Description: It's a stormy night in Southtown when Takuma Sakazaki receives a threat knifed into his front door (8th time this month). One lucky student finds it and gets the day off, while Sakazaki visits a Generic Dilapidated Temple to dreg up old memories and older enemies! Who does he find there?? Can you read the names in the castlist?? READ ON AND BE PLEASANTLY UNSURPRISED
Terry arrives from elsewhere.
Shermie arrives from elsewhere.
The angry wind howls as it races through the broken bones of the deserted Taoist temple on this violently stormy night. The deafening pattering of a billion raindrops provides an ever-present droning, drowning the usual sounds of the surrounding forest that normally persist even on a night as cursed by storm as this. Lightning arcs across the dark crimson sky, sporadically illuminating the silhouette of a lone man standing at the bow of the arched rooftop of the temple, the long, rain soaked black tabard worn over his white kung-fu robes whips vigorously in the tempest as he waits.
Waits for a man who received a message pinned to the door of his dojo with a throwing knife hours earlier before the storm was any more than a gathering of dark clouds on the horizon.
The note simply read, "We have unfinished business. The Temple at moonrise. -White Dragon"
Gen arrives from elsewhere.
At the Kyokugen Dojo, there are well-established protocols for veiled threats administered to front doors via piercing weapons. It is as follows: Whoever finds the message knows to remove it from the door, move it to the kitchen, affix it to the refrigerator door with a kitchen magnet (labeled: "A MAN'S WORK IS NEVER FINISHED"), and write his name on the bottom so credit goes where it is due.
Today, Bobby Watanabe is the lucky Threat Locator, and on his way out, Takuma had made sure the youth received his reward for being a good lookout. Namely, two of Bobby's friends have been assigned to repairing the Dojo's door, while Bobby gets one (1) popsicle, and a chance to soak his battered form in the Sakazaki hottub. Everybody is jealous of him.
Perhaps more importantly, the Sakazaki Cadillac (newly washed and waxed by one Lucky Glauber) rolls up to the Taoist temple, headlights slicing through the haze of rain and mist created by the evening's weather. Takuma steps out of its driver's side, umbrella first, and sets bare feet against the wet rocks leading up to the edifice. His gait is steady, almost methodical, and his expression becomes clearer as he grows closer to Lee. A thoughtful frown becomes outright indignant surprise.
Takuma tosses his umbrella to the side, allowing the torrential rain to almost instantly soak his worn gi - he doesn't seem to care.
He is NOT meeting the Sakazaki lawyer, as he had thought. There's no mistaking the masked man on that rooftop.
This is a man who has to die.
Takuma shouts something, but the wind howls especially loud and it's ultimately lost - he looks -very- angry.
The man standing on the rooftop crosses his arms defiantly as Takuma drives up and finally sees the man who will be his demise this night. The monkey god mask is affixed with a permanent smile, but the cold dark eyes behind the facade emote nothing but grim determination. This is a moment that has been put off for far too long. Extending arms outstretched in front of his slender body, the rain soaked old man lets himself fall forward off of the room, his lithe body twisting and flipping as he plummets toward the muddy ground where he lands with a splash of murky water.
"Sakazaki," Lee states simply as he slips each arm into the opposing sleeve of his robes, water streaming off of the large cuffs as he inclines his upper body towards the Kyokugen Master; a respectful bow if not a tad shallow for one of Takuma's station. Formalities observed, the stillness of the Triad Assassin is quickly broken in the flash of a lightning strike as his hands dart from their sleeves and assume an Eagle Claw Kung-Fu pose. The challenge has been extended.
COMBATSYS: Takuma has started a fight here.
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Takuma 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Lee has joined the fight here.
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Takuma 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Lee
Lee Pai Long says, "Apping two characters in 24 hours just feels wrong."
This wind is obnoxious. Everything is obnoxious. Takuma should be slowly passing out in front of the television right now, reruns of 'Cheers' lulling him to sleep. Instead, he is here, enduring withering cold and slap-you-in-the-face rain, while a tiny -monkey man- attempts to twist knives into long-knitted scars.
"Long. I thought my kid killed you back then." A jerk of Sakazaki's neck evokes explosive crackling, and he falls effortlessly into a wide-legged Kyokugen 'ready' stance, fists before his chest, tight. Those that know Takuma would recognize that the smile on his face is hardly amused - his eyes don't quite sync up. There's no warmth - glittering intent fills that stare.
"Looks like I'll need to finish the lesson. You look like a goddamned woman with that mask on, by the way. Reminds me of that Balrog girl." He steps closer, cautious - already, his attitude is changing, his mindset falling into one geared towards execution and finality.
COMBATSYS: Takuma enters a trance-like state.
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Takuma 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 Lee
"Hyah!" Lee cackles sharply as Ryo is mentioned. "The boy has potential, but he would do well to find harmony within. His soul is conflicted; his mind, diverted," Lee replies, his heavy Chinese accent thick from behind the mask. "The father casts a long shadow," he adds cryptically, the mouth behind his mask now mimicking its sly grin.
Raising one leg as he windmills his arms before his chest, Lee holds the pose for the briefest of moments before lunging forward and displaying just how apt the comparison to Balrog is. A pair of steel claws suddenly spring from the Kung-Fu assassin's sleeves as Lee Pai Long leaps into the air, arcing above Takuma and flipping upside down as he lashes out with those deadly claws, seeing to rake the Kyokugen Master with the steel blades as he the Legendary Taloned Acrobat tumbles overhead.
COMBATSYS: Takuma endures Lee's Quick Strike.
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Takuma 0/-------/----===|-------\-------\0 Lee
Lee's words have Sakazaki snarling. It's a distasteful gesture at best; his eyes evoke a sort of distaste that precludes any sort of 'care'. "You've seen him what, three times? He left you unconscious for each of them. Let's leave the boy out of this, and I'll pretend what you're saying makes any kind of sense." Takuma isn't just insulting for the sake of insulting - to somebody as perceptive as Lee, it's almost blatantly obvious that he's defending Ryo for the sake of keeping the Chinese warrior's accuracy at bay.
Because let's be fair, Takuma is not exactly World's Best Dad.
"HYEAAAAAAAAAAH!" Claws rake across Sakazaki's shoulders and chest, rending a trio of red gashes upon either angle of insertion. Blood drawn, you'd figure Takuma to back down; his mind is not quite at that place. Rather, he's taking -advantage- of the proximity Lee presents, and reaching upwards to *SLAP* both of his broad hands upon the smaller man's shoulders. If he connects, Takuma will -push- Lee downwards, until the man attempts to support himself on the ground for a proper landing. At this point Lee would find himself assaulted by Sakazaki's right knee, precisely angled towards his face; it is followed by the left, then the right, then the left, as though that overly-ornate monkey-mask was some kind of Sakazaki Kneecap Speedbag. After a solid five seconds of Karate Kneeface Action, Takuma releases his opponent, lands, and hops backwards, -still frowning-.
"What about you?? Where did you crawl to after we won Southtown back?"
COMBATSYS: Takuma successfully hits Lee with Shouran Kyaku.
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Takuma 0/-------/-======|=====--\-------\0 Lee
Takuma's devious scheme goes just according to plan. Twisting his momentum as his shoulders are grabbed mid-flight, Lee manages to contort himself so that by the time he yanked down to the muddy ground outside the temple his is situated right-side up once more and absorbs the impact by crouching his legs slightly as he lands. Unfortunately for the White Dragon Assassin this isn't the end of Takuma's plan. Knee strike after powerful kneestrike are unleashed upon the steel monkey mask battering Lee Pai Long savagely as Takuma works out his frustrations on the Triad Leader's face.
"Gyah!" Lee cries out painfully as he is finally released, stumbling back and sliding a few feet in the mud before retracting those painful claws and bringing a weary hand up to the side of his head as a thin stream of blood begins to flow down his neck from under the mask.
"Hnng... The boy did beat me, true enough," Lee replies as he raises his bare fists back into an Eagle Claw stance, though he is content to study Takuma for the moment. The question about the retaking of Southtown is ignored for now. The defeat of the Syndicate has benefited the Triad more than anyone could imagine. "Though I doubt he would have trusted the source had I given him the information willingly." The Triad Assassin cocks his head to the side, his piercing eyes watching Sakazaki from behind his slightly bent mask.
"Would you?"
COMBATSYS: Lee calculates his next move.
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Takuma 0/-------/-======|=====--\-------\0 Lee
Takuma's knees hurt. It's not something he's typically cognizant of, considering the way fighting typically keeps the blood pumping, keeps the mind hyperfocused - but Lee is most assuredly taking a breather right now. It is, in fact, something that leaves Sakazaki a little bewildered. He hunches over, hands on his knees, and takes a moment to catch his breath. A rare moment of vulnerability, but Lee is talking - he'll take some education on Southtown's takeover. Lord knows he wasn't there for most of it.
The Masked Assassin gets a stark narrowing of Sakazaki's eyes. "...You're telling me you were the reason he made it all the way to your boss? That's a load of bullshit. You might as well just have told him." Inherently, Takuma knows full well that confession wouldn't have mattered - Ryo is a Sakazaki boy, and like his father, probably won't let much bullshit fly past him.
It's why Lee's last question has him frowning, again. "..." The brief silence is as much an answer as one could hope for. "It doesn't change a thing, you know. You helped ruin my life. Ruin Southtown. My little girl..."
It's -here- that Takuma begins to hyperventilate. The slow, deep breaths become labored, shallow - pupils dilate, and nostrils flare. As easily as he'd hunched over, Takuma just -LUNGES- for Lee, fist raised, mouth wide open in a hoarse, furious battle-cry.
"IT'S SCUM LIKE YOU THAT KEEP ME FROM HAVING A NORMAL FAMILY!" Takuma is -bullrushing- Lee, one fist raised, the other extended before him. It is, to the picture, the exact approach Ryo had taken years ago. It is the move that sent Lee to the hospital. It is the opening to one impassioned, furious Ryuuko Ranbu.
COMBATSYS: Takuma successfully hits Lee with Ryuuko Ranbu.
Glancing Blow
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Takuma 0/-------/-----==|=======\==-----\1 Lee
Lee nodds slowly as Takuma begins to examine the facts of their entangled lives from new angles, from a new perspective, but like the rainwater shedding off of Lee Pai Long's metal mask, such revelations are quickly discarded by the Kyokugen Master in lieu of anger and rage.
"I did not call you here to kill you Sakazaki," Lee replies as Takuma surges forward. "Nor to settle old debts by letting you kill me," he continues as the flurry of punches, kicks, and elbows pour down upon Lee as if sent by the storm itself.
Dancing around the blows, Lee's agility and acrobatic skills are in full display as he spins and tumbles to avoid the strikes... most of them. A few quick punches and kicks hit their mark as well as the kohou uppercut that caps off the barrage. The brutal punch sends Lee flying backwards through the air and tumbling through the mud as he hits the ground.
"But sometimes you must lose to win," Lee continues as he slowly pushes himself out of the mud and to his feet. "You must taste defeat for a chance at victory. You must face an enemy to discover a friend," Pai Long's final words are punctuated by a fortuitous lightning strike overhead as the center of the storm draws near, and as quickly as the light fades, Lee himself strikes.
Flipping backwards toward the temple at his back, Lee Pai Long quickly extends his claws and plants his legs against the ruined building's eves, the claw on his left hand sinking into the wood as he crouches, hanging off of the side of the building. Thrusting off of the temple with his powerful legs, Lee dives toward Takuma with his claws extended, twirling as he closes in, attempting to shred the soaked gi and the man within with viscous knives before touching down and surging forward himself, a fast combination of kicks and clawstrikes that seems quite reminiscent of Kyokugen's own deadly dance, though this dance ends with a kicking backflip aimed at sending Takuma reeling backwards.
COMBATSYS: Takuma blocks Lee's Hien Tsume Ranbu.
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Takuma 0/-------/----===|=------\-------\0 Lee
What is Long trying to -say-?? Words flitter in through Takuma's rage-induced haze - something about losing to win, friends being enemies, and presumably other prodigious contradictions. While the wisdom's not lost on the Kyokugen master - he's been around enough to know when he's probably wrong - there is a very -visceral- need to punish Long, here. This is, after all, the man that split his family apart, and forced him to break sacred Kyokugen standards (No Girls) to keep his daughter safe.
He's standing straight, breath caught, at about the same time that Lee springs forward, punctuated by that lightning. The two men grapple in a manner that inspires rapt silence - feet slip in mud, cobblestones are disturbed in their setting, and arms, legs, and elbows fly into and away from one another in the intricate play of attack and defense. Sakazaki's gaining his resolve after some time - just as he's primed to deliver a compelling counterattack, Long *FLIPS* and sends the man sprawling out backwards, to land on his back with a heavy THUMP.
"Tch!" It's more a hiss through clenched teeth than anything else, and Sakazaki's contorted posture, the hands clutching at the small of his back, all these contribute to the notion that whatever Long did, it -worked-. "I... ah, you're right. I know you are. It'd be an idiot's move to get my entire family on their case again..." Sakazaki moves to a sitting position, hunched forward in the rain and mud, arms on his knees, hands dangling between. He stares at the ground for some time, to catch his breath...
And regards Lee, eyes narrowed.
"...So why did you ask to meet with me, Long? What do you want out of this? You've already got the broken-up face."
COMBATSYS: Takuma gains composure.
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Takuma 0/-------/-----==|=------\-------\0 Lee
Landing his backflip in a crouch as he sends Takuma reeling backwards, Lee Pai Long suddenly seems more his age than the moments before. His shoulders slump slightly and one of his legs is favored. It is amazing that a man of his advanced age is able to fight at all, but the sheer damage and pain that Takuma has dished out to the Triad leader is hard to ignore.
"Because you needed to feel my flesh give way under the precision of your fists. Because you needed to hear my face crushed under the brute force of your legs. Because maybe a part of me deserves such things," Lee croaks in the heavy accent of an elderly Chinese man. "But things are never this simple." Reaching up to grab the dented monkey god mask, the hunk of metal is casually tossed to the ground at Takuma's feet revealing Lee's wrinkled yet distinguished (and bruised) face.
"Think of us as you will, but we are not the Syndicate. Howard's organization held us tightly in its grasp these past years, as it did all of Southtown, but we are not of his kind. We have honor. Compassion. Humility. Southtown needs us, just as it needs the Sakazaki family and Kyokugen Karate. We may not walk the same path but we head toward the same destination. The Syndicate will never regain control of Southtown without having to face us first."
COMBATSYS: Lee gains composure.
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Takuma 0/-------/-----==|-------\-------\0 Lee
Well, if there's one way to get Takuma's sympathy, it's to mention that you, too, were a pawn of Geese's tyranny. Lord knows he's been there. Eschewing the mask additionally proves to be a wise move on Lee's part; his opponent relaxes considerably upon seeing it gone. Eyes meet eyes, and that *spark* of conflict leaves them; instead, Sakazaki gazes upon the other man with some degree of sympathy compassion.
"Don't think you're forgiven, Lee. You're still going to pay out of the ass for what you've done to my family, and my town, but I suppose I'll give you the chance to work that debt off without my immediate, explosive aid." His jaw sets - Takuma leans forward to pound a fist into the dirt, to bring himself from his sitting position to a kneel, to standing. He's not nearly in as poor a condition as Lee, but there's some shakiness to his stance, a noteworthy exhaustion in his features.
Eyebrows knit - Sakazaki's expression compresses. "...Triads?" Gen's arrival in Southtown, Lee's sudden appearance and soliciting, Saishu's suspicious absence. The pieces come together quickly, and leave Takuma shaking his head. "You wouldn't happen to be here with old man Gen, then, would you?"
COMBATSYS: Takuma has left the fight here.
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Lee 0/-------/-------|
A sly grin grows over Lee's face as Takuma voices his suspicions. "I underestimate you Sakazaki. Perhaps in another life we would have played Xiangqi together," he states simply, referencing the Chinese form of chess that he enjoys so. Nothing else is said on the matter, his statement speaks for itself. The rain begins to noticeably die down a bit as the storm continues past the clearing, the loud droning of raindrops falling to a pattering hush.
"Never seek forgiveness Sakazaki; It is as empty as vengeance. The only nourishment an untroubled mind desires is that of a harmonious soul," the unmasked Assassin offers before turning to face the ruined Taoist temple, its sagging beams and dilapidated exterior hinting at the grandeur of the building during its prime. Leaping toward one of the building's support pillars, Lee rebounds back and forth off of the columns easily despite his injuries, gaining in altitude until he is able to grab the temple's eaves roof and flip himself back onto the roof where Takuma found him.
"Farewell Takuma. Maybe your family find eternal health," the part-time Chinese physician offers in parting before slipping out of view.
COMBATSYS: Lee has ended the fight here.
Log created on 00:45:16 10/18/2010 by Takuma, and last modified on 01:24:19 10/23/2010.