Description: Whether through chance or purposeful design, K' and Kula are matched against one another a mere week after they attempted to kill one another on a deserted road. The CA, Zaki, soon turns squarely against the Anti-K' once her curiosity and anger are sufficiently piqued, and things take a turn for the worse for Kula. But it seems the interim taught K' some sense of reciprocity; K' lets Kula go in the end, much as she did him.
There's a number of ways to explain how this match came to be. Perhaps the officials just made the obvious connection - Fire + Ice = hot steamy fight! It's hard to get a more classic matchup than those two polar opposite elements clashing against each other, vying for supremecy.
Or maybe NESTS toyed with the match configuration software, or paid off the right person to bring this about at the first available opportunity. Enter Kula into SNF in pursuit of training and combat experience, and if they happened to be so lucky that K' also was registered, pit the two against each other!
Or maybe it's just another way for Geese to make the firey tempered clone's life hell. It's dangerous to underestimate how much the King of Southtown knows about the going ons of other factions... Maybe he saw in this a chance to test K' in a high pressure situation...
None of those possible explanations matter to Kula. She knows she's entered in these events so that NESTS scientists can record the results and tune her ongoing training accordingly. If that's what this is all about, she's just fine with that. The venue is slated to take place on the beach proper. Perhaps the anticipated damage left the officials wanting to take this place somewhere cheap after blowing most of this week's budget renting out a cathedral for some other match...
Kula waits at the edge of where the incoming waves can reach, each one rolling up onto the sand, capped with white foam, only to die off just shy of reaching her shoes. The fight may be scheduled on the beach, and it might be hot out, but Kula hasn't dressed down in the slightest. Dressed in her normal fighting outfit consisting of a form fitting body suit covered by high tech NESTS engineered leather armor, the long haired girl tugs at the sleeves of her jacket a little, making sure that they're in position.
Unlike her opponent, she knows who's coming. Or at least who's /supposed/ to be. She has her doubts that K' will show, however. After their encounter early in the week, why would he chance it? Adjusting her gloves just a little, she clasps her hands behind her back and gazes out over the ocean, exhaling softly. She still hasn't found her answers yet. But that doesn't mean she isn't eager for another chance to clash against K' - to reassure herself that she CAN fullfill her mission... when the time is right.
K' has been watching Kula for some time now. Circling widely about the girl in her moment of pensive distraction, keeping the fire in him quiet, the young man ended up perched moodily among a collection of water-worn black rocks, downwind of the other clone, his yellow eyes regarding her with a ruminative air. He hasn't attempted to approach the fighting area at all, not yet, and this behavior-- along with the clear reticence he displayed upon discovering who the opponent was-- was already causing the staffers to fear he would be Difficult again.
When he was told who he was up against, he almost just turned around and left. The presence of Aoi Himezaki, a girl who he knew bore him no particular love, only made things worse. K' was not a heroic, enterprising sort so much as he was simply practical-- pragmatic to a fault, and concerned primarily with his own survival-- and when confronted with threat and challenge his usual response was not to charge headlong towards it unless there was some benefit to be derived. And where was the benefit here?
He considered it a long time, perched on his chosen outcropping, his dark leather blending him seamlessly in with the black rock that was his backdrop. He thought it over quite carefully, palm roving restlessly over the scar cut across his lower chest and stomach: a mark left over from his last encounter with the girl. The girl was programmed to kill him. And she was more than capable of doing so; NESTS had made certain to build her to perfectly counter all he could do.
So why did he feel more curiosity than fear?
Perhaps it was because she had let him leave, last time. He knew she had. It was not that he was unconfident in his ability to evade capture-- to mix into the shadows and streak along at high speeds, unseen, for long distances-- even when too hurt to fight. It was that he was aware enough to know when he was being pursued, and when he was not. And Kula had not pursued him. He thought it might be important to know why, and an SNF was probably a safer arena in which to ask the question: as long as it was kept too quiet to be picked up by cameras. It was better than the middle of nowhere, where no one would ever know if he were taken away.
Eventually, that sense of pressure finally unfolds. It starts to weigh on Kula's senses, buzzing like the bite of a fire at the back of her neck. That presence is unmistakable, and though its approach is slow it's definitely coming closer. A glance in the direction of that feeling reveals his lean, sloped figure, pacing closer with the measured step of a man to the chopping block, his dark clothes stark against the clean sand.
Under ordinary circumstances, Aoi Himezaki would enjoy a trip to the beach more. She'd probably dress appropriately for it, if dressing appropriately included wearing enough clothing that she was completely covered and not a bare inch of skin would be exposed to the outside world. Just as Kula wears what's the usual for her, so does Zaki: The completely overhauled Seijyun uniform, the lengthy dress and the short jacket. Though the sand may mute out the sound of her high-heeled boots, the chain around her neck is not.
*shrrring, rrring*
Zaki also knows who it is that's fighting, though the names aren't familiar to her at all-- the flame-slinging man in black never gave his name, and the girl is someone she's never heard of. Of course, it will end up being worse for the ice-user if Zaki were to learn her connection to a certain organization with a certain blonde man and a certain bus full of ... well, you get the point.
Shifting her weight from one leg to the other, putting a slight roll to her hip, the redheaded Seijyun girl finds herself almost longing to smell the ocean air a little more clearly, for once in a rare while cursing the mask that's become iconic not only to the school and the girl, but to the unfathomable numbers of the Ladies Team scattered across Southtown... if not further than that. Zaki's attitude shifts in this respect, taking a moment to let her perpetual scowl soften and her gaze to, similar to the anti-K', pass off over the waves.
But when K' does make his appearance, when he does start walking closer, that's when the girl's expression hardens.
She's also apparently the one to break the silence.
"Oh? So it's you," she remarks with a half-lidded stare at K'. "I'll have to make sure you don't get another cheap shot in, huh?"
Pulling her arms apart, her fingertips dip into the exaggerated cuff of her right sleeve, pulling a length of industrial chain from out of her jacket's sleeve. Cutting the air with a heavy *woosh woosh woosh*, it remains ready and waiting, like Aoi Himezaki, to dispense some punishment.
"So which one of you twats is first?"
Left alone as the preparations are made, Kula finds herself not interrupted from her quiet reverie. There is a certain... mystique to the wide expanse. It's perhaps the exact opposite of the mountain base hallways she's known for most of her not particularly long existence. The idea that something can be so open as this sandy shore and infinite horizon of powerful water touches the girl on a profound level even though she doesn't quite have the wherewithall to understand why.
The officials leave her be. While she appears harmless, there's enough intel on her other fight appearances to know that she's anything but. And they don't even know the worst of what she can do - something K' himself experienced first hand in their previous encounter. But then it comes, that nagging presence. He eluded her spensing him until he draws nearer. Keeping his power at bay, the resonating link is at last felt as he draws near enough to make it clear to all that he has decided to step up to this potentially disasterous fight.
The auburn haired girl turns around to face K', violet eyes blinking toward him. This time she has nothing to say to him. No demands to come home, no insistence that he pay attention to her. Right now he's as if a captive audience in a sense, there's no need to force him to stay, nor is it in her interest to tip her hand in any particular way. The expression he gets is cool, neutral, calm, the sea breeze tousling her hair idly.
And then there is a third in the form of the tough girl from Seijyun, and Kula glances toward her with a bit of surprise, head canting to the side slightly. "What is twats?" she asks back honestly enough, not realizing that the word belongs in the same section of her vocabulary occupied by 'Punk Bitches', the name given the white coats back at NESTS. There's a nervous cough on the part of one of the officials near the camera. Are they going to have a busy time with the bleeping out button?? One of the men waves his hand about getting the match started quickly, hoping to cut off any non-TV-worthy explanation Zaki might have to offer and Kula sighs just a little.
Her power has an off switch. She doesn't have to have ice churning about her all the time. While her body's internal temperature /is/ low enough to be clinically dead for a normal human, the external manifestations of her power are under her complete control. But now it's time to flick that switch on as she stretches her arms out to her sides, her brown hair shimmering into a light enough blue as to compete with the clear sky overhead. Small ice crystals begin to swirl around her body as she shifts her focus directly toward K', her eyes taking on a reddish tint - or perhaps just appearing that way when contrasted against her hair. Though her arms rest against her sides lazily, and she appears completely relaxed, Kula is very much ready to fight.
K' slants an indifferent gaze over at Zaki as she 'greets' him. He watches her in his direct, rude sort of way for a little while, something almost -improper- about how long he stares, before the barest hint of a smirk bares his teeth. "Don't worry," he shoots back, that familiar mocking tone present in his voice-- though this time, there's something a little more preoccupied about it, now. Some weight which distracts him from really antagonizing her as much as he might. "I'm not gonna be hitting -you- this time..."
And his gaze rivets right back on Kula. He gives her all the attention she could ever want for the space of those few moments, staring holes in her... and then his gaze drops. His smirk knifes a little wider, that poisonous amusement spreading like an infection. "Somebody didn't come kill me when she could've. Did you want to wait to do it on international broadcast? Did your handlers need you to go beat on more high schoolers? I hear," K' continues, his voice raising slightly, picked up rather easily by the cameras, "NESTS is getting a little more direct about their attacks on kids these days."
There. If the media didn't already know the name of that organization that's been busing around seiging schools, they sure do now. K' is hardly above sending other people after them, if he can.
"So what stopped you, Kula Diamond?" K' spits the name with all the hate and envy he feels over it, getting the extravagant appellation out of his mouth as fast as possible. He starts towards Kula, that familiar aggression stamped into every movement, and his slow walk turns into a blur when he abruptly lunges, throwing a sharp kick out towards the small girl's jaw with unremitting force. "You finally think for -yourself-?"
COMBATSYS: K' has started a fight here.
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K' 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Kula has joined the fight here.
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Kula 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 K'
COMBATSYS: Zaki has joined the fight here.
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Zaki 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 K'
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Kula 0/-------/-------|
There's a short stare as her head cocks back a bit, her eyes lidding. "W-Wh... grow up a little first, kid."
Shaking her head, a short "Tch!" crosses her lips in a way that K' should remember, considering the terms of their last meeting. But there's something more interesting going on here, beyond the appearance of three people that better belong at a biker convention than a beach, throwing god-knows-what at each other until they fall over. K' parts the veil, so to speak, bringing some truth to light.
"... Oh?"
Sounding genuinely curious, something that Aoi Himezaki should never be, the chain's rhythmic spin stops turning in the air. With a twist of her wrist, a flick of the fingers, the length starts to wrap around her gloved hand and pile on around her wrist like some sort of peacemeal gauntlet. If this was true, then she actually has a good reason to go attacking either one of them:
They know something, and she sure as -fuck- wants all the answers.
Zaki stands back, for now, but the tension building in the air-- culminating with the sharp kick at Kula's jaw-- leads the wealthy girl to believe that very soon, she's going to be very busy smashing both their heads in.
COMBATSYS: Zaki focuses on her next action.
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Zaki 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 K'
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Kula 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Kula blocks K''s Minutes Spike.
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Zaki 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 K'
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Kula 0/-------/------=|
She doesn't interrupt the exchange between K' and Zaki, finding the interactions between them to be rather curious. K' was talking about how he had found he mattered out here in the world beyond NESTS, but this example she's getting doesn't exactly speak of love and mutual respect. Then again, the masked girl seems a bit rude... just like K'... perhaps this IS how they express their admiration for each other? The tough girl tells Kula to grow up a little before she gets to learn about the new vocabulary word and the ice princess just looks a little confused.
Just as well she turn her mind to other things, such as the young man standing directly in front of her. He cites their last encounter and Kula averts her eyes to the side. The subject matter had been something no one else was supposed to know of. As far as anyone needed concern themselves, he simply got away on his own power after dealing a particularly powerful attack to her and she never said anything to suggest otherwise. He asks if she was just going to wait to kill him on TV instead and Kula shakes her head, "The sanctioned fighting private sector is not a place for carrying out-" she starts to explain NESTS policy regarding not doing things that would jepordize their secrecy on broadcast television, only to realize that she's a already saying too much. "I don't know what you're talking about." she states simply.
He asked what stopped her, the conversation remaining confrontrational, and Kula balks just a little. It's hard to say what she /expected/ him to say when they met again at last. 'Hey, 'sup.' seemed a tad unlikely. But this direct questioning is throwing her off as well. She frowns a little as he spits out her name, looking just a bit petulant, as if having him reject the very apt and endearing name she was given troubles her more than his other rejections. It bothers her enough that when he comes in, his forward motion taking on a suddenly aggressive speed, the sole of his foot swinging out to take a crack a the poor girl's jaw, she doesn't quite have the wherewithall to get out of the way.
Her right arm snaps up in the way, her left arm moving to brace it, her leather armored shoulder absorbing the worst of the impact, driving into her with enough force to force her to back off a little. "Your parting shot hurt worse than I expected, that's all. It was impractical to continue." Her claim sounds a bit practiced, as if she had been rehearsing what she would say if anyone asked how he got away in the end.
It's time for her to return the favor though, the girl leaning forward and stepping in closer, her hands clasped behind her back. It's her feet he has to watch out for as she rises up nearer, leaning backward as her right foot comes up in crescent-like arc. Afixed to the bottom of her shoe is a skate-like blade of razor thin ice aiming to rip a slash vertically along the center of his torso. A little chance to get reaquainted with that deadly ice of hers. In case the scars weren't reminder enough.
COMBATSYS: K' blocks Kula's Medium Kick.
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Zaki 0/-------/-------|=------\-------\0 K'
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Kula 0/-------/------=|
"'--any outstanding objectives you might have,'" K' gladly finishes for her, the indoctrination of NESTS still rote in his mind: every word memorized, even to this day. His voice overrides hers as she tries to correct and backpedal on her words, overpowering her denial. "'You are not to kill where it may compromise our secrecy.' Glad to know the rulebook's still the same, huh?" K''s head lifts, the insouciant cast to his behavior likely infuriating to anyone of a lesser patience than Kula, bitterness touching the edges of his expression. He was expecting on that rule still being in place.
But he isn't -counting- on it. He knows the costs of murdering him in public are potentially very high for NESTS... but he also knows that clones are far from being entirely stable... or, for that matter, inclined to follow rules to the letter. He himself is example enough of that.
And there's still a fight to be done... as well as a third party to potentially worry about. He snaps forwards, trying to sling a sharp blow at her, only to find himself stopped on her guard. Pushing off and landing, he backs away immediately, circling slightly to force her to keep turning in order to face him.
She makes her excuses and tries a retaliation. The bladed kick bites his hip briefly, starting upwards, leaving a line of blood; and with the impatience of a teacher told a wrong answer, K' virtually bats the rest of her attack down, stopping the attack halfway and sending her heel straight back to the ground. "I didn't ask for the excuses you made up..." he replies lowly, his hard gaze unimpressed. Following up instantly, he throws a sharp blow at her face, more of a reprimand than an attack, trying to brand his metal-sheathed knuckles in her jaw as if it'll get the truth to drop out. "I asked what -stopped- you."
'Outstanding objectives?' 'Don't kill where it compromsies secrecy?' She watches the first exchange, carefully, the strike blocked by the slight girl and the strength of the kick in return. The blade on the boot, as well, was that a projection of chi? How could she form it so quickly and freely? With her eyebrows furrowing harder, her face knotting into more and more anger-- and frustration-- she decides that she's very well had enough of all of this.
Taking a few steps ahead, she runs not at K', but the anti-K'. The chain unfurls from her arm as it sweeps back, her wrist twisting to let the chains spiral off in an all-too practiced manner. There isn't much else going through Zaki's mind at this point, though she doesn't exactly have the presence of mind to bring the words to the surface-- but her chain will speak pretty well for her.
Swinging the chain -but- hard, it cuts the air in a smooth arc before trying to lash across Kula like some sort of godforsaken whip, the weight of the steel links more than enough to cause some damage-- moreso when flung like that, with that much force.
"The fuck are you two TALKING ABOUT!!" she screams, prompting the staff to start a tally and time log of when to prepare the bleeps for the televised broadcast.
COMBATSYS: Kula dodges Zaki's Fierce Strike.
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Zaki 0/-------/-------|=------\-------\0 K'
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Kula 0/-------/------=|
COMBATSYS: K' successfully hits Kula with Medium Punch.
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Zaki 0/-------/-------|=------\-------\0 K'
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Kula 0/-------/----===|
He stalks around her, his energy, his agitation in stark contrast to the circled girl who keeps turning to keep time with him. He cites the NESTS rules back at her and she remains silent, answering with a blink of her red eyes. She can't speak up - doing so just acknowledges everything he's saying. And while she thinks she can handle him, she can't stop him from talking AND contend with his attacks at the same time. Not to mention there's a third party here that she's trying to stay aware of, not wanting to get blindsided by Zaki's attacks either.
Her kick comes in, intending to slash a bloody streak across him, but he bats it aside, forcing Kula to recover her stance quickly, feet slipping through the sand they fight upon. This surface is presenting a problem, she realizes - far too granular to skate over with her usual speed, she'll have to rely on fancier footwork to get by for now.
The strike that comes in for her face is too swift for her to avoid, the girl still trying to figure out how to correct for the unstable foundation upon which they fight. The impact does the job, knocking the featherweight to the side hard with a bruising strike to her jaw. She stumbles, becoming aware then of an angered Zaki-strike coming. This one she avoids just in time, leaning back and allowing the weapon to hurtle past without connecting this time, provoking a soft gasp of visible breath from her lips. She understands the training impliations of a neutral third party, but that doesn't mean she /likes/ having them. Isn't fighting already hard enough as-is?
Her hand comes up to rub against her jaw, red eyes fixated on K', then glancing toward Zaki furtively. Of NESTS she can't say anything, and of the outcome of their last skirmish, she /wants/ to say something yet at the same time, /doesn't/. What if she tells him the truth and he just laughs? What if she makes up another lie and he begins to guess the truth anyway? "It's personal," she finally remarks laconically, with a sideglance Zaki's way. What else can she say? She can't really go explaining NESTS, the fact that she's only three years old, and that her purpose for existing is to defeat /K'/, now can she?
She's backing away now though. The shifting sand beneath her feet isn't working for her at all... Instead she moves down the slope toward the waves themselves, where seawater dampens the sandy surface. As she gets closer, her intent becomes more clear, the dampened sand begining to freeze solid beneath her feet, creating a sloped ice slick that slides right down into the ocean waves. Of course, she seems capable of maintaining perfect traction on the glassy smooth surface, but can the same be said of the other two?
Spinning around to face K' once she's there, Kula simply waits, forcing him to decide to brave the ice, find another way of attacking her, or hanging back until she decides she's ready to advance again. As for his question? "I-... It wasn't time yet." she answers with a non-answer, hoping to protect hersel from both of the outcomes she feared would happen.
COMBATSYS: Kula focuses on her next action.
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Zaki 0/-------/-------|=------\-------\0 K'
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Kula 0/-------/----===|
Yellow eyes snap over to Zaki as the young woman loses her temper. K' considers the Seijyun student carefully for a few moments, coldly calling up in his memory everything he can recall of her. He hadn't recognized the emblem or the uniform she wore when they first fought, but his circuit around the schools after Shurui told him NESTS was attacking them had acquainted him with Seijyun's mark. Because of that, he can tell where it is this girl is enrolled now; and he knows it was someplace NESTS attacked.
"You're from Seijyun, aren't you?" he suddenly addresses her. His voice lowers, eyes narrowing in thought, before he seems to decide something to himself. It helps when Kula chooses to stay tightlipped, K''s contrary nature rising to the fore. "...come find me after," if there IS an after for him, "and I'll tell you."
It is, after all, relevant for her to know just who it was busted up her school... and K' is pragmatic enough to take chances at turning others against the organization, wherever he can.
His gaze turns on Kula just in time to see her retreat, trying to find some better purchase and establish a more solid foundation for herself. In contrast to his little opposite number, K' seems fine enough prowling along over the sand, following her slowly, weathering the direct heat of the sun with impunity even despite the heavy leather sheathing him. He stops right at the edge of her slick of ice, the girl now out of his reach, and frowns.
Wasn't time yet? K''s eyes half-lid, the expression saying it for him: Wrong fucking answer. "If you're going to lie... think up a better one." Fire starts to gather about his lean frame, the heat wavering the air about him and starting to melt the very fringes of her ice slick. Steam rises as the clashing elements cancel into nothing, and as soon as he's burnt enough of her defensive sheet of ice away, he steps in closer... and actually lunges clear -at- her, invading right into her defensive sphere.
His intent seems to be to try and kick her in the face again... but the arc of his leap is too short for that. He lands right on the ice long before he gets to Kula, and even though on her ice he's as out of his element as a cat trying to run on hardwood... he's still using the ice's very lack of traction to -facilitate- his attack, skidding towards her and sliding a quick sweep at her; if he manages to get through unmolested, he's going to use the slippery nature of the surface to get himself right off the ice again, sliding past and swiveling back to face her until he hits the sand again.
She knows the moment Kula realizes what's coming that she's too late-- too slow in moving, with that one. The short girl's no longer in the path of the chain as it rips down against the sand and kicks up a short puff into the air. Zaki shows no outward signs of responding to this, though under her mask she's scowling hard. Her leather-clad hand tightens on the chain, pulling back hard and ripping it up and away from near-burial in the sand. She starts to bring her arm back to full extension, but the chain falters, it doesn't get nearly the momentum it normally would.
Come find him? She'd tell her later? Tell her about what, though? Tell her about all the things that Kula-- or rather, the organization-- has done? What else she's privvy to, and what else they have the capacity to do? In a manner of speaking, she already understands that stepping into this will probably be stepping into something that she'll never be able to pull herself out of-- like ghosts in movies and comics, once you see 'them,' 'they' will be able to see you.
Her arm jerks a little, shakes-- she has to think about this carefully. The faster they end the fight, the sooner she'll be able to get the answers that she wants. Gritting her teeth, Zaki's hand tightens one more time before hooking forward. The chain responds, likewise responding as she cracks back her hand in a smooth motion, the chain coiling through the summer air. Regardless of the results of K''s attack, her arm whips forward one more time, her chain lashing out at Kula one more time-- low, this time-- in an attempt to grab the girl around the ankle with the makeshift weapon and yank, -hard-. If it hits, she won't even -try- to stop there, pulling hard on the chain with both hands and trying to lever it toward her. The ultimate result of this attempt? To drag the anti-K' across the sandy beach and discard her like she were hurling a bag of garbage into a dumpster.
"You better TALK!!"
COMBATSYS: Kula endures Zaki's Chain Flip.
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Zaki 0/-------/------=|=------\-------\0 K'
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Kula 0/-------/---====|
COMBATSYS: Kula interrupts Narrow Spike from K' with Crow Bite.
- Power hit! -
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Zaki 0/-------/------=|=====--\-------\0 K'
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Kula 0/-------/--=====|
He steps up to the edge of her ice slick and threatens its integrity with his fiery presence, the rims of it beginning to receed from his feet as Kula avoids wasting the energy it would take to keep the ice in place. She's going to need her strength. K' speaks to Zaki, promising her more information after the fight, and still Kula remains icily silent, unable to keep him from telling people whatever he wants after all. If he wants to fill the Seijyun girl in on the horrors that lurk in the world, robbing her of the chance of being able to glide through life blissfully unaware of things like the Cartel, that's his business.
But now he's fixed his attention back on her and red eyes gaze back at him from across the custom crafted terrain. He'll need to be cafeful traversing it - one slip and it's a quick plunge into the shallow ocean water. Not life threatening, but perhaps ego-threatening! He tells her to make up a better lie and she looks taken back a little, feeling fenced in. She expected him to be defensive, maybe not even show, but right now it feels like the tables have been turned.
It isn't helping that Zaki seems fixated on her as well. She wasn't anticipating the Seijyun student to persist in attacking her a second time, but perhaps she and K' really /do/ have some kind of connection she just wasn't able to perceive at the onset of the match. There's no time to answer his challenge as he lunges forward at the same time Zaki sends her whip cracking in toward the girl.
Double teamed a second time, she's quick to react in order - defenses first, then attack. Her left hand waves out toward K', forming a frozen mirror of glistening ice - a defensive shield different in nature than the delicate looking barrier she reflected his fire with before. This one seems to have some thickness to it. She spins around once in place and a second barrier rises up around her feet, providing resistance to Zaki's whip.
The chain whip wraps around her ankle, but the ice barrier keeps it at bay for a second, giving Kula a little leverage to launch into her counter attack at K'. The timing has to be perfect - just as his sweep impacts the barrier she created for him, Kula lunges into it. The shield shatters from the strength he plows into it with but that merely opens the way for the ice weilder to slam into his stomach with a rising uppercut... it probably looks familiar, the way the girl twists into the air after smashing into him. The difference would be, of course, the razer sharp ice trailing out behind her arm, slashing flesh as it goes.
It's at the apex of their ascent that the girl's eyes narrow and she dishes out a follow up strike - a spinning kick, aimed for K's jaw, returning the face strikes in powerful fashion, more bladed ice trailing behind her insulated shoe. She comes out of the spin into a drop to the ground, in the end forced to kick Zaki's whip from off her ankle, giving the masked girl a silent stare - one that could imply just about anything ranging from 'What's this to you' to 'Keep that up and the next ice spear is for you' depending on how one interpreted it. But then her attention is back on K', wherever he may land, her ice slick now mostly melted away.
K' has a way of usurping control over situations by dint of his sheer forceful presence and demanding nature... especially when he wants a god damn answer to a question he's been worrying over for the past week. He also has a way of being a pretty selfish bastard, especially in his seeming denial of Zaki's right to go through life blissfully unaware; but in truth, as all things do with him, it is really just him giving her that thing he never got: a choice. Zaki has the -choice- to come to him or not: the choice to know or not know. What it also is his belief that everyone should have the -knowledge- to make their choices. THe kind of knowledge he was always denied while under the shadow of the Cartel.
And, perhaps sensing how fenced in Kula feels, K' just presses his advantage, attempting to unsettle her even further. Half his fighting style-- a violent, chaotic lashing of power, as Geese so scathingly observed-- is a psychological game of intimidation, and he sees no reason to relinquish the hooks he's already put in her mind. The problem with keeping up that mindgame is that it forces him to take risks in the custom terrain she's created, and the girl retaliates aptly from the center of her slick with quick thinking and consummate force.
He doesn't even have time to be shocked at her exact imitation of his movements before the ice-laced mirror image of his own move plows into him, catching him completely off-guard with-- ironically enough-- its sheer familiarity. The last kick crashes him into the remnants of the ice in the ground, the boy hitting shoulder-first before he twists to skid to a more decorous halt on all fours. His metal hand claws into what purchase it can get on the ice in an attempt to slow him, raking long and deep grooves in it through a combination of force and his own eternal heat.
What's left of that ice is quick to melt in K''s immediate presence, the heated blood drooling in strings from the ugly lacerations cut into him making short work of the glinting fragments. His hands clawing shut, head dipping, K' visibly struggles to deal with the sudden burst of sheer ire that steals his senses, his lost temper threatening to rob him of what ability to plan he has. They even STOLE his fucking moves? Hissing a harsh breath, he rises slowly, trying to remember Geese's lessons: trying to use and focus that anger instead of letting it draw him into mistakes.
Finally, when it seems he's suddenly succeeded in getting his temper under control, he turns his eyes back on Kula. His expression has blanked out completely, and for a few moments he just stares at her with a killing sort of intensity; but then, perhaps even more unsettlingly, he abruptly cuts a sharp smile at her. His typical patronizing cruelty lines the expression, along with no small quantity of blood, but there is a craftier curve to that look than his earlier temper would suggest possible. Perhaps Geese is sinking in; there -is- a decidedly Geesian look to that grin. "Maybe," he theorizes, drawing his ungloved hand across his mouth, shaking the blood off his hand, "you just don't want to tell me cause everybody's watching. They're watching. And you know what they'd do if you admitted anything where they could hear." His smile shuts off like a switch being thrown, his expression suddenly going neutral... almost -understanding-. He knows she's hiding something, he can -guess- at the nature of it... and it's not something he has not experienced himself.
With a very measured, deliberate step, K' advances on her like HE'S the one with the upper hand. His voice lowers until it's clear no camera could catch his words. "If you saw me somewhere there were no cameras, no NESTS watching you, would you tell me then?"
COMBATSYS: K' focuses on his next action.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////// ]
Zaki 0/-------/------=|=======\==-----\1 K'
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Kula 0/-------/--=====|
Zaki's chains wrap, but she doesn't get the chance to drag the girl around-- more to the point, -Zaki- is almost the one being dragged around, desparately keeping a firm grip on her lengthy chain while the girl springs around and drives a sharper, harsher attack into K'. And here, he was the one that had schooled her so soundly downtown, that one time?
Staggering a step, pulling against the chain and trying to keep it under her control rather than subject to the whims of Kula, Zaki finally finds a moment to recover from her own attack now that Kula's gone out of her way to release the weapon... as well as giving her a glare that may as well be waving the red flags before the bull.
"Man... if you can't avoid an attack like that," she remarks toward K', her voice thick with sarcasm, "You're fuckin' useless."
But now she turns her attention back to the glaring girl with the creepy red eyes, her chin lowering so that she can give her a harder stare under a scowling, hard-set brow. Squint just right and you might even see that Aoi Himezaki has gathered the meaning of the message behind Kula Diamond's glare-- and she may just be smiling.
Ultimately, she waits for K' to finish talking first, letting a small hint of politeness escape her while she too advances, turning this one-on-one-with-one more situation into a two-on-one. The glare from the NESTS clone was meant to be a warning?
"You know what? Fuck the rules, kid. You better start hitting me back, too, 'cause if I don't like what I hear out of you, they're gonna -carry- your sorry ass out of here on a stretcher."
Aoi Himezaki prefers to make promises.
COMBATSYS: Zaki focuses on her next action.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////// ]
Zaki 0/-------/------=|=======\==-----\1 K'
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Kula 0/-------/--=====|
Of course she's been trained to contend with multiple opponents at once. In fact, it might be said she could take on entire groups of fighters of low calibur experience without getting a scratch. But those training scenarios where in the clinically neutral environment of the NESTS bases. Out here, with two opponents that seem charged with antipathy for everything she represents, the stakes are a little different. It's definitely testing the resilience of her mental conditioning, contending with the angry vibes coming from both of the other fighters at the same time.
Snow drifts around her, melting the instant it leaves her immediate space, falling victim to the warm sun overhead. The girl glances back and forth between K' and Zaki. They've slowed their assault for a moment, but the bearer of the fiery red suppression glove is advancing on her step by deliberate step, which means that while she has a second to react, she doesn't have all the time in the world. A back step is taken, foot slipping through the sand, her steady surface gone once again. Not retreating, but buying a bit more space to think. Her fighting style is normally practically automatic, ingrained combat routines carrying her through nearly any confrontration. But this is requiring her to actively think her way through it.
She has K' advancing on her, a disturbing smile on his features for a long moment. And then she has the chain weilder advancing on her, issuing a dire threat. Don't tell her anything she wants to hear, or she's going to brutalize her far beyond the limits of this so called sanctioned fighting event. What passes over the girl isn't quite fear... but an acute awareness that she's surrounded by enemies at the moment and that she has to act accordingly for her self-preservation.
To K's questions, he earns a narrow-eyed glance, mouth curled into a flicker of a frown. "I don't know what you're talking about," she replies, her tone forced, but distant, cool and detatched, the girl slipping into defensive routines. "I don't have to answer for things you imagined... whatever you want to read into such events is not something I worry about."
She breaths, shifting her attention back to Zaki, "You shouldn't concern yourself in this - taking the side of that violent young man, anything he tells you will just be a lie." Yup, she's in damage control mode. She doesn't intend to answer anything at all, especially trapped like this. Maybe it's simple disappointment she fears, worried that admitting to letting him go would damage the prized relationships she has with those whom she views as her large, strange family. Or maybe it's a deeper fear than that. Either way, the more penned in she gets, the more recalcitrant she becomes.
Another glance is cast toward Zaki. Kula is not a rule breaker. Nor does she attack out of anger... at least, she never has before. Fighting is a task, a chore, not a means for securing revenge. But right now the masked girl has threatened her well being, which means she's crossed a line and been added to the 'viable threats' list for Kula's combat routines.
Hence why it is that she'll have to contend with what comes next, the lithe girl leaping backward from the advancing duo, flipping into a tight ball at the apex of her jump. A large flurry of snow follows her up, a surge in frigid energy building up about her body... And then all of it comes dropping right back down as she kicks out and channels that built up power into a large, falling... snowflake. Covered with jagged, serrated ice teeth, the strange looking projectile would be surprisingly dangerous on its own were it to slam into someone directly. But its target is the sand right in front of the two and it is upon reaching that point that it detonates, exploding outward in a flurry of icy shards, spikes, and other sharp edges, threatening to coat both of the fighters with a storm of ice blades. Kula, for her part, descends from the flip, landing in the sand, crouching down as she exhales, combat routines advancing to the n
next phase of her defense.
COMBATSYS: K' blocks Kula's Diamond Shoot.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////// ]
Zaki 0/-------/------=|=======\===----\1 K'
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Kula 0/-------/=======|
"Hey. Shut the fuck up," K' is quick to respond, quite graciously, to Zaki's opinion both of his own move... and his ability to respond to its sudden usage against him. The injunction is quite calm, actually, K' shooting it over at Zaki without really even looking at her: and even, at that, without much ire. His focus is on Kula, and on Kula it will remain.
He doesn't bother replying Kula's automatic denials. He just watches her, that same infuriatingly knowing cant to his gaze. It seems to look past her ready excuses and non-answers and pry right into her seeded doubts. He's said his piece, and he's not a boy given to wasting his breath. There's only so far he's willing to go for Kula Diamond, and if she's resolute in rejecting what chance he will give her, well...
It would be easier to kill her than reform her, after all.
He doesn't seem to perceive that it's his own cornering, aggressive behavior that is getting her to clam up so tightly. He's only ever known one method of getting people to do what he wants, after all. And so, it's not because of any understanding, or desire to let up and see if that relaxes her any, that he goes silent now. It's because of that cooling of his attitude... that lack of care to waste any more words on such stubbornness. "She has the choice to believe me, or not," he settles for saying instead. "But you don't know a lot about choices, do you?"
And with that, Kula opts to attack them both. K' reacts instantly, dealing with the attack as he did before, shattering the part that comes at him with his fire and letting those shards mostly rip past him. It pushes him back slightly, killing some of his gained ground, but K' is quick to attempt to reclaim it: lunging forwards, attempting to close with the small girl. Should he get anywhere within range, his hand draws in close, fingertips nearly brushing the girl's sternum... just before that hand slams shut into a fist hard enough to make an audible sound, slamming forwards with such force one would think he'd taken a running start and thrown his entire arm behind the blow.
COMBATSYS: Zaki blocks Kula's Diamond Shoot.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////// ]
Zaki 0/-------/-----==|=======\==-----\1 K'
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Kula 1/-------/=======|
He tells her to shut up, in a most eloquent way-- Zaki just laughs. It's short, horribly amused, and leading into the girl dragging her thumb on the chain while still holding it taut, the slackened amount dragging on the sandy beach pulling up and away. Even with the wet and dry sand that occasionally gets mixed up in the links, it still rattles just a little bit.
"Maybe--" And then a ... snowflake. Bringing up her chain and pulling the length nice and taut, the snowflake-- or at least what shards detonate and fly up at her-- find a bit of resistance against her arms and her weapon, turning her hip and setting her side to take the brunt of the attacks. Still, Zaki weathers it. She's a trooper like that.
"-- But I'm still gonna hear him out."
Then she runs forward, somehow managing in the heels she wears in the sand, and cracks her chain like a whip. Working in tandem with K', almost, the Seijyun girl tries to get it to wrap around Kula's neck and then grab the slack with her other hand... then drive her knee and shin into Kula's back before pressing down and forward. It's brutal, painful, and it's a damn good way to make sure she can't breathe-- and probably one of those things the anti-K' won't want to experience more than once.
COMBATSYS: Zaki successfully hits Kula with Chain Strangler EX.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////// ]
Zaki 0/-------/----===|=======\==-----\1 K'
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Kula 1/-----==/=======|
COMBATSYS: Kula dodges K''s One Inch.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////// ]
Zaki 0/-------/----===|=======\===----\1 K'
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Kula 1/-----==/=======|
Rising up from out of her landing, Kula murmurs quietly in protest to K''s direct challenge, "I make choices all the time..." Let's not get into a detailed analysis of what kind of choices she makes. The large projectile was meant to be a deterrent to the two advancing fighters, but it becomes distressingly clear that they both handled it rather well and the NESTS operative is forced to contend with both fighters in short order once again.
K' charges in, his hand extending forward with deceptively controlled motion. It seems almost harmless at first glance but she knows the danger that technique contains. The savage uppercut she demonstrated earlier wasn't the only move of K''s that she knows, after all. His fingers reach just shy of her sternum before the crushing force behind the attack is applied, but in that brief window of time the girl twists to the side, leaving his deadly punch to slip by.
The evasive move would have transitioned smoothly into a duck and spin out of the way of Zaki's lashing whip if it weren't for the sandy surface continuing to slow down Kula's footwork. An arm comes up quickly, trying to intersect itself between her neck and the incoming chain, but she can't manage it in time and in the next moment, Kula finds herself being strangled. The blow to her back bends her forward against the choking force applied by the masked girl's whip and she drops to her knees in the sand, both hands clawing at the chain for a brief moment, teeth gritted as she's forced to hold her breath and get by on what oxygen was already trapped in her lungs.
Not in a position to overpower Zaki, however, Kula opts for another approach to dealing with the not-so-neutral Chaos Agent. Lowering her right hand, she tightens it into a fist and then slams her elbow backward toward the other girl... but this is no normal elbow strike, for even as it drives toward Zaki's gut, a large spike of sharp ice protrudes out from the Anti-K''s elbow, threatening to skewer the girl in much the way he has done to K' in the past. Maybe with some blood letting, she'll finally back off!
It's almost funny how Kula seems to intimately know all his moves, K' thinks, as Kula deftly evades him in so short a window of time she had to have known the nature of his attack. He can remember studying Kyo's own moves with this kind of precise attention, wondering if he would ever reach that point-- or if he would hit his predetermined ceiling far before that kind of prowess. The thought that someone else might have watched him that closely, learning the haphazard style he had put together for himself... it's unsettling. And the degree of his disquiet is finally starting to show visibly, as he retracts and backs away.
He holds his silence as Kula and Zaki trade their blows, that inadvertant parallel he's just drawn between himself and his opposite number chewing at the back of his mind. It's hardly the first of its kind, either, and the increasing accumulation is disturbing him. He isn't going to break his silence trying to force Kula to divulge her secret anymore-- he doesn't care enough about her quite yet to invest the effort-- but nonetheless, she seems to compel his interest more than she rightfully should. Than he should -let- her.
Getting his breath back slowly, pacing himself out with the experience of a project who by now is quite familiar with parceling his stolen power, he watches neutrally as Zaki strangles Kula viciously. He was never programmed to pity someone fenced in and harried, struggling against the odds for their survival; and even when he got loose and started to operate on his own thoughts and desires, he still was not a particularly clement sort. The world had never done him any favors, and he felt obligated to do none back. But now, he can at least -understand- that feeling-- that hunted, overwhelmed sensation that burdens him every day-- and now, he can see a little of it reflected in Kula's current situation.
A frown cuts into his features. Carefully regulating the flow of the fire in his blood-- or at least, asking his glove to regulate the flames for him-- K' finally, mercifully enough, just holds his tongue a while. He -knows- NESTS and how it works. It doesn't just let that which it has within its grasp get away. Even if Kula isn't the one with traitorous thoughts, someone else is; someone who could have told the girl to act contrary to her entire purpose, and let him go free.
COMBATSYS: K' gathers his will.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////// ]
Zaki 0/-------/----===|=======\=======\1 K'
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Kula 1/-----==/=======|
COMBATSYS: Zaki Toughs Out Kula's Medium Punch!
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////// ]
Zaki 0/-------/-======|=======\=======\1 K'
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Kula 1/-----==/=======|
The chain wraps, wraps, wraps-- and then meets Zaki's hand. There's no distinct pleasure in her eyes when she does this, either; Kula may be a horrible agent for a horrible organization, but she's still strangling someone that looks a few years yet younger than her. The tension is unrelenting, the leg driving further and further into the girl's back to create even more leverage.
"Sounds more like you choose to spout out bullshit. Sounds like you choose to be someone's bitch. Sounds like you need to START TALKING!!"
And then Kula retorts.
The icy spire drives into Zaki's gut, the tension, the subtle vibrations as her grip waxes and wanes on it signals it definately did plant in. Though likely to the girl's dismay, even with a fair trickle of blood now slickly coating the icy spike and pooling on her dress, the girl's brows suddenly furrow and her eyes narrow. Zaki leans in to speak in Kula's ear, and though her voice is muffled by the mask, her words are painfully clear:
"Weak. Shit."
Her left hand releases the slackened chain as she takes a step back and -yanks-, intending to spin the girl around like a top wound with string. Her arm reels backward, the pliable length of metal singing a song of pain and retribution-- one mounted as her wrist turns hard and starts a new spin. The chain wraps hard around her forearm-- and then she punches out at the Antitype, the chain whipping off her arm in a spiral-- one that intends on piling into her like a heavy steel battering ram, one that tries to shove her clear off her feet.
"ORRRRRAAAAAAAAAAA!"
COMBATSYS: Zaki successfully hits Kula with Hakai no Tessa.
- Power hit! -
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////// ]
Zaki 1/-------/=======|=======\=======\1 K'
[ \\\\\\\\\\ <
Kula 1/---====/=======|
As K' backs off he completely falls off Kula's threat radar. Menacing power aside, it's hard to compete with the danger-factor implied by someone right behind your back choking the hell out of one with a chain whip. Her ice-spiked elbow impacts the Seijyun gang leader, her left hand still clawing at the tight whip around her neck, her face coloring as she struggles for air.
Unfortunately, Kula discovers too late, Zaki has a plus 30% damage reduction against gut stabs and her desperate strike fails to impress as the masked girl makes perfectly clear when she leans forward. The whip goes a little slack and the girl thinks it's her chance to pry herself free, only to find herself pulled right back up to her feet and spun around by the neck as the other girl yanks her weapon back hard.
She stumbles out of the dizzying spin just in time to see the follow up barreling towarrd her. It's with a shakey but swift gesture that she extends her left palm forward, fingers spread apart, forcing into existence a barrier of ice intended to defender her from the brutal weapon. But the power behind Zaki's strike sends the spiraling chain smashing clean through the barrier and crashing into the girl's chest with enough force to knock her back hard into the sand where she tumbles to a face down stop.
She moves, after a moment, hands pressing into the sand, the girl lifting her head, gradually, slipping one foot underneath her and rising out of that crouch into a full standing position. Her neck red from the thrashing from the whip, she pays her injuries no mind for the moment. She doesn't even take the time to fully identify Zaki's position - for what's coming next, that isn't really necessary. It's far more force than she would normally bring to bear in a sanctioned fight against anyone but the most powerful of fighters due to reluctance to use lethal force, but the barbarian girl from Seijyun has pretty much managed to get herself pegged as a clear and legitimate danger to her well being and in that she has made herself a valid target for everything Kula has left in strength.
It doesn't come as quickly as she would like - the surge in frigid chi laden with swirling ice that builds up around her. Her balance is unsteady and she nearly stumbles back down into the sand, forced to lower her arms to steady herself for a moment. "Che," comes the quiet grunt as the girl goes back into raising her arms over her head, as if drawing to the surface every last trace of dangerous power within her. The ground at her feet freezes solid, a rapidly expanding slick of ice coursing over perfectly dry sand.
And then the girl drops her arms from over her head, stretching them out to her sides, and unleashes a localized blizzard of wind driven ice shards swirling out from her position as ground zero. The frenzied storm whips at her hair but leaves her unharmed. The same can probably not be said for anyone caught within its wrath, however, for should Zaki not manage to defend herself from that sudden burst, the caked on ice will begin to entomb her in a crushing cocoon of frozen death, attempting to take her out of commision completely, and maybe even then some.
The storm is swift, furious, and brief, and in its passing Kula lowers her arms to her sides, releasing an exhausted sigh, her hair losing its icy color, melting back into its natural auburn, the girl wobbling weakly where she stands.
Standing to one side, his sudden misgivings having taken him, for all intents and purposes, out of the brutal combat in which Kula and Zaki are currently locked, K' simply watches. He stands there, displeasure starting to color his expression, a shadow crossing his eyes as his head dips slightly.
He should be taking pleasure in watching a NESTS agent-- particularly one specifically made to murder him-- so brutally harried and penned in. He should be relieved at the prospect of eliminating her threat permanently. But to his surprise, he finds himself nursing a distinctly bitter taste instead. To his surprise, he finds himself entirely too able to put himself in her place: to relate her hopeless, choiceless situation to the state of his own life.
He brought her into being, he set this current chain of events into motion, and now, he finds... he's simply unable to enjoy the results of his actions. Even though he certainly tries. He simply feels more responsible for her than he logically should, and that weakness he can feel nagging at the edges of his consciousness irritates him with its dangerousness.
That foreign, nagging feeling of concern doesn't exclude Zaki, either, as that shredding storm of ice rips abruptly out of nowhere: threatening to outright kill the woman. At the first lash of that sudden release of power K' starts forwards, fire bleeding from his skin and following in his wake. Depending how well Zaki manages to protect -herself-, those flames snake in among the ripping ice, attempting to counteract its caking and sparing the girl a complete entombment that might well kill her. K' himself walks straight towards Kula: saying nothing, and expressing even less.
COMBATSYS: K' assists Zaki.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////// ]
Zaki 1/-------/=======|=======\=======\1 K'
[ \\\\\\\\\\ <
Kula 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Zaki blocks Kula's Freeze Execution.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////// ]
Zaki 1/----===/=======|=======\=======\1 K'
[ \\\\\\\\\\ <
Kula 0/-------/-------|
Her wrist twists.
*shrrring, shrrring*
With Kula thrown backwards from the force of her attack, the chain-slinging gang leader tilts her chin upward a little bit, the chain in her right hand rattling and singing one more time. Letting the moment sink in, watching Kula's landing and eventual recovery, Zaki's lips pull back so she can better snarl-- half at the persistance of the NESTS agent, and half at herself.
She just doesn't like beating on kids.
The wind whips hard and sends her ponytail flying all over the place, her lengthy dress and the hem of her jacket bucking angrily around in the winds that swirl-- and then the horrible, icy fate that's coming her way.
Aoi's wrist twists the other direction, shortening her spin and catching the weapon around her fist and forearm once more, like a protective gauntlet. Lowering herself a little, presenting that arm and turning out her other palm, she shields herself as best she can against the cold and the wind, even while shards of ice try to seal her fate. And... if Kula could see through the mask, there's even a flash of worry-- how do you defend against a localized blizzard? When they start meeting resistance in the form of K'-- the flames that rip through the cold, she seems to recover.
Ice starts to layer and cake on, but Aoi Himezaki lets out one more gutteral scream before sweeping her arm out hard, pulling her legs ahead and cracking the ice that forms over at least one-- ripping herself free, though her boot is certainly ruined and her leg is going to be sore for awhile.
Zaki lets out one more hiss through her teeth, trying to suppress the involuntary shudder from the cold chill ripping through her from head to toe. Her gloved hand, her chain-- all of it is, for the moment, encased in a hard, slick coating of ice, keeping her weapon effectively sealed.
Or so one would think.
"UrrrrrrrrAGH!"
Pulling harder one more time, the Seijyun girl charges across the beach like a bat out of hell, her ice-encased arm pumping with each stride-- looking to rip across the cold, icy sands. When she gets into striking range, her right arm hooks low for what looks like an especially brutal punch to the stomach, her fist hooking upward with everything she's got-- her numb arm, her freezing cold chain, and the icy gauntlet that wraps around it.
"GO DOWN!!"
COMBATSYS: Kula dodges Zaki's Random Strike.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////// ]
Zaki 1/----===/=======|=======\=======\1 K'
[ \\\\\\\\\\ <
Kula 0/-------/-------|
Barely able to see anything through the white walled localized blizard, Kula can still sense him as he draws nearer. The moment his flames come in contact with her ice she can tell exactly where K' is without even having to look. It's a jarring reminder to be forced to recall that the horror that is Zaki isn't the only danger she's found herself penned in by. That he backed off for a moment helped her forget about him briefly. But now K' is drawing near and she just expended the limits of her icy power in trying to freeze, crush, and suffocate the Seijyun girl. Killing her wasn't the goal, but most definitely wasn't out of the question either.
For a moment she completely ignores Zaki, however, letting her ice do as it was bidden and serve as the means by which the tough girl should be eliminated... If she wasn't so damn persistant! K''s fire may provide interference, but it seems Zaki's determination to not succumb to icy death is a factor as well. Kula knows K' is approaching, but she hasn't even had the time to find him as he steps into the final frenzy of the storm, sheathed in his own protective fire.
Breaking out of the ice, Zaki comes tearing for Kula. But with the sand slicked all around her with a thick layer of ice, she is at last as nimble as she's supposed to be and slipping out of the warpath is not too difficult for her to accomplish. The slick itself is beginning to melt, however, and the flurry of ice crystals that constantly hover around her when she battles are also no where to be seen. K' will be able to tell immediately that whatever frozen fury churns in the girl's blood, it has exhausted itself with the storm she unleashed.
But as Kula spins around, moving easily on the ice, she comes to face K', watching as he advances toward her. He might detect the way she gasps for breath, or the hint of nervousness in her naturally violet eyes. She's used everything she had and now she's on a giant ice slick with a half frozen crazy girl and a fire wielding clone who was forced to flee from her when she last faced him on the empty road outside of Southtown. And right now... he's definitely not fleeing.
A glance to the side is cast to relocate Zaki, evaluating the time she has to come up with an answer to this seemingly unsolveable scenario. She's been silent for the last little while, too hard pressed to speak, and having nothing to say to either of them either, but at last now she finally speaks up loud enough to be easily heard, "This fight is over." She speaks calmly in light of how on the edge she clearly is, her training still not failing her now. But it's pretty clear that she's hoping someone with offical authority jumps in the way and puts a stop to this match before ZakiZilla recovers her footing on the giant ice slick and comes back at her with K' penning her in from the other side!
COMBATSYS: Kula takes no action.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////// ]
Zaki 1/----===/=======|=======\=======\1 K'
[ \\\\\\\\\\ <
Kula 0/-------/-------|
Someone with official authority? Who, of all the SNF officials, would step into the middle of these three? Who would go near even a single one of them, knowing what they're capable of doing-- or, more aptly, capable of doing to other people? Though there's obvious concern from their corner-- a flurry of concern, a reaching towards the microphones in preparation to try to call the match-- none of them have made any kind of proactive move quite yet.
K' steps into Kula's circle of ice, his presence on the slick immediately accelerating its melt. A path of bare, drenched sand spools out in his wake as he approaches; he gives her one searching look, yellow eyes reading the exhaustion of her power in her hair and the disappearance of her eternal ice, and then seemingly dismisses her again in the space of a blink.
Abruptly, in the wake of her avoidance of Zaki, K' interposes between the other combatants, cutting off their access to one another. He slides slowly to a halt, between the two girls, but the strange thing about it is... his back is towards -Kula- (though he doesn't precisely drop his guard). The posture is impossible to misconstrue; he's barring Zaki from attacking Kula further, not vice versa. "...Enough," is all he states aloud, though the look he gives Zaki communicates a little more. It reaffirms that she can question him about this entire trainwreck: later.
He halts there a moment, tense, clearly prepared to stop any further attempts at attack; and then he swivels abruptly to face Kula. His unexpected defense of her chills a little bit when the coldness of his stare is revealed, but the overall tone of clemence still remains clear. Staring down at Kula, expression giving no indication of his thoughts-- no hint of the reasoning behind this aberrant behavior-- his voice lowers until only she could possibly pick it up.
"I could kill you right now," he tells her conversationally, as inured to the idea of murder as his little clone. "I could let her kill you. I -should-." He lapses into silence briefly, some of the conflict between self-preservation and that ineffable sense of responsibility he feels towards the girl finally showing in that space between his words. "But I won't. THAT'S a choice. That's what you won't get in NESTS. All you get there is a task. What are you once it's done?"
He turns away on the heels of his words, angry now, on edge from all that pent-up power in him still clamoring for release. Long strides carry him quickly away in a moody lope, the boy manifestly aware Kula is too weak to attack him now: but not lingering around to take any more chances than he already has. He passes by Zaki: sotto voce, he tells her, "If you care... find me tomorrow. Same place as last time. Same time." And then his voice lifts again, though he doesn't bother turning around to look at the girl he's addressing. "Leave, Kula. Get back on your leash: or don't. I'm done here..."
COMBATSYS: K' has left the fight here.
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Kula 0/-------/-------|=======\==-----\1 Zaki
'This fight is over.' 'Enough.'
Her fist is heavier than she thought, the icy 'gauntlet' combined with the weight of her chain-- that much she's used to-- and the ultimate result is her slowness and Kula's agility even in the face of burning up all that power... and a miss that makes her curse, her balance threatened with the overswing.
K' stands between them now, and he seems to be directing the majority of the ire toward her. Zaki partially understands this, as the Chaos Agent has gone out of her way to harm the girl that refuses to give up her answers. The Seijyun student gives K' an even, level stare, but ... she goes no further, instead trying to twist and work her arm out of the ice from the inside, letting her chain links scrape against what it can with the force applied by her wrist-- no doubt, she'll have to get it off with the help of the medics on-site and a chisel or a hammer or something.
Folding her arms to the best of her ability, Aoi Himezaki closes her eyes and lets out a short, "Tch," opening them only the slightest of amounts-- to stare at K' with a squint. Come tomorrow, to that place. Then she'll have her answers?
"... Fine. I don't like beating on a kid."
Turning on the high heels of her boots, she starts storming off, pacing up the beach and toward the SNF crew... the majority of which decides to part like the seas, as not to get into the gangster girl's way.
Help? Someone? Call the fight? The thought crosses her mind - how far will these two go? Everything she has been told about K' described him as an aggressive, lost, confused monster, as unpredictable as the flicker of those legendary flames NESTS grafted into him. And Zaki has already proven herself to be completely psychotic as far as Kula is concerned. With the officials fumbling with trying to decide what to do, it seems the auburn haired girl is left on her own. Her rapidly melting ice slick evidence of her exhausted state, along with the other clear signs that she tapped the last of her reserves to try and get rid of the Chaos Agent.
K' advances and Kula tenses up, pulling up her arms in preparation to defend herself with what strength she has left, taking two steps backward before stumbling a little, her foot plunging through the ice as it continues to rapidly melt around her. Expecting a strike from K', the girl braces, closing one eye, half closing her other eye, fearing the worst. Only to have him stop, placing himself between her and the female gang leader, and Kula lowers her arms, staring up at K''s back with now-violet eyes.
He's calling the attackZaki off, she realizes, before he turns to face the smaller fighter directly. Maybe he just wants the chance to do finish the job himself rather than Zaki taking credit for it. He says he could kill her and she stares silently. He could let Zaki kill her, and she glances to the side toward the other girl. But he won't, and Kula stares back at him, eyes meeting his for only a moment before averting lower to fix on his chest to avoid the eye contact.
And then he's leaving, turning his back to the girl and striding off. Last time they faced each other, he had to run for his survival. This time he fights, perhaps, to contain the furious amount of power he's drawn into himself, while she stands exhausted. She glanecs back to the side toward Zaki, watching her warily as she struggles with the risidual ice left behind from the NESTS project's gigantic attack, and then she's stomping off too, dismissing Kula as just a kid and leaving her simply standing alone on the beach, the last of her ice melting into the dampened sand. Soon it will dry and leave everything as it was.
At last she starts to breath again, having held her breath the entire time K' stood over her. Gloved hands clench as Kula turns away from the cameras, the crowd, the officials scratching their heads at what just happened, in order to stare back out over the ocean expanse. "I let you go that night." she murmurs to herself, eyes shimmering. "I can make choices too."
Log created on 20:51:13 05/18/2008 by K', and last modified on 17:50:30 05/21/2008.