "Oh yeah, that glamor shot." she notes dryly. Pesky Roberto and his theft-preventing ways! Grr!!
Brown eyes shift back to focusing on Kiyoko as the girl hears her out some more, her mind reeling as she tries to make any sense of this weird encounter. "Y-you are..." she stammers as the student indicates she's happy to have found her. That's really not the reaction she gets when people have the misfortune of seeing her for a second time, let alone a /third/.
Kiyoko takes a step forward and Ayame backs up against the wall again. Unlike her previous encounters with the poor kid, she actually looks almost a little /scared/ of the violet haired girl for a change. Who KNOWS what kind of crazy thing she might do next!? Maybe she's strapped with suicide bombs and she plans on taking them both out in an explosive blaze of delightful destruction? Why else would she be soooooo cheerful??
"I did-" she remarks when Kiyoko mentions falling for an ambulance, the girl still looking fairly bewildered. "Are you crazy? I wasn't helping you!" she finally blurts out, waving her right hand rapidly in front of her, "I was just looking out for myself! You think I want a dead body on my rap sheet?!"
"Some of the things I do are wrong? More like everything is!" she insists. Thoughts of her knife over in the wall are forgotten, and she's barely even remembering her intent to mug the poor stranger who had wandered into the wrong part of town. Right now she looks just shy of being panicked as she leans to the side to look over Kiyoko's shoulder, "You're not just stalling me until the police get here, are you? Because so help me I'll-"
She buttons up, mouth twisting into a somewhat uncertain mixture of trying to look threatening while realizing that it's really hard to make a convincing threat when she basically just said she isn't looking to add murder charges to her criminal record.
Wow, Ayame sure is acting odd! Well, she is to Kiyoko, anyway. Of course she didn't think Ayame was going to jump for joy and invite her to a party when she thanked her, but she didn't expect this either. Still, she thinks she can work with it. "Huh? Police? Why would they be here? If I was going to do that I'd have done it a long time ago." She looks right at Ayame, "I didn't say anything about you when I got hurt either, like you told me to."
When Ayame gives her that odd look Kiyoko backs off to give the girl her space again, "Fine, almost all of the things you do are wrong. I... don't really care, though. No matter how mean you are I know there -is- something nice inside you, even if it's covered up with robbing people." She smiles again, "Even if you were just trying to cover yourself when you called the ambulance, you didn't have to stay with me until people came. That's not something I'm ever going to forget."
Kiyoko, still in a happy mood though being more subtle about it now, "You don't have to worry about me turning you in or anything like that. Really, I'm not mad at you at all. I just wanted to find you and thank you and tell you how I felt." After a moment she adds, "It's not a bad thing to do something nice for someone, every once in a while."
Okay, no authorties swarming the place in a few seconds. At least, according to Kiyoko. And is she even trustworthy!!?? Well, yeah, seems to be from Ayame's estimate, anyway, and her assurance results in the street rogue relaxing a little, the nervousness slipping from her expression as she starts to feel more in control of the situation.
She says she didn't rat her out to anyone after their run in at the High School and Ayame looks at her intently. She didn't really expect her to stick to an agreement she didn't even really have the ability to verbally agree to and the fact that she did leaves her giving Kiyoko a quizzical look as she tries to make sense of what makes this girl tick. She really doesn't seem to behave according to any preconcieved notions Ayame had about how she SHOULD be acting, that's for sure. "Are your kidneys okay? You didn't get brain damaged, or something, right?" the girl interjects in the middle of Kiyoko's statements before falling quiet again.
She declares there to be something nice about the ruffian and Ayame blinks slowly. Kiyoko sure picks out interesting things to emphasize - staying with her after socking her in her side hard enough to put her into painful convulsions? Ayame takes time to process all of this information, staying silent for a moment even after Kiyoko finishes speaking.
Finally her empty right hand comes up to rest against the side of her head, fingers slipping in beneath her hair, her left hand lowering, holding her staff at her side now, no longer using it defensively. "Uh huh... I-... ah..." She doesn't know what to say. At least, not instinctively. The girl has to actively start reviewing any number of stories, scripts, movies, books to dig up the proper response for exactly this scenario she finds herself in. And when she mentally flips through her options, filtering out the words that don't feel right to her, the normally smooth talking con settles on the most simple reply of all, lowering her hand from the side of her head even as she speaks.
"Y-yeah, you're welcome."
Kiyoko smiles a little when Ayame relaxes, taking it as a definite good sign. Considering the types of things Ayame has done to her, and the fact that she managed to get posters of herself put up at Taiyo, it's pretty easy for her to understand why the thought of police would worry her. She probably doesn't want assaulting an officer on her rap sheet, either.
When she's interrupted this is taken as another good sign- Ayame's concerned about her, though if she were asked she might say she was worried about more serious charges being placed against her if she were fingered for the crime. Kiyoko's head nods, after a bit of hesitation. "Yea... I'm not any worse off than I was before." She'd -like- to tell her more about her condition, but if she started spouting off a life story on such a simple question it could just drive her away.
So far Kiyoko has been fairly forward about all this, so it'd probably be good if she played it cool now, since she seems to have thrown Ayame for a pretty big loop and she doesn't want to freak her out. At the acceptance of her thanks she nods her head slightly. After a moment she lets out a little laugh, "This probably seems pretty weird, doesn't it? I can leave you alone now if you'd like," unspoken but obvious is that she'd rather talk some more, "and if I really am invading your space or something like that, I could go to an ATM and get you that money."
'Not any worse off than before', eh? Ayame is quiet as she listens to Kiyoko, combining everything she says with the comments she's said in their prior encounters. When she nailed her in the side before she identified it as being her kidneys, sounding rather certain about it. Almost no one would draw that conclusion right off hand unless they had a history of trouble with their kidneys to begin with. Ayame isn't sure what the deal is, but she knows there's something wrong with the student. Her empty right hand comes up to rub at her temples as she watches the taller girl, still not really clear on what part of their prior interaction would bring her all the way out here /looking/ for her.
"Yeah, that'd be good," the girl grunts as Kiyoko offers to leave her alone. Hefting the titanium pole in her hand, the girl tightens her grip near the center and all the sudden the six foot long staff collapses back in on itself, contracting down to a half foot long tube which Ayame slides into a pouch affixed to one of her belts, looking ready to turn away and hop over the fence. After all, she got her chance to say thanks, and she replied with the appropriate 'You're welcome' line that is supposed to follow an expression of gratitude... what else is there to say?
But then Kiyoko talks about her space and an ATM and getting money to pay her for trespassing and Ayame looks at her again, squinting a bit as she rests her hands at her hips. "If I wanted your money I'd have beat it out of you by now," the strawberry-blonde remarks, right hand coming up to wave dismissively with a half-shrug. But after the flippant remark, she's back to being at a loss for words and the way she just stares at Kiyoko with a certain amount of forced apathy mingled with annoyance reveals as much.
Lowering her arm slowly she exhales, releasing a sigh of resignation. Pointing over her shoulder with her thumb at the fence behind her she asks, leaning her head to the side a bit, "If you can make it over, I guess you can stick around." And with that, she crouches, tenses, then leaps up, hands cresting the top of the fence, letting her grip onto it and vault herself the rest of the way over back into the lot where she had been prior to the disruption, disappearing from view.
Apparently Ayame hasn't seen Kiyoko on Saturday Night Fight, even though the opposite is true. She has no objections to telling Ayame about herself, but she doesn't want to cram the information down the other girls throat if she'd rather not hear it. Blabbering about yourself to someone who doesn't care is one of the fastest ways of getting someone annoyed with you, after all. Things get confusing for the Justice student though, as at first Ayame thinks it's a good idea for her to buzz off, and then later decides it's okay for her to follow. Maybe she just doesn't want to be seen in public with her?
"Yea, probably... You've pretty much proven that you can take me just about anywhere, even where your pole doesn't work well." Kiyoko walks forward after Ayame heads off behind the fence, standing on the same side of it and contemplating. Well... why not? She bends down and then jumps over the fence, lifting her legs up to get over the top and land behind it. A lot of care is taken because, well, she's wearing a skirt!
Kiyoko is at this point feeling slightly awkward. She knew she wanted to meet Ayame and thank her, which she's done. However, she didn't really have a plan for what to do /after/ other than that she'd like to be friends with her, and hopefully bring out more of that kindness she's seen before. She can't just come right out and say that, though! Odds are if she does that the redhead is going to say something about annoying sick girls trying to change people, and likely get indignant. To her, though, it's not so much a matter of changing Ayame as drawing out something that's already there. She knows the odds of turning her into some kind of saint is practically nil, but there's just something about the girl that makes her want to be friends with her. "Thanks for letting me come back here..."
Kiyoko makes it over the fence into the yard with Ayame. The property is run down, covered with a lot of weeds and a giant pile of what used to be a building before it was condemned and demolished. The entire lot is fenced off on all sides, with most of the edges bordered on tall, run down buildings. The Taj Mahal it is not.
"This is where I practice sometimes," the girl remarks with a glance over her shoulder toward Kiyoko when she finally seems to take notice that she has come along after all. "Get left alone mostly." There's a bit of an edge to the statement, as if trying to suggest that having a visitor here isn't exactly her favorite thing. But she said the girl could come, right?
She relaxes a little after that statement though, frowning faintly before shaking her head, looking away, resting her hands at her hips again. Maybe she's just as much at a loss as to what to do with Kiyoko as the other girl is uncertain as to what to do with her.
"So how'd you learn to fight, anyway?" she asks, walking over to an upright log with a small collection of small, sharp objects on it. Idly picking up one of the glinting throwing blades on it, the girl turns to the right and flings the weapon, imbedding it in a board some twenty feet away, right alongside a bunch of other knives she's stuck in the plank.
"I mean, you're not terrible at it." Take that for what you will. As if having nothing better to do she snatches another knife and sends it spinning through the air to thunk into the board right next to the one before it. "And seriously, what do you think you're doing trying to be a fighter with whatever it is that's wrong with you?" she asks, still not looking toward Kiyoko as she speaks.
The lack of modern comforts in the run down lot doesn't bother Kiyoko, but her presence here on Ayame's turf does leave her uncomfortable. She doesn't want to screw up here and alienate the world wise teenager, as it would effectively ruin the little 'progress' she's made so far. Ultimately it's something she has to set aside and try to act normally as possible, and that's exactly what she does. "It looks like a good place to practice, especially if you want to work on fighting with poor footing." That's not something you can do as easily in a traditional dojo.
The questions she's asked seems to have a large impact on her, however, the gravity of the situation suddenly shifting to something deeper. The first questions aren't answered immediately as she would otherwise normally do, instead following Ayame at a slow pace over to the log with the weapons stuck in it. When the questions are over Kiyoko's face looks completely conflicted. The questions... they're not something she can answer without explaining everything, and though she doesn't have anything against telling Ayame it's not something she likes others knowing about.
But...
But she does want to be Ayame's friend, and perhaps this is a good first step. Perhaps even the best, or only possible first step. She takes in a breath, and looks away from Ayame, trying to speak in a casual voice and play it off as nothing important, though the ruse is easy to see through. "It's not that I'm fighting in spite of my condition," she begins, lifting her right foot and rubbing a little line with the tip of her shoe in the dirt, "it's actually the other way around."
"Even if I don't look like it, I'm actually very sick. My kidneys... they just don't work right, and they haven't for years. I started practicing Tai Chi to try and use it as a 'natural' cure. My parents found out people who could fight are very healthy compared to others, especially with diseases. They thought that if I learned how maybe it could slow the progression, or maybe even stop and reverse it. Fighting has always been my favorite sport though, so I twisted their arm and made them let me learn to fight rather than just balance my inner energies." Kiyoko bites her lip a little and stops for a moment. That will explain why she can fight, but not why she does fight.
She puts her foot back to the ground and faces Ayame, holding her arms behind herself, left hand holding her right elbow, "I'm... dying." The word comes out odd- it's hard for her to admit. "I've had to have my blood cleaned in a hospital twice a week for the last two years, and it's only getting worse. My parents didn't want me to fight professionally but... my..." She takes a deep breath, "My doctors told me I probably won't even live to twenty. I want to do something fun and exciting with my life before I die." She looks away again, "That's why I'm fighting, even though I'm sick."
At Kiyoko's observation about what the lot might be useful, Ayame hehs shortly, "Also, no one really cares if you break stuff when it's already all busted anyway." She pauses next to the board, pulling the thrown knives out one at a time, slipping them between her fingers to let her hold a lot more than just a handful. Another she places between her teeth, and the last few she grabs with her right hand before turning to walk away back toward the log where the blades had been sitting when the two hopped over the wall.
She's silent as Kiyoko debates what to do with regards to telling her anything, sorting the small blades and placing them in neat rows atop the log, not even glancing toward her. Wordlessly, she sits down atop a large grey brick next to the log and from her pocket fishes a small stone sharpening rod. As Kiyoko begins to speak, the long haired girl doesn't really seem to be listening, not even giving her eye contact as she selects one knife from the log and starts sharpening it, scraping the stone rod and edge of the blade against each other with patient precision.
But eventually she does glance up, brown eyes focusing on the Justice student as the slightly younger girl explains why it is she does the things she does. "Heh." she remarks at one point, but she otherwise doesn't interrupt, moving on to the next knife to sharpen it, attention back on the routine, it seems. "Everybody's dying, you just happen to have a better idea when than most, I guess." the girl remarks as Kiyoko falls quiet.
Placing the second knife on the log, Ayame glances back toward her, pausing the ritual sharpening for a moment to look the other girl over carefully. "You weren't kidding when you said you enjoy fighting, were you," she remarks, remembering as if it were yesterday the words they exchanged on the beach when Kiyoko insisted fighting could be fun even if Ayame acted more like a predator hunting prey than someone engaging in a sport. Selecting a third knife, she idly balances it by its point on the tip of her finger, still looking at the violet haired girl.
"Yeah, I could tell it was Tai Chi," she remarks, mouth curling into a faint smile as she gets up to her feet, pushing up with her hand to send the small weapon spinning up into the air. Stepping forward, she catches the knife behind her back with her other hand. "Well, I figure you have as much right to live your life as you want as anyone else. If you want to spend your last years fighting because you enjoy it, then, like, more power to you, right?" the girl states with a shrug as she brings her arm forward from behind her back with the knife palmed in it.
Holding her hand out toward Kiyoko as if offering the small metal blade, Ayame nods her head toward the side in the direction of the upright wooden plank, "You want to try?"
There, she said it, and it's out in the open. Ayame takes the information with what appears to Kiyoko to be casual ease, and upon reflection that's probably for the best, Kiyoko decides. Her head nods slowly at the first comment, and she lets go of her arm. "I probably would never have had the courage to enter any fighting leagues if this hadn't happened." She can't quite bring herself to comment on whether or not she might actually be 'better off' this way.
A little smile comes to her face when the second knife is set down, "No. I really do enjoy it. I've always really enjoyed watching matches on TV and in person, so I jumped at the chance when I was told I could actually learn how myself. I know I'm not very good compared to so many of the other professional fighters, but I don't care so much about winning as having a chance and enjoying myself." Her eyes go to the knife as it balances on Ayame's finger for a moment before meeting Ayame's.
"Tai Chi is all about maintaining health, well being, and spiritual balance. It compliments me pretty well, actually. I don't know if I could have done any better with a different art... I kind of doubt it." The theatrics with the blade don't elude Kiyoko's attention- Ayame is really very skilled with those, isn't she? "Yes, thank you. A lot of other girls my age always talk about going to college, or getting married and raising families. None of those are really options for me. I could go to college, but I probably wouldn't graduate... I never thought too much about the future, but doing something with my life seems a whole lot more important now that I know there isn't much of it left. I just want to do something to make it meaningful, and if I can do that while also doing something I really love, then I'm going to."
She takes a look at the knife when it's held out to her and she gives a little nod. She picks it up and tests it's balance, though finding it isn't much help due to her lack of experience. She pulls her arm back and throws it, using her shoulder and elbow too much, her wrist not enough. It hit's the board, but on it's side, and bounces off. Kiyoko looks a little embarrassed.
"Eh, everyone is different with what they can or can't do," Ayame remarks as Kiyoko says she isn't as good as some of the professionals out there. Having thrown herself into the shark infested waters that are SNF events on more than one occasion, she's certainly discovered the distressing gap between her and some of the others that fight out there.
She watches Kiyoko toy with the simple metal blade for a moment, looking almost a bit amused if the brief sparkle in her eyes is any indication. "Well, I don't really know all that much martial arts," Ayame states as Kiyoko discusses the beneficial roles of Tai Chi. "I mean, I know /about/ them, as in, you know, what they are. I can identify 'em. But..." She shrugs, turning to face the plank as Kiyoko gets ready to try her hand... elbow... and arm at knife throwing.
"Well, my father taught me some. With a staff." she continues, her tone somber, "But everything else... well, I just like finding weapons and figuring out what to do with 'em. More interesting to me. But..." She falls quiet as Kiyoko sends the knife hurtling through the air to bounce off its side against the board and drop to the dirt. "Well, I guess I get by."
Her left hand reaches out to grab another knife off the log before slipping it into her right by the blade between her thumb and two fingers, looking pointedly at Kiyoko as if conveying the message that she should be paying attention. Wagging her hand back and forth slowly as if to show the wrist movement involved, she finally flings the blade, sending it slicing straight forward through the air in a very slow spin such that it has turned into the board by the time it reaches it, coming to a stop with a resounding thunk.
Ayame lowers her hand at her side, reaching over to grab a fourth knife from the log and hold it out toward Kiyoko handle first. "I don't really think about that stuff much either," the girl states. "College 'n... you know," she shrugs. "It's good to do something you enjoy though. That's how I live every day."
Her empty left hand comes up to brush her hair back over her shoulder, eyes focusing on Kiyoko as she waits for her to try the knife throwing exercise again, even if the chances of vast improvement are slim. Not everyone figures out what to do with weapons as quickly as the young bandit after all. "So, uh," she squints a little in thought, "Fighting - it really is what you enjoy doing? I imagine, like, only some kinds of fighting, right?" For some reason, she doesn't picture Kiyoko pit fighting much...
"I know. I'm practicing hard to try and get better, and I've been trying to find more experienced fighters that can help me with my technique. Right now I know that other people are stronger than me, but not what I should focus on to improve myself. Just practicing a lot doesn't seem to be helping." Kiyoko listens to Ayame as she talks a little about her own training experience and knowledge of martial arts. She seems to take note of the emphasis on correct throwing technique. "I think you do more than just get by. I can hop around your moves, but if I weren't so focused on keeping myself from getting hurt I wouldn't have a chance against you. I might not, even now." It's not intended as self-deprecation, but as a commentary on Ayame's own skill.
Kiyoko smiles when the blade sinks into the board, "Not everyone has the same interests, just like all fighters have different capabilities." She tilts her head a little, "You know how sometimes you want something more when you're told you can't have it? That's how I feel a lot of the time. There's just so much I can't plan on, because of how uncertain my future is. It doesn't stop me from trying... I could quit school today and my parents probably wouldn't care."
She then gives a little grin, "Look at it this way. I've watched fighters on TV my whole life. They're superstars, and suddenly I'm able to do the things they can. Maybe the same things as the weaker ones, but it's still pretty amazing to be able to stand toe to toe with some of them and put up a good fight!" She then laughs nervously, "There are some kinds of fighting I don't like, though. Like fighting when it isn't to improve, test yourself, or have fun. If someone's attacking me I'm not going to have as much fun. Even then... well, there was someone I fought who melted metal and threw it on me. I didn't like that at all."
"Oh, yeah, totally!" Ayame replies, clenching her fist tightly and shaking it in front of her, "Nothing makes me want to steal something more than being told I can't!" That's... probably not exactly what Kiyoko meant about being told she can't have something, but at least the strawberry-blonde seems to think she's relating on some level, so that's progress at least?
Lowering her fist, the girl tilts her head to the side, listening to other things Kiyoko has to say, brown eyes impassive as if not particularly moved one way or another about the sickly girl's life story. But her eyes widen when she talks about molten metal being flung around, "Whoa, now that's interesting..." She's... definitely going to have to watch out for that one, given how much metal she's always carrying.
The knife she offered a moment before gets tilted up until it's balancing on her finger much like she had done before, the girl holding it out toward Kiyoko again as if inviting her to take another shot at, well, pegging the board even if she can't get it to stick this time either. "Yeah, I guess I never thought about how fighting can be fun," the girl muses out loud. Ironic, given how often she /does/ it. "Just a way to get the job done, that's all."
She half shrugs with her empty hand, "Maybe it comes from trying to flay people alive, I dunno." Eyes roll up toward the sky as her mind seems to wander, the girl falling completely quiet for a moment before glancing back toward the purple haired girl, her empty hand coming, fingers snapping audibly, "I know, we should fight!" Haven't they already done enough of that before, much to the detriment of Kiyoko's health?? Ayame's hand waves rapidly, "I won't use any weapons, I, ah, need to work on other ways of defending myself anyway. Just in case, uh, I don't have any on hand or something." As if that would ever happen.
She adds a moment later, "It'll be okay. I'll be careful about your, ah, um, eh... you know." she finishes with a mumble, waving hand coming up to rest at the back of her head as she glances to the side, almost looking like she feels a bit awkward.
"Y-Yea, something like that." Stealing isn't what Kiyoko meant, but it's the same in principal, she supposes... The girl isn't exactly surprised that Ayame is able to listen impassively without feeling much one way or another- she probably has a story of her own, considering her attitude and skills. Her head nods slightly when the redhead comments on the metal melting technique. "It's... really painful. It does cool down quickly, but it still burned through my clothes and then stuck on me. I guess that's better than just burning my clothes and falling away, though..." Especially since it was shown on TV!
A sheepish look forms on the Justice students face when she realizes the other girl was offering her the weapon to throw again and she hadn't noticed. She plucks it easily off of the finger it's balanced upon and fiddles around with it again to try and figure it's balance out better, likely overanalyzing it. "I'm surprised you've never fought for fun before. I guess if you see it as something you have to do instead of something you want to do it's a lot different though." A way to get the job done... A tool, then? "To me it's more of a sport than anything else. Just like baseball or basketball but much more personal, and way more intense!" And violent, but that's a given!
Kiyoko singularly fails to comment on flaying people alive, rather intentionally letting that comment fall flat and hopefully die away and be forgotten. Done playing with the knife, she quickly twists to the side and flings it towards the board. It flies true and strikes the board straight on, but hits with the butt rather than the blade and falls to the ground again. A little laugh as she lifts her hand to the back of her head, "How do you do that...?"
The prospect of fighting Ayame then, seems to cheer her up a little. "Really? That's a great idea!" Especially if there's no chance of her getting stabbed, slashed, skewered, or sliced. "I guess you could also fight without weapons if you wanted to show someone you're so good you don't even need them to win." At the comment of being careful, the girl actually becomes slightly indignant. "You don't have to go /that/ easy on me you know. As long as you don't just go and smack me in the kidneys I should be fine! Most of my training /has/ been learning to protect myself, after all." She then gives a bit of a grin.
The young bandit nods her head as Kiyoko further describes the nature of her opponent's attacks. Heating metal to the melting point via chi, hm? She's always on the prowl for anything new to do with chi, constantly adding to her arsenal of trickery every occasion she gets. For all the effort she puts into her unpredictable, wily style of fighting, it would be hard to believe she doesn't derive /some/ enjoyment out of it, even if she isn't fully conscious of it.
Brown eyes follow the trajectory of the flung knife with the greatest of ease, watching it thunk with the wrong end first before dropping to the ground. "Getting better," she remarks, remaining quiet as Kiyoko asks her how she does it. As the other girl seems to respond positively to the idea of having a spar of sorts, Ayame's mouth curls into the faintest of grins at just the corner of her lips. "All right," she remarks, walking over to the stump on which her throwing knives were laid out.
Reaching down to her waist, the girl slips off one of her belts - a long, corded affair that Kiyoko has seen her use as a whip before. The pouch attached to another belt is undone and placed on the log with a bit of a thunk due to whatever various items she has in it in addition to her staff.
Reaching down to her waist she draws two butterfly knives, leaving them closed, placing them on the log as well, before reaching over her shoulder and withdrawing a set of four blades folded up against each other and joined by a ring from a sheath hidden by her long hair, placing the strange looking device on the stump. A folded iron fan is drawn from the top of her blouse and added to the stockpile, before the girl reaches to her right arm, drawing back the long cloth band that covers it, revealing some more devices strapped there - a collapsed mini crossbow and what looks like a narrow sword just shy of the length of her forearm. Both devices are undone and added before she reaches beneath her left wristguard and slides out three more throwing knives, placing them on the pile.
Stretching her arms out at her sides, Ayame grins back at Kiyoko, "There, feel a lot lighter now!" she even laughs faintly before studying the girl. "All right, but if it gets too rough, you just say so, nn?" Her tone is guarded, not quite to the point of sounding concerned, but merely admonishing before she nods her head to the side and takes a few steps away from the rubble and weapons stash to a section of the lot that is mostly just empty, somewhat soft, dusty dirt.
Turning toward Kiyoko, Ayame lifts her hands up, clenched fists, looking like she isn't really sure how she should be standing. Without something to twirl, pat, juggle, flick, flip, or juggle, she isn't really sure what to do while waiting! "Let's see what you got," she nods toward Kiyoko. This... is likely to be a learning experience for them /both/.
COMBATSYS: Ayame has started a fight here.
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Ayame 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Kiyoko has joined the fight here.
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Ayame 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Kiyoko
Kiyoko smiles brightly and backs off a bit when Ayame begins removing her weapons. First come the belt, and then the pouch. She's pretty used to the fact that Ayame has all kinds of weapons on her, and so she understands when the knives are pulled out and put down. When she starts getting the blades hidden by her hair she blinks slightly. The fan from the blouse doesn't get much response, but the things that come after it has her just staring. When the sword is pulled out her jaw actually drops a little bit. By this time she's flat out -staring- at the redhead. Finally, after a few more blades are removed, she seems done.
"Jeeze, Ayame! I knew you carried some on you but I didn't know you kept an armory with you at all times." She shakes her head, and would be in disbelief if she hadn't just seen her remove them all. "I'd hate to be behind you in line at an airport." Her head tilts, "All that had to be pretty heavy. I guess you'll be even faster now, huh?" She suddenly clenches her hands into small fists, "I'll have to be doing my best, then!" Luckily for her she has a fighting stance she can slide into rather than just standing around. She leans back with one leg straight and forward, and the other back a little bit and bent at the knee.
"Ok, I'm ready. Have fun!" Taking the nod as a 'go' signal, she begins. She has two main assets to play on: careful attention to detail, and speed. She's definitely no powerhouse, but she's pretty good at analyzing people for weaknesses and capitalizing on them. Ayame's pretty quick too, though, so it makes it a lot harder on her. Right now her plan is simple- abuse the fact that her opponent is usually reliant on having something in her hands to block with, like a titanium pole or a knife. One moment leaning back in her stance, the next rushing forward at full speed, rushing to the side of Ayame and striking with a simple, fast punch to the body just below her chest. "Yah!"
COMBATSYS: Kiyoko successfully hits Ayame with Quick Punch.
- Power hit! -
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Ayame 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 Kiyoko
As Kiyoko expresses surprise at the number of things the girl has been hiding on her person, Ayame gives her a rather subtle grin. She's put a lot of work into her setup, after all, and usually no one really has the chance to appreciate it as by the time they figure out how many weapons Ayame might have on her person, it's generally too late for them to even think about saying anything nice about it!
"Yeah, I don't fly much," the girl states, brown eyes half closing then opening again, focusing on Kiyoko. She's fought her enough to have a sense for her Tai Chi based style of fighting, but without a weapon in her hands to contend with it, she's got some figuring out to do about how she's going to work around it. And as Kiyoko comes charging in, Ayame's lack of experience in unarmed fighting might be getting the best of her right quick, the girl opening one of her fists and swinging it down to try and smack Kiyoko's arm aside, only to end up steering the fast punch right into her own stomach for her trouble.
"Gah!" the girl gasps, stepping back twice, eyes widenined slightly. Catching herself, she draws her hands tightly together, back into loose fists, maybe trying to look like a boxer perhaps. "Your parents know you're swinging lead weights around as hands?!" she asks, her tone chiding but somewhat amused in spite the blow she just took. And then she's stepping forward, attempting to regain lost ground in time to deliver a swift, sideways kick aimed toward Kiyoko's upper thigh in an attempt to upset her balance and open her up for something else next.
COMBATSYS: Kiyoko fails to interrupt Light Kick from Ayame with Quick Throw.
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Ayame 0/-------/-----==|===----\-------\0 Kiyoko
Ayame showing up in an airport would probably end up like that scene in The Matrix where Neo opens up his trench coat and it's filled with guns. The security guards would just stare with fear filled eyes. Kiyoko actually grins a little, "Come to think of it, any kind of fighter would be a real 'risk' on an airplane, huh? One little burst of Chi and down it goes. Your knives might actually be safer than anything."
Kiyoko's attack flies in and strikes true, Ayame's defense seeming to collapse under the quick blow. One thing both fighters will probably know, however, is that everyone is capable of making mistakes. One landed punch in no way means Ayame's helpless without her weapons. This is proved easily enough when she goes back on the offensive! Kiyoko giggles a little, "It'd probably hurt a lot more than that if I wore weighted gloves! I just gotcha in a soft spot."
When the kick comes in Kiyoko decides not to use her speed to escape, but instead drops down low and tries to catch the kick with her arms and body, thinking that if she can take the blow she'll be able to use leverage to slam Ayame down to the ground. It'd probably have worked, if Ayame didn't kick so hard! Crouched down like she is she gets pounded in the stomach, and while her arms begin to wrap they slip off of the limb as she's propelled backwards, her tactic completely turning against her and sending her tumbling to the ground.
"Ngh!" She rolls back up to her feet and makes a good show of shrugging it off, even though it hurts. "I thought I saw an opening, there! Okay, we're one for one. Lets see if you can pull ahead." She keeps a bright smile on her face.
Her kick successful, Ayame snaps her leg back down quickly, hands still in front of her as if ready to block just in case Kiyoko was merely faking having been knocked back. Without her weapons, the girl is a lot less flashy and daring in her attacks. But the Justice student is forced to get back up on her feet after being knocked down instead, giving Ayame time to simply study her.
"You really like this stuff, don't you," she remarks, the smile on Kiyoko's face impossible to miss. Ayame's tone is more neutral, her own smile faint, subtle, as if struggling to manifest against her desire to remain as serious as always. "I guess it was a little fun for me back when my fa-... when I was learning how to use a staff." she finally admits, focus distant for a moment as if remembering different times all together before shaking her head, brown eyes fixing back on the purple haired girl.
"Does anyone else in your family fight?" she changes the topic back to Kiyoko, seemingly uninterested in discussing her own history at all. "Or are you some kind of black sheep?" she continues, grinning faintly. She pauses for a moment, clenching and unclenching her hands, before finally taking a step in closer, weaving low and then coming back up high, swinging out with a swift right hook, keeping her left hand back for backup defense at first.
But if she manages to connect with Kiyoko's shoulder hard enough to threaten her balance, she'll follow up with a swift uppercut with her left hand, the punch more about power than precision, an incoming strike for the other girl's chin. Hey, it's far away from her kidneys, at least!
COMBATSYS: Ayame successfully hits Kiyoko with Fierce Strike.
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Ayame 0/-------/----===|=======\-------\1 Kiyoko
"Sure do! Like I said, I see it as more of a sport than just beating people up. It has everything any other kind of sport has, after all! It matters how strong you are, how fast you are, and how good you are at figuring someone out and trying to outsmart your opponent. What's not to like about it?" Well, there is the whole physical pain thing when you get hit, but what respectable fighter is going to let that get them down? Besides, regular sports have that too.
Kiyoko's head tilts a little when Ayame starts to talk about herself and then cuts herself off. She's not going to pressure her, but it sure would be interesting to find out. Her head shakes in response to the question, "Nope. It's just me, really. I only got into fighting because my parents wanted a way to try and keep me healthy for as long as possible, and I'm taking it a lot farther than they probably like... but it's fun!" Forgetting herself for a moment, Ayame gets the drop on her when she moves in to attack. She stumbles slightly when she moves suddenly to try and back off, her footing poor enough that she doesn't get enough push to escape the blow. That leads to Ayame's fist hitting her shoulder and causing her to nearly fall again as her foot slides in the rubble, only to have a second, more powerful punch come in from below and smack her under the chin with enough force to snap her head back and lift her off the ground and drop her for the second time.
"Ahh!" Kiyoko lays on the ground for a moment and rubs her chin where she was hit, "Ow... You've... really gotten better since the last time we fought, didn't you?" Even without her weapons, Ayame seems to have a rather massive advantage over the Justice student. "Guess I'll just have to try harder!" The girl doesn't exactly pick herself up to her feet, but instead rolls over onto her stomach, pulls her legs under herself, and lunges. It's not the sort of thing she'd normally try, but that's the idea. Right now it looks like she's going to have to catch Ayame off guard if she's going to pull even with her again. Rushing forward, she tries to slam into Ayame and pull herself upright with the impact, trying to get good footing so that she can swiftly bring up one leg and knee her hard in the stomach!
COMBATSYS: Ayame interrupts Strong Punch from Kiyoko with Quick Throw.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////// ]
Ayame 0/-------/-----==|=======\==-----\1 Kiyoko
"Hn," Ayame grins a little at Kiyoko's answer. "Black sheep." she states firmly with a bit of a nod. And then the poor girl takes another fall to the dirt. Ayame's arms certainly bear the strength of one who is used to swinging around heavy weights as combat tools to be quite certain, though even she seems a little startled at having floored Kiyoko again.
"A-ah, um," she stammers, hanging back, giving the girl a second to figure out what she wants to do. Maybe this little spar has run its course. She's never quite sure of these things, never had anything resembling a 'friendly fight' in years. But Kiyoko still seems to be in good spirits even after such a strike and Ayame nods just a little in acknowledgement. "I've been fighting a lot." Her tone carries a hint of awkwardness, as if she's just barely touching upon yet another subject she isn't inclined to speak much about. Pit fighting, to be precise, in a bloody, horrifying hole in the ground in Metro. And while she's suffered a lot from those fights, she's stronger for it now than she had ever been before.
And when the attack comes the slightly older girl seems ready to handle it. The lunge is swift but the feather weight fighter seems capable of reacting to it in time. A shoulder catches her in the chest as she snaps both of her hands out, drawing upon her innate, precise comprehension of momentum and the manipulation thereof. And while she gets struck, it isn't without its reward as she falls backward intentionally, both of her hands getting a tight hold on Kiyoko's biceps as she pulls the girl down with her, using Kiyoko's momentum to finish flipping her over and dropping her into the dirt on her back.
The end result is Ayame and Kiyoko lying on their backs, the street rogues hands releasing their grips on her arms as she gets ready to spin herself back to her feet.
Kiyoko laughs a little, "Maybe. I don't feel like a black sheep, though." It definitely looks like Ayame wouldn't be the type of girl to be entering a game of truth or dare, would she? Well, maybe if someone really liked giving out dares... "I guess I haven't been fighting enough, except alone... I'm probably not going to get much of anywhere until I start practicing with other people more."
The high school students attack is intercepted, and turned around on her almost perfectly, and she's smashed back into the ground and left on her back. It was a fairly even exchange, all told, but with such a strong advantage that's definitely in Ayame's favor. Rather than trying to ground fight, or maybe hop up and kick Ayame while she's down, Kiyoko rolls up to her feet and backs off, dropping once again into her tai chi stance. "I think I let myself get sloppy. I'm not doing all that well... so I definitely need to pull myself together!"
And to her that doesn't mean pumping herself up or drawing on some kind of inner energy but, well, paying attention! Her focus is one of her greatest assets and so far she hasn't made use of it- clearly a mistake. "Okay, you're definitely good enough to get an advantage, but I'm not gonna let you take me down so easily. I can be pretty stubborn when I want to." She grins at Ayame.
COMBATSYS: Kiyoko focuses on her next action.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////// ]
Ayame 0/-------/-----==|=======\==-----\1 Kiyoko
"Need to compete more. Though," Ayame ponders, "...can be hard to find the right types to fight." She definitely wouldn't stick Kiyoko in the Seventh Circle. That... that would just be horrible on all fronts. She's back on her feet, brown eyes studying Kiyoko as the other girl gets up to. "Hm," Ayame ponders, smiling faintly, "Never know with these things. A single good hit does not a match make."
Her boxer stance is gone, the girl turning her shoulder toward Kiyoko, sliding her feet apart some, one leg forward. One arm is held up at the back of her head, palm forward. Her near arm is extended out, bent only slightly at the elbow. It seems the girl has taken to mimicking a type of striking styled karate as opposed to the boxing stance she had before. She's... making them up as she goes, really. No formal training there.
"Come now," Ayame remarks, "You're holding back. I've fought you enough to know better. Where's the flashy stuff? You know. Chi. Don't hold back!" And then Ayame is on the offense, charging forward, ducking low as if intending to tackle Kiyoko. But the moment she gets in close, the long haired thief swings up and around, perhaps trying to slip around any attempt at retaliation. Both hands reach for Kiyoko's right arm in an attempt to get a good enough grip to completely flip the other girl head over heels back down to the ground.
COMBATSYS: Kiyoko just-defends Ayame's Medium Throw!
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////// ]
Ayame 0/-------/-----==|=======\==-----\1 Kiyoko
"I know... I should probably start entering the fighting circuits again. The last few were kinda hard on me. ...one of them could have actually got me killed, I think." Seriously people, don't go intentionally wrecking zeppelins when you're over the middle of the ocean. "A good hit can if you let it shake your confidence, but I'm not gonna let that happen with me."
Ayame changing her stance gets Kiyoko's attention quickly now that she's paying attention, though her stance slackens a bit when the blonde admonishes her, "B-but you were holding back too!" After a moment she returns to how she was before, "Okay, fine. If you want me to give it my best shot, I will!" The purple haired girls feet shift so that she can sidestep Ayame's seeming tackle, but that motion is aborted at the last moment. Instead Ayame reaches out and snatches onto Kiyoko's arm, whose footwork ends up helping her out in the end.
She twists away quickly, bending her arm at the elbow and slipping it out of the hold before it can firm up. Almost instantly the defensive motion is turned offensive, as her other arm comes around with green energy flaring up around her right hand, which makes a slashing motion through the air. But rather than that single, simple motion Kiyoko seems to be throwing all her momentum into a single attempt, continuing to turn so that she's facing Ayame again, her other hand making a similar slashing motion. Finally her first hand swings up from the bottom and completes the maneuver, three large crescents of energy hanging in the air suddenly forming into one and rushing at Ayame, who's still standing there at point blank range. "Vernal Equinox!"
COMBATSYS: Ayame fails to reflect Vernal Equinox from Kiyoko with Midsummer Fantasy.
- Power fail! -
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Ayame 0/-------/--=====|==-----\-------\0 Kiyoko
"Who said I was holding back?" Ayame corrects with a shake of her head, "I'm not trying to stab you but that doesn't mean I'm going to go easy!" And it seems her challenge has got Kiyoko kicking things up a notch as Ayame finds herself re-directed around to behind the other girl. Caught off guard by the sudden reversal, she whips around to face her sparing partner directly, eyes widening as she catches a hint of the chi being generated. Well, she did ask for it, didn't she?
But that doesn't mean she's just going to take it! Her left hand rises, palm forward, and for a moment there's a flicker of green, matching the hue of Kiyoko's chi flawlessly - a circular form meant to intersect the crescent energy. But Ayame is trying to do this while still not quite back in control... And while the barrier forms she lacks the balance to maintain it.
The large crescent crashes through the hastily errected defense striking Ayame dead on and sending her tumbling to the ground on her back, sliding a little ways before coming to a stop. Blinking, she kicks herself back up, shaking her head, looking a tad bit bewildered before her expression recovers, a chagrind smile manifesting itself as the girl brushes herself off, kicking her feet at the dirt a little, then raising her hands. "Yeah, more like that." she states.
Kiyoko doesn't notice the barrier of energy Ayame's forming until it's too late, but lucky for her the attack ends up being able to overcome it in the end anyway. She takes a deep breath once she's done with the large release of energy and lets it out in a quick sigh. "I guess I might have been wrong, but it did kinda seem like you were holding back..." She smiles to herself, though- that attack was a definite victory for her!
She giggles a little at Ayame's statement and nods, "Looks like we're both warmed up, then. Good!" She half wants to say something along the lines of 'because here I come', but that'd let Ayame get the drop on her, wouldn't it? Instead she simply breaks into a run towards Ayame, the hair framing her face bouncing around a little. She jumps forward but stays rather low in the air, attempting to plant both of her feet onto the blonde's stomach before kicking off to launch herself back away. In the unfortunate event that Ayame evades her, she'll hop back again anyway after she lands.
COMBATSYS: Ayame dodges Kiyoko's Winter Snow.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////// ]
Ayame 0/-------/--=====|===----\-------\0 Kiyoko
"Nn!" Ayame replies as Kiyoko mentions them being warmed up. Now she's got the girl giving it her all. Ayame isn't sure why she even cares if the sick student puts effort into the fight or not. What does it matter to her, she finds herself wondering. She's never once cared what anyone else thought or felt before, why start now?
She doesn't have time to wonder about it for long as Kiyoko comes to keep the pressure on with a rather acrobatic attack. Ayame remembers well the trickier attacks she's seen the girl do before, and while she's not specifically sure about this one, she is quick on her feet, and on this occasion, very accurate in predicting the direction of the attack when Kiyoko finally jumps.
The student is able to land without Ayame catching her, and the young bandit doesn't give chase immediately either, watching Kiyoko's agile motions with a watchful eye. "You're pretty fast for-" the shorter teen begins to remark only to cut herself off mid-sentence. Does she /really/ want to say 'for how sick you are?' She isn't trying to bring up Kiyoko's condition after all... this is just a spar - a friendly match - an experience she hasn't had for years.
But she isn't going to just stand around and remark on things, she's got to land some hits still, right? With the speed Kiyoko has, Ayame is swift to dart in when she finally does move, taking to the air and spinning, lashing out an early kick, easy to avoid, before landing and trying to catch Kiyoko with a much less powerful but far quicker straight palm strike to her chest.
COMBATSYS: Kiyoko dodges Ayame's Quick Strike.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////// ]
Ayame 0/-------/--=====|===----\-------\0 Kiyoko
The student hits the ground and rebounds back quickly while Ayame gets out of the way. She smiles brightly at the comment and nods her head, "It's a great advantage to be able to get out of the way when someone wants to put a beating on me. But I'm sure you know that, you're probably faster than I am. I'm probably a little too defensive for my own good, really, but being able to hold off people who like to beat others down nice and fast is really great."
It seems that she didn't quite get what Ayame was going to say. Kiyoko would probably be really happy to know that Ayame was thinking about her the way she is, feeling that there's something more to the bandit than being cold and calculating while committing crimes is the majority of why she's here. If she missed the pulled verbal exchanged, she's quick to notice the attempted physical exchanged, hopping backwards to avoid the kick that's sent forward. She also catches that the kick was also a feint, and moves once again, this time darting quickly to the side to leave the palm hitting nothing but a bit of cloth.
"Gotcha!" The girl apparently thinks she sees an opening, her sidestep keeping her in nice and close to Ayame so that she can retaliate immediately. And that she does, going for a two pronged strike in which she sends a quick kick to the back of her knee before twisting in the other direction and sending a circular chop with the side of her hand to Ayame's face. "Yah, hah!"
COMBATSYS: Ayame blocks Kiyoko's Light Kick.
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Ayame 0/-------/-======|===----\-------\0 Kiyoko
"Haha, not quite," Ayame remarks. There was an opening - for a split second - but it's gone just as fast as the girl raises one leg to step up and over the strike aimed at the back of her knee. Her arm comes up to catch the circular smack that would have caught her in the face, absorbing the impact and keeping Kiyoko from getting a clean strike.
For a moment Ayame simply holds her pose... "Some people just suck," the girl states quite plainly. "But when you enter serious fights, that's just something you have to deal with... How is it now, anyway? Was it everything you thought it would be before you got your big break?"
And then comes the retaliation, remarkably swift, as she mimics the attack sequence right back. Her raised foot snaps back down, hooking around to try and catch Kiyoko in the back of her opposite knee. At the same time Ayame twists at her torso, that blocking hand whipping out to the side and then back in, an open palmed strike aimed toward the side of Kiyoko's head.
COMBATSYS: Kiyoko interrupts Medium Strike from Ayame with Summer Blossom.
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Ayame 1/-------/=======|======-\-------\0 Kiyoko
"Aww!" Unable to capitalize on the hole in Ayame's guard, Kiyoko draws back away once her attacks are staved off. Some people just suck? "Yea, tell me about it! I was ready for people throwing everything they've got to beat me, but not for people to just act completely nuts! There've been a few people I've fought that just didn't seem right in the head, or something." The girls head tilts a little, "It's... different than I thought it would be. There are a few people who seem to take fighting seriously like me, but there are also a ton that are fighting for way different reasons. Still, it's pretty fun fighting against them and seeing how I do!" She somewhat skirted the question, but only a little.
The first kick to the back of her knee seems to catch Kiyoko completely off guard and she twists sideways and drops to one knee, but in the end it turns out to be completely pre-planned, her lowered body causing the next strike to glance off the top of her head as she begins swinging her arms in incredibly fast circular motions, striking out to hit Ayame in the body and legs, looking like she's doing a Tai Chi workout tape set on fast forward. After five hits she backs off, actually... seeming to have taken worse than she'd given, for all that.
"Nngh, you sure are tough, Ayame. It's going to be hard finding a way to take you down... but I'll have to manage." She backs away a couple of steps and moves back into a defensive posture.
COMBATSYS: Ayame has saved the state of this fight.
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Ayame 1/-------/=======|======-\-------\0 Kiyoko
Committed to her combination of strikes, Ayame finds herself caught off guard by Kiyoko's sudden reversal on her mid-attack. The palm strikes with her arms buffet the girl effectively, driving Ayame back. The smaller girl stumbles, just about to fall, but manages to stay upright in the end. Right about now she's wishing she could whip out her staff and start laying the real hurt on the other girl, Kiyoko proving to be better in hand to hand than she expected. Only raw striking power and innate speed are keeping Ayame ahead by just a little.
Still, the purple haired girl's remarks make Ayame laugh just a little, an uncommon expression of mild mirth in her eyes. "I might have a couple years on you in experience, that's all." she states, shaking her head a little, subduing that amusement a moment later as if signs of softness are to be avoided at all cost. "I mean, just keep it up. You're doing adequate." Cough. "...good."
She lowers herself a little, feet slipping apart, hands coming up in front of her in a very classic, traditional karate stance. Yes, she really is making them up as she goes. She's scene enough movies though, and with her sharp memory, mimickery isn't /beyond/ her. "You'll have to teach me some moves sometime," she continues, her expression softening a little bit a second time. "But remember, just tell me when you've had enough. I'm not trying to take your money this time." There's a quick, teasing wink, and then Ayame's back on the offense, darting forward, coming up quickly with a rising knee for Kiyoko's stomach, hands coming down to clamp on her shoulders and twist the girl to the ground after the knee strike!
COMBATSYS: Ayame successfully hits Kiyoko with Light Kick.
- Power hit! -
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Ayame 1/------=/=======|=======\==-----\1 Kiyoko
Kiyoko nods her head, "You probably do, but that doesn't make your strength any less impressive! I knew you could hit me hard with your pole, but I didn't really realize how much of that is just because you're really powerful yourself." She does feel like she's doing good; maybe earlier she wasn't able to hold her ground against Ayame, but she definitely got into the groove of things and has been giving as much as she's taken.
She readies herself a little more when Ayame shifts into a karate stance, and grins a little at the mention of teaching her some standard barehanded moves. "Sure! With how good you are already you'd probably be able to pick some of those easily. And don't worry about me, so long as you stay away from my kidneys I can fight you to the bitter end!"
Which is a lot closer than she realizes because as Ayame comes in to knee her she tries lifting her leg to stop her body from getting hit. Instead of it having the desired effect her leg ends up getting mashed into her stomach, wrenching the joints to cause quite a bit of extra pain. The takedown that comes afterwards is all but a formality, as she nearly collapses to the ground without any help at all. "Uuugh..." Kiyoko holds onto her stomach on the ground for a moment, and then rolls away and tries to roll to her feet, ending up on one knee instead.
"Shoot! I didn't want to stop so soon..." She was rather enjoying her fight with Ayame, after all! The purple haired girl takes in a few deep breaths and forces herself back to her feet, a little wobbly on them. "Okay, one last try- I won't go down without a fight!" Without another moment's hesitation she rushes towards the redhead, obviously slowed by her wonky leg, to get within striking distance. The moment she's close she begins striking with fast, slightly circular motions, using two fingers instead of fists or palms and trying to jam them hard into pressure points all over Ayame's neck and arms. Trying to overwhelm her sparring partner by sheer number of attacks, she keeps on going until she wears herself out- not that long in the condition she's on. After that... she just falls down to the ground in a sitting position, puts her hands on her knees and breathes heavily. She doesn't /say/ as much, but it'd be a pretty good guess that she's had it.
COMBATSYS: Kiyoko can no longer fight.
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Ayame 1/------=/=======|
COMBATSYS: Ayame interrupts Summer Solstice from Kiyoko with Quick Throw.
- Power hit! -
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Ayame 1/-----==/=======|
Oof, looks like Ayame landed a solid blow with that knee strike. She wasn't swinging with all her leg strength of course, but it's hard to NOT hurt someone when you raise a knee into their stomach and twist them to the ground. Kiyoko says she doesn't want to stop so soon, but Ayame shakes her head, "Don't worry, there'll be other times... Don't get hurt." Her tone somewhat cajoling. Whether or not she's even conscious that she's just essentially agreed to get together with Kiyoko again sometime is hard to say.
But then come the flurry of two-finger strikes, Kiyoko jabbing her hand out toward pressure points with a fair amount of expertise that Ayame can't help but respect. The girl has a mind for human anatomy, herself, with regards to taking someone apart at their joints and limbs, but Kiyoko seems to know even some points she didn't know of. One can be sure she's taking mental notes though even during the assault!
Not one to just get pressure-pointed into a limp noodle, however, Ayame finally puts a stop to it. There will be no chance to flop into a seated position as the girl spots the first sign of a lull in Kiyoko's strikes and snaps out both of her hands to grab hold of her forearms and pull her to the side while twisting behind her, taking her to the dirt one more time.
The momentum has Ayame dropping to the ground on her side as well along with dropping Kiyoko and as she pushes herself up, she's shaking her head, shifting into a seated position swiftly, her legs folded under her. "Wow, that was something, Kiyoko!" She leans back, her hands propped against the ground, "It seems like Tai Chi has taught you some useful things. I could definitely stand to learn more about where you know to strike." Of course, Ayame would probably be going for pressure points with a knife... but, hey, Kiyoko doesn't need to know that detail, right?
Sitting up straight, she starts rubbing her shoulder, and other places she just got prodded, wincing a bit, "Eh heh. Hurts for a while afterward too," she admits with a certain tone of appreciation in her voice. "Very effective." The girl exhales a little, shaking her head, hands coming up to brush her long hair back over her ears.
"Well, you're better than some people I've fought," the girl remarks idly, a thoughtful expression on her face. Of course, usually she's jumping people in the middle of a dark street, so maybe her comparisons aren't exactly 'fair' either. "Guess you really are on the path to being something as a fighter, if that's what you want to be."
If Kiyoko didn't want to go down without fighting, it looks like Ayame didn't want to just stand there and take it! Before she has the chance to just slump to the ground, the Justice student is snagged by the arms and dragged to the ground! The fact that she lands on a rock doesn't help matters, but at this point it just means one more bruise to worry about later. Now that Ayame has let go of her she sits down in a more comfortable position and breathes heavily.
"Thanks!" she manages to get out between breathes. A moment later she speaks up some more, "Hitting nerves can be really effective. It can hurt a lot more than a regular punch if you manage to hit them just right, and if you're really good you can numb limbs up so much you can't even use them. I don't know if I'm good enough for that just yet, though." She smiles brightly at the summation of her skill that Ayame gives her at the end, "I hope so. I'm going to have to get back into the swing of things or I might get left in the dust."
"You're pretty great too, though. You can take me out even without using your staff and knives and... all that other stuff to." Ayame seems to keep an entire arsenal on her at all times! "If I was on a handicap like that I probably wouldn't stand a chance. You're really scary to fight when you go at someone at full strength. You have so many options open that it's hard to try and guess what you're going to do. You're very... versatile, I guess." And then there's the fact that Ayame can charge some of her weapons with energy, and it really gets scary.
Kiyoko stands up after another moment and is quite for a bit before looking over to the redhead, "Um... thanks for sparring with me, Ayame. I had a lot of fun. I'm definitely going to want to try this again sometime, if you don't mind." She's somewhat at a loss for words; she wants to show her appreciation, but 'I'm really happy you didn't stab me and rob me' just doesn't sound right.
Ayame remains seated as Kiyoko speaks, leaning her head to the side as she listens to the other girl quietly. Her breath seems to be mostly under control after just a short bit of sitting still. It wasn't anywhere near as brutal as ome of her fights, after all, and her chi expenditures were kept to a minimum, leaving her less exhausted than she might normally be. She nods slowly as Kiyoko speaks about nerve strikes, making a note to herself to brush up on some of those techniques some for her own use. Good to know for if she's ever, by some strange circumstances, caught unarmed.
"Have to keep practicing," the girl says with a faint smile and a nod toward her pile of knives and weapons over on the log, the implication clear. This abandoned lot is, after all, where she's been training for some time all by herself. She falls back to listening quietly as Kiyoko remarks on her own style of fighting. "Yes, well..." She smiles mysteriously as Kiyoko remarks on her being scary to fight when she's going all out. "I tend to have different stakes on most of my fights. I can't afford to be anything less." It goes without saying there are worse costs to failure than simply losing a SNF event.
As Kiyoko gets up, Ayame remains seated on the ground, looking up at the girl. Maybe she's a bit more tired than she's letting on what with how she looks disinclined to budge from her spot. Maybe she's lost in thought. Or perhaps those nerve strikes have left her a little uncertain how steady she's going to be on her feet? Kiyoko indicates she had fun and the bandit nods her head slightly. At first it seems as if she isn't going to say anything at all, but she eventually comes out with it. "Yeah, me too. Some other time definitely." She smiles tiredly, "I'll be ready."
Eventually though the girl begins to glance skyward. "It's getting late," she remarks thoughtfully. "You should get out of this part of town before it gets dark. Unless you want me to escort you out," she adds, sticking her tongue out half way, half teasing the other girl before shaking her head. "You'll be fine. Just don't be caught around here when it gets dark though."
"Practice makes perfect. I don't think there's a person alive who could fight at this level without putting serious practice time in," Kiyoko remarks. She thinks on the stakes of the fights Ayame usually has. ...well, she really doesn't know about any of Ayame's non SNF fights that aren't robbing people for sport or profit. With the way she said that it sounds like she meant more than just not getting some money to go along with it, either. There's always the chance of getting put in jail, but maybe there's more to it even than that?
"Great! I'm not exactly sure when I'll end up seeing you again, but I'll definitely look forward to it." And not just fighting her either- so far she hasn't seen Ayame once without having ended up fighting her, though this time it was for a much different reason than the first two. What would she do with Ayame if they did something together without fighting? Go shopping..? For some reason that brings the image of the two of them going shopping together and the bandit trying to sneak off with something she likes, only to have Kiyoko scold her for it pops into her mind, eliciting a seemingly random giggle from the high school student
"Yeah... it is getting that way, isn't it?" Part of her wants to comment that she's actually rather capable of keeping herself safe; but then she did just expend most of her energy, and Ayame was just looking out for her well-being, which... is actually pretty nice. She laughs a little at the joke, and nods her head, "Fine, fine, I'll get out of here before I run into more dangerous brigands." A slightly awkward pause, "Anyway, like I said, it was really nice seeing you again, Ayame. Thanks. For everything." She gives a quick bow and, before she embarrasses herself further, makes a quick dash for the fence and hops over, luckily having recovered enough to make it without having to humiliatingly ask for a ladder.
As Kiyoko contiues speak, Ayame pushes herself slowly to her feet, groaning as if coping with some very strong aches. Stretching her back and arms out, she saunters lazily over to her weapons sash and methodically begins returning them all to their proper sheaths, pocket, pouch, strap, sleeve... She doesn't even have to look at what she's doing, her attention strictly on Kiyoko for the time being.
"I'm sure we'll see each other again," Ayame states, a knowing smile at her lips. Maybe she intends to find Kiyoko next time? Hopefully not with the intent of causing dorm hall chaos again!! The giggle provokes a raised eyebrow, but the girl doesn't ask, instead sitting down on the now cleared log top to continue listening to Kiyoko.
"Yeah," she smirks as the Justice student mentions getting out of the area before worse trouble finds her, but her smirk fades as she gets thanked once again, brow furrowing a little with some uncertainty. "Yeah," she repeats the word again, this time with a different tone and different weight to it. "Seeya around." She sits still as she watches the other girl make a run for the fence and manage to get herself over and out of the abandoned lot.
Left by herself, Ayame yawns, standing back up and stretching her arms out to her sides again. She stares toward the fence, a somewhat wry smile on her face as she waits for about a solid minute before exhaling with a grunt. "Whelp, better make sure she gets out of here okay." Shaking her head once, the girl darts forward, hopping up to handstand on the top of the gate before flipping up off of that to reach a low hanging fire escape.
From there she'll make her way to the roof of the building and... yes, pretty much shadow Kiyoko to the edge of south Southtown. Only when the purple haired girl makes her way into the safer areas north of the rough part of town will Ayame take her leave and head home for the night. She's very good at what she does. Chances are Kiyoko will know nothing of her little ghost.
Log created on 00:20:28 01/23/2008 by Ayame, and last modified on 05:51:47 03/08/2008.