Description: In the aftermath of the rescue at Capital 7, and the apparent death of Marise, Tenma Kiryuu hasn't really been himself. Distraught, angry and out of sorts, the Guardian King has worried his friends... But then somebody pays him a visit at home. Somebody... Brazilian.
It's been a day since the disastrous SNF match in the park; the World's Largest See-Saw is all but forgotten, at least by the fight's participants, and a lazy spring Sunday has settled over Southtown, the weather warm and sunny enough to leave windows open.
Maybe it's just Tenma that's being lazy, though; it's past noon, and the Guardian King hasn't gotten out of bed. His mood was already less than stellar since his return from Metro City, and the previous day's events merely exacerbated the situation. Sure, he's woken up a few times, but he hasn't bothered to crawl out from his futon, in his small bedroom in the rather spartan - but very, very tidy - apartment he shares with his grandfather on Gedo Street.
Luckily, the old man is currently out of the house, doing whatever crazy old esoteric Buddhists do. Probably fishing.
Wearing his pyjamas - a black tank top and dark blue boxers - Tenma shifts under his futon, rolling over to face the other wall. A warm breeze blows in through the open window, rustling a small windchime dangling there, as well as discarded laundry all throughout the room. The walls are plastered with posters; a few for various rock bands, but most of them are rather well-developed young Japanese women just shy of actual undress. Still, Kiryuu doesn't seem particularly inclined to get out of bed. Maybe he'll just try to go back to sleep and wake up when it's Monday.
It is only the warm spring breeze that moves the windchime, and not the figure that seems to appear out nowhere, suddenly occupying the entire window with a chilly silence. Leaning back against one side of the frame, that intrusive body bends one leg up to push one foot flush against the opposite side, while the other leg dangles down the inside of the wall, its second bare foot flexing and twitching toes the way an unsettled cat slowly moves its tail.
Every last inch of that uninvited presence belongs to a certain Brazilian, whose sour mood from last night seems to have gone unchanged. Dressed in frayed jeans and a battered, half-faded t-shirt, she sits in the window and watches the sole occupant of the room, her face backlit by sunlight so intense that her staring eyes colour champagne-amber. Her arms are crossed. Her face is set in a pensive chilliness.
Pás doesn't look the least bit amused by what she's seeing.
With long hair that moves slightly in the breeze, half-hooded eyes, and a mouth that looks one bad nerve away from a frown, she merely sits there, glares, and waits with an unnerving patience for her presence to be noticed.
The presence in his room - in his sanctuary, if you will - can't possibly go unnoticed by Tenma for long. Whatever else might be said about him, he has an alarming sensitivity to that sort of thing, and even Pás' preternatual stillness can't keep her hidden forever. Especially since she's waiting to be noticed.
"What?" Tenma wonders a few moments after actually noticing the Brazilian, finally pushing his futon down and sitting up, turning to look towards Pás as she sits on his windowsill like some kind of irritated, staring cat.
Didn't he once 'call her bluff' on attempting something like this? Tenma could probably stand to learn a thing or two about challenging the mysterious Brazilian girl... It always seems to end with her doing exactly what she says she's going to do. "You got somethin' you wanna yell at me about too, Dakini? Well, go right ahead."
He probably deserves it.
His generous invitation is met with a stony silence. Perched on the windowsill like someone's escaped shadow, Pás does not yell. She does not rage. She does not even scowl. She only stares at Tenma, her unlined face a calm blue sea, looking anything but the furious seismic activity that storms on so far below. All that is let to the surface for her to feel are tangled pangs of confusion and worry, amidst so much frustration.
Pás doesn't demonstrate any sort of anger. Instead she slips from the window as easily as she had found it, soundless, silent, but with a certain coil of gravity about her, a presence best not to be ignored. With neither threat nor any preamble, she jumps from the window and straight at Tenma, trying to join him in bed as she lands but inches away. Her feet touch down at either sides of his hips, and she falls into a deep crouch, her weight settling forward as she leans right in. Her head tilts. Her eyes fix forward. And she deigns to ask the Guardian King only one thing. "What happened?"
It's almost worse, you know. Not being yelled at. Tenma knows how to deal with that, at least... It's not something that really gets to him. It just sort of rolls off of his back like nothing at all. But the silence, the watching, that's not what he's used to. The sudden movement of Pás, leaping forward and landing over him like that, makes the tall, lean young man jerk back, out of simple reflex. Her crouching and leaning in towards him makes it even worse.
"Somebody kidnapped Voronkova. They were doin'... Some kinda experiments or somethin', had another girl from Gedo too, Chiang." When Tenma speaks, his voice is quiet not because there's no need to raise it - surely Pás is close enough to hear Tenma even if he whispered. "Me'n Hakuya an' Ashima broke in to where they were bein' held, with some weirdo helpin' us get inside, and we got the girls out. They were... Tortured, humiliated, I don't even know." As he speaks, the Guardian King can't bring himself to look the Brazilian in the face. Especially when he gets to the real issue. "The three of us had to fight the whackos that kidnapped 'em, one of 'em was... A monster. A demon. She was the one who did all that awful stuff to Voronkova an' Chiang." Tenma pauses. The next part is difficult; the next part is something he's tried to not even think about since it happened.
"I killed her," Tenma says, bleakly.
Leaning in close and making her demand, every coiled, nervous inch of her body brooking no arguement, Pás watches Tenma and waits for her answer. And she gets one. He speaks softly, but she hears every word, the sheer impossibility of some almost making her doubt her own fluency. But this is not the case. She's not prepared to hear something so horrifically unreal, a story of innocent girls finding themselves captured and tortured. She remembers Stasya... little Cotonete who could fight so well. The girl has such strength to her, and a rare force of will that stood up to the Brazilian's own trickery. It's hard for Pás to imagine, for as how little she knows Stasya, to imagine the Russian girl tested on and pulled apart like some experiment.
It's no wonder Tenma looks so hollow in the eyes.
Pás feels so angry, so venomous that her mouth starts to taste toxic, like the poisonous outrage is trying to bleed out of her. But she doesn't show much of it, or any at all, save for a slight furrowing of her eyebrows, a twitch at the corner of her mouth, and the fact she says nothing at all.
For a long time, the Brazilian maintains her strange, uncharacteristic silence as she tries to comprehend the story Tenma had just told her. For someone who seems to abhor seriousness of all forms, pledging herself to the ideal of an absolute freedom -- even from one's own emotional burden -- the look on Pás' face is grave. Leaning back on her heels, she looks away, her dark eyes slanted on one of the bedroom's walls.
It's the sound of Tenma's voice that bring her eyes back, revealing himself as a murderer with a sort of rawness she's never heard out of him. She stares at him a moment. And, unlike most, the next word she says isn't consoling. It isn't a padded pleasantry that it's fine now, that it'll get better, that it's going to be all right... Instead, she asks, "Did she give you a choice?"
In a way, it was his discussion with Pás after Wellington nearly crippled her that helped keep Tenma going during the trip into the Ninth Circle. It helped remind him what the stakes were, helped him find the strength to keep going when, by all rights, he probably shouldn't have been able to. "No, she didn't," Tenma admits, shaking his head slightly. "I know... It was what I had to do. It might've even been the /right/ thing to do..." All his training tells him that it was. Marise was a demon; she forsook her right to life when she forsook her humanity for power, sinking into sin and becoming the depraved monstrosity that would do those things.
"If I hadn't done it, she would've killed us. She was trying to kill us. Trying to torture and murder my friends in front of me. Hakuya, and Ashima..." He brought them down there. Because he knew they could handle themselves, to be sure, and because they never would've forsaken their friend; but they followed /him/ into hell. "If we hadn't gone, Voronkova and Chiang would've died horribly, like animals. But..." But he's just a kid. He's never had to do something like that before.
Slowly, gently, and with the littlest of sighs, Pás finally breaks free from her gargoyling perch. His bed rocks slightly as she moves, turning and rearranging herself, much more tamely, at Tenma's side. She sits beside him, shoulder to shoulder, bending her legs up and, for a detached movement, seeming much more intent to stare at her own bare feet. The serene, disinterested look on her face seems to change. Her eyes lose a little of their sleepiness. And, finally, Pás frowns.
And that uninvolved Brazilian girl, who seems to be so loath of genuine expression, starts to lean into Tenma's side. She pauses minutely, and then finally nestles her head to his shoulder, hoping to make a warm spot that will help against the hurt.
After a few moments she spends in a troubled, almost pensive silence, her voice returns, speaking with a rare clarity few have and will ever hear. This is Estella de Santo speaking with the only wisdom she knows. "Tenma Kiryuu..." she tells him simply, adamantly, even though her voice is soft, "you are a protector. It is an ugly job. Rules cannot prepare you for its ugliness. We are taught what must be right, and the codes of honour we see so much... they will wither and die away when we are faced with this world." She pauses for a moment, her dark eyes staring blandly forward. "Sometimes it is kill or die, and for a protector, there is no right way because there is no choice. There is only what needs to be done... I believe. They are alive because of you."
Simple human contact is a surprisingly potent thing... All the moreso with someone like Pás, strangely; for all her disrespect for personal space and free spirited behaviour, there's a strict delineation between her usual games and more genuine contact, like what's happening when she sits beside Tenma, and nestles her head against his shoulder.
Tenma doesn't flinch away from the touch, at least, letting Estella settle herself against his shoulder as she pleases. It is, in a way, a comfort. Sitting there on his futon, a thin barrier between them and the bare floor, with the mysterious Brazilian girl who seems to have such a potent effect on him. "Maybe," Tenma acknowledges, slowly, with the faintest of nods. It's probably true; could Hakuya have done it? Could Kenji? Adelheid could have, Tenma imagines, but that would've been passing the responsibility. "Doesn't make it any easier to accept, though. How'm I supposed to keep fighting for fun, after that?"
It's hard for her to wonder what he may be going through. She has little idea; after all, Pás sees herself as the protector who failed. She had made a choice, a wrong choice, that ended up murdering her mother. Tenma has a different sort of blood on his hands. But she thinks -- no, she knows -- given the choice she would do the same. Taking another's life isn't so alien a concept to someone like her, despite what her unconcerned, happy-go-lucky appearances suggest.
Without even realizing it, and possibly only because of that, the Brazilian girl leans in closer to hook her arms around Tenma, hugging him firmly, the reflex brought on by one of those emotions she'd so love to do without.
"I do not know," Pás replies, a little helplessly. If there's a right answer for a question like that, she may be decades away from ever discovering it. She pauses a little, again, and in that coy way of hers, gives Tenma the only advice she knows. She speaks from her own experience. How does one still have fun, when they're surrounded by death? "Shiu, I think you will find a way. Whatever stops us all from losing our minds, yea? Not everything is ugly, and you cannot let ugliness steal the fun from this silly life. The best protector lets nothing die... not even yourself. We are all dead if not for our happiness, yea? Shiuu... I think sadness, and the seriousness... it is the worst death."
Ahhh, hugs! Tenma's one weakness!
If he has his way, of course, Tenma won't find himself in another situation where he might have to take a person's life... No matter how evil they might be. His father would probably accuse him of weakness, of letting emotion cloud his judgement, but he's never been like his father... Which, of course, is the essential reason why he's here, in Southtown. Why he was in a situation that led to his battle against Marise. Which makes him wonder: If he hadn't been in Southtown in the first place, if he'd been a good like Kiryuu and acted like the person his family wanted him to be, would Stasya and Shurui be dead now? Mangled and forgotten in some pit?
"Yeah... You're right. It ain't like everything is ugly... Estella." Ahh, there he goes, using that name again. She really shouldn't have told him that, in retrospect. Not with the way he uses names. "Feels like there's a big weight on my shoulders, must be what's been slowin' me down lately."
A sobered moment like this earns Tenma his get-out-of-jail card; Pás is too busy worrying about him to even realize, much less balk at, the use of her real name. She's too far preoccupied with trying to console him, and trying is a very key word when it comes to the likes of her. She's not too good at this. For someone who chooses to express her affection in the form of violence, nurturing is not one of her better skills. But it doesn't mean there's any lack of trying, and this Brazilian really is. She wants to make him feel better. Sadness is not something she wishes on anyone.
Pás fears sadness of all forms.
Soon enough, that tight, clinging hug loosens, but she's not so inclined to let him go; her lean body half-leans, half-hangs on Tenma's, her arms hooked amiably around him and her head leaned close to his with that distinct South American ignorance of personal space. "Then you must let me help," she implores, some of that seriousness falling off of her voice, its usual richness making a slow return. "Get that silly fisherman sword of yours, and let me show you how fun the fighting can be."
The thing of it is, Pás is doing as good a job of it as anybody probably could; Tenma is a stubborn and private person, willing to help others - as long as nobody is looking - with their problems, but accepting none for his own. With the Brazilian half-leaning and half-hanging on him, the more somber than usual Japanese youth snorts a little bit. "Oh, don't you just have all the answers?" Tenma wonders, one of his hands reaching back behind him. What could he possibly be doing?
"See, there's one thing you don't know... I don't ever let it get that far from me!" Indeed, his bokken is within arm's reach of his futon, quickly snatched up... But there's no room for him to really attack her with it, unless he wants to hit her on the butt again. And somehow he doesn't think she'd take that too well.
So instead, without any further preamble, Tenma tries to take advantage of Pás' perilous closeness by swinging his head forward in a short-range, but nevertheless solid, headbutt.
COMBATSYS: Tenma has started a fight here.
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Tenma 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Pas has joined the fight here.
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Tenma 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Pas
COMBATSYS: Tenma successfully hits Pas with Random Strike.
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Tenma 0/-------/-------|==-----\-------\0 Pas
Well, she did ask for it. "Ai!" is all Pás can voice in dismay, when Tenma takes advantage of her generous, philantrophic hug and headbutts her for her troubles! She lets him go quickly, trying to duck out of the way, but her awkward position isn't about to allow certain impossibilities to happen.
His head cracks against hers, and she falls away, slumping backward and caught rather unmercifully by the closest wall. Half-sprawled off his futon, her limbs strewn every so way, Pás' alert dark eyes veer right back on Tenma. Sane people would probably look at him with a disbelieved sort of outrage. But the Brazilian just looks pleased.
"Psiu," she calls to him, laughing a little dizzily, "that is smooth move... for someone not wear-ings pants."
Don't think she's missed the sight of Tenma in boxers. Winking one eye with a cat-calling cluck of her tongue, the girl's grin widens encouragingly. Then, a split-second later, she's not about to let him get the time to stand up, somersaulting herself forward into a sudden handstand, whipping one leg out to try to catch Tenma's face with her heel.
COMBATSYS: Tenma blocks Pas' Medium Kick.
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Tenma 0/-------/------=|==-----\-------\0 Pas
Oh man, Tenma's room is going to get totalled. As Pás sprawls off of him in the aftermath of the headbutt, the Kiryuu heir takes advantage of the opportunity to get up himself, kicking off the rest of his futon cover and flipping over on one hand, his bare legs cutting through the air as he gets to a standing position... Just in time to meet the Brazilian's extended foot with the solid wood of his bokken, the force behind the girl's kick enough to send a sting of numbness up his arm.
"Oh, makin' fun of me for not wearing pants? That's rich from you, Dakini. What does Pás mean in Braziltalk anyway? 'Always Naked'?" Ahh, not that he's complaining. But he might as well try to keep up with the talking of smack, right?
Lifting his right hand to his mouth, Tenma bites into his thumb, drawing blood for that familiar ritual of his. Painting a stripe of red on the blade of his wooden sword with that blood, he creates the chi link between himself and the weapon; sweeping it through the air once, he sets it alight with that smoky aura of crimson. Blood and chi mingled together so closely as to be inseparable. And then, he lunges forward, trying to catch Pás with the point of his bokken, the bloody chi focusing there: If he manages that, then he uses his blade to heft the Brazilian into the air, tossing her in an arc over his head.
Distressingly, this means right towards the wall of his bedroom. Aw, man.
COMBATSYS: Pas fails to counter Asura from Tenma with Branded Mule.
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Tenma 0/-------/----===|====---\-------\0 Pas
"Ufa," Pás is bleating sadly, sounding a little hurt as she twists her bendy body back to its feet. "I am thinkings you have looked up my name by now. You must not have many thoughts of me!" With that devastating proclamation, she pouts, her dark eyes affecting a lonely look.
But however her theatrics, her eyes never lose their sharpness, and she takes enjoyment out of the familar spectacle of Tenma giving life to his weapon. It means more stained clothes on her part, but, really, life is not meant to be squandered on the little complaints. Testament to her love in getting a little messy, she doesn't try to sidestep or strafe backward to miss the reach of his bokken; on the contrary, with a wild grin, Pás moves forward the moment Tenma does, rushing at him with her characteristic recklessness, trying to reach one hand for his swordarm--
But, again, he's too quick. Caught by the bokken like a worm on the line, she only has time to widen her eyes before she's shucked overhead, caught not so kindly by yet another wall. It dents under the impact. The breath kicked from her, she slides down it to crumple into a heap, reaching one hand to her head and coughing airily. "Aiiii, bosta..."
Oh, Tenma is going to catch some serious trouble for that when his grandfather gets home, no doubt. The dent is partially hidden, at least, by one of Tenma's various 'curvy Asian girls in bikinis' posters, though that too sustains some damage from the impact. IT'S ALWAYS THE INNOCENTS WHO SUFFER IN BATTLE. "Hah... That what you think?" he wonders, watching Pás on the floor. "'course I thought it was kinda weird you'd name yourself after a farmin' implement."
Seriously, that's weird. Almost as weird as naming yourself after your weapon, like calling yourself 'Whip' or something.
Straightening up a little, Tenma rests his bokken against his shoulder; tragically, he can't complete his usual pose of languid insolence, because he doesn't have a pocket to hook his thumb into. He's forced to be satisfied with resting his left hand on his hip, instead. "You all done already? Maybe that weight on my shoulders wasn't as bad as I thought..."
COMBATSYS: Tenma focuses on his next action.
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Tenma 0/-------/----===|====---\-------\0 Pas
The look on Pás' face goes borderline impish. First, he has to go ahead and toss her real name around to however he pleases. And now, he decides to poke fun at her apelido? "That name, it was given to me, sillies," she replies as she slowly pulls herself up, dusting at her clothes and taking a moment to pout at a new rip in her t-shirt. "Hummm. I do not think I have ever showings you... nao, nao." Her dark eyes lash back on him, and her smile takes in a distinctly malevolent slant.
She moves a heart beat later, bracing one foot against the wall and recoiling, using it to spring her body forward in a wild dash. Crossing his bedroom in a few swift strides, Pás tries to grab Tenma by the waistband of his boxers, playfully trying to pull him close to what he's deserving: a headbutt straight at his throat.
COMBATSYS: Pas successfully hits Tenma with Zidane's Revenge.
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Tenma 0/-------/--=====|====---\-------\0 Pas
A name freely given is fair game, in Tenma's estimation! Of course, sometimes his behaviour, especially with names, you know... Provokes people. For example, Pás right about now, it seems. When the Brazilian crosses the room speedily in her bare feet, Tenma is quite shocked, especially when she grabs the waistband of his boxers. "Hey! What the hell d'you think you're--" Of course, he never gets to complete that thought; he tries to drop his head to take the blow on his jaw instead, but shocked as he is he can't beat Pás' speed. So, he gets headbutted right in the neck, letting out a strangled cough.
Of course, a little thing like that isn't enough to stop Tenma Kiryuu... Not even getting yanked around by the waistband of his /underwear/. Staggering back, and hopefully getting free from Pás' grip on his shorts, Tenma lunges forward in an attempt to move right by the Brazilian girl... And then smack her right on the ass with his chi-emanating bokken. Yeah, he shrank away from attempting it again earlier, but now all bets are off!
COMBATSYS: Tenma successfully hits Pas with Light Strike.
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Tenma 0/-------/-======|======-\-------\0 Pas
Pás wears the most shit-eatingiest of shit-eating grins, recoiling back from her headbutt but looking less than inclined to let Tenma go by his underpants. She grins murderously, challenge smeared across her face, and pulls back threateningly on the elastic band-- before she just lets go.
Snap!
Unable to help herself, she lets out a sudden laugh, infected by a case of the giggles in the middle of a fight. It was all because of the look on his face. It was priceless. Her utter hysteria cripples the girl briefly, her back bowing as she lifts one hand to cover her mouth, a half-muffled guffaw escaping as--
Uh oh. Her eyes widen as Tenma goes for sudden retaliation, and though Pás gives a damn good try of trying to escape the reach of his bokken, it ends up repeating last night's spanking. She's still bruised there from that, and spanking a bruise is no walk in the park. "Putz!!" she yelps, like a dog whose tail had been stepped on, rubbing one hand against her own backside as she turns Tenma a mirrored look of surprise. "Puta que te pariu..." she huffs a moment later, before lunging straight at him.
With one quick step, hoping to capatalize rapidly on Tenma's closeness, Pás tries to grab the Guardian King by his own sword-bearing arm. And, in a slippery display of her acrobatics, tries to use him as a her own vaulting horse to snap both legs up and in, aiming a fierce kick that sparks with her hot chi.
COMBATSYS: Tenma endures Pas' Quebrar o Galho.
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Tenma 1/------=/=======|=======\-------\1 Pas
Ha ha, totally worth it! Besides, what would Pás have done if she'd accidentally divested Tenma of his underpants? Surely even the carefree and shameless Brazilian would've been somewhat horrified by that turn of events. So, she gets a retributive spanking. With a solid wood weapon and bloody chi. It's perfectly fair.
For serious.
Skirting around quickly in the aftermath of his moving past the Brazilian, and he actually lets out a faint bark of a laugh, despite the somberness of his mood of late. Come on, that's funny. Right on the butt! And the look on her face! Of course, all this leads to him getting grabbed by the arm, and then kicked right in the head - with chi added on! - but the weird part is that Tenma doesn't even seem to really try to avoid it at all. But he forces himself to work through the pain, to focus on what he's doing.
What he's doing, incidentally, is trying to punch Pás in the chest with his free hand. He doesn't even really wait for her to get off of him, or regain her balance; he just starts striking, aiming at precise points on her torso to disrupt the flow of chi through her body, as well as, hopefully, driving her off of him and putting her at a further disadvantage. "What's the matter?! Feelin' a bit sore, Dakini?"
COMBATSYS: Pas blocks Tenma's Flow Breaker.
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Tenma 1/------=/=======|=======\=------\1 Pas
Landing soundlessly to her bare feet, the Brazilian girl's coordination seems to finally return to her, like a little lost pet finally come home. Better late than never. Angling herself defensively, she turns with the first thrown punch, sweeping in her own hand to divert it with a firm push to his wrist, as her other arm does the same for the second strike.
In an instant, the two fighters are a shared blur of attacking limbs, with the Brazilian at her most wily, using a combination of her tricky footwork, natural bendiness, and quick hands to save herself from the successive torrent of Tenma's strikes. The last she takes in her shoulder, and it becomes quickly apparently why... when in a quick grab, she tries to nab the boy by the arm.
"Shiu, Pescador!" Pás scolds, her eyes widening and her grin going serrated. "Keep an eye on your bait!"
She tries to plant a foot straight into his crotch.
COMBATSYS: Tenma endures Pas' Strong Kick.
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Tenma 1/--=====/=======|=======\==-----\1 Pas
Oh crap... That's not liable to be good. Throughout the exchange of blows, Tenma is quite focused on what he's doing, his brow furrowing and teeth gritting in concentration. Of course, he's only using one hand, but he's trying to force Pás back, trying to turn that tricksy footwork against the Brazilian, to create an opening... And then his fist glances against her shoulder, and his arm is caught. Keep an eye on his... Oh hell no.
Then Tenma gets kicked in the balls.
For a moment, he sees stars, and he feels more than vaguely like he might throw up; getting kicked there is never a fun time, though it is a constant risk with someone like Pás. In fact, Tenma is prone to doing it in fights himself... Nobody ever said you had to fight fair. But rather than give in to the pain, Tenma embraces it, and keeps going... His legs squeezing together to clamp onto Pás' kicking foot, in the interests of keeping her locked in place.
"Speakin' of bait," Tenma says, his captured arm moving slightly, his fingers contorting in a simple mudra to aid concentration... And then he swings his swordarm, the bloody aura around it grown massively intense, obscuring the wooden blade entirely until it seems like there's nothing in his hand but a sword of blood. With their limbs entangled together, Tenma tries to slash Pás with his bokken, and if he manages to strike her then all of that chi will pass /through/ her, severely disrupting the flow of the very life through her body, stealing her vitality away...
COMBATSYS: Tenma successfully hits Pas with The Sealing Sword.
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Tenma 0/-------/------=|=======\=======\1 Pas
By reputation in the fighting circuits, Pás is heralded as a trickster. Her entire public personality is her greatest of tricks, and much of her lazy, half-asleep fighting is a deception. She is someone foreign, wily, and not to be trusted. She is a fighter who always keeps an ace up her sleeve, even if she doesn't have any sleeves on her... or even pants for that matter. And she is...
...currently meeting her match. As Tenma Kiryuu does the sheer illogical, absorbing one of her strongest kicks in order to win himself the advantage, it seems he's outtricked the master. His legs close down over her foot, and she starts, trying to pull herself free. She's stuck.
And as a reward, Tenma is treated to two victories. The first is that utter, priceless look of surprise that spreads across her face like infection. And the second is the way his bokken sounds as it cleaves against her. His strategy wins him the cleanest of hits, the Brazilian girl replying the strike with a choked gasp against the creeping, eery sensation of chi soaking through her body.
The power of the hit drives her backwards, letting go of his arm and crumpling to the ground, hopefully with her tethered leg freed at that time. Soon enough, her harsh, ragged coughing mutates into laughter, and using one arm to mop some of his bloody chi from her face, she turns a sly look up at the Guardian King leader. The exhaustion's hit her harder than she realizes. She hasn't got much left. It's about time.
"...Ha ha ha, aiiii Pescador," she utters as she pushes herself up to a crouch, her bloodstained face looking up at Tenma. "You are having finally earn this. It is my gift to you. I show you why I was given this name."
And, with her last ounce of strength, Pás goes suddenly inverted, twisting her body to reunite with Tenma with one swung foot. Yet, far from finished, she works quickly to try to follow up her attack, sneaking in kick after kick of her sneaky legs. She remains upside down, walking entirely by her own hands. As bereft as her feet are now of her stinging, sparkling chi, almost deviously so, it's because it's been transferred into her hands. Her palms seethe with those burning sparks as she claps them down solidly against the floor, the energy bleeding into whatever it touches.
As she finishes making a wild-limbed full circle around Tenma, Pás' crazed attacks finally reveal themselves for what they truly are: a really nice diversion. The bedroom starts to groan. The walls begin to rattle.
And that's when, with a sudden EXPLOSION of chi, she tries to rip open Tenma's bedroom foor from right under his feet.
COMBATSYS: Pas can no longer fight.
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Tenma 0/-------/------=|
COMBATSYS: Pas successfully hits Tenma with Fevered Earth.
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Tenma 0/-------/-======|
Once he's struck, of course, there's no reason for Tenma to hold on to Pás' leg - in fact, doing so would probably lead to bigger problems down the line. By the time the Brazilian recovers from being knocked back by Tenma's most powerful technique, the Guardian King himself is staggering forward, trying to get his balance back... And then Pás, as is her wont, does something completely crazy.
When she tries to kick him, Tenma moves to avoid the kick... But after the effort and focus he put in to his previous attack, plus the fact that he's kind of sore in the betwixt the legs region for some /strange reason/, he simply can't manage it. Instead, he gets battered with kicks and searing, sparking chi...
And then his freakin' floor blows up underneath him.
In the aftermath, the futon is simply a charred remnant, some of Tenma's dirty clothes on the floor badly burned... The floor is damaged, but luckily this is a ground floor room. And Tenma, well, he's laying in a heap on the far side of the room, looking abjectly bewildered, dark blue eyes wide.
"What... WHAT THE HELL?!" He's going to get /so/ killed when his grandfather gets home.
COMBATSYS: Tenma takes no action.
COMBATSYS: Tenma can no longer fight.
And, from the opposite corner of the room, a sudden peal of laughter tears through the settling dust. Bruised, bloody, and battered beyond all common sense, Pás gathers what little strength she has left and uses it to laugh her aching little ass off. She flops to one side and just sprawls over what little floor Tenma's bedroom has left, hugging her stomach with both arms as she howls. "Sim! Sim! Ha ha ha ha!" she shouts back between squeaky laugh-sobs, pointing a shaking hand his way. "That /jes/ what the first guy say!"
And that's pretty much the story of how Pás was named Pás.
Soon enough, and rather thankfully, her painful laughter dulls into a more sobered fit of giggling, and too tired from Tenma's fatiguing chi to move, much less pick herself up, she sprawls like some lazy cat, letting herselg go in a mess of long limbs and dark hair. Grinning crookedly, her eyes turn off Tenma to survey the damage once more, and this time she is generous enough to give it a thoughtful apparisal.
"Is not..." Pás starts, just in time for something to fall noisily off one of Tenma's bedroom walls, "...that bad." She chomps down on her bottom lip. She thinks really hard. "You can... cover it up. Euhhh... do you have very wide rug?"
Log created on 15:27:26 04/05/2008 by Tenma, and last modified on 17:48:50 04/10/2008.