Description: Newcomer Aika al-Nadra faces off against Mizuki Kamigawa in the latter's return to Neo League fighting after LLK--a fight that ends up being dedicated to the restoration of Southtown. Inside: Wacky Chair Hijinks!! (Winner: Aika)
Southtown is getting back on its feet. The war has been a terrifying nightmare--and for some the nightmare isn't anywhere near being over. Cleanup, rebuilding... these are the watchwords of Southtown, now. Everyone is doing what they can to continue life, from those who were barely affected to those who were devastated. Mizuki lies somewhere between the two; though she certainly earned grievous wounds during the war, fighting in battles that she likely should not have been anywhere near, she didn't lose her home or any family... at least, not to death.
But she's started thinking about herself, and her world, and what she can and can't do. She's been thinking about it a while--was in the midst of doing so, when the Neo League officials called. She almost refused--almost called them callous, self-serving... but then she thought more about it. "If I win--no, no matter what--whatever money comes about from this, please donate my portion to recovery efforts," she said, and so it was set--time, date, location. A warm mid-afternoon at the Shrine, and Mizuki is there... waiting.
Waiting in full miko-fighting gear, something she hadn't worn since the beginning of the war. It's heavy, and yet strangely comforting, if not the easiest thing to fight in... she, of course, doesn't know her opponent, not by sight or reputation, onl having been given a name.
Not a day ago, Aika had been led to THIS VERY SHRINE by the alluring scent of Nataya's cup noodles. Where a Neo League fight was set up by complete fortune. This time around, however, the officials have actually tracked her down for an actual match with an irresistable offer.
Candy.
As such, Aika al-Nadra is supremely happy as she rises through the steps of the shrine, staring at her opponent - Mizuki, munching on a single Cadbury Creme Egg that truly was worth the cruel and unusual punishment to the face she was going to meet.
"Alright!" she exclaims, her tone heavily laced with an Indian accent, "Are you my opponent? I'm Aika!" After she passes the shrine gates, she reaches back to draw her weapon, the procedure similar to drawing a sword or an axe, but out comes... a solid Acacian varnished folding chair. She has an excitement and clarity unpossessed by most... people of her type, a youthful exuberance that whorls about her through her gaudy shantytown fashion.
... Mizuki blinks, when Aika comes through the gates. Okay, young girl, no big deal, dark skinned. Looks Indian... is that a...
...a folding chair...?
"That would be me," she replies, trying not to sound inappropriately amused. But she also looks a touch worried, or confused.
"What's the chair for? Do you fight sitting down...?" She really honestly probably just doesn't Get It(tm). Who fights with chairs other than, say, Jackie Chan in his various movies? A chair fighter? She's never heard of such a thing.
Still, she did proclaim she was the opponent; Mizuki turns from the gate and smiles, leading Aika further into the shrine, where the fight area's been marked out with simple rope-and-stake barriers. "Over here," she says, pointing out the makeshift arena for Aika's benefit.
Ducking under the ropes, she turns to look at Aika, still puzzled. She probably will be 'til the chair gets swung at her..
Aika flips over the ropes easily, hand on the bottom rung of her chair and glancing around. This is different! There are marks and all. She doesn't exactly know the rules of the engagement, but it's easy enough to understand - going out of the ropes probably means something bad for her!
"The chair's a part of my SOUL!" Aika exclaims, seemingly not seeing the literal nonsense in her words. She tilts her head to crack her neck, and pulls out an adorable yellow duck to sit on her shoulder.
"Okay! I hope you're not going to go easy on me!" Aika exclaims passionately, staring towards her decidedly more elegant opponent. "'cause I'm being promised more chocolate if I win, and easily-won food always tastes worse!" Oh dear, the things people will get into a scrap for these days.
COMBATSYS: Aika has started a fight here.
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Aika 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Mizuki has joined the fight here.
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Mizuki 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Aika
"Ready or not, here I come!" Aika exclaims, bobbing and alternating her weight on her soccer shoe and her elegant man's dress shoe before breaking into a foward dash. Her momentum serves her, and she rears down and forehand strikes her in diagonal fashion with the rim of her chair.
COMBATSYS: Mizuki blocks Aika's Medium Strike.
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Mizuki 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Aika
"Wh--whoa!!" Mizuki shouts, as Aika comes at her -with a chair-. Instinctively she throws her arms up, intercepting the rim of the chair; it *thwocks* off her forearms, causing some light bruising but not much else. Mizuki's response is almost automatic--actually, it -is- automatic--as she steps in, betting on Aika's balance being off due to the recovery on her strike, and attempts to land a right palm strike to Aika's chest.
"You're fighting with a -chair-?" she exclaims, as she steps in for the attack, sounding surprised but still pretty calm, all told.
"... that's pretty interesting. Do you ever use a steel chair when you're fighting? Where'd you learn to use a chair as a weapon?" It kind of makes sense, really, all told... there's probably a lot of things you can do with a chair. Despite her somewhat grim attitude as of late, being attacked with a chair, of all things, seems to draw a smile out of the miko, as she attempts that single strike.
COMBATSYS: Aika blocks Mizuki's Aggressive Strike.
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Mizuki 0/-------/------=|=------\-------\0 Aika
Aika's chair, having a wide and shield-like surface to compliment its narrow side, is perfectly suited for defense. As shown by her pulling its seat up as a makeshift targe to soak the impact of Mizuki's punch with a grin. "It came to me in a dream while I was -really- hungry! I always wanted to be a fighter, and I never could find the money for anything fancy... so I knew this was my destiny!"
It all sounds so wonderful and fine, although a more skeptical person could easily wonder whether Aika was truly off her rocking chair or whether she's so out of touch in reality that she can believe all of this as reality. Whether the case, the vagrant takes a step back to focus herself, brief sparks of her chi emitting from her body.
COMBATSYS: Aika focuses on her next action.
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Mizuki 0/-------/------=|=------\-------\0 Aika
People are a little unbalanced sometimes. Doesn't make them crazy per se. The impact rebounds off the chair and then Aika is taking a step back, disengaging. Well, that's fine... Mizuki studies her opponent carefully, and nods. "Many martial arts start out that way, I'm not surprised. People often learn to use what they have at hand; ingenuity often breeds moments of genius."
With Aika stepping back, Mizuki decides to as well; however, she isn't goign to focus... though she notes the chi and that informs her next action, as she focuses her energies. Power starts rising from around her, a blue-silver aura that ripples and undulates around her feet in a rising circle; Mizuki herself raises her arms up, palms pressed together at chin-level, fingers pointing skywards.
"I'm glad to hear that you've done something that you set out to do. It's really amazing to see what people have done to achieve their goals, their dreams..."
COMBATSYS: Mizuki gathers her will.
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Mizuki 0/-------/--=====|=------\-------\0 Aika
"I like you. You're nice!" Aika exclaims earnestly, her fists now welling up brightly with that powder-blue chi as she actually performs a backflip and rears her chair back over her shoulder. "But food is food!"
What comes next is a blaze of furious chi that leaves her body as Aika /punches/ forward, the folding chair sailing at the center of an energy sphere that speeds across the distance at aggressive speeds, shrine tiles gently cracking and debris flaking as it screeches its way towards Mizuki.
"... and to answer your earlier question, I would if I could find any that weren't bent out of shape!" in referral to steel chairs. She knows wrestlers wield them sometimes! It's one of her actual real-world inspirations.
COMBATSYS: Mizuki effortlessly blocks Aika's Assembly Required.
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Mizuki 0/-------/=======|==-----\-------\0 Aika
"Why, thank you, I try to--" ... this girl is just full of surprises; Mizuki's eyes widen at the huge energy sphere--with the chair playing the second note of the chord. This... is going to hurt. But she braces for it--the sphere is coming at her at speed, and she isn't confident about the ability to avoid it. So, she summons up her aura... and uses that to combat the chi. The chair? She catches, in her hands... jolting with the dual impacts.
Then she tosses the chair in a gentle arc back to Aika. "Not good to fight unarmed, is it?" she asks, with a smile... and then she is sweeping her right arm forward, creating a thin line of blue chi--a line that extends, suddenly, into a jagged, flat ice-shard of energy, spearing out for Aika's midsection. The shard will shatter away into twinkling motes after a moment, but, -if- it hits... well, it won't physically cut, at least...
COMBATSYS: Aika endures Mizuki's Hyouryuu no Kiba.
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Mizuki 1/------=/=======|=====--\-------\0 Aika
Aika goes to mid-hop as she snatches the chair with a grateful note on her face and a quick, "Thanks," before she's thrust with the fang of the ice dragon coming her way! It's a jagged, sharp shard. What would most people do? Well, faced with something sharp, they'd duck, move out of the way, or...
...if they're Aika al-Nadra, they'll charge head first into it! The ice crests and breaks over her skin and chills her to the bone for a minute, and there's a grin of perseverance as she exclaims with tinges of admiration, "I'm amazed at what everyone can do! That was something else!"
Having charged the rest of the way, with her muscles and extremities only frosted and numbed a little, Aika rears her chair back over her head as she performs a series of powerful strikes - the first of which comes straight in from above with a little hop and a dramatic "HAAA!", followed by a side slash and accompanying "TEYAAA!" before her chair flourishes into its unfolded form for a knockaway bash. And of course:
"OOOOOORYAAAA!" If this girl were in battle shout class, she'd be passing with flying colors.
COMBATSYS: Mizuki fails to interrupt Couch Potato from Aika with Hyouryuu no Fuki.
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Mizuki 1/-----==/=======|=======\-------\0 Aika
Mizuki is pretty surprised anyone would do that--but it works out for Aika. Her charge brings her in close before Mizuki is really prepared; her arms are just sweeping upwards when she gets comboed by the shouting Indian girl, struck three times by the chair, bashed away to roll across the field.
"... ow..." she murmurs, as she gets up... though the damage doesn't seem nearly as bad as it used to. Maybe she's just used to getting cut up by women with rapiers and guys with slashy capes now... that's a mortifying thought. Mizuki brushes dust from her clothing, and stems bleeding from her nose--and then turns to face Aika again.
"You said not to hold back," she says, "and I don't think I replied--but I can promise you I won't. Holding back... won't help either of us in what we want to do."
"I don't feel alive when I'm holding back. I'm just like that!" Aika admits with an open amount of frankness, letting Mizuki take some time to recover - no reason for unsportsmanship, in her mind - before pulling on ahead with a quick pivot and a spin that takes her into the air.
"Down! He-yah!" is Aika's choice of hot-blooded exclamation as she twists her upper body in flight, bringing her chair down with a cleaving blow towards the ice-wielding miko. She's really getting into this now.
COMBATSYS: Aika successfully hits Mizuki with Power Strike.
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Mizuki 1/---====/=======|=======\-------\0 Aika
Once again the chair finds its mark; Mizuki can't decide which way to go for a moment, and she pays for it with a crushing blow across her chest. With a deep grunt she staggers back, refusing to show how much that hurt. "Not fun, huh?" she asks, voice only a little unsteady to pain, as she throws her right leg back, stabilizing her wobbling balance.
"Guess you're right. Sometimes it's just more fun to go all out..."
Speaking of going all out...
Suddenly Mizuki is charging at Aika, shouting a wordless shout as she kicks off the ground and lunges. What follows next is a series of slashing knifehands and thrusting kicks, a continuous series of attacks from hands and feet enhanced with blue chi. It ends with Mizuki ducking low, thrusting her right palm up at Aika's chin--and if it strikes, it'll be enough to hurl the chair girl up into the air, followed by a brief tornado of that icy chi...
COMBATSYS: Aika endures Mizuki's Kouryuu no Ranbu.
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Mizuki 0/-------/-------|=======\======-\1 Aika
"Whoa!" Aika shouts as she tries to pull away for a moment... before she recognizes what she just said earlier. Go all out! It's the Aika al-Nadra way of life! She dives in to meet Mizuki face to face, confident she can find her footing and--
Suddenly the miko's hands and feet are jabbing and punching into her, repeatedly, over and over again. If Aika were a more vain sort, she'd probably be able to be glad her clothes are already salvaged from the junk heap, and she's set up for that chin strike to the face - YES! - that flings Aika like a rag doll into her icy tornado, further flinging her up... and against the rope barriers, where she floomphs to the ground as a shaggy mound.
There's a positive groan as Aika hobbles to her feet moments later, momentarily dizzied - if it weren't for the rubber duck sitting on her chest, she probably would be seeing cartoon ducks right about now. "Awesome - that's worth potato chips any day," she comments with a near-feral grin on her face. "I'm gonna give it all I've got too!"
It is a classic battle - ice versus fire, blue versus ... well, okay, Aika's fire is blue, but let's stick with the analogy here. The girl pulls her fists together, and her braid flies into the air as she lets out a shout to the heavens, her chi exploding around her magnificently. It just ain't al-Nadra Chairfighting without shouting.
"CHAIR... EXTEEEEEEN-DO!" comes the Indian gal's cry as she plants her chair in front of her and folds it out. It is then punched in Mizuki's direction, where it... misses her by inches, skidding to a stop behind her! For a moment it seems like Aika's thrown her weapon away and wasted it all, except...
Here she comes, shining and bright! Her hand is clawed behind her with a sphere of chi engulfing her entire fist, fingertips radiant and her face with an aggressive and regnant countenance upon it. "I'll show you what chairs are really FOR!"
Closing the gap at maximum speeds, Aika thrusts her hand out to plant it forward at Mizuki's torso to drag her backwards to the chair... if she connects. Her imperative resounds through the air as she declares:
"SIIIIIITTING DOOOOOOWN!!!"
COMBATSYS: Aika successfully hits Mizuki with Do I Look Like Ikea.
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Mizuki 0/-------/-======|===----\-------\0 Aika
Aika passes through and skids to a stop, turning away as she clenches with her fist. An explosion of chi wells up from the chair, firmly implanted within as part of the attack to send the miko flying and up as the vagrant warrior retrieves her chair.
She's defeated--but not quite yet; the final explosion blows her up off the chair and she comes spiraling down... but she flips out at the last moment, landing on her feet and one hand. "... for someone who made up their own fighting style, you're pretty good," she says, meaning it genuinely. She isn't quite done yet, though--there's a wobble to her legs, something that clues in that she's making her last effort...
But she makes it anyways. Winning--or drawing in this case--means more money for the recovery effort. It's the YFCC she has in mind as she makes her final charge, hoping to catch Aika off-guard with a dual palmstrike attack--her hands once again flaring with that blue chi energy she uses, that icy power...
COMBATSYS: Mizuki can no longer fight.
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Aika 0/-------/----===|
COMBATSYS: Aika blocks Mizuki's Kouryuu no Kiba.
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Aika 0/-------/---====|
Making a final dive, Aika is unfortunately just too much in the moment to be taken down and manages to raise that chair in with a bit of an 'oomph' at the palm strike, before pulling her weapon down to shoot her fist forward and...
Steady her opponent, pull her chair up, and let her sit on it. Versatile! "Y'know, you're a really nice gal, what're you using the money for anyway?" Aika asks, momentarily - just momentarily! distracted by the thought of getting another chocolate egg. "Don't seem like the greedy or needy type."
After a moment, Mizuki stands up; it's not like she was knocked out, exactly. "Hmm?" she asks, as she dusts herself off, casting a critical eye about the shrine... she'll have some cleanup to do afterwards. "Oh. I'm dedicating the money I earn from fighting to the recovery efforts in Southtown," she says, absently.
"I feel... as if I need to do something for these people, and what I did during the war simply wasn't enough. I tried to help stop the invaders, but it didn't work--and I was too stubborn to think about trying other ways of helping. So I have a few reasons to fight, now... this is just one of them."
The miko turns back to the girl, and bows. "Thank you for the fight. I appreciate it--" As an afterthought, almost, she adds, "--if you haven't visited the YFCC yet, you should... once it's rebuilt. It's the perfect place for young fighters to find others of like mind. I--teach there, occasionally."
Mizuki's noble intentions just catch Aika almost off-guard. She may be a bag lady, but she's got a good heart inside. "Hey, yeah, why don't you take the money I won? I have this thing where anytime I touch money it just disappears anyway, and I wasn't gonna even put it to anything half as good as that."
She cracks her knuckles and stretches her neck again as she picks and folds the chair to be stationed back over her shoulder. Does she have a magnet for it or something? "And I'm getting my chocolatey prize either way, so we both win like this, right?!"
"That's very kind of you, Aika-san," replies the miko, with a smile; the officials note that down. Mizuki does, too--she can see Aika's state of dress and all, and being a wandering fighter isn't easy. most who do it either don't care about money at all or are already independently wealthy.
"I'm sure you will get your chocolatey treat, too... -won't she-?" she says, towards the officials who are busy, then smiles, finally looking like the young woman she is. "Ahh, I'm going to have to clean this place up once everyone goes... I used to come here regularly but then war broke out and it wasn't practical..."
"Well I'm sure you can do it, Mizuki! I'll see you around some other time, I'm sure -- at that YF something something!" Aika exclaims with enthusiasm, moving forward to give her an earnest and friendly hug. Mind you, Aika isn't the cleanest person in the world, but it is at least brief. She pulls away and gives her a thumbs up, before saying, "Chocolate for me, and I gotta go -- McDonalds always puts out their trash on Saturdays!"
With a wave, Aika is off in a flash down the shrine stairs, keeping one hand on her soggy hat as she bounds down the steps and is gone like an impoverished tornado.
Log created on 09:09:09 06/20/2009 by Mizuki, and last modified on 21:34:05 06/20/2009.