Description: In her undying quest for knowledge to her own nefarious, or possibly just incomprehensible ends, Naerose challenges and confronts the Ansatsuken Master himself, a question and answer spar in the mall costing the intrepid reporter nothing. .... except a few memorable bruises. (Winner: Ryu)
Research was hard work. Especially when the people whom you needed to talk to were really hard to get to sit down and talk to you. Some of them you met by chance, some you stalked like a psychotic ex until they were caught unawares and some you bribed. There was however the exception, those that were so far off the grid that finding them would be near impossible. These people were topped by Ryu on the list of hard to get to. Naerose needed a plan, she needed a way to get him to talk to her without resorting to a long drawn out attempt at hunting him down at any venue she could find. Another thing that often came with research was deadlines and hers was fast approaching.
It was then during an afternoon looking on the website for Neo League participants that Naerose realized that the web applet allowed for an easy system to issue challenges to other participants... Usually she just sort of stumbled along. Better yet, Ryu was apparently signed up in the league. She doubted he checked his email often, but who knows what he carries around with him. Perhaps he had a cell phone. She didn't know, she didn't care, it was one of many attempts to contact the world warrior and as chance would have it . . . it actually worked.
Getting to Metro wasn't hard for her these days, sure it wasn't first class or even coach, but it was a ride and she wasn't going to dive further into that, instead it was that she arrived early even, with a notebook in hand, because lets face it would you like an interview with your NL fight? Yes. Yes she would. Also a significant crowd showed up. She isn't a big name, but he certainly is... The one thing that surprises her still is that he actually accepted. What a lucky day this was turning out to be.
PROTIP: It becomes harder to get people to talk to one, when one's reputation is based around being incomprehensible and hard to talk to! Of course, such whimsical rotes provide other alternatives to the would-be witch, and sometimes it's screwing with people that matters, right?
Not if you asked her opponent today, a legend in his own right. Wandering around trying to find the disciplined nomad may be a solution that works well for some people, but it could be argued that Naerose's path simply doesn't have the attunement necessary for such alignment of fates, and so trickery and fisticuffs will just have to do. Naerose is hardly an unknown commodity in the fighting world - her demonstrations have lit up many a TV set and DVD collection. Even so, the nomad is not sure about this particular conflict, but accept he does. Thankfully, Ken's people handle getting ahold of the reclusive warrior for his Neo League matchups, and while he has not made much attempt to climb that ladder in recent memory... challenges are hard to refuse! Clearly Naerose has some intent in making it, and the nomad is never one to turn down a spar.
Even if it is LIES to get a story, and serve her own nefarious ends! The Ansatsuken Master is only slightly late, having walked here barefoot from god-only-knows where. He is garbed in a rather worn-around-the-edges but clean and familiar white gi, his trademark black belt and headband fluttering as he walks out onto the concourse that has been cleared for their fight, his eyes scanning the crowd only momentarily before settling on Naerose.
A glance confirms the sense he had of her fighting, and compounds the questions of her intent in seeking him out to fight. For the moment, the Ansatsuken Master merely inclines in a respectful bow, considering. As he rights himself, he asks a single, simple yet entirely convoluted question, "What do you seek, here?" To challenge herself? Some information on him? He is relatively sure she didn't challenge him to leap higher on the points scale.
"Well.. I wish to learn," Naerose states, easily enough, because the question had a straighforward answer, though there was a plot involved. So goes on, because Ryu is already here and he can try to run away.. but Naerose has something he doesn't. A scooter. None of this is said, unless you can read it from her rather over confident smile. She speaks on,
"I'm doing some work on Chi, trying to understand it, learn more about it. I've asked some about the basic theory of Chi, one about technique of chi, one about potiental and strength. .. I think I'm missing someone who can explain... " Naerose considers, "Discipline." Yes Ryu was well enough known when it came to the matter of disicpline that she would know what to ask.
"See, I'm not doing some news paper headline for quick cash, or even trying to steal your secrets, I just want to know what your thoughts are about that particular aspect of Chi.. I don't care if you're only a student yourself, this isn't me coming to a master, as one of my previous subjects in this has stated, Everyone has a view an thoughts and I should seek to incoperate all of them - or as many as I can.. So oppinion, yours, is fine with me." Naerose lets her smile drop, to show that she is perfectly serious, then adds,
"Also, I know you're supposed to be a very talented fighter, I don't care if I don't stand a chance of winning or not, I'll let my fists do all the talking.. or in this case.." She holds up her broom, "This." The smile is back.
"So you're here, I guess that means you accept?" There are camera flashes, expecting perhaps Naerose to do something eccentric and crazy, and to see how Ryu would react. There was something unique about this match up. Nothing like it had been recorded with Naerose, perhaps her personality was to blame, but it was rare for anyone of real note to accept a meetup with her.
Straightforward, yet not. A seeming paradox to answer the initial one, Naerose's answer neither rings untrue nor illuminates the entirety of the truth, something which the gi-clad nomad is quick indeed to observe. Ryu listens as Naerose speaks, running her words back over in his head. It is a familiar pursuit, indeed there are many others in the world as well who would seek to know what this would-be witch asks. Fewer, perhaps, who would go to the lengths Nae already has in pursuing the answers, however.
"If you have studied chi, you know that it surrounds and infuses us all - and is as diverse as humanity, and the universe itself. These are questions of existence, the meaning and value of life itself. Discipline is a question of the self - one's ability to endure, to not only accept but seek hardship, to know both one's strengths and one's weaknesses. To always be able to reassess and move forward, however difficult or whatever your mis-step. Will and truth are easy things to turn outwards, into force and judgement. Instead they must be turned inward, into courage and humility."
It is a difficult solution to live by, but Ryu's take on it holds no hesitation. It is a question he himself has pondered, and indeed, lived as best he could, "The outcome depends largely on intent. Impure motivations, selfish desires do not yield ripe fruit - in life it is not the ends that are important, but the means, and the reasons for the choices we make. The end is always shifting, and the world itself cycles in balance." Perhaps he sees more in Naerose's insatiable curiousity than his own openness lets on. Perhaps he would be quite at-ease explaining this much, regardless, "But yes, I will spar with you - show me what you can do."
The other way around would just be messy.
COMBATSYS: Ryu has started a fight here.
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Ryu 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Naerose has joined the fight here.
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Naerose 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Ryu
"Interesting," Naerose states and then drops into a stance, which is pretty relaxed for a fighter. For one she's standing pretty straight back with her broom held behind her back sort of, level to the ground an just over her hips. Sort of an underhanded like sword style, only with a staff, the intent would appear to be mostly offensive in nature, she could reach out and jab with her broom or do a full swing, of which the wind up is already done for her. She adjusts her hat and shades, but starts speaking rather quickly. One hand finds her hat and reaches in, hardly a second later there is a click sound, probably she's tape recording this since a notebook won't work in a spar.
"Interesting, now why the discipline though, there has to be a reason that selfless will yield greater results than selfish, is it because the original of chi is from outside of the body and therefore requires a selflessness, or is it because to truly give it your all you need to sacrifice? Or maybe a little of both. One could argue a challenge of a stronger fighter is a sacrifice, but you state that it's the means and not the end, so putting yourself up agaisnst a challenge and enduring the challenge and pain it takes to over come is itself not enough, but only if your aim is not merely for your own good. It's kind of a bit of a paradox. At least now I think I understand why you call yourself a student.. That is , if I understood at all." The witch replies and then makes her firest attack, it's a swing around of her broom toward Ryu's ankle, but it's a feint. She actually tries to hook behind his ankle and cuse him to trip, giving a little push.
Clearly she wants this interview to continue too, her attention is very much on Ryu.
Meanwhile the audience might just be confused, this was intersting conversation to some but to many who came to see a fight and eccentrics, this was just meaningless.
COMBATSYS: Ryu blocks Naerose's Quick Throw.
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Naerose 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Ryu
Ryu eyes the broombo somewhat dubiously, not exactly threatened but certainly curious, and a little bit disturbed by the unconventional weaponry. Te attack, on the other hand, is textbook. Not to mention a demonstration of some of the principles of chi Naerose may have already uncovered. The feinting broom sweeps through his guard, settling firmly against his ankle - but as Naerose shoves forward, Ryu does not fall. He slides backwards, subtly, under the sudden pressure, his leg deflecting the hardwood stave out of the way as he re-anchors his footing, and whips a sudden, point-blank elbow forward as he steps in on Naerose, seeking to clock her squarely in the face, and follow it up with his other hand to deliver a sharp, low straight to the side of her ribcage, the impact stifled by the thick crimson sparring gloves he wears - not that the resounding, reverberatingly powerful, yet unerringly controlled force is likely to leave that as much of a comfort.
"Haaaaah!" he kiais, only then amending, "We are not islands in ourselves. I cannot tell you precisely why, or where the self's purpose becomes corrupted, or why these selfish actions invariably collapse in on themselves at both extremes, those who see only light and dark are inevitably blinded by it.. Nor do I know for certain why compassion, restraint, and humility nurture the world itself - I would postulate that we are all connected, more than we know, and that to seperate ourselves as more, or less important - as more right, or unable to accept our failings - we are no longer properly nurturing that bond, forgetting who we truly are."
COMBATSYS: Ryu successfully hits Naerose with Medium Punch.
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Naerose 0/-------/-======|=------\-------\0 Ryu
Ryu is fast and strong, but also informative. It is nice of him to wait until after his punch lands - and it lands, to talk, because even as Naerose is struggling through the pain, she still listens. Though it takes a moment before any amount of composure is gained. Then she makes her next move, trying to keep the conversation going for as long as she can.
"So in a wholistic sense, anything that benefits the whole benefits the self because they are one in the same, but attempting to benefit the self without a thought for the whole ignores the envirnment which sustains and thus hurts the self. If Chi energy can be thought of as borrowing from life.. in a sense, then you're borrowing from yourself. If that's a simplified way of what you are trying to say. "
Naerose extends her palm, a white glow explodes from it toward Ryu, whom she has managed to maintain a close proximity with.
"Explain something to me then please, you're not known for being the most social, how do you train, especially with the wholistic philosphoy and yet be so apparently isolated." Naerose asks, though the tinge to her voice makes it seem as if this is less of a question than a statement, almost as if she thinks she knows the answer. Meanwhile braces for an attack.
COMBATSYS: Ryu just-defends Naerose's End Creation!
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Naerose 0/-------/-======|=------\-------\0 Ryu
"Essentially." It's close enough, at any rate. The comprehension of intent and community is there, and not only that... Naerose demonstrates a degree of talent for this type of loan. The energy she borrows burns up the air between Ryu and Naerose in an instant, the would-be witch's blast met by bracing palms, the nomad's impressively thick musculature flexing mightly behind the sudden opposing shove. It is a measure to test her strength, as much as defend himself - but it winds up being rather impressive in its own right. A crackle of seemingly electrical energy courses in a potent fluctuation up those powerful arms, his centered chi coursing through his hands, into his very fingertips, the white hot burst released by the would-be witch coursing solidly into the polarized guard - and erupting outwards, a wild flare of brilliant luminescense that explodes with the brilliants of a firework show finale, shoved clear of the Ansatsuken Master as if by will alone.
"It is not the ambition, the worldly achievement, or the location one is in, but what one does where one is. What men see as their greatest, or most meaningless accomplishment is not measured in 80-year lifespans by anyone but like-minded creatures living the same life. I do not need to lead a nation to leave the mark I speak of - to stand at the head of a vigilante group, to elevate my goals, or one particular goal... would lessen the contribution, by my own estimation."
Always ready to act - yet slow to crusade. The Ansatsuken Wanderer certainly has a reputation as a champion for the downtrodden - but it is not focused, as are many 'heroes' in their pursuits. To him, everyone deserves the same. Naerose will not have a great deal of time to ponder this, however, as the nomad steps in and seeks to find a secure grip on her wrist. He would abruptly clench several key nerve clusters, and step around behind her, rotating that arm painfully.
For the instant it would take to kick her ankles out from under her, with the intent of dropping her harshly to her back as her arm is released post-leverage.
"Hhhh....yaaah!"
COMBATSYS: Ryu successfully hits Naerose with Medium Throw.
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Naerose 1/--=====/=======|==-----\-------\0 Ryu
With her wrist grabbed and body flung, there was no need to beat around the bushes, the attack in essence is simple but sometimes this sort of thing can cause problems. Simple is easy to execute. She would apreciate the art of it, if she wasn't being flung and even then only maybe.
% r "Ooof, " Naerose grunts and then starts to dust herself off. Well no need to beat around the bush.
"It sounds to me that you're kind of saying that in a way it's a way of life.." The witch suggests, "Gathering, using, and maybe returning chi is an inward journey but it isn't a selfish one. I'm not really sure how best to word it. What is the purpose of it though? In a sense are you bettering yourself? Bettering yourself for the world around you? " Naerose lifts a brow and then draws a circle on the ground with her broom, expertly making littly glyphs, the sort of thing she's probably practiced. Under most circumstances she would of had words to throw out with her attacks, this one too, but she doesn't bother, perhaps affecting her ability to focus or perhaps pointing out that they arn't entirely necessary to beigin with. She's still talking when she finishes preparing the attack.
"I mean, if the journey isn't a selfish one, but it is ultimately bettering yourself, for the world around you what is the point of the journey? Not power, knowledge perhaps? " The witch adjusts her shades as the attack starts happening. Wisps of energy rain down like falling stars, mainly trying to hit Ryu.
COMBATSYS: Naerose successfully hits Ryu with Star Fall.
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Naerose 0/-------/-----==|====---\-------\0 Ryu
"We are all different, it is in our diversity that greater strength and insight is forged. I train because I am a warrior. While we all choose our own paths, part of that is discovery of ourselves. What we can offer, what truths we can find. What we make of the world while we are here. There are many ways to do so, and do so well."
As diverse as the beings inhabiting it really. Ryu isn't about to argue that his course is the one true way - that would simply defeat the purpose of living as he does, "From my perspective, we should always seek to better ourselves, to act in accord with our surroundings and our spirits. To learn and grow as best we can. The world is far from perfect - this was never meant to be an easy process, I believe."
Battered or no, the witch picks herself up, and demonstrates power of her own. The rain of energy catches Ryu by surprise, the nomad swiftly sidestepping in a graceful slide one way, only to be clipped by the second in the sequence of wispy bursts, the painful hail battering him to his knees, one palm pressed firmly into the grass, the Wanderer taking a moment to shake off the stinging impacts, and raise his eyes back to Naerose, "Power for its own sake is worthless. Many make their life's work the accumulation of power, to whatever end is set in their own mind. One must seek... understanding. The learned can be distracted from this, as easily as the ignorant."
"With understanding, comdemnation becomes sympathy. Hatred, brotherhood." There but for the grace of god....
The nomad's hands sweep forward as he rises, focusing his own will and conjuring a potent burst of brilliant blue-white chi from that untappable well of spirit he speaks of. It courses through him, around him, boiling in an instant and coalescing densely, flames pouring from his hands and swirling together into a searing blast that races for Naerose in the blink of an eye, echoed by the incanation, "HADOOOUKEN!!"
COMBATSYS: Ryu successfully hits Naerose with Hadouken.
Glancing Blow
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Naerose 0/-------/--=====|======-\-------\0 Ryu
"Discipline -
Naerose coughs a little, starting to feel the drain of the fighting,
"To do something that isn't something you want to do..? Somethign that will hurt and somehow that makes you better? Strength comes not necessarily to those who seek it but as a consequence of training and integrity.. It seems as if you would say that the acquisition of energy, or borrowing is really a matter of.. perfecting the self.. not so much like working out, brute force to accomplish more brute force. Like meditating to experience the breeze. But why does life let others borrow it, is it a matter of taking what you need, like picking fruit from a tree, but not taking too much and planting the seed to help the tree, or is it like just experiencing the wind blow and letting it cool you off on a hot day." Then Ryu shouts Hadouken. Naerose knew Sakura, she knew that attack, she even says, "I know that attack!" and gets on her broom. It holds her weight enough to let her rocket off, attempting to make a path OVER the ball of energy and into Ryu, though she grazes against the top of the attack, slowing her progress, causing her to lose some of her direction. Naeroes brings her arms up to try and avoid crashing too crazy like into the world warrior but there isn't a lot she can do.
"And then there is chance.." she states before deciding to go with the flow and lean into it, turning the crash landing into a full on frontal assault.
COMBATSYS: Ryu interrupts Delphine Charge from Naerose with Fierce Punch.
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Naerose 1/-======/=======|=======\-------\1 Ryu
The sudden surge of pure spirit is elemental purity at its, well, most pure. The deceptively simple Hadouken hurtles forward, and Naerose in turn hurtles forward over /it/. "It is important to be sensitive to one's surroundings, and the situation itself, yes." Ryu confirms, more or less agreeing with the assessment Naerose makes. He has little time to ponder it, however, as Naerose crash-lands and barrels onward, charging full bore for the Ansatsuken Master. .... more specifically, into his fist.
The trainwreck sees the man known only as Ryu profoundly imposing his momentum over Naerose's, tucking into a crouch and expanding out of it like a hand grenade. His right fist rises, and the simple motion of standing becomes a missile, his uppercutting fist cracking loudly into the would-be witch's jaw, and rather abruptly putting a stop to her all-out assault with an echoing "HAAAAAH!!!"
Why does the universe allow 'bad' things to happen? 'Bad' people to exert their will, "As I said, no person is more inherently worthy than the other, and nature has an entirely different scale with which to balance itself. When good is abstracted, evil has been implied." He follows with a calmly spoken, quoted verse, "The sage experiences without abstraction, and accomplishes without action; He accepts the ebb and flow of things, nurtures them, but does not own them, and lives, but does not dwell." A momentary pause, and the only amendment offered is, "To chalk up your situation to blind chance is to miss that flow."
The point was well made even if it wasn't fully understood. Naerose being struck while not actually touching the ground meant that she could get herself flung easily, there was just nothign to hold onto and she ends up landing quite some distance away. She's left with one more thing left in her boom really.
"Accept luck.." cough, "but don't rely on it huh." she accepts this more or less and gives a nod, her hat now quite astray on her head flops forward a bit, but the reflection of her black shades is still clearly visible in the shadow.
"Oh..kay." She says and then drags her finger over the glyphs still in the ground. Chances weren't great for using the exact same attack twice.. so in a moment of indecision she puts her pent up energy into either hand, a white glow like the earlier attack forming but this time double as much of it and then clapping her hands together she manages to launch it off in an attack.
"En Criento En!" she cries and the swilling mass of energy goes off toward Ryu in the way you might expect an unfocused person might hurl something at someone else. Not as hard and fast as it could be, or as well aimed. Most of the effort of getting out of the way was likely already done for Ryu, but there was always that chance.
COMBATSYS: Naerose can no longer fight.
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Ryu 1/------=/=======|
COMBATSYS: Ryu dodges Naerose's End Creation End.
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Ryu 1/------=/=======|
"Look beyond it." Ryu answers simply, though perhaps no more informatively. His eyes are drawn to the brilliant bloom of raw power before it is even conjured into being, sensing the charge of Naerose's energy, and carefully studying its formation for the moments he has as the expansive sphere erupts and bursts towards him. As is par for the course when dealing with Creation, however, it does not end: the brilliant blast scorches through the air with impressive intensity, and Ryu rolls sidelong out of its way, seemingly at the last possible moment. He lands rolling forward on one shoulder, coming up in an even crouch a short distance away, once more looking back towards Naerose.
The would-be witch may have fallen away from her attack much like her target, but its impression was made nonetheless. The nomad simply nods slowly, respectfully, and considers the downed Nae, "You are too caught up in what or who you -should- be, to get where you wish." He concludes, though there is no condescension in the observation, "Some things must be experienced, trusted, and only grow further from our grasp when dissected."
With those final, matter-of-fact words, the nomad instead smiles, rather warmly, "You have talent, I am sure you can find your way. Thank you for the demonstration." as he tosses a wave to Naerose, along with the thanks, he begins to move off, unheeding of the crowds still, beyond sharing the same appreciative expression with those who meet his gaze.
"Man.." Naerose sys to herself, "Training under him must be really tough,." She continues to herself, but first interrupts herself by shouting, with some difficulty, being you know.. a bit out of whack,
"Hey, thanks, thanks a lot!" And there is a biiig smile as if she just pulled one over. Actually it was a mututal thing, well maybe she got more out of it than he did, but it wasn't like she was disingenious, not really anyway.
"Mmm.." she murmurs to herself, "I think.. I have all the information I need." She nods a little, seemingly content for the time being. It was by far the shortest interview, but perhaps it was the icing on the cake, the ifnishign touches to a good long bit of research. She met a lot of people, she had taken the ideas and made them seomthign of her own in her own mind, often, like this time, running her understanding by the person who said it to see if she was on the right track.. but perhaps it was time to do her own thing. The Neo League people saw some impressive stuff from Ryu, but she just wasn't in the right league to go up against him, she was however at the very least, able to show a few near attempts.. having hit him and mostly avoided another attack.. It resulted in the duration lasting just a little longer than one might of expected. It was subtle though, the observation of her ability.
"Yeah thanks." She murmurs to herself, mostly alone now, but this was nothign new. She was almost always alone, by mostly her own doing.
Log created on 12:00:48 09/25/2008 by Ryu, and last modified on 00:09:28 09/27/2008.