Description: SNF seems to have a habit of picking the worst people for specific roles ever. Like, for example, asking K', Shurui, and Frei to instruct and guide the next generation of fighters via a demonstration at the YFCC. Two of those things do not belong!! (Draw Match)
Tons of eager eyes have been watching the cleared stage at the YFCC lobby, which has, in the recent months, been rather well used. It wasn't too long ago that that epic fight between Ryu and Kyo took place there, complete with Orochinagis and Hadoukens and ball-punching. Some of the adult chaperones of the audience are hoping that the latter will *not* happen in this one, as no one needs to have little kids chasing each other around trying to hit each other in the family jewels. Pretending you can wield hadoukens is better.
One of the fighters gathered for this match is Shurui, not yet kidnapped by any horrible people as of yet. Instead, she's walking out on the platform, eyes masked behind her glasses as she turns her head to look around. Why the hell did they pick her to be a teacher? She can't teach!
.... Granted, they picked K' too, who's an even worse candidate for the job. While Shurui has been interested in seeing or even meeting the Beast of Fire in battle, she was hoping it would happen a little further down the road. When she, uh, was perhaps a little more experienced. But a chance is a chance, and, well, she's not alone.
Of course, she could have done without having hundreds of little eyes watching her as well, too. How the hell can she be at her best if she gets worried about, god forbid, her language?! "... I'm seeing a lot of ways this whole thing can do wrong," she mumbles to no one in particular.
K' is not just a 'worse' candidate for the job. He's possibly 'the worst' candidate you can find, short of an axe murderer or something. Especially since, as of late, he's been in a perpetual foul mood-- even nastier than usual-- due to his encounter with that /Pas/. But despite his recent ill humor, the 'audience' in this particular fight is more well-disposed towards him-- more willing to forgive his increased surliness as of late-- because of that recent incident with Mike Bison. Still, no one really wants to associate with him, even so. This feeling is mutual; K' would really much rather be elsewhere. He will, someday, have Howard's hide for this. SNF was supposed to be his chance to -escape- this place.
Still, one principle holds true-- K' would hurt just about anything but a child-- and so, it won't be too iffy to expose him to them for this particular match. Only one problem remains. Where the hell -is- K'?
Apparently, he'd been hiding in the depths of the YFCC all along; when he emerges, it's from a direction nowhere near the front door. Wordless and frowning, he stalks in at a slow, sulking pace; which is par for the course for him, naturally, but there seems to be even more of a reluctance about it this time. He has a penchant for approaching stages by walking through the crowd, rather than using the more privileged, wide-open, camera-lined routes that more showy fighters prefer; pushing with a distant sort of roughness through the massed people gathered to watch the fight, he steps into the delineated fight area with a sigh and a creak of leather, working his gloved right hand loose with an absent flex.
It's about that time he notices Shurui opposite him. He hadn't bothered to look at his fight card before showing up, this time, given that the chosen arena was so close to home anyway; his yellow eyes alight on her with a slow blink, and eventually he breathes a slow chuckle of... dubious pleasantness. He doesn't opt to elaborate on his amusement, either; leaving it at that, he lets his eyes drift closed as he waits for match start to get called.
This is Frei's home turf, the YFCC. In fact he was one of the first few people to be recruited for this gig thanks to a long association with Alma. Of course, what he does around the center is a little up for debate, since his business card says 'Martian overlord' and his true area of expertise is probably a bit beyond the average student. Most people know him as the teacher of the Tai Chi class, since he *does* know something there, but since the class is more about meditation than it is about beating someone's face in... it's commensurately unpopular.
However, it does show that he's well known here in the sense that in the pre-fight downtime he's talking amicably not only with some of the children, but also some of their parents. Unlike the other two fighters, he's totally at ease here, not having a problem with children or with teaching. But someone watching from the shadows, or someone with slightly better than average perception, might notice that the monk is subdued compared to his normally boisterous self. It's not that his ever-present smile isn't genuine -- he seems fine, more or less -- but rather that he is focusing on how fine he is so that he doesn't have to think about things that, perhaps, aren't fine.
A child he's conversing with points over Frei's shoulder and the monk turns, then smiles and shakes the kid's hands before turning and heading toward the other two people participating, stopping so that he and Shurui form a triangle in the cleared area with K'. Smiling faintly, he nods at the Beast of Flame. "Well, I'd hoped I'd get to see your skills firsthand someday, so I guess someone heard my wish."
And... the other combatant. K' hadn't looked at the names, but he had at least known there would be two opponents. Glancing over, the boy finds his gaze settling on none other than his 'co-worker.' A faint flicker of humor actually makes it to his eyes at that, the emotion extremely subdued, but nonetheless present. How serendipitous, that this particular matchup would combine the two people who know for absolute certain that what K' uses isn't chi in the slightest. Not that it matters much...
For a while, K' doesn't really reply Frei's greeting except to let his eyes half-open. The resultant level gaze studies the monk in a silent regard that most would just find intimidating; not because it promised harm, but because it forewent speech. Or, for that matter, anything at all that could indicate K''s mood. Eventually, like surfacing for air, K' finally breaks his quiet with a surprisingly civil response-- he has little enough reason to be pissed at Frei, the guy is so inoffensive-- and the slightest hint of a smirk. "I confess myself curious about -yours-." He'd heard a bit about the class Frei teaches, and about the monk's specialization in chi. He finds the level of control over chi for which Frei is known... very interesting.
He relaxes out of his guarded stance as the announcer starts the match, his posture immediately unwinding to a combat readiness. And in accordance with his words, his first target ends up being Frei. His right hand unhooks from his belt loop, fingers curling tensely, and the fire within him-- visibly, in Shurui's case-- abruptly stokes in immediate response. A raking upwards snap of his arm sparks that flaring energy into corporeal existence, sudden fire bleeding from his hand into a ring of sustained flames directly in front of K': he twists sharply, a kick cracked into the fire to send it bolting towards the chi expert.
COMBATSYS: K' has started a fight here.
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K' 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Shurui has joined the fight here.
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K' 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Shurui
COMBATSYS: Frei has joined the fight here.
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Frei 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 K'
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Shurui 0/-------/-------|
That grin. Pheh. Shurui's not sure just *how* to take it, for all she's wished to try and offer a hand to the violently introverted Beast. She was expecting something else. Something more along the lines of 'oh shit it's you again' or annoyance. Then again, this probably is the perfect oppurtunity for him to get revenge for all the annoyance she's been, so it *could* be seen that was as well. ...Oh well. As long as she's not getting smashed against a metal planet that's been baking underneath a hot Libyian sun, this'll do. Even if she gets burnt "...." Awkwardly as she hears the announcer, she shifts into her stance. "... Let's just be glad we don't have to dress up."
Shurui's Lesson Number One: It can always be worse than this. So much worse.
When K' shifts to attack Frei first instead of her, Shurui's battle plans immediately shift to one of observation. Flipping her glasses up to shift atop her forehead, the short clone is nearly overwhelmed by the surge in brightness in K's aura. Man, he must really like to fight; no wonder he didn't seem to object. Gritting her teeth and focusing on the two, she tries to seek out his aura, to analyze it and use it to her advantage.
K''s aura is one Shurui's gotten to know by now, to the point that she was able to spot the differences between him and Kyo. Granted, it wasn't neccessarily hard, but the identical nature of their fire threw her off at first. Frei's aura is..... new to her, and thus, it draws her attention almost immediately, despite her intention to look at K'. What does Frei's aura look like? Something multicolored. Swirling. Shifting. Like a kaleidoscope of energies, but seeming to lack any immediate indication of chaos. .... No wonder he teaches the tai chi class; he knows his stuff. ".... Heh." Now it's Shurui's turn to grin, flipping her glasses back down upon her nose. "This should be a fun..."
Lesson Two: if you can afford it, try to analyze your opponents. Even if your eyes hurt afterwards.
COMBATSYS: Shurui focuses on her next action.
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Frei 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 K'
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Shurui 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Frei blocks K''s Second Shoot.
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Frei 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 K'
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Shurui 0/-------/-------|
How obliging, that K' is willing to throw out his peculiar flame -- the thing about him that the monk is most curious about -- right at the start of the match! He seems inclined to stop and say hello to Shurui, but there really isn't time for that, the monk's hackles raising when that fiery power slices through the air. But since his teammate is watching Frei's aura, she might notice the shifting pattern of color focus into one blaze as he focuses, catching the fiery blast on his forearm in a flash of red fire and blue-white frost, wincing as the spillover licks hot against his body.
"Ngh... remember, kids. Start with something flashy, it gets lot of ratings." Cupping his hands to his side, Frei summons a swirling, multicolored sphere of chi of all different flavors. He doesn't expect the attack to actually do any good, but since K' obliged him, he should do the same. "Like so! HADOUKEN!" Throwing his hands forward, Frei tosses the person-high shockwave of energy at his 'co-worker'. It glides through the air at... the speed of continental drift, but perhaps K' will make a mistake?
COMBATSYS: K' dodges Frei's Hadou Souran.
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Frei 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 K'
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Shurui 0/-------/-------|
Well, to be fair, one could say that faintly-nasty laugh -was- K''s way of expressing his 'shit it's you again' annoyance... an expression of cruel satisfaction at being given a perfect opportunity to get revenge for her irritations. But in truth, it's really nothing of the sort. K' just finds the irony funny, in a mundane sort of way. He can't really help that every time he laughs, the inflection of it makes it sound like someone's going to die in the next five minutes.
He doesn't intend that said person be him. He watches Frei carefully as the monk generates that wave of chi with consummate ease and deftness. A brief hint of anger and jealousy flickers in his eyes at the display of fine, -unaided- control, but it's gone as fast as it appears. Soon enough, K''s expression just swaps back to that cold watchfulness as he slips around the 'Hadouken' and twists back to face his opponents again.
...Oh yeah, advice. K' already knows his exact feelings on the stipulations of this match, and he already knows the sole opinion which he cares to impart as part of it. And the entirety of that opinion can just get expressed all in one shot... right now.
"...tch. While you're at it, -kids-," K' remarks drily, acerbic as always, as he abruptly turns on Shurui and almost literally -lights on fire-. "Don't bother trying to get in the fighting circuit at all. Putting yourself on display, beating one another bloody just to amuse a crowd... what's the point? All it'll get you is--" K' abruptly swipes at Shurui in another upwards rake, but it's not that physical motion she has to worry about; it's the searing flames which follow his movement, bursting towards her in a snarling ring of sacred fire. "--a lot of pain."
COMBATSYS: Shurui blocks K''s Eins Trigger.
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Frei 0/-------/------=|=------\-------\0 K'
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Shurui 0/-------/----===|
Start with something flashy? Shurui's expression goes visually sour. And then... "... Oh, so you're gonna pay attention to me now." The words are said exactly at K' abruptly turns to face the short girl. The presence of his flame registers in Shurui's mind as an ever-present hum, a danger that no longer warrants ignoring. In response to that, and the fact that K' is pausing to give some words to his audience, Shurui casts off her hoodie and hurls it safely to the side, revealing the white tank top underneath and pale skin.
Better to not get something caught on fire while she's fighting him. His words, however, whether or not he meant to direct them at her, seem to strike a deep chord with the girl, inciting rage to cloud her previously nonchalant expression. What the hell was that all about?! "Can you just get on with it already?!"
And K' seems to oblige. Throwing up her guard just before the Beast of Fire lets loose in a torrent of fire, Shurui grits her teeth against those fires as they hit, surging against her skin like that painfully hot metal that she slid across during that last fight. "Okay." Her guard drops, lapsing back into her normal stance. "Kids. My lesson."
bIt just sounds wrong when she says 'kids' because she doesn't sound that much older, tone-wise, than a kid herself.
"Ignore whatever the hell K' said. Because he's an ass." Some adults blanch at the words, as tame as they are to whatever Shurui would have preferred to use. However, it wasn't too hard for Shurui to hold back- sure, K' is an ass, but she wouldn't call him anything further than that. It's not as if the man is a stranger to her.
And it's because of this that she will *not* back down. Rushing ahead, she reaches for K''s arm with a quick swipe of her hand.
"You can't spend your life avoiding pain," Frei says with sudden seriousness, pulling his hands back to his body and taking a deep breath. That technique takes a lot out of him, but at least K' took it seriously, even if he didn't get hit by it. He's seen others who... didn't, so much. But the tan-skinned fighter's words are what seem to get to him, bringing on a moment of surprising seriousness. His words are technically addressed to the children watching, the monk's emerald-green eyes are on K' as he says it. "Hurt is inevitable in life. What's important is what you make of the experience. Do you let it break you, or... do you let it temper you?"
And then, in the blink of an eye, he's all smiles and :) again, turning his face toward Shurui and giving her a little wave. "I'm Frei, by the way... nice to meet you." It really is like the flipping of a lightswitch, the movement from pedantic seriousness to cheerful goofiness... a little unnerving in its own way.
Flexing his fingers idly as he turns back to K', however, Frei's voice takes on a contemplative tone. "Not to say the world of professional fighting is for everyone, of course. It's not all glamour and pretty lightshows. But there are... compensations for that," he says with a smile once again. The Beast is a quick fighter... not Frei's forte, as his recent and private fight against Hotaru showed him in spades. But that doesn't mean he can just sit there doing nothing. Shurui seems to be going for a grab attack of some form, so Frei -- who is a minor expert in them on his own -- decides to do a bit of the same: pushing off the floor, he dives for K''s opposite side, looking to snag his arm. If he get a grip, he suddenly twists it to immobilize the Beast... and then tasers him with a few volts of purple-blue chi lightning for good measure.
COMBATSYS: K' blocks Shurui's Spare the Rod.
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Frei 0/-------/------=|==-----\-------\0 K'
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Shurui 0/-------/----===|
COMBATSYS: K' fails to interrupt Charged Throw from Frei with Crow Bite.
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Frei 0/-------/------=|==-----\-------\0 K'
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Shurui 0/-------/----===|
His wrist seized, his cynical words thoroughly admonished by Shurui, K' lets out a another of those quiet, vaguely unpleasant laughs as she twists him around in an attempt to take him off his feet with a sharp kick. His stance, however, has already opened by that time, meaning it's a simple matter to keep his balance; and to twist out of her grasp in one, spurning movement. "You don't -want- me to pay attention to you," he warns her quietly, just between the two of them. Seemingly, he thinks threats are acceptable playful banter. Oh, NESTS.
Shrugging off her words to the kids, K' doesn't try to reclaim his sway over the audience. Let her change their minds if she wants; he doesn't care.
He attempts to turn right into Frei's attack, flames lingering about his right arm as he aims to twist and slam straight into the monk. But something about what Frei says gives him pause long enough that his guard momentarily wavers. That window is enough for Frei to get him by the arm, twisting him into a successful hold and blasting him with a numbing surge of chi. With a snarl K' retreats instantly the first moment he can, nursing his right hand as it twitches and drips fire. The behavior is strange, seeing as he wasn't attacked in that area at all... but in truth, the chi lightning-- close enough to real electricity to emulate its effects, if only briefly-- momentarily spasmed the circuits in his glove.
"You can't avoid pain," he grits in response, "but you can avoid -looking- for it. Cause someday you'll walk into something you can't handle. Something that doesn't LET you choose how to handle the pain it brings." ...Somewhere, a nerve obviously got touched.
She's angry, but it's a good angry. She honestly *did* want to fight K' sometime; her awkward attempts at socialization where deterred by the fact that she was better at punching things than she was at being kind. Even if the scales have been changed by a single person's clever manipulation, she's still better at getting her words across in a negative manner than a positive one.
K's words are heard, and, the grey-haired girl seems all too eager to shoot something back, in just as private a volume. ".... Is that supposed to scare me? If I was scared of getting burnt, I would have avoided you from the get-g-"
Slight smiles are likely to go unnoticed by Shurui, but one's like Frei's? Those are *felt*. Like Frei's own sudden switch, the rage in Shurui's face shifts to an uncomfortable, almost childish awkwardness as she shifts eyes from K' to Frei. ".....Uh, h-hi..." If she wasn't in the middle of sparring both verbally and physically with K', one could imagine the girl withdrawing back into her shell underneath the power of that earnest smile. Instead, she's physically withdrawing, slipping back to avoid any immediate retaliation from her close proximity to the Beast of Fire.
It seems nerves are getting touched left and right, but that is sort of what you get when you get two NESTs clones in the same room. It makes the family reunions awkward as *hell* too. 'Can you pass the beans?' 'ARE YOU CALLING ME TOO WORTHLESS A PROJECT TO PASS YOU THE HAM?!' 'YOU DARE CALL YOUR CREATOR A HAM?!' And so on.
The spasming glove gains Shurui's immediate attention. Frei may notice a sort of strange half-wince that prompts his ally to press her glasses up her nose, in order to look at K' with cautious eyes. Then, she chooses that moment to speak. ".... Trouble'll find you whether you decide to do something or not," she then says, her voice small. "And then, if and when you go missing.... no one will ever notice you were even there to begin with. It's all just a matter of time. But living a life in fear is no life at all."
She waits, almost as if she was hesitating until K' was fully recovered. It's not out of pity, of course- Shurui doesn't want to see what that inner fire would do if it did get out of control. "Let's keep going." Going for K's left side, she clamps her hands into fists and twists her body around, swinging her balled hands around like weights to attempt to hit K' with added force.
Spinning to his right, Frei actually follows tai chi form pretty closely for once, perhaps because of the audience and perhaps because of the locale. His hands come in front of him in an intricate pattern of slow momements, a 'hand push' to re-center the self and move into a defensible position immediately from striking. However, despite the success of his strike, his expression registers surprise, eyes slightly wide. He had expected that these two fighters might share some of their wisdom and thoughts about fighting with these kids.
Instead, they appear to only have venom and despair to spread around. Which... given Frei's life recently, he really could do with a little less of.
Thus, he is as water, the core of his philosophy... and he shifts to counter, even philosophically. Where these two are vehement and angry, he is calm and moderate, his voice even and pleasant. "Sometimes you have to look to be hurt to grow," Frei says carefully. "I used to avoid getting hurt whenever I could because I thought being hurt was unnatural and that I always wanted to be happy. But I realized when I did that I never took any risks and never did anything... extraordinary. I didn't want to be that way, so I tried to change."
Unable to help himself, he also turns to Shurui with a face that's the essence of innocent, guileless ^_______^itude. He says, in a simple tone, "He's not an ass. Sure, he talks mean and seems a little unfriendly, but he's not an ass, per se." There's something about the girl that's getting to him somehow... some feeling in the back of his neck. Not about her, but about her relationship to K'. Perhaps they know each other? Never mind the spikes in the monk's awareness about K''s flame, that unknown quantity he has a million questions about...
However, Shurui has enjoined him to keep up the fight, and so he does: leaping forward, he extends his hand in a terrible parody of Terry Bogard, scarlet chi flame surrounding his fist as he attempts to drive it right into K''s chest: "BURN KNUCKLE!"
COMBATSYS: K' dodges Frei's Fierce Punch.
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Frei 0/-------/------=|==-----\-------\0 K'
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Shurui 0/-------/----===|
COMBATSYS: Shurui successfully hits K' with Strong Punch.
- Power hit! -
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Frei 0/-------/------=|===----\-------\0 K'
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Shurui 0/-------/---====|
K' has only one response for Shurui's furiously-hissed, sotto-voce response: a nasty sort of 'what do you think?' smirk. Frei, however, is harder to deal with. In listening to Frei, in processing, he's doing less of thinking how to get out of the way of things; as such, Shurui's attack hits him full-force and then some, sending the experiment skidding a few inches with a sharp breath. He notices Frei's attack in time to sustain that momentum long enough to duck past the chi-imbued blow, finally putting on the brakes some distance from his two opponents. His stance wide, shoulders heavily slumped and head lowered, he seems locked in an attitude of brooding thought.
Not a very engaging conversation partner. But then, who really expected him to be?
'You have to be hurt to grow.' At that, K' pauses. He kind of laughs a little, a surprisingly bare sound devoid of its usual mocking edge or bitter acidity. It's just a noise. "I guess you're right on that. Yeah." K''s right hand lifts, turning palm up, fingers coiling about a sudden burst of flames that blisters at his leather with such heat the tough material begins to crack. "No strength without -suffering-, huh?"
In an instant he's lunged again, aiming his ire at Shurui. His gloved hand shuts at the last moment, the fire snuffing-- it soon becomes clear that ignition was just a distraction from the real attack, which originates with K''s -left- hand. It comes up in the last moments before K' simply runs clear over Shurui, loose at first-- and then, when it's moments from impact with the girl, shutting into a fist and snapping forwards with drilling, exacting force.
COMBATSYS: Shurui dodges K''s One Inch.
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Frei 0/-------/------=|==-----\-------\0 K'
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Shurui 0/-------/---====|
Perhaps it is Frei's destiny to be in this fight, to change whatever negative, fearful, or just plain angry words into something more uplifting and positive. .... Like calling Shurui in on her bluff. ".... I-I didn't mean it like that! I was just...." The girl stutters in a spectacular switch from the determination in her body stance just moments earlier. Now, she's just trying to find some words to explain herself. "Er....."
Oh thank god for K' and his decision to go after her. She did *not* want to admit, in front of hundreds of people, that she knew K' wasn't an ass. That she, in fact, didn't really see him as a horrible person at all. Sure, he's not a *saint*, but god knows what exactly the guy went through. The more vague clues she *does* find out, the more she's unsure of what the hell he is. Other than the fact that he's just trying to get by.
Well, he *did* tell her to do her homework! ..... Even if it was just in concern to his name.
At first, Shurui seems to fall for K''s trick, except, as if her body was reacting to a ghost of what was to follow, Shurui *retracts* back uncomfortably, the experiment's move similiar enough to the move she's been pummeled with many times to automatically attempt to avoid at all costs. The punch doesn't end up hit her, but it does snag against her glasses, sending them flipping through the air at an absurd speed before they crash against the wall.
That hurt, but it wasn't enough to deter her. "....." God, she just got those too! They were on sale, yes, but they looked nice! Pulling back, Shurui almost seems to attempt an practiced nudge against K', onlym when she nears him, her body is thrown into those few knuckles, ghostly grey psi erupting from the epicenter of the punch if it hits. ".... Two can play at *that* game!"
Oh, hell. Frei, they're squabbling again.
Huh. They really do know each other; any idiot could pick that out who has half a day of experience dealing with people. More unexpected, however, is K''s agreement with Frei's assertion, though the Beast certainly puts his own pessimistic spin on things. Shurui, meanwhile, seesaws back and forth as much as Frei himself does; the monk is a bit like a bobber floating on the turbulent waters of emotion sometimes. Rubbing his head in embarassment once he skids to a stop as he sails past K' and then turns around, Frei clears his throat. "I dunno I'd put it exactly like that... but I think you can derive strength from suffering, if you're so inclined."
For a moment, Frei's own words seem to take him by surprise; his expression halts in mid-smile as he is assaulted by memories of the past few days: of Mizuki's bloodied form, of Hotaru's sudden and violent personality change. No strength without suffering, huh... or rather, that you can draw sustenance from suffering if you allow yourself to.
Suddenly, he smiles. "Thanks, you two," he adds cryptically. "That helped me more than you think."
He has to be his best if he's going to be of any help to anyone... so for the moment, there's no time to dwell on what he cannot change. Bringing his arms to his side, fists balled, he lets out an echoing "Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah...!", light swirling around his form in all the colors of the spectrum as he draws chi from the air around him. "That's right... even terrible events can be sources of strength."
COMBATSYS: Frei gathers his will.
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Frei 0/-------/-======|==-----\-------\0 K'
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Shurui 0/-------/----===|
COMBATSYS: K' interrupts Velvet Fist from Shurui with Second Shell.
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Frei 0/-------/-======|====---\-------\0 K'
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Shurui 1/------=/=======|
K' seems oblivious to the more innocuous conversation going on between Shurui and Frei. He doesn't even seem to care when they start going on about whether he's really an ass or not. His focus is elsewhere... and even if it wasn't, he wouldn't care enough about the perceptions other people have of him to try and either uphold or debunk the assertion that he's a mean bastard. He's just content to act like one.
And act like one he does. Shurui comes rocketing in abruptly with an attack... quite similar to his own. It's that familiarity which, perhaps, lets him deal with it quite so efficaciously. Stepping -into- it, he accepts the first instant of concussive contact-- and then he lights an entire swath of space directly before him on fire, cutting a sharp uppercut kick through the flames to smash both that physical strike -and- the mass of holy fire straight into his fellow 'clone' with enough force to knock her back some distance.
"I know that move," he admonishes, faintly, before his half-lidded gaze turns towards Frei. He has no idea what he just did for Frei on a spiritual or emotional level, and he doesn't care-- those cryptic words generate about .5 seconds of curiosity before K' immediately declares it none of his business and, thereby, not something that interests him. He waits, seeming faintly amused. K', being of help to -anyone-? "Did it. -That's- a first."
Where K' seems to act oblivious, Shurui just acts confused. "...?" The way her eyes widen slightly and her mouth twists is almost comical to a degree, but, as quickly as it came, it disappears, leaving the girl almost embarrassed by that almost childish response. "Yeah.... I agree. With the both of you." Her hands attempt to shove themselves into her hoodie's pockets, only to realize that said hoodie was thrown to the side right near the beginning.
There will come days when this fight will come in handy in terms of the advice Frei and, to a certain degree, K' have given to the audience. Things about surviving, and becoming stronger. Surviving. Even terrible events can be sources of strength.
For now? Pain. Lots and lots of pain. The explosion of fire rings in Shurui's ears and painfully dances across her skin as she's savagely sent spinning backwards, coming to a crash and slowing to a stop near the edge of the ring, where some children crane their heads over to curiously look at the fallen short girl.
Still, she's not done *yet*, as she presses her feet into the air and pivots them to throw herself back up, wincing at the sudden movement. "I know you know that move, damn it, but I-" Okay, so it *was* stupid. "... Mnf." Best to keep your damn mouth shut and rethink your strategy.
The stunning glow of Frei's own aura makes the girl wince as her naked eyes attempt to focus on the aura that is K' once more, trying to gain an understanding on where best to hit. K''s own glow isn't helping much, forcing Shurui to narrow her eyes in an attempt to show out some of the damned glowing fire that infuses the experiment's core. ".... if I win this, you *so* owe me new glasses," she mumbles below her breath.
COMBATSYS: Shurui focuses on her next action.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////// ]
Frei 0/-------/-======|====---\-------\0 K'
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Shurui 1/------=/=======|
The tension in the air between K' and Shurui is electric, and quite frankly, continues to be puzzling to the monk, who has been reduced to something approaching Innocent Bystander in this battle so far. His red-haired head tilts to the side as Shurui charges the Beast of Flame and gets... well, flamed for her troubles. It's like a flame war out there, in more ways than one. And for all his good intentions, the most the monk can do is bring a finger up to his cheek and scratch it absently in confusion.
"I somehow doubt it's a first," Frei admonishes K', furrowing his brow. Why is he so self-hatey? It's not the first time the monk's picked up on that tendency of the NESTS experiment on the run; their first meeting too suggested that K' has something about himself he dislikes, or wants to hide. But it's difficult to get at those sorts of things, especially in public, and thus Frei's consternation and expression of concentration. "You've helped me before, though maybe I never said how or why to you, or thanked you... I'm sorry for that."
He's *sorry*. Genuinely sorry!
Turning his head somewhat to the audience, the monk smiles at the children present. "Do you see the lesson here, though? Everyone has different ways of thinking. What's important is that you be true to your own way of doing things. So... uh, I guess what I mean is, you can take what we say or leave it depending on your own thoughts." A pause, and then he actually breaks out in peals of stupid laughter, rubbing the back of his head. "Oh man, that sounded so dumb! Believe in yourself, Kenji, and your RAWKET PUNCH!" What the hell, Frei.
But stupid antics do not a fight make, and without further ado the monk is on the go, arms thrust down at his sides. Both of his hands suddenly swirl with blue-white frost that sears the air, as he brings both arms up and crosses them horizontally in front of his face, Athena Asamiya-style, sending two spheres of icy chi toward K' that, when they near him, suddenly impact each other and explode in a burst of frozen goodness.
COMBATSYS: K' blocks Frei's Hyoushou Rengeki.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////// ]
Frei 0/-------/--=====|====---\-------\0 K'
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Shurui 1/------=/=======|
K' is amused. In that way where, if he were not amused, he would just be incurably, ragingly, annoyed.
Unlike the others, he seems to take nothing from the advice being thrown around this fight. Nor does he seem receptive to it. Fixed in his ways and his ways of thought as he is, it will take more than mere talk over a fight to cause him to rethink his solidly-held beliefs about how things work. He isn't really thinking too deeply about much of anything that's getting said at all-- not anymore, anyway, not after the initial words that caught him off-guard: his emotional shields down.
Instead of paying attention to soul-searching, he pays attention to the fight. He lifts a hand into Frei's attack, a wreath of fire accompanying and surrounding the movement, and lets the flames dash apart that icy energy. The flames quench again as soon as Frei's chi fades, K''s hand hooking back into a belt loop moodily. Frei's insistence and subsequent apology get literally shrugged off in a universal gesture of 'forget about it,' the experiment's lifted shoulders lacing abruptly with another burst of sharp fire as the sacred flames within him surge and gather in preparation for... something or another.
He holds his ground for the moment, an island of brooding, irritable intensity in the midst of more optimism and light than can possibly be healthy for him. One-handedly cracking the knuckles of his free hand casually, he rolls his eyes, but doesn't attempt to contest whatever Frei's trying to brainwash the kids with.
COMBATSYS: K' gathers his will.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////// ]
Frei 0/-------/--=====|=======\-------\1 K'
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Shurui 1/------=/=======|
It may happen that this fight becomes important to the girl's survival later down the line. So much so that she might seek out the tai chi master in order to properly thank him, even if, much the same way she and K' helped him, it was all indirectly, without any of them knowing. For now, she's bouncing between being uncaring and nonchalantly and being an awkward child, searching for meaning in the strangest of places.
To an outsider, it would just seem like Shurui's just a normal teenager for that. But for Shurui, it runs so much deeper.
Frei's laughter causes Shurui to look at the monk with naked confusion, even causing her to pause and rub her neck in much the same fashion as the way Frei looked at her and K'. "...." Of course, there *is* a battle going, and whatever breaks in K's aura Shurui might have sensed could be fully gone by now unless she acts quickly. So, without further ado, she rushes in just as Frei does, jumping up in the air and pivoting roughly around to bring her leg against K's chest, along his centerline.
"You really are," Frei murmurs, as K' not only handily defends against his icy assault, but also casually dismisses basically everything that the monk said, "a tough nut to crack." He doesn't say it as an insult, or at least he doesn't intend it as such; indeed, his tone suggests rather that K' represents a challenge or an interesting puzzle for his stoic demeanor, more than anything else. It probably bodes very, very ill for the Beast of Flame in the future. He might get Maxima involved, K'. Then you'll really be in trouble.
Having said his peace, the monk finally turns his attention to Shurui, and seems to actually see her for the first time. He tilts his head at her a little, trying to gauge the inexplicable quality she seems to possess and failing miserably; sensitive though he is to spiritual matters, Psycho Power is forever beyond him. Curious indeed, considering that -- unbeknownst to Frei himself -- his brother wields that very power. Instead, he decides to start a conversation with her *while* coordinating an assault. Driving at K' at a run, he lets gusts of wind chi build around his arms as he reaches out for the flame-wielder's arm and, if he can get a grip on him, intends to simply turn and swing him right into the path of Shurui's incoming kick. Behold, teamwork! "So, you two... know each other?"
COMBATSYS: K' blocks Frei's Medium Throw.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////// ]
Frei 0/-------/--=====|=======\=------\1 K'
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Shurui 1/------=/=======|
COMBATSYS: Shurui successfully hits K' with Heavy Kick.
-* CRITICAL HIT! *-
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////// ]
Frei 0/-------/--=====|=======\==-----\1 K'
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Shurui 1/------=/=======|
K' is a stubborn sort, very difficult to deal with; particularly for those who tend to take things personally, or who cannot have some degree of understanding for a boy whose demeanor is so obviously born from some troubled past. At the slightest indication of something he doesn't want to deal with, he shuts down, becoming unresponsive and walking away. It's enough to frustrate anyone.
The flames quench. K' is, it seems, has decided he is no longer interested in wasting time on conversation. He reaches into Frei's grab at him just as the monk executes it, disrupting the full extent of that intended swing; but he gets moved just enough, and his defenses are occupied just enough with Frei, that Shurui's attack gets through his guard and nails him solidly in the chest. He skids back a foot or two, and turns that momentum into even more of a retreat. He backs off some distance, circling slightly, his attitude resminiscent of a deterred predator.
But not necessarily one that has given up. No, soon enough, he just comes right back, albeit at a speed that-- while it has yet to be clocked-- is likely within the realm of several hundred miles an hour, compressed into one controlled and short -burst- of movement. He hangs back a moment, playing with a lick of blazing fire in the palm of his right hand, almost contemplative: and then he slams forward in a straight line straight at Shurui, that little flame mutating in an instant from a small and docile flicker of energy to a snarling, crushing mass of searing power.
COMBATSYS: Shurui blocks K''s Heat Drive.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////// ]
Frei 0/-------/--=====|==-----\-------\0 K'
[ \\\\\\\\\\ <
Shurui 1/-======/=======|
You think Shurui would be used to how Frei seems to catch her off guard. However, when Frei asks his question, Shurui is taken back, managing to mumble a humble response. ".... kinda..." How the hell could she word this? Granted, it's been more her than K' that has been pursuing any notion of becoming acquainted. ".... Uh... We've met. ... Twice. Kinda." .... Thank god K' didn't choose to say anything. She's not sure what sort of language that'd dredge up if he bothered to answer the question.
Pressing back from K''s immediate range, she turns her head back to look back at the monk just as he pauses to give her that look. "...." She quiets, a little self-conscious at the unintentional weight of Frei's gaze upon her, bringing back to mind her words with Stasya. At least his aura is trustworthy; at least, it seems so on the surface.
Her suddenly shy behavior is forced back as she seems to recongize the almost predatory gait of K'. Something bad's about to happen, and it doesn't take a third eye or an extensive knowledge of chi to know it. Even the children in the audience seem to pick up on it, falling silent in their suspense.
5t K' then makes his move with something as sudden and vicious as his stature would suggest. Shurui manages to brace herself for the first blow, shifting her body to take on K''s momentum and holding up her arms to hold back most of the chained attacks, but not the fire.
When she's forced back by the final punch, Shurui definitely looks worse for wear; her stance is an exhausted and shakey one, and it's quite possible that, with the next hit, she'd be KO'ed. ".... Heh." She wipes the blood from her mouth and, quietly, flaps the arm free of any remaining drops of blood. ".... At first, 'thought you wouldn't take me seriously. You proved me wrong." The tired stance becomes something like K''s earlier deceptive flame; Shurui bends forward...
And darts in to attempt to plant a shock of psi power to K''s chest. If it hits, it'll set K' in place by the very virtue of its offensive quality, long enough for Shurui to unleash a torrent of kicks and jabs until she frees the Beast of Fire with an explosion of that grey energy that lances through the chest.
This is all wrong.
He's no psychic, but what Frei lacks in raw intelligence he more than makes up for with incredibly sharp intuition. Suddenly it becomes clear *why* he's been... well, ignored this entire fight. Something is going on with these two, something much bigger than just some sort of disagreement or grudge or whatever. But the conflicted look on Frei's face, as K' breaks free of his grip and drives forward to deliver a highly punishing blow on his teammate, speaks to the uncertainty of his feelings. Is it his place? Not really. Is it his business? Almost certainly not. But should he do something...
Shurui partly makes the decision for him, by screaming at K' with a furious assault that makes the monk blink in surprise. "For all that unexpected shyness," the monk murmurs, "you certainly have an aggressive side." There's an inadvertent wince as he recalls Hotaru's sudden shift in behavior lately... but this is different, somehow. Personal, and not affected. Just... different.
But Frei can't let her go it alone, because to his eyes, someone's going to get hurt. "Lesson two," he says to the audience without turning his head from the confrontation. "Remember that this is a sport, and like any other sport, when it stops being fun... maybe you should stop." And with that he dives forward at K', throwing out one open palm that suddenly bursts into a spherical firework of orange-red-gold chi, like a sunburst.
COMBATSYS: K' dodges Shurui's Shades of Grey.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////// ]
Frei 0/-------/---====|==-----\-------\0 K'
[ \\\\\\\\\\ <
Shurui 0/-------/----===|
COMBATSYS: K' dodges Frei's Hizashi.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////// ]
Frei 0/-------/---====|==-----\-------\0 K'
[ \\\\\\\\\\ <
Shurui 0/-------/----===|
COMBATSYS: Frei has saved the state of this fight.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////// ]
Frei 0/-------/---====|==-----\-------\0 K'
[ \\\\\\\\\\ <
Shurui 0/-------/----===|
There is no purposeful ignoring or personal vendetta happening here. K' is not playing favorites, or operating on some deep grudge. He doesn't know Shurui beyond mere acquaintance from having been annoyed by her a couple times, and certainly doesn't know her enough to bother targeting her in specific for any personal reason. All that's happening here is that K' finds himself beset by two opponents who work surprisingly well in tandem despite never having met, and he is finding himself hard-pressed to deal with both equally: to the point he no longer has the luxury of talking.
As a result, naturally-- cruel as it is-- his instinct and training guide him to attempt to make quick and brutal work of the perceived weaker; and that impulse grows stronger the more she looks like she's starting to flag. Like a shark, K' can zero in on that blood in the water, and he has few compunctions about clinically eliminating Shurui quickly so he can devote attention to doing the same to Frei.
And as Shurui lances towards him, K' -sidesteps- her first attempt to hit him in a blur of shadowed speed, twisting deftly around her lunge. In passing, he actually bothers to answer her rumination about how she'd thought he wouldn't take her seriously, and he does so with a brutal sort of honesty: "I didn't. There was worse I could have done."
He keeps going. Gone in the next instant, he swerves around Frei's attack as well, skidding to a stop some distance away from the two. Considering both with a neutral sort of look, he foregoes attack for the immediate moment, in favor of catching his breath a second. 'Stop'? The advice from the monk draws some odd and breathless laughter, the boy shaking his head briefly. "If you -can-..." he comments, but it's mostly to himself.
COMBATSYS: K' gains composure.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////// ]
Frei 0/-------/---====|-------\-------\0 K'
[ \\\\\\\\\\ <
Shurui 0/-------/----===|
Whatever Frei lacks, he probably knows a lot more about Shurui than many would deduce after spending days with her. In battle, her emotions are let loose like some would let down their hair, making it harder and harder to control her notions of 'playing nice'. Granted, by that, it means not cussing and being a general pain in the neck. Whatever viciousness could be percieved in Shurui's failed attack seems.... not directed at K', or even at anyone at all. It just seems to be a part of her style, an influence that could only come from forming her identity in a location that demanded such attitudes towards fighting.
Whether or not K' is telling the truth, his admission causes the girl to become enraged. "Oh, fuck *you*." Shurui's face blanches the second that word passes her lips, and she lets out a sigh of defeat. ....... oops. ..... Well, might as well keep going. Her attention crosses over to Frei as he narrates his next lesson, causing the girl to comment, quite simply in a voice devoid of the anger that clouded it earlier, "... Some of us just have weird ideas of what fun is." The words are almost apologetic, as if there was a part of her that is somehow a little ashamed of how she's acting.
".... Some of us just wanna keep going." As she says those words, she turns to K', but not in an effort to direct those words at him. No, she's keeping her eyes on the 'prize'. Or the predator that's willing to tear her up. "This is the one thing I know how to do since day one. So I'll keep doing it. Unless my opponent is just gonna keep holding *back*." Okay, those words? Meant at K'.
COMBATSYS: Shurui gains composure.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////// ]
Frei 0/-------/---====|-------\-------\0 K'
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Shurui 0/-------/------=|
Rubbing the back of his head, Frei actually grins and laughs in embarassment at Shurui when she says that. It's like negative emotions of other people slam into him like a breakwater, flowing back where they came from at best and evaporating in seaspray at worst. If only he could do that with his own feelings... that'd be pretty swell, wouldn't it? "Well, yeah. There's an entire culture of leather fetish types who'd agree with y--"
That sound is about 40 mothers of YFCC students clearing their throats at the same time. Caught off-guard, Frei -- who treats children as small adults, basically -- realizes the gaffe a little too late, and hemhems himself. "I, uh... yeah, they'll probably edit that out in post, I don't have anything to worry about." Except for all the business you just cost the center. Good job, Martian Overlord.
Smiling once again, Frei turns to K' and nods. "See, I think you just need a hug." Then he's... charging the Beast. Seriously, it could not be any more telegraphed and stupid, but there you go. "NINJAAAAAAAA ATTAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!" the monk bellows, and then... DIVES at K'. If he can actually tackle him, both of them go up into the air in a low, parabolic arc, twisting in a spiral as they do so (and aided in this by bursts of wind chi), before Frei just slams K''s head into the floor. It's like a 2nd rate knockoff Izuna Drop, but pretty much everything Frei does has '2nd rate knockoff' in front of it, so who's to complain?
COMBATSYS: K' just-defends Frei's Strong Throw!
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////// ]
Frei 0/-------/---====|-------\-------\0 K'
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Shurui 0/-------/------=|
K' just grins unrepentantly through Shurui's indignation. She might be a little ashamed of how -she's- acting, but he's not cowed or abashed in the slightest. Violence is inherent to him, written into his genetics and programmed into his mind; rash meanness is just in his very nature. He feels no compunctions about his cruelties, whether physically or verbally inflicted, and as much becomes quite clear in his reply. She's angry about him holding back? Well, her prerogative.
"Che! Fine. But if I stop holding back and you die, it's your own fault." Oh dear. Wasn't this supposed to be for the children? Maybe that's his idea of a joke?
But then. Frei declares his intention to 'hug' him. This is, seemingly, just too much for K' to handle. Reacting on a hairtrigger, he... gets totally tackled, but as his back hits the floor he just braces and throws Frei clear of him again, flipping the monk off him with his own momentum and then using what's left in order to recover back to his feet. "That," he comments as he retreats a step, "is the last thing I need."
As if to punctuate this declaration, K' abruptly lunges towards Frei in a pouncing rush, leaving the ground entirely as he tries to crack a harsh snapkick at the monk's face.
While it's possible some of Shurui's DNA was taken from well-known psi fighters, she was never meant to be a direct copy, as K' was. Even so, fighting seems to come naturally to the girl, so much so that, when she was taught to think differently, it surprised her just how much her core drived for tough battles. While not finely taught and pounded into her being to the point that she became a weapon, not a person trying to survive at all cost, Shurui learned violence from her envirobment. Then, Muda taught her a different way.
Now she's caught between the two, pivoting back and forth especially when neither seems a worse choice for the matter at hand.
"... Is that supposed to scare me?! You think you'd be the *first* to try?" ..... It's probably because she's allowed, and perhaps *forced*, K's existance to be something she's interested in that the experiment gets underneath her skin in such a special way. Or, maybe, it's just the fact that both have issues and K''s more able to rub Shurui the wrong way than Shurui is to him. But there's a reason Shurui hasn't crossed the line and brought up any of the things that *could* possibly rub him the wrong way. All the things she could've used against him, whether or not it would have brought anything out in the Beast of Fire, are locked away, leaving her only empty cuss words and blank hissing. A stray alley cat taking on a tomcat twice her size.
It would start becoming something other than a bloody, going-all-out fight between three parties that may or may not know each other in varying terms.
The parallel that Frei brings up manages to cause the short girl's cheeks to turn a deep red. ".... I-I didn't mean it like that! There's a difference!" Her words trail off, and she lets out a sigh. "... Nngh." A wordless reply, and Shurui rushes back into the fray, trying to steal a deceptive looking punch while K' goes after Frei, throwing her body against her elbow to turn those knuckles into something more painful if it lands. A Wing Chun one inch without any flash.
COMBATSYS: Frei endures K''s Minutes Spike.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////// ]
Frei 0/-------/=======|==-----\-------\0 K'
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Shurui 0/-------/------=|
Boot to the head.
K' may be happy to hear the telling *WHAP* as his boot impacts the front of Frei's face. It's very simplistic, but it seems to work, since he didn't get out of the way or anything. Of course, the problem is that he didn't *move*. Nobody is ever sure how short, sort of thin Frei pulls that off, or why he's so hardy... needless to say, however, it works when it works.
"You cannot take a joke at all," Frei says, around a mouthful of boot. And then, quite simply, he seeks to wrap his hands around K''s extended leg before he can retract it and then, with an inarticulate shout, spin and slam him into the wall... which explodes with chi flame. Because really, what DOESN'T explode with chi flame around here?
COMBATSYS: K' endures Frei's Charged Throw.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////// ]
Frei 1/-------/=======|===----\-------\0 K'
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Shurui 0/-------/------=|
COMBATSYS: K' interrupts Strong Punch from Shurui with Crow Bite.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////// ]
Frei 1/-------/=======|=====--\-------\0 K'
[ \\ <
Shurui 1/----===/=======|
No, K' really can't. But then, would he be the K' we know and love (sort of) if he -were- capable of taking jokes? Not in the slightest.
No, the K' everyone knows and adores (ha ha) is one who apparently... has a talent for pissing off girls. And everyone else also, for that matter, but especially girls. He just gives Shurui kind of a cryptic, half-smiling look even as he turns abruptly and lunges right after Frei, who... unexpectedly, just stands there and takes it. K' is surprised, but not entirely unable to move with this development. As Frei seizes K''s ankle and whirls in an attempt to slam him into the wall, K' twists deftly in his grasp and impacts in a three-point stance on the wall, hitting in a far more controlled manner than Frei likely intended. A manner that aims him... right at Shurui.
The sudden burst of chi flames -does- catch him unaware, but with a hiss he just weathers the pain. Ripping his ankle clear of Frei's grip, he abruptly lunges clear off the wall towards Shurui's incoming blow, his own sacred flames abruptly heating the air about his arm. With a growl of effort he twists abruptly, carving a wide clawing uppercut straight into the girl with crushing force. It is, probably, one of the hardest blows he's connected all fight, if not -the- hardest.
He -did- say something about not holding back, might as well keep his promises.
K' can't take a joke, and Shurui.... just gets flustered and confused. And when K' turns back to give her that almost cheshire cat half-grin, Shurui's determined face breaks into a sort off-guard blink. She was expecting something more.... feral, maybe. Or a retaliatory comment. .... Really, she handles negativity better than anything even vaguely positive, even if it's just K' perhaps being smug.
And, if he's smug, it's probably because he's more in control right now than Shurui is. Between Frei and K', Shurui's not quite sure where she's landing emotionally.
And what doesn't explode with chi flame? Shurui, hopefully, because she's about to get a major dosage of it. Or well, just plain fire energy, since it's not quite chi but just as painful. Maybe moreso. That, and a punch that likely cracked or broke something in Shurui's body, sending her spinning backwards like that pair of glasses K' snagged with his punch earlier. Blood arcs from her mouth against the floor as she lands, skidding backwards.
Maybe she's down for the count. That certainly *was* a hard hit. But she can't let it end there. Nooooooo. She wanted to fight K', and she's *not* stopping until she has the last word. Whether or not it misses.
Slowly, Shurui gets up, throwing herself awkwardly against her feet, attempting to wipe the blood coming from her mouth and really only managing to smear it. Oh well, it's not like she'll care in a few minutes. "..... Now. .... *that's* more like it." It's not as if she's getting some sort of high from the pain itself; really, the clone could do without pain any day. There's just too much pent up energy still left in her, and there's only one way to let it out.
Circling against K', Shurui attempts to rush in, aiming a fist for the experiment's center line...
COMBATSYS: Shurui can no longer fight.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////// ]
Frei 1/-------/=======|=====--\-------\0 K'
COMBATSYS: Shurui successfully hits K' with Iron Lung.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////// ]
Frei 1/-------/=======|======-\-------\0 K'
The first hit lands, and is followed by another, then a return of the other fist in a wheeling motion that's too practiced to be just her wailing on K' for some sort of odd revenge. No, she's not a sore loser. Just one that likes to keep going when she knows the consequences of doing so. The last punch lands, and, in this range, Shurui gives the Beast of Fire a vague sort of half smile. An odd sort of thanks that she's not all too sure the man is willing to accept.
Ah well. Shurui sweeps back, pressing backwards until she falls back on the floor, well out of fighting range. There, satisfied she's not in the way, she allows herself to just give in to exhaustion, her body blanking most of the world for a bit as it goes to repair itself.
Well... okay. Dropping into a crouch after his overbalancing attack, Frei can sit there and watch as K' and Shurui settle their differences primarily by beating the hell out of each other in a swirl of Kusanagi flame and grey... unidentified power. In a way, it's sort of reassuring to see them get through whatever because, in his opinion, the negative energy was totally harshing his mellow. And as he's said to multiple people in the past few days: today's sorrow is the foundation for tomorrow's joy. So.
With a sigh, he shakes his head and gets into stance. he doesn't attack; he just stretches and then quietly summons as much power as he can. He's going to need it to deal with whatever the Beast dishes out, after all. "Glad you got that off your chests. Now, wanna get this over with?"
COMBATSYS: Frei gathers his will.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////// ]
Frei 1/---====/=======|======-\-------\0 K'
Landing from his attack, K' stretches back to his feet with an unreadable sort of look. He tilts his head, almost curious, as Shurui picks herself up and comes right back at him, and he tenses in preparation to just step out of the way.
This time, however, he doesn't quite get there. Looks like being an arrogant ass catches up with you eventually.
Shurui's blows hit home, slamming into his chest point-blank; a quiet grunt acknowledgement of her strikes, he digs his heels in as she attacks to resist being pushed too far back as she exhausts her energy in her assault. Finally taking a stabilizing step backwards as she concludes, he watches her as she stumbles back and blanks out, mentally nursing the new blossom of dull pain in his chest. Tch, he clicks irritably, before his attention turns to Frei.
"Yeah, I think so," is his reply, though whether he means his own death or Frei's is debatable. For his part, he seems disinterested in standing around waiting; eternally impatient and reckless, he seems to find action a more appealing option than further inaction. He doesn't bother with gathering himself, or trying to catch his breath, or anything really intelligent; he just lunges, trying to virtually break Frei in half over a sharp blow of his knee.
COMBATSYS: K' successfully hits Frei with Knee Strike.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///// ]
Frei 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|=======\-------\1 K'
Well, the *plan* had been to roll with the punch (well, knee) and then deliver a pithy comment, and then blast K' right in the face at point-blank range and call it a day. Sadly, Frei missed a few important details here, not the least of which is that he's still smarting from taking that kick to the face, and he's still a little... beat... from his encounter with Kentou not that long ago. What this means is that he doesn't give the knee strike the serious concentration it deserves; rather than taking it and holding his ground, he gets slammed in the stomach and goes stumbling back, grimacing.
"Remember, kids..." he murmurs, rubbing his tummy and wincing as he recovers, "don't fight on a full stomach either." He's probably going to regret that later.
Turning to K', the monk grins at him, one eye shut as he tries to block out the pain enough to focus on what he's doing. K' might notice, though, that while that splintering strike hit home pretty hard, Frei is still up and around and hurting but otherwise okay... much hardier than he looks. "Don't hold back, tell me how you really feel," he says with a faint smile, holding his hands in front of him. "I guess this isn't the smartest move, but it's just as good to end on a bang than to start on one," he adds cheerfully, multicolored light swirling around his palms as he centers himself.
Without warning, and going from 1 to 120 in a shockingly short time, Frei dives at K' and throws one hand out, covered in that prismatic aura shining like a beacon... and the light suddenly vanishes, replaced by a massive, invisible, short-wave burst of focused multielemental chi, the air rippling in the aftershock. It's his strongest technique... but the Beast has shown that he can amply defend against even the strongest attacks...
COMBATSYS: K' dodges Frei's Fukami Reikai.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///// ]
Frei 0/-------/---====|=======\-------\1 K'
Dropping back to a careful stance as he impacts Frei with that harsh blow, K' backs up a step: uncharacteristically defensive and watchful. He's on his last few breaths, he can feel it; another good hit and he probably won't be able to get up again. Frei wants to discuss feelings-- K' has neither the interest, nor the attention to spare. Or, for that matter, the actual feelings in question. His emotional landscape is currently a void, nothing in his mind save the clicking and cold calculations of a fight.
"...There's nothing to tell," he responds with a lift of his shoulder. He's not lying; to him, this entire fight was about as personal as... well, most of K''s other 'professional' fights are (at least, those that don't pit him against somebody he holds some kind of a grudge for). As a public fighter figure, K' is manifestly disinterested in doing anything but showing up, honing himself like a knife against a whetstone, and then leaving again.
What he's really spending time doing is paying careful attention to Frei's movements. He catches it when Frei lunges, lancing that chi energy at him; K' instantly swivels aside in a blurred motion more a reflex than an active dodge, just barely escaping the riotous burst of chi. He skids to an uncontrolled halt off to one side, a few unsteady steps taken to regain his balance. Then his stance opens, and braces: swapping from defensiveness to offense in the space of a single step.
Fire ignites in his loosely-coiled hand, burning steadily amidst his tensed fingers. For a few instants he does nothing; and then, he slams forwards in a burst of fire-laced speed to aim a straightforward and piercing strike at Frei, a massive amount of the Kusanagi potential within him translated in that instant from a docile hum in his blood to very real, very corporeal snarling flames.
COMBATSYS: K' successfully hits Frei with Heat Drive.
[ \\\\\\\\\ < > ///// ]
Frei 1/-------/=======|-------\-------\0 K'
There it is: what he's been hoping to see this entire fight. The mysterious non-chi flame, the fire that's actually the real thing, not chi in the air made to briefly think that it's fire. It might be worth it to have his strongest attack no-sold just to get a chance to see what he can do with those flames. The result isn't ideal, but in the end, it does seem to suit the monk's purposes.
Once the hand ignites, Frei is immediately on the defensive. However, K' has a big advantage over Frei in this area: K''s aura doesn't resonate with his need to control that fire. Not an 'aura' in the sense that Shurui would read, but the man's internal energy field, his life force. For most chi-using fighters, the aura resonates when they're about to attack; thus someone attuned to the aura can often prepare themselves ahead of time. In this case, not so; the sudden lunge breaks through Frei's guard, crashing into him and carrying both of the fighters across the floor for a few feet before the flame leaves K''s hand and engulfs Frei's body.
But once it's there... it's just patterns of energy. In fact, as the look of surprise on his face indicates, the monk is able to diffuse the flame. Not necessarily prevent the damage; that's been done. But energy is energy; dampening the fire so it doesn't combust his shirt, for example, is doable.
As the last of the scarlet flame disappears, Frei blinks down at his open palm, and tilts his head. "Huh." He seems to adopt that pose of confusion for a moment or two longer, before suddenly turning and blasting across the intervening distance between himself and K' in an energy-imbued, Jon Talbain-like shoulder tackle. It's inelegant, and Frei's body doesn't make a good weapon for blunt trauma... but the blazing corona of silver energy, cold to the touch, that surrounds him is another story entirely.
COMBATSYS: K' dodges Frei's Gekkou Nocturne.
[ \\\\\\\\ < > //// ]
Frei 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 K'
That... is a first. K' does not often meet someone who is actually capable of diffusing or canceling his fire at all, even after it's left his direct control; chi fire is one thing, easily commanded, control of it easily wrested, but sacred Kusanagi fire? It's another. Whirled around in the wake of his attack to eye its result, he's met with that unusual sight; and the resultant surprise that flickers briefly in his yellow eyes means that he almost doesn't make it clear of Frei's reprisal.
Caught in an awkward balance, K' turns and lunges to one side as Frei comes rocketing in, the passing energy brushing his arm briefly before he gets it clear. Skidding to a halt with a hard exhale, he considers Frei a little more warily. A level of control capable of messing with his fire is not a pleasant thing with which to deal; he does not want Frei learning any more about that.
His breath coming hard and fast by now, clearly at the end of his rope, K' finds it in him to make another lunging attack upon his remaining opponent. A hand bites towards Frei's shirt or collar, whatever it can catch hold of; and if it gets a grip, it drags the monk off balance, opening the route for a sharp blow between Frei's shoulderblades.
COMBATSYS: Frei blocks K''s Spot Pile.
[ \\\\\\ < > /// ]
Frei 0/-------/------=|=------\-------\0 K'
The monk is working on pure instinct now; when K' makes to grab for him he goes limp, letting the Beast get his grip. As for the blow to the shoulders, however, that isn't in the cards. Twisting as much as he can in someone's grip, Frei snaps up a hand and *catches* K''s intended blow in his palm, wincing at the shock of pain that sends along every nerve in his arm. However, it's enough to save him from unconsciousness, and Frei awkwardly shoves away from his 'coworker' to stumble across the floor, standing in a crouch, hands on knees. His breathing is loud and ragged, but he's not out just yet.
"Ha... ha... I guess... Alma didn't hire you... for nothing..." the monk says with a faint smile. He knew K' would be strong, but it's something else to feel the strength close-up. Never mind that even he can tell K' just went On Guard in a serious way, though he has no idea why. "I just realized... I've fought the other one... too. Haaaaa..." Winded, but laughing.
A familiar pair of blue-white orbs gathers in Frei's hands as he makes one last-ditch attempt to bring this to a close. "It's been fun... I'll say that much." Considering K' has completely no-sold every assault he's tried this entire fight, the monk's hopes aren't high... but he learned something new and potentially valuable today, so as far as he's concerned, it was worth doing. Flinging his arms forward, he sends a chilly burst of ice K''s way for the second time this fight.
COMBATSYS: Frei successfully hits K' with Hyoushou Rengeki.
Glancing Blow
[ \\\\\ < > // ]
Frei 0/-------/------=|=------\-------\0 K'
Equally exhausted, if not even more so due to the rigors involved in standing up to two people at once, K' slides back a little as Frei shoves him away. Panting shallowly, teeth half-bared as he breathes evenly, he gauges Frei through narrowed yellow eyes, looking not unlike a tired and battered wolf that's still got at least one more bite left in him.
The corner of his mouth pulls up in an articulate smirk as Frei makes his comment, the boyish and cocky expression his wordless reply; he is a little too winded for conversation at the moment. He's also too tired to really get out of the way of that ice-chi assault; he manages partway, but gets clipped on the shoulder. Cycling his injured side back away from his opponent, he turns slightly and sets his stance.
He pounces, as if to repeat that high kick to Frei's jaw; but he hits the ground in an aggressive skid again just before he gets in striking distance, cutting a sharp sweep at Frei's ankles. Regardless of whether he connects, he lets his momentum bleed off naturally, staying in that low crouch; evidently, he is just too tired to continue any further, his considerable endurance finally burnt out.
COMBATSYS: K' can no longer fight.
[ \\\\\ <
Frei 0/-------/------=|
COMBATSYS: K' successfully hits Frei with Narrow Spike.
-* CRITICAL HIT! *-
[ <
Frei 0/-------/--=====|
Good side: he actually connected with something for the first time in a fight where Shurui had been doing all the heavy lifting.
Bad side: Frei's too exhausted to do anything else. Which is a problem, because it means he's crouching and his center of gravity is very low when K' attempts to smack him with a final attack that tries to knock him off his feet -- which it does -- and then sends him sailing across the freshly-waxed floor to slam headfirst into a display case, right on the corner. Which isn't good at all since it makes a nice *CRACK* noise with his skull as he hit it EXTRA hard; a little trickle of blood finds its way down his forehead as the monk lies there, thoroughly unconscious.
Perhaps later he'll get some satisfaction out of knowing that it's K' who's got to deal with the all the kids and parents now.
COMBATSYS: Frei takes no action.
COMBATSYS: Frei can no longer fight.
Log created on 19:29:29 02/23/2008 by K', and last modified on 13:47:18 02/27/2008.