Description: Target: Ayame herself. Obstacle: Irritating message girl. Summary: Tasked with delivering a message to former Blackjack operative (and current freelancer) Ayame, Kurenai sets out to meet the staff-wielding thug girl after weeks of observing. But when Ayame declares that -she- has a message to deliver to Kurenai, how will the pink-haired girl take it?
Southtown has definitely seen better days. Even with the invasion at long last repelled, the place is a mess. It will take time for people to move back in and reclaim their abandoned homes, places of work, and other daily factors of life that lie mostly in ruin. The Syndicate fell, the hostile forces were chased out by a final counter attack from another direction, and the borders are once again open.
"Welcome home," Ayame mutters as she makes her way down a quiet street. The sidewalk is cracked and smashed in, powderized by passing tanks or falling bomb shells. The windows of every shop on the street are missing, reduced to shards by violence or looting mobs that took early advantage of the reign of chaos within the city. The street is near the heart of the business district. A few months ago there would be honking horns, the buzz of traffic, the flash of stoplights, and the general pandemonium of a day in one of the major commercial hubs of the world.
Right now, there's nothing. A tumbleweed would probably be rolling down the street right about now, but there's a good chance even /those/ have all been burnt to cinders at some point. Small whirls of dust gather in the doors of empty, looted shops and a single stop light, bent over such that the lights are actually on the ground, sparks and fizzles, its exposed wiring threatening to shock the first person who gets too close.
Ayame walks along the desolate sight, releasing a pent up sigh as she kicks aside a pile of months old newspaper and other wind-gathered rubbish. With the Syndicate in a stay of absolute disarray, she's certain the promisary notes given her in place of cash during her work for them aren't worth the paper they're printed on, which means all the pain, abuse, and misery she suffered the last few months was for nothing. "Oh well." the girl grunts.
It's time to figure out a new avenue for getting by and passing the time before she dies of boredom. Maybe she can follow up on a lead she has for a secretive group of reclusive ninjas and see if they're hiring... but then again, the Ryouhara probably split town if they were smart anyway. Not like a blockade would've kept them inside. "This sucks." she mutters. She felt that way when Geese Tower nearly came crashing down on her head too. She's just generally miserable all around!
It's been two weeks, at least. Feels like more. Kurenai's a good ninja, but ninjas work best in silence and quiet. Chaos can be useful, but chaos of the level that the war has brought is another beast entirely. It's quiet -now-, sure, but... man. The desolation. It makes it hard for the pink-haired girl to find places to hide, to tail Ayame. Still she manages--a good test of her ninja skills--until she's tailed Ayame to a place which really -is- rather... alone. Not even any sign of refugee action, or recent combat.
She appears from behind a wrecked half-wall, a crumbled piece of painted brick. "Looks like your side isn't doing too well," she says--pointing out the obvious, of course, as she walks towards Ayame with an almost carefree, sidling gait. As if she were just another girl--which she is, of course, really. Nevermind the wooden ruler on her back, grip-taped up. That's just a toy.
"I mean, I guess that's obvious," she says, rolling her eyes. "But it really looks like you threw in with the wrong guys. I can't imagine that the Syndicate hasn't lost a great deal of power, even if public sympathy is probably actually going to be with Mr. Howard once all this is over. After all, Shadaloo and NESTS really just kind of swept in here to blow everything away, didn't they? Been a tough fight..." The ninja looks sideways, grinning a little.
"Ayame, right? I've been looking for you. You have no idea how hard it was to track you... and I really didn't want to have to hurt any Syndicate guards just to get a couple of words with you."
Ayame seems oblivious to being tailed. It's not like there's really anyone that has any reason to come after her. Her usual alleyway scrapes and muggings have probably fallen off anyone's radar in light of the vastly more severe problems to come to roost in Southtown as of late. Which is why the typically paranoid girl is, all things considered, slightly relaxed and not all that cautious.
But the instant there's a voice, that changes, Ayame jumping as if startled, whirling around before even landing, her right hand going to her belt, fingers resting lightly where a hidden sheath keeps a closed buttefly knife at the ready. "My side?" Ayame echoes back as Kurenai first speaks up. The burst of panic passes quickly as she settles attentive, brown eyes on the other girl, her hands moving just slightly to rest at her hips. She's quiet for the rest of what the new face has to say but her eyes are busy studying her, looking at the yard stick, her clothes, her distinct pink hair, and her eyes.
"That's close enough," she notes as Kurenai draws nearer, barking the words out when she's at about six feet away. She otherwise doesn't interrupt her, head canting to the side a little. "Yeah," she confirms her name, "Who wants to know?" Her left hand lifts, brushing a length of her strawyberry-blonde hair back over her shoulder.
"As far as my side goes... I'm going to go out on a limb and assume you're good with numbers, given you've got a measuring stick strapped to your back like you're never sure when your teacher is going to give you a pop quiz on architecture. And since you're presumably good with numbers, let me introduce you to a real easy one to remember before talking to me about sides and my guys and where I've thrown in my lot, okay?"
Her right hand lifts, fingers clenched, except for her single pointing finger raised straight up. "The magic number here is one. One, as in, that's how many are on my side. As in, me, myself, and I. That's it." She lowers her hand, waving it vaguely in the process as if dismissing the subject. "You should best keep that in mind before chosing your next action. Because if you're privy to who I've been doing business with, and been following me for some time, that makes you my enemy right now until I have reason to think otherwise."
She narrows one eye thoughtfully, "So let's assume you're not the homework police. I haven't been to High School, but I'm pretty sure class isn't in session right now. So what do you want?"
Kurenai comes to a stop--just a step or two after Ayame speaks. A subtle defiance... just to show she's -not- intimidated. "Oh, I'm Takayanagi Kurenai. You can just call me Kurenai," she says, introducing herself blithely, turning to face Ayame and rocking back on her heels, her hands linked behind her back; her grip breaks and she's reaching up, over her head, stretching, left arm bent to grip her right elbow.
"Aaah... I do love a good stretch. Feels so good to work out the kinks, doesn't it?" Her voice is very youthful, of course, but there's a serious undertone to it. She's playing and she knows it. And then she affects surprise, when Ayame speaks, informing her that she is only on her own side.
"Yeah, I'm pretty good with numbers. I like 'em. They make sense. Nothin' weird like emotions to account for," she confirms, meeting Ayame's gaze guilelessly. Or so it seems, anyways.
"But correct me if I'm wrong--aren't you working with the Syndicate? Right now, anyways... That's what my research has shown, after all. Unless I'm totally mistaken, but I haven't been tracking you for the last couple of weeks for nothin'." Oops. Well, she probably let that slip on purpose.
"Oh, please. I'm not here to start some sort of fight, sheesh. If I were gonna do -that- I woulda started the fight from range, not walked -right up to you-... I'm just here to give you a message." Reaching down, her right hand goes up into the back of her uniform jacket, and comes out with a blue envelope.
"I guess you are pretty mercenary... seems about right. This is from..." She pauses, thinking back, reviewing what Elle said. "From Elle," she says, offering the envelope. "She did ask me to stay while you read it--I don't think she expects me to bring your response."
"All right," comes her indifferent answer to the name offered. Doesn't register on any name lists the Syndicate passes around. Makes it hard to think that she's a NESTS or Shadaloo flunkie like Vyle. So what /is/ she? "Do you?" she asks back in response to commenting on having a nice stretch.
"I'm going to test just how limber you are by shoving your knee up your nose if you don't get to the point." Ayame waves her hand over her shoulder at the obviously empty, desolate street. "I've got more important stuff to do than jabber around with you about stretching. Like taking a walk. Anywhere."
Ayame's impatient expression shifts into a bemused smile as the other girl continues, "All right, I'll correct you. I did some odd jobs for the Syndicate. Saw an opportunity. Didn't pay out like I thought." She shrugs one bare shoulder slightly, "Always next time. Maybe some Shadaloo wannabe will come after to me try and make a name for himself among his buddies, but I doubt I'm on anyone's radar in the slightest. So what's it to you?"
Tailed for a couple weeks, hm? Ayame stands up a bit straighter, right hand going to her chin. If she's telling the truth about the time period, then either she's remarkably good or Ayame is off her game. Maybe doing all that Syndicate work was making her slip some. She always was more careful on her own... Seems like that pink hair would be a dead giveaway. "Tch."
"How do I know how you want to start a fight? Just words to me. Your actions suggest otherwise." She states she's here to give a message and produces an envelope. Ayame's brow arcs slightly, "If this is from that damn devil woman again, I already trashed her last messanger and I'll do the same to you-" Her voice cuts off as the name is uttered and for a moment Ayame looks surprised, the expression of being caught off guard slipping through her typical fronted emotions.
"Elle...?" The girl murmurs the name slowly, looking contemplative but then immediately suspicious. "I'm not convinced. Tell me about the woman that gave you this to deliver and stay where you're at."
"You're on her radar, at least. She seemed real interested in having me find you--offered me several thousand US for the job..." Kurenai rocks on her heels, stretching the other way. But something perks her ears.
"Devil woman? Ah... I guess I can find out about that later... yeah. Uh, you want to know about Elle?" She nods to herself--makes sense. A way of proving that the message is from the mercenary leader.
"Uh... very no nonsense, very to the point. She's rebuilding Blackjack, I think. Looking for people." Kurenai rattles off a physical description, of course, as well.
"She carries some big... projectile weapon. Gun of some sort, I think... I haven't seen her fight but she looks like a pretty vicious fighter, I gotta say. I haven't seen her too often, she was based underneath Seijyun for a while, I gather she doesn't have a good base of operations yet. Soon, though, she said she had something going."
The pink puffballs bounce slightly as she looks to Ayame, smiling faintly. "So, do I pass? Really, I'm just here to give you the message and make sure you read it. Nothin' more, nothin' less. I definitely don't want to fight you. She gave me your file. It's pretty impresive, I have to say, and I've seen some of your work..."
Ayame is quiet then, her attention fixed on Kurenai, giving the girl a very intense look, paying close attention to the details she provides about the woman who hired her for the job, her finger tapping her cheek thoughtfully. "Yeah, devil woman. Marise. You should hang out with her sometime. Real joy, that one." Ayame answers readily enough. Of course, hanging out with Marise is the fast track to being /dead/, but Ayame's never been good with making friends.
She digests the details about Elle, not looking away from Kurenai for an instant. If the girl was hired to find her... /and/ is as good as she was implying she is, then she isn't letting go the idea that the girl is dangerous. But the description sounds accurate. Physical notes are met with a slight nod. Of course, people could find out what Elle looked like... but not everyone. She wasn't ever the most public figure anyway. It sounds like a good enough match, Ayame muses.
"All right, you pass. Put that on the ground," she gestures toward the envelope, "And back away from it." She'll wait until her instructions are followed or simply back away herself if Kurenai decides to approach instead. "So you do a lot of jobs for her? What does she call you, anyway? I'm willing to bet it isn't Kurenai." Ayame remarks with a subtle smirk.
"Oh have you?" she asks about having read her file, one eye narrowing a bit out of suspicion. "All right. Well, just put the envelope down and maybe we can wrap this business up properly so you can be on your way and collect your several grand for disturbing my peace."
"Marise. I think I saw some notes in your file." Not too much, of course--it was Ayame's file, not Marise's, that she saw. It was just enough to reassure Kurenai that the world is a much wider place than she could even imagine. She's already caught on to Ayame's sarcasm, and so she replies, "I think I'd rather not 'hang out' with her, thanks," before going down to a crouch, dropping the envelope--and backing off.
There are times for defiance, subtle or overt, and there are times not for it. She's made progress, it wouldn't do to let her smartass tendencies result in a mission fail. "Jobs? No, this is the only one. I'm--" How much does Ayame know, about the various groups making their plays for the control of the world? "I'm with a group that helped Elle out, is all. She just needed someone with my skills to get to someone like you, in the situation you were in. Syndicate hardly likes people poaching on their turf, especially now, and she wasn't sure if you'd been freelnacing or joined them. Just marching up to you could have caused a lot more trouble than would have been entirely necessary..."
A smirk. "So she sent the girl with the pink hair to be somewhat subtle. And you know Elle. She doesn't brook failure--I would hate to have to tell her I didn't complete the mission."
Kurenai follows Ayame's instructions to leave the letter on the ground and the strawberry-blonde steps forward cautiously, still clearly not trusting this other girl in the slightest. She's listening though, still attentive, taking in the information and trying to study it for angles of deceit or any thing she can pick at as a possible deception. But so far the girl's story seems ironclad enough. Maybe she really is just out to deliver the mail after all.
The girl crouches, fishing the envelope from off the ground before standing up and holding it in front of her idly. "Well, whatever your story is, you at least kept your end of the deal... probably did it as well as could be expected." She seems to be relaxing her defensive nature a little now that she's feeling more convinced as to the veracity of Kurenai's story.
"Let's see what this was all about, hm?" Her finger slips under the flap of the envelope, ripping it open with some amount of deliberate slowness, as if she was just trying to drag this entire ordeal for the pink-haired girl out as long as possible. But all things come to an end and finally she pulls the slip of paper out, taking her eyes off Kurenai long enough to glance at the paper.
Whatever the contents of the message, it must be rather brief, because the girl only looks at it for a blink of an eye. "So, Kurenai. Guess it's true." Her eyes are back on the girl and hms thoughtfully. "Elle. Do you think she likes you much?" She's even smiling a little. Only the expression lacks warmth - a predator's grin at best. "I get the impression that she doesn't."
Her fingers close over the letter and then with a simple flick of her wrist, she sends it spinning through the air back toward the Seijyun girl before she starts to advance slowly. The shifts in her demeanor are subtle but most definitely present. A sharp girl like the young messanger would probably pick up on them though - she's gearing up for something.
The note, if caught and read, bears a simple message: This is Elle. We need to talk. Beat up this messanger if you agree.
"Does she -like- me? Doubt it. I hardly know her, and she hardly knows me--" Kurenai is interrupted, then, as Ayame flicks the paper--Kurenai's response, to grab it out of the air, and read it... well, it hardly takes a second. The words are there, in stark black and white, and she smiles, wryly.
"I guess I kind of lied, then. It looks like I -did- come here to start a fight. I just didn't know it." Instinctively she's moving backwards--detecting the changes in Ayame's demeanor, likely. Already she's drawing her weapon; Ayame laughed at it earlier, mocked it. That's the point of having such a weapon, isn't it?
Lifting her eyes, she looks into Ayame's for a moment, still maintaining distance. "I was wondering what Elle wanted from you. I guess I know now, looking into your eyes..." The thought trails off, and Kurenai begins preparing herself as well; her weapon drawn, she begins to clear her mind. She -has- seen some footage of Ayame fighting. But seeing someone fight is never remotely the same as -fighting- them... she'll just know a few telltales here and there. Hardly a tipping factor in a fight.
The yardstick is brought up to shoulder level, Kurenai assuming a proper fighting stance--legs apart, sturdy, bent slightly at the knees, with plenty of room to keep moving.
COMBATSYS: Kurenai has started a fight here.
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Kurenai 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Ayame has joined the fight here.
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Ayame 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Kurenai
COMBATSYS: Kurenai calculates her next move.
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Ayame 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Kurenai
"Mmhm," Ayame replies as Kurenai admits that it looks as if there's to be a fight after all. "Sure looks that way." It's a strange request but, Ayame muses, it's the best way to prove that the pink-haired girl isn't part of some kind of setup. It's unlikely that the messanger would set themselves up to get beat down as proof of its validity after all. Besides, Ayame can see the shift in the girl's eyes as she reads the letter. It's clear that she didn't know what it said ahead of time. "So Elle really is back in town. And she wants to chat. Interesting."
The yardstick is retrieved and wielded. So the taped up grip wasn't just for show. She actually /does/ fight with the three foot long, likely-reinforced stick. The question is how does she use it? A short staff? A sword? A club or mace? That remains to be seen. As the girl brings the weapon up to her shoulder, Ayame starts to get an idea.
"I wonder where you learned to sneak around like you do." she muses out loud, "Doubt they teach that in second period home room..." A narrow eyebrow arcs as her hand slips into a pouch affixed to one of her many belts, drawing out a shiny metal object that is likely familiar to anyone who's seen her fight videos. A tap of her forefinger at a certain spot, a tiny spark of her own chi signiture, and the weapon expands rapidly to its full six foot length. "Then again, what do I know, I never went to school."
She twirls the staff up over her head with both of her hands as she advances before finally bolting forward into a leap to close the distance. She spins her whole body into a tight flip at the apex of her jump, before coming out of the leap and descending rapidly, aiming to power-slam the length of her staff into the other girl. Aiming for brute, punishing force moreso than finese, she'll end up cracking concrete if she doesn't land her intended strike!
COMBATSYS: Kurenai just-defends Ayame's Power Strike!
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Ayame 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Kurenai
"Ancient Chinese secret," assures Kurenai... who doesn't look Chinese at all. But it's the standard answer, isn't it? Ayame leaps up into the air, that six-foot staff twirling around gracefully--cutting a neat arc through the light as it flashes downwards. She doesn't look scared--she looks wary, as a fighter should look. It's a simple attack, but the ninja is already calculating--angles of descent, forces involved...
...it'll be painful, to say the least, if she lands it. Many would run from such an assault; it isn't a -particularly- swift attack. Fewer still would take the attack, or just block it. And that six-foot, metal shaft looks much stronger than Kurenai's weapon. Still, she waits. She waits. And at the very last moment she swings her weapon upwards, at a calculated time. The staff swings down; the yardstick swings up. Where they meet becomes a fulcrum, and that lets Kurenai push off the ground--going up and over the staff, thrusting her weapon down to give the metal weapon something to follow, into the concrete.
"Scary," she quips, as she lands--and then lunges forward, closing into the staff's range, aiming a quick thrusting strike for Ayame's stomach, followed by a upwards thrust, aimed to jab her right under the chin.
COMBATSYS: Kurenai successfully hits Ayame with Medium Strike.
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Ayame 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 Kurenai
A metallic ring resonates along the street as the staff collides with the yardstick in a very clean defense that leaves the end of the weapon slamming down into the concrete with a powderizingly hard smash as Ayame comes to a landing not having managed to strike the nimble girl. "Clever," she mumbles a vague appreciation for the timing and calculation involved, even as the pink-haired genius manages to slip inside the range of her staff, launching an attack before Ayame can correct for the near proximity.
Caught in the stomach, she coughs, bending forward and bringing her arm up to intersect the slam aimed for her chin. Her forearm takes the worst of it as she reels back slightly, eyes narrowed. "Well, you didn't run. Guess that's good." Seijyun girl. Doing jobs for Elle without actually being employed by her. Ayame's mind races back through her months with Blackjack and the contacts the white haired, bitter woman had managed to dredge up at the various locations. It's too fitting to not hazard the guess... "Hope Yurika doesn't mind that I'm going to work over her little friend."
She stomps forward, left foot leading, staff slamming down against the ground to form her second 'step', leaving her right leg free to slam straight out with a very direct, high speed heel as she aims to drive the sole of her Doc Martins shoe into the other girl's stomach.
COMBATSYS: Ayame successfully hits Kurenai with Light Kick.
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Ayame 0/-------/------=|==-----\-------\0 Kurenai
"If Yurika-dono has any complaints, I'll direct her to you directl--NGHH!" Oops. Looks like her mouth just got her into trouble; too much gab, not enough move, and Kurenai is stumbling back, her breath momentarily gone from her lungs. Two backsteps and she can breathe again, and if she looks worried, it might just be an act. She's pretty sure, now, that she knows why this is happening--and she can't say she likes the reasons. But...
She agreed to do this, without finding out more. Elle's lesson is echoing in her head. A valuable lesson. Deliberately, she resumes her stance, once again attempting to find that almost Zen-like state, where she 'thinks' less and just 'acts' instead. She knew, going in, that if it turned into a fight she'd be at the disadvantage. So it's no surprise. She doubts Elle expects her to -win- this fight... but she'll do her best, anyways. She's now got some distance from Ayame--which is exactly what she -doesn't- want... and so she throws herself forward again, trying to close in once more, thrusting her weapon out and slightly upwards--aimed to strike Ayame just in the sternum, a painful place to take a sharp blow.
"Guess she's testing you, too, hmm? She's... very crafty," she muses. "I really could learn a lot from her..."
COMBATSYS: Ayame dodges Kurenai's Power Strike.
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Ayame 0/-------/------=|==-----\-------\0 Kurenai
Ah hah. So the girl is tied to Yurika as Ayame concluded. She shouldn't be surprised. Almost anything tied to Seijyun probably links back to that prissy bitch one way or another. Ayame still held a grudge from the time she and her minion with the kusarigama ganged up to beat her up and drag her over to the campus to /rake the yard/ of all things. Normally Ayame was quick to let things go when bested, her mind typically distracted by some other moment by moment obsession. But something like that? It sticks with you. "You be sure to do that," she smirks as she snaps her foot back after having successfully driven it into the other girl's stomach. "We have unsettled business anyway."
By the time her foot lands, she's taking a step back, fingers slipping easily over the staff as she releases it with her right arm and twists it out to her side rather than holding it in front of herself at a defensive angle, feet slipping apart, the girl light on her toes, prepared to evade if necessary. She can see the shift in thoughts on the face of the pink-haired girl. There is the big question of 'Why?' Elle wasn't in the business of doing things without a reason for sure.
When Kurenai attacks, Ayame weaves, leaning and stepping in one motion, to her left, in the direction she was holding her staff, escaping the path of the strike. "Crafty?" A rare smile flickers across Ayame's expression - rare for its sincerity, her mind viewing thoughts of the past; her encounters and employment with the austere woman. Her plots, her machinations, her ideas, her ambitions, and how she dealt with everyone who answered to her. "One of her attributes, definitely." Is this a test for her as well? Possibly, Ayame muses. Kurenai may well be glad that she isn't on the receiving end of Elle's own vicious approach to combat.
"If you don't want to end up mincemeat when dealing with her, you'll do well in paying attention to what she says." Ayame surges forward, having only a small distance to recover from her lateral evasion, "Unlike me," she twists her staff in from the side after sliding it well past Kurenai, attempting to hedge the girl in some, restricting her options for being able to move. "She doesn't just talk to hear herself speak," she finishes with a grin even as she snaps her right hand out, going for the top of Kurenai's hair, seeking to get a tight enough hold to pull her forward and down into a knee bash to the poor student's face. If successful, she would finish by swinging the staff in from behind with her left hand to bang it off the crown of her head with a possibly dazing blow that could very well plant her flat against the ground.
"So /that/ stick for a weapon anyway?" she'd ask the first chance she got. "You're a strange one."
COMBATSYS: Kurenai fails to interrupt Assault and Battery from Ayame with Heaven Splitter.
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Ayame 0/-------/-----==|======-\-------\0 Kurenai
She is, and she isn't afraid to admit it. Yurika is her mentor, her friend, her... well, anyways. She has no idea about Ayame's past with Yurika--but she'd agree with disliking Sada. That girl is just too unpleasant... her strike misses, and as she's recoveirng, she's turning. Ayame surely does like to talk. At least she isn't all grim and gloom and doom, even if she is horribly horribly dangerous--as is proven in a moment.
It isn't like she doesn't see Ayame coming--after all, this is a one on one fight, there's no other factors to account for.
Even so, dealing with Ayame is proving to be rather difficult. "It's true, I didn't pay attention to what she said, not closely enough," she agrees. A mistake she's not going to make again. But does she harbor any resentment for Elle getting her into this fight? Not really. It was her fault, through and through.
She isn't, she thinks, going to get anywhere just being defensive--but she chooses the wrong moment. As Ayame comes in, reaching for her head, she actually drops her defensive stance--and then she's grabbed. It's startling, and the moment of non-defense is the killer--her hair painfully yanked, she's smashed twice, hurled straight into the cracked asphalt.
"NNH!" Kurenai rolls away, bleeding from the nose as she rights herself... staggering for a moment before raising her weapon again... sliding it along her her back, gripped loosely in her right hand.
"Look at how you're dressed, who're you to call me strange...?" she counters, almost automatically--not really even thinking about what she's saying.
Her combination delivered, Ayame holds back a half second, "What's wrong with my clothes?" she snaps back, sounding only vaguely irritated as she glances at herself, even going so far as to bring her right hand up to her neck to make sure her crimson tie is in the right spot. But it seems to be mostly show because she actually laughs a second later, turning her left shoulder forward, staff in front of her in a defensive angle, right hand still free, resting near the level of one of her belts. "Hahaha. No, I suppose you have a point."
She twirls her staff with her left hand idly, the titanimum polearm a metallic blur. "I guess a long stick is as good as some of the odds and ends I've seen people use. Soccer balls? Please." Eyes narrow slightly as she watches the other girl carefully, well aware that she was trying to change up her game the moment she got a grip on her hair and pulled a nice cheap shot manuever to drop her.
Maybe this is a test for her. Is Elle curious to see if she'd jump on command? Ayame might not have even been so inclined but for Kurenai's attitude before she attacked her. That was enough to make it so that she didn't really need much encouragment to act. But she never was the easiest to control. But now she's going to enjoy it a little - set things straight in her mind that she doesn't like being toyed with, verbally or otherwise. "Time to put your 'Ancient Chinese secrets' to the test," she muses with a faint grin before bolting forward again.
Both hands grip her staff this time as the girl spins the weapon up in front of her with a certain precision control that suggests she is following a specific style rather than just using it like an oversized club. Somewhere in her past she must have been taught something even if her childhood apparently neglected High School as she claims. The low end is whipped up into a swing intended to plow aside any attempt at defense. But Ayame would spin with the movement, bringing the weapon up over her head before completing the turn and jabbing the near end out with more of a stabbing motion, gripping it with one hand and leaning hard into the attack. "HAH!"
COMBATSYS: Kurenai blocks Ayame's Random Strike.
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Ayame 0/-------/-----==|=======\-------\0 Kurenai
As the saying goes, fool me once... Kurenai is definitely more on her guard now; when Ayame comes in with that sweeping staff uppercut, she's shifted back to the first stance she was using, with the weapon high. As Ayame seeks to slap the weapon aside, Kurenai lets her, appearing to be out of step, out of line, ripe for another strike. But it's a ruse, a feint--when Ayame stabs the weapon inwards, Kurenai flips her yardstick to the flat and catches the thrusted end right at the base of the weapon.
"Soccer balls... oh, you mean Roberto... he seems to do well enough for himself, anyways," she observes, absently. Using Ayame's momentum that's been transferred, she pushes off, and away, going into a cartwheeling motion. Then she comes back up, considering. "Ancient Chinese secrets aren't meant for battle," she says, matter-of-factly. "In a fight, it's all about being the smartest--not the strongest or the fastest. It's people who try to rely on speed, who try to rely on strength, who end up the losers." Lifting her right hand, the yardstick waving oddly, she taps her temple. "It's all right here, isn't it?" she says, conversationally... just before her left hand whips forward. Seems that during her tumble, she found a nice, baseball-sized chunk of concrete, and t's this that he's hurling forward, with an aim to smack Ayame right in the goddamned forehead. Even as she throws it, though, she looks... well, calm. Almost pleasant, even... aside from the blood smeared on her face.
COMBATSYS: Ayame reflects Thrown Object from Kurenai with Midsummer Fantasy.
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Ayame 0/-------/----===|=======\-------\0 Kurenai
The opening strike knocks the weapon to the side as intended, but it turns out she's only playing into Kurenai's planned defenses and as she brings her staff around for a second swing actually intended to /land/, she jabs straight into the width of the yard stick. "Heh," the grunt escapes her lips. Now there IS an interesting application of such a wide, flat weapon. All the easier to block direct stabs whereas her rounded staff tends to let them slip off to one side or the other and still threaten her even if she does intercept correctly.
"Yeah, that ball kicking clown," she answers regarding Roberto with a distasteful edge to her voice. Yet /another/ student the delinquent seems to take issue with. She really doesn't get along with anyone it seems. But she did push Kurenai away with the momentum behind her staff slam at least, buying her a second to recover and pull her weapon back into a tighter posture more easily defended from.
The staff is twirled again as if it's some kind of time sink activity the girl engages in when she's not sure what else she's ready to do just yet. "Is it? I used to think that..." she replies, her voice tapering off at the end. It's odd, she wonders, how much of herself she sees in the other girl. Proud, bearing an attitude, capable of thinking fast on her feet and confident that being the smartest is all it takes.
Her eyes haven't lost their sharp focus even if her attention seems to drift for a fleeting moment. The concrete is hurled on a collision course for her head but the girl responds by extending her right hand. A barrier of rose colored chi explodes into the path of the incoming projectile but of possible interest is the surface of the shield itself - fine, crimson characters lay out math, formulas, chemical equations, and algebraic notations. "Knowledge is everything," she replies coolly as the stone collides with the barrier. Extending her hand slightly, Ayame drives it back, the energy shimmering with a pulse that culminates with the concrete bulleting back toward Kurenai encased in chi, leaving a trail of fragments made of that off-pink color that drift slowly toward the ground like blossoms on the wind.
"But in a fight? It won't always make the difference." Brute force. Raw, unadulterated power. Ayame's faced it all. Those experiences have been... enlightening. "Unless you're suggesting that in beating you here, I'm clearly smarter than you are." she finishes, her mouth curling into a smirk, her eyes focusing sharply again as she snaps out of her thoughtful reverie. "That works too."
COMBATSYS: Kurenai fails to reflect Reflected Thrown Object from Ayame with Devil's Return.
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Ayame 0/-------/--=====|=======\===----\1 Kurenai
"I'm not saying that at all. I'm saying that brute force, ultimate speed... none of it is any good unless you know how to use it. A fighter might very well be the strongest man on earth but unless he knows how to control and direct that power he might not ever beat the guy who isn't as strong but -knows- how..." She actually stops, for just a moment, staring at that shield. A math whiz! Damn. Guess it was fated for them to not get along.
"I'm pretty sure you -will- beat me. Remember, I've seen your file. I've done my resarch. This isn't a fight I'm supposed to win," she says, the pink-haired ninja regarding Ayame. "So I'm guessing this might just be a test for you, too. What the purpose is, I don't know." Those are the last words she gets out, even as she's shifting again, fluidly, drawing her weapon back--
*THUNK*--her head snaps back, the rose-imbued chunk of asphalt spiraling upwards in a short, high arc.
Kurenai, when she snaps her head back down, actually looks crosseyed for a moment. "... gotta cut my swing time down on that," she mutters, to herself. Math whiz. She should have known, all the hallmarks are there. As is a big lump on Kurenai's forehead.
"You're a better fighter than I am. For now. But I'm not going to concede that you're any -smarter- than I am. I'm just saying..." God, why can't she learn not to run her mouth? "You're -probably- smart enough to know that Elle didn't just want me beaten up for no reason. That's not the kind of person she is, now, is it?"
"I think," Ayame replies as she stays back. She looks neither smug, nor is she smirking at the failure to deflect and possibly drive back the chi infused concrete she sent flying for the girl, "She was definitely proving a point. I also think she knew you'd annoy the crap out of me and that I'd probably beat you up anyway." There's almost a laugh behind her tone as if she's genuinely starting to find the whole setup amusing. Who said Elle didn't have a sense of humor?
"You don't seem upset at the prospect of losing though." she muses, her eyes searching the other girl as if trying to understand more about her than she's learned thus far. "Maybe because you think there's nothing on the line; nothing to lose other than a comfortable night's sleep due to a couple bruises or aching nose." Ayame twirls her staff again once, trading hands mid-spin as she continues to muse, "You might be right about that. I'm not sure you have anything I want. So this one's for free." she finishes with a faint grin. "If I ever get the impression that you're going to be a problem for me it won't be the same next time."
She replays Kurenai's reaction to the hurtling concrete in her mind, musing at the likely intent of the swing. She wasn't just trying to intersect it but rather go a step further. Interesting. "That is to say - no more lip out of you, no more sass, or I'll make the lesson stick for good next time, clear?" Her staff back in her left hand Ayame's right hand goes to her neck. A barely audible metallic click announces a clasp being undone and in a split second later she's drawing out a length of chain that had been dangling around her neck. Adorned with small charms and crosses that lend a surprising amount of weight to it for their size, it becomes apparent as Ayame spins the chain up that it's some kind of three-ended bolas.
"You're a thinker, for sure. I'm not sure how much of a fighter. /Yet/." Ayame swings her right hand forward, releasing the spinning hunk of chain off toward Kurenai with blurring speed as she aims to simply entangle the girl's neck in the flying weapon!
COMBATSYS: Ayame successfully hits Kurenai with Hijacked.
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Ayame 0/-------/-======|=======\======-\1 Kurenai
Suddenly, Kurenai is entirely serious. "Nothing on the line? That's hardly true. If you beat me, you could, probably, kill me. That's pretty serious. _But_," she says, "Nothing in my files--in _Elle's_ files--suggests you as a casual murderer. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think Elle is." The pink-haired girl retains a serious mien, as she looks at Ayame.
"I'm not concerned about losing, as you put it, because it's useless to work on false hope. It's an understanding in our relative skill levels that you're seeing."
And then, finally, she smiles, narrowly. "But if you think just getting beat up by a tart like you is gonna scare me into obeying -your- words... then you're pretty sadly mistaken, or you're staggering under a highly overinflated ego. Even if you do beat me--so what? What's that prove? You beat me, here and now. Another time, maybe the outcome is different. Maybe we never fight again. But losing once? That's not gonna break my spirit."
The chain, now, gets hurled, and Kurenai attempts to divert it with the tip of her weapon--but already injured, though she's trying not to show how badly, she misses--and she gives a probably pleasing 'hurk!' and bulging of her eyes as she's strangled, momentarily. It takes her a few moments to find the weights, ripping them away from her neck, and her eyes flash. Coughing, she says, "Not even that..." And then she's lunging. It's a last-ditch effort, maybe, or maybe she has a plan for after. Either way, she's going to barrel for Ayame, lunging with a shoulder rush, to open the other girl's guard. From there she's stabbing, a flurry of weapon jabs aimed for the torso, the legs, her weapon sheathed in bright pink chi, and kicking, short, sharp kicks intermixed. A total of thirteen or so strikes, and then the final strike, Kurenai drawing back, ducking low, both hands on the weapon as she thrusts it at an upwards angle, more chi flying off it, casting a brief needle into the air.
COMBATSYS: Ayame blocks Kurenai's Devil Dancing.
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Ayame 1/-------/=======|====---\-------\0 Kurenai
"I could, I suppose," Ayame replies, her eyes hooded as she starts to look to the side slightly, almost as if giving it some serious thought. "But no, probably not. There are worse things than dying though." she muses, her mind thinking back to her encounters with the fel Devil of Koga she had mentioned earlier. Death, as loathesome as it might be, would probably be perferrable to falling into that demon's clutches. The horrors she would put her through were that to happen...
"I wonder what it would take to break your spirit then." she sounds contemplative now, shifting her posture to place her staff into a more defensive angle in front of her, feet slipping over the ground into a proper position for the staff katas ingrained into her head by her father not so many years ago. "Everyone has their limit." Her expression shifts into a smirk as the girl is forced to wrest herself free of the choking chain bola. "I'm sure I could find it." She twirls her staff once idly, a shimmer of crimson chi rippling over its surface. "What would it take? What if I took a finger as my prize and left you maimed?"
She shifts her stance slightly, left shoulder forward, staff positioned as to offer the optimal defense angles now. "What about your foot and left you crippled? Would that break your spirit if you could never fight again?" She's forced to defend herself in a flash, the chi-infused yardstick brought to bear with a violent assault that drives the strawberry-blond into reacting. Swing after swing, the two chi-infused weapons collide, sending energy sparing from each impact and the ring of metal and the thwak of wood echoing down the deserted street.
Kurenai is fast, but Ayame is always seemingly one step ahead of her as if learning the technique being deployed against her in the very act of defending against it. A shoulder slam sends her slipping backward as she just barely manages to get her staff into the way, and a few of the kicks slip through, the girl so fixated on keeping that chi infused measuring stick from striking her that she forgoes fending off Kurenai's foot as quickly as she should
A grunt escapes her lips as at last the other girl rises in a sharp spike of pin-point accurate chi - precision reflecting her skill with numbers, angles, vectors, and forces at play and a hidden sinister realization flashes through the street rogue's eyes. "No, that wouldn't do it either," she remarks as she slides to a stop a few yards back, her staff smoking from the violent exchange, her fingers white-knuckled from the forces traded. "But your mind - your intellect. That would do it, wouldn't it."
She leans forward, that crimson chi continuing to ripple along her titanium polearm. "If you lost your intelligence - if someone were to rob from you your brilliance and render you a common fool... possessed of your personalty yet none of your faculties of thought..." She bolts forward then, "That would do it... wouldn't it!!" Taking to the air into a horizontal spin, the girl aims to drive her chi-infused staff down for Kurenai's shoulder in order to diffuse any hope of defense.
The instant her feet touch the ground, she'll whirl into a follow up attack, aiming to slam the weapon against Kurenai's arm to further menace her ability to use her yardstick effectively. She'll finish with one swift, violent twirl of her staff up over her head and into a downward smack aimed for the crown of Kurenai's pink-hair covered skull. "Do you dare me to find out?!" the girl exclaims.
COMBATSYS: Kurenai dodges Ayame's Requiem For Fallen Blossoms.
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Ayame 1/-------/=======|====---\-------\0 Kurenai
Kurenai's efforts ar expended against Ayame's defenses--a minor victory, perhaps, a moral one if nothing else. She's panting, hard, winded, new aches forming as she forces already-injured muscles to keep working. Still, she looks... not complacent, no; she knows how dire her situation is. But she seems content in some way. "Tell you what would break me? Why would I do that?" she asks, curiously, almost scornfully. "What, I should just hand you the keys to my castle? As if..." The odd thing is, she and Ayame are alike in many ways--she should be able to find common ground.
Instead, she's finding that common ground scorched to the bare earth. That's life--that's how things go... already Kurenai is thinking about her parting from he friend, Kaida, someone she's meant to catch up with but... with the way the war has gone... has been going. It's been tough. No time for that, now--here comes the tarty staffwielder--meaning -serious- business, right now.
Kurenai's defense is part inspiration, part intuition, part calculation--she ducks, throwing her arms wide, tilting her head, letting tha tstaff slip just past her, almost grazing her as it does; that done, she keeps moving, rolling towards the staff and literally ducking it, keeping her momentum going to avoid the vertical strike.
That would hav brained her for sure. "Gosh, what's with all this doom and gloom! Am I really annoying you -that- much?" she asks, semi-seriously, as she puts a low, obliquely-angled hop, twisting so she lands in a low stance, weapon still held in the high guard position, feet spread out for a pouncing charge--which is exactly what she does, lunging for Ayame, the weapon suddenly inverted. She slams the butt-end of the weapon for Ayame's stomach, intent on stunning her with the blow, using the momentum to spin around to Ayame's back, and complete the technique with a sweeping kick to dump Ayame to the floor.
"Geez, I hope Elle has some sort of shock collar or something to keep you under control. You're starting to sound a little unbalanced!!"
COMBATSYS: Ayame full-parries Kurenai's Piercing Sparrow!
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Ayame 1/------=/=======|====---\-------\0 Kurenai
The staff slashes through the air three times, the 'woosh' of displaced wind audible, a trail of flickering crimson left in the wake of each swing, but Kurenai escapes it all in the end much to Ayame's surprise. Her staff rebounds against the ground, the chi diffusing along the weapon until it vanishes, and Ayame skips back a step, "Maybe," she answers the first question. Maybe she is that annoyed.
"Maybe I am crazy," she continues, her expression shifting into a twisted smile that's probably neither comforting nor supporting the idea that she isn't deadly serious. Kurenai makes the right move, trying to storm the unhinged bandit by force to drop her to the ground, but Ayame seems ready enough all the same. The staff is shifted, knocking the first strike aside as she adjusts her footing to move around the other girl's attempt to slip behind her.
"But that doesn't preclude the fact that /maybe/ I'm proving another point that you need to learn before you screw up worse than you already have." Her voice is no longer teasing but rather gravely serious, level, her right hand dropping to her side to trigger a spring that sets a reel of wire-thin cable unraveling quickly into her fingers.
The sweeping kick is avoided by a step over it and Ayame combines her motion into an attack all in one fluid tranistion from evasion to assault. Her staff is dropped to the ground, freeing her left hand, as she would whip the wires out from her finger tips in an attempt to entangle the other girl's sweeping leg, then her arms, then her neck with constricting cords taht will do more than provide discomfort as movement itself will likely end up causing the wires to cut in tigher.
The entire complex mess of wire mesh the girl seeks to entangle Kurenai in would be punctuated by a single knife stab around which the ends of all the wires would be tied, driving it into the other girl's shoulder with force designed to secure the network of cables from being very easy to dislodge at all. She speaks throughout the entire attack -
"Maybe I'm telling you that you don't know me as well as you think you do. And maybe I could decide that you are that annoying. Or maybe I'm just curious to see if your blood is as pink as your hair. Maybe you should think twice about who you mouth off to if you value having your skull and the soft stuff underneath of it kept in tact."
She would step back at first available opportunity to kick her staff back up to her hands if given the chance. "Maybe you're not so smart as you think you are and I'm just interested in you living long enough to discover that like I have..."
COMBATSYS: Ayame successfully hits Kurenai with Manslaughter EX.
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Ayame 0/-------/-----==|=======\==-----\1 Kurenai
"I have a lot to learn, it's true. I'm only fifteen years old--there's a whole wide world out there." Her strike is not only defended, but used to put her out of position; instead of looking at Ayame's back, she's... facing the girl again. That wasn't the plan. Kurenai begins to back up, a step or two. But she's also engaged in the converation--distracted. Is that Ayame's intent? Likely. But it works well enough; Ayame's monologue is interrupted only by a short shriek as the attack slams home; her blood, it is revealed, is _NOT_ pink, but as red as red can be. The pain is immediate, intense... powerful. She sees red creeping in on her vision as she struggles to remain upright--a violent twist that only adds to the damage slashes up her clothing, leaving it in tatters. It does the job of freeing her, however, a fine network of red showing up on her now-exposed skin.
She's still fighting, though--"I think I -am- as smart as I think I am..." she breathes, "and I am always thinking about what I say and who I say it to..." Meaning, of course, that she was provoking you deliberately. Stumbling backwards, she staggers once more, then raises her eyes to look at Ayame.
"But in the end, I've accomplished what I meant to do... and I suspect you'll be seeing Elle soon. I think you two probably get along just fine... but I wouldn't be surprised to see you stabbing her in the back..." All the talk is just a pause, a way for her to gather her strength, to let her think through her next move--getting the HELL out of here.
"As for our fight... I think we're done," she says. There... there. Now she has the energy she needs. And the positioning is -just- right. Kurenai smiles, faintly, and goes to a crouch, sheathing her weapon on he back; reaching around herself, she comes up with a bunch of round firecracker-like things... and she begins tossing them down, laying a thick smokescreen. Through the smoke, her voice sounds almost disembodied.
"You have taught me a lot, you and Elle. Believe me, I won't forget." Most likely she's already gone--but she's also leaving a present--a sharp, staccato *boom* sounds--and now part of a building is falling down towards Ayame. Not an entire building, to be sure--but quite enough to hurt, if Ayame shouldn't recognize what's happening.
COMBATSYS: Kurenai can no longer fight.
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Ayame 0/-------/-----==|
COMBATSYS: Ayame dodges Kurenai's Huge Random Weapon.
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Ayame 0/-------/-----==|
"If you really want to test how far you can push me," Ayame muses, "Then of the two of us, I'm starting to think you're the crazier one." she concludes with a half shrug and a flicker of a grin, as if the entire exchange has amused her on some level. Her staff is held loosely in her left hand, no longer twirled about as if she's focusing her thoughts closer to home now.
"But we're done." she agrees, thumb shifting to a position on the staff, a small spark of white chi, and the entire weapon collapses back down to the six-inch long tube she produced at the start of the fight. "As far as your prediction regarding Elle and me..." She shrugs, her voice trailing out, her eyes sparkling with bemusement. Stab Elle in the back? Well, she knows if that day came, she would have to do more than just stab her. She'd have to rip her spine out and send it through a meat grinder to make sure the woman was dead as dead can be if she didn't want it to be her last day on earth. "We'll just have to see."
The round explosives are produced and Ayame's eyes narrow, the girl tensing up for a split second before she kicks into action, carthweeling to the side and landing facing the other way such that she can just /run/, not interested in seeing how dangerous the explosives might be. Kurenai's parting words echo on her mind - taught her a lot, did she. "Feh," Ayame grunts as she ducks around a corner and out of sight in order to risk pausing to catch her breath. "No idea why I even cared."
Getting soft, she wonders? Or maybe she just saw /too/ much of herself in the young genius and... and what? Felt like she should try to steer her past the same harsh lessons she had to go through? Slipping the collapsed staff into her pouch, the girl flips her hair back over her shoulder and shakes her head a bit to clear her mind of the entire affair. "Guess it's time to find /her/... wonder if she knows about the embezzlement yet..." Only one way to find out!
COMBATSYS: Ayame has ended the fight here.
Log created on 23:03:46 06/07/2009 by Kurenai, and last modified on 21:35:59 06/20/2009.