Description: Kain and Chizuru do battle in the boardroom of Kagura Enterprises, located in the heart of Southtown. Blows are traded and expensive furniture is destroyed, all for the sake of the Champions' Belt. (Winner: Kain)
If you have a lot of money, and you want to make more of it, you probably have property in the Business District of Southtown. That's just how it works.
Chizuru does not actually spend a lot of time in 'her' business. It largely runs itself and lets her do - well, whatever she wants to. It seems to produce relatively little in and of itself, but then again it probably owns businesses that do that.
But sometimes she has to make an appearance...possibly /while/ doing the other things she does instead of actual work. Chizuru is sitting at the head of the boardroom table, waiting quite patiently. She has some papers, but isn't actually reading them.
This is hardly Kain's first visit to a corporate boardroom, although this occasion will mark his first fight in such a setting. That's not to say that he hasn't engaged in /violence/ in such places before, but the people it was directed at could hardly be said to have put up a fight. Heinlein's arrival at the building is punctual, and it's not long before he's led to the room where Chizuru waits.
Kain briefly glances over the layout of the room and the decor, then focuses his attention on Chizuru. As usual, Kain's not really interested in this fight for the belt's sake... he's here for the fight itself. Slipping his left hand into his pocket, he reaches up with his right and sweeps back his hair, giving Chizuru a thin smile. "Interesting that you agreed to a fight in here. I suppose you must have some excellent insurance coverage."
The boardroom is not one of the largest ones Chizuru had available, but it has a great view out the large window, which is probably why she took it. All the chairs, the oak table - they're all still here. She didn't take anything out to avoid damages.
Chizuru sets the papers into a thin briefcase, then hands it to the person that brought Kain here; he bows and takes it away, so they won't be lit on fire or thrown out the window during the match. "The best," she says, simply. It is, with no exaggeration. She made sure of it, just in case someone came in here in search of her; it's not new for this event. "That said, I'm still surprised they chose it."
Kain turns his head to watch the assistant leave. Once the door is closed he looks back to Chizuru, then laces his fingers togethering before cracking his knuckles. "Probably for the best. The walls look sturdy enough, at least. Don't know about the furnishings, though. I suppose we'll find out." He looks appraisingly at the window for a moment. Deliberately knocking Chizuru out the window would probably be frowned upon, and ending the fight early isn't in Kain's interest anyway... but it's a good thing to keep in mind. He wouldn't want to end up with his back pressed up to it.
Stepping around to the side of the table, Kain begins slowly walking his way toward Chizuru. "Well, I imagine the cameras are rolling, and since there are no longer any bystanders around, what do you say we get down to business?" His right arm hangs at his side as he walks, an occasional flicker of black flame starting to lick out from his sleeve as he approaches.
COMBATSYS: Kain has started a fight here.
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Kain 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Chizuru has joined the fight here.
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Chizuru 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Kain
The cameras aren't visible - but with today's electronic design, that doesn't actually mean a whole lot. They might just be in the corners of the room, neatly tucked away.
If they are, though, Chizuru doesn't look at them and give it away. "Sturdy enough to last," she says, and smiles just a little. "I would prefer you didn't /try/ to destroy them, though. One or two of the paintings are quite old."
When Kain comes toward her, Chizuru straightens her arm, holding it out in front of her. "Why don't we," she agrees, before - unusually, for her - taking the initiative instead of waiting and watching. Chizuru darts in low, moving past Kain instead of at him but sweeping her hand behind his legs; she tries to tangle them in her long, trailing sleeve and suddenly yank him off balance, pushing with the other hand to make sure he goes down.
COMBATSYS: Kain blocks Chizuru's Reigetsu.
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Chizuru 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Kain
Chizuru manages to get past Kain and tangle up his legs, but he refuses to go down easily. He swiftly reaches out and grabs the edge of the table and once he gets a good grip even Chizuru psuhing on him isn't enough to knock him the rest of the way to the ground. He then yanks himself away from Chizuru with that same grip, getting his legs away from her before he puts all his weight back on them.
Kain still has his back to her, though, and that's not something that he can allow to be the case for long. Once his feet are firmly back on the floor, Kain suddenly whips around to face his opponent. As he does he extends his right arm, causing black flame to spring up about his hand and trail behind it. As he completes his turn the flame expands, forming a wave of fire which engulfs everything in reach of Kain's arm, as well as a short distance beyond it.
COMBATSYS: Chizuru blocks Kain's Schwarz Cutter.
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Chizuru 0/-------/------=|=------\-------\0 Kain
Chizuru, having passed beyond Kain by a few steps, ends up facing away from him just like he started out facing away from her. It looks for a moment like she almost won't see the blast of fire in time, and will get hit right in the back with it.
She doesn't, quite; Chizuru spins, coming up at an odd angle and seeming to catch the black fire with her sleeves. He's faster than she thought; she expected him to go down, or at the very least to give her more time to recover than that.
And so it's time to pick up the pace. Chizuru lunges this time, a second Chizuru staying behind. It's impossible to see which one is the real one - until the one that swung at Kain with a wide double-hand sweep vanishes as if it had never been.
It still hurts, mind.
COMBATSYS: Chizuru successfully hits Kain with Shinsoku no Norito.
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Chizuru 0/-------/----===|====---\-------\0 Kain
Determining which Chizuru is real is primarily of use if one is going to attempt a counterattack. Kain chooses instead to try getting out of the way, which would make the matter irrelevant for the immediate moment. Unfortunately he's not quite quick enough at moving back and out of the way, failing to escape before the chi construct's arms sweep through him and knock him off his feet. Kain rolls backwards when he hits the ground, though, quickly coming back up to a crouching position.
He doesn't rush right back in to continue the assault, however. Instead Kain slowly stands up and actually begins backing away. He stays close to the table, and within a few moments he manages to get the heavy piece of furniture in between himself and Chizuru. Either of them could cross it in a moment, of course, but that could be dangerous if the other is ready for it. And so Kain buys himself a moment to plan his next move.
COMBATSYS: Kain focuses on his next action.
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Chizuru 0/-------/----===|====---\-------\0 Kain
Chizuru knows perfectly well that Kain has the advantage at a distance like this. He can throw balls of chi at her; she cannot, only illusions, and that's not quite the same thing. Of course, she can always repel the chi he throws, but that's fundamentally defensive, not offensive.
She decides to watch and wait anyway. Chizuru keeps her hand raised, palm out towards Kain, as if holding something out for him to see. There is nothing there, though, except a faint glint as her chi reflects, very briefly, the light.
COMBATSYS: Chizuru focuses on her next action.
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Chizuru 0/-------/----===|====---\-------\0 Kain
Chizuru might not appreciate what Kain is about to do... but she did say she has insurance. Raising one arm up high, he suddenly slams his fist down onto the heavy wooden table. There's an explosion of black fire and the sound of splintering wood as Kain is obscured by a combination of the flames and flying fragments of wood. That's when he makes his move. Taking advantage of the new opening in the rapidly collapsing table, Kain charges straight through the fading blast toward Chizuru.
Kain is already starting to spin about when his foot touches the ground on the other side, bringing his other leg whipping about at high speed. As he comes around to face Chizuru again he snaps out with that leg, striking at an upward angle toward Chizuru's chest with an explosive kick.
COMBATSYS: Chizuru reflects Schwarze Lanze from Kain with Tamayura no Shitsune EX.
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Chizuru 0/-------/----===|====---\-------\0 Kain
Insurance won't fix an antique table. Fortunately, that table wasn't antique... just expensive. And he hasn't started burning the paintings down, yet, so Chizuru doesn't have to worry about that.
The distraction makes Chizuru hesitate for only a split second. She realizes that he is going /through/ instead of using it as a cover when she hears the table start to crack, and brings up her chi in front of her; a round orange aura that /pushes/ the other chi back where it came from, right into Kain and possibly pushing /him/ away from her.
It ends quickly, and Chizuru stands there, slightly tired but not really the worse for wear.
Kain's own vision is still obscured by his attack when his foot connects, but he doesn't need to be able to see to tell that it's not Chizuru his kick hits. And then the backlash confirms it. Kain is launched back the way he came, but manages to flip around and land on his feet in the pile of splintered wood that's left of the section of the table he hit. But this time he doesn't hesistate to charge right back in.
A quick leap forward clears the ground between Kain and Chizuru. He comes in ducking, lashing out with a straight punch aimed for the center of her stomach, blue chi surrounding his hand prior to impact. He then suddenly stands up, swinging his fist upwards as he does in order to smash a blow into Chizuru's jaw.
COMBATSYS: Chizuru blocks Kain's Fierce Punch.
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Chizuru 0/-------/---====|=====--\-------\0 Kain
Chizuru has no problem giving ground in a fight and today is no exception. She moves back rather than stand firm against the blow, letting herself move with it in a backwards leap; instead of having the punch connect with her jaw, it connects with her hands, adding height to her jump and distance to her flight.
Chizuru lands a few feet back, much closer to the wall. "I see why you had the belt," Chizuru says, breaking her previous silence. That seems to be all she's going to say, though; she comes in low, with a sliding kick toward Kain's legs, not trying to trip him so much as just strike.
COMBATSYS: Chizuru successfully hits Kain with Light Kick.
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Chizuru 0/-------/--=====|=======\-------\0 Kain
Kain is forced to stagger backwards after Chizuru strikes him in the legs; it's either that, or topple over. Bumping into a relatively large section of the table allows him to come to a stop without opening up too much distance between himself and his opponent, however. A good thing, since Kain wants to take advantage of the time Chizuru will need to get back to her feet, and his stumbling ate up most of that.
Quickly stepping forward, Kain lifts up his right leg. He snaps out a kick at Chizuru, hoping to hit her as she's rising, then shift his weight in order to slam her back down into the floor with a blast of black flame to accompany the impact.
COMBATSYS: Kain successfully hits Chizuru with Medium Kick.
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Chizuru 1/-------/=======|=======\-------\0 Kain
Stomping on Chizuru seems to be working better than anything else. She rolls to the side, but rolls into some of the ruined table and fails to go very far at all. She's certainly still close enough for Kain to pound on for a while.
Eventually she manages to free herself from Kain's attack and clamber back to her feet. That /did/ hurt. Chizuru only rises halfway, through, remaining in a crouch as she tries to sweep Kain off his feet, using her hand to guide him the rest of the way down. Into the table, if possible. It's broken anyway; may as well make use of it.
COMBATSYS: Kain blocks Chizuru's Kaiten.
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Chizuru 1/-------/=======|=======\-------\1 Kain
The close quarters make it difficult for Kain to evade Chizuru's reach, so he doesn't try. Instead he concentrates on breaking his fall, preparing his arms to help lessen the impact. The crunch of wood underneath him as he falls makes it clear that it was still a far from pleasant experience, however. Indeed, when he rises Kain's jacket has a number of jagged tears in it. That'll show him for breaking perfectly good furniture.
Kain gets back to his feet in a sudden lunge, reaching out with his left hand for Chizuru's arm. All he attempts to do is grab her and hold her in place, however. It's his right arm that's the threat. Should he manage to snare Chizuru, Kain follows up with a punishing series of body blows, each one accompanied by a brief blast of dark fire.
COMBATSYS: Chizuru just-defends Kain's Fierce Punch!
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Chizuru 1/-------/=======|=======\-------\1 Kain
That half-works. Sort of. Chizuru takes advantage of being grabbed to let Kain lever her the rest of the way back to her feet, but then she twists free; her own hands and arms block the body blows, keeping the flame away from her body and guiding the impact around her.
She strikes back herself only afterwards. Drawing her hand back behind her, Chizuru takes a step back, ending up with her rear hand near the wall. Holding it a moment, her hand cupped around nothing, Chizuru murmurs a few words under her breath before darting forward, stretching that hand out in front of her - the hand that is now holding a sphere of orange-gold chi, to press it against Kain and try to seal back some of his power temporarily.
COMBATSYS: Kain just-defends Chizuru's Reigi no Ishizue!
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Chizuru 0/-------/-------|=======\-------\1 Kain
Kain watches carefully as Chizuru prepares her attack. He looks for a good opening to interrupt her, but doesn't find one before she dashes toward him. It's not too difficult to recognize Chizuru's hand as the big threat, however. Kain thrusts out his own hand, blue chi filling his palm. The blue energy clashes with the orange energy as Kain's hand slams into Chizuru's. His fingers dig into her energy sphere, and then Kain suddenly clenches his fist, dashing apart Chizuru's attack.
There a few last flickers of the orange-gold energy inside Kain's hand, then it's replaced by a greenish blue light. Kain then opens his hand, unleashing a chi orb of his own. But this one quickly begins to grow, eventually growing to a good five feet in diameter. Whether or not Chizuru manages to leap back before being engulfed by it, Kain launches the sphere forth in her direction. Unsurprisingly, anything in its path suffers some rather severe damage. Not good for the furnishings.
COMBATSYS: Chizuru fails to reflect Himmlische Seele from Kain with Iotsu no Utamai.
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Chizuru 0/-------/=======|-------\-------\0 Kain
The number of people who are /able/ to do something like that to Chizuru is very low. The number of people who actually will try, in the middle of combat, is lower still, but apparently Kain is one of them; Chizuru is taken aback, and that's probably the cause of the delay that costs her.
When the enormous sphere comes toward her, Chizuru holds both her hands up, pressing against an invisible hemisphere that very shortly becomes visible; it's orange, but faint due to its size. Also due to its size, it's a little weaker than it should be; the enormous blast goes through it without even slowing down very much, blasting Chizuru off her feet and sending her flying into the far wall with a thunk.
The picture remains defiantly hanging, although it's slightly askew. Chizuru's body kept it from being on fire.
Some people might be satisfied with simply slamming Chizuru against the wall like that. But why stop there when you can try to drive her /through/ the wall? That's Kain's approach to this situation. It takes him a moment to appraise the results of that last attack, but once he does he's quick to move along the path Chizuru just followed, quickly breaking into a run. Another few steps and he leaps into the air.
The room isn't all /that/ large, so it doesn't take long before Kain reaches his target. His foot snaps out, black flame trailing behind it as Kain attempts to drive his leg full force into Chizuru. If she does manage to get out of the way, there's probably going to be a pretty nasty hole in the wall once Kain's foot is through with it.
COMBATSYS: Chizuru dodges Kain's Schwarzer Stob.
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Chizuru 0/-------/=======|-------\-------\0 Kain
Chizuru is fully aware that if that hits her, she's lost.
It still takes slightly longer to respond than she probably should. Either she's cutting it fine on purpose, or that last hit dazed her more than she'd admit. At the /very/ last second, Chizuru jerks to the side, and the foot hits the spot on the wall where she was a moment ago - and goes partially through it. Up to the knee, at least.
Chizuru frowns. That's /her/ wall. She moves to get her arms around Kain and yank him free, sending him through the air back at the table and away from causing any more structural damage; it's more a wild pull than anything else, as Chizuru is not all that skilled at this particular style of grappling.
COMBATSYS: Chizuru successfully hits Kain with Strong Throw.
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Chizuru 0/-------/=======|==-----\-------\0 Kain
It's a good thing there was nothing load bearing at the spot where Kain's foot impacted with the wall. As it is he's not really stuck, as the blast from the impact results in a fairly large hole, but it still makes it tricky to maneuver. And so Kain doesn't have much say in the matter when Chizuru wraps her arms around him and hurls him up and away. He attempts to flip about in the air but doesn't have enough time, crashing down on the ruined table in a shower of wood fragments.
He lands far enough away from Chizuru that Kain takes his time getting up, going so far as to brush off some splinters that have lodged in his clothing. Only once he's ready does he advance on her again. He can't really hide his approach, but he gives little indication of just how he's going to attack. It's only once he gets in range that he finally lashes out, coming in at Chizuru's jaw with a blue glowing right hook.
COMBATSYS: Chizuru blocks Kain's Medium Punch.
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Chizuru 1/-------/=======|===----\-------\0 Kain
Chizuru brings up her hand, which is trailing faint orange sparkles - not enough to repel his chi, and certainly not enough to seal it, but enough to help blunt the impact of the blow and let her deal with it in a strictly physical way.
She slides a moment, but does not go far. The orange glow intensifies - it looks as if Chizuru is about to try to seal Kain again - but she does not; she spins about to get to his side and then delivers a somewhat awkward-looking kick upwards at Kain's legs, to strike and push.
COMBATSYS: Kain interrupts Heavy Kick from Chizuru with Schwarze Flame.
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Chizuru 1/---====/=======|=====--\-------\0 Kain
Chizuru manages to get around to flank Kain, but that's not something Heinlein is going to let stand. While she's thrusting out with her legs toward his, he's spinning around toward her, one hand aflame. She manages to land her kick, but just as she does the flame leaps forth from Kain's hand to explode in her face. Not quite quickly enough to /completely/ save Kain, however. He still took a solid blow to the legs, causing him to stumble back into the wreckage of the table, but as the black flames fade away it would seem that Chizuru got the worst of the exchange.
It certainly does seem that way, as Chizuru is on the ground, dazed.
She could force herself to her feet. She has a reasonable chance, she thinks, of forcing a draw - but Kain has already shown his skill. Perhaps she'll challenge him later, again, in a month or two if nobody has taken it away from him yet.
Chizuru lifts herself on her palms to a sitting position and stays there. "I yield," she says, sounding more tired than anything else. "Consider your belt well-defended. It was an excellent match."
COMBATSYS: Chizuru takes no action.
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Kain 0/-------/--=====|
COMBATSYS: Chizuru can no longer fight.
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Kain 0/-------/--=====|
Belt? Oh, right, the belt. Kain slowly lowers his guard when it becomes apparent that Chizuru really has submitted, although there's not much of an outwardly visible difference. "Yes, it was quite an invigorating fight." Kain pauses, reaching up to his back for a moment. He fiddles around for a moment before pulling his hand back, holding a small, sharp piece of wood with a small bloodstain on it. He glances at it, then tosses it down with the table. His own fault, really. He's the one who made the hazard in the first place.
Kain shakes out what's left of his jacket, then sketches a quick bow in Chizuru's direction. "Until next time, then." And with that he picks his way past the fragments of the table, then exits through the doors from which he entered. He's thankful that it wasn't /his/ building this fight took place in. He won't have to deal with the paperwork.
COMBATSYS: Kain has ended the fight here.
Log created on 16:32:06 06/21/2008 by Kain, and last modified on 23:00:22 06/21/2008.