Description: On the fast track to the apocalypse, the tactically deadly Kula Diamond faces the fearsome Ryuji Yamazaki. To bring added heat to the already intense battle, the bullet train passanger car happens to be carrying Kain Heinlein along for the ride! ( Winner: Kula )
Two hundred fifty plus miles an hour. The Joetsu Shinkansen line runs a zig-zag from Niigata to Southtown, and has been temporarily reappropriated for Howard's Saturday Night Fights. Normally, these things only clock half that, but the 900 series they slapped on this track wasn't deemed to be good enough for the fight unless it was fast enough to promote the industry's names.
Limned in swaths of fliers advertising Kawasaki, Mitsubishi, and Hitachi, Yamazaki the Southtown wild dog strolls lazily down the train as it starts to cruise to top speed. Rolling an eye around, he checks. Yeah, this is perfect. The traincar is mostly silent. Mostly. There is an ambient collection of groaning noises eminating from somewhere behind him as several bodies lay on the ground, battered to a pulp in his wake. One of them is the announcer. That's kind of why there's no dramatic announcing going on over the PA, at least where he can hear it. Yeah--Yamazaki has been culturing a fine dislike of announcers for quite awhile now. He cracks his knuckles.
It was a good warmup.
There may still be some announcing going on to the people watching at home from the video feeds.
Yamazaki is relatively sure they knew he was coming.
And probably paid for two or even three seperate announcers.
Damn it.
Waiting in a car right near the middle is the small thing brought into fight Yamazaki. A visual comparison of the two fighters may leave one questioning the validity of such a match. Either it's a joke, or worse, some kind of sick freak show pitting a man eater against the small looking thing. Even Kula's handlers were unusually nervous about this match. As if having Kain Heinlein on hand to add further menace to the bout, Kula Diamond's opponent has a reputation that leaves some feeling uneasy.
Escorting her to the car before the train left the station, the girl overheared the murmurings admist them. She had gotten good at it - listening when they didn't think she was, picking up on details they wouldn't know she was aware of. This time they were worried. 'You know, if he kills her, we won't have a replacement for a good long while.' one concerned scientist observed. 'It could throw our research off by a couple of years.' added another. 'Ryuji Yamazaki and Kain Heinlein? Anything could happen here. Is it even worth the risk?'
Calm, violet eyes simply stared ahead, the long haired child remaining silent as they spoke. It was impossible to miss their concern, but it was equally disheartening to realize that their concern wasn't really about her but their precious research. Her jaw set, the girl stepped forward toward the car. 'Maybe we should cancel.' one of the handlers mused, 'Claim illness or something.'
But Kula isn't leaving it up to them. Entering the car, the door closed behind her, locked sealed as the impressive bullet train slid sleekly out of its docking bay. Turning one last time to stare out the window at her gaggle of keepers, the young assassin regarded them cooly, mouth curled into a faint frown. Perhaps she is on her way to a match that will go too far. Maybe she will die. That'd teach them a lesson for sure.
Turning to stare toward the front door of the car, knowing that eventually her opponent will find his way to the spacious passanger cabin, she stands patiently. A soft exhale, a shimmer of white energy coursing over her, leaves in its wake frosty blue hair where auburn locks lay, small ice crystals beginning to swirl about her small frame as that frightfully powerful elemental chi becomes alive within her. Her jaw set, her hair whipping about her, carried by a point blank weather phenomenon in the perfectly pressurized train car, the girl waits. She'll show them. She'll destroy this monster dreged up to face her this week.
And where is Kain R. Heinlein during all of this? Oh, he's around, but neither of his opponents can see him. And why is that? Because he's riding on top of the train. Yes, the bullet train moving at extremely high speeds. This was planned for, however, and there are cameras mounted on the outside of the train. None of the footage is being broadcast yet, though. The surprise is being kept for the live viewers, and this footage will be added back in later. They'll definitely want it, though, as Kain looks rather impressive, what with the fierce wind whipping his hair and coat out behind him.
It would be nearly impossible for someone to hear what's going on inside over this roar, but that's all right. Kain has other ways of telling when the fight gets started in earnest, especially with someone like Kula involved. For now he just concentrates on holding his ground and not getting sent sailing off the back of the train to hit the ground at a couple hundred miles per hour. That would be undignified, to say the least.
To tell the truth, he's a little excited. The name 'Kula Diamond' isn't really a name that he can just say he doesn't recognize. The brat was kind of a regular in these weekly bouts. He's seen her around, a catty little thing with a penchant for ice. She was supposed to be pretty good, but Yamazaki had his doubts. Anyone thinks someone who can beat their ass is good, and these fight coordinators couldn't fight their way out of a paper bag. He needs to see these kinds of things up close for himself. Up close and personal-like.
Last the announcer said, she should have just boarded, and was being kept in a car further up.
--But. Where was the ponce, anyway?
Shit. Yamazaki didn't think to ask.
Walking by, he kicks a floored man in the chin with a hard rubber sole as he stalks down the lengthway, one hand stuffed into his pocket. THe train accelerates and though he's not outside for the noise to be drowned out, he has no trouble at all ignoring the sound of people choking on their own blood as he twists the latch and walks out of the cabin. In a way, he could already tell this might be interesting. When Kula's force is drawn up about it, even from cars away it stirs his blood, a scent of power and energy just barely reaching the butcher.
Might be worth somethin' after all.
When he comes to the door at the end of that passenger cabin, you can tell.
A faint blotch of red scrabbles at the window.
The Shinkansen train hits full speed.
And then Yamazaki damn near knocks the door off its hinges.
Fist low, the gangster enters through the rushing winds, having to duck to enter the cabin proper holding Kula nad her handlers. For a second there, stepping out of the darkness it can be a little difficult to tell what he is, a mouthful fangs and sheathed in leather, work boots making a distinctive wet clomp over the hollow carpeted floor as he walks in. His one hand hangs limp, sheathed in a single fighting glove. His other hand is bound tightly to above the elbow in white gauze, though it hasn't been really 'white' since about 11am this morning and it only got worse a few minutes ago.
- What in the hell happened to his eye? -
He doesn't even know the meaning of the word 'eyepatch.' Rolling something grotesque that doesn't even have a pupil anymore around like he can still see, he focuses on Kula and her retinue at the other end with his remaining good eye. His teeth show as he faintly grins, enticed at the sight--and brisk scent--of his opponent.
"You're the one I'm lookin' for," he mentions.
"Let's play."
Blood splashes against the window before the door slams open, wind whipping in all around the passanger compartment, taking with it papers and flyers clean off the walls, stirring them into a frenzy. It's enough go force Kula to raise her right arm into the path of her face in order to view the new arrival, her other hand coming up to keep her long hair from blowing around into her eyes. He sulks in through the door made for a taller man and the NESTs operative watches impassively, unmoved from her position at the opposite end of all those rows of seats, two on each side, with an aisle in the middle.
A detatched study of her opponent has her now crimson-hued eyes scanning him from toe to hair. Blood on his feet. A bandaged arm. Interesting, interesting. And then - his eye. To say that it's 'damaged' would be putting it mildly. Those few retainers at her sides recoil in horror, one looking pale, another turning away as his stomach gets sick. Stumbling back, all three of them retreat from the car completely. Worried about their living, breathing science project, yes. But not so worried that thay're going to share this ride with her. That opportunity is hers alone to enjoy.
His eyes, one good, one bloodied, seem to fix on the violet-leather clad girl. And then he speaks. His voice is surprisingly clear for one that she almost dismissed as a mindless beast at first glance. Her combat algorithms spin up, her assassin's instinct begining to profile and analyze this already damaged opponent. "It would seem to me," the girl states quite directly as the door at last closes behind Yamazaki, restoring for a moment a form of artificial calm to the rushing passanger car, "...that you have already been playing today." She lowers her arms to rest at her sides, assuming what passes as her very... passive ready stance, her hair continuing to swirl gently about her shoulders and upper back.
"But if you still want to do this..." The temperature around her drops, crystals of ice forming on the glass windows of the compartment, "I will not consider your current condition cause for going easy on you."
The gangster watches Kula's little cohorts leave in a hurry when he arrives. They know that there's no place for them--that the train car was already three sizes too small for people like him and the sparkling popsicle. Tight spaces were more of an impediment to people like that than to the comparitively massive half-blonde. Tight spaces trapped people. They prevented escape. Escape from him.
Whistling something soft and jazzy, Yamazaki's sadistic grin becomes all the more earnest as the door shuts behind him as if afraid. She looks at his face and she doesn't even blink. That's the kind of person he wants to see tonight. He recognizes Kula for what she is based on that alone. "Yeah.." he admits, scratching the back of his head roughly. He's had his fill of toys for the week. Now he's looking for bigger game.
"I got an appetite."
He hacks something up that sounded like it came from Hell as opposed to his upper sinuses, and spat off to one side, a blob of white and red flying off to smack loudly onto some piece of paper. The sound is loud, unnaturally derisive. "Darlin..." his hot breath starts to condense in the air.
"Thinking like that? S'gonna get you killed."
Yeah. Tight spaces. Kain. He doesn't think about it all like most might. To tell the truth, he isn't really worried about it at all. See--when you live a life out there in the real world, you learn real fast.
Make your own space.
Everybody.. /move./
Footsteps thudding across the carpet, Yamazaki takes two steps forward, and that crushing appendage he calls a hand sinks into the plush upholstery of a seat. With the harsh straining sound of loose muscles snapping tight enough for bones to lock and the chair to rock and lurch against its own anchor bolts, the gangster doesn't waste time. Using it as a launching point, he vaults forward, not quite leaving the ground, but snapping out his right boot in a stomping kick towards Kula's midsection like he did anyway. Let's see how cool she can remain.
COMBATSYS: Kula has started a fight here on the left meter side.
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Kula 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Yamazaki has joined the fight here.
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Kula 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Yamazaki
COMBATSYS: Kain has joined the fight here.
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Kula 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Yamazaki
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Kain 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Yamazaki successfully hits Kula with Light Kick.
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Kula 0/-------/-----==|-------\-------\0 Yamazaki
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Kain 0/-------/-------|
The confined quarters demand a more careful approach to fighting than Kula is used to taking. No skipping around, slipping around her opponents, bewildering them with her speed and ease of motion. She's stuck on a one way alley with nothing but that frightening presence on the other end of it. Any girl her age should be horrified at the monster she sees. Movie magic can't make masks any more grotesque than the messily maimed Yamazaki she gazes at. But if she were that easily startled, she wouldn't be much of an assassin.
Fear of pain has been all but meticulously enginereed out of her. That isn't to say she doesn't harbor fears of some kind. Because she does fear things being taken from her; of losing what little she has; of being reviled by those who gave her life. She fears losing purpose, of being left an aimless life with no real reason to exist. But fear of pain? That's hard to provoke in her.
Yamazaki barrels toward her with all the grace of a caged ox, gripping that seat with crushing force and snapping his foot out with the same kind of menacing power. There's no where to move - and thus it is her torso falls victim to crushing force as the young thing gets bashed against the door behind her hard enough to dent its metal surface. It provokes a grunt of legitimate pain, but it's not going to be enough to drop something like her. She can thank her NESTs engineered, leather armor for absorbing some of the damage, sparing her some degree of the harm meant for her.
Even as she slides out of the newly made dent to land back on her insulated boots with a soft thunk, her right hand has come alive with swirling, bright white energy. There's no malice in her eyes in spite the malevolently dangerous attack sent right back at him as the girl retaliates without holding anything back. In such close range, it may be a challenge to contend with the likes of this attack as she whips her right hand forward, the energy solidfying into a translucent sphere of steel-strong ice. Her expression, only slightly adjusted from pain, suggests that to her, this is simply 'business'. Playing is something she does with her stuffed animals. Fighting - that's homework.
"You don't care if I get myself killed," she states. "No one does." So much for appreciating the advice. It seems to come so easily to her, the way that sphere around her right hand morphs so suddenly, the side nearest Yamazaki transforming into three icy spears of variable length that threaten to lance the SouthSynd attack dog. Against a normal person, this technique alone would be a lethal strike, for she aims to gut and skewer moreso than deliver concusive damage. Against a fighter? Well... the technique has a reputation. Yamazaki may very well find himself skewered to one of those benches he rushed passed in order to deliver that boot to the chest by three strong, solid long spikes of ice.
Kain has his eyes closed as he rides atop the train, but he needs neither sight nor hearing to know that combat has commenced below. So, it looks like it's about time for him to get going. He briefly considers slamming right in through the roof of the train but discards the idea. He might damage the floor as well, which could result in something like the train derailing. Instead he walks swiftly toward the edge, then leaps over it.
Rather than plummeting, however, Kain snaps out an arm behind him, fingers digging into the metal of the train's roof as he redirects the motion of his fall, swinging himself back in toward the window feet first. If either of the fighters happen to glance in that direction they might have a split second to see Kain, before he comes crashing through in an explosion of glass, metal, plastic and black fire, taking out the window as well as a good chunk of the wall around it as he plows right through the spot where Kula is standing.
COMBATSYS: Kula successfully hits Yamazaki with Critical Ice.
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Kula 0/-------/---====|====---\-------\0 Yamazaki
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Kain 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|
For Yamazaki's part, he is not particularly quick on his feet. Oh, most fighters could run the three minute mile, that's no problem. But the issue is, stopping. When Yamazaki barrels forward, all of his weight shifts like the tide, dragging his frame across the ground to land explosively in the leather-clad assassin to knock her away with force and authority. But after transmitting that much of his momentum--well, suffice it to say, dregs still remain, and the gangster pitches forward, taking a loaded step or two to work it off, looking up slowly to catch sight of Kula's flashing mitten.
If he knew he was just homework to her, he might have giggled.
And then Yamazaki is gutted on the ends of her makeshift spear. Here's a note for her; it isn't hard to hit him, not really, when he fills up so much space. His blood flies through the air--and to tell the turth, it didn't even seem like he had a chance of moving out of the way. From the gangster's rumble as he's punctured, it doesn't even seem like he wanted to move at all.
He's pinned against the chair immediately behind him, and for a moment, his heels absently scrabble, rubbing commercial carpetting threadbare with the grind. Hand still in pocket, he grips one of the mirror sheened spikes in his hands. "Aw... you did it now," he hisses, chuckling wetly as he works to get his feet under him. He sniffs the air.
"Once I smell blood, I can't stop..I guess you're right. I don't care if you get yourself ripped in half!!!"
At about that time, Kain makes his amazing appearance, smashing through the window in a stream of black fire and making himself known by totally breaking the room open and sucking whatever remained of paper in that entire spot right out the window. This loud, it's hard to hear anything.
He sighs. "Hate chaos agents.."
But Yamazaki's voice? Yeah. It's definitely loud enough.
"Hey, prettyboy!" he howls. "Watch what you're doing! You're gonna break my toy!!"
He can't do much more than protest at the moment. Seeing as he kind of has a predicament to solve of his own. He snaps the spikes off by the ends, dislodging himself. Then he works on tearing the freezing things out of his bluing wounds, his hot blood enough to melt anything but /this/. As flesh tears, his teeth grit. As his gut convulses around the thing..
.. his heartbeat quickens.
COMBATSYS: Yamazaki focuses on his next action.
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Kula 0/-------/---====|====---\-------\0 Yamazaki
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Kain 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|
COMBATSYS: Kula dodges Kain's Strong Kick.
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Kula 0/-------/---====|====---\-------\0 Yamazaki
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Kain 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|
Her ice spears into the large man. An easy target of sorts and that suits the girl fine. Not the slightest bit queasy at tearing tendons, breaking bones, or maybe even taking out an organ with those lances of hers, she draws back quickly, her hand slipping easily out of sphere of ice to which all three sprouted an instant before, freeing herself up to move as quickly as necessary. Seperated from her touch, those peculiar ice lances remain firm, as if she needn't channel energy into them to sustain that very powerful, very sharp ice once it has been created.
She doesn't smile in the slightest as he addresses her; confirming her analysis of him. No, he doesn't care in the slightest. That wasn't just her being dramatic. She was speaking fact. Yamazaki isn't the sort to care if people die. Either is she. Usually. Don't bring up stuffed animals. Those are different.
"Ripping them out like that," she points out, "Only makes it worse." And then she is stricken deaf by a howl of wind as Kain Heinlein makes his entrance through the side of the train, robbing the passanger car of what semblence of pressure it had. No matter. It was just a matter of time before a window or three got broken anyway. Possibly with one of the combatants flying right through it. A storm of flame, whipped by the vacuum of wind created, plows toward the leather-clad NESTs operative. But there's more than one way to move about the compartment for a thing as agile as she.
When Kain sweeps in, Kula isn't there anymore. It would require scanning the ceiling of the car to locate her as she clings to the roof like a spider, small patches of ice near her feet and hands providing perfect foot and handholds for the featherweight. Long hair dangles down from her head as she peers at Kain and Yamazaki in turn from her upsidedown position.
Deciding to stay put, she pulls her right hand free, bringing it to her mouth, fingers extended toward her muscular opponent. It may look, at first, as if she intends to blow him a kiss with the way she exhales swiftly. But unless Yamazaki has come to appreciate Saint's take on 'love', this most decidedly isn't a romantic gesture as a small storm of wind and sleet explodes from her breath, picking up energy as it passes over her gloved hand. Small needles, razor edged rings, and all manner of deadly frozen matter speed toward the towering man, leaving him precious little room to move as they rip through the benches, sending foam padding flying, adding to the storm of debris of paper, blood, ice, and flames swirling throughout the cabin.
Kain may not have hit anyone on the way in, but it's no great concern. There are still plenty of opportunities. He lands smoothly, despite the now somewhat uneven flooring beneath his feet, and quickly straightens to a fully upright position. And then Yamazaki goes and gets his attention by shouting at him. Fair enough. Kain doesn't need much excuse at all to beat on someone right now. He leaps toward Yamazaki in the wake of Kula's frozen breath, leaving the girl alone... for now.
Heinlein's hands glow with a blue aura as he swings at Yamazaki, leading with a right hook to the side of the gangster's jaw, followed up with a strike from the left to the same spot. As he delivers the blow Kain shifts his posture slightly, moving his right shoulder so that he can finish the combo off by driving his right fist square into the center of Yamazaki's face.
COMBATSYS: Yamazaki endures Kain's Fierce Punch.
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Kula 0/-------/---====|=======\-------\1 Yamazaki
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Kain 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|
COMBATSYS: Yamazaki fails to interrupt Diamond Breath from Kula with Yakiire.
- Power fail! -
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Kula 0/-------/-======|=======\==-----\1 Yamazaki
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Kain 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|
Yamazaki grins, blood dripping from his teeth.
"Yeah..." he rouses at the young girl. "... I know."
Is he deliberately making it worse on himself? Yamazaki's bloodied hand yanks the last of the spires out brutally, ripping flesh that desperately wanted to stay attached to both his body and the surface of that ice. Yeah. That's more like it. Get that blood flowing...
While Kula analyzed everything in pure morbid detail, Yamazaki was a little different. While she thought of things in the manner of risk vs. reward, Yamazaki thought of things in the manner of risk is reward. A fight that doesn't hurt at all? Where's that even start to get fun?! The gangster seems to slip to Kain's side as he jumps in towards him, pummelling him mercilessly across either side of his jaw, and doing Yamazaki the favor of letting him stain up those nice clean clothes of his with his blood. Still, Yamazaki stands. He moves, his body slamming this way and that.
Kain, on the other hand, clearly just wanted to beat him up.
Kula will be able to see it, clear as day.
Yamazaki is being battered towards her, and those choked spurting gasps every time Kain lands a blow seem to be all too much like wet giggles.
He thinks he's going to get up there and break her in half..
Kula's ice blast floods over him, and chilled to the bone, the iced gangster crumples just long enough for Kain to administer his brutal coup de grace--a straight blow to the face that sends Yamazaki groaning and falling back, the mountain losing his balance and smashing headfirst straight into the steel sideplates of the seating behind him. This time, he does snap an anchor bolt just before he goes down like a bag of bricks, blood arcing through the air.
Don't feel too bad though. The double-seater is ripped open where Yamazaki's skull hit it.
Groan.
His bicep twists the fabric of his muscle shirt as he gets to his feet.
Ohhhh, hahaha..
That's right. This is the feeling he was looking for.
Her exhale finishes, the gale force winds she produced only adding to the apocalyptic nightmare that the train car has become. Zipping along at deadly speeds, the windows blown out, seats ripped up, and a new arch of blood spray to add to the decorations a plenty. The icy fighter isn't so confident as to not know how close that was. Rooted as she is, she was hoping her altitude would force him to give up trying to plow through her icy breath and strike her back at such an angle. The presence of such a powerful Chaos Agent pays off to her benefit, as Yamazaki dismissed his brutal combination one strike too early and paid the price.
Drawing her now ice-encrusted glove away from her mouth, the girl pries herself free, ice cracking as she snaps loose and drops to the empty aisle between the rows, landing lightly like a cat, fingers pressing against the floor for support. Footage from this fight is likely to be reused as stock footage for harrowing train wreck accident sequences in future movies.
Most of the risidual ice left over from her attacks has begun to melt in the wake of Kain's deadly, black flames. The girl glances the European over briefly. While she has an aversion to fire, she hardly fears it. It would have rendered a rather hapless weapon against K' if molten heat was enough to rattle her composure. Her attention shifts back to Yamazaki, however. She isn't /FINISHED/ with him yet.
"It looks like you've had a bad week." she states. That eye wound. It isn't fresh, but it's definitely recent. "I'll put an end to it." she adds coolly. No mercy for an injured opponent. No drawing back her attacks to leave him unharmed. She can see that look in his eye. Even after suffering so much trauma, he's not afraid, not worried about his condition. "Your condition doesn't bother you in the slightest, does it." Maybe... maybe she can put that fear into him though. Every man has his limits. She intends to try and find his. For profiling purposes.
Striding forward to close the distance between them, both of her hands begin to glow with that persistant, white chi just churning, /begging/ to be given form and used slash, stab, skewer, and maim. The young killer isn't angry. She doesn't even dislike Yamazaki. Maybe she just doesn't know him well enough yet. She covers the last few feet with blinding speed, coming in low, only to rise up, both hands going for his neck, unleashing a punishing amount of frigid energy into him if she gets a grip. The real intent is far more malicious, however, and becomes clear as the girl kicks her foot out to the side, using the other row of benches for support as she attempts to slam Yamazaki back hard into one of the windows with the kind of force necessary to push the pane clean out of its frame. She doesn't attempt to throw him out, and indeed even getting the right leverage to do so would be difficult. But accidents DO happen...
Kain's not Kula's opponent, and he seems to be rather busy beating on Yamazaki, so surely she has nothing to fear from him, right? Right? Well, right up until Kain lets Yamazaki fall, then takes a few moments to try to shake off some of the gangster's blood. He flicks the fingers of his right hand a few times to at least get some off of his gloves. He's not in any particular rush here, since nobody's going to be attacking /him/. Well, Yamazaki might, but Kain can see him quite clearly from this angle.
He can't see Kula quite so well, but it doesn't really matter. He still knows where she is. But he lets her move past and begin her assault on Yamazaki. It's /after/ that point that Kain suddenly whips around, bringing his leg swinging up to drive his heel into the back of Kula's skull with an explosion of black fire.
COMBATSYS: Yamazaki blocks Kula's Medium Throw.
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Kula 0/-------/-======|=======\===----\1 Yamazaki
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Kain 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|
The gaping skull wounds that Yamazaki displays like so many badges are clear. Some--like the split in his forehead--are fresh, but still others, like that eye, are traumatized and gutted like old fish, dirty things that should have been infected for minimal care care long ago but just are /not/. It's like there's something foul in the gangster's blood that even germs don't care to taste.
The man's boot hits the ground right at about his ear level at around the same time his arm flexes, peeling his wet paper self off the stripped and snapped bolt in the floor, the result of Yamazaki's canine running a long furrow in the carpetting. The entire region of that floor is soaked through with the brine that he calls blood. For what it's worth, the gangster stands as if he's just had a particularly nice nap, his shoulderblades separating in a stretch that rolls right through his neck and culminates in the easy flick of a deep cut on his lip from that bolt.
The hell? "Bad week? Nah.."
Then, the little Diamond rolls up on him with purpose. He hasn't been rolled up on like that in awhile. It's a little shocking, prompting Yamazaki to bother to turn his head /all/ the way to see her with his good eye. He looks down as she strides towards him in a businesslike fashion, eager to find his limits of businesslike pain. He steps forward to meet her. Innit she cute?
The struggle is brief, but intense. Kula strangles him right there, and Yamazaki isn't silly enough to just let her try with that much, his hand snapping up to grab hers, just before that blast of energy chokes off any further attempt to say anything else as it fills the lining of his throat with pure ice, sending the one armed man right into the windowpane and knocking the thing out. The glass tumbles away into the passing void, his body tilting as he just /swallows/ the entire mass of frost in his throat mightily, owning it. Making it his.
"Like I was saying--" Yamazaki starts, gripping idly at the--he scrabbles--what--where's the train stop line? Don't all of these cars have a stop line up--what the hell kind of train is this--a handle at least?--he tilts dangerously. "--SHIT," And then his entire gansgster's mass tumbles out of the train car, head over heels. You can hear him curse more as he tumbles out into open air, gripping at the side of the passing train. There is a horrendous muffled shriek as his fingernails squeal across the metal skin of the train outside.
For a moment or two, it is silent.
Then, there was the sound of boring.
And Yamazaki reenters the train by blowing out half the wall with rippling, swirling force just bleeding off of his free fist. Blowing through the skin of the train apparently just by throwing himself at it fist-first, the gangster cuts a Yamazaki-sized hole right through the honeycomb plating of the thing. He tears through the bench that was anchored through the wall there and sends it flying in at least two seperate pieces. He hits the ground running. Over the roar of wind and paper getting sucked out of the gaping void that Yamazaki rent in the entire process, you can just barely hear him cackle.
"--I'VE HAD A DAMN GREAT WEEK!!!"
The light parts of his hair whipped and raised up on end like the fin of a great blonde shark, the gangster tears down the alley in long powerful strides. The rippling whirling energy--it's hard to call it energy or chi so much as FORCE--around his arm makes short work of any sort of impediment to his goal. Benches get ripped open. Windows get broken. Heinleins get murdered. It doesn't really matter to Yamazaki at this point. He's got a fever, and there's bright blood red targetting reticule right on Kula's pretty little inocuous face. And he's aiming all eight cylinders right at it.
She ain't gonna be very pretty for long if he hits.
COMBATSYS: Kula endures Kain's Medium Kick.
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Kula 1/------=/=======|===----\-------\0 Yamazaki
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Kain 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|
COMBATSYS: Kula reflects Yondan Drill from Yamazaki with Diamond Shell.
- Power hit! -
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Kula 1/------=/=======|=====--\-------\0 Yamazaki
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Kain 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|
She has him in her grip. She's killed people with that hold. Gripping someone too weak to pry her leather gloved hands from off their neck, extinguishing their existence, smothering their entire face in a mask of cold, unfeeling ice. That isn't what she's trying to do to Yamazaki. But it doesn't mean she's skitish about an accidental death here or there. Frozen matter attempts to cake /his/ head over, remove his ability to breath and fight all at once. This is homework. Chores. If she does good, she gets a pat on the head when it's all done. Maybe even a lollipop if it isn't too inconvenient for her handlers to provide it. No... this is an assignment, and the faster she gets it over, the sooner she can ensure that this madman doesn't go and redecorate her face to look like his mangled mug.
The assault comes to an end as the unexpected happens, however. Off balance, reaching for a brake line perhaps, the much larger fighter breaks free of the waifishly thin thing and tumbles right the hell out of the compartment. Immediately Kula draws back a step. "...oops." She's been told not to kill people in her SNFs. It might get her banned. And that would deny her handlers the ability to throw her into this ridiculous matches time and time again to figure out what kind of training refinements she might need. She's going to have to come up with an excuse. 'Uh, I was trying to pull him back in from falling out.' seems like it might not be very convincing.
But her need to come up with an excuse for why her opponent's damn great week just came to a sudden end the moment there comes a sound of ripping metal, an entire mass of the train torn assunder to make room for the monsterous attack plowing her way. It comes like a nightmare of force, energy whipped to a frenzy, becoming something more than simply chi. It's becoming /crazed will made manifest/. And it's bearing in on her. Not just her, but her face.
Background combat algorithms get one glimpse of that murderous rampage coming toward the small fighter and immediately declare things to be in a state of emergency. The force present may very well cave in her skull and put an end to the being named Kula Diamond. This condition means only two possible options. Either she blows the whole car to kingdom come with a violent unleashing of chi, wind, ice - a point blank blizzard the likes of which she rarely manifests. Or she activates her most defensive technique to try and survive.
Self-preservation instincts recommend the latter, forwarding the message on to her mind, dictating an instant response in the miniscule time remaining. All of that lingering ice laying around vaporizes in an instant, drawn back toward the figure of Kula as she begins to curl forward, folding her arms over her torso, scrunching down, knees bent. The absorbed energy joins with even more chi that rapidly crystalizes into a sheen of thick ice surrounding the girl on every surface. Three inches thick, it absorbs the worst of Kain's incoming attack, his foot smacking against the back of the girl's head, only to crack the ice there and send some of it falling to the ground.
The act of breaking that shell seems to serve as the catalyst needed to unleash it all, however, at point blank range just as Yamazaki reaches her. Unfurling from her huddled posture, Kula rises to standing, arms extending out to her sides, fingers splayed, head leaning back. But Yamazaki won't even see that, perhaps. For before she's even standing, the entirety of that defensive shell explodes out violently from her, sending savage ice flying into his attack, dispersing all the power meant to crush her bones harmlessly around her.
The force is enough to blow the already damaged roof clean open, shatter the remaining windows, and create a vacuum of air in the passanger car for a moment before the wind rushes in to replace it. Slowly NESTs little doll lowers her arms to rest against her sides, releasing a sigh. In her mind, several combat routine flags flip back to condition green: survival seems to ha
have been secured against all odds.
Survival against all odds... but have all the variables been accounted for? Yamazaki hasn't hit the floor just yet, so the fight isn't over as far as Kain is concerned. And that means he still has an opportunity to strike Kula again. And, after all, Yamazaki is just batshit crazy. He can probably get back up and try to kill someone without even being concious.
Once more Kain comes at Kula from behind, but this time he moves in closer, spinning around as he does so. He ducks slightly, then surges upward as he strikes out with one foot at a sharp upward angle in an attempt to slam a flaming kick between the NESTS girl's shoulder blades. Will the explosive blast be enough to send her flying through the hole she herself made in the roof?
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Kula 0/-------/-------|=====--\-------\0 Yamazaki
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Kain 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|
Yamazaki is briefly... flabbergasted. There's really no other word to describe his state of absolute shock and dismay at the inexcusable lack of bleeding his opponent is currently doing. Yamazaki had plans involving her head and an improvised spit. He had plans!! She just seemed a little too fast, a little too clever. There was a lot of fight left in her and Yamazaki couldn't do a whole lot about it.
The moment replays in utter and vivid clarity a thousand times in the gaping chaotic expanse that is the inside of Yamazaki's skull, a thousand times over. He barrels through the way, and not Hell or High Water is going to stop him from turning her face into so much soft serve ice cream to serve to the kiddies after suppertime. That whirling mass of terror that is his fist stabs out like a spear. But it collides. Not with something tangible--the dreaded arrays punch that made him feared even in the dirtiest and lawless bowels of the city of Southtown was excellent at simply boring through any obstacle on its way to its target. It simply can't stop unless it tastes blood. No, his arm and the frenzied train of destruction it bears is bound tight in a wave of frost. Ice rocks the size of small bricks cling to his bicep. Wings of frost are sucked into that drill and threshed, jamming the small slicing grooves of force with slush. His body is pounded mercilessly with deadly concussive shards, slicing his muscle shirt open where the prior impalements failed to do so before, rocking his momentum to a standstill.
It has a chilling effect on his attack.
At this point, he looks at Kula as if she were a large juicy steak hung just out of his reach--inaccessable to the very large dog chained to the post. What's worse is, he hasn't even had the chance to get his hands on her. The first hit simply escaping his memory, he just knows he is simply unsatisfied with this much. The blood he smells--the bleeding that's being done--is mostly his, and Kain is meting out most of the punishment here. Oh. /Oh/. To hell with that.
More than anything else.
More than losing.
He /hates/ that!!
Kula relaxes as Yamazaki takes a step back, shocked more by the lack of killing that's going on than the fact his eye weeps blood openly now in biting winds and the roar of man against nature in the 200mph rush of force. More than the pain that blooms over every bruised aspect of his body. She sighs. Like she might be starting to relax. Like it's over--like he's down. Harmless. That makes him mad. Blood spurts from every wound as he howls loud and long.
"Nobody.. and I mean /nobody/... relaxes while I'm around!!!"
Every piece of ice cut into his arm cracks and shatters with the force of Yamazaki's rage. He grips his bicep with his free hand, finally slid out of his pocket and exerting crushing, snapping force on tendons that were still new and raw with his bandaged hand. His heartbeat cause his vision to pulse and blur with every hammering thump in his chest, every line of sinew standing out over his tripped up and bloodslicked shirt. The hand that he reserves for maiming his opponents is locked into a savage claw as Yamazaki finally bothers to really, /really/ exert himself seriously.
There is a high pitched whine in the air.
You can't hear it well over the din, but it's there. And it's getting louder. It's the gangster's rage, flicking at the bared steel in the gutted and torn open train car, power whirling around that claw once again as he shuts his hand into a fist. He hates it. He hates it. Not at all... He can't stand it!!!
Yamazaki grins wide.
"NOBODY!!!"
No matter what Kain does, Yamazaki's had just about enough of him playing with /his/ toy. Leaping low into the air, his fist's aura carving fine shavings out of the precious little steel in the remaining roof, cutting into it with a million dull razors. Accompanied by the earsplitting shriek of steel being ground off layer by layer, Yamazaki is going to land on Kula like an avalanche. Fist first. Even if he has to take her out of Kain's nice trajectory with his fist, he doesn't even care. His vision darkening, he only has one thought. She can't escape. It'll work!! NO ONE FIGHTS HIM AND DOESN'T BLEED. He'll drill her again and again and again and again and again until it goddamn works--he's gonna tear a hole right through her and bore right through the floor--he'll punch her *through* the floor and flip this entire ride with a body jammed in the rail if he has to!! SHE'LL BLEED IF HE HAS TO KILL HER AND EAT THE LEATHER OFF--
... er. sorry.
He rips the post right out of the ground.
See? Teasing Yamazaki is bad.
Let's go again. And again. And again...
COMBATSYS: Yamazaki can no longer fight.
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Kula 0/-------/-------|>>>>>>>\>>>>>>>\2 Kain
COMBATSYS: Kain successfully hits Kula with Schwarze Lanze.
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Kula 0/-------/---====|>>>>>>>\>>>>>>>\2 Kain
COMBATSYS: Kula blocks Yamazaki's Yondan Drill.
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Kula 0/-------/-======|>>>>>>>\>>>>>>>\2 Kain
As all that damage flies back at Yamazaki, pelting him with bricks of ice, caking him in a thick layer of bloodied slush, that young girl stares back at him as if he's a finished deal. She knows the furious force unleashed by her emergency failsafe option. Sure some of that was mitigated by the raw energy the exploding shell of ice had to pass through. But Yamazaki has other thoughts. Oh... yes he does.
Crimson eyes narrow, as if the girl is just a little annoyed by the way he persists in making this go longer. Hasn't she already demonstrated her superior technical skill? Hasn't she already rebuffed his compartment wrecking death drill, left unscathed but for the effort poured into her defense? How can he insist that there is more to be done here? That's right about the time that several warning bells go off in her head. A surge of chi is detected behind her. Kain... Kain is still on the move. And she needs to turn around and face him and deal with whatever pain he has in mind for her. Only... She can't look away.
Mesmorized by the frenzy the towering menace is beginning to build up, she can't help but stare, eyes widening just slightly. Annoyance bleeds away into an adrenaline powered rush as Yamazaki's status is deemed to most definitely be Not Finished. Her relaxing seemed only to whip him up into a furious rage. A grinning... furious rage. Her passive profiling skips a beat, rewinds, then tries to re-factor this new development... And all those red alerts go off a second time.
Only, she doesn't have the strength to power another flawless shell of defense. There's just no time to build into that. Not with the sound of that drill winding up again. He roars, leaping in time with Kain's rising flame-wreathed kick. She can't focus on it though. Not with that drill. It demands her attention. Yamazaki's plans must be stopped. All of her instincts point to the same outcome should she fail. He intends to shatter her. Taking her breath in, she backs up a step, right into that rising kick.
It connects with the force necessary to throw her into the air, her ragdolling body easy pickings for Yamazaki to rip right down, smashing the girl against the narrow floor, black flames recoiling off her form as her own inner aura fights them off with all the strength she can muster. It's stunning, the combination of flame, being kicked hard, and slammed right back down. But her recovery is oh so critically fast, all the sirens in her head screaming for her to move and defend herself from that pool that comes crashing donw.
Panicked, both hands raise quickly, creating a thick barrier of ice as she lies on her back. The drill covered fist tears into that barrier as she pours all her remaining reserves into maintaining it. Brittle ice, strong as diamonds, sits between her and Yamazaki, the girl pinned to the floor beneath his plowing force. The ice begins to crack, spiderweb crevices and deep groves formed in its surface as Yamazaki's fist seems intent to literally /CHISEL/ its way right through her defense.
She pours more energy into her defense, hoping to fend him off until he relents, only to decide that he isn't going to before her guard fails. Breathing in, she releases her hands from the ice, just as that shrieking corkscrew of destruction breaks through and folds her arms over her torso. It drills into her just as ice begins to solidify beneath her, rendering the floor slick against her back. Frictionless, the girl is at last able to slip to the side, out of the path of that destructive power, leaving Yamazaki's malevolence to be carried out upon the ice covered floor rather than boring out her chest cavity.
Rolling into low crouch, the girl lowers her arms, smoke rising up off her sleeves. The leather has been dug straight through, and even the black body suit worn beneath has a hole on each arm where the drill bit dug, exposing her flesh, red and raw, but not bleeding. Not this time. Crimson eyes stare back at Yamazaki, considering him a valid threat until she sees proof to the contrary now, rubbing her hands along her arms, putting out the smoldering burning leather and leaving a thin coating of ice to cool her burned arms.
Behind the safety of cameras and monitors, remote NESTs scientists continue scribling notes furiously. They wanted to learn about Southtown Syndicate's hound, and this fight was their shot. Whispered voices murmur as they argue back and forth amongst themselves. One comments that a least their project wasn't lost in the battle, but the statement barely provokes a faint nod from the others. 'Yeah, that's nice. Anyway...'
An assessment is determined and the lone clerk left in the office as the rest shuffle out types away at a form left prominent on his terminal screen. A specific field, highlighted in red, is the last one he enters as he gets to his feet and heads off to lunch break. The field name: Threat Assessment. The text, the blinking cursor left to linger next to the final 'E' in the one word declaration:
SEVERE
Back on the car rushing along a mountain pass, her long hair whipped about her shoulders, her leather body armor covered with drying blood, the young NESTs operative stares back at the predator. She had in fact relaxed her guard too early. And she almost paid a severe price for that oversight. A lesson learned for future reference. She suspects she hasn't seen the last of Ryuji Yamazaki.
Log created on 19:51:37 09/13/2008 by Kula, and last modified on 14:50:29 09/16/2008.