Description: Serving as a scout for the beleaguered Southtown Syndicate, Ayame catches sight of a Shadaloo troop transport dropping Ichiro off near Taiyo High. Closer investigations gives her a glimpse into just how far the war machine invading Southtown is willing to go and what price they will extract from their victims.
The inside of the armored personnel carrier would have been pitch black if not for the warm golden energy radiating from otherwise barren left eye socket of the vehicle's lone passenger. The young man sits quietly in the near darkness as the APC skids to a stop, remaining seated for a moment as the rear door lock disengages with a loud click. The shimmering golden flame dances for a moment in the darkness as the man's vision floats over to the exit and he smoothly rises from the bench seat and opens the door leaving the vehicle behind him. Blinking sharply and holding up a hand in the face of the day's waning light, the young man known as Ichiro Oe squints his one good eye as it adjusts to the relative brightness. "Feh," the teen snorts derisively as he takes note of his familiar surroundings just as the APC's engine roars to life and it speeds down the street away from Taiyo High.
"What a dump," Ichiro growls with a sneer as he surveys the school and surrounding city. "There won't be anything worth missing after Shadaloo wipes this city off of the map," he adds with a dark chuckle as a few students who were brave enough to travel the streets of the war-torn city attempt to run past him before they attract his notice. There is not a flicker of recognition from the students as they flee from their peer's sight; though they aren't really to blame. Oe almost looks like an entirely different person than he did a mere week ago. His once short spiked hair is now buzzed down near his scalp. A myriad of tiny scars crisscross the teen's brow and cheeks; not to mention a large clean scar that runs from the middle of his left eyebrow down to his cheekbone, passing through the eye socket that would be empty if not for the eerie golden glow. Almost as strange as his physical appearance are his clothing and equipment. Instead of his usual lacrosse stick he is carrying a wicked looking short spear that appears to be forged from a single piece of meal, and instead of his normal sporting gear the Japanese teen is some sort of black paramilitary uniform with metal shoulder pads and boots. The only symbol that adorns his jacket is a silver pin in the shape of a winged skull on his breast. "That's right, run you cowards!" Ichiro calls out after the students with sadistic glee. "You aren't even worth my time... I feel like destroying something beautiful," he utters to himself darkly.
The war on Southtown has been profitable for Ayame. Working for the Syndicate as it tries to cover as much of the city as possible has been earning her a nice income throughout the duration of it. Avoiding conflicts, she's worked from the sidelines rather than sticking her neck out. At the end of the day, she doesn't particularly care what happens to Southtown. There's other places to call home in the world and if this one doesn't suit her needs after the war ends she'll part company with it without a second thought.
From the shadows, the girl has provided a stream of reconnaissance back to the Syndicate headquarters. What they do with the information isn't her concern as long as they keep paying. Playing messanger to concacts in the field is about as risky as Ayame has played it thus far, and she hasn't made any plans to change that. And when that armored transport pulls around a corner, ripping the rear bumper off a hastily abandoned car that's been left there for weeks now, the girl takes notice but otherwise doesn't budge from her perch on a rusted fire escape affixed to a neighboring building.
Binoculars, a small netbook for writing memos and occasionally sending them when the connection holds up, and a small lunch box are her tools for the trade for the time being. Sitting Indian-style, the spyglasses to her face, she idly observes the vehicle pull into view. It's hardly a stealthy entrance after all. "Hm, hm." Is Taiyo about to face a large scale assault? There had been no rumors on the streets about an impending attack. None of her contacts or contact's contacts had given her any warning of this. "Tch." Geese is going to be annoyed. Another High School falling without any advanced warning at all is a bad hit for the defense, which means a bad hit on her current source of income.
But the vehicle isn't a precursor to a parade of tanks and troop transports. And when it rolls away, it's left not an elite unit of dangerous fighters or soldiers but a single young man. Leaning forward, she brings the field glasses to bear on the only person who remains. A lone soldier? He looks young, but that's not unusual. Famous are the teen girls employed by Shadaloo or the deadly assassins that answer to Igniz. But there's a familiarity about the young man that tugs at the edges of Ayame's memory.
A closer look is needed and seconds later, her little spot on the fire escape has been evacuated. She exits from an alleyway behind the new arrival a little ways off before approaching slowly, a camera bag slung over her shoulder where her supplies are now situated. It's his voice that triggers her memory moreso than his appearance as he shouts after the students moving away from the boy. Sharp as her memories are, she would have identified him instantly if he looked anything like their last encounter.
As it is, it comes to her slower than she would have expected. "Ichiro Oe...?" Taiyo High's Lacrosse team captain. Their locker room shenanigans would've brought a impish grin to her lips but for the decidedly unhumoring appearance he bears. Eyes give him what looks to be a cursory inspection from head to toe, but in truth she's recording his appearance down to every last detail. The scars, the emblem identifying him as Shadaloo's, and the garish cut across his eye. She, on the other hand, doesn't look like a soldier at all. Clad in her usual array of gaudy colors and daring outfits, she seems as carefree as she's ever been but for the guarded tone in her voice.
She's quiet a moment, her mind tasked with thinking back on any details that might have reached her ears with regards to the young man in the prior weeks but she comes up dry. He's been mostly off the radar or if someone knew something about him, they've neglected to tell her. A smile that looks natural even if it is quite forced graces her expression after a second. "Interesting career shift. Not one I would've predicted..." She's pretty good with profiling people. Her predictions are not usually so far off the mark. The teen girl glances around her with some show of caution, "I would have guessed that you were unwillingly drafted into this, but were that the case, you wouldn't have been left free here, so that must not be it..."
Spinning on the heels of his metal-clad boots as he hears a voice to his rear, Oe crouches slightly and his grip on the 3.5 foot metal spear shifts so that its haft runs along his forearm with the jagged spearhead points behind him. The fire in Ichiro's left eye socket flares dangerously as his body tenses in preparation for battle, sending a tongue of golden energy washing over the ridge of his brow. "Ahh..." Ichiro grins wickedly as his eyes pour over Ayame hungrily, his gaze just as dedicated as the girl's own, though his focus seems to savor the more... lascivious details the girl's form has to offer. "I remember you... Ayame," the young man drawls lazily, his mouth seeming to savor taste of her name on his lips. Flashes of their previous encounters flicker through Ichiro's head, the memories hazy with the oppressive crimson fog that has pounded in Ichiro's head since he emerged from SIN's laboratories deep in the bowels of Gedo High. Straightening out of his half crouch, Ichiro takes a few languid steps toward the girl as he continues to drink her in.
"I've always wanted you, you know... since we met in that locker room," Ichiro informs her with a predatory smirk. The young man's words brim over with confidence and single-minded focus as he speaks. "Though there was... something about you that turned me off... something that was hard to ignore," he adds as he walks closer to Ayame, his voice trailing off curiously as his abused mind tries to grasp for what he found so distasteful about Ayame during their previous encounters. "...but it is so easy now. Everything is... and now you're coming with me!" Ichiro announces absolutely as he surges forward and attempts to grab Ayame around the wrist as if he were going to lead her off to a dark corner of his choosing and she were powerless to resist.
At a glance, she seems unarmed. Those who have dealt with her in the past would know better, of course. Her right hand goes to rest at her hip as she stares back. Doe brown eyes peek out from behind strawberry-blonde bangs as she continues to try and puzzle out the sight before her. He recognizes her in return, which leads her to rule out some kind of amnesia explaining this strange scenario. In spite the composed front she maintains, the fire in his left eye gives her the creeps. Moreso than just about anything she can recall since the Devil of Koga personally tried to kill her a month ago.
"Yeah, eh heh," she replies as he says he remembers her, her left hand lifting to brush a length of her hair back over her shoulder. "Sorry about the pool hall incident. No hard feelings, right?" He moves differently than she remembers. His tone is different. No. /Everything/ is different. The scout takes a step back as he starts to approach, but otherwise recoils no further. "Have you now..." Wanted her? That's usually the effect she's going for when stringing people along, so it isn't entirely surprising.
"It might've been me trying to beat you up for interfering in a small con I was running." she replies, taking another step backward, the camera bag over her shoulder shuffling with the rustle of metallic objects ringing against each other within. "Just a guess." she continues. The hell is going on here, her mind wonders, trying to make sense of it all. She should have stayed at a distance and watched to see things play out from the safety afforded by such. But... her information would have been too incomplete then to be useful, so that wouldn't do.
"Hey now," Ayame replies, eyes widened slightly as he lunges, "That's my line!" She's fast, acting on reflex more than preplanning, and as the changed young man reaches for her wrist, she snaps her arm back just out of range before attempting the same thing right back on him. It would all happen in a blink if she got a tight enough hold, stepping forward, attempting to sidestep around the side opposite of his spear and yank his gripped arm up into a quick hammerlock. Should she get into position, her leg will go for a quick sweep, kicking the back one of Ichiro's legs in one pass, then swinging back to kick his shin hard enough to possibly finish sweeping him right to street in a very efficient takedown that might leave him face down. "So what happened to you anyway?" she asks mid-step. "You know - the eye thing; the energy..."
COMBATSYS: Ayame has started a fight here.
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Ayame 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Ichiro has joined the fight here.
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Ichiro 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Ayame
COMBATSYS: Ayame successfully hits Ichiro with Random Combo.
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Ichiro 0/-------/-----==|-------\-------\0 Ayame
"Hmm... playing hard to get," Ichiro growls as his grasp is evaded. The stuff about the pool hall, her con, these subjects pass by without a second thought. Oe is focused on a goal; everything else is unimportant. The teen seems slightly taken aback though as his own arm is grabbed and twisted into a hammerlock a split second before his knee is bent and he is swept prone to the ground. It's almost as if he didn't expect her to fight back against him.
"NO!" Oe bellows as he rolls unto his back and smoothly kip-ups to his feet. "I have always been like this!" he states forcefully, though it almost seems as if he is reassuring himself instead of correcting Ayame. The teen's left hand drifts up to his head and grips at his prickly scalp as he starts to tremble and boil over with rage. "YOU SHOULD HAVE COME WITH ME!" Ichiro roars at Ayame and points his spear at her, the fire in his eye focusing and growing in intensity as it jets from his eye socket like a golden blowtorch.
The spearpoint dips slightly as Ichiro's knees bend into a crouch and he dashes toward he at an unnatural speed that seem to make his body blur. As he closes in on the girl Ichiro's left hand shoots up toward Ayame's neck as he attempts to grab her around the throat and lift her into the air and arm's length. "Now I have to kill you," the (most likely former) lacrosse star growls darkly and unless she is able to wriggle out of his grasp Ichiro will thrust his the tip of his spear toward her gut, attempting to plunge the wicked weapon into her belly before dropping her to the ground.
COMBATSYS: Ichiro successfully hits Ayame with Unsportsmanlike Conduct.
- Power hit! -
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Ichiro 0/-------/----===|==-----\-------\0 Ayame
She skips back a step as she drops him to the ground, not wanting to maintain close quarters with him as she tries to reason out what it is she's observing here. Which proves to be the prudent course, the young man back on his feet even quicker than she had anticipated. But it isn't his speed that earns her attention but his reaction. "Surely you know that isn't true," she responds, her right eyebrow arcing just slightly. He remembers her... but lacks an accurate recollection of how he used to be? Some kind of psychosis then?
She grins, turning her left shoulder toward him, taking on a slightly more defensive posture, right hand held back, keeping her camera bag out of the way. "There's plenty of evidence to the contrary. You have a public fighting record after all. You should check out the Neo League replays, the SNF DVDs... Hell," she continues to pull numbers and events from her careful attention to fighting events. "You even made it into that Strolheim tourny."
Her eyes stray to the spear in his hands. That thing means business. Getting hit by it would be a bad play on her part. "Just check the video evidence that's out there in abundance. It's hard to argue with that kind of pro-" He charges. The act alone doesn't come as a surprise but the speed of it most certainly does. Trying to avoid the spear itself, she plays into his attack, her slender neck caught easily by his hand, securing the otherwise agile girl in place as her feet leave the ground and her ability to avoid him is cut off.
She struggles, eyes widened as he positions his weapon and slams it forward. A desperate attempt to twist free has her turning slightly to the side and rather than being skewered, she's treated to a vicious gash across her stomach, the pain strangely slow to register even as she's dropped, landing on her knees, a shocked expression on her face, her arms hugging over her stomach as her mouth hangs agape.
"The hell-" Blood coats her forearms but she can't just stay put with him carrying on the way he is. Bracing for the expected pain, she pushes off the ground with her hands, springing back a couple of yards, feet sliding to a stop, given a chance to look the wound over, a grim expression on her features. "Hey, don't take it out on me, I'm just pointing out the obvious! You've changed." Her brow furrows a little, "And so has your weapon." she adds with a wince.
"Shadaloo take you in? Is that what happened? You get rounded up by them??" Energy is in abundance in the area. She can feel it. Maybe some of it is radiating off the young man standing before her. Maybe the spirit of the city has just been building up for moments like these. She doesn't know, doesn't care, a determined smile crossing her features as she begins to draw it in. Potential energy stored for further use. "I know what it's like," she continues, her voice terse as she focuses, a visible red aura swirling about her feet only to rise gradually, becoming violet then blue whisps at the level of her bare shoulders. "Waking up to a knew life. The confusion. The disconnect... Just tell me about it..."
COMBATSYS: Ayame gathers her will.
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Ichiro 0/-------/----===|======-\-------\0 Ayame
COMBATSYS: Ichiro has left the fight here.
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Ayame 0/-------/-======|
The eerie jet of golden energy continues to shoot out of Ichiro's left eye socket as he embraces the burning rage inside of him, his boundless aggression set loose on Ayame with no other focus but to maim and kill the girl. A sheen of sweat has already formed on the lacrosse player's brow and his skin appears flush, as if he has a fever; surely he isn't already tiring, the fight just begun! "NO!" Ichiro bellows as Ayame spews facts at him, his left hand clenches at his skull once more as if trying to physically dig into his brain and sort out the conflicting memories and voices in his head.
"Shut your fucking mouth!" Ichiro swears in a manor that would have been very uncharacteristic a short time ago. Leveling the spear toward Ayame's chest yet again, Ichiro closes his normal eye for a moment as he attempts to center his focus. He may be consumed by rage and aggression, but he still possesses the same drive and motivation that he has always had.
"There is no confusion," Ichiro replies steadily as his eye flutters open and stares at Ayame with renewed confidence. Lowering his spear tip as he reaches into a pocket in his black uniform pants, Ichiro draws out a small steel sphere, about an inch in diameter. A large droplet of sweat forms on the young man's brow and trickles down the left side of his face, only to evaporate in a wisp of steam as it nears his violently glowing eye socket.. Ichiro extends his left hand toward Ayame, holding the sphere in his palm for an instant before tossing the object lazily toward the girl.
"Bullet Shot!" Ichiro intones with a sneer as he raises his right arm that is holding his brutal spear a 2/3 of the way up the haft toward its jagged tip. The golden fire dies in his left eye for a moment, leaving only an empty charred socket behind as a large wave of the same golden energy rolls down the man's arm and travels down the length of his spear. The bolt of Ichiro's burning energy fires from the spear's tip and blasts the sphere mid-flight, sending it rocketing toward Ayame's chest with a fiery sheath of golden energy.
COMBATSYS: Ayame blocks Ichiro's Bullet Shot EX.
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Ichiro 0/-------/---====|=======\-------\1 Ayame
She doesn't even blink when he exclaims, demanding her to silence the flood of easily verifiable facts she tosses so casually his way. Concentrating on amplifying her own potential energy, she's mostly quiet when it comes to responding to the young man's demands. "Hn," she grunts, taking a deep breath as if inhaling the power radiating around her just waiting to be put to use. "They've done you in a bad way it seems."
He regains his composure, to a degree, but it seems to cost him. "It's not that hot out here, you know." she observes, her tone calm but forcefully so, as if she's got her mind on other things more important than the weather. "You feeling a bit fevered?" Sharp eyes shift to the sphere he palms then back to the glowing eye socket. Even she's unable to refrain from grimacing just a little at the scarred visage.
The lazy toss of the sphere has her thinking that perhaps it's a grenade or other proximity threat. Reluctant to disrupt her preparation, she hefts her camera bag up in front of her defensively, bracing for the worst. The worst, as it turns out, happens to be far more significant than a conventional weapon. Imbued with some of that violent energy he seems to be in possession of now, the sphere is sent rocketing toward the girl at blurring speed. Gripping the camera bag tightly, Ayame cringes behind it as the rocketing metal ball blasts into the canvas, cratering through it and sustaining enough force to still strike her squarely on the breastbone as it comes out the otherside.
Stumbling back a few yards, the girl drops the bag readily, trying to ignore the sound of broken glass rattling around inside. Hopefully, she muses somewhere in the back of her mind, supply replacement doesn't come out of her pay! Her left hand darts to her side for the pouch affixed to one of her multiple belts, drawing from it a half-foot tube. A spin and hydraulic hiss later, and the weapon has expanded to its full six foot length, held at a defensive angle in front of her.
"Well, seems like you don't want to tell me what happened to you. Means I'll need to take you to someone who can figure it out." The staff is twirled again, Ayame manipulating it as easily as an extention of her own body, a surge of crimson energy coursing over its surface as she at last bolts forward. "I'd say this won't hurt a bit, but..." She's upon him in an instant, spinning the weapon about, aiming to deliver four solid blows - knee, elbow, a stomach jab, and at last an angled crash into the base of the young man's neck in an attempt to shatter his balance, his guard, and send him possibly back to the ground. Each potential point of contact would be accompanied by a small explosion of that crimson energy as the Syndicate scout aims to pacify the boy!
COMBATSYS: Ichiro fails to interrupt Requiem For Fallen Blossoms from Ayame with Cross Check EX.
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Ichiro 0/-------/-======|=======\==-----\1 Ayame
Ichiro's eyes narrow dangerously as Ayame's staff extends. "No! You're not taking me anywhere!" the conflicted man cries out, his voice colored with a touch of panic as he spins his spear into a two-handed grip and charges straight at Ayame even as she strikes out at his limbs. Oe's fevered attack falls short though, as the spear catches his on his neck and sends him crashing to go the ground just as he had come close enough to Ayame to try and bowl her over with a solid strike to her head.
"Gnnnhh..." Ichiro groans as he writhes on the ground for a brief moment, his black fatigues starting to soak through with sweat. "No! I'm not done yet!" Ichiro tells the voice in his head as he quickly kip-ups back to his feet and assumes a defensive crouch, his spear drawn back diagonally across his torso and held with both hand.
By the time her combination finishes, Ayame has skidded to a stop a couple yards past Ichiro, her staff shimmering with that deep red as the energy coursing over it begins to flicker and dim. "Not done yet!?" she exclaims over her shoulder, spinning around quickly to face him again and avoiding leaving herself open to a painful follow up attack. "And what's that you need to do first?" the girl follows her exclamation up.
She glances to either side, searching up and down the street. No one else seems inclined to get in the way of this. Her eyes come to rest on Taiyo High itself before shifting back to the young man that was once the proud captain of a sports team rather than a radioactive warmonger. "Something at Taiyo? Is that it?" The corner of her mouth twists into the slightest semblence of a grin. "If you're just out to cause some trouble, why didn't you say so?"
The girl bolts forward, leaping up into a forward flip through the air, holding her staff in both hands, she descends right back down toward Ichiro with all that momentum and velocity behind her as she aims to dish out one crushing slam right to the top of his head, "We could just go do it together, hm?" The second her feet touch the ground would be when she'd spin into a sweeping follow up strike, going low to drop the young man again. "You don't have to do this by yourself if you just fill me in a little...!"
COMBATSYS: Ichiro dodges Ayame's Crushing Strike.
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Ichiro 0/-------/=======|=======\=------\1 Ayame
"Cause trouble..." Ichiro echoes curiously as sweat continues to bead up and cascade down his brow. It almost seems as if Ichiro can only focus on and process mere snippets of Ayame's words at a time; as if the battle at hand takes up most of his concentration and all other cognitive functions are secondary.
Ichiro's eyes, one natural, one preternatural track the girl into the air as she leaps, and as both the scout and her staff descend toward Ichiro, the crouched violent youth quickly blurs to his left, quickly moving himself out of range of the brutal slam. "Do it together?" Oe repeats yet again as he quickly back flips away from Ayame's sweeping strike, letting it pass beneath his metal-shod boots harmlessly. "Hmm..." the young man muses as he lands from his flip in a crouch, his spear planted against the pavement under his right hand.
"Yes," Ichiro replies as he produces another metal orb from his pocket. "...I would have liked that," he adds with a dismal frown, the calm single-minded focus of his words alluding that he is once more in control of his conflicted emotions. Lifting the metal sphere as if to study it in the light, as grimacing sneer quickly flashes over Ichiro's scarred visage as he thrusts the orb toward his fiery eye socket and jams the object into the empty cavity.
"But it is too late for that I think," he informs Ayame between gritted teeth. "HNNNN!" Ichiro growls as he clenches his eyes and seems to focus the burning violent spirit that rages inside him, causing bright golden light to stream out from his left eyelid. "BREAK SHOT!" Ichiro screams as he opens his eyes and the built up force in his eye socket sends the burning orb rocketing straight toward Ayame's torso with a booming crack as it cuts through the air.
COMBATSYS: Ayame fails to reflect Break Shot from Ichiro with Midsummer Fantasy.
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Ichiro 0/-------/=======|=======\====---\1 Ayame
He shifts from mindset to mindset, struggling between the controled, composed young man he was to the berserker the power flowing through him wants the youth to be. It makes him difficult to profile - like trying to understand the ravings of the lunic who knows not reason or logic. Anger, frustration, juxtaposed against calm, confidence. The grin that had started before widens as he seems to be giving though to playing into her game. If she could get him to drop his guard but for a moment, she might be able to subdue this new, unexplained menace.
But he'll have none of that, it seems, as he draws out another metal sphere. Only, instead of lobbing the object like last time, he literally slams it into his own face, inserting it into the socket where his eye belonged before. "What? I don't think it's too late-" she begins to retort, turning her staff to her side, extending her right hand, palm forward, not realizing that the exercise he was going through was in fact an attack in the making.
"You can cause so much more trouble with company, right?" And in response, she gets his makeshift eye shot back at her, encased in the energy concentrated in that socket of his. Recognizing the threat at last, she attempts defense, to unravel and deflect, her palm extended in feigned comfort becoming instead the medium by which her own counter attack is made manifest.
A discus of rose colored chi blossoms into the space the scalding orb travels. A perfect shield against such attacks - when her timing is quick enough. But the bulleting sphere perforates through it a split second before it would have solidified into the barrier she needed, scattering the energy uselessly in its wake as the shot itself collides with her torso with enough power to send the girl sliding back several feet before coming to a stop. A pained gasp is uttered, her right hand going to rest against the point of impact, her mouth hanging open as she struggles to regain her breath.
"Okay then." she grunts, lowering her right hand to join her left in securing a tight grip. "Okay. If this is how you want to be about it." Her feigned friendliness gives way to a more serious expression, mouth drawn into a tight lipped neutral state, eyes narrowed in focus. "I can't say it won't end poorly for you though. My way would have been easier..."
A grim mirthless smile grows on Ichiro's face as he watches the red hot orb slam into Ayame and drive her backwards. "Oh... I don't know..." the young man replies casually, his voice husky and oddly hollow as his skin grows ever more flushed and sweat sheened. "I like to work for my rewards... easy is so boring... so... painless," Oe muses darkly as he begins to spin his spear in front of his chest with both hands, it's speed smoothly rising as it's rotation causes the weapon to blur. "...don't you think?" Ichiro inquires as the light in his empty eye begins to strengthen and build until the bright, violent chi grows within the brutal young fighter and shines out of the left side of his face like a brilliant flashlight, bathing his opponent in an orange glow.
COMBATSYS: Ichiro gathers his will.
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Ichiro 1/---====/=======|=======\====---\1 Ayame
"Is that what you're doing now?" Ayame asks as she manages to get her breath back at last. "Working for your rewards?" Her fingers shift along the length of the smooth titanium polearm in her group as she persists in trying to figure the young man out. Motivations, reasons, causes. Useful information to be paid to those that keep sending her out into this risky hellhole in the first place.
"And just what you expect to get out of this in the end? Working for the very people that did this to you? Did they take your eye?" she snaps, her tone shifting toward irritable. "Did they infect you with whatever sickness you're experiencing now?" Her hands tighten as she spares a brief moment to glance around her again, keeping her distance, eyes passing over the swiftly spinning spear who's bite she already felt once before.
"Do you even have any control anymore? Does that matter to you!?" Her right hand releases her staff at last, reaching up over her shoulder to slip behind her lengthy hair and retrieve something sheathed there. When she pulls it out, it looks like a single foot long blade with a ring at the end of its handle. But as she shakes it once, three other blades rotate out around the ring to snap to ninety degree angles, revealing it to be a rather oversized throwing star.
"What good is so much power if you can't even be in charge of it, huh?!" She steps forward, leaning into the throw, her strong right arm flinging the weapon into a spinning trajectory on tract for Ichiro's chest!
COMBATSYS: Ayame successfully hits Ichiro with Thrown Weapon.
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Ichiro 1/-======/=======|=======\====---\1 Ayame
A dark glower passes over Ichiro's face as Ayame shoots question after question toward the young man. "ENOUGH!" he barks loudly with a wave of his left arm, as if trying to strike the girl's questions out of the air with the physical gesture. "You talk too much bitch!" Oe growls. It is a good thing that his mother isn't around to hear him talk to a lady like this. "I grow tired OF YOUR GAMES!" the conflicted young man shouts, his voice raising in intensity as he begins to lose control and charges toward Ayame as she produces her odd blade. Ichiro doesn't seem very concerned by the blade as he closes in on the girl, after all, his own spear has a much longer reach. As the weapon's true purpose is exposed a flash of doubt crosses Ichiro's angry visage and he is barely able to twist his body aside as the wicked projectile flies into him, slicing painful gouges across his chest. It is better than the alternative though. Staggering aside after the weapon passes by, thick crimson blood runs down his jacket and seems to sizzle strangely as it hits the air, as if the blood itself was hot.
Not wasting any time to ponder his wounds, Ichiro stashes his spear under his right arm and shoves both hands into his trouser pockets. Pulling out two more steel spheres, Ichiro holds them out in front of his chest, resting them on his open palms. "BOUNCE SHOT!!!" Ichiro bellows as a wave of golden energy flows down each arm, building on the steel balls and launching them toward Ayame at different angles. The orb in his left hand striking the sidewalk, cracking it with a loud snap and rebounding up toward Ayame's gut, the sphere in his right hand flies horizontally and strikes a nearby telephone poll where it rebounds with a spray of wooden splinters and streaks toward Ayame's side.
COMBATSYS: Ichiro successfully hits Ayame with Bounce Shot.
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Ichiro 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|=======\======-\1 Ayame
Her prattle is drown out by the volume of his shout and at last Ayame falls quiet, a faint smirk tracing her features as if irritating him to the point of exploding seems to be a part of her agenda all along. Her hand draws back after sending the spinning blades flying, having them ultimately glancing off the ex-student with a sharp gash before rattling to the ground some yards off. The boy seems to be on fire. Even his blood reacts with the caustic boil of overheated water.
Taking a step back, her right hand raises defensively, eyes narrowing slightly. "Hell." she murmurs, mind busy at work comparing the condition of the young she found to the being that stands before her now and predicting the path he's on ultimately. "Are you dying?" How can he still even be standing? Is his brain being melted beneath that shaved scalp? Her demeanor has shifted. The girl looks a touch nervous, her mouth twitching as if she struggled to keep the uncertainty in check.
"If that's what's happening here, I don't-" she continues talking as he retrieves the two spheres and grips them in his hands. "-I don't want anything to do with this." she stammers, taking a step back. She's never been part of someone dying. The entire subject distresses her to the point of avoiding the very topic, let alone the sight of it. Distracted, she only takes notice of the pressure building in his hands when it's too late. "You should get some he-"
The two spheres explode from his hands like small cannonballs. Trying to track the two at once with their indirect courses proves a bit much and rather than managing to avoid the first one she's struck hard in the stomach with enough force to crumple her slightly. The second one collides with her side, sending her careening in the opposite direction, nearly falling but for the way she jams her staff down hard against the pavement to catch herself first.
Her left hand still gripping her staff, her right hand drops to her waist. At first it seems she's merely nursing the feeling of having been sucker punched in the gut, aggrivating the wound left by his earlier use of the spear. But a soft click announces the release of the clasp of one her three belts and a split second later, she's slipped the length of it off and unfolded it into a whip of three feet in her right hand.
"So it's come to this... I only hope I don't go too far!" She's bolting forward then, on collision course with the young man. The lash of the whip to lead the way, going for his throat, would be the opening attack to yank him off balance. She wields her staff one handed with her left, aiming a helicoptering, head level horizontal swing in the first pass only to try and twist Ichiro to the ground and leave him vulnerable to a punishing smack against his upper back before she'll finally release her grip on the whip handle all together. "Stay down!!" 'I've gotta get out of here,' she tells herself in a panic. This situation is way above her pay grade!
COMBATSYS: Ichiro dodges Ayame's Manslaughter.
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Ichiro 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|======-\-------\0 Ayame
A far away look passes over Ichiro's natural eye, giving it a glassy-like sheen as his fever grows ever hotter. As the young man appears more and more consumed by his strange illness, the bright golden fire in his empty left socket grows ever more powerful. "Aren't... we all dying?" Ichiro asks suddenly, his head snapping to fix Ayame with his dual-eyed glare. There is almost a slight pleading tone that underlies his question that might be missed by the less observant; as if his question isn't entirely rhetorical.
Oe's eyes remain locked on Ayame as she pulls the whip from her waist and charges him; the feverish athlete's only initial response is an angry furrowing of his brow above his eyes. "FINE!" Ichiro announces as his free hand lances out to catch the whip in mid-flight, causing it to wrap around his forearm. Wrenching his entangled arm down to his waste as Ayame's staff streaks toward him, Ichiro tugs the handle of Ayame's whip out of her hand prematurely while spinning his back toward Ayame with the butt of his spear raised above his head to catch and deflect the horizontal strike aimed for his head.
"I do not blame you for not wanting this, if that is the case then LEAVE!" Ichiro commands Ayame as the fire in his 'eye' grows stronger, the air above his head shimmering with steam as Oe takes a step back and tosses Ayame's whip aside like so much worthless trash. "Leave before..." Ichiro pants with exhaustion and rage, "...BEFORE I FINISH YOU!" he bellows, arching his back as he roars with spittle flying from his mouth.
COMBATSYS: Ichiro gathers his will.
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Ichiro 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|======-\-------\0 Ayame
She charges, aiming to blitz him with forward momentum and a flurry of attacks from more than one direction. But he sees through the opening keystone of the combination - the lashing whip enroute for his neck - and catches it out of the air before it can seize him in any way that would be effective for Ayame's purposes. She follows up anyway, hoping that he'll be so occupied with her whip he'll not see the rest of the attack for what it is.
The ring of spear and staff colliding sends sparks raining down around the two and Ayame's weapon is rebounded back harmlessly away, her own balance thrown off by the tear of the whip from her grip. Stumbling to the side, she catches herself before going too far off course and springs back, making no attempt to recover her lashing weapon from the young man's grip.
She skips backward as she lands, buying even more distance between her and the young war torn man. And after all that - after watching his body get worse before her eyes - he still seems stronger for it. He issues a command to leave and Ayame pauses, some yards away. She's had rare flashes of courage in her life but this stand isn't about to be one of them. Not without being able to see the advantages and costs for seeing this through to the risky end.
"Maybe..." she muses, staying defensive, her staff still held in front of her. "Everyone's dying a little bit. But you seem to be in the fast lane for it." Another step back, retreating away from Taiyo proper. She leaves her camera bag. The belongings were probably destroyed by the crushing sphere that exploded into it earlier anyway. And besides, she can feel the heat of that power from even her new distance. She's not getting any closer for anything. "Good luck."
She springs back again, still not turning her back in spite having distanced herself a good ten yards now. "You're going to need it if you're going to see the end of this war play out... I hope you're stopped before you do something you'll never live down!"
The parting grim words issued, she at last turns, putting the last of her strength into a sprint in the opposite direction from him. She intends to run until she can't feel that miasmic heat anymore; run until she does the impossible and forgets that scarred, emblazoned eye in the skull of a boy her age. Geese will want to know about this one personally.
COMBATSYS: Ayame takes no action.
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Ichiro 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|======-\-------\0 Ayame
"RUN," Ichiro growls as Ayame begins her retreat. "Yes, run," he repeats as she sprints away from him, his raggedly labored breath slowing and growing more steady as the light in his left eye socket starts to die down to the cool golden glow of embers. Glancing back over his shoulder as Ayame flees from his view, shadowy figures seem to dart back into an alleyway a distance away from where the pair had been fighting. Spectators no doubt.
Oe takes a few halting steps towards Ayame's discarded blood-spattered camera bag, pausing to wipe the sweat from his face with the sleeve of his Shadaloo uniform before stooping and picking up the satchel.
"I left her leave..." Ichiro gasps to himself, his previously slowing breath starting to quicken already as he stares at the bag. "WHY DID I LET HER LEAVE?!" the rage-filled young man screams as the fire in his left eye socket redoubles in brightness. "GYAAAAAAAAA!" Oe roars, turning and kicking a public mail box that was unfortunate enough to be next to him across the road sending letters scattering in the breeze, then turning to pull the newspaper vending machine next to it off of its concrete moorings and throwing it through the window of a Taiyo High classroom. The vandalism seems to calm the apparent Shadaloo operative a bit as his breathing calms once more, that is, until he collapses to his knees and vomits a mixture of bile and blood onto the sidewalk.
"Nhhh... won't happen again..." Ichiro promises... someone as he pushes himself back up to his feet with his spear and begins walking down the road in the direction Ayame fled, picking through the broken shards of equipment in her camera bag as he trudges down the street.
COMBATSYS: Ichiro takes no action.
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Ichiro 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|======-\-------\0 Ayame
Log created on 02:31:17 04/05/2009 by Ayame, and last modified on 12:45:22 04/07/2009.