Description: Bred's trying to push some 'global warming' insurance on a helpless old woman! Our zealous evil-crushing hero, Sokaku, arrives to save the day! Hoorah!
Bred is wearing a nice suit, and carrying a briefcase with him. He approaches a house, ringing the doorbell. A little old lady comes to greet him. "Hello, ma'am," he begins, flashing her a good ol' boy grin. "My name is Bred Iron, and I'm a representative of Mutual Life Insurance. Has anyone ever told yew about the dangers of...Global warmin'?" The old lady frowns, and replies, "Why, no, young man. Is it really going to happen?" "Going to happen? Ma'am, to tell yew kindly, it's already happening. In the next year, this here whole area will be underwater. And /yew/ will be in debt." "Oh my..."
He was an old man, with an old prayer staff, an old straw hat, and old sandals. He was an old man, and he was walking down the path of Suburbia for reasons known only to him, staff clicking and clinking with each step, thump-thump-cling, thump-thump-cling, thump-thump-cling. He was an old man, and he was looking for something.
As the strange old man with his strange old hat and his hidden face passes by the young man with the briefcase, he cannot help but overhear the conversation. He stops, his staff striking the ground with a 'clink', and waits, listening to the discussion of global warming over the thick, thick bayou accent. Insurance? Global warming?
Sokaku's eyes shift towards the lad. In the old man's eyes, the salesman was all that was wrong with the modern world - soulless and mechanical, bereft of the faith that sustained the old country. He turns towards Bred, focusing his full attentions on the man.
The thick fingers slide into his pocket, drawing out a scroll and palming it in his hand. If the lad was dangerous, he would be subdued, Sokaku reasons. And besides, he couldn't allow an old woman to be scammed out of her life's savings. The world would always persist, whether mankind followed its rhythm...global warming was simply a shift in the heartbeat.
However, he does not move to act, not just yet. First, he would determine if the boy was worth his time, or simply a stern reprimanding.
Bred Iron smiles slickly, as he continues with his spiel. "In fact, Al Gore has stated that this could easily be the apocalypse. With global warming insurance, we will relocate yew to Switzerland, where the high mountains will keep yew -..." He turns around, seeing Sokaku, and blinking. The old woman slams her door shut, and Bred curses. "Aw, shit! Old man, yew just lost me a mark!" he says to Sokaku, loosening his tie in frustration.
"Perhaps," he says, his staff clinking against the ground as he stamps it once, "You should not be spreading lies to innocent old women."
He doesn't unroll the scroll, not yet. "Is this the way of the world now, then? Lies and extortion?" Sokaku heaves an enormous sigh. "I have much work to do. But you, you are a good place to start."
The old man points his staff at the boy, and the rings click and clank together with the gathering of the power of chi. "I will cleanse the evil from your soul, boy, and set your deceptions for all the world's eyes to see."
COMBATSYS: Sokaku has started a fight here.
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Sokaku 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Bred has joined the fight here.
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Sokaku 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Bred
Bred Iron laughs at this. "Yew? Yew're gonna teach /me/ a lesson, ol' man?" He reaches into his briefcase, pulling out a big bowie knife and then dropping the case. He picks his teeth with the knife, before spinning it in his hand and dropping into a fighting stance, grinning like an idiot at Sokaku as he motions him forward with his free hand. "C'mon, ol' man. Getcher beatdown!"
Sokaku simply slams his staff on the ground. The rings clink together, spreading apart from some unseen force as power grows around the old man, ringing like a bell one-two-three one-two-three rhythm as Sokaku's chi spikes. He throws the scroll into the sky, holding up two fingers. His mouth opens beneath the wide-brimmed hat, and thus begins the spell.
"Om ni ri tan so no ra ma ki bi li ma shu ra!" The intonation echoes in the air, hanging there like ominous song, and the scroll's katakana flares up, white fire burning around the elegant kanji scrawl before consuming the scroll in a burst of energy.
And that's when he appears, the second Sokaku, the spectral image of the man punching one, two, three, four, five, six, seven times, swinging his staff around into his palm and slamming it forward for Bred's stomach. It's eerie, like a ghost, but it feels quite solid and real, and it's certainly a most unusual form of attack.
And yet still a most effective one.
COMBATSYS: Bred blocks Sokaku's Makibishi Masher.
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Sokaku 0/-------/-------|=------\-------\0 Bred
Bred watches the scroll get tossed into the air with a smirk on his face, but blinks as the second Sokaku appears. "What in tarnation?!" he cries, as he narrowly blocks a blow to his stomach. "Yew're tricky, ol' man. But can yew trick yer way through a blade?!" He flings his blade at Sokaku, the bowie knife turning end over end in the air.
COMBATSYS: Sokaku reflects Arkansas Toothpick from Bred with Jashin Kon.
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Sokaku 0/-------/-----==|=------\-------\0 Bred
Sokaku snaps his hand into his belt, another scroll whirling up around him, far longer than any scroll has a right to be. His staff swings to the side, and his hat drops a bit as the energy around him spikes. "Ommm riiiii JA SHIN KON!" he intones, and the energy rolls up his scroll, burning it away.
As the scroll fades into nothingness, a creature appears in front of him, some sort of demon, or spirit, or...God only knows what. The creature snags the bowie knife out of the air, turns, and hurls it back at Bred as it, too, sinks into the blade, infusing it with an eerie gleaming chi. What sort of trickery this is is impossible to tell, but it's certainly unnerving as Sokaku draws his staff back to neutral.
COMBATSYS: Sokaku successfully hits Bred with Reflected Arkansas Toothpick.
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Sokaku 0/-------/---====|=======\-------\0 Bred
Bred blinks as the demon appears and launches his knife back at him. "Holy sh - AUGH!" The knife strikes him in the shoulder, causing him to stumble back a step. He reaches for the knife and pulls it out with a grimace, dropping it to the ground. "I'm gonna wreck yew, ol' man!" He jumps forward and grabs at Sokaku's arm, attempting to lift it up, so he can deliver a chop to his ribs. It's an old wrestling move that Bred saw on television.
COMBATSYS: Sokaku interrupts Heart Punch from Bred with Lightning Staff.
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Sokaku 0/-------/-======|=======\====---\1 Bred
Sokaku raises his staff to the sky, stamping it on the ground once. The rings flare upwards, and high in the sky, drawn by the mighty chi being wielded and the 'spells' being thrown about, stormclouds gather, spinning like a hurricane in the throes of its birth. Rain begins to fall, pelting the ground as the clouds sob at the power being expended on this poor young man, and Sokaku's hand raises to meet the boy's in a grab.
The grab is important, but not so important as the lightning striking the staff, the fury of the wind and rain and storm spent, channeled through the staff and guided by the sorceror's chi into a deadly, dangerous weapon. As Bred prepares to chop him in the stomach, Sokaku's staff whirls, smashing him in the side of the head and delivering its brutal, devestating electrical charge. As the charge is spent, the rain continues to pour, the gods in Heaven - or perhaps simply nature - begging for the evil-hunting sorceror's pity.
Bred blinks as his hand is grabbed, before he's smashed in the head by an electrically charged staff. He falls to the ground in a heap, the rain trickling down on his ruined, bloody suit. He slowly climbs back to his feet, stumbling a bit. "Jessus Christ," he mutters, as he reaches into his suit and draws a switchblade. The blade pops forth with a flick, and he stabs directly at the old man's face, attempting to mutilate him.
COMBATSYS: Bred successfully hits Sokaku with House of the Rising Sun.
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Sokaku 1/-------/=======|=------\-------\0 Bred
Sokaku lowers his face, the knife slicing across his cheek. The blood trickles down his face, but it doesn't pool, or drip in a straight line; slowly, the kanji forms, one by one, bloody marks along his dark skin, gleaming with red, energized chi. The old man's eyes, now visible for the first time, are locked on the boy's face, and the flash is terrible indeed, similar to the lightning he had shown before.
"Boy!" he shouts, his voice echoing as though he were shouting from a cave, as his hands grasp the staff and raise it to the heavens. "Now is the time of your purification! Now, I will scour the evil from your soul, with the power granted to me by the ages of the world! SKY!" He cries, and the sky answers, a ripple of thunder exploding - a perfectly natural phenomenon from the lightning strike not three seconds earlier, and probably not connected to the shout at all. "The power of the Thunder God is upon you!"
The lightning strikes him directly now, guided along once more by the chi he was channeling. It charges into Sokaku's body, into the staff, into the rings, splitting them through magnetism, through chi, through means unknown perhaps even to Sokaku. He drives it into the ground, and the explosion is incredible - electricity blasts outwards from his body, scoring the ground about him, devestating everything around him. If not for the man's intense control of the power, it would surely destroy the old woman's house and everything on the street, but somehow, Sokaku manages to keep it only where he wishes it to go. It curls upwards, about the staff, disappating into the image of a dragon returning to heaven as the thunderclap explodes behind it.
COMBATSYS: Sokaku successfully hits Bred with Thunder God EX.
?!? Weird Hit! ?!?
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Sokaku 0/-------/-------|=======\====---\1 Bred
Bred Iron is launched backwards by the explosion of thunder and electricity, his skeleton briefly visible as he's launched to the ground. Blood dripping from his mouth, he picks up the knife again, then staggers to his feet. "Yew...Yew...Yew're somethin' else, buddy." He lunges at Sokaku with his blade, attempting to sink it into the old man's ribs.
COMBATSYS: Bred has reached second wind!
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Sokaku 0/-------/-------|=------\-------\0 Bred
COMBATSYS: Sokaku interrupts House of the Rising Sun from Bred with Jashin Kon.
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Sokaku 0/-------/---====|=======\-------\0 Bred
Sokaku digs into his belt again, throwing out another scroll. "Ommmm niiiiii JASHIN KON!" he cries, and the energy flares about him once again, the knife striking against it with little harm. The old man's eyes flare once again, and he spins his staff back under his arm.
"You are a persistent boy," he says calmly. Then, there's a burst of anger. "Accept your purification! Your struggle is futile! Your resistance is pointless! I will banish the evil from your soul!"
Bred gets struck by the flare of energy, his suit ripped to tatters. His muscular, steroid-driven form exposed, he stumbles drunkenly at Sokaku, barely conscious. He punches with three fierce jabs, attempting to overwhelm Sokaku's defenses and pummel him. "Urgh..." After that, he collapses.
COMBATSYS: Bred can no longer fight.
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Sokaku 0/-------/---====|
COMBATSYS: Sokaku blocks Bred's The Big Easy.
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Sokaku 0/-------/--=====|
Sokaku isn't so easy to overwhelm. The man spins his staff effortlessly, lessening the blow from each jab, rings singing to the heavens like a spiritual bell. As the boy collapses, Sokaku stands over him, holding up two fingers.
"Your suffering is but the first step," he recites, "The evil within you is seeking to escape. Crush it within, and burn it to the ground, that you might be freed."
The old man bites his thumb, blood trickling out onto a blank charm. He holds up the charm for a moment, writing a phrase - 'Binding Evil Tight' in kanji - and plants it on Bred's head.
"Seek to abolish the evil within, and then perhaps you, too, will be powerful." And with that, the old man turns, resuming his path down the Suburbia road. The clouds still pour down, soaking Bred's form, but Sokaku is unbothered by the rain - apparently that wide hat of his also functions as an umbrella.
The old man rounds the corner, and that is that.
COMBATSYS: Sokaku has ended the fight here.
Log created on 15:18:54 11/07/2008 by Sokaku, and last modified on 16:48:17 11/07/2008.