Description: It's important to learn things -- to grow as individuals, to gather knowledge. And it is especially important to know how the body works, as these are the things that give us life. Thank god, then, that there is a genuine doctor to teach us all about it! Yes, Dr. Richard 'Quack T.' Tran, has generously offered/been forced to teach the common folk the basics of human anatomy with his vast doctorate of knowledge. And here to help him? His lovely assistant, the ever-mysterious and ever-candy-addicted Kula Diamond... along with their very willing and able opponents, Iori Yagami and Ren Kurosaki, entirely enthustiastic to assist the great doctor in pointing out all the most vital of areas of the human body (that's not innuendo (or is it)). It's an educational and fun Saturday Night Fight the whole family can enjoy!* (*NOTE: 'family' restricted to ages 15 and up, highly recommended that younger viewers abstain from watching) (Winnners: Iori/Ren)
A murmuring crowd awaits in the Red Arena of Masters Stadium, eager and ready for the show to start. What wonders lie in store? What hidden mysteries will be revealed, blowing their mind like /whoa/? Everyone is abuzz with anticipation.
And then the lights dim. The arena grows quiet. And then, A SPOTLIGHT, shining on the shallow stream. A dramatic drumroll roars to life, and a burble creases the surface of the water. Tiny hidden jets spurt to life, sending a circle of majestic waterspouts rising into the air, and in the center of it, DR. TRAN, THE BEST DOCTOR EVER, rises out of the water like some kind of greek scientific man-war-god.
Then the lights go back to normal and he's left standing there with an almost military stance, legs spread, arms holding a long, thin pointer behind his back. "Settle down, everybody, class is about to start."
BACKSTAGE:
Ren Kurosaki is currently taking advantage of the dressing room's catering, ravenously scarfing down sandwiches and candy and whatever else the backstage curators were dumb enough to leave out in plain sight.
"Five minutes until you're needed!" a voice beyond her dressing room door calls.
"Mrprprhghgh!!" is Ren's response.
TEN MINUTES LATER:
Slowly but surely ambling out of the backstage of Red Arena and making her way toward the arena proper, Ren looks quite ill. Clutching her stomach, the girl all but drags her large steel hoop behind her. Though she's dressed in an affair that looks considerably kunoichi-esque, the young fighter doesn't really FIT the part she looks as if she's trying to play.
"Oh I shouldn't have eaten that bowl of red M&M's," she groans, pausing in her trek to the center of the arena to bend slightly and clutch harder at her stomach. "It feels like sugary deaaath."
Eventually, Ren will find her way to the center, where Dr. Tran is getting superstar treatment, thanks to Saturday Night Fight. Squinting her yellow-green eyes a bit, the girl looks puzzled before she leans on her ring and idly remarks, "Man that guy doesn't look legit." Glancing toward a crew member, she wonders,
"Is he really a doctor? Really? Where are his papers? ...yes I doubt his credentials!"
Then she's forced to pause again and tend to her churning stomach. "Urrgh."
Featured as the unlikely assistant to the man considered by all to be the Best Doctor Ever is young and impressionable Kula Diamond. Having gotten into a very important debate off stage as to just how much candy a Candy Striper should be entitled to, the assistant medical volunteer with zero experience in the field missed the amazing entrance of Tran all together, rushing out from the preparation area into the arena in a hurry once it became clear that something was going on that she was supposed to be a part of!
Hurrying up into the tri-landscaped arena, the ice wielding killer looks nothing of the sort outfitted in a white blouse and red and white candy-cane-like jumper dress, white shoes, a white nurse's hat, and completely non-matching yellow, insulated gloves over her hands. Gripped tightly in her left hand is a black leather Sliding to a stop, right hand going to the top of her head in a bid to keep a hat on her head best suited for the calm, safe interiors of a hospital moreso than the rigors of an action filled arena dedicated to the sport that is violent combat, the crimson eyed, frosty haired Kula picks Tran out in an instant. "I've never seen a scientist like th-"
Ren is overheard and immediately scrutinized, "M&M's? Where?! I didn't have any of those. All I got was this bag of doctor's toys," she grouses, holding up the carrying case in her left hand. Her right hand drops to the apron-like front of her dress as she fishes through conveniently located pockets only to come up with a cheap plastic scissors cimpletely incapable of cutting skin let alone tissue paper.
Sighing, Kula shakes her head, whirls toward Tran and continues on her sprint to get to his side. With each footfall over the stream, ice forms, giving her something solid to stand on as she finally comes to a stop next to the rising pedastal, medical bag held in front of her, "Sorry I'm late Doctor Tran, I-" She glances down slightly, noticing that his height is augmented by the platform bringing him dramatically out of the stream. "You sounded a lot bigger with all that fanfare..."
/NOT NOW/
Iori Yagami stands dismally near the backstage exit, leaning against the cool wall and crossing arms over his chest. Turning a dour expression up, his gaze goes almost blank as he sees a young girl glutting herself on candy and sandwiches and candy sandwiches.
"... Who the hell is that supposed to be?" he asks flatly.
"Err... Ren Kurosaki," answers a nearby SNF crew member, as hesitantly as possible -- and being sure to have as much distance between himself and the Yagami heir as possible when she starts making incomprehensible noises against a mouthful of candy.
"... ... your, uh... partner."
"... hnnnn."
\NOW\
The red-haired heir to the Yagami Clan stalks out to the entrance of the arena roughly a minute after Ren stumbles out. The young man has disgust painted all over him; in his expression, in his slow, reluctant walk, in the way he says "... This is disgusting." Slowly, red eyes turn a nauseated stare from Ren to Dr. Tran.
He doesn't even know what the 'special premise' of this fight is supposed to be, to be perfectly honest. All Iori knows is this: his partner looks ridiculous, that 'doctor' looks like he deserves to be punched, and the urge to help him out in that endeavor is growing stronger and stronger. /And/-- his gaze flits towards Kula as she makes her less-than dramatic entrance, his frown only deepening further.
"Tch. Isn't there anyone /worthwhile/ here?"
No, Iori Yagami is definitely not happy. But when is he ever?
"... Let's just get this over with."
Tran doesn't move for several long moments, until Ren opens her mouth. His head slowly turns, twin fires of hatred burning in his eyes. Someone's got sharp hearing, at least on certain topics. He doesn't even look away to acknowledge his assistant, though he does offer a few words for her. Even after she comments on his height.
"Just smile for the crowd real bright and keep the guy with the hair off my back until I'm ready for him, and maybe we can get through this without anybody getting murdered. Or lynched." With one final adjustment to the microphone tucked in his collar, Tran gets things properly started.
"LESSON ONE!" Tran whips his pointer out and advances on Ren. "The body is your ENEMY. Observe this poor, young, possibly retarded urchin. Her body has already done a number on her."
The doctor, now alarmingly close, puts the pointer into action, whipping it at her chest violently. "Observe how flat she is. Like a washboard. How malformed her face is." Tran whips the pointer around at Ren's temple with a whistle. "Even if she could overcome her obvious mental deficiences, no man will ever, /could ever/ love her, and she will die sad and alone or turn into a bodybuilding lesbian lumberjack. Either way, the future doesn't look bright, and it's mostly her body's fault."
COMBATSYS: Tran has started a fight here.
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Tran 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Ren has joined the fight here on the right meter side.
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Tran 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Ren
COMBATSYS: Tran has joined the fight here on the left meter side.
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Tran 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Ren
COMBATSYS: Kula has joined the fight here on the left meter side.
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Tran 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Ren
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Kula 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Iori has joined the fight here on the right meter side.
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Tran 0/-------/-------|=------\-------\0 Iori
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Kula 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Ren
COMBATSYS: Tran successfully hits Ren with Small Random Weapon.
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Tran 0/-------/-------|=------\-------\0 Iori
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Kula 0/-------/-------|==-----\-------\0 Ren
Fortunately for her 'partner' Iori Yagami, Ren was too distracted by her food to really pay any attention to the guy she'd been assigned with. Even as she sluggishly makes her appearance the young ninja girl just keeps her eyes anywhere but on her partner.
Turning her attention to Kula when she chimes up about M&M's, a huge smile crosses the girl's face. "Oh YEAH they were in the dressing room? Didn't you guys get any kind of pre-fight or whatever food?" Then, the bag of doctor toys is present. "Oh that is weak. I think you should threaten to sue. I hear that works pretty good."
Eventually the girl takes a few steps back, lifting her hand up and offering a quick salute to both Kula and Tran, even if she accused the later of not being LEGITIMATE. "Good luck, guys! Do your best! Ren Kurosaki, ready for combat! Right partner!?"
That's when the ninja girl spins around and offers the grouchy Iori a huge smile. And totally realizes how cool and badass he is in all of his nonchalance. There are stars in the girl's eyes as she stares--and so distracted is she that she doesn't quite pay attention to Tran as he advances.
And then she's hit hard, her waif form stumbling awkwardly to one side as she clutches gingerly at her smacked temple. "OH my GOD what is WRONG with you!?" she shrieks. "HEY did you call me retarded? And flat!?" With a red face the girl's cheeks puff up, her expression comically furious. "Who the hell are you anyway!?"
Gripping onto her large, forty-pound steel ring, the circle of steel ignites with deep red chi as she lifts it up and twists on her heels, swinging the hoop around and cutting it through the air. As result, a roaring wave of pure red energy leaps forward, threatening to catch the doctor on fire. Fire always makes things better.
If there is one thing Kula is reasonably good at, it's following directions, especially when they come from dubious authority figures that really have no place being in charge of anything; something about genetic predispositions or something the living experiment doesn't understand even the basics of. Which is why when the Amazing Doctor Tran issues his young assistant her marching orders, Kula is ready to comply without hesitation.
Taking time to turn away from the center of the arena, she offers a tooth-rottingly sweet smile for the audience and a cheerful wave of her hands over her head, the black medical bag flopping about as she does so. She isn't sure how this is helping either the fight or Tran's medical elucidation on the fine topic of human anatomy, but she's sure he knows what he's doing. He's a /Doctor/ after all.
But he did mention something about needing to not get murdered - something about keeping the guy with the hair away from him... slowly Kula lowers her arms and does a careful turn of the arena. Hair... hair... Well, Tran has hair and he's a guy, she thinks, but she can't keep him away from himself. Fortunately, that leaves only one other candidate. Crimson eyes snap to Iori. "Well, I don't want to get lynched." she notes, her tone completely honest as she takes Iori in from a distance.
His displeased disposition is taken in, but Kula can't help but wonder if he's putting on a show of being sick to match his obviously ill partner as an elaborate part of the venue's twisted medical premise. Breathing in then exhaling, the determined assistant carefully places the black bag of plastic medical accoutrements on the ground in front of her feet, lest the attending Doctor need any of his precision instruments for the demonstration ahead.
And with that, she's off, sprinting toward Iori, her feet slipping over the arena terrain as if gliding over ice, a shimmer of white coursing along her arm before passing through liquid into a solid state in the shape of a half-foot long blade of mirror-like ice. While she may be Tran's junior... junior assistant, fighting is something she knows something about as she makes a bid to demonstrate, sliding into a swing with her left fist to draw Iori's guard if any - her right hand follows, aiming to introduce him to an unhealthy portion of that sharp edged ice in her other hand, "Don't worry so much, I'm sure Doctor Tran will make you all right," she offers with a helpful, medically-approved smile alongside the stab for his shoulder!
COMBATSYS: Kula successfully hits Iori with Medium Punch.
- Power hit! -
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Tran 0/-------/-------|===----\-------\0 Iori
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Kula 0/-------/-------|==-----\-------\0 Ren
Red eyes meet Ren's starry gaze for a brief, ambivalent moment as Iori's lips pull into a thin line. He continues to stare as Tran begins to advance, and as the pointer-bearing psychotic doctor whips forward, Yagami helpfully supplies to his partner:
"Quit gawking at me and pay attention to the fight, moron."
Which apparently comes a second too late. Sighing -- as if his all-too impossibly late advice had gone completely unheeded -- Iori presses index finger and thumb against his sinuses, rubbing them in mild irritation. So, the 'subject' today is anatomy, is it?
Finally, something Yagami knows plenty about.
Of course, all the irritation in the world doesn't quite prepare Iori for the speed at which Kula moves. Having just dismissed the ridiculous-looking girl as 'useless,' Iori is entirely intent to just stand to the back and watch everyone beat the tar out of each other... until the candy striper is suddenly invading his defenses. Crimson meets crimson as Iori's dull gaze locks with Kula's... just in time for her fist to PLOW shards of ice directly into his shoulder.
"Guh?!" momentarily surprised by the burst of speed, ice /shatters/ with the mild spray of blood as shards of chi-imbued frozen water imbed into the shoulder of the red-haired young man. The blow is enough to stagger him, faltering back three steps before his entire stance lowers dramatically. His eyes narrow. His lips pull back in a sneer.
"I guess you just /dress/ like an idiot, huh?"
Barely a second passes before Iori BURSTS forward like a cannon blast, red, white and black blurring together as he seeks to /hammer/ his left fist against Kula's jaw in a vicious cross fueled by his annoyance and hatred, to be abruptly followed by a blurred fist swinging upwards in a singularly titanic uppercut entirely meant to launch the blue-haired youth into the air. And, if it should connect? "GUUUOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHH!!" The Yagami heir LEAPS forward in a surge of motion, twisting through the air to level an entirely unnecessarily brutal hammerblow DIRECTLY into the girl's midsection.
COMBATSYS: Tran blocks Ren's Ennetsu.
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Tran 0/-------/-------|==-----\-------\0 Iori
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Kula 0/-------/-------|===----\-------\0 Ren
Dr. Tran doesn't seem terribly worried by Ren. When she starts shrieking, he utilizes a neat little trick he picked up where he ignores everything she says and pretends she is just an angry, hyped up songbird. It's still annoying, but it's annoying background noise instead of true, in-your-face annoying.
And, perhaps even more thankfully, Kula doesn't even complain! She just does what he says, and does a fantastic job of it!
Clearly, something is wrong with her.
There's no time for that now, though. Dr. Tran is here for a purpose, and that purpose is two purposes. Entertainment and education, two great tastes that make a word together that nobody actually likes.
"LESSON TWO! The futility of compensation." Dr. Tran announces in a booming voice, which has to be booming because he is currently weathering a wave of energy. Whatever damage it does, and there's not a lot, is easily off-set by the way it makes his coat blow back. Dramatic. "Now, as you can see, this young lady, assuming she's not secretly a boy, is basically tiny and weak. Her muscles are so underdeveloped, she can barely even use her own weapon, even after she's given it a little extra 'oomph'. You may think to yourself, 'what's the problem there? Surely if one exercises regularly, everything will turn out healthy and OK!'" Tran shakes his head sadly, turning to wag his finger at the audience disapprovingly. "This is /wrong/. Even if exercise helps in the short term, eventually you'll turn into one of those jerks who works out five hours a day, striving to perfectly sculpt their body and making sure you know that they're going to outlive you because they are so healthy. It sounds great, until you learn that one hundred percent of them die of heart attacks before the age of fourty."
Dr. Tran taps his own chest, roughly where a heart should be, for emphasis. "Remember, the heart is a very weak muscle, so the more you use it, the more you hurt it. Keep it relaxed!"
COMBATSYS: Tran takes no action.
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Tran 0/-------/-------|==-----\-------\0 Iori
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Kula 0/-------/-------|===----\-------\0 Ren
"What--!?"
As Tran speaks to his captive audience the young woman seems utterly surprised that he'd just brush her efforts off so easily. Turning her topaz-yellow gaze onto her silver ring, and then onto her hand, the girl seems baffled. Did she do something wrong..? She was sure she'd been practicing hard on her techniques lately!
"WHAT DID YOU CALL ME" the girl bellows, looking horrified and furious (horfurious or furified, take your pick) at the same time as her gaze snaps back onto Tran. With her jaw agape the girl's hand clings tightly to her ring, teeth clenched behind her pursed lips as she glares at the doctor.
"Your advice is TERRIBLE!" she cries, breaking into a short spring before leaping into the air. Twisting her body, she inverts as she flips, her descent bringing her just in front of Tran. And once she lands that forty-pound steel hoop lashes out, a thrusting strike delivered in an attempt to take his legs out. "That is the worst advice I've ever heard a doctor give!!"
She'll spare a glance to her teammate.
"Right??" Starry-eyes stare at the red-eyed redhead. He's so ~dreamy~
COMBATSYS: Kula dodges Iori's Aoi Hana.
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Tran 0/-------/-------|==-----\-------\0 Iori
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Kula 0/-------/-------|===----\-------\0 Ren
As quickly as she attacks, Kula is sharp on reacting as well. Her ice imbued fist snaps back every bit as fast as it had slammed into Iori with surprising force for his smaller opponent's stature. Teeth grit, the girl's mind spinning up to process dozens of combat algorithms that have been so painstakingly developed in her psyche. A people reader she is not, but when it comes to rapidly deciphering the fighting style of what she faces, she's as quick as any able combatant can hope to be.
Standing up straight, her right hand remains closed, arm bent to keep it somewhat in front of her, her left dropping to her side as if dropping her guard entirely. "I'm an assistant doctor," she replies very honestly to Iori's spiteful barb, "In charge of candy," she adds, expression brightening. The lack of candy present doesn't make her think her duties are any less vital. If anything, it means that someone needs to be in charge of /finding/ some. "Striped kinds especially." she adds. But all the while, her focus never leaves him and behind the playful smile a vastly more grave demeanor lurks, and when Iori lunges forward with the kind of force that would easily send the stickfigure'ish girl flying, she meets his left fist with her own right hand snapping up, palm opening. From the air, any and all moisture is ripped violently into a hemisphere shaped barrier of brittle ice.
It isn't made to last, and the way Iori's fist literally powderizes the matter makes it abundantly clear that it was not meant to.
But by the time his brutal uppercut rushes in, Kula has already moved, a rush of sky blue, red, and white as she moves simply to Iori's side, weaving low as to avoid any other wild swings of the young man's strange style. Her own counter comes just as swiftly as she leans in, aiming to hook her left arm around his stomach as if embrassing him like one of those rabid fangirls he no doubt collects wherever he dares appear in the public...
It's just to slow his movements, however, as her right hand reaches for the back of his neck with an accompanying flare of shimmering white chi cold enough to put frozen nitrogen to shame. The pressure at the back of his neck would be brief and almost impossible to discern beneath the blistering burning cold of Kula's wintery chi before the NESTS raised killer will try to shove and pull him harsly to the side, aiming to slam his back against the arena foor.
COMBATSYS: Iori dodges Kula's Power Throw.
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Tran 0/-------/-------|==-----\-------\0 Iori
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Kula 0/-------/-------|===----\-------\0 Ren
'I'm an assistant doctor. In charge of candy. Striped kinds especially.'
"I don't care. Shut up."
Iori lands amidst a rain of ice as his powerful fist plows through brittle yet all-too yielding shields of frost instead of all-too yielding flesh. Red eyes narrow as the man's eyes snap upward... just in time to see Kula attempting to advance upon him once more. With arm held wide. To... hug him?
"What the hell kind of fighting style is this, you stupid shit?!" Suddenly, the young head of the Yagami clan ducks low, his entire body bending backwards and /just/ underneath Kula's sweeping arm before it can lead into any other, far more painful maneuvers. Hands plant against grassy earth for all of a split second before pushing off into a backflip, the tall, spindly man twisting through the air to come to an abrupt, crouching land at the border between the forests of the Red Arena and the sandbar. Clawed fingertips dig into the warm grains of sand. His frown increases just in time for Ren to start questioning him about something inane..
"... Che," the redhead spits, pointedly ignoring his teammate. "We're teaching anatomy, huh...? Alright. Fine." Eyes twitch and narrow to slits, as purple flames begin pouring forth from both his hands. Beneath him, sand liquifies, glassing over in an instant.
"The /skull/ is one of the most important structures in the body. Since it protects the brain, the bone there is very dense. But..."
Iori's right foot pushes hard off the ground as the young man EXPLODES off the ground in a spray of sand, gritty particles floating through the air as the vicious martial artist spirals like a rocket at his opponent. Clawed hands clench together, flames pluming outward in a morbidly beautiful display. Arms lift up high--
"... apply enough pressure and IT'LL/ SPLIT RIGHT OPEN/!"
-- and SWINGS down, aiming to BASH fiery fists directly into the side of Kula's head, the impact unleashing a brutal explosion.
COMBATSYS: Tran blocks Ren's Quick Throw.
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Tran 0/-------/------=|==-----\-------\0 Iori
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Kula 0/-------/-------|===----\-------\0 Ren
Dr. Tran finds himself assaulted again, this time as Ren tries to take his feet out from under him. Perhaps she would have better luck if she tried it from the other direction, as the doctor simply keeps his feet planted and gets banged in the shin. His leg scoots back. "Legs, as you can see, are not particularly vulnerable from the front, although we can't expect our little friend here to know that."
Rather than respond immediately with another valuable lesson for all the people, Tran finally pays more than a little attention to Iori. It seems this man, this crazy-haired.../crazy/, is trying to hijack the lesson! This is completely unacceptable.
"Here, run along and play now. Go cool off or something, it's probably good for you." Tran reaches his hand straight out toward Ren's neck, hoists upward, and then spins around to kick her slight frame off toward the stream, where if he is lucky she will manage to drown.
"Another important thing to remember about the skull," Tran begins for the benefit of the audience while staring straight at Iori, "Is that if it is too small and dense, it can cause a severe spread of mental maladies by choking the brain. For example, a lack of critical reasoning skills, short-temperedness, and stupid hair."
COMBATSYS: Ren blocks Tran's 3 2 1...Dr Tran.
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Tran 0/-------/-----==|==-----\-------\0 Iori
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Kula 0/-------/-------|====---\-------\0 Ren
Oh Iori, why do you spurn your adoring teammate so!? It's because Kula is cuter, isn't it?!
"HEY are you LISTENING!?" the young girl shrieks toward Iori, waving an arm toward the redhead as he goes about his business with Kula. When Ren draws her ring back and finally looks back toward Tran, just in time to see him grabbing at her thin neck. "WHA-ARRBHRLRK!"
Gripped painfully tight, the girl struggles, her free arm up to intercept the nasty kick to her stomach. It sends a horrible, stinging pain down the length of Ren's arm, to which the young fighter responds with a yelp as she's let loose toward the nearby stream.
Twisting in the air, she lands precariously on a rock at the edge of the bank, topaz-yellow eyes widening. Flailing her arms a bit for balance, she finally manages before she exhales in relief. Then, and only then, does she whine. "Some doctor YOU are. What doctor HURTS people??"
She doesn't attack for now; instead, the tiny ninja girl just holds her ground by the stream, giving Tran the stink eye. Because he's a reverse-doctor or something.
COMBATSYS: Ren focuses on her next action.
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Tran 0/-------/-----==|==-----\-------\0 Iori
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Kula 0/-------/-------|====---\-------\0 Ren
COMBATSYS: Kula blocks Iori's Tsumagushi.
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Tran 0/-------/-----==|===----\-------\0 Iori
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Kula 0/-------/-----==|====---\-------\0 Ren
Iori's jarring response to her friendly elaboration as to why she's not fighting in her typically sleek NESTS engineered leather armor but instead a mixture of white and red that looks like it might fit better in the 60's doesn't phase her too much. Convinced that the strange man is simply a bit more tempermental than most, she doesn't understand the depth of the menace resonating from him initially.
Attempting to get in close enough to limit his options for escaping her attack, her left hand grips only air and her right hand waves through the space where Iori was, leaving a trail of ice and sleet drifting down to the ground he once occupied. His agility for evading her attempted grapple is a new parameter to feed her combat parameters but it isn't his apparent dexterity that catches her attention the most.
Righting herself from her attempted grab and pushing herself back to standing straight up, the Candy Striper assistant to the world famouse Doctor Tran whirls back toward Iori as he begins to offer a lesson of his own. A lecture on the skull accompanied by a burst of flame that turns sand to glass and clues Kula in better as to the real threat here. So that is the heat of the Yagami flames. Unnatural, violet fire burns in the man's hands, glinting off the newly glassed surface at his feet, and at last Kula understands better what it is she's up against.
Of course, she chides herself, she should have seen it faster. That sense of a mania brewing just beneath the surface waiting to be unleashed into explosive violence. She has seen it before in the eyes of others. She should have known the threat he represented sooner. Like a flick of a switch, her own expression changes, her demeanor adjusting to the elevated danger she regards as she studies the other fighter. And in that instant, she is forced to defend herself.
The incoming force is formidable as Kula plants her feet against the sand and brings her arms up, fists clenched, twisting into the attack in order to brace against it and push as must of it off onto her shoulder once she's weathered the worst of it... And then she's springing backward, attempting to put distance between her and Iori. Going toe to toe with this man is not to be taken lightly if the smoke rising off her leather sleeves is any indication.
"I am already versed in the frailities of human anatomy," the winterborn killer notes even as her feet touch down and she slides to a stop. As if to keep Iori at distance even longer, her hand comes to her mouth, the girl breathing in deeply before exhaling over her palm. A shimmer of white courses over her right arm at the same moment, augmenting what should have been a simple breath with a surge of gale-force wind laden with shards of ice and razor-edged rings of frozen matter. As if in stark contrast to the flames that scorched her sleeves, the ground at her feet crackles with the sound of rapidly freezing ice as the temperature immediately around the girl drops drastically.
COMBATSYS: Iori overcomes Diamond Breath from Kula with Yami Barai.
- Power hit! -
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Tran 0/-------/-----==|===----\-------\0 Iori
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Kula 0/-------/-----==|====---\-------\0 Ren
"Tch!" means Iori is unhappy as flaming fists barrel into Kula Diamond's sturdy guard instead of her more yielding skull. Flames explode violently all around them, tongues of purple whipping about in a chaotic, haphazard fashion. As Kula pushes back, those arms complete their downward motion, CRASHING into the ground with an impact that loosens rock from deep within the earth. Iori's visible red eye swings up to stare at his target with mild vehemence before he, too, leaps backward, all too happy to keep distance between the two of them.
He'll just have to show her no distance she makes will matter.
And that's when Ren talks. Iori keeps his eyes focused on Kula as his partner is suddenly gripped violently by the mad doctor. A single brow twitches, the only initial sign that he's even heard her before--
"Hey. Moron. Why don't you stop yammering to me and start paying attention to the midget there, or else /I'll/ start paying attention to /you/." A pause, and then, because an explanation is probably necessary: "And you don't want that."
The shift in the temperature causes Iori to focus his dull gaze once more on the young girl before him. As vapors begin to appear from the sheer cold, the young man allows himself a condescending smirk, presenting one hand outward toward Kula. "So this was your brilliant plan, huh? Try and shoot ice at me like some sort of half-assed snow cannon? Here's another science lesson for you:"
As soon as that blast of wind and ice unleashes itself, Iori's hand explodes into violet flames, the conjuring twisting his expression into disgust, hiding the pain at simply bringing them forth. With one sweep of his arm, those flames suddenly EXPLODE across the earth in a giant blossom of purple fire, burning a swath of destruction across the ground, melting the ice that freezes across the earth... and impacting /directly/ with that mass of icy chi.
"No SHITTY ICE is COLDER THAN MY FLAMES ARE HOT!"
... and then slices directly through the mass, ice turning into water turning into vapor as the billowing remains of flames cleave /straight/ through... and right towards Kula.
Dr. Tran, master of being kind and attentive to all creatures big and small, raises a hand toward Ren, thumb pressed firmly against his fingers. Could it be Crane style?! Is Dr. Tran secretly a master of kung-fu, as well!?
"Blah blah blah blah blah, look at me, I'm on a sugar high and I can't stop talking or I'm afraid my lungs will fill up with air and I'll explode." Tran's hand flaps in imitation of Ren, as if...as if somehow /implying/ something.
The doctor readies himself to go off on another completely legitimate tangent, aimed more at Iori this time, when suddenly hell breaks loose between fire and ice. Tran stares for a second, tight-lipped, and then halts completely. Then he takes several steps backwards and turns right back toward Ren, maybe a little less fired up than he was a few moments ago. The air around him begins to ripple like he's a hot roadway in a heat wave, and he points a finger at the young woman he's been clashing with.
"Seriously though, say I'm not a doctor again and I'll teach everybody first-hand about how much force is required to snap a spine."
COMBATSYS: Tran gathers his will.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////////// ]
Tran 0/-------/-======|===----\-------\0 Iori
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////////// ]
Kula 0/-------/-----==|====---\-------\0 Ren
Ren makes this exact face:
:|
Then she makes this face when he starts talking:
>:|
Soon enough the girl does, in fact, explode, but not in the literal sense. With a loud cry of frustration she grips to her forty-pound steel ring, yellowy eyes wide as she thrusts a finger toward Tran. "What the hell is wrong with you!?" she shrieks. "You hurt people and then you insult them? That isn't what doctors are supposed to do! What is wrong with you!?"
But for all the hot air she has she can't help but hesitate when the air around him ripples after Kula and Iori exchange fiery blows with one another. Flinching slightly, her lips purse tightly before she just grins broadly. SMUGLY.
"Ohhh, what's wrong!?" she wonders, tossing her hoop upwards before she snaps her arm up and plucks it right from the air. "Did I hit a nerve? Are you gonna just stand there and pee your pants in fear?!
"Well that's okay! You should be scared!"
Bubbling with foolish confidence, Ren bolts forward, a blur of black and blue that zigzags across the way. Only when she comes within a few feet does the form suddenly bolt upwards into the air, flipping OVER Doctor Tran and dropping the hoop downwards. Like some sort of steel vise the hoop will find itself pulling back on his throat if it goes her way, the young ninja-girl scaling UP HIS BACK, each stomp marked with fiery, hot red chi before she'll flip over. Twisting the ring, Ren will attempt to capitalize on that forward momentum and HURL Tran with the hoop toward that stream HE tried to dunk her into. "HIYAAAAAAAAAA!"
COMBATSYS: Iori successfully hits Kula with Yami Barai.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////////// ]
Tran 0/-------/-======|====---\-------\0 Iori
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////////// ]
Kula 0/-------/----===|===----\-------\0 Ren
An escape to range seemed the ideal way to buy herself time to figure out how to deal with the wielder of that menacing violet flame. It doesn't work out as intended. She expects a contest of force to be the ultimate outcome as it inevitably is when fire and ice come into play. But as she lowers her now ice encrusted hand from her mouth, she finds the confidence in her foe staggering; as if he knew without a doubt there was nothing to fear from her conjured blizzard.
The cloud of vapor that was moments prior her entire attack is all the clue she needs to bunker down, bringing her hands forward, palms out, fingers splayed, and creating a thick wall of ice to absorb whatever remains of the proud, violent inferno churning her way. The collision seems to bear out Iori's declaration, as even the barrier is obliterated by the scorching heat, creating a second cloud concealing the frosty haired girl from sight for a brief moment, keeping the ultimate exchange between her split second defense and the broiling flame a secret to everyone's eyes.
Behind the cover of thick vapor, Kula grits her teeth, her right shin scorched by the last gasp of energy the punitive flames possessed. His mocking words are beginning to cut their way through the emotional discipline ingrained within her by her young years of training within the walls of NESTS. Prudent options fall by the wayside as the girl commits to landing a more significant hit against the red-headed bastard... And the cover of obliterated frozen matter will buy her a chance she isn't going to let go to waste. "We'll see," she whispers. She's fought flame wielders before. She'll test the power of his fire.
The premise of the fight is forgotten in spite her completely atypical fighting attire. Whatever is transpiring between Tran and Ren takes a back seat in her mind as the stakes in dealing with Iori have escalated some. A soft breath beneath the cover of brief fog and then she bolts, her temperment bringing more chi to her disposal on demand than even she expected. He might sense her movement; hear her footsteps across the sand, but when the fog finally dissipates, Kula Diamond is at Iori's side, her right hand slamming forward, a massive, round shell of ice encompasing the narrow space between the two of them.
That glimpse of a split second would be all Iori is afforded before the circular construct of ice explodes out away from the girl's gloved hand, aiming to drive a hailstorm of frozen daggers into her arrogant foe!
COMBATSYS: Iori endures Kula's Diamond Shell.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////// ]
Tran 0/-------/-======|======-\-------\0 Iori
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////////// ]
Kula 0/-------/-------|===----\-------\0 Ren
Standing up with a staggered sort of swagger, crimson hair falls over Iori's right eye as he stares almost blandly at the thick veil of of water vapor floating all around him. "Che," he spits, pressing his right hand against the side of his head.
"Why is everyone I fight so damn useless?"
The sound of his voice seems to indicate he's not even taunting; the Yagami heir is almost legitimately disgusted at his situation. Callous gaze shifting all around him, Iori says nothing else. Instead, violet flames once more sprout against his palms, the pain that boils throughout his entire blood making his lips peel back in a sneer as he watches... and waits.
"... Go ahead and try whatever you want," Yagami says after a moment, hearing the soft sound of footsteps. "Hide like a baby. Run and scream. Try and play little tricks. 'Strategize' some 'brilliant' plan. I don't care. At the end of the day, all you are is minceme--"
And then Kula is standing right at his side.
"Oh...?"
Right hand slams forward as a shell of ice generates itself, building off more and more frost from the dissipating vapors all around. Chi crackles, raising the hairs at the back of Iori's neck as he spins around, eyes wide and dangerously unstable. Kula will get to see a frighteningly sadistic grin spread across Yagami's lips in that split second--
--before the dome of ice breaks off bit by bit into a massive hailstorm of razor sharp shards. The sound of something sharp imbedding into flesh can over heard over and over again as blood sprays forward in a fine mist, confirming contact even through the haze of cold. More and more it goes, Kula's attack an undoubted success except--
--for the glimmer of purple fire through the veil of cold vapor.
"WORTHLESS!!"
The blood-curdling howl comes moments before Iori SPRINGS forward out of the hailstorm of ice, shards of frost sticking out of his shoulders, his chest, arms, stomach, legs. He doesn't seem to notice, or at least... doesn't seem to care at all about the pain its causing him. His left elbow slings forward to drive into Kula's throat like a battering ram, intending to deliver enough force to knock her towards the ground. At the same moment his right arm swings up and down in a full rotation, seeking to SLAM a fiery palm directly into Kula's face to helpfully assist her ride downward. And, should it connect--
"GUUUUUUUUUUOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHH!!"
Those flames will EXPLODE, to consume Kula's head, her body, everything within their horrible wrath.
COMBATSYS: Tran effortlessly blocks Ren's Shitatari.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////// ]
Tran 1/-------/=======|=====--\-------\0 Iori
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////////// ]
Kula 0/-------/-------|====---\-------\0 Ren
"Are you...are you serious? Really?" Tran turns his head, his features contorting into a disbelieving, almost stunned expression of disbelief. "I...no, you know what, nevermind."
Without anything else to say, without even the slightest inkling of what he could say, Dr. Tran is forced to become a man of action once again. Ren's hoop comes at him again, and with a weary sigh Tran intercepts it, letting it hang off of his arm instead of his throat. Inspiration strikes, and Tran speaks, interspersed with mildly pained grunts as Ren runs rampant on his back. "Now, you see, urgh, this is very dangerous, because the throat is one of the most fragile places on the human body, right up there with the kidneys, stomach, and..."
Tran glances downward, expression filled with hidden(?) meaning, just in time for Ren to reverse her hoop, so that instead of getting hucked into the stream, he winds up getting a nasty scrape upside the back of the head. "Yeow. You know what, I warned you."
Twisting his entire torso about, Tran ducks down a little further, fist clenched at his side. "Hold still." With an explosion of motion, Dr. Tran unwinds, sending a punch whirling about to deck Ren right in her face, which some leading medical experts have positively identified as being 'totally dumb, seriously'.
COMBATSYS: Tran successfully hits Ren with Dr. Tran Bites the Bullet.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////// ]
Tran 1/-------/=======|=====--\-------\0 Iori
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////// ]
Kula 0/-------/-------|=======\=------\1 Ren
There are no words for Tran. NO WORDS, as Ren Kurosaki lurches forward and just attempts to wrangle his throat with her ring. Yet rather than snag him by the throat she manages his arm, which makes the young ninja blink with a little surprise. Then she looks kind of annoyed, which is why she stomps ALL. THE. HARDER. Take that, doctor!
Then he's thrown, but he doesn't hit the stream as intended. Frowning sharply and half-lidding her eyes, the girl just watches as he gets back up and clenches a fist. Hold still?
"HA HA like I'd listen!" she chrips, waving a hand about while tossing her head. When she looks back, her face CAVES IN, as Tran's fist cracks into the side of her cute face. She goes spiraling through the air before she lands, bounces, then lands and skids a foot, ring at her side.
"Nurgh," is her incoherent responds, as Ren slowly peels her body from the grass and dirt and whatever else the arena is made of. She gets back onto her feet, eyes vacant as she presses one hand to her forehead. "I feel like I'm gonna throw up." She shakes her head.
"Or not. That's it! I am tired of your sass!" Ren exclaims, the ring in her hand suddenly igniting with deep red fire. Reeling her arm back, the girl sends it flying at Tran--but not just once. Or twice. More like MANY TIMES; the ring aims high, rebounds, then low, rebounding again, then angling sharply to the left to strike his side before rebounding and doing the same to his other before returning to her grasp.
And there, in her hand, the girl clutches tightly, crouching her body low before she springs into the air and flips head over heels, throwing the ring one final time, right at Tran's feet, where the fire engulfing that steel ring EXPLODES right in his face. The ring, meanwhile, will hurriedly return to her grasp.
"GOKUSHO!!"
COMBATSYS: Kula fails to reflect Koto Moon Negative from Iori with Counter Shell.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////// ]
Tran 1/-------/=======|=======\-------\0 Iori
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////// ]
Kula 0/-------/---====|=------\-------\0 Ren
At last she's gotten in close enough to attack. His guard is down, his confidence will leave him vulnerable she tells herself as she extends her right hand and with a thought condenses all of that expended energy into a point blank shield of explosive force. Many a foe has been dealt a finishing strike by that self-same technique. She knows better than to think it would drop this man no matter how bad she's about to make him bleed. But she at least thought it might slow him down a little...
The truth seems to be entirely the opposite. As if fueled by the sharp pain of a thousand frozen needles, Iori explodes right back through the burst of bladed shrapnel like a demon bursting free from a frozen hell. Another one of her barriers is the extent of her hasty defense; a sweep of her left hand leaves a swath of shimmering crystals. In a quarter of a second they would solidify, forming the second most impenetrable barrier Kula Diamond can craft. Iori smashes through in half that time, scattering the attempt to the wind as his elbow digs into the teenage looking girl's throat with enough crushing force to collapse her handily.
Before she even hits dirt, her face is caught in a firey grip that finishes driving the ice wielder into the ground. Her own hands snap up, attempting to claw at Iori's grasping arm in time to prevent the detonation she can sense coming, but like the rest of her defense, it's insufficent to stop the wrath of the Orochi tainted flame user and any muffled cry she might have uttered is lost to the sound of the conflagration that engulfs her.
The pain is staggering, her mind blacking out for a split second as her entire body goes into overdrive trying to fight off the conflagration, attempting to counter it with her own powerful aura. It takes seconds, and in the process, she twists herself to the side, rolling away on rote instinct rather than conscious, deliberate action, before she comes to a smoldering rest some meters to the left, propped up on elbows, her head bowed as the last of the lingering flames are extinguished by her counter chi manipulation. Only then does she take in a breath - a pained gulp of precious air as she begins to struggle back to her feet between body racking coughs brought on by the blow to her throat. Silent, her mind reels at the catastrophic experience, uncertain as to when anyone had ever managed to undo her defenses so thoroughly in the past.
The flames that billow out in a chaotically wide radius from Kula's writhing, struggling body send searing, white-hot flashes of pain through Iori's mind. It's why he's able to ignore it -- ignore the ice freezing his flesh, biting deep into musculature. Ignore the blood that dribbles down cold from his wounds, splattering against the earth beneath him. He can ignore it all...
... because he already makes himself feel worse just by fighting.
As the blaze dissipates, Iori snaps backward, blood splattering from his swinging arms as his opponent rolls off from him. Indolent red eyes track the path of the flaming body with a marked sort of indifference as Iori begins the almost mindless task of gripping up shards of ice and /ripping/ them out of his body, letting them dissolve away one after the other as he calmly, oh so calmly, turns to stare at his enemy once more.
"That it?" his question cuts in sharply as Kula starts to struggle back onto her feet; purple flames whisp like lingering after effects from the Yagami heirs hands as they shove into his pockets. He begins a calm, slow stride toward the recovering Kula Diamond. "Is that all you've got...? So, how does it feel, then?"
And as Iori Yagami closes the distance between himself and Kula, one leg swings up to almost casually, cruelly /boot/ her directly in the gut.
"Realizing how much of a pathetic loser you really are must be pretty tough, huh?"
COMBATSYS: Tran endures Ren's Gokusho.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////// ]
Tran 1/----===/=======|=======\-------\0 Iori
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////// ]
Kula 0/-------/---====|=------\-------\0 Ren
"You're tired of MY sass? Do you even listen to yourself talk?" Tran shakes his hand out a bit after sending Ren flying away, in no real hurry to...well, do anything, really. This changes a bit as he sees Kula absolutely getting her ass handed to her by Iori. And, while it's certainly true that the doctor has no real affection for Kula, at the very least she hasn't personally given him any real reason to hate her with a nigh-infinite fury.
Unlike some other people who keep stacking the reasons on. REN. "Ffffff...don't think I'm done with you." Tran points at the offender in question, then pans his finger around at the audience. "NEXT LESSON!" He hunches down, crouching, with his back turned to Ren. "The human body is not meant to take this kind of abuse."
Then the ring hits Tran in the ass, sending him tumbling forward. Rather than wind up flat on his face, the doctor tucks in and begins to roll like some kind of Saikyo guy or something, letting each succesive (and painful, let's not forget that) blast of the ring propel him faster and faster, until the final fireblast literally propels him off of the ground like an unusually round rocket.
There's a moment of peace, as Tran floats through the air, only to immediately be shattered as he comes down and starts screaming, a smoldering meteor hurtling down toward Iori.
"What? Listen to myself talk?" Briefly, Ren pauses. "Why would I do something STUPID like that?!"
Then she unleashes a flurry of strikes, which do everything BUT what she intends them to do. Helping Tran roll closer and closer to her super-awesome and GOOD LOOKING teammate Iori, Ren is horrified by the final burst of her attack. Grabbing her ring out of the air, the young woman lands in a slight crouch before she furrows her brows.
"HEY!" she shrieks toward Iori. "LOOK OUT! Do I need to come over there and HELP YOU, buddy!?" Ren even hops a few times in place, waiting for the response. Oh please, Iori, acknowledge her existence with your awesome. Ren really likes you!
Teamwork. It's so rad.
COMBATSYS: Ren assists Iori.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////// ]
Tran 1/----===/=======|=======\-------\0 Iori
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////// ]
Kula 0/-------/---====|-------\-------\0 Ren
COMBATSYS: Iori successfully hits Kula with Light Kick.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////// ]
Tran 1/----===/=======|=======\-------\1 Iori
[ \\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////// ]
Kula 0/-------/=======|-------\-------\0 Ren
Yamazaki says, "not a +assist"
Kula is not having a good day at all and it's not even Tran's fault! She's only in the process of pushing herself up when Iori closes distance. She doesn't expect any kind of reprieve from that guy. He'll attack her until she's no longer moving. And then? Who knows if he'll even stop. People like him can't be expected to conform to expectations. If he kept attacking her until she was dead, who would stop him? The worthless officials gaping in awe at the exchange of attacks? Tran? Ren? No one could stop this man, the girl realizes, but himself. She certainly can't.
His leg swings decisively and while she struggles to push herself up and out of the way, it's to no avail and her stomach is summarily subjected to a sickening crushing blow that causes the smaller fighter to collapse back into the sand with something that almost sounds like a sobbing gasp choked off by the lack of air. Her hand goes to her stomach as she writhes, immediately pushing down again, this time managing to spring up with enough speed to land in a crouched position some yards away from Iori, panting for breath.
Slowly she rises out of the crouch, crimson eyes fixated on Yagami with a certain level of seething hatred she had practically never experienced in the /relatively/ sane realm of broadcast fighting. There were fighters that scared her before on par with Iori's presence, but she hadn't hated them like she hates this man now. Her gloved hands grip tightly at her sides. Nothing yet has phased him signficantly. There's only one attack she decides can possibly slow this man down.
Into the air Tran launches and while Kula is vaguely aware of the airborn /Doctor/, she doesn't realize the significance of his intent until he comes crashing down on a trajectory course for Mr. Murder himself. Her mouth opens then closes, the girl unable to speak other than make whispery grunts as her throat struggles to recover from the crushing blow earlier. What is this, she wonders, that she wouldn't have the strength to fight this man. Is it fear that grips her or has her recent change in life made her weaker for it? Maybe she needed the routine and regimen of NESTS to stay powerful. Maybe she's slipping now, no longer feeling a need to sharpen her skills to a deadly edge in service of the wouldbe god, Igniz. Gritting her teeth, the girl holds her ground, willing a point blank storm of energy to build up around her.
The memory of Iori's scalding flames fresh in her mind, she struggles to put it aside to focus the blisteringly cold power she needs to combat him. Her right hand trembles with a mixture of fear and loathing as she glares back at the crimson-haired monster. The time for questions and doubt needs to be in the past. Circling around her a typhoon of ice and sleet builds as she focuses her mind on a singular purpose of striking him hard enough to make him take notice. In this instant, nothing else matters.
COMBATSYS: Kula focuses on her next action.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////// ]
Tran 1/----===/=======|=======\-------\1 Iori
[ \\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////// ]
Kula 1/----===/=======|-------\-------\0 Ren
COMBATSYS: Iori interrupts Heavy Kick from Tran with Yami Sugi.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////// ]
Tran 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|===----\-------\0 Iori
[ \\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////// ]
Kula 1/----===/=======|-------\-------\0 Ren
"Hmph," Yagami grunts out mildly as his polished shoe connects squarely with Kula's stomach, effectively punting her away as he continues to stand in almost mild disappointment. His head lulling slowly to the side, he withdraws his left hand from his pocket. cracking index and middle fingers with his thumb as he watches Kula recover herself.
"'I stripe candy.' It's little kids like you that piss me off the most." Probably a lie. There are plenty of things that piss Iori Yagami off, who can say which is more-- "Maybe once I've broken both your legs you'll stop acting so 'adorable'--"
Which is when Iori notices something out of the corner of his eye. He hears it before he sees it; or more specifically, hears Ren screeching at him before he sees Tran barreling down the path towards him. The Yagami's expression takes a more disgusted turn as Tran propels himself up into the air.
"Hey," Yagami begins, conversationally. Tran might notice his hands burning a bright violet.
"Maybe now you can explain to us how third-degree burns work."
Both hands swing, smashing into the ground with all the force of a hammer. The moment they make contact, the mystic energies of the Yagami transfer... and then EXPLODE from the ground in a raging, diagonal gout of fire, catching Tran JUST as he makes brief impact against the red-head, knocking his shoulder to the side before broiling purple flames engulf him.
As the flames dissipate, Iori dusts off his shoulder in mild disgust, turning to stare at Ren for a long, silent moment. His gratitude for her warning him is expressed as such:
"... Don't let that idiot touch me again, Ben."
Out of the frying pan, into the fire. Fire, fire, fire. Dr. Tran, already scorched, undergoes a rapid transformation to 'marshmallow that fell off the stick' when Iori lances him with a pillar of fire bigger than he is. Tran's momentum, while it does not halt, is rapidly redirected upon contact, much like if he just got hit by a speeding car.
There's a sort of muffled KWATHUMP as Tran lands in a mangled heap, smoke pouring off of him in a thick wave. He stays down for a few moments, and then with a groan forces himself up with one hand. He immediately fixes a mournful gaze upon Kula, of all people.
"What, you just let that chance slip away? Sheesh, what are you, scared or something?" Shaking his head and coughing, Tran shakily stands, and takes a couple of steps toward his teammate. He doesn't keep talking to her just yet, instead pulling his mic a little closer, making sure that it's still intact. Good.
"FINAL LESSON!" Dr. Tran sweeps an open hand out over the arena majestically, and then winks. "Every doctor has his secrets." With a fwoosh, a cloud of steam rolls out and surrounds both Kula and himself, doing a pretty good job of hiding them from the prying eyes of...well, everybody. And while they're in there the doctor takes the time to whisper, "I'll do what I can, but this one's pretty much all on you. Don't choke or you're fired."
Nobody except Dr. Tran and Kula may ever really know what's transpiring inside that cloud, but when it clears up, she'll find some of her burns, bruises, and other injuries have been tended to in what is surely some kind of medical speed record. Where was Tran even /keeping/ that many spare bandages?
COMBATSYS: Kula has left the fight here.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////// ]
Tran 0/-------/---====|===----\-------\0 Iori
> ////////////// ]
|-------\-------\0 Ren
COMBATSYS: Tran has left the fight here.
> /////////////////// ]
|===----\-------\0 Iori
> ////////////// ]
|-------\-------\0 Ren
COMBATSYS: Iori has left the fight here.
> ////////////// ]
|-------\-------\0 Ren
COMBATSYS: Ren has ended the fight here.
When Iori all but roasts Doctor Tran, Ren cannot help but flinch in result, the awful flames causing the young fighter to recoil. The heat from them is nearly unbearable, the strength and sheer power within them unbelievable. For the briefest moment, Ren seems genuinely awe-struck by this display and expression of sheer combative prowess.
Afterwards, her teammate turns to look at her, to which the girl responds by lightly jolting before she offers a friendly thumbs up. Yeah, go Team Yagami, go! Hey--
"M-my name is Ren! Ren Kurosaki, of the Kurosaki clan!" Not that he, or anyone, cares.
"Don't forget my name, okay!?"
Final lesson? "What?" Ren wonders, shifting her gaze toward Tran. Seconds after he's got steam covering his immediate area, hiding Kula and himself within the haze. "That's cheating! What kind of chi is that, anyway? Why steam? That's so silly!" Ren calls out, making a hurried dash toward Tran once the steam fades, leaping into the air before she attempts Mario Brothers tactics on the man. And what is that?
Why, trying to land on his head and stomp before she hops off with a quiet 'ya-hoo.'
COMBATSYS: Tran successfully hits Kula with Dr. Tran Sets Them Straight.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////// ]
Tran 0/-------/---====|===----\-------\0 Iori
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////// ]
Kula 1/----===/=======|-------\-------\0 Ren
Stationed within her point blank whirlwind of self-created ice and chi, Kula knows she isn't really safe even for a moment should Iori decide to charge. Eyes widen as he speaks again, ascribing to her a noteworthy place on the list of things that he finds deploreable and then goes on to declare the fate he has in mind - crippling bone breaking if he manages to make things happen the way he intends - and Kula breaths in slightly, crimson eyes widening.
From her vantage point, Kula is able to watch as Tran, clearly driven by a bout of reckless insanity, effectively throws himself into probable immolation and severe pain by charging the disaffected Iori Yagami with all the self-preservation of a blind lemming eagerly walking forward to inevitable doom. It's bold, it's brave, it's suicidal. But for a moment, it does take Iori's attention away from her, giving the NESTS-trained combatant a perfect opportunity to attack him while his focus is on the Main Event's Leading Doctor. An opportunity she completely squanders by just standing there, still completely unsure about the sanity of attacking Iori.
The girl cringes as the good?! doctor takes one for the team, suffering a punishing strike from the irritated Yagami, but otherwise she holds her ground, unsure if she has what it takes to attack him at all after what he's said and done. Maybe she should do the smart thing and high tail it out of this fight all together. Eyes closed in silent deliberation, she starts to lean toward that sage if cowardly course of action when Tran's voice reaches her ears.
Opening her eyes to focus on him, she blinks as he asks why she is holding back. Is she afraid? "...yes." she murmurs a soft acknowledgement. And in the next instant both she and Tran are hidden from sight behind an obscurring cloud of steam wherein she finds herself receptive to the medical administrations of the doctor and one vital bit of commentary.
The situation rests on her, he notes as he attends to injuries incurred by trying to hold off the violent Iori for so long. Maybe it's the way she starts to feel better immediately. Or maybe it's his expression that coming out of this less greviously injured rests on her. Whatever it is, Kula takes in her breath, clenching her gloved hands, gritting her teeth in the universal expression of determination, "Okay," she whispers back. "I will get him." she declares.
In a moment later, the cloud of steam explodes, launched away from Kula by her own build up of chi, the girl already bolting forward across the distance between her and Iori. Her body has several bandages wrapped over limbs or once around her head that weren't there pre-Tran'ing, and a certain fire burns in the frostborn girl's eyes as she bursts toward Iori.
Her right hand is clenched, a surge of white coursing down her forearm, swirling into a churning cone of liquified energy laced with a million tiny razor edged blades of ice. Without hesitation, Kula draws her right arm back, her left hand snapping out to grab hold of Iori by the collar if possible - just long enough to hold him in place as she twists to the left, bringing her right arm and that entire cone of swirling death forward in an attempt to literally spear it violently into his chest. Her left hand would release in an instant as the girl leans hard into her attack, putting her all into trying to deal Iori a debilitating blow!
COMBATSYS: Iori dodges Kula's Strong Punch.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////// ]
Tran 0/-------/---====|===----\-------\0 Iori
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////// ]
Kula 1/---====/=======|-------\-------\0 Ren
Flames whip around Yagami's fists, slowly dwindling and snuffing themselves out until only a scant trace of chaotic tongues lick across his forearms. That crimson gaze moves away from Ren almost as soon as she talks, looking almost completely disinterested as they refocus on the recovering Tran. Her name is Ren! Ren Kurosaki! Don't forget--
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever," he responds midway through, succinctly.
Which is when the not-so good not-so doctor leaps back into action. Crimson eyes track the speedy form of the short man as he... shoots for his partner? "... Huh?" Iori grunts out in confusion, as if the very concept of someone attacking their partner is a completely alien idea to him.
But instead of friendly fire, what Iori sees is... steam. Lots and lots of steam. Yagami squints in mild disbelief at the entire affair. His loss for words is only increased when the steam disappears and Kula stands there. Covered in bandages. And exploding towards him at high speed. Iori's brow ticks, vaguely.
"... What... the hell?"
Iori's dubious stare turns demeaning as Kula's ice swirls and solidifies into liquid cold and sharp, frozen edges. The chilled girl's left hand grips harshly onto the white collar of Iori's shirt hard. Crimson eyes widen--
"Jackass."
Iori yanks /violently/ backward the second Kula thrusts forward with her right hand. White cloth rips as that configuration of ice meant to be so violent a spear lances through air... /just/ above the chest of the suddenly back-bending Iori Yagami. That arrogant gaze locks with Kula's once more from his bent position. "You think that you can just slap some bandages on yourself and stand any more of a chance in hell against me?!"
And then SNAPS forward, aiming to use all of his forward momentum to just SMASH his forehead directly into Kula's face in an unnecessarily brutal headbutt.
"WHAT A JOKE!"
COMBATSYS: Tran blocks Ren's Light Kick.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////// ]
Tran 0/-------/--=====|===----\-------\0 Iori
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////// ]
Kula 1/---====/=======|-------\-------\0 Ren
"Oh my GOD." Tran sends Kula off on her merry way with a false veneer of confidence (she's going to get ripped apart in a shower of gore, he's certain), yet all is not well in doctor land. He /knew/ there was something he was forgetting. "You really don't ever shut up. It's like an endless goddamn stream of CRAP spewing out of your mouth hole!"
And then the culprit behind the excessive noise pollution plagueing Masters Arena tries to step on Tran. The easy way that Tran deals with this is by crossing his arms over his head, providing a significantly less vulnerable platform. "Modern medical science can't even describe what's wrong with you, you little troll!"
And then Tran leaps after Ren, essentially trying to step on her like she stepped on him. The difference is that while he is no heavyweight, Tran still weighs quite a bit more than her. He also doesn't try to jump past her; instead, he makes to jump straight up, and then come crashing down with a flying bellyflop. At no point does he 'ya-hoo'.
COMBATSYS: Ren dodges Tran's Dr. Tran's Summer Splash.
[ \\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////// ]
Tran 0/-------/--=====|===----\-------\0 Iori
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////// ]
Kula 1/---====/=======|-------\-------\0 Ren
Tran's response just earns him a cheerful laugh from the girl, as her booted heels stomp upon his forearms. Using his crossed arms as a spring board, the girl leaps higher into the air, flipping and twisting around midair to face the man. When she finally sees him, he's leaping up HIGHER like some kind of show-off and just trying to crash into her with all his weight. Wide-eyed, the girl flails lightly as she descends.
But when she hits the ground she tumbles and rolls, springing to her feet and just narrowly avoiding getting squashed flat by all of Tran's OBESE WEIGHT. Skidding a few inches as she lands, Ren just grins broadly, her steel ring held behind her back as she bends forward at the waist. "Wow that sure was dangerous," she cheerfully observes. "You really could've hurt yourself, you know? Like broken a back or even a brittle hip!"
Breaking into a rather sudden jog forward, Ren beelines right for the doctor. "As for calling me a troll, I think I'll take it as a compliment!" the young ninja girl cries as she attempts to dive at him with her ring before her, to crash into him to, as result, send him sprawling onto his back.
COMBATSYS: Iori successfully hits Kula with Strong Punch.
- Power hit! -
[ \\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////// ]
Tran 0/-------/--=====|====---\-------\0 Iori
[ \\\\\\\\ < > /////////////// ]
Kula 1/=======/=======|-------\-------\0 Ren
She had put her mind into but a single goal of driving that churning cone of chi as far into Iori's chest as she could manage. She hadn't thought so much about what would be a good plan of action should she miss. A split second before she was about to perform some open-chest cavity surgery on the crismon-haired man, he rips himself free from her grip, weaving beneath the swing of her right hand by leaning back with a remarkable display of flexibility.
The swirling energy about her arm scatters the instant she realizes her attack is as fruitless as most attempts to harm him have been, but her arm is still extended and most of her momentum pressed against her forward-most foot, Kula having not prepared properly for evading an instant counter attack. And an instant counter attack is exactly what she gets when Iori comes swinging right back up at her forehead first. The impact resonates a loud crack heard across the entire span of the arena and sends Kula staggering backward, eyes suddenly unfocused, a trickle of blood seeping down from an ugly blemish centered on her forehead between her eyes.
She starts to lose her balance, right arm coming up to wave in a hope to gain counter balance while her left hand goes to rest against her forehead in a gesture too slow to demonstrate a full comprehension of her condition. Stunned by what may very well be a crack in her skull, her left finger traces down over the split skin on her forehead to seal the bleed with a thin patch of ice.
On unsteady feet, she exhales, her complexion paling noticeably, and she closes her eyes in a vain effort to fight back nigh blinding pain. Her conscious mind begins to slip in its hold over keeping her going, but her passive combat routines haven't given up yet, elevating her circumstances to life-threateningly grave. There's only one card left to play - and as she hunkers down, hands clenched, eyes closed in concentration, the sudden surge in bright white energy around her is the only warning as to the magnitude of her next attack.
Standing up straight in the eye of the manufactered storm, Kula opens her eyes, finding focus on Iori one more time. She would ignore the pain racking her head if possible but perhaps it's that pain that adds such severity to her attack. All of the risidual ice and spent chi from her previous attacks is whipped into a frenzy around Kula. A half step forward is taken, her arms sweeping up over her head then dropping down in front of her, palms extended out toward Iori as the ice wielder sends the entirety of her potential energy exploding in the direction of the crimson-haired monster.
Her mind isn't on the event, on Tran or Ren's bickering, but rather she acts on the panicked instinct of one who finds their survival threatened. The entire region around Iori would be blanketed in a complete white-out rivaling the worst Artic blizzards as sleet, ice, and liquified energy attempt to sweep the menacing man from existence in one violent maelstrom! As if the entire storm had a mind of its own, it would try to bury Kula's target beneath a mountain of ice should Iori be caught within the girl's ultimate attack.
COMBATSYS: Kula successfully hits Iori with Freeze Execution.
- Power hit! -
[ \\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////// ]
Tran 0/-------/--=====|=======\-------\1 Iori
[ \\\\\\\\ < > /////////////// ]
Kula 0/-------/----===|-------\-------\0 Ren
"... Just stay down," says Iori simply as Kula goes tumbling, rolling his neck in a bland gesture. His hands once more returning to his pockets, he stares disdainfully at the girl as she recovers herself, watches as she defiantly starts to seal her own wounds. "Don't you get it yet? You're worthless. You're weak. You don't know shit. How's such a pathetic little girl supposed to even be a--"
And that's when that giant, manufactured blizzard whips up around the comparatively tiny girl.
"... challenge...?"
It happens faster than even Iori can keep up with. All of that chilled life energy comes /blasting/ like a cannonade, volley after volley of whipping ice SLAMMING into him, consuming him in a complete veil of white. He feels flesh freeze, feels shards of ice cutting into him over and over and over as he is picked up within the wake of what might as well be a force of nature all its own. Ice continues to stack up, more and more...
... until it all piles on like a massive grave at the exact center of the Red Arena. The nearby water has partially frozen; it looks almost ruthlessly absurd, how a veritable glacier of ice stands amidst a beach and a wide and lush forest. The silence is eerie; the monument of ice might very well have become Iori Yagami's tomb.
"ggguuuuuooooOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"
The ice SHATTERS. Splinters of frost fling in every direction as a single form BOLTS out of the makeshift glacier like a blur of black and white. Blood splatters in haphazard patterns across the dirt, across the air, spraying from the speeding form as it goes faster, and faster, and faster. Tatters of black cloth and deep bloody gashes carved across flesh can be glimpsed at; the form's gaze barely looks human, or even coherent, the only emotion encompassing it being rage as a single, clawed hand rips upward.
"HUUUUAAAAAGH!!"
And TEARS down, in a single-minded attempt to /rake/ across Kula's midsection with sharpened claws, to bite into flesh... before Iori Yagami, full of rage, spins violently about to BASH the back of his fist directly into the side of Kula's already battered head.
COMBATSYS: Tran fails to interrupt Medium Throw from Ren with Dr. Tran Goes For Broke.
[ \\\\\\ < > //////// ]
Tran 1/-------/=======|======-\-------\0 Iori
[ \\\\\\\\ < > /////////////// ]
Kula 0/-------/----===|=------\-------\0 Ren
COMBATSYS: Tran can no longer fight.
[ \\\\\\\\ < > //////// ]
Kula 0/-------/----===|======-\-------\0 Iori
> /////////////// ]
|=------\-------\0 Ren
"Broken a back." Tran stares at Ren with undisguised hatred, the emotion rising up like a mighty flood. "You...gkkk!"
Dr. Tran's speech breaks off as he finds himself so angry that he cannot even speak clearly. Kula and Iori are pretty much forgotten, which is no big loss because last he checked, the girl had as much chance of winning as a snowball in hell, probably with similar after-effects.
"That's it!" Dr. Tran, medical miracle-worker, raises a leg straight up in preperation as Ren begins to charge at him. "I'm done." He pauses a second, waiting for her to get close enough, and--CLONG. Oh, right. Ring. It smacks the doctor right in the chest and also the kneecap, sending him careening over onto his back. He does not get up, although he does shout out one last time before blacking out.
"Pressure's on! Don't choke, girl!"
Hatred?! But why, Doctor Tran!?
Colliding into the man with her weight plus the forty pounds of steel stretched out before her, Ren just titters as he falls onto his back, using the impact to stop her forward flight and instead drop to the ground, tumbling forward, then hopping through the hoop and onto her feet. Behind her, the girl twists the ring before holding it at her back.
"Sorry, but I still don't think you're a legit doctor," she offers with a big grin.
Then she turns to Iori with a huge smile. UH OH.
"Hey look, I won, I won!" she cries, waving an arm toward the redhead as he struggles with his frosty (and nurse-y(?)) foe. "Now it's your turn! Come on Iori! Let's do this!" But, rather than actually make herself useful or HELP, Ren instead, takes a moment to catch her breath after dealing with the harshness of Doctor Tran.
COMBATSYS: Ren focuses on her next action.
[ \\\\\\\\ < > //////// ]
Kula 0/-------/----===|======-\-------\0 Iori
> //////////////// ]
|=------\-------\0 Ren
COMBATSYS: Iori successfully hits Kula with Yumebiki.
! VENGEANCE !
[ \\ < > //////// ]
Kula 0/-------/=======|=======\-------\1 Iori
> //////////////// ]
|=------\-------\0 Ren
It works... somewhat. Slowly Kula's arms lower to her sides, her hair coming to rest gently against her shoulders, eyes slowly coming into focus on the monument of ice left in the wake of her devastating technique. Her breaths come hard, her cheeks rosey against otherwise pale skin as she struggles against nigh debilitating pain. Her right hand lifts to rest against her forehead again as she staggers to the side in an uncontrolled stumble that ends just shy of her falling completely over into a heap.
Brought back from the brink by Tran's medical expertise once, the girl is already well beyond the point that she should still be fighting. Blinking vaguely at the frozen sight, she looks almost confused as to how it got there, as if the previous few seconds were not entirely clear to her. Nigh paralyzing fear from before has been replaced with a base instinctual need to just keep going a little longer, as if her life depended on it.
The exchange between Ren and Tran doesn't register in her mind, neither having been recorded as exactly being threats by her combat profiling. All that matters is what happened to Iori Yagami. That uncertainty is answered when he explodes from the ice, a bloody mess of torn flesh, shreaded cloth, and rage. Kula draws back a step, her arms coming up, a gasp escaping her lips. Still stunned from the brain-jarring headbutt, however, there's no hope of escaping the vengeful wrath of the enraged young man.
The claw-like hand rips down, tearing parallel lines of red in the scorched and mangled striped outfit and in her skin beneath, a small spray of blood decorating Iori's arm as it tears past. The backfist finishes the job begun with the first violent assault to strike her at the start of the match. Already recoiling, wanting to crumple forward from the painful slash, the second impact sends her reeling to the side a step, red specked moisture at her lips that freezes an instant later.
She's slipping, she realizes with a quiet panic, her left knee giving out first as she falls to a half-kneeling position on the frozen arena floor. Sucking in a breath, her eyes flash with a brief moment of cognizance, two hands planted against the ground. "If you're so out of my league as you say..." she hisses, "Then..." Her back tenses, frozen matter drawn from the ground near her right hand, leaving it damp as if all the energy keeping it solid has been reclaimed for an instant. "You won't be afraid..."
She lunges then, pushing up with a final surge of strength, her right hand slamming forward for Iori's stomach. "...of a little more ice..." The intent is obvious within a second, as her palm opens and a disembodied sphhere of translucent ice shimmers into the space between her and Iori. Her lunge would take her as close as she could get before three horrifically sharp lances explode out of the side of the sphere facing him, aiming to run the young man through with Kula's last attack.
It would be her final move, the girl collapsing forward the instant the last ounce of strength in her body is poured into that vicious technique, determined to take the violet flame wielder down with her.
COMBATSYS: Kula can no longer fight.
> //////// ]
|=======\-------\1 Iori
> //////////////// ]
|=------\-------\0 Ren
COMBATSYS: Iori endures Kula's Critical Ice.
> //// ]
|=======\=------\1 Iori
> //////////////// ]
|=------\-------\0 Ren
Blood drips from Iori's right hand as Kula recoils; it oozes from countless injuries across his body, but he seems not to notice right now. All he feels is hate, and bloodlust, beating at his skull like a red-hot haze. His fingers twitch as he stumbles back, head lulling to the side as he stares at Kula Diamond like a lion might stare at a gazelle.
"... What a coward," Iori hisses in return. "What does it feel like, being so /pitiful/?" He steps forward. "If all you're afraid of is a little /pain/..."
Suddenly, Kula lunges, and Iori lunges /too/, meeting her halfway and SLAMMING his torso into her freezing hand. He stares right at the girl as that sphere of ice and energy shimmers into existence.
"... /what the hell are you doing here/!?"
SCHLUCK
Three lances of frozen water /impale/ straight through the prone Yagami heir as he hollars those last words in a rage, thrown off his feet in a backwards flip. He strikes earth again, feet first, shoes dragging across the ground and kicking up sand and shards of frost as he carves deep furrows through the ground. He swaggers, the blood loss starting to rush at him like a runaway train. And still -- /still/ -- he grabs those lances of ice, one by one, and /rips/ them out before crushing them in his grasp, staring pointedly at Kula as he does.
"... Loser."
He takes a step forward...
COMBATSYS: Iori takes no action.
> ///// ]
|=======\=------\1 Iori
> //////////////// ]
|=------\-------\0 Ren
COMBATSYS: Iori has reached second wind!
> ///// ]
|=======\=------\1 Iori
> //////////////// ]
|=------\-------\0 Ren
... and spits blood defiantly into the sand, shoving hands into his pockets as he turns on his heel.
"... I'm leaving," he notes to his partner, not bothering to look back.
"You can feel free to pretend to helped."
COMBATSYS: Iori has left the fight here.
> //////////////// ]
|=------\-------\0 Ren
Some time after the fight, a voice speaks.
"You know, I remember a day when I used to be afraid of that guy..."
A pulse shifts the world.
White silk settles gently at his sides. For a moment, it's easy to imagine Ryouhara Seishirou as a figment of the imagination. After all, there was no sound of his entrance, and no indicator beyond his sudden appearance, standing in the remnant slush at the side of the downed Kula Diamond as if he'd been her shadow the entire time. At that exact moment, most of the cameras rolling after-fight footage that would normally record his presence have been the victim of electromagnetic interference; replacing most usable video of his intervention with grainy static. Such the methods of shinobi where public television is concerned.
"But as expected, he's still no slouch," the scion muses, kneeling at the deadly waif's side to check her vital signs. . Despite the obvious distress she was in, he had to wait until Iori was gone. An encounter with Yagami is troublesome no matter how you slice it and Seishirou was in no mood to take on a pointless fight. After all, a brief inspection reveals little evidence as to whether Kula fought a man or a flaming bear. Going through a method of recovery, Seishirou whispers something arcane over his hands before stabilizing the bleeding in her torso with his jutsu. A pitiful excuse for first aid, but it's fast, and it will stabilize her for long enough to survive his jump.
"Looks like you bit off a little more than you could chew," he murmurs, cradling pools of strawberry blond in the crook of his arm as he hefts the natal sovereign's slight frame to his chest, cold and adorned with the baubles of his trade.
"...but only just so," he finally admits.
For that.. "I'll take you home."
By now men are scrambling in with handhelds. To the closest, he calls out.
"Hey. You run a pigsty," he says of the thrashed, spittle-soaked and bloodied sand beneath him, "Clean this place up."
It causes just enough confusion to allow Seishirou to take that one needed step. By the time the massive plume of sand that was kicked up hits the earth again, no one is really going to be at all quite sure what direction he left in. Even though several were looking right at him an instant before he disappeared. With Diamond.
Log created on 23:44:43 08/07/2009 by Iori, and last modified on 05:23:54 08/16/2009.